id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
16723q | Can a fusion reaction occur near the boundary of the event horizon of a black hole with enough material? | [
{
"answer": "It is probably not possible for sustained fusion to occur near a black hole, but some fusion may occur on a small scale. Matter falling into a black hole can (if the black hole is large enough) attain incredibly high speeds, even significant fractions of the speed of light. If a black hole accumul... | null |
769xsu | which is the best theory on how the world will function in ~100 years (socially, economically etc) and what reasoning supports this/these theories? | [
{
"answer": "there is no way to decide which theory is \"best\", and there is no good theory that can be done up in one Reddit post, do i suggest you read some books instead\n\nthe best theory i've read syas that in a hundred years, most countries will have space colonies, which will be used to gather energy an... | null |
ssfs0 | Question about the magnetic field in relation to the human brain. | [
{
"answer": "There's no reason to think it would, because magnetic fields have an incredibly small effect on chemistry (I neglect them all the time in doing theoretical calculations), and the Earth's magnetic field is very weak. It's more surprising, really, that there are birds who've evolved an ability to sen... | null |
3tr6vv | what goes into making a new font and how hard is it? | [
{
"answer": "Making a new font is a relatively simple process, but can be a lot of work depending on how detailed you want it to be, and how many different letters you want it to span. \n\nIn essence all you do is you open up MS paint, draw your letter, and save it. Then rinse and repeat for every letter in you... | null |
4m07el | Mouse models for disease? | [
{
"answer": "The answer varies depending on the model. If the gene or mutation that causes the gene is known, the mouse model is usually made by creating that same mutation in the mice. Long QT syndrome is an example of such a disease that has been studied this way. If the genetic cause isn't known, or if the c... | null |
1lymbl | How realistic was Chiang Kai-shek/the Republic of China invading and retaking Mainland China? | [
{
"answer": "Well until someone with perhaps more verifiable sources can comment, I can take a shot at this based on my experiences interviewing villagers in Southwest China and urbanites in Taiwan. In addition, I will try to tie this in with what I learned from both Chinese/Taiwanese professors, and while in t... | null |
ekmsle | Can we ever know the exact area of a circle if the decimal part of pi is infinite? | [
{
"answer": "This is a fun discussion. I will add my two cents. \n\nAs many people have stated, mathematically the answer is yes. A circle with radius 4 has an area of of 4\\*pi\\^2. The fact that pi is irrational does not take away from the exactness of this answer. \n\nPhysically speaking I can think of ... | null |
t5epf | Is there something better than History of the World? (J.M. Roberts, 2007) | [
{
"answer": "It's probably the best book to start with. If you tell us more specifically, what you are looking for, we may be able to give you better recommendations. For general world history, *A World History* by Clive Ponting is quite good too. It focuses more on the \"East\", while Roberts' focus is the \"W... | null |
3efx85 | Magnets and Space Travel? | [
{
"answer": "There have been a number of proposals of a similar nature, and they all fall short on three fronts:\n\n1. Cost\n2. Materials Science\n3. Politics\n\nA rail gun large enough to accelerate any machine with a low enough degree of acceleration to avoid destroying the payload would have to be *immense*.... | null |
2bus38 | Will a light source change direction inside a black hole? | [
{
"answer": " > Suppose a flashlight is falling into a black hole facing outwards. Since light cannot escape the black hole, and a trajectory of a single photon is smooth, I would assume that as soon as the flashlight crosses the event horizon, its particles can no longer emit light in the direction towards the... | null |
eu7wxk | why can healthy eyes look in only one direction, i.e. why can’t our eyes look in different directions from each other? | [
{
"answer": "Our eyes can look in different directions. When you look at the tip of your nose, your left eye is looking right, and your right eye is looking left.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They can be trained to look independently, but our body was evolutionarily selected for the two eyes... | null |
3gghmb | how and why is there a standard for cylindrical batteries, and why hasn't it happened for flat batteries? | [
{
"answer": "There are numerous standards for flat batteries. Hearing aides have several standardized sizes, as do watches. \n\nPhone makers/companies also tend to have standardized sizes between specific brands or range of brands. They want you to be somewhat limited in options though so that you have to buy r... | null |
4255ib | Common cloth materials in medieval Europe? | [
{
