id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
sm3xg | Good place to find scholarly sources | [
{
"answer": "Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Eighteenth Century Collection Online (ECCO) would be good for what you're looking for. Most universities have access to these sites.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[JSTOR](_URL_0_) and [Google Scholar](_URL_1_) are highly recommended.",
"... | null |
1nqtxn | why aren't we more concentrated on space exploration and colonization? | [
{
"answer": "The cost-benefit ratio is too high. Anything you want to do in space, you've got to spend an assload of energy--which isn't cheap these days, to get it out of our gravity well. Also, what we've found so far is that human beings have evolved for Earth and are really not suited to space.",
"prove... | null |
3c3bd2 | If the Moon had the same terrain as the earth, would it still light up the night? | [
{
"answer": "It would in fact be much brighter if its surface was similar to Earth! With its current surface, the moon has an albedo of approximately [0.11](_URL_2_) compared to Earth's ~0.3-0.35. This means the moon reflects only about 11% of incoming radiation while the Earth reflects over 30%. In fact almost... | null |
bpsad7 | How does Platelet-Rich Fibrin cause increased healing if its just our own blood? | [
{
"answer": "The short explanation is that these things circulate in an inactivated form. When an injury happens, tissue plasminogen activator and other substances start activating a bunch of reactions that causes the fibrin to cross link. And recruit fibroblasts to the area.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
15kbmu | What is an aspect of everyday life in early or late medieval life that is either very interesting and unknown or often overlooked? | [
{
"answer": "Here is one.. The 'typical' Medieval European serf ate:\n\nLard\n\nButter\n\nBeer -- The reason for this is not simply they wanted to be drunk all day, but that the alcohol killed the bacteria in the water.\n\nAnd probably a few other things, but those were the staples.",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
25kauz | Did any Native American cultures practice map making or route recording? | [
{
"answer": "While I love talking about this topic, I unfortunately don't have the time for it now. [Hopefully my past self and company from a little over a year ago can handle it for me](_URL_0_). Also, you'd probably be interested in [this section](_URL_1_) of the FAQs.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
43xs45 | if the universe were like google earth, and we zoomed out to the maximum, what would we see? | [
{
"answer": "We don't know 100%. The observable universe is huge with billions of planets, but we are only just now really starting to look at the nearest ones outside of our solar system. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A group of astronomers tried to average out all the light in the univers... | null |
1u2y01 | Were there ever any snake-worshipping cults such as the one in Conan the Barbarian? | [
{
"answer": "This one is not very Conan-ish, but Alan Moore has talked a bit about the [cult of Glycon, the snake puppet](_URL_5_). \n\nThere's a better profile about how it worked - why a charismatic puppeteer could attract followers to worship a wig-wearing snake puppet for more than a century - [in a *Fortea... | null |
bby9z2 | What was courtship/dating like in 1920s America? | [
{
"answer": "There is more that can be said, but I have a few answers on the development of dating culture in the early 20th century:\n\n[What did guys do to express interest in women before telephones became widespread in the 1900s?](_URL_1_)\n\n[Did Flappers use birth control?](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": nu... | null |
13e3dj | someone asked in askreddit and i thought eli5 would have good answers. if puerto rico became a state, could someone born there before they achieved statehood become president? | [
{
"answer": "Puerto Ricans are US citizens by birth. Puerto Rico is not a state, but its US soil the same as Alabama or New York City.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "30874732",
"title": "Political status of Puerto Rico",
... | null |
2l8en0 | What is the earliest philosophical text or oral history that we know of? | [
{
"answer": "There is a reasonable amount of surviving Sumerian literature older than 2300 BCE. In particular the Enheduanna hymns are generally considered to be older than 2700 BCE. These are religious and theological texts so I'm not sure if they meet your criteria. \n\nThe Sumerian \"Instructions of Shuruppa... | null |
5lt1xt | how does oil lubricate an engine without combusting or contaminating the fuel? | [
{
"answer": "The oil and fuel are in two different areas and sealed off from each other by gaskets. And it doesn't ignite because it's ignition point is far higher than any temperature the engine achieves during normal operation. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The fuel is sprayed into the cyl... | null |
5d2i6p | Were many scientific discoveries we think were made by men actually made by women they worked with? | [
{
