id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
1dwxv3 | When I see gray, what wavelengths am I seeing? | [
{
"answer": "Many times the color grey is generated by a mixture of compounds. Some which absorb and some which reflect. For instance if you mix white paint with black paint you will end up with a grey color because the mixture contains compounds which reflect all light and compounds which absorb all light. ... | null |
3vfjz8 | how do people get hd clips from tv to the internet? | [
{
"answer": "A PC with a \"Capture Card\" of one kind or another.\n\nHD material from a cable/satellite box gets fed into the computer, where it's \"captured\", and can then be edited and uploaded. It's not legal, but it is rather easy with modern software.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
4heahh | Are there any animals whose blood is not red? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, but it's not particularly common. A common example is the [horseshoe crab](_URL_0_), which has hemocyanin in place of hemoglobin. Vertebrate blood's red color comes largely from hemoglobin, which is bright red when oxygenated and a darker red when deoxygenated. Hemocyanin is blue when oxyge... | null |
16ss7m | degrees of education | [
{
"answer": "Associate's Degree: 2 years \n\nBachelor's Degree: 4 years \n\nMaster's Degree: Bachelor's + 2 years \n\nDoctoral/Ph.D: Bachelor's + 4-6 years. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A bachelors degree is usually a four year degree at a university. While doing this you can consider yours... | null |
23apur | why has easter turned into a time to celebrate finding chocolate/eggs from a bunny? | [
{
"answer": "You might ask why did Easter turned into a Christian holiday \"celebrating\" the torture and death of their god when it is actually (and originally) about the Spring Equinox and fertility.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They don't.\n\nDecorating eggs seems to be a festive activity... | null |
77oer8 | Why we're African slaves not more common in the uk? | [
{
"answer": "There was a legal question regarding whether or not the state of enslavement could exist on British soil. The situation was ambiguous, and certain West Indian plantation owners did bring slaves back to Britain with them, as personal valets/maids and the like. However, it became increasingly common,... | null |
6xqbbq | Does a satellite experience centrifugal force or centripetal force? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on your frame of reference. In an inertial frame stationary with respect to the Earth, the satellite is only subject to a centripetal force (gravity).\n\nIn a reference frame co-rotating with the satellite, the centripetal force is still there, and there is additionally a centrifugal for... | null |
7i45d5 | how was the internet made? like how did they discover coding, etc? | [
{
"answer": "Computers predate the internet by several decades, but the origins of the internet can be traced back to a US Military project in the 1960's called Arpanet. They wanted to see if they could get computers to communicate with each other. The first data packet was sent from a computer at UCLA to one a... | null |
14srt3 | Does boiling the same tap water multiple times change anything in it? | [
{
"answer": "Boiling water multiple times reduces the dissolved oxygen and any other dissolved gases, as the solubility for these decreases with temperature.\n\nNo new minerals are added or dissolved upon multiple boils - whatever minerals come out of your tap are mostly unchanged during the events you describe... | null |
p5yfy | Russian Drug Epidemic - Krokodil - Causes Necrosis. Is there any way that this can be healed? [Medicine] [NSFL] | [
{
"answer": "Let me clear my throat a little and thank you for the warnings.\n\nThese people have packed on every kind of cellular stress imaginable. They are throwing acids, aromatic reactive species, most likely heavy metals, and who knows what else, *directly* into their circulatory system.\n\nNow, let's st... | null |
9zs4y8 | What did people in the 'Old West' name their pets? | [
{
"answer": "I'm honestly more curious about horse names ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4871592",
"title": "The Ballad of Little Joe",
"section": "Section::::Plot.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3,
"start_cha... | null |
6bidsm | How did Italians preserve the tomatos needed for many of their dishes, prior to the invention of canning? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, other poster is dead wrong, tomatoes were eaten fresh only rarely before the invention of commercial canning, getting down on fresh tomatoes is a pretty modern thing, your pre-canning tomato breeds would not make for tasty fresh eating, pretty acidic. But they were certainly preserved, it's ... | null |
b4r8ll | why does the burn of putting your leg in hot water seem to come a second or so after it’s been pulled out? | [
{
"answer": "So there’s ‘two’ nervous systems that usually work together. This is an example of where one takes over first.\n\n- CNS = Brain. It controls the actions you think about so it takes longer to work.\n- PNS = No Brain. Controls reflex actions, ones you don’t have to think about, so it’s faster.\n\nThe... | null |
7r7k49 | Why don’t everyday movements cause sub-concussive impacts? | [
{
