query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1
value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
subnet mask in networking | [
"An IP address describes 2 things: a network, and a specific host on that network. You can think of it like a first and last name, which describes a family and a specific person in that family. The subnet mask is like the space between the first and last name. It specifies which part belongs to the family, and whic... | [
"There is also [this](_URL_0_) image that explains main differences between the two."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
during the lunch shift at every restaurant I've ever worked at, business is so slow that the restaurant is reliably getting maybe four or five customers an hour. Why bother even being open when business is so slow? Surely the profits don't cover the cost of paying staff... | [
"A lot of times that's how you start building the lunch time rush, eventually people associate the place with lunch. Other times it's a good time for the kitchen to get started prepping for the night."
] | [
"Anecdotal, but: When I was 16, I worked in a video store. Staffed by no fewer than two people, by policy. Minimum wage went up, policy changes to being allowed to be staffed by one person until 5pm. The thing is, any cost that a company has to pay for, including paying its employees for, is directly passed on to t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
the national debt of the United States. How bad is it, and what are the short- and long-term repercussions of having a 104% debt-to-income ratio? | [
"Assuming that borrowed money goes towards making the economy stronger, it can be advantageous. Like if you issue bonds with a 2% interest and get 5% growth in the economy by the time the bonds mature, it has helped both itself and the people benefiting from that growth. As long as this growth is maintained, there ... | [
"Debt is multi-year, deficit is a single year. So if you have a debt of $16 trillion before last year And last year your buget had $2 trillion coming in and $3 trillion going out you had a $1 trillion budget deficit. Then you have a debt of $17 trillion. If this year you had $2.5 trillion coming in and $3.25 trill... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
how do they make plastic clear/transparent but also can make it coloured? | [
"Raw plastic is shipped as pellets. The pellets are melted and formed, molded or extruded to form the product desired. Some raw plastic is translucent and some are nearly transparent. (some are naturally opaque) If a particular color is needed, you can either tell the raw pellet manufacturer to add a dye to the pel... | [
"They don't always. Here in the UK, both come in plastic bags. I don't actually know what you mean by metal bags as I have never seen this? We do have metallic plastic bags like [this](_URL_0_). . It's easy to tell the difference between metal and metallised plastic film. If you scrunch the bag up, if it springs ba... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does sand turn into glass and how does it suddenly become transparent? | [
"Sand is made up of rocks and shells, but it is mostly silica. When heated to extreme temperatures, mixed with a flux (like boron), it turns clear. Note that this is a simplified explanation, you have to take out the rocks and shells and trash. It's still sandy at this point, then sift it, then heat it, when it hit... | [
"Because cold things such as ice and people are blue and hot things like metal and people are red."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
If many Youtubers rely on ad revenue, does subscribing to Youtube Premium hurt their revenue? If not, how is the subscription cost divided? | [
"Pretty sure when someone watches with YouTube Premium, the content creator gets a small cut. I remember some Youtuber said it was roughly double the amount an ad would get them. So, YouTube Premium actually helps content creators. Edit from YouTube Premium FAQs: Will creators still be paid with YouTube Premium? Ye... | [
"YouTubers earn money through ads on their monetised videos. Viewing an ad provides a small amount of income towards their channel. Since it requires the ad to be displayed, if you run adblock, your view does not count towards what they get paid. Unless they acquire sponsors or a donation system, this is the only w... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
what is the definition of "canter"? | [
"\\--edit-- Added walk/trot \\--------- & #x200B; If you mean in regards to a horse, it's basically a speed that a horse moves. Depending on whether or not the horse is walking, trotting, cantering, or galloping their legs are in different positions, and landing at different times. At a walk, the horse is moving ... | [
"You might need to define what you mean by \"informal empire\"."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why do hot baths/saunas make the human body feel dizzy after long periods of time? | [
"Heat causes your body to push more blood to your skin, when this happens less blood is pumped to your brain which can cause dizziness as you don't get the amount of oxygen that you need. In addition to blood going to your skin, sweating as much as you do in the sauna can cause dehydration. If you become dehydrate... | [
"When you're hot outside, your body is having trouble regulating it's body temperature. It's not comfortable to be like that because... that's how your body tells you it's having trouble. When you take a hot shower, you're cleaning yourself off, and more importantly, you get out afterwards, and it's cooling and ref... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:"
} |
What are hypersonic missiles ? | [
"Missiles that travel faster than Mach 5. Supersonic is faster than the speed of sound up to Mach 5, then Hypersonic is above that."
] | [
"1. Prestige: look what our government can achieve. 2. Military crossover: a rocket into space and a ballistic missile use virtually the same technology. 3. New innovation: technologies involving computers, engineering, metals, ceramics etc. could benefit from knowledge gained in making the launch. 4. Satellite con... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
- why is it that you can't get water in your eyes when you have contact lenses in but it's fine to get water in your eyes if you haven't? | [
"Because contact lenses lay on the eye, so water in your eye (or any solution as a matter of fact) will disrupt the lenses. Water on your eye with nothing laying on it will not do anything."
] | [
"Bot removed my previous comment because it was too short. Albeit, it was kind of a smart ass answer, so I'll let it go. But it probably has to do with your eye's ph level or something. Tears have a lot of specific traits that make your eyes feel comfortable. So whether you are getting water in them or a little bit... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
why does thunder sound long and with a long rumble when the lightning is far away and why is it a short hard bang if it is really close? | [
"Echoes. A sound that intense is going to produce an intense echo, even if the surface it's reflecting off absorbs a fair bit of the sound. The further away from the source, the more time there is for the reflected waves to reverb around off of other surfaces and to separate. Thus, long rumble vs short blast."
