query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1
value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Why are antibiotics completely ineffective against viruses? | [
"Bacteria are tiny animals. They eat, they breathe, they have a metabolism that turns food into energy, they do all the normal animal things. Antibiotics work by interrupting some part of that process that keeps bacteria alive. They are basically poisoned to death. Viruses are not alive. They are very simple biolog... | [
"Antibacterials are agents that only kill and stop the growth of bacteria, while antibiotics are agents that kill and stop the growth of bacteria and fungi. All antibacterials are antibiotics, but all antibiotics are not antibacterials. Antibacterial is one of the class of antibiotics."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title about Microbiology:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph about Microbiology:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph about Science:"
} |
While we're at it, I've been wondering this a while: Why are we focused on making a far away space rock livable instead of the inhabitable places within our own atmosphere (i.e. desserts, the ocean, etc)? | [
"Well, we're actually not. That is to say, the scientists aren't focusing on that. Neil deGrasse Tyson said it best: \"No, I don't think Mars is a suitable plan B. I want us to go to Mars, yes, but we're not going to be able to flee Earth FOR Mars, and you know why? Because once we have the technology to terraform ... | [
"It would be much like those on the ISS. It would be an airtight set of buildings with pressurized suits for working outside them. There are some that like to play with the concept of terraforming the planet to make it livable without such things. But we have nowhere near the technology to accomplish such a thing a... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why are vegans against foods like honey or milk when the animal that makes them does it naturally and it doesn't harm them? | [
"They would argue that mass production *is* very harmful for the animals. Chickens are kept in tiny cages to lay eggs 24/7. They are fed steroids so that they get huge so quickly they can't even stand. Cows are hooked up to milking machines and kept on cages. Bees are gassed and go unconscious while the honey is fa... | [
"Different types of proteins in the meats depending on animals, the food the animal was feed, the health (physically and mentally) of the animal, where it came from. Virtually any condition that has any effect on the animals growth can change the flavour. As for the different species, it’s like eating a banana then... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why do so many cultures have a thing about covering women's hair? | [
"Well, you are talking about cultures that are all influenced by three religions that are very closely connected and originated from each other and in the same area. That is always going to cause a certain amount of overlap. Certain standards for female modesty originated in judaism which were then carried on into ... | [
"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 post:",
"neg": "Represent the post about Biology:"
} |
Why do dragons exist in so many diverse cultures? | [
"A large part of it is that people centuries removed from the stories decided to plop the name of \"dragon\" on to many different creatures."
] | [
"What are dragons? Not all of them are flying reptiles that can breathe fire. It's not unlike taking a tree and a bush and calling them plants. Dragons probably stemmed from each societies interpretation of living reptiles they observe in their surroundings."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why is it some Surahs or chapters in the Qu'ran start with a series of Arabic letters? | [
"It's completely unknown. Many Arabic and Islamic scholars and teachers have discussed the issue, for many many centuries, but the reason for their existence and their meaning was never revealed by Mohammed."
] | [
"Allah means the one and only God. Christian and Jewish Arabic speakers also say Allah, but English speaking Christian and Jewish people tend say God. It's maybe just because it's easier to identify with God rather than Allah. I watched a video a while ago that said the Gideon bible when translated into Arabic ref... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
If you masturbate a lot (20 times in 2 days) what happens to your body? Limp penis? | [
"You will probably bruise it. It will start to hurt, your balls will get swollen from the constant \"vibrations\"."
] | [
"No, though it may cause a slight change in personality. Physically your body will take care of everything else. For men, they may experience nightfall or nocturnal emissions. Semen die off while in the testicles and this is your bodies way of... rotating inventory as it may be. For women, nightfalls and nocturnal... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Can I leave the car engine on while refueling? | [
"You shouldn't leave it running because there is a risk of lighting your car and yourself on fire if there's a spark (e.g. backfire). [Like this](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"The anti-theft mechanism will lock the steering wheel if you turn the key off. Learned that the hard way goofing off in college."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do some book publishers acknowledge telepathic means in their copyright statement? | [
"Lawyers with a sense of humor covering all their bases. Another common thing in copyright is to prohibit all means of reproduction now existing or to be invented throughout the known universe. (They also do this in contract law when buying rights to produce a project, in all the aforementioned territories.) Will i... | [
"Your book may not necessarily be obsolete, or an unreliable source. This is the checklist I use for evaluating books. Publisher: is it published by an academically reputable publishing house? Author credentials: is the author qualified within the field they’re writing about? Citations: has this book been cited i... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why does coffee smell good in a cup but awful on someone's breath? | [
"Because coffee in a cup is just coffee, but coffee in the mouth becomes mixed with existing halitosis."
] | [
"Burn a candle all day in your house, the smell isn't as strong because you become used to it. Walk into a house with a candle burning and you smell it right away. Works the same with body odor."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do we "catch" the yawns of people around us? | [
"Any time you feel or do something that someone else is experiencing it is empathy. You'd be surprise how many questions on /r/explainlikeimfive can be answered by one simple word. Empathy."
