id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
crev00 | Why don’t fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut, etc.) not have lots of alcohol? | [
{
"answer": "There are different kinds of fermentation, and not all produce alcohol. For kimchi and sauerkraut, lactic acid is the main product.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3587235",
"title": "Jain vegetarianism",
"se... | null |
mhrv9 | why do we measure the energy in food in calories? | [
{
"answer": "We measure energy in calories because both our cells and a fire are doing the same thing - releasing energy by breaking apart molecules. The basic principle in a fire is that the bonds holding the atoms together are rapidly broken, releasing a certain amount of energy. We can harness the energy i... | null |
efp1sq | Legality of political paramilitary organizations in the Weimar Republic | [
{
"answer": "Hey there, I wrote an answer which goes into more detail about the paramilitary organisations which you can find [here](_URL_0_).\n\nIn terms of legality, the organisations were broadly tolerated until they stepped over the line. Smaller groups such as Organisation Consul or the killers of Rosa Lux... | null |
5jk16p | Why couldn't Austria-Hungary take Russia during the WWI? | [
{
"answer": "Your chronology and facts are off here. Although it is difficult to pin down an *exact* start date for the Russian Civil War, it roughly started in November/December 1917 and only really began in earnest the following year. The Russian Army had begun a process of desertion and demobilization (sanct... | null |
rmvh1 | Is it possible to control a nuclear explosion? | [
{
"answer": " > I don't mean in terms of a bomb, but could you create some sort of chamber to control a nuclear explosion and focus all the energy in one direction creating a thrust ...\n\nYes, this is possible, in fact there was a program to develop this kind of thruster ([Project Orion](_URL_0_)). The only r... | null |
1szbb2 | the egg grading system, ie are there grade b eggs? | [
{
"answer": "\"A very fresh egg has a small air cell and receives a grade of AA. As the size of the air cell increases, and the quality of the egg decreases, the grade moves from AA to A to B. This provides a way of testing the age of an egg: as the air cell increases in size, the egg becomes less dense and the... | null |
z0gu5 | How did people live in a barter system? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, debt was the main method of paying for services, just like it is today. In barter economies, debts are integral to the fabric of the society; less so today because we tend to pay our debts shortly after incurring them with money, so the social component is mostly lost.",
"provenance": null... | null |
1h1jrc | how were measuring systems created? why are less convenient methods still being used? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of the imperial meausres are derived from what was practical..\n\nFor example in the middle ages, an Acre was the area that could be plowed in a day with a single yoke of an oxen...\n\nCheck out [this article](_URL_0_) on the history of measurement. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
3nc09u | If a history textbook does not include sources/citations for it's claims, how much credit and reliability can it be given? | [
{
"answer": "Most textbooks don't give footnotes, actually. There's a widespread belief among publishers that footnotes make a book look difficult to read, and scare away students. As a result, many popular press books - and almost every textbook - don't provide notes for its arguments. (Though there's often a ... | null |
agwlx6 | How do quantum computers perform calculations without disturbing the superposition of the qubit? | [
{
"answer": "The quantum computer will at least once, at the end of the computation, collapse the superposition. Some algorithms may also collapse parts of the computation as an intermediate step. The end state of the collapsed qbits depends on all possible computation paths from start to end, so that the outco... | null |
1fl9uw | Monday Mysteries | Local History Mysteries | [
{
"answer": "As a metal detectorist who hasn't been active for a few years I tend to delight in the little things people find and try to work out the story. Last year, I was working as a vendor at the Grays Harbor County Fair in Washington State, and spent most of my breaks drooling over old steam engines and a... | null |
124ra7 | What kinds of evidence have to be, or should be, present if we are to determine the existence of a certain disease in the past? | [
{
"answer": "If you're going to be strict about this, you require molecular genetic evidence. Diseases rarely have a set of symptoms that are unique and therefore unmistakable, and due to evolution it's hard to be certain that a given condition isn't due to microbes that have either mutated or otherwise since ... | null |
18vtrl | why do i look skinnier/more attractive when i wake up in the morning? | [
{
"answer": "You're on avarage taller in the morning and you often have an empty stomach. It should be that simple.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "354224",
