query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1
value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
How can windows update itself when my computer is off? | [
"It can't. Updates can only happen when your computer is powered on. However, your computer can certainly detect that it has missed some updates when it comes up and start updating itself."
] | [
"It does not load services and non critical drivers. If something with one of them is broken, corrupt, or infected with a virus, it allows the computer to function so you can fix it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How does toothpaste actually whiten our teeth? Does it even do that or is it just marketing? | [
"If you look at the fine print of most of the whitening toothpaste, they say they \"whiten\" by removing stains which you would think is what toothpaste should do by default. Edit: To further clarify, most toothpaste that claim they whiten your teeth just add a stain-removal agent like baking soda to bring out the... | [
"I asked my dentist the same question the other day, basically your teeth will have a natural yellowish tint to them, teeth aren't supposed to be white. people with white teeth use toothpaste with agents that essentially bleach the enamel on your teeth which really isn't good for them. Don't stress, its natural. Ma... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does a phone or laptop measure the percentage charge of its battery? | [
"Batteries lose voltage as they discharge: they aren’t giving out electricity as well as when they are full. A device can measure that, and calculate how dead a battery is based on its particular voltage."
] | [
"Voltage degrades at a predictable rate based on how much juice is left in the battery. By measuring how far the voltage has dropped, you can calculate how much power is left in the battery. Slick huh?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why don't modern dictionaries spell pronunciation descriptions out phonetically instead of using strange alphabet characters few understand? | [
"They do spell it phonetically, those strange characters are part of the phonetic alphabet"
] | [
"Well, for Mandarin there exists a system called \"Pinyin\" which is the official method of transcription of Chinese into English. Pinyin uses english letters to replicate Chinese but because Chinese is a language where the pronunciation matters, Pinyin also includes little symbols (generally found above vowels) th... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why is shampoo usually translucent but conditioner opaque? | [
"Because conditioner is marketed as a \"cream\". (In fact it's sometimes the case and used to be the case back in the day that people would call conditioner \"cream rinse\".) We associate opacity with creaminess and moisturizing properties, while we associate clarity with cleaning properties. Kind of like why Cry... | [
"Shampoo is much more mild .. Shampoo doesn't have enough 'oomph' to clean your body properly. Body wash, on the other hand, is too harsh you use in your hair on a regular basis. The whole reason Shampoo was invented was because regular soap left peoples' hair dry and damaged."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
When a company goes from public to private? (e.g. Best Buy) | [
"You may not be aware of this (I wasn't) but private companies have stock, too. That stock will likely still be around, just not held publicly or traded publicly. Usually I think a third party (like an investment group) holds ownership of the shares, at least for a while. They buy the stock back at a premium (usua... | [
"They buy the stocks from the existing owners, usually with the consent of the people running the acquired company. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: What do you actually get when you buy a company? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: How are companies bought out by other companies/ multi-milli... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why is the human population almost 50/50 male/female? | [
"So, you probably know that males have an XY chromosome pair and women have an XX pair. In the man's sperm factory, the DNA is split down the middle. Each half goes into its own sperm. One half has the X chromosome, and the other half has the Y. So, half of all the sperm carry X, and half carry Y. Of the millions o... | [
"There is generally a 50/50 chance that a child will be born with male chromosomes and a 50/50 chance that they will be born with female chromosomes. Probability is all that matters."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why should men pick up and put down toilet lid instead of women just putting it down? | [
"I put the lid down when I am done so that when I flush it doesn't spray particulate feces and urine across everything within five feet of the toilet. Nothing to do with females."
] | [
"When you're done brushing your teeth, you can carefully wash your toothbrush and put it in its little holder. You can also just throw it down onto the countertop and walk away. Doing it that way will *usually* work, but there's a chance that someone will knock it onto the floor or get some hair on it. Turning off ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Question about public women's toilets:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Question about public women's toilets:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about Technology:"
} |
Why must any foreign companies selling vehicles in China go through a 50-50 joint venture with another Chinese company? | [
"China has absolutely no interest in any company operating there not being fully beholden to them. It is not a free market economy. You work for them."
] | [
"This happens when an American company uses European suppliers or even is jointly owned along with a European sister company and they share parts."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
How does an ISP like Comcast monitor the activity of its customers, such as illegal downloading? What do they look for? Is it automated? | [
"Comcast doesn't monitor. The owner of whatever monitors torrent activity (or they hire a firm to do it), they saw someone using the public IP of your building was downloading the whatever. With that IP they know it was a Comcast customer so they went to Comcast, Comcast went to your building."
] | [
"All your internet traffic is sent through a device called a router. That router keeps logs of what IP address (a unique identifier for each computer on the network) performs what actions and what traffic goes through it. If a known viral program is accessing the internet through your computer, we get alerts. If yo... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why are the music tracks in a movie always louder than the speech tracks? | [
"If you have your TV set to the wrong stereo type.. Like 4.1 instead of 2.1 or 87.1 etc. You can experience exactly what you describe.. Happens to me everytime I loan my ps3 to my surround sound equipped buddy.."