] | [
"It is just lightning that is too far away for you to hear the thunder. It takes the right atmospheric conditions for you to see it. It is often called \"heat lightning\" but there is nothing different about it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
What is a stock buyback, what exactly is being bought "back", and how are these buybacks helping the wealthy get richer? | [
"A stock buyback is when a company spends its own money to buy shares of its own stock, instead of, say, hiring new employees or buying new equipment. The effect of this is that the stock price is higher than it otherwise would be (since the company is generating demand for it) Thus, people with the companies stock... | [
"You agree to buy part of the company, with a contractual condition with management that it will take a loan and buy back all its shares from other shareholders. The loan is collateralized on the assets of the company, so the banks are okay with it. So now you own the company which has taken a massive loan on itse... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How does the Turing test work, and why is it still debatable whether it has been passed or not? | [
"Simple. You are put in a room with a 2 keyboards and 2 screens. On one end there is a person, on the other, a programm. You ask both whatever questions you want, for how long you want. The person is not trying to trick you. If you can't figure out reliably which is the computer and which is the person, the progra... | [
"Computer scientists have been discussing what computer self awareness would even look like for 60 years so simple answer is we still don't know."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
what is the purpose of non-antibacterial/normal hand soap? | [
"Not all applications require aggressive anti-bacterial properties. Cleaning off dirt or grease or motor oil or paint isn't really a biohazard problem so much as a solvent problem, and other soaps might do the job better and/or with less of a drying effect on your skin. Antibacterial soaps don't poison bacteria lik... | [
"More likely than not (obviously depending on the soap and the strain of bacteria used) some of the bacteria would survive. Honestly, the soap/detergent part is probably going to kill more than the antibacterial part of the soap. Antibacterial soaps use low doses of an antibacterial agent, but the low dose and cons... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage about Science:"
} |
why do digital numbers bounce? | [
"The numbers on the microwave aren't solidly lit, they blink really fast. They have a high enough refresh rate that you can't tell under normal circumstances. When you chew something crunchy, the crunching is shaking your head and making that refresh rate more visible, so it leaves a sort of \"trail\" imprint on yo... | [
"Pixels. The white areas are composed of red greed and blue pixels. Your brain sees those colours, white, and black, at the same time and doesn't know what to do. Looking away means your brain has to again, readjust - thus the wobbly-ness. On a side note, I'm going to be setting that picture as everyone's wallpaper... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do programs like CCleaner clean the Windows registry? | [
"Registry cleaners are pretty much useless these days, as Windows is pretty good about keeping the registry clean itself. Regardless, cleaning the registry doesn't really result in much of a performance impact. One of the big things that registry cleaning does is remove entries that refer to files/folders that no l... | [
"It's the caches inside. Use a third party software like phoneclean to clean it up."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Is breathing in someone else's exhalation for an extended amount of time harmful? | [
"Doubt it. For one, you wouldn't both necessarily inhale and exhale in alternating patterns perfectly for an extended period of time, so you might both exhale at the same time which would force a significant amount of air away from your mouths. Second, when you breathe out you force air away, which allows other \"f... | [
"Hold it. There isn't harm in short periods without breathing, so the down side is nil. The stuff you're breathing probably isn't going to hurt you if it's just a whiff, but there's more potential harm from it than from held breath."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
why is it that sometimes when drinking hot/cold water you feel it down your chest but other times you don’t? | [
"Or what about when you drink water and instantly feel it spreading out into your entire body?"
] | [
"you have a nerve in the roof of your mouth called the sphenopalatine ganglion. its job is to cause pain when you ingest too much cold stuff in order to keep your internal temperature from getting dangerously low. basically it keeps that milkshake from giving you hypothermia. you can cure it pretty quickly by warmi... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
How do scientists determine the age of the stars, or just their remaining life time? | [
"In a nutshell: as a star ages and consumes it's fuel it begins burning heavier elements. By examining the signs of these elements being consumed we can use that as one way of measuring the age of a star. Combine that with size and luminosity and that gives an estimate of age and time left before transition to the ... | [
"The first method is to use the current expansion rate and work backwards to find out how long it took for the universe to expand to its current size. The second method involves looking at stars. Imagine there is a stopwatch somewhere in this universe that says it has been running for 13 billion years. The existenc... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Astronomy:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Astronomy:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Astronomy:"
} |
How does the process of hibernation work? As in how does the animal not starve over that long period of time? | [
"If you watch squirrels around late autumn, you'll see that they get pretty fat. The animals will eat tons of food (A lot of it has been food they've stored up) before the hibernation season. These animals then experience a rapid slow down in their metabolism to help them to be able to live off of their fat deposit... | [
"Because we don't need to. Hibernation is something that animals do to survive conditions that they couldn't survive normally. This largely only happens for mammals that live near the poles. In the winter, there isn't enough food to eat, so they hibernate to conserve energy until there is food. Humans evolved near ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What "turns on" a nuclear reactor? | [
"To start a fission reaction you need to get enough radioactive material, close enough together, so that it reaches critical mass. The radioactive materials shoot particles at each other which causes the other one to shoot particles back. It could be as simple as having 2 buckets of radioactive material and moving... | [
"Why do some parts of the world call gasoline petrol?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What makes boilers so dangerous to be around? | [
"Look up ntsb accident videos. Many of them are the result of failure to control pressure, either due to reactions, heat, or mechanical."
] | [
"Old homes did because they had to heat with coal or wood. New homes use furnaces that are powered by natural gas or propane and are much smaller and more efficient. And considering much of the US and Canada can drop below freezing in the winter, yes we need them."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
why is it that bulls get angry when they see the color red? | [
"They don't. They are aggravated by movement, not the color red (which they're actually color blind to). They'll charge at anything that is flapping or moving. If you wear red and stand still in the pen with a bull, you will be fine - assuming some clowns are running around that is. So be like Dax... and master th... | [
"Because it makes it harder for them to see, so an easy way to discourage you was to tell you it's illegal."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why do name brand car dealerships have so many cars and trucks in their lot? It’s not like they have 300+ people coming in to buy a vehicle every week | [
"Cars don't \"go bad\" on short notice like groceries, so it's not as dangerous to overstock. And this way if a customer shows up not already knowing which car they want, you can show them tons of options."
