id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
fh6po0 | Do historians generally believe that terracotta army found near Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum were made using imported 'Hellenistic' expertise? | [
{
"answer": "There was a great answer on this question about a year ago by u/kungming2 in response to someone who watched the same documentary:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "55985255",
"title": "Li Jian (art historia... | null |
2t3dcz | how's does liquid soup turn into foam when i pump it from it container? what's exactly is happening? | [
{
"answer": "When you push the pump (which contains one chamber for soap and one for air) it creates negative pressure that brings the liquid and air together, creating foam. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "268420",
"title": "Fo... | null |
2jdyud | why do i sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with the sole thought of remembering i forgot to set my alarm? | [
{
"answer": "I'd love to know the answer to this too. Sometimes I can't even get to sleep until I *know* I set the alarm.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You wake up in the middle of the night. You don't hear your alarm. You think you need to hear your alarm. You think that you didn't set the a... | null |
1imb4r | what is the point of those things that appear in your eyes after sleeping? | [
{
"answer": "They're called eye poop in Sweden",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "340429",
"title": "Rheum",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 2,
... | null |
3k414s | why do companies spend excessive amounts of money on logos that look barely different? | [
{
"answer": "Peter Drucker, a very famous business professor, was often quoted as saying: \"There are only two things in a business that make money - innovation and marketing. Everything else is a cost.\"\n\nA company's logo is its face to the world. Anything that people think of when they glimpse a company's l... | null |
5hdpq6 | britons of reddit, can someone explain the "first past the post system"? | [
{
"answer": "The country is divided into \"constituencies\".\n\nEach constituency elects a single representative, or MP. (Edit, as pointed out below): they do this by voting on the candidates, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The winner doesn't need a majority of votes, they just need more votes than... | null |
b45v11 | Did any military powers use light (most likely the reflection of it) in military tactics in an attempt to blind or burn the opposition? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, we don't allow [\"example seeking\" questions](_URL_0_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or per... | null |
1md4ht | quantum computers (you can explain it like i'm a dumbass 26yr old too if that suits you more.) | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nThis video explains it fairly well.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "15426942",
"title": "Quantum technology",
"section": "Section::::Applications.:Computing.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 9,
... | null |
174ug2 | eli: the current debate in the uk about the eu. | [
{
"answer": "[This](_URL_0_) excellent post by /u/loudribs over at /r/unitedkingdom gives a good overview of the pros and cons.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "50539063",
"title": "2015–16 United Kingdom renegotiation of European... | null |
2ghbxh | Is there a chance to be struck by lightening in a room with window and door closed ? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, but probably not in the way you think. A lightning bolt will most likely not shoot through a window, leave the wall unmolested, shoot through the air in your room and then head right towards you. Lighting is electricity and takes the path of least electrical resistance. Your walls have metal p... | null |
168iuq | why do people enjoy the smell of their own farts?? | [
{
"answer": "It's just you.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "424956",
"title": "Perfume (novel)",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 10,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id":... | null |
5geddr | why was earth more subject to cosmic debris impacts billions of years ago compared to today? | [
{
"answer": "Because there was a whole lot more debris rocking around when the solar system was new. Earth and the other planets spent the better part of 4 billion years cleaning up the solar system by either smashing into things or slinging them out into orbits where they won't intersect planets.",
"proven... | null |
3q307v | is it really true that cockroaches find humans repulsive? | [
{
"answer": "Cockroaches don't have the neurons required to feel revulsion, or much of anything, really. They're little machines with a bunch of hardwired responses and little to no ability to actually make decisions. That said, one of their responses is to remove foreign smells from their bodies. The oils on y... | null |
2j7n9g | Historians, how do you feel, in general, the accuracy and completeness of wikipedia entries compares to High School history textbooks? | [
