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/cieeig7 | 28tsiv | What is the worst way you've messed up in a job interview? | I struggled with a code test that involved reversing a string of characters, should have taken a few seconds but instead took me 5 minutes. The worst part is up until that point, I was solving much more complex problems without issue. | 2 |
AskReddit/dqxp5t9 | 7ic43x | What are some tips for a high schooler to improve their life? | Try to understand that peer pressure is the cancer of high school and teenage life and you're in a weird stage in life where very emotion is amplified compared to adulthood because of the mass of hormonal inlfluxes. Keep your head down, stick in, and stay strong and you'll come out shining even if you don't think it. Y... | 36 |
AskReddit/c1xc397 | hpqmd | Does anyone have experience with bat-boxes? | I have some experience. One time a bat came in through my chimney and got in my basement. I managed to trap it under a small garbage can, and my father slid some cardboard underneath the can to get the bat safely outside. He then stomped the bat in my backyard because he "knew the way back". He is now known affectionat... | 2 |
AskReddit/d0isg7h | 48dj4w | What moment in high school/college made you say to yourself "I'm hanging out with the wrong people"? | I learned it in middle school. I hung around kids who began to go down a very wrong path. I got taken to juvenile detention and kicked out of school I started high school in an alternative school. But the thing about this school is that these kids were legitimate criminals. I then thought I need to get out of here and ... | 12 |
askscience/e36ne4t | 92d14k | Can you count algae in a non-pure culture with a hemocytometer? | My advice to you is to stop looking for a perfect solution. What you need is a close enough estimation, as even a modest amount of error will likely not be significant for your results. Here is an arbitrary example for you to get the gist : Initial Measurement : 5.0e5 cells / mL Post-Treatment Measurement : 5e2 cells /... | 3 |
AskReddit/dnidkik | 72g4tr | What has been your scariest water-related incident? | I fell off a waterfall. Was trying to inch closer, was barefoot, forgot about the whole "rocks get slippery when wet, particularly if there is moss" thing. I felt my foot slip and I thought that was it. Fell ~8-10 feet, landed on my side in a very shallow pool of water + rocks. I just laid there, frozen, unsure of how ... | 8 |
AskReddit/d7vodoo | 53rpu0 | What is your "I met someone special and never saw them again" story? | Orientation of university, met someone I had a wonderful conversation with, we were almost instant friends. I completely forgot to ask for their number mainly because I figured I would see them around since it was a small school. I have never seen them ever again and I wonder to this day if they even remember me. | 2 |
AskReddit/d7oxwzq | 530ocb | What is the craziest thing you've seen while eating at a Waffle House? | Not the craziest, but the most awesome thing I had happen was meeting R.E.M. at a Waffle House at almost 2 a.m. back in 1996. (Maybe it was 97, can't remember!) As I was eating my hash browns (smothered and covered), I kept hearing a voice that sounded familiar. I finally turned around, and it was Michael Stipe. Said m... | 7 |
askscience/dbd0waf | 5j2wp6 | Why do stars fuse for so long? | The answer has to do with quantum mechanics and the tunneling effect. Bear with me. The nucleus of an atom consists of protons and neutrons. As you probably know, protons are positively charged, and like charges repel each other. So why are nuclei stable if they consist of positively charged protons? The answer is, tha... | 7 |
AskReddit/c1riwhp | gzw2w | In your experience Reddit, how influential was your final college GPA in regards to your career? | I think the high GPA is more for the next level of education. A GPA like that could lead to some awesome Graduate Level opportunities. But college is about having some fun too so i recommend finding a balance. Perhaps 1 hour of portal a day and you settle for a 3.91. | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/ctg6zr2 | 3elwfj | How does a touch lamp work? | There are two main ways that touch lamps work. (I'm not sure which one is more common, but they are both in use.) One way is by detecting the electronic noise that your body picks up. Have you ever been plugging cables into an audio amp and noticed that if you touch some of them the speakers emit a loud crackly hum? Th... | 2 |
AskReddit/cui0hai | 3in220 | What scene from a movie or TV series always makes you tear up? | The scene from Love Actually when Emma Thompson opens her gift and realizes it's a CD and not the necklace. Even the music triggers it for me. When she's standing over her bed and pressing her palms up against her face to dry her tears. It tears me up inside. | 37 |
