id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
6vfq7h | how much of the "side effects" medicine talks about are actually side effects? | [
{
"answer": " > But how much is actually proven to be a side effect? \n\nAll those are \"possible side effects\", meaning you *might* experience them. Drugs can be difficult to predict and just because someone experienced them in testing doesn't mean you will.\n\n > because companies are too cheap to do extra... | null |
3fip1v | why when another person is picked up when they are conscious, they feel lighter than their actually weight, but if they are unconscious or like a rag doll they feel more like their true weight? | [
{
"answer": "People who are concience are able to help you lift them, or shift their weight so it's less awkward to cary.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Think about it like trying to pick up a hundred pounds of sand. Consciousness is, metaphorically, sand bags. The contain the mass. A consciou... | null |
80bpn2 | why does orange juice after brushing my teeth with mint tooth paste feel like the gods are punishing me? | [
{
"answer": "Orange juice is very sour and very sweet. Your tooth paste temporarily makes you unable to taste sweetness. Without the sweet there to balance it, the sourness of orange juice becomes kinda overwhelming. \n[A similar thing happens with the miracle berry, which blocks sour and salty tastes](_URL_0_... | null |
j3mnq | li5: cuban missle crisis, bay of pigs... | [
{
"answer": "Long ago, in 1823, President Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially said that the United States would view any attempts by European nations to colonize North American countries as threats to US national security. This is important.\n\n\nCuba used to be ruled by a US-friendly dicta... | null |
1m6g0q | how did cavemen maintain their teeth if they didn't have the proper knowledge and tools the same way we do in the modern world? | [
{
"answer": "They did not. Many died of starvation because they could not eat. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Did did not have any added sugar in their food, which made it much easier to maintain good teeth health.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "As far as I can tell, most pe... | null |
1y7s84 | Why did stars stop producing new elements? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nElements up to Iron are formed during the life of stars, heaver during supernovae star deaths. \n\nSo, stars *are* producing new elements as they die, if they're massive enough. \n\nStars that aren't massive enough to die as a supernova just use up all their fuel and become white dwarfs ... | null |
4mbrg3 | how come most people who grew up poor/lower socioeconomic, usually stay that way? | [
{
"answer": "Two main reasons\n\nFewer opportunities. This sounds like a cop out, but it's true. It's harder for the lower classes to afford college, and many don't have the ability to finish highschool before they need to find a job to help cover bills. Of those that do go to college, not many can afford unpai... | null |
1pja95 | Is there anything special or discerning about "visible light" other then the fact that we can see it? | [
{
"answer": "It's not amazingly special, but there are some good reasons why animals have similar ranges of vision (although some go a little bit into infrared and ultraviolet). I can't talk about evolutionary pressure because that's not my field, but I can talk about the physics of light and why if I was the e... | null |
7gwaqu | The golden age of Islam saw the middle east as one , if not the centre of scientific progress during it's time. What happened that today the west overtook the islamic world in scientific progress and innovation? | [
{
"answer": "[A great answer to a similar question here](_URL_0_) by u/profrhodes",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "15624326",
"title": "History of globalization",
"section": "Section::::Archaic globalization.\n",
"... | null |
150ogm | When a fighter jet fires it's machine guns, does it slow down the jet by a considerable amount? | [
{
"answer": "Not considerably, it's all just conservation of momentum.\n\nxkcd's What If [handled a similar question](_URL_0_) about machine gun jetpacks. A quote of interest about the Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30, a minigun sometimes mounted to Russian aircraft:\n\n > [T]he recoil … still had a tendency to inflic... | null |
2dqwa1 | What mechanisms support genetic diversity of the whole population of (complex) species? | [
{
"answer": "Most mutations are indeed deleterious/bad, but there are also beneficial/good mutations. A good example is the ability to metabolize lactose as adults - since we've domesticated cows/goats/etc. and milk is a good source of nutrition, there is positive selection on this trait being maintained on a p... | null |
wlhve | Could a Middle English speaker and a Modern English speaker have been able to verbally communicate | [
{
"answer": "This is not really a historical question and r/linguistics could probably answer this better. My take on it:\n\nIt would be difficult, but you could probably communicate.\n\nHave a look at Middle English yourself to find out. For example [here](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answe... | null |
