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If each atom has its own spectral lines, how does blackbody radiation cover all possible frecuencies? | I mean,a copper filament emits according to the temperature, but shouldn't it emit only in the "copper spectrum"? | 47 | The natural lines are broadened and shifted by different effects. There is Doppler broadening, which refers to the Doppler effect shifting the emission wavelength, because the emitter is moving. Since the particles have a random distribution of speeds, this converts a single spectral line into a Gaussian distribution. ... | 12 |
[Harry Potter] Why couldn't Harry have used Hermione's Time Turner to go back and stop Voldemort and his parents dying? Thus stopping years of tragedy? | 64 | Time travel in Harry Potter doesn't work that way. Rather, it works in causality loops. Harry can't save his parents in the past because they're already dead in the future. This is how the Patronus works in the third book - he knows he can cast one because he already casts one in the past/future. | 111 | |
How does a hypothetical Alcubierre drive solve any problems with relativity at all? | It seems to me that the "Alcubierre drive" doesn't actually solve any problems that it attempts to. It's supposed to allow faster than light travel because the spaceship using it isn't actually moving with respect to the space around it, but why does that matter? The space inside the bubble including the ship, would... | 1,259 | It can still be used to communicate back in time as part of a "tachyonic anti-telephone." If two things outside each others' light cones can communicate (it doesn't matter how, or what tricks are used), then with the right choice of reference frames they can communicate back in time.
It also violates the energy condit... | 436 |
[Always Sunny In Philadelphia] Why have none of the gang faced jail time? How have they not faced jail time? They did community service for a short amount of time and nothing after that... Why? | 269 | Frank is a cash cow. He has untold wealth somewhere in the 8 figure range. And they are all white... in Philadelphia. The old saying goes money talks and bullshit walks. The gang has an impressive blend of a financial backing and some strange toonforce. So their bullshit can slide by. | 235 | |
[MCU] "The Time and Mind Stones are safe on Earth. They're with the Avengers." Exactly how powerful are the Avengers compared to other forces in the universe? Thanos easily defeated Xandar and Asgard within a few days. Did Thor really think the Avengers would be enough to keep the stones safe? | The last time Thor was with the Avengers was 2015. At that time the roster was Iron Man, Captain America, War Machine, Falcon, Vision (with the Mind Stone), Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye. In 2017 he learned Doctor Strange held the Time Stone, and he could assume Hulk safely got to Earth via the Bifrost. Did Thor really th... | 305 | I think this is the usual advantage given to humans in fantasy/sci-fi: creativity and/or dedication. Also, they're an entity Thanos is unused to dealing with and one he can't predict. It's not that they're more powerful, it's that they have some traits that may help.
He was right, in the end, while Earth didn't keep... | 197 |
cmv: Man should be able to terminate child support and parental duties if he does it within legal window that the woman could have an an abortion. (Per locality) | Is this a solid view? Are there any counter arguments?
Im not interested in debating abortion ethically on this one. I'm just saying that IF the woman has rights to an abortion, man should have similar rights.
A man shouldnt be able to force anyone to get an abortion, but he SHOULD have rights to TERMINATE CHILD SUPP... | 185 | It's not about giving parents the right to not be a parent, it's about providing an environment for the child to prosper in. Abortion and not paying child support are not the same because in one, you cancel the needs of the child, whereas in the other, you merely ignore them. | 153 |
ELI5: Embezzlement | 15 | Embezzlement covers a rather diverse group of crimes, but let me give you a straightforward, concrete example.
Suppose Bob works at a roofing company, and part of his job is to buy roofing tiles. Bob talks to his friend Charles, who sells roofing tiles, and agrees to let Charles overcharge Bob's company for those tile... | 10 | |
I love SPAM. No really, the actual product. How did it become associated with junk email? | Spam get a bad reputation, however it's really just salted ham and pressed pork shoulder. The Hawaiians are crazy about it. Slice it really thin and pan fry it, it's almost as good as bacon. | 289 | IIRC, junk e-mail got nicknamed "Spam" as a reference to a Monty Python sketch in which two women are talking and they mention Spam (the product). Over the course of the sketch, Spam is mentioned more and more frequently. By the end, virtually every word spoken was "Spam". | 395 |
[General Sci-Fi] Are there any science fiction franchises in which humans inhabit more than just a single galaxy? | Dune is the only series I have read that encompasses the known Universe, in which humans have inhabited countless galaxies. This concept is far more fascinating to me than just taking over one galaxy and I am almost done reading this series. I am looking for good recommendations. Let me know if there is a better subred... | 15 | Stargate has humans living in the Milky Way and in the Pegasus Galaxy.
I believe theres also humans in the galaxy the Ori come from and theres the poor bastards that got stuck on the Destiny as it wandered the Stars | 27 |
[Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings] Is [character] a good guy now? [Minor Spoilers] | Abomination seems to be on friendly terms with Wong, who is a good guy.
Is Abomination good now? | 33 | Abomination until his Harlem rampage was a "good" soldier and didn't turn mindless. There is a good chance the time in Cyro Cells helped him figure out that fighting Hulk was a bad idea and he reformed. | 40 |
[Superman] what is the daily planets stance on people showing up late? | Do they get disciplined for it hours cut and such because Clark has been showing up late since day one and here I am sitting in your office Mr. White about to be fired. | 20 | Listen, Clark Kent may be the source of a lot of problems at the Daily Planet, but he's also a damn good reporter. Possibly the best we have, next to Lois Lane, and that's only because she's a better writer. He has a knack for knowing the exact details of every disaster, and there isn't a story that he isn't able to re... | 34 |
ELI5: If I could legally build a 10 km² yard extension out of dirt and sod off the coast of new Brunswick, have I officially increased the land area of Canada by 10 km²? | Essentially? Is Canada (or any countries) land area a fixed number or are people responsible for making sure the number stays as accurate as possible? | 50 | Theoretically, but since 10 km^2 is only about 0.0001 percent of Canada's total land area, it doesn't really put a dent in the official number.
