id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
3dzmmm | why does wikipedia cost so much to maintain if most of the people work for free editing the pages? | [
{
"answer": "The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, employs a lot of people to maintain the site and the hosting. That isn't free.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The traffic Wikipedia endures on a daily basis is what drives the cost up so high. The actual size of the ... | null |
2n374l | why do certain grapes make your mouth dry when you bite into them? | [
{
"answer": "Because they have [tannin](_URL_1_) in them. Tannin is an [astringent](_URL_0_) compound, which means it binds to certain proteins in your mouth and tends to shrink and constrict body tissue.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They have a lot of tannin in them which creates the sour p... | null |
ezcbpa | what goes into a whiteboard paint that makes it finish like a dry erase board and not a normal paint? | [
{
"answer": "Dry/wet erase markers are basically just an ink that dries into something that doesn't stick well to a surface - dry erase forms a film, wet erase is water soluble. \n\nThis works on any surface, in theory - you could use dry erase on rough wood, except that it would seep into pores and cracks and ... | null |
3vtiit | government encouraging marriage | [
{
"answer": "It's not so much marriage that they're encouraging as being a stay-at-home spouse. There's only really a tax benefit if one person is making most of the money. If the two people make even close to the same amount of money, they pay less in taxes by filling separately. ",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
3l3qvw | why are music apps like spotify so much more ad intensive on phones than their computer counter parts? | [
{
"answer": "It's rather simple really. Consider a billboard on the side of a road. If the road is a highway with many cars driving past, the billboard will be much more effective than a billboard next to a small farm road. The internet is the same, people tend to advertise where the most users are. Advertisers... | null |
4ovv0g | why are there so many more 'simple' medical procedures available for humans than there are for animals? | [
{
"answer": "Most animals don't have insurance. There are procedures for a lot of stuff, but not everybody can or wants to pay $5,000 when a cat & dog can be replaced for nothing.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mostly it's money. Most people simply can't afford to spend multiple thousands of... | null |
1hj6xf | what is the difference between fat, saturated fat and trans fat? and what is the sudden big deal about trans fat? | [
{
"answer": "Fats are a type of carbon-chain that your body uses for energy. Carbon atoms are able to form up to four bonds with other atoms.\n\nSo a saturated fat is where the carbon chain is entirely single-bonded. The 'saturated' part comes in because most of those carbon bonds are bonded to hydrogen atoms; ... | null |
5ebo93 | How does human saliva composition differ from that of cats and dogs? | [
{
"answer": "saliva is for:\n\n* keep the mucosa wet\n* lubricate food with water (or it may be too dry)\n* dissolve taste vector molecules inside food (very important because it's like a fast chemical analysis on the food and may help to decide if that thing can be eaten)\n* start to digest food\n* keep a micr... | null |
2d01d2 | How would 17th century sailing companies, navies, and pirates deal with men who fell overboard? | [
{
"answer": "My friend /u/RMission wrote an article on this subject, in particular how people back then would be revived from drowning: \n \n[Resuscutation of Drowning Victims at Sea](_URL_0_). \n \nIt will inform you of the subject more than you could imagine. ",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
8yfcor | How can I identify who the people buried at the grave site I found on my families texas red river ranch are? | [
{
"answer": "Texas counties will typically have a Tax Assessor-Collector and a County Clerk. The Clerk keeps records of birth and death, amongst others. Their records may well have been co-located and both lost in the same fire, but you never know. If by \"tax office\" you didn't mean the County Clerk, you may... | null |
1uyn5v | what sound properties do different musical instruments have different from each other? | [
{
"answer": "This has a lot to do with overtones and resonance. \n\nResonance is pretty self-explanatory: how well something (in the case an instrument) resonates throughout a room or building due to the sound waves bouncing and amplifying for a short period of time. \n\nOvertones are what make a sound \"thick.... | null |
1rdpsh | does heat affect the energy absorbed by a solar panel? | [
{
"answer": "[Wiki section](_URL_0_)\n\nSo your run of the mill solar panel works because the electrons in the silicon are separated into two layers. There is a bottom layer of electrons with the silicon itself (the valence band), a layer of no electrons (band gap) and a top layer of electrons that move around ... | null |
46ywe0 | why do most countries use the same calendar? | [
{
