id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
g5ayv | What's the deal with Hugh Everett's "Many Worlds Interpretation"- is this taken seriously? | [
{
"answer": " > is this another one of those \"Yes, that's another way of looking at the math, but it has no bearing on reality\" things?\n\nRight now it is. It has no bearing on anything testable.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "First let me be very clear. Science only can tell us what we will... | null |
20ry4j | How long can brain cells live for? | [
{
"answer": "Well, neurons (the cells generally being referred to with the term \"brain cells) are only replaced by stem cells, so an animal's neurons are generally as old as it is. From [wikipedia](_URL_0_), the longest recorded lifespan of an animal is around 200 years, so that it is a limit on the lifespan ... | null |
6txoqh | why do so many people wiggle their feet to fall asleep? what exactly's happening there? | [
{
"answer": "I've never heard of this, but I assume it would give your mind something benign to focus on instead of thinking of things that may induce anxiety or other emotions that may keep you awake. Similar to the classic idea of counting sheep.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I do it while ... | null |
1owxh3 | Why do we hear a difference between good and wrong notes/tones in music? | [
{
"answer": "You may be interested in this:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nand this:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A musical pitch is just the sound waves resonating at a certain frequency. So for example, middle A is a sound wave with a frequency of 440 Hz. \n\nIf you play two notes at once, the ... | null |
2wn7xn | why does software like itunes tell me "an unknown error occurred" and then give me an error number which obviously means the error is known? | [
{
"answer": "Did you look up the code? Because there is a code for \"Unknown error.\" It's what you get when none of the other known error codes match.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"Unknown error\" means that nobody bothered writing up a detailed, user-friendly error message. Normally, onl... | null |
30avqo | what is instantaneous frequency? | [
{
"answer": "Let's you were playing a trombone, moving the slide to constantly change the frequency of the notes.\n\nThe instantaneous frequency would be the note your were playing at any given moment in time. If I grabbed your slide and stopped it from moving, it is the note you would keep on playing.",
"... | null |
392okz | Can anyone help identify the ribbons and branch of service of my South African ancestor? | [
{
"answer": "Thanks to a tip elsewhere, I think the cap badge might be from the 1st Infantry Brigade from the Union of South Africa. If that helps narrow the possibilities, Wikipedia says they served in Egypt and on the Western Front. \n\nCould the third medal then (from the left) be a French Cross/Croix de Gue... | null |
2ca3ui | Why are Art History departments in colleges usually separate from History departments? | [
{
"answer": "Someone studying art history would need to study history as well because historical context matters in studying works of art. However, it is more about the development of art than purely history. The difference between an art program and an art history program is similar to the split in many Englis... | null |
fnhel4 | Is it true that Milan was relatively unscathed by the Black Death? How, as a major center of trade, were they able to manage this? Did they take any pro-active steps to spare the city? | [
{
"answer": "You are probably referring to the Black Plague of 1348; this plague outbreak (the first in Europe identified as the Bubonic Plague) is estimated to have killed up to 40% of Europe's population, but only 10% of the population of the Italian city of Milan. I'd first point out that subsequent plague p... | null |
1tam3k | my iphone is 32 gb. it says i have 22.5 used gb and only 5.2 gb left, why is this. | [
{
"answer": "Apple pre-loads the device with things like the operating system and apps. It has about 32GB storage before they load it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Some of it is used by system information. I think they don't count that",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The int... | null |
6c73jg | why do most helmets have a bunch of gaps? | [
{
"answer": "For ventilation and weight reduction.\n\nSports helmets don't need to be maximally strong.They're plenty strong enough to do their job, so it's safe to make some holes in them to reduce weight and improve ventilation and comfort.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance... | null |
2s5v00 | what is a stable star? | [
{
"answer": "There is an online game about horses called Star Stable. \nMister Ed was a TV show about a talking horse, so he was a stable star. \nThere was a groupie in the '70s named Sable Starr.\n\nYou're going to have to give some context to that question. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": n... | null |
sv9ky | Why are there natural grassy 'fields' with no canopy layer? | [
{
