id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
1ylex0 | why aren't hybrid/electric cars such as the prius shaped like sports cars? | [
{
"answer": "Because the aerodynamics of racing cars are not optimized for fuel economy, but downforce to increase traction under cornering. This actually increases drag and hurts fuel economy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Also that is not the most economic shadow for regular people who need... | null |
znx8g | "Phlegmy" saliva after hard cardio exercise. | [
{
"answer": "It is because your body has to conserve water, so the proteins in your mucus get mixed with less water, making it more viscous.\n\nPhlegm loses up during hard exercise mostly because your respiratory system is working very hard, which includes a lot of contractions and dilatations in rapid successi... | null |
2t9a40 | Is it possible there were civilizations 10 or 20 thousands years ago that are lost? Or is it generally accepted fact that the first civilizations started around 5,000 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "\nGobekli Tepe in Turkey is a site that appears to have been in use sometime between the 10th and 8th Millenium BCE. It's a fascinating site that may upend some of our prior notions of how civilization developed - but much work needs to be done on the site before we get any real answers. And of cou... | null |
4z7ajy | I there a maximum strength for a permanent magnet of a given mass? | [
{
"answer": "The maximum \"strength\" of a permanent magnet is when the magnet is a single [magnetic domain](_URL_0_). You can think of a permanent magnet as a collection of many atom-sized magnets all pointing in generally the same direction. When they are all perfectly aligned, the magnetic field sufficiently... | null |
65ywy6 | Why was Russia so broke in the 1990s? | [
{
"answer": "Two factors led to this the first was following the breakup of the USSR Russia took on all of the debts/contracts the USSR made. The problem with this was that the USSR depended on the economies provided by all of their member states but especially Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics, and the Ba... | null |
3rt9sq | how does a company know my email address simply by me googling their product? | [
{
"answer": "There are a lot of companies out there that buy, sell, and trade in your personal information. Let's say you bought something from a website that had small print saying, \"We only share your data with close business partners,\" or something. They might sell your name, address, e-mail address, wha... | null |
51s14g | what happens to carbon emissions from vehicles travelling through tunnels? | [
{
"answer": "Not sure I'm really getting your question. Vehicle tunnels are not sealed; they are well-ventilated, with fans extracting exhaust fumes. They have to be, otherwise you'd have drivers passing out from carbon monoxide poisoning. You don't want that. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "... | null |
gmdtr | Growing Hopper Crystals? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not sure you can do much better than listen to the people who've already done it. Even research papers might not amount to much more than \"this is how we did it\". \n\nSee, growing crystals is a pretty difficult topic. A whole field in itself (there's even a \"journal of crystal growth\"), bec... | null |
nkwp0 | Hey scientists...why is it, do you think, that animals like my dog and cat, don't seem to respond at all to music....? | [
{
"answer": "This is not a scientific answer but in the absence of a true response...\n\nAnimals are very accustomed to ignoring human produced sounds: in particular, anything focussed on the human hearing range around 80Hz-8kHz (this includes most musical instruments regular range except cymbals, triangles and... | null |
1dftq8 | how do magicians do mind reading tricks? | [
{
"answer": "Many ways-one of the most interesting is through \"Magician's force\". This is where a magician is actually influencing your choices in subtle ways. An example is if the magician has 3 cards-black on one side and red, green or yellow on the other. They want you to pick a card and they will \"read y... | null |
9mv72t | When a person urinates, why doesn't their bladder create a vacuum? Or does it? | [
{
"answer": "The bladder [contracts](_URL_0_) because it is made of flexible tissue. There is no void left behind so there is no vacuum to pull air in. The only analogy I can think of off hand is an IV bag. As it dispenses, the walls of the bag collapse around the fluid. It doesn’t pull blood from you nor does ... | null |
1drzm6 | Was always warned to stay away from windows and off/away from electronic devices (television, computer) during a thunderstorm. How valid is this claim, and how dangerous is it really? | [
{
"answer": "So, if there's no surge protection on between the power lines feeding your home, and the consumer electronics are plugged into the wall, a major surge can damage your electronics by briefly exposing them to currents and voltages well outside their operating ranges. If the surge is say a lightning b... | null |
f0zhnr | Does the sun have wind? Ive been curious if it was possible? | [
