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What about a lack of oxygen makes a cell die? | Why does a lack of oxygen kill a cell? What is changing that causes this? | 25 | Basically, oxygen is required for the formation of ATP in cells. ATP, in turn, is responsible for most of the energy requiring functions that a cell performs. And life, to the extent that it can be meaningfully defined, might be considered the development and maintenance of homeostatic conditions at temperatures, ionic... | 25 |
Academia in Japan | Hi!
I'm a physics student, currently in Spain and would love to start my academic career in Japan. Can someone give me some insight on ways to start, or of it's possible at all for a foreigner to get to those jobs? | 26 | For grad study, universities in Japan do not in principle pay grad students. Your best bet for funding is to apply for a MEXT scholarship. The application process for MEXT is extremely long and bureaucratic, so get started early. There are a tiny handful courses that do offer full funding, so they're another option. Yo... | 28 |
Are doppelgängers genetically similar to their look-a-like? | We all have met people who could be sibling because they have the same build, colouring, even mannerisms yet they are not related. Could there be a relation several generations back that they are not aware of or is this just an anomaly? Would this show up genetically? | 858 | To demonstrate that doppelgangers have genetic similarities would require a large study for a few reasons.
1. We have a massive amount of unexpressed information in our genes and we can't (at the moment) just narrow it down to the genes responsible for our appearance.
2. We would need a large amount of people to parti... | 478 |
Why should you not buy a house during a recession? Surely house prices are low then; buy low sell high, right? | 16 | I'll give you two simple examples of why people might not buy during a recession.
a) If a recession is causing a decline in house prices, it's hard to know whether that decline has further to go.
b) In a recession, you have a higher chance than usual of losing your job and it might be some time before you find ... | 23 | |
[Assassin's Creed 1]How was the Battle of Masayf Altair's fault? | At the start of the game, the Templar's attack Masayf after the Assassin's retrieve the Apple of Eden.After the Battle Altair is stabbed and demoted for breaking three tenants of the order, with Al Mualim(the leader) saying 'every man lost today, was lost because of you).How was it exactly Altair's fault?If he hadn't k... | 15 | You're forgetting in the beginning he launched a moderately unsuccessful attack on a Templar operations that cost one of his brothers and arm and incurred the ire of the Order. The Order attacked the stronghold because of his blatant disregard of the rules. | 14 |
ELI5: Why does it seem that being negative is way easier then staying positive? | 343 | There is a negativity bias in the brain. Psychologists think this is because evolutionarily speaking, noticing the negative is beneficial for survival. If your brain didn't notice the negative first, you might not react quickly enough to get out of the way of danger.
Source: psych major | 309 | |
What makes a gas a greenhouse gas? For example, what are the molecular properties of carbon dioxide (CO2) that allow it to retain heat, that nitrogen (N2) lacks? | 2,462 | Greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit infrared radiation. This means that instead of passing through the atmosphere and directly into space, some of the infrared radiation is re-emitted back toward the surface of the earth, increasing the net heat on the planet's surface. If it were re-emitted in the same direction that... | 971 | |
ELI5: How do body organs remain in their place without plopping to the bottom of the belly (for humans) and crushing themselves? | 19 | Connective tissues.
Think of each organ as also kinda having a net around it. Each organ kinda hangs off of the other in a chain from your skeleton. It would be like taking a bunch of ball nets and tying them together, then hanging them from a rafter or the like. | 33 | |
Can light be infinitely brighter? | Is there a certain point where light cannot become any more bright? | 45 | Brightness is determined by the number of photons you see. If you have enough energy to power whatever is outputting the photons, you can have as many as you want. Any limit would be practical rather than theoretical. | 23 |
[DC] So what exactly IS the Anti-Life Equation? Is it knowledge? Is it an object? | In some continuities it seems to be something that you can give to someone and something that someone holds, but in how its described it seems to be more like something that you just know. | 20 | It has been portrayed in different ways but generally it is just an mathematical equation outlines the truth and proves the futility of life. Which gives you full control over any sentient being.
As to why it is depicted differently and often not at all like how we would write an equation, is because of our limited... | 28 |
eli5: How can a tv show make ten episodes lasting 10 hours every year while it takes 2 years for a 2 hour movie? | Has it got to do with that a tv show has a bigger team or has it to do with movie theaters? I have absolutely no idea please help. | 199 | One reason is that they have already gathered the parts. For a new movie, you need to get a script, cast all the parts, find all the locations and create all the sets before you can film it. Each movie is pretty different and its likely that anything you build or any actor you cast is just for the purpose of shooting t... | 177 |
ELI5: What's the actual, non-conspiracy-theory explanation for why World Trade Center 7 fell? | Googling this leads me down so many rabbit holes. | 35 | It had a huge gash torn out of it by one of the other towers. That included some support structures.
Further damage from fire led to the tower being too heavy for the remaining supports to hold up. And the gouged portion basically "tugged" the standing portion down when a crucial pillar (79) couldn't hold up further.... | 64 |
[Terminator] How would T2 have gone down if both Terminators were T800s? | So we had Arnie protecting John Connor, and another T800 send from the future to kill John (doesn't have to be Arnie: Model 101) how would the movie have played out. Since both robots are physically equal and I their "programming" is also the same, the only difference being one has to protect and one destroy. Would the... | 23 | I think the guardian T-800 would have had a much easier time protecting John against another T-800.
For one thing, it still would have had the element of surprise as the assassin didn't expect to be facing off against another Skynet android.
