query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1
value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
How Marine biologists, biologists, and archaeologists make money if their profession is discovering things? Who pays them and why? | [
"Biology professor here. Almost all these people are paid to teach courses at universities. The grants they are awarded to fund their research may supplement a portion of their salary, such as the months in the summer when they are doing research and not teaching. Edited to say: I am federally funded. At most, one ... | [
"If they never existed it would be much harder for people to purchase stock in companies, and much harder for companies to get the money needed for expansion and employment. What would happen if grocery stores never existed? It's a market too. But modern life pretty much requires it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
What is gestalt psychology and how does it work? I've looked it up on the internet but tbh it just confuses me | [
"Great minds think alike. I've searched tha seven seas fer an answer. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Gestalt Psychology ](_URL_4_) ^(_._) 1. [ELI5: Gestalt Therapy ](_URL_2_) ^(_2 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Gestalt Psychology ](_URL_1_) ^(_._) 1. [ELI5: Gestalt psychology and patter... | [
"This is caused by the increased amount of hormones and adrenaline that are pumped through our body during stressful times. Fun fact: Normal sweat and Stress sweat are produced by different glands, the apocrine glands and the eccrine glands. Im by no means an expert this is just something i had learned in highscho... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about Health and Wellness:"
} |
How can we breath automatically instead of doing it manually? | [
"It’s the autonomic nervous system - the part of the nervous system that keeps us breathing, digesting, and pumping blood. We can’t control these things. Even if you hold your breath until you pass out your autonomic nervous system will override your will and you will breathe again. Do not try underwater."
] | [
"There are lots of cases where you might want to pause your breathing. There are zero cases where you might want to pause your heartbeat."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Meaning of "selective increase in brain"? | [
"Just the words you quote in your headline are not a meaningful phrase. The actual phrase is \"selective increase in concentrations\" of that chemical in the brain. It means that the concentration of this *specific chemical* increases, more than other chemicals, or more than at other times."
] | [
"Can you be more specific as to what you mean by \"effective\"?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Islamic banking system. How is it different from interest? | [
"With interest, the bank gets paid back (including its profit) even if the purchase went down in value. With Islamic banking, the bank becomes your *partner* in buying something, and can make more or less money as your investment succeeds or fails. They share the risks with you."
] | [
"Whatever it does, you can be very sure it will try its best to avoid being treated as a bank because of the regulations which apply to the banking sector. So - its own view of what makes it bank may be at odds with many other views."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do classical songs always have “in D minor, in E minor, in G major” what do those mean? | [
"It’s because much of classical music is purely instrumental and has no lyrics and even, in a related way, no titles. After all, the titles of songs almost invariably come from the lyrics, directly or indirectly. So the names we use for many classical pieces are not really titles at all, only descriptions, and the ... | [
"For me, it has to do with what mode it is in. For example, generally music in Ionian mode sounds “happier” than music in Aeolian mode. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always sounds that way. There is sad music in Ionian too. There are also chord progressions, rhythms, and a million other things. For me thou... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Science:"
} |
Why do you have to *quickly* insert and remove a credit card from a card reader? | [
"Magnetic stripe readers work best when there is a strong, changing magnetic field passing over the read head. Removing the card fast helps ensure the speed of the card being removed is fairly consistent and generates a stronger magnetic field over the read head."
] | [
"You're going to have to provide more details in your question here. Do you mean encryption on cards that prevents anyone with an RFID reader from reading the card?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Credit/debit card readers:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Credit/debit card readers:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do carbonated drinks don't make bubbles when mixed with alcohol? | [
"There are bubbles, unless you're mixing way too much alcohol with too little soda. You don't get foam because the alcohol breaks the surface tension of the liquid, so the bubbles are too weak and break immediately."
] | [
"Bubbles form in any carbonated beverage (sparkling water, coke, beer, etc.). In some beverages the bubbles survive on the surface and can form a foamy “head” because it contains something that makes the bubbles longer lasting (usually sugar or something similar). Diet soft drinks, like sparkling water, doesn’t ha... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does regenerative braking work with hybrid cars? | [
"A hybrid car is an automobile which operates its wheels using electric motors and a battery, but instead of having as much battery storage as a fully electric car it instead trades battery capacity for a small gasoline or diesel engine. That engine can be run in its most efficient power band in order to generate e... | [
"Electric cars are very limited in their range. Hybrid cars use both electric and gas to get great range as well as efficiency."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why does it take a few minutes for eyes to adjust to their surroundings, like when going from a brightly lit place, to one that is relatively darker and vice-versa? | [
"This is because of a chemical called rhodopsin, which is used to greatly increase the sensitivity of your eyes to low light conditions. Rhodopsin is photobleached (deactivated) by bright light, and requires a few minutes to regenerate. As a result, when you go from a bright area to a dark area, it will take a few ... | [
"Sunlight is very bright. Your phone is not able to emit bright enough light to be seen over it. It's the same reason why you can use your phone on minimum brightness in a dark room, but as soon as you go into a room with average light you can no longer see it very well."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How are medical alert service puppers trained to detect seizures? | [
"Long and short: No one knows how they detect it ahead of time. There's some speculation that they can smell something on the human's breath or very subtle changes in behavior, but the mechanism is still unclear. However, what they do during and after the seizure is get the person on the ground in a safe place, ke... | [
"Because it increases your heart rate and depending on the surgery, could be life threatening. We have much safer anaesthetics now."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If too much salt is considered bad for you, how do people in countries like Japan and other Asian countries stay so healthy when their food is so high in sodium? | [
"The detrimental effects of excess sodium can be mostly counteracted with water, where-as it takes an almost impossible amount of physical activity to counteract daily excess calories, which is the typical problem in an American diet for example."