"title": "Discrimination based on skin color",
"section": "Secti... | null |
ba3wo7 | How does a nerve gas mask differ from other gas mask? | [
{
"answer": "Well nerve gases are not actually gases, they are liquids with boiling point over 150°C so they hardly become gas. The point of gasmask isthat it covers your face so you dont come into contact with the compound. \nIt CAN be dissolved in suitable solvent but even then its delivered as an aerosol not... | null |
lc2eo | why bus fare (for example) keeps going up | [
{
"answer": "One word: Inflation",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Simple answer is inflation. The price of petrol is always going up, leading to everything that relies on it having to spend more. Buses are directly affected by this as they use petrol obviously. Other energy sources like gas are ... | null |
35acww | is our perception of time relative to our mass? eg: an ants lifetime seems to them, the same amount of time as what our lifetime seems to us? | [
{
"answer": "There's no particular evidence to support this idea, although since it regards perception, I don't know that you could absolutely rule it out. I'd just say 'Probably not.' There are, after all, humans more than twice the mass of other humans, and we don't see much reporting of this discrepancy. ",
... | null |
5g72jc | what is the difference between daydreaming and psychosis? | [
{
"answer": "Daydreaming is mostly controlled, Psychosis is mostly uncontrolled. \n\nDaydreaming you still understand what is reality and what is not. Psychosis and other mental disturbances can make those distinctions much more difficult. \n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance... | null |
1p7lep | How exactly does a short-circuit damage a device? | [
{
"answer": "First it is important to understand how electricity works. The rate at which electricity flows through a circuit is determined by its resistance. In fact, resistors are extremely important in circuits for this very reason, because they place limits on how much electricity can travel through a given... | null |
fmvf1a | how does a company know how many shares to make public? | [
{
"answer": "How many shares to make.public is based on what a company wants their stock price to be. \n\nSo the two biggest reasons that different companies have different numbers of shares when going public is that 1) not all companies have the same valuation and 2) some companies want different levels of liq... | null |
816icz | with bee populations being decimated why haven't we seen major shortages of any produce? | [
{
"answer": "Simply put, it takes a while for that to have a noticeable effect. Consider the episode of *The Simpsons* with the Ribwich. In the context of the episode, eventually Krusty Burger has to stop selling it because the critter they were processing to make it went extinct. There are a lot of plants that... | null |
41148d | Was the cursive script a product of the quill and inkwell system of writing? | [
{
"answer": "Someone who knows how to use a quill can use it pretty skillfully, and if it's kept in good condition and properly blotted, it won't drip. A manuscript written by a skilled scribe usually looks pretty clean. Of course, we might expect to see different things depending on the type of manuscript. Som... | null |
4lphf1 | if a baby is born on the iis, and the mother and father are astronauts/cosmonauts from different countries (usa+russia), what is the citizenship of the baby? | [
{
"answer": "Citizenship is determined by the citizenship of the parents rather than the location. A person born in Germany to two English parents would get English citizenship by birth. So in your example the baby would have duel US + Russian Citizenship.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
76skd7 | what causes chromosome abnormalities? | [
{
"answer": "There are lots, but one *major* issue that contributes to many cancers is recombination. \n\nNormally recombination isn't really a bad thing, and gives us genetic diversity. When your cells are dividing to make sperm or eggs, the chromosome you have from both mom and dad line up. Because they are s... | null |
1e6n75 | everyone in the world raises their arms/fists to represent success and victory. why is that? | [
{
"answer": "It is just a human reaction. Recently, saw a video on TEd talks about body language. It said there was a study done and when someone who was blind and has always been blind won a challenge they raised thier hands up in the air, in victory. Even people who have never seen that done, react that way."... | null |
47w4or | slow charge vs fast charge overnight | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't matter. It automatically regulates power supply to prevent anything from damaging the battery; for instance, when the phone reaches 100% it stops charging, and only starts charging when it falls below like 98%-95%.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [... | null |
4l24o1 | what is the significance of splitting an atom, and how does it make nuclear weapons so much more devastating than conventional ones? | [
{
