id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
679ot3 | Crimean Ottoman slave trade | [
{
"answer": "The Crimean Khanate was in a strategic position regarding slave trade, and was the center of the Black Sea slave trade. To the North and Northwest they had access to vast areas, to the trade and transport networks, and to the peoples to be captured and traded as slaves. Slave raids extended as far ... | null |
tl0u9 | Is an ice cube necessarily the best structure for ice to resist melting the longest? | [
{
"answer": "A sphere has the least surface area per volume",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "44706819",
"title": "Ice XVI",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragra... | null |
eyakuv | how do fingerprint scanners work? what format are the scans themselves stored in? | [
{
"answer": "Not an expert, but I used to work on police in-car software services. The fingerprint scanners they used at the time identified the branches and terminations of the ridges and recorded their relative positions. Those were called \"minimals\". You can turn that into a map of your prints and use math... | null |
czb6yn | if a trading partner's currency deflates, what negative impacts could that have on my country and its economy? | [
{
"answer": "If their currency deflates, then it would cost them more of their currency to exchange for your currency. This would make your exports to them more expensive, which might cut your sales as the effective price to them increases. Weaker demand for your export products can hurt sales and profits, caus... | null |
zxlk2 | [Astronomy] What is the deal with all of the stars that don't appear to be part of a galaxy? | [
{
"answer": "Those are either stars from our own galaxy, or other distant galaxies that are too far away to be resolved beyond a small point of light, depending on the picture you're looking at. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, either stars from the milky way or other more distant galaxies... | null |
1jw5hz | why does traffic seem to 'bunch up' on long strings of highway? | [
{
"answer": "because many people naturally slow down and maintain speed when they are near other people\n\npeople going faster catch up to people going slower and simply adjust to stay behind\n\nits the natural inclination of people to form a group\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"... | null |
425ts0 | why is it that when someone touches me in a certain place on my body it can send "chills" throughout my body? for example, when my so nibbles on my ear it makes my whole body tingle. why? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of the time its a multitude of stimuli.\n\nShe's physically close to you, touching you.\n\nShe bites on your ear to stimulate that area, heightening the experience\n\nThe smell of someone you are infatuated with\n\nIn the end all of these physical stimuli then start a chain of memories of bei... | null |
2oafpo | disregarding the impossible. vertically, how deep / high must i be before i am no longer within my country's boundaries? | [
{
"answer": "There is no official, universally accepted standard for where a nation's airspace ends. The United States has a line at 80 km for where space begins, but it's regularly ignored even there. The general range used by nations is somewhere between 30 km to 160 km.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
1qba9c | how can the fbi and other government agencies not shut down deep web sites like the silk road without finding the owner? | [
{
"answer": "No one here seems to have given the right answer. Not even close. \n\n\"The Deep Web\" is a over used term that really just means computers you cant connect to normally. Things that arent indexed by search engines, content behind paywalls or logins, or networks blocked off from the rest of the inte... | null |
eyqbce | Can any Bee larva become a queen? | [
{
"answer": "There are 3 types of honeybees in a given colony:\n\n1. More than 85% of all the bees are female workers. They do all the important tasks that keep the hive running smoothly, but cannot reproduce.\n\n2. The remaining ~15% of bees are drones, the male bees. They can't do anything (even feed themselv... | null |
3f199t | why are we being bombarded with so many superhero movies? | [
{
"answer": "Because they make god awful amounts of money. Not that I'm complaining either, I have enjoyed this run this far.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They make obscene amounts of money would be a big one.\n\nAnd we now have a studio (marvel) that is dedicated to nothing other than that... | null |
1tskdh | How do helicopters with coaxial rotors and no pitch control turn? (Like on some rc copters) | [
{
"answer": "Yes, it does. These little helicopters are able to rotate the blades independentally, and rotates by slowing down one while speeding up the other, creating unbalanced torque.\n\nReal coax helicopters are a little different. Their blades always rotate in sync, but by changing the collective pitch on... | null |
1qvtei | why doesn't water vapor in our air turn to liquid? | [
{
"answer": "At room temperature, water exists in both liquid and vapor form. Humidity (water vapor) does turn to liquid when it touches a cool surface. It's called condensation. Notice the outside surface of a cold drink you've poured. It will become wet. This is condensation.",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
