id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
3k6n0h | how come americans have large portion sizes and relatively cheap prices for their food? | [
{
"answer": "Capitalism. \n\nPeople want to get the most for their money and when it comes to food that means large sizes and cheap prices. If food costs go too high then people simply stop buying that food item and that costs a restaurant or grocery store more money by the food rotting than it costs them keepi... | null |
5o2mom | Doesn't the speed of light disprove Fermi's paradox? | [
{
"answer": "When discussing the Fermi paradox, people usually only talk about civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The distance between galaxies is far to great to consider an inter-galactic civilization (though it may be possible).\n\nThe diameter of the stellar disk of the Milky Way is only about 100,000 l... | null |
6h1jsn | is taking a shot of 100 proof alcohol the same as taking 1.25 shots of 80 proof? | [
{
"answer": "Essentially yes. Except for the additional water in the 80 proof alcohol. But there is just as much alcohol in both shots so it will have the same effect on your blood alcohol content.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1894804... | null |
dcky6i | why do humans start getting body odor after they go through puberty? | [
{
"answer": "Basically (the way I was taught this at least) you have two major types of sweat glands, apocrine and eccrine. Sweat produced by eccrine glands is mostly water. Apocrine sweat is more oily and contains a whole bunch of other stuff (which I won't get into). So bacteria can metabolize the components ... | null |
1lyuqw | Do bone conduction earphones protect hearing? | [
{
"answer": "There's no reason to believe that they would. Hearing loss is usually caused by damage to the inner ear, which is still getting as much sound exposure with bone conduction as it would through the normal path of sound.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Short answer no.\nThe auditory s... | null |
a9q9sw | why do circles tesselate hexagonally? | [
{
"answer": "It's all geometry. Assuming equal radii between all circles, if you place them in a way that they don't intersect but touch each other at exactly one point (tessellating) and you start with just 3 circles, those circles form a triangle shape. If you connect the centerpoints of those circles, it for... | null |
20b15a | Where do vegetables and fruit/nut bearing plants get their vitamins and minerals? | [
{
"answer": "They get all the minerals they need from the soil. Vitamins for plants aren't the same necessarily as our vitamins, because a vitamin is something the organism needs to survive but cannot produce on its own (vitamin D is not a true vitamin to us).\n\nSo, for example, plants can produce vitamin C (a... | null |
1l2sq5 | What's the noise a formula 1 makes when it changes gears? | [
{
"answer": "It's most likely a backfire. When the car is accelerating its at full throttle/load, and the engine runs out of power, so it's time to change gears. imagine going from full throttle to no throttle (changing gears) then back to full throttle. \nThe bang u hear is unburnt fuel exploding in the exhaus... | null |
5uqezd | what determines how internet lag in different games looks? | [
{
"answer": "Male programmer type guy here. It just depends on how the programmers who made the game decided to handle the case where the game isn't getting updates from the server. Some games leave the character in place, and then warp him when the updates resume. Others avoid the warp by having the character ... | null |
2l9q9s | In the United States, have there been any particularly strong Vice Presidents, and how was The Senate different under them? | [
{
"answer": "In addition to Calhoun, John Adams regularly presided over the Senate and partook in debates, and beats Calhoun by one vote for the most tie breaks. \n\nThat said, while they are the nominal head of the Senate, the Constitution also says that the House and Senate get to write their own procedural r... | null |
3if3sw | Do black holes really vary in size or does the collapsed point in space just vary in intensity? | [
{
"answer": "Every amount of mass has some radius that, were it all to be compressed within the radius, it would form a black hole. This is called the Schwartzchild radius, and it's calculated by the formula r=2GM/c^2 . G is the gravitational constant, and c is the speed of light. These are both constant, so th... | null |
1cas5i | why do strange graphical effects sometimes occur when alt+tabbing a computer game? | [
{
"answer": "It's because the game takes up the majority of your computer's resources and stays at the forefront. Your computer needs to load in all the other stuff that the OS and other programs need before you can use them.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
3t6374 | How much of time dilation is due to the gravity well versus relative velocity? | [
{
"answer": "You can indeed separate the two effects if the field is weak. I've done the explicit computation for the orbit of Mercury around the sun [here](_URL_0_). It turns out that in a circular orbit the time dilation due to the orbital speed is exactly half the gravitational time dilation. \n\nP.S.: GPS s... | null |