"answer": "They weren't that expensive because they were home grown. Anyone could put in a patch of flax among the other crops. Women could pull it (one does not cut it and shorten the fibres), though men could help. After that it was a woman's job to rett the flax in the stream to rot off the outer coating a... | null |
3ejlaa | if it is thought that dreams only last for fractions of a second at a time and it is our brains that interpret them as longer, what is happening when we talk in our sleep? | [
{
"answer": "Good question! Where did you get that information, that dreams only last for fractions of a second? If your girlfriend talks in her dream and in real life simultaneously then that becomes impossible - you're right! And if it is impossible then the conclusion must be: it isn't true.\n\n\nDreams vary... | null |
1drq25 | What's the best way to use the Bible, when appropriate, as a Primary Source? | [
{
"answer": "I think a lot of it depends on the level of scholarship.\n\nI know that many scholars use the New Revised Standard Edition when a simple verse quotation is required. It was created in 1989 to be good for devotional use as well as scholarly use.\n\nLearning the biblical languages and using ancient c... | null |
28ido3 | When and how did the concept of political veto arise? | [
{
"answer": "The romans created it.\nVeto means \"I forbade\" in latin and the right of veto was the privilege of the tribunes of the plebs. When one of them stood up to say \"Veto\" it blocked the decision.\nIronically what was originally a tool to protect the plebeian against patrician abuses of the beginning... | null |
267l4a | what would happen to a person if they were to undergo a brain transplant? | [
{
"answer": "This would technically be a body transplant, you are your brain.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1086440",
"title": "Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency",
"section": "Section::::Prognosis.\n",
"star... | null |
36by1z | why is snowden seen as such a hero? | [
{
"answer": "Because of the breadth of what his leaks revealed.\n\nWe spy on our allies. We spy on our own private citizens. We spy on neutral third parties that are no threat at all like fucking Brazil. We spy on everything, *because we* can, *and because noone will stop us*. \n\nAlso, the [NSA doesn't really ... | null |
eypcfa | What happens to an island formed in a hotspot when in a subduction zone? | [
{
"answer": "This depends a bit on the proximity of the hotspot to the subduction zone and the nature of the material that makes up the island / feature. In a general sense, as plate motion translates an oceanic island away from the hotspot, the island will start to 'sink' as the area around the oceanic island ... | null |
40wvev | A century ago, in the aftermath of WWI and with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the world had to deal with millions of refugees and mass migration. How did the receiving countries deal with this influx? | [
{
"answer": "Not an answer, but a follow-up question ; How and why did the Ottoman empire dissolute and disappear?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This depends on a case-by-case basis. I am unfortunately unable to give you a fully-fledged answer in general, but would be happy to explain what ha... | null |
62u9lp | what are those fake puddles of water that appear on the road and disappear as i drive closer? | [
{
"answer": "Mirage. Optical illusion that form when light coming form critical angle bounce(reflection) off instead of refraction. As you approach closer you are no longer in the path of that bounced light, so it disappear",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
1kk02m | why do so many think robert johnson is the greatest bluesman? | [
{
"answer": "Everything I know about Robert Johnson I learned from the movie Crossroads, but apparently he invented The Blues, or at least wrote all the early classic Blues songs. He was able to do this because he sold his soul to the Devil. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenan... | null |
1fsv2s | Do humans make bodily or vocal noises above or below the human hearing (20Hz to 20,000Hz) threshold? | [
{
"answer": "Anything that causes a vibration causes a sound, because that's what sound is. While it may not be audible, pretty much any movement your body makes technically makes a sound.\n\nWaving your hand frantically may cause vibration of a few Hertz, for example, even though it's probably very quiet too. ... | null |
4skykx | What happened to German police personnel after the Germans surrendered in WW2? | [
{
"answer": "This is an interesting one. \n\nThe Order Police and the Krippo generally continued as normal, as did most of the judiciary.\n\n\nThe Gestapo was brought in front of the Nuremberg trails where it was decided the it was a criminal organisation and that all officers and administrators were collective... | null |
8j3h02 | How and when did the Star and Crescent become a symbol of Islam? What exactly does it represent? | [
{
"answer": "This is primarily trying to answer another question, but it touches on the question you’re curious about:\n\n * [Why didn't the Turkish Republic change its flag?](_URL_0_)\n\nI’m afraid, though, that I come at this as someone who’s interested in the Early Turkish Republican era/the Late (19th centu... | null |