43oktb | Is it possible to start a fire with superheated steam? | [
{
"answer": "Sure! Superheated steam can pack a lot of thermal energy, which can then be transferred to another object like paper. If the temperature of the steam is high enough, the paper can reach a local temperature above its [autoignition temperature](_URL_2_). This temperature marks the point where a mater... | null |
2ipwx0 | What would happen if 2 objects with mass going as close as possible to the speed of light collided? | [
{
"answer": "Since you excluded the scenario of a head on collision, you seem to be asking what would happen if the energy in one object was transferred to the other to speed it up. \n\nIt's a good question, and as you expect, speeding one object up doesn't allow it to reach c. \n\nThe kinetic energy of one obj... | null |
ay1e64 | Was there gravity before, and during, the Big Bang? | [
{
"answer": "There probably wasn't gravity as we know it during the first moments after the big bang. At high energies, fundamental forces cannot be described as separate interactions -- for example, shortly after the big bang, the electroweak interaction split into the electromagnetic and weak interactions. Du... | null |
8do5de | what causes exhausts to have that rasp-y sound people tend to associate with tuners? (civics, integras, etc) | [
{
"answer": "It has a lot to do with the resonater (muffler) design. Being a resonater, the size volume and pathway makes different tones. Think of how different brass instruments make different sounds.\n\nIf you are tuning for high rpm horsepower you will likely end up raspy, if you tune towards low end power ... | null |
22mvqq | why are revealed female breasts/nipples considered erotic? | [
{
"answer": "They're [secondary sexual characteristics](_URL_0_). Essentially characteristics that appear during puberty to say that the person is able to reproduce. It's important for mate selection, as mating with one unable to reproduce is evolutionarily a bad idea. \n\nIt's interesting to me because it show... | null |
4pwpht | why do ceiling fans have two speeds: hurricane and is this on? | [
{
"answer": "Every ceiling fan I've personally known has had 4 speeds: off, low, medium and high.\n\nEach has their uses, such as low being good to spread heat around in the winter without causing a cooling draft (this is also why they usually have the reverse switch). High works best when you are sweating to c... | null |
2h0stp | phase/neutral/3-phase how does electricity work ? | [
{
"answer": "Phase is the positive side of the circuit (240 volts here in the UK) and neutral is at 0 volts. Now imagine electricity as water. Water will always flow downhill, electricity will always want to flow to 0. The voltage is the difference between the low and high points of the water system, the water ... | null |
2wcqc0 | Is there a connection between Sheol (or the Jewish underworld) and the Christian concept of hell? If not, where did the Christian concept of hell come from? | [
{
"answer": "Sheol in the Hebrew Bible isn't really related to hell; it is more akin to the type of afterlife more commonly depicted in Mesopotamian texts as a kind of shadowy existence. There isn't an explicitly outlined concept of eternal reward or punishment in this type of afterlife, although individuals do... | null |
3xwkha | how to herbivores get enough nutrients from just grass? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is that they eat a shitload of grass.\n\nCows spend pretty much every waking moment of their lives eating and have a very complicated digestive system designed to get maximum nutrient and caloric value from grass.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Many herbivores eat... | null |
1db6nk | how am i suppose to charge and maintain my lithium based laptop battery? | [
{
"answer": "Avoid fully discharging the battery. Try not to go below about 30% on a regular basis.\n\nAvoid heating the battery above 30C (86F).\n\nUse the battery semi-regularly. Avoid maintaining a perpetually full charge, especially at temperatures above 30C.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
13z2k7 | What caused some of the early Earth's surface to become oceanic plates while other parts became continental plates of much higher elevation? Why wouldn't it form plates all of roughly the same elevation? | [
{
"answer": "They're made of rocks of different density. [Oceanic crust is denser](_URL_0_), at about 2.9 g/cm^3 . [Continental crust](_URL_1_) is less dense, at about 2.7 g/cm^3 . ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "2068726",
"titl... | null |
38lvga | why do people walk in a circle when they're in a fistfight? | [
{
"answer": "I'm no professional boxer, but I spar once a week. Constantly moving is good for three things:\n\n* It makes you harder to hit\n* It makes looking for openings of your opponent easier, since people can only protect their front and not their side\n* It hides your attack movements. Good power comes f... | null |
1mbpyh | I am wondering what is the oldest known human created artifact discovered? | [
{
"answer": "This is a question better suited to /r/AskAnthropology",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "190815",
"title": "Swabian Jura",
"section": "Section::::History and culture.:Prehistoric culture.\n",
"start_par... | null |
1l328q | why does bread become doughy again when you squish it up? | [
{
