id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
3kl7ev | why does peanut butter feel so "dry" when eating it? | [
{
"answer": "Because peanut butter contains almost no water at all. I looked it up, and peanut butter is about 2% water. \n\nCompare that to beef jerky, which we tend to think of as very dry, but which is about 24% water. Or wheat flour, which is still 11% water. \n\nIncidentally, the low water content is w... | null |
ygm7u | res | [
{
"answer": "DID SOMEONE SAY REDDIT ENHANC-*slapped*\n\nOkay, You use reddit, obviously. Sometimes you may think about how inconvenient it may be to click the next button after every page, or to proofcheck your formatting, or to filter out the [m] posts in /r/gonewild. A very respectable man by the name of /u/h... | null |
3x2xvj | why is linux a good choice for embedded platform? | [
{
"answer": "Embedded operating systems aren't always better. It depends on the scale of the project. \n\nMy current project utilizes both micro-controller based embedded systems as well as a more powerful Linux based embedded computer. \n\nOne of the micro-controller based systems serves only the function of t... | null |
4wfhai | what can a hacker get from exploiting my laptop's camera? | [
{
"answer": "The one thing that comes to mind is they'd see the inside of your room, so they'd know where in the house you're likely to be. Depending on their purposes, they could either find you quickly or avoid you entirely.\n\nEDIT: No, I am not a psychopath.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
5o3px5 | why do screws/bolts/nuts get loose and have to be tightened, in the first place? | [
{
"answer": "It can be caused by many different things. It has to do with motion of course. I have a wooden chair I use all the time. It squeaks and twists and after about 6 months a screw will fall out and I'll tighten them all up. It's just wear and tear really. Even on industrial machines rattling or a motor... | null |
2041yd | Why does an extremely high resolution image scaled down look "jagged" compared to an image originally at the small size? | [
{
"answer": "that's not always the case, but i see what you're getting at so until a better answer comes along...\nimagine a black & white picture that is 10 pixels wide & 10 pixels tall.\n10x10 = 100 data points, each with a value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white). So, the top row of that picture may l... | null |
nhi9k | why big tech companies aren't using their lobbyists to stop sopa. | [
{
"answer": "They are speaking out..\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_2_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I remember hearing on a podcast the idea that since many of these companies are quite new, they haven't had the time to lobby and make the connections the more established companies those in th... | null |
1tk3w2 | Are "king" and "sultan" completely analogous titles? How would a high medieval king differ differ from a sultan of the time? | [
{
"answer": "My indirect/incomplete answer is of a linguistic nature, but maybe it will be found useful/interesting. It should be noted that the Arabic word for king is not sultan (سلطان) but *malik* (ملك).\n\nIn Arabic, nouns are (almost always) derived from verbs which go back to (almost always) three letter ... | null |
32noc9 | why does it take so much water to put out a small bonfire? | [
{
"answer": "Because those coals you're trying to drown are extremely hot. So hot that some of the water you pour on them will evaporate before it even hits the ground.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A campfire reaches temperatures 5 times the boiling point of water, so it can evaporate it inc... | null |
90x527 | The 1934 World Cup was held in Mussolini's Italy and the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany. Was there any controversy over the awarding of these prestigious events? | [
{
"answer": "I can't speak to the World Cup, but I can dwell a little on the Olympics. This is a slight modification to an earlier response.\n\nFor the 1936 Olympics, there was absolutely controversy, resulting in protests and calls to boycott. In the lead up to the games - which had been awarded to Berlin prio... | null |
3r11lc | why do people hate joe buck? | [
{
"answer": "He's often accused of favoring certain teams.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "55216946",
"title": "Razor Girl (novel)",
"section": "Section::::Plot summary.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 17,
... | null |
21v8wk | Do flightless birds have hollow bones like those that can actually fly? | [
{
"answer": "Turkeys have 'hollow' bones, as do chickens. I wouldn't call their bones hollow though, more like less dense. The compact tissue in most land animals is generally thicker than that of birds, while the cancellous tissue is far more dense in land animals than our aves friends.",
"provenance": nul... | null |
3ge7gp | why is it that before an orgasm you have a feeling willingness to do anything, but as soon as the orgasm passes you come to your "senses" (nsfw) | [
{