"answer": "Europe and North America, which use a calendar based on the Christian calendar, export a lot of goods around the world. Other countries use the calendar because their major western trading partners do. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most countries in Europe came to use the Julian... | null |
13anho | Is dandruff really related to your water and how hard/soft it is? | [
{
"answer": "Well there are lots of causes for dandruff actually.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nNow this only lists medical reasons for dandruff, but we can already see it is a complex problem.\n\nWe know hard water is caused by a high amount of minerals dissolved into the water. We can see this by placing water on a black pla... | null |
usy6b | What causes that sound my laptop makes when I am loading something? | [
{
"answer": "It's most likely the hard disk drive you're referring to. It contains a metallic disc that rotates very quickly, and a magnetic head retrieves and writes data to it. They contain a small motor to drive the disc and the process causes some noise (a clicking or crunching sound).",
"provenance": n... | null |
fabqp7 | what does 'dry' mean in alcohol | [
{
"answer": "Imagine you worked at an ice cream shop.\n\nYou have 3 main types of ice cream.\n'Lip-smacking' sweet, 'Lemony-fruity' sorbet, and 'Cool-down' mint. \n\nIt can get a little tricky to explain minty flavours to customers, as there's a fine line for what some people may identify as 'cold' (which all i... | null |
2wsusd | How did currency work in the Soviet economy if it was a command economy? | [
{
"answer": "Under a price fixing system you didn't have to deal with inflation you don't want because you (the government) set the price, thus by definition you didn't have inflation (outside of the black market anyway) if you don't increase prices. Instead, the problem you had to deal with were shortages (as ... | null |
2gu59s | With Scotland's rejection of independence is there any other British territory/colony that did the same in history? | [
{
"answer": "Newfoundland was offered the opportunity to become a dominion with the Statute of Westminster 1931. This would have given it free self-rule in its domestic matters, basically just leaving it allied and in a privileged trading position with the United Kingdom and the other dominions, which included ... | null |
6hxaha | How many times can a piece of plastic be recycled? | [
{
"answer": "This is highly dependent on how you want to recycle the plastic and the plastic material itself.\n\nA thermoset plastic is a non-reversible process, so it can't be used as re-grind in an injection molding process, whereas a thermoplastic may be able to be used depending on the performance required.... | null |
3xsy3o | when igniting a flammable substance from a gas canister, why doesn't the flame travel inwards towards the source and blow up the gas canister | [
{
"answer": "you need oxygen/fuel at a minimum ratio to combust. There is little or no oxygen in the gas canister.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because the gas canister is pushing the gas out and away, there is also no oxygen inside the canister, which prevents the gas inside from catching... | null |
bvw2zq | Was there a sort of international court dialect used between European monarchs in medieval times, or were there just a lot of translators | [
{
"answer": "Okay, there were a couple of different things going on here. In the first place, we need to remember that monolingual inhabitants of monolingual nation-states is a comparatively recent notion. Medieval Europe was a giant quilt of different competing dialects, pidgins, creoles, and languages. As a r... | null |
76xnq6 | - are speed bumps designed to damage your car if you go over them too fast? | [
{
"answer": "Some are, yes. We have the normal speed bumps but there is a whole road nearby that uses ~~his~~ these rubber things bolted down and even if you are going really slowly the jolt they give you is enormous. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "every time you drive your car, yes, the susp... | null |
2ofah9 | the purpose of the recent orion flight and what it means for both future space exploration as well as nasa itself? | [
{
"answer": "It was to first test out if the Orion was safe for human Flight. If something went wrong with the capsule, they could use the data to avoid astronauts being killed.\n\nAs far as the future is concerned, this can really mean anything. NASA is currently planning to use this series of vehicle to trans... | null |
3i7bpg | Any good sources on the illegal smuggling of slaves into the US in the 19th Century? | [
{
"answer": "You could look into the De Wolfe family, of Rhode Island. Slavers, congressmen, financiers of the Episcopal church in RI.\n\nThe New York Times just came out with an article on Rhode Island's role in the illegal slave trade:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThere is a great documentary from a few years back, which wo... | null |
tjtmh | Is it true heavier people require more alcohol to get drunk. | [
{
