query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1 value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
How can the same meteor showers occur every year and not run out of meteors falling to earth or other passing planets? | [
"So there is a lot of debris in space. We are not running out of it any time soon. Comets leave a lot of debris when they orbit as well. _URL_1_ This website gives a good visualization of that. Also don't forget about all the junk we put up there. _URL_0_"
] | [
"1. The moon intercepts a lot of meteors and takes one for the team. 2. Earth has an atmosphere that causes many meteors to burn up before they reach land, or at least shrink to an insignificant size. 3. Meteorites still hit earth all the time. 4. Because there's no atmosphere on the moon, there's nothing to cover ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
what's the meaning and difference between "Workforce Participation rate" and "Unemployment rate"? | [
"Unemployment only counts people who are actively trying and failing to find a job. Workforce participation includes people who have chosen not to work for whatever reason (they are already rich, they are a stay at home spouse, they are disabled, retired, etc.)"
] | [
"Great minds think alike. I've sailed far and returned ta port with this booty. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: The difference between Chairman, President, and CEO. ](_URL_3_) ^(_5 comments_) 1. [ELI5 The differences between the C.E.O., C.O.O, the President and the owner of a c... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
what is meant by streamlining governance? For example if we say there is a need to streamline corporate governance, what would it entail? | [
"If you have a business that has a management structure that looks like this. 1 CEO 5 Regional managers 30 Area managers 300 Local Managers 300 Assistant Local managers And you cut the amount of managers down by keeping the most capable. Getting them to do more, making the the less capable redundant you could end ... | [
"Anti-trust laws deal with the domination of a sector by a specific industry. If you don't want to pay for the book, you're free to take the course from another professor or another college. Anti-trust laws really have no bearing."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
There’s police and fire departments but why are there no EMS departments? | [
"In the UK we have ambulance stations which function sort of like a police or fire department. Its basically just a place where we restock the vehicles and chill when we’re on break. Because our work requires us to be in different locations."
] | [
"there is a division in law enforcement specifically for this. It's called internal affairs."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What are the differences between stocks and options? Would starting to invest in option be a good idea? | [
"Not bein rude/mean or anything at all...but if you have to ask what options are, you absolutely aren’t ready to invest in them. Basically you’re paying for the right to either buy a stock if it drops past a certain point, or the obligation to sell a stock if it hits a certain point. But that’s incredibly simply pu... | [
"Stocks are bought for several reasons: 1. Because you think the price of the stock will rise at a steady rate and you will get a return when you sell 2. Because you think the earnings per share will increase in future and probably command a higher price so you buy now while they are cheap 3. You are happy to get a... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does your body know you've eaten too much rich food before you've digested it? | [
"No, as soon as you start to eat, hormones get produced that signal your stomach to get going. As the stomach fills up and digestion is slowly occuring, more hormones are produced that signal the brain that youre good on food and its time for the stomach to stop and for the intestines to get going"
] | [
"Pour a bunch of sugar on a piece of paper. Put the sugar and paper in your mouth and chew it. Once you don't taste any more sugar, spit the paper out. Do you think you just consumed some calories even though you didn't eat any paper? The answer is yes. Same concept applies to gum."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why are people in medieval paintings often depicted with tilted heads? | [
"Medieval European art developed directly from late Byzantine art, which was mostly religious in nature. In early Christian art, the people’s faces were always depicted as being turned attentively to God, the heavens, etc. to illustrate that their attention was on holy things, while their bodies were doing somethin... | [
"Addition: why are black people's upper lips black while their lower lips are pink?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
How did Super Mario Bros on the NES look blocky, have no detail, and lack a bunch of features; yet Super Mario Bros 3, also on the NES, with the same hardware, have a fully fledged world map, Siginificantly higher quality sprites, and more content? While on the same cartridge? | [
"Memory hardware inside of cartridges advanced precipitously in the five years between the release of Super Mario Bros. & Super Mario Bros. 3. The limitations on the quality of graphics were almost entirely based on the amount of available storage in the carts."
] | [
"It's probably worth mentioning that when you're seeing 'state of the art' graphics, your imagination is still doing some of the leg work. Move forwards a few years, games (and console power) move on and developers can add more details, which you then become accustom to. Go back and those 'details' you might have ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
What is Usenet? And how does it work? | [
"A collection of forums (called newsgroups) that was bit like really old version of Reddit. It's a bit hierarchical, so groups kind of contained other groups - so One called \"alt.subculture\" might have a sub group called \"alt.subculture.punk\". In the past it worked by internet providers synchronising the conte... | [
"The Tor Project is Awesome. If you can afford a VPN-That's better!"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do places with hot climates like spicy hot foods more. | [
"capsaicin, the chemical that makes things spicy, acts as a preservative. One thing to note is that a lot of areas that have a lot of spicy food are not only hot, but humid as well. This is the perfect breading ground for bacteria so food doesn't really keep well on it's own."
] | [
"Our taste buds don't work as well in really cold things, that's why most American beer is served ice cold."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Science:"
} |
How is soap simultaneously made from fat and an effective remover of fat? | [
"Because you modify the molecule so one end is polar and can be dissolved in water. Fat is hard to remove by water because it is non polar and is not easy to mix with water but soap and alcohol have polar and non polar ende. So is can form a layer around other fat so the outside can be mixed with water and you can ... | [
"Some soap is soap (that is, oils/fats reacted with a strong base like lye or potash) while other \"soap\" is more like industrial detergents. Some people complain that real soap leaves behind a film. Maybe that's what you're talking about?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If the boiling point of water is 212°, then why does it evaporate at room temperature? | [
"Boiling point is where it *must* be a gas. At lower temperatures, it seeks an equilibrium between liquid and gas. A liquid is a big jiggling mass of molecules loosely stuck together. Because they are moving randomly, occasionally a molecule at the edge will be shaken loose and bounce away. That's evaporation. Simi... | [
"The decreased atmospheric pressure makes water do different things than it does at sea level, like not boil at 100C/212F (it boils at a lower temp). You have to compensate for those sorts of things when you're cooking at altitude."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
How do countries determine territory lines? | [
"There are, occasionally, these things called \"wars\" over where those borders should be. Sometimes the borders are just were the the front lines of the last war ended at. Sometime nations negotiate openly and directly. Other time they try to make a claim through usage, international law, and getting other nations... | [
"1. The nation you are buying the land from has to be okay with this. 2. It has to be recognized by other nations."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
It just hit me that there are no longer any wild cows. How/when did this happen? | [
"Cattle were domesticated from the wild aurochs. As time went on, the aurochs were hunted, saw their available habitat shrink greatly, and contracted diseases from domesticated cattle. The last one died in the 17th century."
