id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
8mepxo | why does root beer foam so much when poured onto ice cream? | [
{
"answer": "It's a combination of two major factors:\n\n- Ice cream has a lot of surface area, which means more nucleation points. More nucleation points mean more bubbles.\n\n- Milk and cream have a higher surface tension than water. This means the bubbles are stronger.\n\n-----\n\nThe reason why Mentos in so... | null |
34jxlv | how do bullets get loaded in the gun from the magazine? | [
{
"answer": "As the bolt travels forward it catches the top of the back of the bullet, pushes it forward and onto a ramp and into the chamber.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a spring at the bottom of the magazine. As the empty cartridge is ejected the spot in the chamber is... | null |
9nttoh | Earth is made up of tectonic plates, will the number of these plates ever change over time? | [
{
"answer": "Neither the number of plates or the geometry (i.e. their sizes/shapes) of plates are fixed. It's first worth noting that even the current number of plates is somewhat contentious and depends on how the criteria / data used to define them (e.g. [this paper](_URL_5_) which both lays out a set of crit... | null |
loyt9 | How does the population of wasps survive year on year if they all seemingly die off in the winter? | [
{
"answer": "In many wasp families such as Polistidae and Vespidae, only a fertilized reproductive female (i.e. gyne) overwinters and subsequently starts a colony in the spring.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Many insects can go into [diapause](_URL_0_). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
fpfnrh | how do n95 masks reduce lung capacity? | [
{
"answer": "Your lungs have to work harder, to force the air through the filter membrane. Working harder can have side effects, but you can accommodate to it (like living at a higher altitude) over time. It's more of a near term problem that you recover from if you work in a job where you wear a respirator a... | null |
1o9m2p | the ssl handshake protocol. | [
{
"answer": "There are common secure key exchange protocols. An example is [Diffie-Hellman](_URL_0_). That page has a great ELI5 example that I'll narrate:\n\nSuppose 2 friends, Alice & Bob want to paint their awesome super-secret clubhouses the same color, but they don't want anyone else (especially the me... | null |
39y5jl | if you are flying in an airplane and it is storming, can you get struck by lightning if you are flying above the clouds? | [
{
"answer": "Lighting hits planes all the time as most of the time it just passes thru the plane\nbut some times it can make the plane explode.\n[the plane explode ](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "24273512",
"title": "N... | null |
1035gr | Which aspect of religion came first, deities or laws/ethics? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, here. If it doesn't have a deity or supernatural power of some sort, it's not really a religion. But it's no secret that the morals and laws of religions are essentially the morals and laws of the times that those religions were shaped in. ",
"provenanc... | null |
28lp09 | Has the gravitational constant ever been measured somewhere apart from the surface of the earth? | [
{
"answer": "We can measure it in space. The expansion of the Universe, for example, depends on the value of the gravitational constant. We can constrain deviations from the terrestrial value by looking at [supernovae](_URL_0_), for instance. The abundances of light elements like helium and deuterium also [depe... | null |
3f8tg6 | What happens when a black hole is given charge? | [
{
"answer": "You are correct that there would be multiple boundaries, but the probe wouldn't escape the outer event horizon.\n\nThere are [two horizons](_URL_0_), meaning there is basically a black hole inside a black hole.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A charged black hole is actually a reas... | null |
8shu0w | these child internment camps. | [
{
"answer": "Crossing the border illegally is a crime.\n\nDuring processing before deportation, the illegal migrant is held in jail so they don't vanish into the US.\n\nWe don't send kids to jail with their parents, but we have to put them *somewhere*.\n\nThis is not a new policy, it's only being more strictly ... | null |
4ufuww | how does "duty free" work? why do they have it? who is it helping to have overpriced bulky gifts at the airport? | [
{
"answer": "Duty free goods allow a person exiting a country to buy certain goods tax (aka \"duty\") free, as long as they are not going to use the products in that country and are confirmed to be leaving.\n\nIn many countries taxes on certain goods, particularly \"sin\" goods like alcohol and cigarettes are b... | null |
3ppa31 | Why did Saudi Arabia refuse to accept Osama bin Laden's offer to use his troops during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait? | [
{
"answer": "The Saudis rejected bin Laden's offer largely because it was arrogant and incredibly naïve of him to believe that the *mujahideen*, whose experience in Afghanistan was waging asymmetric warfare in a geographical setting perfectly suited to those tactics, could usefully apply those skills against a ... | null |