] | [
"Salt tastes good for a few reasons. 1: It's necessary for your survival. Salt is sodium and chloride, both of which are crucial for the functioning of a lot of your body's systems. 2: It's rare in nature, so we have evolved to crave it. It's the same reason why fat (butter, oil) and sugar taste good. 3: It's been ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
How do rocks (track ballast) able to support a train? | [
"They do shift, but only a small amount over a considerable amount of time. That's why every so often they have to do maintenance on the track. If you look at a typical shunting yard where the trains move slowly, you can see the bends in the rails. This isn't a problem at low speeds, so they let it be. On high spe... | [
"_URL_0_ It helps to distribute the weight of the rails and train going over it, drain water away, and prevent plants from growing there (which might interfere with the operation of the train)."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Why do auto makers make concept cars that look nothing like the final car? | [
"Just think of it as what you say in an interview vs how you perform when hired. Same concept."
] | [
"It has gotten easier and more cost efficient to build a car. The problem is, technology has also continued to evolve. If you were building the cars of 60 years ago, they'd be much cheaper. Why aren't we building those cars? People are willing to pay for safer and more advanced vehicles."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
How do live broadcast numbers, like poker pots, update so quickly? | [
"Most \"Live\" broadcasts of sports still operate with a few seconds of delay. The delay allows on-screen information to update such as drawing the yard line in American football, highlighting the puck in hockey, or updating a player's cards in poker. It also allows the producers to string together the camera shots... | [
"It is just that the video views haven't updated yet. There is actually more than 311 views, just once it hits 300+ it will then take a few hours for it to update but in that time it will only count unique views and individuals who watch it multiple times does not count as three or four views. This happens to all p... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
I don't understand the economic "rule of Ramsey" about elasticity. | [
"Let's work through that backwards. What agents have less elastic supply or demand? Things that are commonly available and that consumers buy consistently, usually because they are essentials. Bread, milk, petrol, clothes, water, electricity. So the Ramsey rule is saying that it's better to tax these things more be... | [
"It's worth remembering that it isn't present value but expected value that drives the stock market."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
can everything cause an allergy reaction in humans or is it only certain things can people can be allergic to? | [
"So you can't actually be allergic to water, but there *is* a condition called aquagenic urticaria in which water contacting the skin causes an allergic-like response. However, this response does not occur when water is drunk. It's not a true allergy, though. A true allergy is to a protein. An antibody called IgE ... | [
"No, certain adverse reactions given on the drug are more often allergic reactions or rare, but numerous reaction to drugs within that family of drug. If people report a certain reaction after being on morphine, then they may add a warning on prescription bottles of codeine, even though the reaction weren't reporte... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Health:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Health:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why are far away objects blurry for people with bad vision, and why do glasses help? | [
"So the eye is a lens that focuses light onto a spot in the back of the eye, much like how camera lenses focus light onto a small sensor. Similar to cameras, if that lens moves to close or too far away from its focal point, things get blurry (at different distances). People that are near/far sighted have misshapen ... | [
"Do you have corrected vision? And if not can you focus on other small things near your face without getting a headache?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why a class of 45 students is considered a bad school and a lecture of 450 student is considered hogher education? | [
"45 children who don't want to be there are harder to control then 450 adults who are paying to be there."
] | [
"Because there are far too many interested. Diploma is a way to reduce the people applying for a job plus the degree is a way to understand that they know something."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
If dust is mostly dead skin then why do abandoned places get dusty? | [
"House dust is mostly dead skin. There is plenty of other stuff in the air that settles elsewhere."
] | [
"They are loose particles in the air that settle because there is no wind to blow it away. It's some parts skin, dirt, hair and other stuff that made its way into your house."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What is happening when one taste bud has a freak-out, swells and is hypersensitive? | [
"From the sounds of it, you're getting 'lie bumps'. They can be caused by a lot of things, including stress, hormone changes, and certain foods. I get them when I'm dehydrated. The thing that's getting inflamed is not quite a taste bud - it's the little perch that your taste buds sit on (called a papilla). If its ... | [
"There is a substance in there saliva that works as an anti-clotting agent. Almost all humans are allergic to this substance. A bite won't itch strait away because the saliva also contains a local anesthetic that dulls the pain and irritation of the bite so the mosquito can stay undetected. But when this anaestheti... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
how fast do fat cells shrink and why do they shrink at that speed? | [
"Pretty sure that's just water weight. If you have a digital weight scale, it could lock in to a weight then stay that way for a few minutes even if you shed/gain a pound or two. If you want to speed up fat cell shrinkage, you need to let your body be in a state of low-insulin, which basically means to not eat for ... | [
"You build muscle and stimulate fat loss with exercise and burning calories. You can still lose weight by eating less, but if you also exercise you lower your risk for a lot of diseases related to your heart. Just my best guess honestly, I am not an expert on this at all."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why dentists tell patients to not rinse their teeth after brushing? | [
"Prescription toothpaste has medication that is meant to be applied to the teeth and guns and left there to work. Rinsing would wash the medication away."
] | [
"Bacteria eats sugar and poops acid into your mouth which burns your teeth. Brush and floss and see a dentist."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What does the quote “Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call destiny.” mean? | [
"Perhaps that destiny is a concept people drum up to scapegoat the bad decisions which led them to crappy lives. It's easier to blame fate and \"high order\" than it is to admit we were stupid in the past or are making bad decisions now."