] | [
"There used to be lots of different types of humans too. Most died off on their own. Some we may have killed off. But just so you know, all cats are one species. Same with dogs."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about biology:"
} |
How isn’t Gucci gone bankrupt yet since less than 3% of the world can afford their products? | [
"3% of the world is still over 210 million people and people buy expensive things to show them off. It's the same reason people buy jewelry and supreme clothes."
] | [
"Probably because they like the style but realize $600 for a purse is kinda stupid. I don't think they're trying to trick anyone into thinking they're rich."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does électrocution work if electricity is just a bunch or electrons and why does our body shake when exposed to electricity. | [
"Our nervous system is electrically activated. Our bodies work fairly well as a replacement for electrical wire. When electricity passes through you, it activates your nerves/muscles as each pulse of it passes from the source to the destination."
] | [
"The electricity disperses over distance and the strength of it weakens in large bodies of water. So It could maybe kill some fish nearby sometimes, but really it's just electricity going back to where it always is: in the earth. It's all static. Lightning strikes the earth 100 times per second, so a lot of it hits... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about biology:"
} |
What causes birth marks? | [
"Birthmarks have been a little bit of a mystey to us, but we've finally narrowed it down to two main causes. 1. Vascular birthmarks: These are caused when your blood vessels grow in a weird way in the womb, and usually don't last to adulthood. However, if the blood vessels keep growing in that way throughout your ... | [
"What source says that alcohol is bad for your teeth?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
In computer science, how do packets get lost in the first place? | [
"Many ways including: 1. Packet filtering due to policy rules 2. Routing errors causing loops resulting in the time to live TTL expiring 3. Link errors causing corrupt frames that can not be self repaired 4. Queue buffers getting full on routers 5. Software errors on routers such as the bloody VSS issue with have o... | [
"I believe that any uploading requires a tiny amount of downloading, as the two computers make requests and send confirmations back and forth."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What determines music taste? Why are some sounds or genres more pleasing than others? | [
"I’m a music teacher, but this is all anecdotal. I think music tastes depend on a lot of factors. Some personality traits lend themselves to liking certain types of music, but I think the biggest factor is just exposure. Popular artists are largely determined by who the music labels decide to push and get radio pla... | [
"Songs are written deliberately to be catchy. Songwriters know exactly what makes a song catchy, and when they write songs they put devices into them in order to make them catchy. So the real question isn't why songs are catchy, it's why don't you like these catchy songs? This is something that can't really be answ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
What stops a living body from decomposing like a dead body does? | [
"Mitosis. Healthy cells multiply, dead cells are excreted. Dead body just have dead cells with no way to get rid of or replace."
] | [
"There need to be special conditions so fossils get formed. The fossilization process has to happen before the body gets eaten by bacteria and such which usually take care of dead bodies."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Biology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Biology:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do stars twinkle? | [
"Twinkling is an effect of atmospheric interference when viewed from the surface of the Earth. Random motion of air molecules, thermal flows, etc. all produce slight light refraction. The twinkling does not exist when viewed from outside the atmosphere, like in the Hubble Space Telescope."
] | [
"Galaxies are massive and shine. Planets are tiny and don't shine."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about astronomy:"
} |
What objectively makes a song catchy? | [
"Repetition, easy beats for people to clap/tap along to, simple harmonies where the subsequent notes are 'predictable'. Songs with a 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 pattern with a repeating chorus/verse structure where there are only a few components to the full song."
] | [
"Tough question, might as well ask: What is love?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Science:"
} |
why is being so hungry that you’re not hungry a thing? | [
"You feel hungry because you're used to eating at a certain time, ie lunch. After a while, your body resorts to other sources of energy like using glycogen stored in the liver and through a process called autophagy, in which your body consumes it's own cells."
] | [
"First, Lucky you. Second, your desire for sex goes to basically nothing. Like eating a really good meal till you're full. Yes, you enjoyed it, but well, you're full, you're not going to eat that meal again, you just need to wait till you're atleast a little hungry again."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why do companies add all those poisonous components to cigarettes, what's their motivation, and what's wrong with smoking pure tobacco? | [
"Tobacco already has many toxic compounds within the plant itself, which can be concentrated when the plant is dried. Additives generally promote increased smoking, by enhancing the addictive properties of tobacco, adding flavors, etc. But pure tobacco has plenty of toxic and carcinogenic substances even without an... | [
"There is no tobacco in them and thereby none of the toxic chemicals that will ruin your lungs. The nicotine (the addicting part) is still in the e-cigarettes so the stimuli of smoking remains. I'm pretty sure this is how it works, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
; What is the cavity at the bottom of winebottles for? | [
"It’s called a punt, and there are several “reasons” but none of them are good and none are officially the “real” reason. A few reasons: 1) it makes the bottle easier to hold 2) it allowed the glass blower making the bottle to hide the seam (where the glass is pinched off) so the bottle would stand upright (obviou... | [
"Follow up question, why do I have like three times as many hairs around my left nipple than my right one?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why do humans don't remember how they learned to speak or make sentences growing up ? | [
"In psychology, memory must be encoded and stored before it can be retrieved. This is done via neural structures in the limbic system that are still developing while language acquisition is occurring in infants."