"answer": "It has to do with body weight, stomach content, gender and genetics. reducing your body weight could have an effect, but it would be easier to just start drinking on an empty stomach if you were trying to get intoxicated, and eat beforehand if you were trying to avoid it. \n\nBut yes, if you lost L... | null |
9xn1ks | The new kilogram definition seems complex. Why not define it in terms of the mass of a proton? | [
{
"answer": "It is not possible to precisely collect X protons under conditions that it could be used for a standard of mass. You could try for example saying that a kilogram is the mass of (0.1 m)^3 of water, but then you'd have to control precisely for temperature, pressure, isotopic composition, etc in a way... | null |
1fu0tc | How do millipedes walk? | [
{
"answer": "A quick google search (\"Millipede locomotion\") gave me [this hefty mathematical paper](_URL_1_) but otherwise as far as I remember each pair of legs moves one after another in a wave. [This video](_URL_0_) shows the action clearly and simply. So essentially yes, they move in waves.\n\nAs for if t... | null |
1dgnwp | How did this mountain ridge form? pic inside | [
{
"answer": "What you have there is an anticline structure - Imagine a fold in the rocks running NE-SW. MAybe 5-10 degrees dip on either side, but with the NW corner dipping down toward the NW, and the SE Corner dipping SE. These kind of large scale folds are very common in geology. Once the fold is excavated ... | null |
b7xi4m | why dont oasis in deserts get filled by nearby sand over time | [
{
"answer": "An Oasis gets its water from underground aquifers. So the water would just push any sand away. Also the presence of plant life around it helps keep the terrain stable, reducing the amount of stuff that'd disrupt things.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
3le4xg | what dictates a wonder of the world? | [
{
"answer": "There is no particular standard, only tradition. The Greeks made lists of amazing things from around the Mediterranean world familiar to them. Most of these lists made 7 choices because the number was (and often still is) considered lucky; counting the sun and moon, they knew of seven planets.\n\nA... | null |
73rsfz | inflation & deflation | [
{
"answer": "Inflation & Deflation aren't about currency rate, they are about price level in a country. Despite the reason inflation makes some products more expensive, or you can buy lesser with money you have. You can't increase salaries at the same time because it will cause futher increasing of the prices... | null |
8dfsez | how do snails not lose all of their body mass as slime left on the floor while travelling? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine it like sweating. You can sweat and sweat, liquid comes out of you, but your body mass stays more or less the same.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They do lose some. But just like you can continue to make snot and saliva, pee and poop, they consume material to make more.",... | null |
5xbbj4 | What were Aztec shield fringes made of? | [
{
"answer": "You are correct that fringes are made out of feathers. In section \"Defensive Weapons\" in Ross Hassig's book *Aztec Warfare* (1988: 85-88), he covers the topic of shields. While Hassig describes different construction material and methods for shields, he does not describe the fringe as anything bu... | null |
16l1s3 | Did creatures such as terrestrial hermit crabs make it onto land before the ancestors of modern reptiles and mammals? | [
{
"answer": "There were terrestrial arthropods before there were terrestrial vertebrates. Terrestrial scorpions and millipedes predate early terrestrial bony fish. See the Wikipedia article on the [devonian](_URL_0_) for a brief discussion of these early terrestrial arthropods. ",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
1jew59 | why was there a theory that nothing can go faster then light? | [
{
"answer": "Your wording is odd. You ask \"why was there\" is if it's not a current theory. As far as we know, it still holds true. As to why, see the other commenter.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The relativity theory is very much valid.\n\nI can try to explain a bit, but it's probably ... | null |
90dv3t | why aren't news stations (local, national, international) required to cite sources? | [
{
"answer": "One reason that news reporters (be they text or video) are not required to cite sources is that doing so can result in the firing, the arrest, or even the execution of the people who are their sources. Journalists take protecting these sources very seriously. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
gcg9k | What do sunglasses protect the eyes from? | [
{
"answer": " > UV radiation comes to mind first.\n\n[WHO - Effect of UV on Eyes](_URL_0_)\n\nTL;DR: UV is bad for your eyes. \n\n > * Do all glass lenses fully absorb UV? What about plastics?\n\nNo and no.\n\n[Sunglasses/protection (wikipedia)](_URL_1_)\n\nNever wear sunglasses that *don't* offer good UV p... | null |
3wz3ja | how are sentences by judges that are aimed at making an example out guilty parties not a violation of "equal justice under law", and therefore unconstitutional? | [
{
"answer": "Each type of crime has a valid minimum and maximum sentence. As long as the judge stays within these guidelines, it is 100% legal.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "44720",