{
"answer": "James Loewen's *Lies My Teacher Told Me* is an indictment of the high school history textbook, including on your chosen topic of Christopher Columbus. He'd picked old textbooks and criticized them for outdated scholarship (which is one of several issues I had with his book), but apparently the situ... | null |
920cra | how come some animals, like kangaroos, bulls and some apes, can get so jacked buy eating almost no proteins? | [
{
"answer": "One benefit they have is that they don’t sit around staring at lasers and poking at buttons all day",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They don't eat \"no\" proteins, but their diet consists of food with only a small amount of protein in it (grasses, etc do still have a small amount o... | null |
1r8l2n | What would be considered the greatest political "blunders" of U.S.'s 1st President, George Washington? | [
{
"answer": "Over reliance on Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton and Washington's relationship is well known and predates his time as President but it was his over reliance on Hamilton during and after his Presidency that greatly increased political tensions, contributed to the rise of the Republican party and contri... | null |
908pcg | how can video games produce sounds from specific areas in the game? | [
{
"answer": "Science.meme\n\nBut seriously, it’s all in just using the right balance between left and right to mimic what he hear and how we perceive direction in real life. We experience the sounds we hear all the time in stereo (i.e. out of each of our 2 ears), so it’s *relatively* straightforward to create t... | null |
8ylwcs | what does the wow! alien signal mean? the image is just a bunch of numbers and letters so what is the significance of those specific letters? | [
{
"answer": "[Here is a better visualization of the WOW signal](_URL_0_)\n\nBasically those numbers and letters are a printout of raw data because you can fit more datapoints on a printed sheet of paper this way. The numbers go up and then into the alphabet to represent the strength of a signal. \n\nAs you saw ... | null |
2l1vlx | how does the chinese economy work/differs from the rest of the world. | [
{
"answer": "Its basically American capitalism with loose or non-existent civil rights laws (child labor, unequal wages and hours ) and the government can own and compete in business. Imagine if the US government decided to start building super cheap economy cars, built with unpaid slave labor provided by the p... | null |
s099a | why do non-hearing people sound "that way" when they speak? | [
{
"answer": "I would assume it's because they have never heard the language spoken before and this leads to an accent based, not on the sound of it, but based on the movements of the mouth to create the sounds. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They can see how lips move, but they can't see how ... | null |
26yhzu | why do road workers cut strips out of the interstate and refill them? | [
{
"answer": "Potholes are partially caused by the stuff under the road settling and no longer supporting it. They need to cut out the road and repair the road bed or else the problem will just come back.\n\nA freeway isn't just a strip of concrete, they have to dig out the ground and provide a stable foundation... | null |
7bypun | Does anyone know a good read on snipers in WWII? | [
{
"answer": "Karabiner 98k by Karem and Steves is a great resource for K98k snipers, particularly Volume IIa. There are currently 3 volumes, Volume 1 covers pre-war (banner model, standard modell, etc) to 1938 rifles at Mauser-Oberndorf, JP Sauer, Mauser-Borsigwalde, Ermawerke, Berlin Lubecker, and BSW. Volum... | null |
42xszv | Iroquois vs. Haudenosaunee | [
{
"answer": "The exact etymology of \"Iroquois\" is debatable, and there are plenty of Iroquoian people who use it and related terms for various purposes. If you're talking about an individual person, it's best to go with their specific nation. Joseph Brant is Mohawk (or *Kanien'kehá:ka* if you're feeling parti... | null |
2xh2ow | How did the various Viking colonizers of parts of Britain react to different forms of Paganism in the areas they commanded? | [
{
"answer": "They didn't react to them, because as far as we can tell, there were no surviving population groups practising pre-Christian religions in the British Isles when the Vikings first began making incursions in 793. Ireland and Scotland had fully Christianised over the course of the fifth to seventh cen... | null |
2heab8 | what does a magnetic polar reversal mean for everyday life? | [
{
"answer": "The poles don't actually switch like flipping around. One or both weaken, then wander. During the weak time, the Earth is bathed in radiation that a strong field prevents. Time to go underground.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id... | null |
2rywbs | if i find an undiscovered island in international waters, is it mine? | [
{
"answer": "I imagine you could make a claim assuming it is in international waters. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "follow up question, is that even possible with all the satellites we have?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Essentially, on the scale of nations, there's not re... | null |