19j3sf | How similar were ancient libraries to modern public or academic libraries? | [
{
"answer": "The first thing that comes to mind when you're talking about ancient libraries, is the Library of Alexandria in Egypt ~3rd Century BC, when Callimachus created the first bibliography of it, it was 120 volumes of a 200,000 + volume collection, compare Oxford’s Bodleian library in 1602 had only 2500.... | null |
2cd889 | why are the demonyms for countries like america, canada, and china (american, canadian, and chinese) different even though they all end with a? | [
{
"answer": "Why isn't a Canadian from Canadia?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because the demonym for a country isn't determined by which letter it ends with. More often than not it's just a matter of which suffix sounds the best.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's proba... | null |
8yccdw | if blood is a biohazard, why are feminine hygiene products not thrown away in a more careful way? | [
{
"answer": "If you're a hospital or medical facility, it's important to dispose of blood in a careful way, because a lot of the blood that comes from people at those facilities is infected with diseases. If you're the average woman, your blood can't hurt anyone.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
4ig7qu | Why did Germany not finish Britain off during WW2? | [
{
"answer": "I think this thread got pretty comprehensive replies:\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1073360",
"title": "USS Twiggs (DD-127)",
"section": "Section::::Service history.:United States Navy service.\n",... | null |
1viyub | how do scene and torrent groups remove tv show drm?? | [
{
"answer": "That kind of flag just send a signal to a device not to allow copying, and relies on circumventing it being illegal under the DMCA. It is kind of like the lock on most homes...pretty easy to overcome, so the deterrent is more about having to commit a serious crime.\n\nTechnically, DRM on video is ... | null |
8wundx | why do airlines force people to keep their seat belts on for so long when people in private planes can lay down, sleep, party, etc.? | [
{
"answer": "Airlines are concerned about people falling over and injuring themselves while taxiing, the ability of people to exit in an emergency, etc. To prevent this they want people seated when the aircraft is moving as much as possible. Their insurance against people suing probably requires such a policy.\... | null |
5s1ic5 | Before machinery, how would people make straight edges and find right angles? | [
{
"answer": "For making an edge straight, you can stretch a thread with a bow- like the bow of a bow and arrow. If you put ink on it and snap it against a piece of wood, it will mark a straight line ( and carpenters' chalk lines still work on this principle). Saw or cut to that line, and you have a straight ed... | null |
6cyksl | My History teacher once told me that the Soviets (during world war two) had so many men but so few guns that many had to run into battle unarmed and pick up dead men's weapons, how true is this? | [
{
"answer": "This question come up all the time. u/Searocksandtrees gave a good summary of some of the responses in [this post](_URL_0_). \n\nIt's definitely not \"pretty spot on\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "291145",
"title... | null |
7u234k | does eating spicy food destroy beneficial bacteria in your colon? | [
{
"answer": "I am not an expert by any means, but [this article](_URL_0_) suggests that capsaicin, the active ingredient in spicy food, actually has a beneficial effect on your gut flora. Giving mice capsaicin increased the number of good gut bacteria and reduced the number of bad gut bacteria.",
"provenanc... | null |
ae3ow1 | I just found out wild hamsters are rare. What's the story on how we tamed them? | [
{
"answer": "The link describes but I'll summarize\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSpecifically, it's _Syrian_ hamsters that are rare in the wild, there are other species. But Syrian hamsters are the most commonly kept as pets.\n\nSo in 1930, a scientist went to catch some Syrian hamsters in order to study them. After a lot of... | null |
55fdhw | why was america online (aol) unable to become a popular internet service provider after the dial-up days ended? | [
{
"answer": "What replaced dial-up was faster connections directly to your home. Companies that already owned the connection to your home - the phone company and the cable company - were the only ones in a position to exploit those and offer broadband. That's why most people only have a choice of at most two br... | null |
buk2yo | why do some gasses have an odour while others are odourless? | [
{
"answer": "I believe it’s because some interact with chemical receptors in our noses while others don’t.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Nature has sculpted all living things through evolution for billions of years. Species tend to evolve ways to avoid deadly gasses. Sulfur for instance is hi... | null |
1pb7o0 | AMA - Byzantine Empire | [
{
