id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
38nvrb | how come you can see through smoke so easily & it's basically transparent, yet it casts such a dark shadow? | [
{
"answer": "Rather like an uncaring wife's lies, isn't it?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Angles. take this image for example.\n_URL_0_\n\nthis is the view we have. sun comes down at an angle, smoke is going up. we can see the gaps inbetween it because of the sun shining around the smoke. bas... | null |
1i8df4 | why is it considered okay for auto companies to basically turn the dash of a car into a touch screen tablet but it's illegal (in most places) for a person to use their phone while driving? | [
{
"answer": "That's a good question. There are some differences, of course. A touchscreen navigation system doesn't let you send texts. The one I have in my car blanks out certain buttons when the car begins to move. For example, when the car is in motion, you cannot enter a navigation query. Nor can you d... | null |
2gyg9h | How are submarines always balanced? | [
{
"answer": "Submariner here; there are an equal amount of ballast tanks on both the port and starboard side of the submarine, usually found more forward and aft of the ship, these are carefully weighed and monitored on a regular basis, and depending on the weight of each individual tank, the ship has different... | null |
2ehlua | Why arent steering wheels in the middle of vehicles??? | [
{
"answer": "Passenger space, putting the driver's seat off-center lets you add a rear view mirror (and prior to that being a thing, the ability to look over your shoulder- placing the driver in the middle gave them a rather bad blind spot right behind them) which has a better view of what's immediately behind ... | null |
12ws7k | Did black politicians elected to office during Reconstruction attempt to stop disenfranchisement efforts? | [
{
"answer": "While there were a significant number of black politicians elected during the Reconstruction period, they really never had a chance of stopping the wave of sentiment in favor of Jim Crow and other \"separate but equal\" legislation. In addition, despite blacks accounting for 40-70% of a state's po... | null |
3rsmki | why is the spotify "shuffle" feature still after all this time not random? | [
{
"answer": "I've never even looked it up but I have noticed that when I shuffle it only cycles about 10-15 songs, and sometimes back to back. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Since you haven't actually said what the problem with Spotify's shuffle feature it this is a hard question to answer sp... | null |
3k1o21 | why does lemon juice "cook" fish when making ceviche? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't actually cook the fish. The acid just denatures the proteins in fish meat in a similar process to cooking. It won't, for instance, kill pathogens in the fish.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Proteins are very long chains of a type of molecule called amino acid, hundreds ... | null |
cm1tju | when you get up too quick and get dizzy | [
{
"answer": "Let me know, this happens to me as well. Are you tall? I'm 6' 4, I always thought that could be a part of it",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If it goes away quickly it's probably not a problem. It takes a lot of work for your body to pump blood against the force of gravity up to yo... | null |
602fvj | why is it called rule 34? | [
{
"answer": "It was made by 4chan a while ago, probably a decade ago now. Dubbed the rules of the internet, they go as follows.\n\n1) Do not talk about rules 2-33\n\n34) There is porn of it. No exceptions.\n\n35) The exception to rule #34 is the citation of rule #34.\n\n36) Anonymous does not forgive.\n\n37) Th... | null |
26f8u1 | why did i lose 5.6 lbs of water after i went to the bathroom? | [
{
"answer": "What are you weighing yourself with that is so accurate?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Over five pounds seems very excessive for urine. The male bladder can normally hold about 2 cups of fluid. This would not nearly be 5 pounds.\n\nAre you sure there was nothing else that changed... | null |
7vblhh | how are the football turf logos personalized & changed each game? | [
{
"answer": "Most stadiums do not ever change their logos. The team (professional, school, etc) own the field and the logo of that team is on it. \n\nSome artificial turfs have the ability to replace the logo section of the turf. It is expensive but can happen. \n\nFor real grass fields they will let the grass ... | null |
1jqucc | Can water from a dehumidifier be used for non-scientific applications that require distilled water ? | [
{
"answer": "Well, i dunno what kind of basement you have, but generally there is some nasty stuff lookin for a moist spit to grow. Your dehumidifier is an ideal place for that. I wouldnt drink the water in my dehumidifier.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The problem with using water from a hum... | null |
9vt3b5 | why does chocolate melt faster if it's been refrigerated? | [
{
"answer": "Chocolate requires tempering, which is a processes that takes very specific high and low temperatures.\n\nWhen the chocolate has been melted it ruins this tempering.\n\nThe tempering process evens out the fatty acids and ensures a uniform crystallisation. When this is consistent it requires more en... | null |
