query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1 value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
How does a ponzi scheme work? I'm 5 years old. | [
"#1. you borrow lots of money, and promise to pay it back at huge interest rates over a long period of time. #2. you live like a king spending money on whatever you like until the money runs out. #3. you borrow even more money to pay off the original loans. #4. repeat this until china stops lending you money."
] | [
"Can you explain the question like I’m five?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How did BBC get the seemingly impossible footage for David Attenboroughs Life series? | [
"Many many many hours of waiting. You can watch documentaries on how they film those documentaries. It involves cameramen being out in the field for months, being bored out of their minds while waiting for that opportunity to get that perfect shot."
] | [
"there's a documentary on Netflix about this. I forget the name but also NatGeo's Underworld, Inc might answer your questions on this."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is physically different about a hard drive with a 500 GB capacity versus a hard drive with a 1 TB capacity? Do the hard drives cost the same amount to produce? | [
"The ones and zeroes used in binary coding are stored within a disk within the hard drive called a platter. Just as you can magnetize a nail this platter is divided into billions of sections each one able to be magnetized or unmagnetized to represent a 0 or 1. Depending on how many sections you can make that platte... | [
"The main cause of speed differences are the controllers. The controller allows the storage on the drive to talk to your computer. If the controller is not fast enough the speed of the connection to your computer does not matter. This is why an external USB hard drive will be faster than a flash drive. However, you... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How to calculate Hamming Code | [
"adapted from wikipedia 1. Number the bits starting from 1: bit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. 2. Your parity bits are the ones in position 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc 4. All other bit positions are data bits. 5. Each data bit is included in a unique set of 2 or more parity bits, as determined by the binary form of its bit po... | [
"MR is Memory Recall MC is Memory Clear M+ is Memory add M- is Memory subtract Think of them like the Copy and Paste for the Calculator."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How Pirate bay can be so openly public and not be shut down. | [
"They keep getting shut down. When they are shut down, they start the website back up again in a different country. They've been in a lot of countries now."
] | [
"Websites such as Pirate Bay are so called \"illegal websites\" which are notorious for hosting torrents that share illegal copies of products. These websites break copyright laws in your government and so they are banned. Now ISIS propaganda isn't illegal now is it? It may be against everyone's moral compasses but... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
In movie scenes where a kidnapper asks for ransom money, why do they ask for non sequential bills? (Extra Credit: What are "Marked Bills"?) | [
"Because marked money can be tracked, sequential bills can be tracked. In the case of the Lindbergh baby they wrote down the serial numbers of the bills and used them to track down the kidnapper/killer. So lets say you kidnap someone and they pay the ransom. They keep an eye out for the bills they marked and noti... | [
"Mints almost constantly print money. The average life-span of a dollar bill is like six months, when a bill gets too ragged, and assuming it makes it's way to a bank, the bank will take the ragged dollar bill and put it in a separate stack. After there are enough in the separate stack, the bank calls the Treasury ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do we still change clocks to Daylight Saving Time (DST) and back, when apparently, most people hate it? If most of us prefer a single time throughout the year - what are the obstacles to making this happen? | [
"> Nobody goes around saying \"Yay! I get to change my clocks! This is the best day since spring!\" But that doesn't mean that most people hate it. Pretty much everybody says that when you get that extra hour to sleep."
] | [
"It creates some minor difficulties, but not as much as if you live on the border of a separate time zone that does not obey daylights saving time. The majority of Indiana used to not follow Daylights Saving Time. And the northern region is divided into two time zone. The region near Chicago is on Central, while t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How can a modern ship sail into a known storm/hurricane? | [
"Not a sea captain, but at least two things here: The ships today have been built to handle huge storms, so they are able to go through them without too many issues that would compromise seaworthiness of the ship. But these storms are also so large usually that it isn't as feasible for a slow ship to get around a s... | [
"It shifts to a different part of the earth causing a high tide in that region."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why is there a difference between girl bikes and guy bikes? | [
"In the early part of the bicycle, women sill wore dresses and the lowering of the top frame bar was to allow the wearing of a dress."
] | [
"The difference between men's razors and women's razors is they put pink plastic in the injection mold with women's razors, blue for men's."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
What is happening in our muscles when we feel the urge to exercise? | [
"Personally, it's stress that causes that irritability/restlessness. Cortisol keeps your body in a continued mode of being alert and ready to fight/run. Exercise lowers cortisol levels, eliminating stress and causes your body to relax the tension it has built up. Stress usually means that your body doesn't feel com... | [
"If I tell you that the pain you feel in your muscles after a workout is the pain of your body tearing itself down to rebuild itself better, how does that make you feel? If I tell you that the pain you feel in your muscles after a workout is your body developing cancer, how does that make you feel? And there's your... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" considered such a revolutionary song? And what's so special about Kurt Cobain? | [
"Nirvana gets a lot of the credit for starting the \"grunge\" movement. What makes smells like teen spirit so different is it's grunge sound and lyrical content. This was the first mainstream song to sort of glorify angsty, awkward teenagers and give them a coherent voice. It probably rings less with you because so... | [
"They had catchy, well written tunes.... for one album. Their follow up albums got worse and worse and the Gallagher brothers were notorious for not getting along with others or even each other. They even fought on stage. What they were not, however, is ground breaking. They sounded like an update of the Beatles. ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is the significance of the recent French presidential election? | [
"See brexit? See the US elections? That's what didn't happen this evening :p"
] | [
"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 can't you point lasers at a plane? | [
"To be accurate, you *can* do it. You also *should* get arrested if you do. A laser could possibly blind a pilot. Even if the blindness is not permanent, having a blind person in charge of an airplane is an extreme safety hazard to the people on the plane and to the people on the ground. Don't do it. Not even onc... | [