] | [
"You forget the bad things, basically. Time erases small imperfections and leaves only ideas, things that you can romanticize and over value. I don't have any scientific links for you, but it is well documented in literature: \"Things always seem fairer when we look back at them, and it is out of that inaccessible ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why does a horse’s gallop seem to be on a three count instead of a four count given they have four legs? | [
"As I recall, the gallop is a four-beat gait, so you may be thinking of the canter. The canter is a three-beat gait because the horse lands on the back lead leg, then the front lead and rear dragging legs, and finally the front dragging leg. As you can tell, because the horse has four legs, this 1+2+1 pattern lets ... | [
"They move in a similar way to a giraffe, the gait comes from having relatively long legs compared to the length of the body of the camel. By moving both left legs then both right they reduce the chance of the back legs hitting the front legs, avoiding tripping. A horse doesn't have this problem as they have a long... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do internet speed tests actually work? I think I understand ping, but how is bandwidth measured? | [
"basically the idea is that the speedtest servers theoretically have much higher bandwidth than your connection, making your pipe the bottleneck. they then send a large file to you and time how quickly you recieve it. & #x200B; I believe that the realtime numbers are fairly accurate. the way tcp/ip works large fi... | [
"Ping is the time it takes a signal to go from your location, to the destination and back. For example, a \"ping\" to a spaceship on Mars would take several minutes because electronic signals cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Similarly, while the distance between the United States and China is negligibl... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do people suggest that the best way to breathe is in through your nose and out through your mouth? | [
"Part of it is preventing hyperventilation. If you inhale and exhale too quickly then you aren't giving your lungs a chance to absorb much of the oxygen, which can be a vicious cycle of feeling short of breath and therefore breathing more rapidly leading to even more shortness of breath. But mostly this is a kind o... | [
"Breath. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth and the pain will go away. It's all in the breath."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why do videos freeze up when entering and exiting full-screen mode? | [
"Some video players will attempt to raise or lower the resolution of the video if you enter or exit full screen mode, which can cause the video to freeze while the different resolution footage is requested from the server. On a really slow machine the process of switching in and out of split screen can also be taxi... | [
"You mean when you start a new video? It's becomes HD every time I enter full screen."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do electric vehicles cut down on carbon emissions? I know they don't use gas but don't we still have to burn coal etc to power them up? | [
"Power from power plants is often times much more efficient. It’s like how BNSF advertised that, by scale, a train gets roughly 340mpg compared to other shipping methods like trucks. Also, power comes from multiple sources including clean sources like hydro, wind, solar, nuclear, etc. Tesla’s Gigafactory is also p... | [
"The electricity has to come from somewhere. The grid is built to handle a certain amount of people using electronics. Charging electric cars uses a massive amount of power. If enough people start using electric cars (~3-5%) the power grid will be overloaded and fail. Furthermore, batteries are hugely inefficient. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How to plants that react to touch like the Venus Flytrap of the Sensitive Mimosa work? | [
"If I remember correctly, for the Venus flytrap, there’s sensitive hairs on at the ‘clamping’ area. It takes lots of energy though, so when one hair is triggered, there’s a timing mechanism that’s set off. Only if multiple hairs are ‘moved’ within a set timeframe does the plant exert substantial energy to close the... | [
"The things that are touching get tangled. ELI25 Version: Pursue a Ph.D. in Material Science...we still don't have all of the answers."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How do electric cars modulate regenerative brakes? | [
"Brakes on an electric car work a bit differently than an internal combustion car. There is still a regular mechanical brake pedal, that works identically to what you're familiar with. This is used for fast braking, and to hold the car stopped on a slope. The regenerative braking happens whenever there isn't power ... | [
"Going down steep or long hills. A lower gear will allow the engine compression braking to slow the vehicle. That's important because overheated brakes lose ability to stop if the brake fluid boils."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
What does it mean to "sequence" a genome? | [
"Our genetic code is \"written\" with only 4 molecules, A, C, G, and T. There are roughly 3 billion of them, which code for roughly 20,000 genes. All of us have a unique genome. Sequencing your genome is reading out the entire order of those 3 billion molecules into something that looks like \"ACGTTATATCG.....\" an... | [
"How would you define \"winning\" a presidential debate?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How is there wind in space if there is no air to blow? For example, how would solar winds work if there's no air? | [
"\"Solar wind\" isn't really wind. It's a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It consists of mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between 0.5 and 10 keV. Lots of energetic small particles moving *very* fast."
] | [
"Sound travels in waves like light or heat does, but unlike them, sound travels by making molecules vibrate. So, in order for sound to travel, there has to be something with molecules for it to travel through. On Earth, sound travels to your ears by vibrating air molecules. In deep space, the large empty areas betw... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How do linguists decipher newly discovered written languages? | [
"There are a whole bunch of techniques. Sometimes there are similar languages that we know well enough to use. Sometimes there's a \"rosetta stone\" situation, where we have a side by side translation. Sometimes it has to do with cultural context, or the context of where the writing was found (on a clay tablet in a... | [
"Because the written form of the language does not change as fast as the spoken form. Go far enough back, most of them were pronounced."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
- Help Visualizing Volts | [
"Voltage is electrical pressure. So with the water through a hose analogy, amps is the volume of water, voltage is the PSI of the water, and amp-hours is the flow rate. Ohm's is the resistance determined by the size of the hose In the case of batteries, i like to think of them as water balloons. The more you fill t... | [
"There is a post on the frontpage on the topic: _URL_0_"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why don’t ionic compounds ever exist as molecules? | [
"Ionic compounds and molecular compounds are distinct phenomena - ionic compounds are held together by ionic bonds (one atom/ion transfers an electron to another, giving both of them full valence shells), while molecular compounds are held together by covalent bonds (electrons are shared between atoms, giving both ... | [
"Water is liquid because of polarity within the molecules, and hydrogen bonding between the molecules. These two factors promote attraction between molecules. HCl and H2S don't have as much attraction between molecules, so they become gases more easily."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why is American candy packaging so much thicker than in other countries? | [
"Americans have more money than people from most other countries so they’re fine paying the extra few cents for the packaging. And for developed countries, America has lax environmental regulation so you can use thicker material to make your product look better than others. Funny thing happened because of this, th... | [
"I actually found ketchup tastes very different in different parts of the world at McDonald's."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
When you open a tap and close it, no water comes out of it. But as soon as you place your hand(s) or touch the bottom of the tap, some water comes out of it . Why? | [
"Surface tension. Same reason why a drop of water might hold on to an edge and not fall, but as soon as you tap it, it’ll run down your finger. Water builds up at the bottom of the tap when you open/close quickly but not enough that it’ll break the surface tension, so it’s like a dangling drop."
] | [
"There are only three things a plumber ever need know: hot on the left, Cold on the right, shit doesn't flow up hill. If your main reservoir of water is above the height of the opening in the fountain then gravity will ensure that water comes out of the top of the fountain."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the answer about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
How come gas in intestines travels downwards while surrounded by feces which have higher density? | [
"Peristaltic waves kind of push everything along. Different sphincters in the bowels prevent backflow."