] | [
"Stereo. There are two different audio tracks playing on most mp3s, it allows you to fit more music into each song by putting some more guitar in the left and some more vocals in the right. In the old days, you could only put a track in the left ear, the right ear or centre. Thats why old beatles songs have drums o... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do Governments world-wide run on debt? Do they all sell bonds or are there countries that do not? | [
"Because debt is cheap and governments have infinite lifespans and the ability to pay back said debt. Most even have the ability to print money meaning that they can take on any amount of debt and pay it back if they are willing to risk inflation. So yes, it's a fundamental economic theory and a good idea. Countrie... | [
"Through the issuance of treasury securities, like bonds. Anyone can buy these, including you. Foreign governments obviously have a much larger capacity to do this. The government isn't going up to China and asking for a couple bucks."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
What are the benefits of legalising marijuana? | [
"No one has mentioned marijuana for medical purposes. As a person that has chronic pain, I would do anything to have this pain alleviated. I currently take 20 pills a day for the chronic pain, and that's not including pain pills I take. If medicinal marijuana was legally an option, I would trade my 20+ synthetic pi... | [
"Illegal: You can be arrested for selling or using marijuana. Decriminalization: You can get a fine for selling or using marijuana, but it's not going to show up on your criminal record. Legalization: Marijuana can be sold or used in a manner similar to tobacco or alcohol."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Race vs. Ethnicity: Compare and Contrast LI5. | [
"In most situations, you can use the terms interchangeably and nobody will know the difference. Technically speaking, though, there is a subtle difference. Race refers solely to what group you were born into and what genetic characteristics you possess. For instance, someone with white parents and white skin is a m... | [
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Social Sciences:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Social Sciences:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do Apple users hate Flash and why do they want it killed and whats supposed to replace it? | [
"There have been a lot of reasons building up on Why Flash is Bad. One is that HTML5 does the same things. Another is that Flash requires Adobe's support (and they've already stopped supporting Linux). And just recently it was revealed that there are some huge security weaknesses with Flash when it runs in your web... | [
"Microsoft used \"anti-competitive\" practices to instill IE in users hands as opposed to other options. In the past (and even today), they refuse to support some accepted standards, and either implement their own or force other changes. This means other browsers have to support multiple standards, resulting in ext... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Technology:"
} |
What is IBM Watson and how can it be interacted with? | [
"This video was done in a ELI5 for how Watson works: _URL_2_ Originally Watson was designed to win on Jeopardy. It did this by getting it to read wikipedia and understand it like a human would. Then using this information it would be able to answer jeopardy questions. You can see that game here: _URL_1_ Since the... | [
"Resources are meaningless without the infrastructure to make use of them."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
If the average lightning strike is one billion joules and my surge protector withstands 560 joules; how is it going to protect my electronics? | [
"If the entire lightning strike goes through your stuff, then they are toast no matter what. But that doesn't happen. If lightning strikes en electric pole, most of the energy will simply jump in to the ground. The small part that enters the electric network is spreed out over a wide area. Still enough to kill your... | [
"It's not very likely (I don't know the odds, but my pool has been struck by lightning once before), but if it did get struck, you would be pretty fucked. The lightning is going to hit the water and the electrons will immediately attempt to spread out. They will spread out through the pool, passing through your bod... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How is there more trees on earth than stars in the milky way? | [
"From [NASA](_URL_1_): > > > There are different models for estimating the number of stars in the Milky Way and the answers they give differ depending on what is used as the average mass of a star. The most common answer seems to be that there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way on the low-end and 400 billion... | [
"Our naked eye can actually see the Andromeda galaxy from a dark area, which is 2.6 million light years from Earth. That's considered the furthest object you can see with the naked eye I believe."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
national debt. I feel like it's gotten to the point where it's just monopoly money. Do countries take it into consideration that often? If so, especially with the U.S., does it affect foreign relations and truly affect reputation? | [
"That's an insane amount, but it's also a *meaningless* amount. Calculating it makes about as much sense as dividing the total sales of Walmart by the number of Polynesian rice farmers. There is no mechanism by which we ever could or would put all the government's debt on every citizen, and we don't really want the... | [
"If you lose all of your money, it affects you. Maybe a few members of your family. It won't really affect the national economy. if a company like GM is about to go under, it will affect millions of people and do damage to the national economy. So, the government is doing what is best for the country."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How is it that different regions have different languages, measurements, etc, but everyone divides time the same way? | [
"Well, the day/night cycle and and the motion of the moon and the sun are visible everywhere, so every group will have about the same days, months and years. Pre-industrial societies have little use for hours and tend to go by dawn, noon, dusk to divide the day. The hours are left over from Sumerian counting which ... | [
"Historically, every culture had their own measurements. Over time, we developed organizations to standardize these. Except for one country, everyone in the world uses a single system (metric). Even in the US, many types of commerce are increasingly in metric. There have been attempts to standardize language (Esper... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about Mathematics:"
} |
Why do some neuroscientists not want to link human consciousness to the physical brain? | [
"Well, consciousness is hard to explain scientifically. Lot's of things that we have questions for but no answers usually end up in the realm of philosophy. For example, some of the ideas talked about in quantum physics used to be part of philosophy."
] | [
"I don't think we understand the functioning of the brain well enough to be able to pinpoint the biological bases of individual beliefs and their changes."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why is Rotten Tomatoes scores always higher than Metacritics? | [
"RottenTomatoes doesn't rate movies in the normal sense, the % is just the percentage of critics/reviewers who gave a positive review. So, a Metacritic score of 90 means it's a very good movie, while a RottenTomatoes score of 90% means it's almost guaranteed you will like it. So, a movie may be decent, 6/10, but ... | [
"% of critics on the website that like the movie. Audience score is the same, but with movie goers over Pro Critics. Don't use the Tomato rating as a \"how good\" the movie is, it's meant to be more of the % chance you'll like the movie. Theres some low 40% movies I really enjoy, and some upper 90% ones I don't. It... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
The difference between left wing and right wing government | [
"Basically, the left wing wants the government to have a hand in the economy, while the right wing want's the economy to be a privately run by individuals without government interference. The right wing also tend to want more government regulation of social issues, such as marriage, prostitution, drug use, etc. wh... | [
"the idea is all that marketing makes a lot more people put money towards research."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
ELI how to recover from identity theft in the USA. | [
"It's a long process, but there's some decent help out there if you ask for it. [The FTC has a great breakdown of where you can start.](_URL_0_) Hope this helps."
] | [
"The fee pays to provide the service for free calls without paid service. Edit: More of an explanation."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment about Telecommunications:"
} |
How does investing in the stock market work? | [
"You trade money for a small piece of ownership of a company, in the hopes that the company will use the money wisely, to make themselves more valuable. The more valuable the company is, the more valuable your small piece is. The hope is that when you sell it, it is worth more then when you bought it."