"answer": "Bread is airy because of the bubbles baked into the bread and held in place by gluten (or the gluten-free equivalent). Squish the bubbles and you're left with a dense, baked dough that feels squishy instead of pillowy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
3ys3de | why do we have capsaicin receptors on our buttholes? | [
{
"answer": "Those receptors are in mucus membranes, which are in your anus. It would sting if you shoved it up your nose as well.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Capsaicin triggers ordinary neurons which are present in all sorts of tissue. [Source.](_URL_0_) Nothing special about that one regi... | null |
8l9t2t | Why was japan allowed to remain whole and become a democracy and not split like Korea was after WWII? | [
{
"answer": "Expanded from [an earlier answer of mine](_URL_1_)\n\nThe question of why Korea was divided and Japan was not is a tricky one with a lot to untangle here. \n\nFirstly, the seeming permanence of Korea's division and the long-term division of Germany suggests that the wartime Allied powers planned fo... | null |
26u551 | Why, during the American Civil War, would people gather and watch battles for recreation? Wouldn't heads being blown off disturb them and their picnics? | [
{
"answer": "To my knowledge, this only happened at the very beginning of the war, as everyone had their sharp new uniforms on, and people expected neat Napoleonic type warfare, with minimal civilian casualties (and people expected to watch from very far away). It was the common thought at the time that \"their... | null |
rwlth | How badly did the Holocaust hinder the Nazi war effort? | [
{
"answer": " > The Nazis killed able-bodied Jews and others who could have instead been fighting for Germany or at least working to build materiel. \n\nYou're looking at the Second World War in a vacuum. The only time the Germans would need collaborators to fight with them/for them and Jews for their industri... | null |
9thkmd | Marines on D Day | [
{
"answer": "It was due to them all being in the Pacific. The Marine Corps only comprised of six divisions during the Second World War and by 1944 all six divisions were engaged in the Pacific Theatre. Even if it had been possible to withdraw some of these divisions and transport them to England, a difficult ta... | null |
6cee9d | Were any of the Founding Fathers openly opposed to slavery? | [
{
"answer": "It depends what you mean by openly opposed, really. (And also on who counts as a founder, which can be...contentious.) On the level of national politics and among the most famous names, there's not much. If you mean opposed to slavery in the sense of preaching immediate, uncompensated abolition, th... | null |
19u4vs | Why is Robert F. Scott's expedition regarded higher than Amundsen's in some places? | [
{
"answer": "Because he's English, and when retold, it's seen as a valiant and noble attempt. I don't think anybody seriously considers Scott's expedition to be \"rated higher\", but as a national tragedy, it continues to have more to say about it. \n\nAmundsen was perfectly prepared, and executed a good plan w... | null |
21it4n | will social security run out in the foreseeable future? when? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on how you look at it.\n\nFrom the perspective of \"Money collected by Social Security is less than money going out to Social Security\" then, yes, SS is going to go broke, and fairly soon.\n\nBut that's not how it works. SS funds just go into the general fund; SS has been paying for our... | null |
3kw1fj | what power to influence policy does the uk's shadow cabinet actually have? | [
{
"answer": "Shadow cabinet can't directly affect government policy so it's the latter.\n\nHowever as members of Parliament they can vote on acts and issues put before the house.\n\nThe government can be defeated on an issue if enough MPS vote against them. This is why any party likes to have a majority so tha... | null |
3trm10 | How were the borders of Canada's provinces/territories finalized into their modern form? | [
{
"answer": "I can't speak for the other provinces, but the border between Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec was settled by a 1927 decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (then effectively the court of final appeal for Canada and other Dominions - including Newfoundland, which didn't join Ca... | null |
40u3ig | Were the Sons of Liberty responsible for terrorism in the colonies leading up to the American Revolution? | [
{
"answer": "The US Department of Defense defines terrorism as the following: \n\n > terrorism — The unlawful use of violence or threat of violence, often motivated by religious, political, or other ideological beliefs, to instill fear and coerce governments or societies in pursuit of goals that are usually po... | null |
35mem6 | how come places have sales and sell stuff for only $1 | [
{
"answer": "Their system might not allow for a zero dollar sale. They also still have to track all tires for inventory management. \n \nAlso management can pull up sales to see how many of those deals they sold. \n \nEdit- Grammar. I can't believe I mixed up They're and Their",
"provenance": nul... | null |
agjans | During WWII Ultra, Purple, and Bodyguard are well known large-scale successes of Allied counter-espionage. Are there examples of any Axis successes? | [
{