The problem with measuring the land area of a country, especially one with an astronomically long coastline like Canada, is that it's functionally impossible to accurately mea... | 28 |
CMV: Modern Feminism is doing the opposite of what they hope to achieve | Edit: the issue is primarily with the extremist activists who would preach their ideology of feminism under the same banner as a more sensible group. Extremists being individuals who would put down the other gender in the fight for equality.
My view is primarily that the second-third wave of feminism causes more harm ... | 26 | First wave feminism primarily focused on ways in which women were legally oppressed, and made great strides in that.
The problem is that we still have a great deal of *cultural* oppression. The concept of "patriarchy" is perhaps not the best way to phrase things, but it's really not about male-hating. It's about an en... | 40 |
[Star Wars] With Vader constantly murdering higher-ups, how did the Empire function? | Like, even beyond the problem of killing every tactician you have, historically and in fiction, having your underlings shit themselves with fear of death over minor mistakes tends to make them more inefficient. Like, say, if something goes wrong, it's better not to report, else the giant cyborg wizard will kill you. In... | 211 | Darth Vader does not have free reign to kill the very top leaders for no reason. The scene in the original (where he chokes the guy making fun of Vader's ancient religion) is an exception since he was being disrespected in a way that he could not let stand. He even lets the guy go which would ordinarily be out of chara... | 196 |
[MCU/Marvel] Is the full set of Infinity Stones truly omnipotent? Can it bring back dead people who died a long back? | Like could Thanos just not bring back the titans? | 31 | >Is the full set of Infinity Stones truly omnipotent? Can it bring back dead people who died a long back?
Yes. While we've never explicitly seen the stones exhibit that kind of power, (Endgame spoilers)>!Thanos' plan to remake the entire universe, and his vast knowledge of the stones makes resurrecting someone s... | 54 |
ELI5: the Christian relationship to the Old Testament. If the New Testament came along and changed much of the OT's doctrines, why is the OT still considered just as valid? Why isn't Christianity just based on the NT? | 67 | This is actually a pretty big question in some Christian communities. There is a question as to whether or not the Old Covenant is still "legally" binding to Christians. There are generally three trains of thought;
1) Christ's New Covenant was sealed and put into effect at the Sermon on the Mount, nullifying the Old C... | 34 | |
[Game of Thrones] After Sam's greyscale treatment, did Jorah still have a functioning dick/balls? | 15 | First of all the precise status of Jorah's dick and ball is not made explicitly clear in the show. Also, the greyscale hadn't reached his entire body yet, so we don't even know if his dick and balls were even affected in the first place. | 18 | |
Could an electric vehicle stand a chance in a racing event? | Telsa released their new roadster just a bit ago, which is a very powerful car, and completely electric. Would an electric vehicle have any benefits in a race? Fuel efficiency or decreasing the weight of the car maybe? | 18 | The energy density of batteries is much lower than that of gasoline (or similar fuels). So to bring the same amount of total energy, an electric car will be heavier than a fuel-powered car. In addition, as the race progresses, fuel is burned and the fuel-powered car gets lighter. The batteries stay at the same weight, ... | 43 |
CMV:I dont understand gay pride parades | I'm im not homofibic and im sorry if I offend you, I really dont want to offend any one.
I dont understand the point of the parade, I mean I understand being proud of your sexuality and I completly support that but I just dont understand why a parade is necessary? I mean I get that if you go around with other people t... | 32 | For decades and decades being gay was something to be horribly ashamed of.
It was looked down upon, it was seen as a perversion, and being outed as gay was akin to being outed as a perverted freak with severe consequences.
Pride parades started in part to push back against this massive cultural shaming of gay p... | 89 |
How do dolphins leap so high out of the water? | They seem extremely capable of jumping great heights too, almost as if there is some evolutionary purpose.
As a bonus question if I may, WHY do they jump out of the water? | 23 | It's just a function of being able to swim fast.
Compare it to the ability to jump high by NFL tryouts.
They don't need the ability to hump high per se, but it comes with training for high speed running.
They even can jump higher than NBA players... | 18 |
ELI5: In the United States, why are positions like Attorney General, Secretary of State, etc. appointed by the president at the federal level but elected by the people at the state level? Had it ever been proposed to do this differently? | 215 | The federal government was designed to primarily be a representative of the States, while the States would represent the People.
This is apparent in how the Federal Senate was initially chosen by the state legislatures (prior to a constitutional ammendment), and the Electoral College was initially also selected indepe... | 27 | |
[LOTR] How are they always getting sausages to eat? | Throughout the films you see the hobbits cooking sausages at least 3 times. Where are they getting the sausages from? Don't they spoil? | 52 | Smoked and dried sausages last a very long time, being fairly effectively sealed away from bacteria and preserved. They make decent travel rations, not as long-lasting as hardtack or lembas, but still quite good. | 94 |
[Marvel’s MCU Black Panther 2018 Movie] Earth’s resources are not evenly distributed. Some places have oil, others gold, etc. How does Wakanda seem to have all the resources needed for an industrial society? They don't trade with other nations, so are they just building everything out of Vibranium? | 973 | Wakanda has a couple things going for it. It is in one of the most resource-heavy parts of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is DENSE with natural resources. And Wakanda is the most resource-filled part of that section of the world.
They also *do* trade with outside nations, they just pretend to be poor. Their largest... | 849 | |
ELI5: Why is the word "used" pronounced differently with different meanings? Ex: I used the bathroom (yoozed) VS I used to go there (yoost). | Google doesn't seem to turn up anything. It boggles the mind. | 30 | It's not because the meanings are different, it's because of the word that follows them. When "used" is followed by "to", it's easier to make a "t" sound at the end of "used".
This is just us being lazy. | 35 |
ELI5: Why does nipples sit differently on the chest on women and men? | I tried drawing something that was SFW: http://imgur.com/a/zF7ZM | 35 | They actually sit about the same, the shape of the breast changes where the nipple lies, which is altered by both fat and muscle. If you compare a flat chested topless female to a male who has similar muscle tone in their chest you will see the nipples lie in roughly the same location. | 40 |
ELI5: I read that North Korea is "entering a state of war" with South Korea, but few believe North Korea would risk "full-out war". What is the difference between a state of war and a full-out war? Aren't they both bad? | 133 | Until the North Korean army starts bombarding Seoul, you don't really need to worry.
