id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
33zj3l | What is happening on a microscopic level when I burn my toast? | [
{
"answer": "[The Maillard Reaction](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "27001",
"title": "Smoke",
"section": "Section::::Chemical composition.:Visible and invisible particles of combustion.\n",
"start_paragr... | null |
4n6vfi | If I weigh X and add Y weight to my body during exercise, do I burn the same calories as a person who weights X+Y? | [
{
"answer": "You will be burning slightly fewer calories. The reason for this is that all body mass needs to burn calories constantly to maintain normal life processes, but if you put on the vest, the vest would not need to burn calories.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think it would signifi... | null |
p70ft | Why is it when I close one eye, the vision in my open one appears to have "Warm" colors, and the other appears to have "Cool" colors? | [
{
"answer": "Sometimes your eyes have different ratios of the color sensing cone cells. There are even people called unilateral dichromats who are colorblind in one eye but see normally in the other (not to say that is what you seem to be describing).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I get this ... | null |
exuu3 | Would someone please explain the whole "tiny curled up extra dimensions" thing? | [
{
"answer": "Okay. So. Dimensions. What is a \"dimension?\" If you go by bad science-fiction B-movies, a \"dimension\" is a sort of parallel plane of existence, one that intersects but is distinct from our own.\n\nThis is absolute, unfettered nonsense, so go ahead and put it out of your mind for now.\n\nWhat a ... | null |
1mxr0s | What was going on in China that so many of them migrated to work for the railroads in the U.S.? | [
{
"answer": "The Taiping Rebellion started in 1850. It was fairly bloody, even by Chinese standards. The effects of that rebellion also inspired others to rebel and there were associated problems with flooding and famine. _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm assuming you're talking ab... | null |
14x8cs | what did it cost to go see an actual mozart opera? | [
{
"answer": "I can't seem to find any really solid sources right now, and all my books are still at school (I'm home from college on break right now), but I have studied music history quite a bit, so I can at least give you an answer to your question, even though I can't really give you further places to look c... | null |
5mvtdr | why do ladybugs seem to appear inside every time the temperature drops? | [
{
"answer": "These insects, among quite a few others are doing something called over wintering. I'm short, they are looking for shelter. Homes/buildings are about the best fit for that. So as the temp drops they look for these places to survive. You'll actually end up seeing activity change with temp, sometimes... | null |
357n0v | why are pretzels shaped like... well, pretzels? where did that shape originate from? | [
{
"answer": "Can't remember specifics but something about nuns creating a shape that looked like children folding arms.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "213589",
"title": "Pretzel",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_... | null |
3iodt6 | why does software randomly not work or crash at times but is fine after a restart? | [
{
"answer": "Computer programs ALWAYS have bugs, it's the nature of programming as software is usually so complicated with thousands upon thousands of lines of code, some situations weren't thought about or someone just made a mistake when making it. Little bugs often exist that cause programs to become unstab... | null |
d2wszx | how is it possible for light to not have reached us from parts of the universe yet? | [
{
"answer": "The limit of Speed of Light only applies to particles moving through spacetime, it does not apply to spacetime itself. Two points in spacetime can be pushed apart by the expansion of the universe faster than the speed of light. The further any two points in spacetime are from each other, the faster... | null |
t6s1k | How do athletes seemingly tear their ACLs so easily during non-contact portions of their respective sports? | [
{
"answer": "The others posting here have done a really good job of explaining so far, but I'll fill in with a little more information.\n\nThe ACL is most commonly torn when the knee bends backwards too far, or moves too far to the side. This is easily something you can do yourself, simply by turning sharply, ... | null |
9szdkl | Why did Mormonism succeed? | [
{
"answer": "Yay, a question where I actually have some level of cursory expertise!\n\nTL;DR at the end. Sorry for typos, didn't proof before submitting.\n\nTo begin understanding how Mormonism was allowed to flourish requires a brief understanding of the Protestant melting pot that was 19th-century America. Jo... | null |
sy3wq | How do we know how many people died under Stalin and Mao? | [
{
"answer": "We honestly don't know accurately, it's mostly educated guesses and deduction, some will be higher than reality and some will be lower than the true number. It's just like with most things in history, I will give an example, with The Battle of the Nile, we know how many British were involved, how m... | null |