] | [
"Two main ways: - They charge you fees and interest to do your banking and loan you money - They invest their own money, as well as their clients' money, in everything from stocks and bonds to foreign currencies and venture capital."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why didn't any Ancient Grecians climb Mount Olympus? Wouldn't SOMEONE want to see the gods? | [
"Few things: 1. From our perspective looking back in time, it seems like everyone literally believed that the gods had a physical home on Mt. Olympus. However, educated/elite people understood then, as many people understand now, that the myth is metaphorical. The gods didn't literally live on top of Mt. Olympus, t... | [
"You know how people thought there's some angry god that throws lightning bolts when you do or don't do something? Well people are afraid of things they don't understand."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text about science:"
} |
what is a black hole? not the wiki version - already read that and didn't understand it | [
"This has been [asked before](_URL_0_) Though a better explanation is [here](_URL_1_)"
] | [
"you should ask /r/askscience but i'm going to up vote you anyway i think ELI5 is better for topics you already have a conceptual understanding of but need a clarification. ain't it einstein who says \"If you can't explain it to a five year old, you don't understand it yourself.\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Is a 2.5ºF temperature change significant? | [
"As [xkcd](_URL_0_) points out, the last ice age was \"only\" 4.5 degrees Celsius colder than the global average. Just a reminder that the last ice age had continent sized glaciers sliding down North America. Two degrees is half of that, but we are going in the other direction. Nine degrees gets us palm trees on th... | [
"No matter left, only energy. Its a pure 100% efficient conversion."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Physics:"
} |
How information is stored in the human brain. | [
"Dude. People have no idea. Conscienceness is one of the most complex and hard to understand processes, If not the most. If someone can explain, let me get them their Nobel prize."
] | [
"Volume or weight of the brain isn't the key but how many connections each neuron makes with others."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Humans have existed for 200,00 years, yet history only goes back 5,000 years. What do we know happened past 5,000 years ago? What do we know/think life was like? | [
"I highly recommend A Brief History of Humankind. And humans (the homo genus) has existed for a couple million years. Homo sapiens for around 200,000 years. Humans were mostly foragers and left behind few artefacts before about 12-13k years ago so not much for sure. There was some sort of Cognitive revolution and ... | [
"Human history goes back about 5 to 6 thousand years ago with the invention of writing. Anything that happened before the invention of writing is known as prehistory. So how far back does this prehistory go? Over 2 million years. Our species, Homo sapiens, belongs to the genus Homo. Biologists generally consider al... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What ever happened to serial killers? Does the news just not report them anymore or have we as humans just improved? | [
"If you think about it, many of the famous serial killers were able to go undetected for a very long time because they moved around or chose victims that would be overlooked. Now there is much more awareness of serial crime and investigators are taught how to recognize the signs of it and establish links between ca... | [
"A few years ago if you remember birds apparently started committing mass suicide. Did birds just suddenly start flying into the ground or did one news outlet pick it up once, then another, then everyone forgot? This is basically that on steroids, but I don't expect people to forget so easily."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why Do Rashes, Like Eczema, Get Really Warm? | [
"Warm blood is being directly transported to the area of the skin to help fight any infection and attempt to heal the irritation."
] | [
"Being Black Does Actually Have (Relatively Minor) Health Consequences, It's Just That They're Obviated By Modern Life. There's An Energy Cost To Have Extra Melanin, Even A Small One, So If You Don't Need It It Won't Be Selected For. Melanin Reduces Vitamin-D Uptake From The Sun If Sunlight Is Lower Than You're Ada... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How is Google Maps so precise on their traffic alerts? | [
"Because [android phones regularly report](_URL_0_) their position to Google. They know how fast traffic is moving because they know exactly where android phones are all the time, and some of those people are driving on almost every road."
] | [
"Because the GPS apps don't have a team of people scouring the news for every city in the world looking for road closure announcements and most major cities don't provide a computer-readable list of their construction plans. Google Maps tends to learn pretty quickly from traffic data that something is closed, from ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What makes PRIME NUMBERS so important in encryption? | [
"Prime numbers are needed to make the maths behind the encryption and decryption processes work. For RSA, the proof that decrypting the encrypted message gets you back to the original message depends on Fermat's Little Theorem, which is that *a*^(*p* - 1) = 1 (mod *p*) where *p* is prime and not a factor of *a* Th... | [
"> Is there anything more to it? Turn left."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do we feel bad after a short amount of sleep? Shouldn't we feel more rested regardless of the amount we got? | [
"So I found a website that explains the phenomenon really well. A little wordy but it works. Basically, when we sleep we enter different stages of sleep, and how we feel depends on what stage of sleep we wake up out of. Waking up during stages 3 or 4 when the body is repairing itself, or waking up during REM sleep ... | [
"Most likely, yes. Your sleep cycle is divided into parts like deep sleep and REM, and you go through several such cycles every night during a normal eight-hour rest. Now, if your three-hour rest was interrupted halfway through a cycle, that can be very disruptive. But as long as you are able to get a high quality ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Sleep and its effects on the body:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Sleep and its effects on the body:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why does alcohol burn when it touches your fresh wound? And why does it not burn anymore when you apply it again after the burning stops? | [
"Alcohol destroys cells by breaking apart the cell wall, which is the hard^^ish surrounding of the cell that keeps everything in one package. When the alcohol breaks apart your nerve cells, you feel pain. If you put it on again after a short period of time, the cells are already broken and dead, so you no longer fe... | [
"You're literally cooking part of your skin, actually. The cold water helps to remove any excess heat, to stop whatever is burning you from burning you more. In addition, it may help a little to start to numb the area slightly."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
Original Purpose of Bearing Arms | [
"They had just used a militia force to overthrow a tyrannical government. The original purpose was to have armed citizens, not only to revolt in case the government became tyrannical, but also because there was a serious lack of government law enforcement, so bandits and outlaws were common. The right to bear arms... | [
"Sleep - Shake Unconscious - Splash Coma - Wait and Hope Vegetative State - Wait and Bury"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
What makes a good lawyer 'good'. What sets them apart from 'bad' lawyers? | [
"I once had a lawyer walk out of the prosecutor's office and say \"sorry, I forgot the law for a second, I cant really help you\" I would say a good lawyer knows the law."
