id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
6f6hli | why do countries have gold reserves? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine for a minute you're a nation. The nation across the ocean wants to buy some cruise missiles from you, and they want to pay you 12 billion Flerbos for the pleasure.\n\nThe first question that should come to mind is this: **What the f__k is a Flerbo?** The Flerbo is made up crap, just like ev... | null |
1dqrjt | How much did the Moorish people mix with the Spaniards over the time in which they ruled over them? | [
{
"answer": "This a great question! The answer is a complex one. First during the time you are talking about 711-1492, the category/ethnicity of \"Spaniard\" had only just begun to crystalize (at the time of the Umayyad invasion it was non-existant). Second, both groups you are talking about the residents of th... | null |
1jrx5d | At what point did History become something that the average person knew about? | [
{
"answer": "Well, there are a lot of aspects to your question that make it complicated to answer at face value. Obviously we need to draw a line between the modern field of history and the nebulous awareness and discussion of past events that has always been a part of the human consciousness. If a group of p... | null |
818o5g | Any literature recommendation on "retro" or "nostalgia" throughout history? | [
{
"answer": "So, as you mentioned, a romanticized view of ancient Greece was an important source of nostalgic longing for an idealized past that you see occurring throughout European history, especially in Italy. When this looking back took on an especially nostalgic tone, it tended to focus on a particular ima... | null |
2goft2 | what was ancient civilization's knowledge of volcanoes? | [
{
"answer": "Pliny the Younger wrote two letters about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which he witnessed. They're letters 6.16 and 6.20.\n\nThough my Latin ability has faded, to the extent that it ever existed, and I'm therefore unable to tell you the quality of these translations, [here](_URL_0_) are two tran... | null |
21tc2j | why doesn't it matter that an ssd is fragmented? | [
{
"answer": "Fragmentation causes problems with a normal hard drive because the drive has to take time to move a physical head from the location of the first part of the file to the location of the second, wait for the head to settle, and wait for the disk to rotate until the data is under the head. All this ex... | null |
1pviq8 | moles (not the animal) | [
{
"answer": "A mol represents 6.022 x 10^23 individual atoms or molecules. Each element of the periodic table has a weight in grams next to it. That is the atomic mass unit (amu) and shows how many grams 1 mol of the element will weigh. For example, oxygen has an amu of about 16. This means 6.022 x 10^23 at... | null |
2wkygm | why does moss only grow facing north | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't. \n\nIt just doesn't grow well in direct sunlight. So in the northern hemisphere it generally only grows on the North side of things. It will grow on the south side of something as long as it doesn't get too direct sunlight, or it's in the southern hemisphere, and all the other condition... | null |
t14bx | How does the modern Big Bang theory incorporate the Law of Conservation of matter? | [
{
"answer": "First, there is no such thing as a \"law of conservation of matter\".\n\nSecond, you are misinterpreting what the Big Bang *is*. It was not a magical explosion where something was created from nothing. It was an epoch in the early universe where all of space simultaneously underwent rapid expansion... | null |
2d4smy | When we see something positive, why do we clap? | [
{
"answer": "The glib answer is that it is just an arbitrary signal, based on social norms.\n\nHowever, one might speculate that clapping has some attractive qualities. It's a cheap way of generating an impulse response, which contains a wide range of sound frequencies. As such, it will be audible in a wide ran... | null |
d5nsz6 | Psychologically, what is this called? | [
{
"answer": "This could be the result of several different cognitive processes. It depends on his reason for choosing to do that. This could be polarized or \"black or white\" thinking. That is, the person is inflexible in their view of how the task is completed. \"I have to do it this way or it's a failure.\" ... | null |
36ek4r | does my iphone soak up data while apps are open but not in use? | [
{
"answer": "Yes they will use some, for updating info, like facebook gives you notifications. The amounts will be very small and shouldn't make a difference unless you have really, REALLY shitty plan. You should be able to turn off mobile data if you want it to use nothing.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
16y6bx | what is the difference between being "legally blind" and blind in the colloquial sense? | [
{
"answer": "Legally blind means that even with glasses you can't see enough to function (e.g. you can't read, navigate or drive). But you can still see some shapes, the eyes are still working. Blind blind means everything is gone. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Visual impairment is a spectru... | null |