"answer": "I totally get this. I get that feeling very often.\nCan't explain it, but you aren't alone. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "As far as I know, our natural inhibitions are controlled by certain chemicals secreted in the brain(I don't remember the name off-hand). \nDuring orgasm the... | null |
1in7qg | why do we need such high megapixel cameras if most of our screens and monitors are less than/equal to 1080p, which is less resolution than 3 megapixels? | [
{
"answer": "Because the larger the picture resolution, the more you can do with it. If you take a picture but wanted to crop a portion of it, you can do so, and still retain a high resolution image.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Two reasons:\n\n1. Zoom - the capability of magnifying a sectio... | null |
73m6la | why do newly released blockbuster films only circulate on the internet when they have been released on dvd? | [
{
"answer": "Sometimes they are, but it's rare.\n\nBefore DVD release pirates have to rely on cams, which are of questionable quality. \n\nAlso, it's not really worth the time and effort to steal one of the theaters copies. Getting caught is too easy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It does hap... | null |
26x1hp | why do cars make relatively typical engine sounds when driving forwards, but sound like giant battery-powered rc cars in reverse? | [
{
"answer": "In a manual transmission the reverse gear is a different style of gear that have strait teeth called a spur gear compared to the other gears (1st-5th for example) that have angled gears. The noise you hear is the reverse gear is the teeth of the gear colliding which only occurs on the spur gear wh... | null |
kmfy1 | Since the universe is expanding, why doesn't the space in between the atoms and molecules of my body expand as well? | [
{
"answer": "Take all of the mass of the Earth and concentrate it in a symmetric shell. From outside the shell, the gravity you'd feel is the same as you would around the Earth. Inside the shell, however, you feel nothing; the gravity from the shell balances out perfectly. If you put some other object in the ce... | null |
zvjl7 | How dangerous are waterspouts? | [
{
"answer": "Waterspouts, generally, are not as dangerous as tornadoes -- they are more akin to \"dust devils\" than tornadoes. During thunderstorms, there is quite a bit of tight rotation that cannot be seen under normal circumstances. When this rotation occurs over water, the condensing water droplets ma... | null |
8b2cmu | how and why does a specific language get established as a country’s second language? | [
{
"answer": "Usually because of either a historical tradition - like if your country's official language was French for the 300 years you were a French colony, and now you're not, it's likely to continue being one of the official languages - or because there exists a significant population of speakers of that l... | null |
64a4uo | why is it that when we talk to an adult with a high voice we can still tell it's an adult? | [
{
"answer": "There are two major forces at work regarding tone and pitch of voice. The first is fundamental frequency of phonation, or the pitch your vocal folds produce. Adult men produce the lowest fundamental frequency, with adult women producing a higher frequency and children an even higher one.\n\nThe sec... | null |
q1y0m | How does a jellyfish work? | [
{
"answer": " [This](_URL_0_) Wikipedia page explains jellyfish pretty well.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "373206",
"title": "Aurelia aurita",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": ... | null |
cywxa5 | How common were friendships and protection between those of different religions in medieval Europe? | [
{
"answer": "This is a fantastic question, and one which I can't properly answer by myself. But I got a message from the mods that I might be interested, and I am, so I'll say a few things that come to mind.\n\nFirst of all I consider the protestant reformation (started 1517, give or take) to be after the medie... | null |
4t0jfj | if a body is interred in concrete, will it mummify or decompose - will it leave a big hole where it was like a fossil? | [
{
"answer": "[This experiment](_URL_0_) suggests that partial mummification happens, but yes, bodies still decompose (more slowly) because of the bacteria within our body eating us once our immune system ceases function.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The water in the body will eventually be a... | null |
13bym6 | How "serious" were religious beliefs in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, and what role did they actually play in everyday life? | [
{
"answer": "You might find these previous discussions useful:\n\n* [Were there religious fundamentalists in ancient Greece and Rome?](_URL_3_)\n* [Did Romans really believe that Emperors were gods?](_URL_2_)\n* [What did religion mean in ancient greece and rome?](_URL_0_)\n* [Were there religious cults in anci... | null |