i1mmr | Why do humans 'enjoy' the musical notes that we do? | [
{
"answer": "You may be interested in watching this, you can view it online.\n\n[Nova - Musical Minds](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The intervals we enjoy are generally fairly simple ratios of frequencies.\n\nFor example, an octave (C to C) is doubling the frequency. A \"perfect fif... | null |
1tbl0q | If Humans were seperated on several continents, why are we not differently adapted? | [
{
"answer": "We are different. African people for instance have a much higher rate of sickle cell anemia because if you have 50% sickle cell and 50% reg red cells you are immune to malaria, as well as many other blood born bacteria that are common in Africa. Similarly British people are really pale because ther... | null |
1nijax | sleep walking and talking | [
{
"answer": "Two things can occur, first is the body doesn't shut down response mechanisms when you sleep and your response functions continue functioning while you are asleep, when you sleep the brain doesn't normally send signals to the rest of the body so you don't injure yourself by flailing or kicking in y... | null |
jya1x | what vitamins and supplements i should take and why | [
{
"answer": "Flintstones vitamins. \n\n1 chewable tablet per day, unless you are significantly over/under the average weight for a five year old, in which case your parents should consult your pediatrician on your behalf.\n\n*spelling",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Flintstones vitamins. \n\n1 ... | null |
1mefjr | Which plant is the most effective at converting CO2 to Oxygen? | [
{
"answer": "[Photosynthetic efficiency](_URL_0_) is the proper term for this and it's actually measured as sunlight to biomass. The reason is because the same amount of CO2 + (other stuff^1 ) = O2 + (other stuff^1 ), so efficient is always 1-to-1 ratio if you measure CO2 to O2 conversion. \n\nIn any case, the ... | null |
1ujqtz | why don't cigarette packs in the us have gruesome pictures of lung cancer on them like in other countries? | [
{
"answer": "Because tobacco companies have far more leverage over politicians in the United States than they do in other countries.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It was actually mandated a few years ago, but was found to be unconstitutional as it infringed on the speech of the companies. \n\... | null |
6emus3 | how do information leaks happen? | [
{
"answer": "A government employee/official who has access to sensitive/classified information as part of their job passes that information on to someone not authorized to have it. That's about all there is to it. It's really not that complicated. \n\nThe information in question is usually information that come... | null |
36rppx | why is rand paul filibustering the patriot act and how does filibustering help? | [
{
"answer": "The patriot act is a surveillance act that allows the NSA to spy on Americans to catch terrorism. Obviously, people are offended by the invasion of privacy.\n\nNow, filibustering is giving an incredibly long speech to cause the bill to run out of time to be passed. Senators are allowed to keep spea... | null |
1lwcxp | A book about Hypatia of Alexandria | [
{
"answer": "You're indeed in the right place. Fear not!\n\nI'm not sure if there is a recent comprehensive academic study of Hypatia of Alexandria out there, but [here's](_URL_3_) a very long list of books either on her life or incorporating her into the history of mathematics.\n\nI would caution, however, th... | null |
i72w7 | How many watts does the human body run on? | [
{
"answer": "Well, they say that the recommended daily intake of calories is 2200k. This is for an average woman, I believe, so me as a big, active guy probably need more like 3000kcal. The conversion rate from kcal to kilo Joule is 4.2. Over the course of 24h, that means that my body needs, on average, a suppl... | null |
ou1rv | why the tv sometimes turns off or turns on by itself. | [
{
"answer": "There are plenty of possible culprits:\n\n* Some prankster is sending remote control commands to the TV turning it off and on\n* The remote control is malfunctioning\n* The timer built into the TV is turning it on and off\n* The TV is picking up radio signals causing it to misbehave, are there any ... | null |
4zv5tm | How would galactic internet work? | [
{
"answer": "You can't.\n\nThe only way to rapidly communicate over distances that long is to somehow overcome the limitation of the speed of light. But that is firmly in the realm of science fiction.\n\nA regular internet request from Proxima Centauri (and whatever orbits that star) will take more than 8 years... | null |
7e5qvi | why we don't we use nitrogen for capital punishment? | [
{
"answer": "Nitrogen doesn't kill people as quickly and flawlessly as lethal injection, and comes with some major safety issues which would tend to make it undesirable. Of course if someone is exposed to a pure nitrogen atmosphere indefinitely they will surely die, but how long exactly will that take? 10 minut... | null |
1ym4yf | Was Marx racist? | [
{
"answer": "The problem really is the time period, as there wasn't a concept of \"racism\" in the 19th century. [(Oxford dictionary cites \"racialism\" as the first use in the early 1900s.)](_URL_1_) Basically, from what I've read, Marx uses the word \"nigger\" as a descriptive term, and there is little concep... | null |