2clfqx | how come the human race still has "ugly" people if nobody wants to reproduce with them? | [
{
"answer": "People still do.\n\nEdit: also Luck, two \"perfect\" parents wont always have a \"perfect\" child. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Two very attractive people can still make an ugly baby. And likewise, two ugly people can create a very attractive baby. It all just depends on how th... | null |
1scq28 | how did amazon gain enough popularity to support it's massive infrastructure costs? | [
{
"answer": "It was one of the first dot coms, back when online shopping wasn't a thing yet.\n\nThey also started niche with just books - an industry which (at that time) had lousy overpriced competition and was impossible for brick and mortar stores to compare on inventory / price. Great place to start.\n\nTh... | null |
3yedwh | How long does it take for a large, non-spherical object in space to become spherical? | [
{
"answer": "Assuming the cube is made from the same material that Earth is made of, it would probably not take very long to become spherical. The corners of the cube would in effect be mountains that are many hundreds of km tall, which would collapse due to gravity. \n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
1kqfek | Why doesn't China have a large muslim population but southeast Asia does even though China is closer to the middle east? | [
{
"answer": "Actually early in China's history it had a larger Islamic population. Several revolutions happened centered around its Islamic population. Infact the famous explore Zheng He, was actually Muslim (it was one of the reasons he was selected actually to ease relations with Arabian leaders, meeting a me... | null |
2yk5dl | How and when did pepperoni become the default topping for pizza in the U.S.? | [
{
"answer": "We've had to remove a number of posts with people sharing what they like on their pizza instead of pepperoni and/or challenging the OP's assumption. Please, if you want to discuss your favorite pizza, that is for another subreddit.\n\nAs for the fact that Pepperoni is the default topic, \"default\"... | null |
8rubkk | One of the main requirements of Islam is prayer, and one of the prayers is at dawn. How did people in the time of the prophet Muhammad wake up for prayer on time, considering there were no alarms at all? | [
{
"answer": "There are basically two answers. One is that, at least according to the Hadith, the call to prayer already existed and would have been called out for the dawn prayer. The second answer is that pre-modern sleep practices were very different than our modern concept of one, approximately eight hour lo... | null |
14ftp7 | how do disinfectants work? | [
{
"answer": "They contain an agent which kills bacteria. In the case of hand-sanitizers, the ingredient is alcohol - specifically, usually, ethanol or isopropanal (there's others too, though). When rubbed onto skin (or surfaces, in the case of other disinfectants) the bacteria are killed.",
"provenance": nu... | null |
21w5iz | how did glow in the dark happen? and where did it get its source of energy to glow in the dark? | [
{
"answer": "Around 1669, there was a German alchemist named Hennig Brand. He was in search of gold, and thought that it came from within man. What color is gold? It's a shade of yellow. What else is yellow that everyone is familiar with? Urine. So off went Hennig on a quest to extract gold from pee. He boiled ... | null |
160zuf | Theoretically, how far "back in time" could we go and still be able to have a conversation with local inhabitants? | [
{
"answer": "Warning: This is not my area of expertise at all, but since there have been no replies after half an hour, I'll give it a go.\n\nFirst of all, it depends greatly on what language you'd like to speak in, as you acknowledged in your post. It also depends on who you'd like to speak to - peasants? ki... | null |
2movzc | why are ceiling's spackled or whatever it's called. why aren't they just flat like walls? | [
{
"answer": "It's sound damping. Flat surfaces echo more than dimpled ones. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Spackling is the use of spackle to fill holes and cracks. I assume you mean that textured finish on some ceilings. If so, that's just a design choice and doesn't have any practical reaso... | null |
34xm8m | Are there any current historical debates/uncertainties between historians in regards to Spartacus? | [
{
"answer": "The main uncertainty about Spartacus is his ethnicity. He is called a Thracian, but Thracian is both an ethnicity and a style of combat in gladiatorial games. Gladiators were organised by their combat style, and by that point in Roman history gladiators were no longer limited to just their cultur... | null |
2ufcm4 | If the y chromosome is human specific what causes the differentiation of male and female apes? | [
{
"answer": "The Y chromosome originally evolved from an autosome which acquired sex-determining characteristics. Apes also have X and Y chromosomes; in fact, many vertebrates do - mice have XY (male) and XX (female), birds have ZZ (male) and ZW (female). \n\nSome vertebrates don't have their sex determined in ... | null |
