id stringlengths 13 25 | qid stringlengths 5 6 | question stringlengths 11 300 | answer stringlengths 64 13.7k | score int32 2 73.7k |
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AskReddit/drrjh8e | 7m49oy | What are some interesting things to ask old people? | I had a great aunt who was born in 1898 and died in 2004. She was sharp as a tack til the day she died. She always had a down to earth prospective on things. She taught me to cook, recipes are a good thing to ask. There is a concurrent question on the sub on surviving starvation during a war, she did it a few times. Wh... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c63en8t | zckdo | Why do we breathe irregularly while crying? | Teary eyes and a runny nose don't cause irregular breathing, but they share a common cause. Sobbing is a form of hyperventilation, which can happen in cases of extreme stress. The more stressful the situation, the more likely you are to hyperventilate. We don't usually sob while watching sad movies or when crying "happ... | 18 |
AskReddit/e174lx9 | 8tfnw1 | What would a site like 23andme or ancestry do with my DNA that could be harmful to me? | For some context, I've been thinking about getting a kit from either 23andme or ancestry for awhile now. Nearly all of my family on my mothers side were killed off in the holocaust and I'm wondering if there are any surviving members that I don't know about and could potentially find and reunite with. But I keep hearin... | 22 |
AskReddit/ea5ctsl | 9yyk9y | What is the best prank you’ve ever successfully pulled off? | I duct taped small sports cones to the passenger wheels of my buddy's car, he got pulled over and the cop walked up laughing and asked wtf was going on with dude's wheels. I didnt hear the end of that for a while. | 5 |
AskReddit/c6d6j05 | 10g6p4 | What is the single biggest misconception about MODERN History? | That he hated anyone that wasn't blonde hair, blue eyed. He hated any race that he didn't consider pure. He had a great love with the native peoples of North America, whom he considered pure. I have heard many stories by my grandfather and others talk about how great they were treated as POWs, my grandfather got steak,... | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/dy5rkcr | 8fpocf | Why aren't there more eye colors and what makes common eye colors common? | Cause the other answers don't seem very ELI5 I'll give it a go. Eye colour is determined by amount of melanin in the iris (coloured part of the eye). Melanin is the only pigment the human body has, albinos have none hence the paper white skin and blue/red eyes. Populations like Sudan have very high levels hence very da... | 17 |
AskReddit/cdicmil | 1r0ein | What was the most depressing time in your life? | Probably the time I reported a crime and was told that I had myself to blame for it. Not really sure what was worse, having to cope with someone treating me as less than a human being or coping with people thinking I had myself to blame for it. Anyways, that was a long time ago. It got me to where I am today and today ... | 2 |
AskReddit/erdg2s2 | c1ig0f | What is a small mistake you made that had really big consequences days or years later? | Went sled riding with my friend. Not long after college. Big snow. Lots of people sledding at a local golf course. Fun right? I went over the edge of a tee box that I couldn’t see and broke two vertebrae and a rib. All from doing something so innocent as sled ridding. That was about 10 years ago. I have constant back p... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c2shbt9 | lgfas | What is a company valuation? | It doesn't mean the company has $4 billion in the bank. It means the estimated price of the whole company is $4B. Another way of putting it is, the valuation is the sum of: all the things the company currently owns: money in the bank, computers, office stuff, inventory, etc. This is fairly easy to calculate, but in the... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ej7g5d7 | b4lgo0 | Why does an increase in an asset account consume cash? | An increase in an asset account only consumes Cash if Cash was spent to buy it. You are correct in that an Accounts Payable liability credit can account for an asset debit, just like a loan. Without more context, it's difficult to say why they chose the wording they did, but it could be just an easy way of unserstandin... | 3 |
AskReddit/c1whvbm | hm85g | How and when is the world going to end? | The world will most definitely end on September 7th, 1994 May 21st, 2011 October 21st, 2011, at sundown, when cataclysmic earthquakes will consume the earth. THE BIBLE GUARANTEES IT! | 2 |
AskReddit/c7bmklo | 14bs1r | What anniversaries to you silently acknowledge that appear to others to be just any old day? | I always acknowledge the anniversary of my best friends death. most people, even those who knew him, don't recognize that date as anything of importance. but to me it was the day I lost my best friend of 15 years, a day I will never forget. | 3 |