"answer": "Pickering's Harem comes to mind. I'm not an expert by any means, so I would love to see someone with more knowledge jump into this. \n\nThe basic outline:\n\nPickering was the head astronomer at the Harvard Observatory from 1877-1919. His male assistants were subpar for the work he needed (computat... | null |
9c8e5l | Portugese Colonial War | [
{
"answer": "Often lost in the discussion of Portuguese counterinsurgency is that it was not one but three conflicts centered around the major colonial holdings: modern-day Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, Mozambique, and Angola. While Angola was certainly a success militarily and Mozambique was going decently, th... | null |
4yrj2r | WW2: I've heard contradicting reports on how depleted the manpower of the major powers on each side was by the end of the war - How did the manpower situation for each country evolve throughout the war, and what was the situation at the end? | [
{
"answer": "The US Army's manpower shortage was largely, but not completely, a result of their own doing and not the result of an actual shortage of bodies. In the Victory Program of fall 1941, the Army had outlined a force of 213 divisions that it would need to take on Germany. This program had hypothesized t... | null |
3eo45x | how did cuba's economy survive the last 50 years? | [
{
"answer": " The country received huge economic subsidies from the Soviet Union, and later from Venezuela. For example, they were able to buy petroleum for far less than normal global prices. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5588",
... | null |
2z8hq0 | Who were the first settlers of Appalachia and how did they live? | [
{
"answer": "Just for clarification, you *do* mean European Americans, right?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "17707410",
"title": "Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve",
"section": "Section::::Native Americans.:Native people... | null |
1o39o4 | how does stopping the affordable care act /obamacare advance the tea party agenda? | [
{
"answer": "They've convinced a portion of the electorate that the ACA will do everything from allow the government to decide you can't get heart surgery to deciding to effectively killing your parents. Their predictions have been so dire that it has become for them a defining moral issue that can't be ignore... | null |
109oxo | i was under the impression that war is generally good for the economic health of a nation. what makes the wars in iraq/afghanistan different? | [
{
"answer": "Let's start by explaining *why* wars can be good for economies.\n\nA nation must consume everything it produces. If a nation produces 100 TVs, it must consume 100 TVs. That doesn't seem obvious, does it? Yet it's true.\n\nSuppose we produce 100 TVs, and nobody consumes them. Then they'll go int... | null |
o3w5n | hair | [
{
"answer": "It is dead tissue constructed by special cells for the purpose of insulation. Evolution (probably sexually selective) has caused it to not grow on parts of our bodies at least until we have exceeded the normal breeding age. \nThe pore that hair comes out of is self lubricating, you also have lots... | null |
acw7gf | how can we so sure that a certain species like megalodon in deep sea is extinct when we knew very little about ocean floor? | [
{
"answer": "Water is heavy, once you get deep enough it thousands of pounds of pressure on the stuff down there. There is also no light and not much food. We know a bunch of cool invertebrates live in the deep sea but you aren't really going to find many large animals. \n\n\nlike the world record deepest div... | null |
296a00 | Was there ever any significant fighting between Muslim factions within the Ottoman empire? | [
{
"answer": "This isn't really my area of specialty, but one example might be the Ottoman-Saudi war (1811-1818). Long story short Egyptian troops were sent, at the Ottoman's request, to fight Wahhabi rebels in an area that now forms part of Saudi Arabia.\n\nThis isn't quite an example of Ottoman empire infighti... | null |
el7tf2 | How Eurocentric is the word "medieval"? | [
{
"answer": "**Short answer:**\n\nThe most literal definition of \"medieval\" is \"between two ages\". Taken that way, the term might be considered \"Roman centric\" ,\"Mediterranean-centric\", and perhaps even \"Asia \\[Minor\\] centric\" -- it refers to the time between the fall of Western European Empire and... | null |
4jd414 | How many non-Spartans participated in the Spartan agoge? | [
{
"answer": "I can't speak for instances of other Greeks participating in the agoge, but I can at least give you a partial answer. Your post made me think of the mothakes (Doric Greek for \"stepbrothers\"). Essentially they were male members of Spartan society who participated in the agoge and existed outside t... | null |
72zuj8 | Why is the average atomic mass compared to the carbon-12 isotope? | [
{
"answer": "You can use a different isotope. \n \nBack in the bad days there were two different competing standards. \nJohn Dalton first suggested using Hydrogen-1, and set that equal to '1' mass unit. This ended up being the standard used in Physics for a long time. Later Wilhelm Ostwald suggested usin... | null |