] | [
"Mirror neurons? The same reason happy movies make us happy, and the same reason we are more likely to yawn when we see others yawn, or feel sad when we see others cry. We empathize with the characters in horror movies."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
- why does it take > 12 hrs to digest food, but drinking coffee makes me poop within minutes? | [
"Is coffee the first thing you have in the morning when you get up? If so, you're pooping because there is a reflex that empties the bowels when you break your fast, to make room for the digestion of new food, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it's called. Source: 1st year physiology"
] | [
"no, there's really no way for this to happen. if something like that happened, then you got diarrhea and blamed it on that food but there's no way that food is out of your system so quickly. everyone is on a 12-48hr or so cycles. meaning what you poop out today is what you ate 12-48 hours ago."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
What exactly was the benefit of dodos and other flightless island birds losing the ability to fly due to a lack of predators? | [
"For evolution to happen, there does not necessarily have to be an advantage. The only thing that is more or less necessary is that new/lost features do not have a real disadvantage. You can compare it to the evolutionary predecessers of humans losing their tails over time: If you don't use it, it's not really a bi... | [
"The same way it allowed for dodos to not fly. They filled a niche in which no natural predators existed such that they went extinct. In the case of the sloth, they are slow, blend in, and otherwise hard to detect by the predators where they live. Unfortunately, this eventually changed for the Dodos, and they were... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about biology:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence about biology:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
What, exactly, is a "byte" of information? | [
"In computer information systems, data is made up of a series of 1s and 0s, or a state of yes/no, absent/existent, etc. 1 or 0 is just an arbitrary designation for that state. That is a \"binary\" system. The smallest piece of information would be that 1 or 0, which is a \"bit\". 8 bits makes up a byte. To our curr... | [
"The general meaning of the word \"quantum\" is the smallest unit possible. So quantum physics is the study of how the smallest particles in the universe work. But in theory the word could be applied to other contexts. E.g. a quantum of digital information is a bit, a quantum of written English is a letter, etc."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Computer Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Computer Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Physics:"
} |
Why are does ink disappear when writing on a smooth surface such as metal or plastic? | [
"Surface tension. It doesn't disappear, but forms small drops that are higher but smaller in area."
] | [
"When you touch the glass you leave behind a trace of your skin oils. The same thing would happen if you drew something on a piece of glass that wasn't already foggy."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:"
} |
Why do we love and why does it take such a strain on us when it ends? | [
"There's a hormone in your body called [oxytocin](_URL_0_). (Note: despite the spelling, oxytocin has nothing to do with the painkiller oxycontin). Oxytocin is a bonding hormone - it increases your feelings of trust and empathy, and makes you more generous and more caring. It's produced in the body when you hang ou... | [
"Because they can feel good about something and it distracts them from their regular lives."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
What would happen if everyone filled a bucket of water from their sink and dumped it in the ocean? | [
"Absolutely nothing. The only thing that this would do is accelerate the water cycle by a tiny almost un-measurable amount. The dumped water would return to the water table or run-off to the nearest river etc, presumeably from where it was drawn (by your water supply) initially. Your local water supply might tempor... | [
"If sideways water pressure was a thing, you would be in trouble if you took a swim in the ocean."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
The white discoloration that sometimes appears on my fingernails. | [
"The white spots occur if the layers of the nail are not bonded together tightly, so there are little layers of air between them which makes them appear white. The most common cause for this is mechanical damage of the base of the nail (where the nail is produced by your body) or as a side effect of some diseases. ... | [
"Chances are you have a lot of melanin in that specific follicle and it makes your hair darker, it usually happens on or around moles and freckles."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Biology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about Biology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why are safety belts on planes different from belts on cars ? Why don't they also have a strip protecting the torso ? | [
"Seatbelts in cars are designed to keep you in place in the event of a major accident, where you getting thrown from the vehicle is a possibility if your seatbelt is not worn. Seatbelts on airplanes are meant to keep you in place in the event of turbulence, which is significantly less violent and therefore requirin... | [
"The reason that there isn't any seatbelts on a bus (School bus or City Bus) is because seatbelts, lap or lap and shoulder belts, don't offer the same protection as in a car. For it to work, they'd have to have taller and stiffer seats and, in the case of a bus, would cause head and organ injuries."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
How bad is it to keep your cell phone in your pocket? | [
"I'm an electrical engineer. Cell phone radiation is in on a wavelength far longer than even infrared light, way longer than visible light. Those waves are generally very low energy. The only thing that this kind of radiation can do is 'heat you up' - think a microwave, or an IR lamp. Your phone has extremely low s... | [
"We're not supposed to use our phones at gas stations?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why does everything feel so soft when you've just woken up? | [
"Can you elaborate, OP? I've been waking up for years and have never noticed a difference in how things feel immediately after waking up. Whether it's my bed, the floor, my clothing, my breakfast, or whatever, it doesn't feel any different than it does later on in the day."
] | [
"And how is it when I sleep for 12 hours, I wake up as though I didn't sleep at all"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Sleep and fatigue:"
} |
People talk about moving backwards and forwards through time, is there a concept or theory in passing sideways trough time? | [
"Moving sideways in time is shifting between timelines. Time is a dimension, and all plots are located on it. So moving sideways (left/right) would result in hopping over to a timeline different from your timeline."
] | [
"They would not have a shape. Humans only visually perceive the third dimension, we have symbolic representations of the first and second dimensions, but even a line on paper has three dimensions. The fourth dimension, time, in essence another way of measuring something. When did the object exist and for how long?... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why are chillis spicy and other fruits such as oranges sweet? | [
"TL;DR: Evolution. Chilis and other spicy peppers have their seeds distributed by animals (like birds) that *are not affected* by the capsicum. Thus their seeds are distributed over large distances, rather than the limited range of land animals."
] | [
"Most mammals are affected by capsaicin. Birds however are not. To a bird, eating a thai chili is basically just like eating any other fruit or vegetable."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Can a partner who owns 20 percent refuse an acquisition if the majority owner wants the company to be acquired? | [
"Depends what you mean by acquired. Someone who only owns 20% can't stop majority control from being purchased by someone else, but they can refuse to sell the shares that they own and thus prevent 100% of the company from being sold."