112vwl | With regards to the SCC aliens meme, what do you see if you're 65 million light years away from Earth, but are travelling towards it at a very high speed? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. The light would also: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3112690",
"title": "From Beyond (short story)",
"section": "Section::::Influence.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 20,
"start_charac... | null |
2hak0a | why does light from the sun make the sky look blue, but light from the moon does not? | [
{
"answer": "Moonlight is just too weak. It is still sunlight you know, just reflected.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It does make the sky look blue, but our blue photoreceptors aren't sensitive to low light levels, so we can't see it. If you take a long exposure at night, the sky will look ... | null |
4ilqq6 | why would large successful companies that are not in need of money sell shares of their company? | [
{
"answer": "You have to separate an offering from normal trading. Normal trading is where people (not the company) who own stock trade it on the private market. This has nothing to do with the company who's stock it is, though some of the private individuals selling might be employed by said company.\n\nOffe... | null |
823w5y | if the big 3 religions and their denominations all worship the same god, how can there be so much violence and disagreement between them (and even within them between denominations)? considering that they have the biggest part in common (the deity), can't they agree to disagree on other stuff? | [
{
"answer": "The Abrahamic religions only worship the same god insofar as they all believe in the Old Testament, but they have drastically different views on what was divinely revealed after that. The Christians believe Jesus came down and was the son of God and thus that God is a trinity and that you need to w... | null |
1ok3mq | What happens to a currency when physical tender is destroyed while in circulation? | [
{
"answer": "Different countries (central banks) have different ways of handling this. In most countries they have rules and regulations on how to deal with this issue. Some just write off an estimate of what is in circulation.\n\nI'd suggest that you simply contact the central bank that represents your market ... | null |
1trcf1 | [Mathematics] If I roll a six-sided die 6 times, what is the probably that it will land on a particular face at least one time? | [
{
"answer": "You are correct in your assumption that there are certain events that are impossible (in fact, I can roll a fair dice a million times without landing on a 6).\n\nTo calculate the \"true probability\" of an event not occurring, you have to take the complement, which is the probability that an event ... | null |
1i867i | how does a high profile trial such as george zimmerman's affect the personal lives of the jurors? | [
{
"answer": "In some cases, their lives really are put on complete hold. They can be 'sequestered' by the judge, which basically puts them on lock-down, sometimes in a local hotel, to keep them away from ANY media coverage about the case, so as to remain as impartial as possible. For these big, high profile cas... | null |
1kosnh | At any given moment in time, are there a finite number of planets in the universe? | [
{
"answer": "We can't give you a definitive yes or know answer. \n\nWe don't *know* that the universe is infinite, but so far our measurements are consistent with infinite and the laws of physics as we know them allow it with no problem, but they are also consistent with a very large finite universe.\n\nWe also... | null |
2zlxbx | if the earth's rotation is 23 hours and 56 minutes long per cycle, how come we do not see days where the clock says it is nighttime or vice versa during the year? | [
{
"answer": "Because you have to account for the Earth orbiting around the Sun each day, which is accounts for about 4 minutes, which makes one day very close to 24 hours.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think you're talking about stellar day, which is different than the earth's rotation rela... | null |
2lupqb | Was there ever any domestic opposition to imperialism in Europe? | [
{
"answer": "Actually, New Zealand is an almost perfect example of this. Australia had been set up as a penal colony in 1787 when the \"First Fleet\" arrived, and much persecution of native Aborigines followed. At this time Britain had recently lost the American Colonies, and though there had been a lot of dome... | null |
1id3s1 | How close is the measurement of horsepower to the power output of an actual horse? | [
{
"answer": "[Stevenson and Wassersug](_URL_0_) state that the peak power output for a horse could reach 15hp, but that this was not sustainable (much like you could push a car uphill for a short amount of time, but doing it all day would be rather difficult). They then cite contemporary publications from the 1... | null |
5qcuco | do all muslims follow sharia law or is it more comparable to all christians following the 10 commandments. | [
{