"answer": "You may be interested in this brief note about Finnish codebreaking efforts I wrote earlier. Finnish signals intelligence provided valuable information about Soviet plans and intentions and arguably had a very important role in stopping the 1944 Soviet offensive. \n\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_1_)",
"pr... | null |
1g8r6h | can someone please explain a reciprocal in algebra? | [
{
"answer": "it's a number, when multiplied by the denominator(the bottom number in a fraction), equals 1. so, 1/2 is the reciprocal of 2, because when you multiply 1/2 by 2 you get 1. so, in keeping with that the reciprocal of 837 is 1/837.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So, in algebra, you... | null |
3wpn7h | During the American revolution did Great Britain suffer a financial crisis? | [
{
"answer": "Do you mean a financial crisis or an economic crisis? If you mean a financial crisis, the British debt rose considerably during the Revolution – although it was part of broader increase in indebtedness from the early 18th century to 1815. [This graph]( _URL_1_) gives you some idea of how indebted t... | null |
5haw9a | how do epoxies work on a molecular scale? | [
{
"answer": "Epoxy resins form ionic bonds at an atomic level with the bonding surfaces. \nDisadvantages of epoxies are that they have a high coefficient of thermal expansion and they are not that strong at elevated temperature. The high CTE becomes an issue if you are bonding low CTE materials like Titanium ... | null |
64rkxj | Dear historians! Do you know any good books about the area of Brandenburg before the German eastward expansion in the High Middle Ages? | [
{
"answer": "If you can read academic German well enough: \n\n*Die Entstehung der Mark Brandenburg*, by Lutz Partenheimer. \n\n*Albrecht der Bär. Gründer der Mark Brandenburg und des Fürstentums Anhalt*, by Lutz Partenheimer. \n\n*Die Mark Brandenburg: Band I* (you may have to pay for the entire collection) by ... | null |
1s6pl4 | is it better to leave my desktop running all the time or to turn it off every night? | [
{
"answer": "In most scenarios you should be turning off your electronics when they are not in use. Your electronics do not suffer from being turned on and off. Your computer does consume extra power and gather extra dust while it is running during the night.\n\nThis doesn't always apply to business scenarios, ... | null |
8vnvy2 | i give up. exactly how do resistors work? | [
{
"answer": "You need to determine the maximum safe current for the LED. Back when I used to work with these a lot, it was typically 20 mA or so. Then you need to determine the supply voltage. Use Ohm's law to determine the resistor you need to limit to that current. Then calculate the power for the resistor ba... | null |
axn0w9 | Are vaccines as effective as getting the real disease? | [
{
"answer": "I would say that you don't want to get hepatitis, because your liver will be left damaged even if you do survive. \n\nI believe that some vaccines do not offer the same level of protection, but most do, and some do even better.\n\nIn any case, better 12 vaccines than 12 serious diseases, even if yo... | null |
1b1s3y | Why isn't there one test for contact lenses and glasses? | [
{
"answer": "To fit contact lenses, one must determine the exact shape of the eye because the lens sits on the eye directly. Those with glasses do not have to worry about fitting the exact contour of the eye. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "With respect to the actual power of the prescription,... | null |
e112fc | Shotguns Use in War. | [
{
"answer": "Although only for WWI, these two answers might interest you:\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "26838",
"title": "Shotgun",
"section": "Section::::History.:Late 20th century to present.\n",... | null |
1hsg9d | aircraft stalling | [
{
"answer": "As fznsw said, when we talk about stalling in an aircraft, we're talking about the wing, not the engine.\n\nWhen a wing moves through the air, the angle between the wing and the air is called the \"angle of attack\".\n\nWhen the angle of attack becomes too big, the pattern of the airflow over the w... | null |
16ju55 | Inquiry about Mithras | [
{
"answer": "Roger Pearse has a site on Mithras, which he tries to keep in line with the most current reputable scholarship, [here](_URL_0_). Also, there was a recent episode of the BBC podcast In Our Time [on Mithras](_URL_1_), which was pretty decent. There are listings of further sources on both sites, whi... | null |
2c9x07 | How did Michel Ney, a competent commander his whole career, screw up so badly at Waterloo? | [
{
"answer": "Michel Ney, *les brave des braves*, was a rather interesting character in the Napoleonic Wars. Being in the original class of the Marshalate, he was unique that he didn't serve directly under Napoleon nor was particularly famous in France as being a competent commander, rather he was known within t... | null |
3dtkmj | how exactly does google's self-driving car know to stop for red lights, stop signs, other cars etc? | [
{
"answer": "Well, it knows to stop for lights and other cars because it has a sophisticated system of sensors that look for those things and then a software system that tells it to stop when it see them. The cars don't have the ability to refuel or plug themselves in. They do know, however, if their current pa... | null |