49iy49 | historically, does socialism work long-term? why or why not? | [
{
"answer": " Nearly every socialist country has given it up after experiencing a string of economic failures. The most notable example is the Soviet Union. Another interesting example is China, which still calls itself communist but is in fact a large percentage capitalist. Both of these countries experienced ... | null |
1g1b3l | what are the main differences between sunni and shia islam? | [
{
"answer": "Orthodox vs Roman Catholic is kind of a workable example to a point, but it misses the huge political factor.\n\nTo delve into it a bit more, you need to know why they're different. Islam follows on from Judaism and Christianity with a fellow named Muhammad, who around 600AD, proclaimed that he was... | null |
5m6er7 | How popular was the name Muhammad before the prophet Muhammad was born? | [
{
"answer": "I spent around an hour looking but couldn't find too much. There is an article from 1936 (so methodologies have definitely changed since then) by Edward Jabra Jurji that claims that the name Muhammad has been in use in Arabia since the first-millennium B.C.E. \n\nJurji cites *Kitāb al-Ishtiqāq* w... | null |
2wl98d | how people get graffiti in ridiculous places | [
{
"answer": "However they have to. Ladders, are common, as is standing on your friend's shoulders. They climb, jump, or hang as necessary. Some even bring rope and rappel down to where they need to get.\n\nIf you have Netflix, the documentary \"DamNation\" has a scene where protesters painted a dotted line and ... | null |
3baqq8 | What is the history of the Western Sahara? Why does Morocco have (no) legitimate sovereignty over this region? | [
{
"answer": "/u/rkwan (partially) answers your question in [this comment](_URL_0_) to a similar question from 2 years ago.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A good resource is the non-binding ICJ advisory opinion issued in 1975. _URL_1_\n\nIt essentially holds that there was some contact between ... | null |
8wxgfx | Is it possible to detonate a thermonuclear device without a fission primer? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. Most current fusion experiments use lasers, no they would not work for a weapon systems. It would be possible to use lasers to detonate a thermonuclear device, but it would be a very big system using lots of power. The energy has to come from somewhere. Fission is nice because it is the most e... | null |
fdxmui | why do cribs get recalled all the time? | [
{
"answer": "Usually because the dimensions between parts (a rail and a mattress for example) can, in rare instances, cause an infant to get caught or suffocate. Decades ago, there were many recalls because of really dangerous designs like latches that are easily opened or will allow a rail to fall on a baby or... | null |
2g5yle | why do laptops use fans -loud, annoying fans- while an iphone/ipad can run processor heavy apps for hours with no fan and not get hot? | [
{
"answer": "cause laptop cpu's are more powerful than ipad processors. tablet and smartphone cpu's sacrifice processing power for less heat dissipation. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Laptops and desktops have more powerful processors, graphics cards, memory and usually mechanical storage... | null |
2xq32e | How were the Romans able to replenish so much of their manpower despite devastating losses in battles such as Cannae? | [
{
"answer": "I take it your question is less about Roman logistics and more about the specific fact that the forces at Cannae were effective crushed as a standing army, and how did Rome recover from something like that?\n\nFirst thing is first, with Cannae specifically there were very real and very profound con... | null |
4f9jkj | if a company has a labor strike, why can't they just fill their positions with temporary workers and let the strikers just continue to strike in perpetuity? | [
{
"answer": "Those temps are called scabs, and it is not an uncommon occurrence. It definitely undermines their relationship with their regular work force, and often times results in violence, especially towards the scabs. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The whole point of a union is that if... | null |
1nruno | why do the carbons in graphene only have 3 bonds? | [
{
"answer": "The carbons form only three bonds because they are sp^2 hybridized (hence the -ene suffix). This means that there are only 3 hybrid orbitals that can form bonds, similar to the carbon in something like ethylene, H2C=CH2 (however, graphene doesn't have a double bond). I think the extra electron sits... | null |
2vom0g | why is it so hard for reddit to keep the site from crashing | [
{
"answer": "Buying gold more often keeps it from crashing. And if you've noticed they don't often meet the daily goal.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "My guess is that they aren't making enough money to pay for the server time required for the number of users. The vast majority of redditors do... | null |
3lp8vu | How did Polish pilots come to fly in the RAF during the Second World War? | [
