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How do attractive forces actually work? | For example gravity, magnetism and electrostatic. Do particles pull towards each other by some link like an elastic band or do they emit particles in the opposite direction to each other to push them together (if so how do they know to do that?) or is it something else entirely? | 19 | It seems you are being confused by considering virtual particles as being anything at all like actual particles. They are not. Thinking of virtual particles like this is nice for being able to draw Feynman diagrams but not really for anything else. | 10 |
I do not believe it matters whether or not there is a God or gods. CMV. | **EDIT:** First, thanks all for participating. Second, thanks for 57 upvotes - I'm glad this is a successful post. Third, I stopped replying because I was noticing all the same arguments and none of them have changed my view in any way. I remain apathetic as to the (non)existence of a supernatural creator.
This is not... | 57 | It matters if there is a god who rewards belief, and the only way to win the prize of an afterlife (or of a super-special-good afterlife) is based on the amount of devotion toward him/her/it/them you have paid during your life.
| 14 |
ELI5:Why can't men (easily) continue with intercourse after orgasm? And why women can? | 1,030 | A man who continues to have sex after orgasm runs the risk of scooping out all of his own semen, undoing his hard work. There is an evolutionary advantage to letting everything cool down for a little while. | 769 | |
[Witcher] Are there giant sea monsters (Kraken)? How do witchers handle them? | 25 | For a kraken, or really most giant sea monsters, the procedure is as follows:
**Step One:** Hire out a barge and the biggest galleon you can lay hands on to tow it. Don't plan on getting your deposit back for that barge.
**Step Two:** Load down the barge with whatever farm animal is cheapest that week. Kraken aren't... | 33 | |
eli5: How were square roots calculated in the first place, before calculators? | 17 | You would look them up in a table. The tables were populated by hand calculation.
For example, what's the square root of 20? Well, you know it's going to be more than 4 and less than 5, because 16 is 4² and 25 is 5². So you might try 4.5. So then you would square 4.5 and get 20.25. This tells you that the square root ... | 46 | |
[LotR] How do the stone giants reproduce? | Great big stone sex? | 26 | It's questionable whether the stone giants even *exist*. The original text of the Red Book mentions them "playing" by throwing stones at each other as a way of explaining loud, thunderous sounds during a rainstorm. It's entirely possible that this was a whimsical addition by Bilbo.
If they *are* real, then the giants ... | 34 |
[Star Trek] Why does Starfleet insist on putting the bridge on the most venerable part of the ship, namely the very top deck and dead centre. One phaser strike and the whole command staff are gone in one go, wouldn't it be better to you know have it 50 decks lower and not in the saucer at all? | 186 | For one, it's not all that vulnerable. It's still behind shields that take an ungodly amount of destructive force to breach. Not an unimaginable amount, but it's really quite a lot. To boot, once the shields are gone, no part of the ship is really that much safer than any other.
And building on that, for two: St... | 191 | |
[Star Trek] How can a holographic bullet kill somebody on the holodeck? How can a holodeck misfuction so much that it creates a being that can then leave the facility ala Prof Moriarty? | 32 | The Holodeck creates "hard light". If you can use the Holodeck to create a chair that you can sit on, then you can create a bat to hit someone upside the head. Or a bullet.
Further, spoiler here, but Moriarty never left the Holosuite program. He left a simulation of it, and walked onto a simulation of the Enterprise o... | 54 | |
[DC] Has Jesus Christ actually make an appearance in comic? | I've read many DC comics that has relation to divinity like Lucifer,Phantom Stranger,Spectre and Constantine but I've never actually seen Jesus Christ appear.
Phantom Stranger's sin is that he literally betrayed Jesus Christ and is punished for it but that must mean that Jesus Christ does exist in DC comic.
T... | 18 | Jesus was just the mortal form of God himself. If you see God you see his son.
And why would Jesus need to show himself? The heavenly beings rarely bother to make their presence apparent, relying on fate and good people to enact their will. Only demons need to be physically present to prove their power | 12 |
[King Kong] Who built the wall around Skull Island? | Who built the wall and the village, and what happened to them? How did whoever built the wall not get eaten by dinosaurs and giant bugs while building it? | 21 | The inhabitants built the wall from experience of being killed by dinosaurs and etc, and through this Kong set up a kind of deal where he'd protect them if they sacrificed a girl in payment. One could argue this situation was set up BECAUSE of them building, as in it incited them to build, and Kong would protect the bu... | 17 |
[MONSTERS INC] I would love it if someone could please analyze the curriculum of scaring and how it could be tied to Waternoose's concerns with the future of scream energy. The new scarers, energy crisis, the "risks" and stresses of being a scarer, and the issues trying to find a good scarer | I would also love some theories and lore that most people would not know about the world of monsters inc. | 16 | Well, according to the “History of the Monster World” bonus DVD feature, monsters evolved from a race of prehumans called Mons some tens of thousands of years ago, and, chased off by early Homo sapiens, sought refuge on an enchanted island (on which Monstropolis was presumably built). Ingesting the strange fruits of th... | 15 |
Eli5 How do those cranes that are on top of a building near finishing(read: bottom areas are completely done) get taken off of the roof? | 19 | They install a smaller crane to bring pieces of the big crane down. The small crane then gets disassembled and usually fits in the elevator. If it doesn’t, a smaller crane of that is used.
Look up Derrick crane for more info | 18 | |
[The Thing 1982] if the men survived and the events were announced to the public, would they be charged for murder? | Humans directly or indirectly killing humans in the film: Garry shooting the Norwegian, the men bringing the 2 face carcass to an unsecure location where it assimilated Bennings, the men taking Blair to the shed where he’d later be assimilated, MacReady shooting Clark
So let’s say hypothetically, the film’s plot chan... | 16 | If the video game from 2002 is considered canon, then >!the military knows about the Thing and Mac is still alive when the player character shows up and helps kill it. He's not going to be charged, especially since he escapes with the player character who has proof the army was immobilised illegally to help a bio-me... | 15 |
eli5: Why is candle wax transparent when it’s hot and opaque when it’s cool? | 26 | When wax is cool, it's crystallized. These wax crystals can scatter light so it doesn't reach your eyes, so the crystals are opaque. When hot, the wax molecules are all loose and free, and can't scatter light. That means the light goes straight through, making the liquid wax look transparent. | 20 | |
CMV: The constant focus on groups or classes labeled as minority only exacerbates the ill effects of prejudice and discrimination. | Acknowledging, celebrating, or otherwise reinforcing the perception that a particular group is a minority and/or otherwise disadvantaged, however well-intentioned, is counterproductive to the intended goal of realizing equality.