1zrvsj | how to become a programmer when /r/learnprogramming goes over my head? [serious] | [
{
"answer": "Just how far over your head are we talking? Do you have any sort of math background? Do you know what a computer is?\n\nYou might try to start with some sort of interactive tutorial like [Code Academy](_URL_0_) or a book that's meant to teach everything from the ground up.",
"provenance": null... | null |
7mjqp5 | How did Native Americans in Canada survive the massive snow dumps and -20/-30 degree weather? | [
{
"answer": "1. Could you please specify what era you're interested in? In 2006, 50.3% of people living in the Northwest Territories identified themselves as Aboriginal Canadians (First Nations, Metis, Inuit, or multiple/other Aboriginal identities), along with 20% of people in Yukon and 85% of people in Nunavu... | null |
3iqev1 | how do professional boxers have (decently) long careers if they're getting concussed everytime they fight? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nIt is a problem in boxing, although today's boxers and trainers know more about it and boxers have adopted a much more defensive style (lots of clinching, few face-to-face brawls) that prevents them getting punched in the head as much. See any recent Klitschko fight or the Mayweather - ... | null |
sxlch | If the US government printed $15 trillion to pay off the debt, what would the rate of inflation become? | [
{
"answer": "Looking around, there are various estimates online of the total circulating US money supply, [this](_URL_0_) source estimates about $3.5 trillion in bills and coins, which would indicate the inflation caused by adding $15 trillion to the money supply should be around 500%. That's definitely just a... | null |
el6kvf | How much ocean water is moved worldwide each tidal cycle? | [
{
"answer": "I doubt anyone can answer that for the case of the Earth as it is far too complicated. Tides on the Earth are subject to the topography of the ocean bed and so vary throughout the oceans.\n\nI think even for a homogeneous fluid body this might not be a straightforward question either. You can evalu... | null |
1jka9i | what are the 165,000 new jobs the us economy says has been added in july and how are they created so quickly? | [
{
"answer": "there is nothing quick about it, this economy has been producing about 140,000 new jobs every month this year.\n\nBovernment employment has been going down steadily for the last few years and is one of the reasons for weak job growth overall. \n\nAccording the the BLS the jobs are primarily in the ... | null |
1kb8rn | How exactly did the Japanese worship their Emperor in the early 20th century/ww2? | [
{
"answer": "To my knowledge the Emperor wasn't praised as a god via rituals as that would go against their religion to their many gods, it would have been seen as an insult.\n\nIn the early 20th century/WW2 era the Emporer was often thought to be a Demi-god or higher being, someone who has unquestionable reign... | null |
6f81c2 | what do we measure in mhz when we are talking about cpus, does it have any moving parts like a hard-disk does? | [
{
"answer": "A CPU is essentially made from switches. Tiny areas on a piece of silicon - a microchip - can be created such that they allow electricity to pass from one place to another when there is electricity supplied at a third point and not otherwise; or the inverse, they prevent electricity from passing th... | null |
31hkg2 | How did Nazi Germany a regime born out of the ruins of World War 1 have so much access to a diverse pool of top notch academics by world war 2? ( Rocket scientists, Gunsmiths, Cytologists/ciphers, Tank and aircraft engineers) | [
{
"answer": "It seems to me that you assume that if there is hunger and some political chaos that all the institutions stop functioning? Germany before WWI was one of the most advanced countries on the planet, they won the most Nobel prices in the sciences up to that point. WWI was 4 years and after it was over... | null |
2t4cyj | you know that feeling when you're drinking something, and there's like a pause almost i'm not sure how to put it, a throat-cramp of sorts when it's going down your throat? sorry if nobody knows what i'm talking about | [
{
"answer": "Yes. It hurts. I think it's an air bubble so there's not room for the liquid and the bubble so it feels like a trying to swallow big lump.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1589857",
"title": "CREST syndrome",
... | null |
2tqnvr | Why are bronze and brass not as common metals to make things as they used to be in antiquity? | [
{
"answer": "we have harder metals to work that produce a better product in the end.\n\nThe main issue with bronze is that its a rather soft metal and doesn't keep its edge well. While early iron suffered similar issues (with less reparability) the moment you start getting cast and later wrought iron plus steel... | null |
mf68e | How do snipers/spotters calculate where to shoot? | [
{
"answer": "Taking into account wind, gravity, distance, the gun they are using and the bullets they are using, the spotters are able to approximate about where the sniper should position his scope so that the bullet hits the target. Marine Sniper School is pretty intense, and they're very good at what they do... | null |