] | [
"I'd actually wager the majority of your thoughts are not in words. Probably only communication related thoughts are in words. You don't think in words while eating, or during a fist fight, while playing a sport, or any other numerous tasks. Babies think without words because they don't know any, they are by defini... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why can’t we predict earthquakes at all? | [
"The plates aren't in constant motion and you can't just see a collision coming. They are pressed against each other and stuck there for long periods as pressure builds up. The force pushing the plates has to overcome the friction of the two plates rubbing together. Eventually, there comes a point where the pushing... | [
"In reality theres no sure fire way of knowing its going to erupt soon until, you know, it erupts. The thing could be completely inactive for all we know. Also, dont worry, because its completely out of your control."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How can you look really ugly on pictures and on a camera but find yourself attractive on a mirror? | [
"Short explanation. The lighting changes between the situations where we have photos taken of us. And then the image is flipped in a mirror, so it looks odd to see a photo where it isn’t flipped."
] | [
"No. When you look at the side of your face you see the same thing that everyone else does when they look at the side of your face. If people saw the side of your face/head when they looked you in the eye they would be looking you in the ear. That would be weird. It seems you're asking \"do people see me as attract... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
In trigonometry, what is the difference between the inverse sine function and the arc sine function. | [
"They are the same thing to the extent that you probably care about. The true \"inverse sine function\" is a multivalued function that returns a countably infinite set. Thats a bit much so usually only the principle value of the function is returned (that is it will be ~~between 0 and 2pi~~ \\-1/2pi and 1/2pi) If s... | [
"A right triangle has one 90 degree angle and two other angles. These angles are *complements* of one another (i.e., they add up to 90 degrees). The *co-* in *cosine* means that the function is the *sine of the complementary angle*. The *secant* gets its name from the fact that the line you draw to calculate this v... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
How can planes fly for 12 hours straight without running out of fuel? | [
"The simple explanation is that they contain a lot of fuel and it can be a significant percentage of the mass of the aircraft at take off. A example is a Airbus A380 that have a maximum takeoff weight of 575 tonnes and it can carry 254 tonnes of fuel, that is 44% fuel by mass The range is 14800km and the cruise spe... | [
"Why do I need 60 seconds to fill up my car's gas tank, on average? What's happening in the last 10 seconds that doesn't happen in the first?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Health:"
} |
Why does a long stretch feel so satisfying, and what triggers it. | [
"I believe it’s because your muscles slowly tighten up and lose blood flow when immobile and stretching increases blood flow and relieves the tension."
] | [
"The same system that trips endorphins when you're injured- strenuous exercise is acutely damaging and painful to boot. Pain serves a purpose, but can be a hindrance beyond initial notification of injury, so your body has a way of turning it down. Long tattoo sessions start to feel like long runs, for the same rea... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
If the polar ice caps were developed during the last Ice Age, why is it so bad that they are melting now? Isn’t that more of a return to where we were rather than an anomaly? | [
"The earth doesn't give a shit what's happening to it. You do along with all the things that live on it because they've adapted to the conditions that existed after the last ice age and they don't want to adapt again to rapidly changing conditions because that means a lot of them and their offspring are going to di... | [
"Global warming is what the planet is undergoing as a whole. The increase of average global temperature. Climate change is what could be observed in a specific region. A region could be hotter, cooler, wetter, drier, etc. The worry is that the ecosystems in a region could change too quickly for organisms to adapt a... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post about Environmental Science:"
} |
Why do a lot of bruises appear circular even if the object that made the bruise wasn’t circular? | [
"A bruise is more or less a blood leakage under your skin. If you hit yourself with, let's say, a cube, not all blood vessels in that area rupture. Unless you hit yourself really hard, only a few do and start leaking blood in the surrounding tissue. The blood spreads in a circular way around the wound, resulting in... | [
"It can happen anywhere else. The skin on the scalp is much thiner than on most other parts on your body, and the bump can only swell outwards because inwards there is no room due to the skull. I have a bone anomaly (a kind of bone tumour) on my left arm and I bumped it once and it was really swollen like a bump on... | 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 TV manufacturers turn on the "Soap Opera Effect", or motion smoothing, by default? | [
"Because they use it in the advertisement, and a certain percent of consumers are too dumb to enable it. Because it’s more likely people who care will seek out disabling it, and people who don’t know any better will get mad if they don’t know how to use it. Just like how my last phone came defaulted to a super vivi... | [
"HDTVs generally do a lot of processing on images it displays. Check and see if your TV has a game mode. It'll turn off the processing effects and offer less latency."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
When I'm driving towards a yellow traffic light how does my brain automatically calculate whether I should go or stop in the span of a few seconds? | [
"A stoplight displays yellow for roughly one second every 10 miles an hour the speed limit is. E.G. : 40 mile an hour zone (US) is equivalent to 4.2 seconds of yellow light. Cycle through this process a thousand times or so as you drive around and your brain picks up the pattern."
] | [
"Reason #1 is because everyone overreacts. If car A breaks, car B behind them breaks harder to be safe, then car C has to break ever harder than B did, so on and so forth. People do they same thing in the opposite, way, too: If traffic starts to lighten up at all, they'll slam on the gas only to find out they have ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
why can’t scars tan like the rest of your skin can? | [
"In your skin, there are a couple different layers. In the most superficial layer, there are little cells called melanocytes that are responsible for “tanning.” A scar often damages the dermis and destroys these little cells and leaves a empty space that is filled in by the layer of skin just below epidermis, calle... | [
"No seriously. Someone smart please answer this. Why is my genital skin darker than most all of my other skin. And darkening as I get older"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Wellness:"
} |
Contra-Rotating Propellors, Please! | [
"This is a bit oversimplified, but generally, contra-rotating propellors do more to improve efficiency than power. As you said, there is only so much air in the vicinity. Sort of what happens is that the first propellor imparts a lot of spinning motion on the air, as well as pushing the air backwards. This is not i... | [
"Side 1 - For Vaccines: -Science Side 2 - Against Vaccines: -Paranoid idiocy"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What Causes the "Fingernails on a Chalkboard" feeling, and why is it Metal on Metal for some? | [
"In college I was told that certain kinds of monkeys make similar sounding screeches to warn others in their group. Not sure if that's true."