] | [
"Usually, dealerships will just offer more and more discounts and deals until the car gets sold. Even if they eventually end up selling the car at a loss, at least they recouped some of the investment. Manufacturers usually do a good job of using data from past years to figure out how many of each car model to prod... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Automotive industry:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Automotive industry:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
"Multiplexing" and "Demultiplexing" in next generation sequencing | [
"I'm not a biologist, but in Electronic engineering, we use multiplexing for sending multiple signals down a transmission line, and demultiplexing for splitting one transmission line into many signals at the other end. It looks like this is much the same. you take many samples, combine them into one data-set, seque... | [
"- 'Big Data' analysis - Protein folding simulations - Video and 3D/animation rendering - Weather forecasting / climate research - Engineering/structural/crash-test simulations - Search for Extra-Terrestrial life (radio-telescope signal analysis) - Other medical and scientific experiments/simulations/testing - Cryp... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
How are complex functions like trigonometric or hyperbolic calculated on computers or scientific calculators? | [
"Because most calculators of limited power don't use the slow functions. They use specifically chosen approximations, Taylor series, etc. and optimise the algorithm towards whatever the processor does best - e.g. integer operation, fixed-point or floating-point, multiplications, additions, bitwise operations, etc. ... | [
"e has the special property that the slope of e to the x is also e to the x. In calculus terms, its derivative is equal to itself. This makes it show up in the solution to a lot of calculus problems, including differential equations that govern most physical systems and many financial calculations. It is also fund... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why is 1 subtance hydrophillic and another hydrophobic. Can you change the behaviour of a substances ? | [
"Water is a polar molecule, meaning it has positive and negative sides, kind of like a mini-magnet. Hydrophilic surfaces are usually polar too, so they attract the water molecules like magnets clicking together. So water will easily “stick” to the hydrophilic surface and, if the substance is porous, be absorbed int... | [
"pure ice or water does not conduct electricity. its actually the impurities that act as the conductor."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
How do gut bacteria actually make it to your intestines with the hydrochloric acid produced by the stomach in the way? | [
"The hydrochloric acid in your stomach is usually heavily diluted in the first place, and only long-term exposure can erode their membrane away. Most, however, reside in your gut lining, which has a nice, thick layer of mucus to protect then from your stomach fluids. Some of the mucus gets washed down when the cont... | [
"Stomach acid isn't there to break down your food, its primary role is to destroy bacteria in anything you just ate. The enzymes in your small intestine are responsible for most of the digestion. Heartburn is caused by stomach acid finding its way up, and out of your stomach where it attacks the lining of your esop... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If things like a sore throat and a headache are caused by your immune system's response to the common cold, what would you experience if you had no response at all? | [
"Same as immuno-compromised people do... death. That's why AIDS doesn't actually kill anybody. Not directly. It destroys your immune system, which means that even a common cold can infect your entire body and kill you. That's why the body sees a bit of a headache / sore throat / fever are a small price to pay, and ... | [
"Great question, but it's complicated, because different infections trigger the immune system to different amounts. Sometimes, what kills a person isn't the infection itself, but the immune response to that infection. In those cases, it's better to have a slightly weaker immune response; the response will still be ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Biology:",
"pos": "Represent the answer about Biology:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
How do American 20 amp plugs/outlets safely carry more current than their 15 amp counterparts ? | [
"They have bigger wires. You have to use 12 gauge wires for a 20A outlet, whereas you can use 14 gauge wires for a 15A outlet."
] | [
"The tag says not to plug it into extension cords because an AC unit uses up a lot of wattage, and a long extension cord would heat up from all the power that passes through it. The wattage is also why they say not to plug it into a power strip; those are designed for computers, 300-500 watts tops. You CAN use exte... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
What shapes our handwriting and can it be changed? | [
"I can’t answer anything but the last question. Yes it can be changed. I went from writing in all cursive to block style capital letters in jr high (because I liked how that looked) and it only took me about a week of writing to switch, so at least in my case it’s possible and while actively trying was a pretty qui... | [
"Because personal signatures are more difficult to forge as everyone has a unique writing style."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
This only be me, but why do random small parts of my body twitch at the rate of my heart beat? | [
"This is called clonus or myoclonus, and is unrelated to your heart-beat, other than that it may occur with a similar frequency (that is, beats/twitches per second/minute). It isn't really known what causes these involuntary twitches in normal people. There are some rare diseases like Motor Neuron Disease/ALS which... | [
"Do we? This is probably the first I've heard of it. Only correlation I can think of you are trying to make is the randomness and frequency of the static is like the randomness and frequency of your nerves firing off."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
How come people with Alzheimer's disease do not forget how to speak their native language? | [
"Some of them do... long term memory and short term memory are very different things. Learning to speak language is something we encode in ourselves at a young age. Even then, you are incorrect here as people often do forget how to put words together in the sentence they are attempting properly. People with this di... | [
"It may also be because you have probably spent less time around them so your brain hasn't learned how to differentiate them properly.Similar to how people of a different race are harder to differentiate."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Medical:"
} |
How does tin foil in the oven not get hot? | [
"It does get hot. But since it is so thin, it has very little mass and a very high surface area compared to that mass. So by the time you've pulled it out of the oven, it's already cooled down quite a bit. That very low mass also means there is not much actual heat energy stored there to burn you."
] | [
"Here are two extra questions: 1.What would happen if you jammed the door catch and started microwaving with the door open? 2. When I microwave olives (delicious), they sometimes spark, does that mean the seeds have metal in them and should I not be doing this without parental supervision?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
- What makes James Bond themes instantly recognisable as a James Bond theme? | [
"It is called a [Leitmotif](_URL_0_) A short melody, chord progression or rhythm accompanies a certain character or event that appears on screen (or on stage, as the term leitmotif and its use originated in opera) making the audience associate them together. Lots of composers use it. The James Bond one is famous, ... | [
"Tocccata & Fugue in D minor was used in a lot of early horror films (Jekyll & Hyde, The Black Cat), to the point that it's almost *the* musical motif for villainy. Wikipedia suggests this trope even precedes sound films. My guess is it was a piece a lot of theater organists had in their repertoires, and brought it... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
how do diuretics work? | [
"There's a hormone in your body called ADH, or anti-diuretic hormone. As you know, diuresis means \"to pee\". So an anti-diuretic hormone causes your body to pee less - specifically by making your pee less watery, but leaving all the bad stuff in there. Some substances (like caffeine and alcohol) cause your body to... | [
"A lot of meds sound similar because it is indicative of what drug class they are in. Here are a few examples: -Caine = local anesthetic -mycin = antibiotic -olol = beta blocker -statin = for cholesterol"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do strong vibrations make me nauseous? | [
"Though I dont know your medical history, I would guess that it is a sympathetic nervous system response. The loud sounds, the vibrations, and probably so many people around you that may be combined with food and liquid in your stomach basically told your body you are in a stressful and possibly dangerous place and... | [
"Stimulation of the vagus nerve can do that. Basically if you shit too hard, it stimulates a nerve that causes sweats, hot flashes, dizziness, etc."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
I’m in the northern hemisphere, why does the sun seem like it is setting in the north west? | [
"Tldr: Because it is. It's not an illusion. The Earth is tilted compared to it's orbit. This means the sun varies in it's position from overhead depending on the time of year. If you position yourself at the equator this means that half the year the sun is to your North, the other half it's to your South dependin... | [
"I'm not familiar with the story you're talking about. But in the Northern Hemisphere the sun sweeps across the southern part of the sky, and in the Southern Hemisphere it sweeps across the northern part of the sky. Half of Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere, so as you sail around it you're going to see the sun i... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why are there tiny little stings of bubbles that rise up from the bottom of beers? | [
"Imperfections in the glass. The bubble finds something to stick to, and then more bubbles stick to it, until the bubble it big enough that it floats off and starts the process over again. Look up nucleation point."