AskReddit/dp3412s | 79md31 | What's your "I never REALLY understood until." story? | Never really understood drug stereotypes until I tried them. Alcohol? Yeah you slur and say dumb stuf-ohyGod i jusLOVEE EVeryTHing Weed? You eat food & feel weir-dude. my hands. I have hands. and I use them. to eat chips. The second one is something I said last time I was high, not even a joke. | 2 |
askscience/cq4gj4w | 31s31d | If there were some event that made the planet uninhabitable due to radiation, how long would the radiation last? | This depends on what material is causing the irradiation. Radioactive materials decay by their half-life, which is the amount of time that it takes half of the material to decay. A shorter half life means that it would decay more rapidly than a material with a longer half life. To more directly answer your question, le... | 3 |
AskReddit/eha7fyq | aurtdr | If you found out you're the only human being who could never be hurt or die, what would you do knowing this? | I'm assuming that by can be hurt you mean I'm indestructible and not just that I can't feel pain so I would challenge people to fights and put money get people to bet on the fights, I'd probably also train to fight and try to join the ufc considering I won't have to worry about being knocked out or injured, I'd just ha... | 3 |
AskReddit/drvr8v8 | 7mpvua | What’s the most embarrassing “Oops, wrong person” moment of your life? | When i was a kid, one time i arrived to a restaurant, i saw a man sitting down in a table, i thought it was my father so i ran and hug him from behind just to notice that it wasn’t my father and my mother and sister started laughing, it was so embarrassing! | 3 |
AskReddit/epxder2 | bwg0km | When us humans die out, which creature or species do you think will take our place as the next dominant intelligent being on the human scale? | It probably does not even exist yet. If something happens that causes human extinction and extinction of other animals, there might be survivors living in the depths of our oceans that will evolve over millions of years to become another intelligent form of life. So if any intelligent creatures are reading this in a mi... | 2 |
AskReddit/ebukwfv | a6gj9r | How much money would you have to be paid to go 3 rounds against Mike Tyson in his prime? | There was a weird attempt back in the day, to put Carl Lewis and Mike Tyson in the ring together. Lewis was quoted as saying "I wouldn't get in a ring with Mike Tyson with a gun" | 3 |
AskHistorians/de740a6 | 5w334k | Why Western countries have ceased education of Classical language,like Latin or Greek since WW2 era? | I think you are somewhat overgeneralizing in your question. Latin (and less frequently also Greek) is still routinely taught in German schools in preparation for university education, which requires knowledge of two foreign languages, the main alternative being French. Also several university majors, e.g., history (eve... | 11 |
AskReddit/cru1rjk | 38cv0q | What is something odd that a customer or client has asked you for? | I work for a Marriott Hotel (Franchise). Guest asked to borrow my car to go out of state and promised to bring it back after 3 days. Funny thing is the guest had a brand new car but " I don't want to put that much mileage on it". The best part is he complained to my manager after I refused claiming "Terrible service". | 3 |
AskReddit/eu93s1l | cfd381 | What is running through your mind when you can't get to sleep at night? | Usually that I can’t sleep which makes it so I can’t sleep which makes the fact I’m not sleeping run through my mind which makes it so I can’t sleep. | 2 |
AskReddit/c9qym5m | 1djnta | What's the most childish way in which you've made an adult decision? | When me and my friends need to make a decision I pick one thing, they'll pick another in order to decide what we're gona do we play an intense game of rock, paper, scissors | 2 |
AskReddit/dudgxyo | 7y45r3 | What are some famous last words? | John Adams' finals words were "Jefferson survives," but in fact Thomas Jefferson died earlier the same day, which just so happened to be July 4th | 67 |
AskReddit/c5aart0 | w533x | What question do you hate answering about yourself? | i hate when people ask me what my job is. im a database designer at a company named AIR worldwide. its a job you have never heard of at a company you have never heard of. its not worth explaining it to someone who isnt a comp sci major because it makes no sense. i usually just answer with "nothing" | 42 |
explainlikeimfive/cxbx66q | 3u4xya | How come McDonalds salad dressing are from a brand name and the company doesnt make its own generic version? | In business, this is known as a "make or buy" decision, and they're very common. A team of people will analyze every aspect of either manufacturing your own item, or buying it from another company. Eventually, a decision is made. In this case, its likely that McDonald's felt that it would be cheaper to buy dressing, an... | 5 |