2e0ifn | does "beginner's luck" have any truth to it in various games or sports? | [
{
"answer": "Well, beginners tend to be unskilled and inexperienced by definition, so they're usually considered the weakest link. This can cause other players to underestimate the newbie, and either play more carelessly, or focus on more experienced opponents.\n\nOf course, most of the time it's just chance. M... | null |
32pdil | why doesn't greece just refuse to pay it's debt? | [
{
"answer": "If you lent money to your friend and one day he just said \"I'm not gonna pay you back\". How would you like that? Would you ever lend him money again? Would you even be friends anymore?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Devaluing the money doesn't fix massive tax evasion and corrupt... | null |
5fm6t6 | Since the Sun is also spherical like the planets that orbit it, and if Earth has polar orbiting objects, why are none of our solar system planets "polar" orbiting the sun? Are there any? | [
{
"answer": "They're in that plane because it's the same as the plane of the disc of gas and dust which coalesced to form the Sun and planets in the first place, and nothing has perturbed them very much since.\n\nIt's entirely possible that a body could orbit in any plane. I think Uranus's moons orbit \"vertica... | null |
v8u9r | why do some dishes heat up quicker than the actual food contents? | [
{
"answer": "Well dishes are made of ceramic, which is made of dirt. Some types of dirt have little bits of metal in them. When you put these dishes in the microwave, the metal \"short-circuits\" the electrical waves, causing them to heat up.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Today you learned th... | null |
1agdcx | how is reddit free? i can't wrap my head around the business model. | [
{
"answer": "The vast majority of the work is done by volunteers. So they have very few expenses.\n\nThe expenses that they do have are covered by ads, reddit gold donations, etc.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "44829416",
"title... | null |
hmt81 | Can someone explain the evolutionary benefits to having a foreskin? | [
{
"answer": "While I am no geneticist or evolutionary biologist, I have read /r/askscience enough to know the gist of the answer you'll probably get from them.\n\nJust because something has survived the course of evolution does not mean it has a benefit. As long as something is not severely detrimental to a sp... | null |
6b0va4 | How do you clean up a natural body of water? | [
{
"answer": "The [East Kolkata Wetlands](_URL_1_) represent probably the largest example of a wetlands ecosystem for processing raw sewage (more than 70 million liters per day). \n\nDr. Dhrubajyoti Ghosh - an engineer and ecologist based in Kolkata is credited with being the key driving force behind its conserv... | null |
1lqxj2 | why the new trend to shave pubic hair? | [
{
"answer": "The ubiquity of pornography with the rise of the Internet and the desire to mimic the \"actors\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "According to my girlfriend, because her vagina leaks over it, which is disgusting, and because it's less itchy. \n\nAlso.\n\nWhy do girls shave their li... | null |
1mag2o | What was life like for an allied conscientious objector during WWII? | [
{
"answer": "In the US a conscientious objector could become a medic. One such objector, Desmond Doss, was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in saving the lives of quite a number of men over a number of days and was himself wounded. \n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
46i6my | why the more dangerous vehicles (scooters, small cars) are available to teenagers, while the safer ones are not? | [
{
"answer": "Scooters and small cars may be more dangerous to their driver, but they are less dangerous to everyone else. If you hit something with a scooter you might kill yourself, if you hit something with a large sedan you stand a much higher chance of damaging the other thing/people. \n",
"provenance":... | null |
pbmtl | Are Aerodynamics and Gravity theories or laws? | [
{
"answer": "You can think of a theory as the explanation of a phenomena and a law as the formula that engineers use to represent/predict the phenomena.\n\nThe theory of gravitation involves relativity, bosons, etc. but Newtons law of gravitation involves four variables and a constant.",
"provenance": null
... | null |
4a6csl | what is the deal with the unholy trinity of kroger, cvs pharmacy and walgreen's? | [
{
"answer": "You should probably search the sub for why businesses tend to open by similar businesses. I've also seen a pretty good video on YouTube about the concept, but the name eludes me \n\nIn short, opening near each other is strategically better, it actually causes more business",
"provenance": nu... | null |
a67plc | what is ideal mechanical advantage and how can i calculate it? | [
{
"answer": "Ideal mechanical advantage is the number that your force is multiplied by in the absolute best case scenario when using a simachine (no friction or other ways to lose force applied.) How it's calculated varies depending on the machine you're using but can be generally expressed as: amount of force... | null |
