id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
5cyuvn | where did the idea that classical music makes infants smarter come from, and has it been proven? | [
{
"answer": "There was a study that showed pretty well that listening to music made adults temporarily better at doing a spatial reasoning paper folding task. \n\nThis sort of melted into \"classical music only specifically makes people smart\" to \"classical music makes babies smart\". It's some pretty big lea... | null |
1z2tn3 | marvel movie rights distribution | [
{
"answer": "[Infographic courtesy of The Geek Twins.](_URL_0_) \nI *think* the reason Marvel are OK with using Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver is that they're both X-Men characters and members of the Avengers, but I'm not sure.\n\nThe whole arrangement is because of Marvel trying to push out into TV and film fr... | null |
1iaktu | what is a "startup" company and how do they work? what is the employee/department structure like? | [
{
"answer": "It totally depends on the startup, there are a huge variety of structures for startups. Here's a example of a 15-person tech startup:\n\n3 founders, who are the bosses of everyone. They own the majority of the company. The board of directors are the people who can make decisions for the company. Us... | null |
1y3pch | What sort of toys did Roman children play with? | [
{
"answer": "Balls were very popular (usually inflated bladders). This example is Greek, but I believe the scene in the Odyssey in which Odysseus washes up on shore and Nausicaa is playing ball with her companions is the oldest mention of a ball game in western literature.\n\nChildren also commonly played with ... | null |
2r6uch | I heard that jupiter is a failed star due to not being massive enough to start a fusion reaction. If this is true, can we detonate a fusion bomb on the planet to start a chain reaction? | [
{
"answer": "They way it was explained to me in astronomy, is that it would take enormous amount of pressure (not just an atomic explosion) in order for the atoms to start fussing together and start a chain reaction like our current sun has. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Nope, because Jupite... | null |
1khb3q | What pre-modern examples are there of movements for racial equality? (more generally, political/legal economy of ethnic groups) | [
{
"answer": "During the era of the Roman Republic, citizen rights were only granted to people of Roman birth and heritage. Even Rome's closest allies - the other Italian cities - were not granted citizenship. \n\nThere was a lot of discontent people as those cities had been allied with Rome for hundreds of year... | null |
4484d5 | When you connect a voltage to a wire, how long will it take for it to be observable on the other end of the wire? Does the voltage propgate via electrons at the speed of light? Or is it slower? | [
{
"answer": "Practically, it is slower than the speed of light, because of the capacitance of the wire (which is very roughly about 10pF a foot, depending on the wire). With long, fine/high resistance wires, this can make for a significant filter. But in a theoretical, frictionless, vacuum world, one often says... | null |
3wv3k4 | how come even though imgur's servers are over capicated quite a few times a day, we are still able to view them on reddit? | [
{
"answer": "Rendering the PHP code and performing the SQL queries to dynamically render the Imgur site takes a lot of processing power. Their service provider will redirect to the Over Capacity page automatically if they are exceeding their allocated processor utilization. With a direct image URL, none of that... | null |
48ai9a | why hasn't the catholic church reported all of the priests with alleged child abuse charges to their local authorities? | [
{
"answer": "Because it would have a negative impact on the image of the church so they prefer to just make sure everyone involved keeps their mouth shut",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Also an arrogance on the part of the institution. They think that secular law is subordinate to church law, a... | null |
ay6t1d | At what stage do people typically "feel" cancer? How is it possible for someone to just get diagnosed at stage 4, at that point of metastasization shouldn't the person be in massive pain at stage 3 already? | [
{
"answer": "There's no answer to this as it is vastly vastly different between any of the 200+ types of cancer, and even within a type it can depend on where exactly the tumor is.\n\nFor example, the most common subtype of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma shows up as a very rapidly growing lymph node in the neck or chest ... | null |
6ozljf | What was it like to run a family restaurant in south in 1960 if you were not a racist and wanted to serve everyone who walks in through the door as best you can? | [
{
"answer": "Don't forget that before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Southern cities such as Atlanta and New Orleans segregated their restaurants by law. For example, Section 369 of the Birmingham, Alabama Racial Segregation Ordinances contained the following clause:\n\n > It shall be unlawful to conduct a resta... | null |
1ozqmv | why is there a certain smell to really cold freezers? | [
{