AskReddit/cgiqruz | 222ca1 | What do you hate about yourself? | There is this one thing about myself that I truly hate. I think I could possibly be a sociopath. I have no clue what turned me to be this way but I cannot change it. There a few things that make me think so. I am an impulsive liar and it's gotten to the point where I lie without knowing that I just lied. Also, I am ver... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dcc88xg | 5nkl3o | Why do a lot of singers sound western American when singing in English? | Mick Jagger, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Ed Sheeran, Phil Collins and George Michael all grew up in or near London and have very recognizably British accents. Once on stage, they sing like someone who grew up in New England rather than old. Yet another example is Adele, who has a lovely speaking voice, a very heavy cockne... | 28 |
AskReddit/eg1ylh1 | aokbqa | What is a universally accepted pain that most people know the feeling of? | Random shivers. You'll just be sitting or standing there and all of a sudden a bunch of muscles or ligaments just all hit at once and you spaz for a second. That, or your foot or hand falling asleep and feeling really weird as the blood returns. | 2,114 |
AskReddit/cx8ip19 | 3tqrfk | What's the most impressive thing you've ever done while drunk? | One time, when I was really high on mushrooms, I was in a forest with a couple buddies and we found a glass coke bottle. It felt so magical and outlandish to find an old fashioned cocacola bottle in the middle of the woods. In my excitement to tell a couple of the guys I was with, who were not immediately present for t... | 130 |
AskReddit/ebekv2v | a4hkes | What instances of deja vu have you experienced that you previously dreamt about? | I had a dream in which I was sitting with my group of friends where we always ate lunch, and some teachers started entering the classroom in front of us. One of my friends said “they are giving the teachers tablets in there” it was such a random comment and they clearly weren’t giving tablets away so I just elected to ... | 2 |
askscience/ckd44oy | 2fuflj | Is intelligence a dominant or recessive trait in human beings? | Not all traits are either dominant or recessive. Some traits, like intelligence, are the result of a great many genes, in addition to upbringing. In short, intelligence is too complex a feature to be the result of a single gene, and so cannot be either recessive or dominant. | 6 |
AskReddit/djui9cc | 6lkjm5 | Why does it seem like some people on political right have such a hard time to apply their ideology to the real world in a rational way? | That can be said for both sides of the political spectrum. For an example from the left (because you picked the right in your post), is universal basic income rational? What economic effects would it have on inflation? Where does the money come from? How would it affect investment spending and GDP? What is rational? Wh... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c5xc7f9 | yo6l0 | Why was it legal for the US military to travel to Pakistan (a country it is not at war with) to kill Bin Laden without having to let the Pakistani government know about it beforehand? | There is really no such thing as legal when it comes to international affairs. The US made a calculated response that the diplomatic fallout was worth it. And the fact that Pakistan was harboring him after repeatedly insisting he wasn't in the country, that help the US's case. If he were in China, the diplomatic and po... | 30 |
AskReddit/eg7uhzs | apf4qg | What’s the strangest dream you’ve ever had? | When my dog passed away after 16 years i dreamed about my grandparents (who also passed away). They told me not to worry, cause my dog will wait for me on the other side and they will take care of him. The strange part is, i never dreamed about my grandparents (barely knew them). | 6 |
AskReddit/eia3fvp | azctl5 | Who has has taken a second language, but still has no idea how to speak it? | I did 2 years of Russian classes in college. Part of my scholarship requirements was to take 2 years of foreign languages. While in the classes I actually did very well, learned a lot, and was able to hold some basic conversations in Russian. Then I just quit speaking, writing, or studying Russian at all. I now cant re... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c3h2ump | ogjgl | How can you "double" temperature? | Every substance has a specific heat, defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of that material by one degree. This means that doubling the absolute temperature (i.e. °K) requires twice as much heat. This doesn't work if we're talking in °C, because 0 °C doesn't mean zero heat. Howe... | 4 |
AskReddit/c5rfkbt | y1czd | What single person changed your life more than anyone else, and how? | My fourth grade teacher taught me how to treat others, be passionate about life, pursue my dreams, and love learning. I imagine I would be a very different person if I hadn't had him as a teacher. And yes, he was single. | 5 |