] | [
"Gasses seem to defy gravity because they are lighter than another gas that is already present: air. In a vacuum gravity would pull a gas downward, and it still pulls smoke and helium downward as well, its just that the bouyancy force is stronger. Think of us on land as living at the bottom of a huge ocean of air a... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Extensive grid plans are common only in North America, and in other rapidly emerging cities, especially in East China, city blocks are like toddlers' drawings on the wall (ie full of curves). What are the factors for this discrepancy? | [
"Different philosophies. US cities were built on grid patterns because they're seen as efficient, easy to zone and therefore very easy to adhere to town planning guides which attempt to optimise layout. More recent planned cities (like the new Egyptian capital I watched a video about recently) like curves because t... | [
"mostly the large states in open areas are angular. They were mostly drawn with rulers, as there was little arguing about where the borders should go, and rarely any natural terrain formation look at the eastern, older states, and you get closer to the mishmash other parts of the world have. Some african countries ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
How does our throat become “itchy” when we start gaining common colds (cough & runny nose)? | [
"One of the first lines of defense the tissues in your nose and throat have to protect you from the infection is to come loose and fall off, in an attempt to take the invading virus either out of your body or into your stomach to be disposed of. That sloughing off causes a very small activation of the pain nerves, ... | [
"Dry throat is actually due to irritation caused by any number of irritants, pathogens, and environmental factors. It just takes time for your body to take care of it and it should go away as long as you don't have an active infection (strep, viral, etc)."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why does spray on deodorant sometimes just turn to white powder? | [
"Because the stuff that turns to powder isn't deodrant, it's anti-perspirant. Deodrant is a liquid that acts to provide a pleasant scent, and help keep at bay the bacterial waste products that give you BO. What deoderant doesn't do is stop you sweating. Anti perspirant is designed to physically block your sweat g... | [
"Now that you mention it...Coconut oil will absorb on my upper body but just sits on my legs. It doesn't even help with the ash. You can see the ash under the oil if you look closely."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do 3D printers work? | [
"There are two different main kinds. The first works by building layers of resin set by a UV light source, from a screen that can be blacked out to create the shape of the layer. So you have a screen submerged inside a bath of liquid resin plastic, and the image you are creating is formed on a stage that is droppe... | [
"How are you going to change the filter?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why is it necessary on car’s side mirrors that objects look larger than they really are | [
"It's the other way round, objects are actually larger and closer than they appear in the mirror. The mirror is curved into a convex shape, the opposite to a magnifying make-up mirror. That is done so you get a wider field of view behind than if it was,a flat mirror. The consequence is that vehicles behind look sma... | [
"Different types of mirrors are designed to show different depths. Take car side mirrors for instance: \"objects in mirror are closer than they appear\". This is designed to eliminate some blind spots. Its done by modulating the distance between the glass surface you see and the metallic background. Some mirrors (... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:"
} |
Whe are old violins better than modern violins? You hear of old violins worth millions, why isn't it possible to make better ones with modern technology? | [
"This is not accurate. In a double blind experiment experts couldn’t pick out the old violins compared to the new violins."
] | [
"The Stradivarius thing is a myth. People who claim to be able to identify one by sound, can't. And when blinded, have been known to pick modern instruments over them for sound quality. I don't know much about the MK VI, but I would expect it's the same."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
How do some countries with very high national debt (Japan, US) still manage to drive their economies, but some (Greece) fail to do so? | [
"Investor confidence. You can borrow forever as long as people continue to think you will eventually pay it back. Japan is a technological and industrial powerhouse, and people generally think that even despite its insane debt-to-GDP ratio, their economy is still strong and continue to invest in it. Greece has no r... | [
"Well it's arguable that it isn't a problem, at least not yet. There are different ratios of debt/interest payments to GDP that are considered the point where this is a real problem. We're probably not all that close to it now in the US. We can easily sustain the amount of debt we have now or simply grow our way ou... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
What makes a word easy to pronounce and hard to pronounce? | [
"There's actually a tier of sounds in English: * Easy speech sounds: Vowels, p, m, h, n, w, b, t, d * Harder speech sounds: k, g, f, v, \"ng\", and y * Hardest speech sounds: r, l, s, \"ch,\" \"sh,\" j, \"th\" and \"zh\" * _URL_0_ So \"dada mama\" are easier than \"thatha zhazha\". This has to do with tongue placem... | [
"The spelling of a word can do more then just tell you how to pronounce it; It also helps to tell the history, origin or evolution."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
why do drivers turn the radio volume down when they are lost? | [
"One less thing for their senses to take in, enabling them to better concentrate on where they are/how to get on track."
] | [
"Most first-responders want to be the least amount of disturbing possible. In cities usually they only put sirens on when approaching an intersection so people that can't see the lights are aware of them coming. When lights are enough, why bother destroying everybody's eardrums?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why are some colors more pleasant to look at than others? | [
"Let me first say I have no idea what I’m talking about. BUT in nature there are a lot of warning colors. You see bight reds and yellows on a snake or a bug, chances are that little fucker will mess you up in some way if you cross him. Venom, poison stings... nature often gives you a warning. These colors are assoc... | [
"Colors are associated with certain moods. It must be noted, however, that this is a cultural thing; some cultures may have colors that represent different moods than for me or you. How exactly do they affect your mood, though? Do you get angry when you see red?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
What stops the ceo of a shell company running off with the money? | [
"Three possibilities: 1) The company just exists for the purposes of obfuscation and doesn't have any real access to or control over the assets. 2) The company is established and administered by a bank or other entity with a reputation to maintain. Shell Companies Inc. in the Cayman Island would not be a *generall... | [
"To show as proof the money is being won by someone and not pocketed. But yes, probably bad for individuals with unique first and last names."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How the length of a guns barrel affect the bullet | [
"There are grooves inside the barrel that affect the spin of the bullet. The length affects how many complete spins the bullet gets, for example say you have a bullet whose full spin length is 1 meter but the length of the gun is 0.3 meters, then it will only complete 1/3 of its spin (these are all numbers I’m maki... | [
"In early shooters yes it was just a click. But technology has evolved and now the bullet does have a path with many variables. Arma 3 has one of the most advance systems where the bullet not only drops, but depending on the caliber and type of round, loses velocity as it goes through an object."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What's the significance of the 0th law of thermodynamics? | [
"Is it really so obvious? As an example, in mathematics you can make a set of three dice where die 1 beats die 2, die 2 beats die 3, and die 3 beats die 1 (larger number wins). [Nontransitive dice](_URL_0_). You don't have such a situation in thermodynamics, that means you can order systems - you can assign a tempe... | [
"We can, but producing a fuel takes more energy than you can get by burning the fuel - that's just conservation of energy + 2nd law of thermodynamics."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
What’s the origin of couples sharing a bed together? | [
"Humans sleep together for warmth as well as comfort. In the wild humans cuddle up together to stay warm at night, it's instinct. Sleeping together with a partner is an extension of that."