"answer": "The refrigerant is odorless ( _URL_0_ ). You're most likely smelling something resulting from the accumulation of moisture, the food, packaging, etc.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "53758770",
"title": "Retronasal s... | null |
t7aan | Would a pool of water protect you from the pressure wave and fiery heat of a bomb's explosion? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on how far away from the blast you are and where the blast originated (in the water or on top of the water), as well as the type of explosive. Mythbusters did an episode to test this myth and they used three types of explosives:gasoline, dynamite, and ammonium nitrate. If you were underwa... | null |
10wqoh | what determines the cc of an engine? what makes a bike 250cc vs. 500cc also why is a higher cc faster(typically)? | [
{
"answer": "It's a measure of volume in **c**ubic **c**entimeters that the pistons in the engine can displace. Very simply put, bigger engines are more powerful. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "cc's are dependent on the stroke of a piston and the diameter of the cylinder multiplied by the num... | null |
1nqhr5 | why is it that the nations of the commonwealth (canada, uk, australia, etc.) do not have the same traveling protocol as, say, the eu? why can't citizens of commonwealth nations travel into other commonwealth nations without showing passports, etc? | [
{
"answer": "Simply because there is no agreement between the commonwealth countries that would allow that. Despite being linked by history and a queen, they are still different countries and a travel agreement would require lots of negotiating and back and forth and so on.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
6b93nr | why are 'geniuses' always good at math? | [
{
"answer": "It honestly depends how you view geniuses.\n\nIf like a lot of people you think geniuses dont simply have to be very smart and have a high IQ. For example if you think people can be lyrical geniuses or comedic geniuses etc. Than they likely wont be good at math.\n\nIf you are only talking about sma... | null |
qbj95 | Is the gravitational pull of an object the same as the sum of the gravitational pull of the atoms that make up that object? | [
{
"answer": "Practically speaking, yes. If you look at the Newtonian theory of gravity, that is exactly what happens, and the Newtonian theory is close enough to the truth on the level you are describing. If you look at really massive objects (like neutron stars) then the Newtonian theory is no longer accurate ... | null |
1liamo | At the end of WWII in Europe, when Germany was being defeated in April, 1945, and the Allied forces were closing in from the east and the west, were there any incidents where the Russians and Americans/British accidentally fired on each other not realizing that they were fighting their ally? | [
{
"answer": "Not too certain about how widespread this was, but there is an interesting controversial incident near the end of the war involving Ivan Kozhedub, the highest-scoring Allied Ace of the war, and two American planes:\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, searching through th... | null |
x22zt | How can I estimate the size of clouds I see in the sky? | [
{
"answer": "I am not a meteorologist, but can offer some geometrical perspective.\n\nIf you know the altitude, you can get the rest. From the angular position above the horizon and the altitude, you can get the distance by right triangle trigonometry. Alternatively, from the distance and the angle above the h... | null |
5duixp | how do audio wires work? how does a unit send something through metal wires that comes out of a speaker as a song/voice/etc? | [
{
"answer": "A wire used for audio applications is not fundamentally different than any other kind of wire made of a similar material. They can all transmit electrical signals. The difference is in the nature of the signal being transmitted, and what is on the receiving end of that signal. If you were to plug a... | null |
42gg7v | What's the smallest object that can become a black hole(due to plank length)? | [
{
"answer": "The limit is around the Planck mass. When approaching this limit from above quantum gravity effects become important.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "206115",
"title": "Schwarzschild radius",
"section": "Sect... | null |
13em72 | i really don't want to sound racist, but why do so many indian people smell? | [
{
"answer": "If you cook a lot with spices (rather than store bought jars) then it tends to get in your clothes and hair. Also I find I tend to sweat a curry smell when I've been eating a lot.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's all relative.\nI'm white and from New Zealand, a similar culture ... | null |
aif0hr | How is an ICBM, used to carry warheads thousands of miles over a presumably high altitude, different than a rocket used to deliver objects into space? Specifically, why does weather affect a space launch window and not affect a potential ICBM launch? | [
{
"answer": "Many ICBMs have been repurposed to launch payloads to space and many rocket designs are based on ICBMs.\n\nThe difference is simply the expected reliability. If you lose a satellite worth $1B that is bad, better wait a day with the launch. If you lose a few nuclear weapons when both countries launc... | null |
3jwz6f | As one of the effects of MDMA on the human brain, what is the exact mechanism by which MDMA affects the (left) amygdala? | [