1ucez7 | how do music editing programs change the pitch without changing the speed? | [
{
"answer": "Sound can be converted between \"time domain\" and \"frequency domain\" using Fourier transform (sort of a spectrum analyzer). So you can convert the sound to frequencies, do modifications there (for example shift frequencies) and convert back to time domain, and you get pitch shift without speed c... | null |
3achmo | Is the total mass of oxygen atoms greater in the ocean or in the air? | [
{
"answer": "Oxygen is about 23.20% of the atmosphere by mass, and the atmosphere has a total mass of about 5 x 10^(18) kg. So the atmosphere contains about 1.16 x 10^(18) kg of oxygen.\n\nOxygen is about 88.89% (16/18) of water by mass, and the oceans have an approximate mass of 1.35 x 10^(21) kg. So the ocean... | null |
5h84ex | All this talk about humans on Mars someday. How will that be possible with such extreme cold temperatures on Mars? | [
{
"answer": "Well, the temperature isn't even the biggest problem. Radiation and (lack of) pressure are at least as problematic. All of these limit the extent of extravehicular surface activities feasible to humans. We do need heated, insulated pressure suits on Mars, but they can be quite a bit more lightweigh... | null |
2ep6o3 | why do apples make me hungrier? | [
{
"answer": "The problem with apples is that they are purely carbs and nothing else, and carbs will always leave you with that \"empty\" feeling. Granted, they have a lot of health benefits, are highly nutritious, and I definitely eat them all the time. However, foods that contain fats and proteins are the ones... | null |
6g7wor | Why is there a dotted image on the side of public bus windows? | [
{
"answer": "It's called frit. Has a number of purposes- it's ceramic based paint that helps the adhesive bond to the window in the mount. It also minimizes UV reducing its ability to break down the sealant. \n\nAnd, I've heard they think it makes a car more appealing- so you don't go from black window gasket t... | null |
4zgu02 | how does private individual buy stocks offline/online? and how does the process work? | [
{
"answer": "\"private individuals\" don't really buy stocks, you need to go through a broker. You place an order with one of a thousand or more investment houses/companies that you have made an account with, the company then goes through the process of buying you that stock through their electronic systems. ... | null |
6kfnbt | According to a History Channel documentry, during the Vietnam war, US ground troops would face 240 days of combat a year, versus 11 days of combat a year during WW2. Is this claim true? | [
{
"answer": "I just recently [made a post](_URL_0_) concerning the psychological effects of long-term frontline service in the U.S. Army during WWII.\n\n > Being assigned to the Infantry branch (as roughly half of all men entering the Army were in mid-1944) was an assignment fraught with danger;\n\nDeployed ov... | null |
3pin59 | Did the Byzantines ever consider building a 'Great Wall' of their own to repel the Arabs and Turks? | [
{
"answer": "The situation for the Byzantines was very different.\n\nIn the cases of the Romans versus the Picts/Germans/other peoples, or the Chinese versus the various nomadic peoples to their north, you have a big, strong, rich, centralised empire that has to deal with endemic raiding from less organised but... | null |
271aue | why does america mostly use traffic lights at intersections when europe uses a lot of traffic circles? what are the benefits to either? | [
{
"answer": "Roundabouts have a lot less points of intersection/wreck opportunities as well. And the results show they are far more safe",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\n\nThe Mythbusters answer this. Something to do with Roundabouts being able to have more cars in them at once. \n\n\... | null |
1c079f | Are (biological) children of gay people more likely to be gay? | [
{
"answer": " > Is this an inheritable trait?\n\nis a different question than\n\n > Are (biological) children of gay people more likely to be gay?\n\nThe evidence is overwhelming that there are genetic factors at play in homosexuality, if your identical twin is gay, there's something like a 52% chance that you ... | null |
1kc6yj | Can it be that life is originating constantly since it first originated 3.5 billion years ago? | [
{
"answer": "There is no real way of knowing, but until we find another form of life that does not use DNA/RNA, we have no reason to believe that abiogenesis (the process of life originating) is still occurring.\n\nI would also add that it is very very very unlikely that any life from recent abiogenesis would e... | null |
5pb7n9 | why hasn't usa adopted nordic countries education and health care system? | [
{
"answer": "Because such a system requires a Big Government. And it is an accepted wisdom in US politics that a Big Government is a horrendously inefficient waste of resources that is only good for maintaining tyranny. Americans prefer their government lean, and their taxes low; they expect the market to sort ... | null |