] | [
"What does the Pope handle on a day to day basis?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why does the flavor of water change dramatically when left out for a long period of time? | [
"Water is not sterile, therefore it could be bacterial growth. Water also has many trace elements that can be going through changes, hooking up with other trace elements but most likely, it's bacteria."
] | [
"Evaporation is different than boiling. Just like if you leave a glass of water out at room temperature eventually that will evaporate too, just a lot slower than boiling."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What exactly are diatoms and why are they so important to our survival? | [
"diatoms are very *very* small plants (single-celled algae in fact), and like all plants, they produce their own chemical energy using light from the sun. there are a lot of diatoms living in the ocean and soil! it’s important that there are *so* many of them because they produce oxygen as a waste byproduct. they p... | [
"We might not need killer whales for blubber, but we do need them for the role they play in our ecosystem. The extinction of such animals is not a concern because we think they are cute and like them around, but because they are important to the health of our planet, and thus the health of our own species."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why when drinking alcohol you have to go to the bathroom a lot and pee crystal clear? | [
"Alcohol reduces the production of a hormone called vasopressin, which tells your kidneys to reabsorb water rather than flush it out through the bladder. With the body's natural signal switched off, the bladder is free to fill up with fluid."
] | [
"Clear pee is good, you might be a little more hydrated than you need to be but that won't hurt you one bit save for being a bit annoying when you have to pee every hour or so. Dark urine is a sign of dehydration."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about biology:"
} |
If the universe is infinite (assuming the curvature is flat), does this also imply there is infinite matter? How can the space expand any further if the universe is infinite? | [
"> does this also imply there is infinite matter? Along with the assumption that the universe is homogeneous, then yes it implies infinite amounts of matter. > How can the space expand any further if the universe is infinite? Space isn't expanding into any other space, it doesn't require area to get larger. So spa... | [
"This is called Olber's Paradox. In essence, if we posit that the universe is infinitely large and contains an infinite number of stars (and they are largely randomly distributed), then every line of sight an observer can see should eventually end at a star. So if the universe is infinitely old, every point in the ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
When you are trying to remember something, what is your brain actually doing? | [
"No one knows the mechanics of consciousness or how trying to remember something works. But remembering something is triggered by learning something new. Your brain gets some new information and encodes it. It wants to organize your memories, so it looks for related things. Your brain does not organize memories the... | [
"how do you remember a song? Or a picture? How do you remember your dog's name? Memory itself is poorly understood, but there's nothing about any one sense that makes it impossible to remember."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
How can we still breathe through our nose with water in our mouth and the head tilted backwards? | [
"The mouth and nose both lead to the same airway. If your mouth is closed or holding something in it, that makes no difference as you haven't SWALLOWED the water or started the process of swallowing it. Plus you can still breathe through your nose. When you swallow liquid or food, your main airway closes off to pr... | [
"Your throat isn't just a hole, there's a flap of cartilage at the back of your throat called the epiglottis that is basically only there to keep you from breathing liquids by accident. As far as I'm aware, that would keep water out of your lungs if your dead body got thrown into the water, at least for a while."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
How do people measure the size incredibly large units such as galaxies, superclusters and the observable universe when we cant see nor ever reach parts of it? | [
"We can measure how far it is away using parralax. You look at the galaxy during one part of the year and 6 months later when the Earth is on the opposite side of the sun you look at it again at the same time of night. You measure the difference in the angle at which the object is from the horizon and using the Ear... | [
"I know what you're getting at. Space is pretty easy to see. We can see loads of it with the naked eye and small telescopes. We can see even more of it with really big telescopes and radiotelescopes and we can work out a lot of it using data and mathematics. On the other hand, the oceans are pretty big and pretty ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Science:"
} |
Why does holding your thumb down turn off your gag reflex | [
"iirc it doesn't actually- you're basically tricking your brain into focusing on your thumb. sort of like the placebo effect, or when people get \"drunk\" on non-alcoholic drinks that they've been led to believe are alcoholic."
] | [
"ELI5 why you are putting your fingers on the computer's screen."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What's an Honors degree and how would it differ from my normal _URL_0_ Computer Science degree? | [
"It depends on specific programs and institutions. In the USA it typically refers to the highest-scoring students in a particular program. However, in the UK and other Commonwealth countries, an Honours degree can be a separate one-year program added to a standard bachelor degree, in which the student has to comple... | [
"The question has been asked before and the following links should shed some light. I recently dropped my architectural course in favour of a business/history double major because architecture in uni... sucks. But ye, the following links cover all manner of different reasons and should give you a heads up on what t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why do people with arrest warrants often only get caught when committing another crime (traffic stop, etc.). If the police have the warrant then why don’t they just go and arrest them? | [
"Because the Police don't have the time or resources to go to the homes of every person with a warrant. Serious crimes (Felonies) might get Officers to stop by a few times, but, that's about it. Unless a Detective is actively looking for you (Murder, etc) they usually move on to the next thousand cases within a wee... | [
"Warrants exist so that the authorities can't just barge into your house for no reason. It's to protect the average citizen from abuses of power. Ideally, criminals don't know they're under suspicion until the police are serving the warrant, and therefore don't know they need to get rid of evidence."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
can anything be described as exact? | [
"Yes, by the Intermediate value theorem if you walk away from your house at some point you will be *exactly* 1 mile away. it might only be for a fraction of a fraction of a microsecond, but you can't be *less* than 1 mile away from your house and then be *more* than a mile away a moment later without crossing the 1... | [
"It is metaphor, because nothing can get to infinity they do not meet."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
why do striped shirts look wavy on TV | [
"It is called the Moiré effect. It happens when the pattern of the shirt lines up with the rows and columns of the camera's sensor, making the image brighter. At other places and times it doesn't line up and the image is darker."