"answer": "There's a lot of conditions that could cause that. In the Ozarks there are places like that called glades. These glades are formed over variable depth soil that can't support the growth of trees. If you don't do anything to these places they do tend to get overgrown by shrubs and other tree spec... | null |
3g39fw | what is donald trump's platform? | [
{
"answer": "He literally doesn't have one.\n\nI recently read somewhere (can't remember where, sorry) how political reporters covering him are getting frustrated, because they try to find policy statements for background that are standard issue for candidates, and it simply doesn't exist for Trump. He is just ... | null |
fakoti | In electricity, where does the flow of electrons actually come from? | [
{
"answer": "The electrons were already in the copper, before the turbine started spinning. They were drifting between the atoms of copper. There's no damage, because the electrons just go back and forth. A typical speed might be 0.02 millimeters per cycle, at 50 cycles per second. Even if the current is DC, t... | null |
3cx2ka | Why are popular depicted byzantine pieces of art less realistic than counterparts from the roman empire? | [
{
"answer": " > Since the byzantines inherited much of the roman culture **one would expect** the art to have sustained the realistic depictions of known ancient artwork.\n\nWhy? There are a lot of assumptions packed into your question. Roman portraiture, especially imperial portraits, were not realistic. I... | null |
11wsye | How much do you think Alexander the Great's success was due to his father? | [
{
"answer": "I think what we see today regarding the credit given to Philip rather than Alexander is a bit on the revisionist side of the pendulum swing. What I mean by this is for quite a long time we'd all learned what an amazing human being Alexander was, who did all of these incredible things through sheer ... | null |
282nr0 | have we not yet found a scientific proof of homosexuality in humans? | [
{
"answer": "No, we have not found a genetic cause for homosexuality.\n\nBut at the same time, it is not a choice to be gay.\n\nThe theory that I see most often is that it is environmental with certain genetic triggers (but those triggers alone do not cause it).\n\nBut it is a choice to a certain degree. Bear w... | null |
2srzam | what kind of people are on the committees for major awards like the oscars and how does someone get appointed to the committee? | [
{
"answer": "Sarcastic, but shockingly close to the truth answer: White older people get nominated to be part of the Academy by current old white members.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You can't apply, you have to be invited. If you work in the film industry in some capacity and your work ha... | null |
2of8xy | Why do lightbulbs need so much "free space" between the filament and the glass? | [
{
"answer": "The bulb is filled with an inert gas (usually argon) that does not react with the filament. Throughout the bulb's life time, oxygen slowly seeps into the bulb, and once it passes some threshold, there is enough oxygen for the filament to oxidize and break, which causes the light to go out.\n\nThere... | null |
16f3r7 | What was the historical Western response to terrorism prior to the 20th century? | [
{
"answer": "Not an answer just a note that terrorism is a slightly modern term. The example you ask is either piratry (if the ship was working independently) or a act of war (if the ship was state-sponsored in its acts).\n\nYou'd have to define to terrorism before we can get a proper argument going.\n\nThis is... | null |
kncg4 | why does white look pink after coming inside on a bright day? why does white look blue on a camera? | [
{
"answer": "It's all about white balance. White, unfortunately, isn't white. It's made up of a lot of different colors in combination so that it looks white. But there are lots of ways to subtly change what \"white\" is - and when you see two different \"whites\" together, it's easy to see that one may look... | null |
235eos | How can vegetarian animals be so similar to carnivore physically? | [
{
"answer": "Herbivores have the ability to digest more plant matter, and get various nutrients that omnivores and carnivores can't. Herbivores can make certain proteins, while carnivores can't, so the carnivores eat the herbivores to get the proteins that they make.\n\nThat's as simple as I can put it.",
"... | null |
5p2658 | how is it that microscopes can see through an organism? | [
{
"answer": "The microscope focuses on a very thin plane. Everything above and below is blurred out. So as long as light is getting through then you can see an image.\n\nIf you think about it, MRI's get their pictures the same way. One layer is in sharp detail. Every thing else is taken out.\n\nI never tried to... | null |
3skhm6 | what is reactive power and how is it different from active power ? | [
{
"answer": "There are some mathematical definitions of AC power, active power and reactive power - but they mostly require knowledge of complex numbers which i won't go into (unless someone wants me to). \n\n**Definition of power** \nLet us start with the definition of power in a component: \nPower = V... | null |
8f9j9i | Is there any benefit to being lighter skinned in colder climates? | [
{