25yl5u | how do grizzly bears (or any other animal) know that we are not a threat to them? | [
{
"answer": " > How do they know that we are weaker than them?\n\nWe are smaller, no claws in sight.\n\n > They don't get taught by their parents to hunt human, so why they are not afraid to attack us?\n\nSee answer #1\n\n > How do they know that we don't have some poison or something.\n\nanimals have very limi... | null |
4to2bt | peer reviewed journals | [
{
"answer": "Yes, anyone can submit. But be aware that a paper written by Prof's Snuffsky and Huffsky from Oxbridge University has a much higher chance of getting through than a paper from Mr. Smith, Main Street 10025.\n \nYou need 'enough' evidence. I'm getting the gist that you've come across something that's... | null |
267ke7 | Any recommendations for a good espionage book? | [
{
"answer": "I'm a fan of the atomic spies myself. Some favorites that focus on individuals (which often makes for better stories than big, all-encompassing books on Soviet espionage, like _The Haunted Wood_): \n\n* _Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy_. This focuses primarily... | null |
5ojav0 | why does certain parts of audio dissappear when the headphonejack isn't all the way in? | [
{
"answer": "The headphone plug actually has multiple connectors on it--those are the colored ridges on the plug itself. Usually, there are three main connectors, but I suppose others can exist.\n\nWhen the plug isn't all the way in, some of those connectors don't line up, and others might line up with another ... | null |
2dib9v | Have the Amish always been significantly different than other rural Midwestern farmers? At what point did technological and societal changes really set the Amish apart? | [
{
"answer": "From the time they first settled in the US, the Amish have been different. They spoke German and eschewed the clothing that was popular. They had specific rules about dress and behavior, like no buttons, which set them apart even before modern technology. They also have their own religion that is a... | null |
1n14jo | why does tiresize change based on car size? | [
{
"answer": "Larger wheels allow the axle to be higher off the ground, letting you drive over larger irregularities without smashing into things. This is important in something like a pickup truck which might be driving onto an ungraded work site. A civic or a smart car would prefer to have smaller wheels becau... | null |
2shw5r | why does our own body clog our nose, which is essential for breathing, on allergic reactions or when we've got a cold? | [
{
"answer": "The allergic reaction comes from the inflammatory response trying to stop the spread of the allergen. The cells that release these chemicals don't know where in the body they are located. Just that something foreign is there and the body doesn't like it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
ay3cxd | if you're swimming in a pool and lightning strikes the water, it'll most likely harm you. at what range when swimming in a larger body of water, like a lake or even an ocean would lightning have an effect on a person swimming in it at the time? | [
{
"answer": "Lighting striking in an open water has a lethal range of about 6 - 10 meters with most of the energy being dispersed along the surface. If you're outside that range, you might still suffer burns. There's also a notable pressure wave (the underwater equivalent of thunder) that would be potentially d... | null |
3hbp3q | in terms of evolution, why are peacocks' tails so big? | [
{
"answer": "a large tail would be a trait of a healthy bird, which in turn drives the success of the species.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It was mostly likely an early positive feature due to making the peacock appear larger to predators, male competitors and potential mates. To the animal... | null |
3035as | at any given night in a city, we see a fairly small amount of stars but far away from city lights we see thousands of stars. what determines what stars we see in a city? | [
{
"answer": "The brightest stars are still visible. Cities produce a lot of light, dubbed \"light pollution\" that drowns out the light from dimmer stars.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Light pollution.\n\nAll those cars and buildings radiate light, which gets scattered through the air to brig... | null |
7pc2um | How does the photon of specific phase that causes stimulated emission in a laser device arise? | [
{
"answer": "You mostly have it already. The overall polarization of the beam depends on the lasing medium and the cavity design, but in general, a photon will be emitted by spontaneous emission, and that gets the stimulated emission going to start lasing. Like you said, you could have a cavity with Brewster wi... | null |
2yg287 | Who is the Japanese military leader in this picture? | [
{
"answer": " > My own investigation of Jappanese military leaders who killed themselves in circumstances where the Americans might quickly find their body makes me think it could be either Isamu Cho or Mitsuru Ushijima. The picture of Cho kind of looks like the picture I have.\n\nRight idea, but wrong guy, mai... | null |