5zaqym | what parts of the spectrum does a mirror reflect? can a mirror be melted by any part of the spectrum? | [
{
"answer": "All wavelengths will be reflected from a perfect mirror. In practice some will reflect more fully than others. Some portion of the energy always goes into the mirror through. So yes a powerful enough beam could melt through a mirror. It would be hard to say how powerful that would need to be withou... | null |
6ipudg | How does the speed of the movement of the milky way, in which the planet earth is immersed, affect our perception of time? | [
{
"answer": "Two points!\n\nOne thing is that these are all quite slow speeds. You really need to be going close to the speed of light for time dilation to matter significantly. There aren't many things in space that move faster than thousands of km/s relative to each other, and that's just not fast enough to t... | null |
2myhkw | Does the probability in deal or no deal work similarly to The Monty Hall Problem? [Please see inside for details] | [
{
"answer": "no. the key about the monty hall problem is that he ALWAYS selects a non-winning case to identify. in your case, since you had a chance of selecting the million dollar to eliminate, there is instead a 50% chance that either case left has the 1 million.\n\nit's a subtle difference that has huge impl... | null |
27v0q6 | Why are there no fireflies on the West Coast? | [
{
"answer": "There are fireflies on the West Coast, such as [*Ellychnia californica.*](_URL_0_) The problem is that many are either diurnal (out during the day) or have relatively weak bioluminescent capabilities as adults.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
8hc8wa | why weren't army uniforms using camo earlier? | [
{
"answer": "In the 1700's, getting shot by other people on your \"team\" was a big problem, and color coding uniforms helps with that. You had to be quite close to shoot someone, because the firearms of the period were not excellent. By WWI and WWII, firearms were excellent. Also, at that time, armies had r... | null |
2opw1p | why do we measure liquids by volume when we could just as easily measure them by mass? | [
{
"answer": "Generally speaking scales are more accurate than household volume measuring devices. however, until digital scales were invented, scales were a nuisance for some people to use. Especially for small, high precision measurements. Therefore recipes and such typically used volume, which can be measured... | null |
4o38du | why didn't they use shields made of metal in ww1? | [
{
"answer": "A shield's not going to prevent you from getting shelled and anything thick and large enough to offer reasonable protection is going to be unreasonably heavy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Anything of sufficient size and thickness to prevent a round from getting through would be ... | null |
65bqij | how are news agencies allowed to outright spread lies or misinformation to the public? why is there no system of moderation to license news reporters similar to how engineers/doctors are licensed to design buildings or treat patients? | [
{
"answer": "Who would do the moderation? The government? This is what happens in some countries, such as Russia and the UAE, and the governments in those countries influence the news to suit their own agenda. \n\nThe UK had an independent Press Complaints Commission which does try to keep the news sane, even i... | null |
2a0j9w | how exactly does astrology predict one's personality traits? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't.\n\nThose stars are trillions of miles away and have no bearing on your life.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is no scientific or explainable way for them to show that. They are just the product of imaginative minds trying to figure out the mysteries of life before... | null |
1otdxu | did the holocaust really happen? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry Ahmadinejad, I thought Reddit was blocked in Iran?\n\nThe evidence is the sudden disappearance of six million Jews and six million more \"undesirables\" between 1938 and 1945.\n\nAnd the thousands of survivors.\n\nAnd the thousands of Nazi soldiers who admitted it.\n\nAnd the millions of corp... | null |
1k0fzc | Why do scientists hypothesize dark matter and not some non-matter phenomenon that generates gravity? I.e. why consider it "matter" at all? Or is "dark matter" just short for "gravity-producing phenomenon"? | [
{
"answer": "They're marginalized for two main reasons:\n\n1) They don't explain the data better than (cold) dark matter does, and lately have often had a harder time explaining several observations, and\n\n2) They're ugly as sin. The equations governing a theory like TeVeS are just plain gross, and the only re... | null |
9xwdjv | why are men so disinterested in sex once they've ejaculated? | [
{
"answer": "The rise in dopamine and serotonin post orgasm gives a man feelings of security and contentment.\n\nIt also increases the sleep hormone.\n\nDue to all this, they lose interest.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Jobs done. You aren't interested in work at 5pm on payday. You aren't hun... | null |
cjl4fx | why are some trials completed with a jury while others are not? | [
{