"answer": "Usually colder climates have less sun. Even if not, people cover up. Lighter skin helps people make more vitamin D with less light, so it is a survival thing for places where skin is more covered up or there is less sun. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Others have correctly st... | null |
1npt72 | Why are microphones so much smaller than speakers? | [
{
"answer": "You don't need the full length of a wave to pick it up. The physics behind it can be complicated, but basically there is a piece of metal between magnets and the flux of the metal as it move in the pressure wave creates a voltage in the magnets. This voltage can be very small, as long as it's measu... | null |
8c46ms | what is the mad cow disease? why can humans get it? | [
{
"answer": "The Mad Cow disease is a thing called a Prion disease. It's a rare type of malformed protein which supposedly there is no cure for.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mad Cow is a prion disease. Prions are misfolded proteins, large biological molecules that compose large parts of our ... | null |
d028mi | what causes ‘the zoomies’ in animals? | [
{
"answer": "Children do not get hyperactive from ingesting sugar. If they become more active than before, it's because their blood sugar was LOW, before. \n\nIf high blood sugar made people hyperactive, diabetics would be the most physically active people on earth, which is the opposite of what is observed. \n... | null |
jy3cp | Lobsters have blue blood due to a lack of haemoglobin. How do they transport oxygen around their body without it? | [
{
"answer": "They have proteins called hemocyanins, which do the same thing, in essentially the same way. The active site uses copper instead of iron, so it's blue instead of red.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They have proteins called hemocyanins, which do the same thing, in essentially the ... | null |
1q9vll | How do Tesla Coils make sound? | [
{
"answer": "It makes sound in a manner similar to lightning - what a Tesla coil is doing is overcoming the breakdown resistance of the air and ionizing it, allowing the air to briefly become a conductor. This process causes the air to heat up and expand, and, in a single-spark scenario, makes the audible 'crac... | null |
36wguy | Can plasma only be made out of specific elements? Do the properties of the source elements influence the behavior of the plasma? | [
{
"answer": "Just an educated guess, but since no-one's answered yet...\nPlasma is just a more \"energized\" state than gas.\nHeat up a solid, it turns liquid, heat that up, it turns gas and then even more to plasma.\nBut with the increase of energy, chemical reactions come into serious play. \nAs the energy of... | null |
7296mg | back in 2005 my speakers would always do a little bark before i got a text message, but not anymore. why did this happen and what changed? | [
{
"answer": "The phone used 2G GSM(or another similar system) in 2005 and today you are likely using 4G\n\n2G GSM Time-division multiple access to share a channel with 8 or 16 other cellphones. That mean that is transmit in short burst and the stopped tramsitting. There was buliple burst per second and it those... | null |
9x0tvb | Were there eastern parallels to "Orientalism" at the height of eastern empires' powers? | [
{
"answer": "The existence of \"Occidentalism,\" or, as he prefers, \"Ifranjism\" in medieval Arabic/Islamic literature is precisely the argument of Nizar Hermes in *The [European] Other in Medieval Arabic Literature and Culture.* \n\nHermes takes his term from what Muslims in the Near East called the crusaders... | null |
35hflz | what is the difference between inflation and deflation (in terms of currency) and how are they caused? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine a market with one guy selling apples. All the people in his village want apples, so that there is more money than goods. The price of each apple is now 10$. Now a lot of people notice that selling apples might be lucrative so new apple stands are popping up left and righht and every one of ... | null |
44m6bt | how do brands (e.g. audemars piguet, hermes, etc.) get to where they are today? why does their brand cost so much? at which point did people start going 'it's actually reasonable to pay this price for this brand'? | [
{
"answer": "David Lynch once said that the best thing about being wealthy was buying a book at a bookstore and never having to look at the price.\n\nThere is a certain level of wealth where the difference between a $20 and $200 shirt is negligible, and they don't have to worry about it.\n\nThere is a certain l... | null |
2jsm11 | Dark matter finally detected? Can anyone shed some light on this? | [
{
"answer": "As a rule of thumb: if dark matter were definitively detected it would be a big enough deal that you wouldn't have to ask reddit. It would be on the front page of the NYT, all the science blogs would be talking about it, etc. This is a possible indicated of dark matter axions, but I would be highly... | null |
e215cp | enantiomers and how the differ from one another? | [
{