bd2ouf | Was suicide among "commoners" normal during time periods like the renaissance? Or is it something that became more prevalent recently? | [
{
"answer": "I have an earlier answer on [suicide in the Middle Ages in western Europe](_URL_1_). If you don't mind, I'll copy-paste it here for now so people have something to read while I work on one that extends into the Reformation/later Renaissance era. (Normally I'd just wait, but the topic seems to deman... | null |
1ria70 | why do woman traditionally throw underhand while men throw overhand? | [
{
"answer": "At least in cricket I've always been led to believe that it was women who started bowling overarm, as at the time their dresses were to voluminous to allow underarm bowling which was the style at the time.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you are talking about softball... | null |
19hay6 | Will Microscopes ever be powerful enough that we can view individual molecules? | [
{
"answer": "[Already exists](_URL_0_). That is from an atomic force microscope; optical microscopes are limited by the wavelength of light and laws of optics.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "102858",
"title": "Cell theory",
... | null |
7qetr2 | i need help understanding the difference between torque and rotational inertia | [
{
"answer": "Ok, ELI5 attempt: you can imagine rotational inertia as a measure of the total kinetic energy in a rotating object. It's the amount of energy that you have to invest to spin the object up from a standstill to the current situation, or alternatively, the energy you need to bring it to a stop.\n\nTor... | null |
47jq35 | electricity supply | [
{
"answer": "Houses have 3 power lines. Imagine a top, bottom and middle line. Top and bottom are 240V with respect to each other. The middle line is there to give you 120V between it and the top or bottom line.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you plug a 240 appliance into a 120 outlet, cha... | null |
ck8cze | why do muscles stiffen and lose flexibility? and why does stretching sometimes feel good and sometimes hurt? | [
{
"answer": "Lots and lots of reasons. But ELI5. Muscles get stiff because they get used to being short and all the fibres get tighter and closer together. It can also be because of literal knots in the muscle. Imagine you cut a piece of string in half, to make it whole you have to tie a knot in it. The st... | null |
30pdom | what is a proxy war? what sets it apart from a traditional war/conflict? | [
{
"answer": "It's when two countries fight a war using other, smaller countries like puppets. Watch this: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You have a brother called Joe, and a sister called Suzy, now you don't want to fight Joe because your parent will get mad at you, so you give Suzy so... | null |
797zly | why does vision degrade when you are tired? | [
{
"answer": "Your eyes become fatigued, as they are working muscles. So after a long day of using your eyes, they need that rest. Usually by the time you’re tired your eyes have been strained enough to feel that fatigue. It can also sometimes make you think that you are tired when your eyes just need resting t... | null |
ekwx4r | Was there any condemnation in the 1500s towards Luther's piece on the Jewish community? | [
{
"answer": "I wasn't active here for a while and am looking through the backlog of Judaism related questions, and think this is a great one.\n\nLuther's views on Jews in that essay were by no means universal and perhaps more vitriolic than the average, but they did reflect his era's view on Jews in general, we... | null |
1zbkfi | the median of something vs. the average. | [
{
"answer": "Median is just a different way to calculate an average. The three main ways to 'average' a group of numbers are: Mean, median, and mode. \nLet's say you have the following 11 speeds caught on a radar and you need to determine the average\n(56,58,62,65,65,68,69,70, 71,74, 75)\n\nMean = 66.6 (add ... | null |
1nwurp | if both nuclear fission and fusion generate energy, why don't we have infinite energy? | [
{
"answer": "You don't use the same elements in fusion and fission. The whole reason the respective processes can generate energy is because the nuclear reaction results in a nucleus that is _more stable_ than the starting nuclei.\n\nYou use a heavy element - such as uranium - for fission, while you use a light... | null |
20nx01 | How did medieval leaders get their armies to fight against the pope? | [
{
"answer": "In some cases there were Antipopes - that is, a rival claiming to be the true pope. Of course, each declared the other to be the Antipope! This was the case during Roger II of Sicily's disagreements with the papacy. In Roger's case the hostilities were usually initiated by the pope rather than the ... | null |
5hss9g | if the edge of the universe to us is 45 billion light years away, could it have already stopped expanding? | [
{
"answer": "When we talk about the \"edge\" of the universe, we are referring to the extent of the observable universe. Space is expanding, and there is no centre to the expansion. Every point is moving away from every other point, equally in all directions. The further away you look, the more space exists be... | null |