293hee | can someone please explain for me the nba salary cap and luxury-tax threshold? | [
{
"answer": "The NBA has what is called a soft-cap. This means that there are certain rules that allow a team to go over the salary cap. Contrast this with the NFL, which has a hard-cap: a team cannot, under any circumstances, go over the NFL's cap.\n\nThe luxury tax threshold is a level that is higher than the... | null |
8tj08r | Why was the Holocaust in Lithuania so complete and utter? What is the reason for the staggering scale of collaboration by Lithuanians? | [
{
"answer": "Just for clarification, what were the numbers like for other countries? My understanding was that Jewish populations in Poland, Hungary, and the Ukraine were pretty thoroughly wiped out, too, in no small part due to collaborators. Is there a major discrepancy in Lithuania, or is the difference just... | null |
ajpsso | in difderent languages, what influences the way every number is called or pronounced as ? | [
{
"answer": "French is the absolute WORST about this. They don't have a word for a lot of numbers. Example: 80 is said as two forties. 70 is seven tens. 90 is the worst, it's four twenty ten. It got so confusing that Switzerland (IIRC) invented their own version of the French number system.",
"provenance": ... | null |
2ozos8 | why do i tense my body and brace myself when i know a loud noise is imminent? does it help at all? | [
{
"answer": "my guess would be it has to do with your fight or flight response, and more importantly you trying to consciously control a subconscious response. If you tense your muscles up and bite down on your teeth when you know something that might startle you is about to happen, you wont jump or make an em... | null |
1aoot3 | Does the body really treat cooked food as a toxin? | [
{
"answer": "No. Your body will try to digest everything you put into it, from carrots to steak to a rock. Cooking food may denature some proteins and vitamins, as well as killing tons of harmful bacteria (especially in meat). And there is some proof that charring meat can lead to stomach and colon cancer by cr... | null |
850c9b | What was the cause of Æthelwold's Revolt? | [
{
"answer": "Æthelwold was the son of Æthelred I, the older brother of Ælfred, better known as Alfred the Great. *Cerdicing* succession rules were somewhat pragmatic, and allowed for succession to pass to brothers in the event that passing the crown to a son would result in a minority. When Æthelred I was kille... | null |
4yvao7 | Were any Jewish athletes who participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics killed during the Holocaust? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, there were many Jewish athletes from countries in Europe, America, and North Africa who competed. For example, Bronislaw Czech, from Poland, was a downhill skier who competed in the '28, '32, and '36 olympics. During the holocaust he was sent to Auschwitz, and died there after refusing to trai... | null |
47o4iw | how is the correction for astigmatism different to the correction of nearsightedness? | [
{
"answer": "So nearsightedness is when there's an aberration in the lens (technically in the length of the eye itself), that prevents the incoming light from focusing to a point on the retina. The light still *would* focus onto a single point, though, when properly corrected.\n\nWhen considering astigmatism, t... | null |
5h4zvc | the final fantasy universe. are each series separate stories or part of a bigger storyline? | [
{
"answer": "They're separate stories and in many cases, they take place in completely different fictional worlds. Some are very loosely linked, but all of them are self-contained stories. If you were to play Final Fantasy VII, then Final Fantasy XII, and then Final Fantasy IV, the order you chose to play the... | null |
2f2nbl | What was the process of Taiwan's removal from the UN's permanent Security Council like? | [
{
"answer": "One key factor would be its oppression towards the PRC. Because ROC claimed the whole of China, it could not allow PRC to join the UN as a separate nation, nor could it recognize the PRC's sovereignty.\n\nSince admission was impossible, the PRC aimed to *replace* the ROC.\n\nThey went about this bo... | null |
5mx8ot | What were the reasons for the resurgent of extreme Islam in the Muslim world? | [
{
"answer": "As a related question, what led to the decline of Pan-Arab nationalism? Was it primarily the result of the Camp David Accords and the end of the Cold War, or was it more nuanced than that?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What is extremism? Is violence? Is it extreme neo-Orthodox r... | null |
9epc6z | how are people with insomnia able to be simultaneously exhausted and yet unable to sleep? | [
{
"answer": "Being exhausted and being able to sleep are two separate states. For most people being exhausted makes it easy to sleep, but for someone with insomnia those mechanisms are disrupted in some manner and they cannot sleep. This means they cannot rest and thus they cannot get out of exhaustion. ",
... | null |