AskReddit/ejil7eu | b68dvq | What was something your parents did that was done with good intentions, but just ended up being annoying or having the opposite effect? | My parents always told me not to make friends with people on the internet, except it was constantly obnoxious because by that point I had a friend of multiple years I met because of his YouTube videos. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d4sarfg | 4qdz8k | At 4K resolution, what's the difference between a TV and a computer monitor? | Many of the other commenters seem to have missed a very key difference between a TV and computer monitor – a TV almost always includes an Over-The-Air (OTA) tuner to receive digital TV broadcasts via antenna, and a QAM tuner to receive (unencrypted) cable TV transmissions via a coaxial cable hook-up; a monitor does not... | 11 |
AskReddit/cirvfaz | 2a64z4 | If you had to let someone eat pancakes off your chest, who would it be? | the duchess of cornwall or victoria beckham. I dont find either of them particularly attractive but it would be hilarious watching them eat pancakes off a fat man's chest. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c8alnb0 | 180x8q | What is going on with the US Military/Obama and drones? | A drone is an unmanned aircraft that can do surveillance or be mounted with missiles that can attack targets. The Obama administration has used drones to attack targets (including US citizens) outside war zones. War hawks are all for the President going after terrorists no matter whey they live or what rights they have... | 3 |
AskReddit/eu7pfgr | cf6mg3 | What’s your worst friend like? | I can’t stand when everything has to be a competition. It’s exhausting being around someone you care about and all they do is brag and continuously show off and go on and on about how successful they’re “going to be”. Of course I’m supportive and proud of this person but if anything good happens to me I have to hold it... | 2 |
AskReddit/dmnda81 | 6yh8wg | What game or movie did you only realize was brilliant years afterwards? | Advance Wars. Played it in 2011, 10 years after the released for GBA. Amazing game. If you liked turn-based tactics game, play it! | 3 |
AskReddit/c4v5xra | ugg8n | What is something that makes you single-handedly lose all respect for a person? | Close mindedness. I was at a party with lots of political & philosophical people the other night, and one guy really engaged me and we talked and talked. Somewhere along the way he brought up gay marriage and told me that it's fine for them to get married, but not okay for it to be called marriage. That's a fine opinio... | 6 |
explainlikeimfive/c6twmow | 12cej3 | Why do accents not carry over as heavily into song? | Singing is pretty much its own accent. Singers minimize consonant sounds, and must alter the tone according to the melody. This removes much of the variations used to distinguish accents. | 13 |
AskReddit/ciqn3s2 | 2a1sra | What made you quit using Facebook/Myspace types of Social Media & how did it positively effect your life? | I was on Facebook for one day. One. I looked up an old girl friend from 20 years ago. I remembered her as young and beautiful. Now I can on only remember her as old and fat.(Not that there's anything wrong with that. Im old and fat too.) I just wish I could have kept the old memory. I quit FB so I wasn't tempted to loo... | 3 |
AskReddit/dephrvs | 5yev85 | What are you frankly getting tired of? | Being unemployed and the entire process of trying to find a job. It's tiring, demoralizing, and, frankly, dehumanizing. I just want someone to pay me money to do something. Anything. I'm tired of worrying if I'm going to be able to scrounge up enough money to eat this month. | 4,867 |
AskHistorians/dcn7vty | 5oycki | Are there any good first hand experiences to the Great Chilean Earthquake? | Hi there! Seeing as the Valdivia earthquake was such a recent event, there are plenty of great first hand accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath. The only problem here being is that they are all in Spanish. Can you read/understand Spanish? | 2 |
askscience/ccv1u52 | 1os04q | Can a person be both type 1 diabetic and type 2? | Type 1 diabetic here. The short version is this: Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are 2 entirely different diseases. Type 1 is an auto immune disease which causes your immune system to atack your beta cells, causing a near 100% failure to produce insulin. Type 2 is a disease where your body doesn't react to insulin as easily... | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cs4i8q8 | 39m6vb | Where does candle wax go? | When you burn a candle, the flame melts the wax, then the wax gets absorbed by the wick. It's the liquid wax that actually burns, not the wick itself. It reacts chemically, and turns into some combination of soot and gases, like carbon dioxide. That gas does not solidify. | 3 |
AskReddit/cwm0ljl | 3r8hdd | What's the worst reason someone has broken up with you over? | Showed up at my gfs to surprise her after she had a long day of college midterms etc. At first things started heating up, but then she stopped and asked why I came over. My reasoning of to surprise her and cheer her up didn't sit well with her. The basic gist of what she told me was that because I didn't come over with... | 4 |