"answer": "First, Sharia law is more like a set of rules and guidelines derived from multiple sources. It is less like the ten commandments and more like the Talmud or the collected decisions of the Catholic Church. \n\nSecond, individual Muslims interpret and abide by the rules to different measures and deg... | null |
4v21jg | Do birds ping? | [
{
"answer": "I know a few bird species that do this ( it may not be common across a lot of them) cardinals, blujays, chickadees, and a variety of song birds use \"contact calls\" to locate one another.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sounds like contact calls to me! Though I am unsure if a spec... | null |
8d4122 | what exactly does it mean when one country 'recognises' another country? conversely, what does it mean when one country refuses to recognise another country? | [
{
"answer": " Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: What does it mean when one country refuses to acknowledge the existence of another country? ](_URL_0_) ^(_8 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: How does international recognition of a country differ (e.g. South Sudan, Kosovo)? ](_URL_1_) ^... | null |
133z3v | How many different types of visible light are there? | [
{
"answer": "There are an infinite number of frequencies of light. By themselves they don't group into colors, they're just a frequency (wavelength). We perceive colors because of the nature of our eyes. We have receptors that are differentially sensitives. Most people have three different types, correspond... | null |
3l23b9 | When, and why, did the US close its borders to Mexico. | [
{
"answer": "Around Reagan's presidency, drug trafficking was popular. Pablo Escobar and the rest of the Medellín cartel were bringing 15 tons of cocaine to America a day. Many of their trade routes went through the Mexican-American border. This was a big factor to having heavy control over the border during Re... | null |
2ep6wr | why california hasn't embraced desalinization to deal with the water shortage? | [
{
"answer": "Desalination is expensive, and takes a lot of equipment to do it at a municipal level. So they could start building the centers to combat the drought, and they would be done in 2-10 years. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It does if you're dying if thirst, but not if you just need ... | null |
1vx5ao | Why isn't cloud seeding more common? | [
{
"answer": "For the most part, we don't know if it works. Would it have rained or snowed without the seeding? Who knows? While research is ongoing, seeding has been used for well over half a decade now, with no conclusively convincing evidence of its effectiveness. Weather is pretty complex, and it's really ha... | null |
w70gb | why is increasing your heart rate through physical activity good and for anxiety reasons bad? | [
{
"answer": "The main reason is that it's better to have relaxed artery walls. Increasing heart rate through physical activity causes arteries to relax. In anxiety, it causes them to constrict. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Incomplete answer: Anxiety triggers hormones that are good in eme... | null |
49rx28 | if every household collected rainwater, would it hurt the environment? how does this work? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on how they were going about doing it. \nIf everyone covered all their lands with plastic tarps and took all the rain water than less of it would be flowing into streams and lakes. \nBut this would require extreme amounts of collection. \nA more likely scenario is that all those colle... | null |
2pwn1o | What is the effect of air pressure on melting point of water? | [
{
"answer": "If you look at the [phase diagram of water](_URL_0_) you can see that the melting point decreases weakly as pressure is increased, reaching a minimum of about -20 C at extremely high pressure. [Here](_URL_1_) is a zoomed in version but I don't trust the scale.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
1ims8o | why was "smells like teen spirit" considered such a revolutionary song? and what's so special about kurt cobain? | [
{
"answer": "One reason why their songs don't sound as revolutionary now as they did then is that nearly all rock songs after them imitated their sound.\n\nIf you go and look at music in the late 80s it was Madonna, Roxette, Phil Collins. Nirvana was a genuinely new sound and attitude.",
"provenance": null... | null |
158y9b | i've heard that roads tend to be safer without speed limits. why does the us still have them? | [
{
"answer": "Here are a few of my theories.\n\n1. One is that it is counterintuitive to think that removing speed limits can actually make roads safer and many people don't seem to like to refer to scientific studies. Instead, they'd rather believe what their gut tells them. One of the issues then that we dea... | null |
1c0ohy | If the universe is infinite in all directions, does that mean no matter where you move you will always be in the exact center? | [
{
"answer": "Not really. The Universe has no center.\n\nThe Big Bang wasn't just an explosion of \"stuff\", it was the rapid expanding of space itself. The entirety of space is slowly moving away from each other not just it's edges/ends/corners/terminals/whatever (There's no real correct term here - The end of ... | null |
1prcd4 | if reddit only has user-driven content with highly upvoted posts receiving the most attention, why does it have mods removing posts and banned websites? | [