ffcgrk | alcohol percentage? | [
{
"answer": "If the amount in both glasses were the same, then the amount of alcohol in both would also be the same. It is a percentage, so the small bottle would have less total alcohol then the large one because it is a lower volume. But having the same percentage per volume means the same about of alcohol if... | null |
7gz7ee | how and why do our brains make up the color magenta? | [
{
"answer": "It's a mixture of colors and can't be defined by one wavelength. So is any kind of brown. No big deal. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because 'colour' doesn't exist in the real world. In the real world it's just photons of a certain wavelength right? \n\nWhat you truly see as... | null |
1ma9lb | who exactly are the syrian rebels? | [
{
"answer": "60,000 - Free Syrian Army (non-Sectarian defectors)\n\n37,000 - Syrian Liberation Front (Islamists)\n\n13,000 - Syrian Islamic Front (More Islamists)\n\n5,000+ - (growing) Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda allies)\n\n1,200 - Saudi Death-row inmates released and sent to fight Assad\n\n\n\n\n\n",
"proven... | null |
7z7nn7 | why did adultery become decriminalised in many western countries? | [
{
"answer": "In a secular society, a marriage is just a contract. There are no criminal penalties for violating other types of contracts (aside from things like fraud,) and no harm to society from violating a marriage contract. So it makes no sense to criminalize a matter that's ultimately between two people, w... | null |
7s9hes | What was the impact of the Holocaust, if any, on Rabbinical Judaism? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, a bit of terminology. \"Rabbinism\" isn't really a thing. \"Rabbinic Judaism\" is, but from roughly 1000 years ago until present the overwhelming majority of Judaism has been Rabbinic (Karaites have existed and still do, but after 1000CE they were only a significant minority of Jews... | null |
c7yrl6 | What was the British response to the sinking of the HMS Hood? | [
{
"answer": "The response to the loss of the *Hood* was generally, and initially, one of shock, tinged with sadness. The *Hood* had been thought of as a 'mighty' ship, the pride of the fleet, and capable of beating any ship afloat. To lose her in such an immediate manner was a real surprise. Many, especially in... | null |
7xah8i | Just watched Dunkirk and was wondering ... | [
{
"answer": "Hi there -- when the movie came out we had quite a few questions about it, so we collected them into a big [Dunkirk Megathread](_URL_0_) that may be of some interest to you. Feel free to post follow-up questions here, though. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "As good a film as *Dunk... | null |
3cbmk0 | why do forearms and calves stay relatively skinny on fat obese people? | [
{
"answer": "Because there is limited value in moving fat to the extremities. All of the organs that need protection and warmth are in the chest & abdominal cavities.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's a mechanical disadvantage to having extra weight at the end of limbs that doesn't cont... | null |
n5inf | what happens to your stuff when you die if you don't have a will? | [
{
"answer": " > If you have a spouse? If you have no spouse? (What is the order? If your parents are alive, do they trump your siblings? What if you only have one distant cousin, etc. is an effort made to find them? By whom?)\n\nIt depends on jurisdiction. Since 16 states have adopted the Uniform Probate Code,... | null |
54c660 | what is so special about baking soda? why does it have such amazing properties for everything? | [
{
"answer": " > how has something so awesome stayed so cheap also.\n\nBaking soda is made from a reaction of easily obtainable items, so costs to produce are low. If I recall correctly, its carbon dioxide, salt and ammonia. \n\nSome commodities stay low in price, regardless of their high demand and large scale ... | null |
1yhylj | why do people shit themselves after they die maybe nsfw | [
{
"answer": "The intestines are loaded with bacteria, which start to eat you once you're dead. They produce gaseous waste, and eventually the gas can build up enough pressure to push poo out. The anal sphincter is also no longer active, so there's nothing really to hold the poo back. This is also why things tha... | null |
9vmelg | In what way is spin related to the standard model? | [
{
"answer": "The Standard Model is a quantum field theory that describes a particular set of fields, and their interactions. Excitations of each of those fields can carry intrinsic angular momentum, called \"spin\". Excitations of the electron field carry spin 1/2 (in units of ~~h~~), excitations of the photon ... | null |
75usfs | why are overtones produced? | [
{
"answer": "From what I understand, a plucked string will play one note (like C for example) but different parts of the string are moving differently relative to one another. The part you pluck, where you start the vibration, has a larger degree of movement than the same string further down it: this causes dif... | null |
6ikb5t | why do graphics cards, ram and hard drives have such different prices per gb? | [
{