{
"answer": "MDMA causes release of massive amounts (well, \"massive\" in a relative sense) of serotonin and dopamine. Activation of seritonergic neurons in the amygdala is linked to a decrease in anxiety...thus, this is suggested to be part of the mechanism by which MDMA could be useful for PTSD and severe anx... | null |
he4hw | How is it that (kinetic) energy appears or disappears based on your frame of reference? | [
{
"answer": "Kinetic energy is only conserved within one particular reference frame.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Two-ex's answer is the right one. But just to elaborate, possibly in a way that you will not find helpful: Kinetic energy is not actually a *thing,* distinct and of itself. What ... | null |
nkriv | Is there such a thing as a non-reflective liquid? | [
{
"answer": "In order to get something that will not reflect, you need something with with an index of refraction close to that of air 1.0002926. Random internet searching yielded the best candidate of liquid hydrogen with an index 1.097. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are actually me... | null |
bz5v7q | if grapes become raisins when dried, why does mango when dried, remain as dried mango. | [
{
"answer": "Well with plums to prunes it’s even weirder!!\n\nGrapes dry into raisins. When juiced we say grape juice! No such thing as raisin juice!\n\nPlums dry into prunes. However, there is such a thing a prune juice! How does prune JUICE exist if it’s dry plums? How can you juice something that’s been... | null |
7uo8bm | why do animals shed fur all their lives, but when you make a fur coat, it doesn't shed? | [
{
"answer": "Because fur on an animal works like hair on a person - it grows and sheadding is a built in way to keep it clean and maintained. Along with grooming habits like licking.\n\nA fur coats fur does not grow, as a fur coat is not alive. And the skin has been treated to retain the fur as much as possibl... | null |
2rrvdu | how do car doors freeze shut? | [
{
"answer": "There's one main thing that causes this and it is the rubber gasket that lines your entire door.\n\nOver time, that gasket gets moisture in it. Since it's a rubbery porous material, it holds onto it. When it starts to get cold, that moisture freezes and sticks to the door frame. The only reason it ... | null |
1604qv | Why is the moon's density lower than Earth's density? | [
{
"answer": "The reason an impact would create a less-dense moon is because 1) the heavier elements would have settled near the core of the proto-Earth that existed before the collision, and as such less of them would be ejected, and 2) of the mass ejected, heavier elements would be more likely to fall back to ... | null |
56cup8 | why are so many resolutions considered 2k? | [
{
"answer": "Because '2K' is a marketing term with no formal definition. Basically what the people selling the screens are trying to say is that the resolution is better than 1080p.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "46286567",
"tit... | null |
26z0st | why is it that the word allegedly is used even though there is video evidence that the act was in fact committed? | [
{
"answer": "It's common practice for people who work with the law to use this terminology. It reminds everyone that no one is guilty until that guilt is decided by a court of law.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If there's a video of a person who looks almost exactly like, say, \"Mike Jones\" ... | null |
28jkq9 | why remove the downvote/upvote counter? | [
{
"answer": " > Why remove the downvote/upvote counter?\n\nBecause it's never been accurate in the first place. Their \"fuzzing\" algorithm adds fake votes to comments and submissions to prevent bot networks from being able to know if they're accurately able to game the voting system.",
"provenance": null
... | null |
2y7vuf | breast implants | [
{
"answer": "Silicone is placed in the required area. Procedure is similiar to plastic surgery. It feels good when you touch it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4892591",
"title": "Breast implant",
"section": "",
... | null |
2mb9cf | Is there a limit to how many times you can gravity assist a space craft with one planet before it stops increasing its velocity? | [
{
"answer": "There's an upper limit to the amount of times you can use gravity assists to accelerate without having to burn a lot of fuel to get another one. If you hit the escape velocity out of the solar system, you'd have to slow down at some point to loop back and get another encounter with anything in that... | null |
46otsq | Could a musket actually be tap-loaded effectively and regularly, or is that just a myth? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, you can tap-load a musket for a couple of shots, IF, as was typical, the ball is a loose fit in the bore. The tricky thing is that as the bore fouls ( and black powder creates a good bit of fouling) the ball will be tighter and tighter, and the fouling could also accumulate a little heavier at... | null |
zcgi5 | broadband pricing tiers — business vs. home | [
{
"answer": "One reason that business is more than home is because it usually comes with higher uptime guarantees, different (better) technical support and issue response times, and less restrictions (generally you're not supposed run a webserver on a home connection, although you can certainly do it from a tec... | null |