AskReddit/cn3crrl | 2q6o1o | What is something you were embarrassed about until you found out that other people did it? | I used to be so embarrassed about the fact that I had headlice when I was 10 years old. I never told anyone, I felt disgusting, even after they were gone. I only told a friend about it last year, and she actually laughed at me for being so embarrassed. Apparently everyone has had them at some point in their lives, I ne... | 18 |
AskReddit/ei1g498 | aykkfj | What’s a tattoo you wanted when you were young but now that you’re older it makes you cringe? | I wanted a tramp stamp when I was 16. My Dad payed for my sister to get a tattoo for her 17th birthday. I’m just lucky he was broke by the time my birthday rolled around lol. | 2 |
AskReddit/d4212y2 | 4n9por | What is the most spectacular example of Gallows Humor you have heard or witnessed? | My mom heard this from the colleagues in the homicide department: An officer arrives at the murder scene and has to gather info for his initial report. There's a body on the ground in a huge pool of blood. He inquires the investigator/analyst (or however he's called) that's still working on the scene: "Cause of death?"... | 2 |
AskReddit/er5gecl | c0l6zp | What are the best road trip games to play with two people? | The alphabet game! You work as a team to find signs/license plate that begin with each letter starting from A then going to Z. Then, you can go back to A in reverse order if you need to keep going. Also, punch buggy. Do people still play that? | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dejnju7 | 5xmfe3 | Why do ones have to prove one plus one is two, isn't it based on the definitions of the numbers themselves? | First you have to define what equality means, what addition means, and what one means (and also what zero means). Then you have to prove that one plus one has a meaningful and consistent result. Then you have to prove that that consistent result is neither zero nor one. Once all that is done, then you can define that r... | 2 |
AskReddit/co2pwg2 | 2tvn87 | Is terrorism ever justified? | Define terrorism first. My definition involves non-state actors specifically targeting non-combatant civilians with lethal violence in order to achieve a political objective. There may be a few scenarios where it could possibly be justified, but they would be few and far between. | 2 |
AskReddit/cw4hs1m | 3p8skl | What TV show should have ended way before it actually did? | Vampire Diaries. I followed it from the beginning. The first couple of episodes were kind of cheesy but it ended up being pretty awesome (for a teen paranormal-romance drama about vampires) and the first three seasons were great. And then it started to go down hill. Klaus, Rebecca and Elijah (some of my favourite chara... | 2 |
AskReddit/dsm06ea | 7q2w4h | What was a tragedy in your life that was so impactful that it’s still hard to believe it happened? | When my cousin was kidnapped and murdered. It really impacted how protective my parents became when I was a kid after it happened. It was such big news and I'm still surprised it happened; it feels like something you only hear in movies. She was such a beautiful person inside and out. | 4 |
AskReddit/ehdod16 | av9ypo | What's your story about that friend that never came back online? | He was my best friend IRL since the year 2000. After I moved to Florida in 2006 we talked on the phone and online all the time. After we both got broadband and matching consoles it was gaming practically every night until April 4 2015. He never came on that night, and I wrote it off until I got the phone call the next ... | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cvdf40s | 3mak65 | If our atmosphere is almost all nitrogen and oxygen, what keeps those two elements from combining into NO2 (laughing gas)? | Nitrogen pretty much is inert. It exists as diatomic N2, which has an extremely strong triple bond holding it together. Oxides of Nitrogen form in car engines where it gets really hot (and those were the pollutants VW was cheating their emissions tests on). However, without that kind of heat to get the process going, t... | 5 |
AskReddit/eckuz5a | a9njkx | What are some positive 1 minute habits you could do everyday that will have a great impact in a years time? | It's not 1 minute but I have been doing Spanish Duolingo everyday for the past 4 months. I have witnessed myself slowly learning over this time. I think it will go a long way in terms of learning a new language and keeping my cognitive health from declining. | 2 |
AskReddit/cryx66e | 38yujw | What's the strangest thing you have seen someone doing while they were driving? | Holding a phone between her shoulder and ear, eating a burger with her left hand, visor down, using the mirror to put on lipstick with her right hand and steering with her knee. Saw this driving down the street in front of my house on my way out about 7 or 8 years ago and it's still the worst case I've seen. | 2 |
AskReddit/ev9h1ed | civ3gi | What scientific “fact” has less actual evidence backing it up than most people assume? | Meat causes heart problems. EDIT: It was concluded from a flawed study in the 1990’s where people didn’t alter their diets correctly to accurately assume such a statement | 39 |