2stw02 | What's the correct response to this objection to special relativity? | [
{
"answer": "Whoever wrote this is trying to discredit SR because they still hold onto the assumption of absolute time and don't understand that that assumption has to be abandoned. Let's take a look at this statement they make while talking about two clocks traveling at different speeds, they *completely* miss... | null |
6g7z71 | how can energy companies guarantee a customer getting '100% green energy', when they also produce energy from fossil fuels? | [
{
"answer": "Electricity isn't a physical object that's being piped around, so the idea of there being specific energy being produced in one place and then shipped around doesn't really work.\n\nWhat the energy company is guaranteeing is that they'll supply, either by producing it themselves or buying it from a... | null |
17yd6e | Do so-called "brain training" games really work? | [
{
"answer": "The n-back test is well studied. Google scholar isn't loading on my phone for some reason but you can do a search for academic papers on it there.\n\nThere are also systems such as the Method of Loci that can be studied and practiced for memory.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "S... | null |
8lztw2 | How is laze formed by lava mixing with sea water? | [
{
"answer": "The high-temperature steam produced by the lava entering the ocean hydrolizes the various salts present in seawater, primarily chloride salts. This results in hydrogen from the steam combining with chloride ions, producing significant quantities of hydrogen chloride. As the steam recondenses it p... | null |
1rghun | from where did country music emerge? | [
{
"answer": "Hank Williams Sr.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "46511153",
"title": "List of country music festivals",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id... | null |
1v9rkj | Why does the Dutch government reside in The Hague if the capital is Amsterdam ? | [
{
"answer": "Short answer: the seat of political power, nowadays known as *het Binnenhof*, has been in the Hague since 1446. [The wikipedia entry of het Binnenhof](_URL_0_) can give you some more details on the locale itself. This is where the nobility and other notables gathered during the late middle ages, re... | null |
2qjaqu | What exactly did the Jewish aristocracy do in Babylon? | [
{
"answer": "As a corollary to OP's question:\nWhat was the life of an average Jew in Babylon like? How were the classes divided? Were Jews well integrated into Babylonian society? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "405453",
"title... | null |
13dg3s | How true is the statement that the Soviet Union won the World War II in Europe? | [
{
"answer": "There are two acceptable answers to this question. Militarily, the Soviet Union wins World War Two. They grind the Germans up, tie down major parts of the German army, and push gigantic distances (while taking serious casualties) to throw the Nazis back onto Berlin. The Russian steamroller tied dow... | null |
185z92 | Okay, so I don't know anything about physics, but this question has been on my mind. | [
{
"answer": "What you're looking for is called [Gravitational Lensing](_URL_2_)... and nothing can go faster than the speed of light (without funky quantum mechanical [jibber](_URL_1_) [jabber](_URL_0_)).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "... | null |
1nuoui | why toddlers are happy one moment then screaming and crying the next moment | [
{
"answer": "Because for a toddler a moment is a really long time and lots can happen.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Babies process information slowly because their brain cells lack the myelination necessary for fast, clear nerve impulse transmission. During the second year, there is a major ... | null |
f6hyof | Why was being able to flank an opponents army so powerful pre-gunpowder? | [
{
"answer": "More can always be said, but the following previous answers are quite excellent explanations.\n\nu/Iphikrates offers a [comprehensive treatment on just this topic here](_URL_0_), and u/theshadowdawn has a [similar answer here](_URL_1_), with special reference to the Battle of Cannae.",
"provena... | null |
fxn3bd | why do so many animals like deer, boars, and tapirs all have dapple camouflage only when they are babies? why do they lose it when they grow older? | [
{
"answer": "I think I’ve heard that the camouflage babies have only really works if they’re sitting completely still, which is fine because their parents will bring them food. But when they move, those spots become sort of a bulls eye, and they can’t afford to sit still anymore.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
33ict6 | why do loud noises (e.g gun shots) trigger car alarms? | [
{
"answer": "Loud noises make the air vibrate. The louder the sound, the greater the magnitude of the vibration. The sensor in the car also vibrates because of this and it goes off.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "(10+ years selling/installing car security)\n\nThe part of the alarm that does th... | null |
4ukddo | how do people "live" in an embassy for extended periods of time? i've never visited an embassy, are they like hotels or something or it just a very awkward situation? | [
