id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
751bk6 | On YouTube I can watch extremely detailed videos of ancient Roman battles that show what each section of the army did and at what time. How is this known, exactly? Was there just a scribe sitting on a hill recording the battle? | [
{
"answer": "Well yes, there were always reporters for the [*Novum Eburicum Tempora*.](_URL_0_)\n\nBut seriously, it is worth just looking at the source material for this. The reconstruction of Teutoberg is more complicated than most in part because batlefield archaeology has actually played a role in shaping o... | null |
4mqakw | When surgeons "run the bowel" is there a specific strategy to how it's pulled out, and how it's put back in? | [
{
"answer": "Mercifully, real intestines aren't completely loose--they're tethered by tissue, called mesentery, which keeps them in some degree of order. You can pull bowel out to an extent, but it's not like one big loose rope the way it sometimes looks in movies/TV.\n\nThat said, bowel twisting on itself (vol... | null |
1qskfr | why doesn't a lightbulb act as a short circuit? | [
{
"answer": "Well, it does, kinda.\n\nA light bulb has a very thin wire. You might think that filament is about a millimeter wide, but the filament is actually a coil of a coil of the actual wire. The wire is much finer than a hair.\n\nPushing electric current through that wire is hard. So only a small amount o... | null |
1phz1o | why do some toothpastes produce a lot of foam and some produce non at all? | [
{
"answer": "Sodium Lauryl Sulphate. It is a detergent. It produces foam which carries off debris you scrub off your teeth. It also tastes kinda like mint and blocks all your sweet receptors which causes your OJ to taste bitter. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
7l95y5 | Is there a benefit to building aerodynamic Spaceships? | [
{
"answer": "In a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) or close to any planet with an atmosphere, there is still a thin trace of gases. Sometimes it's called \"residual atmosphere\". For most practical purposes it's a vacuum: you can't breathe and water boils at room temperature, but it can still cause drag on vehicles moving... | null |
e0wwie | how did currency exchange rates form in the very beginning? | [
{
"answer": "Same way as the price for anything: both sides do their homework on how much stuff they can get with the other sides currency and then figure out how much of their currency you are willing to give for a given amount of the opposite sides currency. At some point both sides reach an agreement. If the... | null |
86ziqz | How exactly does the rabies virus control human beings (stop them from drinking)? | [
{
"answer": "Rabies infects neurones that control respiration and swallowing. \nThere is an automatic cycle you usually don’t notice around breathing and swallowing. \nThe rabies infection of the neurones controlling that cause it to become unreliable.\nAn infected person starts to have trouble swallowing and t... | null |
bf7j6d | why is nationalism bad? | [
{
"answer": "Because it’s moved past nationalism, and into jingoism. \n\nNationalism isn’t bad until it starts coming at the expense of others.\n\nEdit: had to double check definitions, and I was describing PATRIOTISM. I guess nationalism is defined as extreme patriotism coming at the expense of others.",
"... | null |
1qze3o | why is beef tenderloin so expensive? | [
{
"answer": "[Here](_URL_0_) you have a chart showing where different beef cuts comes from.\n\nThe more a muscle has worked in its lifetime the tougher the beef cut tends to become and the tenderloin hasn't done much work in compared to to the rest of the cow. You can serve it very rare and nice tenderloin will... | null |
2elgzt | Hydrogen used as a energy storage system? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not an expert on hydrogen production, but I have looked at industrialised hydrogen production for future nuclear application. Assuming the same processes would be applied I can answer the question, but obviously my answer is based on nuclear rather than solar energy sources. \n\nThe main proble... | null |
3u8zxy | why do ships sink vertically? | [
{
"answer": "Its only if the breach in hull is only on one end or another. So when water start to fill up the ship one side gets heavier and goes down first. If the breack in the hull was all along one of the boards the ship would tilt towards that side before sinking and not vertically",
"provenance": null... | null |
1twhai | basic beliefs of taoism | [
{
"answer": "The Tao of Pooh. Read it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Taoism can be summed up pretty generally as it all focuses pretty much around nature and being a natural and forefilling person;\n\nDaoism (Taoism) 道統 (Daoism and Taoism are the same thing)\n\n- A way of life (in China may b... | null |
2hm2an | Why aren't sunrises fiery colors too? | [
{
"answer": "Not an expert, but I remember hearing a lecture about this. I'm not sure I'd characterize sunrises as less fiery or bland, but there are certain atmospheric changes that make sunrises and sunsets different. Firstly, there are some physiological changes that may contribute. Sunsets can darken the... | null |
