post_title stringlengths 5 304 | post_text stringlengths 0 37.5k | post_scores int64 15 83.1k | comment_text stringlengths 200 9.61k | comment_score int64 10 43.3k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ELI5: How is an EMdrive thruster supposed to work? | I saw the article about how it's more successful than they expected, but it doesn't explain how it works. | 15 | Normal rocket engines work by forcing stuff out in one direction very fast. The problem with rockets, is that you have to life the fuel, along with the spacecraft. So if you want to go faster, you need more fuel to burn longer, or you burn fuel faster for shorter. But more fuel means a heavier spacecraft, which needs m... | 11 |
[Avatar TLAB] could an air bender condense a gas into it's liquid state? | If they could would they still be able to bend it? | 53 | In order to turn oxygen into its liquid state, you would need to do one of two things:
1. Make it colder, but only water and fire benders seem to be able to change the temperature of their elements.
2. More likely: they'd need to increase the pressure of it. Essentially, they'd have to take air and squeeze it into a ... | 48 |
[Star Wars] Which was objectively the better fighter? X Wings or TIE Fighters? | If two equally skilled pilots got into one of each, who would come out on top? Seriously, I keep Googling X wing vs TIE Fighter, but I keep getting links to the video game instead. | 41 | TIE fighters were cheap and fast. They had no shields or hyperdrives, and were mainly just easy to mass produce. They're better in numbers.
X-wings were tanks, though not as slow. More guns, shields, hyperdrives, etc., etc.
A single x-wing vs a single TIE with pilots of the same skill? The x-wing is by far the better... | 60 |
Can a person test negative for COVID, but still be contagious? (Assuming that person is in the process of being COVID positive) | 7,928 | Yes, if you test too early and your viral load is too low you may not test positive. In addition too this, there is also always the chance of a false negative or false positive with any test. No test is 100% accurate and incorrect results could come from things as simple as mislabeling of a specimen or some other hum... | 6,059 | |
ELI5: How close are we to curing cancer as a fundamental illness? | 18 | You can read "The emperor of all maladies" to get an idea about the development in medical science re cancer. Out of 1000's of different types of cancer, we can fully cure 2-3 types; however, we are able to lengthen the life of pretty much any and every patient with cancer, so there is some progress. Out understanding ... | 17 | |
Can Nuclear Fisson occur without uranium? | 16 | Yes. Nuclear fission can occur for numerous elements. Fission occurs in all actinides along with the super heavy elements. Spontaneous fission can occur for elements that fit the equation Z^2 /A>=47, where Z is the atomic number and A is the atomic mass. This is a rough equation, but it is fairly accurate. It i... | 15 | |
[Captain America - all media] So....when is Cap going to get a promotion? | Surely he has enough experience and a history of being a great commander to be a general by now. What gives? | 23 | In the zombie universe, he's a colonel.
Aside from that, 'Captain' appears to be an honorary term. During WWII, Steve Rogers was actually a private, albeit one tasked with secret counter-intelligence operations. In the modern age, Carol Danvers is known as 'Captain Marvel' even though she's a colonel. As such, we may ... | 20 |
ELI5: how do the rich use shell companies and off shore accounts to hide money? Can’t the government just follow where they invested? | 57 | They can and it doesn't change anything.
Laws apply only in the country you're in. Meaning that if you manage to get the money out of the country, they can't do anything. And it's most often very legal.
An example: They create a shell company in a tax haven. They pay the shell for service (whatever they can find. Mos... | 73 | |
What determines the speed of us thinking? | Basically in the title, what determines the speed at which we (our brains) process information and act? | 227 | What you ask in the title and the question are two different things. "Thinking" implies we are consciously aware of it - that it has reached our neocortex. That determines the speed at which we think. The more you've done something, the more efficient that neuronal pathway for that thinking occurs, increasing the speed... | 61 |
[Toy Story] Do all new toys think they are the real thing and not a toy. | So it's clear that all new Buzz Lightyears believe they are the real Buzz . But if there was a brand new Woody made, would he think he was part of woodys roundup? Same with all the other toys. | 52 | Unlike most toys in Andy's collection, Buzz takes batteries.
All the others had the experience of being in a store, being bought, etc, to guide them to the belief that they are toys.
Buzz, however, doesn't activate until he is turned on. His box is designed to look like a spacecraft and Andy literally crash lands hi... | 55 |
[MGSV: Phantom Pain] What are they feeding poor D. Horse to cause his poop to be slippery enough for cars to skid out of control? | So, in MGSV you can make D. Horse poop on command if you get his loyalty up enough. I could understand infantry and Walker Gear possibly slipping on it, but i have hard time believing that normal horse poop would be slippery enough to do it for cars... | 16 | Its the stress, not the feed. He is constantly being ridden in firefights, transported via crazy ballons, run over, and otherwise terrified or injured, all while running around stopping biological weapons and all kinds of parasites. Horses tend to react poorly to all that, and intestinal issues are common in high stres... | 16 |
Why is it that, if you add any sequence of numbers like this (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1), the sum is always the square of the largest number? | I was doodling around with my calculator in trig during high school several ago, and found this pattern. I forgot about it entirely until I was nodding off to sleep last night, and now I must know. | 4,181 | A single line break will make it obvious that it's N times N:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 +
7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+ + + + + + + 8
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 | 5,475 |
What is physiologically happening when a cat purrs? | 82 | Scientists do not know what causes purring. However, one leading theory is that vibrations in the Aorta (largest artery of the heart) are amplified by the way cats align certain muscles and the throat which causes the purring sound. This is still just a theory. | 25 | |
ELI5: How do websites know when you are using an adblocker? | I remember a few years ago, I would be able to use my adblock without getting any pop ups telling me to turn it off, but as of late I see an increasing number of websites telling me to turn it off before proceeding? How do they know? Isnt an adblocker only on the client's screen? | 9,042 | In simple terms, they attempt to create an object which adblock blocks, then they run a script to detect whether the object exists or not. If they can't find the object they know you are running a blocker. | 8,617 |
[DOOM 2016/DOOM Eternal] Any particular reason were given why there were no mass nuclear retaliation towards the invading demonic forces? | In a Codex entry in Doom Eternal, it is considered that complete nuclear annihilation was considered to destroy the Super Gore Nest. However, there seems to be no particular reason on why it isn't enacted on early, what gives? | 82 | The invasion of Earth was extremely rapid. Literally hours after the end of 2016 campaign. Samuel Hayden tried to rally the leaders of earth prior to the invasion but it wasn't until nearly all of earth had become overwhelmed that he was given total authority over the arc forces. Nukes were deployed but had little e... | 62 |
CMV: I believe all these new people moving to America should learn to speak Algonquian. | The Atlantic coast of the Americas is full of these new pasty white immigrants. We have lots of land so it wasn't a big deal at first, but trading is difficult when they speak this strange language called English. You're in America now people, so speak the language of one of our many tribes, not the language of some sm... | 352 | Algonquian, please! The ones that brought white warriors with them are deep in Powhatan country, they need to learn Powhatan! And they will if they have respect for our people. I'll bet they feel pretty stupid not being able to understand us!
