id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
us460 | How did the religious class view Benjamin Franklin's scientific experimentations during his retirement? | [
{
"answer": "Great question. Franklin was (along with Jefferson) a really fascinating man. I hope someone has a good answer for this.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'd suggest that that documentary was probably lying, or at least misrepresenting things. People have offered naturalistic expla... | null |
6f71b8 | Why do we build larger particle colliders with bigger diameters instead smaller diameters traveled multiple times? | [
{
"answer": "To go to higher energies at a fixed bending radius, you need stronger bending magnets. The momentum per unit charge of a particle along the central orbit inside a bending element is called its *magnetic rigidty*: Bρ = p/q.\n\nB is the magnetic field strength of the bending magnet, ρ is the bending ... | null |
3gamp9 | why do people tap the top of their soda cans before opening them? | [
{
"answer": "If bubbles have formed on the side of the can, tapping the can may dislodge them and cause them to pop at the surface. Since the can is usually somewhat pressurized, any gas in the can will expand when you open it. If the gas expands under liquid (the bubbles stuck to the side of the can), the gas ... | null |
1u7mlo | Why can't we make a camera that captures images that look the same as how we see them? | [
{
"answer": "What you should be asking is, \"why can't we make a camera that captures images exactly how we see them and reproduce them in a medium which is visually indistinguishable from the original scene?\"\n\nDesigning a camera that captures information identical to the photoreceptor layer of your retina i... | null |
13ud45 | I have a question about Pavlovian conditioning. | [
{
"answer": "It could get generalized to either of the two responses. It is more likely that it will not bring forth any response, though that may depend on how the middle C functioned during the conditioning process. If there was no stimulous matched with it then there would be no reason for the dog to expect ... | null |
o88x7 | Parsley can cause a miscarriage? | [
{
"answer": "[There is some evidence that parsley might be partially effective in inducing abortion, but it doesn't appear to be very safe.](_URL_0_)\n\nThat \"infographic\" is at least ill-advised and possibly dangerous.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That amount of Vitamin C is pretty high, ... | null |
1uykwh | why can't i just hit the "off" button on my computer rather than "shut down" | [
{
"answer": "+ Pressing shut down\n\nWill terminate all system and user processes normally. Exiting processes have time to write logs and results in the primary memory. Some of it can be important, but 95% of the time you won't notice a difference, if you are a casual home user and not involved in servers or pr... | null |
6u157j | Could a planet be 'locked' in orbit between two stars? | [
{
"answer": "~~Yes but~~ no because it would be unstable meaning if there were any gravitational fluctuations at all from anything it would perturb the system pulling the planet towards one of the Stars slightly more than towards the other which would increase the Gravity from the one-star and decrease it from ... | null |
325zwf | Why is history's calendar based off a religion that not everybody follows? | [
{
"answer": "Well it has been the tradition, and from a long history of western colonial dominance it has become (generally) the worldwide norm, the same way that western dress and the English language have become dominant in governments worldwide. Some countries, (Saudi Arabia is the best example) don't use th... | null |
x3t6l | What causes logs to turn white while burning, and why do moving black patches appear? | [
{
"answer": "The white product of wood combustion is ash.\n\nI'm not certain about the moving black patches though. Another reaction? Heat disturbing the layer of ash? I have wondered about that myself.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The ash that is produced is composed of several products. S... | null |
2oldpx | why right before you go to sleep do you feel heightened emotions that you normally don't feel during the day? either motivation for making a life change, fear for a test, regret for a decision etc. | [
{
"answer": "I'm no expert on the subject, but my understanding is that as you are going to sleep, your brain is saving information from the day. Throughout the day, you are storing memory in short term storage, as you are winding down for the night and ultimately going to sleep, your brain is reviewing all the... | null |
2vo4fa | how to christians justify strict adherence to one part of the bible (e.g. homosexuals not allowed to marry) and complete disregard for another (e.g. bible says you cannot get a divorce, etc.)? | [
{
"answer": "Because people tend to not follow rules/laws they don't want to follow. Every religion has the rules that only the most devout people follow because those rules are inconvenient. And you'd have trouble finding someone who doesn't J-walk even though it's against the law, because it's an inconvenient... | null |