1z3nj9 | how come when you crack your knuckles underwater, it is incredibly loud, but when you try and scream underwater, the sound is muffled to a whimper? | [
{
"answer": "Water transmits sounds quite well, so if an action vibrates the water to make a sound, you'll be able to hear it clearly in the local area. However, sound does not cross mediums very well. When you're trying to talk (or scream) underwater, the sound is being generated by vibrating air in your vocal... | null |
3zykkm | why is there such a large amount of rain falling across australia, when it is meant to be an el nino year and be very dry? | [
{
"answer": "El Nino is the summer part of the phenomena. In winter it becomes El Nina and brings more rain. I would guess that in the southern hemisphere the season are reversed.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "9638490",
"title"... | null |
4ux2y7 | If honeybees are non-native to North America, won't the original (or other) pollinators flourish and fill in the gaps left behind by the decreasing population? | [
{
"answer": "[Apparently it's a bit of a myth that honey bees are non-native](_URL_2_).\nBut that could just be a red herring and I get your point. \n\n[This online handbook on insect pollination of cultivated crops](_URL_1_) mentions the loss of native pollinating insects. So does [this article](_URL_0_). So i... | null |
4mu1x7 | the uploader has not made this video available in your country. | [
{
"answer": "Its likely the video contains material that is not licensed for worldwide use. International licenses are significantly more expensive than licenses for a specific region. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "55851302",
... | null |
wrsuv | Why is spacetime a Minkowski space and not a Euclidean space? | [
{
"answer": "Euclidean space doesn't have a way to build a causal structure like Minkowski space does. In Minkowski space you can have vectors with positive, negative, or zero length. This allows you to define events that are timelike separated and which are therfore causally connected, events that are spacelik... | null |
37o19j | how for example, gun laws are so different from state to state and why they just cant be the same all over the country | [
{
"answer": "Basically the US Constitution says that anything that isn't specifically spelled out as belonging to the Federal government will be left to the states or to the people (10th Amendment). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > The powers not delegated to the United States by the Const... | null |
2ycf5l | Why did Saddam's forces succeed in fighting the Kuwaiti forces, then lose to the American/coalition forces? | [
{
"answer": "Leaving aside the enormous issue of the obvious disparity between Kuwaiti and Coalition forces (both in scale and quality), Iraq's successful invasion of Kuwait benefited greatly from the experience of the Iran-Iraq War. Although the Iraqi military did not cover itself in glory in that conflict, th... | null |
t1zek | philosophy, what is it and why do people study it? | [
{
"answer": "Philosophy would be very hard to explain to a four year old like you asked. \n\nI think the [first 2 sentences on wikipedia](_URL_0_) sum it up.\n\nAs far as why people study it, it can be very interesting and mind expanding.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Philosophy is basically ... | null |
8odvhb | Is James McPherson too critical of George McClellan? | [
{
"answer": "Ethan Rafuse made a creditable attempt to defend McClellan in his 2011 biography *McClellan's War,* and while somebody other than I could better assess him as a tactician, strategist, or battlefield commander, I think Rafuse does manage to debunk some of the McClellan myths. The famous incident wh... | null |
3gd1s4 | how are babies born with "hardcoded" reflexes that they can do first time, without practice? | [
{
"answer": "Hardcoded is the exactly correct word to use.\n\nThey are born with neural pathways in their brains that will automatically respond to stimuli, residing in a more primitive part of their brain.\n\nFor many animals, that more primitive part of their brain is almost all that they have, so all of thei... | null |
f2w29z | how do people who suffer from epilepsy safely drive? | [
{
"answer": "They can’t. Exceptions not withstanding (minor cases, controlled by medication,etc) Licenses can be denied over medical issues.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To begin with, people with certain medical conditions can't drive. In this example, it's having seizures. \n\nFrom there, ... | null |
w9tqb | purpose of the f keys on the top of your keyboard. | [
{
"answer": "Back in the bad old days, there was no such thing as a \"mouse\"- all you had was your keyboard. But some software still needed the \"menus\" that we take for granted in most every program we use today. \n\nSo, the F keys were implemented as a quick and easy way to access those menus. Programs coul... | null |
bm96ad | What is the prevalence of assassinations in historical conflicts? | [
