id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
1m9rnl | If you could suggest a single book for someone who wants to learn about the history of the US and US foreign policy what would it be? | [
{
"answer": "[From Colony to Superpower](_URL_0_) by George Herring is pretty hard to beat for a once over of US Foreign Relations. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "My suggestion would be George Herring's *From Colony to Superpower*. It is a very thorough synthetic look at U.S. foreign policy... | null |
56uzhw | how do powerstrips stop electric surges? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on how it is built. Some of them will say they have a surge suppressor which is supposed to ground big voltage spikes.\n\nOthers have a circuit breaker (look for a round black button on the side somewhere usually). A relay, if there is too much current will trip the circuit breaker, wh... | null |
2f0v7v | how is it legal for a parent to smack their child? | [
{
"answer": "None of that has the force of law, however.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Gearing up for down-votes:\nWhy is it such a big deal? I don't think you should abuse your child. But most people born before 1990 got slapped by their parents a couple of times in their youth. Are they all... | null |
2id8n8 | why can a computer load a website in about a second but the same website on cell phone takes much longer to load? | [
{
"answer": "Connected to wi fi? 3g? 4g?\nWhat's the age of the phone and the age of the computer? Is your computer a wired connection? How many applications are open on your phone? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because internet speeds to a computer are typically faster than to your phone... | null |
xtfzz | What was the star sized light I saw moving quickly across the night sky? | [
{
"answer": "Possibly a satellite.\n\nGo here: _URL_0_ In the configuration section, enter your location and then check for Iridium flares in the last 48 hours.\n\nAlternatively, download Stellarium, get the satellites plugin, set your location and time back to what it was and check the part of the sky that yo... | null |
5bt4w8 | why do do people cap their fps? isn't more frames = better? | [
{
"answer": "From a brief google search it would seem there are many factors.\n\nGame stability - stable fps is sometimes better than constant oscillation\n\n\n\n\nHeat and other stresses on video cards\n\nPower consumption\n\nReducing stuttering and screen tearing without using v sync\n\n > Screen refresh rate... | null |
1xuobs | with the volume of dyed fluids i consume, why is my urine only on the yellow -- > clear spectrum? i know the kidney is our organic filtration system but.... where does all the dye go? my fecal deposits are not tye-dye. | [
{
"answer": "Most likely, the dyes break down in your stomach or upper intestine. Most dyes aren't particularly stable molecules, and your digestive tract is designed to break things down.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's a number of reasons. It takes very little dye to make a liquid col... | null |
1cw4pe | Are there any first hand accounts of the British soldiers' journey back to England after the Revolutionary War? | [
{
"answer": "There are very few accounts written by common British soldiers of the American Revolution, and those few that exist are very brief about the trips across the Atlantic. Most are fairly bland accounts that amount to little more than simply stating that the ocean was crossed. Don Hagist has edited a d... | null |
3iuowt | why do we have to choose between two presidents? why can't we vote for any president who runs? [us] | [
{
"answer": "there are over 100 republican candidates in many states, you can vote for any of them. but you would need to run as an independent after that (and many do, you just dont hear about them)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You could theoretically vote for any of the various presidenti... | null |
110wnj | Why did Stalin not fully support Mao in the Chinese Civil War? | [
{
"answer": "It was mostly putting pragmatism above ideological goals. Partly, he didn't think Mao would win, and partly, he valued his relations with Chiang Kai-Shek as a buffer between Russia and Japan more than he valued his ideological \"allies\" in China. Stalin only decided to help Mao when it became clea... | null |
2ph6qr | why doesn't chicken, beef, or any other processed meat go through rigor mortis when being prepared at a factory or even in the days afterwards? | [
{
"answer": "Hate to break it to you, but they do.\n\nRigor mortis, depending on conditions (animal health, size, temperature, etc) takes 2-24 hours typically. In processed meat, it's already in a package by then. Sometimes, the process is allowed to complete, as it can actually result in more tender meat.\n\nW... | null |
20z9m2 | Sound waves have never completely made sense to me. Specifically what makes two different sources playing the same note sound different? | [
{
"answer": "I believe what you're talking about is called timbre. Its the result of varying harmonic resonances. A piano playing one note vs. A violin playing the same note sound different because the second and third order harmonics have different amplitudes bases on materials, structure of instrument, etc. I... | null |