"answer": "This is counterintuitive, but if the density of the egg in your example is roughly the same as the density of the fluid (so that it can float in it) then shaking the jar wouldn't make it bounce, it would keep floating roughly in the middle no matter what you do.\n\nSudden acceleration only causes p... | null |
ar47hf | why are commercials so bad? why dont companies hire comedians or any other kind of professional to create commercials for them? | [
{
"answer": "Cost. Using big stars or producers is expensive, add on the cost of the time slot for the commercial and it cuts into company money.\n\nThe smaller the business, the lower quality production",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Great minds think alike. Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in aski... | null |
3xs2x9 | What exactly are virtual particles? For example, a Weyl Fermion is apparently exciting for semiconductor applications, but what properties does it have that make it so? | [
{
"answer": "Virtual particles appear in perturbative field theory. When calculating observables in a field theory, it is almost always impossible to solve the problem exactly, so you develop a method to compute things approximately (this is called perturbation theory). The most useful way to do this is to intr... | null |
1ey8lm | why is the water contained in a source like soda any less beneficial? | [
{
"answer": "I cant really tell what you are asking, the title is confusing.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Soda is > 90% water (probably 98% or so). If you want to drink 8 glasses of water a day, 8 sodas would do it but the sugar and sodium would be terrible for you're health. Someone who ... | null |
5b4l98 | how are some mods in gaming compatible to new game versions while other mods need to be updated? (eg. skyrim - compatible after patch but minecraft - mods need updates) | [
{
"answer": "It depends on what those mods were doing to the game files, and what was changed in those files between versions.\n\nFor example, if you alter the \"running speed\" value in the movement script, it's not likely the company is going to change the way movement works between versions, so your mod will... | null |
iq44d | Why do specific laws apply to the universe? | [
{
"answer": "Physicists are much better at answering 'how' than why. E.g: \"How do magnets work?\" \"How does gravity work?\" \n\nWhy is a much more philosophical question and is, in a sense, much less defined (and therefore less interesting :P) than actually learning *how* things work. ",
"provenance": nul... | null |
2hhckf | what exactly happens to your skin when it reacts to posion ivy? | [
{
"answer": "It's called a type IV hypersensitivity reaction, more commonly known as an allergic reaction. This is a special type of allergic reaction that is not caused by histamine like most allergies are. This type of reaction is due to T cells attacking your own cells because they have an antigen (poison iv... | null |
3wdqip | What makes some cancer "inoperable"? | [
{
"answer": "Sometimes the cancer can occur in places where it would otherwise kill the patient. Like a tumor deep inside the brain might require a surgeon to do too much damage getting it out, or risk breaking up the tumor and causing it to spread in the body (the cancer cells can take up residence in other pl... | null |
5dqmd7 | resting membrane potential. why it hyper/hypopolarizes? | [
{
"answer": "The potassium and sodium ion concentrations are what cause the neuron to fire. Or actually they allow the action potential to propagate along the nerve.\n\nA nerve cell starts off polarized,meaning the outside of the membrane is positively charged and the inside is negatively charged. the outside ... | null |
29gyw8 | How fast was the decline of civilisation in Europe (including Britain) after the fall of the Roman empire? | [
{
"answer": "This is a difficult question to answer, due to the size of the empire and how different regions reacted differently to the decline of Roman authority, but generally I would say that though decline was visible in the West, it was a gradual one. In the Eastern Mediterranean, not much has changed at a... | null |
379ulx | do people in other countries have the same view of the moon that i do if we look at it at the same time? | [
{
"answer": "Because the moon is tidally locked (the sun only shines on one side at any given time), only one side of the moon is illuminated. This is why we had to send spacecraft to the far side of the moon to see what it looked like.\n\nIn other countries, the moon may be in a different position in the sky d... | null |
5jlyyy | why is it now 4k and 8k instead of 2160p and 4320p | [
{
"answer": "Well, for one thing, it's easier to say, and easier to remember. \n\nBut I believe the real reason is that using the horizontal pixel count a more consistent number to use over vertical, since number of vertical pixels changes according to the aspect ratio of a movie, e.g. 1.78:1, 1.85, 2.35:1, etc... | null |
1r578q | What would have Mary called her son? | [
{
"answer": "Jesus is his name as passed through a number of transitions through other languages. The original Hebrew or Aramaic name would be something like Yoshua.\n\nSome modern groups make a big deal of calling Jesus by his \"real\" name. Earlier centuries didn't worry about that though. It was common for n... | null |