{
"answer": "The most common reason for a site being banned from reddit is for the site to be engaging in practice that ether encourage their content to be upvoted or prevent their content from being downvoted. In effect prevent the system that was in place to control the content.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
6mmjys | cars with a "sport mode" button and what exactly goes on inside them when you press it. | [
{
"answer": "It's highly dependent on the car, but what can happen may include:\n\n* If your car has a dynamic suspension, the shock absorbers may become more ridged, or the car may be lowered\n\n* Your power steering may be adjusted to be more responsive, or shut off (it typically shuts off at higher speeds an... | null |
a24fp7 | According to the BBC, the average life expectancy for an Allied pilot in 1915 was just 11 days; how were they able to recruit pilots? Was it understood just how hazardous a posting it was? What major technical advances (if any) were made through the course of the war to make it safer? | [
{
"answer": "Was that 11 days on which combat occurred or 11 days in a row? I ask because I once read something like the average life expectancy of American bomber crews in combat in WWII Europe was something like 35 seconds, but this was because of the strict definition of what constituted “combat” and the fun... | null |
2ripf2 | If your skin temperature is lower than usual and you stick your hand/foot in hot water, does it do actual damage? | [
{
"answer": "Sensory or neural adaptation is a change in time in responsiveness to a constant stimulus, for example, what your clothes feel like on your skin. When your feet are cold, the neurons that transmit a feeling of warmth are not firing. When you submerge them in warm water, these warm-sensing neurons... | null |
6pzd49 | How common were fighting churchmen in Medieval Europe? | [
{
"answer": "In Spring 1218, an Oeselian army, a pagan people of the Baltic, marched upon the Christian settlements in Metsepole, a region in Latvia. A parish priest, Godfrey, mounted his horse and rode to the surrounding villages, summoning help from the German bishop of Riga. The next day, the Christians face... | null |
z9kcd | Why is it that gravity slingshots work? Don't the violate conservation of energy? | [
{
"answer": "No scientist here, but I'm pretty sure that the conservation of energy is true with planets as well. The amount Neptune slowed down is probably like 0.0000000000000000001% but that was enough to propel voyager further. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Slingshots only work with plan... | null |
1795mk | who, or what, is citizens united, and why have they all of a sudden been in the news so much lately? | [
{
"answer": "Citizens United has been in the news for a long time.\n\nIt's the name of a group, but it now refers to the major supreme court decision \"Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission\". In this decision the supreme court specifically said that corporations can spend money on election related me... | null |
3o53lb | how do monarch butterflies migrate through multiple generations, considering that one of them can only make it part of the way? | [
{
"answer": "Genetically learned traits. Basically they've been doing it so long it's become ingrained in their core. They even fly around an obsticle (can't remeber if it was a mountain or lake) that's not even there any more! A million (or whatever) years ago this feature of the Earth went away, but the butte... | null |
mwx8m | in factory shows like how it's made, who plans those assembly machines that know how to perfectly do everything? | [
{
"answer": "Mechanical engineers. They look cool an all. But to design them,it's all math. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "engineers - they work out the assembly line required, then plan it all from start to finish. \n\nIn most places \"automated assembly lines\" aren't just build from scrat... | null |
b4k84x | when a study says "n=979", what is the significance of the n? | [
{
"answer": "Usually it's the amount of people that are being subjects in the study.\n\nIf you're talking about the r/science article on teens and young adults and solitude, the n=979 means that 979 teens and young adults were looked at in the study.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"pr... | null |
81xrkc | why does our brain tune out sound that we’re constantly exposed to? | [
{
"answer": "That's what our brains are designed to do. If a constant sensory input is eventually regarded as something to be ignored, your brain will do just that. \n\nFor some people, this mechanism doesn't work properly. In some cases of autism and schizophrenia for example, their brains have a hard time ign... | null |
3p4tkr | why is tomato sauce (ketchup) so ubiquitous? what is it about the flavour of tomatoes in particular that makes it so universally used with such a range of other foods? | [
{
"answer": "I don't think it's the flavour of tomatoes per se (because ketchup *doesn't* taste like tomato) so much as the availability and relative cheapness of ketchup's key ingredients that makes it so common. It's easy to produce in large quantities, it's inexpensive, and it has a long shelf life.\n\nYou m... | null |