1i81ad | What speed and distance units were used to measure speed before cars? | [
{
"answer": "Speed limits for horses were often expressed in terms of the horse's gait: walking only, no trotting or running, etc. Certainly by 1905, towns were posting speed limits for autos in mph.\n\nBut miles per hour were certainly well known for trains, and speeds for ships were similarly measured in kno... | null |
241s3t | what does a light scratch hurt more than a deep cut? | [
{
"answer": "Because most of the pain receptors are found near the surface of your skin, , so a wide superficial cut will trigger a lot more pain receptors than a small but deep puncture.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "/u/gemmabeta is correct, but to add to him, deep sharp cuts typically cut t... | null |
thdfx | I have an AP US History exam tomorrow, what is one bit of US History you feel is important for me to know? | [
{
"answer": "Alexander Hamilton shows up all the time. On every practice exam I took, he was on it. So I'd know who he is and why he's important (and why he's the most awesome founding father ever, but that's just me.)\n\nThe other guy who will show up all the time is Henry Clay. That dude lived for a long t... | null |
328bkt | what is the difference between an emoji and an emoticon? | [
{
"answer": "An emoji is a little picture, while an emoticon is a collection of letters and symbols which look like a little picture (;-)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "38944479",
"title": "Emoticons (Unicode block)",
"s... | null |
22gjpr | why is there always construction being done on roads that had nothing wrong with them? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, that happens. But preventative maintenance is still a thing.\n\nAlso, sometimes they have to work on something under the road (sewer/gas line, etc) and there's nothing to be done but to tear up the road to do it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{... | null |
20wufa | What is the history of coal and coal mining? | [
{
"answer": "Well, I can't give an in depth review of the importance of coal, but I can say this-\n\n\n1: Coal was important because it was commonly found in Europe and abroad, but where as something like oil took a fair amount of processing to take from initial substance to a workable product (mining might see... | null |
5zcarf | if looked at under an extremely powerful microscope, what would sub-atomic particles look like? what would the space between them look like? | [
{
"answer": "Part of the problem with you question is that \"looking\" is something that is not independent of size. \n\nVisible light has a wavelength from 390 to 700 nm (3.9 to 4 x 10^−7 m) while atoms have a radius of 30 to 300 pm (3 to 30 x10^-11 m).\n\nSo seeing is not really applicable here visible light ... | null |
5uw8kk | why jeremy johnson is being jailed for contempt of court after invoking his 5th amendment rights? | [
{
"answer": "From the article:\n\n > After being sworn in and refusing to answer basic questions, the judge found Johnson in contempt.\n\nYour 5th Amendment rights don't apply to basic questioning, only to questions asked that could incriminate you while you are in custody.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
3rrdro | do the wings on my paper/plastic/model airplane work like the wings on a real airplane? if not, how does it fly? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, they work just like normal airplane wings. They use an angle of attack to push down on the air they're passing through, and thus lift themselves up as a resultant force from that push. Just like a normal wing would. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Model airplanes, yes. They u... | null |
j72fl | How do pebbles on the beach get those tiny holes through them? | [
{
"answer": "The stones aren't the same stuff through and through. Sometimes there's an inclusion or patch or bit of other mineral that's more soluble or less resilient than the surrounding mineral, leaving a gap, hole, or pit. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The stones aren't the same stuff... | null |
21idya | does keeping someone "awake", keep them from dying like in movies? | [
{
"answer": "You want them to \"stay with you\" so that you know they are responsive and not slipping away further into death. It's a way of making sure that bodily functions are still working.\n\nI used to have a roommate that would have panic attacks often. So I would tell him to do things like move his hands... | null |
3mld26 | where does the idea that jews run the world come from? and when something happens, immediately point to isreal and us? | [
{
"answer": "In the middle ages, the church ruled that Christians could not charge interest lending money to other Christians. Which made a Christian-run bank a rather unsustainable business. But people still wanted banks, so money-lending became one of the few well-paying professions available to Jews living i... | null |
7tkeub | How does my brain instantly calculate that I can toss an object into a small area from several feet away while walking? | [
{