18s05c | Are there any credible scientists questioning evolutionary theory and/or pointing out a need for more specific data? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on what you mean.\n\nAre there scientists working on developing evolutionary theory? Yes. Does this involve questioning certain parts of it, and finding missing data for others? Yes. But it's weird to frame these things as \"questioning evolutionary theory\"; we don't think people doing pha... | null |
mijn4 | Why when you chop an ant's head off, both, its head and torso keep moving separately for a while, but when something similar happens to a mammal, it immediately dies? | [
{
"answer": "It turns out, most insects have nerve-groupings in their bodies that can control limited functions. I cut the head off a wasp once by accident and I noticed it could still walk, beat it's wings, etc. It couldn't fly, that's a higher level function that needs a brain to control it. So, it's kind of ... | null |
6ln2ck | Can Satellites be placed in the orbit so they always stay in the dark side? | [
{
"answer": "They would have to be at the L2 Lagrange Point, always on the opposite side of the Earth as the sun. This is about four times farther than the moon, and is more of a solar orbit than an Earth orbit (although you could say it's an Earth orbit with a period of one year). We occasionally send space te... | null |
1mcl5h | Has any violent international conflict been successfully pacified by transferring aggressions to a sporting event or other non-lethal competition? | [
{
"answer": "Google has failed me, but I recall hearing about two villages in Central Asia that used to be violent rivals, but now have a regular tradition of playing against each other in [Buzkashi](_URL_0_) matches. Anyone know anything about this, or am I completely making stuff up?",
"provenance": null
... | null |
3wbm05 | why is it that sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night being more refreshed than i ever am at 7am? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know the exact science, but when you wake up at 3 you probably woke up naturally. When you wake up at 7 am I'm guessing you wake up with an alarm clark. People are more likely to have harsher wake ups when their deep sleep cycle is interupted",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
25ohmv | Was there truly a dark side to Winston Churchill like this article suggests? | [
{
"answer": "I hate that \"poison gas\" quote. It is always taken out of context, and it is just a cheap kind of character assassination because it sounds like advocating for deadly poison like mustard gas, when in fact it was _humanitarian_ idea: using _tear gas instead of artillery shells_. You could say Chur... | null |
1ryovp | how does the 'skylanders' video game work? | [
{
"answer": "I would assume RFID chips in the figurines so the game knows which ones are being used.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "38448094",
"title": "Skylanders: Swap Force",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id... | null |
4p4l09 | why is the weather currently in north african countries (which are known to be one of the hottest countries in the world) cloudy and rainy in the middle of the summer? | [
{
"answer": "When water is heated, it evaporated and forms clouds. Simple right? If you have a large mass of water that is heated quickly, a lot of clouds are formed. Then those clouds block out the sun and heat, and rain back on the earth. It is a simple cycle that occurs in excessively hot places, such as Aus... | null |
izjz1 | How plausible is the idea/concept that someone might die (or whose death my be accelerated) by heartbreak? | [
{
"answer": "Extremely plausible\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Question: Could this be related to the stories in medieval legends where maidens would 'swoon and die'?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1077843"... | null |
6r6jc2 | how does europe have a similar climate to much of the us, despite the fact that they have the same latitude as much of canada? | [
{
"answer": "The gulf stream is a warm oceanic current that sort of sweeps north up the North American east coast, then across towards Europe. Therefore it carries warm water towards Europe, which makes the climate there warmer than corresponding North American latitudes.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
fj8wtq | I am a scientist who studies things. AMA! | [
{
"answer": "Hello, thanks for doing this AMA! I was wondering, what is it like to be a scientist?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "21410069",
"title": "Ruzena Bajcsy",
"section": "Section::::Current research.\n",
... | null |
zmpzs | How do newborns get full length telomeres? | [
{
"answer": "The enzyme telomerase can lengthen telomeres, however it is only active in small portion of cells (including gametes, hence why children newborns don't have short telomeres). Uncontrolled expression of the telomerase gene is believe to underlie the \"immortality\" of cancer - probably a good reason... | null |
1ycysu | why are so many people "anti fur" but wear leather goods? | [
{
"answer": "I don't think that's correct, anti-fur activists are also very much against leather. Maybe what you’ve seen is synthetic leather, which does not involve animal skin whatsoever.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Fur generally comes from animals that are bred specifically for their fur... | null |