Also, the guardian T-800 probably would have an intelligence edge as well, b... | 27 |
How does antibacterial soap kill bacteria? | I understand mechanical agitation and good ol’ water can wash away bacteria, but what exactly does antibacterial soap do. Answers that involve organic chemistry are welcome! | 28 | Most antibacterial soaps contain triclosan, which inhibits one of the chemical reactions required for the production of fatty acids that are used to make cell membranes. In high doses, through this and other mechanisms, this causes bacteria to die. In low doses it causes bacteria to stop growing. Humans also make fatty... | 27 |
What are the main criticisms of Bordieu's work? | Just looking into his stuff and wondering what people haven't liked about ideas like habitus, fields, or anything else from him. | 29 | ah, god. where to begin? There are tons, and i disagree with most of it and think that many critics do not supply the flexibility necessary to correctly bourdieu's work. By and large (and to state the obvious), most critics think his concepts/theories are overstated and overdeterministic and that his findings from one ... | 19 |
Is there any study on wheter the increase of depression rate in the last decades is an actual increase or an increase on diagnosis only? | 67 | They also loosened the definition of depression so mild sufferers can also seek medical assistance. Which is good. They’ve made it far more “mainstream” so obviously there would be an uptick. A decent study would take into account the times that the definition changed and show accordingly on their stats and would or at... | 12 | |
Can you be an "expert" in a field without its highest academic distinction e.g. Ph.D.? | 51 | Getting a PhD in a field doesnt make you an expert either.
Becoming an expert or even anything close to that takes years of learning and dedication and having a constant thirst for the knowledge one is seeking. | 97 | |
ELI5: How do electronics know what battery percentage they have? | 179 | In short there are two ways, sometimes combined.
1) Measure the battery voltage and compare this against a graph that you obtained through calibration. This will tell you at what voltage, what the battery SOC (State-of-Charge) is. This will not be a linear relation. (being halfway between two extremes does not imply b... | 98 | |
I'm interested in doing a philosophy degree, but not keen on the types of jobs that you can do with it, other than maybe research. What sort of research does a philosopher do and to what extent would I be able to work on my own theories? | Also how much do the researchers make? | 117 | Just one opinion from a person with a philosophy degree, only do it if the satisfaction of learning is enough. Philosophy can lead you to more creative thinking, which is helpful in any job, but it won’t help you GET the job. Unlike pre-med, or engineering, a philosophy degree isn’t really the start of a career path. | 157 |
ELI5: If you gave me the name of any movie, I could tell you if Ive seen it or not. But I couldnt list all the movies Ive ever seen. Why is that? | 112 | **The quick**: The brain is less like a filing system, and more like a bunch of interconnected webs built on top of and next to each other.
If it was a filing system, you would just go to the "movies" folder and retrieve all the movies you have seen.
Since it isn't a file system, the first movie you ever saw maybe c... | 55 | |
CMV: The "Old Soul" concept is an egotistical and overexaggerated way for people to unfairly place themselves above others. | I've talked to a lot of people who consider themselves "Old Souls" and the more I hear about it the more I think that the concept is so egotistical and unbelievably.
**Old Soul** doesn't have an official definition but I see it as someone who:
- Generally "more developed" or "more mature" than others in their age g... | 38 | There are shallow people and there are people who have a level of insight.
I've know 16 year olds who got concepts that 30 old women didn't get.
And they just got them. They nailed it.
They talked the talk and they walked it too.
They were deeper then others. They were more aware.
If someone has the goods the... | 14 |
ELI5: How does bug spray affect an insect? | 210 | Bug spray is usually nerve gas for bugs.
Depending on the exact compound it causes the nerves to fire constantly, randomly or not at all. In any case it's not firing when it's supposed to or firing when it's not supposed to. The bug then suffers something like a heart attack or stroke. | 107 | |
ELI5: How come online banking transactions still follow bankers hours if it's all computerized? | How come I can't pay a credit card bill that's due on a Saturday, on a Saturday? How come it still takes 2-3 days to electronically pay bills online when I can download pretty much anything from anywhere in the world instantly? | 375 | #1
Many systems that process banking transactions use Mainframes which process transactions in batches and more recently in Real-Time using CICS. Most banks uses software that processes banking transaction that were designed back in the late 70s-80s and still work great today. For instance, cashing checks, although t... | 116 |
EI5: when i read "Economy sinks on fears of a global slowdown" who are this scared people? why they cant just be brave and not sink the economy? | Would there be any difference if they were not scared? | 24 | Imagine you and all your friends are a baseball card collectors. You like to trade cards between each other and, occassionally, sell them for money to a card shop. If you're a good collector and trader, you can make more money than you started off with.
One day, one of your friends hears a rumor that the card shop i... | 16 |
ELI5: How are new digits of Pi discovered? | 63 | There are some infinite series that equal π. The most well-known is
> π = 4 * (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 ± ...)
Computers calculate an arbitrary number of digits of π by just calculating more and more terms and adding them up. In practice, they don't use the series above, they use a more complicated one that con... | 84 | |
ELI5: Why is 'to' pronounced like too but not like go, so etc? | 567 | Couple of reasons.
As someone else pointed out, English vocabulary has mixed origins. Words come in from a variety of different languages and, as such, the spelling of it may reflect the way a different language pronounces it.