"answer": "It's an interesting question; do you mean for something you are doing for the first time, something you have practiced, or something you do often without thinking too much about?\n\nThe same question could be asked about how people are able to react in sports to balls, for example. How does a tenni... | null |
e2mg1u | Footage of people being knocked out by a 'sucker punch' usually shows their legs instantly going rigid. Why is this? | [
{
"answer": "The nerves for conscious motor control originate in the \"top\" of the brain at the cortex and make up the corticospinal tract, but there are also subconscious reflex arcs that help you maintain your balance in the vestibulospinal tract.\n\nThese reflex arcs originate much lower in the brainstem an... | null |
1ngj4f | what does western society have against the female nipple? (serious responses only) | [
{
"answer": "Look into \"the modesty of most other countries\" and you might be surprised to find that the US is pretty middle of the road. From TV commercials to magazine ads to beachwear.. For every Western European country that thinks we're all ignorant, Christian prudes, therse a middle eastern or Asian cou... | null |
7fsr6w | Does an increase in energy also increases the amount of entropy in a system? | [
{
"answer": "Generally speaking, yes. When increasing the internal energy of a system increases its entropy, that system is said to be at positive (absolute) temperature.\n\nCertain systems can be arranged in a way that increasing their energy decreases their entropy. Then it would have a negative temperature.\... | null |
2apl20 | do authors get money only when a person buys their book, or when the bookstore buys it in bulk? | [
{
"answer": "I worked in publishing for a year after college (I was an assistant editor for a publishing company that published various fiction books). It all depends on the contract. MOST authors who aren't really well known will get either a one-time pay (say 60k-160k), or a smaller one like 30k-50k and a v... | null |
6wbym6 | video aspect ratios | [
{
"answer": "It adds dramatic quality to the video. Epic and dramatic scenes and movies will be filmed in a wider aspect ratio than say a comedy or something. There are many movies where aspect ratios change dynamically throughout more intense/epic scenes and you wouldn’t even notice unless you were told. You w... | null |
5nqixo | why do our tongues get stuck on poles. | [
{
"answer": "Because your tongue is wet, and metal is extremely heat-conductive. So, the metal cools your saliva faster than your tongue can warm it up. At low enough temperatures, the saliva freezes to both the pole and tongue, so you're stuck.\n\nThe only safe option for releasing the frozen saliva is to ... | null |
cltorj | musical chord progressions. | [
{
"answer": "Your question is pretty vague but I'll give it a shot!\n\nA chord progression is essentially a sequence of chords, often repeating multiple times throughout the duration of a song, that have been selected and placed in a specific order due to their relationship to one another.\n\nTo break it down f... | null |
3snpa2 | why does america have such a higher report of children with autism and adhd compared to other countries? | [
{
"answer": "There is so many things that play a role, it is hard to name them all.\n\n- Overall, the USA does have a very high quality medical system compared to certain countries. Doctors are available here and know what Autism/ADHD is. You can't say the same about certain other countries. Sometimes they do n... | null |
2wfmkb | How did Harald Hardrada escape from Constantinople? | [
{
"answer": " > The same night King Harald and his men went to the house where Maria slept and carried her away by force. Then they went down to where the galleys of the Varings lay, took two of them and rowed out into Sjavid sound. When they came to the place where the iron chain is drawn across the sound, Har... | null |
1l67iq | Can all life be explained by chemical reactions/processes? | [
{
"answer": "Although we can't recreate all elements of it (ie throw a bunch of components together and have it work as a eukaryotic cell) science and physics adequately explains every component of the life of a cell and all of the functions of life",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is noth... | null |
3jvz9l | what does it mean for a watch to be waterproof up to "200ft"? | [
{
"answer": "After that the water pressure is great enough to break whatever seal was protecting the goods",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "24362213",
"title": "L'impermeable",
"section": "Section::::Definition of epoxy wa... | null |
4by2um | In his time was Shakespere's writings difficult to understand? | [
{
"answer": "Hi, FYI there have been some earlier posts asking this question\n\n* [When Shakespeare's plays were first performed, was the average theater goer able to sufficiently understand the dialog to be able to follow the plot and understand the character's motivations?](_URL_0_) - featuring /u/texpeare \n... | null |