429p3u | were people smarter back in shakespeare's day? | [
{
"answer": " > Did Shakespeare write for the \"common person\"?\n\nVery much so. That's why his works have been so enduringly popular. They contain deep meanings and complicated plots, as well as some good action and the occasional butt joke. Something for everyone.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
1nuixl | if the earth is rotating eastward at 465 miles per second at the equator, how is it that planes flying east get to their destination in a reasonable time? | [
{
"answer": "The Earth's rotation is actually about a thousand miles per hour at the equator. And the air the plane is flying through rotates with the planet, for the most part--otherwise, there would be a constant 1000MPH wind coming from the east, now, wouldn't there?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"a... | null |
14p3a0 | Was there any important historial texts or artifacts lost or destroyed by the devastation of WWII? | [
{
"answer": "Oh yes. In my field for example, there was a set of 5 matched ancient boats, whose name escapes me at the moment, several of which were destroyed in the bombings. \n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The Nazis themselves flat-out destroyed a lot of what they considered to be \"degene... | null |
2mq356 | Infinitely small probability? | [
{
"answer": "Your question unpacks in different ways depending on the type of infinite set.\n\nThere are *discrete* (countable) infinite sets of numbers, such as the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, ... Here we can assign explicit nonzero probabilities to every positive integer -- for instance, the probability of ch... | null |
1n5tjj | How close get two solar systems the size of our own get without actually affecting each other. | [
{
"answer": "There would always be some pull, however very minuscule depending on distance.\n\nAccording to Newton's Law, every point of mass in the universe affects each other.\n\n > Newton's law of universal gravitation states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force ... | null |
7xst3c | Why is it “a university” and not “an university”? | [
{
"answer": "The \"u\" in university is actually a diphthong. That is, it is two separate sounds.\n\nThe first is \"y,\" as in the color yellow. You've probably heard that in English there are five vowels, and sometimes y. Well, this is because y is a semivowel. Say the word \"you.\" Pretty hard consonant sound... | null |
7g72q1 | Does the size of a nebula affect the size of the stars that are formed from them? | [
{
"answer": "Yes to some degree, but it’s more about the conditions of the cloud. [This](_URL_0_) says that larger stars come from clouds that are larger/denser but resist gravity longer before collapsing, probably because they are supported by magnetic fields. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": n... | null |
6jk3s4 | Why do blue flames not give off more light than orange flames? | [
{
"answer": "There are a couple of things going on here (such as the \"surface area\" of the flame), but the main thing is how we see light. If we extrapolate your example to even hotter flames that are mostly ultraviolet, the room would go back to appearing dark. Our eyes are evolved to see light based on the ... | null |
dnoe9l | if warm air expands, then why does cool air expand in adiabatic cooling? | [
{
"answer": "It isn't necessarily cool to begin with, it can occur at any temperature. Adiabatic expansion cools the air, rather than happening on already cool air. Look at a can of compressed air, it starts at room temp and then cools as you use it.\n\nWhat's happening is that heat isn't being exchanged with... | null |
52enur | what makes a cable a 'fast charge' cable? | [
{
"answer": "Certain USB cables have specific resistance values between pins embedded into them to signal that they are suited for high-current charging. This in turn signals the phone it is allowed to draw higher currents from the wall plug (which has a similar mechanism).\n\nThe important thing to take away h... | null |
4q5iup | Are quarks made of smaller building blocks? | [
{
"answer": "There is no evidence that quarks are made of anything smaller. Of course, it is *possible* that they are with the evidence only emerging if we get to probe smaller distances, but so far, there is no data to support such a notion.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenanc... | null |
3ghxik | synesthesia: when people associate numbers with colours, do they associate the concept of that number, or its written symbol with a certain colour? | [
{
"answer": "I have a mild synesthesia which associates numbers (and letters) with gender. When I think of the number 7, one of the things about it is that it's male, but it's not the main, most interesting thing. It's just like when I think about my dad, maleness is part of what I think about, but rarely the m... | null |
eqjk6p | how do open air markets keep fish fresh? | [