(Translation provided by translate.google.com) | 54 |
[Star Wars] What was the importance of the Hoth base? Wouldnt it have made sense to stay mobile with no permanent structures? | 265 | Ships need maintenance and crews need offship time. A lot of the ships in the rebel fleet are medium sized. They're small enough you don't want to spend excessive amounts of time in space aboard one and aren't built for extended voyages, but at the same time they're too big to reasonably fit into your standard starsh... | 305 | |
[Harry Potter] Why does money even matter in the Harry Potter universe? | They have magic. It's already been established that you can produce water straight from the wand. You can transfigure something into something else. Oh no, the couch broke? Better transfigure this thumbtack into a brand new couch! The Weasley household was always described as cramped, but in the fourth book Mr. Weasley... | 50 | The same reason money exists everywhere else, to procure goods or services from other sources that one might be unable or unwilling to procure by their own means.
Not everyone is good at everything, some people specialize in areas and it's worth it to have them do it instead of you. For example: Bob is good at potion... | 58 |
[Star Wars] How come Aayla Secura was killed in a much more brutal manner than the other Jedi shown in Revenge of the Sith? | All the Jedi were shot a couple times except her who was shot for a long time after she was already dead. Why was her execution so violent compared to the others? | 55 | Think about the jedi we saw die. Plo Koon was blown out of the sky and his craft was incineratef in a fireball, doesnt leave a lot of room for doubt. Mundi was shot by like 20 of his guys, camera cut away before it showed anything else. Basically, people can survive being shot, especially jedi. The clones were just mak... | 86 |
[Disney's The Little Mermaid] Why didn't Ariel just write to communicate while she was mute? | So, Ariel obviously understands English (or Danish, or whatever) and understands what's communicated to her. She signs her name on the contract with Ursula, so she's familiar with writing utensils and with writing itself. Why doesn't she just carry a pen, inkwell, and notebook with her? Or chalk and a blackboard? Why d... | 58 | One theory I've always held is that even though the audience is shown Ariel speaking in the same language as humans, it's more logical to assume merfolk have their own language. So while she may have learned English from constantly spying on humans, she would not be able to write in it, having never studied their symbo... | 86 |
[MCU] Possible WanadaVision Spoiler; so I'll just ask my question below... | Without going into too much detail, it appears that when people were "un-snapped" (or un-blipped), they re-appeared at the same position they were in when the blip happened... if they were running down a hall, they were unblipped into still running down a hall. If they were sitting in a chair, they were unblipped into... | 26 | All these complications are supposedly accounted for by the Infinity Stones obeying what the user actually mean, and not just obeying a single command to the letter. It is theorized by some people that the Mind stone allow the user or the Stones mental capacity to account for all that logistical problems of re-appeari... | 61 |
ELI5: If you've lost blood, either by a severe cut or donating to a blood bank, your body can generate new blood to replace it. How does your body know when it needs more, and how does it know when to stop so you don't end up with an excess amount? | 826 | There is a hormone produced by the kidney called erythropoietin. That hormone makes the blood marrow produce more red blood cells.
When there isn’t enough oxygen reaching the kidney (because of the lost blood), it produces this hormone so more blood is made.
TL;DR: the kidney tells the blood marrow to make more blood | 742 | |
ELI5: How can Newtonian physics be technically "wrong" , but still mathematically explain many natural processes? | 18 | It is less wrong, and more of an incomplete approximation.
For example, you have a farm in Kansas that is 5 miles by 5 miles. You have exactly 25 square miles, right? Area = side * side, after all.
That would be wrong. You have slightly more than 25 square miles, because the earth is roughly a sphere. That doesn'... | 36 | |
[DC] How Superman can hear someone's call for help on the other side of the globe and save them if the sound that reached him was originated hours ago? | Due the sound speed, if he hears something 2,000 miles away it took almost 3 hours to reach his ears. | 318 | I believe it’s been hinted a few times that Superman’s “x-ray vision” is really a kind of clairvoyance that lets him look through things. Maybe Superman’s “super hearing” is a kind of psychic hearing or telepathy? | 234 |
ELI5:When I get "butterflies in my stomach", what is actually happening inside my body? | 31 | When your body goes into fight-or-flight stress response, it is preparing to fight a physical threat or run away from it. To help you do this, your heart rate and breathing speed up, you sweat, and blood flow is diverted from non-essential systems to the major muscle groups. Digestion is a non-essential system, so when... | 24 | |
[Chronicles of Narnia] What is the mental state of the four main characters after they turn back into children? | Do they remember being adults? If so what's it like for Edmund and Lucy who are pre-adolescent? | 60 | They eventually forget all of their time in Narnia, thinking of it as having been a game they played together as children, rather than actual events that happened. The older they get, the more they're sure it was just make-believe.