Those in the minority group are inclined to consider themselves disadvantaged which ine... | 28 | I think your point us clearly refuted by the relatively recent achievements in the Gay Rights movement and their attaining the equal right to marriage. This did not come about by some benevolent move by the establishment after years of respectful silence by homosexuals and those who supported them. This right was giv... | 12 |
What do professors/postdocs look for in undergrad students wanting to volunteer in their lab? | Are there any particular qualities they look for? I've been told that they just assume undergrads have no research experience and I'm guessing it isn't as big a factor as it might be with grad students/postdocs. I've also been told enthusiasm is a big factor, though I'm not sure how I'd show them my enthusiasm/passion ... | 75 | You have to show genuine interest in their work. Don't send out the generic "I want research experience, are you looking for people?". Say you looked at their work and find X particularly interesting. Say you had some questions about Y paper or research. Ask if you can meet with them to discuss more. Then at that meeti... | 62 |
[Lord of the Rings] How would the Fellowship's journey change if Gandalf the Grey survived Moria? | 49 | Odds are high that Gandalf wouldn't have the power to remove Saruman's control over Théoden. That would mean that Rohan would be completely removed from the equation and most likely destroyed by Saruman's Army. Without Rohan's assistance at the Battle of Pellenor Fields and the addition of Saruman's Army, Gondor woul... | 51 | |
ELI5: Why does looking at a bright light leave image impressions for long periods? | When you look at something really bright ( a bare light bulb for example), why do we see that object when we close our eyes for several minutes? What happens to make this occur? | 65 | Very basically, the intense light "burns" an image into your retina. It takes time for it to normalize. What's going on is more about light and chemistry, but it's very simple to say that the light just "burns" an image in your eye and it takes a minute for your eye to recover and see clearly. | 12 |
Academic dishonesty | We use OWL/Cengage for homework. If you get a chemistry question wrong, it will generate a similar question with different chemicals or values. Anyway, I would purposely get the answers wrong so OWL would show me the way to calculate the answer. I would then get the 2nd or 3rd attempt correct by using the formula OWL u... | 32 | You explain to the dean what you did, what you thought you were doing, why you didn't think it counted as dishonesty. You might also note that there was no instruction that you weren't allowed to do it this way, and that in fact you thought this way was helping you learn better than in class. You apologize if this was ... | 75 |
[Star Wars] If Palpatine was killed prior to the events of the movies, would Anakin still have fallen to the Dark Side? | Sidious was a major contributing factor to Anakin's fall, however he just helped him down a path that was already revealing itself to him.
Would Anakin eventually have fallen had Palpatine not intervened? | 97 | Well without Palpatine Naboo probably wouldn't have been blockaded so Qui Gon and Obi Wan may have never found Anakin and he may have just lived out his life on Tatoine becoming a successful Pod Racer. | 92 |
ELI5: Why is FM radio on only odd frequencies and only frequencies between about 90 to 110? | Why can't there be a station on something like 95.4 or 56.1? Are these limitations of FM radio or are those frequencies just not allowed for public use? | 71 | Only odd frequencies are used to prevent interference.
If you had two stations on 95.1 and 95.2, you wouldn't get a very clear signal out of either station. 95,1 and 95.3 are far enough apart that you can tune into either one clearly.
And the frequencies are between 88 and 108 MHz because the other frequencies are us... | 47 |
ELI5 How a casino knows that you're counting cards in your head? | So Ben Affleck has admitted to counting cards and was told not to play Blackjack at certain casinos. How does a casino know that he's counting cards if all the math is done in his head and they can't really prove it.
Thanks for the explanation and tips. Much appreciated. | 26 | They don't have to prove it. They watch your play style and if you are playing very well for a long time and appear to be matching the results of a card counter, then buh bye. It's not a right to be in a casino. | 28 |
ELI5:If 80% of taste comes from your olfactory receptors in your nose, why do some foods smell awful yet taste great? | 93 | It's more accurate to say *80% of tastes* than *80% of taste*. The flavors perceived by the tongue are by far the most important, though there are only five. Something that doesn't taste sweet, salty, savory, or sour isn't going to taste very good, even with a great aromatic profile. However, something with a bad aroma... | 39 | |
Is there any Mathematical reason that (-0.5)!^2 = Pi, or is it just a coincidence? | 19 | It's not a coincidence. To extend the factorial function to non-natural numbers, you replace it with an integral. The factorial of x is then the integral of t^x e^-t dt from 0 to infinity, where t is a dummy variable.
For x=-1/2, this integral works out to the square root of pi. It is a similar integration to the Gaus... | 31 | |
Does Jordan Peterson ever outline specific criticisms of specific radical theorists (Foucault, Adorno, Derrida etc.)? | Every time I heard him criticize critical theory (what he strangely calls "postmodern neo-Marxism"), it's something vague about "relativism," "destroying the foundations of the West," or "denying biological realities," etc. Does he ever address Foucault's views on power-knowledge, Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of ... | 152 | From what I've seen, no. He doesn't know what he's talking about. That said, life's too short to spend it sifting through Peterson's massive online oeuvre.
He *does* talk about Heidegger a bit, but he makes a hash of it (such as getting hung up on the capital "B" in Heidegger's "Being," as though he has no understandi... | 247 |
CMV: Teaching your kids to believe in Santa is stupid. | Note: this goes for other made up characters like the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.