"answer": "In the US you generally don't get a criminal jury trial if the maximum punishment for your crime is less than 6 months. If its more than 6 months, you have a *choice* to get a jury trial - you can opt out if you want and people typically do when there is a strong emotional component to the trial.\... | null |
27aknt | What is cardiac pre-load and after-load? | [
{
"answer": "The cardiac preload is also known as the end-diastolic volume of the left ventricle. It is the volume of blood that is in the left ventricle before the left ventricle pumps to the rest of the body. However, not all of the blood that is in the left ventricle is pumped out with each heartbeat. After ... | null |
2oq8ne | How accurate is this Gif? | [
{
"answer": "Might be easier if you let the gif run and just screen shot the last segment so the users here can take the time to look at it in more detail",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "12702",
"title": "GIF",
"section":... | null |
3l2h1k | why do you have to put certain expensive electronics in your shopping cart in order to see their price? | [
{
"answer": "It actually isn't a gimmick, it is done for legal purposes.\n\nIt comes from a supreme court ruling in 2007, without going into too much detail, it limits the ability of a retailer to openly advertise certain products below a certain price that the manufacturer will set as a minimum advertised sale... | null |
99dq0n | why are some cancer patients too sick for cancer trial drugs. | [
{
"answer": "Because cancer trials are there to test the therapeutic effect of the drug. If the person is too ill to experience the therapeutic benefit or may not survive the duration of the trial then they may be excluded",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A lot of cancer drugs cause harm to the ... | null |
8yn10y | how neutrinos can travel through (it's said) a light-year of lead and not hit anything. how is that even possible? | [
{
"answer": "Neutrinos have no charge, so they don't interact through the electromagnetic field. They are the lightest of the non-massless subatomic particles, so that they have very little interaction through gravity. They do not interact through the strong nuclear force because they are not quarks, gluons o... | null |
moflt | el5 : why the slr cameras are more expensive then compact ones with same mega pixels ? what make them expensive ? | [
{
"answer": "SLRs have much larger physical sensors, larger lenses and more parts, all of which add to cost.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The number of pixels is not the only thing that defines the \"goodness\" of a camera. The sensor on a DSLR camera is substantially better than the one on ... | null |
6cmtpw | Monday Methods: A special episode of our podcast and a discussion post regarding: Post-modernism and history. How do we engage with it? Where do we go from here? What is the history of the future? | [
{
"answer": "As /u/commiespaceinvader pointed out to me while we were discussing the podcast, I am perhaps a bit unfair to Fukuyama in how I discuss him. If you have read [The End of History](_URL_0_) (PDF article-version of his longer book) then you know that he arguing for an essentially Wiggish or Marxian/He... | null |
n7a1p | Is sex pleasurable for all species? | [
{
"answer": "as kwoklius said dolphins, human (pigs, chimps and others). It's not clear as to why many animals have sex. For some it's most likely a biological response, as in it is not a choice. In others some speculate that it is indeed involuntary and it could be considered rape.\n\nSo why do animals have se... | null |
e98i2p | 1 tb micro sd cards | [
{
"answer": "There's an observation in technology called \"Moore's Law\", which states that transistor densities on chips will double approximately every 18 months. Computer chips are just large collections of transistors, and SD cards are just another form of computer chip. So, we can expect flash memory stora... | null |
srv2o | What (if any) physiological changes do men experience when their partner is pregnant? | [
{
"answer": "[Couvade syndrome](_URL_1_).\n\nIt's not a recognized medical condition, and is disputed, but seems to be supported by several studies.\n\nFrom what I've heard (sorry, can't be bothered googling right now so take this as layman's info), most psychological bonding happens after birth, and there's al... | null |
bqistm | why are video games moving from standalone titles to to microtransaction heavy models or free-to-play models? | [
{
"answer": "Simple, they make more money. If you want to think about why a company doesn't anything, the answer is to make more money.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Money.\n\nIt turns out that if you make a free to play game with microtransactions, most players will pay nothing or only a sma... | null |
che1p5 | why are there so many website url extensions (eg; .com, .org, .net) and no universal one ? | [
{
"answer": "TLDs *(Top Level Domains, what you called extensions)* are usually ruled on a nation-wide level. And as we know the world can never agree on something and everybody wants to do their own thing. So there's that.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Top Level Domains (TLDs) were originall... | null |
