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(Marvel) What were scientists looking for when they found Captain America's body? | We've all heard he is a man out of time, frozen for many years. What was it the scientists were looking for when they found the body of Captain America? | 28 | In the MCU the scientists were most like looking for lost Hydra technology after WWII after discovering a weird signal coming from that location. Shield has been known to be researching Hydra tech before the New York Invasion and was most likely following some leads. Finding Captain America was a byproduct of looking... | 22 |
Why is it that humans can regenerate skin, bone and muscle after an injury but can't regrow lost limbs or eyes? | It's not clear to me how the body "knows" what the difference between healing a cut in your leg or burn on your hand and the loss of a hand or ear, etc. Obviously the severity of the wound is more severe in the latter case but isn't the process the same (regrowing cells that match the cells around the wound based on th... | 463 | The regeneration process for each tissue type in our body is very different. Some types of tissues are able to regrow very fast either because the cells they are composed of are proliferative, or because they have adult stem cell pools associated with the tissue. Skin is an example of a tissue that is composed of highl... | 365 |
ELI5: Why doesn't Tumblr receive child pornography charges even though it's full of nudes of minors? | As many of you know, tumblr's main demographic is underaged teenage girls. A large portion of their contributions are selfies and nudes. There's many different tags for this, notoriously topless tuesday. With all the jailbait drama that's been going around, surely tumblr would be noticed? | 25 | These sites can't police every single post. If one is brought to their attention they deal with it, but sites like Facebook and Tumblr get literally thousands of posts a minute. Users are generally responsible for the content they post, not the hosting site as long as they've got policies in place to handle inappropria... | 18 |
[Mad Max 2] Would Lord Humongous have let the people in the compound go? | He gives a pretty impassioned speech about letting them go when he realistically could have said nothing and stormed/layed siege to the base.
Also, whilst they are clearly the aggressors in the siutation, they are not the first ones to draw blood (granted it's a kid that does that) | 16 | It’s a bad idea to engage in battle with an opponent who can fight back when you’re living in anarchy and have no medical system.
The Humungus wanted the refinery, not a fight where his gang could get depleted. | 22 |
ELI5: How come a business will position itself near another business/businesses that offer the same service? | Why will there be all different kinds of places(ie: fast food places, lowes and home depot, etc) on the same road/in the same area if they are all competitors? What drives the decisions to put a business near another business/multiple businesses that provide the same service? Also, if this is so common, how come you ne... | 48 | Imagine a beach with 2 drink stands, one in the middle of the left half of the beach and 1 in the middle of the right half. That would be optimal.
Lets say the drink stand from the right half moves to the middle of the whole beach. Now he gets all the customers of the right half and some from the left.
Consequently th... | 34 |
[The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug] In the movie, Bilbo almost tells Gandalf he has the ring right before they enter Mirkwood. What would have happened if he had told him? | 27 | In all likelihood, nothing. Gandalf knew Bilbo had some kind of magical ring for many years before he discovered it was actually the One Ring. In fact, Gandalf was probably *more* suspicious of the ring's potential influence because Bilbo would never have ordinarily tried to conceal its existence or lie about how he ac... | 39 | |
[Bollywood] What is the name of the superpower all these Indian men have, and what are it's limits? | Examples:
https://np.reddit.com/r/BollywoodRealism/top/ | 20 | Any square-jawed male with solid morals can do that. It's very similar to how action movie heroes only take grazes from automatic weapon fire, and when they do take a bullet they can survive and keep fighting with minimal first aid. | 21 |
ELI5: why do you always feel better after a shower when you're sick? | Is there something actually happening or just a placebo? | 25 | More than likely your body is dehydrated from trying to make you not sick, and a shower helps rehydrate you, if only a little bit. Plus, if your ailment has something to do with your sinuses, the hot steam of the shower will help alleviate some of the build up in there. | 18 |
[Star Wars] Why did Sidious go from a caring father-figure to some distant "master" figure to Vader? | I mean, after he wore the hood and everything, their relationship didn't seem as close as Anakin-Palpatine. I get that Sidious just revealed himself as a Sith lord, but he and Vader could've still had a good relationship right?
It seems all that happens between them now is Vader gets on his knees and becomes Sidous' b... | 160 | Well, one thing to keep in mind is that Palpatine completely coaxed Anakin out of his shell only to manipulate the young jedi's vulnerability and fear (which the Jedi's could not help him quell). Right here we see that Sidious does not care about the person the is Anakin, but the tool that is Vader. there is no true re... | 143 |
[DBZ] Why doesn't anyone ever start a battle with their most powerful ki-based attack? | Every battle I've seen, every fighter (with the only exception maybe being Kid Buu) starts the battle off with a series of punches and kicks against their opponent who they clearly know won't be down for the count. This makes sense for villains who like to toy with their opponents, but for Goku & Co, they're DEFEND... | 53 | There are a couple big things at play here:
1. Even when defending the Earth, Goku usually doesn't start the fight seriously. It's usually implied that Goku spends at least a portion of the battle holding back and testing his opponent to get an idea of their capabilities before seriously attacking. Other fighters tend... | 89 |
[Star Wars] Why does the the republic/empire change the look of there troops/ships/fighters so often? When other factions rarely (or never) did, like rebels and the trade federation. | Seems like they are always changing up troop armor and star ships. Changing out millions (billions?) of troop armor and thousands of star ships can't be cheap. Does the republic/empire lease and not buy? | 51 | Evolving requirements.