wn7ka | Looking for information about Carthage and the Punic wars for research into a screenplay. | [
{
"answer": "What would you like to know more about?\n\nHere's some global info for you right now:\n\n**TLDR: The Carthaginians left behind tons of stuff. We don't know where it is. Ancient written records are thankfully available. Small caveat, absolutely none of these people like the Carthaginians. There isn'... | null |
7dmp9p | The American "Rust Belt" seems to be concentrated in one long strip of territory in and around the Midwest. Why didn't industry and factories spring up in the American south in the same way? | [
{
"answer": "Iron ore from Michigan and Minnesota, coal from Pennsylvania and surrounding states, and limestone from Indiana and the Ohio Valley could all be brought to Great Lakes ports inexpensively. Areas near Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit thus became the center of supply for steel, the primary component ... | null |
5iengj | why home deliveries are so common in the us | [
{
"answer": "Americans are extremely sensitive to convenience, and will almost always choose a more convenient service, even if the other service is better in some other way. \n\nOnce some business offers home delivery, others must offer it too in order to compete.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
2snl6b | How did allied soldiers get there supplies during the offensive against Germany? | [
{
"answer": "Do you mean after D-Day ?\n\nImmediately after D-Day the allies built two Mulberry Harbours, here is a picture : _URL_0_\n\nThe reason that they were needed is that the Allies had realised after the failure at Dieppe in 1942 that taking an already built harbour was too difficult. So, the invasion w... | null |
n11x5 | What is the most likley future of space travel? | [
{
"answer": "Traveling at near-light-speed to PC would take 4.2 years according to the observers at earth, but it will be a lot faster for the travelers due to [time dilation](_URL_0_). So it's entirely possible that we can travel between star systems in a matter of days, but once we arrive, many years have pas... | null |
3gjq98 | does your body keep taking in water when you get wounded underwater? | [
{
"answer": "No question is stupid. People who say that a question is stupid are the stupid ones themselves.\n\nAnyway, no, water wouldn't fill into your body. Your heart is constantly pumping blood throughout your body, meaning that it's generating pressure to move all of your blood around (this is referred to... | null |
bwgxf7 | Why weren't 6.5mm cartridges more popular after WW1? | [
{
"answer": "In general, nations retained the same cartridges used in ww1 up until and through ww2. Like with bolt-action rifles rather than semi-automatic ones, this was mostly due to cost during the interwar years, and then the need to maintain production of arms and ammunition during the war.\n\nSeveral coun... | null |
423g0d | why buy an expensive computer monitor if a hdtv of the same size is cheaper and has the same resolution? | [
{
"answer": "Monitors have better response times, more accurate colours and some even have features like USB hubs. \n\nTV's don't have fast response times and therefore have a lot of input lag, which is fine for movies and such, but for applications and games, monitors are better. TV's process the image to try ... | null |
5zjg1r | why is it that when i'm laying down i pitch black darkness it randomly feels as if i'm falling or the bed is tipping. | [
{
"answer": "I think I just saw this exact thing explained on reddit earlier. Basically, as you fall asleep, your body fully relaxes. Because your mind is still partially conscious, it tries to justify the sensation to itself. It recreates the closest feeling it's experienced. This often manifests itself as a f... | null |
6tuhqw | how do phones and computers transfer audio to headphones? | [
{
"answer": "Sound is transmitted as a voltage signal through wires. The voltage changes just like the soundwave, and this goes into tiny magnets in headphones, or speakers, or telephones. The magnets shake the speaker back and forth as the voltage changes, and this movement makes pressure waves on the air. The... | null |
4ncvgg | what happens to deceased pigeons in major cities so that you rearly see their corpses. | [
{
"answer": "Seems like a lot of animals go somewhere secluded to die. There are tons of raccoons, possums, and stray cats and dogs in my city too, but I never see any dead ones unless they've been run over.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Pigeons mostly hang out near their nests which are on t... | null |
1ib6h7 | Can we apply the laws of physics universally no matter which direction or reference of time we are observing? | [
{
"answer": "Not always. \n\nFor example the famous law of Conservation of Energy:\nIf that spacetime is standing completely still, the total energy is constant. But that is not the case, so energy is not totally conserved. Energy conservation becomes tricky when time is bent.\n\nA good example is Redshift of p... | null |
19co2u | WWI letter found in cupboard in Lübeck, Northern Germany. I need your help and knowledge to figure it out. | [
{