Another reason is that English's spelling rules are just completely screwed up. It would ... | 273 | |
ELI5: What causes grade inflation at universities such as Harvard to get so bad? | 29 | The opinion in society that every student should be capable of getting an A in a subject. In the actual design of the system an average student should be getting a C (or 2.0) in a class, above average getting a B (3.0), students gifted in the subject should be the only ones getting an A (4.0). But society has seen fit ... | 23 | |
ELI5: What makes Earth’s core hot? Why isn’t it just a cold blob made up of metal and minerals? | 31 | Two major reasons:
1. The earth was formed as a result of accretion. Small particles gradually attracted each other due to gravitational forces and formed bigger objects. This process accumulated a lot of heat; when two objects collide, heat is generated. And as a majority of the heat was retained and never lost, th... | 48 | |
ELI5: How do restaurants make their fajitas sizzle so much? | The waiter can walk through the whole dining room and those things are sizzling with the fury of a thousand suns. When I cook something, it stops sizzling as soon as I take it off the heat. | 97 | Chili's: Meat and veggies cooked on the grill or whatever while the cast iron skillet stays over an open flame, staying super hot. Then, when all the other food is ready, the server tells the cooks to send the fajitas out. The cook puts all the meat and stuff on the skillet, squirts "sizzle sauce" all over it (soy sauc... | 102 |
ELI5:Difference between "Decriminalize" and "Legalize" | So I'm trying to figure out the difference between legalizing something vs decriminalizing it? E.g. Marijuana | 26 | In practice, "legalizing" something allowes the government to regulate it in a way that allows for some legalty. With marijuana, legalizing it is the process of getting the government to approve a legal amount to possess and tax the sale of it.
Decriminalization is more straightforward- it simply means making it a no... | 20 |
ELI5: Why is a car brand like Volkswagen still in business after we discovered they've been lying to us for years and years. Why are we still trusting this company and why hasn't it gone bankrupt? | 29 | Losing a third of shareholder value, getting massive negative PR, massive fines, and possibly having a number of executives held criminally responsible isn't enough?
Why would you expect this scandal to completely bankrupt the largest company in Germany? | 46 | |
Should I learn C and C++ before Python | Hi there. I had started to learn Python and then I found a curriculum of MIT and some other sources said that one should learn C and C++ first to be a good developer. Do you think this is really matter what language to learn first? I would like to do it properly in the long term. And what else should I learn from the v... | 24 | Honestly, it does not matter. Depending on area of programming you like, C/C++ might not even be relevant to you. It's barely used in web. A lot of scientific computing uses Python.
Python can be a decent first language for the simple reason that there are a lot of resources using Python for new programmers. | 31 |
ELI5: What is the psychological reasoning behind pulling pigtails. (Teasing or physically hurting somebody your are attracted to.) | 30 | Antagonism is more socially acceptable than affection, especially when it is mild. Also, using antagonism does not expose a person emotionally the way a direct expression of affection might. You can give attention and not be outright rejected.
| 44 | |
[Fallout - New Vegas, Old World Blues] Between Robert House's setup, the Trauma Override Harness and whatever the Think Tank have become, how can I extend my natural lifespan and/or cheat death? | 49 | Via removal of the brain/head and storing it in a medi-gel resivoir, there are many people who have survived over 200 years. (See robobrains, Think Tank) Brains in medigel has the disadvatage of having your brain removed, which has problems, such the surgical procedure possibly failing, your brain being damaged, becomi... | 42 | |
ELI5: When we start reading a piece of text, how do our brains know to read it in such a way that accounts for both the upcoming punctuation and sentence structure that we haven't gotten to yet? | 17 | The structure of our language syntax accounts for this, usually. There is also a lot of implications involved, sort of 'read between the lines' type stuff that's supposed to be inferred.
Are you reading this with an upward inflection as to create the tone of a question?
The first word of the sentence set it up to b... | 15 | |
ELI5: How does radiation make you sick/kill you? | I understand the symptoms of radiation poisoning, but what I don't understand is how it actually makes you sick. | 33 | Radiation is made up of tiny particles. These tiny particles are so small that they can fly right through your body without stopping, but occasionally, they smack into one of your cells. Radiation particles are super-tiny, but so are cells, so sometimes, a particle can kill a cell.
Sometimes, there's a lot of partic... | 54 |
[Monsters Inc] What made the monster world believe that kids were hazardous? | 26 | So, monsters inc (the company) went into full production in 1895. Which means we know at least one thing that happened shortly after they began exploring the human world in earnest.
The Spanish Flu.
One of the deadliest pandemics in human history, infecting a third of humanity and killing 60 million people.- and that... | 61 | |
How do you use "a priori" properly in a sentence? | 25 | There are a few ways of using it.
* "'2+2=4' is a priori knowable" : here it works like an adverb, meaning independently of experience.
* "'2+2=4' is a piece of a priori knowledge" : here it works like an adjective, meaning piece of knowledge, which is independent of experience. | 27 | |
ELI5:What is the "Dove Foundation", and why do they endorse awful kids movies? | I often see a lot of knock off animated movies that have a Dove " Family Friendly" logo, why do they ALWAYS have this logo? | 22 | The Dove Foundation is one of those groups that review movies/media for "family friendliness" (which really means "adherence to conservative Christian morality"). Few mainstream movies usually hit these groups' ideal for "perfect" family friendliness, so the ones that DO (and get the seal) are usually ones made and mar... | 24 |
ELI5: What is it that gives us the feeling of sleeping on clean sheets? | Definitely a dumb question BUT, sleeping on fresh sheets is one of the most satisfying things. Why does it feel so nice? | 16 | The sheets smell like detergent rather than your own sweat and body oils. They also feel clean since detergent washes away your dead skin cells and body oils. They're a fresh canvas for you to make gross again. | 15 |
ELI5: Why is 3D printing becoming seemingly more viable for creating mechanical and moving items (such as prosthetic limbs) compared to whatever existed before 3D printing? | 43 | It allows for there to be specific parts made a certain size without having to make a mold to create it in. Quality prosthetic legs are created to fit a persons body part perfectly, and having a 3d printer makes it as simple as designing something with a computer program, and having a 3d printer. The materials and labo... | 23 | |
Economics student here. One thing I do not understand is how a bond is different from a loan. Can someone explain this to me? | 18 | Nothing at all separates a bond process from a loan process, including the payment plans, because bonds and loans both can have any kind of structure to them. It is commonly used as a debt instrument for companies or governments to raise money. But a bond can be thought of exactly as a loan, because it really is the sa... | 14 | |
ELI5: Why does it seem like it's more the single women who get "accidentally" pregnant and worry so much about becoming pregnant, but it's the married couples that have to "try" really hard? | 135 | * A married couple gets pregnant. Nobody is surprised.