{
"answer": "As required, I will provide a lengthy answer.\n\nIn the past assassinations were often an option, though like today most had some sort of security detail. An example of which (though perhaps an extreme one) can be found in the Mongol Empire, where Genghis Khan had a private defensive force called t... | null |
etp9zh | Why wasn't the Holy Roman Empire ever centralized? | [
{
"answer": "I think I give a thorough answer, here: \n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "182007",
"title": "List of Imperial Diet participants (1792)",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"star... | null |
7chqf0 | What alleged psychodellic property or ingredient of nutmeg makes people high? | [
{
"answer": "Myristicin, an anti-cholinergic.\n\nLike other anti-cholinergic drugs it will cause dry eyes/mouth, confusion, headaches and nausea. In certain doses it can cause mild hallucinations.\n\nThe effects vary widely from person to person and can last for 2-3 days. I've frequently heard a nutmeg high b... | null |
17ljfh | why do objects in space tend to orbit in a disc-shaped pattern? | [
{
"answer": "Conservation of angular momentum, basically.\n\nImagine a big cloud of particles, each moving with some random velocity. The cloud will have some well-defined center of mass, obviously, so each particle that makes up the cloud is going to be in orbit about that center of mass, the orbit determined ... | null |
1zgvzj | why do we combine words together accidentally when speaking? | [
{
"answer": "Your brain forms sentences by trying to put together words that represent what you're thinking. Sometimes your brain knows the words, but doesn't send the signals to the muscles in your face quick enough for your mouth to form each individual word correctly, so you blend a couple words together, an... | null |
f74668 | how do rape kits/paternity tests work if sperm only has 50% of the father's dna? | [
{
"answer": "Each sperm only has 50%. \nThere are many many millions of sperm. \nThe odds that all of them miss any part of the father's DNA is essentially zero.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I mean...spermatozoa contains 50% of DNA compared to the othet cells.\n\nBut 100% of this 50% DNA ... | null |
2s9q4x | Why is recent history often excluded or extremely rushed in history classes? | [
{
"answer": "Historian James Loewen attends to this question in his book for popular consumption: \"Lies My Teacher Told me\". The short answer is: the recent past in too well known, and therefore too controversial. he studies the number of pages in history text books dedicated to to recent past, first in boo... | null |
brdapk | Did 'Population: ' signs actually appear outside towns in the American West? If so what was their purpose? | [
{
"answer": "American expansion always included strong elements of boosterism: wanting to believe that your town was bigger and better, or would soon be bigger and better, than other nearby towns. Because I’ve never seen any suggestion that population signs were posted for view by passing railway passengers, I... | null |
6mg3ia | what is a w-4? | [
{
"answer": "Essentially, the government requires that your employer collect your income tax on your wages and send that to the government. \n\nIn order to do that, your employer needs some way to estimate how much you'll pay in taxes. To do **that**, they need information from you about how much you expect to ... | null |
4dd9t0 | why do child victims of abuse gravitate towards people similar to the abuser? | [
{
"answer": "Abuse is all about control. A lot of abuse involves making its victims feel worthless, like they can never do better, like they cannot find happiness or deserve happiness, etc. Control is part of how abusers keep their victims silent. \n\nVictims of child abuse often have little exposure to healthy... | null |
ctwhwy | how does uhaul/any other car rental company keep vehicles equally distributed across the country? | [
{
"answer": "Car rental businesses hire people to drive vehicles to other locations. I’m sure Uhaul has something similar in place.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They hire people to drive vehicles back to where they need to be to equalize distribution. Sometimes you can even get a really good... | null |
285idr | How accurate is the Romanticized telling of the American Civil War? | [
{
"answer": "\"how much more complex was the civil war than simple fighting about slavery\"\n\nThe short answer here is that it wasn't more complex than that. Slavery was absolutely the central political controversy of 19th century America. The southern states had enjoyed legislative and judicial power over the... | null |
d8soga | How did the relative cost of a medieval knight compare to the cost of a modern battle tank? | [
{
"answer": "I found this thread from 2 years ago:\n\n_URL_0_\n\ncredit to u/WARitter and u/Dashukta for answers",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I mean the very terms \"medieval\" and \"knight\" are problematic in their own right as the medieval period is not particularly closely defined and kn... | null |
22pb3m | Did businesses really flourish in the Nazi Regime? | [