en8rw1 | how exactly is the “stop/start” automatic engine feature in newer cars “better”? | [
{
"answer": "Barely any wear and tear, better for the environment as all that time you spend not moving while the engine running is time that CO2 and pollutants are spewing out when they don't need to be. Multiply all that time by millions and millions of cars and you have a significant CO2 saving.\n\nSaves fue... | null |
2wpeca | how do all the bodies, tanks etc. get cleaned off the battlefields? | [
{
"answer": "It really depends. Corpses are usually taken by troops of their own side, who wish to recover and bury the bodies: this is often the purpose of ceasefires. Military equipement is a bit different. During battles, it will be left, and probably for some time afterwards, but if the vehicle is valuable ... | null |
92bn6w | why does our body need uv to create vitamin d when uv exposure increases our risk of skin cancer? | [
{
"answer": "It’s UV over-exposure that increases the risk of cancer. Too much/little of anything becomes a hazard to the human body. Too much/little food, water, heat, cold, attitude, sunshine, pressure, speed, etc. The key is moderation!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "UV light is an energy... | null |
425tgd | Is there any particular reason why so many people in the United States claim Cherokee ancestry? | [
{
"answer": "There's one question you left out: is this actually a trend, or do you just know an unusual amount of Cherokees?\n\nI'm seriously asking, because I know a lot of people and I've never met someone who claimed to be Cherokee.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've read somewhere that i... | null |
lnwfu | how does the new iphone voice command system (siri) work? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know the exact details, but I do know that any query made to the system goes to remote servers with the voice command. There, the technology across multiple servers parses your voice to determine exactly what you say (some say the original creators of the voice recognition technology, Nuan... | null |
hl9hz | How livable would 2x the Earth's gravity be? | [
{
"answer": "You might want to check out some discussion we've had here recently on the same topic. [Here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4387132",
"title": "Gravity of Earth",
"section": "... | null |
64zz7f | why are chemical weapons worse than regular ones? is gassing a town worse than bombing it, assuming the number of innocent deaths is the same? | [
{
"answer": "Chemical weapons are worse because:\n\n1) They kill slowly. \n\n2) They are not as controllable as they drift in the air and on the water. This means they cause a lot of collateral damage. \n\n3) They often contaminate and kill those attempting to treat the injured, and they often have very few to ... | null |
3wcaqk | why is it so much louder when you whistle with two fingers? | [
{
"answer": "I can't do that. I just wanted you to know I both envy and respect your ability to whistle with your fingers",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When you whistle in the usual way (make an o with your lips, tongue down) you make your \"whistle\" with your lips. As these are \"soft\" tis... | null |
2pta7j | Would it be possible to use time dilation to travel into the future? | [
{
"answer": "In terms of physics, yes. The technology for that doesn't exist right now though. We can send things at like 20 km/s, and we'd need to go like ten thousand times that fast to start seeing these effects.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because of special relativity, it is possible. ... | null |
3ds2hw | Are there multiple types of Electromagnetic Fields? | [
{
"answer": " > I've seen it described as a \"field produced by charged objects\", but in other places it sounds more like one continuous thing that extends through all space\n\nThe electromagnetic field extends through *all space.* It simply has essentially a zero value away from charges. (though self propaga... | null |
1z6pv4 | How does salt damage concrete on a molecular level? | [
{
"answer": "Normally the embedded steel in concrete (be it re-bar or welded wire fabric) is protected from corrosion by an effect called passivization caused by the high PH (around 13) of concrete. When water containing dissolved chlorides makes it way to the steel, through the concrete pore structure or more... | null |
2z1wfn | how/why does one company make so many different, unrelated products? | [
{
"answer": "It's called \"vertical integration\" and it's regarded as a smart move because the more a company diversifies its products, the less hurt they are if one product takes a hit (for instance, if they need to recall, or if a competitor comes up with something better, or if a change in the marketplace a... | null |
45f6ck | What are the hazards of Fusion technology? | [
{
"answer": "Also, what are the benefits ? Fuel is about 30% of the cost of producing electricity via fission. Does that mean electricity from fusion reactors would be 30% cheaper than elec from fission reactors ? About the same cost to build each type of reactor ? I assume decommissioning a fusion reactor ... | null |