Susan gets hit with this especially hard, becoming unable to return to Narnia for the ... | 58 |
Why are longitudinal studies done on the general public and not inmates? | I was reading about the observation of diets and the outcomes after 3, 6, and 12 months and one of the concerns was a self-reporting bias with people and simply forgetting what they ate. Thought about which environments a person has their diet and exercise almost 100% controlled and is almost guaranteed to be in the sa... | 18 | Science dealing with humans has a number of ethical rules, some of which have been made into law. One of those is that you can't experiment on prisoners simply because they are convenient- you can only study them if you are specifically doing a study of the prison experience or something like that. When you want to do... | 30 |
ELI5: How does pure alcohol have calories, yet it doesn't contain sugar, proteins or fat? | Will I get fat from drinking large amounts of pure alcohol? | 164 | Alcohol is what is produced when you take sugar and remove as many calories as you can from it without involving oxygen. As a result it still contains a lot of the calories that the initial sugar had. | 106 |
ELI5 - how doesn’t iron burst through blood vessels during an MRI? | There are metals in the body such as iron. Even tiny bits of iron ripping through vessels and organs I would think would do major damage to the body. How does an MRI not cause this to happen? Or does it? | 26 | What makes iron magnetic is that when iron is in a crystalline form (what you think of as iron metal), the electrons in the individual iron atoms align themselves in a way that interacts with magnetism. (Basically electrons (and many other subatomic particles) have a property called spin, when a bunch of electrons are ... | 107 |
[Superman] Earth not Krypton was destroyed. A baby was sent to Krypton via an experimental rocket. Would that baby have super powers like superman? | I admit I don't know much about Superman but what if things happened in reverse? Would a human gain powers under their red sun much the say Superman gains powers from our yellow sun? Or is it something fundamental about their biology? | 49 | The effect that grants Superman his powers is a product of his Kryptonian biology and not the sun itself. Superman essentially metabolizes radiation and, while the degree to this is true varies from depiction to depiction, his "enhanced" state as seen on Earth is actually more akin to a Kryptonian's natural healthy sta... | 77 |
ELI5: How come you can never get crappy toys in cereal any more? | 19 | Boy, as a kid, shreddies always came with something inside.
I think its to do with safety. The toy might end up being eaten by a child. They might choke and die, leaving a massive lawsuit against the cereal producer.
I also think US government regulations affect this. There are prize-containing candies called Kinde... | 12 | |
[Doctor Who] Why did the Doctor's TARDIS allow the master to fly it? | The TARDIS is sentient, and apparently very loyal to the doctor, to the point of love perhaps (the doctor's wife). So why is the master able to pilot it (Utopia et al)?
I know he was only able to travel between two points, but that was the Doctor's interference. Shouldn't the TARDIS itself have said 'screw you dude, ... | 23 | A timelord would know how to force a tardis to go where he wanted. She is still, when it comes down to it, a vehicle, and in the end its not her choice, if someone wants to force her, he can. The master might be better then the doctor at flying a tardis, so he might know how to force her when the doctor does not (he di... | 17 |
[MCU Punisher] What allows Castle to fight at full strength even when injuries received would prevent some muscle movement or could even be lethal? | On several occasions Castle is able to fight while dislocating his arm, having his feet destroyed by a drill but is able to move said body parts even though they are severely damaged. Also how is he able to fight let alone stay alive when he has injuries that could kill most people? | 22 | The Punisher has a level of sheer unbreakable willpower that would make Green Lantern jealous. In the comics, it's established that he doesn't use any sort of painkillers unless his injuries are so severe that he is no longer physically capable of fighting. He chooses not to take them because he's unwilling to take the... | 29 |
[Star Wars]What kind of food can allow the more than 30,000 crew members of the Star Destroyer to live in the Star Destroyer for 2 years? | There are more than 30,000 crew members in the Star Destroyer, and the consumables they carry can allow them to survive in space for 2 years. If it is conventional food, the daily consumption is very large and takes up a lot of space. Although the Star Destroyer is very large, the building occupies a large part of the... | 212 | They use rations and nutrient packs in addition to smaller standard food storage that needs to replenished regularly. The ration packs are the size of a cigarette pack but can feed a human adult for a week easily if not comfortably. The packs have a shelf life of a few decades but have been known to survive for longer ... | 235 |
CMV: Can anyone show me a rational reason as to why this specific example of incest would be immoral? | **DISCLAIMER**: I'm *not* endorsing incest.
**The following context is what I cannot come up with a rational reason as to why it would be immoral:**
* Two orphaned siblings after years of separation meet again (both aware that they are each others siblings):
* One sibling is a man who is 30 years old.
* The other s... | 20 | Playing devils advocate:
Encouragement.
If its ok for those two, another couple of siblings that doesnt fit your special parameters might see them, and think that it is not so wrong after all.
Of course if you dont see anything wrong with incest that is a moot point, but since you are constructing this special examp... | 12 |
ELI5:Why do shadows tend to be attracted by other shadows ? | I was in the bus today and whenever my shadow got close to another one, it would stretch to reach the other. I never paid much attention to it before now. I know it probably is something about light, but I'd like to know the exact reason of this phenomenon. | 21 | Imagine two equally tall mounds of sand on a flat surface.
Now, push the two mounds towards each other. You will notice that where the two mounds touch, the sand will combine and rise higher.
The same occurs for shadows. A shadow's edge is never completely sharp due to diffraction, a property of light that blurs the ... | 19 |
[Star Wars] How much punishment could the Death Star withstand if it was being directly attacked? How many ships would the Rebels have needed if they wanted to go "toe to toe" with the Death Star? (assuming unlimited resources) | 18 | More firepower than the Rebellion could bring to bear at Endor.
The Death Star was massive, dwarfing any capital ship. Concentrated fire might be able to do serious damage to a couple decks, but you're not going to disable a Death Star with turbolaser batteries, not before Imperial backup arrives. | 32 | |
CMV: James Damore, who wrote the essay about diversity at Google, cited science that proves some women do not choose roles in tech due to differences in their biology. His sources show that gendered personality differences lead some women to choose non-tech jobs. | This whole thing has been blown out of proportion. What Damore wrote should be considered sound research since he included plenty of sources.