] | [
"In some countries there's no distinction, and \"barrister and solicitor\" is synonymous for \"lawyer.\" In Canada, everyone who practices law is called a lawyer. Lawyers break down into barristers and solicitors. Barristers do litigation (and in Canada a barrister would more commonly refer to themself as a \"liti... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why do humans sleep most comfortably with some kind of blanket? | [
"because monsters can't get you if you're covered up."
] | [
"Your reasons for feeling more comfortable in a certain position (such as with one leg crossed over the other) could range from better circulation and rest for a muscle that works hard in your day to day life to simple optimum sensory stimulation (pressure, friction). Everybody has different preferences for how muc... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why do rechargeable tools use different voltages (9v, 12v, and now 24v,) and will the trend of higher voltages continue, like say 48v cordless drills in a couple years? | [
"Yup -- just progression of technology. Same idea can be applied to electric cars as well. The high voltage system on the Tesla packs is about 375V Very similar to the Chevy Volt which is 360V. These will be going up in the future due to the desire for more power and faster charging times. The easiest way to thin... | [
"A) 9 Volt batteries only go in one way, there's virtually no risk of connecting them backwards (and thus, rendering a device unusable) like you have with AA, AAA, C & D cells. B) They provide 9 Volts while other common cells only provide 1.5 Volts. If a device is better operated with higher voltages, it's easier t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why hasn't In-N-Out burger expanded much beyond the southwestern US? It seems like they would do very well pretty much anywhere they went. | [
"Because In-N-Out has a rule that they won't build a restaurant more than a certain distance from one of their distribution centers, so that the standard for fresh ingredients can remain high."
] | [
"Chains have to follow the rules of the corporation. That's why McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken all have the same feel between restaurants. Now, since I worked at McDonalds, I can't speak for other chains, but McDonalds uses produce and meat local to the region. It really does start tasting d... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Why do people only get full once they've eaten way too much? | [
"It takes a few minutes for your brain to register that food is being put into your stomach and how much food. That's why when you eat too fast, you feel sick. So you need to take your time chewing to send signals to your brain and tummy that your about to fill up with food, take breaks every few minutes."
] | [
"I don't think there is any science behind this. A better question is why am I able to eat every God damn thing in the fridge when I'm stoned but eat like a normal person when I'm not.."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is that weird feeling when you put your hand in front of your nose? | [
"Is your hand bigger than your face? You might have cancer"
] | [
"Why do the glands in my neck burn like high hell when I'm holding back tears?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Health:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Health:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why don't American restaurants just raise prices by 15-20% etc and eliminate tipping? | [
"Currently waiters wages are directly related to how well they serve the people eating. This creates some significant positive reinforcement for treating their guests in the ways they wanted to be treated, which is beneficial for the guests."
] | [
"You do. You tip your hairdresser, the vallet, pizza guy, the bellhop, bartender etc. In case you didn't know, food servers are not paid a \"salary,\" they live off of tips. This is a cultural norm and employers don't have to pay them a wage because it's understood that they make their money in tips. Yes, they pay ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why is NASA's Space/launch center based in Florida? | [
"- Spacecraft launch eastward, so that the Earth's rotation helps them get into orbit. Any space launch center will want a giant empty area to the East, so that nobody will get hurt if a rocket explodes or crashes on launch. For the Soviets, that giant empty area was the Kazach steppe and Siberia; for the Americans... | [
"Where do you mean? Europe? The US? Middle East? Africa? Eastern Asia?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
How is over-caffeinated coffee made? | [
"> I know you can decaffeinate coffee and extract caffeine from beans by using some chemicals, but how do you put more caffeine inside the beans? One way of extracting caffeine is soaking them in liquid carbon dioxide into which the caffeine will dissolve while leaving many of the chemicals which make up the taste ... | [
"Coffee is addictive. Excessive caffeine can give you the shakes. I don't know what coffee is like in the rest of the world but it has caffeine in it here."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do scene and torrent groups remove TV show DRM?? | [
"That kind of flag just send a signal to a device not to allow copying, and relies on circumventing it being illegal under the DMCA. It is kind of like the lock on most homes...pretty easy to overcome, so the deterrent is more about having to commit a serious crime. Technically, DRM on video is a difficult problem.... | [
"Can you give an example? Most TV show DVDs are on multiple discs."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why is it so uncommon for restaurants to serve both Coca-Cola and Pepsi products? | [
"I think they have contracts stating that they can only sell products from that one company, whether they choose Coke or Pepsi."
] | [
"Diet Coke was produced as a diet cola. Coke Zero was produced to be a lower calorie Coca-Cola. Diet Coke was never intended to mirror the taste of Coca-Cola."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why do steps have plateau after every 1 to 12 steps?. Eg in train stations. | [
"Giving climbers a place to rest can certainly be one of the reasons (and is part of the reason why they are called \"landings\"). They also are required to create most stairs that change directions, which lets builders fit staircases into smaller areas. That said the key reason you see them commonly is to work as ... | [
"Sure if you can run at 3700 miles per second."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
When I mute a TV or a computer, I swear to God I sometimes hear a faint bit of sound. Is there still sound coming from it or am I just crazy? | [
"The audio circuit goes from the pre-amplifier to the amplifier to the speaker and back. Each of these components has some resistance. Current follows the path of least resistance. When you mute something, you are redirecting the current to a path of lower resistance to avoid sending it through the speaker. However... | [
"Anyone else notice something like a subtle change in air pressure or temperature when someone is near us? Also something like a subtle ringing or buzzing sound or maybe a vibration? I think this might contribute to our awareness of being watched. Maybe I am just imagining things though."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does a laser maintain its brightness wether it be pointed 2 feet away or 30? | [
"This is a key characteristic of lasers: all the light comes out of them in a straight line, with quite limited spreading-out. (It's actually *not* a much bigger dot, compared to a flashlight which emits a cone of light.) Thus the dot doesn't get fainter."