98akpu | Were there differences in the quality of metalworking between the Roman Empire and medieval Europe? | [
{
"answer": "The quality of iron objects improved immensely after the collapse of the Roman iron industry.\n\nArchaeometallurgists (people who study the metallurgy of archaeological artifacts) use a method called metallography to evaluate the quality and composition of metal artifacts. You cut a cross-section f... | null |
1zzkgp | To what extent is Ibn Rush (AKA Averroes) regarded as the "founding father of secular thought in Western Europe"? | [
{
"answer": "\"Secular thought\" is a tough thing to quantify here. Lots of people tend to look at him as secular simply because he opposed the orthodox Ash'ari ideas of Imam al-Ghazali, but he was by no means secular in the modern European sense. His greatest work was \"The Distinguished Jurists Primer\" a com... | null |
22b1ag | Why are we so dependent on bees to pollinate our crops? | [
{
"answer": "Bees don't eat the pollen, they just spread it. That being said, bees are primary pollinators for a great many plants, and in some cases the exclusive pollinator. Some plants just plain aren't attractive to anything *but* a specific species, such as a certain bee. In cases of these exlusive pollina... | null |
1au9oh | Why do Russian military aircraft have a teal interior paint scheme? | [
{
"answer": " > easy on the eyes\n\nThat's part of the reason. It's meant to keep pilots calm in combat and allow for easier transitions when looking inside and outside. The VVS started using it in WW2 but it's been kept around with some interesting innovations; for example, Fulcrums and Flankers have instrum... | null |
13bi3f | cardinality, what is it, and how does it work? | [
{
"answer": "\"Cardinality\" pretty much just means size. The cardinality of a set is its size.\n\nCommonly, instead of formalizing the cardinality of a set as a particular thing, we formalize the idea of one set being bigger than another, or two sets being the same size. So if A and B are sets and |A| and |B| ... | null |
jfled | How are Particle collisions imaged? | [
{
"answer": " > do the detectors use Xrays?\n\nNo, all our particle detectors for particle physics are actually passive devices. They often get described in public lectures as being large digital cameras...and I think that is a reasonable (albeit simplified) way of looking at things.\n\nSo what a lot of these ... | null |
zgpyr | Help in understanding the geography of Greece at the time of the Peloponnesian war. | [
{
"answer": " > Is Attica the name of the main body of land in southern Greece?\n\n[Attica](_URL_3_) is the general area around Athens.\n\n > Was the main body of the Pelopennes the northern landmass of Greece?\n\nThe [Peloponnesus](_URL_0_) is the big southern peninsula (Though it looks almost like an island ... | null |
1ws6r4 | how can stores sell things on sale while still making a profit? | [
{
"answer": "It's called a loss leader. It's something to get you into the store where you'll probably see something else you want, maybe a drink, maybe get something for dinner too...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are two things to consider:\n\n1. Stores have a larger markup on items t... | null |
f21xk | Where does the energy to keep Europa's ocean liquid come from? Conservation of energy question. | [
{
"answer": "[I would explain it, but wikipedia does a good enough job](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "My first guess would have been radiation from the sun, but the orbit of Jupiter is about 5 A.U., meaning it and its moons receive about 1/(5²) = 4% of the radiation per area the Eart... | null |
1lznz1 | I found this painting cleaning out my grandfather's house- anyone know who it is (probably German)? (X post from /r/AskHistory) _URL_0_ | [
{
"answer": "It is [Józef Piłsudski](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "869841",
"title": "Little White House",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_i... | null |
98o5d2 | I recently found a knife handle from a US Army mess kit and I want to know a bit more about it. | [
{
"answer": "A Model 1917. Most military surplus stores have them in bins for small change. Staple of campers and Boy Scouts everywhere.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sorry, just a Model number. It's the year it was accepted for use by the US Army. Check it out on line for pictures styles... | null |
9bqj97 | Until Clinton's presidency in the 90s, California voted mainly Republican senators and governors and Texas voted mainly Democrat ones. During and since Clinton, California has voted mainly Democrat and Texas has voted Republican. What caused this drastic switch? | [
{
"answer": "Concerning Texas and the South (can't speak for California). I'll attempt a brief summary of many events, some of them bloody. It was a drastic switch and a drastic time.\n\nThe Democratic party began to lose the south with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of ... | null |
3f7gci | how can cats cover themselves in saliva daily and not stink? | [
{
"answer": "Cat saliva contains a natural antiseptic which keeps their fur clean. \nAccording to wiki \"Nitrates that are naturally found in saliva break down into nitric oxide on contact with skin, which inhibit bacterial growth\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