ecr6lj | how does money get printed and why isn't the technology used to do it commercialized? | [
{
"answer": "If you want to be blunt, money printing technology IS commercialised. There are only a handful of companies around the world who manufacture the machinery for the production process, but they ARE companies. Selling to all the government customers who need their products.\n\nBut, you know. One of th... | null |
2d3chy | why are so many bombs that are dropped from planes duds? | [
{
"answer": "No, we look for stable explosives. These things get shipped and stored (and reshipped, re-stored) possibly being handled dozens or hundreds of times before use or disposal. \n\n If just dropping things made them explode, we would have lost at least one of the Carolinas to dropped nukes. Nuclea... | null |
2gp0by | In the middle ages, was romantic love between spouses encouraged or considered profane? | [
{
"answer": "\"Middle ages\" covers a huge amount of time; could you be more specific? Also, where?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "As stated by /u/EyeStache, the middle ages is huge and \"8th-16th century\" does nothing to narrow it down.\n\nTo give you a general/generic answer to a vague ques... | null |
2id254 | How were the relative abundances of chemical isotopes discovered (without sampling every atom on earth)? | [
{
"answer": "Statistical Sampling. Take a bunch of randomly selected lumps of earth and see what they contain. The error between measured values and the true values will decease in proportion to the square root of the number of samples taken. This is the same reason that voter surveys don't have to ask every vo... | null |
8sfkza | how do air conditioners work? is the working of a window ac different from a split ac? | [
{
"answer": "Both work in the same way, although a split system is obviously more aesthetic and flexible (although also more difficult to install).\n\nThe basic concept is simple. When you compress a gas it gets hotter, when you decompress it it gets colder: this is doubly true if it transitions to liquid when ... | null |
dnywey | how is a qubit in a quantum computer physically represented? | [
{
"answer": "Well, first off, voltage actually *can* be analog. It is simply less efficient to do that. You can have 1 volt, 2 volts, or 1.26947298 volts. In quantum computers, the quibit is stored in a quantum state of a particle. I'll use photons as an example because I actually understand them: Photons can b... | null |
1c5bvj | game of thrones plot. | [
{
"answer": "Shit goes down, heaps of people want the crown, wanker gets it, multiple armies want to overthrow the wanker. Of course there's more, but that's the main point and I did elyw5",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you're looking for an overview of the plot, I suggest you read the Wiki... | null |
w1640 | What Are The Long Term (Next 100 years) Implications For The Higgs Boson Discovery? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nYou'll see that the question of future implication has been asked many times there as well.\n\nThe problem with trying to predict future implication is that there are too many unknowns. If you ask about the implications of quantum mechanics 80 years ago, it is not immediately obvious tha... | null |
1n80ia | why is evolution banned in some schools? | [
{
"answer": "Because some people believe in religion more than evolution. If you get enough of those people together and they outnumber those who believe in evolution, they can pass a law getting it banned.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Some people oppose the teaching of evolution because it... | null |
2829gh | Will we ever be able to reach The Core of the Earth? | [
{
"answer": "It is impossible. \nWhy?\nNo material can survive the temperatures at the center of the Earth. Even the strongest therotical chemical bond degrades at about 4000 degrees C. Tungsten melts at 3400 degrees C.\n\nThis means that even a craft build out of the strongest materials physically possible wil... | null |
5n9mnr | Is Soviet-style command economy really a bad economic model or is the disparity a result of western sanctions? | [
{
"answer": "Back in the 1920s the effectiveness of socialism (in the sense of a planned economy - \"collective ownership of the means of production\") was a topic of live debate, with Ludwig von Mises and later Frederick Hayek arguing that a command economy couldn't work out what goods and services needed to b... | null |
3d0hw7 | Did the Nazis ever seriously consider invading Ireland? | [
{
"answer": "So, how \"serious\" was Operation Green, then? I mean, the whole job of a General Staff is to come up with contingency plans for pretty much everything, right? So was there ever real consideration given to doing it, was it more a theoretical exercise?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer":... | null |
23e3u5 | how is baldness determined by our mothers? | [
{
"answer": "It's a concept called sex-linkage. Females have two X sex chromosomes (so are known as homogametic) and males have and X and a Y sex chromosome. The Y chromosome has fewer genes than the X so some genes are only present on the X chromosome. Since women lack a Y chromosome all males get their Y chro... | null |
2hgqxx | Why did Pope Alexander II give approval to William's conquer of England | [
{