] | [
"same reason you can see a mountain thats 1000 feet away but not a fly thats 100 feet away"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about astronomy:"
} |
What happens to an email when it is sent to an email address that doesn't exist? | [
"It depends on what part of the email address doesn't exist. If you send it to: InvalidRecipient@_URL_0_ The mail server for _URL_0_ rejects it. This occurs when your mail server tries to relay the message to the mail server that handles mail for _URL_0_. In that scenario, your mail server should let you, the sende... | [
"When you send out hundreds of thousands of emails you are guaranteed to get bounced emails, either someone signed up with a bad address, their account got deleted, their inbox is full, the server is down, the server is overloaded, etc. You just always get bounced emails. The no-reply address is an automated addres... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If a resistor uses very thin wire to restrict the flow of electrons, wouldn't the original current or voltage destroy the resistor since there are so many electrons trying to pass through the wire?? | [
"But voltage/current absolutely can and will fry resistors! Resistors have a value they can tolerate before they burn out. In your example of the CPU, the reason the seemingly similar wires of the CPU and Resistor don't burn at the same temperatures, is because Resistors are built to handle large temperatures where... | [
"\"if there is an infinite amount of potential electricity flow from an outlet\" There is not an infinite amount of potential electricity flow. The amount of electricity flowing through a wire is limited by the wire. If you put too much electricity through a tiny wire, it can heat up and melt."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why does shampoo/conditioner squeezed from a bottle pour down straight, but then curl when it hits a surface? | [
"This is called \"Liquid Rope Coiling\". Essentially, the fluid is so viscous that it's able to push against the flowing 'rope' of fluid to move it out of the way, where it naturally (usually) falls into a coil of the roped fluid. If you were to lower an actual rope or string onto a surface, chances are you'd obser... | [
"It will stick to the inside of the bottle, but only after it sets. When you stick the cap on the bottle, it stops the liquid setting, keeping it usable."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the post about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why do smartphones not have SSD-Chips inside instead of their slow and small storage? | [
"They do :). The type of memory cells are the same (NAND or NOR on feature phones). The biggest difference is the controller. SSDs have better controllers that do whole lot of other stuff. For phones, you have to take power consumtion into account."
] | [
"SD Cards uses flash storage which didn't exist in a viable form back when cartridges where still being used. There were EPROMs and similar erasable rom technology but those tended to be very expensive and had limited rewrites. The most viable and cost effective method was to have some low power DRAM with a batter... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
The deaths of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. | [
"> Is there a generally accepted theory regarding the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls (aka Notorious BIG)? Gang related > Who and Why? Crips killed 2pac, Bloods killed Notorious, because gang related for 2pac, Notorious because retaliation for 2pac > Furthermore, did being a gangster rapper in the 90s c... | [
"Rap started in the East Coast, in the streets on New York. It started out by people coming out of the Funk movement, and doing more spoken word stuff. New York then started to have more Criminal Rappers which changed rap into what it is today. Once news got to the West Coast about rapping, rappers over there start... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do air conditioners have to pull air from outside? | [
"They don't. They push fluids outside, then a compressor squeezes the heat out of it. Then the fluids can come back in once they're nice and cold. There's a blower outside to blow the heat away and another blower inside to blow air over the cool fluids."
] | [
"The AC doesn't add air to your room. The AC sucks air into one channel from your room, through the big vent, uses it to cool the other channel and spits it out through your window. This air is used to cool the other channel, which is cycled from inside your room, back into it. So to answer your question, the pipe ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
What happens when someone without health insurance can't pay their medical bills? | [
"In the USA, the hospital harasses you. Then they offer to let you pay less. If that doesn't work, they hire a collection agency. They harass you. Depending on the size of the debt, they can sue you to get the money and then take money from your pay-check or similar. However, most people that can't pay declare bank... | [
"Health insurance companies aren't allowed to turn you down because you have existing medical conditions. So if you were allowed to sign up whenever you wanted, that wouldn't work; you could just wait to buy health insurance until you had large medical expenses to cover."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Finance:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Finance:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is a flux capacitor? | [
"The core component of the time machine from the Back To The Future film series. It's just random technobabble, it doesn't actually exit in real life."
] | [
"What the heck is a parcel pick up?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
It seems like every day something new comes out in the Panama Papers. Is there gonna be anything actually done to the accused? Who is in charge of prosecuting? | [
"Merely setting up a company in a tax haven doesn't mean you've actually done anything wrong. Its not evidence of a crime by itself."
] | [
"The one thing that's in my mind is \"what the fuck is going on here?!\". All these scandals and coverups, I just don't trust the government - that they are watching out for me. They are just trying to keep a lid on everything. I'm a little afraid to post this in all honesty - who is listening and what do they want... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
When it comes to fluorescent light bulbs, what is a ballast and a starter, and why are they needed? | [
"Fluorescent lamps contain mercury vapor and a noble gas at low pressure. When current passes through the vapor, it gives off ultraviolet light. The UV strikes phosphors coating the inside of the lamp, which produces light. The ballast regulates the current that the lamp receives. A starter is needed in larger tube... | [
"Those types of lamps require a 3-way bulb. One that runs at a low wattage, medium wattage, and a high wattage. When you put in a bulb that doesn't support the lowest voltage and turn it on, nothing happens. You have to turn it on again to get to a high enough voltage that the bulb can run on."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How are people contagious with a virus or bacteria without having any symptoms? | [
"For many diseases, symptoms come not from the infection itself, but from the immune system's attempts to stop the infection before it gets out of control. Some organisms have ways to evade the immune system, at least for a little while. If these organisms can grow while they're doing this, then they can be spread.... | [
"There is no such thing as a symptomless disease. Having detrimental symptoms is part of the defintion of what classifies something as a disease."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Self Harm. WHY does causing oneself physical pain make emotional pain subside? | [
"During times of stress and/or great physical pain your body releases endorphins and other chemicals that act as natural pain killers. These painkillers work in the same was as morphine and other opiates, so it is roughly equivalent to giving themselves a very mild opiate high. Opiates/endorphins also make you feel... | [
"Pain is just your body’s way of saying “stop! You’re damaging yourself.” If you don’t feel pain, it’s because those signals aren’t firing. So in that sense, no, the pain doesn’t exist In terms of low pain tolerance, it depends. Some people are accustomed to pain so they can tolerate more of it, like tolerances to ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
When a surface is between both of our arms how are we able to pinpoint where our other hand is on the other side? | [
"It's a sense, called [proprioception](_URL_0_). Similarly, you can find your body parts with your eyes closed. ELI5: you have a lot of little sensors all over your body that communicate with each other."