36h7y7 | how culturally and technologically advanced were natives of australia compared to native american civilizations? | [
{
"answer": "Well, that rather depends how you define \"culturally advanced\", doesn't it? \n\nBut by the usual metrics of technological advancement, mesolithic.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Australia's a big place and there's a lot of diversity, so I'll just hit some highlights.\n\n* **Monu... | null |
7ohs01 | why aren't you supposed to pour boiling water on honey? | [
{
"answer": "Google is your friend mate. Turns out it is mostly a myth. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > The health benefits of honey are pretty negligible. That said, mixing it with hot water or even heating it directly will not make honey toxic.\n\n > The idea that it would be toxic is because heating foods that contain sug... | null |
5zir1r | How reliable was pilot kill counts during WW2? What kept pilots from inflating their scores for personal gain, or countries from doing the same for propaganda purposes? | [
{
"answer": "In WWII, fighter pilot kill claims were generally exaggerated ~~by about a factor or 5 to 10~~(Edit: to a degree ranging from very substantial to very extreme), when compared against enemy loss numbers in records available after the war. This is true for all countries participating in the war. Ev... | null |
3306qq | why do cats sometimes kill smaller animals for no reason? | [
{
"answer": "It's to maintain their predatory skills. They are hunters by nature. If they didn't have us for care they'd have to hunt for food. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Think of the cat as a wild hunting machine that just so happens has been domesticated over hundreds, thousands of year... | null |
md9p4 | What kind of advancements are being made in weather forecasting? | [
{
"answer": "It's probably more of the opposite, NOAA funding cuts means they won't be able to replace satellites and can barely maintain current ones.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "just aced a meteorology class... There are many new technologies and forecasting methods weather researchers ar... | null |
1ye244 | Camel cataphracts and similar cavalry units-- the real deal or a cute little anachronism? | [
{
"answer": "To make a long story short-\nArmored cavalry with armored horses are a VERY old concept, and were incredibly effective.\nThe byzantines, at various times in their history, were infamous for deploying (comparatively) large groups of them, and using them rather skillfully in concert with pike and sho... | null |
rb6p4 | cancer. | [
{
"answer": "A cancerous cell is a cell that has gone through uncontrolled division. It has the possibility of disrupting neighboring cells and causing them to not function as well. A group of cancerous cells in your body is called a tumor. There are two kinds of tumor: benign and malignant. The malignant ones ... | null |
29a8y9 | What would the effects on the human body be from going from -70F to 110F weather very quickly, as it is a difference in 140F? | [
{
"answer": "Well, lets assume the person was not completely exposed to the elements in either case. If it gets to -70, you are not going outside without proper clothing. If it were to change in an instant, you would start to get hot very quickly, probably overheat and pass out if you didn't immediately start s... | null |
5fewzf | how does "making yourself heavy" make you heavier to carry? | [
{
"answer": "When you \"make yourself heavy\", you go limp, meaning that whoever wants to carry you must support and maneuver your entire body weight. This makes you feel a lot heavier than if you were supporting yourself in small part using your legs or arms. Your instinct is to support your weight with your... | null |
1swqft | why do countrys seprate into states? | [
{
"answer": "They didn't separate into states. The individual states joined together to form countries. However, while they could agree to ally together for certain purposes (e.g. foreign policy, interstate commerce, etc.), they could not agree about everything (e.g. slavery, voting rights, etc.), so they kept ... | null |
7pkntn | During the French Revolution, many French officers had fled abroad, and the ones who stayed feared their own troops. The new Revolutionary Army was comprised of poorly trained conscripts against multiple, better trained armeis. So how did France mange to win the War of the First Coalition? | [
{
"answer": "I want to concentrate on the period 1792-1794, which is the initial post-revolutionary period, with context surrounding these years.\n\nAfter the War of the Austrian Succession in 1750 France founded the Ecole Millitare, which in 1777 became the École des Cadets-gentilshommes. Its intention was to ... | null |
3800lx | British officers in WW1 | [
{
"answer": " > the officers and higher ranks were all taken from public schools rather than due to experience\n\nThis is only partially true; yes, a great majority would have attended public school, considering that it took money and education to be an officer. As a result, most would have been upper and mid... | null |
meg8o | Can someone briefly explain the Lorenz Attractor? | [
{