54lyp8 | What made Frederick II so unique compared to other rulers? Why was he given titles such as "the wonder of the world", or considered by some as the "first modern ruler"? | [
{
"answer": "I don't think I can do the full question justice, but I can give you a minor, albeit somewhat odd, angle on it: Falconry.\n\n**Frederick loved falconry.** He loved collecting the birds themselves, he loved exotic and rare raptor species, he loved flying them at game, he loved arguing with his staff... | null |
1hrpke | Is it possible to recover data from RAM? | [
{
"answer": "I am not an expert in this subject, but [this paper](_URL_0_) appears to answer the question.\n\n > **Abstract**\n > Contrary to popular assumption, DRAMs used in most modern computers retain their contents for seconds to minutes after power is lost, even at operating temperatures and even if remov... | null |
tbmhb | A question about Pavlov's Dog. | [
{
"answer": "If you get into a routine you will condition yourself, even if you know it's happening. For example getting home and going to the bathroom will make you want to go as soon as you get home, eating at a certain time will make you hungry at around that time, etc.\n\nYes, this works just as well on hu... | null |
8469tn | does gothic (as in clothing, rock, architecture, fonts etc.) come from the gothic tribes? why/why not? | [
{
"answer": "The name Gothic (in terms of books, stories, and music) comes from the Gothic genre of fiction. Things such as Dracula, Poe, Frankenstein. These were nicknamed Gothic Fiction or Gothic Horror because they took place often in Gothic Buildings. Gothic Rock was named for its moody and dark style compa... | null |
6ssy6u | How reliable are battle numbers in Chinese antiquity? | [
{
"answer": "It's not an accurate statement to say that one should simply \"lop off a zero\" of Sima Qian's statements to make them approach accuracy... **it's a fun statement, it gets the point across, and I've done it myself in the past... but it's not really accurate... probably.***\n\nSee, there's a couple ... | null |
l1y1n | Why is my theory on antimatter wrong? | [
{
"answer": "This is a small complaint, but you don't have a theory about antimatter. You have a conjecture. I don't know enough about the topic to say if it has any possible credence or not, but a theory requires a lot more work than \"hmmm, maybe it's this!\"\n\nThis is not supposed to discourage you wonderin... | null |
30o42e | how does my touchscreen know between a finger and a non-finger? also, how does it know to respond to a stylus? | [
{
"answer": "My stylist has a wax rod that warms up through holding it.... works great",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "TL;DR _URL_0_\n\nMost touchscreens are capacitive. If you know how a capacitor works, it stores charges over time and a voltage drop is noted by the smartphone. Fingers carry c... | null |
44qhgx | Were Werner Heisenberg's nuclear capabilities overestimated? | [
{
"answer": "You should probably mention that the series is available on Netflix US\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Heisenberg was one of the most brilliant quantum theorists of his generation. Nobody doubts that.\n\nBut making an atomic bomb requires more than one brilliant scientist.... | null |
5l76cl | Robert E. Lee is lauded as a military genius of his time, but what were his real victories? Most of his 'decisive victories' seemed to have been more of utter failures and poor coordination by Union leadership rather than ingenious use of strategy by confederate leadership. | [
{
"answer": "First, it should be pointed out that historians don't call Lee's victories decisive, even when he won them convincingly, as they didn't decide the war in the Confederacy's favor. Given the debate about whether Confederate victory was even possible, this isn't a terribly strong strike against his g... | null |
1yzsy2 | why does n. korea have concentration camps and treat its own people in them so poorly? | [
{
"answer": "North Korea is pretty much the last Stalin level regime that still exists. In these regimes, this kind of stuff is necessary to maintaining order. When hard work isn't rewarded, like in any Socialist (Stalin socialist, not Hollande Socialist), you need to motivate them. Stuff like this is a good wa... | null |
3mi7ge | how were cartoon sound effects produced such as those from hannah-barbera and 80's-90's anime? | [
{
"answer": "Mainly from voice acting, different music instruments and what they could get (like knocking on a trashcan)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They had people called \"foley artists\" who would record unique sounds. Some of these sounds would be kept in a library of sounds that could ... | null |
5rclc9 | how do shooting games like duck hunt (if you're old like me) or buck hunter know if you hit the target or not? | [
{
"answer": "Duck hunt works as follows. The trigger tells the screen to go all black, with the exception of the duck, which shows up as white block. The gun is looking for the white block. If you are pointing at it, the gun sees the light, and registers it as a hit. If you are not aiming correctly, the gun... | null |