As a kid, I never understood people’s obsession with Santa. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ and sure it’s now evolved to include some gift-giving and a big celebration too— I’ve known that since age 3. But I never unde... | 34 | I’d argue in question 2 that part of the point is to teach kids to think critically. Kids largely figure out for themselves on that the balance of evidence Santa doesn’t make realistic sense by age ten or so. It’s one of the first times kids can find out that they can come to a different conclusion than what the author... | 17 |
ELI5: What exactly went wrong on Apollo 13 and how was so many things missed? | I just watched the Ron Howard film, and I have to say it was one of the best films I’ve ever watched. But it left some unanswered questions in my mind, like how did this miss all those errors? As well, if they used the same rocket as the successful Apollo 11 and 12, what was the difference with 13? How was everything m... | 30 | Basically it was a design flaw, an assembly error, and a testing error: a chain of events that led to near disaster. Each thing on it's own wasn't enough to cause the explosion, but the unlikely chain of all 3. The genesis of it started in 1965, before the first Apollo spacecraft was even built. The spacecraft was orig... | 105 |
What takes less energy? Walking on each stair, or skipping one stair every pace? | I walk up 5 stories about 4 times a day and have always wondered this. | 20 | Everyone seems to be going at this from a physics standpoint. From a biological standpoint, you'll use more energy from skipping steps.
This is because of the difference between types of muscle fibers. A slow twitch muscle fiber is generally used for long distance and low output activities, and is very efficient. On t... | 36 |
[Dragon Age: Origins] Why can't the Warden utilize everyone in his group? | I'm a fletcher in Redcliffe, and a few weeks ago, we were being attacked by these undead monstrosities from the castle. Apparently the Arl's son was a mage, I guess the chantry is right about them.
Anyway, after being terrorized for the third night, this Grey Warden showed up asking for an army to fight the blight. No... | 38 | The Warden has to use his companions for a variety of task. He usually chooses to travel 3 of his companions as a group of bodyguards/advisers, when he is trying to help with a particular problem. His other companions are doing various tasks at this time. Most likely his other companions were off scouting the area t... | 18 |
Why isn't the Winter Solstice the coldest day of the year? | If the Winter Solstice has the least amount of direct sunlight, then why is it typically warmer than say, January or February? | 19 | A lot of variables control temperature. Different air masses, cloud cover, and wind mixing are just as important to regulating temperature as radiative heating is.
Assuming a constant air mass, a noticeable time lag in the global radiative heating balance appears. As summer progresses, more heat is entering the Ea... | 21 |
[Marvel Comics] Could marijuana help Dr. Banner | Hulk. Lets say, every day, the doctor takes a nice few joints full of Indica , (like 2-3) at about a gram per joint. How would this method of controling the hulk work? Can this green replace the bad green, and save the Doctor from hulking out?
If not, how much would he have to smoke, and buy, daily to subdue his beas... | 146 | I don't think making Bruce Banner anxious would be a good idea. Even experienced smokers can have a bad time once in a while, a new strain or a different environment. He could accidentally hulk out even when there's no real threat if he's disoriented. Banner seems to be able to control his anger on his own, that's p... | 113 |
With the ability to be anywhere in the world instantly, know who is being bad or not, and the ability to carry gigantic amounts of equipment, why doesn't Santa Claus become a superhero? | 73 | Santa's powers only work on Christmas Eve. That's also why he needs elves to do all the work, he *could* magically make all the toys himself Christmas morning, but that would take away from his delivery time in the Pacific Islands. He spends the rest of the year reading mail, making his lists, tending to the reindeer, ... | 45 | |
Eli5 What really is a fraction TIMES a fraction?! It makes NO sense. | I am reteaching myself math, but something is bugging me soooo bad and I can't find the answer. What is a real life example of multiplying a fraction by a fraction? I was wondering why .05 to the 5th exponent would get smaller not bigger. This is driving me bonkers.
Sure 1/2 makes sense, but how about 1/2 times 3/5 ... | 15,299 | Replace the word "times" with "of"
1/2 of 3/5. Half of 3/5. Obviously it's going to be smaller than 3/5
0.05 of 0.05, that's 5 percent of 0.05. You know 5 percent is a relatively small chunk of the original.
The problem may be you were taught only the abstract math rules, but it wasn't well tied into concrete exampl... | 19,774 |
ELI5: Mountains are brown, yellow, and green and definitely not blue or purple, yet they look purplish-blue from far away. Why is this? | Noticed it on my drive home in the desert...never occurred to me to actually ask why... | 36 | Because if they are far away, there's more stuff i.e. atmosphere between you and the mountains and thus it gets a slight bluish tint. It's the same reason why the sky is blue. Blue wavelengths are scattered less easily than red ones so they 'dominate'.
You'll notice that not only mountains appear bluish at a distance ... | 12 |
[40k]The Emperor’s presence | So how powerful is the Emperor’s presence now that he’s stuck on the throne?Is it easy to get close to him or does he retaliate agains anyone he disapproves of being in his throne room? | 21 | Being in the presence of the Emperor would kill most people, custodians struggle, it burns them out and scorches their armour, not all of them can do it.
During the war of the beast some rather high ranking harlequins invaded terra and the Palace, they didn't manage to get anywhere near to the Emperor himself but they... | 15 |
ELI5: What is umami? | 16 | Umami is another one of the "basic tastes", along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. It's also sometimes called "savory"--think of the flavor of meat, cheese, broth, or mushrooms (that isn't salty or bitter).