8vomp8 | why does using a tootbrush how we do not make us sick? it is never sanitised and sit in your bathroom all day. | [
{
"answer": "Not to mention every time you flush with the lid up the flushing motion causes tons of tiny poo particles to be thrown in the air which settles on anything nearby, such as a tooth brush.\n\nThe immune system is fighting off infection 24/7. Not just when you contract a disease. Plus the bristles are... | null |
22sy1f | Historiography question: what do you consider determinism/causality? | [
{
"answer": "you cannot assign a causal relationship without direct experimental manipulation. History is a correlative study.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "47922",
"title": "Determinism",
"section": "Section::::Modern ... | null |
1mycgj | what are the reasons as to why the oil price never return to $1 range since 9/11? | [
{
"answer": "The specifics about why gas prices go up can be better explained by others, but this chart shows gas prices adjusted for inflation:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIt seems like the climb started closer to 1999 than 2001, but asking why it hasn't gone back done since then is a great question.",
"provenance": nul... | null |
33h6wm | What happens to electrons in a circuit? | [
{
"answer": "For the purposes of circuits, electricity works a lot like a pneumatic system. With wire there will be electrons in all the places at the same time. If power gets used up, to useful work or to resistance it does so in the form of a 'pressure drop' but the electrons are still around.\n\nThe actual... | null |
4dh5cd | how exactly do people avoid taxes using shell companies? | [
{
"answer": "Let's say you own a pretty profitable business in the US but you're tired of paying taxes. First, you make a shell company where there are lax regulations and low taxes. Then you transfer the assets that your US company has to the shell company, in name at least. You continue to use those assets in... | null |
2jqt9h | pigs are considered fairly intelligent animals. why are people who abhor eating dogs, cats, horses and whales for moral reasons fine with eating pork? | [
{
"answer": "Because pigs rarely have a use outside of their use as food. Sometimes they are bred to hunt for truffles and other fungus/plants, but aside from that, their characteristics make them ideal as a food source.\n\n* Grow quickly\n* Eat anything\n* Don't require much space\n* Gain lots of meat in a sma... | null |
c7aij8 | why stab wounds in movies appear to be deadlier than gunshot wounds (at least in movies) | [
{
"answer": "It's all about what's convenient for the story. Bad guys get shot and they are instantly dead. Good guys get shot and they can run a marathon.\n\nThere is no consistent logic even within the same movie. As long as it doesn't break the suspension if disbelief, writers and directors do what moves the... | null |
19hqkd | how does the susan g komen foundation steal so much money without anybody getting upset about it? | [
{
"answer": "people stop caring after they make their donation. No one ever cares where the money goes after they give it, they just give it to feel good about themselves, not to actually do any real good. It is all about perception, and perception is reality.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"... | null |
19c682 | why do people want programming taught in elementary/high schools? | [
{
"answer": "Because it's a skill which has lots of real-world use, and which, like many skills, is easier to teach to children than adults.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It promotes good thinking habits. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's a good way to teach someone a dif... | null |
5vrzqh | why do people in the americas greet eachother with one kiss on the cheek while in europe they greet eachother with two kisses on each cheek? | [
{
"answer": "Americans do not, on average, kiss each other on the cheek when meeting. Since the most common is zero, one seems like plenty.\n\nIn a culture where kissing on the cheek is common, two does not seem like an excess. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I do not greet people with one kis... | null |
b5w9aw | is there any difference between getting injections(of vitamins,medicine etc.) directly into your veins or into your muscle(most commonly butt muscle)? | [
{
"answer": "Some things, like vaccines, are best injected into muscles due to the way they are made and engineered to work.\n\nOthers are injected into veins for quick distribution. Because vaccines do not need to be so rapidly distributed they do not need to directly enter the bloodstream.\n\nAs to why they d... | null |
wvtzg | Where does helium in natural gas come from? | [
{
"answer": "Alpha particle decay of naturally occuring radioactive elements, such as Uranium. The alpha particle is a helium nucleus. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\n > Most terrestrial helium present today is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements ... | null |
20v4jt | why is contact lens solution so friggin' expensive? | [
{