2kgrn8 | why don't artists just release their entire album as singles to increase chart performance and song sales? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of artists produce songs which are meant to be listened together and in sequence as they enhance and compliment one another. If they were sold individually and listened to individually they would sound a lot worse because the artist would have failed to create an atmosphere needed to enjoy so... | null |
3v13ed | what is the physiology behind being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender? | [
{
"answer": "We're not really clear on it yet. There's some studies that suggest that transgendered people have brains that are physically closer to that of the sex they identify as, and some theories about hormone differences while in utero altering brain chemistry, but there's no real concrete answers yet.",
... | null |
bevdr9 | How were the craters on the side of the moon facing earth created? | [
{
"answer": "[Here are Earth and Moon, to scale](_URL_0_)\n\nDoes that answer the question?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "23824514",
"title": "Gibran (crater)",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 2,
"s... | null |
3zo2hg | what type of data is obtained from underground nuclear tests? | [
{
"answer": "The main purpose of a test is find out whether the device can be safely armed and successfully detonated. The tests are performed underground for environmental and safety purposes, but can make taking precise measurements difficult. \n\n\nIf buried at an adequate depth, yields can be roughly estim... | null |
12tx8j | How dense does air get in the compressor of a jet engine? | [
{
"answer": "For an isentropic (idealized) compressor, the density change is equal to the pressure change raised to the power of 1/gamma (1/1.4 for air). So a (high end) compressor ratio of 40:1 will give a density ratio of 14:1.\n\nAt sea level, you're looking at 1.2 kg/m^3 ambient density, so it'd be compress... | null |
1vu3gq | Why did the Romans have so much trouble with the Germanic tribes? | [
{
"answer": "I wouldn't say I'm an expert on the Germanic tribes, but having read fairly extensively on Caesar, Varus and Germanicus, I can give you some background.\n\nThe Romans actually did a pretty good job of whipping German butt. At the end of the first century BCE, Tiberius (soon to be emperor) and his ... | null |
7nyl36 | How did mammoth hunting cultures harvest the meat? | [
{
"answer": "you should also try to ask this over at r/askanthropology but the current thinking is that the mammoth would be butchered where it fell. Bison (*Bison bison*), were much smaller and they tended to be butchered where they fell as well. There is a paper where they experimented by butchering a dead zo... | null |
1ihefr | Do electrons really 'relolve' around the nucleus? | [
{
"answer": " > If an electron exists as an electron cloud, how can it 'revolve' around the nucleus?\n\nYou've just realized one of the gaping holes in the Bohr model.\n\n > Or do they not revolve at all?\n\nNot really. They just have certain probability distributions that describe where they're most likely to ... | null |
12ckou | How were hurricanes tracked in the 17th and 18th centuries? | [
{
"answer": "hurricanes were not 'tracked' in the 17th and 18th centuries. There was little understanding of cyclonic storms and no means of instantaneous communications. A track could be made well after the fact, but that was not 'tracking' in the sense we use the word today.\n",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
mtk9k | The question that my professors/teachers have never been able to answer. What's the lowest temperature a flame can have. | [
{
"answer": "It depends on what's burning. If you want to get into real technical territory, it also depends on the atmospheric pressure and the partial pressure of oxygen in the air.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You question is nearly impossible to answer because there really isn't a good f... | null |
f3j589 | what happens after you burst a blood vessel? does the vessel itself reform or do you have a gap there forever? | [
{
"answer": "It's called a bruise. The blood leaks out under your skin and makes a spill. The body patches up the vessel, or seals it off if it's too damaged. Then it cleans up the mess, that's why the bruise turns colors as the crashed blood cells get cleaned up, like after a highway crash. Then you are fi... | null |
jrl87 | Do any non-human animals "remember" things in a way like humans, or only through conditioning? Can an animal "remember" another animal that harmed it? Can an animal plot revenge? | [
{
"answer": "Elephants can and do remember poaches years later and kill them. They will also stop at spots where elephants died. Their memory is very very good",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Crows remember shit for years. [here](_URL_0_)\n\nAnother example is a silverback that, through sign la... | null |
34jj7k | How much radiation does a single banana give off? How many bananas would it take to kill someone and how long would that process take? | [
{
"answer": "You basically couldn't kill someone by just piling bananas around them. The amount of radiation you need to get someone to kick the bucket is on the order of 2-5 Gy (joules per kg). Even using natural K metal (with a small % of K40), being surrounded by an infinite sphere wouldn't even come near a ... | null |