] | [
"Why buy 100%, in most cases you only need 50% + 1 That is exactly what happens *all the time*. If the other company is willing it is called an acquisition. If the other company is not so willing it is called a hostile takeover. In either case the buyer is buying up enough of the company to take control."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
What is the point of nationalism? | [
"Nationalism from a citizen's perspective is good because it fosters a sense of belonging in a group and being able to tell other groups that they're not as good as your group. From a government's perspective, its good because with a highly nationalistic population you can keep and stay in power for longer, and mor... | [
"The main reason is because of the religious background of the United States."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why does America use a comma to indicate a thousand instead of a dot? | [
"It's not just the US, plenty of countries use a period for the decimal mark and a comma for digit grouping, and others use it the other way around. Typically English speaking countries and countries influenced by them use a period for the decimal mark. [Here's a list of this division](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"In English (at least American English) unless you have a bunch of zeros in a row you almost always say \"O\" for every single number, not just time."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why are there so many different languages in the world? | [
"For most of the history of humanity, travelling beyond your local tribe and close neighbors was impractical and dangerous, so most people just stayed in the same general region. Language evolved relatively quickly as people come up with new words to express things and stop using other words, especially when you do... | [
"> cultural differences There are plenty of cultural differences between the East coast and the West coast."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Why does India not invest in its Olympic programs or most other sports for that matter? | [
"The [Indian Olympic Association](_URL_0_) was suspended in 2012 over corruption charges, and as a result, India is not eligible to send athletes to Sochi. Four athletes are going anyway, but are doing so independently of the IOA and will compete under the Olympic Flag, rather than the flag of India. I'm still loo... | [
"They have civil clubs and/or professional minor league systems that serve the role of fostering play and training talent. In the US colleges fill that role."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why do people support/root for sports teams? | [
"I think in some part it's tribalism, wanting to belong to a larger social group. In most of U.S. culture we don't have large clans or tribes. Being a fan of a sports team simulates that somewhat."
] | [
"Why do people in Western countries use forks?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
If you put icecubes in a high power blender for x amount of time, but kept it at a temperature below zero, would it eventually break down into water? | [
"No, but you could form it into an extremely fine powder. At some point the agitation of the blender isn't going to be enough to split the tiny crystals, or the cooling isn't going to be enough to prevent the energy input from heating them enough to bind together again."
] | [
"microwave ovens are basically enclosed chambers which emit microwaves on whatever you put in them. When you put food with water in it's liquid state, the microwaves basically cause the water molecules to excite and heat up. if you warm it up in the microwave and leave the water to just evaporate, the result is de... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
When you wear something like a bracelet, why does your wrist feel like its still there even when you take it off? | [
"It is called stimulus adaptation. Your brain gets used to any stimuli that it is perceiving and tries to ignore it. Then when the stimuli is removed it feels like something should be there when it is not (until your brain adapts to there not being a bracelet again)"
] | [
"You can feel its weight. However you just get used to it after years. Think about it externally: if you never wear a watch, and then you put on a big heavy one your arm feels heavy because of that extra weight. Now let's say you wear that watch every day. You even sleep and shower in it. Eventually, wearing the w... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why are solar panels blue? Wouldn't black be more efficient due to them absorbing more light? | [
"Solar panels are actually black, they just appear blue because of the very very small fraction of light being reflected and not absorbed by the panels, if you look closely at a solar panel array you’ll see that some appear blue and others black (which is what color they are) why some are appearing blue and not oth... | [
"White reflects light the best, emits heat the worst. Black reflects light the worst, emits heat the best. That's why on the Space Shuttle, there's a black side and a white side. The black side is the part that is subject to re-entry heating, and needed to emit heat to cool down. The white part was pointed towards ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
[electronics] What's the difference between an op-amp and a transistor? | [
"An op amp is built out of transistors. You can make lots of different varieties of circuits which do amplification, and an op amp is just one useful type that we use a lot. The innards of an op amp look like [this](_URL_0_). Each of those circle thingies with the arrow inside labeled by a Q is a transistor."
] | [
"Note that the LM386 integrated circuit has a near-complete amplifier insider, needing only a few external components to make a complete amplifier. So if you want to know how an amplifier really works, you need to go back to basics e.g. look up \"transistor amplifier\"."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why isn't Roman mythology referred to as Italian mythology? | [
"The Italians are not the Romans. Although the Italian nation has much cultural heritage from the Romans, there were many intervening political and cultural developments; they just aren't the same people in any continuous cultural or national sense. It's a bit like saying Canadians are English, or saying the Englis... | [
"Mythology is part of religion. Zeus himself is not considered a myth, but a God. He still referred as a Greek God. However, the rituals (like animal sacrifice and festivals) are not considered part of the mythology, but part of the ancient Greek religion. Mythology is pretty much just the story parts. For example:... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why can we picture things clearly in our mind but cannot draw them with our hands? | [
"I can imagine throwing a perfect fastball across home plate, but without practice I'm just as likely to hit the dugout."
] | [
"You could say the same about anything. You know what you look like in a mirror, but could you just do a decent drawing of yourself just off the bat? Drawing, like any skill, takes time to master. Knowing what you want to draw, and drawing it, are two very different beasts."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
why is soda so bad for you? | [
"The high sugar and carbonation are very bad for your teeth and bones in addition to causing your pancreas to work overtime in trying to process the excess sugar. Not to mention the impact it has on your weight and therefore overall health. The specific type of sugar (sucrose) is also more difficult for your body t... | [
"What source says that alcohol is bad for your teeth?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Do i perceive my own body differently than others? | [
"Yes. Self-consciousness is a real double-edged sword. It allows us to think abstractly but it also forces us to imagine ourselves through others' lenses. The average person (Westerner?) criticizes their appearance regularly."
] | [
"Well, some people are color blind. The world is bound to look different for them. There is no way of knowing if people with normal vision all perceive colors the same way, though. I don't think the color of your eyes has any impact on what colors you can see."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
ELI5: How did humans live apart from each other long enough (geographically) to develop distinct physical differences? | [
"We have been traveling by boat and rafts for something like 8,000 years."