] | [
"The water doesn't actually turn white, what you are seeing is a bunch of tiny air bubbles that are getting trapped in there from the agitation."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text about Science:"
} |
How do reporters find out about crime and accidents so fast? How do they pick which incidents to report? | [
"Radio scanners. (Even for jurisdictions with encrypted radio comms they sometimes give credentialed news outlets a radio programmed to hear dispatch) Citizens reporting. Twitter. Friends of friends sending texts. The police themselves, especially if it fits their mandate."
] | [
"Florida has a law that makes it very easy for reporters to find out about crimes, much easier than in other parts of the United States. This means that crimes that normally wouldn't make the news in other states, do so in Florida. Thus, it gives the illusion that Florida is much crazier than the rest of the countr... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Venezuela Gold Swapping With Deutsche Bank | [
"The Venezuela government is running out of money that was propping up the populist rule of their current dictator. Their efforts to keep critical payments coming for things like the military they are trying to borrow money from other countries, and Deutsche Bank agreed to a cash loan of about $750 million dollars ... | [
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How come people can be so open about their use of illegal drugs on the internet without getting caught by the police? | [
"Once as a teen me and a few friends were smoking out of a big 14-inch bong in a field at the park on a summer night, and a cop walked up on us before we realized he was there. He took in the scene and said, \"Hmmph, you guys aren't being loud.\" And went on his way, clearly annoyed at whoever called it in. So I li... | [
"You have to look at the long run. What happens if something you do in private suddenly becomes illegal? The government could prosecute you and have plenty of evidence. What if someone hacks and leaks their database. Ever talk shit about your work over email? Your boss? That's grounds for termination. Bad things ha... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Can people be sensitive to lightning or thunder storms? | [
"This is a good one. I know that if you were to capture a landscape on film during a thunderstorm and in superslowmotion you'd be able to see tentacles of lightning coming out of the ground prior to the impact of the lightning. For all I know that could cause a static field. Im unsure about the ring if it's possibl... | [
"It is just lightning that is too far away for you to hear the thunder. It takes the right atmospheric conditions for you to see it. It is often called \"heat lightning\" but there is nothing different about it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
IIRC coffee works by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, so how do it perform in the early morning when there is little to none adenosine in the body? The spelling is probably wrong too ... | [
"Adenosine is always present in your brain, in significant quantities, so there is always some to block."
] | [
"Simply put, your brain adapts to it and adjusts it's own production of several chemicals to balance out the drug you're taking. It appears to affect you less because you could imagine that usually, you'd add the drugs affects to your brains naturally produced effects. However, if the production drops, then the sum... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
What is an engineer? All I think of is someone that builds stuff. | [
"An engineer designs and plans things, not builds them. Theye will do all the math and science to design a bridge that can handle super intense traffic in the worst conditions, but they aren't the one laying the concrete. An engineer is a problem solver. Electrical, structural, or mechanical it's all about the sam... | [
"With a whole lot of skilled people, a lot of time, and a lot of money. When you have those resources you can accomplish most projects. Is there something specific you are asking about?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
What is a private equity firm? | [
"it's a company whose main purpose is to find and fund other companies. it does not produce anything itself. it seeks its revenue by acquiring other firms and using its business processes and connections to improve that other firm and make more money."
] | [
"How is this different from a standard mutual fund?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
How does reverse psychology work? | [
"Reverse psychology is defined as \"the principle or practice of subtly encouraging a behavior or belief by advocating its opposite.\" For example: If your parents wanted you to go to college, but you didn't want to, they could say something like, \"That's okay. You should just become a plumber, you probably don't ... | [
"Related question: What if I want to become a mercenary? What do I do?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does a proton completely change the element? | [
"It's tricky to \"add protons\" without also adding electrons. Elements (ions) that have a different number of protons than electrons tend to want to capture electrons. Once they do that, the properties of how it interacts with the environment change. Metals are the way they are because they really want to share el... | [
"They use the energy of the recharger to reverse the chemical process. Some chemical processes are reversible."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Chemistry:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Chemistry:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
why do you see that black spot in the middle when you look at something bright | [
"The black spot you see in the middle WHEN you look at something bright is due to the optic nerve in the back of your eyeballs having no photoreceptors on it. The black spot you see AFTER you’ve looked at a bright light is due to your brain damping the signals from the photoreceptors that are getting the bulk of th... | [
"But what happens when you look at the blue sky and see a similar pattern appear without having to rub your eyes?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Physiology:"
} |
Why can you see the colour of the sky within the shape of a crescent or half moon? | [
"The sky is between you and the moon. Not enough light bounces off the dark side to overpower the blue sky, which is caused by sunlight interacting with the atmosphere. Space is not blue."