5rd8i0 | how is youtube a sustainable business model? if view count remains constant but video storage costs continue to increase, wouldn't this lead to a permanent loss? | [
{
"answer": "Storage costs are going down exponentially.\n\nEvery year the cost of storing 1 GB of data is half what it was the previous year.\n\nYouTube loses money every time someone uploads a long video that nobody watches, but it doesn't matter because they make insanely high profits off of the top 1% of th... | null |
3yon7h | does *absolutely everyone* on the sidelines of an nfl game have a reason to be there? | [
{
"answer": "coaches (several), trainers, injured players in street cloths, water/towel boys, media (sound, cameras, on screen personality). police, cheer squad, security.\n \nIt seems the NFL does not have significantly more people than a popular H.S. game. \n\nSo I say essentially yes all the people have a r... | null |
69v43i | facebook scams. what do the accomplish by getting you to share a post? | [
{
"answer": "They are often designed to build up likes and followers then the owners of the page (usually located in a developing country not always though) will sell the page to scammers who can reach a giant audience (iPhone giveaways porn spam snake-oil weight loss solutions etc)",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
opcav | how do web browsers work? | [
{
"answer": "When you request _URL_0_, the server sends back a bunch of textual data. Plain text is boring to look at, so a simple markup language was created named html. The browsers job is to parse through the html and display it nicely. Some browsers display things differently than others (that's why many... | null |
3rs1vu | When the United States annexed the former territory of Mexico (California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), why were the Spanish names of cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco retained? | [
{
"answer": "generally speaking, pre-existing towns or settlements weren't renamed, and san francisco is the exception. [according to the 1847 ordinance changing the name of the town,](_URL_0_) \"yerba buena\" was renamed \"san francisco\" to prevent confusion. [look, for instance, at this 1839 American map o... | null |
51b93m | Books on U.S.-Native American wars | [
{
"answer": "I quite enjoyed: Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity (New York: Vintage Books, 1999).\n\nIt covers one of the earlier conflicts to take place and explores some of the different perspectives and sources on the conflict.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
cbml3f | municipal fiber internet. is it funded by the government or is funded by taxes? or do you just pay for it like you would for any other service (i.e. comcast, xfinity, etc...)? how does a town go about getting it (that is if they are in a state that doesn't ban it)? | [
{
"answer": "As the name suggests Municipal Fiber Internet is provided by the municipality (local government). The organization and funding of this is up to the municipality as is the same for any municipal utility like water, sewage and roads. It is not uncommon for the local taxes to pay for some of it howeve... | null |
1s4hw5 | why do salt water and fresh water bodies stay seperate | [
{
"answer": "Land for the most part. Lakes are fed by rainfall, and they occur most often in mountain valleys. Rain falls down the mountainsides making creeks and rivers that feed into the lake, and the water has no where else to go. When rivers feed into the ocean the fresh water mixes and eventually become... | null |
74c6hv | Im interested in theory of pre-historic advanced civilizations is there any reading material that you could recommend? | [
{
"answer": "Hey there!\n\nYou're right that it's not a commonly accepted theory, and for good reason. There's no evidence. Most arguments for it are based on \"We don't know anything about this era.. So it could be?\" This mentality hardly lends itself to any kind of scholarly research, which is based on makin... | null |
6fqv6a | how powerful does a nuclear warhead have to be to destroy our planet? | [
{
"answer": "What do you mean by destroy the planet. If you mean death star type explosion with no planet left you would need a bomb around 100 Zettatons of tnt which is around a quadrillion times as big as the most powerful bomb ever made.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You have to be more sp... | null |
3ue2lq | In the Americas, why are Spanish-speaking countries so small and numerous, but there are two enormous English-speaking countries? | [
{
"answer": "After Simon Bolivar drove out the Spanish in South America, he was briefly president of much of Spanish-speaking South America. His vision was for it to be a united country. Other political factions felt differently.\n\nFurther north, Mexico and Central America were briefly united after independenc... | null |
bzict9 | why are eggs almost universally sold in packs of 12? what made farmers agree to sell this way? | [
{
"answer": "TLDR; Convenience, 1 shilling = 12 pennies, 1 egg = 1 penny. No need to make change.\n\nUnder a system that came to be known as English units, which was a combination of old Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of measurement, eggs were sold by the dozen. It made sense to sell them that way because one eg... | null |
28wxyj | What's the advantage of having a long lifespan? | [