"answer": "Why did Byzantium have such military difficulty with Bulgaria throughout its history? Did the Bulgarians employ any tactics which the Byzantine military was vulnerable to? \n\nAnd what's the deal with the idea that someone with a physical deformity can't be Emperor? Where did this idea originat... | null |
336y43 | when i am really angry, why does throwing something make me feel better? | [
{
"answer": "I would say that it's the release of energy that eases you. I actually do a set or two of push ups when I'm mad. I put that energy towards something productive instead. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Bioenergetics\n\nI would say it is because of muscle tension related to the ange... | null |
3hhqxu | It's WWII in Germany and i live in Munich. I'm not a member of the Nazi party, I'm not Jewish. I'm a normal german citizen working for a family business. How is my life different than before the war? | [
{
"answer": "Are we talking 1940 or 1944? The answers are going to be completely different depending on whether Germany was winning or losing at the time.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What would your age and gender be? Is your family business somehow important for the war effort?",
"prov... | null |
3yoa10 | how does the rest of the world find out so much about north korea when they're so isolated. | [
{
"answer": "There's a few ways actually: \n\n* Official NK news sources. Many of these such as Rodun Simuun (sp?) and the like can be accessed from outside the DPRK. Whilst /r/Pyongyang has become something of a Reddit joke, if you look in the sidebar then you'll find there a fairly long list detailing various... | null |
49p984 | How honest were WW2 tank crews with the number of Kill rings on the barrel? | [
{
"answer": "I wouldn't call it so much dishonest as I would ill-informed. Modern combat the likes of which we saw in WW2 was often hectic enough that it was difficult to confirm kills - if 4 Shermans shot at a Panzer IV and then the crew was seen to bail out or the vehicle to \"brew up,\" it was likely that ea... | null |
1fuxq7 | How does my brain know where my hands are in 3D space? | [
{
"answer": "Humans have more than the 5 \"classic\" senses. One sense we have that people seem to overlook is [proprioception](_URL_0_). There are specialized stretch receptors in muscles and ligaments that allow your brain to figure out the positions of joints and the force being applied by muscles.\n\nAn i... | null |
11sfyf | why do you get that awful feeling in your stomach when you hear bad news or feel betrayed or jealous? | [
{
"answer": "Your intestines are lined with nerves, to the point they're practically a second brain. Sometimes they react to feelings, like when you're having butterflies in your stomach.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"Butterflies in the stomach\" is caused by the fight or flight response, a... | null |
4vthdw | tpp, ttip, and tisa and what they're (doing) trying to do. | [
{
"answer": "All three are trade agreements between the U.S., Asian countries and the E.U. They are all designed to reduce trade barriers that exist between countries. Beyond that, things get very political, very fast. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"w... | null |
3pb6ed | what happens to a deceased person's phone number, bank account, etc? | [
{
"answer": "Usually they close the bank account and give the remaining balance to the beneficiary labeled on the account. A phone number is taken out of circulation for a certain period and then given back to the system as a new.number. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [... | null |
wb4x4 | If traveling close enough to the speed of light, would a human live to make it to the edge of the observable universe? | [
{
"answer": "If you can achieve speeds relative to Earth arbitrarily close to the speed of light, then you can travel an arbitrarily large distance (as measured on Earth) in an arbitrarily small amount of time (as measured by you).\n\nFor example, if you could travel at\n\n0.999999999999999999999999999999999999... | null |
2x1oqv | what is reddit built on and how does each of the technologies used work together? | [
{
"answer": "[Python is a programming language](_URL_1_).\n\n[Pylons is a web framework for Python](_URL_0_). Basically, it's a toolkit that gives you some of the generic pieces of a web application, allowing you to focus on the bits that make your site unique.\n\n[Cassandra is a database originally written b... | null |
3mq8lt | When did the idea of the future become that of Sci-fi? | [
{
"answer": "About 1827. Jane Loudon's *The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century* is the earliest speculative fiction I can find that pictures a future of changed and advanced technology and society. Others like Shelley's *The Last Man* picture a future where everything of technology and even costume is unchanged,... | null |
6bsrm2 | why do schools in the us invest so much money in sports when education appears to be falling behind? | [
{
"answer": "College sports are billion dollar industries because the nation as a whole is invested in alma maters, student athletes, sports in its \"purest form,\" and the idea that \"I followed this player before he made it big.\" That's why people like Coach K have multimillion dollar salaries. It's economic... | null |