"answer": "He didnt hate Harold, was probably barely aware of him. Simplistically put however there had been an ongoing dispute over who was Pope, Alexander II or Honorius II. The former elected by the Church, the latter elected by the German court of Henry IV, via his mother as he was still a kid. The Sicil... | null |
128js1 | How do we track our own stealth aircraft? | [
{
"answer": "It's a transponder, the signal is encrypted. The transponder uses spread spectrum communications so it is difficult to see the signal if you do not know what your looking for. \n\nSpread spectrum signals use many parts of the spectrum and low power so the signal appears as background noise.\n\n",
... | null |
sypfk | Why is China considered the oldest continuous country when thorough it's history it's been shattered and conquered? | [
{
"answer": "Because the Roman Empire wasn't just taken over wholesale by one barbarian tribe - then it probably wouldn't have been considered to have fallen completely. Instead, it splintered and the government and culture gradually faded away and ceased to exist. China, from the Qin dynasty to the end of the ... | null |
1s0ifs | why do tv shows now divide themselves into yearly "half seasons" instead of yearly seasons? | [
{
"answer": "Fall spring is divided into two because usually there is more holiday programming, and in the case of the US football heads into the playoffs, which decreases viewership of competing shows. And by splitting it into two, they can potentially create more viewers through reruns between and hold onto v... | null |
7uw2zy | why aren't foreign words originating from non-latin alphabets (e.g. yarmulke) spelled more phonetically? | [
{
"answer": "The major reason for this is that many languages contain sounds that don't exist in English, and cannot be represented with the English alphabet. So the typical solution is to decide \"these characters mean this sound, and these other characters mean this other sound\", even when doing so isn't st... | null |
2f5l58 | In the early 1900's ,Were there any religious or cultural resistance towards the use of flying machines such as Bi planes? | [
{
"answer": "There was no widespread \"flying is evil! down with planes!\" movement in the early 1900s... but by then, humans had been flying for [more than 100 years](_URL_0_). \n\nThe airplane had to have shown up in a few sermons in the first decades of the 20th century, but was generally treated more like a... | null |
1pm1wc | where do nuns(roman chatolic) outfits originate from (design)? | [
{
"answer": "since most religious habits were patterned on the garb for either unmarried women or widows in their own cultures, I imagine only religious orders that began in Middle Eastern countries have (or had) habits patterned on typical female garb in those countries, and what may still be traditional in th... | null |
1cfhcn | Why do they elevate bruised areas of the body to decrease blood flow? Why isn't the opposite more beneficial? | [
{
"answer": "Elevating an injured limb is not to decrease blood flow. It's to decrease pooling and swelling.\n\nRecall that blood is pumped outward to your limbs in pressurized arteries, but it returns in veins, which aren't under much pressure and have less motive force to move the blood along.\n\nIf the injur... | null |
1f95jd | who are some of the contenders in the 2016 u.s. presidential election that have a strong foothold in the door? how well do they reflect the values of their party? | [
{
"answer": "Super, super early, but some of the strong possiblities:\n\nHillary Clinton will almost certainly run in 2016. She did very well as Secretary of State, but a possible issue will be Benghazi. That's one of the reasons the GOP has been stretching out what seems to be a non issue for so long. She'l... | null |
7idfdk | can kings and queens be removed from power due to deteriorative illnesses of the brain and such? | [
{
"answer": "That fully depends on the country and the rules that they have set up for succession. Virtually all have the ability for voluntary abdication which would be used for severe illness or anything that rendered them incapable of fulfilling their duty. Most would also have some method of forced abdicati... | null |
1rgzx3 | How does the melt rate change based on the mass of ice and the temperature of the surrounding air? | [
{
"answer": "There are definitely equations that can describe what is going on! Heat and mass transfer are an important part of physics and engineering. \n\nIn order to melt, the ice must be raised to its melting point temperature, then given enough energy to melt into liquid. This energy needs to come from som... | null |
2tp5pk | fps in film | [
{
"answer": "The reason why 29.97 FPS has historically been such a common frame-rate in North America is quite complicated.\n\nFirstly, the reason why ~30 FPS has been the North American standard for TV (compared to the 25 FPS standard used in Europe) has to do with the electrical power system.\n\nBack in the o... | null |
392bg7 | Is it possible to create diamond like crystals from other elements? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. Diamond has a structure called [FCC(face centered cubic)](_URL_1_) with two atoms in the base. That means for each \"spot\" in an fcc, there are two atoms - one on the spot and one shifted along the diagonal of the unit cell (1/4, 1/4, 1/4).\n\nTo answer your question: Yes. [To quote wikipedia... | null |