"answer": "Basically the Lorenz attractor comes from modeling of convective flow of a fluid that is being heated from the bottom. (The heated fluid changed in density, which causes it to flow upward against gravity.) The model Lorenz developed has 3 coupled differential equations with a set of 3 parameters.... | null |
4v35q2 | why do the facebook app and mobile site require you to download the messenger app, when opening a desktop version on my phone lets me use the messaging system just fine? | [
{
"answer": "I know right? It's BS. My cell phone is paid for by my work and therefore I'm restricted on what apps I can have on it, so this is an especially annoying issue for me.\n\nIt boils down to a business decision. What the benefits to the business are of you using the app over the website version I can'... | null |
5mmr0h | In WW2, why were troops allowed to paint on their planes etc? It seems like they would give away their position rather than modern camouflage patterns. | [
{
"answer": "Painting of aircraft and the levity allowed for individual markings depended on the time, place, air service doctrine and conditions.\n\nFor example Royal Air Force and Germany-based Luftwaffe aircraft tended to be painted in the standard schemes proscribed by the high command. Individual markings ... | null |
4ic1sh | What is the difference between vapor and gas? | [
{
"answer": "All condensed phases of matter have finite \"vapour pressures\" meaning that they lose mass by evaporation unless/until a dynamic equilibrium with the gas phase is reached. The vapour, then, is the gaseous form of the material (from evaporation) at a temperature below its boiling point.",
"prov... | null |
11dfto | What qualifies a certain aquatic species to be called a shark? | [
{
"answer": "[Six reasons.](_URL_0_) Second Google search result. Very clearly-written explanation, I like this site.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sharks, rays, skates, and chimaeras make up the class Chondrichthyes (\"cartilage fish\"). Key features of chondrichthyans include a cartilaginou... | null |
1yc790 | Could someone recommend me articles/books on the subject of the development of hereditary feudal system? | [
{
"answer": "You'd probably do well to check out [*Fiefs and Vassals* by Susan Reynolds](_URL_1_). It's pretty much essential reading if you want to know the other side of the debate with Bloch's view that's been rumbling on since [Elizabeth Brown's article *The Tyranny of a Construct*](_URL_0_).",
"provena... | null |
6b9mzd | how did worms get inside a mango seed if it didn't make any holes on the outside. | [
{
"answer": "They burrow inside before the seed is fully matured.\n\n > The newly hatched larva is about 1 mm long and burrows through the pulp and into the seed where it will remain until it becomes an adult. Minimum time from hatching to seed penetration is one day. There are at least five larval instars in ... | null |
8z2t3i | Why was George Washington elected as "President" and not, for example, as "Chancellor", "Leader", or "Director"? Why was "President" specifically used? | [
{
"answer": "[This answer](_URL_0_) by /u/bigslothonmyface explains why \"President\" was chosen over a more elevated title. They don't give a reason why \"President\" specifically was chosen though.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I remember a historian commenting on this on a radio program so... | null |
dhia19 | why do employers give new employees higher salaries, rather than rewarding loyalty and giving the better salary to employees already there? | [
{
"answer": "The question you have to ask yourself is why would they.\n\nYour coworker still works there. There is no incentive for your bosses to pay them any better than they currently do. Sure loyalty is virtuous and should be rewarded, but companies dont care about virtue. They care about making money, and ... | null |
6hiwlf | why is the vision of spiders depicted as them seeing 8 of the same image as opposed to those 8 eyes merging the images together like human eyes? | [
{
"answer": "Because that's literally how they work! It's called a compound eye, and it is comprised of many similarly shaped pieces that \"see\" independently from the others.\n\nAs a result, their vision looks like many repeats of the same image. It's actually incredibly useful because they see every tiny mov... | null |
8swsfu | what is that we see as happiness/love/desire/sadness/depression in someone else’s eyes? has then something physically changed in person’s eyeballs or how are those feelings manifested that make us to perceive them so effortlessly? | [
{
"answer": "It's the combination of eyelids, cheeks, and eyebrows. Those three areas of the face are all very close together, and very slight differences in angle and tension can communicate a wealth of information about what the person is thinking/feeling. Cycle through a few emotions and feel how your eyel... | null |
2m3cop | what would landing on a flying aircraft carrier be like from a physics standpoint? | [
{
"answer": "Pretty much. Seeing as how modern aircraft carriers already move in 3 dimensions (bobbing up and down on waves and such.) The physics of actually landing would be pretty much the same.\n\nThe only likely problem would be trying to land in the dirty air created by whatever the carrier was using to s... | null |
2hmk8v | why is it that when you hit a dimming/dying flashlight it becomes brighter and lasts for a little longer? | [