9240vx | why are space rockets so hard to handle? | [
{
"answer": "You need to look up what they call \"the rocket equation\". \n\nLets say you want to throw 10kg into orbit. Orbit speed means you have to accelerate it to something like 9.4 km/s (thats per _second_). Thats pretty fast. To accerlate your 10kg AND your rocket to that speed you need a certain amount... | null |
1gx9vo | What methods were used to estimate the population of pre-columbian America? How reliable were they? | [
{
"answer": "There were a number of methods used that resulted in widely varying estimates. Charles Mann provides a brief but thorough discussion of methods used to estimate pre-contact populations in the new world in \"1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus\" (Vintage, 2011). Some researchers us... | null |
8wxw24 | how do dual sim phones work | [
{
"answer": "A [dual SIM](_URL_1_) phone can hold / use 2 [SIM cards](_URL_0_). \n\nThe SIM card holds an identifying (hardware) number that identifies the phone, so you can set up a subscription and associate the SIM number with a phone number.\n\nSo dual SIM phones can answer/handle two separate phone number... | null |
37zzoj | What was happening pre World War 1? | [
{
"answer": "Here's some answers I've given previously on the subject\n\n[The Balkan Wars] (_URL_1_)\n\n[Lead up to and outbreak of WWI] (_URL_2_)\n\n[Balkan Nationalism and the Outbreak of WWI] (_URL_0_)\n\nThe 1890s saw the formation of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy), the formation of th... | null |
1xn6an | What percentage of new immigrants learned "fluent" English in the 19th century? | [
{
"answer": "To which country?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "38761976",
"title": "Crown Colony of Malta",
"section": "Section::::World War I and the Interwar period (1914–1940).\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 18,
... | null |
4medxt | why does the uk require citizens to register to vote? why not automatically enroll people when they receive their national insurance number? | [
{
"answer": "You need to be registered at an address so they know which constituency you are in so your vote can be cast in the right place. If they didn't voting would be chaotic and it would be difficult to detect fraud.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
3cv0v7 | how does facebook "share bait" work. what are the spammers getting out of getting it? | [
{
"answer": "Money. The more people you can attract to your facebook page/website the more money you can get out of ads.\n\nPlus if you have some bad intentions you can try to infect the user when he visits your website, which is mostly equal to money.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"... | null |
1am4n8 | How was the first Operating System made when there were no computers to make it on? | [
{
"answer": "With a series of tubes.\n\nAnd switches/toggles/logic gates. Basically, it was made with physical hardware.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Our modern notion of computer didn't arise suddenly well-formed from theoretical concepts. In fact, the entire idea of operating system isn't ... | null |
2h9tc0 | since cellphones are here to stay and commercial flight is here to stay, why haven't they figured out how to make it so we can keep our phones on. | [
{
"answer": "They have. I recently heard in America they have officially removed the cell phone restriction.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You *can* have them on. You can't use them as a phone.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nOne, cell towers aren't designed for phones 30,000 feet in the air that can hit multi... | null |
4jwys7 | What were the implications of Operation Unthinkable and just how close did it come to fruition? | [
{
"answer": "I do not know much about the inner workings of the British military and government in April and May of 1945, and so I cannot say how seriously the British themselves took this plan, but I can say that Winston Churchill's goal of stunting Soviet influence in postwar Europe did not align with the aim... | null |
ljwjl | nuclear fusion. | [
{
"answer": "Well, we *don't*, is the short answer. But let's not stop there.\n\nSmall atoms work in a strange way. Normally if you think about two separate objects that you want to put together — think Legos or whatever here — you find that you have to *do work* in order to put them together. You have to pick ... | null |
3t5stn | What was the Islamic attitude towards and tolerance level of other religions, prior to the sacking of Constantinople by the crusaders and the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols? | [
{
"answer": "Can you explain what influence the 1204 sack of Constantinople had on Islamic attitudes towards Christianity, in your view? That's not a connection I've heard before so I'm a little confused.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Why the West attained a period of dominance is a separate... | null |
2g9c4x | why do people shiver when they are using all of their strength? | [
{