5cotbn | why do we tend to get small violent tendencies when we get angry or have a heated argument with someone else? [biology] | [
{
"answer": "The \"Fight or Flight\" response to the confrontation. Anticipating a fight, a cascade of things happen to your physiology..adrenaline production, flushing, heat, respiration increasing, muscles tensing..the whole brain is prepped to go to battle. This also suppresses normal functions, like situati... | null |
2c5no9 | I'm watching English period pieces like The Tudors and Elizabeth. Did monarchs have titles like Lord Burleigh to give out? What did that entail? | [
{
"answer": "If you're just talking about titles rather than estates and incomes, yes. The sovereign is the [fount of honour](_URL_0_), i.e. has the exclusive right to confer titles of nobility and orders of chivalry.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wik... | null |
1mftka | Why do atoms "want" to get full outer electron shells when bonding? | [
{
"answer": "Good question! Understanding this behaviour requires that you first understand that a reaction can be considered as a number of individual processes. When you combine chlorine and sodium to make table salt, the sodium atom loses an electron, the chlorine atom gains one and the resultant ions bond d... | null |
1n40e9 | What is the best referencing/organizing software you use to write history and why? | [
{
"answer": "Not history specific, but OneNote works REALLY well for writing initial drafts. You can organize your work far beyond anything else I've used, and can include text clippings, photos, videos, and links out to the side. It eschews the \"page\" construct and is more like a whiteboard.\n\nOnce you ge... | null |
20cna3 | what is the purpose of checking in for a flight, if you can check in online? | [
{
"answer": "The online checkin process is mainly to get the customer to complete as much of the administration and data entry as possible before hand - rather than have staff do it whilst a queue waits.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You still need a boarding pass. \nYou still need to weigh y... | null |
3da45g | Why do the edges of certain materials dry faster than the middles? | [
{
"answer": "The edges are more likely than not touching more air than concrete found in the center of a section of sidewalk. Whereas the center only has exposure to air above it (along with a very small amount found in small cracks, etc), the edges are exposed to air on two fronts, the top and the side that go... | null |
1s2o0m | Why can I hear a transmitted radio signal on several frequencies? | [
{
"answer": "Its called harmonics, the idea comes from that all waveforms comes from the sum of a series of increasing sinusodial waves. Meaing a 11MHz transducer is transducing a sum of 11Mhz, 22Mhz, 44Mhz, 88Mhz etc frequencies, but in decreasing amplitudes. But your reciever is sensitive enough to pick those... | null |
88yq2i | why is it easier to shoot at people under you in games? | [
{
"answer": "Insert \"i have the high ground\" meme.\n\nIts not only in games, highround has the vision advantage. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mostly you look more toward ground then toward sky. So usually u see tinks blow you faster.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When i... | null |
3tn3jx | why doesn't the us place a price ceiling on medical equipment ? | [
{
"answer": "The issue is that developing new medicines or medical devices is somewhat of a gamble. It costs a lot of money and the project you're working on might turn out to be ineffective or not be approved by the FDA or whatever. The prospect of being able to make a lot of money encourages companies to go ... | null |
95znti | What is happening at the molecular level when water is being squeezed or wrung out of something? | [
{
"answer": "Water goes into fabric and is held in small spaces where its cohesive and adhesive properties hold it to the fibers in the cloth. Tighten up the fibers (by wringing) and you restrict the space the water can be in squeezing it out of all its little spaces in the cloth.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
5g7taa | why do people hide their license plate when selling their vehicle but not always their vin? | [
{
"answer": "The VIN number only shows who manufactured the car and what model it is. The licence plate tells you what state the car is in and, if someone is thorough, it can reveal the location. You don't want randoms knowing where you live.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Somewhat easy, there... | null |
qz7e0 | How often does a comet crash into the Sun? | [
{
"answer": "Only one time per comet.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The current generation of solar satellites have revolutionized our understanding of this. As of 2011 they've spotted something in the neighborhood of 2024 comets since 1995 (couldn't find the current count). That's a simple... | null |
4g84lf | what is with the sometime hours and hours or delay in having sore/dead/tired legs after over doing and pushing yourself with leg exercise/walking/running? | [
{