{
"answer": "It really depends on the countries involved and the situation. A lot of embassies are nothing more than office buildings with no living accommodations.\n\nThe U.S. Embassy in London is an office building and the U.S. amabssador lives in a huge mansion called Winfield House in Regents Park. Most of ... | null |
2e61mt | how do soldiers in modern armies accurately direct artillery fire? | [
{
"answer": "Firstly, thanks to GPS, soldiers usually know where they are. Secondly, movies never show the whole process. In reality soldiers call in artillery, then stay on the radio to guide them in \"a little to the left next time\", and so on.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Pre-tech way:... | null |
254wq0 | What was the role of light infantry in Napoleonic era battles? | [
{
"answer": "So, first I'll unpack a few things. What I will be talking about is mainly focused on the French Imperial Army, I don't know enough of the other army compositions to help but I am sure that we have the right people to help. Second, within the French army, there is a difference between light infantr... | null |
87hlmy | why does so many people hate the baby boomer generation? | [
{
"answer": "The current economic, political, and environmental climates were almost entirely influenced by members of that generation to where they are today.\n\nThe housing market, education costs, this team mentality for politics, climate, all are in pretty shitty shape for the next generation to deal with. ... | null |
4asn7z | why does this paper shatter after being folded seven times with a hydraulic press? | [
{
"answer": "Paper, when folded in half, effectively doubles its thickness. When folded six times in half, there is too much thickness and not enough surface area for anything to make an effective seventh fold.\n\nHowever, the hydraulic press has enough force to fold it, but that puts extreme stress on the pape... | null |
2r929b | why can i usually smoothly fast forward a digital video (netflix, hbo go, dvds, etc) but reverse playback is always a jerky mess? | [
{
"answer": "Digital video generally only actually stores a few frames then just stores what changed. Like if it's a closeup of someone talking frame to frame it'll be 80% the same so it just stores the first frame then a bunch of small frames that say \"just change these pixels\". That means going forward is r... | null |
2mstgc | Why are things from the past so far underground? In millions of years when our skeletons are where the dinosaurs skeletons are now, where did the old ground go? Where did the new ground come from? | [
{
"answer": "If you drop dead right now and left your body to nature, you won't end up underground like fossils. Scavengers will pull you apart and eat you, you will rot and the rains and ravages of time will remove all traces of you. Even if you were buried at a funeral, you won't become a fossil.\n\nThe condi... | null |
2lyl4j | Following the death of Augustus, why didn't he wish full power to go back to the Senete? | [
{
"answer": "*EDIT: While I love the period, I'm not an expert, so please read /u/LegalAction's counterpoints below.*\n\nThere is an overly idealised fantasy, portrayed in for example the film Gladiator though it is not limited to Hollywood, of the Roman Republic as this freedom-loving democratic nation. It was... | null |
39xzeb | in what sense have creditors been "pillaging" greece for the past five years? | [
{
"answer": "Greeks feel that the austerity measures imposed on Greece by it's creditors, which are enforced because the lenders feel they will make the greek economy more competitive and a more attractive target for investment, aren't actually helpful. They see austerity more as a punishment for the greek peop... | null |
45tp29 | Why were there so few violent border changes between the Christian Iberian kingdoms? | [
{
"answer": "A reply to /u/HenkWaterlander ,\n\nMaybe you can clarify what assertion you are questioning, because your wording is ambiguous. Are you suggesting that the Christian kingdoms of Iberia had very little among themselves *before* the Reconquesta? How do you determine \"very little\"? \n\nLeon was unit... | null |
8xrtcl | How are human skulls or other complex body structures posthumously extracted from a cadaver for use in museums or medical schools? | [
{
"answer": "There are a combination of methods. One is maceration. Basically, it involves removing as much of the soft tissue as is practical, then allowing the rest to decompose under controlled conditions, often in temperature-controlled water, until the rest of the tissue is soft enough to be cleaned away... | null |
b3of9a | how does the human body tend to itself when you havent eaten for days? what about havent drank? | [
{
"answer": "There's a general rule of threes for your body's survival. 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water and 3 mins without air.\n\nWithout food, your body starts to consume its reserves. First to be consumed is the sugar reserve kept in your liver (about 500 grams). Then the body will try to breakdow... | null |
5zkn4m | if my car is on a steep downward incline and i put it into reverse gear, why does it roll backward up the hill even if i don't press the accelerator? | [
{