"answer": "A graphics card and a hard drive are very different components. The main component of a graphics card is the graphics processing unit which is a processor that is dedicated to generate graphics. The 4GB refers to a secondary component on the graphics card which is graphics RAM. So the comparison is... | null |
sgooa | America seems to be fixated on the advances of a rising China. Did the British Empire feel the same imperial angst towards the United States at the turn of the Century? | [
{
"answer": "First of all: I'm not an expert for British-U.S. relations, so take this with a grain of salt.\n\nAs far as I know, Great Britain was quite pragmatic about the rise of the U.S. and accepted the hegemony of the U.S. in the Western hemisphere. One example would be the abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer... | null |
5joub2 | When did Italians start identifying as Italian instead of Latin or Roman? When did they begin to see themselves as fundamentally different from the Romans in Constantinople? | [
{
"answer": "That's a million euro question. The issue of Italian identity has been controversial and debated for a very long time. Italians themselves seem to be unsure: there are examples of Independence and Unification champions travelling to other regions and describing them as \"different as Japan\" and th... | null |
41lhzp | How can matter remain stable when photons travel at light speed? | [
{
"answer": "Why would atoms be torn apart? Atoms are made of protons (not photons), neutrons, and electrons, all of which travel much more slowly than the speed of light (and can be seen as being at rest).\n\nPhotons have finite energy. It's not related to their speed, of course, but rather to their *frequency... | null |
7cy7lj | why is the sahara a desert when other places at the same latitude are tropical rainforests? | [
{
"answer": "Look across the United States, if you draw a band across the US centered around San Francisco, CA. Coastal community, fairly foggy and cool year round. Nothing like the climate in Salt Lake City, Denver, and so on. \n\nLatitude, geography, wind patterns, proximity to the ocean plus others are all f... | null |
3t7h7s | What do multiple antiviruses do when both are installed that is so bad? | [
{
"answer": "Antiviruses hook system calls to add their verification routines. System calls addresses are stored in the system service dispatch table (SSDT).\n\nSimply put, when a program wants to open a file, it tells Windows \"Open file.txt please\", and Windows looks at the SSDT where is the function to open... | null |
1wyrc9 | can internet porn really result in erectile dysfunction and lower libido? | [
{
"answer": "EDIT: Thanks to those who replied regarding the error in my interpretation of OP's question. I have replied to the intended question in [a different post](_URL_0_). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "38616536",
"title"... | null |
11xawl | what happens if an incumbent president running for reelection loses the election to a challenger but the challenger and running mate are assassinated before being sworn in? | [
{
"answer": "I think it would go to the current speaker of the house. I'm sorry, i couldn't think of a way to make it ELI5",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "185311",
"title": "United States presidential primary",
"section"... | null |
310fge | why do they bother to try and "hide" cell phone towers? | [
{
"answer": "Because it simply looks more aesthetically pleasing. Cell phone towers are an eyesore ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Same reason LA hides their oil rigs in the city, they're ugly and nobody wants to look at them. Doesn't matter if we rely on them, we still don't want to see the... | null |
19jxeh | can photons/light form stable bonds with other atoms? | [
{
"answer": "Photons are massless, electrically neutral 'packets' of energy, so they can't form bonds. The bonds we talk about between atoms come as a result of an equilibrium of the forces of electrostatic attraction/repulsion, and the Pauli exclusion principle, neither of which apply to photons.",
"proven... | null |
2vcyz6 | why did it hurt so badly when the anaesthetic was injected into my iv? | [
{
"answer": "I'm assuming you had propofol given to you for your anesthetic. A milky white fluid? The pain/burning is not unusual when administered in a smaller vein (relatively speaking). Different people have different sensations to it... from nothing, to slight tingling, to a burning, to outright pain... tho... | null |
opuhy | How can string theorists assume there are... strings? | [
{
"answer": "no there's no evidence for them, not yet. And most of the experts in the field, so long as they're behaving properly, understand that they just have an interesting idea, not science yet. But the idea stems from an older one in a way. We found that gravity could be explained by a curving of spacetim... | null |
49di4g | If you had a neutron star and kept adding mass to it, would you eventually see its escape velocity exceed the speed of light? | [
{