] | [
"* Dehydration from low fluid intake * Slow blink rate, causing dry eyes * Poor body posture * Hey. Hey. Hey Listen. Hey. Look. Hey. Hey. Hey. Look. Hey. Listen. Listen. Hey."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
If the temperature is 99-100 degrees, what warrants it to feel like 110-113 degrees? How does it feel higher in temperature when it’s not actually that high? | [
"Sweat is the primary mechanism used to cool off when hot, as evaporating water takes heat with it. When it is humid, sweat evaporates much less well, and thus is able to carry away much less heat, so your body temperature goes up faster."
] | [
"A house air conditioned to 70F (21C) is typically 9-27 (5-15) degrees colder than the outside, while one heated to 70 is typically 70 degrees warmer than the outside. It's more the difference between what you're used to inside vs. outside than anything."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why do children fight the urge to sleep? | [
"A lot of kids have ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) and think all the adults are having fun while they have to go to bed. It seems unfair to me that the ones who want to go to bed have to put ones to bed that don’t want to go to bed!! Also some kids get over tired and because they have a bad nap schedule or never lear... | [
"There are a lot of nerves in our faces. Stimulating these nerves helps to keep you awake. This is why you see babies doing this a lot when they are tired and don't want to go to sleep yet."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why is ingesting nicotine toxic but we can smoke cigarettes constantly? | [
"If I understand correctly you are asking why eating a cigarette makes you immediately sick and smoking one doesn't. That's because breathing in smoke only sends the smoke into your lungs (for the most part) and that smoke and chemicals in the smoke get absorbed through the lungs. If you eat something it goes throu... | [
"Personal guess: The lack of tar will be better towards your lung, but the way the nicotine is inhaled and additives that might be in the liquid might be worse than a cigarette. My guess, on the long run, if you dont overdo it, e-cigs are probably not worse than real cigarettes. You cant really say if they are bett... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
How does oxygen work in submarines when underwater? | [
"Depends on the submarine. Non-nuclear submarines have a snorkel they use to pull in air for their primary engine. If they want to submerge completely they typically switch to an electric engine and typically the batteries used to run this will last shorter than the air in the submarine will keep the crew going, t... | [
"Fighter jets are air breathing. There is no air in space. For the same reason, there's no sonic boom in space either."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How do ants locate a small food source inside of an enclosed house? | [
"Answer,: Ants follow smells, and explore by random. They actually walk certain amount of steps, while leaving pheromone trail. Then next ant walks the path, explores, and reinforces the trail. If an ant finds something interesting, they will return and tell other ants about it by using pheromones. If they don't fi... | [
"There are a few different explanations for this, depending on what the circle is made of. Ants will get trapped in chalk and baking soda circles, as well. A big contender is that ants travel largely by a scent trail left behind by other ants. If you watch ants coming for pieces of food left on the floor or the sid... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
How does your fingerprint come back after damaging your fingertips through cuts burns etc. | [
"Although the fingerprint is only visible on the surface of the skin, the skin under it is still differentiated, if the visible part of the fingerprint is destroyed but not all the way down to the bone it can re-grow because the pattern is still there though not visible. Being a clumsy amature glassblower I have bu... | [
"If you are referring to blisters: First off, they have some fluid contained within them that varies depending on a few things. Secondly, It is your bodies way of trying to keep your skin safe after it has been damaged in some way. Most often, that damage is in the form of intense rubbing (i.e. friction). It can al... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
How do tinted windows work? | [
"They absorb light and heat up slightly. Being on the outside of a structure, however, they are more able to radiate/conduct the heat away to the outside air. If that light got inside of a structure, it would end up becoming heat anyway, and then that heat would be trapped inside."
] | [
"Where do you live where most cars have tinted windows? Tinting the front windows and windshield is illegal in many states."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
why are housecats terrified of getting wet, when their instincts include catching fish? | [
"They are generally just not used to it. Most cats love water, housecats included, if they are introduced to it when they're young and have been around it for a while."
] | [
"Because they are pains-in-the-asses...I have 6 in my house. Seriously though, I wonder if that annoying behavior may be a hold-over from days when cats had to hunt to eat. Knocking things over, getting into small spaces, investigating things would serve them well if they had to find small hidden prey to survive. T... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Do religious parties change their stance on drugs such as cannabis when they become legalized substances? | [
"No, not unless they try to conform with societies modern standards and expectation. This doesn’t mean the religion itself is accepting of these decisions made by religious parties."
] | [
"It is probably because our laws are often determined by the prevailing culture and social norms, and not based on logical or scientific reasons. For example, in the early 1900s it would have been illegal in some states for inter-racial couples to marry. And slowly through abolition and expanded human rights those ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How do lighting rods work? Is there a safety benefit or purpose? | [
"Yes. The divert lightning. It's in the name ;) So, if lightning would hit a place it can cause damage, fires... Bad stuff. Lightning rods divert that electricity from lightning to the ground, making it safer. Lightning rods are placed on high spots that are likely to get hit."
] | [
"Static electricity isn't dangerous. Dynamic electricity is. It depends on how much energy these guys are absorbing. This question can really only be answered by a doctor who does research in this area. How big is your plant on safety? Have you talked to OSHA? The body of the machines should be grounded to avoid th... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
How do we "burn off" fat when losing weight? | [
"Most fat loss is through your lungs. (85%) Fat is turned into Carbon dioxide, and water. C02 is breathed out. Water is sweated out, or lost as urine. On a very very ELI5 level, fat is a bit like gasoline. Its stored energy. Our body can put that energy to use. The byproduct is heat, C02 and water."
] | [
"After just a couple days your body runs out of easily accessible calories to burn. After that it begins to eat itself for calories and how long that takes depends on your body mass. More fat, more time."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why should we eat vegetables if we can get the nutrients they provide from supplements? | [
"Supplements aren't intended to substitute for food. They can't replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables. Whole foods are complex, containing a variety of the micronutrients your body needs."
] | [
"Some cultures have a very specific diet. The Inuit diet contains a lot of seal and they eat most of it, even the eyes. If you watch an animal hunt and eat something, they eat the guts first. The liver is packed with nutrients like vitamin A. Muscle, such as a steak, has a lot less nutritional value than organ meat... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How does Hubble zoom so far? | [
"if you think about it, light from 10 million lightyears away is constantly reaching us, we just have to point the telescope at it to see it. Same with 15billion. the main thing is, light that old is very faint, so the telescope has to stare at the same spot for a while to collect enough of it."