] | [
"It does turn green during a sunset it's just hard for us to see it because of how vivid the other colors are. Take a thick piece of paper, ideally black paper and cut a 1\"x1\" square in the middle. Then during the next clear sky sunset hold the sheet of paper two to three feet away from your face and look through... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
When switching from one WiFi to another, how come it shuts off the internet while switching, and can’t pass it over without an interruption? | [
"That's because your device has to \"prep\" a lot of configurations such as encryption keys, protocols etc. Think of it as switching the battery in your car, you first gotta unplug it, check which wire goes well, reassure you did it correctly and then proceed to turn your car on. It took you time to do all that, ... | [
"1. As you use a router (or any digital device, really) errors slowly accumulate. Turning it \"off and on again\" clears the temporary memory and the errors, allowing it to function faster. 2. You will probably have background programs which are using internet, and they will not always reconnect immediately when th... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about Technology:"
} |
Why are some clouds darker than others? Is this water saturation and if so, how does this work with light and fluffy(very technical term) clouds? | [
"The perceived darkness of a cloud depends on which part of the cloud you're looking at, how dense the cloud is, the sun's orientation to the cloud, and your orientation to the cloud. Let's say there's a dense cumulus cloud overhead. Cumulus clouds are relatively low in the atmosphere. If you can see the top of th... | [
"Clouds can be created at any height in the troposphere (up to 10km). Fog is just a cloud on the ground. It is possible that the cloud is actually that close to the ground. Another possibility is that there is nothing to provide scale (trees, buildings, mountains) so it is hard to tell how close to the ground it ac... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Meteorology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Meteorology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Did humans ever walk on all fours? If so, what caused us to stop? If not, would it be beneficial to start now? | [
"Pre-humans developed to walk upright to be able to see better. Our legs are longer than other primates that use all for limbs to move, meaning the posture wouldn't be ideal to move that way for long distances. This video shows a man doing a graceful job of it though: _URL_0_"
] | [
"Humans haven't been arboreal (tree-dwelling) for a long time; we've been on the ground for hundreds of thousands of years. That's time enough for instincts to change."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
What are market bubbles? How do they work? | [
"Some kid at school says he'll buy as many snack packs as you can find for $20 each. You skip class to clear out the grocery store but you never find the guy to make the deal, you try to sell them to other people but no one is very enthusiastic about it. So you sell them dirt cheap for the rest of the school year a... | [
"Stocks are pieces of ownership in a company. If a company has 100 shares of stock, and I own 1 share of its stock, I own 1/100 of the company. A stock market is a market where stocks are traded. \"The stock market\" refers to all of those stock markets put together. We don't really know what role the stock market ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why do flies spawn out of banana peels? How do they always get there? | [
"The classic experiment disproving the theory of generation was conducted in the 1700s, but you can do it at home too. Leave a banana peel out in the open, on your backyard, while leaving an identical banana peel in a sealed, airtight container. You should notice after a few days that flies start appearing out of t... | [
"Mosquitoes - because they can smell you and you're delicious. Gnats - I've heard it's because they're attracted to the carbon dioxide that you exhale. Don't know how true that is. Wasps - because they're dicks."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why do our teeth only grow back once? | [
"So they don't actually grow back... You have your adult teeth in your face the entire time, they just come down when they feel like it. They only grow in the womb Picture (and nightmare fuel): _URL_0_"
] | [
"1) by not eating things with much sugar so they have far less tooth decay than we do. 2) by chewing stems of things that clean teeth. 3) by not living so long that it matters as much if their teeth fall out because by the time they do they are dead anyway. 4) by having super awful teeth by modern standards."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If your skin is always replenishing itself, how do tattoos stay? | [
"This question gets asked CONSTANTLY. Kindly follow the rules and use the search function first before posting so there isn't constant repetition"
] | [
"Skin is actual made of of three layers: - The epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, provides a waterproof barrier and creates our skin tone. - The dermis, beneath the epidermis, contains tough connective tissue, hair follicles, and sweat glands. - The deeper subcutaneous tissue (hypodermis) is made of fat and co... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Science:"
} |
Why do stars seem much brighter when I'm looking at them from the corner of my eye? | [
"When you look at them via the corner of your eye, you're using the \"rods\" part of your retina. The rods are much more light sensitive than the cones at the center of your vision. However, rods don't see much in the way of color. So you have the light sensitive but not color sensitive rods around your periphery a... | [
"It doesn't get smaller, it's an optical illusion. When the moon is close to the horizon you have reference points of trees or buildings to gauge how big it is. But, when the moon is high up in the sky there are no reference points in your field of view so it looks smaller compared to the empty sky. If you want to ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
When experiencing (heavy) turbulence it somtimes feels like the airplane suddenly drops a few feet. Does this actually happen or what causes this feeling if it doesn't? | [
"You feel that sudden drop because the plane is in fact moving slightly downwards. This happens for the same reason your feels like it's going downwards when you go down a steep slope. The only difference is that your car drives on pavement/ground, and a plane flies on top of high pressure air. Wings create a press... | [
"By stomach drop, I am assuming you mean when you feel a floaty sensation in your stomach when you freefall. Most of your internal organs are not really 'locked' to your body. They just float around, dangling in the internal cavity. As such, their movement is mostly independent from your body, and have their own in... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do humans weigh less when they wake up compared to when they fall asleep. | [
"Strictly speaking, you probably don't lose any meaningful amount. Your weight fluctuates during the day, mostly due to water retention or loss in response to hormonal changes. During the night cortisol levels drop to their lowest levels in the day, this is a hormone that promotes water retention (among other thing... | [
"I am on board with you mate. I experience the same thing. You would think that since you ate more recently (and supposedly your metabolism slows down when you are sleeping) that you should be less hungry than if you went to bed on an empty stomach. * I would add as a followup question: Why am I NOT hungry when I w... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why does screaming alleviate pain? | [
"IIRC when you scream, it takes your focus away from the site of the wound and lessen the pain. Another possible explanation is that it trigger the fight or flight response, flooding your body with adrenaline. That also serves to reduce pain"
] | [
"How do you know that you don't sneeze in your sleep?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What is white noise? | [
"Radios have an \"automatic gain control\" (AGC). When the reception is weak, the circuit that deals with the radio frequencies turns up it's amplification to try and get the best signal it can so it can then extract what actual audio it can. When the gain goes up to maximum, all it ends up amplifying is noise, rad... | [
