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How would a dragon fare against modern weaponry? | Let's just say the situation is a modern Marine fire team is patrolling Afghanistan, and they come across a dragon. They have what they are armed with, and backup, through their comms. | 61 | As the documentary Reign of Fire clearly showed, dragons proved impervious to and managed to annihilate RPGs, high caliber weapons, even miniguns firing depleted uranium bullets sufficient to penetrate tank armor (even when mounted to maneuverable aircraft like the Cobra, Apache and Warthog).
The only known vulnerab... | 138 |
ELI5: Why so humans undergo several growth spurts and not just grow at a uniform rate? | 69 | To make sure all the other parts catch up. Certain things are easy and cheap in energy to grow, like soft tissues, skin, and hair. Other things, like bones, heart muscles, and important cells take a lot of energy and are created slowly to make sure less mistakes( ie cancer) are made such as creating more neurons. Your ... | 33 | |
[Batman] Would Batman kill a villain to save an innocent person’s life if there was literally no other way to do so? | * In this scenario, let’s assume that a villain is about to kill an innocent person, and all of the possible options that Batman could take to stop them would result in the villain dying. There is no getting out of finding a non-lethal option for this predicament.
* Would Batman kill the villain to save the innocent p... | 51 | The Dark Knight trilogy batman killed two face to save Gordan and his son. The Arkham series batman basically killed Clayface with the lazurus pit.I don't know about the comic book version but i'd say he would. | 51 |
Why don't the weapon ignition stations on the Death Star follow numerous safety protocols? | [Seriously, just look at this!](http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130220055259/starwars/images/c/c1/Dsbeamtube5.png) It's absurd, I'm sure the Unions would have a field day with this. Why would a military station of a so called "Professional Navy" endanger their crew like this?
- The remote station requires the us... | 55 | Unions? The Emperor disbanded the *Senate*. You think he's going to let labor elect representation for collective bargaining?
It's simple math. We're talking about the cost of adding complexity to the design of a weapon that already requires an infrastructure the size of a class 4 moon, in order to protect some ext... | 48 |
ELI5: How can some terminally ill people just "hold off" death until they're ready? | Recently a family friend's mother died. She had some kind of terminal illness, but they all decided to go on a vacation to the Bahamas towards the end. She managed to keep going through the whole vacation, then "let go" and died a few days after they got back. There are many stories like this, where someone holds on fo... | 16 | With a lot of diseases, your body become so weak that breathing is difficult, and can at teams require a conscious effort. You even have minor attacks, were you have to breath as hard as you can for a while just to stay alive. At some point, you might choose to not make that effort anymore.
Also, you can make choice... | 19 |
ELI5: What is shock and why is it bad for patients to go into shock after a serious accident? | 19 | Shock is the general state of blood not being properly pumped around your body. It means the brain & internal organs are not getting enough blood flow and this causes damage to them. There are several different kinds and causes of shock, but they all must be treated rapidly for your patient to survive with minima... | 20 | |
What does a Gyroscope's axis remain constant relative to? | I remember hearing somewhere that when you have a gyroscope spinning, it's axis will remain constant in relation to the earth's rotation. Does it also stay constant in relation to the earth's movement around the sun? If not, why? | 16 | If there's no net torque acting on it, then its angular momentum is fixed in any *inertial* frame.
Neither of the frames you describe (one fixed to the surface of the Earth, and one traveling with the Earth around the sun) is inertial.
So if you imagine sitting in some inertial frame, watching the Earth rotate around... | 19 |
Jordan's take on postmodernism | [The video](https://youtu.be/Cf2nqmQIfxc)
I just watched this and I left feeling more confused. The way he describes postmodernism almost feels like conservative propaganda lol.
Is he saying that ethnic studies and gender studies are somehow detrimental?
in today's time, I feel like these kind of studies are absol... | 39 | Peterson is famously completely and utterly wrong on this topic, so you have the correct intuitions in feeling something was off.
You can search 'Peterson postmodernism' on the sidebar for many thread on this topic where people explain how he's dead wrong about basically every single thing he says on the topic. | 131 |
CMV: Healthy animals should never be put down simply because they’re not getting adopted. | I understand the issue about space, accommodation and how many shelters are already struggling taking care of the ones in shelter, needing 24/7 care and attention. But do we put down our family who are going through similar or more painful health issues? Family who’s fighting through cancer, or elderlies who are too ol... | 88 | Animal rights advocates/vegans, say that we should be adopting the animals that we can, make sure that animals are properly spayed/neutered so that they don't breed in an uncontrolled way and crack down on dog farms and breeders which bring dogs into the world , the unwanted dogs of which get thrown away out of sight a... | 25 |
ELI5 Why can rain and snow last for hours/days but it never hails that long (or at least I’ve never seen it)? | 21 | Hail requires much more specific conditions to occur, and those conditions are hard to maintain for very long. In particular, hail implies very strong updrafts within a storm cloud, and those updrafts usually only last a matter of hours at specific times of day. On the rare occasions that they don't, it's usually part ... | 30 | |
ELI5: Why is the noun form of "unstable" written as "instability"? Why with the change of prefix? | 73 | You do not really derive "instability" from "unstable". Unstable derives directly from stable, and instability is derived from stability which is derived from stable. At no point does the un prefix transform into the in prefix. | 30 | |
[Star Wars] Could a 100 megaton nuclear bomb disable the Death Star if it was detonated inside the station? | Not in the reactor. If it was detonated in a random place inside the Death Star, could it disable the station? | 30 | The radiation would bounce around inside the ship and there'd be a lot of fallout deaths and cancer. Lawyers throughout the Empire would make a killing off of class-action lawsuits for survivors that later developed cancer. | 41 |
How do W bosons decay into an electron and a neutrino if they are fundamental particles? | 397 | I suspect you are confused because you are thinking of particle decay as something breaking apart into the things it is made of. This is not what's happening.