AskReddit/d235uge | 4eqs6b | In your opinion, what should Reddit shut up about? | Reddit needs to shut up about their distaste for being asked questions like "When are you going to have kids?" or "How's the job hunt?" At least once every ten days, a thread entitled "What question do you hate being asked?" is at the top of the page. Inevitably, the questions I just posted and their ilk will get a tho... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/chjguwh | 25orn5 | How do some medications make people gain weight? | Most medications bind to things. They hook onto certain types of molecules to perform jobs. IE Aspirin is an acid and it binds to specific receptors. Those same receptors detect an acid that results from cell damage. So Aspirin stops you from knowing things hurt. So with SO many medications, we have things that bind al... | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cvzr0o5 | 3ore6m | Why is water so scarce in the universe when hydrogen and oxygen are so common? | It's not. Water is all over the place. We've found water in space. We've found water on Mars, on Mercury, we think there's vast oceans possible on Enceladus and Europa, it might be on Ganymeade as well, comets can contain vast quantities of it. Water's common. What is more rare are the conditions for liquid water to ex... | 5 |
AskReddit/cjzhn7m | 2egwjw | What fad did you participate in that when looking back was utterly ridiculous? | When I was in 7th grade, I was close to 6' tall and there was a fad back then for platform shoes. I had a pair that were probably 4" tall. I'm a male and I was tall and lanky. (Think Saturday Night Fever) | 2 |
AskReddit/cfn3f4p | 1yrenh | Could you (or do you) live without a cell phone? | I’ve never had a cell phone, aside from my only-for-emergencies Tracfone that I never remember to buy minutes for. I have a landline at home, and that’s it. 99% of the time, I think I’m better off without a cell phone. My spouse and I rarely need to get in touch throughout our workdays, and when we do, our work landlin... | 2 |
AskReddit/cvx1v1z | 3ogsui | Why are diamonds so valuable? | Everyone is giving you part of the picture, here's a summary. They are pretty, and shiny, but through history have never been seen as intrinsically "better" or more valuable than, say, sapphires or rubies. Due to Dutch colonialism in the 19th century, one company, the DeBeers company ended up with a practical monopoly ... | 2 |
AskReddit/edwmlew | af9l05 | What's the best advice to give to a middle schooler being bullied and who struggles making friends? | Middle school is literally the worst time of your life. It's when kids are the meanest and you're becoming your own person, two very scary things at the same time. Focus on your school work, tell your parents that you'd like to find some stuff to do outside of school like marital arts or an after school program and jus... | 6 |
AskReddit/ct2zwjm | 3d9hfx | What stories do your scars tell? | I keep making supper naked, either splashing hot grease on my stomach, or burning my stomach while taking a pan out of the oven. I have around 7 scars on my belly. | 2 |
AskReddit/evvqtpp | clj7wu | How do you declare your love to your crush without looking like an idiot? | If you get humiliated over your confession.you weren't crushing on the right person. There are always nicer ways to reject people. And you feel an idiot no matter how you are rejected.and feel like a hero if accepted no matter how you confessed. | 3 |
AskReddit/ejenqk8 | b5nse2 | How would you beat 5 of your evil clones if each time you beat one the other gain the dead ones strength until slowly the last one will have more power than you? | Honestly I'd just kill the first one and act like I'm the first clone; to infiltrate their ranks and surprise them with a blade in their sleep. I'd repeat this process until I'm the last one. or was i a clone the whole time? | 2 |
AskReddit/eb46hvl | a38ci3 | How many of you guys still use windows 7? | My family PC has Windows 7 on it. Our computer sucks so bad it wouldn't install 10 properly. We're getting rid of it soon though, after nearly a decade of suffering with its plethora of issues. | 2 |
AskReddit/c0lmiqm | b9her | Why isn't there an sugar substitute that is as good as the real thing? | Our sugar taste receptors are tailor made for actual sugar. Sugar substitutes can fool the receptors somewhat, but nothing works like the real thing. | 2 |
AskReddit/e0kqsk3 | 8qo6vk | How did you meet your best friend? | I met my other best friend through homeschool classes during lunch. He always looked kind if weird and I actually thought he was autistic, turns out I was wrong lol. He looked lonely and I felt bad for him so I came over and ate with him. Good choice. | 2 |