{
"answer": "\"Solar winds\" do exist but they're not \"made\" of air. It's a term used to describe the stream of charged particles (plasma) released from the surface of the sun, out into space. Solar winds are the cause of the Northern Lights seen on earth as the Earths' magnetic field (which deviates charged ... | null |
1qa6t2 | Why does charcoal burn hotter then the wood it is made from? | [
{
"answer": "A large part of the answer is that there is very little water left in charcoal, and so no energy is wasted in turning water from a liquid to a gas.\n\nThen the rest of the answer is that charcoal is sort of pre-burnt, meaning a lot of the steps of combustion are already taken care of. A \"fire\" is... | null |
d8ye1l | Have there been cultures that primarily associated women with short hair? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, we don't allow [\"example seeking\" questions](_URL_1_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or per... | null |
fd6g9u | Civil War Help!!! | [
{
"answer": "I believe that just naming some sources that would work well for this question would be a violation of this sub's rules about helping with [homework](_URL_0_), because tracking down and selecting sources is clearly a component of the assignment here.\n\nSo, with sources so overwhelming, we need to ... | null |
nvmbo | If we want energy efficient homes, why not build them like large vacuum flasks / insulated thermos? | [
{
"answer": "It would be a matter of money. It would cost significantly more to build a house in two layers strong enough to resist a vacuum (would pretty much have to be solid metal for something with the support needs of a house as far as I can think) rather than by just using (relatively) cheap plywood and f... | null |
82v3wo | Why is plasma gasification not widely used to combat traditional disposal of garbage in landfills? | [
{
"answer": "Because it's very expensive and energy intensive, while land is cheap and plentiful. If that's the route we wanted to go, a traditional incinerator would accomplish the same thing for most garbage. Plasma gasification is typically used on hazardous material that would otherwise be difficult to stor... | null |
15l8i6 | Why do things need to be given mass? | [
{
"answer": "Nope it's not a fundamental property, not in quantum field theory where you describe particles as quantised excitation's of fields.\n\nProff matt strassler gives introductory explanations behind it all with just the right amount of math in [this](_URL_0_) and [this](_URL_1_) set of articles. \n\nI... | null |
58g2lc | Could an exoplanet orbit two stars at the same time? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, this is called a circumbinary planet and a few have been discovered, such as Kepler-16.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, there are a few different stable orbits a planet can have in a binary star system.\n\nThe planet can orbit one star, while the other star orbits the com... | null |
5uqppg | why does water appear to be white when coming down from a tap really fast or a waterfall? | [
{
"answer": "Those faucet are aerating the water. This spreads it out by putting a bunch of air in between it. Older faucets sometimes don't do this and the water is clear.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Almost any clear substance with a different refractive index than air will look white i... | null |
8aztkg | What are the chances that we might receive an Interstellar Message? What equipment do we have in place for monitoring and how do they work? | [
{
"answer": "The SETI project uses the Allen telescope array to look for interstellar radio signals. Typically these things listen in frequency ranges in between two levels that are strongly absorbed by water (18 and 21 cm), which might make this range the ideal band for sending signals that aren't absorbed. It... | null |
2kg73t | can a country use another country's currency? what would be the consequences? | [
{
"answer": "This actually goes on a lot in South American countries. Their currency is not that stable which means that family savings are shaky. What families do is buy American dollars since dollars usually is stable. \n\nIn the same way countries can put their money into investments, however to be able to b... | null |
405wi4 | how did practically everyone come to realize that the ground was lava when they were kids? | [
{
"answer": "Well, for one, all it takes is for it to be on a single kid's show. Then it can leap from mind to mind and spread virtually anywhere. But for two, I suppose it helps that \"don't touch the ground\" is a fairly universal idea that is just rudimentary enough to be commonplace. You factor in that larg... | null |
2lwkzr | what is bandwith? why do they cap it? | [
{
"answer": "bandwidth is how much of the internet speed you can use at any one moment in time. like if you are downloading at a peak rate of 10 MB/s. your bandwidth is 10 MBps, if you ever go higher than 10MBps, then that higher # is your peak bandwidth.\n\nthey cap it so that more people can use the shared ... | null |
9mmxg7 | why is there so much bird crap on my car but none on the floor? | [