] | [
"In some movies, it's CGI - for example in forrest gump, lieutenant dan wore blue stockings and they edited them out with photoshop. But in older movies, they used special costumes and creative camera angles to give the illusion of no limbs. You can do it yourself with a loose fitting shirt and large cuffs, so you ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
silicon strips are recommended to use on surgical scars to help with healing. When you remove the silicon strip, the skin looks almost stippled, with tiny craters that wear off over a couple of hours. What is that? Why does silicon do it? Why does it go away? | [
"What you’re asking about might be pressure sores which are usually caused by wearing tight things on your body or are a result of putting mild pressure on your skin while it is moist for a long period of time. They can be caused by tight clothes, (swimsuits for example) band aids or maybe silicon strips (not 100% ... | [
"The layer of your skin with the dye on it isn't permanent. You lose those layers all the time, and if you rub them you lose them faster."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What does a quark's spin have to do with it's properties? | [
"Probably the most notable property that quarks have due to their spin is that two quarks can't ever be in the same state at the same time. This is because quarks have spin 1/2, and any particle with spin 1/2 has that property. The property is called \"being a fermion\"."
] | [
"In simple terms, the more you know about a particle's position, the less you know about it's velocity and vice-versa."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the passage about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about Physics:"
} |
How do they construct oil rigs out in the middle of the ocean? | [
"Like a giant Lego set really. They ship out the components to sea and slowly assemble them in place in stages."
] | [
"Japan is something called an Island. Islands are in the middle of the sea. Fish come from the sea."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why did Americans enslave African people who come from overseas, and not the indigenous people of North America? | [
"They did. Or at least they tried to. The problem was that they were seen as weak and susceptible to disease (which is probably true enough) and didn't make good slaves."
] | [
"The main thing is that Poland immigrants going to North America went to the United States. Greek immigrants going to North America went to the United States. Irish immigrants going to North America went to the United States. Spanish immigrants going to North America went to Mexico, because it was a Spanish colony ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why do our brains get “tired” when listening to a song on repeat? | [
"When you first experience something, you are curious and engaged with it because it's new and unknown. Then, after experiencing it several times, you start to learn how it goes, so it's no longer new or surprising. You start to notice the repetitive patterns in it. Your brain is great at simplifying things and pro... | [
"Think of your brain having \"slots\" of working memory. Most people have about four. When you are listening to something, more slots are taken the more you concentrate on it. So doing math and listening to a podcast? Probably not the best idea. But doing dishes while listening to that same podcast. Definitely doab... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why after being infected with some viruses, like Chickenpox, we become immunized for life while with others, like Malaria, there's no limit to how many times we can be infected? | [
"Because some, like Malaria, are not viruses at all. That's actually a parasite. And because some, like influenza, have so many different varieties that you can have one, but not be immune to ten others."
] | [
"It's not that it gets stronger every year, it's that the viruses evolve to a form that your immune system has never seen before, so you're vulnerable to it without a vaccination."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Medical:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Medical:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Medical:"
} |
Why is it that when a rocket launches into space it looks like starts to curve to the side? | [
"The goal of space flight is not just to reach space, but to stay there for a while. The most efficient way of doing that is to turn onto a tangent of the orbital sphere (sideways, as seen from the surface). This increases the forward momentum of the craft, allowing it to begin to \"fall around the Earth\". In prac... | [
"You know how when you throw something forward it moves in an arc? What if you threw it so fast that it arced *around* the earth instead of into it? That's what we do with satellites, accelerate them to an absurd speed so they fall around the earth instead of into it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Science and Technology:"
} |
If social security numbers are a US thing, how do other countries identify a person for credit or other financial purposes? | [
"In Canada we have SIN numbers. Social insurance number, same idea as in the US"
] | [
"It's a unique ID number assigned to every person when they are born, it's the number by which the government keeps track of you as an individual since things like names are not very unique at all (John Smith, etc)."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Social Credit System:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Social Credit System:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do HBO's servers work for Game of Thrones? | [
"One of the ways is by having a big distributed network of servers spread out geographically. Each of these servers has its own copy of the content and can send it to clients (viewers) in its area."
] | [
"YouTube has multiple servers that they can redirect traffic to while they are fixing a broken server. Reddit does have multiple servers, but not as many as any huge company such as Google, Apple, GoDaddy, etc. Edit: Clarity"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Technology:"
} |
The difference, if any, in charges. Are magnetic and atomic (proton, electron) charges the same? What constitutes positive and negative charges? Is there any characteristic to a charge beyond the contrast to the other? | [
"There are a lot of different charges in physics, and while we don't have an explanation of \"what charge is made of\", different types of charge *do* behave differently. For example, electric charge only comes in two varieties: positive or negative. Color charge, which is the type of charge involved in the strong ... | [
"Magnet force is not “produced” by the motion of electrons. Electromagnetism is a fundamental force, which means it is the bedrock of physics. There is nothing below it that can be explained. Electromagnetism’s effect can be observed by the fact that particles carry charge. Like charges repel and opposite charges ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
What's the difference between Gaussian blur and the other types of blur? | [
"The title question has been answered; the answer to the second question is a [dude](_URL_3_) who has [so much shit named after him it's crazy](_URL_2_)."