"title": "Jury",
"section": "Section:... | null |
3nh72n | why don't tv shows/movies show real websites like google and facebook? why use fake websites that look like them? | [
{
"answer": "Because you gotta call them, ask for permission, sometimes they ask for a certain fee, have their PR people see if their product is being used in good faith, all that paperwork and time just isn't worth the trouble. You can literally have a mock up site with basic functions working in one or two da... | null |
5lcm18 | why do old games running on new hardware still have technical issues? | [
{
"answer": "The XBox is emulating NES hardware and running the emulation at a set speed. If it ran it at as fast as possible, then it would be several times faster than the original NES game and would be unplayable. I can't speak for Mega Man exactly, but older games tended to run on a cycle locked to the scre... | null |
1ws0oi | Does an eagle see things that are say, 2 feet away in microscopic detail, blurry (like looking through binoculars) or simply as we would see them? | [
{
"answer": "They can actually change the focal length of their eyes by deforming them with muscles. That said, the optics of a microscope and a telescope are very different. If they had their eyes in \"far away mode\", everything would be blurry, like looking at a bug through binoculars.\n\nIf they were in \"n... | null |
esbsy7 | when a court tries to discover whether someone is guilty or innocent, does their lawyer know the truth? | [
{
"answer": "Sometimes they know sometimes they don't. \n\nAttorney client privledge is a common law understanding in the US that your lawyer cannot divulge or be forced to divulge what you've told them. \n\nThis way you are encouraged to tell them the truth so they may best come up with a plan for your defense... | null |
8yiwo3 | is a fat muffin top at your belly caused because humans wear clothes around their waistline? | [
{
"answer": "Really good question! I am by no means an expert but it is my understanding that every person stores fat on their bod differently, however fat naturally collects around the waistline, modern clothes or not. Wearing tight jeans or yoga pants accentuates the “over hang” or “muffin top” on some people... | null |
h4ws4 | Why aren't archaea human pathogens? | [
{
"answer": "That is an EXCELLENT question, and unfortunately there is not a very good answer yet. It's not fully known, but there are some ideas.\n\nIt has been proposed that because Archaea use different cofactors in their metabolism, eukaryotes don't provide a good \"food source.\" But this isn't completely ... | null |
1demj6 | How long does a lobster live? | [
{
"answer": "they can, however their normal lifespan is around 15 years\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's hypothesized that they have the biological capacity to live somewhat indefinitely, barring bodily damage, predation, or disease. This is due to something called having a negligi... | null |
2faazm | our defense system in the united states if nuclear missiles were to be launched at us by another country | [
{
"answer": "Honestly? Not super great.\n\nWe have some [missile intercept systems](_URL_0_) but mostly the US relies on its ability to say \"If you don't terminate your missile right now... we'll fucking destroy your entire country in one swing\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mutually Assu... | null |
2ba4nl | Is there an upper limit of rotation for a pulsar? Also, is that upper limit uniform across all objects? | [
{
"answer": " > Is there a limit to how fast something can spin, or does it just work on the same priciple as movement through space?\n\nIf you are talking about the relativistic limit, this is [Ehrenfest's paradox](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sure. At some point, the matter near... | null |
3wewk9 | why do storm troopers wear armor if it doesn't actually protect them from anything? it also apparently interferes with their ability to shoot accurately. | [
{
"answer": "Psychological edge. A phalanx of faceless, white-clad, cold, armored soldiers advancing will make you shit yourself. It's a powerful image.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are several theories as to their accuracy, they appear to be accurate all the time except for a few inst... | null |
jdjul | Is the water ice present in the solar system the same as ice on earth, just much colder, or is it in a different phase? | [
{
"answer": " > I've read a few times about \"ice as hard as rock\" \n\nJust to get you started:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIce can have many different crystal structures depending on T / P. Not sure how mechanical properties change w/ crystal structure.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The short answer is ... | null |
21op7j | Why is the DNA replication process imperfect? | [
{
"answer": "Because of the complexity of the protein engines at work. All told, there are a considerable number of steps necessary to correctly replicate DNA, and the process is different for the leading and lagging strands. However, I think on average there's only one error for every 10,000 replications. M... | null |