"answer": "Look at your hands. Your left hand is a mirror copy of your right hand. If you position one on top of another, they do not match exactly - because they arent same, they are mirrored.\n\nThis is what Enantiomers are - they are basically \"mirrored molecules\". They have same atoms, in same positions... | null |
3jxr51 | the "spin" classification system of particles and atoms | [
{
"answer": "\"Spin\" refers to how a particle can have momentum without changing its position. A similar phenomena in the visible world is how a basketball can spin in place. That's not exactly what's happening to the particle, but we use the words \"spin\" and \"angular momentum\" for lack of better words in ... | null |
24t5wj | how do mods improve a game's graphics? | [
{
"answer": "Well I know in the case of Skyrim a lot of the graphics were downgraded to make the game more readily available so upgrading wasn't hard because its framework was already capable for this, I think a lot of PC games are like this. Not sure how its done though.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
j9lbf | basic physics and/or chemistry | [
{
"answer": "What level are you after? And which area(s) of each subject?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What level are you after? And which area(s) of each subject?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "733929",
"tit... | null |
2r56m1 | When did "I'm coming " or "coming" in general, begin to take on a sexual connotation in the English language? | [
{
"answer": "This question might be a better fit at /r/etymology.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "20143",
"title": "Manx language",
"section": "Section::::Vocabulary.:Loanwords.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 187,
... | null |
24vdr1 | how do plants mimic each other if they can't see? | [
{
"answer": "They don't actually mimic in the way that a comedian might mimic another voice. They happen to have survived by randomly mutating in a way that has them appear to look like another plant (nettles being a great example - a mutation that makes you look like something that stings is clearly advantage... | null |
2e2lnk | does anyone or any nation own antarctica? | [
{
"answer": "Many countries have signed agreements that nobody can own Antarctica.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Portions of it have been claimed by different countries: the UK, New Zealand, Chile, Norway and Australia. There is also some unclaimed territory as well. 1,610,000 km2 of Antarcti... | null |
2cdpti | Are there any sources that describe upward mobility during the medieval era? | [
{
"answer": " > the lower classes securing higher positions in extravagant or clever ways?\n\nNot so much for the peasantry, but a common means of advancement (social and economic, and often political) was by ascending through the ranks of London's guilds, or livery companies. This was not an uncommon course of... | null |
cye1y5 | What happened to the Women in the workforce at the conclusion of WW2? Did they mostly remain working, or did they stop working for one reason or another. | [
{
"answer": "There's always more to be said, but you may be interested in my answer to [What happened to female skilled labor, like Rosie the Riveter, after the conclusion of WWII?](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "469034",
... | null |
aak3lj | essential oils. | [
{
"answer": "All of them? Lavender has no scientific backing to help you sleep or calm you down. Tea tree has been proven to be a mild disinfectant. Most essential oils have proof or have none. They smell pretty, and that's always nice. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The placebo effect, is wh... | null |
6ate2n | Why do we believe recent population growth is due to technological advancements? | [
{
"answer": "I think this is more of a math misunderstanding than a historical question. It is easy to see the rate of growth is higher by looking at the graphs on a logarithmic scale, in which case an exponential function is a straight line while the population growth is curved.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
67rnzk | What's the proper name for the religion of ancient Greeks, Egyptians, or Norsemen other than just "x mythology" or "ancient x religion?" | [
{
"answer": "This is a really great question, but answers must be framed with a great deal of ambiguity and caveats. The problem with translating foreign and especially ancient terms into modern English is that the vocabulary comes loaded with concepts that don't necessarily apply. To speak of \"religion\" in m... | null |
17dcwz | how does one design a cpu? | [
{
"answer": "I would really love to see a ELI5 of this, since knowing roughly how to explain it i can't really see how it can be simplified to that level.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Are you asking how a CPU works, or process of building one?\n\n\nI'll try to answer the first question but I... | null |
12ep6r | What is the cause of the genealogical relationships of US Presidents? Is this common? | [
{
"answer": "Most of them hail from the same elite east coast society. Nothing weird about it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Once you get out past second or third cousin, there's a lot less general relationship between the people. I know I have several third and fourth cousins, but I've never... | null |