] | [
"There used to be different species of humans (Neanderthals are a common example). However humans inevitably compete for the same resources and compete with each other. So the modern humans won out vs any other human species that might have existed. Another reason is that humans have appeared very recently, revolu... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Biology:",
"pos": "Represent the text about Biology:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why has most everything that's happened since the universe existed seem to have happened relatively recently? | [
"Things didn't go slowly at the beginning... the universe has been chugging along, doing what it's doing for a long time. It's only been very recently (relative to the age of the universe) that things that most people can wrap their heads around have happened. Look at a gold ring. So, for that to have been made, yo... | [
"It is absolutely possible in theory. However, we have found no evidence that it happened. As far as we can tell, all the life that's ever been on Earth is related."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Ive heard if we looked at earth from several million light years away we could see dinosaurs, how? | [
"When you \"see\" something, light is hitting receptors in your eye and transmitting information to your brain. The light that hits your eye has to travel from the thing you are seeing to your eye. This means that whenever you see something you are actually seeing it as it was at the time the light was reflected of... | [
"we dont know anyway, we only see these planets as shadows and wobbles in nearby stars, we wouldnt know if there was a massive civilization on them. and even that, I think the farthest planet we've managed to see is about 13,000 light years away. A substantial distance, but in evolutionary terms, a nanosecond. so e... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about astronomy:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post about astronomy:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about astronomy:"
} |
What is chaos theory? | [
"You forgot to put your keys where you normally leave them, because your phone rang as you were opening the door coming home. The next time you leave the house to go to the shops, you're three minutes delayed looking for your keys, which causes you to get to the shops later. You bump into that cute girl from highsc... | [
"Maybe let's start with: what is ring tone rap?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
ELI:5 Why mobile device manufacturers are moving toward internal batteries. | [
"Because you can make the device smaller, thinner and lighter when the battery is directly connected to the device and you don't need the additional hardware required for a removable battery."
] | [
"This technology is already being adopted in the current generation of cameras. :)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How come the demographic of users on Reddit is predominantly liberal? | [
"The average reddit user is a white, American, college-educated male in their 20's. This demographic skews extremely liberal"
] | [
"There isn't mostly. 99.9% of the users don't care about other sites. You might just see the loud vocal minority. And I believe if want a gross simplification... 4 Chan and tumblr hate each other. 4 Chan is for lonely, socially awkward males Tumblr for lonely, socially awkward, and often overweight females. Redd... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
How come some US states require two license plates (front and rear of the vehicle), but some require just the rear plate? | [
"In maryland it is mainly to give the police an area to point the lasers at. I had two friends going through academy and half the guys there were too stupid to aim for the grill/bumper area and their teacher remarked thats why maryland requires two tags."
] | [
"When you register the car, you can either accept a \"generic\" set of numbers and letters or you can pay extra to have a custom plate, sometimes referred to as a \"vanity plate\". Unlike in the U.K., if the ownership of the car changes hands, the license plate also changes. You can take your own license plate and... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why are salt water animals so much more vibrant in color than freshwater? | [
"A lot of the salt water animals that humans like to put in their aquariums have evolved in colorful environments like coral reefs, where their coloring helps them stand out and find mates. And standing out to predators isn't such a big deal because the reef provides plenty of quick hiding places. There are plenty ... | [
"> what about freshwater fish, where everyone has a similar body shape and color, and everyone swims in the same murky brown water? What? No they dont. Freshwater fish vary widly in size, shape, and colour quite drastically. Also not every body of fresh water is brown and murky."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
The perks of walking in formation (army troops) in real war. | [
"It teaches team work, obedience to orders, and instant acton to orders. It's like the uniform and wall locker inspections, seems like picky little crap just to waste time but in reality it teaches perfection to detail, getting things right the first time and being so ingrained into motorskills that thinking is not... | [
"They work on the plane/bus between campaign stops."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How can so many animals, defensively or aggressively, instinctively know or seemingly easily learn that the neck is a major weak spot? | [
"You said it... instinctively. As to how that came to be? Evolution. Animals which attacked weak points on their prey or predators were more successful, bred more, and they're the ancestors of the animals we know today. Evolution is an arms race, and having an advantage means your genes get to keep going."
] | [
"Well some people believe that the sensation of tickling evolved as a method for young children to learn how to defend themselves from predators (especially in prehistoric times). Consider this, someone tickles you and your first response is to cover it up or in some other way try to defend the area. Your brain the... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why does a sibling's appearance not seem to change from my point of view? | [
"Take a picture of a cloud, then wait a couple minutes and take another picture of the same cloud. You think it will look the same, after all it doesn't look like its changing as you stare at it. But you will find that there is a noticeable difference between the 2 photos. It's just such a gradual and constant chan... | [
"They generally learn that the reflection is not real/not interesting. Some may realize the reflection is themselves if they recognize changes in their body in the reflection. But most interact with reflections as pups and gradually lose interest as they realize nothing ever happens."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What is actually happening when my headphones become a tangled mess? | [
"Oddly, and entire little world of math geeks has a theory called \"knot theory\" that basically describes how a tangle is going to occur in a cables if you given them enough time (and...empirically, \"enough\" seems to be a very a short amount of time). The basic idea is that there are an infinite number of \"knot... | [
"Because headphones don't need anywhere near the amount of power that portable speakers do, and can be directly powered by the device. put a pair of headphones on a desk and stand back a couple of feet, and you get the idea of how much more volume is coming out of portable speakers."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
On a 3 or more lane highway, what is preventing a car in the right lane and a car in the left lane from both merging into the middle lane and hitting each other? How do more accidents not occur from this? | [
"They have to look with their eyes and signal with their blinkers. This involves turning their heads and not just veering into each other. Periodically I see two cars not check properly and start the maneuver only to find someone else doing the same, and generally right of way is yielded to the car which is in fron... | [
"The rule of thumb (sometimes actually codified sometimes not) is that faster traffic moves towards the left. As such, if you are passing someone you should be to their left. If you are passing someone on the right either you are going too fast for that lane, or they are going too slow in the left most lane (otherw... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Traffic and driving:",
"pos": "Represent the argument about Traffic and driving:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How is it possible for us to sometimes "hear" our heartbeats? | [
"Main arteries going up though your neck run by your ears. Works the same way as the two cans and a string telephone."