"answer": "Because people need it and will buy it at any price. Like gas.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's a sterile product that people are putting in their eyes. Lots of liability if someone gets an infection.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
1jwcez | how do "non-profit" organizations have some of the highest paying internships / job positions? | [
{
"answer": "The company itself doesn't post a profit, meaning that any money it gets over its budget/operating cost (including employee salaries) must be given away/not used for company benefit. While it may seem counter-intuitive, non-profits do need to maintain competitive pay rates to attract talent necessa... | null |
5imzfv | why do elderly people die from simple falls? | [
{
"answer": "Healing wounds takes a lot of energy and resources for the body, and as a person gets older there's less to go around for normal processes if something does happen. Bones, muscles, and organs all get weaker and less effective at their jobs, just like in a mechanical system when parts fail and degra... | null |
rfnu0 | how does a on-time pad work? | [
{
"answer": "All codes work by changing some piece of information. Because of the change it is hard to tell what the original information was. For instance if I change some word into \"xxr\" what was the original word? \n\nWell a one time pad is a way of changing information that never repeats any pattern,, tha... | null |
2g8bnn | why airline frequent flyer programs have been made so difficult? | [
{
"answer": "Because the airlines benefit from the impression that they have the program, but do not benefit from people using it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "254753",
"title": "Frequent-flyer program",
"section": "Se... | null |
di4sdf | Can a person sense light if he/she is asleep? | [
{
"answer": "You can sense light through your eyelids while closed, although you may not be consciously aware of it. Light signals your body to stop producing (or secreting) melatonin, enabling you to wake up more readily. This is how the lamps that use simulated sunlight help you gently wake up.",
"provena... | null |
6pwn7n | how do telescopes that capture images very far away (hundreds of light years) get a good sharp shot when you know that the earth rotates slowly | [
{
"answer": "The telescopes are mounted on motors that move it to compensate for the rotation of the earth. This is true for even moderately expensive personal telescopes.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Extremely high-quality images are taken with orbital telescopes. Even if you compensate for... | null |
2iutms | FAQ Friday: Ask your questions about the Ebola epidemic here! | [
{
"answer": "I'm somewhat familiar with the symptoms, but how does Ebola actually kill victims? (I.e. you don't die of Ebola, but of dehydration due to Ebola)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm going to be traveling to Morocco over the summer. It is at the northwest corner of Africa. Should I... | null |
16cahj | I few Warp Drive questions. | [
{
"answer": "IIRC, there would be no significant time dilation using an Alcubierre metric because it is space itself moving. Inside the bubble the object has locally zero velocity, but I could be wrong. Therefore I think that only four weeks would pass. It also would not create any G-force since the spaceship i... | null |
1n5owg | i've been diagnosed with tenitus (loud ringing in the ears) what's making my brain generate that noise? | [
{
"answer": "You didn't ask the person who diagnosed you?\n\nAlso, it's tinnitus.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm also suprised you didn't ask the diagnoser.\n\nThe brain is interpreting something and producing the ringing. There are several ways this can happen. Damage to the ear drum, d... | null |
7mfr15 | Why did Russian life expectancy drop massively in 1993? | [
{
"answer": "Follow up: how reliable would pre-1993 numbers be? Would the Soviet Union fudge its statistics on a subject like this?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Broader question: what level of confidence do historians have in Soviet statistics? Is there a reason we might just think that the ... | null |
774jpx | What was the Communist Party of Korea like during the Japanese occupation, and how did Kim Il-Sung seize complete control over it after the establishment of North Korea? | [
{
"answer": "About a year ago i answered a [similar question](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "10576133",
"title": "Communist Party of Korea",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_charac... | null |
11c3gd | musical intervals (with emphasis on guitar) | [
{
"answer": "The simplest way to describe an interval is that it's the number of semitones between two notes. There are 12 semitones in an octave and each one has a special name. Here's what that would look like using a C chromatic scale:\n\n* 12. Octave (C)\n* 11. Major 7th (B)\n* 10. Minor 7th (Bb)\n* 9. Majo... | null |
4y3laa | when people that are lactose intolerant eat or drink dairy, what exactly is happening inside their stomach when diarrhea occurs? | [
{