11pavt | How do Maxwell's equations prove that electromagnetic waves are light? | [
{
"answer": "They don't by themselves, but at the time they predicted waves that propagated at the same speed that light was known to travel at, which suggested that light may be electromagnetic radiation.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Initially, Maxwell conjectured that, since Maxwell's Equa... | null |
4qqzqt | Is there a point where water is under enough pressure that it's boiling point is above it's point of incandescence but remains a liquid? | [
{
"answer": "Beyond a certain temperature and pressure known as the critical point, [the hard boundaries between the gaseous and liquid phases break down and the transition between the two becomes continuous](_URL_0_). For water, this critical point is at temperatures above 374 centigrade, whereas incandescence... | null |
2f5ivc | why does my nose run when it's windy? | [
{
"answer": "There are these little cells that make mucus. This does a number of things for the body, but they're not everywhere so there are other cells with wee little \"fingers\" that push the mucus around. When you breath in cold air (winter, ac, wind) they slow down, like many other things and they can't k... | null |
1sw9a8 | What exactly is going on when we adjust to something (a smell, temperature, etc)? | [
{
"answer": "When you \"feel\" something like temperature a series of action potentials are propagating from the receptor to the brain to be interpreted so you feel the hot or the cold. These action potentials are sent when the receptor is stimulated enough to cause an action potential. These receptors are made... | null |
1vry9m | what would happen if google became a tier1 isp? | [
{
"answer": "This question really calls for speculation; it would probably be better off in /r/AskReddit. No one can \"explain\" the answer to this, as any answer is just guesswork. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "11340650",
"t... | null |
3hq682 | Guys, Girls and Sex: A Gender History Panel AMA | [
{
"answer": "The question of whether to include both women's history and gender history in the same panel was a point of contention when I began organizing this AMA. I mentioned it briefly in my rambling introduction, but how would you describe the difference between the two subfields? Do you think that gender ... | null |
15rvyy | I've obviously heard of people being born without hearing and sight, and less commonly smell/touch, but can we be born without other senses like proprioception or our sense of time without brain damage being a factor? | [
{
"answer": "All of these can occur. Anosmia is a lack of smell, which can potentially lead to life threatening situations (can't detect when food is bad, gas is leaking, smell of smoke, etc). While I haven't researched in people missing a sense of taste, they would encounter many of the same problems.\n\nProbl... | null |
6l978z | why does light reflect off of glass and shine through it at the same time? | [
{
"answer": "Every material has 3 factors .. transmission factor, reflection factor and absorption factor .. these three factors depends on the material itself .. and on the frequency of the light which is falling on it.\nIn the case of glass .. at the visible region (from 390nm to 700nm) .. the glass reflect a... | null |
1acvxu | Stars made from elements other than Hydrogen? | [
{
"answer": "At conditions hot enough for fusion molecules don't exist, you get individual atoms instead. So water and carbon monoxide would fall apart to hydrogen, carbon and oxygen.\n\nStars which don't contain enough hydrogen to start fusion would probably never ignite (remaining a brown dwarf) or collapse d... | null |
1vs205 | why are concerts a safe haven for open drug use? | [
{
"answer": "They're not, it's just easier to hide in a crowd.\n\nsomeone smells pot smoke and there's only one person in the area as opposed to someone smells pot smoke and there are hundreds of people all moving and close together ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Safety in numbers, there are ... | null |
435c8v | During the Early Middle Ages, how did one find a husband or wife given how sparsely populated it was, along with their close ties to the land? | [
{
"answer": "When the Church finally got to issuing particular injunctions about marriage, the prohibited it if the parties were within seven degrees of consanguinity. Even in the highly populated thirteenth century, this was probably not possible to avoid in most villages; the nobility certainly couldn't manag... | null |
4bii7h | why did the arab countries only developed normally until the 70's? | [
{
"answer": "If I remember my history correctly (and in this incredibly brief synopsis):\n\nUp until the 1970s, the world pretty much left the Middle East alone.\n\nThen the US and the USSR got in the ultimate pissing contest: the Cold War.\n\nFrom there, both superpowers wanted governments in the region to hav... | null |
3dx7o4 | why is it in the morning/afternoon/evening, but at night? | [
{
"answer": "The difference is when you say \"at night\", you are speaking of a point or interval in time, similar to how you say \"at 3:00\" not \"*in 3:00\". When you say \"in the morning/afternoon/evening/night\", you are thinking about the quality relating to that time period. And yeah, you do see \"in th... | null |