"How do you even take a picture of the center of a tornado?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How are people able to fast for long periods at a time yet stay healthy? | [
"Fasting can be a pretty flexible term, especially when used in a religious context. The people who “fast for 365 days” are eliminating a specific thing, like red meat or bread, for a specific duration, and many of them rotate that “thing” every week or month. So they say they’re fasting, but really they are going ... | [
"You can live of body fat for a long while, ref the case of the obese man who went more than a year without food: _URL_0_ However, as you can read in the article you will need to consume vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients in order to survive. Keep in mind that fasting is not risk free, especially over long... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why is gmail (or most email service) free? | [
"It allows google to collect a shit ton of data about you & charge more for advertising directed at you online. If you are not the customer you are the product"
] | [
"You know how when you write snail mail and send it through the USPS or the like? Well imagine in the return address field you put the address of the person you were sending the mail to. Email isnt much different. By default email really provides no protections or verification of who is sending the email. It just t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
What are the defining differences between streets, roads, avenues, boulevards, etc.? What dictates how it is designated? | [
"**A boulevard is two lanes in each direction with a median of trees or greenery running the length of it.** **An avenue is often two lanes in each direction and in a nicer part of the area.** **A street can be any number of lanes in each direction, but is generally associated with a town or city or suburb.** **A r... | [
"In some cases, the definitions can vary based on regional preferences. But here is one common view: Freeways, Turnpikes and Interstates are all types of Highways. An Interstate is a road that is part of the federal Interstate highway system. Much of the funding for the roads comes from the federal government, and ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why is the majority of the human population right hand and right eye dominant? | [
"So there is definitely a tendency towards right handedness in people, but I would also point out that right now, there is social pressure on that as well: many left-handed children born in the 90s were forced to acclimate to right-handedness. When I was in preschool, I had to wear a sock on my left hand all day ev... | [
"Most people are better with their right hand than their left, and righty-tighty is easier to do with the right hand. That said, I'm left-handed."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why is it we pass out from standing too long with our knees locked, but not when we are lying down? | [
"Locking your knees causes issues with blood flow which in turn causes you to pass out. You don't lock your knees when you're laying down so it doesn't really apply."
] | [
"> When standing up, letting your arms hang freely is comfortable and fine. Is it? When I see people standing still, they're usually crossing their arms, or have one in their pocket, etc. I don't see many people literally standing there with their arms at their sides. The reason it's comfortable is that it relieves... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
- What are both sides of this birth control debate and Congress? I've only heard the Rush Limbaugh stuff so I'm confused and would like as unbiased an explanation as possible | [
"So Obama thought that religious affiliated institutions should provide healthcare through their insurance companies to their employees. These religious institutions didn't think they should have to provide healthcare options that provided birth control because they morally object to birth control. Republicans ju... | [
"The frontpage topic will likely bury my question so I'll post it here. > ruling that a penalty for refusing to buy health insurance amounts to a tax. Can someone explain this to me? It sounds like it's forcing you to pay a penalty for not buying health insurance (and if I'm interrupting it wrong please correct m... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why do police in America not seem to carry or use much non-lethal weaponry? | [
"They do carry non-lethal weaponry. But have you considered that when that non-lethal option is used, it's not really newsworthy? Can you imagine a front page reddit post that says \"Officer uses taser to stop suspect, who is sent to jail without injury. Officer goes home and has spaghetti with his family\"? You're... | [
"In day to day operation an officer has use of a taser as a \"non lethal\" alternative to their firearm. When an officer feels their life is threatened they need to have tools at their disposal to adequately protect themselves and others; replacing their lethal option with a non lethal rubber bullet option puts an ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What is the purpose of Information Technology Infrastructure Library(ITIL)? | [
"At its most basic level, ITIL is really a set of best practices for IT Service Management - without a methodical approach, Service Management can be something that's done on a fairly ad-hoc basis without any specific direction to it. Although ITIL doesn't seek to specifically set in stone how things should be done... | [
"Associate: 2 year degree Bachelor: 4 year degree Master: 6 year degree"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why is it when people see an incredibly cute baby one of the reactions is to 'eat' the baby? Or bite at it? | [
"_URL_0_ Take a read of the article above. To put it basically it is because the smell of the baby activates the same receptors of the brain as smelling nice food."
] | [
"I always acted appalled when someone said \"let me smell the baby, I love the smell of a baby\". I always said it was weird how many people wanted to smell my wife's womb. Thats some creepy shit to say to somebody you hardly know."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
luxury tax and sales tax are different things? | [
"Sales tax is applied to everything. But on top of that the government can also impose extra taxes on certain products. So for a \"luxury tax\" that means that the government needs more money and taxes certain products a little more with the justification that if you can afford those products, then an extra 0.5% or... | [
"Sales tactic. And also there are different taxes added to a seller that varies by state and city."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why is most of society monogamous? | [
"In the way olden days, if you went around having sex with anyone, you'd have no idea who actually fathered the child. Cultural norms grew around the realization that if you were monogamous, you could safely assume the identity of each parent. This is critical to the natural human family nucleus. We don't see this ... | [
"Are you saying we should be more racist towards cats?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why Internet connections are fastest in South Korea? | [
"> People in the United States basically invented the Internet. [people working at CERN in Europe basically invented the internet](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Why is election on weekdays instead of weekends?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is happening with he Chinese stock market and what effect will it have on people ? | [
"Why would this cause the American stock market to drop nearly 10%?"