The initial launch of clonetroopers came from and were at least in part trained by -- or had their training regimens shaped by -- Jango Fett. Their armor bears many similarities to his own armor, no doubt due in part to the nature of what he was accustomed and trained to do.
Fast-forward over t... | 56 |
ELI5: Why do stars, including the sun, shine? What makes the light? | 17 | The light comes from the upper layers of the sun. They shine because they're hot, just like lightbulbs and toasters do. The sun is so bright because at 5500 °C/ 9900 F, the effect is pretty big, and the sun's photosphere is more than 100 kilometers thick, all of which is shining. That adds up.
You may hear people sa... | 23 | |
ELI5: Does holding a shirt or cloth up to your face during a fire actually keep you from breathing in smoke? If so, how does that work? | 108 | It works to a degree, because the cloth filters out some of the particulate matter - that's all smoke is at the end of the day - airborne particles as a byproduct of combustion.
BUT, there is a diminishing return with them - same reason dust masks are disposable and shouldn't be reused.
A filter will block some of wh... | 81 | |
What actually is happening when you fold paper? What makes it go from bending to creasing at a certain point? | The same can apply to other materials, but I fold paper all day at work. Which reminds me, I should get back to work. | 27 | A lot of materials have a yield stress. Including paper. When enough force is applied, the stress in the paper can exceed its yield stress. From that point on the material is plasticly deformed, which means when you stop applying force, the paper will not bend back into its original shape. | 12 |
[Marvel] Why doesn't Xavier walk? | Watching *Wolverine and the X-Men*, where Prof X is sent to the future somehow and constructs himself a pair of bionic leg braces that help him walk. Why has Forge never made the Prof some working leg braces? | 24 | Part of life is accepting who you are. This goes double for the professor who regularly is seen in public arenas and by prospective students and their parents. It would not do well to be seen as Robot Xavier.
He could switch back and forth between the chair and robotic appendages, but he's found contentment with his ... | 24 |
ELI5: How are lumens and candela related and what each represents. | In trying to learn more about each, I was curious if my analogy was appropriate. Is candela sort of like a decibel? In the sense that you can double the lumens, but that doesn't double the intensity of the light. Like four hands clapping isn't twice as loud as two hands clapping. | 25 | A lumen is the total amount of light coming from a source; its "luminous power." It's equivalent to Watts, the measure of power, but weighted for human vision, e.g., an infra red lamp could put out 100 Watts but, if we can't see it it would be producing zero lumens. It's a similar idea to the special A-weighted decib... | 27 |
[DC Comics] Does Superman become weaker at night? | 135 | Theoretically over time and if the night lasts forever yes. But keep in mind that he has been absorbing sunlight for decades so he has more than enough power inside him to last an entire night fighting. | 100 | |
[X-Men] With their healing factors, how strong could Wolverine or Deadpool get by constantly working out? | The way strength is built in the gym is by stressing muscles, and after micro tears in the heal, you get stronger. But the process takes time. People who use steroids can speed up this time, allowing them to work out longer and more intensely.
With their healing factor, Wolverine and Deadpool could basically work out... | 601 | This is actually a major reason for both Wolverine's strength and athleticism, since the adamantium coating his skeleton happens to add just over a hundred pounds onto his frame; he'd weigh 195 without it.
Because he's hauling that extra weight, his body is constantly healing his muscles to make him strong enough to c... | 511 |
I don't think piracy is bad. CMV | I "know a guy" who pirates plenty of software, and I don't think it is bad to do so because:
1. He would not buy the software regardless, but he is able to use it through piracy. If there was no way to pirate the software (let's use Photoshop as an example here), then he would either not use it or find a free altern... | 89 | Because he isn't taking something tangible doesn't mean he isn't taking something that belongs to someone else. Intellectual property has value, and it has an ownership, and that owner should have the full to do with it what they want.