"answer": "I believe it's somewhat to do with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), in which your body begins to repair tiny microtears in the muscle fibres of your legs after long periods of exertion.\n\nDoing this makes your legs stronger and able to endure more physical activity. It's like how people build... | null |
38q2uq | why is a revealing outfit that doesn't quite bare all often so much more attractive than a completely nude body? | [
{
"answer": "For the same reason that things like burlesque and stripper shows are popular. It's about anticipation and tantalisation. While the body is covered up, your imagination is running wild. Even the most flawless body is still just a body. Your imagination is always more powerful.\n\nEDIT: general usel... | null |
2ok5xw | why does food dye in milk react in such a way when soap is added? | [
{
"answer": "The soap breaks the surface tension of the milk. The food coloring rests on top because it has a lower density than milk. When you drop soap in the middle, the surface tension drops. But it takes time for that effect to reach the edge of the container. So the edge of milk still has all it's surface... | null |
1k3ua6 | how are government subsidies for food producers different from an indirect food tax? | [
{
"answer": "Do you read The Week (the magazine)? They just had a good feature on US food subsidies.\n\nAnyways, there is a very simple difference between an indirect tax and a subsidy. \n\nA tax generates revenue for the government. A subsidy is *paid for by the government*, meaning they lose money on it.\n\nI... | null |
1ryihz | i know it's not quite scientific, but what are elementary particles(e.g. leptons, bosons) "made of"? | [
{
"answer": "Thank you all for your answers! I suppose the question was easier to answer than I thought, though as I would hope, I'm still left wanting more answers to the universes mysteries. I imagine my talk with a physics professor would go something like:\nMe: \"Where did that come from?\"\nProfessor: *E... | null |
5h1l0a | How does the electrolyte function in a dry cell battery? | [
{
"answer": "I can't tell you about the specifics of dry batteries but I can try to address your two main questions.\n\n1) The plates have positive or negative charges like a capacitor. However, unlike a capacitor, there are reactions at the electrodes that facilitate the replenishment of the charges and so a c... | null |
ce9oxv | what makes a good haircut? | [
{
"answer": "Asking what a good haircut looks like is like asking what a pretty flower looks like. You kinda just know it when you see it. Browse around on some “popular” haircuts and just tell your barber what you want. Seems like your gf already might have some ideas.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
8jdxce | In the nervous system, how exaclty does a stimulus cause the initial depolarization of the membrane that will then open the Sodium voltage-dependent channels once the treshold value is reached? | [
{
"answer": "At the synapse, the presynaptic terminal releases neurotransmitter that causes receptors on the postsynaptic cell to respond. Typically this can be ligand gated ion channels, G\\-protein coupled receptors, or receptor tyrosine kinases. If the input is stimulatory, that is it triggers an action pote... | null |
2cvkve | where the phrase 'second nature' comes from | [
{
"answer": "It's a corruption of the Latin phrase *secundum naturam*, which means 'according to one's nature'. Basically, whatever you're referring to meshes well with your natural abilities or tendencies, as opposed to something that was *contra naturam* (against one's nature), or *super naturam* (above natur... | null |
920t84 | Wool as a materials for uniforms: why? And why into WW2? | [
{
"answer": "Delving at little further into OPs question I'm curious if there was a transition period at all where there were wool uniforms for some environments and cotton uniforms for others? Did the layering of uniforms change to mitigate the loss of advantages wool offers, such as wool or (eventually) synth... | null |
272v5r | what's wrong with dumping radioactive waste in the bottom of the ocean? | [
{
"answer": "Kaiju \nGojira \nHave you no cinema history? \n/s",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Offhand, I would consider deep ocean circulation. Water in the ocean can be separated into several parts but basically consider top and bottom. Top is moved by wind but bottom is moved by slight ... | null |
a7q611 | Were Henrietta Lack's cells special? | [
{
"answer": "This is a great question! By today's standards, there is nothing inherently special about HeLa cells. Not only do we have countless \"immortal\" cell lines from other people, we have very well established protocols for immortalizing cell lines ourselves.\n\nHowever, at the time Henrietta Lacks' cel... | null |
70noau | why does the skin on our hands & feet have so many lines (i.e. fingerprints)? | [
{
"answer": "They increase the grip and durability of that surface, the rest of your skin is pretty slick.\n\nThe process that your body uses to create that type of skin also blocks hair growth and disables melanin production though, so it's only done on the palms and bottoms of your feet.",