"answer": "I just skimmed through it and couldn't read everything, but here is a short summary: \n\nOld woman (and her husband) cares for her granddaughter but can barely afford it. Her daughter, the child's mother, seems to be dead and now she searches for her son-in-law, who is at war. There seems to be a... | null |
5l8rxm | What happened to the land and the debris of war such as weapons and vehicles that were left after long and destructive battles like Verdun or Stalingrad? Basically, who cleaned up the mess and how did they do it? | [
{
"answer": "Note that many areas which have seen prolonged fighting in modern wars *haven't* been completely cleaned up, with some still containing dangers such as live explosives.\n\nWith this in mind, I'd like to ask a follow-up question: which areas have seen prolonged fighting with significant leftover deb... | null |
5on0bq | Do the planets all orbit the Sun on the same plane as Earth like all the models depict, or do the planets orbit the Sun like how we depict electrons orbiting an atom? | [
{
"answer": "All planets orbit on the same plane (more or less, within a few degrees) as the Earth. Check out [this response from the FAQs for more info](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The reason why they do boils down to the conservation of angular momentum. When the solar system fo... | null |
pgdbx | how che guevara being a marxist and everything that capitalist america can’t stand for ended up being such a pop culture icon in america? | [
{
"answer": "Capitalist America loves [anything that makes profit](_URL_0_). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I am not American, and dont really know but i would say that he was originally adopted by counter-culture because he **was** everything that Capitalist America didnt stand for. Counter-... | null |
fblsdw | How did WWII Navy pilots find the aircraft carrier after a mission? | [
{
"answer": "More input is always welcome; while we wait, you may be interested in [this thread asking the same question](_URL_0_). u/thefourthmaninaboat provides the general overview, while u/DBHT14 provides a specific view at the USN, specifically at Midway. [There's also this prior thread](_URL_1_) with a ti... | null |
apgmlc | why is it so difficult to make reflections in video games? | [
{
"answer": "It isn't difficult to make reflections in video games, but it isn't *easy*, and to make a game run at a reasonable frame rate while maintaining the graphical fidelity people have come to expect you need *all* your graphics to be easy. \n\nFor one thing, to make a mirror reflect what's behind you, y... | null |
52xry9 | About to begin studying History at University. Anything I should know? | [
{
"answer": "Start the essays asap, because they tend to creep up quite quickly and then you find the library has been emptied of books\n\n\n\nAlso lots of stuff you learnt in school will be wrong, and what you probably consider a history book is not in fact a history book\n\n\nTake a broad range of modules fro... | null |
6mlye2 | What (specifics) do we know about clothing of Northern/Central European men during the late Bronze- / early Iron-age? | [
{
"answer": "(Don't worry about the flair, I removed it - the filter picked up on \"sport\".)\n\nI'm not entirely sure of what you mean about a culture generally clad in furs and skins, because textile use was most common by 600 BCE, so I'm going to just look at clothing in general from around this time. The be... | null |
28sup5 | How true is the statement that England abandoned Australia after the Fall of Singapore in WW2? | [
{
"answer": "The British released three divisions of volunteer Australians from the Western Desert to go back to Australia in the spring of 1942. These troops, the 6th, 7th and 9th infantry divisions played a key role in driving the Japanese army out of Papua New Gui... | null |
b8f1lr | Quick history of astronauts countering Van Allen radiation belts? | [
{
"answer": "I don't have time for a full history, but broadly speaking we've known that space was radioactive since the very early days of the Space Race. Explorer 1 was the first satellite to carry a geiger counter, which went crazy when it entered the radiation belts. This led one of the members of the scien... | null |
6s7cwz | how isaac newton was able to test and prove that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by another force, when you can never truly have something without other forces acting on it to prove his theory | [
{
"answer": "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an **unbalanced** force.\n\nThe word unbalanced is key here. You put a brick on the ground, the force of gravity is balanced with the so called “normal force.”"... | null |
1u5tz6 | why didn't the usa drop nuclear bombs on tokyo but dropped them where they did? | [
{
"answer": "Tokyo was already largely destroyed by firebombing and the Japanese government was needed to be in place to actually accept surrender. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Hiroshima and Nagasaki were major industrial centers. Destroying them destroyed their ability to continue making ... | null |
a34edt | Why is brain death final? Like, why can't we restart or reboot a brain that's been dead for only a few hours? | [
{
"answer": "When there is less blood flow to the brain (ischemia) you have a lack of oxygen which leads to cell death. The cells need oxygen to live and once the tissue dies reoxygenating it will not have any effect. This is the same principle with heart attacks - a blockage in the arteries lead to ischemia wh... | null |