It seems like the media is intentionally lying about this in order to push their leftist narrative.
Specifically, I think the science he references is sound and supports all o... | 18 | Cherry picking a bunch of scientific facts to support a theory you have is not sound research. It's called confirmation bias.
There are a few scientists who have come out and said some of the individual facts in his memo are correct, but there are far more scientists who have debunked his entire premise about there be... | 25 |
ELI5: If people can build their own computers, what is stopping people from building their own smartphones? | I have not put a computer together myself, but my boyfriend recently built me a PC from two old machines and the idea of building a smartphone came to mind. | 67 | Individual components that make up a smartphone are not as easily available or affordable as PC components. They are highly proprietary to each manufacturer and smartphones don't follow a single form factor the way PCs do. | 56 |
[Fifth Element] How did Korben's neighbor end up being impersonated by Mangalores? | Wasn't that the same face? I haven't seen the Fifth Element in years and every so often out of nowhere this question creeps out to bug me. | 23 | When Cornelius arrives at Korban's apartment, he switches Korban's business card to another door. Later, when the police arrive, they spot the name card and bag the neighbor (literally) because they think he is Korban.
Then the Mangalores show up and blast the police who they think have arrested Dallas, so that's the ... | 34 |
ELI5: What is physically happening that causes the inside of a cpu to heat up? | 17 | Electrical resistance. Just as light bulbs get hot because of the current flowing through a tiny filament, CPUs heat up for much the same reason. CPUs can draw 100W or more these days, and virtually all of that power is converted to heat. | 21 | |
[Star Trek] How did/would other people attempt the Kobayashi Maru, like Riker? Janeway? Seven? Etc.? | 475 | I still find Sulu's answer the one that fits him well. He has the internal conflict - and orders his ship to NOT go into the neutral zone. While the comm plays out the sounds of the crew of the Kobayshi Maru getting killed.
It may be the safe call, but he called it a trap - and a violation that could trigger a war ... | 433 | |
ELI5: What would our vision be like if we had a third eye at the back of our head? | 22 | Do you mean how would 'what we see' appear? That would depend on how our brain had evolved to use that third eye and represent it to us mentally. Since this is necessarily different from how our brains function today, there's no definitive answer to give you other than 'we could presumably see behind us, at least if we... | 23 | |
ELI5: How does fire destroy stuff? | This is hard to properly express my question, but what does fire do to destroy things? Like how does it burn a whole house down leaving ashes on the ground, and why aren't the ashes destroyed? Probably some obvious answer I'm overlooking but it is what it is. | 36 | Fire is the process of transforming something chemically into something else. It usually happens in two stages. First, for complex stuff like wood or paper, you take something and heat it up, and that heat destroys the chemical bonds in that substance. The big molecules in it that are very long and solid and lock its p... | 35 |
Job Interview questions | I posted this question in academia and didn’t get much response so thought I’d ask here
Humanities disciples: As someone who will be going on the job market this fall, and a first-gen Phd, can you please share a question that popped up during your interview process? Maybe a question important to the process but weren’... | 15 | The question that you will always get, in one form or another, is " tell me about your research". Top tips for answering that:
1) talk about your dissertation's major contributions to the field, and do not only talk about your dissertation: your research is one big project, but you want to show that you have plans beyo... | 19 |
Where does anxiety come from? | What's the evolutionary reason for it? Why does it get worse as you get older or why does it come out of nowhere? Is there a scientific proven way to get rid of it forever? | 32 | >What's the evolutionary reason for it?
Well, it helps to keep us safe by warning us away from danger.
>Why does it get worse as you get older or why does it come out of nowhere?
It doesn't necessarily get worse as you get older, although it does kind of build on itself over time, so the more uncontrolled an... | 50 |
[X-Men:Days of Future Past Spoilers] Did Wolverine just kill himself? | The timeline for X-men goes as follows Wolverine grows up and goes through the events of X1, X2, X3 and the Wolverine. He then goes back in time into his younger body, the events of DOFP play out here.
At the end of DOFP Wolverine's mind snaps back to the future where everything is now nice and not filled with mutant ... | 20 | Yep, the wolverine that existed between 1973 up to now died. Maybe charles can help him unlock those memories, or fill him in about what happened, so he might not be entierly lost. i#ll bet we see a logan with conflicting memories in the next movie. | 35 |
CMV: The active opposition to gay marriage in America cannot be accurately considered a religious belief | Background: I'm a vocal atheist who was born and raised Christian for the first couple decades of my life.
Even when I was religious, I didn't understand the intense opposition to gay marriage that so many Christians have. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of different commands and moral "goods" and "bads" in the Bibl... | 521 | Note: yet another ex-christian atheist.
The comparison to shaving, eating shellfish and other Old Testament commandments is a bit misleading. Exactly which of the Old Testament laws Christians/Gentiles had to follow was a big source of disagreement in the early church. Most churches reference Acts 15 on the issue, whi... | 153 |
ELI5: How do scientists know that the moon was formed from two planets colliding? | and how do they know how long ago it happened? | 64 | The reasoning goes like this:
The Moon missions brought back Moon rocks, which when studied, revealed that the Moon is primarily compromised of a kind of rock also found on Earth. Hence, scientists believe that the Moon's material came from Earth at some point.
They also know that when Earth was formed, the material ... | 33 |
[DC] Zatanna Zatara uses magic by speaking English in reverse; what happens if she says something palindromic? | 24 | She has done magic with palindromes as a way to combat someone who was reversing time to thus un-reverse her backwards speech. "Egad! No bondage!" to break free of a trap, "Nurses run!" to conjure a horde of nurses to trample him, and then crushing the villain with "Stack cats!" to create a massive pile of cats on top ... | 38 | |
[D&D] If a mace (the weapon) were to brought to life and then be destroyed would it have an after life? | A drunk half Orc was telling me of his adventure into a volcano and said one of his party's mace was alive at one time then tossed into lava. I asked him him he he thought it went to a better place. All he said was 'Thok not know' | 52 | Depends on how it was "brought to life". If it was simply the Bestow Sentience spell, then no, as that spell basically is only good for golem level intelligence, and shouldn't have any personality beyond servitude, which means making another mace with basic intelligence would be a trifle for any level 9 sorceror.