{
"answer": "Birds see cars (or people) as enemies/threats so they fly over them and drop crap as a defensive measure.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most birds will crap before they roost for the night so when the tree might be empty all day but you park next to it during the night of her it'... | null |
5fzt1o | Were "throne rooms" purely ceremonial, or did kings actually spend hours a day just sitting in one place? Surely there must have been a better way for a king to spend his time. | [
{
"answer": "This isn't about *kings* necessarily, but for emperors, yes the option was absolutely open to sit in a \"throne room\" all day, if they wanted. The emperor Claudius was somewhat infamous for this, his general persona was that of a Republican magistrate and he was perhaps the only one of the emperor... | null |
9qixxu | Why has nobody come close to Tesla's inventions that were created up to 100 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "While Nikola Tesla was a very smart and accomplished inventor, many of his ideas and inventions simply didn't work out the way he had imagined it. Tesla has gained a reputation as some kind of visionary whose ideas have, for some reason, not been followed up on.\n\nBut this isn't true. Tesla's idea... | null |
2270vo | what will ecstacy, aka mdma, do to my brain and body? | [
{
"answer": "a good grounding. _URL_0_\n\nmake sure you test what you eat, don't mix with alcohol, drink sufficient water, eat some 5-htp afterwards to replenish your serotonin.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "10024",
"title": "M... | null |
3b9igo | why is there such a common disapproval for homosexuality in religions? | [
{
"answer": "It was a reflection of society.\n\nHaving children used to be a lot more important that it is now. A man's wealth and station were passed on to his sons, and he needed women to bear those sons. \n\nA man who didn't want to marry and have children was letting down his family. A woman who did want... | null |
302h74 | how do subreddits become default ones like r/sports or r/gaming | [
{
"answer": "They get popular enough that admins decide to ruin it by showing it off to the rest of reddit. \n\nLike a way to say \"See this awesome vibrant place to discuss things? Well, you missed it.\" ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": ... | null |
zgq42 | (from my 6 year old nephew) if mosquitoes suck blood out, why does your skin puff up? | [
{
"answer": "Our body doesn't like mosquito spit - it thinks it's going to make us sick - so it sends things called *antibodies* in our blood to go fight it, and that makes that part of the skin swell up. ([More info](_URL_0_))\n\nEdit: [Here's another good answer](_URL_1_), which goes into why the bites itch, ... | null |
7jp9rc | Why is going on your tip-toes easy, when doing a push-up is difficult? | [
{
"answer": "Your feet are carrying the body weight every day, they are trained to do so. Your arms are not, unless you do push-ups all the time.\n\nIn addition, the feet have a shorter lever arm - they need less torque for the same force.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The muscles that lift y... | null |
130ewe | Will there ever be a way to define division by zero, similar to how we defined roots of negative numbers with the imaginary element i? | [
{
"answer": "You can define anything as anything, as long as it's consistent with your axioms and previous definitions. Whether it's useful is the question.\n\nIf 1/0 = a where a is an integer, then by the usual algebra we'd have 0*a = 1. But that doesn't really make sense in the context of the usual multiplica... | null |
7wvbo2 | Common Law is considered so uniquely British that the Spanish term for it literally means "Anglo-Saxon Law." Did anything similar to it exist on the continent before Napoleon largely standardized Western European legal codes? | [
{
"answer": "Hey, \n\nYou can divide European law into two groups, which you can divide into subgroups: \n-continental group\n (germanic circle),\n (romanic circle),\n (nordic circle),\n-common law group (England and Wales - not whole UK (Scotland is abit different)\n\nWhy did the two groups who started from... | null |
1f6uq0 | What were important every-village-has-one buildings in the Medieval ages? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on the size of the village, of course. But most decently sized villages (that is to say, not entirely dependent on other villages or cities for the basic buildings) contained at least a church, a townhall and whatever craftsmen were applicable to the region, ranging from food (indeed, a but... | null |
25b0p3 | Did Spartacus receive any moral support from Rome's intellectual class? | [
{
"answer": "If he did, there are no extant records of it. Here is a [pretty good summary](_URL_1_) of the ancient texts that deal with Spartacus's rebellion. It's in English, too, which is nice. I can't recall any others that handle the topic in any detail, though my memory often fails me and someone else migh... | null |
335g43 | If you isolated two groups of the same species, would they evolve differently? | [
{