ikydo | If we were to discover tomorrow that a huge asteroid is going to hit Earth, could we do something about it? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on how long it's going to take to reach us, as well as the size of the asteroid.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Depends on the orbit, how long until it hits and the size of the asteroid.\n\nIf it's thousand kilometers in diameter and it hits the Earth in 30 years, I don'... | null |
2yp2em | what is a "principal component analysis"? | [
{
"answer": "Hard to explain without using images.\n\nSee:\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "2161429",
"title": "Eigenvalues and eigenvectors",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Principal component analysis.\n",... | null |
62lrw6 | Did nativism play a significant role in the American prohibition movement? | [
{
"answer": "There was indeed a great deal of overlap between the nativist and prohibitionist movements. The Anti-Saloon League, the most vocal prohibitionist organization in the country, was led mainly by Protestant ministers, most of whom were concerned that the religious and moral character of the United Sta... | null |
32ph98 | why do "800 service" call me every day but nobody is ever on the line? | [
{
"answer": "If you let it go to voice mail, they'll play a prerecorded message. But they know that trying to play a prerecorded message when there's a human on the other end doesn't work, so the computer making the call is programmed to hang up if someone answers.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
4w9it6 | so how does the body 'die'? also what does it feel like just before a person is about to die? | [
{
"answer": "Shutting down functions that aren't as necessary as others, until there's nothing left for the body to survive on. The battery empties. You slip away.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To answer the former, 'death' is typically recognised as the cessation of brain stem function. That... | null |
41zvuc | do blind people need to close their eyes to go to sleep if so why? if they already see pitch black? | [
{
"answer": "Because eyes need moisture and the only way to do that it to close your eyes so that your tears can cover the entire surface of your eye.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Of course.If you would be placed in a completely dark room, you would still need to close your eyes so that your... | null |
3ew268 | what do the numbers mean in reference to eyesight? eg. 20/20 | [
{
"answer": "According to below, 20/20 essentially means the person can see an image 20 ft in front of them the same way someone with 'normal' vision would see the image. if they had 30/20 vision for example, this person would see an image 30 ft away the same way someone with 'normal' vision would see the same ... | null |
2eejqv | the college admissions process. | [
{
"answer": "For the colleges in my region, in order to get accepted into a state university you had to have a RAI of 245 or higher. Which is found by using the ACT or SAT test score, high school rank, high school cumulative grade-point average, and the number of completed high school core courses. ",
"prov... | null |
5quw20 | how does kelvin work? | [
{
"answer": "Kelvin is a temperature scale that start with absolute zero and has uses the same degrees as Celsius.\n\nCelsius has water freeze at 0° and boil at 100° absolute zero is at -273.16° C.\n\nSo in Kelvin absolute Zero is a 0 K, water freezes at 273.16 K and boils at 373.16 K\n\nThere is a correspondin... | null |
8mq9a0 | why commercial airplanes are usually white while military airplanes are usually grey? | [
{
"answer": "3 main reasons :\n\n1. Minimizing visual signature . Aircraft operating over sea can be camouflaged by painting them blue\\-grey. \n\n\n2. Blending of aircraft with the tarmac. Parked aircraft outlines are harder to see if the aircraft color doesn't provide sharp contrast with the surface they ... | null |
4w303y | how do websites, particularly like instagram and tumblr, deal with constant additions in content? is their storage virtually unlimited? | [
{
"answer": "those are so tiny compared to youtube.\n\nyoutube adds storage space at the rate of petabytes a day. there's a module in a shipping container that house storage for 12petabytes. drop one of those in, you're good for another couple of days\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I cou... | null |
eyyti5 | why do home appliances all hum at the same tone frequency? | [
{
"answer": "Your electrical power is alternating current - switching back and forth 60 times per second. You will hear that 60 Hz tone, as well as overtones of 60 Hz (such as 120, 180, 240 Hz).\n\nedit: typo in overtone frequencies.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because the hum of the appli... | null |
6cy93m | how can there be so much opiate prescription drug abuse when, in theory, the number of manufactured pills and the number of prescriptions are known? isn't it obvious the pills are being abused? | [
{
"answer": "Very nearly all of the prescription opioids used in the US are almost certainly obtained with prescriptions and then used or sold. The issue is that those prescriptions are not necessary or obtained by patients faking pain (which is remarkably easy to do and difficult for someone else to prove you'... | null |