"Maybe let's start with: what is ring tone rap?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why does sodium explode when it touches water? | [
"It wants to be stable so bad instead of handing the water it’s electrons it haymakers them onto the waters face"
] | [
"Part of it is that it absorbs the heat, stopping the reaction. It also keeps oxygen from reaching the burning material. Oxygen is necessary for combustion. Some chemical fires can't be put out by water, because they don't require O2 (atmospheric oxygen). Matter of fact, putting sodium or potassium in water will ca... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
; After reading the post on the adenosine blocking features caffiene has I have follow up questions. Is that the same process that pain killers have? And does the fact that it has to make new paths aid in the memory loss that painkillers (opiods specifically) give you? | [
"No, the over the counter meds typically are COX inhibitors. Interrupts a chemical pathway that causes pain and inflammation. Doesn't have a receptor. Opioids don't cause memory problems. They cause central nervous system depression (read suboptimal processing). You don't remember things well because it stunts your... | [
"They affect different chemical receptors. Vicodin, codiene, morphine and other opiods/opiates have an effect on dopamine production/receptors in the body which are also responsible for \"good\" feelings and can suppress the feelings of pain. Ibuprofen and other usually just effect dilation of blood vessels allowin... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do some animals have tails? | [
"Evolution-wise, it's a remnant from our waterborne history where all water creatures use some sort of tail to move. It's a very low cost/movement mechanism. Then land based animals either kept it because it's a low cost balance mechanism, or keep it to navigate (birds and so on)"
] | [
"Why are noses different in size, why are people different heights, why do we have different hair colors?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Biology:"
} |
Why is flat fizzy water so gross when compared to just naturally flat water ? | [
"Carbon dioxide doesn't dissolve into water the same way most gases do. If you dissolve oxygen or nitrogen into water, the oxygen and nitrogen remain unchanged, and are just spread out throughout the liquid. When you dissolve carbon dioxide in water, most of the carbon dioxide actually chemically bonds with the wat... | [
"As far as I know sparkly water is only normal in Germany. Everywhere else in europe if you ask for water you get a normal, non sparkly water."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
; Why is dark skin selected for when you’re in the sun a lot? Dark colors absorbs most visible light, while white reflects it. Is it different for UV light? | [
"Because the upper layer of skin is dead anyway. That dead layer of skin absorbs a lot more of the radiation from the Sun than it would if it was lightly colored, which helps protect the skin beneath it. This is white dark skin people don't get sunburn nearly as easily as fair-skinned people. Darker-skinned people ... | [
"An objects color is the sum of the colors of light it reflects as opposed to the light it absorbs. So a leaf is colored green because of chlorophyll which absorbs red and blue light well. This leaves green light to get reflected back. If there were an object that absorbed all frequencies of light except those in... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer about Physics:"
} |
Why do people immediately sneeze the moment they walk into sun? | [
"It's called photic sneezing, affects only a fraction of the population, and isn't understood fully by scientists. _URL_0_"
] | [
"How do you know that you don't sneeze in your sleep?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
What does DJ Khaled actually do besides yell his name? Is he a musician, does he produce the beats? | [
"DDDEEEJAY KHALED. is a producer so he mostly arranges the beats and figures out how a track will sound. Think of him like the coach on a team. He also suffers from success apparently"
] | [
"The producer in music is the one who manages the recording of a song/album, but in rap, it's a little more - the producer is usually the one who writes the instrumental part of the song. The rapper, the one whose name appears as the artist, does the lyrics on top. Kanye can write a really catchy beat, and he got f... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do humans need sleep? | [
"Let's turn the question around: What happens if you don't sleep. There have been some interesting /r/AskReddit posts on it what people who didn't go to sleep for a long time experienced. Most of it was related to hallucinations, incoherency, unable to concentrate and do simple tasks. So, the brains have evolved t... | [
"Why do people in Western countries use forks?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
How are there so many different "world champions" for the same weight class in boxing? How does it work? | [
"WBA, IBF, BO and IBO are all different boxing organizations. Imagine it more like there was an NBA, and a Southern Basketball League and a Northern Basketball League and a World Basketball League and a International Basketball League and all of the same teams played. You could have one team hold the titles for al... | [
"Basically they are considered the two greatest boxers alive today. Absolute top of the field."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What causes foods like radishes, horseradish, and ginger to taste spicy? | [
"Allyl isothiocyanate in radishes and zingerone, shogaol and various gingerols in in ginger. All of them(and piperine from black pepper) act on the same receptors as capsaicin, but weaker and for a shorter time. This is why they don't have the same lasting heat feeling."
] | [
"The popular theory is that the oxalic acid crystals, which are found in abundance in spinach, are coating your teeth, leaving a gritty feeling. You can get the same feeling in other vegetables that are high in oxalic acid, like rhubarb."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why is it sometimes my pee sinks to the bottom of the toilet and other times it seems to mix with the water in the bowl? | [
"There are solids in your urine. The more hydrated you are, the more diluted those solids get. Pure urine, without being diluted is about 4 times as dense as water, so it sinks."
] | [
"When air moves over something it creates low pressure, the faster it moves, the lower the pressure will get. Those pipes that stick up out of the roof are attached to the drainage system of the house so when you flush or run the tub, sink, washing machine, etc... the water will be able to go down the pipes and not... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
How do explosions kill? Like grenades and other explosives. | [
"If you're very close to the blast the concussion itself can kill you. The shockwave can easily transfer energy from air to a denser material like your body, but the transfer back into air behind you is very ineffective. That means you instead have to absorb all that energy, and all the hollow pockets in your body ... | [
"Conventional weapons - if powerful enough - do create mushroom clouds as well. They're also visible around natural events, like volcanic eruptions."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
how do animals without parental training know how to be the animals they are? | [
"First, if I were to cut your skull vertically and take a look at a cross-section of your brain, I'd be able to divide it into what you normally think of as the brain (the noodlely bits) and the brain-stem. Most of your instinctual functions, such as curling away from heat, your fight or flight instincts, reflex to... | [
"Its a natural instinct which causes you to do this, look at animals in the wild they have these instincts from the moment they are born and it works for Humans too :)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Biology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Biology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
How do products have 'secret recipes' if they need to disclose the contents on the packaging? | [
"Yes, but you just get the raw ingredients. But what you are mixing together and how you do it is important. Recipes arent just a list of ingredients. So they may have a certain mixture or way of making the product."