"answer": "At first you get sub-specie differences, breeds in dogs and cats, and races in humans for example.\n\nThese are still defined as the same species due to the continued ability to interbreed.\n\nThe next stage of differentiation is sterile offspring - horses and donkeys are the most obvious example.\... | null |
k7hy4 | real versus nominal < insert economic term > | [
{
"answer": "It's usually (maybe always?) about inflation. If you got a 5% raise every year, that'd be cool, unless everything cost 25% more every year. In this case your nominal (from the greek for \"name\" so it's exactly what you get) wage rate increase is 5%, but your real (from the english for \"real\", ... | null |
3g7afp | How common was "underage" enlistment during WWII in the U.S.? | [
{
"answer": "How would someone go about getting enlisted underage? Would it require a fake ID or just were there enlistment people who didn't care?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most evidence of this occurring is likely to be anecdotal, due to the illegal nature of the practice. From the evi... | null |
998qhf | What happens to the 0.01% of bacteria that isnt killed by wipes/cleaners? Are they injured or disabled? | [
{
"answer": "Ok, so I work in the industry of antimicrobial testing, and no, it's not a legal disclaimer, we test and see how much of a log reduction a product gets and we literally scrub the shit out of the device or surface or whatever, so no, it's not a CYA claim, it is based on actual FDA or EPA regulated t... | null |
1y5bcf | how is it possible to take non-visible wavelengths and convert them into visible wavelengths? | [
{
"answer": "It's often arbitrary and done for illustrative purposes. But..when done really well it's just math.\n\nLet's say we can see wavelengths from 1-100 (not true, but...it keeps the example simple) and we can't see things from 100-1000. Things toward 100 are read, things toward 1 are blue and a rainbo... | null |
2uqhqa | when i shoot somebody in a video game, is there an actual bullet flying through the air? or is that just added light effects i'm seeing. | [
{
"answer": "It depends on the game or weapon. Some use what's called \"hitscan,\" which is similar to your laser beam example: when the weapon is fired, the bullet is treated as a straight line that appears instantaneously. A hit is registered when that line intersects with the target.\n\nBullets can also be p... | null |
3js7t7 | Question about Relativity on a trip to Alpha Centauri? | [
{
"answer": "**edit:** Some factors of 4 were changed to 2, since the original formulas were for round-trip times. Everything should be correct now.\n\n---\n\n**edit 2:** Yes, this problem is very much like the classical twin paradox. If we considered the round trip to Alpha Centauri, we would see that the trav... | null |
44psgp | Are eyelid muscles flexing when they are open or when they are closed? | [
{
"answer": "Both\n\n > Muscles always come in pairs. Moving in either direction always contracts one of the muscles, and moving in the other direction contracts the other one.\nIn fact, contracting is the only thing a muscle can do, so you could not consciously make a movement that requires no muscle contract... | null |
4rl7v2 | why do we have that uncomfortable feeling when sleeping with limbs uncovered or hanging out of the bed? | [
{
"answer": "Evolution. People who didn't get that weird feeling when dangling their limbs from the trees they were sleeping on were killed by cheetahs.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I don't *know* but I would imagine it to be an evolutionary trait related to the idea of being exposed withou... | null |
66noo7 | why do we worry about the number of times you can write to an ssd? | [
{
"answer": "The basic answer is that RAM and SSDs are different in the way they store data. SSD read/writes are (much) lower than HDD, a cost in exchange for speed (but not as much speed as RAM). \n\nThe better term you are looking for in regards to SSD/HDD v. RAM permanence is volatility. RAM requires power t... | null |
1odia1 | the seven osi layers | [
{
"answer": " > I'm taking a [...] class\n\nTalk to the professor. Ask questions in class, drop in for office hours, send him emails. If you have one, there might also be a TA or tutoring resources.\n\nThe big idea is that you should break things up into layers with specific functions if you want to built a ... | null |
1ibn3m | What are the most interesting cases of civilizations throughout history discovering dinosaur bones, and how did these different civilizations interpret, explain, and react to the discovery? | [
{
"answer": "Welcome! your question is great, but it pains me to tell you that it's actually a really common one. The good news is that there are plenty of responses all ready for you to check out! /u/1Tw03Four recently did a great round-up of previous posts in this one:\n\n[Did ancient societies discover dinos... | null |
1ud5c3 | Are there any texts, especially novels, that were considered "trashy" in their time, but that have come to be regarded as great literature? | [
{