"answer": "They aren't actually shivering. Their muscles are rapidly changing the fibers they use to balance and lift the load. One set of fibers is doing the majority of the lifting while the other set relax slightly then they switch positions creating the illusion of shivering. This switching can happen upw... | null |
3o9h6c | why does our brain get attached to people, things, places etc, and why do we have a strong need to find the one we love | [
{
"answer": "Probably all to do with our survival instincts. We can get attached to places as a way to demonstrate that it's \"our area\", and to produce offspring we adore the person that is deemed by our brain as the best mate, for healthier and stronger children. This is my biased idea, so take it for what i... | null |
3hj4et | what does remastering a game entail? | [
{
"answer": "It *completely* depends on the company doing the \"remastering\". There is no fixed set of things except, perhaps, as requirements from the licensor. In addition, there are often limitations on what can be overhauled because original development materials may have been lost or are otherwise no lo... | null |
ffa1sh | [Meta] This sub desperately needs a "Answered" flair for posts that have ad least one mod approved reply | [
{
"answer": "There's actually a browser plugin (at least, there's one for Chrome) called [AskHistorians Comment Helper](_URL_0_) that puts a little green number next to the number of comments that shows how many comments are still up.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Maybe \"approved answer(s)\"... | null |
6a0d9x | I heard something off of my granddad about World War 2 spies. He said that, when the British were interrogating German spies, they would end the interrogation with "good luck" or "hail victory" in German and, if the German replied, they would know he was a spy. Is there any validity to this? | [
{
"answer": "As far as \"good luck\" goes, he may be thinking of a scene in the 1963 film *The Great Escape* where this happens in reverse- escaped British PoWs are captured when a Gestapo officer wishes them \"Good luck\" in English and one of them instinctively replies \"thank you\".\n\nI have seen claims (fo... | null |
9ljcpi | how can general pain medication like paracetamol and ibuprofen treat so many different things? | [
{
"answer": "Becsuse the dont treat the issue itself but rather act on the pain sensors in the brain. You just don't feel the pain. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Prostaglandins are natural chemicals that are released into your body when you are injured or sick. When they're released, they ma... | null |
2bvvq1 | why do massive arcade style coin operated machines suck so much in comparison to other video game consoles? | [
{
"answer": "Because they're very expensive, so the owner doesn't want to buy a new one every few years. Plus there isn't really a huge demand for in depth arcade games: arcades are kind of dying out because of console/PC games ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Modern arcade machines are large c... | null |
8e4w3q | why do developing countries receive development aid from other countries instead of simply "adding" the same amount of money into government budget? | [
{
"answer": "Hyperinflation from printing money to cover government deficits happens because the supply of the currency is dramatically increased. Note that this happens relative to the currency of which the supply is increasing--for example, when there is hyperinflation occurring with the Zimbabwe dollar, pric... | null |
fvcac | Can someone explain the physics going on with the snapping shrimp when it shoots its shockwave bubble attack? | [
{
"answer": "It would be a sin for anyone except iorgfeflkd to answer this.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The most basic scenario of cavitation is if you have an infinite fluid, and magically cause a sphere of it to disappear, and track what happens to the water trying to fill that vacuum. In... | null |
7hmpgb | what starts the pumping of the human heart and how does it keep going? | [
{
"answer": "You don't sound dumb. It's a good question. The heart has its own electrical system that keeps it pumping independent of brain function. Sometimes it misfires, though, and that can lead to things like heart attacks. Basically, as long as there's blood flowing through the heart to keep it alive it d... | null |
1djegn | why do i see lots of black guys with white girls, and very few white guys with black girls? | [
{
"answer": "The same reason black men date white women, because black women are crazy. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "8568334",
"title": "Amiri Baraka",
"section": "Section::::Controversies.:White people.\n",
"... | null |
63ykl7 | why is 95 gasoline powerful than 92? | [
{
"answer": "Are you talking about octane rating? If so, it's not more powerful. Octane rating indicates how much compression the fuel can sustain before it ignites. A high octane rating can be compressed more, thus high-powered engines that compress the fuel more need it in order to avoid it igniting premature... | null |
4fc6r0 | how do scientists know how much of an impact the human body can take in a car wreck? | [