] | [
"It's because food is regulated by the FDA and alcohol is regulated by the ATF. Each agency has different requirements for what has to be included on the packaging."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Why do animals get away with not brushing their teeth, but human teeth will not last without regular brushing? | [
"It is in what we eat. Certain things we eat destroy the enamel that protects the fleshy part of our teeth (pulp). Namely cane sugar. Once the enamel is compromised, it is easy for the pulp to rot. Animals are not completely immune to this. Dogs, for instance, develop issues with tartar and plaque buildup that ca... | [
"No, if you properly brush and floss your teeth, and don't eat too much acidic foods that erode the enamel, your teeth easily last your entire life. Few people do properly floss and brush throughout their lives, so teeth fall victim to decay, one by one. Note that cheap plastic toothbrushes haven't really been arou... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Dentistry:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Dentistry:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What causes that burning/tickling sensation felt after a failed sneeze? | [
"A sneeze is triggered (generally) after a buildup of stimulation crosses a certain threshold. Your nose has to be irritated enough to actually set off a sneeze reaction. If you get close to crossing that threshold without actually going over, your nose is still stimulated and irritated, but not quite enough to ac... | [
"Sometimes, it burns a lot after eating spicy foods. That is the same reason it burns going down. LPT: After eating spicy foods and when you're anticipating a painful poop, put some petroleum jelly on your anus first. It helps coat it and soothes the pain"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why is it easy to cross your eyes, but almost impossible to have each eye point outwards (left eye looks left, right eye looks right)? | [
"It is a limitation of the muscles. There is no reason for your eyes to point away from each other, there is a reason for your eyes to both point inward. If you take your finger and put it against the end of your nose and focus on it you are essentially crossing your eyes. I am sure that there are some people out t... | [
"Mirrors don't reverse left/right, they reverse front/back. Point up and your image points up. Point down and your image points down. Point left or right and your image points in the same direction. If you point at your image, then your image points in the opposite direction."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why does the change in pressure from driving over a mountain make things sound quiet/muffled? | [
"As you go up, there is less air pressing on the outside of your ears. The inner ear is sealed by little tubes that open when you yawn. When the pressure inside the ear is more than the pressure outside like it is when you're going up, the ear drum becomes tight, almost like an inflated balloon. When you yawn - and... | [
"Lower sound waves are larger (peaks and valleys are farther apart) so they vibrate objects more noticeably and travel farther. High voices vibrate things it's just so fast it isn't as noticeable. This is why bass seems to be heard from farther away than treble."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Do animals in the wild get enough sleep or are they constantly sleep deprived? | [
"Depending on the current situation of their surroundings and environment (e.g. Mother animal staying awake to protect her offsprings.) But on an average rate, animals often has a normal sleep routine due to the fact that they don't do much time-demanding tasks, unlike us humans. ELI5: They often have a normal slee... | [
"Stress. Stress is keeping you up awake at night, until you become so sleep deprived your body forces you to be knocked out."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument about Sleep and its effects on the body:"
} |
How are literary devices and writing style captured in translated work? E.g. The Odyssey. | [
"That's a complicated and sometimes controversial process. Some things like rhymes and puns simply can't always be translated effectively and are lost. The English joke about how Seven ate Nine can't work in Spanish, you'll just have to note that it's a joke. Things like tone and connotations are left to the transl... | [
"Literature is written works. The medium is sort of like what kind of written work you are writing. What form the information takes. A novel is one medium. A play is another. Poetry is another medium An essay is a medium of non-fiction literature. Then you've got letters, Newspapers, textbooks... Etc etc."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
why does the iss move through the sky really quickly yet planets further out barely seem to move? | [
"Objects further away always appear to be moving slower. When a bird flys over your head it zips by quickly. The same bird flying past you 100 feet up looks like it is moving slower."
] | [
"It doesn't stay in the same place. The moon rises and sets just like the sun. Next clear night make a point to go look at it every hour of so and you will see that it has moved. The moon is very far away so even at that speed you won't be able to discern motion in a short time span."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What are stem cells and why are they important in research? | [
"If we took samples from your body of different parts and looked at them under a microscope we would be able to tell the difference between different types of cells. A brain cell would look like a brain cell and a muscle cell would looks like a muscle cell. They both contain a full copy of your DNA, but the brain c... | [
"Because cancer isn't just one disease, so one singular cure won't take care of it. There is ongoing research each targeting specific mechanisms of certain types of cancers."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
why cant we store electricity indefinitely in batteries? | [
"Batteries work by storing electrons between an electrolyte layer. That layer prevents the cathode from making contact with the anode, which would result in a short circuit. When a load is introduced to the battery, it pulls electrons from one side to the other, creating an electric current through the attached dev... | [
"nuclear fuel rods heat water, steam turns a turbine. they are very basic, no need to complicate it more than need be."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do some recent films from the 2000s need to go through a remaster process into higher resolutions like 4K? Aren't the original source files already at their native resolution, especially if they were filmed digitally? | [
"No, there was still a lot of film used in the 2000s. Even so, digitization for HD (1080) is very different from digitization for 4K (2160) because different bitrate limits are needed for the different formats. There might have been a 4K \"digital\" version for theaters with digital projectors in the 2000s, but tha... | [
"If they were made to be shown on television, and not on a computer, they were likely made before HD was a thing, so at best they were mastered at 480i resolution. If the videos were made on film, they could be remastered to 4k (most film is incredibly high quality which is why you can take a 1940's film and make i... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why do charley horses (the type of painful muscle cramp) seem to mostly happen while you're asleep? | [
"Because you sleep in weird positions and your muscles can't properly relax, or it's too cold and your body won't bother shivering, but the muscle still has to warm itself up,so it stays active and pulsates,and eventually it gets stuck"
] | [
"Usually I have that issue because I sleep on my side, which puts pressure on my arms and they don't get enough circulation. If you sleep on your back, not sure... Another possbility is your muscles simply aren't fully awake yet, since it's pretty hard to do pushups straight out of bed and other strength- based act... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Does digital data take up physical space? | [
"It's like asking if words take up physical space. Digital data is information, and doesn't take up physical space itself. However if you want to record that information anywhere then the storage medium takes up space, and the more data the more space."