fzhtsr | how do silly bands (the weirdly shaped plastic bands from a decade ago) retain their shape even after stretching them for long periods of time? | [
{
"answer": "Plastics are made of extremely long, skinny molecules, and a good analogy for what that's like is a big bowl of spaghetti. Weaker plastics are held together by weak attraction between the molecules, as well as the molecules being tangled up. \n\nSome plastics, like rubber, have additional strength ... | null |
81q122 | why do little kids like sweet flavors so much more than adults do? | [
{
"answer": "Is there evidence to back this up? I have never thought little kids like sweets more than adults; I love sweet (especially fruity) flavors every bit as much now if not more than when I was little.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's a few factors.\n\nFirstly, children don't ha... | null |
6dphvs | why we get lot of sticky spit in our mouth when we are crying and lot of snot in nose? | [
{
"answer": "There is actually a duct running from your eyes into your nasal cavity (nasolacrimal duct), and liquid can run down the back of your nasal cavity into your throat.\n\nApparently, this means medicine applied into your eyes (like eye drops) can end up running into your mouth.\n\nAlso, excess mucus ca... | null |
e8oxa8 | can a human fetus grow inside an animal? | [
{
"answer": "Unless very specific conditions were met that resembled a human womb, no. If you somehow got the zygote to implant successfully whether it would be able to form a umbilical cord with the host would be an immediate question.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Almost certainly not. Doi... | null |
15j50b | How small would an asteroid or other object have to be for you to be able to reach escape velocity simply by jumping off of it? | [
{
"answer": "It's the amount of mass, not necessarily the size that matters here. Escape velocity v can be defined as:\n\nv^2 = 2GM/r\n\nand the average human jump speed is about 2.5m/s so we have\n\nM/r = 3.125/G = 4.683 x 10^10 kg s^2 m^-3 \n\nNow, M/r by itself is not useful but if we assume the body has the... | null |
2ou09o | Can car engines be given an efficiency rating based upon horsepower ratings? | [
{
"answer": "A joule is 1 kg·m^2/s^2, a watt is 1 kg·m^2/s^3. This can be deeply confusing, because of the multiple applications of time. A watt = J/s, while a Joule = W*s. A horsepower is already comparable to a Watt, both being units of power. A joule, on the other hand, measures energy and work. Of course, ... | null |
63yihl | if japanese is read top to bottom how do their text boxes work? | [
{
"answer": "It can also be read and written left to right the same way as English and other such languages. So it works no differently. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1234482",
"title": "Japanese writing system",
"sect... | null |
1j43kc | Was there an official line of communication betwen the Nazi and Allied leaderships during WWII? If so, what was discussed? | [
{
"answer": "It's a shame this question isn't being jumped on, so I'll add to it in the hopes of provoking discussion;\n\nBy what means would any communication be established? Telephones weren't as reliable as ours are now, and telegrams etc would make no sense across a war zone. \n\nSecond to that, crazy quest... | null |
nl4xb | Why do bullets spin? | [
{
"answer": "Learnt this in Physics.\n\nIt's to do with he Magnus effect.\n'The Magnus effect is the phenomenon whereby a spinning object flying in a fluid creates a whirlpool of fluid around itself, and experiences a force perpendicular to the line of motion. The overall behaviour is similar to that around an ... | null |
28g1kn | What was the romantic relationship process like for humans in ancient times before the modern form of "dating" was invented? | [
{
"answer": "Can you define \"ancient times\"? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "9919443",
"title": "Dating",
"section": "Section::::History.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end_... | null |
43tqc7 | how do particle accelerators work? how do they achieve the accuracy to collide one atom or subatomic particle with another, especially considering that we can't create true vacuum? | [
{
"answer": "I guess the most important thing to remember is that atoms are mostly empty space. Even when there's a stack of them, they don't tend to talk to each other much, because they're so small and don't influence things unless they're really, really close together.\n\nAs for how big those numbers appear ... | null |
7au3sx | [NSFW] How did large Roman armies handle sewage? | [
{
"answer": "Excellent question! And there are a few different answers, really. The first, easiest one would be applicable to an army on the march. When an army was traipsing around the countryside for whatever reason, their camps would be temporary structures, created and destroyed daily. In this case, a cessp... | null |
2qm63h | (Computing) Is there a reason many places have a limit on how long you can make a password? | [
{