{
"answer": "There has been much research done on corpses to analyze how strong bones and other tissues are and there are a great many analyses of injuries where we can estimate the forces involved using physics and then compare the forces with the degree of injury.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
21meck | How does gravity affect atom nucleus? | [
{
"answer": "Several things regarding this.\n\nAs a reminder of the strengths of forces acting on the particles:\n\nStrength of gravity of a proton acting on an electron:\nF_g = G *m1*m2/r^2\n= 3.67*10^-47 Newtons\n\nStrength of electromagnetism acting on an electron:\nF_e = k * q1 * q2 / r^2\n= 8*10^-8 Newtons... | null |
13roa3 | if formula 1 teams use totally smooth tires for perfect grip in dry weather, why are there laws in place about grip on road tires? | [
{
"answer": "The tires rubber is partially melted due to the speed they go. If you ever watched NASCAR after a crash when they follow the pace car they swerve back and forth to keep the tires warm so they get better grip, the tires also have to be changed often because of this. ",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
10aj11 | Why is it that Neutrinos can pass through so much material without a problem (like the Earth?) How are we able to detect them if they so easily penetrate matter? | [
{
"answer": "Neutrinos only interact through the [weak interaction](_URL_2_) because they don’t posses an electric charge (needed for electromagnetic interaction) or a color charge (needed for [strong interaction](_URL_1_)). The weak interaction being a short range interaction, neutrinos interact very little wi... | null |
g1ibhd | what causes the “refrigerated taste” food can get when it is uncovered in the freezer too long? | [
{
"answer": "Fats tend to soak up smells and stuff around them. I’d recommend cleaning your fridge well every once in a while.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "All the food inside is drying out and all the moisture takes smells into the air with it. The fridge is closed and small, so all that sm... | null |
9mdop1 | is it real that when you left the refrigirator door open it consumes more energy? | [
{
"answer": "Yes it does, a refrigerator is basically a pump that effectively pumps heat out of the inside and on the back coil, if you open it, air gets in from the outside, making it need to pump more heat out, but the heat then goes back in,\n\nTo be fair leaving it a bit open probably won’t waste that much ... | null |
4965t0 | What happens when you prepare acids with heavy water? | [
{
"answer": "What you are referring to is called the [isotope effect](_URL_0_). It is real, but it isn't usually very pronounced.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"Interesting\" is a statement that means different things to different people.\n\nAnyway there are small measurable differences in ... | null |
tp048 | What is the spectrum of professional opinion on the Kennedy assassination? | [
{
"answer": "Oswald shot him. In the head.\n\nThat's pretty much the only opinion that will not get you rejected for tenure. Why? Because like all conspiracies, the JFK conspiracy relies upon such a perfect chain of events, placement of people, and reliance on their complicity, as well as not leaving a paper... | null |
44g3tv | what's more inflated, the price of diamonds or artificial diamonds? | [
{
"answer": "That's a damn interesting question but impossible to answer because we do not know just how horribly inflated diamond prices are. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They are not really inflated, it's all based on supply and demand like any other commodity. Industrial diamonds are ver... | null |
71cbt5 | How much Spanish troops were on Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish American war? | [
{
"answer": "Spain's force in Cuba numbered 278,457 soldiers, distributed in 101 Infantry Battalions, 11 Cavalry Regiments, 2 Artillery Regiments, and 4 Marine Battalions. The force in Cuba made up the bulk of Spain's entire military force, being nearly 57 percent of the Army. This force was bolstered by anothe... | null |
6pov08 | if the deepest depth drilled by man is about 8 miles, and the crust is nearly 20 miles deep, how were scientists able to discover that there is an upper and lower mantel and inner and outer core? | [
{
"answer": "Mostly by earthquakes. When there's a big shock from an earthquake the entire planet rings like a bell. This ringing can be detected by seismographs. On those readings we see reflections of the pressure wave. These reflections are caused by the wave reaching the boundary between different layers of... | null |
1ly54c | When did the word "ass" start applying to people's butts instead of just to donkeys? | [
{
"answer": "Don't forget that outside of the US it's spelt and pronounced 'arse,' whilst the type of donkey is still universally called an ass. A lot of Irish accents have a very 'ass'-like pronunciation of 'arse,' and of course Irish immigrants made up a huge number of Americans during the initial population ... | null |
8momxk | why is having two heads such a commonly seen mutation? | [
{