19lft4 | What are some examples of artwork by historical leaders? | [
{
"answer": "Winston Churchill did [a lot of painting](_URL_0_) too.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Stalin's also a famous Georgia Poet e.g. Morning or To the Moon",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This is more literary art than visual, but I think you might be interested in the... | null |
24iu9t | Who was General Tso? | [
{
"answer": "[Tso Tsung-t'ang](_URL_1_) (alternately Zuo Zongtang) was a Chinese general during the late Qing dynasty, most famous for helping to quell the Taiping rebellion.\n\nI'm about to commit a horrible sin for /r/AskHistorians by linking to a TED talk. Nevertheless, this [talk by Jennifer 8. Lee](_URL_0_... | null |
9z5wm3 | How do we have so many pictures and videos of the treatment of Jews in europe during the Nazi-era? | [
{
"answer": "Much of the footage that you see was done by the Nazis themselves. Their plan was to destroy the Jewish people and wanted to have evidence of how they had done so in a very thorough and efficient way. There was also a plan for Führermuseum - a museum whose purpose was to display a selection of the ... | null |
7n0h8s | Is there any evidence suggesting that the Roman origin myth, that it was settled by emigrees from Troy (or the Trojan war), had any basis in fact? | [
{
"answer": "The Homeric epics and Virgil's Aeneid, the telling of the myth of Rome supposedly founded by the descendants of Troy, are, well, myth. The Iliad tells us more about the culture of Archaic Greece at the time that the epic was put in writing than it does about the mythical time of Greek Gods and Hero... | null |
3kvbki | how do doctors choose which of several medicines that do the same thing they should prescribe? | [
{
"answer": "Medicines will be ranked as first, second or third choice, etc., for a given condition. Doctors will work through the line until they get a solution. \n\nThis is why you should never give up on meds just because they don't work for you. Second line meds might work far better than first line meds f... | null |
28357h | Was it common for WW2 fighter planes to shoot for wing-mounted bombs? | [
{
"answer": "Such precision gunnery was nearly impossible with WWII fighters. Shooting for the bombs would be a much more difficult target than the engine, cockpit, or wing root (where the wing meets the fuselage). There were largely two types of guns in WWII fighters. The first type was wing-mounted guns th... | null |
5644ds | why do many americans support a 2-term limit on presidents? | [
{
"answer": "The 22nd Amendment was passed by Republicans and Southern Democrats (the conservative parties in America) who were strongly opposed to the New Deal and who didn't want to see another Presidency like that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.\n\nFDR was the only President elected to more than 2 terms. He w... | null |
19325z | How intelligent are giant octopuses? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know, but increased body and brain size don't correlate with higher intelligence so you can't really infer anything from that alone.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "David Quammen wrote an excellent article on the giant Pacific octopus (The Troubled Gaze of the Octopus, in h... | null |
1w4rf9 | How can a curve in spacetime make a a force (gravity)? | [
{
"answer": "The rubber-sheet analogy is an extreme simplification that doesn't really shed much light on the underlying mechanism. It gives a bit of intuitive justification for how the paths of objects can be curved, but as you correctly observe, it doesn't provide any explanation for where their motion comes ... | null |
2i6lwa | Is anything still named after Hitler? | [
{
"answer": "Please, stop posting one sentence answers. If the OP was looking for links to websites without further context, he or she would go to /r/history or /r/askreddit. This is /r/AskHistorians and we have [rules](_URL_0_). Keep in mind that if you keep posting *bad* answers in this sub, you will be banne... | null |
2aoelu | What would stop an AI system with greater-than-human intelligence from being detrimental to humanity? | [
{
"answer": "This question is difficult, mostly because of the notion of \"greater-than-human intelligence\". What does this mean?\n\nIn some sense it seems to imply that intelligence is a unidimensional quantity, and everything fits neatly onto some scale with humans at the top (currently). This is obviously w... | null |
4ssyqq | Why was American Revolution helped by European powers, but French Revolution was feared? | [
{
"answer": "The reason is that the American revolution wasn't viewed as a revolution. The American revolutionaries legitimised their actions by claiming that the England had encroached on their traditional rights as Englishmen. The monarch had acted as a tyrant and rebellion could therefore be defensible, if t... | null |
212dwc | Would it be possible to build a magnetic shield for earth to protect us from solar flares? | [
{