askscience/c7tj8wu | 167us7 | If modern medicine cannot treat viruses, how does the human body's autoimmune system succeed in doing so? | The chief difference that makes treating viral infections more difficult is that bacteria are host to a complete set of life processes, many of which can be targeted and disrupted with well-chosen substances. A virus doesn't have such processes going on. Most antiviral drugs focus on either preventing the virus from ge... | 3 |
askscience/dqgxoav | 7g4yu0 | If too many users are crowding my LTE network, can my provider build towers/base stations or do they need to need to buy more spectrum? | They can do either or even both, but typically building more cell towers is easier than getting more spectrum. Basically each cell tower can broadcast over its operator's assigned spectrum across the physical area that it covers. There's a max amount of "bandwidth" each tower can provide which gets shared between all u... | 25 |
AskReddit/d9i7h17 | 5apczz | Which movie can you watch any number of times? | I absolutely love Kung Fury on netflix. I am an avid gamer/ martial artist so this movie is just really cool to me. The fact that it is 30 min makes it easy to watch. | 3 |
AskReddit/ds0grvu | 7n9gyc | What is easier for women than for men? | Attracting a mate even though you have low earning power. Men of all socio-economic levels will date a sexy waitress who's struggling to make ends meet. A handsome but financially-insecure waiter would be hard-pressed to find a woman interested in a committed relationship, especially if she's an educated professional. | 57 |
AskReddit/c49xh28 | rzk58 | Do any recordings of Steven Hawking exist (from before his Lou Gehrig's disease became so devastating) where we can hear his real voice? | Stephen Hawking developed the first symptoms of ALS when he was doing his PhD at Cambridge in 1963. He was a 21 year old post-grad student at the time, so i'm not sure there wouldve been any reason for anyone to have recoreded and kept his voice from that time. At that point he was just another very clever PhD student ... | 141 |
AskReddit/d6qtysp | 4yvd4y | What made you stop watching that one show? | Arrow, by season 2 the amount of "HEY MAN CAN WE TALK ABOUT OUR FEELINGS AND STUFF" outweighed the reason anyone wanted to watch the show, you know.the super hero stuff. | 116 |
AskReddit/dqmexw9 | 7gwxrs | What’s a real excuse that you’ve used that sounded fake? | I was a freshman in college back in 2004, which some folks may remember as being a rather compelling year in American politics. (No, really. It was, at least for the time.) President George W. Bush was seeking reelection, and Senator John Kerry was challenging him. There was also a fellow named Ralph Nader running as a... | 8 |
explainlikeimfive/dwlld0r | 88m4q9 | Why are certain words put inside brackets when someone is being quoted? | the speaker didn’t say those words, the writer added them in so you would know what they meant. for example if i’m being interviewed & say “he scored 30 points”, the reader isn’t going to know who i’m talking about, so the article might say “[Lebron] scored 30 points” | 3 |
AskReddit/chg5kjo | 25dmt7 | What was the stupidest thing you used to think as a kid? | When I was a kid, diaper commercials demonstrated how absorbent they were by pouring blue liquid on them. Pad commercials did the same thing. So, naturally, I thought pads were diapers for women, and "that time of the month" was when women lost their bladder control for a few days. | 2 |
AskReddit/d3i3ivr | 4kvkgo | How do you stay entertained at work when you have nothing to do? | At my current office job I work about 40 hours a week, but only have about 15 hours of actual work to do. I have Reddit obviously, a 3DS I bring in every day, and a remote desktop to my home computer, but I just can't manage to stay entertained for 25 hours a week seeing as it's been years now. Any ideas would be great... | 2 |
AskReddit/ekymm67 | bdjopy | What quote/proverb have you heard that has stuck with you till this day? | "Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." This quote from Marcus Aurelius, last of the five good Roman emperors, has given me clarity and saved my skin more times that I can count. Back when I was in law enforcement, I had the displeasure of meeting many sorry so... | 6 |
AskReddit/dcll0xo | 5orys3 | How can you kindly tell your spouse that you don't want to spend a hour hearing play by play about their work day? | Address it at a good time. Like a Sunday evening when everyone is relaxed, casually mention something about both of you. "Hey, have you noticed we sometimes spend a lot of time debriefing from the workday? Maybe we can resolve to only discuss work stuff for twenty minutes after we get home and then we let ourselves for... | 4 |
AskReddit/cfydjk3 | 1zzc44 | If you could ban something from Reddit, what would it be? | For a day, just one single day, I would ban white males, ages 15-35. Just to see what it's like. Personally, I do not identify with that group almost at all. It would be interesting to see what the rest of Reddit has to offer. I get tired of the same conversational content around here (Breaking Bad, classic rock, why s... | 22 |