Is it ok the NSA takes people's information? They're not taking anything physical ... | 36 |
[Star Wars] Why doesn't the rebellion use more captured Imperial Equipment? | 67 | Servicing captured equipment is annoying at best and impossible at worst. Part of the Germans' logistical problems in World War 2 was that their trucks were scavenged and stolen from so many places that nothing was interoperable and they lacked the ability to source spare parts for many vehicles. This led to absurd att... | 71 | |
Does having repetitive hypoglycemia result in permanent brain damage (reduced memory and intelligence)? | [WebMD](https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/story/the-invisible-damage-diabetes-does-to-your-body) states:
> Studies tie diabetes to proteins in your brain that are linked to dementia. Because of narrowed, hardened arteries, your chances of stroke are also higher. Your brain needs sugar to do its job. Repeated bouts of l... | 48 | Depends on how hypoglycemic you were and for how long. Severe hypoglycemia causes the same type of brain injury that hypoxia does. Brain cells need oxygen and glucose to function take away one or the other it’s the same result. Even a single hypoglycemic episode can cause severe brain damage (or death). Having repeated... | 17 |
Is there clay anywhere else in the solar system? | 16 | Curiosity found clay minerals on Mars a few years back. We've gone back and forth about whether they could have formed without water, though other evidence for water on Mars does point to it once being a much wetter planet, probably with a global ocean early on its history. | 16 | |
[LOTR/Hobbit] How long does it take for an elf to mature? | With such long life spans are they children for longer periods of time or another maturation process completely different from ours? | 29 | Mentally, elves actually develop more quickly than humans; for example, elves learn to walk and speak before they're a year old. Physically, they age at the same rate as humans until around the age of 3, after which their growth slows greatly. Elves only finish growing between the ages of 50 and 100. | 27 |
ELI5: How does a clone differ from an identical twin? | 16 | Genetically, they don't. In practice, a twin is a birth defect that causes one fertilized egg to grow into two people, and a clone would be a person grown from an already-born person's DNA, probably not taken from their reproductive organs. | 18 | |
[Die Hard] If Al Powell the cop is on desk duty, why is he out on patrol with a police car? | He states he couldn't raise his weapon again after accidentally shooting a kid and thus put on desk duty. What was he doing with a police car when buying snacks at the convenience store and why did dispatch send him to investigate Nakatomi Plaza if he wasn't a street cop? | 259 | He’s still a cop, and a sergeant, so keep that in mind up top. “Desk duty” could mean any number of things, and as a sergeant, Al’s scope of responsibilities could entail stuff that is mostly desk-adjacent, sure. But he’s still a cop with a radio that has to leave the station sometimes. In most major American cities li... | 243 |
[Dragon Ball] Cell can sense ki. Why doesn't he ever try to reach the Lookout? | Cell has shown the ability to sense ki multiple times (most notably to track down 17 and 18 when Piccolo is fighting 17), yet he never uses this to reach Kami's place. He expresses to Trunks after Grade 3 Trunks loses to Cell that he's curious as to how Trunks and Vegeta got so much stronger in a short period of time. ... | 40 | Given that Cell is an amalgamation of the Z fighters DNA, he's inherited a lot of their strengths, but also weaknesses. His major fatal flaw was his pride/confidence in his own superiority (Thanks Vegeta). Despite his minor curiosity, he just didn't care enough to really look into it. In his mind, he's the perfect bei... | 58 |
[DC comics] How is superman the last descendant of Rao and the reason of him being the strongest Kryptonian is because of this when Kara his cousin should also have the same demigod blood and be a descendant? | 92 | Kal-El is not the last descendant of Rao - he may however be the last **pure-blood** descendant, whatever that means in Kryptonian culture.
If it's anything like Egyptian pure-blood descendants of Ra, Kara probably doesn't qualify due to her mother not being a close enough relative of the house of El - IOW she's insuf... | 81 | |
ELI5: Why isn't obesity considered an eating disorder? | 39 | In some cases it's considered a SYMPTOM of an eating disorder, but remember, not all obesity is caused by over eating.
even if ALL obesity were caused by overeating, obesity itself would still not be an eating disorder. it would be a symptom of an eating disorder. | 22 | |
ELI5: Why people say "pardon my French" right before/after they swear | 4,030 | In the early 19th century, intellectuals and those well-traveled would often drop French words into the conversation to show how clever they were. They would then point out that the word they had just used was French, often to embarrass someone nearby who was less fluent in the language.
To counter this, the less well... | 4,895 | |
ELI5: Why do so many people use "Jesus Christ" and other God-based words as curse words and not names of evil people like Hitler in the same way? | 17 | Profanity comes from the assumption that something upheld is being debased. Curse words can come from a few places, but using words with deep seated cultural connotations force you to see it as vulgar when used in certain situations. This is because it crosses a boundary, it's taboo, it shows disrespect and people find... | 18 | |
CMV: I don't see what's wrong with suicide | A lot of my friends have been dealing with suicidal thoughts recently. If they come to me for advice, I really struggle on how to tell them/encourage them to keep living. I've been in their position but I really don't understand why people are so against suicide. If they don't like their life then why should we try to... | 234 | A person who truly wants to die will just do it. They won't threaten to do it or tell a bunch of people. They'll just get it done.
Saying that you want to die is a cry for help. If they are telling you it's very likely that they want you to try to help them change their mind. Even if they don't realize that's what's h... | 370 |
How much closer would a human have to travel (Mi./Km) towards the Sun to feel a noticeable rise in temperature? Vice verse for traveling away from the sun? | 53 | Are we in space or on earth? The sun transmits heat via radiation (vs convection or conduction).