"answer": "So lactose intolerance happens when someone's body does not create enough [lactase](_URL_1_). Lactase is an [enzyme](_URL_4_) that would break down [lactose](_URL_3_), the unique sugar component of milk, into sugar that our bodies can use for energy. Lactose intolerant people have issues with break... | null |
3zvlf7 | is modern industry able to make cheap paper not from wood? | [
{
"answer": "Paper gets made from fibres such as linen, too, and a lot of paper is recycled. It would come down to cost, whether synthetic polymers would do the job and be cost-effective (i.e. cheaper).\n\nTyvek® has many of the properties of paper - e.g, it's flexible and you can write on it - but it's more ex... | null |
2pqlq3 | how hard would it be to just unplug all of n. korea from the internet? | [
{
"answer": "Not that hard but China's assistance would be a prerequisite. But that goes against all ethical reasoning in that the internet should be available to all.\n\nEven if you did, the chances are that the Sony hack was conducted from outside N. Korea. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Te... | null |
2cn679 | why do analog tv broadcasts still exist in the us? | [
{
"answer": "Low Power TV stations are still allowed to transmit in analog in the United States. The current deadline for them to convert to digital is Sept 1, 2015.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "229460",
"title": "... | null |
3ml8nj | Do modern high heels worn by women and Chinese foot binding have any historical similarities in the way they developed? | [
{
"answer": "No, not really.\n\nIn western Europe, high heels date back to the 17th century for both men and women, and were worn by fashionable men and women into the 18th century. There is no clear origin, only speculation and apocryphal stories (so in that sense, there *is* a connection between foot-binding ... | null |
6e0vho | Photon Energy Levels, what is different about Radio wave photons vs Gamma wave photons? | [
{
"answer": " > but what exactly is that extra energy coming from?\n\nWhatever is producing the photon.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > so what is it that gives certain frequencies this extra energy?\n\nIntuitively, a wave that is waving more rapidly will be more energetic. Thus higher frequ... | null |
k2u38 | Partial pressure of O2/CO2 in blood versus the actual concentrations of O2/CO2 exchanged; why the huge difference? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not sure if i'm qualified to help you, as i have troubles understanding your doubts.\n\nBut did you take into account that solubilized CO2 is in equilibration with HCO_3^- / H_2CO_3?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, you partially answered your own question; oxygen pressure... | null |
4touns | how do single cylinder engines work? | [
{
"answer": "When the piston goes up into the cylinder, it squeezes a fuel-air combination, and when it gets to a \"sweet\" spot, the spark plug at the top of the cylinder fires, igniting (somewhat explosively) the compressed fuel-air mix. This drives the cylinder down. \nA rod on the bottom of the piston is n... | null |
1jwulh | Did the Roman economy suffer through "Bust and Boom" cycles? | [
{
"answer": "This is a very interesting question that I would like answered (as well as the spam deleted). Did the slave economy more or less function in a stable pattern of growth fueled by conquests until the decline brought about stagnation? Or were there boom and bust cycles as in the capitalist system? Any... | null |
1sycin | why at rock concerts and gigs is it always impossible to get the sound of the vocals to sound clear over the rest of the band? | [
{
"answer": "A public address system system is not a sound system. A professional sound engineer makes all the difference.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's all about the sound engineer and the equipment they use. A shitty engineer won't get it right but the good ones will. Also depends whe... | null |
1xqrgk | why should we care that we created nuclear fusion? | [
{
"answer": "As you might know, most of our energy comes from unsustainable and highly polluting fossil fuels. Wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal sources can't create enough energy to replace them. Nuclear fission power plants produce highly radioactive waste. So we need some large source of energy that has a r... | null |
496dte | how is pre-made frozen food at the grocery store less healthy than food you make yourself and then refrigerate? | [
{
"answer": "It's not. However, making it yourself allows you to use healthier ingredients and actually choose what you eat.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's not *necessarily* less healthy, depending on what you make at home. But, generally speaking, pre-made foods are often made with more... | null |
1n9g9u | What do social and political sciences say about when we will get to dealing with global climate change? | [
{
"answer": "You might want to have a mod change the the category flag for this question, as it's pretty far afield of the physical science of climate change. Poli sci, economics, or another social science might be more appropriate. \n\nIn the mean time, I can toss you some leads that I've stumbled across until... | null |