Fro... | 31 |
[Star Wars] What happened to all of the Battle Droids after episodes 1-3? | Why were none integrated into the Empire's army in episodes 4-6? Surely they weren't all destroyed, and any additional soldiers would have been useful.
Droidekas would have been a nice addition as well, and would have given Luke and Obi-Wan some trouble. | 133 | A droid army is a relatively inflexible and single-use tool compared to even clone or recruited forces, but still has significant upkeep costs. When the Clone Wars ended and the need for such a massive standing force was no longer felt necessary, the droid army was viewed as the least useful tool and most were scrapped... | 143 |
Why should I read the 40K? What is it about? [40K] | I've been hungry for more Sci Fi after finishing the Thrawn trilogy.
Edit: Thanks for all the responses, I guess I'm into 40K now. | 23 | 40k is Grim dark. If you're looking for a happy ending, look else where. A battle may end nicely for someone but the galaxy will never be free of war and no one will ever win. In spite of that they keep fighting and we keep rooting for them.
Multiple races have a claim to rule the Galaxy and others are quintessential ... | 38 |
[LOTR] Removing the ring from one of the nine? | Is it possible?
* Would it "kill" them like Sauron?
* Would they be able to come back?
* Bonus:
What would happen if someone else would put it on afterwards?
Wich power would you have(excluding the power of vintage-fashion)?
(I'm always confused by the term "power" in the tolkien universe.) | 22 | The Nazgul weren't wearing their Rings at the time of LotR. They had simply worn the Nine Rings for too long and 'faded' into invisible wraiths whose spirits were bound to the Nine Rings. Sauron held onto the Nine so that he could fully control the Nazgul even without the One Ring. If the Nazgul were to put their Rings... | 32 |
ELI5: Why do we think we sound better when singing than we really are? | I know I suck at singing, but only after recording myself. Problem is, in my head, I think I sound good.
Why? | 42 | Because of how we hear our own voice is actually not like how others hear your voice. Your voice sounds different to you than to others.
The voice originates in you and the sound going out from your mouth doesn't go straight to your ears, but by bouncing a lot. Not all sound actually goes out of your mouth, it also ma... | 15 |
[MCU] If Vision were to remove the Mind Stone successfully without destroying himself, would he still have the powers he had access to when he was first created? | 22 | Probably yeah. Every other stone-empowered character (Captain Marvel, Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver) retains their powers after losing their stone.
He might lose the power to shoot energy beams out of his forehead, since that seems to specifically come from the stone. | 28 | |
ELI5: why does squinting improve vision? | At least for me, I notice that when I squint, my vision becomes sharper. I don't know if this is a common thing, but I'm curious as to why it happens | 110 | You’ll experience trouble seeing things far away in the first place if your iris has trouble closing to focus the light onto your retina. Glasses do this for those of us who have that problem. Squinting sort of replicates what a pinhole camera does, and at the cost of some light not coming in, helps focus the light fro... | 95 |
CMV: Spirituality or ways of living should not be considered a part of physical activities like Yoga or Sports. | I was reading through the comments on [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/4xer5w/egyptian_judoka_refusing_to_shake_hands_with/?ref=share&ref_source=link) on the Egyptian Judoka refusing to shake hands with an Israeli Judoka after their match. It's clear that this is bad sportsmanship but in the comme... | 18 | Yoga is a sanskrit term which comes from a similar root to our English word "Yolk" (not the egg kind) and has been a religious practice for millenia. Yoga outside of modern Western interpretations is entirely spiritual. Banning spirituality from Yoga is turning Yoga into "stretching".
I am 100% atheist but you're arg... | 12 |
ELI5: Why do we shiver when we pee? | Had a substantially huge shiver whilst urinating today, and I thought that Reddit would be able to enlighten me on this. So... why? | 41 | Pee Shivers, also known as "post-micturition convulsion syndrome" (PCMS) Post meaning "after", Macturition meaning "Urination" or "peeing" and Convulsion meaning "Shiver" or "Shake" so basically the "After Pee Shakes"
No one is quite sure what causes them, they happen mostly in males (boys) and sometimes even females... | 29 |
ELI5: If a fever is part of the way your body naturally combats viruses/bacteria, then why is it recommended to take medicine to lower your body temperature? | 21 | Because the immune system sometimes goes overboard and can hurt you.
We often think of the immune system as an army taking orders from the body, but it's better to think of your immune system as a bunch of colonists, living on the land, which is you.
Usually, the colonists are actually helpful. They keep the pest... | 62 | |
If genetic mutations are random, and only later sorted according to the advantage or disadvantage they yield during the struggle to reproduce, why don't we see more functionally neutral traits? | A thumbnail sketch of evolution might go as follows: Sexual reproduction throws up genetic mutations which result in random variations in the resulting offspring of two organisms. If these random variations give the organism a slight advantage, it is more likely to survive and pass on its genes; if they do not, it is m... | 24 | Most mutations are neutral. (This is sort of a trick, most are going to be silent. They are neutral because they don't change any morphology.) You are confusing traits with sequence. Traits are things like arms. It does not really make sense to talk about a trait being neutral, neutral is in comparison. All traits help... | 13 |
[MCU] Is Spiderman stronger than Captain America? | If he isn't right now, would he be if he bulked up to match with Steve's buffness? | 23 | Spider-Man is physically stronger and more durable by far. He was able to lift who knows how many tons of cement and steel off of him in homecoming after having it fall on him. He is able to “stop a bus with his bare hands”, he is shown catching a small car in motion, he survived a plan crash, he was able to catch Cull... | 38 |
ELI5: How can 2 different CPU’s of the same model have different overclock potentials even though they have the same architecture? | 18 | There are very slight variations between chips, both a benefit and a detriment to the way they're produced. Obviously every chip that makes it into a package has probably tested to be able to run at the rating on the box with no problems. Those that fail get tossed. But there are some where there are less imperfections... | 20 | |
If we are creating super bugs by over using and incorrectly using antibiotics, are we doing the same by cleaning our hands and disinfecting surfaces etc? | Out damn spot. Is this an issue at all? | 76 | Here is one way to look at it: it's easy to kill bacteria outside your body. Animals can't evolve perfect defences to the broad range of ways they can die out in the open.