"answer": "Most often these are not mutations but conjoined twins. One case is when an egg doesn’t split properly during development; another theory, though heavily disputed, is the fusion of two separate fertilized eggs during development. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenanc... | null |
ep5nqp | crime shows always say “they hung up before we could trace the call”. what goes into tracing a call and how long does it actually take? | [
{
"answer": "It's 100% Hollywood bullshit. It might have been true decades ago when phone calls were connected manually, but not since the electronic switches that we have since the 1970s.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That’s not a real thing. The phone company would have the record of the ca... | null |
1llmpz | A friend of a friend came into possession of this. Any idea what it is | [
{
"answer": "While these sorts of posts are welcome in this subreddit, it's often not the best place to put them. You may find you have better luck in /r/whatisthisthing, as the sub specializes in identifying unknown objects.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
352orf | why do student loans get shifted to different banks/loan services? | [
{
"answer": "Everyone is making money but you. \n\nYou take out a loan from Bank A for $100,000. If they kept it, you'd probably end up paying them $150,000 back.\n\nThey sell it to Bank B for $120,000. Bank A makes $20,000 right away, and Bank B makes $30,000 in the long run because now you're paying THEM t... | null |
mhm8v | If you were smaller than the length of a light wave, what would you see? | [
{
"answer": "We *are* smaller than the wavelength of a lot of electromagnetic waves (e.g. radio waves) and our eyes simply don't detect them, that is, we see nothing. We can pick them up with other specialized instruments, for example by connecting a length of wire to a properly tuned receiver circuit, which i... | null |
q9vpk | why do we sense five basic tastes (sweet/sour/bitter/salty/umami or savoury)? | [
{
"answer": "Sweet - Your basic energy unit is glucose, this taste makes you want to eat things high in sugar\n\nSalty - Sodium is a vital electrolyte is maintaining physiological balance (water, chemical, energy production, ect) so you need foods with it too.\n\nUmami - Tripped by the amino acid glutimate, and... | null |
a7itiy | the sexual revolution | [
{
"answer": "Why more sex?\n\nBirth control was more widely available.\n\nThe Vietnam war in the 60's/70's brought back boys that were now men who had horrible PTSD and drug exposures. \nWays of escaping could have been sex, \"Make love, not war\". They felt their lives were at their end, their number is called... | null |
4z63n2 | why can't you eat salmon after it spawns? | [
{
"answer": "I think you can eat it, it's just that salmon that have spawned have not eaten for months and are essentially on their last breath. Their meat becomes mush when cooked traditionally. It is not very appetizing. It also loses much of its oil. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "... | null |
tiuii | Sources for the Ainu and Emishi in Pre-Modern Japan | [
{
"answer": "It's not the right era (up til 1600), but I checked my copy of [*Sources of Japanese Tradition vol. 1*](_URL_1_) and it has some primary sources that mention the Ainu.\n\n1. \"New History of the Tang Dynasty\" mentions the ainu arriving at the Chinese court w/ a Japanese envoy in 663 (p.12)\n\n2. ... | null |
13xlqd | How exactly does tea block the absorption of iron in your blood cells? | [
{
"answer": "The tannin in tea forms a bond with non-heme iron, causing it to be indigestible.\n\n(Source: _URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Tannins are an organic compound found in both green and black varieties of tea. The tannins found in tea can interact with iron in the gastrointest... | null |
3xayzi | Was the Speed of Sound ever considered a theoretical speed limit? | [
{
"answer": "I am reminded that at least one \"scientist\" thought that a carriage traveling at over 28 mph (something like that) would cause all the air to rush out, asphyxiating the passengers. This was early 1800s when trains were starting to reach such speeds.\n\nEDIT: This is the guy and the quote seems to... | null |
3vc5xn | cloning | [
{
"answer": "Traditional reproduction has a sperm and egg. Both have half of a full set of chromosomes. When the sperm enters the egg it deposits its half of the chromosomes, now with the two combined the newly formed zygote has a full set. It begins to develop as a new individual with neither the exact DNA of ... | null |
phpua | What could be the consequences of extreme harvesting of tidal energy? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\ntl;dr: \n\nCurrently, water hitting already extant natural barriers in the world causes a slowing of the rotation rate that lengthens the day by about 2.3 milliseconds per day per century. \n\nThat's because of friction of the ocean against natural barriers and the ocean floo... | null |
bqhwy2 | How much sailing did Native Americans do on the Great Lakes? | [
{