wot99 | How easy/or hard would it be to tell that there is life on earth looking from another planet or galaxy? | [
{
"answer": "The best method from a distance -- barring something like receiving a radio signal -- is to look for gases in the planetary atmosphere that are reactive and thus can only be there if they are constantly being replenished. Oxygen is the prime candidate for such a gas. Methane coexisting with oxyge... | null |
14uock | why do computer air-dusters get cold? | [
{
"answer": "When gas expands, it cools down. It's sort of because the molecules are a lot less crowded together (you can imagine how hot and stuffy you feel in a crowded subway car, and then you feel a lot cooler once you have some space).\n\nThis is actually the premise behind how your refrigerator and air c... | null |
3u72n3 | where does the money that is given to charity for africa in the last 50 years go if the people there are still in poverty? | [
{
"answer": "\n In countries where corruption, bribery and theft are an integral part of daily business. Money, food stuffs, clothing and medicine etc can disappear long before It reaches those in need.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A lot of the money is for education, clean water and medicin... | null |
9aqfy9 | if you can't get sunburnt through windows/glass because it blocks uv, how do greenhouses work for plants which need uv for photosynthesis? | [
{
"answer": "I believe windows and glass have to be treated to block UV, it doesn't do that automatically because it is glass. So the glass for a greenhouse simply does not have that same treatment.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "18952... | null |
2b7adv | Is there a specific depth below Earth's surface where life ceases to exist? | [
{
"answer": "~~We've found life in the deepest parts of the ocean that we've explored. We currently think the marina trench is the deepest part of the ocean, but we could be wrong as the oceans are largely unmapped. I don't think there is any evidence to suggest that life can't exist at extreme pressures that... | null |
2w6kut | Is there such a thing as "good stress"? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on how stress is defined.\n\nWhen you jog or run, you are putting stress on your cardio vascular system. Is this good? Most doctors are going to say it is beneficial in moderation. In the long run, it strengthens your heart, lowers blood glucose levels, etc. \n\nHaving deadlines for the com... | null |
gtbci | Is it true that you are more likely to get hurt during a car crash if you tense up? | [
{
"answer": "To be entirely frank, the force regime that is encountered in a *serious* accident probably moots any effects of tensing up or relaxing. In minor accidents (fenderbenders and such) it might make a difference, but the effect is probably dependent on many uncontrolled variables.\n\nAs far as the drun... | null |
3omw1i | how do apartment buildings that use water towers never run out of water? | [
{
"answer": "The tower is constantly filled with water from the water main. The tower is just there to allow gravity provide constant water pressure regardless of current usage, which is much easier than trying to get pumps to exactly balance supply and demand to maintain a constant pressure.",
"provenance... | null |
3a6ite | why do different processor architectures require programs to be rewritten? | [
{
"answer": "Processors aren't converting ones and zeros, aka bits. They're processing them, hence they're called processors. Different processor architectures process the bits differently, which means programs have to follow the processor's rules for processing things.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
2pa7hf | Civilizations of the pre-Columbian Americas - Massive Panel AMA | [
{
"answer": "What about the environments that the Mesoamerican groups lived in was more conducive to large and complicated civilizations that aren't really found anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere until contact? In other words, why aren't there pyramids in Ohio? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
32vlwo | if you are a beekeeper, and your bees fly away, how do you recapture them? | [
{
"answer": "You basically own their house and the only female they have. Of course they are coming back",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You don't. Beeing a beekeeper is like renting out a motel. You can only provide the rooms and space to rent out, but if the tourists leave, the tourists leav... | null |
13qafo | Is the "goldilocks zone" or habitable zone of a star different depending on the type of star? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. Also, it varies in size, if I remember correctly.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes. In fact, the habitable zone for our solar system will change as the Sun goes through its life cycle. When it becomes a red giant, the habitable zone will move out to where Jupiter and Sat... | null |
2430px | Why doesn't gravity become infinitely strong at zero distance? | [
{