{
"answer": "Human bodies, especially our brains, take a very long time to develop. We \"traded off\" our speed of evolution in order to get a more complex body/mind.\n\nPart of the reason that huge plants/animals have the longest life spans is so that they don't need as fast of a metabolism to grow to full siz... | null |
musm3 | Are animals aware of their own shadows and the shadows of other animals and objects? | [
{
"answer": "I think the best comparison would be to a mirror. It answers the same basic question but is more explicit. Most animals cannot recognize themselves in a mirror although there are a few exceptions, mostly birds and primates.\n\nAbout half of all magpies, for example, are able to recognize themselves... | null |
rk1f3 | Other than living in a simulation, what other possible implications does this have? | [
{
"answer": "It sounds like nonsense (edit: opinion revised below, the way the video presents things seems overexaggerated in its implications, but the mathematical similarity seems legitimate), though it's impossible to know what the actual facts are from a short question and answer session, especially given t... | null |
20ydad | What role did Persia and Persians play in Greek mythology? | [
{
"answer": "There are no Greek Myths relating to the Persians or Persia directly. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm not aware of any specific myths involving the Persians but there are several involving the near east: Medea was an easterner, Troy was in modern turkey & hercules' travels t... | null |
181wjl | Could someone explain the differences between and advantages/disadvantages of the different antiseptics? iodine vs alcohol vs peroxide, vs etc? | [
{
"answer": "[Here](_URL_0_) is a well-cited review of several antiseptics, including the ones you mentioned :)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "65555",
"title": "Antiseptic",
"section": "Section::::Some common antiseptics... | null |
3engh7 | how does "lottery wheeling" work? | [
{
"answer": "The only part of the Wikipedia article you need to pay attention to says that wheeling does not change the expectation value of the ticket. That means that the probability of paying more for the ticket than you win is still nearly 100% and the more you play, the more you are expected to lose.",
... | null |
ptde8 | How can I have 80 billion direct ancestors going back to just the 13th Century? | [
{
"answer": "You were made by 2 people, who were made by 4 people, who were made by 8 people... etc. Not including siblings. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "xZOMBEHZx has the right idea. For each generation you go up from you, you add more and more people. But obviously there weren't that ma... | null |
5xq3yp | the difference between public and private sector labor unions | [
{
"answer": "A public sector labor union is a union comprised of government workers. A private sector labor union is a union comprised of private employees.\n\nThe biggest difference is that public sector labor unions largely negotiate with other government employees or politicians for their contracts. Privat... | null |
6mbv6o | given how hard it is to start and run a successful small business nowadays, how were so many immigrants able to come here with nothing, and and still start up businesses in the cities where they settled? | [
{
"answer": "In the old days there were extremely few regulations, and they were not well enforced. If you wanted (for example) to buy some stuff and sell it retail from a wagon on the street, you could just start doing that.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Clarification: I refer to immigrants ... | null |
5iwdjt | How long did it take to create marble sculptures? Weeks, months, or years? | [
{
"answer": "\"Months to years, it depends\". Many of the famous Renaissance sculptures took between one and three years. Almost three years for Michelangelo's David (september 13th 1501-early spring 1504), about two for Moses, and almost two for the Pietá (1498). Donatello spent more than two years on each of ... | null |
2p5k2q | why do doctors flick syringes before injecting someone? is this just a thing they do in tv shows? | [
{
"answer": "They are checking for air bubbles. Injecting a air bubble into a blood vessel can easily kill a person.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Its to remove any possible air bubbles. They don't just flick it, they take a little extra solution and shoot that out.\nAir bubbles can cause an... | null |
93qco5 | the difference between single phase and three phase power | [
{
"answer": "Both are forms of alternating current (AC)\n\nAlternating current cycles from +120V to -120V, 60 times per second (assuming you live somewhere that uses 120V 60 Hz for mains power)\n\nSingle phase power means that all of the power in the wire alternates from +120V to -120V. \n\nThree phase power ha... | null |
6ihtn3 | can smelling something be unhealthy? like if there's a very bad smell, is there anything dangerous about the act of smelling it? | [
{
"answer": "Unless the fumes contain chemicals that in their vapor form can damage breathing or affect the brain, no. Bad smells are not inherently more unhealthy than good smells. But if you're sniffing gasoline, which has a dangerous vapor form, then yeah, you'll get sick. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