"answer": "There have certainly been books that were considered critical and commercial failures that ended up as great literature. As the other comment notes, the answer to your question depends on what you regard as \"trashy.\"\n\nAs an example of a book that originally failed, Moby Dick provides a very goo... | null |
18n8vf | Why do rockets not burn up while taking off? | [
{
"answer": "Rockets start in the thickest part of the atmosphere at a Relative velocity of 0, they accelerate up through the atmosphere only reaching orbital velocities well into the upper atmosphere.\n\nWhen reentering the atmosphere they need to slow down against thickening air which generates heat through t... | null |
2wlqwc | Why is it that Greek Mythology has held up so well? | [
{
"answer": "Let's agree for sake of argument that all cultures have equally impressive bodies of oral tradition that include stories about the origins of things and about the conduct of powerful supernatural beings and heroes. I think that's a fair statement, but it is difficult to evaluate a subjective term s... | null |
4qgum0 | does the color green mean (positive/gain/go/good) and red indicate (negative/loss/stop/bad) in all countries, why? | [
{
"answer": "In China, Red is associated with happiness and prosperity. Although they still do use red as a stop sign. Not really sure about their P & L statements.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nI would guess that as far as traffic signals and P & L statements go, all countries follow the standard now. It may be, however, that... | null |
2gx2cw | why is longitude measured in non-parallel lines coming from the poles instead of in parallel circles emanating from the prime meridian and idl? | [
{
"answer": "One of these ways is really easy and convenient for plotting a map and navigating. The other is really, really, really annoying. If you plotted the parallel circles on a flat map, you would get two sets of either concentric ellipses or circles depending on the projection you use, and you couldn't k... | null |
5mgk15 | why is it that teeth come in symmetrical pairs but aren't all the same shape? | [
{
"answer": "Thats one of the traits that characterizes mammals: When the embryo develops the teeth \"are told\" to develop differently, supposedly by the gradient of a signal molecule or something similar. In contrast to that, reptiles have teeth that are all the same shape.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
lbdqt | Will humans eventually evolve to lose our appendix or one kidney? | [
{
"answer": "That's almost impossible to know. Evolution doesn't have a 'plan', of course - and the selection pressures of losing a kidney or appendix are only slight at best. I would expect there to even be a pressure toward the preservation of both our kidneys - having two comes in handy.\n\nSince there are c... | null |
6m4a11 | how does relativity explain gravity for objects 'at rest'? | [
{
"answer": "Remember in general relativity objects exist in a 4D space-time. That 4D space is distorted by the presence of mass.\n\nWhen objects are spatially at rest they are still moving in the time coordinate. Likewise, while moving in space the are moving through space and time coordinates. The presence of... | null |
lal1p | Do humans need to eat proteins specifically, or is it only the amino acids and peptides that are required? | [
{
"answer": "It's the amino acids. We don't really even break down the proteins for fuel; that's the amino acids, too. The proteins you eat (generally) never make it out of your gut tract except as amino acids or very small peptides.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's the amino acids. We don'... | null |
5zt880 | why do words we've known our whole lives occasionally look and sound really awkward to us? | [
{
"answer": "Not sure if I'm right but you might be experiencing [semantic satiation](_URL_0_). If you pay attention to a certain word (such as \"bath\") and repeat it numerous times, your brain starts getting \"tired\" of it and starts thinking it's just \"random nonsensical sounds\" for some time.",
"prov... | null |
14epp7 | can you turn electricity into a liquid? or other state of matter | [
{
"answer": "Electricity is the name we use for a set of varied phenomena involving the transport of electromagnetic charge. It isn't matter, and so it doesn't make sense to ask about changing its state of matter. As an analogy, you can't turn electricity into a liquid any more than you can turn the emotion of ... | null |
13xikv | If someone could conceivably have a fraction with any number as the denominator, does this mean there are infinite numbers between 1 and 2? | [
{
"answer": "\n\nIf someone could conceivably have a fraction with any number as the denominator, does this mean there are infinite numbers between 1 and 2?: yes. \n\n\nIf so, would this imply that infinity has an end?: no.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
84hu7a | how xl ink cartridges are the same size but have twice as much ink? | [
{
"answer": "This is an easy one. Normal cartridges are a lot of dead space. XL ones are also a lot of dead space. Just less of it. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The simple explanation is that the regular are not full. You could likely add more in to the XL one too.\n\nA quick look at a cart... | null |