37jvqw | Why don't we just point Hubble at Pluto instead of waiting a decade for a satellite to take pictures of it? | [
{
"answer": "We did. You can find some two sample images [here](_URL_0_), but you should direct your view to the top left of each half, which show the actual Hubble images. Each pixel is over 100 miles across, so we don't really see much. Pluto is just really far away, and our telescopes don't really have the r... | null |
14ujqm | A question about Human cell regeneration. | [
{
"answer": " > every (roughly) 5 years or so, you regenerate every cell in the body.\n\nThis isn't true, as far as I know. Different types of cells in the human body have different lifespans.\n\nSome cells are very short-lived; for instance, [intestinal epithelial cells last about 5 days before they are shed... | null |
4jj7q0 | how do integrated circuits/electronics work | [
{
"answer": "There are a handful of basic building blocks for any circuit: resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors.\n\nAn integrated circuit as you'd have seen it in the 1970s would consist of 10 to 30 transistors, and less than 5 each resistors and capacitors. \n\nToday due to advances in technology,... | null |
872epk | what is the line between the first amendment and hate crimes? | [
{
"answer": "Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: The line between freedom of speech and breaking the law. Eg racism ](_URL_4_) ^(_13 comments_)\n1. [ELI5 how can we prosecute hate speech if the First Amendment says we can't abridge the freedom of speech. ](_URL_... | null |
2odkt6 | why is hemp so much better than trees for making stuff? | [
{
"answer": "The real value in using Hemp over traditional forest wood for cellulose based products is the way the two are cultivated. Even a small grove of trees takes years for the wood to mature and be usable, where as Hemp has a standard growth rate of only a few weeks. It is also a very good replacement fo... | null |
lbfyj | Why do I see RGB when I look away from a projector light? | [
{
"answer": "This is because the DLP projector is rapidly alternating between projection of the red, green, and blue component images. This is called the 'rainbow effect.'\n\n[Wikipedia has an entry on it](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Very common with DLP projectors, other projecti... | null |
1w69tr | How much of a presence did the Inca Empire have in the rainforests east of the Andes? What did they call the natives of the Amazon region? | [
{
"answer": "Actually, not as much as you might expect. [Tawantinsuyu](_URL_0_) reached across the whole of western South America, yet its most glaring geographical boundary is not the Pacific, but the Amazon Basin. Groups in the Amazon were known to an extent by Andeans and coastal dwellers, but it is a dialog... | null |
14bpfr | What plants have gone extinct along with animals over the years? | [
{
"answer": "Well, I'm not a scientist, but Wikipedia's [entry](_URL_1_) on paleobotany seems fairly thorough, and it links to a list of [extinct plants](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > 17% of all families, 50% of all genera[6] and 75% of all species became extinct\".\n\nPlants are... | null |
i0rf0 | How powerful can placebo's be and could they be a legitimate replacement for expensive and complicated medication? | [
{
"answer": "30% of the time they work, so if you have a really expensive medicine that works 35% of the time, placebo can be an alternate.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "515064",
"title": "Diabetic neuropathy",
"section... | null |
1bihe5 | How old might the oldest conceivable DNA sample on Earth be? | [
{
"answer": "The half life of contiguous genomic DNA is about 512 years. This translates to a maximum lifetime to recover contiguous portions of a genome's DNA to about 6.5million years (give or take a million or so years for experimental/statistical error). This places 8 million year old DNA at about the outer... | null |
brddha | _URL_0_ can draw my family tree back to e.g. Charlemagne, Constantine the Great and Philip II of Macedon. Is this actually a reliable tool? | [
{
"answer": "I don’t know that this is strictly a history question. You may want to ask it over at r/genealogy. However, as an avid genealogist I can tell you that you are absolutely right to be skeptical.\n\nStatistically, every person of Western European descent is a descendant of Charlemagne. In genealogy wh... | null |
32uz2h | why aren't car insurance companies legally restrained from only offering exorbitant rates? | [
{
"answer": "There is no clear factual answer to this question, but the bottom line is that various state legislatures have declined to impose such requirements. This could be because of corporate influence, it could be because of a belief that free market competition will guarantee good service. Regardless of ... | null |
f2pepw | why do artificially made things cost less than natural things? | [
{
"answer": "It comes down to economies of scale. It’s cheaper to make a thousand gallons of apple- scented sugar water than it is to find enough good apples, transport them to a juicing facility, process them into juice, transport the juice to the point of sale, and also have to clean up the juicer machinery ... | null |