"answer": "'d' is the distance between the centers of mass of each object. No matter how small the object is, there still has to be some finite distance between the center of mass and the other object, so you wouldn't have a zero d.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It does. This is what a grav... | null |
2tpafi | Why was the "Polish Corridor" created in a way that separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany? | [
{
"answer": "Refer to Point 13 of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's 1918 \"14 Points\" peace proposal. This point, which appealed to the large Polish-American community, stated:\n\n > An independent Polish state should be erected which *should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, ... | null |
3ixqst | wjy is it that whenever i'm dirnk, loud music or loud anything is easy on the ears, but whenever i'm by mself, my esars ring like crazy? | [
{
"answer": "if you've listened to a lot of loud music and the ringing becomes constant you might have developed [Tinnitus](_URL_0_). \n\nfor temporary ringing... it has something to do with damaging your hearing ability little by little\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Haha..Were you percha... | null |
3m8kgc | Is there a theoretical rationale for the common core arithmetic curriculum? | [
{
"answer": "Common Core is great. The issue is not with the curriculum but with 1.) parent/teacher ignorance of what it is and 2.) bad books/resources that corrupt publishing companies, like Pearson, release.\n\nLet me first explain what Common Core is. Common Core is a list of concepts that students should le... | null |
5huq32 | Why is so much of the New Testament written by Paul? | [
{
"answer": " > Another way of looking at this could be: Why wasn't stuff written by the other apostles included? The apostles who spread in basically every direction from Jerusalem, and spread to sub-Saharan Africa, and even into India, surely they wrote stuff worth including?\n\nThere's no evidence that the ... | null |
3sgyst | why did washington, dc develop so that it has residential areas in it rather than just government property? | [
{
"answer": "Because the people working in the government offices need to live nearby. And because they're all there, they need services (shops, barbers, coffee houses), all of which need to employ staff, who need to live nearby. And they need services, whose businesses need to... etc etc.",
"provenance": n... | null |
1t93tm | Were certain gladiators in Ancient Rome as famous as our professional athletes today? | [
{
"answer": "First, I have a BA in history. I'm fairly interested in Rome. But remember that this is just a reddit post and is bound to contain flaws.\n\nIn short, yes. Kinda. It's difficult to tell what the average Roman thought of individual gladiators, but the fact that some of them have been preserved by hi... | null |
2ict6m | What military technology, if any, where the Japanese more advanced then the other countries during ww2? | [
{
"answer": "You cannot really ignore ships for your question. Ships is one of the places where one of the best Japanese weapons of the war was deployed, the Type 93 \"Long Lance\" torpedo. \n\nThe type 93 had a heavier warhead, better range, and better speed than any other torpedo in the war. It gave Japanese ... | null |
4y20ij | how can so many deep sea creatures be so "squishy" when we have to travel down in a thick metal shell due to the high pressure? | [
{
"answer": "Right now, you're under a quite a bit a pressure. You've got miles of air over your head pressing in on you at 1 atmosphere of pressure. At the same time, you and your ancestors have spent virtually all of your time at 1 atmosphere, so you've evolved to press outward at 1 atm. \n\nLikewise, the clo... | null |
yqd6n | who is ayn rand and why does my roommate hate her? | [
{
"answer": "Ayn Rand was a philosopher and novelist.\n\nShe was born in Russia in like '05 or something to a prominent Jewish pharmacist. After the revolution, her family was impoverished.\nSince childhood, she had a problem with hero-worship and proto-Nietscheian thought. \n\nWhen she emigrated to the states,... | null |
6rzfaz | Would moving your body (subtly and imperceptibly) back and forth at 99.99% the speed of light cause you to experience time any slower? Would you live longer than everyone else around you? | [
{
"answer": "You never \"experience time\" any differently that you already do. Indeed, there is a frame in which you are at rest and there is a frame in which you are moving at any arbitrary speed. It wouldn't make sense to say you \"experience time\" differently depending on your speed since ostensibly you wo... | null |
1kl90k | why does my flatulence sometimes smell similar to what i've recently eaten and other times like hot death? | [
{
"answer": "There are several different species of bacteria in your intestines that produce various gases and compounds when they digest things. The contents of your food (fiber, sugar, proteins) affect the consistency and odor of your stool. Your stool smelling \"similar\" to what you ate is probably a coinci... | null |
dou4uv | what physiologically causes that "lurch" in your gut - when you get scared you've forgotten something or that you've upset someone etc | [
{