24qhyw | how do satellites orbiting the earth get their orbits assigned to them, and how do they not hit into each other? | [
{
"answer": "Space agencies coordinate data on the tracking of the debris field above earth, to help avoid any sizable objects.\n\nBut mostly, the odds are just very low that you will hit anything. The surface of the earth is a big place, and the stuff we put into orbit, with a few exceptions, is relatively tin... | null |
9b0kgz | what's the difference between allegory and metaphor? | [
{
"answer": "The short version: An allegory is a type of metaphor.\n\n \nLonger version: A metaphor is a figure of speech that substitutes in a non-literal alternative to make an interesting point. Saying that \"his heart is a shattered vase\" is a metaphor, because a heart is definitely not a balloon, but it... | null |
fkkxz | Biologists: Snake repellent? | [
{
"answer": "Plant lemongrass.\n\nOr get a pet mongoose.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Cats will reduce the rodent population. I live in Rural California and we have a lot of Rattlesnakes, we have cats to bring down the rodent population, lessening the snakes. We still find them, but when w... | null |
47muw7 | why do ants drop other ants off ledges? | [
{
"answer": "Not sure if the carried ant was alive, but as i'm aware ants will remove ant-corpses from the vicinity of their colony so disease doesn't spread and doesn't attract predators. Perhaps that's why? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Was it possibly a drone ant they was no longer needed... | null |
8chk2l | why have we developed to sometimes hold our breath during tense situations? | [
{
"answer": "Put simply, your brain puts all it's resources to getting you out of that situation, including the bit that controls your subconscious breathing",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm going to do my best here. Deep breathing activates certain neurons in the brain that tell your body t... | null |
1y0jvh | What were the reactions and perceptions of new allied technology by the axis? | [
{
"answer": "It's worth noting that most of the major Allied technologies we associate with the European war were secret (e.g. the code-breaking computers) or subtle. The most important two were probably radar and the proximity fuze. Neither of them have a \"Wunderwaffen\" quality to them. The Germans had their... | null |
7wlq24 | why do surgeons need to wash their hands for an extend period of time when normal sanitizer already kill 99.9% of all bacteria | [
{
"answer": "I believe it's usually to make sure they've got every last part of their hand. Between their fingers, under their nails etc. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most people don't thoroughly wash their hands, even when using hand sanitizer. Surgeons take their time to ensure that every... | null |
y4ln0 | why you only get caught for illegally downloading some things, but not others? | [
{
"answer": "Pure luck. You just happened to be downloading the file at a time when the copyright police (basically a bunch of people at the big media companies) were tracking you.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4168072",
"title... | null |
8t883y | Why didn't the turkish people attempt to reclaim any lost territory from the first world war? | [
{
"answer": "It's important to note that, at this time, the lands they lost with the exception of Saudi Arabia were all British and French colonies who were at the height of their power. Taking back Iraq or Syria or Palestine didn't mean going to war with some two-bit monarch or collapsing empire, it meant tak... | null |
1nrq1n | what makes computer hacking difficult, and not something a computer itself does? | [
{
"answer": "Well in some cases, it does. But that's another story.\n\nConsider what computers do: very simple tasks, *very* fast. They don't (usually) screw up.\n\nNow hacking consists, fundamentally, of finding cases where people told the computer to do the wrong thing. At a very basic level, this is a deviat... | null |
6dsk72 | why do some gifs load fine on the reddit app but others won't? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know why either. Happens to maybe 20% of gifs. There is an easy fix though. If it doesn't load, click the word 'imgur' just above the post title. Works a treat.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Reddit sync is the best app i have on my phone, works so well i bought the ad... | null |
15oxrf | How come some farts blow over in seconds, whilst others hang in the air for ages? | [
{
"answer": "Best fucking question ever asked \rI dunno :/",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5856404",
"title": "Patufet",
"section": "Section::::Description.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character":... | null |
4nzy31 | What did the soldiers of the hundred years war eat as rations? | [
{
"answer": "Soldiers in the Hundred Years War did not receive rations as such. Commanders were supposed to provide food for their men (whether by taking it with them or by foraging/pillaging for it), but there was no system comparable to the Royal Navy's daily allotments of particular foods. Food might be prov... | null |