explainlikeimfive/cwzn4kh | 3sqsz7 | If the most basic form of programming in a computer is just 0's and 1's, what actually tells the computer how to interpret these number sequences? | The Central Processing Unit (CPU) has what's called an instruction set, which defines what the 1's and 0's do. It's kind of like a manual to follow for a specific set of letters or numbers, and in fact assembly language is made human-readable in this kind of mnemonic format, where for example in 6502 assembly, A9 00 (h... | 10 |
askscience/c0tt6ps | cnd3k | Why are phone processors so much "slower" than desktop/laptop CPUs? | Both processors have around 500 million clock cycles per second, but different processor architectures will take varying numbers of clock cycles to complete similar tasks. ARM is a reduced instruction set architecture, whereas the modern x86 architecture has a huge number of instructions. I don't know the specifics, bu... | 9 |
explainlikeimfive/cnikfcq | 2rri2q | How are meteorologists able to determine what it feels like outside? | We feel temperature based on how quickly we lose heat from our bodies, not some sort of direct detection of the temperature of the air. In addition to simply colder air, we lose heat faster when the air is dry (increasing the evaporation of moisture on our skin) and when it is windy (blowing away warm, moist air and re... | 10 |
AskReddit/d483n3d | 4nyd7l | What is your go-to joke? | A blind guy walks into a bar and sits down. He says aloud, "Anyone wanna hear a blonde joke"? The person sitting next to the blind guy says, "Im blonde, the person sitting on the other side of u is blonde, and the bartender is blonde. Still wanna tell that blonde joke"? The blind guy thinks for a second and says, "Nah,... | 34 |
askscience/e5kbtsr | 9dq9tx | Do images taken by Hubble Telescope have the same colors that we see? | Adding that a black and white sensor has 4x the resolution of a color sensor of the same MP due to the fact that color imagers use a Bayer matrix to approximate color. Imagine a simple sensor that is 2 pixels by 2 pixels. This 2 x 2 grid has one pixel covered by a blue filter, one covered by a red filter, and two cover... | 3 |
askscience/c9fn1y2 | 1ce2rw | What would it feel like to skydive through a cloud? | It doesn't feel didn't. Maybe a tiny bit Misty but that's it. Clouds are generally just like fog. The wind conditions inside a cloud aren't any different than outside, they just give you a visual representation of the conditions around. | 3 |
AskReddit/dw2nbxu | 8661bl | What can you get "Lifetime supply" of for less than 500$? | Paper clips: as you can get something like 100,000 of them in bulk for less than $500. If anyone thinks this is wrong, please enlighten me as to for what kind of person this would not be a "lifetime supply." I'm actually interested in what you come up with. | 14 |
askscience/dmhrdk5 | 6xn3an | Why do bridges need these "sail" like objects on top of them? | Not all bridges do. However the new forth crossing bridge and the forth road bridge (both pictured) are suspension bridges, and the cables (which you describe as the 'sails') are effectively what holds the bridge up as there is not enough weight underneath to provide structural support. | 12 |
askscience/e20bnjj | 8wy5ks | If radio frequencies are nonionizing, how do plasma etchers create a plasma with them? | Basically, plasma cutters and etchers create plasma by having high static voltages. It's not exactly the same thing, but you can break a stick by shaking it or by pulling at both ends. You might have to shake a stick really fast to break it, but that doesn't mean that you have to pull really fast to break it. | 5 |
AskReddit/enbeiz8 | bo202t | What has turned you into a better person? | I was married to someone who physically and mentally abused me for a decade. Finally breaking free and getting the therapy I needed had done wonders for be. I was turning into a sour, angry and impatient person. But that's all changed now. I've found the joy of life again and people are saying I'm becoming the great ve... | 13 |
askscience/c1108hd | dl4xe | Can we build a telescope in space or on the moon and look closely at the newly discovered planet? | > Do we not have the power yet to look that far? No and its doubtful we ever could from earth. Pretty basic physics says that angular resolution goes as \theta ~ \lambda / D, where D is the diameter of your telescope. Hence if you wanted to resolve a feature on the planet that is say 100m in diameter (e.g., so 100m fea... | 3 |
AskReddit/dzlchg5 | 8m75ps | What is the biggest red flag you missed in a relationship/potential that ultimately ruined it? | As things were getting serious, we were having a conversation about the future at lunch. She said, "If I could have a bay on my own I would." She had the baby and then went on her own. She's collecting the child support though. To be clear he's a great kid and I love having him. She was clear and I missed it. | 2 |