{
"answer": "Many businesses enjoyed an extremely close relationship with the Reich government. The most notorious one, [IG Farben](_URL_3_), --a chemical conglomerate formed in 1925 and made up of Bayer, BASF and others-- was so deeply implicated in committing crimes against humanity--being the supplier of Zyk... | null |
1dvoz1 | Why do American lawyers have such a bad reputation? When did disrespect toward lawyers start? | [
{
"answer": "A major issue is defense laywers. People don't understand that there is a difference between due process and guilty v innocent. A defense lawyer, regardless of whether or not the jury finds him guilty has to make sure his client has their rights observed. While this can be explained by say, a publi... | null |
f1ho5a | Did ancient civilizations have ancient civilizations? | [
{
"answer": "I hope this reply isn't too late for you u/urag_the_librarian. This is a fun question because, as is sensible enough...of course ancient peoples knew about *even more ancient* peoples. But how can we understand their level of knowledge? That is a much more difficult question. We are left with histo... | null |
4wrlje | if you wore an oxygen mask that simulates the elevation of 5,000 feet, would it make breathing at 6,000 feet easier, the same, or harder? | [
{
"answer": "I assume by \"oxygen man simulating 5,000 feet\" you are actually talking about a tanker full of normal air that has been pressurized to match that elevation, and not a tanker full of just oxygen. It would be easier. That is what any pressurized container meant for human life is trying to do. Airpl... | null |
oyl8p | the movie "primer." | [
{
"answer": "Not possible at all. I don't think it's possible to explain to a thirty year old.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In short: multiple time lines running parallel to each other. In long: See this image _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
2q5znk | Why can't the core of a star be "more" than iron? | [
{
"answer": "A star is held up by the equilibrium between the inward force of gravity and the outward pressure of fusion energy. However, fusing iron or any heavier elements than iron doesn't produce a net output of energy, but rather extracts energy from the environment. So when that sort of reaction occurs in... | null |
60wmpy | How did the Soviet Union attempt to domestically and internationally justify plainly different standards of living between party leaders and ordinary citizens? | [
{
"answer": "Followup and/or related question: how aware would the average soviet worker have *been* of the standard of living differences? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "87382",
"title": "Human rights in the Soviet Union",
... | null |
3523up | Why do deep sounds seem to travel further? | [
{
"answer": "Low frequency waves are long. Quite long. Some take as much as 20-30 ft to fully develop. They go right through most walls, whereas high frequencies (very short wavelengths) get stuck in a pillow. It's the same reason why it takes so much more power to drive bass speakers than treble & midrange. ... | null |
1ylgjq | Why did all of the reptilian megafauna of the seas disappear? | [
{
"answer": "Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was severe enough that highly specialized animals died out. Mammals survived because they were scavengers and could survive on a very broad died. Of course, other factors come into play. Large size always seems to be selected against during extinction events... | null |
8x6blt | why when lying on my side, my brain prefers to watch parallel to the floor instead of parallel to my eyes? | [
{
"answer": "Your brain knows that you are lying on your side. It expects things to look rotated for the eyes. If they are not something is wrong.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Your brain is a very complicated machine that does a lot of things you're not aware of, especially with regard to pr... | null |
1bd4yk | How close could a person get to the sun, realistically? | [
{
"answer": "That depends on the vessel, do you mean like in the space shuttle? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I know the closest you can get to the sun on earth is mount chimborazo its not the tallest mountain in the world but it is the tallest one on the equator.",
"provenance": null
... | null |
3z6xr5 | how exactly do we move our limbs and why don't we mimic our movement in robots? | [
{
"answer": "In order to move a muscle, we need to send a signal to a primary motor neuron. This specialized neuron controls groups of muscle fibers in one particular muscle, causing them to contract. When you want to consciously move a muscle you directly send a signal to the appropriate motor neuron which cau... | null |
igblu | How do we determine when a common ancestor
lived? | [
{
"answer": "Using [molecular clock](_URL_4_) genetic dating methods, generally following [coalescent theory](_URL_5_). It basically works like this. If we take a chunk of DNA from a human and the same chunk of DNA from a chimp then the differences in these two strands of DNA is an approximation of the time dep... | null |