abs03p | how did we find out that there are 365.25 days in a year? | [
{
"answer": "Observation, and knowing when the sun should be where through relative position.\n\nWhen you chart the sun’s course every day of the year a pattern emerges (Note the position and degree of the light at the exact same time every day). That pattern is slightly off by a few degrees the following year,... | null |
49howb | 3 days underwater. | [
{
"answer": "In short, they haven't come up with a good answer yet.\n\nThe key problem more than anything is hypothermia. He was trapped in freezing water, and found naked and alert. After three days in freezing water you'd expect someone to have drowned, let alone be naked and able to determine that someone wa... | null |
567vf3 | Why are there bubbles in prince Rupert's drops? | [
{
"answer": "First off, you really don't need a turkey fryer oil quench make PRD. The whole point of the drops is that they are skin stress resistant, and should hold up to a fast quench. Most people make them in a tub of lukewarm water.\n\nThe bubbles are most likely trapped atmospheric gasses during the me... | null |
1jln5o | why does fruit taste different after its dried? | [
{
"answer": "the flavor is concentrated since there is less water, it would be like making a cup of coffee with just a little bit of water so you had a thick mud... it would taste different.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "158573",
... | null |
d3ivv2 | exactly how are manual eye exams conducted (without modern digital equipment) and how can a doctor measure your eyesight through looking at your eye? | [
{
"answer": "What do you mean measure your eyesight? As in determine your visual acuity?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Before the fancy digital eye scanner... They had you look through lens and ask if it was better or worse....",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"proven... | null |
3b9rxy | Why was the USSR so interested in space flight? What started the USSR space program? Was NASA created only as an answer to Sputnik, or was it already in the works before hand? | [
{
"answer": "The sputnik programme was introduced by Koroliov (previously doing rocketry) due to fears his team would \"lose the priority\" if the USA launched an artificial sattelite first (as they were planning to do for the international geophysical year).\n\nsource: [S.P.Korolëv quoted on _URL_1_](_URL_0_).... | null |
3x0k6h | when and why did we switch from saying liberal/conservative to progressive/regressive in us politics? | [
{
"answer": "Political terms change over time, and often have many different meanings.\n\nHistorically, a \"liberal\" was someone who believed strongly in republicanism and democracy. The \"conservatives\" in England opposed the revolutionary change seen in France, seeing it as dangerous, and wanted to preserve... | null |
1whqv4 | Epigenetics, Methyl Groups, and Expression | [
{
"answer": "I watched some of the video, but it was too long to finish, so please ask more questions if I've missed anything. \n\nI wouldn't say that a \"nature/nurture debate\" really exists anymore. It's now more like a \"nature-nurture interaction exploration\", because (as you've seen) both the fluctuating... | null |
2fjpa2 | sunk costs | [
{
"answer": "A sunk cost is a past cost that is not recoverable and specifically should not influence future decisions. For example if a company spends money on a consultant then that money would be sunk. Also money spent on employee training is a sunk cost. In contrast to money spent on a truck or a compu... | null |
5kx7l3 | why do some people silently mouth the words you're speaking along with you as you talk to them? | [
{
"answer": "Probably improves understanding. At least you know they're paying attention to what you're saying.\n\nSome people have a hard time focusing, their minds wander.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Its a form of face mirroring. As social creatures people will mirror face expressions, to... | null |
1pxoww | What is the latest known instance of serfdom in Western Europe? | [
{
"answer": "Define Western Europe.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "134258",
"title": "Serfdom",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 4,
"start_character": 0,
"end_paragraph_id": 4,
"end_ch... | null |
8u7qc3 | why does everything computerised need regular software updates now opposed to older models? e.g. my xbox one needs to update monthly(ish) while my xbox original never did (or could). | [
{
"answer": "Security is taken more seriously than it used to, particularly on consoles that are now much more online than they used to be (online multiplayer was a much newer thing for consoles during the xbox classic generation of consoles), and that are much closer to the computers we use every day. It was u... | null |
18na44 | What will happen when Pope Benedict when he dies, since he will not be Pope at the time? | [
{
"answer": "The way you've phrased the question, it's about current events/the future, which isn't appropriate for this subreddit. I'll have to delete this one, but you could resubmit with something like \"What happened to Popes who didn't die in office?\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