The amount of energy transmitted follows an inverse square law (1/x^2) so if you are twice as close to the sun, you experience 4 times the energy transfer.
You have a LOT of variables to consider if you are in space. What... | 10 | |
[The Lion King] Mufasa is badly injured in the wildebeest stampede, but manages to survive. How does the rest of the movie play out differently? | 17 | Pretty quickly IMO. It's his word against Scar's, who was never popular to begin with, and only had an alliance with the hyenas on the promise they'd have prime access to food when he's king. Mufasa has the whole of the pride on his side. Knowing Mufasa, he probably wouldn't have Scar killed even after a murder attempt... | 31 | |
How populated was the earth with Dinosaurs during the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous periods? | If I were to DeLorean back to the age of the Dinosaurs, what would my chances of seeing a small/medium/large dinosaur in any encounter? Would driving anywhere be like a safari in Africa or would you really have to seek out the creatures? How different was the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods? | 44 | Well the Triassic was immediately following the Great Dying, 90% of life was gone, so you wouldn’t see much of anything at first. Then you’d see more Lystrasauros (sp?) which weren’t dinosaurs but rather some of the last of the Mammal like Reptiles. They were really the first animals to recover and were everywhere. ... | 26 |
ELI5: What happens when a magnet is too close to a hard drive and ruins it? Does this also apply to solid state drives? | Title pretty much says it all. | 36 | A magnetic field is like waves hitting the beach. A normal hard drive is like drawing your data into the sand. The data is washed away by the waves, because they move the sand. A solid state drive is like drawing your data with little stones. They aren't moved by the waves, so they wont be affected by the waves. | 62 |
What happens inside the digestive system when a lactose intolerant person consumes dairy? | 280 | Your gut just lacks the enzymes to process the lactose, the bacteria that then meet the undigested lactose produce a bunch of nasty byproducts as they make efforts to devour the sugar. They produce lots of gas and the bacteria for the most part can't really handle it so the material just kinda gets shoved along the dig... | 204 | |
ELI5: Why are some types of alcohol drinkable while some, like rubbing alcohol will kill you? | 27 | "Alcohol" is a general term for a group of organic substances. There are a lot of them and almost all alcohols are poison for the human body. However, at some point in time people found out that beer tastes well, and over the course of many generations a pretty good resistance to a single alcohol that is called ethanol... | 30 | |
ELI5: Considering how many stars are out in space, why is it that we aren't constantly seeing supernovas in the sky? | I understand that a lot of the stars we see today aren't there anymore, I just don't understand why we don't see supernovas very often | 72 | Well not all stars die out through supernovae and we think that only one star in the milky way goes supernova every 50 years or so. It's not all that common. Given the number of stars visible from Earth, we're probably capable of detecting supernovae pretty often, but most just occur too far from Earth to be seen witho... | 28 |
Why does Venus rotate in the opposite direction to the other planets in our solar system? | 17 | The planets conserve their initial angular momentum. Uranus and Venus have opposite rotation from the rest of the planets. This is due to the impacts by asteroids in the early years of their formation. These impacts have probably reversed their rotational direction. | 12 | |
ELI5: How do credit card rewards work, and can I really get free flights and such just by spending money? | I only have one credit card right now, which I am using to slowly build my credit by buying gas each month (anywhere from $75-$125 a month). I do not really know anyone who uses a reward card, but I've heard plenty about frequent flyer miles and other rewards and such. How do these cards really work? | 136 | Credit card companies make money in 2 main ways;
1) If you do not pay of the balance at the end of every payment period (usually a month, but there might be cards with other terms), they can charge interest. Usually this is a rather high rate.
2) Companies that want to accept payments from credit cards must pay the ... | 56 |
ELI5: What prevents our eyeballs from being able to look left and right at the same time? | Edit: not talking about cross eyed. Talking about left looking left, and right looking right | 808 | Eye movement is one of the most complicated aspects of the nervous system. There are 6 main muscles and 3 main nerves that control each eye around 3 axes. As others are saying it's very common for the left eye to look right and the right eye to look left at the same time (i.e. cross-eyed)—this happens when we look at s... | 380 |
What makes something 'important?' | Why is literature more important than gossip, philosophy more important than masturbation, world affairs more important than smoking pot etc?
AFAIK, the word 'importance' is only useful when used in reference to a goal. So a pair of scissors would be useful if you want to cut pieces of paper, but it is useless/less us... | 42 | The best answer to this question for me is simply that those things are considered to be more important because people who enjoy both type of things, recognize that intelectual pursuits are more meaningful to their lives than masturbating. They also masturbate and enjoy themselves doing it, but recognize that it is a f... | 19 |
PhDs who successfully landed a job in academia: how's your workload compared to that of a PhD student? | Are your responsibilities as time consuming? Is your mind constantly set to work, due dates and what needs to be done next? How's the pressure to meet the job requirements vs the usual PhD pressure? | 95 | Postdoc was fine -largely like an extended PhD although this depends mostly on what your PhD was like and how much academic freedom you're used to.