4ak6u2 | After throwing out monarchy (and then dictators) in favor of the republic hundreds of years before, how did Roman contemporaries react to its fall and the institution of the empire? | [
{
"answer": "I might be able to answer this one! Well at least give insight. But I'm no historian and merely an enthusiast of Roman history. If my answer is not within guidelines, please mod let me know! \n\n**Short Answer**: Most of the Roman people actually didn't mind or even cared. Continuous blood shed fro... | null |
3vmk8f | why do the police follow me for a while before pulling me over? | [
{
"answer": "They are looking for suspicious behavior. swerving, speeding up or slowing down or if you notice you are being followed and throw evidence out of the window.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They're looking up your plate to see if your car has any violations or if the registered own... | null |
3zg95y | why do many people see policing and military as necessary things to support with their tax dollars, but see a more subsidized healthcare system as a form of communism? | [
{
"answer": "Because everyone needs the police and the military. The rich and the upper middle class dont need subsidized health care and dont want to help fund it. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "14700336",
"title": "Federal ta... | null |
azahog | Why does the devil play the fiddle? Where did that idea come from? | [
{
"answer": "Music's etherial power over the emotions has a long and storied history. Traceable as far back as the mythological story of Orpheus and the lyre that could hold the Gods in sway, or Pythagoras who could change the temperament of a raving man by playing songs in certain modes. The point is, music ha... | null |
1r91x0 | why are streets and housing developments in residential areas across the us named so consistently and generically, often with no relation to geographic features? e.g., hillcrest, hillview, pinewood, oakwood, lakeview, fairview, etc.? does this happen in other countries? | [
{
"answer": "Sounds like the same sorts of names you'll see across English speaking Canada too, really. They are generic and evoke pleasant sounding semi rural retreats. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The joke I heard is that streets and housing developments are named after whatever natural ... | null |
bxz3h7 | Art History question: Was 'modeling' a profession or was there a modeling industry pre-19th century in the Middle, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras? Were there famous, sought after models who commanded higher prices? Were there agents and managers? | [
{
"answer": "*pauses* \n\nThis is actually a lot trickier than my initial \"no\". Mostly no. There were \"allegorical\" portraits. Elisabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, commissioned a few of these. One was to showcase the plight and what she saw as inevitable triumph of her dispossessed children. Agnes Sorel, one... | null |
12uazu | In terms of physique, would real gladiators have been more similar to Andy Whitfield of TV's 'Spartacus' or to Russell Crowe of the film 'Gladiator'? | [
{
"answer": "They look pretty beefy in contemporary Roman mosaics and statues. \n\n[Example](_URL_1_), [Example](_URL_2_), [Example](_URL_3_)\n\nAnd here's a recently discovered statue of a [female gladiator](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nApparently, they wouldn't have lo... | null |
1dbiy9 | why do sirens sound like they do? why do they vary by country? | [
{
"answer": "They are designed to get your attention - simple as that.\n\nWhy do they vary by country? Because there's more than one way of getting someone's attention! I know that here in the UK, they use a variety of sirens because they found that changing from one to another actually gets people's attention ... | null |
3a5yan | How long did it take for the relations between England and America to recover after the revolutionary war? And what were some significant milestones in that process? | [
{
"answer": "On a government level, we signed the Jay Treaty during the Washington administration which gave favorable trade terms to the British.\nUnder John Quincy Adams, we drafted the Monroe doctrine (JQA doesn't get credit for it since he lost re-election soon after it was ratified) which told Europe to st... | null |
14gi7e | If two people, A and B, ate the same amount of food in terms of caloric intake and quantity but A exercised and B didn't, would both defecate the same amount of feces in terms of weight? | [
{
"answer": "Someone please answer this man, I'm incredibly interested",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "14746115",
"title": "Coumestrol",
"section": "Section::::Natural sources and dietary intake.\n",
"start_paragr... | null |
95k6fd | If there is a breach in a fusion reactor, what will happen? | [
{
"answer": "If you remove a part of the wall but not the magnets the fusion reaction will heat the magnets until they stop being superconducting. The magnetic field breaks down, the reaction stops - essentially instantaneous, probably before you even managed to fully remove the wall segment.\n\nThe energy stor... | null |
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