2g1c97 | if ebola is contracted "through contaminated bodily fluids" only, how is it that so many people, including health care workers, are getting it? do they go bashing on each other bodily fluids or something? | [
{
"answer": "Ebola is incredibly infectious once you've been exposed to it; it takes far less contact to become infected than most other diseases. The disease can also cause vomiting and diarrhea, so it creates a lot of bodily fluids to be potentially touched. Finally, it remains infectious even in a dead body ... | null |
di16na | how do people have access to winter sports like luge and skeleton at a young enough age to become olympic level good? | [
{
"answer": "They live near places where those sports are practiced (usually major ski areas) and have parents who can afford to buy them lessons and equipment.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sled sports (luge, skeleton, etc.) a lot of times get their next crop of athletes by doing tryouts for... | null |
esc2m8 | How can ice age humans be compared with today humans? | [
{
"answer": "You are asking a huge question. There are entire college courses on this. \n\nIn general, differences between 40 kya humans and modern humans may be accounted for by normal human variation. It may be like looking at living people and cultures that are different from your own, but included in “norma... | null |
3so3m9 | why does slang (or more informal ways of speaking in general) form in language? is it just a natural part of the gradual change in a language over time? what makes slang stick around or fall out of use? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not a linguistic major, but I am a history one so let me take a crack at it \n\nHistorically the Everyman is uneducated, and doesn't know the proper way to speak or the proper words for certain things\n\nIt's the reason we call it a bath instead of An ablution ",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
9c7pwa | Phlogiston was first named in 1703, but was disproven by 1800. What's the story here? What theoretical issue did phlogiston solve, how popular did phlogstonic theory become, and was in there any negative response to its introduction or replacement? | [
{
"answer": "Stahl's phlogiston came, by his own account, from Johann Becher. Becher was a mid-17th century alchemist and chymist who in many ways lived up to the early modern stereotype of the alchemist-charlatan (as in Ben Johnson's play), for instance, Becher had encountered a rock which made you invisible i... | null |
1hzoc7 | A question on French military uniforms. | [
{
"answer": "I believe this is the jacket and waistcoat worn by a French Divisional General during the late 18th/early 19th century. It looks identical to the uniform Napoleon wore when he crossed the Alps.\n\n[Edit] There are some other pictures of just such a uniform [here.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
... | null |
8jf0wn | [Astronomy] What anti-contamination procedures do we engage in for space exploration? | [
{
"answer": "1) While space is a hostile environment to life, there are a number of extremophiles like tardigrades and certain bacterial spores that can survive for years or decades exposed to space, and space agencies absolutely take measures to prevent contamination of other solar system bodies. We do this to... | null |
85ojxc | How prevalent was Chinese as a language in post-Heian Japan up until the late Edo period? | [
{
"answer": "Classical Chinese was learned as a written language through all these centuries, but hardly ever as a spoken language. This was the case even in the Heian period itself. Bruce Batten writes in his account of a Chinese merchant ship arriving in Hizen (current day Nagasaki prefecture) in 945:\n\n > ... | null |
6rymol | Were wax seals known to have been copied during history to create forgeries of letters? | [
{
"answer": "You’re asking two questions here: 1) whether seals could be forged and 2) whether the recipients could tell if a seal was “the real thing” or not. My specialization is in medieval Britain, and my answers will come from that perspective, so I hope that time frame can get to what you're looking for.\... | null |
lf79x | the warhammer 40000 universe | [
{
"answer": "At the beginning of the 29th millennium (year 28,000), the Emperor, an immortal being, perfect in nearly every way, began a project to create for himself 20 sons. These 20 sons, the Primarchs, would each embody a particular aspect of the Emperor's perfection.\n\nThe project nearly came to fruition,... | null |
3och9k | why does installing some linux distribution take no time at all, while windows takes hours? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on the hardware. On an ssd it takes me less than 20 minutes to install Windows. Also, most Linux distros are much smaller than a Windows os.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Installed a fresh copy of windows 10 the other day from a USB 3.0 drive to an ssd and it took about 1... | null |
3acocb | how verizon got away with not building fiber networks in nyc, despite having been paid to do so | [
{
"answer": "Technically, they're not getting away with it. The city audited the implementation, and now everybody knows they've been being bad. It's just too bad that it's six years later. They'll probably have to pay some fines and finish the project.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
3o5w18 | how were the worlds first words agreed upon and how did everyone know what they meant? | [
{