"answer": "Because you put it in reverse gear. So long as the engine is producing enough power to move the car, and the clutch is capable of translating that much power without slipping, the car is going to move, otherwise the engine is just going to stall if it's not producing enough power.",
"provenance... | null |
j7etv | please expain noam chomsky and his
views on the ideal type of governance li12 | [
{
"answer": "I don't think Chomsky can be properly explained in the format of an ideal form of government (maybe he can, but it'd hurt the LI12-level of it all).\n\nAt the heart of Chomsky's political thought is the question of authority. Why does the government get to tell people what to do, and why should it ... | null |
6h8eay | How, and why, do ants make new hills? | [
{
"answer": "An \"anthill\" is just one extension of an ant hive that reaches the surface. The hills form when dirt is left by the entrance of the hills.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAdditionally, some species of ants have more than one queen per colony (polygyne), while others have one per colony (monogyne).\n\n_URL_1_",
... | null |
1l0tq5 | In a _URL_0_ photoplasty, one of the facts stated that if you were a child in England in the middle ages you would have been sewn into your winter clothing until spring. Can anybody give information on this? Is it even true? | [
{
"answer": "What happened here?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I can't say that it's never happened, but it seems unlikely that it was widespread. A quick review of a handful of texts doesn't show anything suggesting that this was typical. (\"The Culture of Children in Medieval England\", *Me... | null |
16sjv9 | How often did people in various time periods hear music? | [
{
"answer": "Before the advent of recording, music was fairly rare, but depended on the situation (especially social class). I can comment briefly on America in 1910 and Germany post-1850.\nIn 19th century Germany, music would have been heard in church, where there was typically an organ, a choir, and possibly... | null |
27y49l | why do i get impulses to do things that i would never ever act on? | [
{
"answer": "The latest scientific thinking on this is that it's an evolutionary adaptation which actually makes you less likely to do dangerous stuff.\n\nIf a person has a tendency to imagine things like jumping off cliffs or attacking people, he/she will naturally imagine the negative consequences of the acti... | null |
a5yxul | why is there a gust of air when you open a door to the subway station? | [
{
"answer": "they keep the pressure higher in the station in order to help evacuate fumes etc from the platforms ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3098197",
"title": "Air door",
"section": "Section::::Effectiveness.\n",
... | null |
7sgukb | why are so many people with mental illnesses successful? | [
{
"answer": "Some forms of mental illness can be defeated with effort (such as dyslexia). Other such as certain kinds of bi-polar or OCD can actually be beneficial in certain kinds of job as the manic periods or obsessive traits make them more efficient at said jobs. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
mab0c | Can a brain completely deprived of sensory input perceive time? | [
{
"answer": "The brain would presumably need to spend all of its time counting the seconds in order to keep track of time. But even doing that, the brain is not going to be able to count the seconds perfectly, and eventually the number of seconds it has counted will start to drift away from how many seconds ha... | null |
2diiaz | how is it that light appears to travel at the speed of light relative to everything else if all of space-time is relative? | [
{
"answer": "Because \"all of space-time is relative\" is not the full concept. In full, the Special Theory states (roughly) \"all of space-time is relative except for the speed of light in a vacuum, which is always constant no matter what frame of reference you are using\".\n\nTo make that concept work in the ... | null |
2o4vij | Did Roman occupation of areas end suddenly (England 410 AD) or did they slowly withdraw over many years or even decades? | [
{
"answer": "What I'm about to say is heavily debated so be careful.\n\nFor a start how do we define Roman administration? if we define it was direct rule from Rome then Roman control had been slipping for a while, the 3rd century AD the empire was rocked by continuous rebellions as at one point (270's) splitti... | null |
4r3a11 | how is the design of the u.s. gov't "deliberately inefficient"? | [
{
"answer": "Could you elaborate on what you mean by inefficient? Inefficient at what exactly? Do you just mean slow to change in general?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The checks and balances system ensures that one person or one branch of government can't make quick, unilateral changes. F... | null |
1dkolg | How is it that it took until the mid 19th century for people to understand the negative correlation between keeping a wound clean, and that wound becoming infected? | [
{
"answer": "This has more to do with differing definitions of \"clean\" than it does with people in the past being stupid. Dressings were expected to kept fresh. People spend a lot of time covered in dirt and grime, but manage not to get infected all the time. Why should the inside of the body be different th... | null |