When a W boson decays, the W simply ceases to exist, and the energy that was in the mass of the W is reconstituted as the electron and antineutrino (or whateve... | 169 | |
What if Anakin Skywalker lived after killing the Emperor? | 30 | Darth Vader rises when his mask is removed, the untapped Force Potential of his son feeding strength into him and repairing his lungs with the power of ha-er, love. Luke, shocked and more than a little confused, drags Anakin Skywalker onto a shuttle, leaving Darth Vader behind.
Upon landing on Endor for Ewok Mardi Gra... | 65 | |
[DC/Marvel] Are members of superhero groups like the Justice League/X-Men/Avengers on call all the time? If Wolverine or Falcon or Green Arrow had to take care of their own little side mission or wanted to take the day off, who would they need to contact about that? How would the others see that? | 18 | In the Justice Leagues case, they have rotating shifts. Heroes are given a schedule of when they are expected to be on-call. If there is a sufficient emergency, all members are called upon to drop what they are doing and help, but generally matters are handled by whoever is on call at the time.
Martian Manhunter is th... | 34 | |
ELI5: How come television can "stream" HDTV all day without any delay while my internet takes hours to just download a movie? | Seriously why can't you just make the internet as fast as television? | 112 | TV is like a man on a soapbox - big towers "shout" TV signals out, your TV tunes in and listens, and tells you what the big shouty tower is saying.
Internet is more like being in a huge mall with no directions and having to ask people where everything is. You can only ask so many people at once, and have to go walking... | 86 |
[Mass Effect] Were the Batarians basically shunted by the galactic community once Humanity arrived on the scene? | 87 | Many Citadel races already disliked and mistrusted the Batarians for their warlike and slave-taking methods of interstellar diplomacy. They used the "it's our culture and you can't judge us" defense for many diplomatic efforts to curtail those things, and thus secured their reputation as thuggish brutes. When humanity ... | 124 | |
How does one define a staight line? | I was taught that the definition of a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. What happens if these points are infinitely far apart? I assume that this is basically some kind of phallacy/ paradox type thing but yeah, lemme know please! | 56 | A line is not the shortest distance between two points, but the path with the shortest distance between two points. What do you mean by two points that are infinitely far apart? If you have two points in the plane, then they will be a finite distance from each other. Always. Their distance can be very, very large, but ... | 66 |
[Death Note, Game of Thrones] Could you kill Jaqen H'ghar with the Death Note if he changed his face in time? | The second rule of the Death Note is that you must picture the persons face in your mind when writing their name (so as not to accidentally kill others with the same name.) Could Jaqen H'ghar change his face before the writer writes his name (picturing his old face while writing) and live? Or change his face after his ... | 40 | A man doesn't have a real name. A man is no one.
Going by Arya's training, the Faceless Men are supposed to give up their actual identities. Every name they take is an alias.
If you caught one with his alias while wearing that alias' face? Maybe the Deathnote would work. Because it would identify that individual (fo... | 26 |
CMV: Carthago delenda est | We've already had two wars with Carthage. When will it end? We must destroy them completely or risk destruction ourselves. They are growing entirely too powerful, with their vast military and abundant trade routes. If we do not strike at them, they will surely strike at us.
And let us not forget the vengeance we owe t... | 65 | This is a clear and obvious example of our military-industrial complex gone out of control.
The last Punic war has bankrupted the Roman people and filled the streets of Rome with homeless veterans.
Carthage have already being stricken down, and now the obligarchs in the senate wants us to make war to fill their pock... | 20 |
[DC Comics/The Flash] So when the Flash accelerates, is he physically running faster, or is the speedforce allowing him to move farther in between his feet touching the ground? | I get it, I get it: speedforce. But does the speedforce allow him to physically run so fast that he can achieve the impossible velocities he does, or is how fast he's going independent of how quickly he moves his legs and instead entirely dependent on his vaguely psychic connection to the speedforce?
Does he just have... | 84 | Both/either because speedforce.
The flash moves really fast, we have seen him do sidehops fast enough to rip a hole in this dimention.
But he has also moved really fast while his arms and legs move at walking speed (although that couod have been a poorly drawn optical effect). | 43 |
[Star Wars] Why are the Unknown Regions so unexplored | According to maps of the Galaxy, explored space known to the Republic extends mainly to the 'galactic east' of the Core systems, extending all the way to the Outer Rim (a wedge of the outermost edge of the galaxy).
After the Empire's final defeat above Jakku, many Imperial commanders took their ships and jumped into ... | 75 | It wasn't attempted because it wasn't necessary. Exploration and colonization are difficult and expensive.
Sure, if you're a commander on the losing side of a war that still has a Star Destroyer or three, maybe you roll the dice and see if you can make it work out there. If you're a comfy Moff sitting in a stable a... | 68 |
ELI5: Why gravity slows down the time instead of speeding it up? | In Interstellar when they were on the water planet, every minute they spent there, several days passed on Earth. From outside observer's point of view from Earth, everything happening on the water planet was in slow motion. Why isn't it the other way around? | 74 | Stretch a sheet of rubber and put a giant, heavy object in the middle to stretch the rubber down. Measure the length of the rubber in the middle and the length on the edge. The path through the middle is longer. Now imagine a marble or some other object traveling across the rubber at a specific speed that cannot change... | 198 |
[Teen Titans] Who built the Titan's tower? | 47 | [](/nerdsunset) Titans Tower was built around the infrastructure of a Gordanian mobile transmitter/outpost that was dropped on an island outside Jump City. (You can see the whole events of this situation in the video record codenamed "Go!".)
With the alien infrastructure already in place and impossible to move, the Ju... | 39 | |
[Star Wars] With all that abundant energy, why isn't the Star Wars universe a technological utopia? | I've looked up the specs for Boba Fett's *Slave I* - a fairly small, one-person ship - and it looks like its reactor is rated for a power output of 7 *billion* GW.
For comparison, the Earth's total energy consumption in 2008 was just short of 150 million GWh. If we had 7 billion GW of free energy to play with, we cou... | 35 | Because the star wars universe is spread out over an entire galaxy. There's planets like Coruscant where the cities reach to the edge of space and everybody's driving flying cars around. There's place like Endor, a moon inhabited by a bunch of savages who never even knew there's other life in the galaxy.