"provenance": n... | null |
kute0 | If neutrinos turn out to be faster than light, are they useful in any way? Communication? | [
{
"answer": "It is possible, but neutrinos are very hard to detect for the same reason that allows them to travel through the earth.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The recent measurement has no practical implications for communication. Neutrinos make inefficient signals because they are almost... | null |
96tf3v | During the time of the moon landing did people get upset about the governments space race and the mission to the moon? | [
{
"answer": "Absolutely. In fact, at no point prior to the first Moon landing did the program receive a majority of support by the public at large. Indeed, there were several notable very vocal public opponents of the program because they felt it drew funds away from or was a distraction from now important work... | null |
99llav | Who discovered energy = force x distance, and how? | [
{
"answer": "The work done by a force was simply *defined* to be the line integral of the force field along the particle's path. There's nothing to discover. But this turns out to be *useful* because of the work-energy theorem and conservation of energy, which can be proven using Newton's laws and experimentall... | null |
1ddrxr | Dinosaurs and the Square/Cube Law: How'd it all work? | [
{
"answer": "I think it's a shame that this site comes up as the 4th Google result for \"square cube law\". It sounds more like conspiracy quackery than a scientific critique. Is this guy just a crypto-creationist or what?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The square/cube law applies to objects (... | null |
1fnn41 | Why when looking at a clear container holding water from a side the surface of the water looks like a mirror? Is it the container or the water? | [
{
"answer": "You mean the underside of the water? It's because of [total internal reflection](_URL_0_). That's the water. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Materials have a property called refractive index: this measures how fast light travels in the medium, and how much it bends the light when ... | null |
2uucpi | Is there a point between the earth and the moon where their gravitational forces cancel out? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, and it has a name. That's the Earth-moon L1 point.\n\nYou can float there but you are in unstable equilibrium; if you are nudged even slightly to one side then you will drift towards either the moon or Earth never to return.\n\nThe SOHO satellite is at the Earth/Sun L1 to monitor the sun and [... | null |
pc7ml | How is the suffix of an element determined? | [
{
"answer": "Well \"gen\" is ~~latin~~ greek for maker, or generator, the word \"Hydrogen\" literally means \"Water Maker\", whereas Oxygen (somewhat misnamed) means \"Sharp (Acid) Maker\"\n\nNot too sure what \"Ium\" means, but ^ is where the gen comes from!\n\nHope that helps :)",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
8so2ig | the contradiction of why you have to wait x amount of hours to report someone missing when they also say the first 24-48 hours are most important? | [
{
"answer": "You can report it whenever you want, but if the person's only been missing a short time, and they are old enough to make their own decisions, the police are going to suspect they just decided to go somewhere and are not in trouble.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The 24 hour thing ... | null |
1vkeli | Can planets in the habitable zone have moons that also supports life? | [
{
"answer": "I think that the magnetic shielding would be a big issue. Even larger planets like Mars have their atmosphere stripped away by the solar winds, and Mars is much larger than our moon.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Earth sized planets with earth sized moons would be problematic. In... | null |
38ms08 | Would it be possible to make a mirror that reflects the image back the right way around? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. This is called a [non-reversing mirror](_URL_0_). There were some articles about a new kind of such mirror invented a few years ago. The guy who did it also made a side view mirror with \"no blind spot\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The operation of \"mirror imaging\" is c... | null |
1szuoo | how will the porn ban in the uk affect ordinary internet browsing? | [
{
"answer": "Same way the torrent site \"ban\" affected torrents in the UK - > it won't.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "23488014",
"title": "General Posts and Telecommunications Company",
"section": "Section::::Internet... | null |
3ux7lu | When and how did Boston, Massachusetts first become so heavily associated with Ireland and Irish culture? | [
{
"answer": " > Does Boston simply have an extremely high proportion of Irish Americans?\n\nYes, historically Boston was a site of major Irish immigration, beginning as early as the beginning of the 1800s but massively increasing from 1840-1870 as the influence of the Great Famine was felt in Ireland. \n\nIn th... | null |
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