34gcky | how can bernie sanders an independent be the democrats presidential nominee? | [
{
"answer": "He's not. He's seeking to be democratic presidential nominee. ELyou're5: he's hoping democrats will let him be leader of their club. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "44582614",
"title": "Bernie Sanders 2016 president... | null |
4x2gir | how do screenshots work from a software perspective? | [
{
"answer": "The software just saves the state of all the pixels that the hardware is sending to the display and puts it into a standard image format that other programs can then open. How the software actually gets the pixel data is platform dependent.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The grap... | null |
1mzw5s | Why do boats often leave paths of calm water (wakes) behind them? | [
{
"answer": "Waves on water surface are dependent on both wind speed and the amount of exposure the water has had to the wind (IIRC this is called 'fetch'). Essentially, even a fairly strong wind needs a pretty good amount of distance acting on the water to kick up waves on the surface. This is one reason why w... | null |
3zze1u | How come when you and a friend get out of a loud venue such as a concert and you can't hear as well your friend and you yell at each other when talking, instead of talking in your normal voice. ? | [
{
"answer": "Your ears have a mechanism to [temporarily lower their sensitivity](_URL_0_) in response to loud sounds. In that paper, they showed that if you knock out the gene responsible for this in mice, they exhibit less temporary hearing loss but more long term hearing loss. So it seems to be a mechanism to... | null |
3d2en0 | Do we know anything about a planet past Pluto? | [
{
"answer": "Better calculations have removed the disparity. But that's a boring answer. There certainly are more dwarf planets past Pluto in the Kuiper belt. Makemake is of significant size, about 2/3 as big as Pluto. Eris, even farther out, is roughly the same size as Pluto. Here's a great diagram of their cr... | null |
20kh8e | How was Italy governed by the Roman Empire? Was it treated like a province with its own proconsul? | [
{
"answer": "I'm working on this right now, so this won't be a complete answer because I haven't finished my research yet, but I can get things started (and maybe learn something from other contributors!).\n\nFirst thing to ask is what the hell is \"Italy\"? In early Greek sources Italy seems to mean the Greek... | null |
1jhmmf | why are black holes invisible. | [
{
"answer": " > If a black hole \"swallows\" light, shouldn't they be visible by exactly that fact?\n\nNo.\n\nThe reason you see objects is because light reflects off them and hits your eyes. If nothing reflects off an object (ie, if it were to perfectly absorb all incoming EM radiation, or have an escape velo... | null |
448pmy | In warfare through history, why isn't there a severity of causalities compared to the unit size deployed? | [
{
"answer": "This is a big question, so I can only really answer in generalities. Still, I'll do what I can.\n\n > Or is the \"fight to the death\" mentality not really true.\n\nArmies are big, expensive things, to say nothing of the human cost of combat. To fully commit to attacking or defending a place mean... | null |
3mzzwp | what causes people to hallucinate when they get a very high fever, and is it the body trying to protect itself in some way? | [
{
"answer": "when you have a high fever, enzymatic action all over your body begins to slow and in the brain, this causes an unbalanced level of certain neurotransmitters and other psychoactive compounds. when this occurs, hallucinations, stroke, and other odd feelings begin to surface",
"provenance": null
... | null |
bd7ucf | after suffering an injury, why are we told to elevate that part of our body over our heart? doesn't blood help heal the injured area and bring cells that heal it? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on how much blood we are talking about. Elevating the injury basically uses gravity to help overcome the blood pressure of that area, decreasing blood loss. I recall the story of a woman who cut her big toe - not a really horrible cut, but enough to produce a good amount of bleeding. Fea... | null |
7x6x9s | Alexander the Great founded dozens of cities and towns over his life. How was a town just "founded?" | [
{
"answer": "Hi, not discouraging other contributors, but meanwhile, check these out\n\n* /u/ikahjalmr in [In ancient times I've heard that historical figures \"built cities\" like Alexander did at Bucephala in honor of his horse. How did a ruler in Greco times go about establishing a city? What did that at a m... | null |
gyuzv | Are we made more of microbes than our own cells, or does the smaller size of bacteria mean that by mass, we're larger? | [
{
"answer": "By both mass and volume, we are more people than bacteria.\n\nBacteria are much much smaller. The numbers you give there suggest that human cells are about 50x bigger than bacteria. Cells are three-dimensional, so this means a human cell is going to be about 50^3, or 125,000x more voluminous, and... | null |