"answer": "In most cases the limit is arbitrary. The password should be hashed before being stored in a database and all of these hashes will be the same length anyway (if the hash length were dependent on the password length then it would leak information about the password).\n\nIf the length limit is low th... | null |
6z9eau | why is it that an image appears large to the naked eye but once i take my phone out to take a picture it's not at the same scale? | [
{
"answer": "The lens on your phone's camera is equivalent to a 30-35mm lens on a 35mm format camera. That gives the ability to have a fairly wide angle field of view. \n\nThe focal length which best mimics the perspective of the human eye is closer to 50mm. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null... | null |
2jhk27 | What is known about the fate of Hitler's corpse? | [
{
"answer": "Hitler had set orders that his body be cremated upon his suicide, his body was burnt in the Reich Chancellery outside the bunker. Soviet records show the remains of Hitler and his wife Eva were buried in unmarked graves outside of Berlin\n\nIn 1970 the remains were interred and burnt again afterwar... | null |
1aynfi | r/askscience, is there anywhere in the world where I could look through a telescope to physically see the artifacts left by astronauts on the moon? | [
{
"answer": "You can't see the physical artefacts even with a powerful telescope as the angular size of these objects is so small. We can see things [much further away](_URL_3_) because their angular size is so much larger.\n\n > \" It's clearly impossible for an optical telescope on the Earth to resolve any of... | null |
nd16n | Why do we get high/loopy when we become tired? | [
{
"answer": "I am not an expert but I found a good article [here](_URL_0_) that will explain what happens to our brain when we are sleep deprived, very interesting read.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Per _URL_0_ it would appear that the brain switches into a different form of functionality wh... | null |
1j5n07 | Is time actually linear? | [
{
"answer": "You need to define the axes of your graph. Otherwise it's difficult to understand what you mean.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You can't really have a stationary point in 3D space, any point in space is either a point in space and time or it's a line in spacetime. I recommend rea... | null |
votta | What was a typical day in the life of an ordinary sailor like during the Golden Age of Exploration? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, a disclaimer, most of what I know deals with the Golden Age of Piracy (roughly 1650-1730) rather than the Golden Age of Exploration (1490-1600s sometime). Also, both of those terms are terribly Eurocentric, but what can you do..\n\nAnyway, in the Age of Sail, a typical sailor's day wo... | null |
67b8u4 | How could men serve in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam? | [
{
"answer": "So people often trot out 20 years as a full military career, and in many cases it is what the goal is and has been for decades. But often especially senior officers in command billets will serve significantly longer periods of time. 20 is often talked about because for decades it has been the time ... | null |
dhovsn | why do diamonds sparkle but other carbon-based materials do not? | [
{
"answer": "I’m not positive but I’m guessing you could polish coal and it would shine if not sparkle. \n\nDiamonds are different because the material is transparent, you get reflections from the outside facets and reflections from light that passes through those facets and hits other facets. Light is bouncing... | null |
2l1k1y | why cant humans have a food that brushes their teeth? | [
{
"answer": "Um. Any crunchy fruit (apples, pears) or vegetables (carrots, celery) all help to keep our teeth clean?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "414350",
"title": "Tooth decay",
"section": "Section::::Prevention.:Oral... | null |
2c1bc8 | US and EU increased sanctions on Russia recently. What specifically do they mean by 'sanctions' and what are typical sanctions a country might impose? | [
{
"answer": " > The U.S. and European sanctions are likely to target Russia’s energy, arms and financial sectors. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nThese are typical sanctions. Basic goods, like food and clothing generally aren't sanctioned, but they can be effectively sanctioned through trade agreements.\n",
"provenance": nu... | null |
26gn3q | During the Weimar Republic there were a lot of different parties in the parliament, many with a low amount of representatives. What role did this play in its downfall? | [
{
"answer": "The Wiemar Republic is generally said to end when the Enabling act is passed in 1933, and this is true. But Hitler didn't get that act passed because of a large amount of minor parties, but rather because he managed to destroy the major parties that actually opposed him using violence and intimidat... | null |
7bufrh | Were there political parties in colonial America? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, there were political parties in Colonial America. My expertise is in New York history, so I will confine my answer to that, so maybe someone else can fill you in on the rest.\n\nAs you may know, New York was originally a Dutch colony that was taken over by the English in 1664. But the takeover... | null |