askscience/c2v7jxa | ls9ia | What causes that weird numbing sensation when you hit your "funny bone"? | I'd like to add a follow up question/observation: I remember hitting my "funny bone" quite often as a child and getting that feeling, it's been years since I've felt it now and I've banged my elbow into plenty of things in that time. Have I just gotten good at not hitting the exact spot or is there potentially somethin... | 2 |
AskReddit/e89bk28 | 9qhwml | What are some of the worst names you’ve heard given to pets? | In my mother's native language there is a word for black people (and I don't exactly know if it's offensive like the N word, I also don't know how to spell it) and one of the village neighbor's called the dog that word. Also, I've heard names like Heinz, Herrmann, Poopsie, Twix | 2 |
AskReddit/dsex7df | 7p6ucm | What’s the worst thing you’ve done at work but are too embarrassed to tell anyone in your real life? | I was doing work at a coal fire power plant. We had to pull wire through the control rooms and tie it up neat. I was cutting the zip ties and accidently cut a wire. It wasnt one of ours tho. Next thing i know i see several employees scrambling cause it shut down part of the plant trying to figure what happened. I secre... | 3 |
askscience/dnp4q1k | 72pi6o | If I was on a planet around a star between galaxies, would other stars be visible by the naked eye? | Almost certainly not. Such stars would be so rare and far-flung that the night sky would be utterly black--though, unlike the case for us, galaxies would stand out supremely well with no "background" stars or Milky Way to interfere with them. | 2 |
AskReddit/dbf9mqr | 5jdfg0 | What company has completely turned you away due to their advertising efforts? | There is a local company "clear view windows and doors" that advertises on my local radio station with really low buget ads. Past customers telling why they love clear view. I want to punch each and every one of them in the throat. | 4 |
askscience/c320rsr | mm34l | If the speed of light in a vacuum is the top speed that anything can be accelerated to and the speed of light decreases in an atmosphere, does that mean the universal speed limit is (in that environment) decreased as well? | From an older post of mine: It is a misconception that the speed of light is reduced in a medium. When light passes through water (or glass, or whatever), light travels at exactly the speed of light until it is absorbed by an atom in the water, which then re-radiates the light at exactly the speed of light. This absorp... | 6 |
AskReddit/cqpee9t | 33xsgr | What's the dumbest thing you've heard someone say with complete confidence? | Buddy told me with absolute confidence that "Bill Gates is an evil person". I said that Bill helped do great things for computers, runs some charities, and is encouraging rich people to donate their money to charity. Sure, Bill probably had some ulterior motives in doing all of those things (maybe), but begging billion... | 2 |
AskReddit/c7zeidl | 16u7t3 | What is the funniest/best test question you've ever gotten in school? | Its been about 20 years since grade school but I still remember this test. Had to be 2nd or 3rd grade and the teacher hands out a test with 10 questions on it. And she even reads the instructions out loud and hands out pencils then says begin. Question 1: Please read through all of the questions on this test before you... | 27 |
AskReddit/c4g5yv7 | sqol8 | Why have banks been so resistant to the idea of expanding their business hours? | It would cost them money to expand their business hours, and people seem able to take care of their banking needs as is. I doubt that they lose many customers to only being open normal business hours -- so why spend the extra money? | 3 |
AskReddit/d801kt2 | 549vxw | What's your best/favourite campfire story? | My favourite campfire story is the time I got a campfire going during steady rain, with a lighter and a couple of pieces of paper. Just one of those little pseudo caveman moments of self affirmation. | 2 |
AskReddit/eiv3tep | b2tvl3 | What is the nicest thing you can do for a dead person? | if they have family left, espeically young kids, you can take some time to care for them, show them that in this world there are people that are also kind and caring besides their parents. Another thing you can do is help the person who passed away to accomplish some of the things on his or her will, if you have access... | 4 |
AskReddit/df1k0m9 | 5zvyv8 | What is the Most Obscene Display of Wealth You've Seen? | When I was 12, mother managed to snag a great deal on an apartment in a 2 family apartment house in a neighborhood that was definitely middle to upper class. One of the very nicest neighborhoods in the city. We were way out of our element in that neighborhood. As a matter of fact, we were the freaks of the neighborhood... | 2 |