] | [
"China has been the price setting buyer of oil for more than a decade, so the price of oil dropping is seen as the best predictor of how rapidly or severely China is going tits up."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment about Economics:"
} |
Marx's Labor Theory of Value | [
"Essentially Marx said that the value of a commodity is equal to the labour that went into it, including the labour that built the tools used to make the item, or the buildings that housed the workers etc. It's contrasted by Adam Smith's labour theory of value, which says that a commodity is worth whatever labour... | [
"The Art of War in the Western World - Archer Jones"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Education:"
} |
how the US are allowed to kill civilians with drones. | [
"It's not really a question of being allowed or not. There's no authority above the nation state that can step in and lay down the law - all that exists are states and deliberative bodies composed of states (ie, the UN) . If a state is powerful enough to do something without the rest of the world finding it a worth... | [
"Drones have gained a stigma for a variety of reasons. 1- the killing of civilians. Some estimate that each drone strike kills between .8 to 2 civilians. Though this is not greater than other uavs with similar bombs, and civilian deaths have been dropping. 2- people generally fear the unmanned concept (even though ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do people use 0-60 mph to benchmark the acceleration of cars? | [
"Because the actual benchmark is 0-100 km/h, which get's rounded down to 60 mph. 0-100 is a nice round number, and since everyone except the US uses the metric system that's the standard. So the significance is that 60 miles is about 100 km."
] | [
"cars are put into different classes, like pickups, sedans, sport, etc. There are then different categories to grade a car like handling, brakes, towing, etc. So when a car commercial comes on and they want to hype something about, oh lets go with a pickup, they will saying \"Best in its class for towing\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What's the difference between Space Opera and Sci Fi? | [
"Science fiction is any work of fiction set in the future that deals with technology more advanced than our own. Space opera is a particular type of sci-fi that doesn't really care much about the specifics of the science and technology as much as it deals with grand narratives about galactic empires and grand heros... | [
"Best Seller... in what? If you break everything up into categories you can have dozens of \"Number One Best-Sellers\". Best Seller... this week Best Seller... this year Best Seller... in Romance Best Seller... in Historical Fiction... and so on."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
When should I use recirculated air vs. fresh air in my car? | [
"Recirculating air will heat it faster, so yes. You should also recirculate your air when you are in a dirty area (lots of smoke, etc)."
] | [
"I think it has to do with the recycled air in the cabin."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Can someone explain how tilt shift photography works like I've just learned to tie my own shoelaces | [
"First, you take a photo of something, as if you were looking down upon it at 45 degree angle. So the angle already sets it up like it were one a table top and waiste height. Then you zoom in a little bit, to aleviete the effect of perspective, to make it look more like a 2d isometric video game for the SNES or Gen... | [
"Because our eyelids are thin. Pull your t-shirt over your head and stare at a light bulb. Now drop a phone book on your face and look at the same light bulb. Phone book thicker than t-shirt, hand thicker than eyelid. If my 5 year old ever asks me this I'll send him back."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about Science:"
} |
What is happening to New York City? | [
"Well a lot of small businesses that have been here for decades are being driven out by corporations and upscale businesses due to rising rents and taxes. Many of these businesses give NYC it's unique flavor that you can't find anywhere else. For New Yorkers like myself it hits home hard seeing stuff like this happ... | [
"Only if the federal government let it. See: American Civil War"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do violinist always play the instrument on their chin? | [
"The left hand of the violin player is the one playing the notes and it has to be free to move up and down the neck as required, not clutching the instrument. The strings seen in cross-section form an arced shape, not flat like a guitar. The bow has to be able to \"attack\" through a range of angles so that it touc... | [
"The ligaments on your ring and middle fingers are connected. Composer Robert Schumann fucked up his hand trying to separate them so he could shred the piano harder."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
How does a satellites stay positioned on a geostationary orbital target that is not on the equator? | [
"Geostationary orbits are only above the equator. Geosynchronous orbits are at the same distance but not necessarily in the plane of the equator. Communications satellites are not necessarily geostationary or geosynchronous; if there are enough of them all at different orbits then they can cover most of the earth."... | [
"Low earth orbit is an orbit a little over 100 miles up. It's where the International Space Station is. Geosynchronous orbit is an orbit that takes 24 hours to complete. Geostationary orbit is a type of geosynchronous orbit where the satellite stays stationary relative to the earth. Not all geosynchronous orbits ar... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How does doing a "small o" with your mouth produce cooler air while opening up your mouth while "hah-ing" produces warmer air | [
"[It is called the Venturi Effect. Fluids, when constricted-air is a fluid in this discussion-speed up when constricted. That makes things go relatively faster. Fast moving air pulls heat away, making the small o feel cooler](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"In some sleep positions with a relaxed throat there's a bit of catching the air, getting stretched, then releasing that self reinforces to create a steady deep sound. Just like the intentional version when we partially block the air path with out vocal chords that just vibrate at a higher frequency, or like rollin... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Physics:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph about Physics:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
What is the point of harvesting "likes" on Facebook if you are not directly promoting a business? | [
"ALY5: It's the same reason that people try to get karma on Reddit, lad. They want recognition. They want to feel agreed with."