{
"answer": "After the German and Soviet invasions, substantial numbers of Polish military personnel escaped to neutral countries, primarily Romania, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia, where they were interned. Air force personnel mostly evacuated to Romania, from where significant numbers made it to France either ... | null |
bslycj | what is the core of the earth made of, how does it stay molten, and what would the impact of it cooling be? | [
{
"answer": "It has a solid iron and nickel core surrounded by a liquid outer core mostly of the same metals. It stays molten due to the immense pressure of all the mass above it, generating heat.\n\nThe liquid core is believed to be the source of the planet's magnetic field. If you were to magically cool it an... | null |
68eeh5 | why do we still laugh at jokes we have heard before? | [
{
"answer": "If I hide behind your dresser and pop out and scare you, why would I be able to repeat that effect? Your mind or body still transmit information, whether it's new or old information is irrelevant. It still triggers those emotions in the same way. Not to mention mediums of entertainment are usually ... | null |
372dew | Are there any moons we know of that rotate the planet at the same rate that the planet spins? | [
{
"answer": "The term you're looking for is geosynchronous orbit. I don't know of any moons in such an orbit.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is no planet like this, but [Pluto](_URL_2_) and its moon [Charon](_URL_1_) have this property. They are mutually [tidally locked](_URL_0_).",
... | null |
o6j0o | how does clicking a pen to the "closed" position prevent it from drying out? | [
{
"answer": "Ball point pens don't dry out. Are you talking about ball point pens?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They're put in the \"closed\" position to prevent them accidentally writing all over you. The ink comes out when the ball (in the ball-point) rolls and exposes it.",
"provenanc... | null |
1rw1gf | what is a "mainframe" and why are people always trying to hack into it in movies? | [
{
"answer": "Mainframes are what we'd think of as big corporate servers or supercomputers. \n\nIf you roll the clock back not that many years anything important was stored on a company mainframe - usually they were custom built for big database applications. The same basic role still exists and IBM and HP and... | null |
4v6h8y | how do sea creatures manage to live in water that others regularly poop in, without getting sick or dying? | [
{
"answer": "As an analogy how do we manage to not getting sick breathing the air that someone somewhere is sneezing in?\n\n\nThere are creatures in the water who eat that poop and break it down so eventually the poop becomes harmless. \n\nIn the short time : there is dilution (even humans swimming in the ri... | null |
12igv2 | Who did the U.S./Nato support in the Bosnian War? | [
{
"answer": "Disclaimer: this is lay person experience \n\n > Vice-versa, which countries despise America for their role?\n\nI don't know if you went in or not but the military museum in Belgrade has a section on the 99 Kosovo Crisis at the end proudly showing part of a US bomber along with images of wounded Se... | null |
2lfwln | human consumption of other animal's milk. | [
{
"answer": "\nWe've been eating animal milk far longer than any \"scientific process\" existed. For most of our history it was milk the goat/cow/buffalo and then drink the milk, period. Notably, milk is the _only_ thing that we eat that _is_ from humans, so...it seems strange that we'd call out a special cas... | null |
2kb1ex | how are new "4k" tv's able to plat 4k content with old processors, but my new i5 computer lags with 4k content? | [
{
"answer": "My guess would be graphics performance of the chips. On your computer your GPU rather than your CPU will handle, by and large, the rendering of the images whereas TVs will have chips designed for rendering images and little else. If you set them both to find the billionth prime number your laptop w... | null |
2r7f1r | why can't divers fly after diving? | [
{
"answer": "You're right: the main gas involved is nitrogen. Basically, when we dive very deep, there's more pressure on our entire body, including our blood. More nitrogen dissolves into our blood than it would at a lower pressure (e.g. at sea level). If we come up too quickly from very deep, we can get \"the... | null |
1qgxok | the revolutionary war; what caused it, and how was it regarded from an english perspective? | [
{
"answer": "It started because King George was taxing the colonies above and beyond reason. The English people thought the colonists were being ungrateful.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "201908",
"title": "Axel von Fersen the ... | null |
1tkopg | Were there any economic interactions between the United States and the USSR during the Cold War? | [
{
"answer": "In 1972 the USSR bought 440 million bushels of wheat from the US, with more purchases in following years. Here's a paper from the St Louis Fed -\n_URL_0_ . I'll never find the link, but in the late 80s/early 90s The Economist made an editorial comment about Russia being in the grain market again,... | null |