Chemically, it's sensed by your taste buds with the presence of glutamate, which is one of the basic amino ... | 32 | |
[Man of Steel]Why doesn't the Kyrptonian armor worn by General Zod and his soldiers fold like aluminum foil when struck by Superman? | What I mean by this is: the armor worn by General Zod and his soldiers is Kryptonian, crafted to withstand Kryptonian weaponry and attacks, on Krypton. Right? So it wasn't crafted to withstand the super-strong punches, kicks, and heat beam eye attacks that Superman subjected it to during the recent events in Metropolis... | 25 | Moreover, Jor-El seemed to be saying that Kal would gain strength from growing up on Earth rather than simply being on Earth, but the Zod Squad gained their powers immediately and without enjoying the air first. Can this inconsistency be explained, as well as why Kal didn't avoid the Kryptonian air by simply holding hi... | 12 |
ELI5: Why do GIFs load so slow although I have fast internet? | 230 | I take it you mean animated GIFs? Two possible reasons, one is that the site hosting the GIF serving slowly (you can only download as fast as the other side is sending) and another is that animated DIFs are actually really large, must larger than proper video files would be. They're not very good at compressing photos ... | 101 | |
ELI5: Why is the Perseverance robot collecting Martian rock samples to be retrieved by "future expeditions"? Wouldn't future expeditions be capable of collecting the rock samples themselves? | 405 | - The plan to return the rocks are a "potential" plan and not yet set in motion.
- Collecting rock samples, especially over a large terrain, takes time. Don´t forget that we are not talking about *"yeah, get some random samples here and there, don´t really care"*, but the samples are taken according to a specific plan... | 504 | |
How can I become a programmer | Hello everyone!
At 27 years of age (a bit late), I think I’ve found something that really interests me from a career standpoint and it’s, no surprise, programming.
I’ve got the full Python, Wordpress, and JavaScript courses on Udemy, and want to dive headfirst into them. I’m hoping that by the end of th... | 39 | You don’t need a college diploma but you’ll definitely need a lot more than a couple of Udemy courses to learn enough to get a job. The best thing you can do is make stuff, break stuff, and read stuff online.
Learning React will probably get you a lot further than WordPress when looking for an entry level job, but tha... | 37 |
ELI5: How does anything live on islands where the max elevation is less than about 20 feet? | Every time I see videos of boats hitting massive waves that they have to climb like a small mountain it makes me wonder how these same storms don't just wipe clean any and every small island in the ocean. It seems like whenever a big storm came, waves would just wash over any low lying islands in their path and take ev... | 25 | The same waves typically peter out as the sea floor elevation rises towards the island.
While it does happen, the waves produced out at sea dont carry the same force as a tidal wave, as only the surface water is raised (vs a tsunami in which the entire depth of the ocean is raised) | 29 |
ELI5: When pouring a thick liquid (like honey) why is it giving a kind of a zigzag shape right before it touches down? | 16 | The viscosity prevents the stream from merging with the puddle you’re pouring it onto right away like with water, so as more comes down the stream, it essentially piles up and collapses as it becomes unstable, or “top heavy” within the stream | 25 | |
ELI5: When using the TOR wiki only a few websites come up, and yet people say that 90% of the internet is on the deep web, is this true? And how does one find these sites? | 18 | Most of the deep web internet is on normal sites you can access with a regular browser.
Deep web is that which is not indexed by search engines, which includes all the dynamic content of the normal web. | 19 | |
[Dragon Age] Why don't surface kingdoms send soldiers to help the dwarves fight against darkspawn? | 24 | They don't really consider it their problem. They tend to forget about the Darkspawn until a Blight happens and even then, they're not always quick to take it seriously.
Even just ten years after the Blight in Fereldan, the surface kingdoms have gone back to ignoring them again and people are once again treating the G... | 37 | |
Why aren't rotational kinetic energy and translational kinetic energy as fundamentally distinct from one another as angular momentum and linear momentum? | Conservation of momentum and conservation of angular momentum each have, through Noether's theorem, their own associated fundamental symmetry of the universe: spatial symmetry and rotational symmetry respectively.
In (seeming) contrast, all different forms of energy -- translational, rotational, vibrational, nuclear, ... | 16 | An object moving through space at constant velocity without rotating has angular momentum in all reference frames where it doesn't move through the origin. Be careful with statements that depend on an arbitrary reference frame. | 12 |
Why can humans cross their eyes but not do the opposite? Make them look outward. | 31 | You can cross your eyes because that's the action required to look at an object which is very close to you. You can see this by focusing on your finger and moving it towards your face; you'll end up with crossed eyes.
However, no matter how far away an object is, you'll only ever need both eyes pointing in exactly the... | 41 | |
When building and testing the Curiosity Rover, why do NASA engineers need to wear special suits to prevent contamination if the rover is just going to get really dusty once its on Mars? | 72 | a few reasons, firstly contamination is potentially much more harmful during stages like re-entry than it is when the rover is rolling around.
and much more importantly, the rover is there to research mars, the actual results could be contaminated with substances/life from earth
microbial life can survive in space a... | 64 | |
ELI5: Where did the tradition of having bedrooms on the second floor come from? | I know that any small room can be a bedroom but i want to know why their always upstairs in a house with more then 1 floor.
Did it come from the idea of "Staterooms" in old mansions?
| 34 | Bedrooms have been upstairs since houses had two stories, because it puts them away from the public spaces, away from the livestock, and away from some of the creatures that crawl around on the ground. Also it's warmer in the winter, and catches more breezes in the summer. | 38 |
Just how far are we off hand-held laser weaponry? | Based on technology available to us today, just how practical is it to build a hand-held laser/plasma gun? And how exactly would it be accomplished? I've done a small amount of research and it seems the biggest problem at the moment is in storing the energy to use as 'ammo' since this is difficult to do on a small-scal... | 30 | The problem with directed-energy weapons is: they're really inefficient at doing the kind of damage you generally want to do (bulk destruction of an enemy object). Bullets are good because they transfer both kinetic energy and momentum. Photon beams (or bright photon pulses) don't deliver any momentum (pedantry aside... | 31 |
[Stranger Things] what are the international implications of the events in season 3? (Spoilers inside) | This is the Cold War and Soviet military was operating deep inside the USA.
How does the US government react? It seems like they have kept the whole issue under wraps, but why??
Soviet military conducting research and operating on US soil is an act of war.
Why aren't nukes flying already? | 19 | It's all covered up because the American public and the world would flip out if they knew they were all almost destroyed by an interdimensional monster twice, and that the Soviets were able to build a big underground base right under their noses.