"answer": "When you \"split\" an atom, what you're doing is making the big, heavy atom into two lighter ones. \nThe curious thing is that the two lighter ones combined weigh less than the original. \nWhere did the mass go? \nIt went into E=mc^2 \n\nNow, keep in mind that c is a *huge* number. It's the spe... | null |
978pu2 | Did slave traders struggle with morality? Did they ever question themselves, their practice and the people they were killing and enslaving? | [
{
"answer": "I hope somebody can come along and give you specific accounts but you might find this existing thread interesting about how the bible was used to justify slavery\n\n\n > _URL_0_\n\nBy /u/dubstripsquads",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You may be familiar with the famous Christian hy... | null |
1slbze | how do solid state devices store information | [
{
"answer": "[This](_URL_0_) pretty much explains it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "41886492",
"title": "Solid-state storage",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_character": 0,
"end_p... | null |
1pjcwb | if george washington warned us about the power of parties, how was he imagining the government to work? | [
{
"answer": "A multiple party system is fine. The more groups there are, the more they have to work together as a team to meet the majority set in the rules and pass a law. Thus, the things that get passed are generally what the majority approves of.\n\nA two party system leads to black-or-white, zero sum think... | null |
emaso4 | how do products like static guard work to reduce static cling? | [
{
"answer": "When two objects bump against each other, there is a chance that electrons will jump from one object to the other. If the two objects are made from a different material, it is possible that one holds on to its electrons more tightly, so it is more likely to receive electrons in such an event. When ... | null |
20g7aq | Is it possible for an object to have zero kinetic energy? | [
{
"answer": " > Is it possible for an object to have zero kinetic energy?\n\nYes. The kinetic energy of an object is relative to the reference frame in which it is measured. This is because motion is relative to the reference frame, and [kinetic energy is the energy an object possesses due to motion](_URL_0_)... | null |
1jiqfs | Why do we need large rockets like the Saturn V and Falcon Heavy to travel to the moon? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know what you mean by a S-IVB as that's a stage of the Saturn IV. \n\nWe could use existing rockets like a Atlas V or Delta IV Heavy (both can be man rated btw). You'd probably need a handful of launches to get everything up there. After assembling in LEO you'd go to the moon.\n\n > Would t... | null |
7g4xb3 | Why does vacuum-energy exist? How can nothing have some energy? | [
{
"answer": "Well any theory that predicts a non-zero vacuum energy also predicts that the vacuum itself has a complex non-trivial structure. Like the vacuum of quantum electrodynamics for example. It can fluctuate, it can interact, it can become polarized.\n\nIt is also worth pointing out that from this pers... | null |
7n2kxs | how come you can have a good or bad sleep? | [
{
"answer": "Simplest answer: variance.\n\nBetter answer: there are multiple factors involved. Light sources in the room or before you go to bed mess with melatonin production, which signals your body to sleep. If you wake up in certain parts of your REM cycle, you'll feel groggy instead of rested. Nightmares c... | null |
ty708 | why google+ has so much fewer users than facebook. | [
{
"answer": "There's a concept called the \"network effect\". Basically, the more people you have using something, the more useful it becomes. To be dead simple, people use Facebook because their friends are on Facebook. Google+ didn't offer enough of a benefit to get people to move over en masse and without en... | null |
2v9kqr | Would a lower class soldier in a medieval army be rewarded or punished for killing a noble or royal? | [
{
"answer": "There is no hard and fast answer to this question. Medieval warfare is difficult to define and as chaotic as warfare in any other era. Individual commanders had their own ideas about how to treat enemy combatants, or made decisions based on the circumstances.\n\nBefore he died Richard I pardoned ... | null |
6qgxo8 | why does dirt on my glasses always show as a perfect circle when my eyes don't focus on them? | [
{
"answer": "That's an effect you get from point light sources (or shadows) being out of focus, and the shape is down to the shape of your own [pupil](_URL_0_). \n\nPhotographers use that same phenomenon in cameras, to artistic effect, and they call it \"Bokeh\". [As you can see](_URL_1_) in this picture, the c... | null |
dyuk4h | What happened to people whose homes were bombed in WWII? | [
{
"answer": "A couple of years ago I recorded some oral interviews with people who'd survived the Hull Blitz as children. I can give you an answer from their perspective although it has to be remembered that Hull was a densely populated city full of terraces (houses built in rows) filled with workers from the f... | null |
1nxsca | eli 5: why does my iphone get slower each time a new iphone or software update comes out? | [