AskReddit/ckly8sb | 2gs1aj | Why are a vast majority of sexual predators/rapists/serial killers men? | Women tend to fall into the nurturer category, whereas men tend to have more of a hunter mentality. While not true of every man, or every woman, those traits tend to be predominant. Source: I have a degree in criminal psychology. | 3 |
AskReddit/c7dpdoc | 14juid | What's the most USELESS item you've ever bought? | Tarot Cards. I thought in high school I could make a little extra cash by doing readings for my friends. No one was interested and 14 years later, I've never taken them out of the box. | 2 |
AskReddit/d3tkx4d | 4m98ky | To those of you who actually LIKE your boss, what industry do you work in and what makes them so likeable? | When I was working back stage in theater, I never had a boss I didn't like. Directors, technical directors, designers, master carps, whatever position I was and they were above me I never disliked one of them. On the tech side of theater we are all in a sense equals. There is a hierarchy of course when it comes to arti... | 2 |
AskReddit/d4xo1ze | 4r1toy | What's the weirdest thing you find out after moving to another country? | I didn't move to another country, but to another part of Canada. I didn't realize how strong our accents are back home until I went home for a visit after living amongst Ontarioians. I've lived out west before but there were more people from back home there than native Albertans so it wasn't as obvious. Edit - this was... | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/do0b0hp | 74qbid | What is the scientific reason we wash our hands? | Soap is a surfactant. Surfactants function by breaking down the interface between water and oils and/or dirt. They also hold these oils and dirt in suspension, and so allow their removal. Using water only would get rid of a lot, maybe most of the dirt & germs, but because oil & water don't mix, the oil on your hands wi... | 12 |
AskReddit/c7zu0qv | 16vkgm | Is there a game or book or comic that you want made into a movie or maybe a TV series? | The Pendragon series. Author DJ MacHale wrote a great, long story perfectly suited for TV or Movies, and he's done screenwriting before. He created Are You Afraid of the Dark, so he has experience enough to bring Pendragon to the screen. | 2 |
AskReddit/d8ftpis | 562q60 | What is something extremely bizarre(creepy, weird, "paranormal", anything) that happened to you, that you still have no logical explanation for? | I've told this story a couple times but i joined a fight club in highschool where we were taught MMA and BJJ. The requirement to join was to voluntarily be choked out so that you could know what to expect if you didn't tap out. I remember straining for about 10 seconds and then blackness creeping in quickly. Then I'm s... | 3 |
askscience/c88gomc | 17o2f7 | How does stress lead to the onset of psychosis? | There's a concept known in the field of psychology as the stress-diathesis model. It follows under the notion that there may be some genetic predisposition or vulnerability to developing a certain disorder. Those who experience stressors in addition to this vulnerability are typically more likely to develop the disorde... | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/co9hbue | 2ulljx | How did people set up ancient rope bridges from one side to the other of cliffs or canyons? | yeah, not a bad one either. Bow and arrow. Tie a thin rope to the end of an arrow. shoot across the gorge to your buddies waiting on the other side. Then when they have the thin rope, tie the other end to your thick 'base' rope. They'll haul the thin rope to bring the heavy rope across and anchor it. Now you have the s... | 7 |
AskReddit/dd6rfrw | 5rfe07 | What are some other phrases like 'holy moly'? | Me and some friends grew up playing world of warcraft together, and when you click on a friendly NPC, depending on the race, they say along the lines of "Hi, how are you?" etc. There was a race called "Draenai" who used to say "Chron'a Kry" . And even now, years later, instead of holy moly, we'll say "Chron'a Kry!" . w... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dko2hgb | 6pbmsc | How come we've come to the conclusion that race is not genetically real, but Ancestry can give me such detailed information about where my genes come from? | There are genetic markers that are tied to locations. As in, everyone who has ancestors who lived in X location has these specific genetic markers. So all they have to do is see which markers you have. This is also independent of race - I remember a documentary we watched in school, and a black man was genetically Euro... | 3 |
AskReddit/dz9r3bb | 8kql4q | What is wrong, if anything, with a company-sponsored "male only" job training seminar, if an employer wants to hire more men? | ~ not trying to offend anyone, but a company is offering a free job training class this Sunday in something I'm incredibly fascinated in, but it's women only. I feel like I have not seen this happen in the reverse, but it should be ok. For example, there is a severe shortage of male teachers. Private schools could prob... | 6 |