jlx7c | What would cause a pint glass to spontaneously combust? | [
{
"answer": "That didn't spontaneously combust, it just shattered. Glass does that when it is heated or cooled unevenly. If you wanted to, you could repeat it by gently heating another pint glass to the boiling temprature of water, then dipping one end of it in ice water. The cold end shrinks, creating inter... | null |
4159ve | if the earth "wobbles" as it spins and orbits the sun, what prevents it from spinning out of control? | [
{
"answer": "INTERESTINGLY, Hyperion, due its unusual shape and geology; its resonance with Titan; and dynamical flattening effects from many objects in the Saturn system, DOES spin out of control. Wooooooo",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id":... | null |
47su2k | Why was flanking a larger force (such as during the Battle of Cannae) so effective? Wouldn't the smaller force be worn out by the larger one even if they did encircle them? | [
{
"answer": "In ancient battles, on the whole, the heavy infantry of the main battle line was very much focused on the fight in front of them. The anticipation of having to engage in close combat was mortifying, and the business at hand required their complete attention. In addition, given the minimal technolog... | null |
20uvrh | How can one locate the records of a deceased Red Army soldier in WWII? | [
{
"answer": "There's online database \"Memorial\" of all USSR citizens, who served in Soviet Army and who were killed or missed in action during WWII. \n\nIt is in russian and you would need to enter your grandpa names in russian in order to search. \n\nSeveral caveats: \n\n* some russian and ukranian frequent ... | null |
1pi2yl | How much do we actually know about the seafloor | [
{
"answer": "We have very detailed [bathymetric](_URL_3_) maps of a lot of the ocean (e.g. _URL_0_). But that's only like having a topographic map of land - it doesn't tell you what's on it, but is fairly easy to do via remote sensing (e.g. sonar, etc).\n\nWe have actually explored the sea floor fairly well. Re... | null |
4de5fa | what is a delegate (presidential race)? | [
{
"answer": "You are correct delegates are points, but they are people. In June / July all the delegates will assemble at the party conventions and formally cast their votes for presidential nominee. The primaries and caucuses say how many of a states delegates will vote for you on first ballot. Win 50% + 1 d... | null |
21em1c | why aren't there massive lakes of water floating around in space? | [
{
"answer": "There are, but they are giant balls of ice",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "52259",
"title": "Great Salt Lake",
"section": "Section::::Hydrology.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 28,
"start_character"... | null |
boeevc | let’s say i wake up before my alarm 10 minutes early, and i decide to sneak in extra sleep. i either go back to sleep which feels like an hour when in reality only 5 minutes has passed or i sleep which feels like 5 mins when actually an hour has passed. why does this occur? | [
{
"answer": "There are different stages of sleep: stage 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM. If you wake up during REM (the dreaming stage basically), your body releases a chemical that prevents you from moving, and it might not have been fully removed yet.\n\nIf you don’t fully wake up i.e. hit snooze and immediately close yo... | null |
xak21 | what is an arduino micro controller? ive seen a lot of posts about people doing awesome stuff with them. but i haven't been able to get a straight answer for just what it actually is | [
{
"answer": "It's basically a circuit board and small CPU. I don't /think/ it has a proper operating system, but it does have a programming language attached. Connect some other electronic parts to it and come up with the program, and you have an arbitrary electronics device.\n\nIE; attach it, a microphone, a... | null |
2o71wi | Who first thought of stairs? | [
{
"answer": "hi! if you don't get answers here, this question might be worth x-posting to an archaeology sub, or /r/AskAnthropology",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1254304",
"title": "Gemonian stairs",
"section": "Section... | null |
55siu2 | Why do we see meteor showers some specific days only? | [
{
"answer": "There are various asteroid \"clouds\" in our neighbourhood, but their orbit around the sun only intersects with our orbit around the sun every now and then. When the orbit of an asteroid cloud intersects that of the Earth, we can see a meteor shower. On other days, there are simply little to no met... | null |
10jm6r | assassins creed story arc with the apple and pieces of eden. | [
{
"answer": "A guy over on /r/assassinscreed recently posted a couple of excellent synopses for all of the games. Warning: they do contain NSFW language - or language not suitable for 5 year olds!\n\n[Assassin's Creed 1](_URL_0_)\n\n[Assassin's Creed 2](_URL_2_)\n\n[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood](_URL_1_)\n\n[A... | null |
y5qqh | What does stingray venom do? | [
{