{
"answer": "Because each new update uses more and more power that your phone does not have. They do this A: to advance technology and compete with other companies and B: to make you feel like your phone is slow so you go buy another",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
dk3pex | How Did the Myth Surrounding the Boston Tea Party Start? | [
{
"answer": "This is a truly interesting question! \n\n**Background:**\n\nFirst, to verify what you said, The Boston Tea Party was a response to a tax being lifted off of tea, not a new tax that was imposed on it. American Colonists had been paying taxes on tea for years before the Boston Tea Party happened. ... | null |
45yyap | standard shift... why does shifting into second gear before first make going into first gear easier? | [
{
"answer": "It won't if the gearbox isn't worn. \n\nIn the gearbox is a mechanism called the [synchromesh](_URL_0_). This brings the gears you're going to engage together up to the same speed before allowing them to slide together. \n\nThe synchromesh has things called baulk rings which prevent the gears slidi... | null |
5wotm2 | why can the potus be caught blatantly lying, red handed, time after time, without any consequences. | [
{
"answer": "Rs have the executive, legislative and soon the supreme court. They can do nearly anything they want for at least 2 years",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because (last I checked) **lying isn't a crime**. Well.. lying under oath is, but President Trump is not under oath and the onl... | null |
3nrkwc | Are there any materials that exist at a Plasma Phase at the same Temp/Pressure that any other material is a Solid? | [
{
"answer": "There's a field of research called plasmonics. Sounds a little bit like plasma, but it's actually about metals. What do metals have in common with plasmas? A plasma is just a neutral gas of charged particles. A metal consists of some positive ions and of electrons free to move around. So it's quite... | null |
1umhvq | Who led the US mobilization of its economy for war during & before World War II? | [
{
"answer": "The Roosevelt Administration and Congress created a plethora of bureaus and offices designed to coordinate and liaise with already existing departments and bureaus of the government. The important ones were the Office for Emergency Management, the Office of Economic Stabilization, the Office of Pri... | null |
rrp87 | What did the Romans know about the Chinese? | [
{
"answer": "And conversely, what did the Chinese know about the Romans?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "just to keep this alive: I would very much like to hear about it too. of course, roman can mean many things if you include the eastern empire.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer":... | null |
2upzrq | what aol actually does, in 2015? | [
{
"answer": "Well, according to [Cnet in 2013](_URL_0_), 3 percent of America (that's roughly 2 million people) still uses Dial-up modem... so I imagine, in 2015, that AOL still manages to be an ISP.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "And you wouldn't believe the amount of people who still use aol... | null |
1ym71s | why are there security levels higher than the one the president of the usa has? | [
{
"answer": "Well... Number one, don't believe everything you read or hear. Most likely, this is not entirely accurate information. 21 levels above the President? That seems highly unlikely. So many levels? What would you need that for? Think about it from a practical standpoint. And misinformation is a ... | null |
nc8lm | When speaking why do we sometimes jumble the words of a sentence? | [
{
"answer": "This is called metathesis if you want to just like google search and find shit.\n\nBut basically there are a lot of theories about how exactly sentences get made, but there's a general pattern of - > vague nebulous meaning area - > get words that have those meanings - > make those words into an ... | null |
aan5dm | What about rabies makes it to where a blood test cannot determine if an animal or person is infected? | [
{
"answer": "The rabies virus does not circulate in the blood. It takes hold in muscle tissue, and from there goes to the nerves, and starts working along the nerve tissues. No detectable amount breaks loose to float around in the bloodstream. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenan... | null |
6k90e2 | Why does sand on a surface create patterns when subjected to sound waves? | [
{
"answer": "1. For these patterns to emerge, the sound has to be confined. What you're seeing are standing waves. \n\nThe sound wave emerges from a speaker, travels through a material, encounters a boundary and is bounced back into the material (an echo). When it goes back, it encounters itself so to speak. Th... | null |
1o9z74 | Were there successful labor strikes among miners? | [
{
"answer": "The Comstock Mining District in Nevada had what appears to be the [first miners union](_URL_0_) west of the Mississippi (1863). The first attempt was broken by the territorial governor, but with statehood in 1864, the miners unionized again, and controlled the apparatus of state government. This en... | null |