] | [
"Much like how when you are asleep you don't hear or feel your surroundings, they don't see."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
How can Tamir Rice's shooter not be indicted? | [
"An indictment isn't an accusation, it signifies the state's intent to bring a person to trial. It is based on the DA'S office having enough evidence to prove guilt."
] | [
"Because he shot at the people trying to capture him, and was killed in the firefight. There's no reason to believe he wouldn't have been given a trial had this not happened."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why do people talk to babies in a high pitched voice? | [
"Babies don't speak English. Or any language for that matter. What they do have some grasp of, is the tone of your voice."
] | [
"Most baby animals make specific sounds to alert their parents. It doesn't sound the same as human babies crying for the same reason animal sounds don't sound like human speech."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Babies and their crying behavior:"
} |
How does the human eye differentiate the focal point between what's behind glass or a window vs the reflection that can be seen from the same spot? | [
"It can't, really; usually one of the images is simply brighter than the other, allowing your brain to tune the dimmer one out. The inability to automatically tell the difference between a direct image and a reflection can be exploited in an optical illusion called [Pepper's Ghost](_URL_0_)."
] | [
"> I would like to know what I was looking at! You were looking at the reflection on the surface of your eye of the light source in that room. The \"shiny dot\" is not something which is on your eye in the same way that when you look at the mirror the image of your eye isn't something which is on the mirror."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
What happens to people who are caught on film stealing/rioting? | [
"No. If you break the law, you break the law. If they have the suspects on film it just makes it that much easier to catch them."
] | [
"The frequency in which is happens is highly overstated, and even when a lawsuit is successful, it is usually overturned on appeal. Criminals actually seeing a dime from a lawsuit like this is very rare. I can think of two situations where the criminal might have a case: * A non-criminal could have hurt in the same... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why do you forget names and such when you have amnesia, yet you don't forget things like speaking or certain objects? | [
"Because different types of memory are formed in different places. Short and long term memory have their own dedicated locations in the brain, and speech, motor skills, and object recognition are separate, too."
] | [
"They might lose their memories of events, but they can retain skills learned during that time. There's a well studied man who got herpes in his brain, it destroyed his short term memory. He forgets who he's talking to, what he's talking about, within seconds. Bit he can still improve his artistry and learn other s... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do storage devices show lesser storage than the actual marked value even after taking into account the metric and binary conversion units? | [
"It's like if you got a lot of books, you need a book to write down where each books are, in order to find the one you need fast, isn't it? Then your library will get a large number x books of content and a little one i of books which organize your library. Then you will tell, \"I got x books, but need x+i books ac... | [
"It has been a while since I studied Operating Systems so I could be wrong. But here it goes: I think real answer is related to how addressing of memory works. Your device stores data and it also stores pointers (addresses) of where that data is located on storage. For example, file name and file contents are two s... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why, as a new redditor, am I caught in this conundrum: I need more karma to "season" my account, yet, I am constantly limited from commenting or posting due to my "unseasoned" account? | [
"I didn't even know this was a thing."
] | [
"A self post is what you just did, a text based post with no image or link. You accumulate 2 kinds of karma on Reddit, Link karma and comment karma. A self post does not have a link and it is not a comment, so no karma for it. This can allow things like moderator posts or other important messages to be upvoted heav... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
how is the average Reddit user so literate compared to every other site that allows comments that I've been to? (And I've been to a lot.) | [
"I don't think it is a question of literacy, it's just that Reddit allows for very long posts. I could answer your question in 500 characters if I wanted to, or 1,000. Other sites limit the amount of characters per post, which leads to people cutting corners to try to get their points across. When you cut corners, ... | [
"Reddit has 114.5 million unique visitors every month. How they get that number, i'm not sure. Do I count 3 times, once for my phone, once for my work computer, and once for home? I don't know, but source: _URL_0_ Even if half that number is real people, that's a ton of people. Not all of them see every post. Many ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
If the Earth is spinning so fast, how do the stars stay so still to us? | [
"Because they are really far away , next time you drive in a car over a flat area look at a tree in the distance looks like it's barely moving look at the phone poles close to you they look like they moving fast , Same if you in an airplane you moving at close to 800kmph but the ground looks like it's moving by sl... | [
"Look at the moon high in the sky. Now spin in a circle; you can make it look whatever orientation you want! You can make it whatever orientation you like depending on where you are on the surface of the planet or moon. Try not to kick yourself too hard."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What is behind the "patina" or warmth that most video footage from the 70's, 80's, and sometimes 90's? What technological advancements (aside from transition to digital) caused it to go away? | [
"Of the 3 colors used to develop film–red, green, and blue–red is the most stable. This means that as time passes, the blue and green colors fade quicker than the red (which takes quite a while to fade in some cases). The video footage you are watching was on film that faded for some time before being transitioned... | [
"Well, you don't describe the Soap Opera-y look very much but I think I know what you're referring to. Since soap operas have a new show every day of the week they have to have fast turn-around times. So, they were shot on video instead of film. Film takes longer to develop and video can be processed much quicker. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
how did anime go from being relatively innocent and cartoonish to highly sexualized characters? | [
"A big part of it, I think, is that Japan doesn't have the same views on sex as the West does. (Most of the times that Japan's views on sex do match up with the West, it was because of imperialism.) To some degree, it's a result of anime becoming more developed and popular with more audiences. There was sex back t... | [