] | [
"The saying goes, if you are not paying for a product, you are the product. Instagram is free and they way they make money is to promote things that generates revenue, be it from ads or paid promotions."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why does it hurt more to get an IV put in your hand than in the crook of your arm? | [
"The hand has more nerve endings (sensors) because you need to feel what you're doing with your hand while doing complex tasks (typing for example). The high density of \"useful\" nerves to sense touch, temperature, etc, also comes with a lot of nerves that detect pain. Arguably this serves a purpose, allowing you ... | [
"Depends on if the medicine works best injected directly into a vein or a muscle. Arm is the easiest and least inconvenient for a shot into the bloodstream, a shot in the ass hurts less than other muscles."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why do some people with special needs have such similar facial features? | [
"Because people who have the same problem generally have the same cause for that problem. Take, for instance, Down's Syndrome. It's caused by having 3 copies of the 21st chromosome instead of just two. Every single person with Down's has this problem, and every single person with this problem has Down's. Along with... | [
"Why are noses different in size, why are people different heights, why do we have different hair colors?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about biology:",
"pos": "Represent the passage about biology:",
"neg": "Represent the passage about Biology:"
} |
How do poems translated from one language to another still rhyme? | [
"Because it's not a literal, word-for-word translation. The translator had to take liberties with the poem to get it to rhyme in English. Here's a very short example from a rhyming English translation of *Tartuffe*, originally a rhyming French-language play. Rhyming French: *C'est véritablement la tour de Babylone,... | [
"A lot. You can rarely just directly translate a language from one into another. If there's an expression that doesn't translate then something else will have to be chosen to make up for it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Can people have smaller than average organs and what does it mean? | [
"If you made it this long with little to no problems, I wouldn't worry about it. Best thing to do is talk to your doctor about it. She would probably feel bad if she knew what she said made you uncomfortable and she didn't know/therefore couldn't explain things for you so you could feel better. I'm almost 36 and w... | [
"Heart beat speed is a common factor, faster heart beat tends to equal shorter life expectancy while slower heart beats equal longer life expectancy. I read this once so take with a grain of salt."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about biology:"
} |
why is it that flies seem to appear out of thin air so quickly (even indoors) when rotten things or feces are nearby? | [
"Fun fact, up until recently in modern history people simply believed that things like garbage and feces spontaneously generated life because like you said, it seems like there are no flies, then trash and boom, hella flies. The truth is a little more boring and gross, it's simply that flies and maggots are all ar... | [
"That's not really true. Some insects and fungi live almost exclusively on decaying wood and leaves. Beetles of the order Passalidae live and breed inside rotting logs, and certain types of mushrooms will grow on damp or dead wood. It is probably more correct to say decaying fruits and animals attract the kinds of ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
What are fair split screens? | [
"If you're going to ask about a current Reddit post, [it's helpful to include a link to it in the question](_URL_0_). Split screen video games are where you have multiple players, each with their own view on half the screen. Think playing Golden Eye/Halo on a single system. One of the problems you run into here is ... | [
"The fee pays to provide the service for free calls without paid service. Edit: More of an explanation."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Telecommunications:"
} |
What are mirrors made of? How does it get that reflection quality? | [
"They used to be glass that had electroplated silver on one side and then black paint on top of that. And they also used to be really well polished metal. Now a days it is usually much cheaper aluminum on glass."
] | [
"There is a glass pane covering over the actual reflective surface. What you are seeing is the side of the sticker that is on the glass. However, because the glass is thick, there is distance between the sticker and the reflective surface, so you can see the back through the glass. Did that answer your question?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about Physics:"
} |
I'm far sighted. Are there reverse-blurred images that would appear clear to me? | [
"So you want something like this [shortsightedness optical illusion](_URL_0_). but for farsightedness."
] | [
"They can. But you need modified lenses, basically same strength as your regular prescription. I read that Oculus Go will offer this. Won't be cheap, I bet. If you wonder why the image can't be altered by the headset to be \"in focus,\" it doesn't work that way. You need to be able to focus on the screen, requiring... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why stage 4 cancer is "uncurable" | [
"At stage 4, the cancer has spread throughout the body to multiple locations distant from the original tumor. It's considered uncurable at that point because it's not feasible, or really even possible to any degree of certainty, to remove all the tumors. At that point, the odds are pretty good you've not only got t... | [
"Because people shouldn't be allowed to die from treatable illnesses, and clinical depression is a treatable illness."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why don't console developers re-release older consoles? | [
"Because almost nobody buys them. The market for any electronic device drops through the floor as soon as a newer version comes out."
] | [
"They'll take an older game that doesn't sell well or take an indie game that is easily marketable and cheap. If you go on psn or xbl to download this free game, maybe you'll look at some other games/services which makes sony Microsoft and the developer money. Older games released on these either aren't selling or ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why does the US government bail out General Motors every time they go under? | [
"> every time they go under You mean once?"
] | [
"The banks loaned a lot of people a lot of money. It turns out they knew those people probably couldn't pay it back, but they loaned them the money anyway. Then, when people couldn't pay it back, they said \"Hey US government, why don't YOU pay us that money? Or else we'll cripple your economy.\" The US government ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What happens if Hillary Clinton is charged with an offence by the FBI, how would this affect the Presidential race and would she be allowed to continue? | [
"Legally speaking, it would have no impact. Nor would a conviction, or even being in jail. Article 2 of the US Constitution lays out the requirements for being elected president, and none of these factors enter into it. In fact, not having an indictment would be a terrible, terrible requirement. Imagine if the day... | [
"Part of the problem here is that the FBI have to answer to the President. Even investigating the people close to the president have cost multiple FBI directors jobs. First under Nixon then under Trump. Making a high level arrest would not be productive to the investigation or to the country. The President have the... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do children seemingly enjoy being tickled but grow to hate it as adults? | [
"Tickling is a tool that animals use to learn fighting skills with play without actually harming each other. Fighting off a tickle attack is similar to fighting off a real attack. But with tickling nobody gets hurt. After you reach adulthood those skills have been developed and it feels more like a real attack and ... | [
"Pain, or a sensation similar to pain that would make us want to do whatever possible to stop it. Notice how ticklish spots are usually in vulnerable areas: pits, feet, sides, etc. We involuntarily laugh to show our submission to our \"attacker\". People are believed to tickle each other, particularly the young, to... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why is liquor supposedly better the longer it is aged? | [
"Not all liquor and wine improve with age. Many are designed to open immediately. With whiskey, for example, the process of making whiskey involves aging for years in a barrel. The alcohol will cause chemical reactions with the wood of the barrel, which gives it it's iconic \"whiskey\" flavor and its caramel-brown... | [
"Wine is usually sold right away after being made, and then \"aged\" to the preference of the owner. Hard alcohol is aged as part of the production process, and so it's important to know how long it aged before it was bottled. Think about it like this: You care about the year of the wine because you want to know i... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Carbon-14 half-life and why it's only useful for dating organic materials less than 50,000 years old? | [
"I think you're confused as to what a half life is. A half life is how long it takes for half of the material (in this case the radioactive carbon-14 isotope) to decay. I've never heard of a full life. For example, take 100g of Carbon-14. After ~5,700 years (it's half life) you'll have 50g of Carbon-14. Now take an... | [
"It would still reveal about when the person died. I don't think current carbon dating methods are going to be accurate to within a decade for example. Carbon dating allows us to deduce when the living material was grown. Dating bones will tell us when the bone was formed but not necesssarily when the organism died... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
why do we cringe with certain sounds (nails on the chalkboard, etc.) | [
"why do mods cringe when people refuse to search the archive?"