vhr4z | Why do you think people use the term "Native American" instead of referring to tribes individually? Is this fair? | [
{
"answer": "Well, for one, they are native to North America so the term fits in that sense. Secondly, the United States government recognizes [565](_URL_0_) different Native American tribes and having to memorize or distinguish based on this, especially when the physical differences between tribe are virtuall... | null |
75403n | astronomy question | [
{
"answer": "Inverse square law-\n\nThe inverse-square law, in physics, is any physical law stating that a specified physical quantity or intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. The fundamental cause for this can be understood as geometric dil... | null |
2gb3fm | What rules of the english language came into play when determining that some words had no plural form- e.g fish, deer, etc? | [
{
"answer": "Any \"rules\" of the English language are artificial constraints created a posteriori. English is the way it is because some people spoke that way and it became a *custom* (rather than a rule).\n\nThis becomes clearer when implementing [speech recognition and machine translation](_URL_0_). Rule... | null |
ebm4ns | In The Communist Manifesto, it's fairly accepted that Marx imagined the workers revolution to start in heavily industrialized nations. Yet the majority of former Communist States when their Revolutions happened were in primarily agricultural societies, why did this happen? | [
{
"answer": "I answered a [similar question](_URL_0_) a few months ago which talks about Marxism's application in the Russian Empire.\n\nThe short answer is that the October Revolution was almost entirely orchestrated in the nation's industrial capital, Saint-Petersburg (then called Petrograd) so Marx was right... | null |
3mqpfi | how alcoholic must your breath be to catch fire, and why does it even work? | [
{
"answer": "80 proof and above is generally flammable. Although I really don't see how this could happen, this would require actually inhaling some embers, which doesn't really happen when you smoke. \n\nFurther more, its going down different \"tubes\" the alcohol is going down through your stomach. \n\nSmoke ... | null |
187h5b | why can't we capture light? | [
{
"answer": "I'm a chemist, and not a physicist, so it's quite possible that I'll be wrong on some of these things. But I'll do my best.\n\nFirst, it is somewhat possible to capture light in the way you're suggesting, at least transiently. The problem is that matter absorbs light and turns it into an alternativ... | null |
7otdlw | What is the benefit to making new elements in labs? | [
{
"answer": " > Is it simply for the furthering of knowledge or is there another reason?\n\nIs that not enough?\n\nWe learn about nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, etc. If we can study them chemically, we can learn about atomic structure as well. These extremely heavy elements could have very interesting ch... | null |
80riqs | active reading and why it's important to a reader | [
{
"answer": "\"Active Reading\" is simply reading, but with an emphasis on paying attention to content and critically analyzing the text as you read, instead of just reading the words and moving on. \n\nIt's important as it gets a person to focus on the content of the text, it lets them identify unknown words o... | null |
mv2l5 | socialism vs. capitalism (and right-wing vs. left-wing) | [
{
"answer": "Socialism is when the 'means of production' (factories, land, raw materials) are owned cooperatively. Either by groups involved in the production, or by the state on behalf of the people. either the products or the profits from their sale are distributed according to the group's plan.\n\nCapitalism... | null |
1xtzco | How does acidosis ( lactic, metabolitic etc) cause some one to go in to a coma? | [
{
"answer": "I've looked into this for you, and the conclusion is this is poorly understood.\n\nWith that said, there are a quite a few apparent effects of acidosis that would likely contribute to neurological impairment, which I'll detail for you. \n\nThe first (and in my opinion most important in this case) e... | null |
2lyxx4 | How much Western pop culture (movies, music, etc.) was allowed in the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries? | [
{
"answer": "I remember a thread about music in the USSR - _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "hi! you'll find some responses regarding films in these posts\n\n* [What was the public perception of Cold War films such as Dr Strangelove in the Soviet Union?](_URL_3_) - includes a link to a li... | null |
5wg44w | why do hdr videos require more processing? | [
{
"answer": "HDR is more information between the darkest and brightest points. The greater information per-frame means it takes longer to load, and better hardware to process.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "7482183",
"title": "V... | null |