Entering a state of war means that they're preparing for war, while being in full-out war means they are at war. You can prepare to go to war, and then change your mind.
They're both bad, but getting ready for war isn't as bad as ha... | 94 | |
If we express different genes through our lives because of epigenetics, does that means we transfer different genes to our kids depending on the time of our lives we had them? | 26 | No (but sort of yes).
What you're describing is epigenetics, which are not genetics per se, but does influence which (and how) genes are expressed through epigenetic markers usually made from proteins. It has been found that (at least some) epigenetic markers can be passed to offspring; so while the genes that are pa... | 18 | |
ELI5: Why is it normal/okay for rent to increase 2% per year but asking for a 2% per year raise is ridiculous? | Fairly straightforward, what makes one seem okay while the other can get you fired?
Edit: the "fired" line seems to be a bit hyperbolic. I am wondering what makes it so that a raise in rent is seen as normal but employers don't generally increase wages without it being asked/fought for. (Though from the comments this ... | 58 | Asking for a 2% raise isn't ridiculous, and if just asking for it gets you fired, you had a terrible job to begin with. That's not to say that lots of people don't have terrible jobs, but even for them, the usual answer is, "no, we're not raising your wage" instead of "you're fired." | 70 |
ELI5: Why are electric chairs not able to kill people instantly? | You see stories of people getting accidentally electrocuted in everyday life and dropping dead instantly, why aren’t electric chairs engineered with that amount of power? | 67 | Electricity kills you quite randomly. Sometimes it stops your heart, sometimes it doesn't. There have been cases where people survived touching high voltage lines with their face and skin burned off.
The amount of power required to guarantee immediate death is basically the amount needed to cook/evaporate you. It woul... | 194 |
How is an actual memory different from a memory of an imagination or fantasy? | For example, if a person is given a lie detector test and instead of focusing on his actual memory the person focuses on an alternate imaginative version of that memory. Will this person's body still react as though he is telling the truth or will it react like he is lying? | 209 | Lie detectors, atleast modern ones, do not determine whether your memories are correct or not but rather it's a form of pseudoscience of measuring how your body reacts to both external and internal stimuli.
An "actual" memory can be, in completely technicality, no different than a memory of an imagination or fantasy i... | 91 |
[Marvel] How did Captain America react whenever he was thawed out of ice and he saw black people eating in the same restaurant as him? | I don’t know much about Captain America, but I do know that he was alive during the WW2 time period. This means that he was a caucasian American male, and most likely, even if he didn’t intent this, was racist.
Back in those days you were brainwashed to be racist almost, it was literally everywhere. Every restaurant, ... | 110 | Steve Rogers definitely was born and grew up during the period of segregation - but he was in Brooklyn, when New York City was one of the most multi-ethnic, cosmopolitan urban spaces on the planet. He entered a military that was largely segregated - and was sent overseas where American forces came up hard against local... | 251 |
I don't believe the mayor of a major city should be expected to resign simply because he smokes crack. CMV | As many have guessed from the title of the post, I'm referring to Rob Ford (current mayor of Toronto), though I think the principle could apply to any mayor of a major city. I disagree with pretty much every single policy of Rob Ford's. I think he's a complete idiot. I believe he's done some shady things that should ha... | 16 | Suppose you are a wealthy and have servants, like cooks, butlers, gardeners etc. You are satisfied with all their work.
Now suppose someone told you that you saw the cook hanging around questionable people and said that he saw him smoke crack. You address this with the cook and he say says that he doesn't smoke crac... | 21 |
ELI5:Why do TV news camera people carry around gigantic shoulder mounted cameras when there are so many smaller options? | 63 | It's certainly be possible to make broadcast-quality cameras much smaller and lighter than those used by news crews, but there's not much point. Even a 1 inch sensor will have ample performance and the high-quality, high-ratio zooms required will be expensive but not very large.
As long as you have a guy who's one jo... | 93 | |
How do lasers cool things? | I've always been under the impression that lasers exclusively transfer heat to a subject ("I expect you to die, Mr Bond"), but with the recent article about the force microscope allegedly multiplying it's magnification via laser cooling, I have to wonder how that works? Can anyone help? | 16 | The basic principle involves using the absorption spectrum of a specific material. If you shine a laser that is at a slightly lower frequency than the absorption spectrum then atoms that are moving towards the laser will 'see' their own absorption spectrum due to the relativistic doppler effect. Through this mechanism ... | 15 |
What makes Doctor Strange so powerful? | I'm limited on knowledge but he is still just a man so what makes him stand out so much from those who have studied magic their whole life? | 35 | What makes him stand out from others who study magic, like Doom, is that he has both studied longer and harder and has a greater natural aptitude, so much in the way that anyone becomes the best at anything, he is the best at magic.
He was also lucky enough to study under the previous Sorcerer Supreme, so he was taug... | 37 |
CMV:Pokemon GO is a disappointment. | Coming from the perspective of a massive Pokemon fan, I'm not happy with what we got.
Take a look at this trailer. https://youtube.com/watch?v=2sj2iQyBTQs
For starters, there is nothing but Gen 1 Pokemon. As someone without a nostalgia for Gen 1, many will disagree with me, but I have always found Gen 1 Pokemon to be ... | 31 | Perhaps the game is underwhelming because it's still in its infantile stages. Developers plan to add more Pokemon from later generations as the game is refined and updated (if you see to your medals in the menu there are locked accomplishments that indicate gen 2-3 Pokemon will be available in the future as well as the... | 33 |
[James Cameron's Avatar] After Jake becomes the Toruk Makto, what happens to his other ikran? | I was rewatching the movie last night and this question immediately popped into my mind. You have the scene where he and his ikran attack Toruk from above. And then later Jake flies in on Toruk at the Tree of Souls, but you never see his ikran again the entire movie. What happened to it? Would it leave to join the o... | 31 | At the end of the movie, they explain Toruk was released as Toruk Makto was no longer needed, and it shows the beast flying off into the sunset. Within that same ending sequence, we get a shot of Jake and Whatsherface riding their ikran togethr once more, though it's only for a moment. | 31 |
Are there any parasites that inhabit a valuable ecological niche? | Do we need parasites? Are leeches and ticks necessary? If we eradicated botfly would another species suffer? | 2,172 | There is some speculation that the eosinophilic aspect of the human body which functions to target parasites (and is also responsible for the development of allergies, asthma, and other “histamine” related conditions) needs exposure to parasites and other infections to be properly trained.