] | [
"Because our eyelids are thin. Pull your t-shirt over your head and stare at a light bulb. Now drop a phone book on your face and look at the same light bulb. Phone book thicker than t-shirt, hand thicker than eyelid. If my 5 year old ever asks me this I'll send him back."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Science:"
} |
. Why is IPhone so popular? The new 6s has 2gigs of ram the same as my old Galaxy 4 and half as much as my note 5. | [
"Like every Apple product, it is user friendly. It is really hard to screw anything up on it, and it is designed to be intuitive. How it is marketed has something to do with it too. (and their planned obsolescence helps keep them making money)"
] | [
"I'd also like to throw in this question to piggyback: How come I can buy a 120gb micro SD card for 40$ but if I want to go from the 16 to 32 gb base model of a phone it is like 100$?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why to they have traffic reports on TV? How does it benefit only people watching at home? | [
"People may be leaving the house soon, or they are waiting on somebody to arrive. And I suppose its because people watching the news want to see the traffic. If every time they had a traffic report everybody changed the station, they would stop running traffic reports."
] | [
"If they didn't block streets or highways, would you ever pay attention to them??? It gets them noticed."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
When a city loses power (like in a lot of movies), why aren't all the lights going off at the same time? | [
"They call it a power grid for a reason, it is an actual grid. The main power lines come in from the power plant, which are then routed to different areas, then routed to smaller areas in each area, and so on and so forth until it reaches the end user. Think of it as an upside down tree. Trunk is the main line, bra... | [
"In a brownout, there's not enough power to maintain normal usage levels, but it's not completely off. You generally see things like flickering / dimming lights, reduced power to buildings, surge protectors going nuts, that sort of thing. In a blackout, the power goes completely dead. E: Wow, that was unexpected, b... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do countries export electricity? | [
"> Do they connect power lines to other countries? Pretty much - yes"
] | [
"Why do some parts of the world call gasoline petrol?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How long would it take to accelerate to the speed of light in space so that the crew wouldn't suffer any negative effects from accelerating too quickly. | [
"You can't accelerate to the speed of light, and still have the crew made of matter. So let's presume you meant 99% of the speed of light. People deal well with 1g, 9.8m/s^2 of acceleration, and can stand 1.5g for a pretty long time. But to allow for safe sleep and digestion, 1g should probably be your limit. After... | [
"The people on the ship would be fine. Speed is relative. From their point of view they are stationary, and the earth is moving near the speed of light. The ship wouldn't expand, it would appear to contract *from the point of view from someone on earth*. But the people on the ship would see the earth contract inste... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Physics:"
} |
What is it that makes someone a naturally talented singer vs. someone that sounds like nails on a chalkboard? | [
"Both your natural choice and your technique. Using the human voice to sing with good quality is like playing an instrument and the skill needs to be developed as such."
] | [
"You know how when you exercise too much you are sore the next day and can't run/jump/whatever as much as normal? It's like that except instead of your arms or legs being sore it's your vocal chords. When your vocal chords can't work as well your speech is handicapped similar to running when your legs are sore."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
"Era of Bad Feelings" | [
"The Era of Good Feelings was a period of American history (early 1800s) that fell between major conflicts, expectations were high, the major political parties cooperated and people got along. The Era of Bad Feelings is just a cloy way of saying now is a time of conflict, lowered expectations and partisan bickerin... | [
"Next Week's Theme: 'Royalty, Nobility, and the Exercise of Power' To be followed by: \"Eastern Europe\""
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why is it that pretty much everyone enjoys music? | [
"I used to work on an assembly line and we were allowed to have small radios on our benches while we worked. My supervisor was a really cranky old lady that just never seemed happy about anything. I was working near her desk one night (we rotated benches often) and to as not to offend her (and because I have a very... | [
"Have you ever though about the fact that it isn't?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
how does your digestive system get liquids separated to your kidneys? | [
"It doesnt't really. The digestive system mostly absorbs everything it can from the food into the bloodstream (nutrients, water, etc.) and the rest of it (fiber, some water stercobilin from bile, etc.) comes out as poop. The kidney then takes the blood and removes the things you don't really need in it (some water ... | [
"They're absorbed into the bloodstream in your intestines, just like the nutrients in your food."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why are certain organs associated with certain feelings? For example, why do people think love comes from the heart? | [
"In Shakespearean time the liver was where courage lied. If your liver did not receive enough blood you would have a pale liver. hence \"lily liverd\""
] | [
"The feeling can and does occur in other parts of your body. I get the feeling in my upper back normally."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why don't/can't governments just illegalize smoking? | [
"The tobacco lobby is very powerful, smoking is a huge economic industry, tons of people like smoking, lots of people object to the government acting as a nanny and regulating our well being, and prohibition has a poor track record. It's a losing proposition for just about the entire country."