ckivjr | baby boomers are adamant that they had it far worse than proceeding generations, how is the opposite actually true? | [
{
"answer": "Let's imagine this. You're a new generation of cavemen and you have the ability to use wheeled carts to carry items. The generation before you complains on how the new generation has it \"easy\" compared to them where they had to carry every item. Although yes, the technological advancements weren'... | null |
7gedwm | why do some things only taste good after a few tries? | [
{
"answer": "Your body automatically rejects new bitter flavors, as many poisons are bitter. But once you have tasted them several times and suffered zero ill effects, your nervous system (basically your brain) starts to adjust.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
289kuv | why do people remember car accidents or anything similar in slow motion? | [
{
"answer": "The brain's perceptual ability can have a very wide or very narrow focus depending on the circumstances. Normally you are taking in sights, sounds, physical sensation, scents, etc, in a more or less balanced manner. At the first sight of danger, the brain can essentially turn off the perception of ... | null |
hznsb | Would a bottle of wine chill faster opened or unopened? | [
{
"answer": "I don't think it'll make a significant difference either way. The neck is such a small surface area for heat to flow through. Circulating chilled water around the bottle is the way to do it quickly.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm curious why you think it might make a differenc... | null |
131vgn | where republicans have gotten the idea that
obama is a "socialist", and why socialism is seen as
such a threat to republicans. | [
{
"answer": "The whole basis of the republican party is smaller government, socialism is more government, thus seen as a \"threat\" to republican ideals at the very core.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This is one of those questions that's hard to explain simply. There are a few different thin... | null |
3bctaz | why emergency vehicle (police/fire/ambulance) sirens sometimes sound like the driver is repeatedly pushing the siren button causing the pattern to constantly restart, rather than just keeping the siren on? | [
{
"answer": "Modern emergency vehicle sirens, typically made by federal or Whelen \n\nThe standard modes are usually \"wail\" and \"yelp\" which are the two typical police sirens. Then there is usually a button for an airhorn and a manual burst siren. \n\nThe manual burst siren is what they use to alert you to ... | null |
3aotsd | why crt tv's have that line going through them when recorded by a camera | [
{
"answer": "Someone may want to confirm this, because it's just an educated guess, but I think the frame rate of the camera is such that it picks up the crt scanning lines in the way we see it..... similar to how a helicopter rotor may appear to spin slowly backwards.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
3p4133 | why can some animals go weeks without eating, but humans need food on a daily basis? | [
{
"answer": "Its just a habit. You as a human can probably go up to a month without eating, just burning your fat reserves. \n\nEdit: There are several reported cases of humans (pretty obese) to live from their fat alone for up to a year. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Animals that don't eat ... | null |
19436c | which medieval combat weapon was the most exclusive to use? | [
{
"answer": "You needed a strong, fast warhorse to use a lance. So that was a prestigious weapon of the nobility. Long swords used a lot of metal and would have been expensive. Spears and clubs were the most simple weapons to construct and would have been available to the common foot soldier. The clergy (yeah, ... | null |
152s01 | If most romantic languages descend from Latin, what are the roots of Latin? | [
{
"answer": "I think you'll get a better answer from /r/linguistics, frankly, but the short answer is that it comes from the Italic branch of a (reconstructed) language called Proto-Indo-European. There's a \"family tree\" [here](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's a fascinating p... | null |
hxqad | How territorial are pets about their food? | [
{
"answer": "You must perform this experiment, for science! It's by far the easiest way to find out for your particular cats.\n\nAnecdotal evidence time: In my experience, I have found that the answer varies wildly depending on the pet. Some don't mind sharing at all, others mind a great deal. My dog isn't a... | null |
3masti | how is it that vets can treat multiple types of animals with similar training as doctors who only have humans to deal with? | [
{
"answer": "There are some veterinarians who do specialize. They specialize both when it comes to what sort of animals they treat and what sort of problems they treat. There are horse-doctors and Animal dentists for example.\n\nMost of them however are more general practitioners.\n\nThis is possible because th... | null |
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