2kgqmr | the benefits of nfc payments such as apple pay, google wallet | [
{
"answer": "Advantage: your NFC device or card never leaves your hands. Almost zero chance of theft or duplication. Another layer of security, if you fully trust Google and Apple, is that the merchant has no access to your credit/debit/bank account info. \n\nAnnoying, though: take phone out, unlock it, (in my ... | null |
2qlnrb | why less than one of an object is plural, like .7 lbs (point seven pounds) | [
{
"answer": "Rather than say that as 'point seven pounds,' it would be more correct to read that as 'seven-tenths of a pound.' ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16619",
"title": "Kilogram",
"section": "Section::::Mass and ... | null |
c991ou | The terminology of sexual violence in late medieval and early modern Europe | [
{
"answer": "Consent absolutely was the definitive factor, then as now. The big, *big* difference lies in what \"consent\" means. Even just in the last decade, we've shifted from a No Means No to a Yes Means Yes paradigm--meaning that today, silence from fear, ambivalence, or chemical substances can't be reason... | null |
26fl7x | how do we create needles that are small enough to insert material into individual cells? | [
{
"answer": "You get a bit of thin glass cylinder, heat one end up and pull. You'll stretch it creating a very thin pipette end. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Like /u/that_was_not_ok said, it's a simple process of heating a glass tube and pulling on it. You can do that by attaching a weight ... | null |
211xdh | The death of a star - does the star's core run out of fuel all at once? | [
{
"answer": "The exact mechanic can differ quite a bit depending on the star's mass, however the key point is that the core does not collapse exactly when the star runs out of fuel, but when the fusion occurring in the core is no longer enough to counter the star's gravity.\n\nOnce this occurs there are differe... | null |
cdl89v | how do russian bots or "agents" work? | [
{
"answer": " > \tWhat I can't grasp is what percentage of those negative comments can be contributed to Russian bots and what percentage of it is just \"the yelp effect\"?\n\nThat is sort of the point, their action is attempting to motivate the behavior of others who aren't agents. They aren't easy to track do... | null |
2peenu | Are hormones digestable? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, they will be digested, but that is not why we won't see an effect in humans.\n\n > People are freaking out about hormones in the milk \\ meat, but I wonder- won't most of the hormones like Progesterone be broken down or damaged, and won't affect the body anymore?\n\nMost hormones from animals ... | null |
4eg65i | The Kurds were split apart after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. How did the Kurds feel about this and is their separate "autonomy" enough to keep them satisfied? | [
{
"answer": "On mobile right now I'll try to be more thorough when I get home, but an important thing to note about the Kurdish people is they have never been a unified people under one state. They've faced oppression by basically every empire that has existed in the area, so they're division today can be seen ... | null |
17ourd | How did the middle class develop? Has there ever been another society with a middle class, either by their own definition or ours? | [
{
"answer": "In European societies, landowners that do not have tenants - ie self-owning farmers have been considered the middle class. These were in ancient times able to afford arms and armour and made up the backbone of the pre-Marian Roman army, of the Greek hoplites and the Swedish medieval peasant militia... | null |
1b094z | what would it be like to have no sense of time? | [
{
"answer": "I think you'll wait a long time for a sensible answer to this one. I don't think anyone knows.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Think about how you experience the passage of time while you sleep for 8 hours at night. I imagine it is something like that.",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
twg1r | Why can i see more sharply with glasses or contacts after several days of not wearing them? | [
{
"answer": "You can't, you just think you can because you're used to seeing the world blurry. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "74845",
"title": "Contact lens",
"section": "Section::::Complications.\n",
"start_par... | null |
y0fyr | How do results in the Ancient Greek Olympics compare to today's? | [
{
"answer": "China used to do *decidedly* worse.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Just so you're not empty handed:\n\nOne thing to keep in mind is that there is only one winner (as opposed to a first, second, and third place) for each event. As far as I know, they didn't really keep track of tim... | null |
4vzwol | despite the fact earth consists of 71% water and only 29% land, we still choose to call our planet "earth". why is that? | [
{
"answer": "we live on the ground, not the water. if we were dolphins, then perhaps our planet would be called Oceana.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "18842323",