39dafn | Does California's sinkhole problem magnify its precarious position on the fault lines as well as being in the subduction zone in speeding up its descent into the ocean? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not sure I understand the question... what subduction zone do you mean? And where in the article is any reference to fault lines? California is not descending into the ocean. \n\nThe drought might impact the San Andreas fault slightly as water can work as a lubricant in [strike-slip faults](_UR... | null |
7bvtau | how does hydraulic fracturing work? and what are the pros and cons of the process. | [
{
"answer": "You drill a hole into a rock formation containing tiny pockets of trapped natural gas. Then you pump a mixture or water, solvents, and tiny bits of sand into the hole. You pressurize the liquid at high pressure, fracturing the rock and wedging the little bits of sand into the cracks. When you le... | null |
1ijh2m | If I replace multiple light bulbs at the same time why do they burn out at different times? | [
{
"answer": "Light bulbs are made to last within a certain tolerance. \n\nExample: 100 light bulbs are manufactured to last 1000 hours. But in reality most of those light bulbs won't last 1000 hours. Some will last more, some will last less. So you might get 90 of those light bulbs that last between 950 to... | null |
9g181m | are all physical traits “inherited”, or are some of them random? | [
{
"answer": "Some of them are random - that’s actually how evolution works.\n\nThe way your body grows is defined in a set of rules stored in each cell, which is your DNA. When your body makes new cells (as you’re growing, or when you need to heal a wound), that DNA has to be copied to the new cell. Sometimes e... | null |
1zw8uk | would an airplane be affected if it flew over land that was experiencing a massive earthquake (i.e. over 9.0)? | [
{
"answer": "Earthquakes in maritim regions can cause floods and Tsunamis, which in turn have a strong influence on local winds. Those can possibly influence airplanes close to the ground. I can't imagine an airplane being affected by earthquakes when it flies at its normal transition height of around 10-15 km ... | null |
ybvie | Does the discovery of the Higgs help create a better defenition of mass | [
{
"answer": "Not really, for a couple of reasons: The Higgs field provides a mechanism for fundamental particles to have mass, but it says nothing about why diffenent particles have the masses they do. That has to be added by hand. Also, the Higgs field is not the only source of mass, and most of the mass of ev... | null |
23rxvo | How hard would you have to press your fingertips together to kill the bacteria between them through sheer pressure? | [
{
"answer": "If you had a perfectly smooth surface, I don't see any reason why you couldn't crush them. However, what looks smooth to us is probably not smooth on the size scale of bacteria — most of them would probably be slid out of the way into crevices in the surface — think trying to crush M & Ms with a sl... | null |
1ej9sc | What are the largest animal populations on Earth? | [
{
"answer": "Many insects have numbers in the trillions, and biomasses far surpassing ours. We have much greater numbers than any other large mammal. A few birds also outnumber us.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "22037519",
"titl... | null |
3am7sd | what is going on inside my phone that causes it to freeze? | [
{
"answer": "There are a lot of different things, but basically it's the same reason computers occasionally freeze - lack of system resources or a critical error in core code. Because we keep pushing technology forward towards more features and more power, we never have time to optimize code and operating syst... | null |
2kc8i8 | There's an episode of ST:TNG where Picard tells Wesley that before Marco Polo most people in Europe didn't know whether or not China really existed. That's not true ....right? | [
{
"answer": "The Romans where aware of the Han Dynasty and traded Silk, wine and olive oil. What they knew about each other was limited by the sheer distance that separated them. The western Roman Empire probably did little trade with China the parts of Rome closer to Persia probably did most of Rome's trade wi... | null |
lx4ki | What is the biggest earthquake the Earth is capable of producing? | [
{
"answer": "The largest earthquake every recorded was about a magnitude 9.5. Magnitude is largely controlled by the maximum stress rock can sustain. Higher magnitude quakes aren't really possible because the rocks will break before the stresses can build high enough to make a larger quake.\n\nThis topic was co... | null |
3a0ruz | what happens in my brain when i get inspired? | [
{
"answer": "i don't know for sure, but it would make sense to me (again no idea on the science), but synapses fire that trigger parts of the brain that release endorphins which make you feel good and happy about it. the more inspired, the more synapses fire the more endorphins released",
"provenance": null... | null |
5o5xj4 | why do domestic trailers have less material than international ones? why not just use the international trailer for foreign and domestic audiences, especially when youtube exists? | [
{