2eq1bx | How tall was King Louis XVI of France? | [
{
"answer": "The real height of Louis XVI is not known. However, his coronation \" outfit \" is between 1,90m and 1,93m. \n\nThe tallest King of France was François Ier which was described to be between 1,95m and 2,00m however, thanks to one of his armour, his height was 1,98m. ",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
1ytk7z | why aren u.s isps only targeting netflix and not the likes of youtube or hulu? | [
{
"answer": "Netflix is 30%+ (?) of traffic, they are a big player.\n\nAlso, YouTube at least is run by Google... who with Fiber is already suggesting that they won't take the ISPs shit.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Too many people watching House of Cards.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
1wsctu | if losing weight is just about burning more calories than you eat, why would avoiding carbohydrates help? | [
{
"answer": "Food isn't all used as energy. Fat has more calories than carbs, and protein has similar calories as carbs. But fat and protein are used by your body to build and repair tissues, fat is also used to build a lot of hormones. Carbs don't have much function other than energy, so if you don't use it a... | null |
23p3g9 | Does the surface of our planet have areas that are more susceptible to meteor and comet impacts? (i.e. do certain regions get hit disproportionately compared to others? and if so, why?) Alternatively, do all regions have an equal chance of being struck? | [
{
"answer": "I work in a department of meteoriticists and proposed this question to them, because a lot of the meteorites they study come from Antarctica.\n\nSo, I asked if there was a bias towards meteorites falling near the poles, or was it just because they're easier to find in Antarctica. \n\nIn theory ther... | null |
5ykeki | If heat rises, wouldn't turning on a ceiling fan raise the ambient temperature underneath? | [
{
"answer": "Any kind of circulation will make you feel cooler.\n\nThe reason you sweat is to expel heat from your body. As it evaporates, it takes the heat with it. The problem is when it is too humid in your immediate vicinity and the sweat can't evaporate in a reasonable amount of time.\n\nWhen the air in th... | null |
4q8lt9 | i saw two squirrels fighting in a tree, they fell off the branch and tumbled about 30 feet to the floor without seeming to break their fall when they landed. they then got up and ran off. how did they not sustain the kind of terrible injuries i would falling from that height? | [
{
"answer": "An ant can survive a fall from any height. You could drop one out of an airplane, and it would survive the impact. The ant is fine because it is so light. It isn't the hitting the ground that kills you, it's your own mass that crushes you after hitting the ground.\n\nThe formula for force is: F = M... | null |
8cwqw8 | Was there a large amount of fear in the 1930s that the Spanish Civil War would spill out into a larger regional or even global conflict? | [
{
"answer": "Certainly.\n\nThis fear was such, that, early on, a non-intervention agreement was signed by many European countries in August of 1936, which created the aptly named Non-Intervention Committee. The most vocal parties for non-interventionism were the French and British. While Italy and Germany were ... | null |
3w93cb | how is a movie made for vhs and dvd converted to be a blu-ray? | [
{
"answer": "Film - the original clear plastic stuff with thousands of pictures on it - is actually much higher resolution than DVD, BluRay or even 4K. Provided you have access to it, you can convert it to whatever digital resolution you want, by in effect taking a photo of each frame and running them together.... | null |
2k4sv7 | what in the world is half life 3? | [
{
"answer": "Op's name is 6 letters\n\nQuestion is about HL3\n\n6 divided by 3 is 2\n\nHL2 comes before HL3\n\n**HL3 Confirmed**",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It would be the third installment of the half life video game series if it ever gets released. Half life one and two were game changer... | null |
4cnpun | What role did slavery have in the industrial revolution, if any? | [
{
"answer": "(1/2)\n\nWell, you've inadvertently waded into what is probably the biggest ongoing debate in the historiography of slavery in North America right now! There is a huge debate raging at the moment regarding the exact role slavery has had to play in the development of modern capitalism, and the indus... | null |
1246vt | I'm interested in military formations and how they actually work -- what made them effective against certain types of combat, etc. Any links or videos about this stuff? | [
{
"answer": "This is too wide a topic to cover in a single post so let me deal with the one question you specifically asked. The hollow square (as a pike formation mostly) works well against cavalry for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the pike is a good weapon versus cavalry due to its reach. A pike formation on ... | null |
7kb26s | why do all these food companies have non gmo-labels on their products? is it propaganda? | [
{