7ftzoq | how does germany not have a crazy high rate of alcoholism and related crime when it has relaxed liquor laws? | [
{
"answer": "People who are happy and secure generally don't drink to excess, or when they do, don't commit crimes. Germany has a strong economy, a strong social safety net, widely available substance abuse treatment, and a rather effective police and judiciary.\n\nAs various attempts at alcohol prohibition wor... | null |
31m1nh | what does it mean to "soft reboot" my android device? | [
{
"answer": "Soft reboot is when you actually go through the OS and choose the \"Reboot\" or \"Restart\" option, as opposed to a hard reboot, which is physically(or using the 5 second switch that is standard on most computing devices now) cutting the power and then turning it back on again.",
"provenance": ... | null |
a9wpjp | tesla’s fascination with the numbers 3 6 9 | [
{
"answer": "I remember from my studies that in middleage the 3 was a link to Catholic God (the trinity) and so 6 because is two times 3 and 9 because is three times 3, You can find this obsession with number in Dante's Divina commedia.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because it leads to a quit... | null |
49z1rc | In what ways were European states forced to reform in order to defeat Napoleonic France? | [
{
"answer": "The biggest change, militarily speaking, was in the size of militaries involved before the Wars of the French Revolution and after. To give you an example, the British army, on the eve of the American Revolution in 1775 was something like 48,000 soldiers over its entire empire. For a sense of compa... | null |
3s20u1 | How did nobility/royalty prove who they were while traveling? | [
{
"answer": "Could you specify what time period you're thinking of? It would vary a lot from civilization to civilization, and era.\n\nThere were a lot of things that could be used to distinguish people that would not have been easily replicated. Certain insignia like a signet ring, sceptre, or crown. Or offici... | null |
2wxp89 | when did most people in England start thinking of the royal family as their native leaders instead of foreign invaders? | [
{
"answer": "This is a very tricky question because it's not clear which royal family you're discussing. The last time the dynasty changed by foreign invasion was in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and there was a *very* widespread effort among the elites in England, especially the Whig faction, to invite in t... | null |
3ipu5g | why do dogs like tummy rubs but cats tease you with it but then attack you? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of cats (not all - I've got one that rolls on her back and meows at me if I *don't* rub her belly) don't like having their belly rubbed.\n\nThem rolling on the back is a trust thing - they're exposing their most vulnerable parts to you and trusting you not to take advantage of that.",
"pr... | null |
51f659 | Why did it take semi automatic weapons so long to be developed? | [
{
"answer": "The main problem is the difficulties inherent in gunsmithing. You need some very precise metallurgy and engineering to produce a semi-automatic firearm, and mass-production requires a very advanced level of machining and metalwork to produce something that won't explode in your hand.\n\nDuring the ... | null |
cb1tcq | why can cows and other animals constantly produce milk but humans cannot? | [
{
"answer": "They can. That's what a wet nurse does. Milk supply stops when the demand stops, same for all mammals.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Dairy farmer here: cows reach peak production generally within 60 days after calving. From there continued production depends on a number of facto... | null |
87j90s | How is action potential measured in a cell? | [
{
"answer": "Hi there, as a biochemist studying ion channels I hope I can provide enough information to satisfy you and your student, or even better, whet your curiosity for more.\n\nAs to your question about how we measure membrane potentials. We take a glass electrode and stab a cell with it, then measure the... | null |
2no258 | what happens when a banana is bruised | [
{
"answer": "When part of the fruit starts to decay it releases a chemical called ethylene which signals other parts of the fruit that it's time to die as in the natural process of nature. Bananas also contain an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, and the oxygen present in the air readily reacts with the enzyme ... | null |
5l7vbp | are fabrics like linen really anti-microbial? | [
{
"answer": "An educated guess is that either the fabric has been treated with something, or that the fibers are woven tightly enough together that bacteria and microbes have difficulty passing through it. So while it is \"anti-bacterial\" it doesn't kill them on contact. \n\nHere is an album of someone showin... | null |
1yove7 | If no information can be transmitted via quantum entanglement, how did we discover it in the first place? | [
{