3xabcp | commonlaw "marriage": are you automatically married or do you have to apply? (in canada) | [
{
"answer": "While common law marriage varies by state, and there have been many recent changes, you have to live together for YEARS not 6 months lol. Check your state laws on the matter for accurate information. A quick Google search will do it ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"prove... | null |
4hcc24 | why, historically, do socialist countries often experience economic collapse? | [
{
"answer": "There are several reasons. I personally am a fan of hybridization between capitalism and socialism because while they both have some decent advantages, their purest forms have massive weaknesses.\n\nTo start, all economies are environments, they change, and those participating in the economies must... | null |
dejab2 | what is the martingale system of betting and how does it work? | [
{
"answer": "In principle, it is like doubling your bet after you lose. So bet $1, if you lose bet $2 etc. The idea is that \"There is no such thing as an infinitely long losing streak - so eventually you'll win and break even\". \n\nProblem is: \"It doesn't work\"\n\nMost casinos have table limits and minimums... | null |
6ubv6c | what is a "currency" and what is not? | [
{
"answer": "A currency is simply a common medium for exchange. Your points could be considered a currency in that they could be exchanged for drinks and fries, but they aren't a very robust currency as they have no value to the concession stand operators. It's more akin to tickets you win at Dave & Busters o... | null |
2r0zdf | how is internet speed divided if multiple people are on the network? | [
{
"answer": "first come first serve on a packet by packet basis.\n\nunless there's something on the router to prioritize one device over the other. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When it comes to WiFi, there's no one answer as to who gets what amount of data per second.\n\nWiFi is sporadic in... | null |
5p1m8j | why do british people address their female superiors as "mum" (mom)? | [
{
"answer": "It's not mom or mum that they're saying. It's actually \"Ma'am\", which is a contraction of madam.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They don't. They address them as Ma'am, just like the American South does. Their accents simply make it sound very similar to how they say Mum. ",
... | null |
5e7osj | How much extra energy does an amputee have considering they don't have a limb they have to provide energy to? | [
{
"answer": "Ever cell generates energy so they require less energy but are also missing those cells to begin with. So it's pretty much irrelevant. However internal organs, specifically the brain require a greater amount of energy so they likely have a lower overall amount because the internal organs can't siph... | null |
4okzrk | When televisions began selling in the 1930s until 1950, what programs were available? | [
{
"answer": "In 1984, McGraw-Hill published \"The TV Schedule Book: Four Decades of Network Programming from Sign-On to Sign-Off,\" which has charts of the daily schedules of the major U.S. networks (including DuMont) for every season beginning with 1944. The book also contains explanatory text about the histo... | null |
j6ot6 | pensions | [
{
"answer": "So I want you to come work at my candy store this summer, and not the candy store down the street. Maybe they offered you $500 a week and I can only offer you $400 a week and some free candy. Either I just can't afford to pay you more, or the Candy Store Guild said I'm not allowed to.\n\nSo, if you... | null |
7elkxb | what stops our body from defecating when we pass gas? how does flatuce exit below a solid? | [
{
"answer": "If you can imagine how air could leak out of a balloon filled with rocks without the rocks falling out, that's pretty much how it works with your butt. And if the solid isn't \"solid\" enough... well, sometimes your body can't stop both happening at the same time.",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
24rybq | What is the History of the Handshake? | [
{
"answer": "Oldest known instance of a handshake that i could find is in this babylonian tablet. _URL_0_\n\nIts of two different kings (assyrian and babylonian) king hands in public and was to reflect a time of peace. Similar images can be found in other ancient works of art. \n\nIn this piece _URL_1_ theseus... | null |
2qwyus | whats the difference between 44khz and 48khz when the human ear can only hear up to 20khz ? | [
{
"answer": "You're getting confused by two totally separate things.\n\nFirst of all you have the frequency of a specific sound, which as you rightly say is limited to about 20kHz for young, healthy people, and generally the upper range decreases as you get older.\n\nHowever this is nothing to do with the frequ... | null |
6nmqms | why are there "terms of service" of websites? what do they do and don't do? what happens if you go to a website with no tos? | [
{