"Are you referring to characters going through their daily life and then by some strange turn of fate end up falling on top of a girl/copping a feel or getting a panty shot followed swiftly by said girl beating the shit out of him for his intended or accidental transgression? If so, slapstick humour is not a new in... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Entertainment:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument about Entertainment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why does my brand new, all singing, all dancing windows 8.1 equipped laptop not have the ability to play some of my old favourite pc games? | [
"Because they weren't written for it. Though they appear similar, computers can be as different as consoles as time moves on. What you're asking is akin to \"Why can't I play Playstation 1 games on my PS4?\""
] | [
"Side question: Why does my computer lie to me and tell me I have full connection yet I can't load any web sites?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
How come tasers don't work on everybody? | [
"I'm a police officer and Taser instructor. (Verified on r/ProtectAndServe). There are many reasons why a Taser won't work. In order for a Taser to take effect, both probes must hit. They must hit two different major muscle groups and be at least four inches apart. The main reasons Tasers don't work are; -Missing. ... | [
"It could work, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Does drinking 3 glasses of beer make you urinate more than 3 glasses of water? If so, why? If not, why does it seem like it? | [
"In short: because alcohol is a Anti Diuretic Hormone (ADH) inhibitor. When ADH is secreted normally, it tells your kidneys to put some of the water it filters out from your blood to make pee back into your blood to maintain a good level of hydration. When you drink alcohol ADH is not secreted or secreted in much ... | [
"Urine has waste in it, namely urea. Its yellow. Urine also has water in it. The higher the water percentage in your urine, the more like water it looks. So hydrate well and it will be clear, eat lots of salt and dont drink enough and it will be yellow. If it is red then go to a doctor."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about biology:"
} |
Why are toy stores been driven to extinction? (Eg Toys R US) | [
"Amazon. There is simply no way for them to compete with online shopping. It’s happening to all the brick and mortar stores, but especially ones like toy stores where you don’t really need to see the product before you buy it. Edit: Source: I’m the uncle for several nieces and nephews. I have yet to step into a to... | [
"The same reason British television tries to adapt American tv shows. For example: In With The Flynn's(Grounded For life), Brighton Belle's(Golden Girls), Love By You(Mad About You), Nobody's Perfect(Maude), Upper Hand(Who's The Boss), Days like These(That 70's Show), Married for Life(Married with Children) and so ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
Why do Republicans and some Americans hate Obama Care? | [
"The government is incompetent. Look at the VA. Look at the IRS. Not a lot of people trust the government to handle anything more complicated than taking your money."
] | [
"What's a Tory, and why do so many people seem to hate them?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why only the Republican and the Democratic parties participate in the debates? | [
"Because the Republican and Democratic parties co-own the company who holds the debates and they won't give the stage to anyone else"
] | [
"Each political party has a number of members who each want to be the party's chosen candidate in our general elections. The primaries are mini-elections held where only members of the respective party can vote (only Democrats can vote in the Democratic Primary, only Republicans in the Republican Primary), and they... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do cables like HDMI and USB keep increasing data throughput regularly while keeping similar connectors? | [
"The cables just carries patterns of electricity. The more important part is the stuff on the end that interprets the patterns. Newer standards can read shorter, more compressed signals. Think of it like writing on a piece of paper. With the same size paper, you could fit more data if the person writing could write... | [
"USB A, B, C, mini, micro are about the the shape of the plug: _URL_0_ . Type C is unique compared to all previous ones in that both ends of the cable are the same, and you can turn it upside down. USB 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 are mostly about the data transfer speed, but also how much power they can deliver. D... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why can't we use red pen while filling out official documents? | [
"Red doesn't show up as well when a document is scanned or photocopied, and can therefore be hard to read. It's also harder on your eyes, if you have to read these things all day long"
] | [
"Is this a trick? How can I answer this without giving my opinion"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why are there more male serial killers than there are female? | [
"There actually could be more female serial killers than male, because it's been thoroughly documented that the majority of female killers use poison, so it's possible they fly under the radar a lot. Opposed to male killers, who use... basically everything else to do the deed. It's also worth noting that the USA wa... | [
"Asian men are far less attractive to White women than Asian women are to White men."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
How can buildings be modified without compromising its structural integrity? | [
"Buildings are designed with safety factors so typically it can lose a lot of integrity and still function how it was designed. Additionally only certain parts of the structure are load bearing or integral, a lot of the walls are for design and not for strength so they can safely be removed or modified entirely. Ho... | [
"Architect designs the building - considering what is needed/wanted and considers the functional use of the space, how it appears to the users of the space, and how it will be constructed and maintained. Engineer - for a building will be concerned with whether the design is safe for people to inhabit taking into ac... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
All of a sudden I randomly remember dreams that I had years ago? | [
"I think, though I might me wrong, that something that you've been around lately or been introduced to lately could be a trigger for memories that are from dreams."
] | [
"The mind's a tricky thing. Think about your most memorable dreams. Do you remember any that seem to last for days, months, *years*? I know I have. I had one where it felt like I spent years falling for, and eventually marrying Ellen Page (it was before she came out). But, I have had many, many unfinished dream... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why have the price of Legos gone up so much since my childhood. | [
"I don't know this entirely, but here is what I think. Oil makes plastic, and oil has gone up, so plastic goes up, so LEGOs go up."