"answer": "I have seen anthropological linguistic background, and the best guess I have is that the first words were:\n\n1. Animal Sounds (like birds or prey or pets)\n\n2. Innate sounds, like a sigh of pleasure, a shriek of surprise or laughter\n\nEven today, these sounds don't need to be explained and are j... | null |
3i9uuv | (nsfw) why is it that men "get back to their senses" after ejaculation? | [
{
"answer": "[This comment](_URL_0_) summarizes it relatively simply. It comes down to the limbic system, which is a set of brain structures responsible for controlling instinct and mood. Basically, when you're that horny, some areas of your brain have less blood and oxygen going to them, and as soon as you eja... | null |
afgw51 | why is dust so omnipresent and no matter how frequently we clean an area, it still comes back? | [
{
"answer": "Dust is just tiny flakes of \"stuff\". As long as there's \"stuff\" moving around a room, you'll have dust. A lot of dust is made up of you: dead skin/hair and whatnot, but it's really just any fine particulate that settles on a surface over time. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "S... | null |
8tg0pq | if pink eye is super contagious, how can it infect only one eye without infecting the other? | [
{
"answer": "Because most things that carry germs and touch your left eye also carry germs and touch your right eye. In the off circumstance that you only contacted one of your eyes with the fomite then it’s possible it only infects that one eye.\n\nI had pink eye a couple times as a kid and it was always in bo... | null |
3tasf5 | why does peanut butter only stick to the roof of my mouth, and not the other surfaces i.e. my cheek? | [
{
"answer": "Someone will have a much more scientific explanation, I'm sure, but do this test for me:\n\n* Open your mouth wide. Swallow any excess saliva.\n\n* Breathe in deeply a few times. Four or five times should do it, just until your breath starts to feel \"cold\" and you start getting the urge to clos... | null |
bir7ev | why do dimes have the little ridges all along the side? | [
{
"answer": "Back when coins were made of precious metals, some people would shave tiny bits off the sides of the coins. They would then melt down the metal and sell it. The tiny ridges allow you to verify that the entire coin is there.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Those \"little ridges\" ... | null |
1mbftz | Can creatures that are small see even smaller creatures (ie bacteria) because they are closer in size? | [
{
"answer": "Our eyes have a certain diameter. The larger the diameter the more light enters the eye and the better the eye can see. This is not always correct 100% of the time but that's how eyes and telescopes work in general. Bigger the surface area of light to hit better the object can see. So smaller creat... | null |
8pfaql | Do rainbows make complete circles but we just don’t see them? Or is it just part of a circle? | [
{
"answer": "They make complete circles. \n\nLight forming part of the rainbow has to follow a path with makes a specific angle between the sun, the raindrop, and your eye. The circle described by the raindrops which satisfy the condition is usually partially obscured by objects in the way, or is cut off becaus... | null |
l80a0 | how does focusing a lens work? | [
{
"answer": "A glass lens changes the direction of light that goes through. What happens with a focusing lens is that the light rays coming from an object at a specific distance in front of the lens will focus at another specific distance behind the lens. [Like this](_URL_0_). Objects at a different distance ... | null |
eg8vzk | if condoms were invented in the 19th century, how were stds not a globally widespread issue when condoms did not exist? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is they *were* an issue. The difference is the names those diseases went by.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1828004",
"title": "Bareback (sex)",
"section": "Section::::History and culture.\n... | null |
4rfwcn | why can non-american actors so commonly mimic a perfect american accent, but rarely can an american actor accurately mimic a foreign accent? | [
{
"answer": "Money, mostly.\n\nThe US has the largest, richest media market in the world. If there is one accent that with enhance a non-American actors earning potential, it is the American accent.\n\nAmerican actors don't have anywhere else to go that will greatly increase the opportunities. And even if the... | null |
1j2dk2 | Alexander the Great, Fredrik the Great, Cyrus the Great... by what criterion are these men given the title "Great"? | [
{
"answer": "FYI, there was brief discussion on \"the Great\" last month. It won't answer all your questions, but it's a start... \n\n[How did certain historical leaders come to be known as \"the Great\" or \"the Terrible\"?](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In all seriousness I think i... | null |
dv9j35 | Why is the Ferrel cell not rotating like the Hadley and Polar cells? | [
{
"answer": "Until somebody who knows more about atmospheric circulation answers, what I can say is that the neat schematic of atmospheric circulation that you're probably thinking of is a very big simplification. The Hadley cell, which transfers heat from the equator to the mid-latitudes _is_ a significant fea... | null |
hqhd2 | "New Research Undermines Key Argument for Human Evolution." Does this article make sense?