"answer": "Yes it is possible, and the earth already has one! The part of the earths atmosphere that protects us from radiation from the sun and other sources of radiation is called the [magnetosphere](_URL_0_). We could build an artificial magnetic shield by wrapping massive wires around the earth several ti... | null |
19avlz | semiconductors and doping | [
{
"answer": "Si has 4 electrons in its outer shell, and they bind up with other Si atoms in the crystal pretty well, so it is hard for them to move around. If you introduce a few atoms with 5 valence band electrons, those extra 5th electrons are like free agents. They aren't all that needed to bond the crysta... | null |
21jd0a | Why is South Africa the most developed African country? | [
{
"answer": "This might be better suited to /r/asksocialscience.\n\nAlso, you might want to re-frame the question - by any metric of development I'm aware of (for example, [HDI](_URL_0_)), South Africa *isn't* the most developed African country.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provena... | null |
w91we | Why was the Soviet military so ineffective in the first half of WW2? | [
{
"answer": "I've been wondering this for a long time. Thank you in advance for anyone who takes the time to answer this question. You guys are the best!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Stalins purges destroyed all competent Red leadership. Also, Stalin refused to mobilize or move troops to def... | null |
65yfx9 | why do non-native english speakers make the "their vs. there" confusion less often than natives? | [
{
"answer": "Because we don't write down a sound, we write down a meaning, and in our native languages their, there and they're (and your/you're) sound completely different, so we don't make that mistake. It's not that we translate, it's just impossible to mix them up because they are totally different things."... | null |
3nyg3e | what is cosmic radiation and why is it harmful to life? | [
{
"answer": "Cosmic rays originate from outside of the Solar System, and it's essentially high-energy radiation coming from space. Because of how powerful it is, it's not only bad for life, but it's also bad for electronics because it can alter circuit components in them.\n\nAs for life, it's the main barrier f... | null |
3htqci | why do some governments call snap elections, even if they have a chance of losing? | [
{
"answer": "Sometimes, governments are forced into positions where they have to make unpopular decisions.\n\nSome people will see how the government's hand has been forced and will accept it. But other people might object to the decision they've made, and feel the government is not acting for the thing it clai... | null |
23fxfb | Who do you think is Jack the Ripper? | [
{
"answer": "I found patricia Cornwell's case for Walter Sickert pretty compelling [Link to book if you want to check it out.](_URL_0_) Things like details in his paintings that a person uninvolved shouldn't have known as well as paper matching to the letters from jack the ripper to police are interesting ideas... | null |
sru7h | [Meta] Can we start a FAQ link of Recommended History Books? | [
{
"answer": "we have a link on the sidebar for finding good resources, however compiling a list of books can get unwieldy quick. WARFTW alone would contribute like 40 books just on the Battle of Kursk.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We would need to start a whole wiki, and even then it would ... | null |
3vatki | the congressional vote to repeal no child left behind, and the impact it will have on the federal push for common core standards implementation. | [
{
"answer": "Remember during the Bush administration when a school's funding was to be based on test scores, and all the kids who failed the tests still got to move on to the next grade? That was no child left behind.\n\nNow that they are finally acknowledging our failing education system, they want to make kid... | null |
262sgd | Can light waves experience interference? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, one of the most well known phenomena is [two slit interference](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Two small addenda: First, radio waves and visible light waves are essentially the same stuff, the only real difference is that visible light has a much higher frequency. Th... | null |
ead289 | For some species of ant, like Army Ants, what determines whether they become a small worker, a large soldier, a male, or a queen? Is it random or do queen ants choose which profession ants will be when they lay the eggs? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on the species, but among many species of ants the caste that an egg develops into is based on differences in nutrition received through care and feeding by other ants as the larvae develops -- not by anything that the queen does.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This pro... | null |
47julj | how are professionals able to spot counterfeit signatures if a person can't sign their name exactly the same each time? | [
{
"answer": "It's more about finding consistent patterns than about finding perfectly consistent shapes to each figure. Maybe the signer does wide, loopy lowercase L's. They won't all be exactly the same, but they're always wide and loopy. If the L on a signature is thin and stunted, then it casts doubt on t... | null |