] | [
"If there is a pole facing right at you, you don't know how long it is as you can only see the end, not any part of the sides, adding a red flag at the end allows you to see how far the end is from the vehicle."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why is it US policy to limit the influence of China? | [
"In short: because you don't maintain your seat of power and authority by letting someone else be just as powerful and influential as you."
] | [
"You made the mistake of thinking that the primary intention of the US government when going to other countries is to promote freedom."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How people can get so connected to an actor (or other pop culture figure that they have not met and do not truly know) that they cry or feel deep despair upon death. | [
"Actors are easy for people for form imaginary bounds with because you see the world through their eyes, and get to know their friends and acquaintances, which in turn makes you think you're friends with the actor since you have the same friends."
] | [
"Wow, a lot of original and free thinkers here. What if you can't talk to most people, can't express yourself out of shame, embarrassment, whatever. What if you, in this state, have struggled with friendships, work relationships, family, everything, and eventually wonder how anyone keeps living. And then you random... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why is it piece of mind and not peace of mind as that seems most logical given its use | [
"I think you're confusing idioms. It's \"peace of mind\" to refer to calmness or serenity, and \"a piece of (someone's/ your/ whatever) mind\", meaning a telling off."
] | [
"A pun is a play on word. It uses words that are relevant to a subject but has no context to the actual phrase. It's used often in a humorous manner, you may notice most upvoted comments are puns on reddit. For example: \"A horse is a very stable animal\" Stable is the pun because it is relevant to the subject beca... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
The rationale and the end game for terrorists | [
"This is quite hard to answer in simple terms, but with my news junkie understanding of things, here's how I see it. Terrorist organisations exist to try and provoke political change or changes to a society through the use of violence. Usually the desire for change is motivated by a particular ideology, and the sel... | [
"Because, as a policy, there is little impetus to change it, and what impetus there is is mostly from people with little political power. An often overlooked characteristic of such a policy is that, in it's simplest form, it exempts anyone with no income from fines."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
how long it would take members of the ISS to suffocate if power was cut on the ISS? | [
"According to this article from 2005, they have 150 days of oxygen in reserve. _URL_0_"
] | [
"There are various medicines on board that they could use, as well as consulting with doctors on earth. If those didn't help, there are emergency Dearborn procedures. A spare Soyuz is kept docked to the ISS for emergency situations, such as medical emergencies, or meteoroids. So if necessary, they could try to retu... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does a lethal dose given during assisted suicide work? | [
"In denmark a glass of orange juice with a very high dose of a fast acting barbiturate like sodium thiopental is given. The recipient drinks it on his own (I'm not sure you can actually do an assisted suicide if the recipient can't perform the act on his own). Barbiturates are powerful sedatives, the patient feels ... | [
"A lethal injection generally consists of three drugs: * A barbiturate. Used for general anasthesia during surgery. Lethal injection uses an overdose of about 15x regular. * A muscle relaxant. Used to stop the gag reflex when someone as a feeding tube inserted. Lethal injection uses about a 4x overdose. * Potassium... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why do many super rich people keep money in Swiss Bank? | [
"The Swiss are a neutral country, so if anything illegal happens with the account, they don't turn it over. It's why there are email clients in Switzerland too."
] | [
"99% of it is in investments, real estate, stocks, companies, funds, etc. the 1% of it they keep in liquid form is what they do to go shopping with."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Economics:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Economics:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Economics:"
} |
getting selected for jury duty | [
"I would guess it depends on your location. I've been called twice for the county and once for the federal courthouse in my area. I believe everyone is eligible after 18. If you do get called it isn't a big deal. You might not be selected from the pool or excused during the jury selection process. Whatever you do,... | [
"they push on other things or use little scales on their belly _URL_0_ props to asking a question which is literally answered on a \"kidzone\" website. this is truly ELI5-worthy."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text about Biology:"
} |
How is it people find new ways to kill cancer cells all the time, be it with drugs or viruses or bioengineering, yet we still don't have a cure for cancer? | [
"First off, there are many different types of cancer and they are all very different. Even within the same type of cancer you will have significant differences between cases. This means that there is no real \"cure\" to all cancer, reach type needs its own. Second, the trick isn't to kill the cancer cells, its to k... | [
"A lot of things can cause baldness. There are a few that we understand quite well, like some diseases. But the most common type of hair loss is due to genetics and hormones and not completely understood. We only know that it is really complicated. And right now we don't have the technology to interfere with these ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does the rotary mechanism of ATP synthase work? | [
"When you make ATP, you're trying to use energy to smoosh together two things that don't really want to be together. This will give you a molecule that can easily break back apart later, releasing a burst of useful energy. Making ATP is hard, so we need a machine to help do it. ATP synthase works a lot like an old-... | [
"They have a certain chemical group/structure that bind to a class of receptor in organism. Receptor and ligand, lock and key."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What causes those random little shudders you sometimes experience for seemingly no reason? | [
"It's called myoclonus, and it basically can be thought of as a benign little seizure that almost everyone gets"
] | [
"Well, that’s not normal. I’ve asked a few people and that doesn’t happen to them either. Are you feeling well? Any sudden headaches? Strange aches in areas of your body?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Biology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Biology:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What exactly are the 'conservatives' conservative about? | [
"Republicans are generally considered the more conservative party in the US. Compared to European politics, the Democrats are pretty conservative too, but the Democrats are more liberal than the Republicans. The classic definition of conservatives is that they dislike change - they want to maintain things the way t... | [
"Follow-up question: How was the plan received by Congress? Was there strong support? A lot of dissenters? If so, was it broken down by party affiliation? Geographic location? Ideology (e.g., isolationists vs. interventionalists)?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How are we able to play games for long periods of time without feeling the need to eat/go to the restroom? | [