"answer": " > Stingrays have a spine at the base of their tail that contains a venom gland. The spine, including the venom gland, may be broken off in the attack and may remain in the wound. The venom has vasoconstrictive properties that can lead to cyanosis and necrosis, with poor wound healing and infection... | null |
1k3wf2 | Why is it that some nations within the Soviet Union (Ukraine, Georgia, etc.) received the status of SSR while others (Karelia, Chechen, etc.) were only ASSRs? | [
{
"answer": "It was a perilous issue in the early years of the USSR, and mainly had to do with population and territorial size as well as loyalty to the regime (though in the case of the Baltics, Stalin made each an SSR to characterize themselves as liberators to the rest of the world). Making Chechnya a full-f... | null |
4oe2q2 | what is the difference between shaving using a trimming machine , a razor or waxing besides the physical method and why is one preferred over the other | [
{
"answer": "A trimmer leaves the hair partially there and is merely cutting it down to a certain length. You use this when you want to keep your beard but groom it, and trimmers are often used when doing normal haircuts for the areas that are going to be relatively short.\n\nA razor cuts much closer, shaving o... | null |
50kd7k | Did the Kingdom of Saxony intend to conquer some or all of Austrian Silesia prior to the annexation of the latter by the Kingdom of Prussia? | [
{
"answer": "There wasn't a kingdom of Saxony before the annexation of Silesia by the Kingdom of Prussia.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "182001",
"title": "History of Saxony-Anhalt",
"section": "",
"start_paragra... | null |
5ssibj | advances in (metal) armor thourgh the centuries | [
{
"answer": "This is an important question in the history of armour. In fact, this is a huge question, and there's a lot to say about it.\n\nI will start off with some historiography. The early historiography of armour is saw medieval armour's development as being like that of early 20th century battleships, or... | null |
gapng | How do we simultaneously know how far away a stellar object is *and* its chemical makeup? | [
{
"answer": "each element has a unique set of spectral lines it leaves. We look at all the spectral lines of the star and are able to determine its makeup. Redshifting merely shifts all of these values uniformly toward the red end of the spectrum. But the spacing between the lines remains the same. \n\nedit: an... | null |
1v5btc | Does the body prevent inhalation of the lungs when a person is knocked out and under water? | [
{
"answer": "In lifesaving you learn that the body keeps breathing and so an unconscious submerged person will drown choking on water - though I'm not sure they keep inhaling after the that initial gulp of water. \n\nAn interesting aside, the difference between a Personal Flotation Device or PFD (vest type) and... | null |
1yc7q6 | If Black Holes have supposedly infinite density and gravity has infinite range why is the entire universe not pulled into it? | [
{
"answer": "Infinite density does not mean infinite mass, so as your mass is still some finite value, it behaves similarly to a gravitational point source. \n\nFor example, if the Sun turned into a blackhole right now, I would only notice 8 minutes later when it suddenly looked like someone decided to turn off... | null |
unj2c | How can a body accept an organ from a different person if they have different DNA? | [
{
"answer": "Only genes that correlate to proteins expressed on the surface of cells matter for immune detection and \"acceptance\", and even then, not all of them matter. Read [here](_URL_0_).\n\nThe easiest thing to compare it to is blood type. When you donate blood, you only have to match the ABO protein s... | null |
7m7fu3 | why is eating too much after a long period of starvation dangerous? | [
{
"answer": "It’s called “refeeding syndrome”\n\nWhen you’ve been starving/deprived for a long time, your body shuts down everything it can get away with. Growth, reproduction, anything that can go offline or run at bare minimum will start to do so. Remember that physical processes (including digestion) demand ... | null |
2jew3a | why do audience members at a sitcom filming laugh at everything? | [
{
"answer": "I don't think there is a guarantee that the laughing you hear is the original recording at that specific scene.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I was a live studio audience member of a morning talk show a few years back. They had a sign that lit up when you were supposed to laugh",... | null |
3nntj3 | Were swords/bows/etc.. controlled from general masses in any given periods? | [
{
"answer": "FYI, you'll find a few examples in the FAQ to get you started\n\n* [Gun (and other weapons) control](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "182350",
"title": "Small sword",
"section": "Section::::Hilt.\n",
... | null |
ggmal | Would someone be able to make a flashlight like device that used light out of the visible spectrum? | [
{
"answer": "This is essentially what blacklights are. Though they do have some violet light, they are mostly ultraviolet.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Were you describing an [active infrared night vision system](_URL_0_)? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenan... | null |
7ckidd | Is it possible for junk foods to make your body gain more weight than the actual weight of the food itself? If so, how does this happen? | [