Tenure track is an unending hell, where you switch from grant deadlines, to brief moments of research, to service and to teaching.
The pressure continues to be large... | 137 |
CMV: The Concept of Men Having To Be the Pursuer In Relationships Is A Stupid Idea Meant to Control People | Its forces men and women to form life and morals around a societal idea that is designed to force people into roles.
If you want to be approached by anyone, you've got to play this Alpha Male Dance, and force people into being interested. I've talked to many a person, after being friends with them so long, who give the... | 2,422 | From the perspective of an evolutionary psychologist these different behaviours from men and women with regard to finding sexual partners are cognitive biases and adaptive behaviours. They aren't rules created by humans that are unique in humans. Many other species have similar behaviours where the male pursues the fem... | 628 |
[King of the Hill] Is it ever fully explained why Cotton hates Hank so much? | 23 | There's a few factors.
Cotton went to war at 14 and isn't very well adjusted emotionally. He doesn't just struggle with emotional intimacy, he has contempt for it.
Cotton dragged his ready-to-pop pregnant wife to a Yankees game as camouflage for an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro. Hank ended up being born in N... | 33 | |
[MCU] "I have defended Asgard and the lives of the innocent across the Nine Realms since the time of the Great Beginning." So...did Odin just not notice the major incursions on Earth by the Skrulls and the Kree? | During the events of Captain Marvel, Earth, one of the Nine Realms, becomes the site of a (relatively by Earth standards) major conflict between the warring Kree and Skrull Empires. An invasion by several Skrulls and the presence of a member of Starforce, one of the Kree's most elite military forces, seems like the kin... | 105 | Heimdall was probably monitoring the situation and telling Odin that everything was cool. Keep in mind that up until Ronan arrived Earth wasn't really in too much danger, and when he did appear Captain Marvel already had everything under control. | 108 |
ELI5 How are we able to charge our phones wirelessly, and why isnt that technology being used everywhere? | 65 | Wireless charging is done through induction. When you run and electrical current through a coiled wire, you generate a magnetic field around it. Conversely, when a coiled wire experiences a change in the local magnetic field, it generates a current.
So your charger runs an alternating current (AC) through a coiled wir... | 101 | |
[Star Wars] Has Vader ever been shown to use the buttons on his suit? In comics, animation series, movies? | 63 | He can use them, but everything is set how he likes it. Remember how mad you dad got when you messed with his car seat, adjusted his wheel, or fucked with the radio levels? Now, Imagine your dad was burn to a crisp, and able to kill with a thought. Needless to say, his buttons don't get messed with often. | 68 | |
[Marvel] So, the Spirit of Vengeance chose me, but I have a rather... unique taste in vehicles. Can I drive a Yugo? | If not a Yugo, what about these?
* A pogo stick
* a spaceship
* a Ford Pinto | 86 | The Ghost Rider can ride anything to get from point A to point B. A previous one even had a horse as a mode of transportation. It's perfectly reasonable to use a Yugo, a pogo stick, a spaceship, or a ford pinto as the Ghost Rider and have it undergo the expected transformations. | 73 |
ELI5: What is Learned helplessness and what is a typical example of it in today's society? | 198 | Learned helplessness is esentially when you try something and either fail or are told you failed so many times that you stop trying. A great example from the animal world is that young elephants are often chained with an ankle restraint to a pole. They learn that that ankle restraint is strong enough to stop them from ... | 292 | |
ELI5:Why are maps and nearly all pictures of earth from space oriented south to north? | I understand the linear orientation is probably driven by the poles. But what about the solar system, we look at everything from our sun to neighboring planets the same way...was it by chance or early astronomers drawings? Is it something to do with direction of spin/orbit? | 51 | It is only by preference. Most of the continents are in the North part of the globe. Mapping software can now make maps with any orientation. You can use Google Earth to show you the world oriented in any direction.
Producers of maps are taught to include a directional sign, usually North, on the map to help with orie... | 20 |
Eli5: Rehydration clause in boxing | 19 | Boxers want to box someone their own weight (or smaller). The weigh-in occurs many hours before the fight. What can happen is, a 165-lb boxer can sweat out 13 lbs to make the weigh-in limit of 152 lbs, then eat and drink themselves back to their normal weight of 165 before the actual fight. If his opponent really is... | 13 | |
CMV: Given that no ayatollahs or imams or Islamic scholars have come out as condemning what is going on in Iran, it is reasonable to assume that the events in Iran are representative of Islam | I have seen many anonymous Muslims online claiming that the actions undertaken by the Islamic Republic of Iran are not Islamic.