explainlikeimfive/cow5k0q | 2x1ym0 | How are bridges over water built? | Even the Golden Gate bridge, being a suspension bridge, has its two main supports in the water. And the Bay Bridge, just a few miles from the Golden Gate, has many more pylons in the water. Basically, they build a water tight barrier around the area where they are going to insert the pylons that hold up the bridge. The... | 3 |
AskReddit/cqumhrv | 34h026 | Why didn't you give up? | In the 70s, there was this popular poster going around. I guess it was a meme of the times. It's called "Desiderata". Totally cheesy, but it gave me guidance when I needed it. Here it is: Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be... | 2 |
AskReddit/eyb0zbt | cwgumj | What was the most awkward way you were asked out on a date and did you say yes? | Kind of hard to explain, I'm trans female to male but I was out as a lesbian at first. Some guy came up to me who I was good friends with and asked me to go to the cinema on Friday. I said yeah thinking it was as friends, I then realised it was Valentine's Day on that Friday and I had to go back to him and tell him no ... | 3 |
AskReddit/emsu9vz | bm0krz | What's something that is obviously abuse, but was considered totally normal when you were a kid? | So this may not be what you are asking, so I apologise, but I never realized as a kid name calling (you're worthless, you're stupid etc) and being left with bruises was abuse and till I was older and exposed to other kids. | 6 |
askscience/csbhmsh | 3a9vm7 | What is the correlation between animal intelligence and number of offspring? | There is an assumption in this question that intelligence is important for the fitness of the individuals. Most animals don't rely on intellect very much at all. Humans are the exception, life existed for billions of years before we got here and it was all pretty limited cognitively and it was all very successful. When... | 3 |
askscience/ci3fgws | 27qemx | What would be the difference in destructive capability between a 10 meter wide asteroid of matter hitting Earth and one made of anti-matter? | The antimatter asteroid would annihilate with matter in the Earth, and its rest mass would be converted to other forms of energy. The speed at which an object's kinetic energy is equal to its rest energy is 86% the speed of light, and asteroids don't go nearly that fast. With some basic assumptions about the compositio... | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/e8niqre | 9s9l8t | What’s the difference between cardiogenic APO and non-cardiogenic APO? | Cardiogenic APO is caused by a failure of the heart to pump, and therefore a backup of intravascular pressure in the pulmonary vasculature which increases hydrostatic pressure and causes fluid to leak into pulmonary tissues. This is cardiac failure. Non-cardiogenic APO can be caused by a variety of reasons, where cardi... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cqr5qh1 | 343p8u | How do Firemen know how a fire was started? | It was explained to me like this. The more of a building/area that is destroyed by fire, the harder that it is to detect where the fire actually started. But a building that completely burns to the ground is suspicious enough to call in an Arson investigator which tries to find a source. Usually if there is not a singl... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dhf2kgr | 6ajvml | Why do most bipedal robots always keep their knees bent a bit when standing? | I'm still an industrial electronics student but if I had to guess I would say that it is because when engineers program robots they are given a "home position" that the robot stays in. In this case the home position is the one that best allows the robot to react to varying conditions. Like if the robot were to step int... | 10 |
AskReddit/e4y16tw | 9atbc0 | How would you feel about a law that required all people who lived in cities to own a sword, shield, and mail shirt? | I'd want to know the reason behind it before I decided to live in those cities. Am I all of a sudden agreeing yo be part of a citizen levy? Exactly what threat am I supposed to be preparing for with a sword, shield, and mail? | 2 |
AskReddit/dxn2u5s | 8dgx1q | What is your favorite poem that makes you feel something? | Sprog’s poem for AssCredit (askreddit’s April fools thing) “And they gathered to look, And they gathered to see, And they gathered to watch With excitement and glee And they waited to hear, And they waited to know, And the truth was revealed! And they said to them. ‘.oh.’” It feels like people waiting to meet me. | 3 |
AskReddit/c0guk60 | ac2tk | How many of you DO NOT intend to get vaccinated for H1N1? | Ok, this annoys me so I'm going to clarify the current epidemic situation. They(CDC, WHO, etc) aren't worried about H1N1, that's pretty much the standard flu (~50% of flu cases in 2006 were H1N1). They're worried about an H1N1 variant, called H1N1/09, which is more contagious and better suited to humans than most other... | 372 |