{
"answer": "They have it on loads of ice in a special open topped unit that i think helps to keep it cool. Then they just try to shift all their stock on the same day",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "31174259",
"title": "La Nueva... | null |
2amfyd | Prior to the existence of pollinating insects, how did plants reproduce sexually? | [
{
"answer": "Pollen is a relatively recent invention. It evolved around the same time as the seed. The first types of pollination were almost certainly by wind -- there is clear evidence for this from fossil plants (their anatomy and morphology is consistent with wind pollination).\n\nYour question is more broa... | null |
qkwwt | "kony 2012" | [
{
"answer": "Honestly, the video that's going around is pretty self-explanitory (and even includes, funnily enough, a scene where the narrator explains the campaign to his young son), but if you don't have 30 minutes to spend:\n\nThere is a man who lives in central Africa, usually in Uganda, named Joseph Kony. ... | null |
20t7mr | Napoleon once said, "An army marches on its stomach". How did he keep his army fed during a campaign? | [
{
"answer": "I recall a similar question being asked late last year, and it led me to discover the fascinating \"Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier.\"\n\nIt said that the soldiers in Napoleon's army were expected to purchase their own provisions from local merchants. This practice worked well in Western and Ce... | null |
3izxcb | How common and/or acceptable was conversion to Judaism in the 19th and early 20th century? | [
{
"answer": "I can't talk about the US, settler colonies and the rest of Europe, but conversions were definitely happening in Britain- usually as the community bonds from immigrant communities weakened. The majority of converts then, and possibly even now, were women, who converted before marrying their Jewish ... | null |
ackyy7 | how do pc games work? | [
{
"answer": "A game typically doesn't need to know exactly what hardware it's running on. If it wants to draw something on the screen it'll tell DirectX (for example) \"I want to draw a thing, here's what it looks like,\" and DirectX handles the rest, which involves speaking to the CPU/GPU. The game doesn't car... | null |
2bx1il | how do filmmakers get footage of the inside of a bug without killing it? | [
{
"answer": "The same way they get cameras inside humans. Either through an existing opening or through a surgical opening and a small camera",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "20693889",
"title": "Brand X (The X-Files)",
"s... | null |
3yhbnp | why exactly is google translate bad? | [
{
"answer": "in some languages, the definition of a word can change simply because of the context it's in.\n\nFor example, going from English to Russian, I use the phrase:\n\n > what's up with this weather?\n\nWhich it translate into:\n\n > что с этой погодой ?\n\nThe problem though, is that it doesn't know i... | null |
1212d4 | High school level physics experiments | [
{
"answer": "Crawford's book *Waves* (volume 3 of the Berkeley Series), while a college text, has a whole collection of \"home experiments\" throughout it. I can't recall how much they depend on your having gone through the material in his book, and how much they'd just be interesting to do anyway, but it's de... | null |
1sj7vm | how are police checkpoints/roadblocks legal? | [
{
"answer": "This comic explains exactly this in a great ELI5 way, starting from this page. \n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because they are stopping you based on public road safety, and they are stopping everyone\n\nIf they were searching for drugs, it wouldn't be legal (unless it'... | null |
1dal32 | password strength | [
{
"answer": "The most common way to break a password is by simply guessing. And computers can make a lot of guesses, easily finding short passwords and passwords based on common words.\n\nTo make passwords stronger:\n\n* make them longer\n* use more charcters (uppercase, numbers, punctuation)\n* avoid common w... | null |
2mqbjg | Bulgaria's Military Role in WWII? | [
{
"answer": "The interesting thing about Bulgaria in WW2 is that they did not declare war on the USSR. So unlike Germany's other allies (like Romania and Hungary) they did not send troops to fight in the east.\n\nBulgaria did declare war on the UK and US, but geography meant that they were not involved with any... | null |
ijc92 | Is Nuclear Transportation possible? | [
{
"answer": "Cars based on conventional nuclear technology wouldn't really be feasible. Nuclear-powered trains have been researched (do a search for \"Nuclear Locomotive\" if you are interested), but these are still not very feasible. A [nuclear-powered bomber](_URL_0_) was also pursued for a bit, but was mad... | null |
6abcgv | why do we have so little control over our bodies? | [
{
"answer": "Also, why don't i have wings. that would be neato.\n\nUnfortunately, evolution doesn't work like that. Evolution is a slow process and anything that gives a slight advantage of survival at least until breeding age, will by definition, propagate in their offspring. \n\nThis means two things, A: just... | null |