] | [
"The short version is that most games blur images based on what's fast to do in the graphics card, while GIMP uses an algorithm that's higher quality, is much more adjustable and needs to be done in the main CPU so the image can be saved. [This](_URL_0_) is a nice article showing some of the different ways of blurr... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why do girls shower with higher temperature than boys? | [
"Women naturally have poorer blood circulation. You must have noticed that their hands and feet were also often cold or significantly colder than your own."
] | [
"That's why men get erections in their sleep - it keeps them from rolling out of bed."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
How come our non-dominant hand is less capable than our dominant hand? Why isn’t everyone ambidextrous? | [
"You get more specialized in that certain hand, that's why. Let's play a game: We have two characters Leftie and Ambie Ambie does everything with two hands equally dominant. So she prefers going one right, one left at all times. Leftie only does left hand. Let's give them a task with a reward Task reward: 1 experie... | [
"I would personally give my left arm to be ambidextrous."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence about science:"
} |
What's the difference in wear and tear driving at high RPM or driving at low RPM (Legit asking for a friend) | [
"On the fuel economy front, the book/folder thing you got with the car will probably have somewhere inside a graph of fuel economy against either speed or rpm with a different line for each gear. If it gives you the speed version, pick a gear, find the most efficient speed, go do it and see what rpm it corresponds ... | [
"Full efficiency is relative. There's no line above or below that says something is efficient. It can also be measured in MPG for the car, or Passenger mile per gallon. A church van does more passenger miles per gallon than a Prius since it carries so many more people. A lot also is effected by how you drive it. Sl... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Automotive:"
} |
How do they take videos of food cooking in ovens? Is there a specific type of camera used to do so? | [
"Whirlpool and Electrolux both sell home oven's with built in web cameras so you can remotely watch your food cook. Other companies make commercial cameras and camera housings to allow you to put cameras into kilns and industrial furnaces which run far hotter than an oven. A recent thread on a video sub had a numbe... | [
"They're not meant for regular human manipulation. They're meant to be plugged into a socket exactly once."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
how do graphics cards actually give a computer so much processing power over the CPU? | [
"CPUs are generalists. They have components designed to tackle all sorts of tasks making them the good at all tasks but masters of none. GPUs on the other hand are specialists. They contain a huge number of cores but they are designed for specific arithmetic functions related to graphics. By design that makes these... | [
"Speed comes down to things; how quickly the data can be read or written, and how quickly an instruction can me executed. RAM, ROM, SSD and hard drives all play on getting at sata while the cpu plays on speed of execution. Before you upgrade for speed you need to identify what is slowing your computer down. You can... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Computer Science:"
} |
How does radiation cause mutations? | [
"Living things are made up of DNA, the building blocks of life. On a basic level, DNA tells your cells what their jobs are within you, the living organism. Radiation changes how DNA interacts with your cells. These unusual outcomes show up as mutations (like cancer, for example)."
] | [
"1. Inhibits DNA repairing 2. Alters the ability of cell membranes to select what materials pass through them. 3. Alters enzyme activity 4. Interferes in the transmission of nervous impulses to the body 5. May induce the immune system to attack itself 6. Interferes in the function of endocrine glands 7. Kills good... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
5G mobile networks and why they are considered such a big deal | [
"It's the next step in mobile network data transmission. There's new stories causing a big deal about it but it's the same as if Apple was releasing a new iOS or if Microsoft was releasing a new version of Windows. 5G is just going to be faster. Some experts say could be 20 times faster then 4g. Bonus fact: the \"... | [
"Jeff Bezos (the CEO of Amazon) did a 60 Minutes interview where he announced an R & D effort to switch to drone (unmanned aircraft) delivery of products. This has caused a lot of debate about the technology involved, and how much of the interview was just for PR buzz and not because the product is going to be real... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why do some pills have 2 different colored sides? | [
"Each pill has to be identifiable from the other, according to EU/US law. If they are using that specific cast, they use different color coding to tell one from the other"
] | [
"It depends on the type of medication. However, typically half the medicine will dissolve very quickly while the other half has a coating of material on it that it takes your body a certain amount of time to break down. An example would be half the dose now and the other half in four hours. For reference, the form ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How don't we run out of air to breathe if we don't open windows in our house for long periods of time? | [
"Your house is not sealed so it does let some air in and out. But let's say it didn't. Human use about 550litres of oxygen a day. That's just over half a cubic meter. So oxygen in air is about 20% by volume so you need 5x as much air to get that oxygen so you need 2750 litres or 2.75m^3 of air. So to use up all the... | [
"The cold has less to do with it than the fact that we tend to congregate together in rooms and buildings with little outside ventilation. In the Winter we're basically breathing in each other's germs for 4 months."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do people imagine things in their minds? | [
"This is actually quite interesting, as I'm the opposite - I honestly did not know some people couldn't imagine things. Personally, having always had a love for books and fiction, I often fall asleep to \"personal mind movies\". I can make up a story and imagine characters and how they look and move, as well as the... | [
"This would be easier to answer if we had any clue what happens inside our brain when we understand something."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
When air fresheners say they "eliminate odours", what are they actually doing? Is that an accurate description? | [
"They just cover up the smell, same way you turn up radio volume when your car engine starts to make funny sounds"
] | [
"Antiperspirant tries to clog pores to prevent sweating in the area. This will prevent the buildup of the foul smelling material that evaporates with your sweat everywhere else on your body. Deodorant will either try to mask with a particular odor, or kill the bacteria responsible for producing the offensive odor. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How have cars increased in horsepower so much in the last 15 years whilst the engines are the same size or even smaller? | [
"Turbos, higher compression, less frictional losses, more efficient induction - take your pick just about everything has been tweaked and it adds up"
] | [
"Engine cc refers to an area of volume, the raw size that a particular part of the engine is. HP refers to how much actual power that engine can produce. So if an engine is built badly but is huge, it may have lower hp than an engine that is built well but is smaller. In the 60s there were 8000 cc engines being bui... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why and how are dark bags formed around your eyes due to lack of sleep, and when rested enough, they go away? | [
"Bags under the eyes are normal fat deposits that help cushion and protect your eyes. Even if you don't have visible ones, we all have them. They can get swollen because of fluid retention (stress, hormones, age, genetics), loose skin (aging, rapid weight loss, genetics), or inflammation caused by allergies, lack o... | [
"The quality (special blend of water, chemicals, and oils) of your tears decreases the longer you stay awake. This reduces the tear's ability to lubricate and coat the exposed portions of your eye while they are open, causing those surfaces to be in direct contact with air and burn like an open wound. If this conti... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph about Biology:"
} |
Why powerbanks are still so bulky when they can fit a 4000mAh battery in a phone so thin. | [
"There are likely a few things at play here, but just two for example: 1) Because of the nature of power banks requiring full-size USB plugs, at least part of the device is going to be at least 12mm x 4.5mm, and that's without any kind of casing, just the female USB A port. Most of the large power banks I've seen h... | [
"It's not about the charger, it's about the battery. If (when) they start making phones with supercapacitors then we'll be able to charge them in ~½ second."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why can we "hear" some silent videos/GIFs? | [
"Your brain basically is filling in many gabs like blinking and moving your eyes on its own. It trys to make sense where no sense is found and so it fills in sounds where a sound should be even though there is no sound."