{
"answer": "I'm sure it has something to do with the battery connection.\n\nOn a lot of remote powered things, remote controls are a great example, if you take the batteries out and put them back in they work a little longer. Works if you just twirl the batteries.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answe... | null |
2hdq5o | why was there all this question about whether or not russia sent troops to ukraine in this day and age? is it really not that black and white when they claim thousands of troops and tanks? | [
{
"answer": "A man breaks into your apartment in the middle of the night. A piece of uniform shirt is sticking out from under his jacket, so you think he's a cop. You call 911.\n\n\"Hello, 911, what is your emergency?\"\n\n\"There's a police officer in my house without a warrant.\"\n\n\"There are no police offi... | null |
5aikpe | why is the x86 architecture the only real force in the home computer market? | [
{
"answer": "To find the real reason, we need to go back to the early 1980s.\n\nIBM wanted to make a home computer. They had a choice of operating systems, and eventually decided to go with Microsoft (that's a story by itself, but we'll stick with the relevant stuff for now).\n\nDuring the negotiations, though,... | null |
x4gsh | How much did America REALLY help in World War I | [
{
"answer": "America's contribution was pretty much vital in terms of the war finishing in 1918. From the point of view of the Western Allies, things were actually looking quite bleak in 1917. For one, the French Army (who had shouldered most of the burden on the Western Front) was nearing breaking point (somet... | null |
erci38 | how do banks hold electronic money? | [
{
"answer": "All banks must have accounts with the Central Bank (at least for US) but it isn't for the reasons you mention. Banks can simply debit and credit each other electronically without need for Central Banks to keep a record since each Bank will definitely keep a record of it (it is their core business!)... | null |
6k5a8v | Why is it believed black holes preserve mass, charge and angular momentum, but not baryon number, weak isospin and lepton number? | [
{
"answer": "Basically nobody has a fully quantum mechanically sound theory that relates to black holes, so people don't know whether they expect these things to be conserved or not. \n\nI would say these quantities probably are conserved but don't affect the properties of a black hole. To an outside observer... | null |
294rfh | why does methamphetamine use ruin your teeth? | [
{
"answer": "If I remember right when you do meth your mouth get's really dry for a long time it starts to rot, as you don't have saliva to wash away food particles, like sugar. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Lack of hygiene. Dry mouth i believe does the most damage. Allowing your own acids c... | null |
1ofq1p | how do search dogs track scents? | [
{
"answer": "Let's say they have a piece of your clothing. The dog is trained to follow a scent that is given to it, so they let it smell your clothing, then using its extremely acute sense of of smell it is able to follow the scent of the clothing you have on you. A smart criminal abandons any clothing it know... | null |
5e9fft | In l’Hospital’s Rule, Why is the limit of a function the derivative of f(x) divided by the derivative of g(x)? Isn’t that like saying: to determine a person’s location you must know their speed? | [
{
"answer": "L'Hopital's Rule has nothing to do with position, speed, or any physics whatsoever. First of all, it is not true that the limit of f(x)/g(x) is equal to the limit of f'(x)/g'(x). You need some conditions. The simplest proof is for the case when f(a) = g(a) = 0. Then we have\n\n > f(x)/g(x) = [(f(x... | null |
ldeyf | the driving force behind evolution. | [
{
"answer": "Evolution is based on the idea of \"natural selection\". Let me explain what exactly happens with DNA first. \n\nEvery living thing has DNA, which has a lot of pieces arranged in a certain way. The DNA is like a map for how everything is built. A human and a dog have DNA that makes sure they have ... | null |
21jd8i | what is icann and why everyone is freaking out over the us ending their contract with them? | [
{
"answer": "In short (I'm over-simplifying here) the ICANN takes care of internet addresses. This has been in the US for years, but after the NSA spying scandal they decided it was time to make some changes. See also: _URL_0_\n\nIt was always the plan to be global, and not tied to one specific country's govern... | null |
19b2uh | What might the earliest human languages have sounded like? | [
{
"answer": "We have no idea.\n\nSome people are saying \"Click languages!\", based on [this](_URL_3_) research, which claimed to show that phoneme density went down the farther you got from Africa. But there were some serious methodological issues with that paper- mainly, their definition of \"phoneme\". Despi... | null |
buqj4i | What happened to the rail network of the US? | [
{
"answer": "A similar question was answered [here](_URL_0_) a while ago.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "For the most part, it’s still around. The US doesn’t have construction of railways because we already have lots of them. All the big transcontinental routes you read about from the 19th c... | null |