There are different ways to determine what is Islamic and what is not. One way is to read the Quran and decide. I don't think this is a real option for atheists or other non-Muslims. If you ... | 305 | Someone else can explain the “blame all for one” issue. But I’ll add you’re asking “Islamic scholars — professors and interpreters — and preachers — to condemn how one government that adheres by its definition of the minority sect’s view of Islam enforces its criminal laws. Shiite Islam is massive, but Shia and Sunni M... | 77 |
ELI5: What is happening internally when a boxer 'loses his feet' ? | When a boxer has the difficulty to move around, what exactly happened inside his body and where did he need to get hit in order to 'lose his feet' ?
Clarification: I don't mean a knock out. I mean not being able to move around freely; it's like like your legs are resisting.
(edit: word stuff) | 62 | Well aside from the whole "O shit that hurt!" part of the brain when you take a massive body shot. It's also a biological reaction. When you receive that kind of trauma to the internal organs. You're body reflexively goes into survival mode. As it's not sure exactly what the hell just happened. So it ramps up blood pro... | 40 |
[Harry Potter] Why is the Ravenclaw common room so easy to get in to? | Ravenclaw may be the house that values intelligence the most, but that does not mean that everyone in the other houses is stupid *cough*Hermione*cough*.
And if the door asks a riddle that one could reasonably expect a first year Ravenclaw to answer, then surely one of the older years in another house (you know, those ... | 123 | [](/rscootaplease) Rowena Ravenclaw didn't care about security so much as keeping the dimwits out. The other founders all played their political games and tried to keep one another from learning their secrets, but Ravenclaw just wanted to create a sanctuary for the clever and the wise. It didn't really matter to her wh... | 208 |
[Star Wars] Why doesnt the Clone Army or the Droid Army use proper military tactics? | There are numerous examples of large scale battles in which both armies refuse to use standard military tactics, and instead march towards the opposite army in large tight columns with shots being fired straight at them, also completely disregarding the danger of thermal detonators being thrown into a tight crowd.
It... | 160 | Because Palpatine's ultimately in charge of both sides, and he doesn't *want* to win any battles.
What he wants to spread chaos and destabilize the republic so he can later swoop in and reform it into the empire. For this to work, obviously, the republic can't win. Then they've stabilized and all is fine. But they can... | 197 |
Pro-life friend has questions about birth control and egg fertilization | My conservative Christian friend is getting married and has heard that there's a tiny chance birth control will destroy a fertilized egg. She believes that life begins at conception. She is planning to only use condoms, but gave me permission to do some research and present her with a pro-life argument for birth contro... | 29 | It means that a fertilized egg often is not sufficient to be pregnant. Many pregnancies do not get to the stage of an implanted egg and many of those that manage to implant in the uterus still do not get past the 8th week.
Basically, there are so many things that can go wrong between intercourse and birth it is a wond... | 15 |
[LOTR] What does the ring show/say/feel to frodo and others whom have it that makes them act so differently or have PTSD? | 42 | Basically the ring subjects its wielder too intense subliminal brainwashing.
When Sauron and made the One Ring he put a part of himself into it which is why it could only be destroyed in the fires that made it and when it was destroyed it killed Sauron.
That bit of Sauron slowly eats away at you compelling you to a... | 36 | |
[Dog With a Blog] How the hell does Stan type with dog arms? | 21 | Easy, he's an early 40k psyker. Before the Age of Strife, most humanoid Psykers were unheard of, but there were dog psykers before since they had been a species for much longer. Using psychic power from the early Warp, he is able to take control of the computer's machine spirit. Yeah, that's how it goes. | 20 | |
[The Incredibles] Frozone is unable to use his powers due to a lack of moisture in the air. Upon being confronted by an officer he drinks a relatively small amount of water and is able to use his powers again to encase the man in far more ice compared to what he drank. How?? | ​ | 29 | You forget they are standing arguing in the jewelry store for a bit. There's probably a fair amount of water left in the air there as that store wasnt on fire. He probably just needed the water to kickstart his powers with a little bit of hydration. | 60 |
Has the thickness of phones reached a physical limit? | Not much more contect needed I think. (If yes, what stops us?) | 130 | There's nothing directly keeping phones from getting thinner. There's a number of things that will make it unlikely anybody would decide to, though-- the biggest of which is probably the camera. Cameras are effectively setting the phone thickness limit right now, to the point where the common design workaround is to ... | 56 |
If I we were to place an optical telescope 100 light-years away from Earth, and look back at it, would we see Earth 100 years ago? | This is something that recently occurred to me.
Assuming perfect conditions, if an optical telescope with unlimited power were to be placed 100 light-years away from Earth, then pointed back at it, would we be able to see life 100 years ago?