* A married couple can't get pregnant. It's really sad.
* A single woman gets pregnant. It's probably sad news.
* A single woman doesn't get pregnant. Probably nobody cares.
Make sense? Nobody cares about a dog biting a man. But if they hear about a man biting a ... | 232 | |
[Logan] Question inside. (spoiler) | Can't Xavier just wear a helmet like Magneto's to avoid killing people with his seizures? | 63 | Theoretically, yes he could. The problem is that Logan has no way of getting hold of one, either the original or a new one. He can't leave Xavier alone for more than a few days, he has no resources to call on, and anyone who could or would have helped is most likely dead. | 58 |
ELI5:How can films shot in the 80s look amazing in hi-def today? | In honor of the passing of Roddy Piper, I re-watched They Live in HD and the picture was amazing. It looked even better than I remember watching it in the theater, and most definitely better than the many times I watched it on VHS/on cable. How is this possible? | 20 | Movies were historically shot on film; film doesn't really have a "resolution" in the sense of "high definition" what have you. Film is an analog medium, and it holds a LOT of detail. When you watched it on VHS or on TV historically, you were watching a low resolution digital scan of the analog film; when HD technology... | 45 |
[Star Wars] What is the difference between a Dark Jedi and a Sith? | 32 | A Dark Jedi is an individual trained in the way of the Jedi who has fallen to the Dark side. A Sith subscribes to the Sith philosophy but doesn't necessarily have to have been a Jedi previously.
When Anakin Skywalker fell to the Dark side, he became a Dark Jedi. Once he accepted the mantle of Darts Vader and became P... | 43 | |
ELI5: How is it that I receive spam emails trying to get me to open a file, but if I try and send a reply to the address, it gets rejected? | 28 | When you have control of a mail relay (or find an unsecure one), you can pretty much list whatever you want as the source address. Sometimes spammers intentionally use fake addresses, and many times they don't know how to configure their own software so they leave it as the default. Looking at the headers can reveal th... | 10 | |
Where do the photons go after the light is turned off in the room? | 7,969 | They get absorbed by the surroundings! Photons are electromagnetic waves, so when they come to matter, they "wave" the electrons in the matter around, so the photons lose their energy are are absorbed. This is why a wall in the sun feels hot! The light is being absorbed by the wall and all energy goes into the wall fee... | 6,192 | |
How come Stephen Hawking is still alive and kicking (aged 69) even though sufferers of ALS usually succumb in their early 30's? | 110 | Most ALS suffers die when their motor neurons degenerate to the extent that they can't carry out essential bodily functions such as breathing ~~and digestion~~. Stephen Hawking's ALS isn't as progressive and has only had neuro degenerative effects on his muscular side rather than the **respiratory side he needs to live... | 49 | |
[Wh40k] How does one join the Cult Mechanicus on Mars, and what are the processes to become a Tech Priest? | Greetings! After generations of waiting since my family first requested, I finally got cleared to go to Mars from my forge world. I wish to be a member of the Cult Mechanicus, as knowledge is a blessing from the Omnisiah himself, and the Emperor is his avatar. I wish to aid in the quest for non-heretical knowledge. So,... | 25 | Every citizen on a Forge World is a member of the Cult Mechanicus in some way. The majority are just workers, but they still adhere to the rites and practices of the Machine Cult, even before their adherence to the Church of the Savior Emperor.
To become initiated in the Tech-Priesthood, however, is not as simple. It ... | 20 |
[Videogames] When a powerful bad guy is defeated, why does their base/island/asteroid/planet explode? And why does defeating a good guy not also cause things to explode? | 27 | This is usually because the villain has somehow become linked to their base of operations in some way or form. Sometimes this is intentional, other times it is just a by-product for whatever magic/technology they are using to further their plans.
For the first, its not entirely out of character for certain villains t... | 29 | |
ELI5: Why is it that the majority of sinks dispense aerated bubbly water rather than a smooth uninterrupted stream? Is this done on purpose? If so why? | 31 | Yes it's done on purpose, the tap of your sink has an aerator on it. If you look at it from below, you can see the little mesh screen, and you can unscrew it if you really want to. It's in place to reduce the amount of water you use because you will almost never need a solid column of water. It also helps to keep th... | 17 | |
ELI5: Why are Banksy's paintings, grafitti, and other artwork worth so much money? | 19 | Honestly, because people are willing to pay that much for them. That's why most things cost what they do. As to why some artists take off while others stay penniless, nobody has ever come up with a good way to explain fashion trends. | 21 | |
ELI5: Why do old emulated games still suffer from slowdown and lag when they run on modern computers? | 29 | Old consoles have CPU running synchronized with video and audio chips. Some games depend on the exact time of code execution to issue commands in the right time. Games can, for ex., change graphics settings in the middle of frame drawing - this can produce visual effects, that the video chip cannot do on its own. Emula... | 46 | |
CMV: Answering questions about race or ethnicity can only lead to discriminatory results | This question pertains to those questions on applications, often government applications, which ask about the racial background of the applicant. At least in the US these are normally marked as optional, I very rarely if ever see one on an official application (rather than some weird online thing that doesn't matter) t... | 27 | I live the in a community that has a large Arab population. Since 9/11, they regularly refuse to fill out their race and ethnicity on government forms, fearing that to do so will lead to government surveillance and harassment. Or if they do they fill out “white.”