It's incredibly difficult to find ways to narrowly target foreign organisms within our body using kill mechanisms that don't interact with ou... | 43 |
CMV: Extraversion does not equate to social competence | It seems in today’s society being extroverted is equated to having good social skills. There is definitely a bit of a fetish for and bias towards being extroverted and it is generally seen as a good thing while introversion is not.
I would argue that the most socially adept people are actually those that are best at ... | 51 | I agree that people often see it this way, but loud or "big personality" isnt even what extravert means. Some extraverts have quieter personalities, but are energized by being in a group. Some introverts enjoy groups and can be the life of the party but need some time to recharge alone. Some introverts are loud BECA... | 23 |
Why, when you continue to burn ash, do the ashes eventually change from black to white? | Whenever you burn wood, plants, or other organic material, the residual carbon becomes black ash. However, if you continue to burn that material, eventually the ashes will turn white. What are the mechanisms involved in further combustion of the material that result in the ash changing from a compound which essentially... | 617 | If you have something black during a combustion process that‘s not ash but the remaining carbon. The carbon reacts with oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide, a gas. Ash is the product of oxygen reacting with everything not containing carbon: calcium, magnesium, and a few other metals. The oxides of those metals (re... | 687 |
ELI5: Why certain things catch fire and others don't | 95 | Suppose you have a marble on a flat piece of carpet. You push it and it rolls to a stop. It doesn't matter how hard you push it, it's on a flat surface and eventually it'll stop.
Now imagine your carpet is shaped like a volcano: A bowl of carpet, atop a mountain with steep sides. It's comfortably sitting still i... | 113 | |
What is the distinction between Avoidant Personality Disorder and Social Anxiety/ Phobia? | After reading on both of these, I find it hard to understand the key differences between them both. There is a lot to compare between them. I've seen a lot of articles comparing and contrasting them but many of the contrasting traits were either broad or unclear. I am wondering how do psychologists know when someone ha... | 25 | Here is an overview of the two disorders.
Social Anxiety disorder - fear, anxiety, avoidance in social situations. SAD isn't typically a manifestation of extreme personality traits, the symptoms can come and go and are often environmentally triggered and situation specific.
AVPD - thought of as a maladaptive pattern ... | 10 |
ELI5: why does ground beef / chicken breast cost less than red peppers? | Currently a pound of grapes costs more than a pound of boneless chicken breast at my local supermarket. Why do things my food eats eats cost more than my food? | 40 | **TL;DR: Lots of reasons.** *Certain fruits and veggies are highly seasonal and light for their weight and require careful handling and importing from outside the country. Meat's easier to keep growing through the winter using local government-assisted jobs so grocery stores can access massive quantities and sell it at... | 25 |
[General Fantasy] I've been sprinkling some chili powder into all my potions, are there any negative effects? | I like my potions to have a little extra kick, ya know? Makes sure people *know* they're working. | 51 | Well the elf has diarrhea, the half-orc is raging, the dwarf demands seconds, the Halfling is critiquing you for not using a proper balance of flavors, the gnome is trying to drink the lake, and the tiefling and dragonborn can't tell the difference. The warforged, however, believes that they can make an aerosol weapon ... | 66 |
[Borderlands 1, 2, TPS] Ecology of Pandora and Elpis | It seems that all the native wildlife on Pandora and Elpis all appear to be omnivorous but despite the ample sunlight there appears to be little vegetation.
Similarly, on Elpis, there's no Energy food chain at all to support Torks, Shuggaraths or any of that. So with exception of feeding on Scavs and human flesh, wha... | 42 | In the beginning, food was largely imported from agri-worlds, and those shipments are still going on - they're all that's really left of Pandora's economy, because everyone has to eat. Remember, even *scout* ships in the Borderlands are the size of cities; a proper *commerce* ship can set down entire grain silos to fe... | 25 |
[Warhammer 40k] What is an average day like for a human citizen on: Chaos, Imperium and Tau controlled planets? | 69 | On an Imperial world, the fundamental truth is bureaucracy. Citizens work 16 hours a day, every day, for the sake of the Emperor. The most common group who don't spend day and night in the factories are gang scum, who function as much as a replacement for the woefully insufficient police as anything else. The monthly p... | 50 | |
How are electrons generated from magnetism? | Spinning a copper wire in a permanent magnetic field will generate electric current, indefinitely. So if electric current is the movement of electrons carrying their charge to the opposite charge, and you have a load in between which converts the current to heat/light/etc, where do more electrons come from?
Edit: Than... | 17 | You aren't creating electrons, you are moving them around, just like when a river flows down a hill you aren't creating water, you are just moving it downhill.
(And if you never move it uphill, you will eventually run out of high-energy water, and the flow will stop, just like if you never recharge your batter, you w... | 16 |
ELI5: Why eating Sushi is healthy and safe and why other raw meats can't achieve this. | I was always curious about this. Anyone care to help? | 17 | It all depends on the likelihood of parasites and how the meat was handled. There's nothing wrong with raw beef, for example.
The problem with raw chicken is that it's often contaminated with salmonella and raw pork can have trichinosis. Cooking is necessary to kill those pathogens. They could theoretically be okay if... | 11 |
Does light inside a black hole have no energy? What is light without energy? | I was reading past threads about light, mass and black holes, and the consensus seemed to be that since E2 = (mc2 )2 + (pc)2, light was therefore affected by gravity since it had 'p' (momentum) even though it was massless.
If that's the equation, then does light in a black hole have no energy because it's without ... | 18 | > If that's the equation, then does light in a black hole have no energy because it's without mass and without momentum? Would light still exist as a massless, energyless thing?