] | [
"> simply by observing via telescopes? How do you think we do it today? ;)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
What causes power to flicker? | [
"The lightning strikes are causing surges in the line, which causes automatic circuit breakers (known as reclosers) to trip. They trip, but then they have a timer to reset and during that time is when the power is out. If a tree falls on the line and causes a dead short in the line, the reclosers will close/retrip ... | [
"The capacitors store energy. When you unplug electronics generally it takes 10 seconds or so for them to completely power down. Sometimes you'll unplug something and notice the light will stay on but slowly fade out."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post about Technology:"
} |
Energy can be inter-converted in a lot of ways. Why not between angular and linear momentum? | [
"> The obvious-seeming answer is that there's no geometrical configuration possible that doesn't just result in equal-and-opposite application of the energy The problem isn't that you can't convert angular momentum into linear momentum (simply use a spinning wheel to interact with an object and throw it in a desire... | [
"You're thinking of it the wrong way. Instead of thinking everything with energy has mass. Think of it as mass is a way of storing energy. This is how things that don't have mass have momentum... they have energy. The formulae that use mass is just a simplification."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Physics:"
} |
Why are nitrites toxic to tank fish, but nitrates are okay? | [
"That one oxygen atom changes the shape, structure, and function. For example Nitrates are used in many fertilizers and explosives. Nitrites are used in food preservation. Nitrates form strong acids and nitrates form weaker acids. That one extra oxygen atom in Nitrates makes a huge difference."
] | [
"A nitrite is molecule that has one nitrogen and two oxygen atoms. A nitrate is a molecule that has one nitrogen and three oxygen atoms. Both are ions with a single negative charge. When forming a molecule with another atom, you get things like Sodium Nitrite (sodium, with a positive charge combining with the negat... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What does "double jeopardy" mean? Does that mean you can't be tried for murder if you were already acquitted, and there is similar evidence for the new case? | [
"It means you can't be tried twice for the same (instance of a) crime. Otherwise they could just continue to press charges and have hearings until they won, or keep you tied up in the system even when they keep losing."
] | [
"The fifth amendment says that you can't be retried for a crime again after being punished or acquitted (the legal term is \"double jeopardy\"). That said if they had decided to drop any of the original cases due to lack of evidence, there was a mistrial, or your admission involved other crimes that you weren't nec... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Why has television historically been seen as "bad" for you, while other superficially similar things (notably film) are not? | [
"Tv is something you can turn on and sit in front of for hours on end. You could be doing more proactive things if it weren’t for tv. Film is different because in those days it was a special occasion to see a movie. You had to go to a theater and pay to see a movie so it wasn’t an everyday occasion. Nowadays they ... | [
"Gaming has developed a lot of negative stereotypes around it that are simply not associated with other forms of recreational media. The most obvious being that it glorifies violence, but there there are also societal/psychological criticism aimed around the idea that it harms social skills, makes kids lazy/fat, an... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
does using internet/wifi use up SSD's write cycle, if not what aspects of it does? Does viewing images/videos (not downloading them) use up these cycle? | [
"Yes, data is written to your drive when using the internet. That said SSDs life expectancy is longer than you might think so using one normally should last for the life of the PC with little trouble (5 years or so). Also, some SSDs, like Samsung, have a utility which partitions off some percentage of the drive (yo... | [
"if you run a traditional spinning hdd. hdd's slow down massively if file fragments are all over the place. so defrag if you run a hdd. ssd's don't have that problem. and defragging an ssd just wears out the ssd more with no impact what so ever. it also depends on your file system. newer file systems don't require... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why is the iris coloured | [
"I used to dissect cow eyes for visitors in a science museum in high school. Here’s what I remember: Eyes, like skin, contain the chemical melanin. It helps absorb UV rays from the sun. The advantages of higher concentrations of this chemical are that it helps you resist UV. It works the same in the eyes. Extra UV... | [
"I would say as related you would be to a non-identical twin."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
How does the body know what to take in and put out? | [
"It isn't a question of \"knowing\", the body simply does what the chemistry dictates. Think about a set of interlocking gears, how do they \"know\" to turn in sync? They don't of course, they don't have any way to do otherwise. This is basically how the body works, just with chemicals rather than gears."
] | [
"New matter cannot be created. The reason we eat food and drink water is to replenish the matter we lose by being alive. The exact same concept goes for plants as well. Your body uses the excess to continue growing."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Science:"
} |
How did early humans ever come up with translations to words such as "the", "a" , "an" , etc? | [
"Articles. The concept is not as weird as you make it sound. “This” apple is not very hard to distinguish from “that” apple. Same with “my” apple vs. “your” apple."
] | [
"An infinitive is the basic, \"unconjugated\" (unchanged) form of the verb. It's hard to give an example in English since so many infinitives are also the same as the conjugated form, at least in the present tense. We tend to just take the word \"to\" to indicate an infinitive. An example would be \"to go\". The fi... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
What exactly makes McDonald's hamburgers so unhealthy. | [
"> However when you put them all together in a McDonald's hamburger it's widely accepted as unhealthy. Simply put this is because people are stupid, not because the hamburgers are inherently unhealthy. Eating too much is unhealthy and McDonald's is just one of the sources of cheap, desirable food. Our bodies crave ... | [
"Because pizza is delicious and lactose intolerance isn't that prevalent."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why does clear liquid THC turn wine cloudy? | [
"Because your THC extract is an oil that can’t dissolve in water, so you’re creating a suspension of tiny oil droplets in your wine. That makes it look cloudy."