c7amdd | View of the average German on the Holocaust during the war | [
{
"answer": "Not to discourage further discussion, but you might be interested in some of u/commiespaceinvader ‘s previous answers:\n\n* [How much did the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front know about the German atrocities and the holocaust? For those that were aware of these events (or even participants), how did ... | null |
768lq1 | why do our muscles get sore? what actually happens in our body to cause this? | [
{
"answer": "As you work out, you create micro-tears in your muscle fibers. These tears are very important because your body will release certain growth hormones to help in their repair, which will cause your muscles to grow stronger. These tears will cause some inflammation to occur in the muscle as more blood... | null |
eghne3 | what are the physically causes of flashbacks? | [
{
"answer": "Flashbacks are essentially just memories, all memories are a combination of your 5 senses (there are more than 5 in actuality but for simplicity sake we will stick to the 5 basic) touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing. Each memory/experience is a pattern of neurons firing and exchanging information d... | null |
7q4h66 | if everybody is slowly getting richer, where is all the extra money coming from? | [
{
"answer": "Money is just a representation of value creation and value is constantly created. For example someone could buy a $2 notebook and $1 pen and create a $1.000.000 screenplay. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Money is representative of work done. It’s traded for goods and services. Ev... | null |
3zt99f | why/how is good friday and easter in march this year? | [
{
"answer": "Because the date easter falls on depends on the date of the vernal equinox. Here's a Link \n\n_URL_0_\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\n > Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Ju... | null |
1xb7c7 | Why is it that hybrid animals like mules are infertile, but allopolyploidy plants are fertile? | [
{
"answer": "Some hybrid animals are infertile because chromosome numbers ( I think mules have 63 vs. 64 for a horse, something like that) do not match and prevents pairing of chromosomes. Some hybrid animals are perfectly fertile, however.\n\nAs for plants - they tend to be more tolerant of gene dosage issues ... | null |
6al4h9 | what is preventing youtube from utilising adblock detector and disallowing users from watching videos until they disable the web extension? | [
{
"answer": "Blocking the browser extension will encourage people like myself to block ads at the router level which takes my whole household of five people off their ad network",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because it's a losing battle. Currently ad blockers work simply by not even requestin... | null |
3dwf6m | how do pawn shops make up for lost money when cops take back stolen property? | [
{
"answer": "They charge such high prices on everything else that it makes up for any losses. This is how all stores make up for shoplifting actually, they increase all their prices a bit so that they won't really be hurt if a small amount of stuff gets stolen. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": n... | null |
44xmtp | the force required to suck a golf ball through a garden hose. | [
{
"answer": "When we approach this in physics, we typically have to look at the force necessary to deform the outer casing of the garden hose around the thicker, but relatively more aerodynamic golf ball (we're assuming that the metal ends have been cut off). As the hose deforms, friction forces around the ball... | null |
e3m5iz | how do texting gloves and normal gloves differ so you can type with them on? | [
{
"answer": "Phone touch screens work by sensing the conductivity of your skin. Regular gloves insulate that conductivity blocking your phone from knowing you're touching it. Texting gloves have conductive tread in the fingertips so your phone can sense your touch.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
1d0cae | how do online pharmacies get my e-mail address? | [
{
"answer": "Likely they bought a whole list of addresses from a company you gave it to.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5828184",
"title": "Online pharmacy",
"section": "Section::::Discussion.\n",
"start_paragrap... | null |
3prjji | Is the concept that people before the advent of Modern Medicine lived near the same length when excluding factors such as Mortality rates before the age of 5, founded in fact? | [
{
"answer": "You might be interested in [this paper](_URL_0_), which reviews life expectancy across different types of cultures around the world. \n\nAs you note, infant and child mortality take a heavy toll on average life expectancy. Among hunter-gatherers, only 57 percent of children live to age 15. Of those... | null |
d88r88 | how do banks prevent you from taking money out of someone else’s account? | [
{