"title": "Sea",
"section": "Section::::Physical science... | null |
2cur3y | How do cell phones work when there are so many people? | [
{
"answer": "As I understand it, you have cell towers every few kilometers, the cell phone will ping these towers and the one with the best connection is the one that will be used. Cell towers to have limits on connected devies and ative devices. And it's here that even though you may have full signal strengt... | null |
37em4u | what is the true impact/role of the coach on a professional sports team (hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball, football, etc.)? | [
{
"answer": "Let's take football for example. The best quarterback in the world knows how to be a great quarterback, but he doesn't know much about how to be a tight end. The coach is charge of leading and teaching and training the entire team and pulling them together as a whole unit. He's helped along by assi... | null |
b0ehic | Are drops of water consistent in size? How big is that, and why? And what about other substances like oil, or molten metal? | [
{
"answer": "They are not consistent in size. Think about using a micro pipet or any dropper and then think about mist or large droplets of water on a waxed car. Drops of water from the same object are likely to be of similar size due to surface tension (adhesion) and the force on the drop being similar.",
... | null |
4r25zx | Did societies in the past understand the problems of hunting animals to extinction? | [
{
"answer": "This answer might be more appropriate to /r/askanthropology, but with North American pre-Columbian timelines the line between history and myth is pretty blurry. One of the only sources of Cherokee oral traditions, Mooney's *Myths of the Cherokee* (1900), is [available online](_URL_3_). The fourth c... | null |
2djsv0 | where does the feeling of 'not feeling real' come from? | [
{
"answer": "When I was younger I would also have episodes like this in which I would feel like i was in a dream. I never did get it checked. i did have a few fainting spells (which run in the family). How are your inner ears? do you have vertigo or balance problems? I don't have a fear of heights, but in certa... | null |
p99bx | why is it racist to say black people like kfc & watermelon? | [
{
"answer": "It's a generalization based on race. Even if it's not intended to be malicious, it's still racism by definition.\n\nSaying Asians are smart is racist. Saying women are good at making sandwiches is sexist. It doesn't have to be an insult.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Everybody lo... | null |
226tta | why are car colors so boring these days? | [
{
"answer": "Manufacturers base the colors of production cars on what customers buy or order.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "13395669",
"title": "Car colour popularity",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
... | null |
d4wnfo | how does the ability of a spider to make a web get passed from one generation to the next? | [
{
"answer": "It is not taught/learned. Though complex, it is a fully instinctive behavior, which means the ability to do it is built into their DNA, just as humans have for breathing or crying or sex.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "One thing that's prevalent in the wild is that if you lack the... | null |
37bzb4 | why can there be such a delay between a music album release and radio play? | [
{
"answer": "It's all about the major labels paying oceans of money to make certain songs 'popular' or get Airplay ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It depends, for popular artists, they usually release the singles from the album one at a time. Like Taylor Swift's 1989 album, it came out 7 month... | null |
1jt0hg | why is reality television so appealing to many? | [
{
"answer": "Because it's interesting to learn about people we might not have in our lives. \n\nTake a show like Deadliest Catch. I don't know any fisherman, nor do I know anyone who knows any fisherman. I have literally no idea what it's like, or what those people experience. As a result, I might find it inter... | null |
28ltfx | If I opened a bag of flour in zero gravity what would happen? | [
{
"answer": "If you open a bag of flour and shake it, it will go everywhere. The only force that acts on it is the force that you shook it with. \n\nAny clumps of flour already in the bag might stay together depending on how hard you shook it and new clumps might form form a collision.\n\nIf you add water by fi... | null |
49xzn9 | why do jehovahs witnesses keep coming to my door? | [
{
"answer": "Because they want you to convert to their religion. Can you be more specific about your question. It seems pretty straightforward.\n\nEdit: If you want them to go away tell them that you're a ex-jehovah's witness who has been disfellowshipped (excommunicated).",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
3e53bi | In the novel "Go Set a Watchman," Jean-Louise and her uncle are having a conversation about the causes of the Civil War and her uncle says, "not much more than five per cent of the South's population ever saw a slave, much less owned one." Is there any truth to that? | [