{
"answer": "Your body can not weigh more than what it consumes. In all cases (except maybe pure fiber) it'll always weigh less than the food being consumed because at least some of it is digested to provide energy for life. \n\nEven if you eat something that can't be digested, your body will attempt to digest ... | null |
5nyn57 | how come that when you go to bed at 11pm you have a hard time to leave your bed at 7am, but when you go to bed at 3am you dont have any problems waking up at 11am while you had the same hours of sleep? | [
{
"answer": "Might be a number of things. \n\n1) You aren't used to waking up early, so your body isn't ready for it. If you don't usually wake up at 7am and then suddenly do, it'll be hard. \n\n2) It's often colder in the morning, especially in the winter. Getting out of bed in the cold is hard. \n\n3) It's mu... | null |
8bjlmw | What’s in the direct center of a black hole? When light and other various things get sucked into the black hole what happens to them? Are they crushed? What happens when something goes into a black hole? | [
{
"answer": "Any particle that crosses the event horizon must move toward the singularity. We cannot predict what happens to the particle beyond that; our current theory does not have that capability. (Indeed, this is what it means for there to be a singularity.)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
dqg05e | why do different languages each have their own version of the same names? | [
{
"answer": "Names begin as a single name in a parent language like Latin and will be spread throughout the geographical area where that language is spoken (in the case of Latin, most of Western Europe.) However, languages change gradually over time, with speakers slowly but surely changing the pronunciation ru... | null |
19x7qs | How many individual bacteria/viruses does it take to infect you with a disease? | [
{
"answer": "Each virus and bacterium has a different design, so some are more infectious than others. For example, the number of vibrio cholerae (which causes cholera) that you need to ingest to become infected is between 1,000 and 100,000,000, but the number of EHEC (a really wicked E. coli strain) that you n... | null |
2a61uu | How long would it have taken for a civilian to travel from New York City to Madrid circa 1914? | [
{
"answer": "Even though planes existed, the fastest transportation would've been by ship since flight couldn't sustain for several hours at a time. The steam-liners were some of the fastest, traveling a maximum speed about 25 knots. \n\nMore than likely, you'd travel via a ship similar to [RMS Mauretania](_URL... | null |
2oudcw | Is sulphuric acid is stronger than hydrofluoric, why can HF acid dissolve glass? | [
{
"answer": "The \"strength\" of an acid can be a bit of a misnomer, depending on what you are talking about.\n\n\"Strong,\" when discussing acids, is a measure of how completely that acid will be ionized in aqueous solution. In other words, a strong acid, like sulfuric acid (H*_2_*SO*_4_*) will \"completely\"... | null |
2oqo8x | How much of the universe's matter is in interstellar gases? | [
{
"answer": "You mean ordinary matter? Because we still have no proper theory of quantifying dark matter. Excluding dark matter and energy, only one-tenth of ordinary matter is believed to be found in stars..so that means 9/10th of ordinary matter is dispersed in the interstellar medium.\n\nEDIT: What I gave y... | null |
39c83f | If a humming bird is flying inside an airplane is the airplane heavier by the weight of the humming bird? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. On a technical level, The hummingbird flies by accelerating air downwards, to produce an upwards force. This momentum will, even if it dissipates through all the air in the cabin, create a *slightly* higher pressure on the bottom of the cabin than the top. The difference on pressure, integr... | null |
11e1jd | The primary cause of global warming is greenhouse gasses--but what about all of our waste heat? | [
{
"answer": "Waste heat does have a local effect, but it is believed to account for only about 1% of anthropogenic forcing globally. Global forcing from waste heat was 0.028 W/m2 in 2005, while total anthropogenic forcing was about 2.9 W/m2 and net anthropogenic forcing was around 1.6 W/m2.\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0... | null |
dybcib | how do sports leagues coordinate scheduling so many games without running into any conflicts? | [
{
"answer": "For the most part I think the League schedules the games, so they know when other games are that would be unfeasible to return home from in time, etc. \n\nIf a player can't make it because he's at the Olympics or something, it's always up to the player/team where they want to be at the time.",
... | null |
4xu7el | Did the culture of Carthage differ significantly from the culture of the older Phoenician city-states in the Levant? | [
{
"answer": "According to Richard Miles' *Carthage Must Be Destroyed*, *Qart Hadasht*, or \"New City\" was mainly ~~Tyrrhenian~~ Tyrian in origin; this follows both the foundation myth of the city and the preeminence of Melqart and Estarte, the chief city gods of Tyre, in Carthage. Tyre was conquered by Hammur... | null |