] | [
"It's because I got my first snow blower a couple weeks ago."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How could an asteroid that's only 6mi wide cause a mass extinction event? | [
"The meteor won't do anything to the Earth itself. What it will do is throw up a cloud of dust that blocks most of the light from the Sun from reaching the surface. This cloud not only blocks infrared heat but also blocks visible light. Alot life on Earth derive food from plants, either directly or indirectly, whi... | [
"That's 4.184e+28 joules. That's roughly the same energy as an asteroid 200km across impacting the Earth at 72km/s. For reference, the asteroid that killed the Dinosaurs was about 10km across."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
What is the difference between prosciutto, pancetta, capicolla, salami, etc.? | [
"prosciutto is dry cured pig thigh (well, in Italian it's any meat from the pig thigh, but we call it \"ham\" when it's cooked). Capicolla is dry cured pig shoulder. Pancetta is cured pork belly. It's called Salami if you ground up the meat and stick it in a bag before curing it."
] | [
"Processed meat is any meat that is preserved by any of a number of methods, such as smoking, curing, salting, or addition of chemical preservatives. Examples of processed meat are bacon, salami, pepperoni, obviously bologna and hot dogs, most lunch meats, etc."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What the Glass-Steagall Act is and what it has to do with speculation | [
"Without too much background knowledge: banks can have two arms - personal banking and investment banking. These were laws that prevented banks from taking money from personal banking and using it for investment banking. As a result, banks have less money to invest and turn less of a profit. The important part is t... | [
"This has been asked before. Actually it was asked today. Do a search for an answer before posting a question. It actually was not repealed. It was modified. Depending on who you ask it means there is less of a burden on banks and greater ease in lending. Or the Republicans may have set us up for another financial ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why are so many stars visible from Earth on a clear night sky, but space seems so dark and empty from outer space? | [
"Just as many stars can be seen from space. The pictures we see from space are normally taken facing the sun, the moon, or the earth. In those pictures the objects in question are far too bright the camera isn't able to get light from the stars. But we have **plenty** of pictures from space facing away from earth/s... | [
"Because it's there, and it's bright enough to be visible in the sky. The stars in the sky are very faint due to distance so the sunlight in the atmosphere overpowers them easily and we can't see the stars in the day. The moon is reflecting sunlight and since the sun and the moon are so close to us relative to the ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why is the Auburn football game such a big deal? | [
"Alabama has won the last two national championships and they were in the way to their third straight as they were undefeated until tonight. With them losing their chances of making it to the game have gone down greatly. Also, they won't win the SEC now either. The SEC championship game is now between Auburn and Mi... | [
"Take the most popular sport in the US. Now make it the championship game, put it on television on a prime day where most people are off work and voila. you have the making of the biggest show of the year"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment about Sports and Advertising:"
} |
Why do most charities only want money instead of volunteers or make volunteers pay to volunteer? | [
"Volunteers are unreliable. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they promise to do something and they don't. Sometimes they do show up to help and are completely useless or unqualified for what they have signed up for. Money doesn't disappoint. The $100 they get from you is absolutely as good as... | [
"If people knew that they could not buy the item and just wait and it would be donated to them, then they would stop buying the item. When people work to get donations \"in kind\", this is one of the key things they work on, convincing the companies that the donations won't cannibalize their own sales."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How were early mathematicians able to prove their theories? | [
"What constitutes a valid mathematical proof has evolved over the years. The earliest ones were [visual proofs of the Pythagorean theorem](_URL_1_). since then other types of proofs have been devised and refined. [This is a pretty good overview of the history of math proofs](_URL_2_). Generally whoever invented a n... | [
"The Romans could do fractions and had quite very advanced mathematics and geometry. They didn't have calculus, but there was still a lot they could do."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What makes a good sounding melody on a piano? | [
"Most melodies follow a particular scale or guideline to achieve that sound. Some examples would be major and minor scales which are the most common. Major scales always seem to sound happy try playing from 'C' to 'C' on all the white keys that is a Cmaj scale. Minor scales can sound somewhat sad play from 'A' to '... | [
"How can you sing along mentally the first time?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does condensation, in a closed system, reduce pressure? | [
"Some of the matter that was gas is turning into liquid form - for example, water vapor turning into water. So now there's less gas in the same amount of space. Lower density. Less pressure."
] | [
"They don't take away energy. All a freezer does is moves heat from one area to another. They just exploit the property of gasses that temperature changes in relation to pressure."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
What laws (international presumably) if any has Russia broken in invading Crimea? | [
"It is against the rules of the United Nations for any member country to invade the territory of another unless the Security Council has explicitly permitted such an action. That's one of the reasons that the 2002 allied invasion of Iraq was controversial -- depending on which legal interpretation you preferred it ... | [
"I don't understand. It is impossible to fine other countries. If you are referring to reparations for war, that is different. It if you are referring to fines imposed by a treaty organization (I.e. UN, NATO, etc) that is also different. Can you please clarify."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do we still work 8 hours a day? | [
"Actually overall there has been a gradual decrease in the average work hours. At the turn of the century work weeks were close to 60 hours per week. In the 70s the 40 hour work week became the norm and today the average worker works 33 hours a week. As you can see we are moving to less hours but the rate of chang... | [
"It requires little to no qualifications and doesn't necessarily require you to work 9 am to 5 pm. Meaning you can go to auditions and such during business hours."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What happens on an Atomic level when you cut something? | [
"You can't break apart the atoms themselves, nor (usually) the individual molecules. The forces that bind atoms together, and to each other in the form of molecules, are much too powerful for that. What happens as your knife slices through bread is that each \"bread\" molecule (obviously there are many different mo... | [
"I have a hunch, but a few followup questions. First, where did you get the CO2 to put into the container?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
That we have to wash our hands not to get sick, but dogs eat everything and anything in sight but don't get as sick and as often as we do. | [
"Dogs don't use their hands to cleanup after using the restroom. Many health issues arise in developing areas when bacteria, worms, etc. are in the digestive system, are excreted, and re-ingested or larvae find their way back into the system through a lack of cleanliness. This occurs in dogs and other animals too,... | [