"answer": "Quantum entanglement was first hypothesized in a thought experiment originally thought out as an argument against the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics. This thought experiment is now known as the [EPR paradox](_URL_1_) named Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen after the t... | null |
705s2a | How high can roller coasters be built? | [
{
"answer": "roller coasters are already being limited in the max Gs they induce \n\n4-6 Gs more than briefly can result in loss of consciousness ) \n\ncreating a taller one increases the cost a lot for support - with no \"real\" benefit beyond a \"wow\" factor (which, admittedly, IS something) \n\nsomewhat cre... | null |
8o3oxv | When did people start snorting cocaine? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know when people started snorting cocaine. In the late 19th century, the drug would either be taken orally, or injected intravenously. Think Sherlock Holmes, with this famous scene from the Sign of Four:\n\n > Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel\\-piece and his hyp... | null |
gv0gt | Why are African Americans usually lighter skinned than Africans? | [
{
"answer": " > My thought is that it is a result of interbreeding with light skinned people\n\nYup.\n\n([ref](_URL_0_))",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What makes you think that this is actually true? I'm not saying it isn't, but has this been approached scientifically?\n\nAlso, it is possible... | null |
18bpb5 | I've always heard that in the middle ages, people drank beer/mead instead of water because the water wasn't clean. Is this true, and if so, why wasn't everyone drunk/dehydrated all the time? | [
{
"answer": "Not a historian, but a homebrewer and history enthusiast. The water is boiled in the process of making beer so this is why it was safer to drink than the water as any nasties in the water would be killed during this process. As for being drunk/dehydrated all the time this didn't happen because mos... | null |
14qf8y | How did Cavendish avoid/account for the gravitational attraction of the Earth affecting his experiment to determine G? | [
{
"answer": "It's rather easy to make the rods perfectly tangential to earths gravity by making them level. Just adjust the setup so that the weights don't rotate at all when left alone.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "318577",
... | null |
17um5r | Is it possible for an earth-like planet to have a ring around it? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, terrestrial planets can have rings.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, just imagine breaking our moon into pebbles.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "24718",
"title": "Ring system",
"sec... | null |
4tjcz7 | Did JFK actually say he wanted to "Shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds"? | [
{
"answer": "Vincent Bugliosi (former prosecutor in the Charles Manson trial, author of a careful, skeptical book about the Kennedy assassination), writes:\n\n > Whatever the CIA's short laundry list of dissatisfactions (some merely illusory, some real) with Kennedy, as I discuss later in the anti-Castro Cuban... | null |
3mk7x0 | why is it still not commonplace to install antivirus software on on mac computers? | [
{
"answer": "Simple. It's already integrated in the OS.\n\n All versions of OS X since 10.6.7 have been able to detect known Mac malware in downloaded files, and to block insecure web plugins. This feature is transparent to the user. Internally Apple calls it \"XProtect.\"\n\nRead [this](_URL_0_) thread on _URL... | null |
mt5i9 | How did men study during the Enlightenment? | [
{
"answer": "Disclaimer: I'm a history student, but probably not much more knowledgeable about this subject than a layman. Anyway, I'm not sure whether this answers your question exactly, but hopefully you'll find it interesting. \n\nWhat differentiates academic study during the enlightenment from the middle ag... | null |
ssw92 | Can someone explain the validity of this claim? Using microwaved water vs. purified water to water your plants | [
{
"answer": "Previously discussed: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To address the first paragraph of the claim, this describes ionizing radiation. Microwaves do not have enough energy to ionize substances. \n\nIf any nutrients are destroyed, it is due to heat and cooking time. The in... | null |
2bez16 | what happens to a wasp when i hit it with raid? | [
{
"answer": "You must have hit the wasp with RAID 0, which is why it worked so fast. RAID 1 was still effective on the beetle, it just didn't have the same level of performance (but was safer for you, incidentally). \n\n...I'm so sorry.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Insecticides are neurotoxi... | null |
2korzl | why does netflix regularly remove movies instead of increasing the size of their library when adding new titles? | [
{
"answer": "When Netflix buys the rights to distribute certain content they are ALWAYS time limited. Meaning, Netflix has the rights to a show like The Magic School Bus for a certain period of time. Once that time is over, Netflix must renegotiate the contract with whomever owns the rights to The Magic Schoo... | null |
jt07r | Zoo animals getting excited before earthquakes? | [
{