"answer": "Lots of paddling but no Sailing\n\nThere is significant physical evidence that Native Americans traveled to various islands in the Great Lakes. There are hunting artifacts on Pelee Island and pictographs on Kelley's Island in Lake Erie.\n\nThere were Ojibway (Chippewa) recorded as living on Michip... | null |
3o8gtk | el salvador switching all of its currency to the us dollar. where did the dollars come from? | [
{
"answer": "They come from banks in the US. The US doesn't officially sanction other countries using her currency, but you can't keep those slips of paper from going on vacation.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "57631",
"title":... | null |
2fit3c | why people with asperger's syndrome are genius or prodigious? | [
{
"answer": "Nobody talks about the ones that become janitors.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Science is still working on an answer to what exactly autism is, but one recently popular theory is the [Intense World Theory.](_URL_0_)\n\n...That paper doesn't really fit in ELI5. Basically, the aut... | null |
1i7c6a | why chargers (phone, tablet, computer) get so hot while charging. | [
{
"answer": "Chargers must convert Alternating Current (which is easy to transmit efficiently from the generating station, across the electrical grid, then to your home) to Direct Current (which is easy for digital electronic devices to use to process information). Converting AC to DC is not 100% efficient; so... | null |
7kaewk | In pop culture, there's a lot of resistance to discussing movie/story spoilers without having an appropriate warning. Is this new behavior, or were people equally wary of spoilers for that brand new Shakespeare production? | [
{
"answer": "A follow-up question: To what extent were the storylines of Shakespeare's plays already known to the average audiences of his shows? I recall learning about a Greco-Roman work with a similar storyline to *Romeo and Juliet*, but I am curious whether such works had entered the cultural lexicon of Sha... | null |
3z2e3h | Did the city-states of Greece, like Sparta or Athens, have a concept of "Just War," did they fight with certain rules? | [
{
"answer": "I can give you some answers on this, at least according to Herodotus. The Greeks generally had some rules of war, but they were also great \"innovators\" when it came to waging war, so sometimes these rules went out the window. A big rule though was not destroying temples, anyone who destroyed th... | null |
311rpw | can a body get an infection from a single cell of bacteria or do they need to be in quantity to start an infection? | [
{
"answer": "Yes and yes.\n\nTechnically, a single cell of bacteria or a single virus can infect you.\n\nBut, they are far more likely to make you sick if your initial exposure is bigger.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Probably require to come into contact with many bacterial cells. The thing ... | null |
mx5yb | proper eye contact | [
{
"answer": "Use it as an accent to your conversation. If you never look at someone you're either ignoring them or submitting to them, so when you've finished your conversation you stop making eye contact and look away until they get the idea. If you look directly at someone constantly you're either creepy as... | null |
eb5yaj | Can anyone help decipher this WWII unit from a gravestone? | [
{
"answer": "Edgar's F. Raines's *Eyes of Artillery: The Origins of Modern U.S. Army Aviation in World War II* ([link](_URL_0_)) seems to mention this unit on page 257. According to Raines, during the Battle of Leyte in 1944:\n\n > Resupply became the main, but not the only, mission of the [11th Airborne] divi... | null |
jfzd7 | {eli5} how do guitar fret harmonics work? | [
{
"answer": "You sound fairly intelligent, so here's a nice [article](_URL_0_) that explains the physics relatively simply (not like you're 5, but maybe like you're 17).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When a guitar string vibrates without anyone pressing the frets, it makes a big wave in the a... | null |
89s3xp | how can you get stuck inside something? | [
{
"answer": "The bones are rigid but the flesh can distort. Moving one direction it may be spread down, becoming narrower; moving in the other direction it may be bunched up, becoming wider.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "8661976",
... | null |
1kyyz3 | when pro athletes admit to using ped's (such as ryan braun today), why aren't they arrested for using illegal drugs? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know exactly what drugs were used, but just because a drug is banned from use in sports does not mean it is also illegal to use outside of sports.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Having used illegal drugs is not the same thing as a possession or attempt to distribute charge... | null |
1l4eam | How does our brain interpret wildly-different accents as the same language? | [
{
"answer": "Certain sounds within a language are [allophones](_URL_0_). This means that they can be interchanged while not altering the meaning of the word. \n\n\nOne example is /t/. If you take nearly any English word with that sound and replace it with an alveolar flap or a glottal stop it changes the accen... | null |