Last election rolls by, and there was surprisingly high... | 33 |
What does Math in Quantum Physics "look like"? Is it still much like applied math, or does it start to look more like doing proofs? | I've heard that a lot of the really theory-heavy areas of math show up in quantum mechanics a lot; things like linear algebra, group theory and complex analysis. Moreover, it seems like there are some folks in the pure math camp that are also doing stuff related to QM.
Does quantum physics mostly rely on the computati... | 34 | The two main ways of "doing" quantum mechanics are through the Schroedinger equation and through Heisenberg matrix mechanics. The path integral formulation is generally used in quantum field theory.
The Schroedinger equation is a second order differential equation, which is solved according to the boundary conditions ... | 35 |
CMV: There is no way anyone can actually believe in their heart at this point that the 2020 election was stolen without believing that "certain types" of Americans shouldn't have a right to vote (i.e. without being racist, sexist, homophobic, classist and/or fascist). | A total compilation of the evidence obtained and shared to the American people by the Jan 6th House committee includes.
1: Over 60 lawsuits filed by Trump and lawyered by Giuliani failed to prove any fraud in the election of any kind and resulted in Rudy legally not being allowed to use the word fraud in the courtroom... | 488 | You have to consider the media diet of a person such as this. They are being told that the election was stolen and news channels have been invented for them to watch so that they can be shielded from any evidence that comes out against that narrative. Don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity. | 263 |
[MCU] What have the world militaries been up to lately? Did Tony Stark really privatize World Peace? | Sorry if this sounds long or rambling, I just wanted to post my observations and discuss the state of the world's different militaries as they stand in 2018 and beyond.
It seems like military branches in the MCU have less and less influence on the world as time goes on. During Iron Man 1 and 2, they get involved but k... | 94 | In the years since Captain America saved the world from Hydra, the world's militaries spent a significant amount of time and resources trying to recreate Erskin's super soldier serum. The end results were things like the Hulk, Black Widow, and a variety of other enhanced individuals. Governments witnessed the effect of... | 87 |
ELI5: Why does whacking the remote when it's low battery actually work. | 907 | Microscopic(or larger) corrosion can occur between the battery ends and the controllers contact terminals.
This corrosion increases circuit resistance - making it harder for charge to flow from battery to device. Basically more resistance lower voltage, and every electronic device has a minimum operating voltage.
By ... | 597 | |
[Planet of the Apes; 1968] How did Taylor, an astronaut, not immediately realize they were on earth simply by looking at the stars or realizing the moon looked just like Earth’s? | 25 | Taylor's natural assumption was that they had landed on another planet. Since this is a first time deep-space voyage, they would have little to no point of reference to identify that planet's constellations nor any reason to. Trying to analyze the stars would have been pointless so he probably never bothered to even ... | 35 | |
[Pirates of the Caribbean] I pierce Davy Jones' heart in the middle of Germany, far away from the sea, surrounded by a small army of soldiers. What happens? | The Dutchman must have a captain. And the crew will seek out the person who pierced the heart of Davy Jones to make them their captain.
But what if I do it while I'm about as far from the sea as possible, far from water, surrounded by men armed with the finest sabers and muskets?
Does the crew manage to find me and... | 281 | The crew can teleport, and it's only Jones who can't walk on land except once a decade. They will find you no matter where you are. Your army won't be able to stop the immortal crew of the Dutchman. | 211 |
ELI5: How do game show award money amounts work? Some game shows are only able to give away a few thousand dollars and others can give away millions. Who sponsors / funds shows and how are final award amounts decided? | 22 | gameshows basically buy an insurance against larger winnings. it is then the banks job to figure out the probability of such large wins, and offer a premium to the gameshow they have to pay regardless what is won.
for small amounts (a few thousand) the gameshows itself can probably handle, for larger ones you need ins... | 16 | |
Does DNA change over time? | Does the human DNA genome change as a person ages? By this I mean could you test the DNA of a child and get an exact full profile match to the same person when they have reached old age? | 271 | Every cell division can result in random mutations. Also DNA of single cells can mutate due to radiation and other events. So you would not get a 100% match in a DNA test, wenn you sequence a single cell. Certain cell types also change their DNA permanently (B and T lymphocytes to be able to produce the same antibodies... | 216 |
ELI5 (or an American) - European Soccer Schedule | I understand that each country has it's own league (la liga, EPL, etc) and that the Champions League are the top teams from each league. But when is the Champions League played? How do you get into the Champions League (is it like the postseason). What happens during world cup and euro cup years? | 37 | Most 5-year-olds would have fallen asleep during the answers so far. Soccer schedules are ten times simpler than North American sports schedules. Here's what you need to know.
1. Champions League matches are played during the regular season.
2. Qualification for the Champions League is based on the previous season's p... | 28 |
CMV: Men have no defense against a woman who threatens to say you raped her. | I was discussing female on male rape the other day, and I was reminded of an AskReddit from a while back that asked men to tell their stories.