"answer": "There are two things at work here. The first is for the events that happen mere seconds to a minute before the Earthquake hits. There are two types of waves that travel through the earth during an earthquake, p-waves and s-waves. P waves travel faster but are hard to detect, s-waves travel slower a... | null |
2sdivn | When did Christendom forbid slavery? Did the church have anything to do with it? Were there any exceptions to the ban? | [
{
"answer": "What exactly do you mean by Christendom forbidding slavery? Do you mean as in a bible verse, a decree from the Pope, or what? \n\nI'm asking because there are arguably pretty late instances of individual Christians practicing slavery (in the United States for example), and I don't know if they cons... | null |
1kth1e | How can a person remain "themself" after undergoing a hemispherectomy? | [
{
"answer": "if you need a hemispherectomy, probably because of epilepsy, then that hemisphere is probably already very damaged, and much of its function has probably been taken up by the healthy hemisphere. and this is the real answer to the question; the cerebral cortex is very adaptable, especially early in ... | null |
uhodj | Circumstances surrounding the Death of Ludwig II of Bavaria | [
{
"answer": "His death was quite mysterious and there are many conspiracy theories, but he died in 1886 and the unification was already accomplished in 1871.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "148597",
"title": "History of Bavaria",... | null |
6qkbd9 | if frozen yogurt comes from cow dairy and ice cream comes from cow dairy, how is frozen yogurt "healthier"? | [
{
"answer": "It's not really. Yogurt is viewed as a healthy snack, so people assume frozen yogurt is healthy, when frozen yogurt is just as full of sugar as regular ice cream. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Traditionally, yogurt is made with less fat than ice cream. That's really the only way... | null |
6dw9vx | as people get older, why does it become harder to consume large quantities of food in one sitting? | [
{
"answer": "It's not a hard and fast rule, although *appetite* tends to peak during and shortly after puberty. What can certainly alter your ability to eat a lot in one sitting would be obesity; you have less room for your internal organs, and that includes stomach and intestines. ",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
28mu4q | Why is 2^1024 the limit of so many web calculators? | [
{
"answer": "A limit has to be chosen, since we only have a certain number of bits at our disposal to represent a number. The choice is somewhat arbitrary.\n\nHowever, there are a few standard representations that are commonly used and implemented as low-level instructions within the FPU, so it's common to use ... | null |
1o51gn | how come perfect eyesight is 20/20? | [
{
"answer": "Eye doctors have decided what a \"normal\" human being should be able to see when standing 20 feet away from an eye chart. If you have 20/20 vision, it means that when you stand 20 feet away from the chart you can see what the \"normal\" or average human being can see. In other words, your vision i... | null |
5jrty1 | does earth appear as a bright planet? | [
{
"answer": "[Here is a picture and a speech](_URL_0_). The answer is no - the earth is not particularly luminous. No more than the other planets in our solar system. You lose sight of us before you leave the solar system. Long before then, we're nothing but a pale blue dot.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
7coqv6 | thinking about probability, how is it possible that one and only puzzle piece fits in another in a jigsaw puzzle? | [
{
"answer": "That's not probability that's design. Jig saw puzzles arent random. Someone actually sat down and drew out the lines specifically so that they only fit one place.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you have a discrete probability space, then you would have a non-zero chance that tw... | null |
2gyceu | How did Mohammed and his followers--and, for that matter, his immediate predecessors and fellow Arab people of the time--come to believe in a bunch of the same stuff as the Jews did? | [
{
"answer": "You may also be interested in reading some of the answers in this fairly recent [AMA on Pre-Islamic Arabia](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I asked a very similar [question](_URL_0_) recently, that received some informative responses.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
7d1xda | if carbon dioxide is bad for you to inhale, and people provide it when you breath out, wouldn't the carbon dioxide do any damage to the person getting mouth to mouth? | [
{
"answer": "It's not enough to cause harm. Your exhaled air is still quite high in oxygen, and is *much* better for the other person than no breathing.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Carbon dioxide doesn't hurt you. A lack of oxygen hurts you, and carbon monoxide hurts you.\n\nYou don't conve... | null |
kllzy | Theory | [
{
"answer": " > A scientific theory means that it has been tested and *proven* without fail MANY times.\n\nThis is incorrect - theories are never *proven*. They can only be accepted or rejected based on an ever-growing (hopefully) pile of evidence. It would be more accurate to say that an accepted theory has be... | null |