"answer": "TOS are quasi-legal contracts between you and the website. Most of them are filled with legalese that lets the website do anything and takes away any legal rights you might have had (but not always), and these sorts of TOSs are not always legally enforceable in their entirety. \n\nSometimes TOS sp... | null |
d0vlmf | why do the whites of the eyes become red easily when bloodshot, but the iris never changes color? | [
{
"answer": "The whites (sclera) are full of visible blood vessels called capillaries which can easily burst from overexertion such as eye strain. Since these vessels are much more visible than those within the iris due to contrast, the whites are more susceptible to appear bloodshot whereas the iris won't",
... | null |
45y32u | Does light effect Stalactite formation? | [
{
"answer": "Though I'd only be guessing, I can't immediately think of any significant effect that camera flashes would have on stalactites. \n\nThe only minor effect I can think of is the energy from the flash could cause a very tiny heat increase in the droplets which deposit minerals on to the stalactites. ... | null |
1mikzz | If Someone was in space without a space helmet/oxygen supply and tried to inhale what would happen? | [
{
"answer": "When you inhale you are essentially just increasing the volume of your lungs while leaving a pathway open to the outside air. You feel the air flow through your nose or mouth and down your trachea as it seeks to maintain an equal pressure from the outside air to inside your lungs.\n\nIn a vacuum t... | null |
4ow6pk | What geological evidence do we have to prove that ice ages are cyclical?? | [
{
"answer": "Tree ring data; sediment cores from lakes and oceans; and ice cores. [More info.](_URL_1_)\n\nPaleoclimate from [ice cores](_URL_0_) allows us to determine temperature based on oxygen isotope ratios.\n\nMost oxygen is 16O, but some of it is 18O, meaning the atomic mass is slightly greater. To quote... | null |
eio5ys | how do tesla coil suits work? | [
{
"answer": "Electricity takes the path of least resistance. Metal is low resistance. Humans are medium resistance. Air is high resistance, even with rain in it. If an arc has a choice between human and air, it goes through the human.\n\nHowever, if there is a low resistance path to ground, then the electricity... | null |
qrph6 | What happens when a noise gets louder? | [
{
"answer": "Sound travels as slight increases and decreases in air pressure (compressions and rarefactions). The further these increases and decreases are from ambient pressure, the louder the sound. Greater pressure differentials will cause the eardrum to move further.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"a... | null |
9ur1cp | Would a fusion reactor that utilizes only hydrogen, with no need for deuterium or helium3, be feasible? | [
{
"answer": "No, the reaction you're referring to just has too small of a cross section. It would never be favorable for an artificial reactor.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The reaction is so rare that we have never observed it in the lab. It is orders of magnitude too rare to be practical.\... | null |
3yd3z5 | how does my dog understand when i'm pointing at something? is this inherent, or did i teach him this? | [
{
"answer": "It's inherent, and the fact that dogs instinctively understand pointing is actually pretty interesting. Very few animals are able to understand a point, and it's believed that evolution actually selected for pointing identification in early domesticated dogs; a dog that couldn't follow instructions... | null |
4dkduy | Shouldn't all multicellular organisms develop some sort of cancer given enough time? | [
{
"answer": "They do. Its just the fact that human body is well able to defend itself against such changes that we see so little cancer - cells either kill themselves off with apoptosis if they mutate, or are killed by an immune system before most cancers have any chance to develop.",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
i3lqp | What exactly is the "stuffy" when someone says "it's getting a bit stuffy in here?" How does it happen? | [
{
"answer": "My interpretation is that a room full of mouth breathers has overwhelmed the A/C's ability to evacuate the heat and humidity produced. This causes the room to become uncomfortable. \n\nAnother interpretation is that again, the room is poorly ventilated and holds a musty smell.",
"provenance": n... | null |
76cgsk | Before "fire" was associated with launching ordinance, what were the common English verbs for shooting arrows? | [
{
"answer": "Hi! I've removed this question because it is attracting a lot of short answers that aren't up to the standards of the sub. Indeed, your question would be perfectly suited for our [Short Answers to Simple Questions](_URL_0_) feature - the link is to the current session at the top of the front page. ... | null |
3d7t9l | why do cats have to smell everything? why can't they just look at the things? | [
{
"answer": "The cat's response:\nWhy do humans have to look at everything? Why can't they just smell things?\n\nEach of your senses gives you a wealth of information. Humans are very visually-based creatures, for a variety of reasons (leading evolutionary theories that I've heard have to do with brachiation ... | null |
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