7rm41g | 1) why is there gaps or spaces between galaxies? 2) what fills these gaps or spaces? 3) why aren’t galaxies connect like a web or something? | [
{
"answer": "Gravity makes matter floating in space lump up. Any two nearby objects will tend to attract each other, and any long string will attract its ends toward the middle, making a tighter cluster.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If there was no such thing as gravity, then everything woul... | null |
4jz809 | Is there a certain density needed for gravity? | [
{
"answer": "There is no theoretical minimum but (above and) below certain masses and (above and) below certain length scales there haven't been experiments.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "your body or a pebble still have little attraction, so it's not easy to make something orbit. you can get... | null |
qko06 | why dvd ripping is "not okay" and cd ripping is | [
{
"answer": "Because the DVD companies encrypt their content to prevent piracy and there are no repercussions from the market whereas when music companies attempted this there were repercussions. If you ever really want to know the reasons behind a decision follow the money trail.",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
8agrkd | How does Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) works inside liquid? | [
{
"answer": "I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking, but in general it works the same way as it does in air, but with some caveats. \n\nIn air, you scan the tip, which is at the end of a cantilever, over your sample. At the same time, you bounce a laser off of the back of the cantilever and to a detector, so t... | null |
470p02 | Is the color red lucky in China because of tradition, or because Communism is associated with the color? | [
{
"answer": "This question is not really a good question for /r/AskHistorians as this particular question is more of an anthropology question. That said:\n\nRed as a symbolic color in China has always been considered culturally lucky and associated with joy way before the Communist Revolution in China. The co... | null |
1vedya | how it is not discrimination for offering race specific scholarships. | [
{
"answer": "It is discrimination -- it's publicly acceptable (and completely legal) discrimination.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I don't live in the states but even where I live there are scholarships for minorities/kids of army veterans etc and they're ALSO eligible for merit based type sc... | null |
6cpdp0 | why do water droplets reflect their surroundings upside down? | [
{
"answer": "The water droplets act like a converging lens. When you are close enough to a water droplet to see the reflection clearly, you are still outside the focal length, so the image appears upside down and stretched out. Were you able to get *very* close (and have there still be enough light to see), you... | null |
15swxu | Regarding armed combat, was a dual wielding style ever used or maybe even advantageous? | [
{
"answer": "Miyamoto Musashi was famous for mastering a dual sword technique if I'm not mistaken",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I have not seen many references to \"dual wielding\" in combat in historical sources. The only references I have seen are in relation to training. Norse warriors wer... | null |
7ushol | Can mitochondria catch viruses? | [
{
"answer": "\"The self-destruction of cells infected with viruses undergoes the process of apoptosis generally to restrict infection and the spread of viral progeny. To avoid infection host has evolved interconnected complex defence network that comprises innate and acquired immune response. Mitochondria being... | null |
b0g84x | how red light therapy works | [
{
"answer": " > \tNothing about it makes sense to me. How does this work?\n\nIt is simple: Saps pay money for a red LED light and believe any pseudoscientific nonsense that is tossed their way. The scam artist makes a load of money off this fad.\n\nOf course it doesn't do anything, there is no evidence that the... | null |
5qypru | Why is thick ice blue? | [
{
"answer": "For the same reason that ocean water is blue. Water and ice both [only absorb weakly in the visible spectrum.](_URL_0_) However this absorption is stronger in the red part of the spectrum and weaker at the blue end. As a result, the intrinsic color of water and ice is blue. The problem is that in o... | null |
2i3ms8 | How is it possible to use flourine in toothpaste and how does it prevent decay? | [
{
"answer": "Flourine vs flouride. Big difference!\n\nHydroxylapatite Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 (I don't know how to do subscript on reddit, sorry) undergoes hydroxyl exchange with flouride to form flouroapatite. Fluoroapatite is much more resistant to acid mediated degradation. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
2n0imv | At which time did poland rename all their cities from German to Polish? Also, why did they rename them? | [
{
"answer": "The current set of Polish borders are significantly different from the historical set of borders constituting what is \"Poland\". Poland existed as an independent state until 1795, when it was partitioned between Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Poland was revived as an independent state in the afterm... | null |
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