| [
{
"answer": "Wow, my bullshit meter went off the SCALE.\n\nIt's from ICR, who are a bunch of loonies.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Wow.\n\nOk:\n\n*note: in the following I accept some of the author's premises just for the sake of the argument.*\n\n > 2 At the purported fusion site, there is... | null |
3fss2n | how can you create a local currency that has actual value? | [
{
"answer": "The problem is what is actual value? Value is only derived from someone else being willing to exchange something for it. If you made your new currency gold backed and issued say 100 fake dollars the sum of which equaled the value of one ounce of gold that you had stored in your fake central bank yo... | null |
20vygt | how do insulated bottles (such as thermos brand) so effectively keep warm foods warm? | [
{
"answer": "You have hot/cold on the inside, then empty space (the vacuum), then the outer wall of the bottle. The vacuum cannot transfer heat because heat needs a body/material to move through.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are 2 containers, inner and outer with an effective vacuum be... | null |
18afjl | everything that has happened with the chris dorner situation to this point | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nThis pretty well explains everything you'd need to know about it.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "7448403",
"title": "Sheldon Hawkes",
"section": "Section::::On the job.:Trouble with the killer S... | null |
20bna1 | if only 3% of the water one earth is fresh, how is there so much drinkable water (at least in developed countries)? | [
{
"answer": "3% of all of Earths water is still a fuckton of water.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "15380061",
"title": "Water scarcity",
"section": "Section::::Water stress.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 42,
... | null |
11cckn | rocket propulsion. | [
{
"answer": "Any action has an equal and opposite reaction. When the propellant in a rocket is burned, it expands rapidly and causes it to shoot down out of the bottom of the rocket very forcefully. The equal and opposite reaction is that the rocket gets pushed up very forcefully. ",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
wda5t | why we think the "bloop" sound is from an animal and not a natural occurrence. | [
{
"answer": "Huh.. sped up like that it sounds like an air bubble. \n\nPeople think it's an animal sound because we know animals can make sounds kind of like it. There's also reason to believe it's something else because it was so loud and because we've never heard it before. ",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
4y84zy | why do we have difference suffixes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, but all the rest* use th? | [
{
"answer": "It is an extension of the word itself; fir'st', seco'nd', thi'rd'. Same in fif'th', six'th'... see? Besides, ever try saying 'firstth'?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"First\" or 1st comes from the word \"foremost\". \n\"Second\" or 2nd comes from Latin \"secundus\" which means ... | null |
9i2xbr | how do hemispherectomy patients regain functionality in their whole bodies? | [
{
"answer": "This rerouting only is possible for very young patients. I know a teen who had it done and he has incomplete use of one half of his body. So he limps and such. But a baby who has this done will likely be completely fine. Some physical therapy is likely necessary. The young have a lot of neuroplasti... | null |
fshf1j | What religion did Muhammad practice before founding Islam? | [
{
"answer": "I'm sure there's more to say about it, but u/frogbrooks provided some great comments in [this thread](_URL_0_) a few years ago, discussing Muhammed's pre-Islamic beliefs and how they compared with other local religions.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " \n\nThis is kind of a controv... | null |
1pb3lj | if eli5 suggests we search eli5 or google before asking an eli5 question, and i can find the answer to every eli5 question on google without reading any of the comments, what is the motivation or psychology behind people using eli5? | [
{
"answer": "Karma, intellectual laziness, or simply lowering the barrier to entry I would think. ELI5 having been made a default subreddit reminds me of when WoW replaced their detailed talent trees...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It presents interesting questions (that don't have to be tho... | null |
4aufls | how are we still speculating about and uncovering tombs from pyramids we explored almost 100 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "Not the same pyramid - Tutankhamun was not buried in a pyramid. Same tomb, though. No one noticed the \"ghost\" doorways because they were bricked and plastered up. It wasn't until the recent high-res scans that tiny differences and cracks in the walls were noticed.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