In the modern world, we hav... | 1,670 |
How do magnets REALLY work? | Their power is unlimited. How are they made? Where does the charge come from? How can they be so powerful? Do they work with the Earth's own magnetic field or are they separate?
So many unanswered question which I hope AskScience can answer.
Thanks. | 120 | A moving charge creates a magnetic field. You can treat an atom has having an electron moving around in a circle (this isn't literally the case, but it can be useful to look at it this way). This means each atom may have a little magnetic field associated with it. If you have many atoms together, all the fields will po... | 64 |
ELI5: Why did Barack Obama win a Nobel Peace Prize? | 126 | There is a lot of confusion as to why a president could win a Nobel Peace Prize into their first year in office. It is especially confusing when there are so many people around the world who are dying for peace, and have arguably made a greater impact.
**Contrary to popular belief, Obama was *not* awarded the Prize du... | 227 | |
Is inflation just an increase of prices? Supply and demand? | I’m new to the study of economics. But from what I understand, prices increase when either demand increases, or supply decreases. So if inflation is just an increase of price, then the cause of inflation can only ever be a decrease in supply (which has many causes) or a increase in demand (which also has many causes)? | 50 | It's somewhat more complicated. Inflation is typically defined as an increase in prices for some bundle of goods, yes, but your pronouncement about supply and demand is really about *real* prices.
As an example: say that everyone tomorrow collectively agreed that a quarter was now called a "dollar" and a "dollar" was... | 24 |
[WH40K] I want to be an engineer but I think the Admech and their worship of technology is nonsense. What can I do? | Let's say that I, Imperial Citizen number 90B12V750Z, want to be an engineer, and I have the aptitude to become one, as I am good with tinkering and understanding how machines work and I'd love to do research and development work.
However, the Admech's dogmatic stance towards technology is offputting for me, as I wan... | 29 | So if you're lucky and already showing tremendous talent you'll be picked up by an unorthodox tech-priest who will mentor you in the ways of true engineering while simultaneously training you to *keep your damn mouth shut about this.* This is what happens to one of the protagonists of the Mechanicum novel.
This is a ... | 49 |
Did not get accepted for NYPD post doc position and totally discouraged. | Hello everyone. I am posting this on behalf of my supersmart sister (In NJ in the USA) who holds a graduate degree (PsyD), in Forensic Psychology. 8 weeks ago she had an interview with the NYPD for a postion which would have paid her 75k and allowed her to be supervised and accrue said need postdoc hours. She found out... | 31 | Have her search on LinkedIn for people who hold the position she wants or something very close to it. That’s a good way to find which places hire for that position and start reaching out to those places for openings. You may find a lot that way that might not be posted on traditional job boards | 33 |
[D&D 3.5 Epic rules] I just saw a guy squeeze through a keyhole. How did he manage that? | He was in jail, and there was an antimagic field. He's a really good adventurer, but he's not a magic-user. The keyhole was only two square inches. And after that, he somehow passed through a wall of force, which is water tight. I understand that some people are better contortionists than others, but how do you [fit th... | 78 | The short version is, there's no such thing as not a magic-user. Every successful adventurer, whether it's intentional or not, gathers ambient magical energy and fragments of the souls they have slain into their own being, throughout their career. This is why, for example, you can find an adventurer who can punch som... | 67 |
I think Ive made a terrible mistake. Wondering (hoping?) if any faculty can give me advice | I recently quit a cushy, well paying, secure job to take a tenure track position at a university. Although my previous job was well paying and cushy, it was very depressing and offered no room for growth, so I bailed.
So I accepted the uni job in summer, and I have an idea of what classes I'm teaching in the fall, bu... | 16 | You're in this now, might as well make a go of it. Don't panic, the stuff is way harder the first time around than ever after. Here are a few things life has taught me:
* It takes about 3 hours to prep each lecture hour. Plan accordingly.
* You only really need to be one textbook chapter ahead of the students. So do ... | 72 |
my dad says i will never be programmer because i am bad at math and physics | i said its not true but maybe it is? i dont know, i havent seen any serious math and physics in programming
​
maybe in game development where you have to talk with graphic card to make some 3d graphics, but game engines and game frameworks handle this for you
​
i was good at english (my second... | 38 | Well strictly speaking logic is a sub-field of math. But if you mean what people generally refer to as math (i.e. algebra) then it's plain bullshit.
PS: Also, really, don't let other people tell you what you can do. The biggest part of being good at something is not "having talent" but hours and hours of hard work put... | 70 |
Why don't doctors get sick more often? | Why don't doctors who work with contagious patients get sick more often? Are their immune systems superior or do they simply protect themselves to the utmost extreme? | 45 | Well, we wash our hands all the time, use antiseptics and such, we're required to take flu shots among other things, and most importantly, if we do become ill we stay home.
Granted, if a patient came in with a very contagious very serious infection (something like VRSA) we would take extra precaution around that patie... | 46 |
[Fistful of dollars] Can a metal chest plate really protect you from the guns of the wild west? What is the minimum thickness required to not gain a few new bellybuttons in a gunfight? | 102 | The case of Ned Kelly in Australia says that you can armor up against mid/late 1800s firearms. Hell, Civil War officers wore half-cuirasses.
The part where it gets unlikely is not that the plating works, but that the shot *only* hits the plating. This is where they finally got Kelly, too- he didn't armor his *legs*. | 105 | |
What is the mechanism for alcohol dependence? | It seems like alcohol (along with opiates) are rare in that withdrawal can actually cause harm, like seizures or even death. From what I understand, things like nicotine or cocaine, or caffeine; while not being pleasant aren't going to physically cause you harm if you go cold turkey in basically any case.