] | [
"Why do I feel as though my bottles of water don't do this but instead just freeze normally in the freezer?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why/how does water activate soap to become bubbly and essentially usable? | [
"This is a bit of a side note - soap does not need to be bubbly to be an effective cleaner. Things like dishwashers and front load washers use soaps that are low sudsing. The reason soap is effective is largely from the way it reduces the surface tension of the water. It does this because water is a very polar mole... | [
"likes dissolve likes. Highschool chemistry, I don't remember 100% because I don't use it. Polar substances like water dissolve polar substances like sugar. Non-polars like oil, fat, gasoline, etc) dissolves non-polars. We've all seen this, oil doesn't mix with water. Chocolate and Peanut butter have fat which don'... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
have languages for animals developed over time similar to that of human beings, or say can a lion in this time communicate with a lion five hundred years ago? | [
"When it comes to some animals like whales, dolphins, orca and the like, separated by 500 years they would most likely not be able to communicate well with each other, they have regional dialects just like us. I wouldn't be surprised if the same applied to elephants but I'm not certain how complex their \"language\... | [
"Because isolated groups of people develop their own way of communicating, and back when we first started to communicate we might as well have been isolated people. For example, let's say we take you and nine other people, and from the moment you were born you lived in total isolation from everyone else. you never ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why does nuclear fusion create so much energy, and why can't use it (yet?) to produce electricity? | [
"TLDR: Current generation reactors don't produce enough energy to be self-sustaining, ie they use more power than they produce. Nuclear fusion reactions release a lot of energy for a small amount of mass. That makes fusing hydrogen much more energetic than burning things like coal. The problem with Nuclear fusion i... | [
"Uranium can be used to generate nuclear energy, which can be used as an alternative for fossil fuels to provide buildings with electricity."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do you not see your bone when shining light on your finger? | [
"Photons (visible light) going through human tissue will refract and diffuse. X-rays going through, however, will cause much less diffusion and refraction and therefore a much sharper image of hard objects such as bones. You can actually see bone with a strong enough light. Your phone’s LED isn’t as strong."
] | [
"Xray it. It shouldn't show up because they are radiolucent. If you aren't scheduled for an xray, try jumping off something high. Remember to stow the diamond somewhere first, near the breakage. I suggest your left arm, as it's easy to break and not that useful (in comparison to other bones, e.g. neck, spine etc). ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why does the shower curtain pulls closer to the water when the water starts flowing? | [
"It’s a result of a drop in air pressure caused by the movement of the water. It also happens when you blow between two sheets of paper. It’s called the Bernoulli Effect. It is also what causes lift under an airfoil, hence allowing planes to fly."
] | [
"When you step out of bath the water will stick together and fall off you, but when you're taking a shower, the water drops will stay on your body."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why does handwriting reveal so much about our personalities and does it differ by language? | [
"In truth, it doesn't really reveal as much as is commonly believed. Handwriting analysis is generally regarded these days as a pseudo-science, with the claims of accurately determining facts from it being proven false. It's been shown in studies that you can reasonably tell the difference between male and female ... | [
"Your sense of humor is particular to the way your mind works, and has a lot to do with how you were socialized."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why is self-consciousness a feature attributed only with human beings? | [
"I studied brain science in university. Your book appears to contain out-of-date information."
] | [
"Humans rely on culture and other things we are taught rather than inborn instinct for a lot of things, so I would lean more to the side of \"learned behaviour.\" Cultural perceptions of animals vary a lot. This implies that caring about animals is not a human instinct."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about biology:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about biology:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
How do powerline adaptors (allows you to connect to the internet via a power outlet) work? | [
"Power lines are just like any other wire, and devices can communicate over higher frequencies than the AC power (50 or 60Hz depending where you live) which is its originally intended use. It’s kind of the same concept as DSL, where plain telephone service used up to 3kHz and DSL utilizes like 4kHz to 6MHz or somet... | [
"* Modem: transforms a signal so it can be better transmitted (eg. DSL over telephone wires) * Router: connects two networks (like your LAN and the WAN) * Switch: a (more intelligent) distribution box * Access Point: like a Switch for Wifi The things your telecom provider puts in your home usually combines all four... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What exactly are you "Cracking" when you crack you neck, back, fingers etc | [
"Cracking joints seems to be the result of changing pressure in the synovial cavities of those joints - essentially little bags of fluid around the ends of bones and such - which allows chemicals dissolved in the fluid to briefly become gaseous. As I recall, the jury may still be out on exactly what part of this pr... | [
"> to go in your nose Ok, I was with you up until that part. What exactly do you mean by going into your nose?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Health and Anatomy:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Health and Anatomy:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does a Gold Reserves work for a country? | [
"In terms of economic or monetary policy, a Gold Reserve does very little to nothing for most countries. All major currencies are no longer backed by gold. (which it used to be around a century ago) A gold reserve is therefore just an amount of gold held by a country's central bank or monetary authority. It is simp... | [
"It's a big system. It also carries a bit from state to state. Are you interested in the application process? Policy? Logistics?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
how does grit in your eye get to the corner of your eye to go in your nose? We don’t have horizontal eyelids! | [
"> to go in your nose Ok, I was with you up until that part. What exactly do you mean by going into your nose?"
] | [
"You have these pouches in your eyes called the tear ducts and they are used to lubricate your eyes all the time, not just when you cry When some people yawn, they squeeze their eyes, pushing the tears out of the tear ducts. Edit: my mistake"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Biology:"
} |
How do surgeons make sure air doesn't get trapped in patients' bodies during and after surgeries? Could it even be lethal? | [
"They don’t. Air does get trapped. It eventually works it’s way out of the body, but can cause discomfort or pain (typically in upper chest/ shoulders) while it does."