"answer": "There is a biochemical signalling path called the 'gut-brain axis'. It connects the gastrointestinal tract with the central nervous system via the vagus nerves. It is why you are able to become nauseous from eating bad food. It is important for the regulation of the immune system, and has a great i... | null |
15sh2b | what exactly happened during the french revolution? (referring to les miserables) | [
{
"answer": "Just a note - Les Mis is centered around the [June Rebellion](_URL_0_), not the French Revolution.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Starting with Louis XIII, France started moving towards absolutism, which is basically total dictatorship (opposite of absolutism is a total democracy)... | null |
3sm2jj | My textbook says electricity is faster than light? | [
{
"answer": " You are right to be dubious of your textbook, because the statements made are false. Not \"false but only because we are making an approximation\" or \"false but it's only an apparent effect and not real\", but \"egregiously and totally false\", to the point that it's rather embarrassing that this... | null |
36uoqo | how come drugs are found in urine much longer than in blood, when urine is filtered out of blood? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine you have a pool ful of warter and you throw a special kind of colouring in there which turned the water red.\n\nSuppose you have a filter which removes the colouring from the pool, and jettersons it out. At first the pool would be bright red so you could just look at it and see that someone... | null |
5fy2by | What sort of populist movements existed in the Middle Ages and/or Renaissance? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, I would contest that the Renaissance is a distinct time period buuuuuuut, there were many populist movements during the Middle Ages.\n\nOne could describe many of the heretical movements as populist/anti-establishment as many contested the sacraments, which were at the heart of everyd... | null |
33lwb5 | Why is Carbon Dioxide a gas while Silicon Dioxide is a solid? | [
{
"answer": "Carbon dioxide is molecular: It exists as individual units of O=C=O Those bonds each have 4 electrons. SiO2 is reduced formula for silicon dioxide. It is not a molecular chemical. Each Silicon is actually bonded to 4 oxygens *via* 2 electron bonds. This means it is a solid because it forms a huge e... | null |
21mici | Will sunlight that's passing through glass have the same tanning effect on skin as direct sunlight? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on the quality of the glass. If it's just old, plain glass, then yes, you can tan through it, and she should wear whatever sunblock she feels is best. The newer windows have some reflectivity, and reduce the UVA, and possibly the UVB rays. And yes, \"effect\" is what you were looking for.\... | null |
5fjaf0 | How does a pregnant body "decide" when it's time to go into labor? | [
{
"answer": "The body doesn't the baby does. When the baby starts to get cramped for space it gets stressed and releases the stress hormone cortisol. The cortisol from the baby then starts a cascade of events in the mother that leads to birth.\n\nEDIT: sorry I'm a veterinary student. This is how a lot of other ... | null |
1gyo8u | why its ok to name a person mohammed, but not an inanimate object, or animal. | [
{
"answer": "Because humans think that other humans are more or better than things or animals. Since Mohammed is really important to Muslims, they thing you should only name \"important things\" like your son after him. On top of that some things or animals are considered \"unclean\" in some cultures, so using ... | null |
1173vg | How did scientists at the first nuclear explosion test (Trinity 1945) know for sure the bomb wouldn't destroy the planet? | [
{
"answer": "Some people said it would, but the math showed otherwise. More were concerned with how people would use the weapon.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I thought it was common knowledge that some did. Right on the Wikipedia page it says that some did fear exactly that. \n\n... | null |
2xvdpy | What would happen if you drove a vehicle onto a moving ramp? | [
{
"answer": "They did this on a tv show...i dont remember which one...\n\nAnyway...they had a car driving 65mph drive up a ramp onto a flatbed truck moving 60mph...\n\nAs the car hit the ramp they let off the gas and the momentum kept the car moving up the ramp at 5mph (relative to the ramp).\n\n***Edit: it wa... | null |
2bhksl | peripheral neuropathy | [
{
"answer": "Peripheral neuropathy is a malfunction of the nerves in the extremities, usually the arms or legs, but sometimes the face. It can cause numbness and tingling, or in some cases a very painful burning sensation or feelings like cold water being poured on the area.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
1jb9zj | how is there enough oil under the ground to power hundreds of millions of cars, planes, boats..etc. daily? | [
{
"answer": "The earth is BIG, compared to our oil consumption:\nWe consume 93,250,000 barrels a day of oil (not just gas) world wide.\nAt 42 gallons per barrels, that's 3,916,500,000 gallons used every day!\n\nBut!, the surface of the earth is 5.1 x 10^8 square kilometers. Oil has been found most everywhere, u... | null |