My friends ... | 113 | Opioids are one of the safest drug classes when it comes to withdrawal. While withdrawal can be mentally and physically unpleasant, it is not considered unsafe and going cold turkey with just supportive care (i.e. treating symptoms not underlying cause) is almost always a valid option (the notable contraindication be... | 43 |
What is the difference and/or relation between the 4 dimensions of spacetime and the 4 dimensions involved in the notion of objects like tesseracts (4 dimensional cubes)? | I have a very basic conceptual knowledge of the two ideas but I never really considered them together.
When we talk about tesseracts and their 4 dimensions are we really implying that they have at least 5 dimensions (x, y, z, w, and t)? Any insight or resources would be greatly appreciated. | 40 | a minus sign.
To be specific, say you want to find the distance between a point and the origin in 3 space dimensions: ds^2 = dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 . And you could keep tacking on additional space-like dimensions if you wanted with more plus signs.
But when we deal with time, and we want to know the distance between an ... | 20 |
CMV: Paying attention to people's intelligence is not necessarily any less shallow than paying attention to their looks. | Much like attractiveness, intelligence also lies on a spectrum.
When "intelligence" is marketed as something to aspire for - I wonder if it is necessarily any different than "attractiveness" as a quality.
If I choose to associate myself with people I judge more intelligent than me, am I not being "shallow" in a sen... | 148 | Attraction and being attractive are not, in and of themselves, shallow things. We call people shallow when they are obsessed with these things, for example the "airhead" (not gender specific) who cares about nothing but their looks and social status.
This applies to intelligence. You'd consider someone in your unive... | 70 |
Does light that barely escapes the gravitational field of a black hole have decreased wave length meaning different color? | 2,995 | Yes.
In particular, shifted towards the red, or... redshifted. That's gravitational redshift. That's for going up; going down it's blueshift. You don't need a black hole, btw, you can do it in Earth's gravitational field, read up on the Pound-Rebka experiment. | 1,537 | |
ELI5: Why are certain foods (like sugar) nearly universally pleasing to the human mind, but other foods can be delicious or disgusting to different people? | 31 | Prehistoric humans didn’t have a ton of options for food because there was no agriculture- most of the fruit and veg we eat are created by humans. And spices def weren’t a thing.
So we love fat because when they had a successful hunt they had to gorge themselves- get as many calories as possible since there was no gu... | 32 | |
ELI5: Why is it not necessary to refrigerate peanut butter? It seems like such an ideal environment for bacteria/mold to grow. | 16 | It might seem so, but it's not. While peanut butter seems liquidy, it is that way due to peanut oil. There is virtually no moisture within peanut butter and a high salt content. This makes it a difficult environment for bacteria. It's also so dense that bacteria can't move around in it. | 34 | |
When sliding a pipe into another pipe that’s a tight fit, why do we rotate the two? | Like the title says, when sliding a tightly fit pipe into another one, why do we often rotate them to push in further? Why is it often easier to do so rather than to just push straight in?
I was speculating that this might have something to do with static/kinetic friction, and that by rotating the pipes that overcomes... | 1,290 | It does have to do with friction, but not in the way you think. Friction always acts opposite the direction of motion, and so when you try and slide it in directly, it will oppose it 100% in the opposite direction. But adding a twisting motion adds a rotational component to the friction, as it must resist that as well.... | 1,053 |
ELI5: How did the first watchmakers know how long a minute, second, hour, etc. was? | 132 | Timekeeping is older than watchmaking. Aside from the popular sundial, another ancient mechanism for timekeeping was the waterclock. These worked by having a vessel of water with a tiny leakage. The water drips out very slowly and consistantly, and by measuring how much water has flowed out, you can measure the amount ... | 94 | |
CMV: The USA should reduce spending on the military from 24¢ on the tax dollar to 21¢ on the tax dollar. | Currently, according to multiple independent sources that track US tax spending public education gets 2.2¢, law enforcement is buried under several different areas, and vet benefits are about 6¢ per tax dollar. We still would have the largest military in the world, seconded and by less than half currently by China. We... | 186 | I doubt it... but are you taking into account federal versus state versus local spending?
Because a vast majority of schools are fully funded off the property tax by those who live in the area. The education part of the federal is lower because not all school require federal funding. They are able to take care of them... | 41 |
Why do smart TVs decrease in price while smart phones increase in price? There is a lot of overlap in their functionality as technology improves for both, but yet changes in price diverge overtime. Why? | 97 | Good question. It's a phenomenon which is pretty unique to the particular products and the technical barriers to each of them.
The overwhelming largest cost in a smart TV is the display, not the other components, and not even the product design. The display in a TV today comes in one of two forms: LCD or OLED. The mar... | 99 | |
ELI5: If sweating is supposed to cool you down, why is high-humidity heat more unpleasant or draining than "dry heat"? | 82 | Both of those are true because your body tries to cool itself by having water evaporate off the skin. Your body creates sweat so that the sweat will evaporate, taking heat with it and leaving the skin cooler than before. When the air around your body is *already* high in humidity, then the air is saturated and won't "t... | 116 | |
How would Nuclear Propulsion work? | I want to know how it would work. But most of all, how it could successfully be done without damaging the ship. Also would it be in space or on the ground? | 28 | The most basic form of nuclear propulsion is a Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR). There was actually a program to develop this back in the 60's it was called NERVA. In this case, all you do is use a nuclear reactor to heat an inert gas (like CO2) and blast it out the back. So an NTR is really nothing more than a nuclear pow... | 11 |
ELI5: Why does watching flash videos/streams in Google Chrome slow down other tabs? | AFAIK Google Chrome runs each tab in a separate process. So if something hogs one tab, other tabs remain responsive.
Why is it that watching twitch streams slows down my other tabs. For example it's especially noticeable when twitch.tv is open in one tab and i'm scrolling down reddit in another tab.
When i use another... | 87 | I first had a very technical explanation which was very hard to understand i will now try it with an analogy.
Imagine your computer is a supermarket and every CPU core is check-out. Every customer is a process and the things they buy are the commands which every task needs to execute. If a task like the twitch tab nee... | 10 |
ELI5 Why does skin heal more slowly the older you get? | I'm turning 40 this year, and I'm noticing that the nicks and cuts I'm used to getting which have always healed really quickly are leaving more scars and lasting longer than they have in the past. Im outdoors active, and accrue more than a few cuts often on my lower legs. Is this a natural part of growing old, which is... | 1,290 | Think of your cells dividing as a printer making paper copies. A copy can only be as good as the original but usually you lose a bit of quality.