They also want to keep L a secret so noody finds out about their unethic... | 17 |
ELI5 why replace old battleships/aircraft carriers but not the b52? | Old time/battle tested warships are scrapped to make way for new ships that bristle with brand new tech that isn't battle tested, but they keep using the b52 bomber from 55 years ago?
​
Edit; Thanks for all the comments, I was thinking aircraft carriers mostly, it makes sense that actual battleships are ou... | 18 | You had better believe there is new tech in the B-52 of today. But the airframe, the flying around bit, hasn't really changed in 50 years. What does it need to do now that it didn't back then?
Battleships on the other hand have changed quite a lot. Instead of slugging it out with giant cannons and meter thick armor, t... | 55 |
ELI5: ohms law and how it works | 289 | V = Voltage = pressure of electrons
R = Resistance = well.. resistance.. how difficult it is for them to flow
I = Current = how many electrons are flowing
Imagine instead of electrons you are talking about a water pipe with a tap. You can turn the tap in order to open/close it, or you might say in order to re... | 132 | |
ELI5: Will certain Olympic sports reach a point where progress can't be made in them? | To fix ideas, consider the 1600 meter race. While its astounding that people continue breaking record in this event, am I correct in assuming that eventually "peak human performance" will be reached? For example, it seems unlikely that an unmodified human will ever reach a point where they can run the 1600 meters in 30... | 43 | While record breaking may become increasingly rare, remember that participants aren't racing against records, just each other. So sure, records may one day become harder to break, but the races themselves will mean pretty much as much (or as little, depending on who you ask) as they do now. | 22 |
ELI5: If a couple has five sons, how is possible that their next baby has a 50% chance of being a boy while it is simultaneously statistically unlikely that they'll have six boys? | How do these two probabilities coexist? I can't grasp it. If it's too complex to ELI5, at least ELI10 because my math skills are fairly poor. | 203 | The two probabilities coexist because you are asking different questions.
Question 1: Given that a couple has 5 sons, what is the probability that their next child is also a boy? Answer: 50%, because the genders of the previous siblings does not affect the next outcome.
Question 2: What is the probability that a f... | 394 |
[Fallout] Why are there power armor repair stations all over the Commonwealth? | I understand that they would be present in military installations, but it seems like every civilian garage and repair shop has one. | 26 | Actually there are two kinds. One is a simple lift for supporting heavy objects like engine blocks, and it just happens to be tall enough to hold power armor upright while somebody works on it by hand, and then there are the more purpose built arches designed for power armor. | 37 |
[General superheroes, especially Marvel] Are there really that many crimes every day in NY that it would require multiple superheroes to be able to fight them? | 24 | In the MCU at least, Stark has decided that there's no real benefit to being located in NYC, and has moved the Avengers upstate. Of course, he might just be tired of paying NYC's income tax.
As for the lower-tier heroes, they tend to stake out a claim and stick to it. Daredevil doesn't leave Hell's Kitchen, while Spid... | 40 | |
ELI5: Why do people throw up and get nose bleeds when lifting a lot of weight like during a competition? | [Reference](http://www.gfycat.com/SophisticatedScratchyBandicoot) | 55 | Throwing up is a result of the contraction of their muscles, which puts pressure on their internal organs (specifically contraction of core muscles like abs, chest, back and diaphragm muscles). Your diaphragm is also a muscle which can get engaged when making the quick clenching movements required for heavy lifting.
... | 17 |
CMV: Internet access should be a nationalized utility in the US. | I don't have much to say about this other than the following:
1) Internet being privatized is *why* the world is so entangled in it. ISPs and the PC hardware industry, in at least a few ways, have pushed the world towards digitalization, specifically so they could get us dependent on it, and eventually have a scenario... | 53 | If internet service is nationalized would it follow that access would have to be equal for all Americans? Would one living in the middle of WY be able to expect the same service as one living in NYC? Where is the money going to come from to extend fiber lines or other high speed access to remote areas with very few peo... | 24 |
ELI5, How are the children of illegal immigrants in the US (who, therefore, are also illegal) able to attend high schools and universities? | I am speaking about children who were not born in the US, but rather, were taken there as young children under the age of 16. Specifically, my questions arises from watching the CNN report about the children of illegal immigrants lining up to apply to remain in the country without fear of deportation for at least the n... | 62 | Public schools generally only require that you list your place of residence and you arrange for transportation, whether by school bus route or personally picking up or dropping off. Most school districts don't check citizenship because it's never been an issue.
Colleges just don't care about citizenship. They only loo... | 103 |
I feel laws should have no moral footing. That the purpose of laws is purely to make society function efficiently. CMV | To elaborate, I believe terms like freedom, liberty, justice, right/wrong, good/evil, etc… don’t inherently work as an argument to enact or abolish any particular law. Sometimes these thoughts line up with making society function, but not always, and alone should not be a reason for enacting a law. You can, however, ... | 26 | How do you define running better? If we were to enslave half of the population and force them to be incredibly industrious and work for basically nothing, the other half would live in absolute splendor. This would be a very efficient system, and think of the wonders we could create...
It may be more efficient (dep... | 33 |
[Portal] If a celling were to come down to crush me, and I place one portal directly above me, and portal directly below, and the celling meets the floor, where would I go? | 636 | There's no space "inside" the portal. Entering one portal *is* exiting the other portal. There is no significant void space between them.
So if this scenario was somehow created you would be crushed against your own body. | 652 | |
Eli5: How come humans need around 1,500-2000calories for basic survival of the Body but people suffering from severe anorexia can carry on for years eating a lot less. | 22 | 1500 to 2000 calories is what the body needs to remain healthy. Less than that and the body begins cannibalizing non essential things. It starts with fat stores, then it goes to muscles. All in the name of keeping energy supplied to the vital organs. Severe anorexics will consume just enough calories to keep their brai... | 47 | |
ELI5: After someone designs something like a breakfast burrito, what do they do for the rest of their career? | I touch a lot of things that are clearly at some point designed, today I was eating a burrito from McD's, someone came up with the shape of this wrap.