jiwfu | Since Alan Turing's time, how much closer are we to making machines "think"? | [
{
"answer": "Not very, by that definition. We've made lots of progress in artificial intelligence, but to my knowledge no computer has ever successfully passed a Turing test.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What an excellent question! Scholars regularly like to check in and ask how things are g... | null |
91x3ej | Why did so many people move to Rhodesia after UDI and during the war? | [
{
"answer": "There are a number of assumptions to address in the question, so there are a variety of points to make in an answer.\n\nFriction with Britain and the breakup of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was in the early 1960s. The Unilateral Declaration of Independence was 1965, but the bush war di... | null |
1pudqa | how do celebrities manage social media accounts with millions of followers? | [
{
"answer": "You can turn notifications off. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5796",
"title": "Celebrity",
"section": "Section::::Internet celebrities.:Social networking and video hosting.\n",
"start_paragraph_id"... | null |
2h07at | why does mega download your file into your local cache and then save it, as opposed to downloading through your browser's download manager? | [
{
"answer": "It is *probably* because the file stays encrypted on the server. Mega downloads the file onto your computer and at the same time it is decrypting the file so when it is done downloading/decrypting, You can tell the browser where you want it saved. Then the browser simply moves the file.\n\nIf you s... | null |
d8kdr0 | How absolute was the reign of kings during the Middle Ages? | [
{
"answer": "Hello !\n\nI'll try to answer the question, even though it's a very broad one. As a French who studied medieval French politics and warfare, I'll be mainly focused on France.\n\nShort answer is : it depends. It depends on both time and place. The power of the French kings was not the same as the En... | null |
30swua | why is the uk parliament being dissolved ahead of the general election? | [
{
"answer": "It's a formality that signifies that each seat is now vacant and every seat is up for election. The ministers still do their respective jobs until the election results come in, they just have to put themselves forward for re-election.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"prov... | null |
amc2jf | what, why, and from whence are these super tiny flies that congregate in tiny swarms at face-level? | [
{
"answer": "Would help to know which country you are in and even which region of the country as the little bugs will vary considerably from place to place including thrips.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I believe they're basically gnat orgies. They all come together in big swarms to fertiliz... | null |
uwdtm | if water makes up 70% of our earth and we have things such as water purifiers, why are we running out of drinking water on our planet? | [
{
"answer": "Because large scale water purification and desalinization is expensive and inefficient. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We're *not* running out.\n\nThe problem isn't the amount of drinking water, it's the *distribution* of the water.\n\nMost developed countries could probably hydr... | null |
y5cg8 | What were NATO's defensive plans for a conventional invasion from the Soviet Union in the 80s? | [
{
"answer": "Try looking at a few of the auto-biographies of generals from the period. I've not read them all, but Sir Richard Dannatt's book contained a large portion of truths about NATo preparation, including the belief that should the Red Army cross the Iron Curtain, it was quite probable the war would have... | null |
1wwo9u | What was the truth behind the Allies' accusations that the German Army committed horrific war crimes/atrocities in Belgium during World War One? | [
{
"answer": "This is an important and complex question. The **TL;DR** on it is \"yes, more or less, but it gets complicated.\"\n\nTo begin with, [here is a proclamation](_URL_3_) by the German General Otto von Emmich, distributed widely in Belgium in the autumn of 1914 as the German army crossed the tiny natio... | null |
792n9k | why has hdr been so common in cameras for so long but is only now beginning to move into mainstream tvs, smartphones and games consoles? | [
{
"answer": "HDR-photos are typically just composite images of several photos, taken with different exposures.\n\nWhat proper HDR is about, is being able display/capture truely dark and really bright parts of the image, both at the same time. This is what's new, and it's not easy.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
57mukn | if a country has birthright citizenship i.e. all those born there are automatically citizens, couldn't a woman go there on vacation/business/illegally, give birth, then the child would be a citizen giving the parent rights to stay/move there too? | [
{
"answer": "Contrary to popular belief, if an illegal immigrant has a kid in the US, they're still at risk for deportation if caught, in which case the child is sent back with them.\n\nAlso, pregnant women sometimes have difficulties getting Visas (particularly tourist Visas) in order to dissuade people from t... | null |