] | [
"The drugs don't usually make it into the lungs. They are absorbed into the lining of your nasal cavity. If any of it drips down into your throat then it is more likely to go to your stomach than your lungs."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
What triggers the intense coughing when cleaning your ears with Q-Tips? | [
"You have something call \"Arnold’s nerve\" in your ear which is connected to the \"Vagus nerve\". The Vagus controls important stuff like coughing and breathing. When you touch the inside of your ear the Arnold’s nerve sends a signal which sometimes the Vagus misinterprets. Instead of telling your brain that you h... | [
"Ear wax is a yellow waxy substance, it's in human, and many other mammals. It's there to protect the skin, clean inside the ear, and to lubricate inside the ear. It also protects from bacteria, fungi, insect, and water. From what I've read, washing the outside of your ear and putting drops of baby oil, mineral oil... | 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 can’t we just clone extinct animals | [
"with our current level of technology we can only clone from live animals using the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer. we remove a mature somatic cell from an animal we want to copy. then fuse that cell with an unfertilized egg with the nucleus removed. the egg will then take on the DNA from the somatic cell... | [
"Are you sure this is a real phenomenon? It was my understanding that people are simply trying to remove a distraction so they can pay better attention."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why do birds, tiny beaked dinosaurs, find humans relatable enough to seek attention from us when they're in captivity? | [
"Most birds aren't that smart but most animals can recognize familiar faces, even tortoises and small fishes which are both way dumber than most birds can do this, if an animal grows in captivity they will develop a kind of affection towards its ~~overlords~~ caretakers, or at least they will associate them with fo... | [
"Animals tend to run from everything. Its safer than getting into a fight. Only when they've been around another species for a very long time do they know they don't have to flee. When you live in big cities for example, birds aren't typically afraid of people. They've come to learn we are not going to hurt them, a... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How do scientists measure the depth of an Earthquake? | [
"Different seismic monitoring stations record arrival times of earthquake waves (they travel at a known speed), with 3 or more stations you can triangulate the epicenter and depth."
] | [
"By looking at the stuff that bubbles up through features like volcanoes. We can also use data from seismic measurements around the world. As the energy produced by earthquakes moves it will deflect as it goes through areas of different density. By collecting data from all over the world we can get a pretty good id... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What causes sea sickness, and is it related to motion sickness? | [
"Yes. Sea sickness is kinda the opposite Version of car sickness. It's caused by a disassociation between what your eyes see and what your balance organ in your inner ear feels. When you're on rough seas inside a cabin, your eyes see no movement. To your eyes you're in a stationary room, but your balance organ can ... | [
"Because as the fluid in your inner ears is still moving, it keeps sending the signals to your brain that suggest you are in motion. The spinning sensation is caused by the conflict between what your eyes see and what your vestibular system is telling you. This causes motion sickness too. Also, don't try closing yo... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:"
} |
What exactly was the watergate scandal and why did it kick Nixon out of office? | [
"Nixon's goons were caught red-handed breaking into the Watergate hotel to steal files from his Democratic opponent. Recordings Nixon himself made in the oval office later proved that he personally ordered the break-in. When the Supreme Court ordered the recordings released, the GOP controlled Senate told Nixon th... | [
"This is politics. He is attempting sheltering himself from the political bombshell. Nixon also used the IRS to attack his opponents and it didn't turn out very well for him."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
How are chameleons able to change colors to blend in with their surroundings? | [
"Chameleons mainly use their color changing for communicating mood, and in response to temperatures, sorta like how you might change your face color to red when cold or angry. Chameleons have light bouncing crystals in their skin. They have tiny muscles attached to these crystals and can move them around. When ... | [
"The only reason reptiles like snakes are brightly colored is to alert predators that they are poisonous. Birds are brightly colored to attract mates. Fish are brightly colored to attract mates and alert predators they are poisonous. Amphibians like frogs are brightly colored to alert predators they are poisonous. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
how can a balloon deflate over time when there's no hole to let the air out? | [
"For things like rubber balloons, the material is like 99.9% impervious to gases like helium, but not 100% so over time it just very slowly leaks through."
] | [
"The specific altitude will vary depending on the relative pressure of the contents of the balloon and the outside pressure of the air and the balloon's ability to withstand certain pressure differences. A balloon remains inflated because the rubber is thick enough to withstand the pressure from the helium inside, ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
If natural satellites (moons) are remains (or even consequences of collisions) of our planets, why do the orbits of the majority of them stay in the same plane as the orbits of the planets? Couldn't they be random? | [
"Most moons don't actually orbit in the same plane as their parent body. Our moon, for example, actually orbits with about 5 degrees of inclanation. But yes, generally speaking, they will adopt a similar orbital plane, and the reason for this is that when all this ejected material slowly gravitates towards other pa... | [
"> Is it possible that the orbits of two planets around their \"sun\" are orthogonal to each other? While it is possible it would require outside intervention of another large body. The issue is that the two orbiting planets would also act gravitationally on each other and gradually tend to bring their orbits in li... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Science and Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Science and Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why are sweeteners in soft drinks very common (Diet Coke/Coke Zero for example), but not in other sugary foods such as chocolate bars, cakes or candy? | [
"The same \"zero\" calorie sweetener you taste in a diet soda would taste drastically different if raised to a baking temperature prior to being served. Here is a good article detailing the whats and whys of how substitutes work in food prep: _URL_0_"
] | [
"Technically, processed food is any food that is not in a form found in nature: grain, fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, etc. Bread is a processed food. So is breakfast cereal, tomato paste, orange juice, and gummi bears."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why is a high note and a low note still considered the same note in music? | [
"It is down to physics. The frequency of a given note doubles each time you go up an octave. Picking the note A because the maths is easy, the frequencies in hertz of the A keys of a piano are: 27.5, 55, 110, 220, 440, 880, 1760, 3520 We perceive this array of frequencies as the same note because they stimulate our... | [
"All the keys on the keyboard are a halftone apart. On a piano if you play all the white keys from C to C that is a major scale. A major scale requires a half tone in a couple places to sound \"correct\". As a result of this certain notes do not have a sharp or flat note(a black key) associated with them."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What makes a helicopter go forward? I know the main rotor generates lift and the side facing one on the tail keeps it from spinning out, but what allows it to move forward/tilt different directions? | [
"The angle of the blades of the main rotor can change mid-revolution, so that they can be more flat at the front, and at a higher angle at the back, creating more lift in the back and tilting the entire helicopter forward. Helicopter pilots also have another control available to them: the collective, which changes ... | [
"Falling is a relative term. If you get sucked into the air by a tornado, you're still falling through the air toward the earth, but the air around you is moving so quickly that you \"fall up\" faster than you \"fall down\". You're not wrong to think the autogyro has to fall in order to fly, but it falls in a very ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How come metal is cold in room temperature? | [
"Metals are generally good heat conductors, and your body is generally warmer than room temperature. So the metal conducts heat away from your body. _URL_0_"
] | [
"Both of them are colder than your body temperature, and water is a better conductor of heat than air. Or in other words, it's better able to take body heat away from you."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
What are “subliminals” on Youtube and do they work? | [
"Subliminal advertising was a theory which was proposed that if you showed one or two frames in a larger film it was past before the conscious brain spotted it, but the subconscious brain would spot is and then be vulnerable to the influences of the frames such as being thirsty. However the initial research on it w... | [
"The THC blocks certain receptors in the.... wait, what were we talking about again?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
How does a housefly react so fast? | [
"Compound eyes allow it to see in many directions at the same time. And with it's tiny body and short neural pathways. Reaction time is very quick compared to a humans."