] | [
"In all honesty it's because this country is a mess. Mandate that every child MUST be vaccinated a segment of the population will scream \"The government shouldn't tell me what to do with my children!\" But that same segment rants about how the government should be doing more to make sure their kids aren't fat, the... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Health:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Health:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What is happening in the brain when someone has an "Aha!" moment? | [
"One cell in your brain makes a path to another one, and voila you have a scenario that you reference for the rest of your life, unless you dont use it often, then it deteriorates. I don't remember all the specific terms cuz its early in the morning. But i suppose that IS what I'd tell a five year old"
] | [
"We don't know, there isn't an answer yet. There are a few theories, and some are fairly ridiculous, The brain interprets the input from one eye then the other causing the image to seem familiar. A small mistake during the brain's construction of the situation results in a false sense of familiarity. A mix up betwe... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post about Cognitive Science:"
} |
How do they get the bubbles inside the soda? | [
"The bubbles are carbon dioxide which is soluble in water. The main method they get the CO2 into the soda is a two step process. The first step is chilling the soda by running it through a chiller. This is necessary because CO2 (and gases in general) can stay dissolved in cold liquids much better and warmer ones. ... | [
"The candy or the natural phenomena. You’ll get different answers. The candy is a caramel/butterscotch that gets baking soda added to it to make it full of holes. The stuff on the ocean is bubbles caused by turbulence In the ocean. When algae break down it gives the bubbles something to stick to making a foam."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If I use a credit card and only buy 10$ of something, but my "minimum amount due" at the end of a payment period is 35$, do I pay just the 10$ or 35$? | [
"You read the invoice, and figure out why it's 25 dollars more. Was there a fraudulent charge ? Than you call their fraud department. Was there a 25 dollar fee added on ? Was it legitimate ? Then you pay the 35."
] | [
"The 20% is APR, which is an annual number. So the monthly rate is 20% divided by 12, or 1.67% per month. The way that it works is that you have a cut-off date. For simplicity's sake, let's call your cut-off the 15th of the month. On the 15th of the month, they take your balance, and give you a statement. You have ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why did I have to throw away the lid from my water bottle going into a stadium in Hamburg? | [
"Removing the lid hampers the bottles ability to be used for other nefarious-type uses. It's hard to throw water bottles at the field/other team/your brother-in-law if most of the liquid and subsequent weight is removed while tossed. Also, removing the cap puts shame on the bottle which might make it think twice b... | [
"He's warming up for the eventual possibility that you are going to drop him in water. Why else are you holding him over the water anyways."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
As someone not from the US, what exactly are sororities and fraternities at university? | [
"Sororities and Fraternities are essentially social clubs. The process can differ from school to school but here's how it was at mine. The first couple of weeks of the semester is called Rush. This is when the Fraternities throw parties and try to convince new students to join. Sororities operate differently. Not s... | [
"Institutes and communities can be a lot of different things! A university is a collection of colleges. When you go to a university, you don't graduate from \"University X\", you graduate from \"The College of Y\". Think of a university as the federal government and colleges as states. States are largely self-conta... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Education:",
"pos": "Represent the comment about Education:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How is there wifi on buses (ie. megabus) and not on airplanes? | [
"There is WiFi on many planes. The reason there wasn't for a ling time after buses got it is for safety concerns."
] | [
"Conductor and Driver are pretty much completly useless. Some subways in Paris don't have drivers or conducters anymore. Neither do trains in Spain around the parts of Barcelona."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
I googled Iran in the 1970s and none of the women wore burqas. Why has that changed? | [
"Because they had a revolution in 1979, which led to the establishment of an Islamic republic & restrictions on the rights and freedoms of women."
] | [
"For a while there they were threatening to wipe Israel off the map every twenty minutes or so. That might have something to do with it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why is our current world map, the Mercator Map, not to scale? It represents the US as gigantic is reference to South America and Africa. In reality both of continents dwarf the US in size. | [
"There is no way to accurately project a spherical surface onto a two-dimensional map. Something has to be inaccurate, size, shape, distance, and or direction. The advantage of the Mercator projection is that it preserves direction, which is useful for navigation. It is also rectangular, so it better utilizes the s... | [
"Most maps accidentally make Greenland too big. It's an oddity of projecting a spherical globe on a rectangular map, thee is always something out of place. Greenland is about ~2 million square kilometers. Australia being an island-continent is ~7.7 million square kilometers. So the cut-off, while not being readily ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
If jury decisions have to be unanimous, why aren't there way more hung juries? | [
"[Not all juries need to be unanimous](_URL_0_). I believe that some courts don't allow juries to return hung until a certain amount of time has passed, in order to encourage discussion."
] | [
"Judges still make many decisions. They rule on motions, they can dismiss jurors, decide what juries can see or hear. Judges have to make sure that all of the procedures and rules are followed so that a guilty verdict will not be reversed on appeal. And a judge has the power to throw out a jury verdict if he think... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How animals like Octopus are discovered to get "bored" | [
"\"Bored\" is a human term, and it's associated with a set of negative behaviors. The \"cure for boredom\" in humans is additional interaction. When an octopus is in a closed area, after a while they start to take on some of these same behaviors, and they stop when they have more interaction. Thus the term \"bored... | [
"That is what they are adapted to do. It is like asking how fish can swim all the time or how whales can hold their breath for so long. The stress of being used for what they do isn't something difficult for nipples to do."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
How do airplanes take off? | [
"They use their engines to push them down the runway faster and faster, until the amount of wind passing under their wings is enough to lift them into the air."