6tc4qi | why is low blood pressure and a low heart rate good, if that means that your heart is pumping less often and not pushing as hard? | [
{
"answer": "As long as your body functions normally at a lower pressure or pulse, that means it's doing what it needs to with less effort and less strain that could be damaging over time. It also means there is more room for pressure or pulse to increase later in life without necessarily becoming a problem.\n... | null |
3eg3w5 | How did Buddhist-majority nations reconcile state violence (wars and so on) with Buddhist precepts of non-violence? Did they bother to do so? | [
{
"answer": "A really interesting case study on this is japan during WWII and Zen Buddhism.\n\nTwo important works on this topic are \"Zen at War\" and \"Zen War Stories \" by Brian Daizen Victoria. These books examine how Zen Masters justified and contributed to pro war propaganda.\n\nHere are some quotes from... | null |
2qgr1t | i try to light my gas stove, but it doesn't light. i smell the gas several seconds later. i turn on another one, and that ones lights. why doesn't that flame blow my house up? | [
{
"answer": "They put bitterants in the gas that humans are *extremely* sensitive to. You smell amazingly small traces of it. \n\nYou need a decent amount to get a decent bang.\n\nCertainly you could do some damage if you were trying but the gas needed for the stove for a few seconds isn't really that dangerous... | null |
20x25o | Why are water droplets equal distance apart? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine instead of liquid water, we have the flow of identical marbles out of a spigot. That is, one successive marble after the other with the same initial horizontal velocity. The time between successive marbles starting to fall will be constant, let's call it Δ*t*. All marbles will follow the sa... | null |
3m6vov | What was the siege of Malta significance in WW2 and what are some good sources to read on the subject? | [
{
"answer": "Malta had a great strategic significance for the British in the Mediterranean, as a result of its geographical position. Being in the centre of the Mediterranean, aircraft, ships and submarines based there could interdict any shipping trying to move past it. This proved to be especially valuable, a... | null |
2bofr5 | What are the consequences of significantly skewed gender ratio among human population? Are there any documented cases? | [
{
"answer": "Check out [this article on missing women of Asia](_URL_0_) and China's [one-child policy](_URL_1_), both of which outline actual cases of sex disparity and consequences of such.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "54421",
... | null |
67ed2o | Why does Israel exist? | [
{
"answer": " > I will fully admit I am coming from a place of relative ignorance here but my uninformed understanding is that sometime following WWII, the U.N. created the state of Israel\n\nThe UN did not create Israel. It proposed a partition of what was known as the British Mandate for Palestine, originally... | null |
1x0m5l | On average, how accurate is the modern ascribing of medical conditions to historical figures? | [
{
"answer": "Even in situations where an accurate diagnosis can be made, the utility of this kind of diagnosis can be questionable.\n\nAll diseases are, to some extent, culture-bound. How we interpret and feel about symptoms and treatments, and how those feelings and interpretations inform our actions are direc... | null |
q9jz1 | Darwin's use of "Natural Selection" | [
{
"answer": "Is there a question here? I'm having a little trouble figuring out what kind of answer you're looking for.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "21147",
"title": "Natural selection",
"section": "Section::::Histori... | null |
5jhpfw | if sugar is so bad why should i eat fruit? what does it give me that vegetables don't? | [
{
"answer": "some vitamins, such a C, are found more commonly and in greater quantities in fruits than in vegetables. \n\nhowever, that said, the sugar in fruit is no more healthy for you than the sugar in a candy bar. Sugar is sugar. Your body cannot tell the difference, the source does not matter. So you wan... | null |
1lwi4r | what is a virtual cpu ? | [
{
"answer": " > Virtual CPUs or vCPU are the brand name of NetLogic for its SMT implementation, like Intels HyperThreading. The concept is easy: For each CPU core you have several vCPU's, which are simulated and share the hardware of the one core. The software that runs on such a architecture \"sees\" x vCPU's ... | null |
32rsun | When I viciously rip a leaf off of a tree during Spring months such as April, what exactly happens to the tree? | [
{
"answer": "Assuming you didn't tear some of the bark and only ripped off the leaf, the tree will simply seal off that area via the [abcission layer](_URL_0_). Trees don't heal, they seal; leaves are shed in the fall by this same mechanism. While auxin is produced in the leaf the abcission layer will not seal ... | null |