] | [
"How is the person who remote controls them supposed to know when to do so?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Entomology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Entomology:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If animals (humans included) are never exposed to the knowledge of their predators, would they be afraid of the latter? (eg. If a mouse was raised in solitary, has never seen a snake, how would it react? Is the instinct to escape innate?) | [
"If you see a picture of a fictional monster you instinctively get scared of it. Even though you have never seen anything similar before. There are certain features in animals that we instinctively fear. First of all it is any creature bigger then us or at least looking stronger and more agile then us. And secondly... | [
"The ELI5 answer is that they just \"know.\" We lose a lot of intrinsic knowledge when we define things as humans. Parrotfish can distinguish itself in the same way an infant might distinguish a human parent from another primate for example. While the infant might react similarly, there is deep-rooted intrinsic kno... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How do foreign exchange rates work? | [
"Although purchasing power parity suggests that MUA = MUB, this is a very long term equilibrium at best. More important for the short term is the demand for currency. If MUA exports a lot of product while MUB does little export, there will be more demand for MUA than MUB. (you need to purchase MUA to buy product i... | [
"Stocks traded on the stock exchange are global. They are not limited to US only companies. Why do you think they are only US companies?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do different compounds give certain colours when burned? | [
"Burning involves putting heat, which is energy, into a compound. At an atomic level, when an atom receives energy, the electrons get \"excited\". Electrons, roughly speaking, \"orbit\" the nucleus of the atom at a certain average distance away. When they get excited, they \"jump\" to a higher energy level. Imagine... | [
"The Vitamin B molecule is strongly fluorescent. The different colors of light depend on their particular wavelengths. Photons are the fundamental particles of light, they are the visible part of the light spectrum. Molecules absorb photons of radiation energy from light at a certain wavelength and then they re-emi... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
What is the spatial and temporal domain part of ? | [
"Combined, the spatial and temporal domains make up space-time, a four dimensional void where objects can be created in three dimensional space over a period of time. Einstein theorized that time is, in essence, a physical dimension and capable of being stretched and molded by gravity, leading to the idea of space-... | [
"See this post: _URL_0_ It has a definition for basically every type of road."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
how does water put out fire? | [
"Fire needs three things: oxygen, fuel, and heat. Liquid water removes two of those things. It displaces oxygen and smothers the fire, and it absorbs the heat as it turns into steam."
] | [
"Why do some parts of the world call gasoline petrol?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
How do we keep in contact with spacecraft such as Voyager 2 that are at the very edge of our solar system? | [
"With very big dishes on Earth, and very sensitive receivers that can find the tiny signal. Fun fact: the Voyagers' radio transmitters are 20 Watt -- which is the same power as the bulb in your refrigerator. So we're effectively looking for a flickering fridge bulb, 19 billion kilometres away..."
] | [
"Because the distance from Earth to other planets is immense. It takes so long for light to travel there, only the light from our distant past has had the time to make it there."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science and Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Science and Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
How does your brain decide what's worth remembering and what's not? | [
"This is a rather mind boggling question when you think about it. The immediate answer is your brain *doesn't* decide what is worth remembering or not. A memory can be made more strongly depending on the context. More emotional or impactful memories will be burned it deeper. You can also decide that something is im... | [
"Your brain has to keep track of a lot of different things at the same time. Part of the brain deals with this \"what's going on right now\" information. It's way too much information to store long term though. So your brain makes decisions on what gets moved into \"I should remember this later\" parts of the brain... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why do some animal species end up being strictly carnivores or herbivores? | [
"You need special teeth, bodyplan, and digestive adaptations for what you eat. If an animal finds itself in a situation where it is only eating one food (for example, polar bears not having access to plants, or grazing animals having such abundant grass that they don't eat anything else), natural selection will pus... | [
"Omnivores. Carnivores only eat meat. Herbivores only eat plants. Omnivores eat both. Humans eat both meat and plants (for the most part), so we're omnivores."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
How can they say it will rain at 2:36 PM but also say there is only a 20 percent chance of rain? | [
"With computer modeling they can calculate that the conditions in the forecast area will become ideal for rain a 2:36 and there will be some non-zero amount of rain likely to fall, but that doesn't mean it will rain over the entire forecast area. It is also far more difficult to predict how heavily it will rain onc... | [
"There can be a big difference between the \"weatherman\" you see on TV and a *meteorologist* that is responsible for creating forecasts. Generally speaking modern forecasts are very accurate, but can be easily misunderstood by people. For instance if a forecast is 50% chance of rain, that doesn't necessarily mea... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about weather:",
"pos": "Represent the answer about weather:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why do twins have different fingerprints? | [
"Fingerprints are not _entirely_ genetic in origin - the develop partially in response to hormone levels and other environmental conditions. Similarly to how identical twins will have different patterns of freckles or moles (due metabolic variations) they will develop different fingerprints."
] | [
"Why are noses different in size, why are people different heights, why do we have different hair colors?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Biology:"
} |
What makes magnets attract? | [
"This is one of those things where most physics teachers would probably say, \"We prove magnetic properties experimentally, and write them down in a big table for future reference.\" Yes, you can say it's because electrons - one of the fundamental building blocks of matter - orient themselves in a certain way withi... | [
"How are you going to change the filter?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
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