7qnsli | Is there any truth to the notion that North Americans Natives tribes's war were not "deadly" before European contact ? | [
{
"answer": "Sounds like an exaggeration of the Great Plains tradition of \"Counting Coup\". Key to a man's success in Plains combat was demonstrating his own courage by proving superiority over his opponent and, in a competitive sense, over his own comrades. Killing was part of war, but showing courage in the ... | null |
34tw1e | Was Joseph McCarthy as 'crazy' as he is made out to be? | [
{
"answer": "This has been asked a few times, but there's never been, as far as I can tell, a comprehensive and well-sourced answer. So, I encourage people to provide one. \n\nThat said, there have been _good_ answers. Here's [one](_URL_0_) with some good debate about what McCarthy got right or wrong, and [anot... | null |
8sjj63 | why do our eyes start to get watery after staring at something for awhile? | [
{
"answer": "Your eyes get dry when you \"stare\" at something (without blinking), so a gland near your eye produces a small bit of tears to keep things moist",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because you aren't blinking so the moisture that lubricates your eyes (tears) is evaporating. Your body ... | null |
8o9xv4 | why is it that a car journey feels less bumpy if you are the driver? | [
{
"answer": "For regular 5 seat cars, the location of the driver seat right behind the front wheel helps because the suspension is there for you. My parents have a 8 seater, and sitting in the last row feels like bumps would throw you in the air. I bumped my head in the roof on too many occasions in that car\n... | null |
4bc1pj | The Godfather and popular depictions of Sicily in early 1900s: corruption, mafia, backwardness. How true is this depiction and how did Sicily end up that way? | [
{
"answer": "The mafia in Siciliy appears to have its origins in the 19th Century brotherhoods that formed in Palermo and other Sicilian cities. The Sicilian economy was largely dependent on Sulphur mining and Lemon orchards which were prone to corrupt management. The brotherhoods effectively formed as crude wo... | null |
4fkxpm | [Question about the Black Death] Did Cats or Dogs that hunted the infected rats get affected by the plague? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not too familiar with medical history but I've done some reading and took a class on the Black Death. I'm sure there are others that would be more qualified on this topic. \n\nYour second assumption is correct, the predator animals and the rats became infected with plague and died, so having a ... | null |
5mnlrw | What do we know about the judicial system of ancient Egypt? | [
{
"answer": "Most of the time people use Ancient Egypt that way :D\n\nHowever, Egypt did indeed keep a lot of its' institutions very similar throughout much of its' native dynasties. But, for clarity's sake, let's stick with the New Kingdom period. \nSave for perhaps the Ptolemaic period, this is arguably the t... | null |
17ur4u | What language was spoken by common Romans? | [
{
"answer": "It depended where they lived. If they lived in Rome, they spoke Latin. Elsewhere they spoke their native language - Greek in Greece, Aramaic in Judea, the various Celtic dialects in north western Europe, and so on.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Depends on the time period - toward... | null |
6nn76j | Blues music originated from slaves in the US and has influenced and permeated almost all Western music for the last century. Is there any evidence of music playing slave owners adopting "black styles" of music? If so, how was this perceived by other whites? | [
{
"answer": "You know how 'blackface' - the practice of white singers and actors darkening their faces to act black - is now so taboo as to be a career-ending move? Well, there's a very good historical reason for that taboo: a genre of music called minstrelsy. \n\nPut it this way: you know how the post-Reconstr... | null |
3zpyyg | To what extent was Spain colonized by Carthage? | [
{
"answer": "You may find something like [this map](_URL_0_) to be a better representation of the complexities of Carthaginian Spain. \n\nCarthage did have true colonies in Spain. But they were limited to the SE coast between Gadir and New Carthage. They also had a band of conquered territory. This was populate... | null |
2qk36j | What is the difference between a proton and a positron? | [
{
"answer": "A proton is about 1800 times as massive, for one.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are quite a few differences, but for starters, positrons are a type of lepton; a fundamental particle which can't be broken down into any smaller parts (that we know of). In contrast protons are... | null |
59dcdv | how does apple cider vinegar help relieve heartburn? | [
{
"answer": "Not a Dr but this what mine told me. Also it works for me. There is some reason why you stomach is making more acid than it needs, by taking an antacid you are neutralizing acid and therefore your stomach makes even more to compensate. By adding acid in your stomach is all like \"Hey we are good to... | null |