The star wars... | 60 |
ELI5: After entering my credit card info on a website like Amazon and pressing the "checkout" button, what exactly happens? What is the process of my credit card getting charged? | 17 | Purchasing online is slightly different than in store. In stores, the majority of the time you're purchasing for goods then and there, so you're mostly charged immediately.
Online, that is different. You're paying for goods that you will receive in the future. What happens with your card depends on how the online merc... | 10 | |
[DISNEY] what was Elsa's plan anyways? | I mean, she was a princess soon-to-be queen raised on a secluded castle for years with no contact with society, she doesn't know how to cook, hunt or live by herself, she made a huge ice castle and then what? how will you survive on the peak of a mountain? | 33 | There wasn't a real plan. It was a spur of the moment thing, she just had to get away.
Later on she could presumably forage and hunt very easily. Her caloric need is much reduced considering she doesn't get cold as well. | 63 |
ELI5: Why immediately before or after I fall asleep I sometimes twitch erratically? | 195 | Your body parts fall asleep before your brain does. The brain is knocking on your body parts, "are you there?" - if they don't reply (they're asleep) - your brain will trigger your nerve system into high alert. This wakes the body part up in an often violent manner, causing your leg, arm, back or other body part to tw... | 173 | |
[Infinity War] Spoilers: Let's discuss the nitty-gritty of Thanos' plan | So Thanos states that he wants to kill/erase half the population of the universe, and he wants it to be "at random. Dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike."
As people have pointed out, there are at least a couple of exceptions to true random: He's not culling himself, and he promises to let Stark live. (It's poss... | 32 | I don't think getting Snapped is painful, just scary and feels weird.
Since he's trying to balance out resource consumption, it wouldn't make sense to eradicate on a civilization or population level, taking entire worlds while leaving others untouched. It's probably at the individual level, like picking every other p... | 57 |
Since time is not absolute, does it make sense to describe the age of far away galaxies in years? | 37 | It turns out the effect isn't that big in most real-life situations, but there is a convention we can use if we really want to be more careful when we talk about time.
Time runs at different rates depending on the relative velocities of objects, and also based on the strength of gravity fields. However, you have to be... | 46 | |
Since people are dying from brain-eating bacteria from Neti pots, should I be worried when some tap water from the shower or bath goes up my nose? | The deaths I am referring to: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/239422.php | 23 | First off, an amoeba is not a bacteria. *Naegleria fowleri* the organism responsible for this, is on the whole, incredibly rare, but obviously not impossible to come in contact with. This part of the article should tell you something about the risk of being infected with *N. fowleri*:
> According to the CDC (Ce... | 20 |
Do heavier elements remain closer to the core of stars? | When new atoms are fused in a star, does it mostly occur in the very center of the core? If so, do they usually remain there and eventually push some of the remaining lighter atoms out/up and prevent them from fusing? Does this result in stratified shells of separated elements? What happens when this star goes nova? | 17 | It depends on the star.
The very smallest of starts the, red dwarves, have convection currents that run through the entire thing, all the way into the deepest bit of the core, and this then pulls the helium made from hydrogen up and out, achieving a good mix of it throughout the star. This is part of what lets red dw... | 14 |
CMV: If women are allowed in the military then they should meet the same physical requirements as men | Whilst I don't disagree with women being allowed in the army there is no getting around the fact that women cannot build the same amount of muscle as men. I think it is pretty much universal for armies around the world to lower the standard for women.
Surely this puts a unit with a women in it at a huge disadvantage t... | 167 | Here's the real answer: those tests are not being used just to measure the thing they literally measure. Your life will never depend on being able to do exactly 35 pushups, and if you only do 34 your entire squad will die.
Those tests are proxies for measuring things like overall cardiovascular fitness, coordination,... | 124 |
Best Hard Copies of Books | Hello!
I'm primarily a student of English Literature. Norton Critical Editions of texts in this field are great because in addition to the text, they include hundred pages or so of contemporary critical analysis and other texts (letters, journal entries, other primary documents) providing context.
Is there an equiva... | 43 | It's extremely dependent on the specific text - at least for works in translation. If the work is in translation, it is normally necessary to do some research online as to which translations are well received. For Nietzche, is doesn't matter how good the supplemental materials are if the translation is off. Once you kn... | 16 |
ELI5: In the world of video games, how do "engines" (Unreal, Unity, etc.) actually work? | I have a friend who works in video game design, and I am very into video games myself, but I have 0 idea how the coding of games actually works. I understand that publishers work with studios who use engines, but how do engines themselves actually work? is it through coding language, something more complicated, or some... | 19 | Engines like those typically have the foundation in their code to already do what you need them to do such as terrain formation, models for bodies, water, objects, movement, etc. instead of having to start from scratch and code all those different parts yourself, you just use the engines’ framework to build your game f... | 24 |
Is it possible to send light into orbit? | Forgive my ignorance, I’m not very smart in this area of science as far as astronomy/physics.
But I was thinking about how light can be bent when it goes around massive objects. If light can be Bent then if you were to get something with insane mass like a black hole, would it be possible to send light into orbit with... | 42 | Yes. There's a region around a black hole called the "photon sphere". This is the region where light could, in theory, orbit the black hole. The force of gravity is strong enough to prevent the light from escaping, but not so strong that it pulls it into the black hole.
However, orbits in the photon sphere are not sta... | 67 |
ELI5: Can a box in a box, in a box, in a box, break the speed of light from a relative view of being outside the box? | You as an observer are outside these transparent boxes. Inside the biggest box is a smaller box, that travels the length of the container box at 99.999% the speed of light. Inside that box is another box, moving at 99.999% the speed of light. Inside that box is another doing the same thing.
From each box's perspec... | 19 | No, it can't break the speed of light.
The reason is because of time dilation.
Imagine you're standing outside the outer box. The passage of time which the inner box experiences is much slower than the passage of time that you experience. So although from it's own point of view, it's going 99.999% the speed of light ... | 11 |
What's wrong with crash course philosophy? | 19 | **The good:** it's accessible.