Why would light inside a blackhole carry no momentum? | 10 |
ELI5: why do people get annoyed? What’s triggered in the brain to feel irritated and why do we have pet peeves? | 15 | Annoyance is essentially a stress response in your brain and body, which causes the release of hormones and neurotransmitters to help you respond to that stress.
Some annoyances cause this reaction because they make things more difficult for you (annoyances like being made late, being hindered toward a goal, anything ... | 15 | |
CMV: Trying to "solve" global warming is unrealistic, and plans should only be made to survive it | First off, yes, I think that global warming is real. But from what I have seen of how factories work and how resources are used, I think it is unfair to blame corporations for "ruining Earth". Sure, yes, they are causing environmental problems, and yes, there are researches into how to produce with less harm to the env... | 41 | That entire argument presupposes that money is more important than the environment in which we live. Surely you could just as easily say that the economy is a shitty, sensitive system that breaks too easily if simply not destroying the planet is enough to bring it to its knees.
Consider that there are already costs in... | 35 |
If increased per capita wealth=increased consumption=inflation that cancels out increases in wealth, how did per capita wealth ever increase in developed nations? | This is an argument that seems to come up every time a program that offers some sort of wealth redistribution like increasing the minimum wage or student debt forgiveness is discussed. The idea that if consumers get more money, the inflationary effects will cancel out their increase in wealth/income.
But the entire h... | 22 | What matters is the supply of real goods and services, like food and housing and medical care and Netflix TV shows. We talk about economic growth in $ terms (or £ or € or whatever) because it's impractical to talk about all these goods and services individually, and money is the only way we have to aggregate them all. ... | 35 |
Does toasting a loaf of bread alter the nutrition levels? | 726 | Food technologist here just finished with university.
The short answer is more or less no, the nutrients will not change significantly. You'll get somewhat less water content, but that's not really a nutrient in a technical sense.
The long answer involves a short trip into the delicious realm of food chemistry.
Why... | 381 | |
What is the matchstick's head made up of ? And how does the chemical reaction proceed in lighting the match ? | 321 | The mechanism is usually based on the reaction between potassium chlorate and phosphorus. The specific details depend on the type of match. For example, in some matches the heads are made of potassium chlorate, some form of phosphorous (e.g. phosphorus sulfide) and a binder. When you apply heat to this mixture (e.g. by... | 444 | |
I believe most if not all actions are inherently selfish, and that the vilification of the concept of selfishness is a negative aspect of our culture CMV | In today's society it is generally accepted that acts of selflessness or altruism are, by design, morally acceptable actions, whereas the logical antithesis, selfishness, is generally considered immoral and less valuable. My argument is two fold:
1) An act of altruism is almost, if not completely, impossible based on ... | 32 | The problem is you're using a much, much stronger definition of selfishness than most people are when you talk about it, then applying your definition to what other people are saying.
Being selfish, as it us usually understood, means something along the lines of this:
> lacking consideration for others; concerned... | 21 |
According to the Hubble constant, the Universe is expanding at around 70 km/s. Does this mean an advanced civilization could go past the 'end' of the Universe, and if they waited, see everything start coming towards them? More ?'s inside. | I just watched [Everything](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXliM19h6YI) by BBC and am left a bit dumbfounded, and actually have a few questions to ask and things to clarify. I've most likely interpreted things horrible wrongly, so forgive me.
Light moves faster than 70km/s, so is it possible for light to reach the 'e... | 19 | The metric is expanding at 70km/s *per Megaparsec* (a megaparsec is a unit of distance). At higher distances, the metric expands faster. At shorter distances, it is slower. Points at the edge of the observable universe are receding from us at the speed of light. This is why it is called observable - light from outs... | 16 |
[Diamond Age, Deus Ex] why would anyone want a skull-gun? | a buddy of mine has been looking through catalogs for skull guns lately and to be honest i just don't see the point. to be fair i'm not really entirely sure how the procedure works. is it visible at all? how powerful is it? how do you aim the thing? | 28 | It depends on whether or not the weapon in question is based in your oral cavity or your ocular cavity.
With decent technology, your cyber-eye should manage a small, single-shot gun without issue or anything to give it away to a *casual* inspection.
Your basic oral gun is a better chance, though. More space for ammo,... | 21 |
what is the maximum number of moves possible in jenga? | provided it is optimally stacked, how many moves could a game of jenga last. | 15 | Jenga begins with 18 rows of 3 blocks each. The last possible configuration would be a stack of alternating perpendicular blocks 54 blocks high.
The first step would be to convert all 18 rows into 18 single middle blocks, which would take 36 moves, though you are now left with 12 full rows of 3 blocks on top of the or... | 24 |
ELI5: When physics says that information can never be completely destroyed, what is this "information" it talks about? | 40 | Think about it like this. If we knew exactly where everything is right now, we could follow it back to find out anything we wanted to about the past. As such, the present must contain the information needed to describe the past.
However, if randomness exists in the universe, then information *can* be created. We can f... | 18 | |
[LOTR] What if Bilbo found one of the lost dwarven rings in the cave instead? | 35 | Not much would be different for Bilbo up until his 111th party, and after the party he would probably keep the ring.
However, the bigger question is where the One ended up. It would either remain lost (in which case Sauron takes over), or be found and get to Sauron (in which case he takes over even easier). The chance... | 42 | |
ELI5: When you get badly burned does your muscle "cook" like when you fry a chicken breast? | i.e. Change irreversibly from normal red/pink muscle to white meat? | 18 | If you took a human muscle and pan fried it in animal fat it would behave much like beef or other red meat. It would not look like white or dark poultry because mammals generally have a different type of muscle tissue. | 11 |
CMV: it is not unethical to pray for someone without their permission | It has recently come to my attention that many people strongly believe that it is unethical to pray for others without their permission. While I myself am not religious, I absolutely do not understand how it could be unethical top pray for others without their permission or even against their express wishes. After al... | 31 | It all hinges on idea that these people belief that praying has an real world effect. They believe that it will influence their lives in some meaningful way.