32mrgs | how do professional sports teams turn a profit? | [
{
"answer": "You forget money from licensing, clothes, hats, figurines, etc. Plus advertising at the stadium. Sales of the private booths, Revenue from renting out the stadium to other venues, like concerts. And of course revenue from showing the games on TV. Plus I'm sure I'm missing a few other revenue source... | null |
3prj9j | Why have Jews been expelled in so many countries? | [
{
"answer": "As a piggyback question can I ask if Jews have faced persecution in India? I visited an old synagogue in Cochin, India a couple of years back and they had a bunch of paintings illustrating how Jews have been visiting and settling in that part of India since around 200 BC. ",
"provenance": null
... | null |
1jihja | why is it legal to drink 1 beer and then drive, but illegal to drink 1 beer while driving? | [
{
"answer": "I always figured it was because it's not very practical to pull someone over and ask,\"Is that your first beer? Okay good, just checking. Have a nice day.\"\n\nEasiest way to enforce that law is to have a 0 tolerance policy on open containers/drinking & driving.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
35aaqj | why do dogs (and foxes) like balls so much? | [
{
"answer": "It's part of an old instinct to chase small quick animals. They are naturally attracted to things that are small and move quickly and their natural instinct is to chase them",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "6683847",
... | null |
65uvqm | please. how do you milk an almond to make almond milk? | [
{
"answer": "With a screw press. Roughly chop, then sqeeze them like olives or peanuts to get the moister out. The remaining paste can be used as a thickening agent.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What Druid posted about the press is correct but typically they will also soak the almonds in a w... | null |
9x3btd | how does gps jamming work? like what the russians did during the recent nato exercise. | [
{
"answer": "The same as normal jamming, they sent out a bunch of signals on the frequency that GPS satellites use to confuse the receivers- like trying to hear a code someone is telling you(The GPS signal) when someone is shouting in your ear(The Russian Jamming.) \n\n01001 01100 01001 01011 00101 10100 10010 ... | null |
nj984 | what is wireless spectrum scarcity and why is it a problem now? | [
{
"answer": "[this](_URL_1_) gives you a great explanation, but i'll give you the TLDR\n\nSpectrum is allocated from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. Basically different devices require a certain amount of bandwidth to send signal. When you create 4G (or even faster forms) you need more assigned spectrum. \n\n > What puts str... | null |
2c4s5j | why does my back itch if i'm not wearing a shirt, but nothing else on my bare body does? | [
{
"answer": " > Looked it up and didn't really find anything\n\n\nObviously you didn't try WebMD... it's cancer, definitely cancer.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Not an expert at all, but I read that some evolutionary psychologists believe that the reason you get itchy for no reason is to enc... | null |
gno54 | Are Pharma companies evil like everyone says? | [
{
"answer": "You are asking a loaded question. A company is a group of people, policies, etc. I'm curious as to what criteria you would weigh in making a determination if a company is 'evil'?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Pharma is just a company, like any other, and as such they are bound ... | null |
5xzxa7 | why can we see faraway light source (e.g. cars, lamps, stars) clearly when it doesn't seem to illuminate my position? | [
{
"answer": "The difference is this: For you to see light, the light has to be strong enough to reach your eye and produce a reaction there. For it to illuminate you, it would have to reach you, scatter off you, reach someone else's eye, and produce a reaction there. During the scattering, the light is spread o... | null |
79z79x | Were the pyramids really gold capped? | [
{
"answer": "When it first came out, someone asked if the pyramids would still have caps at that time. [So I hope this answer is at least partially useful, though no doubt we have other ancient accounts that are older.] (_URL_0_) I'm not sure what the last mention of the gold caps would be,\n though.",
"pr... | null |
2v15bd | do people who hear for the first time, after something like getting hearing implants, know what the other people are saying? | [
{
"answer": "When the senses are developing there is a time called the [critical period](_URL_0_) in which sensory neurons physically become associated with certain parts of the brain, with the result being that different functions can be mapped to distinct regions of the brain. This is called topography. If ... | null |
5ypew0 | How successful were the programs of forced sterilization of Native American women? | [
{