5jeczr | Would English archers receive any melee weaponry or training? In close quarters, would they fare any better than a civilian? | [
{
"answer": "If we're talking about English longbowmen in the high Middle Ages, then yes, they would have had some sort of melee weapon for backup use if they were surprised at close ranges. Jean Warrin, writing about Agincourt, described the actions of the English longbowmen as they ran out of arrows and charg... | null |
2qzolw | why do car companies name their cars a year in advance? | [
{
"answer": "The 2015 cars are just 2015 models that are released early. The are normally released in the last few months before the year ends. This stops the lull in sales that occurs when people decide that they want to wait to buy a car until next years model comes out, because it already has.",
"provena... | null |
23djde | Where was the Judicial Review principle of the United States based from? how did it came to existence? | [
{
"answer": "See the case of [Marbury v. Madison](_URL_0_). In that case, the Supreme Court under John Marshall found the long-existing concept of judicial review to be implicit in the constitution.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "20715"... | null |
1do3kc | how do they make 3d sound work? | [
{
"answer": "They do it the same way they create the 3D illusion for your eyes -- by controlling how long it takes the information to get to your brain. In the case of 3D vision, the image going to your left eye comes from a slightly different place than your right eye, and your brain fills in the blanks to cre... | null |
v1ccx | How valid is Lucid Dreaming? Can you really condition yourself to Dream what you want? | [
{
"answer": "The first evidence for lucid dreaming was produced in the late 1970s by British parapsychologist Keith Hearne. A volunteer named Alan Worsley used eye movement to signal the onset of lucidity, which were recorded by a polysomnograph machine. \n\nThe first peer-reviewed article was published some ye... | null |
uh95w | How likely is it for meiosis to dish out extra and lacking chromosomes which happen to result in the correct total for a 'normal' human? | [
{
"answer": "What you are describing is actually a reasonably well studied phenomenon known as [uniparental disomy](_URL_0_).\n\nFor hard numbers, it is difficult to tell how often this occurs, because if it causes no ill effects or phenotypic expression in the offspring, it will go undetected for their whole l... | null |
3rmxe3 | How can a black hole's singularity be a "point", wouldn't that violate the pauli exclusion principle? | [
{
"answer": "Because it's not actually a point. It looks more like an instant of time.\n\nI talked about it in detail here _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "/u/rantonels has covered the problem with the singularity part of the question but there are other problems too:\n\n1) Any calculati... | null |
ltyaj | How does the human digestive system separate solids from liquids? | [
{
"answer": "They all mix together into a liquid solution. This is broken up in the stomach and nutrients are absorbed through the small intestine (enzymes in the stomach and small intestine help with this). In the large intestine components that cannot be absorbed (e.g. cellulose) remain and the water is re-ab... | null |
2fvwro | In the Napoleonic Wars, what was the difference between a soldier in an elite unit and a regular unit? | [
{
"answer": "Joining Napoleon's Imperial Guard had quite a few requirements. First, soldiers weren't allow to just join the Guard, you had to be selected.\n\nThis is one of Napoleon's decrees after making himself Emperor of the French and forming the Imperial Guard from the Consular Guard:\n\n*Each regiment of... | null |
5y0zpd | what happens when astronauts clog the toilet in space? | [
{
"answer": "There's not really anything to get clogged because space toilets don't have plumbing like Earth ones do. For solid waste, the astronaut \"sits\" over the opening which has a plastic bag underneath. There's gentle suction so the waste collects at the bottom of the bag. When he or she is finished, th... | null |
er6iqj | why is it when you experience anxiety or fear your body starts getting hotter? | [
{
"answer": "Because stress increase blood pressure. Heart begins to pump aggressively, blood is going through the body faster and more regularly, like when you’re working out. So the body becomes incredibly overheated from the body flipping out.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Fight or flight.... | null |
bx7n2k | how does increasing government spending affect aggregate demand in the economy? | [
{
"answer": "The general idea is that aggregate demand is comprised of _all_ of the entities buying goods. That includes individual consumers, businesses, foreign firms and governments. If any of those groups starts buying more, then aggregate (i.e. total) demand goes up, so increasing in spending from any of... | null |
d5sqxb | the lack of goal line replay technology in american football as compared to other sports | [
{