"I know what you are talking about. I often forget to drink, and then come out of a game with a huge headache. I also do not realize that I am getting cold, and end up with runny nose. I think the game is so realistic that your brain forgets that it has a real-world body and needs to take care of it. You really g... | [
"When you sleep, you're lying in one position pretty much motionless for 5-9 hours. Your body is using very little energy on your muscles or other activities, so it can devote itself to healing. And with no motion, there's no risk of further aggravating your injuries. Theoretically you would get the same healing ef... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Health and Wellness:"
} |
How do we know that the earth rotates around the sun? | [
"Basically we know we revolve around the sun due to simple observation. * With a telescope we can see that other planets have phases just like our moon. * We can also predict where planets are going to be on a night to night / month to month basis. If they were moving around the Earth rather than the sun our predi... | [
"One solar day is the time it takes the planet to perform 1 full revolution on its axis. The real question should be why do planets revolve on their axis at different rates."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do areas not flood after a blizzard? | [
"Oh, its quite common for the spring melt to cause flooding. It depends on how big the upstream watershed area is and how fast it melts. Before my hometown dug some flood control ditches, the low lying parts of town sometimes would have flooded basements in the spring as we're downstream of a particularly large wat... | [
"Snow requires both cold and the right atmospheric conditions. Many coastal areas have too much moisture in the air to allow for snow to form. Also, as far as I can tell you don't count flurries (snow that does not accumulate on the ground) as snow."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why can't neural networks model the brains of small invertebrates. | [
"Each neuron connects to many others and this adds a lot of complexity. If you open up even a small brain, tracing which synapses go where to any meaningful degree is beyond current capabilities as far as I'm aware. So even if a computer could run the simulation, there is the issue of deciding which neurons should ... | [
"There's no way to know for sure as we can't exactly ask them. But we can make some educated guesses by comparing the types of nerve cells they have and the structure of their nervous system, then comparing them to animals we know can feel pain, like *homo sapiens*. And the dominant theory is that no, they cannot. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why does glass break when transferred from hot to cold water, but not something like an egg? | [
"First, a plaque of glass is very solid and strong, an egg shell is very porous and bendable. Second, hot objects expands while cold objects contract. Because an egg shell is bendable and porous, it is able to deal with the internal stresses caused by the temperature difference. And because the glass is solid and s... | [
"The cracks are thermal shock (similar to how alternating hot and cold on things can make them break) Ice sticks to your wet hands because it freezes the water on your hand. This is the same thing as when you lick a cold flagpole."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
If our brain automatically forgets, what it finds unimportant after some time, why don't we have an ability to choose, what we consider necessary for us? | [
"You do. This is where a lot of practices like mindfulness and meditation come into play. These practices work on re-enforcing certain thought patterns to help *teach* yourself what you should focus on, and what you shouldn't focus on. What you should remember, and what you can forget. Like all processes that modi... | [
"much like a computer processor, our brain can never 'not run', so while we are in bed and our mind is not occupied in any activity, it starts remembering things since it's the only activity it can do. and sadly embarrassing things are the things we remember the most"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Cognitive psychology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Cognitive psychology:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does a canister of gas have only that gas? How does someone isolate the gas from the air? | [
"They purge the tank. They pump that gas into the tank until it overflows and then seal it."
] | [
"Water would cease to be water (assuming only a liquid phase) when you separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms from each other. Aside from this you would simply make a mixture."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What causes some people to be more "addiction prone" than others? | [
"Hospital doc here. Generalized anxiety disorder is a big one. It's a self medication thing. If you can imagine exhausting yourself on a daily basis uncontrollably worrying about the same things over and over and finding a pill that gives you an immediate break from that, you can understand."
] | [
"ADD and ADHD have been collapsed into one diagnosis, ADHD, which now has subtypes: ADHD Inattentive type, and ADHD hyperactive type. There is also an ADHD: mixed type where you are both inattentive and hyperactive. The diagnosis of ADD has been removed from the DSM (the bible for psychiatrists and psychologists). ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Dear legal minds, why does the American legal system permit 'plea bargaining'? | [
"I'm not sure where you're form that you think this is an \"American\" thing. It's actually quite common around the world. It's especially common in east Asia, where only a small fraction of cases go to court."
] | [
"For the same reason that other rich people don't get as harsh of a punishment; they can afford expensive lawyers. There's a surprising degree of socioeconomic bias in our legal system."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Law and Criminal Justice:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Law and Criminal Justice:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why does the Bugatti Veyron's W16 engine sound like a fighter jet and not like two V8's driving together? | [
"The W16 of the Veyron is turbocharged, which means that the exhaust has to flow through a turbine, which removes most of the burbling sound and introduces more \"whoosh\". Having twice as many cylinders also means twice as many ignitions happening in the same number of revolutions of the crank, which will make it ... | [
"Jets take in air, compress it, add fuel to it, light it, and shoot the heated gassed out the rear. Benefits? A jet turbine can be built to be immensely more powerful that a standard internal combustion engine. They can work at much higher altitudes than standard reciprocating engines (you won’t find a prop powere... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
This Hilary Clinton email controversy | [
"For security's sake or for maintaining public records (her work emails are official correspondence and thus public), she really should have been using her State Dept email. Because it was on her own server, the govt had no way to secure it from prying eyes or to make sure she hasn't deleted/hidden embarrassing ema... | [
"That double digit iQ look in their gazes"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Where does excess energy dissipate to? | [
"> The sun constantly supplies new energy to Earth - where does the excess energy dissipate to? Does energy \"leave\" our planet? Earth dissipates heat energy into space through radiation, such as infrared. It is why the temperature drops at night."