3mw9f8 | If we upgraded Hubble with modern tech/optics, how much better would it get? | [
{
"answer": "That is the plan, the James Webb Space Telescope is about six times the size of Hubble and should go up in about three years.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This may help answer your question:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nMost of the answer(s) you need are in the last few paragraphs but it is ve... | null |
iovsj | What do wild animals do in inclement weather? | [
{
"answer": "Get wet.\n\nFeel miserable.\n\nStart to smell.\n\nPossibly be injured and/or die if they can't find shelter and the storm is really bad, just like you would without your house.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They would try to find natural shelter in which they would already sleep ... | null |
5kln6a | usa mcdonald's franchise owners, operators or managers: what is the purpose of two drive through ordering points for one drive though window? | [
{
"answer": "Data proves you wrong. Typically the slowest part of the average drive-thru is the ordering process. Customers unsure of what they want, large orders, etc. Years worth of data taken has proven this, that's why they have multiple ordering lanes. It's all about the number of cars they can get thr... | null |
396zuz | Would taking cooked meat out of the fridge, warming it, and then putting it immediately back in the fridge make it go bad? | [
{
"answer": "Meat in your fridge contains pathogenic microorganisms. They divide very slowly (if at all) in the cold fridge, but much more rapidly at room temperature. Air in your kitchen also contains pathogenic microorganisms, some of which would grow rapidly on nutrients they can extract from meat. \n\nThese... | null |
qh6m5 | By 1571 how secure was Elizabeth I's hold on the throne? | [
{
"answer": "Not a historian, but I'll give this my best shot\n\n* Strong hold on government and country, she still commanded respect of her council and country\n\n* One could argue that her moderate religious settlements, \"pacified\" the extreme catholics (many preachers were arrested/executed)\n\n* The pope ... | null |
46179m | when you're trying to sleep and you hear something, a flash or some tick in your eye that goes with the sound? | [
{
"answer": "Chances are you were transitioning into sleep. During this time, many people are prone to a phenomenon called \"hypnogogia\". This can range anywhere from auditory hallucinations such as hearing voices or phones ringing, to visual hallucinations involving dancing blobs or waves of color to seemingl... | null |
1u79m5 | the barn-pole relativity paradox | [
{
"answer": "Lorentz contraction is always \"real\", but the point is that it's *relative*. The farmer sees the entire pole in the barn, while the runner doesn't (how could he, since for him it's *the barn* that's contacting).\n\nThe resolution of the \"paradox\" comes from carefully considering what we mean wh... | null |
72za7r | Do humans have a vestigial tail wagging response? Is it detectable? | [
{
"answer": " > A case of a tail in a 2-week-old infant is reported, and findings from a review of 33 previously reported cases of true tails and pseudotails are summarized. The true, or persistent, vestigial tail of humans arises from the most distal remnant of the embryonic tail. It contains adipose and conne... | null |
14qsat | How, when and why was the label "made in [country]" invented? When was it first used and to what purpose? | [
{
"answer": "[Made in Germany](_URL_0_), introduced by the British to mark the inferior quality and plagiarising German goods being imported. Quickly turned out to be a boon to Germany instead of a hindrance as originally intended.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
6o3dh6 | did the musical notes we all know (d,f,g,f-sharp etc.) basically *have* to be or was this just one person's selection that ended up working well? | [
{
"answer": "Look at a violin. It has no frets. Violin players play by ear and get it right. So do Bass and viola players. Look at a guitar. It has frets. Guitars have to be tuned. But once tuned they can be played by holding strings down on the frets.\n\nWe need to define what one note is, how many cycles per... | null |
i2u3o | Is it possible to harvest gravity (or, more correctly, gravitational waves)? | [
{
"answer": "Without reading the article I can assure you that hydroelectric power is a much more efficient way of harvesting gravity.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The interaction cross section is way, way too low.\n\nActually, let me amend that:\n\nThe interaction cross section is way, way,... | null |
53s392 | Artificial sun by throwing fusion bomb in hydrogen cloud? | [
{
"answer": "To sustain a fusion reaction, the combination of temperature and pressure need to be sufficiently high. That's why there is fusion in the sun, but not in Jupiter, which, like the sun, consists of largely hydrogen and helium.\n\nWhen an object like Jupiter doesn't have sufficient density for fusion ... | null |
2kvcmq | why is direct democracy not a viable system as opposed to what we have? would it result in massive indecisiveness, if implemented? | [
{