"answer": "If you did this it would collapse into a black hole and then its escape velocity would be light speed. Neutron stars accreting mass is one of the ways that black holes can form.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That's not how black holes work. You can't model them with Newtonian phy... | null |
1f99w5 | what were the manson family's motives? | [
{
"answer": "I don't blame you for not being able to wrap your head around it. It's very confusing. \n\nBasically, Manson believed that an all out race war was coming between whites and blacks, and that the blacks would eventually win. However, Manson believed that blacks weren't smart enough to govern themselv... | null |
9f2tm7 | in light of the us open women's final, why was 'coaching' considered a violation and what constitutes a sign of coaching? | [
{
"answer": "A tennis match is considered to be a contest between two (or four, for doubles) athletes, without any outside help. That's a little different than, say, football, soccer, or baseball, where the coach is considered an integral part of the team and is responsible for strategic plays. In tennis, sin... | null |
m52zu | Is there something tangible in the brains of serial killers and the like that separate them from people that can comfortably function within the confines of societal rules? | [
{
"answer": " > Doesn't the \"triad of sociopathy\" (bedwetting, pyromania, cruelty to animals) point to a problem that could maybe be recognized on a cat scan?\n\nWell, psychopathy couldn't really be seen on a CT scan as that type of neuroimaging has relatively poor ability to visualize the structures of the b... | null |
1bx2ry | Regarding the History Channel's Viking show: Was wife sharing as much a part of everyday Viking life as the show makes it out to be? | [
{
"answer": "I haven't watched the show, so could you elaborate on what you mean by 'wife sharing?' Infidelity was not generally approved of in early medieval Scandinavia, and it was in fact one of the reasons why people could file for divorce according to Grágás, a 13th century Icelandic law code.",
"prov... | null |
97sudv | How ethnically diverse were Army regiments in the Soviet Union? | [
{
"answer": "Hey! I'm going to focus in on the 1930s and 40s to answer your question.\n\nThe Red Army from the Revolution until 1941 was largely a Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian institution. The proportion of those ethnicities - especially Russians - in the army never fell below 75%, and was usually much h... | null |
2bdsk8 | A hot day feels hotter to humans when humidity is high, as their sweat cannot evaporate as well. Are animals who do not sweat at higher risk of overheating during humid days? | [
{
"answer": "I can think of one example in which the answer is yes. Kangaroos do not sweat (like humans do), and when temperatures are high they have to lick their forearms and dig themselves into the dirt to maintain their body temperatures. This was shown on BBC's the Life of Mammals with David Attenborough... | null |
vdjbe | the difference between weight and resistance training. | [
{
"answer": "Weight training is a sub category of resistance training. Weight training involves the use of weights to build strength. Resistance training uses cables, machines, bodyweight, or weights to build strength.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wi... | null |
ygez2 | recorded sound quality | [
{
"answer": "So your three questions are:\n1. What the values mean?\n2. how significant is the difference in quality?\n3. can you hear the difference?\n\n1. The values are whats know as bit rate. The easiest way to describe them is ; audio is a [sine wave](_URL_2_) and they way this audio is captured is every s... | null |
1jzmu6 | how does the british parliament function, and how is it different from the us government? | [
{
"answer": "So basic overview:\nAmerican: Three Branches; Legislative, executive, and judicial. The Legislative and head of the Executive (e.i President and Congressmen) are elected separate from one another. Legislative is bicameral, meaning two parts called houses. Each house has power of lawmaking.\n\nBriti... | null |
aqdcvg | How did the Mars Curiosity Rover take this picture of itself with no visible arm? | [
{
"answer": "The \"selfies\" taken by Curiosity are actually composite images stitched together from multiple shots. The photos are taken by the \"MAHLI\" camera that is attached to a flexible robotic arm. In the stitching process, the part of the arm that is in the shot is edited out, because each shot would c... | null |
y3mwm | Is it true that having sex/masturbating before exercise/weight-lifting has a negative effect on performance? | [
{
"answer": "The only pertinent study I've ever read on it was a small-n (under 20) study which came to the conclusion that blood levels of testosterone didn't change after masturbation. Let me see if I can dig it up again.\n\nedit: masturbation that resulted in ejaculation.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
8h8une | do objects still emit infared radiation at absolute zero (-273°c)? | [
{
"answer": "We don't know, such a temperature has never been achieved and is theoretically impossible to obtain. So there really isn't a definite answer to that question.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The theory that exactly describes blackbody radiation is [Planck's law](_URL_1_), and predi... | null |