But it's been this way for many years. What is that person doing now? It's not like McD's has a bunch of menu changes every year, were they just a contractor that doe... | 88 | Big chains like that actually go through a lot of product development and testing continuously. Have you ever seen a commercial for a new burger or something where it says "in select markets only" or "for a limited time only". That's them testing a new product. They are testing them all the time, but it might just n... | 47 |
CMV: I think Affirmative Action is essentially racism | As most of you know, Affirmative Action is a policy often implemented by colleges and workplaces to give minority students and workers more spots in the workforce/university. I am Asian-American, which means that Affirmative Action hurts my chances of getting into good schools or jobs. I didn't ask to be Asian American... | 353 | Affirmative Action is certainly racism. If that's the limit of your view, this should be a very futile thread. But if part of your worldview is "this is racism and that's unacceptable," then the conversation is more interesting.
Colleges and workplaces may value diversity. There are some colleges and workplaces that d... | 187 |
[Spider-Man] Does Carnage lose pieces of itself when he fires "darts"? | I'm just going in my head, I'm guess they are some how keratin based organic that he makes from alien biology and replenishes when he eats?
I also read when he made a hammer with his arm it shattered upon hitting steel. Does that hurt him? | 44 | First of all, when you say "him" you're actually talking about the symbiote. So, no-human carbon based biology.
They all seem to have the power of just drawing mass from somewhere (presumably the meat dimension). In one scene the Carnage one went form the size of a drop of blood to full size fast enough for carna... | 23 |
[Avatar] How would Ozai feel if he knew that Azula cheated on the final Agni Kai? | I mean he definitely favors her to Zuko so he might not be too salty but on the other hand since he doesn’t respect Zuko he might find it extra disgraceful that she needed to cheat to “win”. | 19 | He would be so proud.
Ozai and honor are not a thing. In Zukos childhood flashbacks he was shown plotting against his brother who was out performing military duties while he sat in the palace.
Its implied some tomfoolery went on so that he could be declared firelord instead of iroh. | 52 |
Why is partially hydrogenated oil (or some variation) in so many types of processed foods? | Is there a certain chemical reason to it? Why is it so universally used? | 19 | It's cheaper to partially hydrogenate a vegetable oil than harvest an animal oil with similar properties. Hydrogenated oils have longer shelf-lives before they go rancid. You can also customize the oil's properties somewhat by controlling how it is hydrogenated. | 17 |
[Predator] When the Predator laughs at the end he sounds just like a human laughing. Is this really what his species sound like when they laugh? Or was something else going on? | 87 | They use voice mimicking technology. The laugh you hear at the end while Dutch is running away is a recording of Billy laughing at one of Hawkin's jokes from earlier, just amped up to 11. Real Predator laughter probably sounds more like a series of grunts and clicks. | 132 | |
If I am hungry does that mean I have spent more calories than consumed in the day? | 15 | Hunger is actually not directly dependant upon caloric need, although that is one influence. You can continue to desire food even though you may have already consumed over your caloric requirements. The hunger centre appears to be located in the part of the brain called the arcuate nucleus. A variety of inputs can infl... | 10 | |
Which is the appropriate statistical test? | 40 | Why is your data in ratios? If it is weight or something you can just use a t-test.
If you want to compare expected vs observed results use a chi-squared goodness of fit test.
Is this just the weight of black sees compared to the weight of yellow? If so perform two tailed t-test. | 12 | |
[Chemistry] What factors do we know for sure cause living organisms to age? | 127 | We don't know anything for sure, but the theory is that it is a combination of DNA damage (e.g. through free radicals) and chromosome shortening during cell division. Both effects accumulate over time and cause aging. | 26 | |
ELI5: Why is the english language so bad at describing weekly occurrences? (Next Tuesday and this Tuesday can mean the same or different things, biweekly means twice a week or every other week, etc.?) | Edit: I think all the argument in the thread below establishes that yes, this is indeed a confusing topic. My question remains why? Is there a linguistic explanation for gaps in a language that seem easy to fill with new, specific words but just aren't? | 46 | It is actually the opposite. In general there are accurate terms that change meaning as the popular use changes. English is a living language, and the meanings and use of words are constantly changing.
For example, Biweekly strictly meant every two weeks and was a replacement of fortnightly (first used in print in 183... | 11 |
The Human Genome Project cost $2.7 billion. 20 years later, it costs <$1000 to sequence the genome. Was the cost of the project fundamentally necessary for subsequent progress, or could we have "waited" for the technology to become cheaper? | I'm very much a clueless layman, but I'm learning about genetics for the first time. I don't mean this in any sort of combative way–the Human Genome Project had countless benefits that we can't possibly track, and I'd imagine $2.7 billion is a trifle compared to its broader impact.
My question is just narrowly about ... | 12,771 | The cost of gene sequencing has dropped dramatically, but these two numbers are apples and oranges. The Human Genome Project "mapped the genome". Meaning it created a "reference genome" that is roughly accurate for every human being on earth. It's like a scaffold upon which you can place any individual sequence you mig... | 7,501 |
ELI5: Why do leaves not degrade when placed inside the pages of a book? | 48 | Effectively they mummify. If you remove the water most biological materials don't decay. Paper will absorb moisture and it slowly dissipates out into the environment while the book keeps the leaf (or flower) flat instead of crinkling up like dry leaves in woodland. | 66 | |
Why does paper 'remember' when it's been rolled up? | As in, if I roll up a bit of paper and then un-roll it, why will it bend in the direction it's been rolled? | 25 | The outside of the roll is under tensile stress. Therefore, the interface in between the paper fibres and the matrix is deformed more than the inside. When you let go of the roll, the paper recovers the elastic portion of the deformation, but not the plastic portion. | 24 |
ELI5: How did Isaac Newton "invent" calculus? | I've never taken any math above algebra 2 or stats in college, so forgive me if this is common knowledge! I've always been confused by the fact that Isaac Newton is credited with having invented calculus. Few questions:
Did he invent or discover calculus? Semantics, I know, but I'm curious to hear what the argument fo... | 17 | In a way, it's both. The concepts that underpin calculus (derivatives, integrals) were already "there" and, in this sense, Issac and Liebniz "discovered them."