] | [
"The sound descriptions are even more interesting. \"Cat meowing quietly in distance.\" \"Car door closing.\" ... I didn't notice/recognize at least 50% of those without the subtitles."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
how torrent sites such as PirateBay manage to not get shut down? | [
"A lot of torrent sites try to hide behind the whole \"We don't create the files and don't censor our users\", this works to varying degrees depending on the country they are hosting the server in. Something like PirateBay as a server doesn't explicitly create and share copyrighted works, they instead host a servic... | [
"Pirate bay is not illegal at all. See Pirate Bay does not give you anything, it just points you to where you can get things. Pirate bay serves as a method to find torrents, but it does not host or distribute the files itself. Now you downloading the files, and those files being sent to you, thats illegal."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What does the "bagel" setting on my toaster actually do? | [
"usually they make only one side of the toasters coils heat so you can toast the cut side of the bagel and the other side just gets warm and chewy"
] | [
"It's so you don't need to take it out of your handbag every time you want to do something."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
If almost every large animal with mobility has forward bending knees, why do so many advanced Boston dynamics type robots have rear facing knees? | [
"The answer is: [because it's more efficient](_URL_0_)! In the simplest sense: figures 21 and 22 in the linked study show that if you eliminate hip movement, the backward bending leg can still make progression towards the following step. The forward bending leg can't. So the forward bending leg will always require... | [
"They do not walk upright on two legs, or at least do not do so often enough to develop glutes. The entire reason that we have butcheeks is that they are our glute muscles that allow us to control balance and power our walking and running on two legs."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about Biology:"
} |
How does the body know that the transplanted new organ does not belong to the body? | [
"Your immune system rolls up, checks out the cells of the organ. They go 'hey man, I don't recognize you, where are you from? ' So the cells of the new organ say 'Jon' Now, unless you have a chill immune response your immune system is going to start trying to kick it's ass and force it out. They don't know Jon, bu... | [
"In the early stages of pregnancy, the mother's body can treat the growing fetus the same way it treats a foreign invader (because it's a combination of two sets of DNA). This isn't necessarily counterintuitive from that perspective, but your question does make sense. The easiest way to prevent or mitigate morning ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do you start to feel cold once you stay awake for 24 hours? | [
"Your body goes into a limited form of hibernation mode when sleeping, this includes reducing the amount of heat generated in your body by burning calories just to keep warm. This \"sleep mode\" activates after long periods of wakefulness."
] | [
"I've taken a college course on Psychology last summer and part of the course had to do with sleeping and the different stages of sleep. See your body goes into a repetitive cycle several times a night. Each one of these cycles last around 90-110 minutes. At the end of each cycle you actually wake up. You wake up s... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Health:",
"pos": "Represent the passage about Health:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about Health:"
} |
If there has been no link to sugar causing hyperactivity, why do they tell you to drink orange juice to get a fetus moving? | [
"Because low blood sugar *is* associated with lethargy. A fetus with low blood sugar can be less active than one with normal blood sugar."
] | [
"To raise your blood sugar, as a mechanism to help you deal with reduced blood volume. Plus it's a thing for you to do while they observe you to make sure you're not feint."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why does shaking your muscles out after doing something strenuous make them feel better? | [
"The general theory is that this encourages increased blood flow through inflamed muscles. This in tern allows built-up lactic acid to be flushed out. It's also effective to elevate your legs in rotation (e.g. put them up for 5 minutes, put them down), for the same reason. I do not know of any studies on this and -... | [
"Because you weren't moving and gripping things (at least not much) while you were asleep. So your muscles are colder and more stiff because of the lack of movement. However once you do start moving, and your muscles warm up, you'll be able to do things normally. This is the same reason as to why your legs or arms ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is a land-grant university? How do they differ from other types of post-secondary school? | [
"Government has tried many schemes to encourage universities. The original \"Ivy League\" universities were sponsored by rich people, in a model like that used in England. This didn't scale well in a country expanding from the coastal cities westward. So, government came up with another scheme to try and foster un... | [
"The word university is broader and more encompassing. A \"public\" or \"state\" university is one which receives support and funds from the respective state in which it resides. Both The University of Michigan and Michigan State University are state universities, the former just doesn't have the title \"state\" in... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
How do producers of movies and TV shows make lighting people on fire seem so realistic? | [
"A lot of the time when they need a flaming person to stumble out of a burning area they actually just set someone on fire. They are stuntmen of course, wearing protective fireproof suits and slathered in gel that will evaporate rather then letting their flesh burn. But they are actually on fire."
] | [
"Logistics is a big part. Building sets, moving costumes. Cars, props, people, supporting staff, etc. Is expensive. Modern movies like to skip practical effects and pay large digital firms to complete CGI elements, which is absurdly expensive. And is the reason some scenes are stripped down for cost."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Law and Entertainment:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph about Law and Entertainment:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
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