"To a degree, humans have weakened their immune systems. Rewind to before we had sanitation, humans would be drinking that same water as the dogs(or converting it to beer!) If we were to drink unfiltered water raw from nature, we may get sick (may not), but would eventually build an immunity to whatever is in there... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why can my PC run Skyrim at 80fps but lags the first time it opens a gif? | [
"Your browser begins playing the GIF before it's fully downloaded, much like you can see parts of a static image before the whole thing is finished downloading, so the first loop may be laggy, but the rest will run smoothly since it has finished downloading and is now playing from disk. It isn't a matter of your lo... | [
"What exactly are you referring to as performance? Just FPS? Typically that is not the case. Fullscreen is known for being better performance since it allows your computer to rest and not strain itself with the explorer.exe process. Hence why alt tabbing usually sucks when playing full screen. It could be possible... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How is magnesium, an easily flammable metal used in flares, used to make products such as car parts and computer casings? | [
"Sort of, it's certainly a tradeoff. But you can't just strike a match to a large magnesium block and set it aflame, it has to heat up to 900 F, which is very difficult to do for a substantial block of metal that conducts heat very well and is typically connected to other metal pieces that can act as heat sinks. S... | [
"Oil is used to produce some 70,000 different chemicals and synthetic materials, so until we find a way to produce each of those things without oil, then it will never be obsolete. We're not talking about silly things either, oil is an essential material for making plastic, nylon, and a thousand other synthetic fib... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How do doctors decide who to give treatment to if there’s long waiting lists and only limited treatments available? | [
"For the transplant example the decision is based on a couple of factors. Need, length of wait and distance of travel being the biggest ones I know of. If you're talking in a more generalized emergency sense then it all comes down to triage. Basically treatment goes by patient need but only to a point. Eventually,... | [
"There appears to be a large push to use medication instead. Here in Canada you can even get these prescribed by a doctor in a walk in clinic who doesn't even know you. The cost to pay mental health professionals is greater than pills. Accessing mental health services from the government clinic means going on a wai... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Healthcare:",
"pos": "Represent the comment about Healthcare:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
why does being hungry cause me to get a headache and be in a terrible mood? | [
"Blood sugar levels, the brain runs off of sugar, so when you are hungry or when you have low blood sugar, this is your brain telling you to refill the stores."
] | [
"If I sit around I tend to not drink as much water as normal, and when I'm dehydrated I have these exact symptoms. Maybe it's that."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
What would we see if we could see a wider range of wave lengths? | [
"You would see more \"colors\". An apple is red because it reflects mostly red light. But if the apple also reflected a lot of ultraviolet light (making this up) you would now see the apple as a combination of red and whatever color your mind would use for ultraviolet. Depending on the wavelengths you see, you woul... | [
"We can't see them because there's no light reflecting from them. We can observe their effects on the surrounding space."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Is it possible to develop a resistance to motion sickness through constant exposure? | [
"The short answer is maybe. Habituation helps most people, but not all. There are a bunch of coping mechanisms that help me, but there are some combinations of motion that will still get me. [This](_URL_0_) article gives you a pretty good overview. The Scopolamine patches work for me, but only if I put one on befor... | [
"The rapid change in barometric pressure does not allow your body to make adjustments fast enough leading to sinus pressure etc."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why can't we force ourselves asleep? | [
"When you try to force yourself asleep, you're thinking harder than usual to make yourself fall asleep. So by trying too hard, you're creating trouble for yourself to make yourself fall asleep. Also, your brain needs to function and your body cannot just be bedridden for days on end (even though we are all Redditor... | [
"In the real world why would anyone want to be a politician?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why did the Pinkerton Detective Agency act as paramilitary for anti union organizations? | [
"Because that's what their customers paid them to do? It seems like you have a different question, like why was this allowed or why didn't somebody do something. It's easier to answer if you ask more directly."
] | [
"No it probably was the U.S. Secret Service, they were started by President Lincoln and if I remember right the in the early days they did things like fight counter-fitting and gather intelligence. It wasn't until after President McKinley's assassination that they became presidential protection."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why does opening a beer sound different than opening a soda? | [
"Tab shape. Thickness of aluminum. Shape of can. Internal pressure. I think some beers are pressurized with nitrogen and not air, that could change it too. Just about all of these changed can affect glass bottles too. Drunk people probably use more force for a faster opening too. That'll change the sound too."
] | [
"It's got bubbles! And when you open it, it goes pop. What's not fun about that? Open a regular bottle of wine, and nothing special happens. In the days before widespread carbonated beverages, this made champagne unique."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
What is the H and N stand for in H10N1 influenza? | [
"They are proteins in it. Hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). There are 18 different (h) and 11 (n) subtypes."
] | [
"Because all caps indicate acronyms and initialisms, for example, the USA, CIA, MIB, NFL, MLB, USPS, etc."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What would it take to make 4K HD mainstream? | [
"Probably much [larger walls or much smaller rooms](_URL_0_) than most American homes have. For people with 20/20 vision, one must sit quite close to the set to notice the additional resolution, closer than [THX's narrowest reccomended screen angle](_URL_1_). Even with blu ray adoption has been much slower than wi... | [
"\"If high definifion TVs are so much better, why do standard definition TVs still exist?\" It's only a matter of time, friend. ;)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
why do girls shave their eyebrows and draw them on. | [
"This may be one of the most profound questions ever asked by a man."
] | [
"A lot of women actually do shave their arms! Also, Some girls have lighter hair on their arms then they do on their legs.. Making it pretty pointless to shave them."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What happens when a homeless person dies? What does the state do in that situation? | [
"When the body is found, the authorities try to identify it and see if any relatives want to have a funeral. Assuming it was not murder, if the body is not claimed it is buried in a pauper's grave as cheaply as possible."
] | [
"They provide services that the public requires and their failure might mean bad things for society as a whole. That's the argument at least. Not sure if I agree with it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
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