"answer": "Two main problems with direct democracy I can think of off the top of my head:\n\n- stability: the will of the masses tends to change quickly. News report on minor being raped and killed? Let's introduce death penalty. Mass shooting? Let's forbid guns. Note I'm not taking a stand towards either dea... | null |
4v5a4o | Why does fission happen randomly? | [
{
"answer": "Spontaneous fission is a quantum tunneling process. You have two (or more) \"lobes\" of nuclear matter, bound by a mutually attracting potential. In order for fission to occur, they must tunnel out of their attractive wells. Depending on how strongly deformed the nucleus is, this could be very easy... | null |
4hy50v | How humans reached islands like Japan during the Paleolithic? | [
{
"answer": "Hi! While pre-history questions are fine here, it would be worth also x-posting this one to /r/AskAnthropology ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "161010",
"title": "History of East Timor",
"section": "Section::... | null |
16vy2h | Why did Bowing die out in Europe, but persist in East Asia? | [
{
"answer": "Just for some clarification do you mean archery? Or just making the bows?\n\nEdit: I may have misread that, did you mean bowing as in the gesture? If so I appoligize.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16390679",
"title... | null |
1mlky7 | How was Malta able to withstand the Malta blitz? | [
{
"answer": "Largely this was due to bombing being much less accurate than you might think. During WWII the percentage of bombs that hit anywhere near their targets was in the single digits--at least when it came to high level strategic bombing. Tactical bombers, such as the (in)famous Stuka dive bomber, coul... | null |
2s5kg3 | Suppose I visited Oregon in 1000BCE and then again in AD1000. (Without asking someone) How could I tell which was which? | [
{
"answer": "People, remember that this is askHISTORIANS, not askpaleoastronomers or askgeologists or askbotanists. If you do not have the proper historical knowledge to answer this question, don't answer.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Note to Moderators: if I've made some mistake in the rule... | null |
3fhurf | how can the us government tack on extra laws to bills? | [
{
"answer": "People in the US don't vote on every bill that is to/might become law. It is a Representstive Democracy so they vote for Senators and Congresmen/women who will they represent them. It is these people who then vote on the bills which are put before them. If the bill passes in both the Senate and ... | null |
70clmz | how does recycling paper work and why does it seem like every recycled paper bag is brown? | [
{
"answer": "Paper is recycled by chopping it up and then cooking the bits in warm water, then mashing them back into sheets and drying it again.\n\nUsually they bleach it, so most recycled paper is white. If they don't bleach it, the natural color is gray or brown depending on the materials. (Brown if made of ... | null |
10rre5 | why will a whole flock of birds sit in a tree and caw/chirp/exclaim at seemingly nothing? | [
{
"answer": "Birds do four very basic things: Eat, sleep, shit and fuck. If the birds have eaten and got enough rest there is nothing left for them to do but try to get with the lady birds. Birds hang out in trees and chirp and sing to show that they have done all the important things and they would be a good c... | null |
8g82yq | What are the horizontal bands of clouds that form during a nuclear detonation, and why do they form at those intervals? | [
{
"answer": "It's called a condensation cloud, or a Wilson cloud. It only occurs in humid air. With an explosion of significant size, a shock wave develops which leaves a a low-pressure zone behind it. This leads to large-scale adiabatic cooling. This cooling of the air below the dew point allows the moisture t... | null |
39vu16 | When did brothels start using red lights as a sign of their presence? Why red? | [
{
"answer": "Ooo!.Ooo! I know! At least, what they claim in *Brass Checks and Red Lights*, a brief study of prostitution in the late West, and some of the background of sportin' houses. They said it originally came from railroad men hanging their red-glassed lanterns outside the one-whore cribs. However, I have... | null |
13flsq | During the middle ages in Europe, how would soldiers treat and transport their weapons and armor from battle to battle? | [
{
"answer": "Some shields were equipped with a strap known as a guige used for carrying over the back outside of battle. They're depicted, infrequently, in the Bayeux tapestry, as the Normans travel. More often they're shown holding the shield by the enarmes, the straps that go around the forearm.\n\nEDIT: clea... | null |
2jtbtu | why are there leaked pictures of almost all new non-released products? how do they get them? | [
{
"answer": "1. an insider (employee, someone in the production line / supply-chain line) sells the information to a publisher.\n\n2. the company itself tries to mimic the hype of \"leaks\" by willfully creating the above for the purpose of marketing.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To anno... | null |
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