] | [
"Airplanes need air underneath the wings to work properly. The higher you go, the less air there is, so it's physically impossibly to leave the atmosphere this way."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text about Physics:"
} |
What made militant Islam what it is today? | [
"I think it's similar to the \"Know Nothing\" party in the US that developed. It's a counter movement to enlightenment, to be proud to be ignorant, because knowledge is frightening to long standing thoughts about the way the world works, such as religion. Couple that with some seriously barbaric text in the Koran t... | [
"They want to establish an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. That's what ISIS stands for."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
how does dust form? And what generates the biggest amount of dust? | [
"A lot of people will tell you it's mostly dead skin cells, but that's obviously not the majority of dust. You can easily verify this by leaving stuff in a non climate controlled storage unit for a year and coming back to find a layer of dust. Dust is mostly just particles of dirt and whatever else that is light en... | [
"Volcanos emit a whole bunch of matter into the air which bumps into each other, creating a static charge which leads to lightning once the charge builds up sufficiently."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
what is the difference between the cheap batteries that come in toys and major brand batteries, like Duracell, and why does the latter last a lot longer? | [
"Usually toys come with an \"extra heavy duty\" battery which is a generic name for [zinc-chloride](_URL_1_). These batteries are really bad. An AA might hold 1.5 watt-hours of power. Some really cheap toys come with \"heavy duty\" batteries or zinc-carbon. These are the worst and an AA might have 1 watt-hour of po... | [
"The truth is, there are 2 types of batteries (actually more, but these two are most common). Basic zinc-carbon and alkaline. There isn't much of a difference between batteries of one type, maybe half a ZC at best, but the difference between ZC and alkaline is very big."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Are there prostitutes or camp follower types with modern armies? | [
"The army, of course, does not 'officially support' prostitutes. However, wherever there are soldier, there will be prostitutes. War time poverty compounds the effect, and often the soldiers who are foreign to the locale will enjoy the companies of the local girls. The military rather does not like its personnel sp... | [
"Not an answer, but a question to add onto this, did the Roman Legion have a series of camp followers? What was life like for these people?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What happens when a currency 'dies'? | [
"Typically the government prints a new currency, and for a limited-time period, they offer you to exchange the dying currency with the new one. In Zimbabwe's case, they abolished their old currency in 2009 and just started using foreign countries' currencies like US dollars and South African rands. People stopped u... | [
"They're worried their money will become inflated or lose value altogether or be seized. The Government can change how much their money is worth but the value of physical goods changes much slower."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Were the Earth to be attacked by external force & we bonded together as a whole regardless of economics and borders, what are we be capable of defensively? | [
"Attacked by an external force? We wouldn't be capable of anything. It'd probably be over before we even knew we were under attack. They'd have to be more advanced than us because they made it here. They would most likely be a lot more advanced than us. It'd be unlikely that another \"nearby\" civilisation was only... | [
"I would say eventually. Maybe not right away as the US is starting with more large scale equipment such as subs, but if the rest of the world banded together and made their sole purpose invading the united states they'd manage it sooner or layer, particularly in the no nukes scenario. The entire world restructurin... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does alcohol make you dehydrated? Where does the water stored in your body go just by drinking another substance? | [
"Humans have a hormone that prevents them from urinating. Alcohol lowers this hormone so you urinate a lot more than you should which results in you losing more water than you gained from drinking the alcohol."
] | [
"Why would you not? When you drink alcohol, it makes it to your small intestine and is then absorbed into your blood stream. It's this alcohol in your blood stream that makes you drunk Any method for getting alcohol into your blood stream will get you drunk but most are less controlled than just drinking as they hi... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why can't energy be harnessed through gravity? | [
"We already harness energy from gravity... just not in the way your friend thinks. Hydroelectric dams use their height to store potential energy in a reservoir. The height difference between the water and the turbines means that gravity is used to move water past turbines thus creating energy."
] | [
"How do you intend to use the cool air to produce electricity? You can convert electrical energy into cool air easily enough, what efficient way is there to convert it back into electrical energy? Is is more efficient than other storage methods?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why does the computer mouse sometimes jump in a random direction? | [
"It shouldn't, when just sitting still. I assume you mean when you are moving it. Older mouses had a ball that made two different little wheels inside rotate, and that would be translated by the computer into mouse motion. But those little wheels would pick up dust and gunk and that could make them get erratic. ... | [
"I'm guessing it is because when people move their mouse cursor, they move it left and right in a short distance and when you are focused on one area of the screen looking for it, you won't find it. Also it can also be moving too fast to notice too."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
Why does it take so long (longer than a week) to feel pain after a car accident and not a few days? | [
"If there still is pain you better go see a doctor and ask an actual professional about your very specific case! There can be no general answer as injuries - from neglectible to very concerning - of all imaginable and unimaginable kinds can happen."
] | [
"If the pain doesn’t come back after the medicine wears off, it is because your body has healed itself. If the pain is still there, you notice when the medicine wears off and either take another dose or ride it out. Generally pain decreases over time, so by the time your medicine wears off, the pain may be lessened... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
How accurate are nutrition labels on foods? | [
"Theoretically, they're pretty accurate. Numbers can be gotten through chemical testing or by combining the known nutritional quantities of the ingredients that go into the food. Typically, the bigger the food manufacturer, the more accurate its nutritional values are, as the manufacturing process and ingredient q... | [
"How much fat, protein and carbohydrates are there in water?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why are lactose-free products primarily targeted towards women? | [
"I'm assuming it is purely marketing... women still do most of the domestic tasks of a hetero-normative, \"average\", family. This includes the shopping. Perhaps women are more likely to engage with the dialogue around \"wellness\" too?"