If you believe that something will effect you (or in this case even your afterlife) then it would be unethical to do something to someone else without their cons... | 29 |
Would the big rip scenario be able to overcome even the binding force of a black hole, and if so, what sort of energy would be released when breaking the bond in a singularity. | After reading A Universe from Nothing a few months ago I had been curious as to the fate of the universe whenever the expansion of space was accelerating exponentially and I came upon the big rip hypothesis.
Upon thinking more about this recently I began to wonder if the atomic bonds breaking during this process would... | 22 | All black holes are expected to evaporate over time by emitting Hawking radiation. So realistically a singularity shouldn't persist over time even if nothing close to a Big Rip happens.
Ignoring that, though, then a Big Rip still wouldn't "rip a singularity apart." The thing about a cosmological solution like that in ... | 10 |
ELI5 - How diet soda is zero calories | 34 | Soda's only source of calories, the sugar, is replaced by an artificial sweetener that is designed to fit within and act on your sweet taste buds, but won't be digested.
Sucralose, used in most "X" Zero sodas is made from sugar and replaces some of the hydrogen atoms with chlorine atoms. This lets it act on your tast... | 24 | |
OOP (Object Oriented Programming) is snake oil. CMV | Whenever I press my fellow developers for a definition of OOP, they all give different and often demonstrably wrong answers. I've heard things like, "OOP is interfaces" and "OOP is encapsulation", which aren't unique to OOP whatsoever. I've heard "OOP gives you code reuse" and the usual answer to my followup is inherit... | 19 | What you're criticizing is exactly the *point* of OOP. It allows people to do interfaces, encapulation, and code reuse without needing to have a formal understanding of those things, just like C-level imperative programming allows you to issue commands without needing a formal understanding of registers and stack point... | 11 |
[Avatar] Is there a reason the avatars follow a cycle? | Why does the avatar cycle follow the order of the season fire, air, water and earth? Does it matter? Theoretically couldn’t Raava just choose whoever she wants to be the next avatar and it would essentially make no difference? What gave her the idea to go in this order in the first place? In ATLA it works out because A... | 15 | Fire, Air, Water, Earth.
The order Avatar Wan was granted the elements by the Lion Turtles.
Coincidence? Maybe.
But Raava is the spiritual personification of Order. It's possible bonding with her forces Wan's natural reincarnation into a more orderly pattern, each nation in turn. | 32 |
How do two particles "become" entangled? | I've been trying to understand entanglement but I fail to realize if the link between two particles is locked at random or if the particles need to originate from the same source (i.e:sub-particles of the same particle) to be entangled. | 36 | usually, it's in the "creation" of the particles. A spin zero particle decays into two spin 1/2 particles, and conservation of angular momentum tells you their spins must be opposite, for instance. Or a photon passing through a crystal that splits it into two photons, one will be polarized one way and the other polariz... | 18 |
How does carbon dating accurately work considering all of the molecules likely come from beyond ancient supernova? | I'm just confused. | 259 | Don't worry about supernova and the formation of the earth. Carbon dating is waaaay simpler than that.
High energy cosmic rays are constantly bombarding the earth from space which convert a little bit of the Nitrogen-14 in the atmosphere into Carbon-14. That carbon-14 is radioactive and decays away slowly, with a hal... | 204 |
CMV: The rioting in Baltimore is inexcusable, but shouldn't be glazed over as 'just rioting' - there's a social message to be derived here. | First off, let me clarify that I do not support the riots in Baltimore, or riots anywhere. Rioting is criminal and destructive in nature, and does nothing good for anyone. It ruins communities, uproots lives, and presents a huge burden on society, on the police, and on the people who are trying to get legitimate social... | 546 | This may not be a direct rebuttal, but: the looting and violence serves to completely undermine the public opinion that would otherwise favor changing the underlying situation. It probably even serves to justify the harshness used by police in many opinions- many people surely think if these communities are prepared to... | 240 |
Why are large physics detectors like LHC and Super K buried underground? Is it because they are dangerous? | 16 | I can only answer this question for the LHC, but the main reason is simply that the device is too big to economically build above ground.
The LHC reuses the tunnel previously used for the LEP (Large Electron-Positron collider). It has a diameter of 27 km and building such a large structure above ground would require t... | 29 | |
ELI5; Years ago (like in the nineties) all computers were beige. Was there a reason for it? | 20 | At the time the color (technically called "putty") was intended to blend in with any office decor. Most filing cabinets were also putty, and it was a standard color for other accoutrements. It was meant to be unobtrusive (which is also why the "loud" IBM Selectric Typewriter colors like electric blue and red didn't sel... | 28 | |
ELI5: Hacking | Can someone tell me the basis of computer system hacking? Like where the hell do these people start learning this stuff? | 24 | Hacking is using any piece of technology to obtain information and/or complete tasks for which it was not designed to do. Mainly by having a higher understanding, thinking outside the box or by chance occurrence. | 33 |
ELI5: Why does water temperature matter when washing clothes? | Visiting my parents, my mom seems disappointed to find me washing my clothes in cold water, she says it's just not right but couldn't quite explain why.
I've washed all of my laundry using the "cold" setting on washing machines for as long as I can remember. I've never had color bleeding or anything similar as seems t... | 8,928 | Once upon a time, detergents didn't work so well in cold water. Washing machines had cycles like "Cotton 140F" and "Delicates 100F" and that was how your mom grew up. If you washed in cold water it didn't work well at getting your clothes clean, and it didn't rinse well either.
Since she grew up there have been huge i... | 7,378 |
[Star Wars] Are Star Destroyer second in commands allowed to make major urgent decisions while the captain is asleep? | Say a nearby system is under Rebel attack and the captain is asleep. Can the awake senior officer order hypering to the battle and start engagement while captain is woken up and briefed on the situation? This would save Imperial lives/limit damage and increase chance of catching Rebel Scum before they hyper away after ... | 50 | Any military worth its salt allows subordinates some leeway in making decisions; however, in this scenario the very first action the officer of the deck (or whatever they call it) will take is to wake up the captain via phone or runner, and if possible get his guidance and intent. In the intervening minutes until the c... | 58 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.