"answer": "If it's not a modified organism then they're not lying. I could poop in your salad and certify it as non gmo",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "37488658",
"title": "2012 California Proposition 37",
"section": "S... | null |
lclui | Why can't we use animal embryonic stem cells? | [
{
"answer": " > presumably reducing the chance of rejection\n\none of the biggest reasons for why we would want to use stem cells is to *prevent* rejection. if i donate my kidney to some guy, he will have to take immusuppressor drugs *for the rest of his life*. and we are the same species! if he got a monkey's ... | null |
3gcmzd | What are some ways to test microbial evolution as an experiment? | [
{
"answer": "You might be interested in Richard Lenski's long-term evolution of E. coli [experiment](_URL_0_). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "25229078",
"title": "Bacteriophage experimental evolution",
"section": "",
... | null |
7iw3kt | Did ancient cultures have any concept of the waxing and waning of the moon being caused by Earth casting a shadow? | [
{
"answer": "Just as a point of clarification: the waxing and waning of the moon are not caused by the earth's shadow; it is a result of the moon rotating around the earth, and from our perspective, the full half of the moon that is illuminated by the sun appears in phases. The only instance of the earth's shad... | null |
20eoc8 | how is it that marijuana is legal in some places in the us, but there are many people in jail for possession? if weed becomes legal in more places, what happens to those in jail for possession? | [
{
"answer": "They stay in jail",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They will remain in jail, absent some executive clemency. Everyone is subject to the laws in place at the time; just because something becomes legal later doesn't mean you're innocent of committing a crime when it was criminal.",
... | null |
1x10ej | why is backwards video understandable while backwards audio is incomprehensible? | [
{
"answer": "It is because in a video we can see the actions leading up and proceeding from that action, while audio, the sound is laid out in a very specific way. (English phonetics are very complicated) When a small thing is changed, it becomes nearly impossible to understand.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
ci590b | How did 0-60 become the standard by which a car's acceleration is judged? Why did 60mph become synonymous with "fast"? | [
{
"answer": "Automotive journalist here. \n\nYour question is intimately tied to the history of automotive magazines, and I’m not aware of a really good, academic history exploring that. I can tell you that the form itself dates back to the earliest days of motoring — Carl Benz filed his patent for the “vehicl... | null |
12uvl4 | What happened to ancient cities such as Sparta, Carthage and Troy? | [
{
"answer": "All were destroyed; Troy before the Golden Age of Greece, Carthage by a victorious Rome around 150 BC, and Sparta was sacked by the Goths around 400 AD after centuries of empty autonomy as a curiosity within the Roman Empire. \n\nInterestingly, it appears that the last few speakers of the Spartan d... | null |
3s8fwt | what is going on in missouri and at yale with super liberal student protests? | [
{
"answer": "Yeah! So the faculty sent out an email telling the student body not to be super racist and wear offensive costumes on halloween. Then a professor responded to that email saying that it wasn't the school's responsibility to police students like that and they should make their own judgement and face ... | null |
7mikn7 | why does driving the same speed feel much faster when it's dark than when it's light | [
{
"answer": "Your field of vision is much shorter at night (the length of your headlights), so things appear to move by you quickly. During the day you see things further down the horizon.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "698830",
... | null |
544ejw | If I put a flashlight in space, would it propel itself forward by "shooting out" light? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, very slowly.\n\nLight has momentum, even though it is massless, so if you shoot a beam of light in one direction, conservation of momentum will push you in the opposite direction.\n\nA reasonably powerful LED flashlight will use about 1-3 Watt, lets say 3 W. The efficiency of a LED is somewher... | null |
1iityj | how debt/credit card transactions work | [
{
"answer": "It goes to a service called \"Fedwire\". Everyone has different banks, so the backbone is a service provided by the Fed that \"clears\" transactions. \nYou swipe your card and Target's bank infrastructure, say its Chase, needs your money from BoA. The data is sent about transaction to Fedwire over ... | null |
drf4jf | how does a smartphone compass app works if a magnet (in the speakers) are so close to them? | [
{
"answer": "Because the magnets in the speakers don't need to be very strong and as such aren't going to impact the readings very much. For any impact they do have you can also calibrate the magnetic sensor to ignore it from the speakers as that will be constant and always on a single dimension where most smar... | null |
b7jv34 | why is it that when we get hit or injured pretty bad we faint? what is it that makes our brain kinda shut down in that moment? | [