**The bad:** much of what it says is misleading or flat-out wrong. The rest, if correct, isn't very deep.
**The ugly:** the primary benefit of studying philosophy is not that it increases your knowledge of philosophical views. The benefits of studying philosophy are the skills that co... | 53 | |
ELI5: why does water taste so wierd after eating pineapples? | After eating pineapples, the taste of water is very bitter in a sense and this aftertaste stays for some minutes altogether...
Is it something you guys have experienced, or just something personal...? | 17 | Pineapple contains bromelain, which is a proteolytic (protein destroying) enzyme that gives pineapple its distinctive tingly taste. The bromelain is interacting with the taste buds of your tongue, and altering their sensitivity to certain stimuli. This is what causes altered taste when you drink water- you're more sens... | 11 |
A minor rant/question about hours | At what point should a graduate student draw the line? My PI told me today that work doesn't end after I go home for the day. He expects me to put in 8-10+ hours of work in the lab each day and then go home and put in more hours. Yes, rest is important; however, I am in the last six months or so of my degree. Do I just... | 39 | Definitely rest. Your supervisor shouldn't be dictating this to you.
That being said, if you are in the final six months of a research degree and you need to write a thesis, you might end up having to out in extra time regardless of what your supervisor says. Maybe not if you are super efficient and good at managing y... | 43 |
ELI5: Why do the most impoverished/crime ridden areas (i.e. Detroit, parts of Baltimore) have populations that are mostly ethnic minorities? | 15 | The ghosts of segregation.
Let's take Oakland. After WWII GIs got great deals on mortgages. They bought into suburbs moving out of city centers.
Blacks didn't get mortgages so they had to save up. As soon as they could afford to move in, whites with their ability to get mortgages left.
So you start saving for a $... | 17 | |
A chicken egg is 40% calcium. How do chickens source enough calcium to make 1-2 eggs per day? | edit- There are differing answers down below, so be careful what info you walk away with. One user down there in tangle pointed out that, for whatever reason, there is massive amounts of misinformation floating around about chickens. Who knew? | 10,136 | Chickens are omnivores, but free-range chickens eat a great many insects, and insect exoskeletons are similarly rich in calcium. They'll also eat just about anything else, including small mice, voles, moles, lizards, etc., bones and all.
In a commercial setting, they are supplemented with oyster shells, or whatever s... | 6,404 |
ELI5: What are the differences between different types of picture formats (jpg, png, gif, etc)? Are some better than others? | 16 | JPEG is a lossy-compression image format. What this means is that when the image is compressed, some of its details are discarded in order to make it take up less space. JPEG is designed to work on more natural pictures, mainly photographs, where close pixels tend to have similar colors, and compression artifacts are l... | 17 | |
ELI5 Why do we subconsciously hold so much tension in our bodies? | I constantly find myself clenching my jaw even if I just unclenched it. I’ve done some yoga where we focus on each part of the body and let go of all the tension little by little. So why are we holding all his tension? It causes headaches and I’m sure other pain. It doesn’t make any sense. | 129 | Stress activates our fight or flight response, which causes our muscles to tense because tense muscles react more quickly, which means we can get away from any possible danger quicker. This was an evolutionary trait that allowed us to escape the dangers of the natural world better. In today's world, stress is less caus... | 86 |
Why can't the water being stored at Fukushima be reused for cooling? | I'm sure it has been asked before but I cannot find the answer. Why can't the massive amounts of radioactive water being stored at Fukushima be reused to cool what is left of the reactors? | 4,909 | Short answer? It can be.
But we know the water is contaminated, and possibly leaking off-site. Using contaminated water makes the potential leaking water more dangerous. (Even if it's a tiny change) It's also a bad image for Tepco. "Trpco skipping proper disposal of waste water by pouring it out onsite."
Safe and uns... | 2,481 |
ELI5: How do transformers work to increase and decrease voltages of currents? Why does a high voltage, low current flow of electricity generate less heat from resistance than one with a low voltage and high current? | For the first question, does the current change as well so that the electrical power remains constant? Does a transformer “generate” any extra electrical power in that sense?
For the second question, why does a high current create resistance via heat, but a low current doesn’t? | 38 | >For the first question, does the current change as well so that the electrical power remains constant? Does a transformer “generate” any extra electrical power in that sense?
There are multiple ways to do that. The classic approach is a transformer built from two coils that share a magnetic field. Each loop create... | 29 |
If all material is eaten, are cooked vegetables less nutritious than raw ones? | 28 | For various plants, for example broccoli, many of the nutrients are locked within strong cell walls, made of cellulose. Humans do not digest cellulose too well, and a lot of the nutrients in the cells are not available as a result.
Cooking these foods weakens or breaks down these cell walls to allow for more complete ... | 10 | |
ELI5: Why do live TV hosts experience delays when talking to reporters on the scene? | Like, it's the current year, if I fire up Discord, Skype or even FaceTime I can talk to or video message people on the other side of the country with close to zero lag, as if they're right here with me. Still, when I watch TV sometimes I see that there's a delay in the communication between the host and the repo... | 15 | All the apps you mention have the benefit of being able to use existing ground infrastructure; wifi is within a few hundred feet at the most and cellular a few miles before it is onto ground lines. Those are great if you can get them, but the field reporters want to be able to ensure they can speak without interruption... | 23 |
[General] Why do heroes have no qualms about mowing through thousands of mooks, henchmen, soldiers, etc. but feel conflicted about killing their genocidal overlord leaders? | Arguably the only hero where this is really justified are Luke Skywalker who solely refused to kill his own father (though not wanting to kill the Emperor too was also...kinda weird) and Naruto Uzumaki (just because I'm pretty sure Naruto doesn't actually kill anyone in his story, including henchmen).
But in so many ... | 805 | It's all about sticking to virtues and code of conduct.
Killing someone in a heat of battle is one thing. Like countless stormtroopers you've mentioned, or Obi Wan during duel with Darth Maul.