But, to discover them, they had to "invent" a new mathematical framework, new symbols and processes, to access this new field.
For example, the instantaneous ... | 13 |
[Halo Franchise] Why didn't the forerunners build Halo rings that could destroy the flood, rather than merely wiping out "their food source"? I would think such an advanced civilization could build something that specifically targets them, or at least kills them along with everything else. | Are the flood somehow classified as "non-life" even though they are clearly capable of reproduction, growth, infecting organic hosts, etc? Why can a spartan with a gun wipe out thousands of the things but galaxy-spanning superweapons can't? | 19 | The Halo Array as well as most Forerunner/Precursor tech is based on neural physics, a concept that the Galaxy itself is alive and all sentient minds are connected (akin to the Force in Star Wars or other such pantheistic ideas), the Halo Array works by indiscriminately killing any being with a sentient mind connected ... | 23 |
[Turtledove] How would the WorldWar series have progressed if The Race had tried to conquer the Southern Victory/Timeline-191 version of Earth? | The "Alternate Point of Departure" is still sometime between December 1941 and May 1942, which places the arrival of the First Fleet sometime during the events of *Return Engagement* or *Drive to the East* from the *Settling Accounts* series.
In the Southern Victory series, the CSA and USA fight multiple wars that onl... | 55 | The Lizards only recognized the Not-Empires when they showed they had nuclear arms. All the radiation was gonna muck up the whole planet, and the Emperor doesn't send space armadas for nothing.
I would think that the CSA wouldn't have been able to develop the nuclear technology and would have either been conquered alo... | 12 |
Are military service contracts akin to indentured servitude or slavery? | I am a naval officer and have been in the navy for about 2 years. I don’t want to be in the military at this point, but I have 6 years left on my contract and have no legitimate way of buying my contract out. I am forced to perform a job that I don’t want to do every day. The alternative is jail or receiving a bad disc... | 19 | I think typically slavery and indentured servitude are bad because you can't quit, not because you can't quit without suffering consequences that were stipulated when you signed the contract. But a job you can't quit without bad consequences might be bad for reasons similar to indentured servitude (even if it's not as ... | 15 |
[God of War] Is Greece located in Midgard? Is the Earth we see in the original games Midgard? | I thought this was confusing. I know Midgard is Earth in Norse mythology, but is it the same Earth we see in the original games, where Greece, Persia, is located? Both Kratos and Tyr traveled from or to Midgard from "other lands" (Greece, Japan, Egypt), but is it the same realm? | 24 | Yes, there is only one physical Earth that includes all of the continents and geographical locations you're familiar with. But different gods and cosmological forces have taken control of different regions, and enforced different magical rules over those little realms. When Kratos travels across the land, he's simultan... | 38 |
[MCU] How does Captain America have the strength to momentarily hold back Thanos in Infinity War, but that same strength doesn’t shatter every bone in Batroc’s body when actually trying to beat him in CA Winter Soldier? | 143 | Cap wasn't holding Thanos back, he was using every ounce his might just to hold Thanos's fingers apart (while Thanos just stood there in confused admiration at the futility of it).
He was putting just enough into the fight with Batroc to incapacitate him. | 230 | |
[Halo] Has the Master Chief ever eaten anything in between Halo 2 and Halo 4? | Reason why I left out Combat Evolved is because after the game, the novel First Strike takes over.
Right after the first cutscene in Halo 2, when the Chief is in the Cairo station, the Chief automatically jumps into action. He's plunged into fighting throughout many locations, Africa, the Halo installation, High Chari... | 18 | Yes, he has eaten, but we just never see it. He probably finds time to eat in the few bits of downtime that he gets; en-route to a location on a ship or Pelican, any extended time when he is waiting for something to happen or come to him, etc...
Also, what he is eating is probably some sort of energy-rich superfood li... | 25 |
ELI5: What is sexual tension? | 41 | When u both wanna bone each other
A lot of the time it includes wanting to bone each other but not being able to for some reason, like friends not wanting to ruin a friendship or co-workers who don't want to ruin a professional relationship | 55 | |
Is it coincidence or simple logic that during both a lunar and solar eclipse the moon and sun respectively are almost perfectly eclipsed? | The earth's shadow is just about the same size as the visible surface of the moon and the moon's apparent size is just about the same as the sun's apparent size. Would this be the case in any planet/moon/star setup or is that just plain silly? Could the earth's shadow just as easily have been a spot on the moon's surfa... | 17 | "The earth's shadow is just about the same size as the visible surface of the moon" -- this part is not correct, actually earth's shadow at moon's distance is larger than the moon, so lunar eclipses do not have the tight fit as the solar eclipse.
The moon's apparent size versus the sun is a coincidence. | 29 |
[Star Trek]Why do the lights get dim when ships go to Red Alert? | Surely the crew would want to have clear lighting while fighting? | 21 | Diverting power from non-essentials to shields, phaser banks, etc. It also has the effect of making it easier to focus on your displays without a bright environment to distract you, and in the event of total power loss the sudden change to a dark environment is less jarring when already starting dim. | 55 |
[SCP][Batman] Special Containment Procedures for Arkham Asylum | Let's assume that for some reasons the Foundation decides to *covertly* assume responsibility for keeping the Gotham worst in jail and prevent them once and for all from escaping. Seeing how they regularly contain so many world ending events, objects and creatures, what would they do with Arkham inmates?
Will they cla... | 18 | Penguin would be D-Class and be eaten by the first thing that came along.
The Joker would be decommissioned AKA shot by snipers. Fifty of them.
Ivy meets 2800, breaks out, never seen again.
Mr. Freeze will have his brain picked because he is good at containing.