2jl3w2 | why is there such border dispute/flexibility/movement in the middle east when the rest of the world has permanent borders? | [
{
"answer": " > why can't this part of the world just commit to borders? \n\nA few reasons:\n\n* The Middle East Borders are artificial; they were made after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. These borders did not account to demographics, cultural similarities, and ethnic majorities. Most other nations h... | null |
1wk2y7 | Are there examples of active participation in resisting colonial/imperial powers by their own people in pre-modern to early modern times? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not sure what you mean by \"direct\" effort. But if activism counts, I'm sure there will be plenty of examples. In the Indian context, [Annie Besant](_URL_0_) comes to my mind, even though I'm not certain she'd be the foremost of such activists.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer":... | null |
qkg0a | If F=MA gets to be law, what is it that keeps E=MC^2 from being a law? | [
{
"answer": "It's been asked many times about similar stuff if you search for it. The short answer is that the distinction you're making between \"law\" and \"theory\" doesn't really exist. Things got called \"laws\" prior to the 20th century, but it was just a convention without any rigorous definition. \n\nTh... | null |
13idjw | Why do USA state's and county's borders get "lazier" as you move to the west coast? | [
{
"answer": "1) Squares are not formless\n\n2) The original states were often formed by colonial communities from common parts of Europe. There were a number of geographical features AND practical community issues to consider. That is: They were colonized BEFORE the borders were defined.\n\n3) The western state... | null |
3jzgq6 | how can bing rewards be doing any good for microsoft? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, more visitors means more money for advertising, and depending in the tax laws in the country they are in, they may be able to write off the money for the rewards",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The points you get per search are pennies compared to the drive to the website you... | null |
64i0wo | how is it people can jab themselves in the thigh without finding a vein? wouldn't there just be muscle and nothing to inject to? | [
{
"answer": "Some medications, vaccines, etc are meant to be injected intramuscularly. Your muscles have tons of blood vessels that can get the medication into your blood stream.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "11069162",
... | null |
7zid4b | 'bulking' and 'cutting' | [
{
"answer": "Technically yes, in reality most people go *way* too far when they \"bulk\".\n\nWhile it is true that you do need a calorie surplus to build larger muscles, the speed that you can build muscles is generally limited more by genetic factors than by how much you are eating. As such when you move into ... | null |
uwbbv | Is it possible to join two pieces of material by having an atomically smooth surface? | [
{
"answer": "I know this happens with metals - _URL_0_ - essentially what's happening with cold welding is that metals have a repeating molecular structure, and in a vacuum, where there are no \"junk atoms\" to bond to the edges of the metal, just smushing two pieces together is enough to weld them. I anticipat... | null |
7x4odu | How not to get burnt out on history? | [
{
"answer": "You'll never get burnt out if Roman history is something you truly want to study. If I had to make a suggestion, though, it would be to find some aspect of Roman history that you find *endlessly* fascinating. For instance, perhaps the Julio-Claudians would bore the hell out of you, but the Severa... | null |
lmxdl | Is there a significant difference between smoking one time a day and five times every fifth day? | [
{
"answer": " > The term ‘social smoker’ often refers to someone who doesn’t smoke on a daily basis but may have a few when on a night out. This is sometimes referred to as binge smoking. It is however less harmful to smoke 10 cigarettes in one night and then abstain for a fortnight than smoke one or two each d... | null |
5gmi0e | why does stale bread get softer when you warm it up? shouldn't the heat evaporate whatever water is left and make it harder? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_ \n \nBy heating up the water, it causes the starch in the bread to gelatinize, making it softer again.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Bread doesn't go stale because it dries out, it goes stale because the starches crystallize. If you weighed fresh vs. stale bread, you'd ... | null |
dlgf5i | if our body replaces cells that are damaged/old regularly, then why do donated organs still require the use of anti-rejection medicine years after the surgery? | [
{
"answer": "Cells regenerate with the more of the same cells, basically. As cells replicate, the goal is to copy the previous cell as perfectly as possible. So, a successfully donated organ will always be the same organ essentially, even though it's been completely replaced, many times over, with entirely new ... | null |