67xfr0 | why aren't we always hungry for the things that our body needs most? | [
{
"answer": "You are hungry for specific things. That's why you crave certain foods sometimes. Your body is used to nutrients being in that food so it tells you to eat that food.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3929220",
"title":... | null |
5khkf8 | why are there free refills for soft drinks in the us? | [
{
"answer": "The cost to the restaurant is minimal - just a few cents. You would literally have to drink hundreds of drinks at a free-refill restaurant to start costing them money on the $2-3 for a soft drink. \n\nMeanwhile the restaurant keeps you there ordering appetizers and desserts and you're more likely t... | null |
148d9h | how does prison labor work? | [
{
"answer": "I think like 10 or 20 cents an hour, certainly much less than a dollar an hour. Prisoners have access to a commissaryn where they can buy treats and snacks. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In my prison, as an example, the guys who work in the dining facility start out at 40c an h... | null |
33rmp2 | Are there any lifeforms that have evolved exclusively on land and never began from water? | [
{
"answer": "Not sure what you mean there.\n\nIf you trace back the lineage of all known life forms further and futher back, eventually they all had ancestors that lived in the water. \n\n(E.g. for *Homo sapiens* - _URL_0_)\n\nIf you're just looking back one or two evolutionary steps... | null |
cl6vx3 | How is the insulin transfer into the bloodstream regulated? | [
{
"answer": "The insuline secretion is mainly modulated by the blood sugar, i.e. your glucose level in the blood which is roughly 5 mmol/L or 90 mg/dL. Every cell in the body absorpts glucose (different mechanisms) where it can be metabolized. One important substance that you get this way is the ATP (Adenosine-... | null |
1ae808 | Roman (and other classical) political graffiti--what's the deal with it? | [
{
"answer": " > In I, Claudius, I think there's a major plot element where Claudius freaks out about seeing his name written upside down\n\nNot quite. Part of the plot involves Germanicus, Caligula's superstitious father, being terrorised by defacements of his name and other omens, which turn out to be the doin... | null |
2puuhk | why does steam always have to install microsoft c++ redistributable 2005 when i install a game? | [
{
"answer": "In case it isn't already there. It isn't part of the operating system (Windows XP, say, was released in 2001 so isn't going to have something released in 2005). Since the game needs it, it is going to be installed.\n\nWhy do all games need it? Because it contains all the basic building block... | null |
busoiy | what's the difference between a war and a 'cold war'? | [
{
"answer": "The cold war was a period where neither side liked each other, but both were too afraid of the consequences to fight an actual war against each other (since both had nuclear weaponry). The cold war involved spies, propaganda, arms races, foreign coups, supplying aid to terrorist groups attacking yo... | null |
2cdr08 | why do cars stop/stall when they are spun around? | [
{
"answer": "Cars can stall when the car is in drive and the car is spun and the tires start to roll in the opposite way that the gear is supposed to be rolling, thus making the gears go the wrong way. If you have enough power and are spun, and keep your foot on the gas and the tires are spinning forward still,... | null |
k018w | Are we bound to get cancer if we don't die from something else before that? | [
{
"answer": "Pretty much yes.\n\nCancer is an unavoidable consequence of evolution.\n\nA multicellular organism is a colony of cells that work in concert for one common goal. As we have evolved our cells have developed mechanisms to make sure all the cells divide and grow as complying members of the whole. Stil... | null |
ig977 | If you could theoretically survive on Venus, would you be floating in mid-air? | [
{
"answer": "Density, not pressure is the key point for buoyancy. According to wiki,\n\n > The density of the air at the surface is 67 kg/m3, which is 6.5% that of liquid water on Earth.\n\nSo while the air is 50 times denser than Earth's air, it's still like 15-20 times less dense than the human body, so you w... | null |
352s4n | why do some armies use chevrons and others use inverted chevrons? is it simply a stylistic choice or does it have some significance? | [
{
"answer": "I dont exactly know where it came from, but from an educated guess it could be left over from the use of heraldry when it was used to show a particular family association, or even a throw back to the Spartans who used a lambda (Λ) on their shields. Of course if you read the da vinci code, you'd kno... | null |
zdvao | how to patent an invention idea and get rich. | [
{
"answer": "tl;dr: patents are not the way to go for an inventor\n\nIt is said, that every good idea for a product is worth negative one million dollars. Why? Because you have to invest a significant amount of money until you can get any profit from it (prototypes, testing, tooling for production machines, inv... | null |
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