AskReddit/dc0fc04 | 5m34cm | What does "winner winner chicken dinner" mean? | The standard bet years ago used to be two dollars. To convince people to play, casinos started offering two dollar chicken dinners. So if you won, you could go get a chicken dinner. | 4 |
AskReddit/c9w9qy6 | 1e2xbf | How many of you are actually afraid of spiders? | They literally make me freeze in place. Unless it happens to be a tiny one that is within squashing distance. However - I live in a place where black widows, wolf spiders and generally large hairy ones are not uncommon. Edit: I will say that writing spiders are pretty cool.at a distance. | 15 |
AskReddit/cgmahmk | 22fgt9 | What generic/store brand items taste the same or better than their premium brand competition? | I eat a lot of black beans and rice because I am poor and each can costs 69 cents. The standard brand I see in stores is Goya. I prefer Wal-Mart's black beans because Goya's always stick to the can. Wal-Mart's are also cheaper, and obviously difference in taste isn't really an issue with black beans. | 2 |
AskReddit/ekxh56i | bddxe8 | How can one bring a rare talent into conversation without it seeming like bragging? | It is bragging though. Alternatively, you could not brag, sorta like when I was on a team of scientists that put a satellite into space to monitory vegetation patterns throughout the years. I never bring it up because it would seem like im bragging. Seriously though, just don't brag. If it randomly comes up sure, say i... | 6 |
askscience/dhr8cbv | 6axipz | Can we display all colors with the RGB model? | To start with your first underlying misconception, Computer science can have arbitrarily many RGB color models that generally work more or less the same, but cover different ranges of real colors. A really common one is sRGB, and that's probably closest to the one you are thinking of because it's pretty common. And no,... | 2 |
AskReddit/d454te7 | 4nmc03 | What is the hardest time you've ever laughed? | Philosophy class in college. Front row. Class taught by a priest. He turned around to write on chalkboard & just started farting. It wasn't one but numerous. He wouldn't turn back around. Just kept facing chalkboard. At that point, my classmate says in a whisper "it's a coded msg from God". Totally stupid. But it start... | 2 |
AskReddit/d75xnsu | 50pk5p | What is the oldest memory you can remember? | At the age of 3, my conscious long-term memory clicked on. I seriously remember everything after the date when I started remembering things. I was bobbing for apples, and I was at my brother's birthday party. My head was below the water, and that's when life starts for me, as I bring my head up from the water and parti... | 2 |
AskReddit/dkj2yy2 | 6opb0v | What are your tips on resisting the urge to overeat or consume junk food? | Drink a glass of water. Eat a small amount of the junk food you want to eat. Drink another glass of water. You will have fulfilled the craving, not overeaten, and hydrated all in one step! | 4 |
explainlikeimfive/e3xmzgc | 9643vy | Why is SSH more secure for accessing network devices than Telnet if you can set password authentication on both? | In SSH the network traffic is encrypted, so other users/devices between you and the server can't see what you're sending & receiving. In telnet all the traffic is sent in clear text, so any man in the middle can see and change what is being exchanged. | 16 |
askscience/ct5g1gr | 3did5p | Why are train tracks laid on crushed stones/pebbles? | In general, the gravel is laid in order to give the tracks a solid foundation. It also serves to help disperse water and to keep the train above sitting water, as well. One of the reasons that trains can be used effectively in certain regions is because the tracks are built using a simple but stable construction. Its v... | 85 |
AskReddit/dyhh8ui | 8h6tm8 | What stops moths from flying directly towards the sun during day time? | Moths use the moon and sun to navigate. When they circle in to artificial lights, they're actually trying to fly in a straight line by keeping the light on one side, which works when the light is far away like the sun, but not when it's a porch light. | 8 |
explainlikeimfive/ck0pr3l | 2eltyl | Why should the California drought stop people in other states from doing the Ice Bucket Challenge? | It's not that it's bad for Californians it's that some people think it's wrong to be wasteful of water when other people are having a shortage. It's kinda like when you don't eat everything on your plate and someone says "there's kids in Africa who would love that food you're about to throw away." But like, there's no ... | 2 |
AskHistorians/d7tsg1o | 53j7pk | Why are Sudan and the Sudan region so far apart? | The etymological origins of the term Sudan comes from the Arabic phrase Bilad al-Sudan, which was a geographical term first used in the middle ages that encompassed Africa directly south of the Sahara desert, spanning from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Bilad al-Sudan translates from arabic as "Lands of Blacks", in refer... | 4 |