2tvvhm | does it cost internet providers more money to give as an individual faster internet? | [
{
"answer": "Directly... No. Any individual is virtually nothing on the scale that the ISPs operate.\n\nIndirectly... Yes. Its not as simple as providing one person faster internet, you would have to provide everyone who asked faster internet. Soon you have to upgrade the entire infrastructure and that costs... | null |
2h2mma | considering the level of climate change denial and inaction, how on earth was the montreal protocol implemented (and successfully so)? | [
{
"answer": "Don't post loaded questions. \n\nClimate change is not in denial, it's the cause of which that is in dispute.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "34077190",
"title": "Command and control regulation",
"section": "... | null |
20bwh9 | Why hasn't the world's most fascinating monument, the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China, been excavated? | [
{
"answer": "It's still in the process of being excavated, but some of the discoveries we've made are already very interesting. The terracotta warriors are one of them. However, when they first opened the room containing the warriors the fresh air caused the paint on the warriors to flake off in a matter of min... | null |
5bnqpa | why dont we ever hear about people born without a sense of taste/touch/smell? | [
{
"answer": "We do. I knew a guy that couldn't feel pain or temperature. He had to be careful not to burn himself and constantly had to check himself to make sure he didn't get injured that day. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They certainly exist.\n\nHowever, a problem the lead to a lack of t... | null |
5wcrc1 | How deep would I have to dig into the earth to stop finding life? | [
{
"answer": "Pretty darn deep. If I recall correctly, organisms have been found in boreholes 4km deep, though I can't find a source for anything deeper than 2.7 km.\n\nHere is a brief discussion of it: _URL_1_\n\nThis is also full of interesting information: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answe... | null |
7ez97f | When did pornography come about in human history? | [
{
"answer": "I'm adapting this from some older answers. \n\n\nHere's the tricky thing about your question--do you mean 'porn' in the sense of moving visual art of people doing erotic things? Then in 1894 Edison's studio recorded a vaguely erotic short, titled Carmencita, which featured a Spanish dancer who twir... | null |
15azan | What's a Good Book To Learn About the Hanseatic League? | [
{
"answer": "Do you read German? If so, get the standard work on the Hanseatic League: *Bracker, Jörgen / Henn, Volker / Postel, Rainer (Eds.): Die Hanse. Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos, 3rd edition, Lübeck 1999.*, a German language collection of various texts on a diverse range of topics. I don't believe it's b... | null |
229zsp | What do we know about the long-term effects of nicotine, as distinct from the long-term effects of tobacco? | [
{
"answer": "We do not have long term human studies yet. However, we have done studies in rats (so take that as you will).\n\nFindings from one such study show that long term, heavy usage (twice the blood plasma level of nicotine found in heavy smokers) show **no increase \"in mortality, in atherosclerosis or f... | null |
254xmp | Did the ancient Romans have a system for writing music? | [
{
"answer": "They used the old Greek letter notation as well as Greek music theory. This was, as far as we can tell, a matter for the educated in theorising about music, rather than a tool for musicians to help remember and communicate musical ideas. One of the best preserved antique pieces of music is from the... | null |
7i6p6v | Timothy Snyder states that there is no official French history of WW2 because "more French soldiers fought on the Axis side than the Allied side."- Is this true? | [
{
"answer": "So I'm not entirely sure that Snyder is being serious there? Right after he states it, he then goes on to say \"OK, you didn't think that was as funny as I did.\" If he *is* serious, well, it is an hilarious silly thing to state. At the outbreak of war, France was able to mobilize roughly 5 *millio... | null |
2kfbmd | With high magnification and low exposure, can telescopes see the shape of the nearest stars to the Sun (like the Alpha Centauri system, or Barnard's Star)? Or are these stars still too far away and appear only as points? | [
{
"answer": "Larger stars can be resolved, for example [Betelgeuse](_URL_0_).\n\nSirius, a large and close star, when imaged with Hubble, basically looks like a point spread function. _URL_1_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Typically individual telescopes cannot resolve an individual star. The ... | null |
8q21xk | how is it decided whether someone is sane or insane during a trial? | [
{
"answer": "I studied brain science in university, but am not a lawyer.\n\n\nThat's not actually what they are trying to decide. They decide something more specific: if the person was *unable to appreciate the consequences of their actions* due to mental illness. \n\nNormally this is done by having a couple of... | null |
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