fg28gj | How does water purification tablets work? Also does it matter how dirty the water is or if it is sea water? | [
{
"answer": "There are different types, some work only to disinfect in which case the large particulate should be filtered out first. \n\nOthers with by coagulating sound dirt particles to make them heavy enough to sink, effectively separating the water from everything else.\n\nI believe you would be interested... | null |
5tgbx6 | Will a candle actually help warm up a really cold room? | [
{
"answer": "Yeah, a little, if you light it. According to wikipedia, a candle puts out about 80 Watts of heat energy, which is about the same as what a human puts out. An 800 W heater can heat up a small room, so you should expect that filling a small room with 10 people or 10 candles will warm it up noticeabl... | null |
27ozbu | why do i hate foods that i enjoyed when i was younger, and now love foods that i hated as a child? | [
{
"answer": "According to a study by the university of Copenhagen which is behind a paywall so I can't access it, during puberty there is a significant change in people's taste buds that allows them to discern a larger variety of flavours than they did as a child. So children will like simple foods with a singl... | null |
1zajo1 | what physical (or non physical) thing determines a unit of memory? | [
{
"answer": "A sperm's \"memory\" is not a digital memory. So expressing it in bits and bytes doesn't mean much. You can say that every base pair is a byte and try to convert the DNA information into digital information.\n\nOther than that every storage device stores bits differently. An HDD stores them in magn... | null |
1bozif | What determines the direction and strength of wind? | [
{
"answer": "Wind is caused by differences in pressure from one region to another, naturally the air tries to expand from high pressure regions to lower pressure regions. \n\nNow your situation being near to an ocean means that air currents are probably well established as the sun heats the planet in the same w... | null |
261mk3 | why is congress allowed to take so many breaks, many of which last weeks at a time? | [
{
"answer": "The Congress is required to meet on the first Monday of December (unless they choose another date) but other than that they have the ultimate authority to dictate their own schedule. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Two separate points.\n\nFirst is all the breaks. The breaks are no... | null |
om5nu | Can a person have diabetes if they are not overweight? | [
{
"answer": "It's definitely possible. Most people who develop [Type I diabetes](_URL_0_) are otherwise healthy. Even Type II diabetes isn't universally caused by obesity.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, you can get Type 2 diabetes regardless of your weight. And Type 1 diabetes is not weig... | null |
1i8mgl | I sometimes hear that the new deal didn't really get us out of the great depression and in fact may have delayed it's end. Is there any truth to this? | [
{
"answer": "This is an excellent question that you unfortunately will probably not have properly answered in your lifetime. There are two reasons for this:\n\n1. It is still intensely relevant to our current politics. How someone is inclined to interpret the New Deal is almost directly correlated to their c... | null |
3umigs | during famines, children get huge stomachs while the rest of their body is nothing but skin and bone. why is this? | [
{
"answer": "It's called kwashiorkor. It's caused by a deficiency in dietary protein. Basically they can no longer properly retain their fluids and it builds up in the abdomen. Normally proteins in our blood stream help to maintain the right amount of dissolved \"stuff\" to keep our fluids properly balanced due... | null |
17wjnx | What is the heaviest metal found that functions in a living organism? | [
{
"answer": " > ~~Iodine is an essential trace element for life, the heaviest element commonly needed by living organisms, and the second-heaviest known to be used by any form of life (only tungsten, a component of a few bacterial enzymes, has a higher atomic number and atomic weight).~~\n\n~~_URL_2_\n\n~~EDIT... | null |
2e53cj | Discipline of Soldiers now and in the Medieval Age? | [
{
"answer": "Frankly, there's no (useful) way to compare the two. Medieval armies did not have the kind of centralization and structural cohesiveness that would allow us to establish a baseline for comparison. While most combatants on the typical medieval battlefield would have trained for war to greater or les... | null |
4ycvx0 | Theoretically, is it possible for an intelligent being living in the second dimension to 'discover' the third dimension? | [
{
"answer": "Dimensions aren't places, even though the term is often used that way in science fiction. Rather, dimensions are properties of spaces.\n\nSpecifically, when we talk about a space having \"n dimensions\", what we mean is that it takes n numbers to uniquely specify a point in that space. For example,... | null |
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