] | [
"You might need to be more specific on this question. Are you talking about human memory, in our brain? Or are you talking about memory in a computer? In which case, do you mean short-term memory, known as RAM, or long-term memory?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why is it rude to call my aunts/uncles by their first name? | [
"Just social standards. Depends where you live, I call certain relatives by their first name and others by their relation"
] | [
"It's stop after the first level. I have a brother-in-law, my wife's brother. When he gets married, his wife is not my sister in law. she is just my brother-in-law's wife. Siblings in law are your spouses siblings and that is it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do volcano eruptions sometimes create lightning? | [
"There's a lot of dust and rock particles moving against each other in the plume above the volcano. This can create a static electrical charge, which in extreme cases can cause lightning."
] | [
"Conventional weapons - if powerful enough - do create mushroom clouds as well. They're also visible around natural events, like volcanic eruptions."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Noise canceling headphones works by picking up sound and playing the reversing the sound wave. But how does this happen in real-time? | [
"Imagine you're on a boat in a body of water and large rolling waves are lifting and dropping the boat (something that might make some folks sea sick). To smooth out the water so you don't notice the waves, we generate more waves that exactly match the waves rolling under your boat BUT, we shift them forward 180 de... | [
"noise isolating. consider this ear plugs that have earbuds in them. THey block outside noise by providing a noise reducing barrier. In fact my isolation earbuds are so good I use them as Earplugs when using a circular saw or mowing the lawn. NO music and not even plugged in. Noise Cancelling Headphones that ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Technology:"
} |
Why are utility poles made of wood? | [
"wood is cheap and nonconductive. light poles where the wires are stretched from pole to pole can be wood as well. but light poles where the wires go down into the ground need to be hollow because you don't want the wires exposed to pedestrians, and that's easier with metal since it still needs to be sturdy and thi... | [
"Electricity can be transported underground. It costs a lot more to dig up the streets and lay the lines. In some cities' downtowns all of the lines are underground though, Portland, OR for one."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Was this intended as a genuine insult? | [
"Some guys will make comments like that to check a woman’s availability. Kind of along the lines of asking a woman where her boyfriend is. If she doesn’t have one and is interested in sharing that info then she’d reply I don’t have one. He may have been interested in you but didn’t want to assume you two were toget... | [
"Nothing inflammatory/political please. This is a genuine gap in my knowledge."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
When a River flows into the sea, where does the freshwater end and where does the salt water start? | [
"They meet in estuaries that have what is considered brackish water. It has a lower salt content than sea water but more than the fresh river water. Estuaries are important ecosystems for many animals such as birds and fish along with many more. [check this out](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Pick a spot on the ground. Imagine that a raindrop falls on that spot. Imagine that it doesn't soak in, but it runs downhill. Which way will it go? Trace its path. Eventually, it will flow into a stream. That stream will flow into a bigger stream, which will flow into a river, which may flow into a bigger river, a... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do some furniture creak at night? | [
"Objects expand and contract as temperature and humidity change. The climate in your home changes from day to night."
] | [
"Downloading is like getting unassembled furniture from Ikea delivered to your house. Installing is like assembling the furniture so you can actually use it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
How does "You can't prove a negative" work? | [
"\"There is an alien in my house.\" This is a positive. I can prove it by finding one alien in my house one time. \"There is no alien in my house.\" This is a negative. I can't prove it. Even if I check every square inch of my house, maybe they are really small and I can't see them. Maybe they are invisible. Maybe ... | [
"There is probably a better explanation of it but it's sometimes something along the lines of \"If I can't have you then no one can\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about psychology:"
} |
Why is it that when human beings can adequately hear a song they like, they still have a biological or psychological urge to turn it up? | [
"It’s quite simple: Things that you like sound “better” louder. The frequency response of human hearing is not flat, and it is not linear at every frequency as the volume (amplitude) is increased. At low volumes, humans cannot hear low frequencies or high frequencies as well as they can mid-frequencies. The range... | [
"Typically that's a result of the musicians inside your head not getting paid. I've found that many will just repeat a part of a song over and over when they're angry just to frustrate you."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Science:"
} |
When people talk about nuclear waste, what are they really talking about? Whats in those scary barrels buried deep in a bunker if it isn't "glowing green goo?" | [
"Any kind of byproduct that is radioactive. The main one is spent fuel. Nuclear power plants take a fuel (typically enriched uranium). When this fuel us used (fission) other radioactive elements are produced until what you have is a mixture that can no longer undergo fission anymore, but is still radioactive. This ... | [
"Three main reasons: 1. The potential for disaster, a la Chernobyl and Fukushima. Say what you will about how poorly designed those reactors were and how much we've learned from those disasters, it doesn't make people feel safe. 2. Nuclear waste. Currently in the U.S. we have no long-term plan for disposing of it e... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How are rain chances calculated? | [
"Its a historical comparison. The weather man says \"50% chance of rain\" he means \"half the time the conditions (temp, humidity, etc) are like this, it rains\"."
] | [
"It means that on others days in the past that had the same conditions as today, (such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind speed, cloud cover, etc,) it rained on about half of them, and on the other half of those days it didn't rain. So because we can only predict future events based on the past, the best ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text about weather:"
} |
If you stood in front of a hugely radioactive source what would physically happen to you in the short term? Also would the type of radioactivity change the result? | [
"In the short term you would get something like a sunburn if the exposure was strong enough. Alpha particles have trouble penetrating the skin and are only harmful if ingested or inhaled. Beta rays are more energetic, thus causing more damage. Gamma rays are the worst. They can penetrate some thickness of lead, and... | [
"Different kinds of radiation. Bombs like Hiroshima generated a lot of quickly dissipating radiation, and very little long-lasting radiation. The Chernobyl reactor, on the other hand, put out lots of long-lasting radiation and very little short-lived radiation. I don't know enough about the topic to be more specifi... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
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