Over time, the original document wears out and you're making copies of copies. Each copies need to be a certain quality level or else they're rejected. As you make more and m... | 1,109 |
Why do two icecubes freeze to each other in a glass of water? | If i place two ice cubes in a glass of water, after a short while they will be stuck together. Why does water between them freeze to connect them? | 66 | Usually ice is done at -20°C.. when you put them in water they can suck up heat from the surrounding layer of water so, before they melt, they can freeze a thin layer of water. If the layer is thin enough (cubes touching), the ice they create is enough to glue two of them. | 45 |
ELI5: How does the Internet weigh around the weight of a strawberry if it's just data, how can the data have mass? | 52 | Data is stored as magnetic charge (on a hard disk, SSD, SD card,etc).
Magnetic charge is a collection of electrons.
Electrons have mass.
Meaning Magnetic charge has mass.
Meaning Data has mass. | 132 | |
Is the world outside our eyes blurry? | We have lenses that bend the light to our retina, but if those aren't set up properly everything is blurry. So if the lens is what makes us see sharply, does that mean the light on the outer side of the lens blurry? Does the real world look more like a gaussian blur in Photoshop? | 91 | Without a lens to focus light on a point or a cavity to limit light detection to a certain direction, a photosensitive cell would only be able to detect light intensity. The world would appear essentially featureless, as photons from any object within the incident angle would all be detected at the same time. If an o... | 65 |
What would happen (in terms of gravity) if you stood in a spherical room, underground, in the center of a planet, such as Earth? | i have been thinking about this for a while, and i have no idea what would happen. would you float, like in space? would you be pulled to all of the walls at once? would you float into the center of the room, and be stuck there?
i have asked most of my friends this question, and everybody just gives me one of the answ... | 120 | In a spherical room at the centre of the Earth, there would be no gravity at all. You'd float anywhere in the room. This is because inside any spherical mass distribution, mass that is at a larger radius than you're at combines to pull on you in such a way that doesn't affect the gravity you feel at all. Or, in other w... | 243 |
ELI5: how original parts or models of machinery is made. | How are machines parts made so exactly. I assume there is a master model that all lives are made from but how are those master models created so precisely and how are they measured. | 15 | There's a variety of manufacturing methods used to create machine parts.
The "simplest" is to create the parts from stock material in a workshop, piece by piece, using lathes, mills, etc to precisely machine down each piece to the required specifications.
When designing a machine, the entire thing will be modelled in... | 22 |
How are NOAA's storm chaser planes able to fly through hurricane Irma and not go down? I'd think the propellers and/or the windows would take a serious beating. How are they designed to handle the intense wind and rain and keep the crew safe? | 18 | Hurricane winds are by and large horizontal in nature while thunderstorms have vertical winds like updrafts and downdrafts. These are far more dangerous because aircraft lift is a function of angle of attack which changes as the wind hits the wings at different angles.
Aircraft that fly at over 200 knots is analogous... | 32 | |
Why does Israel have such a huge impact on the United States' foreign policy affairs? | 242 | Ok, so this is probably going to get buried, but here goes.
A lot of what's being said is that the US allies with Israel because of cultural similarities, and the large, pro-Israeli lobby in the United States. These factors cannot be overlooked, but they miss some of the larger picture: Israel plays such a large role... | 91 | |
[Star Wars - The Mandalorian] Is the Razor Crest the ship's name or class/model? | Is Din's ship named the "Razor Crest" or is that the ship's model, ala yt-1300? I feel like characters in the show have referred to it as "a razor crest" but other times more as the ships name, and outside sources seem to refer to it as a name. | 46 | It's heavily implied to be a Razor crest model gunship. Pre-imperial regulation. Din doesn't seem to care to name his tools personally and keeps some level of detachment from his equipment. For something to be named it must be worthy of a name by deed.
Granted the only indication that it is a model and not a ship name... | 41 |
ELI5: When a baby is born with an extra limb, or the recently craniofacial duplication, how do doctors know if it's a birth defect, or a poorly separated twin or 'absorbed' twin? | 75 | There are a couple of ways to Diagnose this.
E.g. if its an absorbed twin its fused differently with the rest of the body as it would be if its outgrowth of the body. Often the twin tissue/organs are weirdly connected to the rest of the body and lack certain but normal connections.
Otherwise the cellular make up of ... | 37 | |
[Star Wars] What could the Jedi have done to prevent the rise of the empire while still maintaining the Senate's respect of the Order? | Let's limit actions to after the birth of Palpatine. So nothing like assassinate Chancellor Palpatine Mace Windu style since it's an extrajudicial killing without hard evidence. I'm thinking of things like being more careful before doing missions like going to Galidraan, Sifo-Dyas having enough discipline to obey order... | 37 | Unfortunately, probably nothing. There was no one thing they did wrong - it was a cascade of some poor decisions and errors, as well as an insanely well put together plan by Palpatine that stretched over decades. The flaw wasn't in any particular action, but in some of the founding principles of the Jedi Order itself, ... | 37 |
[MCU] Tony Stark ran into a crisis wherein the palladium core of his arc reactor was poisoning his body. Why not replace it with a low-tech alternative instead? Even a magnet connected to a car battery was initially effective. | 480 | He used it as a fail-safe to prevent the reverse-engineering of his suits. Stark is convinced at the beginning of Iron Man 2 that he has a monopoly on his arc-reactor technology, the only thing that can keep his suit sufficiently powered. Only Rhodes and Potts have access to a spare. So he'll tolerate being poisoned... | 331 | |
[MCU Infinity War] why didn’t Iron Man continue hitting Thanos after “all that for a drop of blood”? Why didn’t Iron Man fly out of melee range after Thanos flipped him or punched him a bunch? | Thanos broke free of Iron Man’s restraint then beat the crap out of him. Why didn’t Iron Man’s jet boots ever kick in? Seems like when Thanos flipped him would have been a great time to fly out of melee range | 538 | Tony used just about every ounce of power he had in his suit in that attack. As soon as Thanos turned back to offense, Tony had so few nanites left that his suit quickly crumbled. Tony went all-out and was left with few options as a result. With limited power on an alien world facing a mad titan, where exactly could he... | 463 |
[Inglorious Basterds] Why not just kill him? | #Spoilers ahead, obviously
So, at the end of the Movie, the Lt. gives Hans his signature mark. But why? The guy can play it off as (for example) something the Nazis did to him. It's established earlier that the Basterds aren't known outside of the Nazi forces, and even if he met someone who *did* know what it meant, h... | 252 | Lt. Raine is a career hardcase; "I've been chewed out before". To be a guy like that and have a field command instead of running a kitchen patrol somewhere in the asscrack of Nebraska or bouncing a ball off your cell wall for a decade in Fort Leavenworth, you have to know how far you can push it, where you can take lib... | 298 |
How does the candle relighting trick work? the one where you light the smoke trail? | As shown in this gif http://i.imgur.com/2uo8IcD.gif | 2,024 | In order for something to burn, you need to vaporize the fuel. So when you light a candle, it takes a second or two to melt and vaporize the wax before it can ignite and become self-sustaining.