] | [
"Could you be a little more specific as to what you would like to know? How it works to facilitate the immune response? How it helps to circulate the lymph fluid? Something else?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What global/environmental changes are we likely to see if we never bring our carbon dioxide levels back below 400 ppm? | [
"It's only become an article in various sources because 400ppm is a nice round number. There is no real scientific reason why 400 is really bad but if it still had been 398 we would have been ok. That article is really more sensationalist than anything else. Furthermore we are still adding more CO2 to the atmospher... | [
"> What is it? Climate change is the result of us, humans, changing the balance of the earth's atmosphere. > How did it happen? Climate change is a natural process that happens because of \"life\" itself; as long as there is life, the atmosphere and surroundings will change over time. (multiple ice ages in the pa... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why N64 games aren't reproduced? | [
"Lack of demand. Nintendo couldn't sell N64's and game cartridges in large numbers in 2015. Most of the ones they made would wind up sitting on shelves. Part of the drop in demand has to do with [emulation](_URL_0_) which I strongly encourage you to check out."
] | [
"Because they weren't written for it. Though they appear similar, computers can be as different as consoles as time moves on. What you're asking is akin to \"Why can't I play Playstation 1 games on my PS4?\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why does water pressure drop if its let to sit under pressure? | [
"> the pressure is significantly lower even with zero leaks Because it is leaking. It might just be leaking dissolved gasses, but something is escaping the system."
] | [
"I think it could be because it's coming from your water heater which is pressurized and heats up the water stored in it. Water under pressure holds more air in it. The water is also somewhat pressurized in the pipes as well, and when the water gets out from being pressurized, the air needs to escape so it comes ou... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why are modern-day cars not designed with panorama windows (no pillars in the sides) to eliminate the blind spot? | [
"The pillars add significant strength in the event of a roll over accident. Also glass becomes much more expensive the larger it gets."
] | [
"That phrase is only found on the passengers side mirror, where the mirror is slightly convex (fisheyed) in order to give you a bigger field of view to eliminate blind spots on that side."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment about Physics:"
} |
Why are there pleasure producing nerve endings in the anus? | [
"We have evolved so that anything that keeps us alive gives us pleasure (eating, drinking, sex, etc.) -- one of these things is... POOPING."
] | [
"They have nerves and pain receptors. They're living tissue just like the rest of you."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
- Why do some peoples veins show up better than others? | [
"1. Genetics - Some peoples veins are just bigger 2. Body Fat % - the muscles are pressing the veins against the skin, and there is little fat there to cover them up. 3. High Blood Pressure - If your blood pressure is higher (for example, you are mad and get a throbbing vein on your neck), then your veins fill with... | [
"I can't remember right off the top of my head, but it has something to do with that we have different colored hair all over our bodies and where certain hormones go to first in a person's life. I remember reading about how when a woman gets pregnant, and I've seen this in person, they get a dark line of skin and ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Health and anatomy:",
"pos": "Represent the post about Health and anatomy:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why do all of the actual pictures of Saturn appear to be digitally render and sorta fake? | [
"Can you give any examples, you may be looking at colour corrected or false colour images which will look worse"
] | [
"Either they spend a long time getting the colouring right, or they use a computer program to do it for them. Probably the second one. Also some of the pictures have tones of colour added to them to make them fit."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why do we study art? | [
"Studying Art and Art-history is interesting since the particular ideas and ideals of an era or time-period are often reflected in their art, as an aspect of Cultural History. As an example, compare these two paintings: _URL_0_ _URL_1_ Both of them show baby Jesus and Mary, but they are completely different paintin... | [
"Why do people in Western countries use forks?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
If tomatoes and cucumbers have so much water in them, how do they get their unique taste that water doesn't have? | [
"From the parts of them that aren't water. Even if they are mostly water, we can still taste the other parts. Some things need only a very small amount for us to taste. Cooking with a single little bit of garlic for example can make food have a definite taste of garlic, for example."
] | [
"In the case of apples, the less-sweet ones tend to keep their shape and when you're trying to make a filling for a pie or something, the acid content (what makes them sour) will froth up in the cooking process and preserve the flavor. Like adding a little lemon juice to a fruit salad to keep everything from browni... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why ancient buildings and artifacts are all found underground | [
"It's not that they sink, it's that wind, rain, volcanoes, etc. often end up blowing sand and soil on top of them. Over time, compression can turn that sediment into stone. It happens in reverse, too: some buried architecture ends up getting exposed by erosion. We've actually found some buildings because someone wa... | [
"Wind patterns, and people throwing out refuge can lead to a gradual increase in ground level. Also, bear in mind that we find buried buildings because there are still there to be found. All the building that didn't get buried eroded away or were torn down by people."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Batteries that can recharge wirelessly. | [
"An electric field is given off by the base station which then induces a current in the charging dongle which then is plugged into your device's power hole"
] | [
"Price, convenience and the fact that smaller rechargeable batteries don't last too long. As far as I know. Runons."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Just saw the 'Mowgli' trailer. I was under the impression that Disney owned the rights to The Jungle Book. How did warnerbros make their live action movie ? | [
"The Jungle Book was published in 1894. Disney's been active from the 1920s when Mickey Mouse first appeared. They have rights to their own interpretation of the Jungle Book (1967?), not the story itself."
] | [
"they sold the rights of some of their characters to other studios a long time ago. This was before they had any plans to make their own films. Fox bought the X-Men and Fantastic 4. Sony bought Spiderman. A few others were sold off as well. The money from doing this was what allowed them to make the first Iron Man ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
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