"answer": "The more interesting proposals in football actually doesn't involve cameras. Instead they would have chips embedded in the ends of the football that would send a signal if it breaks the goal line.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In Football a lot of it is that the ball moves and st... | null |
4dcvsq | Are quarks and electrons really indivisible? | [
{
"answer": " > It's hard for me to understand how something can exist without being made of anything else, it just exists.\n\nDo you imagine that the sub-particles of electrons and quarks would also have sub-particles etc.? I find the idea of there being an infinite regression of sub-particles much harder to s... | null |
5l12pq | how do we not run out of stuff? like metals, helium, plastic, salt, anything? | [
{
"answer": "Metals are recycled and mined. There's actually a shitload of metal on earth, for example the earth is about 8% aluminum. It will be hard to run out of aluminum.\n\nHelium, we are running out of. It's the smallest molecule, and the second lightest, so it tends to escape any container it is put in a... | null |
1zgclq | Which is more energy efficient, internal combustion driven generator to power an electric motor, or direct drive? | [
{
"answer": "This would only be true in a more complicated system like in some hybrid cars, where the internal combustion engine first charges a battery. This has the advantage of regulating the output of the engine, so that it can operate at maximum fuel efficiency, instead of changing in response to the requ... | null |
2prims | realistically speaking, are there any benefits to continuing an embargo on cuba? | [
{
"answer": "America has a lot of Cuban refugees and immigrants who were trying to escape Cuba. Many of them were political prisoners. Others just wanted a better life. They held such a gross animosity towards Castro.\n\nSo they all live in Florida. And, roughly 1/3 of all elections are decided by the Flori... | null |
4omsyl | if dogs can just eat dog food and be healthy, why can't humans eat "human food" equivalent and be healthy? | [
{
"answer": "Dog Food is basically a dried up paste that is made by tossing a balanced diet in a blender. There are \"human food\" equivalents, such as Soylent, but they are far from popular.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mainly that the dog doesn't mind the monotony. Would you be hopping up ... | null |
23ys13 | the cliven bundy cattle grazing situation (not the racist remarks) | [
{
"answer": "A rancher, Bundy, paid the government money to use their land to let his cattle graze (pretty common practice). He quit paying the bill so the government told him to stop using their land. He still used the land for his cattle so the government confiscated some of the cows. A bunch of gun nuts w... | null |
4awumv | what does the type of tv "producer" mean to the actual end result? | [
{
"answer": "\" Producer \" once was the big boss, but slowly Executive Producer has become The Man, the \" Show Runner.\" Most titles in film and tv are very detailed and policed because these people are in craft guilds and protect their territory. Producers, however, are not in unions and the meaning of the t... | null |
uwrmu | Neutrino speed | [
{
"answer": "Basically, the experiments we have to measure neutrino speed are only so precise (they're pretty difficult experiments to set up because neutrinos are so ephemeral and the sun spews so many of them at us), and the difference between the actual neutrino speed and light speed is smaller than the prec... | null |
2gahf8 | Is the Roman Catholoic tradition of canonizing saints connected to the Roman (pagan?) tradition of deifying state heroes? | [
{
"answer": "Before Christianity was ever centered in Rome, it spread throughout the Middle East, made its way across the former Persian empire to India and traveled south, deep into Africa. Although Rome was the center of the Roman empire, Roman culture was not shared by large swathes of the ancient Christian ... | null |
4a0u86 | if light moves so fast, then why to we see light blur from cars and light sabers? | [
{
"answer": "Well lightsabers aren't real so what you're seeing is artistic visual effects, particularly in their case called \"fanning\". ;) But as for motion blur, that's a feature of your eyes not being able to pick it up. I promise people have found out light moves really really fast, and it's in no danger ... | null |
3kfkh6 | Is there an infinitesimal equivalent to the Dirac delta function? | [
{
"answer": "In statistics there are improper priors, which are similar. For example, the uniform prior over the real numbers. It has a constant probability density over the reals, but since it's a probability distribution, it has to integrate to one. This would be your w(t).",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
fqsjk | Why hasn't 'ugly' been bred out? | [
{
"answer": "Genetics is complicated. The shape of your face (for instance) is determined by a rather complicated interplay between a lot of different genes, so the effect a particular gene has depends on all the other genes in your genome. \n\nPerhaps the same gene which gives your father a perfectly-shaped no... | null |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.