One particular story that stuck in my mind was about a woman that wanted sex from a guy. He refused. She said that she would claim that he raped her if he didn't have sex wit... | 96 | If you're actually threatened with a false rape accusation, start to immediately record the conversation as you continue it. Phones typically come with voice recorder programs and can record conversations discreetly, just act like you're checking your texts or something.
All you need to do is get the woman to reiterat... | 55 |
ELI5: What exactly is "Sunk Cost"? | My wife and I are having a disagreement as to what it means. She says that it means the cost of something you purchased some time ago, and had you not purchased it the money would be gone anyway.
Basically, 3 years ago we decided to purchase something to hold onto and sell later on when the value goes up. She says th... | 57 | Sunk cost is just a cost that cannot be recovered so it shouldn't be used in decision making. Eg you paid to see a movie and you have watched half of it but you aren't enjoying it. You also can't get a refund. The sunk cost is the amount you paid and the time already spent. So in deciding if you want to leave the theat... | 239 |
[Warhammer 40K] what if the Empire managed to find all of the lost Standard Template Constructs (STCs), how would that change things? One more question as well. | * Is Warhammer Fantasy considered to be in the historical past of Warhammer 40K? | 33 | You don't need to find them all, just a complete one.
Officially 40k and fantasy are two completely different settings, but there are many fan theories of Sigmar being a lost primarch and the world being stuck in a warp storm. | 30 |
[MCU] In Captain America:TWS the hydra guy cap interrogates states hydra are monitoring people of interest and mentions "Stephen Strange" why was he of interest to hydra back then? | Was it just because he was an extremely talented Surgeon/Doctor? | 37 | He was brilliant, extremely driven, focused and not one to respect authority.
He's exactly the kind of person who could be a major problem should he turn his attention from surgery to the world around him. | 103 |
CMV: Creating a charity every time your kid dies is a waste of time at best and at worst actively helps the cause that killed your child. | It's always bothered me that people create charities at the drop of a hat. ~~Someone's kid died from a rare disease? Make a charity in the dead kid's name.~~ Someone fell ill with a perfectly average cancer? A loved one founds a new charity. Someone fell off a mountain and died while trying to raise money for their cou... | 126 | >They're just leeching off each other and losing donations to overhead.
That's assuming that the people giving to brand new charity B already knew about charity A. It's possible that the creation of this charity helps publicize it, and bring more awareness and donation money from people who wouldn't have otherwise ... | 37 |
CMV: The make-up/cosmetics industry exists to fix issues it has caused | I saw a comic a few minutes ago on the frontpage, and it highlighted how men have less skincare issues than women, even though they do far less in terms of maintenance.
Which got me thinking. Maybe women have such issues with skincare because they're required to plaster their faces with cosmetics, remove hair far mor... | 27 | This is literally the purpose of marketing: to create a need people didn't know they had. Almost every personal hygiene product from deodorant to toothpaste is a need created by a marketing agency.
I don't know how to change your view when you've simply stated a fact. | 16 |
Is it possible to slow a photon down? | Is there any way of reducing the speed of a photon, or making it stationary? (in our frame of reference) | 34 | No.
You might be thinking of the way light "slows down" in a medium (glass, air, whatever), but what is actually happening is light is travelling at *c* between the atoms that make up the material, but being absorbed and re-emited by the atoms. This process takes a little time, so the overall macroscopic effect is tha... | 70 |
ELI5: Why isn't there a non-invasive/non-surgical test for diagnosing endometriosis? What's wrong with ultrasounds, MRIs, pelvic exams, etc? | 27 | Ultrasounds can't detect small endometrial growths. Pelvic exams can detect bumps, but can't confirm that they are caused by endometriosis. MRI is pretty good, but it isn't as good as just using a camera (laparoscope) to find lesions, or biopsy if the lesions are too small to be visible. | 12 | |
ELI5 : How are science able to determine what colours animals can and can't see? | 24 | You test the animals.
You teach an animal that if it sees a $ in a pattern of dots, touching it gives a food reward.
Then you put a red $ on a blue card, and see if the animal reacts. Then a red $ on a green card, then ....
When you look at the pattern of right vs wrong, you know which colors the animal can disting... | 64 | |
Why does it seem that all planets around a sun are on a 2-dimensional plane? Can they be 3-dimensional? | If you look at any picture of our solar system, every planet is is on a flat plane extending out from the general center of the sun. Why is that? and can some planets go "above" and "below" the sun as an orbit? | 43 | because all the planets were formed out of the same disc that our star did. as the "cloud" of matter rotates, centrifugal forces flatten the cloud into a disc shape, then as matter clumps together, it continues to rotate in this disc getting bigger and bigger, until it forms an asteroid, a planet, or our sun. | 46 |
Has new life ever appeared on Earth since the first life arose 3.7B years ago? | So the world is filled with life, and in surprising locations and immense diversity. And every bit of it shares a common blueprint in the form of DNA. This to me, suggests that all of life shares a common origin. That there has only been one instance of abiogenesis (spontaneous creation of life) that has happened.
So,... | 74 | We don't know what the life looked like 3.8 billion years ago or if it stuck around. All we know is that there was indeed life back then. This life could have died out at 3.75 billion years ago and new life began at 3.74 billion years ago. This however is incredibly unlikely. We assume that it only started once because... | 41 |
I believe marijuana is habit forming. CMV | From personal experience and being involved in the culture and then going to complete 'non-use', I believe marijuana to be a habit forming drug.