When you blow out the candle, the residue heat from the wick keeps vaporizing wax. The "smoke trail" you see isn't smoke - ra... | 1,112 |
ELI5 Do we all taste the same things? | Do we all taste the same tastes and just do not like particular tastes? Or do we taste everything differently and thus do not like the same tastes? | 24 | This is called qualia. It's about subjective experiences. It is completely unanswerable. There is no way to know how another being experiences reality. We can't go inside someone's consciousness to see. | 55 |
[Ghostbusters] Do we all turn into horrifying monsters when we die? | 76 | Good news: most ghosts aren't the immortal soul of a person trapped on the wrong side of the veil. They're manifestations of psycho-kinetic energy (PKE), a part psychic, part electromagnetic phenomenon caused by humans interacting with the world. It's basically the psychic equivalent of a footprint in the sand; the per... | 81 | |
[spiderman] Would Spiderman's spider sense alert him in a virtual reality game? | So I've heard that this Spiderman fellow has a spidey-sense that warns him of danger. If I stuck him in a VR helmet in an immersive game, would he be able to sense "danger" in the game if he was immersed enough, or was tricked into thinking it wasn't a game? | 55 | No, because there is no danger in a VR environment.
In the past Spider-Man has been "tricked" into thinking that he's in danger (Mysterio likes to use illusions to trick him), but he was ultimately able to figure out the real danger vs the false danger by relying on his spider-sense which reacted to the real danger bu... | 61 |
CMV: Employers shouldn’t discriminate against people with tattoos/piercings. | Studies have shown that most consumers could care less about this sort of thing. It’s one thing to have incredibly distracting piercings or visible offensive tattoos, but having a stud in my eyebrow or non-offensive tattoos should not hinder my ability to get work. Having body art should not be seen as “unprofessional.... | 22 | >Studies have shown that most consumers could care less about this sort of thing.
'Most' isn't very reassuring to a business owner, a 10% drop in customer satisfaction can be the margin between solvency and bankruptcy for many businesses. | 67 |
ELI5 why do pimples (zits) on the inside of your nostrils hurt so much more than any others? | Guess what prompted me to ask this question. Ouch. Fucking zit. | 2,090 | Real answer:
The tissue inside your nose isn't very thick and has tons of specialized nerve cells right at the surface, which means that when a pore swells with infection (a zit), the skin is pulled tight and the pressure under the already thin tight skin pushes against all those nerves, causing signals to fire and inc... | 1,088 |
CMV: Capital Punishment is consistent with the way modern nation states claim sovereignty over the life and death of their citizens, and in special cases such as in war, of non-citizens. Capital punishment isn't cruel and unusual; it's a logical extension of the powers granted to nation states. | Some things to consider:
* If killing an enemy combatant is morally or legally permissible, then shouldn't capital punishment also be morally or legally permissible? If I agree in principle that the State I belong to has the authority to claim the life of another human being, say an Iraqi or an Afghani, how can I arg... | 103 | I don't think this is really the right way to approach the subject. Nation states have clear sovereignty and the power to make laws that:
* Forbid alcohol
* Forbid drugs
* Forbid singing, dancing, and paintings of Muhammad
* Forbid leaving the country without permission, or even forbid movement within the country with... | 32 |
[Marvel] Exactly how fast does Mjolnir travel when Thor summons it? Does it have a summoning range? | Whenever we've seen Thor summon Mjolnir, sometimes it takes a moment to travel to his hand. Does it have a set speed? Can Thor increase or decrease its speed at will? If he went to Earth and forgot it on Asgard, how long would it take to get back to him?
Also, is there a set limit for how far he can summon it? If he d... | 37 | To add into the other comment about Thor 2, that film gives us the only clue as to Mjolnirs actual flight speed — it gets from a high orbit back to the UK in about five seconds. That was probably from an altitude of about 400 miles at a quick guess, so say at least 250,000mph. | 33 |
[Diablo 3]Why does Tyrael tearing off his wings make him, an angel, into a human? Humans are the offspring of humans and demons, him tearing off his wings should just make him... a wingless angel? How does that give him demonic blood? | 16 | He's not *really* a human. He symbolically cast off the trappings of his old life, and literally de-powered himself in order to live among the humans. He has no demon blood in him (otherwise he would have died when Malthael took the black soulstone), it's really just a human mask on top of a very weak angelic core. Whe... | 27 | |
[Hunger Games] What would the QuarterQuell twist have been in the 75th hunger games if Snow didn't change it? | Obviously the concept was changed after Snow decided that he wanted to get rid of Katniss. What else might they have done? | 19 | I thought at a previous quarter quell the number of tributes was doubled. He could have tripled them instead, only selected one gender, only reaped from kids who were eligible for the first time. There's lots of way to punish the districts. | 30 |
ELI5: Why do people stress eat? | 25 | Eating, among other pleasureable things like having sex releases the hormone dopamine, also known as the pleasure hormone, that like you might have guessed makes you happy. The dopamine then relieves some of the stress, making you feel better by eating. | 35 | |
eli5 What does "Overqualification" mean when it comes to employment? | 21 | Basically your skills and experience are way beyond the requirements of the role.