"answer": "Why would you steal money by transferring it into your account? Might as well just walk yourself into jail at that point.\n\nBeyond that you’d still need to log in to their online account or swipe their debit card at the bank with their pin. It’s not as easy as just using someone’s routing number."... | null |
223lwt | What is the history of the United States accepting so many refugees compared to the rest of the west? | [
{
"answer": "FYI: It's a 20 year rule, not a 10 year rule.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1621432",
"title": "Right of asylum",
"section": "Section::::Modern political asylum.:Right of asylum by country of refuge.:Unite... | null |
cdt2pm | Could you have a binary set of moons that orbit a planet together? Not 2 moons in separate orbits, but a pair or moons rotating around each other and orbiting a planet as well. | [
{
"answer": "These orbits are very difficult to get. The two moons would need to be quite far from the planet, the planet would need to be far from its star (the planet would need a very large Hill Sphere, like Neptune).\n\nIn such a situation, a binary moon would be stable.\n\nHow it would form is another matt... | null |
c92mi9 | How did the scholars interpret ancient/extinct language? | [
{
"answer": "There's always more to be said on the topic, but I discussed the decipherment of cuneiform in [When did the modern understanding of the history of Bronze Age Mesopotamia develop?](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "231... | null |
77vdtr | Risk Factors vs Indicators for Disease - What's the difference? | [
{
"answer": "A risk factor is a quantity that tells you how likely someone is to develop a disease. For example, being female is a risk for breast cancer (but not all females develop breast cancer, and not only females develop breast cancer).\n\nA disease indicator is a quantity that tells you something about t... | null |
3v7ql9 | how a subpoena works and how it's not active until you've been "served"? | [
{
"answer": "A subpoena is an order to provide evidence for a court, whether that be by providing documents or by showing up somewhere to testify (in some cases it can be issued by legislatures and executive agencies; those can play by slightly different rules). It's formally issued by a court, but it's normall... | null |
1agdck | Is any of this stuff about Martin Luther King Jr. true or based on any historical facts? | [
{
"answer": "Did this person provide you with any sources at all? MLK and the black freedom struggle is what I read most about, and I have never come across a source that states this, although such a source might exist.\n\nI think it's highly unlikely though, that he would have acted in such a way - as I'm sure... | null |
y1ix0 | when something breaks the sound barrier what makes the loud crack sounds? | [
{
"answer": "This woman explains it better than I could _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You never hear a sonic boom until after the thing passes you.\n\nIt's caused by the fact sound only goes 340 m/s. If something goes faster than that, you literally can't hear anything because it lite... | null |
1xbr7e | why are human kids so useless for so long compared to almost every other animal? | [
{
"answer": "We are born with small brains to fit through the womb. It takes along time for our brains to grow and mature because of its massive potential compared to animals.\n\nAnimal brains aren't like ours",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Once upon a time 5 to 12 year olds used to be skilled... | null |
4s2g7h | During the Cold War, how freely were military vehicles like U.S. M48 tanks allowed to move to and from West Berlin through East German territory? | [
{
"answer": "Informal agreements with the Soviets in the immediate aftermath of the war allowed for rail and autobahn access for each of the three Allies (US, UK, France) to transverse the Soviet zone to resupply their Berlin contingents. The Soviets and later the GDR honored these agreements in the aftermath o... | null |
9f16rh | A substantial number of slaves brought to the Americas were Muslim. What remnants of pre-colonial Islam survived in black diaspora communities though colonialism? | [
{
"answer": "Hey there! Interesting question. I am not qualified to speak on the remenants of Islam and it’s intigration into Caribbean, Centeral American, or South American culture. I am quite familiar with American slavery and Muslims who lived in those communities, so I will primarily address that point. Hop... | null |
41c44l | why can't we distinguish the temperature of an object you're expecting could be hot or cold, straight away when we first touch it? | [
{
"answer": "It's a delay in the body. An easy way to explain it is reaction time. If someone threw something at your face and you even knew it was happening, your time is delayed. Your brain would need to process about where the object is heading, how fast, how quickly you need to be to catch it, or how quick ... | null |
3vhr6n | why does the handicapped stall seem to be universally preferred by people using the restroom? | [
{