AskReddit/egfrb10 | aqfx91 | What is your opinion on people who eat dog meat? | Is it any different than eating horse or ostrich? Buffalo? Deer? It’s all meat produced for human consumption. The dog meat produced in China (it’s actually called fragrant meat) is no different. About the only remotely plausible argument I’ve heard is that it was a pet previously. I guess nobody has grown up on a farm... | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/e8auzab | 9qpvck | How an empty pan left on a turned on stove burns? | A stainless steel or cast iron pan will have a layer of oil coating the metal. Metal won't burn at such a low temperature, but most oil will. Non-stick pans on the other hand are coated with Teflon, which starts breaking down around 500 degrees in freedom units. Not sure when it'll outright burn though. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cv71sf0 | 3lkpzn | Why is it hard to breathe when you are directly facing a strong wind? | The way breathing works is that your diaphragm pulls on your chest causing it to expand, creating negative pressure in your lungs. This causes air to rush in to equalize the pressure inside and outside your body. If your chest can't expand properly, like if there's lots of wind pushing against it, or if someone were si... | 2 |
AskReddit/e6ybmtf | 9kcpwj | What Spongebob episode/scene traumatized you the most? | I was too old to be easily traumatized by Spongebob, but I feel for him in that episode where he takes the wrong bus and ends up in a strange town. He does the exact same thing I would do, expressing anger and frustration before realizing how vulnerable he is in new surroundings. I also like the weird deep sea fishes s... | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/cgtrv8y | 2360x9 | Why do we generally raise our hands when we cheer? | Physical exertion helps release the built-up excitement/energy We want the people for whom we are cheering to see us The rising motion complements the rising excitement/energy We know that raised arms looks a lot more exciting than a lack of movement, and therefore do it to encourage others around us or the people for ... | 2 |
AskReddit/cc2tqo4 | 1lu2n2 | What's your way of tricking people into telling you their names when you've forgotten and it's too awkward to ask? | I'm horrible with names AND faces. So I just apologize and explain the situation and laugh about how "I could have an hour long conversation with you yesterday and still not remember what you look like." It works every time, we laugh and I basically get the ok to ask their name three more times before I finally remembe... | 2 |
AskReddit/dpghp38 | 7ba51z | What's the most interesting story an elderly person told you about their life? | My great grandpa was a preacher after he retired from work and (to me) was known as a really good person who never did anything wrong. Until one day he told me about the out house tipping event. So him and his friends got the idea to go around and tip over the outhouses in the neighborhood. So they set off and complete... | 2 |
AskReddit/cq8jgzv | 327482 | What would you name your dragon if you had one? | I'm planning to eventually get a Bearded Dragon and am deciding between (Beo)Wulf and Jabber(wocky). I was also looking at getting a Chinese Water Dragon and was considering Dax and Yaxha. So, I guess if I got a real dragon it would depend on what it looked like. | 2 |
askscience/e1u781p | 8wbmnl | Is it possible to add a hole to a wind instrument that transposes the rest of the pitches by an interval other than an octave? | quite possible, you're going to need equipment that can study the airflow, you need someone elses or else your going to have to chart out how the pitch is made in the wind instrument to calculate and simulate the change before applying a hole to the instrument, and there is a possibility that the air blown through it h... | 3 |
askscience/c5dv873 | wjd01 | What affect does lung capacity have on damage from smoking, if any? | This is a debated area in the field. There are some East Coast centers that believe that the absolute value of some of the lung function values -- for instance the amount of air that you can forcibly exhale in 1 second, or the FEV1 -- correlate with disease. Others believe that it is more the percentage of the predicte... | 2 |
AskReddit/d3dn4oq | 4kbdye | Who did you used to look up to but now hate? | Hate is too strong a word, but I used to greatly admire Orson Scott Card. His writing is brilliant and I used to cite him as an inspiration for my own writing. After I found out what a nasty hateful person he is outside of his work, my respect for him greatly diminished. | 2 |
AskReddit/c2wius5 | ly460 | What is the most fun thing you have ever done with your friends? | This thread is gonna make me cry. I'm in my 30's, most of my friends are married. Those insanely fun times were so frequent and amazing. Totally don't wanna reflect. | 2 |