Having someone at your mercy and coldly executing him is one step closer to villany. Like Anakin did with defenceless Count ... | 521 |
ELI5: Why do white people generally have naturally straight hair and black people generally have naturally curly hair? | As it says on the tin | 314 | Structurally the shape of the hair is different. Straight hair has a roundish cross-section. Flatten it a bit and you get wavy hair. A bit more and you get curly hair. When it is nearly flattened you get the very tight curls.
From an evolutionary standpoint the theory is that the tightly curled hair evolved to p... | 241 |
If women were truly paid $0.77 to each dollar a man makes, wouldn't firms cut costs by hiring more women or even only women? In today's competitive market, why aren't more firms doing this? | 66 | Because you're mistaking "cheaper" for "paid less".
Starting salaries for men and women are often the same. However, the issue is usually either that the employer is less likely to recognize a female employee's contributions and accomplishments, or that a female employee is less likely to aggressively pursue a wage i... | 87 | |
Is there a spot in the universe that light has not
traveled to yet? | Despite the billions of stars/nebulas in our galaxy and perhaps trillions more in the entire universe, is there a place where the radiating light from these celestial bodies has yet to reach?
Hypothetically, if we could travel to this location and look around, what would we see? Darkness? | 614 | The best model we have of the Universe is that it's more or less the same everywhere, and that it extends far beyond the bits we can see, possibly infinitely so. This means that there's nothing special about where we live as opposed to any other part of the Universe. The Big Bang didn't originate from a point, it happe... | 479 |
Human beings, other primates, and guinea pigs are the only animals that do not produce vitamin C internally. What is the evolutionary "advantage" of this? What would be the implications of having this ability? | Would our immune system be stronger since our bodies would produce vitamin C in sufficient amounts? I read that this is a mutation of a gene that causes this inability to produce vitamin C. I wonder if we can engineer these genes to mutate "back" and allows us to produce vitamin C (not sure if this sounds stupid, so ex... | 29 | There isn't an evolutionary advantage, except that we didn't need to make our own vitamin C (our diet provided enough) and our cells could expend the materials and energy elsewhere.
It isn't hard to have a diet that provides enough vitamin C to avoid deficiency-based disorders, though it isn't clear what the biologic... | 23 |
[MARVEL] Why doesn't Tony know what SHIELD is when his dad helped found it and they have a huge building in DC with their logo on it? | 15 | MCU Tony was happy to sell weapons, but didn't seemed overly concerned where they went. He may have been ignorant of world politics, or just didn't really care.
Alternatively, maybe Howard kept his involvement with SHIELD a secret. Tony had no idea his parents death wasn't an accident, which would have aroused suspici... | 26 | |
[Marvel] Does Captain America ever say some seriously racist/sexist/old fashioned stuff? Do the Avengers ever call him out on it? | He seems strangely inoffensive for someone from the 1940s. | 638 | 616 Cap wouldn't (barring mind-altering and/or reality-warping shenanigans, like what Kobik put him through). Magneto once tried to remove all anti-mutant prejudice from his mind, only to find that he *already* lacked prejudice toward *anyone*.
Ultimate Cap said that kind of stuff, though. *A lot*. Ultimate Cap is ... | 834 |
ELI5: Why are galaxies shaped like disks and are there any that are not? | 23 | There are many, many galaxies that are not disc shaped. For example, elliptical and irregular galaxies.
There is still a great deal to be learned about how spiral galaxies form. Generally, the disc shape is a result of rotation--a galaxy can be roughly though of as a bunch of matter orbiting a super dense center, co... | 13 | |
[Chemistry] What exactly happens in the brain when someone "Blacks out" from alcohol? | I am guessing that some kind of block happens so nothing can reach long term memory, but I am not sure why a lot of alcohol causes this. I am wondering what happens on a chemical level as to why when someone consumes a lot of alcohol they "Black out" and cannot remember anything the next day. | 33 | Alcohol is an antagonist for NMDA receptors in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. These receptors bind glutamate, which deems them excitatory. Alcohol is also an agonist for GABA receptors, which are inhibitory. This serves as a positive feedback loop, and if you have enough alcohol it can be strong enough to inhibit s... | 35 |
ELI5:Why do your leg hairs hurt after wearing socks all day? | 404 | Tight clothes pull your leg and foot hair in directions it doesn't naturally go. After a while, the follicles become sore from the stress. It's especially noticeable with socks, because you pull them on against the natural flow of hair and they don't move to let the hair settle back. | 259 | |
ELI5:Why do some websites say it takes 72 hours to remove you from their mailing list? Why isn't it instantaneous? | Surprised that in 2017 it still takes so long to process a removal of an email, i always feel like they're buying some time to send you a few more promo emails | 27 | It's mostly CYA. You are probably removed from the "get new email" list quickly, but they can't guarantee there isn't an already sent email sitting in a mail servers queue somewhere you haven't received yet. Easier to give you a few day buffer than have you call up angry the next day. | 34 |
In recycling, is rusty iron any different to iron that's fresh off the forge? | Is it possible to recycle rusty iron? Is the method the same? Can you recycle both types together? Would 1 kg of rusty iron produce the same amount as 1 kg of non-rusty iron? | 42 | It depends on the shape of the metal. As rust is oxidised iron, the stuff below the rust layer is fine so you can use that, and you can also save some of the iron out of the rust part, so you don't loose too much.
If its a thin plate thats completely rusted, then you won't save a lot. | 11 |
ELI5: Before the invention of modern surgery, were minor illnesses like appendicitis a death sentence? | 247 | Yes, pretty much. Go along any old graveyards and you'll see ample amounts of dead children and teens. If you're living somewhere like me, you'll see some with the "cause" of death. Many times, it's passed suddenly away in his sleep, or was taken too soon. A lot of the time, people just had these unknown ailments that ... | 237 | |
ELI5: Current US piracy law | When and how can torrent client users etc. be prosecuted or tracked down by the government? | 54 | Agencies hired by the RIAA/MPAA/whoever else will go into popular torrents and download them like a normal user. Doing so gives them a list of all of the seeds and leechers in their client, like any other user has. An IP address alone however, is like having someone's street address but not their name. So they petition... | 17 |
ELI5: What happens when our immune system makes us ”immune” to a disease. And how does it do it? | 21 | The Immune System is incredibly complex, so there really is no ELI5 answer, but in essence you have special immune cells that are designed to recognize foreign/non-native molecules called "antigens". When these antigens are found, the immune cells latch on to the foreign cells and destroy them while simultaneously "rem... | 10 | |
[Man of Steel] What theories do the scientific community have about the Kryptonians/Atlanteans/Amazonians? | With the recent attack on Earth by kryptonian forces and the subsequent discovery of subject Superman, we have learned that we are not alone in this universe. Recently we have discovered two more species that inhabit the Earth, the Atlaneans and the Amazonians. We need some theories as to what we are dealing with.