gafqa | Is there any science behind why elderly people often die close to the death of their significant other? It also seems to happen frequently with pets. | [
{
"answer": "increased stress and depression in the immediate period after\n\nhere's one showing heart problems associated with bereavement [link](_URL_1_)\n\nEdit: heres a [link](_URL_0_) to the original infamous Finnish study",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I work in a hospital and I've seen ... | null |
r035l | What is "chemistry" between two people actually? What is the logical explaination? Why is it so instant? | [
{
"answer": "It was thought for a while that there may be some kind of pheromone exchange responsible for this effect. That idea has been largely dismissed though as no Vomeronasal organ which would be sensative to such pheromones has been identified on adults even though some fetuses have been thought to show... | null |
8zmn0a | what is chemotherapy, and what happens during it? | [
{
"answer": "The elimination of fast cell reproduction. \nHair cells grow at a quick rate and is the reason why your hair falls out as well. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It kills a LOT of cells in the body. As another comment mentions, it effects fast-growing or fast *reproducing* cells the... | null |
2b031v | How was honey harvested in ancient times? Were bees kept like they are today or was all honey harvested from the wild? | [
{
"answer": "hi! Could you specify which region/culture you're interested in - e.g. Greece, Nepal, the Maya, etc. That will help the appropriate historian(s) provide a meaningful response. Thanks!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Bees were kept, but not like today. Today, bees are kept in movabl... | null |
flxqj0 | how can plants turn sun and water (and dirt) into wood, leavies and pretty much anything they need? | [
{
"answer": "You are actually missing out a critical part: air\n\nYes, most of a mass a plant actually comes from carbon dioxide within the air. They can convert it into plants with the Calvin cycle, which is a cycle made up of several chemical reactions that takes in carbon dioxide and converts it into glucose... | null |
61gsol | welfare and food stamps | [
{
"answer": "Welfare is sometimes called TANF or temporary assistance for needy families. Those who fall under federal guidelines for poverty may apply and are given money for rent, bills and other necessities. Typically, there is a work requirement and the recipient must comply to continue to be eligible. Food... | null |
sr6hn | What is a good book to read that will give me a survey history of modern European history? | [
{
"answer": "The trouble is that there are very few survey histories which aren't textbooks. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is [A Concise History of Modern Europe](_URL_1_), but I can't vouch for its quality since I haven't actually read it myself (one of my friends did).\n\nMy history clas... | null |
dlj8bw | why are some atoms "easier" to become ions than others? | [
{
"answer": "Because of their Electronegativity (hope thats the right translation) and their size. The Electronegativity basically is a force (Noted in the Periodic table) which defines how strong they are able to \"suck\" other electrons to themselves.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Ionizing ... | null |
3squye | what's the difference between a $10 bottle of wine compared to a $100 bottle? | [
{
"answer": "A person who has developed the palette for it could tell the difference, and appreciate it. \nI think the subtleties of the $100 bottle would be lost on me, but I have tasted some $30/bottle wines, and they have been far richer and better-tasting than the $10 ones.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
84slxr | animal pain, human pain | [
{
"answer": "Other mammals experience pain pretty much as humans do. But they don't have language or facial expressions to describe their suffering. And they need to get up and walk away, if the alternative is to sit around forever and die. No paramedic or doctor is coming.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
10yjhm | Who were the great administrators? | [
{
"answer": "If you're looking into US history I strongly recommend you examine Andrew Jackson's contest with the [Second Bank of the United States](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "12621591",
"title": "Government of the... | null |
6o86e9 | Planets can have rings. Can stars have the same sort of rings? | [
{
"answer": "It is definitely possible. \n\nFirst, a solid celestial body would have to enter the star's sphere of gravitational influence. Then, it would have to pass through the Roche limit. That's the distance where the tidal forces will rip the object apart. \n\nIf the object wasn't on a collision trajector... | null |
4nv0it | why did linux get more popular then unix? | [
{
"answer": "It was free. It had no support guarantee, but the lack of cost made up for it. And because it was open source it could be ported to anything it could be compiled for, and there wasn't a big company making budgeting decisions based on volume sales potential keeping that from happening.",