AskReddit/e9b1tyr | 9vcix2 | What's the advice you always got and what's the advice you always needed? | Advice given - "just be yourself, it's someone else's problem if they don't like you" Advice needed - sometimes you need to take a really good, hard look at yourself and understand that there are areas where you need to improve. Areas where you genuinely need to improve or bad habits can't be pawned off as "someone els... | 4 |
AskReddit/ejbj1le | b56jlu | What little things have people done for you while you were sick that made you so so grateful? | well my cats once took turns watching over me. I was really sick and they would just switch when one another would come into the room and lay with me. ​ nobody has really ever taken care of me when i was sick. the biggest thing is like being told "go to the toilet if you start to throw up." qwq | 3 |
AskReddit/ejf4d28 | b5q9n8 | What company's logo would you tattoo on your body in exchange for 100 of that company's products per year? | Somebody on the Internet once said, > "if you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." With that in mind, I would take either Facebook or Reddit or any other social media platform and get for myself 100 people per year. | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/c64faac | zgpsr | Can you explain to a five year old how to use a credit card responsibly? | Using a credit card is like asking mommy or daddy to buy you something because your allowance isn't enough, and promising to pay them back later. If you don't pay them back, you'll get in trouble, and you'll have to do extra chores for no extra allowance. | 23 |
AskReddit/czq48vc | 44gz03 | What is the best career path for a psychopath? | Start a multi-level marketing scheme. But you have to be at the top of the pyramid. Become a televangelist. Politician can work. Double-agent. Drug-dealer / government informer. A functioning psychopath -- one who can control his lying and channel it for a purpose -- really has a lot of career options. It's a very usef... | 43 |
AskReddit/c3dly4q | o1fgl | Has anyone recently been called by a survey company and then been offered a Caribbean cruise? | It's always bullshit. The "cruise" isn't free, or during the two day cruise you'll be subjected to hard-sell on a Caribbean timeshare or something. What were the questions they asked? I wouldn't be surprised if they were to judge your ability to afford a timeshare, based on the answers you give. | 2 |
AskReddit/clj62ct | 2k9fnj | What was your worst relationship like? | My worst relationship was with this one girl, she had a boyfriend who went to jail. We never meant to fall for each other, we hung out all the time cause it was just comfortable. But I think I started to fall for her and she felt the same. We began becoming more intimate in our relationship. one day her boyfriend calle... | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d2kpk5f | 4gu0n5 | Why do some wholesale businesses only sell to other businesses? | Wholesale food distributor here. Your sale of one case of pickles is not something we are really all that interested in. Since food is a commodity in most instances, the margins are generally razor thin (especially on something as cheap as pickles). In addition to that, the effort of having an employee punch the order ... | 3,692 |
AskReddit/e9ocqdr | 9wzm86 | If you could get 1 dollar but ISIS would also get 1 dollar, how much money would you take? | A ridiculous amount of money. Not only would my family and I live like kings but I could set up charities etc and do a lot of good. Sure isis would get a billion dollars too. but the difference is I wouldn't have most of the modern world trying to drone strike me. Im sure USA + allies would just kill isis and confiscat... | 3 |
AskHistorians/d23d4ka | 4etgtg | Did US unions ever try to 'export' themselves into other countries? | If by that you are asking if any American employee unions have branched into or spread to other countries, then the answer is yes. There are many international unions that had their roots in the US and later branched into Canada, in particular. Examples include the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the A... | 7 |
askscience/c4x552i | uohaa | If we can only witness the transit of Venus only once in about every 100 years, how have scientists managed to discover multiple planets in other solar systems using the transit method? | The reason for the long times between Venus transits is the difference in declination of the orbits of Earth and Venus, and the fact that we're both orbiting the same star. (We don't line up perfectly every time Venus overtakes us around the Sun.) When other planets orbit other stars far away from us, the frequency of ... | 6 |
explainlikeimfive/c6jj3lb | 115nmh | Why don't cars have electrical outlets? | It's easy to power the cigarette lighter, because that issues 12 VDC, same as the car's battery. To add a 120V 60Hz AC outlet would require an inverter, which would add cost and weight to the vehicle. Also, because it's just an outlet, people would expect to be able to plug a lot of weird appliances into it and have it... | 3 |
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