Now I know we can argue that possibly I just have an addictive personality and that could be true, I might. Though another thing I've thought about (personal opinion) is that... | 29 | Cannabis *is* potentially habit-forming - there is little doubt about that. It may not be in the obvious sense, e.g. withdrawal symptoms, but anything that activates the reward system and leads to further seeking-out behaviour can be considered habit-forming.
But so are many other things - chocolate, skydiving, love ... | 30 |
When you hear about a space craft “slingshotting” off of a planet, does that really increase speed? Wouldn’t the craft just slow down again as it moves away from the planet? | 27 | It does increase their speed. When the smaller object turns around the larger object, it steals a little bit of energy from the larger object, and leaves with a higher kinetic energy. It still slows down as it moves away from the larger object, but the net result is still a higher kinetic energy than it had initially.
... | 57 | |
ELI5: What happened to MySpace and why? | I know Facebook happened but is there more to it than that? | 554 | In hindsight, MySpace's initial dominance in the social media space seems to have been a "first mover advantage". They were the first to tap into social media in a way that captured the attention of a critical mass of people. Social media was still a very new world though - an undeveloped market - and what MySpace of... | 478 |
[Star Wars] Why did the Jedi believe that the chosen one needed to bring balance to the Force if they believed the Sith were extinct? | Wouldn't the Force already be balanced in a way the Jedi favored? | 28 | The prophecy predated all the current Jedi, including their belief that the Sith were extinct. When Qui-Gon proposes that Anakin is the chosen one, he's met with disbelief from all the modern Jedi. If there are no Sith, it definitely makes the Chosen One seem pretty implausible.
However, the Council is presented with ... | 30 |
CMV: As a programmer, everything I do to help my brain relax and "get in the mood" for programming should be billable. | Programming is very intense and requires a lot of concentration, so it is impossible for most people to code for 7-8 hours straight every day and still produce quality work. This includes stuff like getting coffee, reading articles, or just going outside and taking a walk for a few minutes. I don't bill this kind of st... | 18 | If you hire a plumber to fix your leaky sink, and he spends an hour doing Yoga in your kitchen before actually beginning to work, spends an hour fixing the sink, and tries to bill you for 2 hours of labor, citing that the yoga helped him to relax and get his body into a state necessary to comfortably spend an hour cont... | 25 |
How come I can eat salt and drink water but I can't drink salt water? | 47 | Seawater is very salty. About 3.5%, which makes that pint of water you have with dinner about 17g of salt. The RDA of salt is around 6g, so in that one glass you have three days worth. When you drink it, your cells dump out water to try and balance the salt levels in your cells and your blood and you essentially deh... | 42 | |
[The Emperor's New Groove] Why DO they have that lever? | You know the lever.
The lever specifically designed to drop the puller into a moat of crocodiles.
Yzma's lever. | 75 | If someone intrudes into the lair they are greeted with two levers. They don't know which one does what. 50/50 shot your trespasser enters your lair or gets eaten by crocodiles. And (if you aren't Kronk) you know which lever it is, so you never screw up. | 45 |
[Star Wars]Would a planet survive a Star Destroyer crashing into it? | If a Star Destroyer fell from orbit and smashed into a planet, (for example https://imgur.com/9X9iuES) what would be the implications? Would it be an extinction level event? | 80 | No. They aren't as big and nowhere near as massive as, say, an asteroid, being practically hollow in comparison. They would make a mile long trench on impact, but it wouldn't even be CLOSE to an extinction level event. | 119 |
[Star Wars] End of Palpatine's emergency powers? | Why was General Grievous's death the event that prompted Mace Windu's appointment to ask the Chancellor to give up power? Wouldn't the war still be going on, just with a new Separatist general like perhaps Trench? | 21 | With the deaths of Grievous and Dooku, the Separatists had lost their key military and political leaders, and were essentially losing the war even before that.
With their deaths, the Jedi felt that the war was drawing to a close, and all the "emergency powers" Palpatine had grabbed were no longer necessary - not that ... | 28 |
Why can I smell static electricity? | Maybe I cant smell static itself, but there is a particular odor I always attribute to static. Am I smelling something else or does the static have an affect on the air creating a unique scent? | 15 | The most likely source of the smell is from the ozone created by the electrostatic discharge - that is, static shock. When a spark is created between your body and, say, the doorknob, the air molecules along the spark path are ionized. If the spark is strong enough, it can also break some of the molecules apart. In ... | 21 |
Is standpoint theory self-contradictory? | According to standpoint theory, something like objective truth doesn't exist. If we want to learn something about the world, we have to consider different standpoints, especially due to existing social inequalities which result in people having very different experiences.
But isn't that contradictory?
1) If everythin... | 19 | Standpoint theory does not take it that there is no objective truth. The claim is that our epistemic access to objective truth is mediated by our standpoint. It’s an epistemic theory, not a theory of truth. It’s a theory about how we know things not what is true or anything about truth.
Every worry you have just follo... | 65 |
[Doctor Who] How did The Doctor get his 51% to pass the academy? | It's well established that he did poorly at the academy, passing after multiple attempts with a bare minimum 51%. But it doesn't seem like he's baseline competent with the breadth of the academy syllabus; he can't really control his regeneration, multiple times other timelords mention that he never paid attention. So w... | 24 | He's able to pilot a Tardis solo, something that is meant to be done by a team of trained Time Lords. He's a prodigy in that regard, (though part of it is that Sexy likes him), which means his knowledge of temporal mechanics and how to navigate time and space must be excellent. | 24 |
ELI5: Why are Tesla batteries lots of little batteries wired together. Can't they just make big ones? | Is it more efficient to use little ones, or is it technology limitations? | 15 | Making a semantic comment rather than a technical one. If there was only one electrolytic cell it wouldn't be a battery. For example, a 9V battery is a battery of six 1.5V cells in series. In contrast, a AA cell is not a battery at all; only a cell. The word battery means many units working together, as in a batter... | 16 |
If space is ever expanding, where does it expand into? Is it a place that even exists? | 30 | Space doesn't expand into anything. Distances just get larger between galaxies.