This can be seen as a negative by employers because they think you’re going to treat the position as a stopgap, or will get bored, or won’t be a great fit in a junior role where you’d previously been in a senior one. Basically they’re wo... | 96 | |
Many people seem to find foreign accents sexually appealing. Why might this be the case? | And some sub-questions:
- Within my North American context, the accents I've most typically seen described as sexy are Russian/General Slavic, French (France-French, though, not Quebecois) and Australian. Spanish/Latin also makes an appearance, but far more often among women than among men. What might be going on he... | 55 | If you're hearing someone with a foreign accent, they are likely to be wealthy, educated, bilingual, and adventurous. If you're the one traveling, they will be in a position to appreciate your worldliness. Culture shock is an endless source of conversation and conceals how boring the two of you may be. | 49 |
[The Thing] Why didn't the Thing assimilate Clark when it was alone with him for over an hour? | 128 | In the book it did. Clark was the first assimilated and then the first to be outed as a Thing and electrocuted. Like the other dozen or so Things he wasn't important, the only one who was was Blair. In the movie there are less people and Clark is still immediately cast into suspicion because of the time he spent alone ... | 69 | |
How much is time slowed around a black hole? | If gravity is space/time being dragged by the mass of an object and black holes have an amazing amount of mass. How much does time slow down in or around a black hole? | 17 | Exactly at the event horizon, time is effectively stopped-- or as close to stopped as makes no difference.
If you're far from the hole and you throw a clock in, it will tick slower and slower as it falls. As it reaches the event horizon, its time will be so slowed that the next "tick" will take longer than the lifetim... | 11 |
[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater] Why did they let Snake keep his radio both during and after Volgin's torture? | 17 | *FAN THEORY TIME*
The Boss convinced Volgin to let Snake keep the radio during the torture on the basis of having it broadcast to Snake's support team during the torture, so as to let them *hear* every last horrible thing happening to the FOX agent (and effectively *also* be tortured by proxy). Needless to say, Volgi... | 20 | |
ELI5: What, or Who determines whether the Dollar/Euro/GBP etc rises or falls in value? | I see in the news everyday the fluctuating value of the USD, especially againt the Australian Dollar now, and I am wondering who or what determines this?
Edit - Thanks for all the responses! Really quite helpful =) | 50 | The demand for those currencies. If people buy more Australian products, or more iPods (or let's be real, Treasury Bonds,) or more German cars, then they need the currencies of those countries to make their purchases. The increase in demand for a currency increases that currency's value. | 19 |
[Fallout 3] Why does Talon Company keep hassling me? I just want to keep my head down and do good things. So confusing. | 89 | If by "doing good things", you mean killing raiders and slaver parties, then you're making a lot of enemies and costing some very nasty people a lot of caps. Some of those people reckon it would be cheaper to put a bounty on your head and get you killed sooner rather than later, and Talon Company mercs are more than ha... | 82 | |
If the planet was shaped like a donut, how would gravity work in the middle? | 9,289 | Depends on the relative diameters of the donut’s ring and donut hole... but assuming that the ratios are such that the structure is stable enough to exist as a donut and not crush into a ball...
The center of gravity would exist as an annulus sitting slightly inside the core of the donut towards the central point. ... | 3,729 | |
How relevant are the classic philosophical texts to answering philosophical queries today? | Philosophy, like many other disciplines, has a rich history of influential thinkers writing important works. Philosophy has Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Russell, Wittgenstein, Popper, to name a tiny fraction of what I consider the biggest name Western philosophers. Physics has Aris... | 27 | It would vary from text to text, of course, but at the very least the historical philosophers would probably shine some light on contemporary questions. That being said, since the historical philosopher's insights might have been incorporated into the body of knowledge that contemporary philosophers bring to bear on a ... | 14 |
[Invincible show] What the hell was that baseball made of??? it should have exploded into dust from the force they used necessarily to toss it around the planet | 98 | "super strength" is what it looks like they're doing, but in reality it's much more complicated than that. Consider how they use their flight to get leverage to punch, and how they fly without displacing matter in the opposite direction, in short they're pulling energy out of nowhere and applying it in ways that *oft... | 90 | |
What is Psychoanalysis insofar as it is related to philosophy, and why is it important? | A few days ago on /r/philosophy I made [this](http://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/24tkhb/slavoj_%C5%BEi%C5%BEek_slovenian_psychoanalyst_on_the/charru3?context=3) reply which was apparently uninformed since psychoanalysis is quite different from philosophy. It seems to me that Zizek makes unsupported claims, and... | 21 | > I'd like to learn [..] what psychoanalysis is...
Psychoanalysis is a tradition of psychotherapy that was founded by Sigmund Freud and his colleagues around the turn to the twentieth century. It was developed throughout the twentieth century, so that there are now a variety of theoretical and clinical positions w... | 10 |
[digimon] if you cut open an animal like digimon, Vemon say, would you find blood and guts or a jumble of electrons masquerading as a tetrapod? | 32 | If you cut one open it would dissolve into digital energy.
That's the nature of Digimon. They are pure digital energy given form. If their program is damaged too much they revert to a less evolved form. If they are very severely damaged they lose their firm entirely and they're reborn as a Digi egg | 27 | |
ELI5: Why does the anesthesia given during wisdom teeth extraction make you loopy upon waking while other surgical anesthesia does not? | Perhaps this is just me but having been "under" several times I only felt goofy and euphoric after my wisdom teeth were out. | 22 | All anesthesia can make you loopy upon waking. Ketamine is a particularly bad example of this, which is why it is no longer often used as an anesthetic for surgery even though it has other great properties, like being less prone to unsafe changes in blood pressure than many anesthetics. But the bottom line is that ANYT... | 37 |
ELI5: An objective explanation of the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access Pipeline controversy | 117 | There's a company called Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) which is a big and complex company that owns in whole or in part a variety of energy companies and about 70,000 miles of gas and oil pipelines in the US.
ETP came up with a proposal to build a pipeline that connected the Bakken and Three Forks oil fields in north... | 122 |
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