C... | 38 | The people of Atlantis have evolved to have a body that can hold up to the pressure of being at the bottom of the ocean, they likely can't breathe air at all since they stay in water mostly, and if they can it may be tough for them to breathe. There's a good chance they're able to see in darker light levels since the o... | 11 |
[Magic: The Gathering] How does someone become a planeswalker? What exactly are their powers? | 94 | > How does someone become a planeswalker?
Be born with a spark. It won't do anything until it is awakened by suffering severe trauma, like getting buried alive or seeing you loved ones die in front of you. You could live your whole life with a spark and never awaken it.
It's also possible but difficult to take a p... | 77 | |
ELI5: Jupiter is made of gas. Given the incredible amount of winds, whirls and storms there, how come its color isn't homogeneous yet ? | 524 | The overly simplistic answer is that different gases are present, and they all have different densities, which results in them layering both north/south and vertically within the atmosphere. While the winds do cause these layers to mix, its not enough to turn it into a well-mixed gas. | 191 | |
[Star Wars] Did Bail know that Anakin survived and became Vader? | Bail knows that Leia is Anakin's daughter. Does he also know that Anakin survived his duel with Obi-Wan and became Vader? If so would he have ever told Leia? | 253 | More than likely. Senator Organa pretty much committed treason against the new Empire by harboring two Jedi masters. He was there when the twins were separated, one can assume he knew at least who Vader really was. And after seeing the new Vader, he could have probably put two and two together.
However, it is highly ... | 166 |
What's going on in this gif? Is this possible? | [I came across this gif](http://i.imgur.com/oQcXQ.gif) the other day and was wondering if there is some cool science going on behind this trick, or if it is just clever editing/totally fake. Anybody have any insight? | 49 | Looks like a thin card of a thermoplastic. When cool, a thermoplastic consists of many polymer chains bound together by Van der Waals forces or hydrogen bonding. When heated, the polymer chains can slide over and around one another, making it something like a liquid. Think of the difference between a hot and a cold ... | 61 |
Learn C++ or Python? | First of all, I am aware of the fact that you better know both languages because they are both VERY powerful.
What language should I learn first? In my CS subject I am currently learning a lot of Java and next year C# and other languages will come too. But I want to start learning another language on my own. What is y... | 25 | I would learn C++ first so you can understand things at a lower level which will translate into being a better and more efficient programmer in Python. Just to name a simple example, you’ll understand why `obtect1==object2` evaluates to false in Python although both objects contain the same exact property and values b... | 17 |
[DBZ] Do humans have an upper limit that they physically can't surpass? | Saiyans seems to be able to reach insane heights of power, but humans seem left behind. Is it possible given the same level of training for Humans to grow to a similar level, or is it just not possible? | 72 | Saiyans have an unfair advantage over humans. First, a saiyan baby is almost certainly going to be stronger than any adult human, minus a few exceptions, probably due to being a warrior race that only lives for battle.
Then, saiyans also have the ability of zenkai, which increases their power after any injury, especi... | 78 |
Why do so many scam websites actually deliver on their promises if you press the right buttons? | I dunno if this quite fits here, it doesn't have to do with coding per se, but malware. How come there's so many "too good to be true" websites that are actually too good to be true? Yeah, they do everything in their power to make you click on the wrong button, but if you dodge all the phish hooks there's actual value ... | 42 | The content you're looking for is actually there. But they get paid for affiliate marketing whenever someone clicks the "wrong" button. The website you're on isn't looking to scam you, they're just looking to get paid.
Basically, it's just a modern version of pop-up ads. Website A has the download. But they also adver... | 55 |
ELI5: Why do you sometimes feel nauseous/queasy when you're extremely hungry? | It seems really weird that at a moment when your stomach is almost (if not totally) empty, that you can feel like you're about to throw up.
What's going on there? | 421 | When you have very low blood sugar, your pancreas releases a hormone called glucagon into the blood stream, which triggers the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose to raise blood sugar levels. A side effect of glucagon is nausea, and we're not really sure why. | 340 |
MoM inflation shows inflation has stopped. Why do we track inflation YoY instead of MoM? | We are currently tracking inflation YoY at around 8.5% for last several months. But MoM, its nearly zero for the last two months: [https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-rate-mom](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-rate-mom)
Why are we looking at YoY inflation when MoM inflation is show... | 35 | Both are useful. The reason for an emphasis on YoY is that we can see one month with higher than expected inflation and then the following month lower than expected. YoY can balance that variation. Additionally, MoM does not account for seasonality. So, inflation will show higher in December than in November. With that... | 67 |
ELI5: How do they know what the possible high and low for the day’s temperature will be? | When a weather forecast says there is going to be a high of 18 and a low of 12 for example, how do they know the temperature range or possibility, especially over a weekly forecast? | 17 | It is done with mathematical models that use observational data from all over the world that including ground measurement and satellite observation. The calculation is done by supercomputers to predict the future.
The models are not perfect and the data you input is limited so the farther you go into the future the ... | 12 |
[DC] Does Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin work on Superman? | He might be bulletproof but what about his biology? Would the gas work on him or does he have some kind of super immunity? | 20 | Yes. In fact Fear Toxin played a key role in the inciting incident of Injustice. Spoilers: >!Joker subjected Superman to fear toxin and made him see Lois as Doomsday. The resulting fight killed Lois, their baby, and Metropolis!< | 29 |
Can a machine be too weak to solve a problem? | Is there a problem that can be solved on a "powerful" computer but cannot be solved on a "weaker" computer.