askscience/cka84qu | 2fkkbc | Why are super-clusters the largest objects in the observable Universe? | Essentially, because 1) the universe hasn't had time and 2) the universe is flying apart rather rapidly, which makes it harder for structure to grow indefinitely. If you had a static (meaning neither expanding nor contracting), infinite universe with a fairly smooth density distribution, then yes, you would expect stru... | 10 |
AskReddit/d8ac4be | 55gieu | What uses would you have if you could make clones of yourself? | id make my own space program or make an army of clones, pit them in a 1v1 fight to the death using nothing but broomsticks and set them lose upon the general population in batches of a couple thousand every year or so. | 2 |
AskReddit/ctsqb12 | 3fx11t | What did you get a tattoo of and why? | I have a tattoo of a cross, which I assume is self explanatory, and I have Ann hourglass. The hourglass was an impulse of sorts but I do have a meaning behind it that is to be here now, be present, be mindful, don't waste life dreaming of the past or future. | 2 |
AskReddit/dgam7ah | 65isje | What is the biggest non-issue that politicians focus on because people are sheep? | Social issues in general. John Adams was right when he said that change must take place in the hearts and minds of the people. Social issues are something for society to deal with, not a select group of elderly elitists. | 2 |
askscience/c727ndf | 13a5n1 | Is there an optimal temperature to make a snowball or pack snow in general? | I know speculation is supposed to stay out of top level comments. but there are no other comments to respond to, so that said ill take a stab at it. I would suggest temperature is less a factor than moisture content. When water freezes, the molecules arrange into a crystal lattice. Water molecules are dipolar and in th... | 2 |
AskReddit/cvhtrtf | 3msujz | Why not follow your dreams in this life? | Reality often means not following your dreams. If I dream to travel the world, I need to work a job that pays very well in order to fund my travels. If I'm in a relationship, I need a place to stay, maybe to pay rent for both of us. If you have kids, then you're extremely limited. And the cost of trying and failing cer... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cqu5zf4 | 34fn01 | Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darken our skin? | Sunlight contains ultraviolet light which can break down some molecules. This includes breaking down pigment molecules in your hair, which leaves you with lighter hair. In your cells this can mean breaking down your DNA, which is bad news bears. To combat this your body produces another compound—melanin—which absorbs u... | 7 |
askscience/chc2pjf | 24yg9v | Why does the movement of air, like with a fan or a wind, make us feel like we're cooling off even if the temperature doesn't actually change? | I think you are talking about wind chill. Air next to your skin absorbs your heat and warms and this warmer air is perceived as ambient, but in reality isn't. If the air moves it will be replaced with ambient temperature air and it will absorb more heat from you again. The faster the air moves the greater this effect, ... | 3 |
AskReddit/dwf37rj | 87rj4f | What small change would cause the biggest ripple effect in history? | Its not that far back in "history," but if the invention of the transistor didn't happen. We probably wouldn't have small computer devices today. In the Fallout Universe they continue to use Vacuum Tubes leading to a different technology style. | 2 |
askscience/c7hdt83 | 14xhuo | What's the difference between partial (∂y/∂x) and full derivatives (dy/dx)? | The problem is that mathematicians tend to identify functions and their representations. When you say 'partial derivative', you refer to the representation of the function. It would be better if 'partial derivatives' were called 'directed derivatives', because all that you do is take the derivative of a multidimensiona... | 4 |
AskHistorians/calqugq | 1gmr6i | Where does the title "Prince of Wales" come from? | It is true that the Tudors came from Wales (but Henry VII was only a petty nobleman), but the title of Prince of Wales for the heir apparent dates back to the 13th century. The title Prince of Wales dates from the 12th century when leading Welsh nobles awarded it to Llywelyn the Great. Henry III of England granted the ... | 64 |
explainlikeimfive/cajfo4r | 1geex7 | Are bandwidth caps really necessary? | In most cases, no. At-home broadband service delivered via cable or dsl or fiber? No. That's just the ISP charging you because they can. It's ridiculously cheap for them to provision more bandwidth if your area needs it. ISPs have massive amounts of "dark fiber" infrastructure that only needs to be plugged in order to ... | 3 |
AskReddit/c17mast | eexdf | Does this sound like high-functioning autism? | I have some of the same problems, also with things like peoples' names, which seem to just whiz right by me. Small talk in particular is excruciating for me. Someone told me I probably do not have high-functioning autism, but instead I wasn't socialized enough as a child (I had kind of a weird childhood). The point is ... | 2 |
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