"answer": "So from the context of your post, I feel like you're asking this sincerely. I'd like to start out by saying \"successful\" isn't a good word to use. Perhaps it wasn't your intention, but using the word \"success\" carries with it a connotation of justification. These types of programs are never jus... | null |
7tlrg1 | Why were guns created in Europe, instead of Asia? | [
{
"answer": " > Why did these innovations not take place in Asia?\n\nThey did. It isn't that gunpowder made it to the West, and then cannons and handguns were invented in the West, but gunpowder made it to the West because it was already being used in guns.\n\nFor example, in the Mongol siege of Jin Kaifeng in... | null |
7e2gz2 | Why are math and physics considered liberal arts subjects? | [
{
"answer": "Liberal arts does not mean \"humanities\" as opposed to \"sciences.\" The term, for one thing, long predates the entry of \"science\" into the western vocabulary. The *artes liberales*, where *ars* means \"skill\" (as is usual; Hogwarts isn't teaching students Defense Against Dark Paintings and Sta... | null |
3yuxhw | How do we know how organic molecules look like, and how do we also know how reaction mechanisms proceed? | [
{
"answer": "Mechanisms are indeed hypothetical in principle, but they get their scientific confirmation via kinetics. For example, if you suppose a reaction to proceed as an [SN1](_URL_0_) you will measure a first-order kinetic evolution experimentally (thus exponential decay), if instead you measure second-or... | null |
xqgio | why do some men's button-up shirts have the last buttonhole horizontal while the rest are vertical? | [
{
"answer": "Stress concentration. \n\nButtonholes are weakest along their long dimension. If you pull on that vertical buttonhole, it will want to rip in the corner of the buttonhole. The lowest button is usually the one under the most stress due to trousers, [shirt garters](_URL_0_), and beer bellies, and ... | null |
358hfe | How important were Special Forces in WW2? | [
{
"answer": "Black and Green Ops are really hard to rate in such a manner. In WWII in specific, the line between Black/Green/Regular Operations became intensely blurred as well. Many formations that could conduct a stereotypical, independent raid or sortie were also used, by design or necessity, as larger comba... | null |
2bvn7d | How is a Damping Coefficient Interpreted in Equations Concerning Harmonic Motion? | [
{
"answer": "I think the phrase should be \"with resistance proportional to instantaneous velocity\". \n\nOne way of commonly modelling drag or resistance is to assume that the resistance an object feels is linearly proportional to it's velocity at any given moment. This is sometimes called [Stokes drag](_URL_0... | null |
21m396 | How does Morocco get the honor of being America's first ally, yet we were in cahoots with France during the Revolutionary war? | [
{
"answer": "Morocco's early relations with the US were actually somewhat mixed. [Michael Oren writes](_URL_2_) that the ruler of Morocco at the time, Sidi Muhammad bin `Abdallah, \n\n > claimed to have been the first monarch to have recognized American independence and the first Muslim leader to seek a forma... | null |
41a8tm | how do herbivorous animals that birth only one offspring at a time, maintain higher populations than their predatory counterparts that birth multiples in a litter? | [
{
"answer": "because plants are a more common form of food and requires less energy to collect. predators have to compete with eachother to survive and most of the time an entire litter doesn't survive",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "517... | null |
jbqal | What happens to the movement areas in the brains of paralyzed individuals? | [
{
"answer": "Also what are the movement areas apart from the motor cortex?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Atrophy I suppose. We were always told in undergraduate classes that when you lose a limb, the area devoted to that area shrinks and surrounding areas take over it - though there is no gai... | null |
1t98ks | Where did the sugar molecules in DNA and RNA come from originally? | [
{
"answer": "Good question. These days, the sugar molecules in DNA and RNA (called ribose in the case of RNA; deoxyribose in the case of DNA) come from the human body. They are produced inside our cells using energy from food.\n\nBefore there were human bodies or cells to manufacture ribose, it could be produce... | null |
1j80uk | What would need to change or evolve in order for us to be able to see light outside of the visible spectrum with our naked eye? | [
{
"answer": "The molecules that absorb specific colors/wavelengths of light are found in the cone and rod cells of the retina. They are called opsins or [photopsins](_URL_0_) for the color proteins in the cone cells and [rhodopsins](_URL_3_) for the black/white night vision in the rod cells.\n\nReally all that ... | null |
2cpidg | what is actually going on when water "opens up" whiskey? | [
{
"answer": "It's dilution, pure and simple.\n\nBecause most whiskey has high alcoholic content, there is likely to be some \"burn\" in the taste or smell. By adding some water, you dilute that, which allows some of the more subtle flavor to emerge (because the more aggressive flavors are lessened).\n\nIn theor... | null |