"answer": "Trailers are often made to appeal to a specific audience.\n\nFor the most part, trailers for western countries will all be the same, but you may see some difference in trailers for Japan and China, as those audience have different tastes for films and content then western audiences, and if the film... | null |
43ypsc | What would happen if you frayed the ends of hundreds of small wires connected to two ends of a battery, and brushed them together? | [
{
"answer": "You'd be creating a short circuit, with consequences possibly including a damaged battery, melting insulation / vaporized or molten wire / fire, and a chemical hazard, depending on the battery chemistry and the exact nature of your setup. \n \nTo start with, let's say that there's only one wire at... | null |
7utstl | the new memo release and what it means | [
{
"answer": " > Is this release as bad as they say?\n\nWho is \"They\"?\n\n > What does it mean?\n\nIt means we know nothing we didn't already know. The FBI used in part, a democratic-funded dossier as evidence to obtain warrants to conduct surveillance against Carter Page. Related information much later was fo... | null |
6hetvb | If there are magnetic field lines are there gravitational field lines also? | [
{
"answer": "In Newton's theory of gravity, you can definitely define gravitational field lines. The reason they aren't used very much is that they aren't as useful as magnetic field lines are, for two reasons:\n\n1. Magnetic field lines can be seen directly. For instance, plasma is often frozen onto magnetic f... | null |
18v2sk | Why did some Jews get out of Germany before the WWII and others stayed behind? | [
{
"answer": "Many, many reasons.\n\nUnlike what the Nazis were claiming the \"Jewish\" people of Germany considered themselves to be just as German as non Jewish people considered themselves to be. It was their home. They had a stake in it. I say \"Jewish\" because there were laws which determined if one was ... | null |
16s3o8 | How did gold atoms coalesce into relatively homogenous nuggets rather than mixing with other elements as the solar system formed? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nThose nuggets form later",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When the early earth differentiated, almost all the gold was taken in to the core. The current gold on the surface is due to later meteorite bombardment, see _URL_0_ on how we figured that out.\nSo now we have rand... | null |
68wq28 | why dixon ticonderoga pencils can erase better than other pencils. | [
{
"answer": "You kids should stop playing with rubbers.\n\nSerious answer, it has to do with the composition of the rubber. I've noticed that the rubber on those erasers rolls off it into little cylinders. This is important because it increases the surface area of the rubber. Imagine wiping up a desk with a Clo... | null |
1xoo6e | if humans are really that bad a multitasking, how can people sing and play an instrument at the same time? | [
{
"answer": "They're *good* at multitasking if the two tasks can be done with different parts of the brain.\n\nThis is why you can drive a car and carry on a conversation with ease, but you can't tap two different rhythms with your hands.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because to an experience... | null |
45wrsq | What all did Einstein's theory of special relativity predict? | [
{
"answer": "Einstein's special theory of relativity, which he published in 1905, said nothing about gravity, black holes, etc. That all came from the general theory of relativity, which was published a decade later.\n\nSpecial relativity includes such effects as time dilation, Lorentz contraction, the relativ... | null |
855tbh | why does gps need almanac data? | [
{
"answer": "It could, but that would mean a lot more processing. Almanac data is almost always available, so it is much more efficient to use that instead of listening to everything and then figuring things out from there.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You could listen for all the satellites... | null |
2wawkr | Would it be possible to put a human into a permanent hypothermic state instead of cryogenically frozen in order to slow down ageing for hundreds of years? | [
{
"answer": "this link maybe of intrest to you: _URL_0_\n\nThis is the next step in the \"cooling the body for surgery\" idea. This could also be a next step towards some sort of hibernation like we see in Sc-Fi film/games. Any state of 'stasis' that the human body is put in could have long term negative medi... | null |
rnbn4 | Physiologically speaking, how different am I from someone who lived 200 years ago? 500 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "We are a lot taller and fatter compared to people 100 years ago, they did not have anywhere as near as much meat on average compared to what we do now.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I happened to read [this article](_URL_0_) a few days ago... It looks like our teeth may have beco... | null |
3vmemk | [Psychology] What's the science of obsession? Questions below | [
{
"answer": "I'm really surprised that no one has attempted to answer this yet.\n\n1. Obsession is defined in the DSM-5 as the following:\n * Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and unwanted, and that in most individuals cau... | null |