"answer": "It's bigger and offers a sense of privacy you don't get when shitting literally within arms length of another person. Also, there are shitting bars in there. You know, those bars on the side for when you really have to push one out.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provena... | null |
ewhi6u | why does multiplication and division take precedence over addition and subtraction? | [
{
"answer": "Because without a decided on order of operations, there would be many solutions to the same problems. \n\nIf everyone just did whichever they pleased and no one was using parentheses, then 2 + 3 x 6 - 25 + 13 / 6 could have a lot of solutions.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "At the... | null |
y906a | The pyramids survived but have any of the palaces of the pharaohs? | [
{
"answer": "Wikipedia has a [list](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In general, sites in the Nile valley are poorly preserved, because of the damp environment, continual flooding, and soft loamy soil. In contrast, sites out in the desert are well preserved because of the dry condition... | null |
4hcejq | what are the concrete "balls" you can see at power plants used for? | [
{
"answer": "Can you link an example or something? I haven't got a clue what \"balls\" you mean.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Those domes are \"containment buildings\" for nuclear power plants. They have thick concrete walls to stop radioactive steam from getting out if the nuclear reactor b... | null |
1tql4l | how does modern game texturing work, example inside... | [
{
"answer": "I am a 3D modeler/animator and the easiest way for me to explain it to non-3D people is like this. \n\nThink of a 3D model (game object) as a deer. UV map is what I would consider the skin of the deer. To properly apply textures/colors/shading etc you need to unwrap the UV's, or skin the deer. ... | null |
b8l9g0 | is the value of fat created by my body affected by what i ate to create it? | [
{
"answer": "In a word, no. Fat has the same basic chemical formula no matter what you eat. \nLiken it to melting down a car to make something new from the metal. It wouldn’t matter whether you started with a Ford or a Mercedes, because after you melted it down you’d be left with the same metal. ",
"provena... | null |
3snvjl | weight gain and differing ratios. | [
{
"answer": "Everyone has different metabolisms; yours likely burns less efficiently than that of your friends. \n\nIt's also worth noting that eating junk food doesn't make you gain weight, eating *too much* makes you gain weight; at the end of the day, calories are all that really matter when it comes to weig... | null |
23vuoo | why can't you build really high rollercoasters? | [
{
"answer": "They could do it but the people building the roller coaster would charge the people requesting the roller coaster so much money that they A) couldn't afford to pay for it and B) wouldn't make their money back within a reasonable time ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I would presume... | null |
41im5n | how come the price of oil went from 100$ a barrel to 27$ and the oil price in my country went from 1,5€ per liter to 1,15€ per liter. | [
{
"answer": " > I know taxes and this stuff\n\nExactly. You gave a price in Euros, so I'm assuming that you're somewhere in the EU. The tax on gasoline/petrol varies by country in the EU, ranging from €0,6545 per litre plus a 19% VAT in Germany, to €0,766 per litre plus a 21% VAT in the Netherlands.\n\nSo i... | null |
7hdk50 | why are 9mm bullets less dangerous than 7.62 or even 5.56 ones? shouldn’t they deal more damage with bigger size? | [
{
"answer": "9mm bullets are dangerous.\n\nHowever they are a handgun round. They're less aerodynamic and have less power coming out of the barrel. They're not designed for long-distance flight.\n\n7.62/.308 and 5.56/.223 are rifle rounds. They have more power out the barrel and are designed for long- distan... | null |
1myqv5 | why might the government shut down soon because of heathcare-related issues? what is going on exactly? | [
{
"answer": "This question concerns one of the most frequently asked topics on ELI5, so it has been removed. Try the searchbar nextime please.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16375131",
"title": "Income protection insurance",
... | null |
2osxtt | how is art restoration often not just creating a simulacrum or a "ship of theseus"? | [
{
"answer": "You're correct that art restoration, over a long enough time, creates a \"Ship of Theseus,\" (a new object that simulates the original, but has been made, little by little, of new parts until none of the original remains).\n\nBut what's important in art isn't necessarily that the exact oil paint (f... | null |
3ky3w7 | why do baseballs thrown with little to no spin (aka "knuckleballs") have such erratic movement? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is aerodynamics. If you want a more detailed explanation and some detailed studies, then see [this](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's all about the seams. Don't listen to the idiot talking about gyroscopes, they are 100% wrong. \n\nA 4 seam fastball ha... | null |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.