~~Also, I'd add the "Astronomy" tag, but at the top of the submission page... | 15 | This is correct - a telescope that is currently 100 light-years away from Earth would see Earth as it was 100 years ago...but there are a few caveats:
- First, you'd need a big telescope - like, *really* big. To even see the Earth near the Sun, you'd require a telescope hundreds of times larger than anything that's ev... | 20 |
ELI5: Why do so many Americans blame Obama for practically everything? | 76 | Because most American citizens have very little idea of how their government actually works, and how limited the president's power is, domestically and economically. The president is the most well-known governmental figure, and it's a lot simpler to blame him than to go watch C-SPAN or check voting records and see tha... | 180 | |
[House of Cards] Is Frank Underwood able to deliberately break the 4th wall, are we simply seeing his thoughts in those moments, or is something else happening? | 15 | Before tv series there were movies and before movies there were plays, before plays there was your buddy telling you what was going through his head earlier when you both were at that thing.
Its called an "aside". As in taking the audience aside to fill them in on more details.
He's not breaking the fourth wall, he... | 26 | |
Why isn't there a version of birth control for males? | 42 | There is a form of male birth control accomplished through a vasectomy. This is the equivalent to a female having her fallopian tubes tied.
If you are referring to hormonal methods of birth control, the reason why none are used for men is about the side effects. In the female menstrual cycle, estrogen and progesterone ... | 20 | |
[40k] never played, can somebody explain the psychic orcs to me? | The most I know is the story about a guy who was kidnapped (or surrounded?) by orcs and without any ammo, but because the orcs didn’t know he had no ammo he just pointed his gun and shouted “BANGBANGBANG” and the orcs... actually died?
This one story has made me somewhat interested in 40k for no reason other than she... | 66 | All orks possess a low level of psychic ability that contributes to the gestalt psychic field. This means that the larger the assembly of orks, the more psychic power there is to create effects that mirror what the orks expect.
For example, a small band of a few dozen orks might paint their trukk red because they beli... | 86 |
Is it possible to reverse yellowing of teeth by brushing harder? Or is tooth yellowing permanent? | Edit: wow, calm down mods! I'm seeing a lot of helpful comments being removed. | 240 | Staining isnt the only reason teeth turn yellow. Enamel is white-ish but it's not completely opaque. Dentin, the material underneath your enamel is naturally yellow, aging and natural wear thins your enamel making the dentin more visible. If you brush too hard you could just end up stripping away more enamel resultin... | 213 |
ELI5: If so, what's the difference between a Sith Lord and someone using the dark side of the force? | 17 | A Sith Lord is trained as a Sith Lord. He or she learns not only the Force, but a certain code of ethics as well, questionable as they may be.
Someone who uses the Dark Side of the Force is just someone who has figured out how to use the Dark Side of the Force. Most likely, they were trained, at least to some degr... | 17 | |
ELI5: Why is hand-made stuff "better" than machine-made stuff? | A lot of high end suits and shoes brag that they're hand-made. Why is this better than machine-made, where the machine will do things precisely, while the man making it could make mistakes? | 71 | Machine-made generally means something that's designed for mass manufacturing. There are shortcuts in the design, because it has to be efficient to manufacture in quantity. The materials involved also have to be suitable for mass manufacturing and, ideally, inexpensive.
A good craftsman can do much better work. This i... | 97 |
If I lie in bed all day and don't eat between 10am and 6pm, I feel ravished and will go far out of my way for a meal. Every single night I lie in my bed and eat nothing between 10pm and 6am, and I feel no urgency to have breakfast. What's the difference? | 129 | Insulin levels rise and fall depending on your sleep schedule. Leading to hunger and fasting. In fact recent research in mice showed those mice that only ate during "mouse day time" for a set amount of time. 8 to 12 hrs. Maintained weight better then those who forged anytime. | 38 | |
How straightness is achieved in construction? | How did we develop first straight objects? For example to create a ruler we need some straightness reference(I assume). Of course nothing will be 100% straight but when you think all the delicate machinary such as medical devices and the machines used in the space we must be pretty close. Is there a way to geometricall... | 16 | simplest straight lines are a taut string or a flat water surface.
early surfaces were just created by hand. our precision has increased over time. we never hit perfectly straight, just straight enough to suffice. | 22 |
ELI5: Why do video game developers choose to only release games only on some consoles/PC but not others? How much more work does it take to program a game to operate on a different console, say Switch vs Playstation for example? | 17 | It takes a lot of work. Consoles tend to have less power than PCs and each of the major consoles uses a different operating system. PC and Xbox share a lot of internal code, but PCs have thousands of combinations of parts, compared to the consoles all using the same processors. For a small studio this is a lot of work.... | 30 | |
When a video game runs at 60 frames per second, does that mean only the display shows what happens every 60th of a second, or does the game have markers that take inputs and produce outputs only at those times too? | For example, I know that the CPU that's processing everything can make a cycle every couple billionths of a second, and all though it would take a lot of them to produce a result, taking an input and sending it to the game should be very fast, and be able to happen in between frames, right?
So for instance say there's... | 232 | It depends on the game.