Of course, the weaker computer will always take more time to solve the problem, but will it always be able to solve it eventually, or a problem can be too complex to ever be solved?
Assumption: hard disk is alw... | 26 | I think you're describing a *slow* computer, rather than what I'd call a "weak" one. Most computers are designed to be "computationally universal", meaning that they can simulate any other computationally-universal computer. In that sense, the power of a CPU has nothing to do with its speed.
> Can out of memory pro... | 31 |
What's the reason behind unpronounced letters? | Started to wonder when thinking about the word 'beaucoup' (french for 'much'). There's languages where words are very long for how much is actually being pronounced. Is it just speakers being too "lazy" over a long time? But why hasn't the written word followed along? | 19 | Pronunciation is historically much more variable than writing. This is because writing a word down creates an easily consulted "record" of how that word is to be spelled (even if not everyone agrees with you), whereas -- before broadcast media and sound recording came along -- there was no way to "remind" a group of sp... | 15 |
[SCP Foundation] What the Foundation do when a sapient SCP shows extreme signs of distress and depression caused by it's imprisonment ? | 25 | Depends on its classification. they wouldn't give two fucks if a Keter class was getting depressed. They make make concessions for helpful Elucid, and would probably be rather accommodating to Safe classed SCPs. | 40 | |
[Avatar/The Legend of Korra]Why do most Bloodbenders need the full moon to bloodbend while bending the water inside plants is fairly easy? | 21 | The moon amplifies the abilities of Waterbenders, allowing even the most novice of waterbenders to do amazing feats, and allowing masters to do things never before thought possible.
&#x200B;
Every living thing has Chi(Or chakras, if you're going by the Western Air Nomad terminology) and the more complex the orga... | 35 | |
ELI5 - What is an API? | I read the Wiki page but I still don't get it | 32 | API is a very overloaded term.
&#x200B;
It can refer to a piece of software that runs on an Formula 1 race car and provides the engine management software with ambient temperature data used to calculate fuel mixture (i.e. a thermostat API). It can also refer to an entire web application deployed across 5000 serve... | 20 |
ELI5:Why does my drink seem a lot colder when I have mint gum in my mouth? | Especially cold when I have a cold drink, almost unbearable. | 2,478 | The mint contains menthol, and menthol stimulates the nerve endings in your mouth responsible for temperature in a way that registers as cold. Chillies contain a chemical called capsaicin that does the opposite. | 2,415 |
What are some criticisms of Peter Singer's philosophy? | 42 | * Martha Nussbaum's Capability Approach
* Alasdair MacIntyre's *After Virtue* in which he likens the principle of utility to a conceptual fiction that might produce beneficial actions, but a fiction nonetheless.
* Eva Kittay challenges Singer's attitude towards the euthanasia of disabled infants in a 28 day period ... | 20 | |
[WH40K] Why aren't all Space Marines murderous psychopaths? | Considering the brutality of their training and background, I can't see them being anything but barely restrained killers. So how come some of them seem rather professional and civilized? They were culled from the most vicious of killers and trained to be better killers with other killers. Their sole purpose is killing... | 63 | It all depends on the chapter the marine comes from really, however.....
For the most part space marines are psychopathic killer and those tendencies are encouraged. Sometimes the chapter goes out of the way to recruit the most brutal criminals from the depths of hive worlds. Their job is killing and not PR
For the ... | 45 |
ELI5: What is the difference between anodizing and galvanizing? | 15 | Anodizing produces a stable oxide coating on the material - usually aluminium - which prevents further degradation.
Galvanising deposits a layer of corrosion-resistant zinc onto (usually) steel. Not only is zinc quite resistant to corrosion anyway, but it also forms an electrochemical pair with the steel which makes i... | 14 | |
ELI5: The center of the earth | From what I understand thus far the center of the earth is a molten mass and we're living on the crust, which occasionally leaks by way of volcanoes and other vents. How is the earth still molten after all this time? Will it ever "burn out" like the sun is predicted to do? How important is the moltenness of the center ... | 50 | You're asking a LOT of questions here, too much for a single ELI5, I'll just answer the main one.
First, your description of the earth isn't quite accurate there fam. The centre of the earth is a ball of super-hot iron, then there's a massive layer of rock all around it that's so hot that it's plasticky. Then on top o... | 119 |
ELI5: If inflation hovers around 1%-3%, does a 2.5% raise at work just mean you're keeping up with inflation? | & if that's the case, does ones standard of living just remain constant? (assuming you stay at a 2.5% increase year-over-year) | 432 | More or less. Inflation is a measure of the average price of goods in an economy, so assuming your spending is relatively average with regards to category (food, rent, transportation) then your cost of living increases with inflation.
As such, a raise of roughly the rate of inflation is just keeping you at the same l... | 277 |
Is controlling inflation is more important than controlling unemployment? | I just want to say that I don't know a lot about economics but I was still curious about my political leaning and I know it knows a legit test but I thought it might be fun to take one.
I took a political compass test and one of the questions was if controlling inflation is more important than controlling unemployment... | 67 | So a common tool used in Economics to explain the relationship between unemployment and inflation is the Phillips curve. Basically, it says that In the short run, inflation and unemployment have an inverse relationship. Theoretically, if you have lower amount of inflation, you will also have higher rates of unemployme... | 62 |
[Sherlock Holmes in ACD's canon] Is Sherlock Holmes really as skillful and awesome as has been told about him, or does Watson exaggerate, embellish and glorify Holmes' merits and skills like what Holmes itself said about Watson's write style? | 17 | Watson's chronicle largely skips the minutia and drug abuse, so we're only treated to events he was present for, from his perspective.