36w9go | What is the difference between a scientific theory and law? | [
{
"answer": "Someone asked a very similar question a few months ago, [and this is a fairly frequently asked question,](_URL_0_) so I'll copy paste what I wrote there, since that user specifically asked about 'Newton's Laws' vs 'Einstein's theory' as well.\n\n-----------------------------------------------------... | null |
2lv1n9 | why do screens use red/blue/green pixels but printers use red/blue/yellow ink? | [
{
"answer": "Inks subtract color, screens add. Basic ink colors are cyan, yellow and magenta. So cyan is white minus red, but on a screen it's constructed as blue plus green. It works like this because white light goes through ink, so the color comes from what is subtracted. On a CRT or LED screen, a pixel is a... | null |
c76vfq | why don’t we have fat and muscle surrounding our brains as an added protective layer over our skulls? | [
{
"answer": "Heat retention. The brain uses a large portion of our energy and the temperature range from normal to heat stroke is all of 3 degrees C. Also because of all of the blood vessels in the brain, a lot of the body's heat is pumped through your head.\n\nJust being hot makes you think slower and make m... | null |
6fqv7v | how did fentanyl become part of the illegal drug trade and is it here to stay? | [
{
"answer": "Parmacist.\n\nEvery opioid has become apart of the illegal drug trade because they all cause euphoria when abused. Causing big issues. It's as unavoidable as gravity. But they're also irreplaceable in pain treatment. \n\nFentanyl in particular has several forms, like mucosal sticks and long-dura... | null |
axa7le | Can you determine the secondary/tertiary structure of a protein based solely on the amino acid sequence? | [
{
"answer": "If you know what patterns and properties to look for in the primary sequence you can make fairly accurate predictions about some features of secondary structure. Principally alpha helices. You can predict beta sheets as well, but since beta sheets, particularly parallel beta sheets, can form betwee... | null |
81zmtt | Resources on pre-modern/medieval warfare/armies in East Asia that are not in the recommended reading list? Specifically regarding Korea. | [
{
"answer": "Specifically for Korea, the major event that has attracted most attention is Hideyoshi's invasion, 1592-1598. The resources resulting from that attention amount to 3 major books, and various journal articles and other books. Two of these books are in the reading list (but in the Imperial China sect... | null |
5dbpkh | why microwaves don't explode with the pressure of accumulated steam from food. | [
{
"answer": "The microwave is actually not air tight. There are air vents on the microwave itself. I also believe that the door itself is also not air tight. Microwave energy is also not kept inside of the microwave completely, given why pregnant women should not stand by the microwave. ",
"provenance": nul... | null |
284br3 | weed smokers of reddit: what is the advantage of smoking marijuana instead of making pot brownies? | [
{
"answer": "But once it does kick in... :o",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "And there's just something inexplicable about the vibe and mood of blazing a joint somewhere isolated in nature.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Smoking, you need a somewhat secluded or private area, wh... | null |
9oqgb5 | - what is preventing the us government from making voting day a national holiday? | [
{
"answer": "The US has no legal holidays where all businesses are required to give all workers the day off, it's a capitalist country.\n\nThere are about 260 working days per year. Adding another federal holiday thus costs about 0.4% of productivity. While it's a small number, 0.4% of the US GDP is a really ... | null |
61s5oi | how are paintings restored? | [
{
"answer": "First they study the picture to see how the painting constructed. They use X-rays and ultra violet lights to see what paints and varnishes were used.and if any repairs have been done before. Also knowledge of the artists usual technique and of the time period are important.\n\nOnce they have this i... | null |
1tp2xp | How do they convert electric signal to type that our brain can read? | [
{
"answer": "Nervous systems already communicate with electrical signals. In fact, that's what your mechanoreceptors do: the hair cells in your ears, for instance, convert pressure changes into electrical signals which downstream neurons can then receive (the chemical synapse does utilize ligand/receptor kinet... | null |
aa0dob | how do game anti cheats, like battleye or gameguard work? | [
{
"answer": "There are different flags that can be detected to assume someone is trying to tamper the game, such as debugging another process (the game in this case), accessing the memory mapped to that game, running the game in a virtualized environment, tampering the binary or assets and many more. \nAnti-che... | null |
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