Minecraft will draw frames as often as your GPU and your monitor can handle, but the physics system only "ticks" once every 1/20th of a second. Time happens in 50 ms slices. If you and a friend both hit two buttons to start two redstone clocks at the same time to within a few milliseconds then ... | 68 |
[General] Everyone is envious of Superman's Kryptonian powers and Spider-Man's spider-like abilities, but what superpowers are the most overrated? | 428 | Fire powers. Like... yeah, if you had Human Torch level immunity or Pyro's manipulation, it could be awesome! But if you had Avatar level fire bending, you're more than likely going to end up burning everything and everyone around you.
Also, power copying or cancelling... not only is it lame for stories, but if no on... | 378 | |
If you pointed a powerful laser (like the ones the military are using to take down missiles) at a mirror would it burn through the mirror or bounce off it? | 165 | Well, even a really great mirror isn't 100% reflective, so it will always absorb some of the light. If you pump strong enough, yes, you'll start to heat up the mirror faster than it can dissipate the heat and eventually it will melt.
Another thing to consider is that the reflectivity of a surface depends heavily on... | 161 | |
ELI5: why do LED torches have multiple small LED's instead of one big one? | 22 | Some of them (the nice, expensive ones) do have a single LED, such as Mag-Lite. Low-output LEDs are much less expensive to produce, so cheap flashlights often will have 25-50 of them (a dead giveaway is their very bluish tint); their overall light output is typically less than those with a single LED. When purchasing... | 19 | |
ELI5: Why aren't other animals as freaked out by bugs and creepy crawlies as humans? | Are we the only ones afraid, rationally or irrationally, of bugs? | 392 | Fear is generally a learned response in humans rather than being present from birth. Whenever a human is observing another human as being a role model, the observer sees the response taken by the role model, and is more likely to recreate that response in the future. Because of this, it's easy to pass on your fear of b... | 218 |
[Star Wars Legends] What was the point of the chosen one prophecy? | In legends, even though Anakin killed Palpatine on the second Death Star, he only truly died during the events of Dark Empire. The Sith would also still be around for at least 100 more years. Considering this, what was the point of the prophecy when the Sith still exist and Palpatine only died years later and not due t... | 84 | The imbalance came about because, through Palpatine's machinations, the Dark side had grown incredibly powerful, blinding the Jedi and other servants of the Light to his intentions, and even some of his actions. The Light was crippled by bureaucracy, negligence, tradition, politics, and a slew of other things. The Dark... | 48 |
If Earth's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen, then why did life develop using oxygen and carbon dioxide? | 16 | Something that is not brought up in many of the comments here is that life did not develop using molecular oxygen (O2) at all. The large concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is actually the result of biological activity (carbon fixation from CO2 and reduction of iron oxide before that) and not a prerequisite for i... | 38 | |
[Marvel] If i had a way to contact Galactus, how hard would it be to convince him to make me his herald? | 17 | If you can actually contact Galactus, you're pretty much halfway there. He's been known to force Heraldry onto various people, causing them to lose their memory and only want to serve him. If you simply ask, it's very possible he'll say yes if he doesn't currently have a Herald or has one that's openly defying him. | 24 | |
ELI5: Why does it feel colder inside in the winter even though the thermostat says the temperature is the same? | 19,186 | Humidity plays a big part in temp perception. In the winter, outside colder air cannot hold the same amount of humidity as hotter summer air, so typically your house, while the same temp, has less humidity. Even if you have a humidifier, it's tough to match the potentional summer air humidity. That difference eventu... | 8,664 | |
ELI5: Why is it when I eat or drink some things I feel like pooping within a few minutes when food and drink take hours to digest? | 21 | Eating or drinking something kick your digestive tract into motion. Lots of enzymes start squirting into your intestines. Lots of muscle contractions from your stomach to your butthole getting things moving along. Some chemicals in food (caffeine in particular) are *really* stimulating to your intestinal muscles. Wh... | 18 | |
Blackballed by department for reporting gender bias to the chair... should I stay or should I go? | This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons.
I’m a female PhD student in a leading department in my field. I started my PhD in a lab that was a top choice for me and I was really excited about it.
Not long into that lab experience, my adviser made direct comments about my ability to succeed based on my gender. ... | 177 | The Title IX office should eat the first department alive for their egregious behavior. Given the loss of publications, you have material damages.
Are you sure everyone in the first department agreed with the decisions pushed by the chair? You may come out fine if it's just the old misogynistic bullies that are agains... | 220 |
If gravity is a property of spacetime, why are we trying to explain it as a fundamental force? | I feel like I sound like a complete idiot asking this. I should mention I have no real background in physics, so I probably am an idiot.
From what I understand, we describe the strong force, the weak force, and the electromagnetic force as fundamental forces of nature, with each force being mediated by their own boson... | 21 | the other three fundamental forces are gauge theories, meaning that they also admit a "geometrical" formulation similar to, but not equal, that for gravity given by general relativity.
There are immense similarities between the other three interactions and gravity. Moreover, the geometric picture and the field picture... | 17 |
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