"proven... | null |
36h00f | how come i can remember a certain moment from my childhood, yet i can't remember a maths equation i learned today? | [
{
"answer": "You have two forms of memory - short-term and long-term. The first is far from perfect but can get better with the proper training. So just after you learn it, your math equation is in short term memory.\n\nWhen you sleep, some of the long-term memories are created from the short-term memory experi... | null |
1acpia | Why are there 3 different names for meteoroids/meteorites/meteors? | [
{
"answer": "Because they are different by definition.\n\n**Meteoroid**: A small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it entered the earth's atmosphere.\n\n**Meteor**: A small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth's atmosphere, becoming incandescent as a result of fricti... | null |
2vp22s | why do mobile video games have so many commercials on tv all of a sudden? | [
{
"answer": "Mobile phones, and thus mobile games are so popular now that it makes financial sense for big-name games to spend the big TV money in order to sell more games.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mobile games have the best potential to be profitable because they cost far less to develo... | null |
476t1w | how can a person have 8 pack abs when theres only 6 rectus abdominis? | [
{
"answer": "It's partly genetics and partly an illusion. Without the right genetics the illusion is much harder to give off and thus would need intense exercise on your lower stomach & having an incredibly low body fat %, but it's not something that can be real without having the genetics for it.",
"prov... | null |
bk9mrg | what are stocks and what is insider trading? how are they related to each other? | [
{
"answer": "This is VERY ELI5\n\n & #x200B;\n\nStocks are a share of ownership in a company. Insider trading is when someone close to or with connections inside a company know of a large move (either positive or negative) the company is about to do that is going to effect the stock price. They then act on th... | null |
8a43ua | why does skipping five seconds of a video often take longer due to buffering than just sitting through the five seconds? | [
{
"answer": "The way online video is compressed, you're receiving data that represents incremental updates from the last frame. If you start playing the video at the beginning, it all works as intended.\n\nHowever, if you start playing in the middle, you need to process incremental updates for some time period ... | null |
ajezn3 | Does a radar gun in a moving vehicle function the same as one in a stationary vehicle? | [
{
"answer": "All detectors can only tell you relative speed. So that means that a stationary radar would detect 0 in the first case, 5 in the second and 5 (speed is absolute value of velocity) in the third, 75 in the last. You have the right idea. It's not a mistake. The nature of physics is that the relative v... | null |
9jbopb | how does a gym's business model hold up? the equipment is insanely costly and the memberships cost next to nothing in most cases. how does it pay off the investment and become a stable income source? | [
{
"answer": "I think a lot of it relies on people paying for gym memberships that they never or rarely use. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's like planet fitness cheap membership so everyone and their mom signs up, but then they literally never go. So tons of $20. A month payments and if y... | null |
3h227v | What happened to the territory gained by Justinian I? | [
{
"answer": "It was lost again.\n\nIn Italy the war with the Ostrogoths lasted for decades and devastated the country. Some historians hold this war to be the true end of antiquity. As Goldsworthy puts it, it \"probably destroyed many aspects of Roman culture and society that had survived the collapse of the We... | null |
163ucx | How do we know the orbit of the sun? | [
{
"answer": "Are you thinking about how the sun travels around the Milky Way?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, our instruments are actually are that good, but the reason you're looking for is our toolbox has grown significantly since the days of Galileo. We can collect data much more accura... | null |
48zmpw | how do the inner leaves of cabbage perform photosynthesis? | [
{
"answer": "The inner leaves may not see the sunshine but the entire plant acts as a \"unit\". Much like kindergarten, sharing is important for the success of everything involved ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You need to remember that cabbage, as we know it, is the result of centuries of se... | null |
3j5wwy | how does applying toothpaste to a cd to help fix scratches work? | [
{
"answer": "Toothpaste is a very fine polish, so it helps to polish out the scratches. There are a number of potentially abrasive ingredients potentially even silica (sand).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The lasers in a CD/DVD drive can read through scuffs & dirt. What they can't read th... | null |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.