1r67zq | what exactly is "missing" in the brain/mental processes when someone has above average written communication skills, yet poor/below average verbal communication skills? | [
{
"answer": "When speaking your brain has to translate the words in your head, into impulses that go to your vocal cords and lungs. This is a synced process I.E your body has to send the impulse continually or you won't get the word out. This takes brain power which you could normally use to create better argum... | null |
d1pypj | Is race really relevant for a medical diagnosis? | [
{
"answer": "Many reasons why race may be relevant. \n\nCertain genetic diseases are more prevalent in some ethnic groups than others.\n\nFor example, sickle cell anemia is more common in people of African, Hispanic, Mediterranean descent. Thalassemia affects people of Mediterranean and South/East Asian descent... | null |
5d441a | why do liquids like beet juice stain so effectively? | [
{
"answer": "The bonds of the compound that give beet juice (and other things that stain) their deep color are oriented in a way that make them very strong. These compounds (called chromophores) absorb visible light so you see them as colored. \n\nIt is quite difficult to break these bonds using just soap or wa... | null |
4r08sd | how do they put empty space into a flash drive? | [
{
"answer": "The answer from /u/WRSaunders is almost correct. The charge isn't really stored on capacitors, it is stored on the \"floating gate\" of [special-purpose transistors](_URL_0_). The gate is called floating because it is not electrically connected to anything. The charges are forced onto/off the flo... | null |
2xpo6r | Do snakes actually have tails and if so, where does it start? | [
{
"answer": "Snakes do have tails, they start in the region behind the cloaca (the opening used for reproduction/waste excretion). The tails on most snakes are relatively short compared to the overall body length. Here's an image that will give you an idea\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
23v76t | why does the united states require a census at great expense, beyond article 1 section 2, to count its citizens when there is more than ample computerized data (state id cards, passports, birth certificates, tax statements, intelligence records, etc.) on its population to complete the task? | [
{
"answer": "Not everyone currently in the country has all of those things. Some people don't have state ID's, some are here illegally and don't have a passport, birth certificate, some people don't get tax statements, and most people aren't on intelligence records. \n\nThe census literally goes door to door. I... | null |
bo6hdu | why isn't the regrowth of nerves and other key cells using stem cells not more popular or more researched if it works so well? | [
{
"answer": "The ethics of Stem Cells are a little fuzzy. \n\nThe best Stem Cells for use in Humans come from Human Fetuses. That means harvesting cells from freshly dead babies. \n\nAny situation that leads to a researcher extracting fresh stem cells is going to stumble afoul some dark decisions by one part... | null |
r05dn | Does calorie restriction inhibit healing? | [
{
"answer": "Also, does calorie restriction inhibit or change brain functions? Just wondering, as I do believe that my thought patterns change when I suddenly go for a long time without eating.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We're very familiar with the fact that malnutrition significantly imp... | null |
9v8kjo | I'm an academic working in Paris in the summer of 1940; how disruptive is the German occupation to my work? Would German officials pry into my affairs, and perhaps even censor or confiscate my research? How seriously would the war disrupt my ability to read and review other international studies? | [
{
"answer": "This is a small piece of the pie: in 1945, the US State Department asked [Sven S. Liljeblad](_URL_0_) (1899-2000) to assess what remained of European anthropologists, folklorists and linguists in Europe, in the wake of the war. Liljeblad had risen in the pre-war ranks with his important 1927 disser... | null |
3d4zom | how is bacon made? | [
{
"answer": "Bacon is made out of [pork belly](_URL_1_) that has been [cured](_URL_2_ or [smoked](_URL_0_.\n\nIt can then be sliced (as you often see in the supermarket) or left whole.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Basically, thin cuts (usually from the side or back) of pig meat are salted an... | null |
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