3sdnzu | Why Delta-V and not Acceleration? | [
{
"answer": "Acceleration is the measure of how quickly your velocity is changing, whereas delta-v is the total required change in velocity in order to complete a maneuver. So if in order to get to a certain orbit you will need to increase your velocity by 1000 m/s, an acceleration of 10 m/s/s will allow you to... | null |
uw7ff | On the day of the Berlin Wall's construction, were citizens who were visiting the other side stuck there? | [
{
"answer": "No, because they were legally citizens of West Germany, and could therefore leave at will.\n\nSome East Germans who were in the West at the time decided to stay there, though.\n\nSee [here](_URL_1_), [here](_URL_3_) and [here](_URL_0_).\n\nEdit: also [here](_URL_2_)",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
6e6ud9 | why does an orchestra need a chief to perform? what is the man with a stick doing? | [
{
"answer": "The conductor? He's keeping time. Imagine a group of people trying to read a book out loud together. The \"man with a stick\" makes sure everyone is literally, on the same page, by giving cues and in general maintaining a beat for everyone to follow.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
96ft3k | why does corn pop and expand into yummy cinema treats? | [
{
"answer": "All grains pop with enough heat... Rice, corn even wheat, ragi etc. I don't know why they pop but they do pop if heated. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The hard kernel provides resistance, allowing pressure to build then pop. \n\nThe pressure is caused by the moisture content cre... | null |
1ct5cp | Could salt water be chemically desalinized? | [
{
"answer": "sure, there is no reason *a priori* that this couldn't be done. In fact, *salt metathesis* reactions are an example of this.\n\n I don't know of any practical method for doing this, however. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I believe what you are talking about i... | null |
1j240a | If a magnetic field requires a moving electric charge, how does a permanent magnet work? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, a magnetic field doesn't necessarily require a movement of charge. All it needs is a change in electric flux with time.\n\nSecond of all in an atom, the electrons are \"spinning\" around the nucleus, usually in random directions. Every single one of them is like a tiny bar magnet (the... | null |
2nhcze | why is piracy and copyright law such a derisive issue on the internet? shouldn't artists be entitled to distribute how they want and charge what they feel is appropriate? | [
{
"answer": "Artists can and do distribute how ever they want. Unless they have a contract with a big studio such as Sony, whose sole purpose is to squeeze every last cent out of them.\n\nThere's a lot of royalty free music out there, it's just not the way to earn money and do business with.",
"provenance":... | null |
bpqce2 | What are the benefits or detriments of using Asphalt covered concrete highways? | [
{
"answer": "Asphalt is like a protective glove on the top of the concrete. In Chicago you will notice that on the strictly concrete roadway the concrete has been worn into channels where the cars drive all day everyday. Concrete has the ability to last a long time which allows for the material to breakdown th... | null |
ovc5c | Just finished making a high temperature superconductor for solids lab. How exactly does the Meissner effect (pic inside) work? | [
{
"answer": "Although no dynamical explanation yet exist it's not actually a repulsion in the usual sense that keeps the magnet suspended. Because magnetic fields are excluded from the superconductor it locks into position. You can push the superconductor closer to the magnet, or further away, and it will stay ... | null |
9b8r7m | How was the clean up of the Dunkirk beach done? | [
{
"answer": "The Germans cleaned up, hardworking as ever.\n\nAs in need of new equipment as Germans were, they practically pressed anything intact into service. The British left behind eight divisions' worth of equipment in Dunkirk, including nearly 900 field guns, about as many AT guns, 300 heavy artillery pie... | null |
f41lzj | why does the engine of this plane rumble? | [
{
"answer": "Resonance frequency, basically the structure is receiving a little push in step with how the material normally flexes since each push is perfectly timed it is like pushing someone on a swing at the perfect time when the swing has reached its peak. _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
1dk3oq | Is the super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way spinning in the plane of the rest of our galaxy? Would this just be a coincidence, or does one or the other have ability to influence the other into matching it? | [
{
"answer": " > Is the SMBH really massive enough to gravitationally pull the rest of the galaxy to rotate around it? Or as it migrated (I'm assuming that's what happened?) to the center, did the galaxy impart the rotational direction?\n\nThe BH is part of the galaxy, it appeared and grew as a part of normal p... | null |
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