{
"answer": "One reason is that basically the brain is floating in water inside our skulls and if the the blow is strong enough to push the brain with enough momentum to bounce on part of the skull to another and the brain gets short circuited.\nAnother reason is that a certain amount of pain and/stress is too ... | null |
31ollf | How tall was Jesus Christ? | [
{
"answer": "\nThere is no literary or other ancient evidence that directly bears on this question, so one is forced to speculate based on average heights of people in antiquity.\n\nThe only article I've ever seen address this is a 2002 issue of Popular Mechanics, which suggests that based on skeletal remains a... | null |
f39e3m | if modern computers are so extremely powerful, how can it take more than 30 hours to render one frame of cg in a movie? | [
{
"answer": "Because 30 hours is the sweet spot. Frames took 30 hours to render 20 years ago, despite the lower computing power available at the time.\n\nIf it took more time it would be very annoying to work with, and if it took less time, we could do more in CG^[1], run a more accurate simulation, or build mo... | null |
2cwe71 | Spanish Gold Inflation. | [
{
"answer": "What essentially happened was that the Spanish became importers as opposed to exporters. Spain was so wealthy, that they simply paid for all of the goods they required from other European nations including textiles, weapons, ships even. Spain would simply buy it since they had enough wealth to outs... | null |
54v0fn | why are teslas super fast off the line and yet at a certain point a non-electric super car will catch up to it? | [
{
"answer": "As you mentioned already, electric motors provide the full amount of torque instantaneously ,whereas conventional drives need time to build it up. So a powerful electric car will launch of the starting line much faster, but it might not be able to achieve the top speeds of gas powered vehicles, rea... | null |
1lsryc | What causes of death allow or rule out organ donation? | [
{
"answer": "In order to be declared brain dead there are a number of preconditions that must be met. These can vary slightly in different jurisdictions, but essentially there has to be a known disease process that has resulted in extensive brain damage. The damage must have involved the most basic parts of the... | null |
1t9qm4 | How do elements inside cells interact and move to the right places? | [
{
"answer": "Most of the processes in the cell occur by diffusion. Meaning a lot of what is happening is random chance, but since cells are small and much more compact than textbooks and animations show, these processes can occur rather quickly. \n\nEnzymes (the do-ers of the cell) don't really \"know\" what th... | null |
38xcqx | if there is a bee in a car and the car is travelling at 50mph, does the bee have to fly faster than 50mph to move from the backseat to the front seat? | [
{
"answer": " > Why aren't there smashed insects on the inside of my back window?\n\nBecause of relativity. The car and everything contained within is traveling 50mph and let's say the bee is flying 10mph, then it only needs to travel 10mph relative to the moving car. From an onlooker on the side of the road, t... | null |
r2xsj | "the loudness war", and its effect on music | [
{
"answer": "Record publishers think that LOL LOUDER = BETTER, when really, if taken to the extent shown [here](_URL_0_), it just makes the music shittier. Of course, if the artist wants it like that, then it isn't really an effect of the loudness war, just the artist being stupid/avant-garde.",
"provenance... | null |
a8t1bw | What is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall? | [
{
"answer": "Over the largest scales galaxies seem to arrange themselves in a foam like structure with the material we can see sitting where the bubble walls would be. Here is a [picture](_URL_0_) of a universe simulation to give you an impression.\n\nThe Great Wall in this would be a particular dense area. Our... | null |
dzd61h | can some please explain what a information system architecture is? | [
{
"answer": "It's basically a diagram of how they want a system or process or *whatever* to work. It's hard to define because it's a pretty vague thing to start with that you can take in many different directions. I bet if your teammates drew you a picture of what they're talking about it would work a lot bette... | null |
3c1jdr | why is it considered more professional to be clean shaven? | [
{
"answer": "Primary answer: Beards are easier maintained shaven than left to grow. Not having it there in the first place is considered professional since it implies that the person in question takes hygiene seriously by being willing to groom themselves every day.\n\nAncillary answer: Western cultures prefer ... | null |
bjyhfp | What happens to all the hair that is shaved off or cut, how does it decompose? | [
{
"answer": "Hair is a source of nitrogen, and can be composted to make a fertilizer. I've thrown pet hair in the compost bins for years. \n\nI suspect that it might also, in larger quantities, help soil drainage (though I very well could be wrong about this).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Fu... | null |
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