Suppose you have an infinite rubber sheet and draw a grid on this sheet. At each intersection point you mark a dot which is just a galaxy. Now this infinite sheet is stretched everywhere equally in all directions (both the x and y directi... | 20 | |
ELI5: How do scientists find out the recommended daily intake of various minerals and vitamins ? | 2,394 | First of all keep in mind that the advice given varies from country to country. A lot of it is disputed - mainly due to trying to find a one size fits all recommendation when people are all so different. A 65 year old man won't need the same things as a 23 year old woman for example.
Ok so how do they work it out? Wel... | 595 | |
[Warhammer 40k/The Culture] How close is the Culture to birthing a Chaos god like Slaaneesh? | Assuming of course that the two settings overlap (maybe the Culture represents the golden age of technology). | 16 | If they were suddenly exposed to the warp they would spawn a chaos god of peace, knowledge, understanding, and progress. It would be like Tzeentch but thousands of time more skilled/powerful and having the best interests of all sentient beings as his primary goal. | 21 |
Do you think high levels of immigration is good or bad for the economy and why? | I was having a discussion with a few peers about it and would really like to know other's opinion. | 16 | For me it would depend on circumstances.
Does the destination have a cheap worker shortage? Do the immigrants typically have a strong educational background or work ethic? Do they speak the language of the place they are immigrated to, if not, are they willing? Is there housing opportunities for them? How widespread ... | 19 |
[Dragon Ball] Would Android 16's self-destruct bomb been enough to kill Cell? | 32 | Honestly, probably not. Given what we know of Cell's power compared to 16's, he probably would've been able to shield himself from it. The bomb would've had to be as strong as Vegeta's full power Final Flash to even maybe kill Cell. | 21 | |
[Jeepers Creepers] What is the Creeper's original form, before it started eating people? | In *Jeepers Creepers*, when the Creeper gets a new head, we see these weird, tentacle-like protrusions coming out to connect with it.
Is this a glimpse at its original form?
Also, if it's "just" a creature, how did it grow to be so sadistic and evil? | 199 | Based on the creeper's rules (every 23rd Spring for 23 days it feeds), the creeper appears to have ties to the Wendigo from Native American folklore. According to information from various hunters such as the Winchester brothers, Wendigos are made when people are forced to commit cannibalism to survive. Consumption of a... | 213 |
[DC]Is there a particular reason why Darkseid doesn't use "Lantern" technology? | Now, I'm sure there is a reason, and I'm sure it's due to convoluted comicbook logic. I just don't know what it is. | 39 | Not everyone can harness that kind of energy. The guardians of Oa are immortal super beings. When the universe was forged in the crucible of the big bang their mighty species was already 17 years old. They have the knowledge and skill needed to harness the green light of the emotional spectrum. Darkseid, while still a... | 41 |
Why would an insurance company not renew a policy rather than raise the premium? | Our homeowner's insurance in San Diego is being "not-renewed" due to fires. But isn't it more rational to raise rates? I understand what's called "material change in risk," such as renovations. But, to effectively cancel a large portion of your region's customers' policies seems like found money. What am I missing? | 81 | That just means that insurance companies believe that nobody would buy insurance at the price they would charge.
There is an important distinction between idiosyncratic risk (1% of houses will have kitchen fires while 99% will not) and systemic risk (with 1% probability a natural disaster will burn most houses and wi... | 119 |
ELI5: Dreaming for people who were born blind. | How does someone who has never experienced visual stimuli their entire lives dream? Is it in sounds, feelings, textures, the shapes of things they've experienced through touch? | 25 | I work for a state school forr the Blind. All of the students that have been blind from birth say that they just dream in sound. Same goes for the deaf community. They just dream in pictures and no sound. | 11 |
Not everything in real life is normally distributed | Taking a data science online course and the guy keeps giving out problems beginning with “assuming height of males in USA is normally distributed, what is x,y,z”.
Sure the math is easier if you give me the mean and std for a population thats normally distributed but in real life this assumption cant possibly be made?
... | 17 | Pretty much nothing in real life is ever _truly_ distributed with respect to some parametric distribution (discounting certain asymptotic situations such as when central limit theorems hold (but we're never in asymptotia anyways)).
All distributions, really all models are some sort of simplifying assumption about the ... | 31 |
What is Exactly one second? And can the duration of a second change? | I have been thinking a lot but how do you define one second? And can the duration on one second be changed or it is already changing? Or is constant | 26 | Initially the second was 1/86400 of a mean solar day, but this isn't accurate enough, so the second was re-defined to be the duration at which the frequency of microwave radiation from a specific transition in Caesium is *exactly* 9,192,631,770 Hz. With this definition you can set up some fancy optics and trap some Ca... | 57 |
ELI5: Why don't physical copy's of books you buy come with a code to download a digital version? | 1,048 | Book sellers *could* say, "Buy the physical book and you get the digital version for free."
But then they miss out on the opportunity to sell you a different useful thing (the e-book) and earn more money.
As for-profit corporations, most book sellers have decided not to miss out on the money-making opportunity. | 462 |
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