Zzsaz gets sent to the Old Man see who can kill who... | 14 |
ELI5: Why do drinking fountains have two separate jets of water that combine to form one arc? | 7,535 | Two separate small jets running parallel with each other produces a less chaotic flow of water than a single large jet. You can notice this in those elaborate fountain shows: each jet is actually a bundle of smaller jets that combine to form the big "ribbon" of water. | 5,669 | |
[DC/Marvel] What would Batman turn out like if he took the super soldier serum? | Considering he's in peak physical condition and has good intentions, what would he end up like if he went though the same process as Steve Rogers did. | 36 | It raises you to the peak of human perfection, and there's somebody who achieved Steve Roger's results through genetics, diet, and exercise. So Batman wouldn't be much stronger or faster, but he'd greatly benefit from improved healing and recovery. Things he can't train or practice, like vision, would be improved. | 27 |
ELI5: Why and how does a Anti-Static wrist band protect and prevent our electronics from being damaged? | Why does static even ruin our electronics, and what exactly does an anti-static band do to prevent that from happening? | 35 | Your body is not a very good conductor. It's ok, nothing special.
Your clothes/shoes, on the other hand, are good insulators and they can charge you up to tens of thousands of volts. Discharging 15,000V into a computer circuit designed to run on 3.3V will fry it.
The anti-static band uses your ok conductor body to ... | 18 |
ELI5: What's the deal with the centrifugal/centripetal forces? | There's the xkcd, https://xkcd.com/123/ which says that centrifugal force doesn't exist, only centripetal and I've seen a discussion in another thread, but it just made me more confused. (Also, where does Centripetal force come from?) ELI5? | 36 | What the comic claims is closer to the truth. Depending on your frame of reference, there is *either* a centripetal or centrifugal force, but never both at the same time.
If you examine the system externally, you see the centripetal force. This is considered the 'true' force because it takes into account the entire sy... | 10 |
Is the human immune system basically the same as other mammals, or does it have any adaptations unique to us? | 3,973 | All metabolic organisms on earth share the common innate immune system. The exact compounds and mechanisms can vary a lot, such as antifungal peptides, antibiotics, membrane disrupting compounds, and DNA targeting enzymes. Many organisms either share these, or can reasonably be shown to have evolved their own variant... | 1,413 | |
[MCU] How would Loki have reacted to the knowledge of his true heritage, if he had been the favoured child of Odin? | It is well-known that Odin showed parental favouritism towards Thor, given that Thor is his biological child. As a result, part of Loki's rage at the truth is because it "explains" why he was side-lined and treated as what he perceives to be the inferior sibling.
But what if *Loki* had been the favourite child? What ... | 47 | Better. Loki saw it as the revelation that Odin probably actually did prefer Thor because he was his true son instead of any perceived slights. If Loki had been the favored child he wouldn't have those feelings of inadequacy that would have been further stoked by discovering he's a frost giant. | 35 |
ELI5: How on earth is the "Chance of Rain" calculated? | 22 | Meteorologists collect lots of information about weather. They measure wind speed, cloud clover, how much it rains, the barometric pressure, etc. With all this information, they notice patterns and can use those patterns to predict the weather to some extent.
For example, if in the past, it rained 40% of the time wh... | 19 | |
[Star Wars] Why didn't Lord Vader sense the force in Leia during The Empire Strikes Back? | 20 | Because she hadn't awoken to her potential yet.
Think of it like a fire. Luke and Leia have a large pile of firewood and kindling. Obi-Wan had provided Luke with a spark needed to ignite that fire, and he was burning slowly until he went to Dagobah, whereupon Yoda poured a bit of kerosene on top.
Leia had never gotte... | 26 | |
ELI5: Why did ancient civilizations make so many damn vases? | 30 | Storage and transport.
Once agriculture and irrigation really took off, people needed a way to store and preserve harvest for the next year. Also imagine how hard it would be to trade items like beans in Mesoamerica without a way to move them.
Some cultures also saw vaseses something you'd need to take with you in t... | 28 | |
ELI5: Why does sugar sometimes act as a preservative (sugar-cured fruits, honey) and sometimes encourage bacterial growth? | 15 | Moisture is the enemy of preservation.
A high salt or sugar solution around the food will attempt to reach equilibrium with the salt/sugar levels inside (Osmosis). You end up drawing water out of the food and having sugar and salt molecules flow into the food to try and balance the levels. With less water in th... | 11 | |
[DC/Godzilla] Would Batman be willing to kill Godzilla? given the chance? | Out of all of the Superheros throughout DC and Marvel, Batman has one of the most strict No Kill Rules, even more so than Spider-Man which says alot but Batman does have exceptions I believe, such as if the thing he is fighting was never human but would it's intelligence and such a major role in the environment stop hi... | 34 | If Godzilla rolled up on Gotham and started dominoing buildings then sure Bats would kill him... If he could and absolutely had too.
I can see Batman running multiple contingencies while he ramped up levels of fire power trying to keep Godzilla at bay. Like calling in a telepath like Martian Manhunter to try and commu... | 35 |
Berlin just voted to expropriate real estate from big corporations. What impact do you expect this have on the housing market there? | Also, what if this causes capital flight from German real estate in general? How would that likely impact the nation's housing market and economy in general? | 88 | First of all, that was just an opinion poll, not anything binding. The leader of the Berlin senate also doesn't really want to do this.
>What impact do you expect this have on the housing market there?
It would most likely help the people living in those apartments. Depending on how it's financed, it would lead to... | 53 |
ELI5: Why does squinting work? | To an extent. | 20 | When you squint you cut off the top and bottom edges of your pupil, making your pupil closer to a pin hole camera. The smaller the hole, the sharper the image, regardless of the shape of the eye or the shape of the lens. The trade off though, is that the image is dimmer. | 24 |
CMV: Most Incels are not actually INVOLUNTARILY celibate | Most of them are in fact ***voluntarily*** celibate.
A lot of them may not be able to have sex as they are right now, but that doesn't mean they can't improve themselves to the point that they become appealing and attractive enough to get people to want to have sex with them.
Its their overly cynical view of women an... | 16 | Just because it's through their own fault doesn't mean it's voluntary.
If you speed and crash, it's your fault, but that doesn't mean you **wanted** to crash.
Involuntary means they didn't **choose** to be celibate, and they didn't. | 12 |
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