22rqc2 | Did Pearl Harbour have the same effect on Americans' perception of security as 9/11 did? | [
{
"answer": "Sorta. It certainly put some American citizens of the mind that the Japanese were \"the other\", just like many Americans did regarding Muslims in the days and months(and until today, really) after 9/11. \n\nSince 9/11 is within the past 20 years or so(which makes it verboten for discussion), I'l... | null |
3akg7b | Has any serial killer ever been killed by somebody they were attempting to murder? | [
{
"answer": "Not killed, but serial killer [Richard Ramirez](_URL_1_), who terrorized Southern California in the early 1980's as \"The Night Stalker\", after a failed attempt at a carjacking, was ultimately overpowered by a vengeful public and beaten within an inch of his life before he was taken into police cu... | null |
hqsnz | Can the human acceleration limit be worked around? | [
{
"answer": "Human acceleration tolerances don't really figure in *that much.* To boost to orbital velocity from the Earth's surface only requires about 3 *g* of acceleration for about three minutes, and around 2 *g* for about five minutes more.\n\nAerobraking is dicier, because it's a function of trajectory. B... | null |
74jgd2 | how does the "conscious" part of the brain know to ignore normal bodily functions? | [
{
"answer": "This all has to do with how the brain is divided up with regards to function. All of the actions happening automatically in your body are controlled by their perspective parts of the brain, and those have nothing to do with sensations like pain.\n\nFor example, the region of your brain (and corresp... | null |
4c61ui | why does food taste different outside than inside? | [
{
"answer": "Not entirely familiar with this feeling, but since smell plays a huge role in the perception of taste (not directly, but taste is very limited and what we're used to when we say \"taste\" as an experience is actually a combination of taste *and* aroma), that might be the answer. Being outside means... | null |
37y07o | the difference between youtube's buffering and loading an image from anywhere else on internet - and why buffering is so much faster | [
{
"answer": "This might not be the complete answer but a part of the answer. Try loading a video in Youtube, and then a video from a website which is not primarily a video-hosting site (Like IMDB). You will notice that the IMDB video takes significantly longer to load for the same quality of video. Google has s... | null |
1u09l9 | Blood contains so much salt, how conductive is it? | [
{
"answer": "According to [this paper](_URL_0_) in Table 2, depending on the red blood cell count it gets to about twice as conductive as water.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Approximately 0.7 S/m (siemens per meter) It depends on the hematocrit (the the proportion by volume of the blood that... | null |
6lbojc | when we say a person is worth $300 million, how much of that is the person actually entitled to? | [
{
"answer": "Generally what that means is the person has wealth and assets valued at $300m. Which could include things like property, real estate, and stock in companies.\n\nSo the person could, if they sold everything they owned at the price it is appraised for, come up with about $300m. ",
"provenance": n... | null |
7a574f | What are some counterintuitive non-quantum level phenomena? | [
{
"answer": "When a human being moves from a low-altitude place to a higher altitude place, their body has to cope with lower oxygen levels. One of the ways a body can adapt is to make more hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries most of the oxygen we breathe to our tissues. Some athletes will t... | null |
1bmqcj | How common was tarring and feathering in the American revolutionary period? Also, was this practice supported by revolutionary leadership? | [
{
"answer": "Common enough, especially as the Revolutionary Crisis intensified. For anyone interested in recent works on the use of mob violence during the American Revolution, give this a look:[ American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People](_URL_0_) by T.H. Breen. Breen explores the rol... | null |
35qkd2 | can someone explain the trade deal that obama is trying to push through? what is it, and why do a lot of democrats not like it? | [
{
"answer": "Trans Pacific Partnership is a large corp sponsored bill. With most of its negotiations and contents being kept secret. If that doesn't already make you feel strange.\n\nIts job on top of Pacific Free Trade is international Copy Right and Piracy Laws. It forces each signer to recognize a lot of int... | null |
5o4iy9 | why do stores never charge the full dollar amount for goods, like a video game costs $59.99, not just $60? | [
{
"answer": "We read left to right, so we see:\n\n > $59\n\nbefore:\n\n > .99\n\nThe first thought we have is that it's below $60. While we later realise this to only be the case by a single cent, the first impression makes the price-tag appear cheaper that it really is. It's an illusion that makes us more li... | null |
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