aa9vli | why do symptoms of the common cold change as your body gets over them? | [
{
"answer": "Basically the beginning is the foreign bodies attacking your cells and vice versa, damaging the near by tissue (pain). The ending is the left over waste products remaining inside your body from the fight and your body finding methods to move them from essential functioning areas or just expelling t... | null |
4f1a65 | why are "pretty" plants and flowers much less resistant than weeds and ugly small wild flowers? | [
{
"answer": "Pretty garden plants are often a long way from home, so they're exposed to a variety of pests and diseases they wouldn't have much resistance to.\n\nWeeds are generally local, or of they're incomers they're successful ones which have already shown they can cope with the local ecosystem.\n\nThe othe... | null |
itt1i | I need help identifying this disorder. | [
{
"answer": "There are many things that could cause stunted growth. If you have more information that might be helpful, but I'm not confident that an accurate call can be made here.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "56335",
"title... | null |
8sbwyx | Do ticks or other blood sucking bugs (mosquitoes, etc) show preference to certain people? | [
{
"answer": "Yes.\nBoth ticks and mosquitoes tend to target people by detecting the CO2 they release from their bodies, so perhaps your metabolic rate is higher than average and produces more carbon dioxide. Blood type O is preferred over A and B for them as well. Additionally, it could be that you were walking... | null |
1ntnrp | Why didn't the straight-pull bolt catch on in military service? | [
{
"answer": "I can speak as to the difficulties encountered with the Ross Rifle, which was a Canadian, straight-pull bolt action rifle used at the start of WWI by the CEF:\n\nThe Ross was an incredibly accurate rifle, and was a fantastic hunting weapon, but the realities of trench warfare meant that the unrelia... | null |
3yaijh | How does photon-photon interaction not misconstrue the paths of other photon-photon interactions throughout space? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is that to a very good approximation photons simply don't interact with each other. To frame it a bit more technically, we would say that the [photon-photon scattering cross-section](_URL_3_) is extremely, extremely small. In other words, the photons of two crossing laser beams wil... | null |
oc0l3 | How much oxygen does a candle use in a closed room? | [
{
"answer": "Almost all houses are not airtight, there's always some way for air to flow. That said, [candle wax is mostly CH2](_URL_1_), so to start we'll say it's about 85% carbon, and 15% hydrogen, and the carbon all goes to CO2, and the hydrogen all goes to H2O. This will give the maximum amount of oxygen t... | null |
pn89z | How many senses do we have, I have heard there is more than the five children get taught | [
{
"answer": "You're right in that the five senses children are taught don't cover everything. You also have the ability to recognize differences in temperature, feel pain, keep balance, tell where your body parts are in relation to each other, etc. There are others as well that are more automatic.",
"proven... | null |
5e7pz9 | We know that matter is transformed in energy inside stars. Is there anything else on the universe that does the opposite, where energy is converted to matter ? | [
{
"answer": "There are a few possible answers to this. For instance, depending on how you define matter (note that there is no strict definition of what matter is), a black hole could be an example. Light that enters the event horizon contributes to the rest mass of the black hole, so energy becomes \"matter\".... | null |
5kmw4q | gold mines and supernovas | [
{
"answer": "Most of the time is spent as dust in a cloud in the galaxy. It may form into bigger asteroids and small planets that may be ripped apart by a number of things. Eventually it arrives at the Earth. The reason gold is fond together in vanes is because similar materials with similar densities and other... | null |
17463l | what happens to throwaway accounts? | [
{
"answer": "I think many don't actually throw their account away, since their only reason for creating one is to keep their main account free of the association with what they're posting/saying on their throwaway account. Most aren't ducking the authorities or any real investigation.\n\nTo my knowledge, there'... | null |
ai3ue3 | Least Expensive Firearms of the American Civil War? | [
{
"answer": "For guns purchased in big numbers, rifled muskets were definitely cheaper, cheaper to supply with ammunition and more easy to service than breech loading guns ( which maybe is what you mean by \"exotic\"). According to the Ordnance Dept's statement of purchases from 1861-1866, certainly the few mi... | null |
73ol8c | Why can humans control an involuntary action (breathing) but not choose to control your heart rate? | [
{
"answer": "To my understanding you have skeletal muscle that can control your breathing, but smooth and cardiac muscles (which control heart rate) are involuntary. Although, controlling your breathing can actually indirectly control heart rate as well.\n\nIf you’re asking why specifically smooth and cardiac m... | null |
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