{
"answer": "**No.** It's absolute baloney and incredibly racist.\n\nThe 1860 U.S. Census found that 40 percent of the population of the South *was enslaved.* I'm quite sure that they were aware, every single day of their lives, of their status as a slave.\n\nBut let's take the racist's point of view. Let's say... | null |
4hj3p3 | if we could travel at the speed of light or use warp speed how would you avoid hitting any space debris or planets? | [
{
"answer": "Space is vastly empty. The chances of you colliding with *anything at all* is very very slim. You usually only collide with things that you're trying to collide with. \n\nEven the asteroid field is very empty. Every asteroid is small and hundreds of thousands of miles apart. \n\nBefore going i... | null |
5qtv53 | "alternative facts" | [
{
"answer": "It means \"this is not a fact\".\n\nThe term is being used by people in order to justify things which have no basis in fact and are simply opinions or beliefs.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They are falsehoods. Kelly Ann Conway used the term to describe press secretary Spicer's r... | null |
2jntma | at what point is a virally infected person no longer considered a "carrier"? how can we become immune to certain things without carrying/spreading the sickness ? | [
{
"answer": "I'm interested in this answer also. Some viruses we keep for an awfully long time - how do we know Ebola isn't going to be like HIV or herpes? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm not sure about the first part but I can answer the second part. The answer is vaccines. Vaccination... | null |
1u7y20 | where do funds come from for fireworks in sydney or elsewhere? | [
{
"answer": "City budget. Which come from taxes",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "18456554",
"title": "Fire Station No. 23 (Los Angeles, California)",
"section": "Section::::Museum.:Controversy over restoration.\n",
... | null |
6kq5hx | why do livestreams consume more bandwidth than vods? | [
{
"answer": "Compression is slow, the more you compress the slower it gets.\n\nVideo on demand has days to compress the video into the smallest size for each quality level so they can make it much smaller\n\nLivestreaming at 24 fps gives the computer 1/24 of a second to compress the current frame before it need... | null |
7suj9i | how can the brain accurately pick up song lyrics from a song you last heard 10 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "This is called long-term memory. You perceive something, let's say, you listen to a song. This information enters your brain as information in the so-called working memory. Stimuli that are not processed (because they are irrelevant to us) are lost after a couple of seconds. But, stimuli like that ... | null |
28o15o | in world cup games, what language does the referee speak to the players in? | [
{
"answer": "Asked and answered 10 times already.\n\nEnglish",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5358809",
"title": "Valentin Ivanov (footballer, born 1961)",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_cha... | null |
1b2x0u | How does this "real" invisibility cloak work? | [
{
"answer": "Roughly speaking, you can make light \"stick\" to tiny periodic conducting structures and bend this sticky light around a surface and release it behind it in a way that removes all information of the surface as the light travels past the surface. I think such a device could actually be constructed ... | null |
30f7a7 | Did everyone get mummified in Ancient Egypt? | [
{
"answer": "No, not everyone was mummified. Simple reason being, mummification was a long and ultimately costly process. Therefore, it's not surprising that most of the mummified remains we've ever found are either royal or of some high political, military or religious official. \n\nThose who weren't mummified... | null |
1fbnni | What was the most powerful military organisation in history? | [
{
"answer": "I think you need to perhaps clarify your question.\n\nDo you mean relative to their contemporaries?\n\nAbsolute destructive potential?\n\nIf it is the latter the answer is either the Soviet Union or USA thanks in no small part to the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. I can't say specifically when or... | null |
81shcb | how do tree farmers keep up with the global demand for paper? | [
{
"answer": "They plant lots and lots more trees. Paper trees are all farmed, like corn but slower.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Ooo! I can answer this! I studied forestry back in North Carolina, with a focus on sustainable paper milling!\n\n1st: Manufacturing paper is fairly efficient, esp... | null |
3y11pm | if kinetic energy is proportional to velocity squared... | [
{
"answer": "This is an EXTREMELY good question. I've looked into this many times myself, mainly due to my involvement in /r/emdrive. Stay away from that sub, they literally think the Illuminati is preventing scientific progress.\n\nSo, in your closed system, there are two components. The train car, and the roc... | null |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.