] | [
"There are studies that grilled meats are bad, that cured meats are bad. That sugar is bad. That salt is bad. Fat, carbs, some fish, pork... on and on and on and on. Milk provides Vitamin D, potassium, B12, Calcium... in a convenient package. We've been eating dairy from cows for thousands of years, in the form of ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
How did diseases that are only transmitted Sexually originate ? | [
"Follow-up question (ELI5): Are there even diseases like that? HIV gets to you via blood (and certain fluids, but not exclusively), and it just so happens that your skin tears a wee bit during sex, making it easier for the virus to find a way in; HPV is contagious through the contents of the warts, and those warts... | [
"When bacteria and viruses try to kill us, its actually an unintended side effect. Bacteria and Viruses want to reproduce, and they cannot reproduce as much if we are dead. The reason many infections are deadly is because they were never meant for us. Plagues like Tuberculosis and Smallpox originated from Cows. T... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
How and why are the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 exploding and catching on fire? | [
"A huge flaw in the lithium ion batteries they use. Unlike most batteries, lithium ion batteries contain a flammable electrolyte. Under certain situations this can cause it to release gas, which builds up inside the highly pressurized case. In most cases, it starts to swell first and then, well, explodes: _URL_0_ T... | [
"Apple and Samsung aren't suing each other for making cell phones that taste the same."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How does metamorphosis work? | [
"Inside the cocoon and the chrysalis, the caterpillar is transforming into a new creature. This requires that the old caterpillar body be broken down and turned into something new. Think of it as insect recycling! Inside a chrysalis, a caterpillar’s body digests itself from the inside out. The same juices it used t... | [
"How do you define your hints of schizophrenia?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
If deep freezing only puts bacteria to sleep rather than killing them, then why does deep freezing sushi/sashimi fish makes them safe to consume raw? | [
"I think you're confusing bacteria with parasites. Freezing kills harmful parasites like tapeworms and roundworms. The bacteria you're concerned about has nothing to do with the fish itself and everything to do with who handles it. If there is any harmful bacteria on your sushi, I'd blame your chef for not washing... | [
"Regulations in the US, Canada, and several other countries require that any fish intended to be eaten raw is frozen to a very low temperature for a long time before it can be eaten. This kills parasites the same way cooking would, and it' only because of these careful rules that eating raw fish is ok. Similar to f... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How can this camera "visualize" the movement of light? | [
"Unlike a normal camera it doesn't capture the action as it happens. Instead, what it does is it takes many different images at different times and different experiements and then splices them together to form a coherent picture. It's like if you wished to get a slow motion video of water falling. You could get a... | [
"The same way it speeds up, except with opposite sign: the magnetic fields push on it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why when recording a song in a studio do they use a screen in front of the mic? | [
"It's called a pop filter, and it is used to break up \"plosives\" which are your Bs and Ps. When these sounds are produced they release a blast of air, and the microphone picks these up as bass rumbles under the fundamental frequency of the voice. The mesh of the pop filter diffuses the air passing through so ever... | [
"Each instrument has a Mic recording it. Some have various Mics, such as drum kits, acoustic guitar, or vocals. Once the recording is done, each microphone's gain levels are adjusted and tweaked. Sometimes effects are added in. Then each of these microphones recordings are edited to clean up the sound. Ever notice ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How does the resonance in a certain room make just a single string of stringed instruments vibrate and get louder and louder? | [
"Sound is a wave - a series of compressions (extra dense spots) and rarefactions (extra empty spots) in the air. Those sound waves bounce off the walls of the room, and propagate back into the room, where they overlap with other sound waves. (Mathematically, the overlapping of two waves is called [superposition](_U... | [
"Long story short: Air consists of a shitload of components: nitrogen, oxygen, carbondioxide and some other stuff. These atoms are way heavier than helium. Sounds waves travel faster through lighter gases. Air passes the vocal folds when talking, making them to vibrate and create sound waves. These sound waves boun... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
When you burn yourself, for instance by running very hot water over your hand, why does it take a solid second or two to actually feel pain? | [
"This coming from highschool bio knowledge so someone else might be able to give you a better answer. But there are 2 different kinds of nerves. The reason you pull your hand back is the first nerve in action, it's a reflex nerve. This saves time for the brain. Rather than have the signal go all the way to the brai... | [
"They are, but if you put something that hot in your mouth, you will spit it out before your teeth react to it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Dentistry:"
} |
What happens to a country's Nuclear Weapons after its government falls? | [
"As far as I am aware the only time something like this happened was during the fall of the USSR. Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan all returned the war heads to Russia as far as I know."
] | [
"Producing nuclear bombs are incredibly complex. Which is why only 9 countries in the world have them. (I am not including the nuclear weapons sharing countries from Europe) Also Iran has signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which prohibits them from building these weapons. Also world politics."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What are the scientific reasons why consanguineous marriage causes disabilities, malformations and congenital anomalies in the offspring? | [
"They don't, always. The degree to which it happens is typically overstated. However, inbreeding tends to result in homozygosity. Basically, more people sharing the same copies of genes. Since you get them from your parents, and your SO is closely related and also got them from their parents, your kid has a greater... | [
"> Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. That seems sketchy, just reading the abstract..."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Google Reader (or RSS feeds in general) | [
"Readers subscribe to sites (mostly blogs) that update regularly, so you can read all of em in one place. Like a twitter feed."
] | [
"RSS stands for **R**eally **S**imple **S**yndication. Think of it as a blog, but in a specialized format. To use RSS you have to have an RSS reader. There are web based ones (such as [Google Reader](_URL_2_)), desktop-based ones (such as [Feedreader](_URL_1_)), and some specialized ones (such as [gPodder](_URL_0_)... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
Why do ghostwriters ghostwrite when they are clearly talented enough to make a name for themselves? | [
"Some ghostwriters are already famous authors, and write for a paycheck. Some might be modestly successful, but an \"auto\"biography from someone famous is likely to make a lot more. Also, some writers like their subjects and want to write those stories. People line up to write for Presidents and Politicians. The... | [
"In her case, so that she could be taken seriously in a completely different genre. She (understandably) wants to know if people like her writing for it's quality or are just buying her books because of Harry Potter. In other cases, authors may do it to conceal their gender so as to be taken seriously in a biased g... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Whats the point of voting for President if the Electoral College exists? | [
"Your vote tells the electoral college how to vote (more specifically, you're voting for an elector who has promised to vote for a certain candidate)."
] | [
"It's not our job to police the world, thats why the world hates us."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
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