Thus, well, yes, sort of, but not that much. Since Holmes often explains his chain of thought, there's no reason to assume that Watson embellished his intelligence or deductive skills... | 26 | |
ELI5: Why does it matter which way your ceiling fan is spinning? Is pushing the air down from the ceiling really actually different than pulling the air up from the floor? | I think I'm supposed to switch the direction of my ceiling fans, but I really can't see how that really matters - isn't it basically the same end result either way the fan is spinning? | 118 | A ceiling fan has two effects:
1. Mixing the air in the room to even out the temperature
2. Moving the air to create a windchill effect when it moves over your skin
Either fan direction will have a similar mixing effect, but the windchill effect is biggest when you are on the blowing side of the fan. You can try this... | 168 |
[Matrix] What did Smith want? What was his purpose? | Why did he try to kill neo, destroy Zion and take over the entire matrix? What did he want? | 19 | He was programmed to act as a nemesis to mankind in general and Zion in particular. To not just fight them, not just hate them, but to hate their very means of existence; the very act of living in a human world with human sensations was repugnant to him. This hatred drove him in his assigned task, to seek and destroy Z... | 27 |
ELI5: Why does the mortar not come to the edge of the bricks? | I was looking at a brick wall the other day and I was wondering why the mortar between the bricks does quite come to the edge of the bricks, ie. it's not flush with the outside surface of the bricks (which would make the wall smoother.
Generally when I'm gluing things I actually plan for there to be excess glue to wip... | 18 | We use rounded “jointers,” to press the mortar into the joints after the bricks have been laid. This ensures that the mortar in the joints is compacted against the bricks it’s binding together and that there are no holes or shallow areas in the joints. We then brush the mortar to further insure it is all sealed against... | 31 |
Why does a muscle get stronger? | I know *what* happens when a muscle gets stronger. Buy *why* does that happen?
#
#
This question was asked by my father who, for years, has been unsatisfied with the answers he's been getting. Can someone finally answer him?
#
Edit: Thanks guys! He finally got an answer he was looking for! I can't reply to everyone an... | 221 | Enhanced strength, either through thicker muscle fibers or increased neuromuscular efficiency, is the body's natural adaptation to having a certain stimulus, or stress, placed on it (in this case a heavy load or resistive force). The body adapts to be more ready for that same level of stress, should it happen again. I... | 108 |
ELI5: How is gravity calculated for distant planets and moons? | How do we know the gravity for saturn is 107% of earths gravity, or how did we calculate the escape velocity for moon for the Apollo 11 mission. | 37 | Gravity is the same everywhere, there's the old Newton formula to calculate the gravitational force that depends on the masses of the two objects and the distance (radius) between their centers. There is also a formula for calculating orbital velocity based on the mass of the planet. So if you know the orbital perio... | 17 |
[The Good Place] What's the point of Janet? | When the main characters actually get to the real Good Place, it turns out that the people there are actually miserable because everything they want instantly appears and that takes all the joy out of everything.
None of them are ever seen asking a Janet for anything. Whatever they want just appears.
So why does Jane... | 249 | The denizens of the Good Place definitely ask the Janet for something at one point but the whole point is that they are so bored of getting whatever they want whenever they want that they rarely do anymore. | 199 |
My friend uses "preference utilitarianism" to justify painless euthanasia of infants. Is this a proper application of preference utilitarianism? What arguments for/against this might exist? | I'll preface this by saying I'm not extremely well-versed in philosophy, which is why my question is so broad.
Background: My friend has, in the past months, been better acquainting himself with philosophical thought, which is generally a noble pursuit. Recently, he's taken a shine to the idea of preference utilitari... | 23 | That is a stance within preference utilitarianism for reasons much like he stated, and is close to what peter singer has argued. But its not the only stance. R M Hare upholds an opposing stance which says that preference utilitarianism shouldn't be seen as just about your current interests, but also "what you have inte... | 32 |
[Star Wars] What aspect of space ship design makes it fast? | I was just wondering how the Millennium Falcon got so fast. Do you just need a big hyperdrive on a small hull? If that's true, how come no one designed lighter hulls to compete? | 39 | Actually, "speed" is largely a matter of navigation, not directly speed (although that plays a part). Most of the Falcon's impressive run time comes from General Solo's personal modifications to the navigational computer. For example, navigating around the black hole cluster surrounding the Kessel region requires a p... | 56 |
eli5 Why does a previously perfectly crispy French fry become a limp wet flaccid potato dick after just a short time in the fridge? | Every time I get fries (or chippies for my pals across the pond) they serve me way too many, so I throw them in the fridge. Instantly they are transformed into inedible flaccid sludge. What gives? Why does this happen and how should o be storing them for maximum future crispy deliciousness? Help! | 17 | It will happen the same if left alone on a countertop; it's partially because of oil used to fry with and part condensation. How could it condensate, you ask? Well, cool air typically has moisture in it, not always, but usually some moisture content. Well, heat travels from hot to cold, and when it travels, the normall... | 35 |
Eli5 what do we use linear algebra for? | 25 | Linear algebra is having a real explosion of usefulness in computer science right now.
It’s the basis of much of machine learning. For example, Linear algebra is how Netflix recommends your next binge. You can set up a system of equations that represent different properties of movies and then find eigenvectors to und... | 53 | |
ELI5: How does CBD work? | 23 | Assuming you are talking about Cannabidiol, a cannabinoid, i will try to explain it as simply as possible.
Cannabinoids (most notably THC) act on specific receptors in the brain called CB1 and CB2, but CBD is pretty special because it has a pretty low affinity to these receptors (compared to other cannabinoids) and ca... | 23 | |
[MCU] how often did The Ancient One mess up? (*Dr Strange spoilers*) | Mordo has known the Ancient One for decades at most, and she is untold centuries old. Several times he acts as if she has given them all good reason to question her.
When the ancient one blasts strange's astral form from his body - mordo: "his heart can't take any more!" ancient one: "I think it can..".
And when mo... | 38 | Mordo is not the best judge. He is uncomfortable with taking unnecessary risks and is not the most imaginative person around. And, more importantly, he did not know what the Ancient One knew.
What seemed reckless to Mordo was considered a safe bet by the Ancient One. He's like that panicky friend you drive with who... | 51 |
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