5uz4su | My great uncle enrolled in the Charlemagne Waffen SS Division, is there online ressources I could check to find out what happened to him ? | [
{
"answer": "Hi, hopefully someone can drop by to help with something more specific, but you might find these resources helpful : the sub has a wiki for finding military records [here](_URL_0_). You might also try x-posting to /r/genealogy for more tips. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
37epxy | I kept hearing about significant infantry combat doctrine changes during the first world war. What were the main changes among western military from 1914 to 1918? | [
{
"answer": "There's a lot of talk on this and there's an idea here that many seem to struggle with greatly as it directly challenges this idea of \"trench warfare\" as a \"thing\". For each army it is different certainly so we'll speak for now only on the British and German side of things w.r.t. the Western Fr... | null |
ck0p3v | Feyman diagrams and gauge bosons? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, the axis represents time. Feynman diagrams are not a literal depiction of what’s happening, so the fact that the positron arrow looks like it’s pointing backward in time doesn’t mean that any particle is literally moving backward in time.\n\nThe gluons are the gauge bosons of the strong force,... | null |
tlna9 | Why is it that high current is dangerous but high voltage (to a certain limit) is not as dangerous? | [
{
"answer": "We can be killed by 0.01A across the heart. An amp is quite a lot really. When you are electrocuted, what kills you is amperage across the heart. Enough amperage and it interferes with the heart's natural electrical signals, stopping it.\n \nVoltage and amperage are two different aspects of the sam... | null |
djcbzb | Why do we not perceive the expansion of the universe? | [
{
"answer": "We're not growing larger. Space inside our bodies is expanding, yes, but our cells aren't \"anchored\" to this space. They're anchored to each other. If you spread your arms wide, your fingertips are continuously moving towards each other at the same rate that new space is appearing within you. \n\... | null |
8fpzn3 | does a house ever finish settling? | [
{
"answer": "Short answer: no\n\nLong answer: I believe it is never settled because it's the materials of the house expanding due to the heat of the day and then contracting when it's cooling down at night",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": ... | null |
c3qsil | Did the Spartans suffer from demographic decline because their women were less willing to have children? | [
{
"answer": "The answer to your question is no, and the best way to describe the linked comment is \"horribly wrong\". Horrible because it blames Spartan women for a development that was wholly the result of laws and customs drawn up, enacted, and enforced by Spartan men. Women's subjection to these laws and cu... | null |
8bybpq | in the shell sort algorithm, why are the numbers 1,4,10,23,57,132,301,701,1750 used? they seem to be ambiguous and are really confusing me... | [
{
"answer": "Shell sort partitions the data. The exact partition is not that important, but the properties of the partition (i.e. \"gap sequence\") do affect the runtime.\n\n\"Gonnet and Baeza-Yates observed that Shellsort makes the fewest comparisons on average when the ratios of successive gaps are roughly e... | null |
1rps17 | Why are British colonies in the Caribbean so homophobic? | [
{
"answer": "I feel this is a loaded question as Montserrat, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands all consider homosexual activity perfectly legal. So perhaps the question should more focus on why Jamaica itself is so homophobic as being a British Colony past or presen... | null |
119wo0 | Why is angular momentum one-sided even if a spinning object is symmetrical? | [
{
"answer": "It is convention only, to allow scientists to talk to each other without having to describe which coordinate system they are using every time. Let me explain. \n\nThe direction of the angular momentum of an object doesn't mean anything by itself. What matters is that when object A with angular mome... | null |
1uaew2 | How formative was Tolkien to the genre of high fantasy? | [
{
"answer": "Tolkien was in many ways the father of modern fantasy as we know it. He is responsible for many of the aspects of fantasy that are see as commonplace or cliche today namley, orcs, Tolkien style elves and dwarves, dark lords (Melkor/Sauron) and many more. \n\nBeyond that however he popularized the c... | null |
3418ss | why does scanning take so long if photocopying or taking a photo of something is so quick? | [
{
"answer": "Because you have a cheap scanner. Cheap scanners are slow. Expensive high end scanners are very fast.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most photocopiers are optimized to scan very quickly, and do so at a very low resolution. 100x200dpi is not an uncommon setting. If you're scannin... | null |
89ect0 | why do heroin users have to switch veins? what does the heroin do to “kill” the vein? | [
{
"answer": "It's not the heroin. It's poking the same spot with a needle over and over again without giving it enough time to heal. It can get more complicated where if you *do* give it time to heal after you've abused it too much it will develop scar tissue which makes it harder to inject there. ",
"prove... | null |
98x0om | how are things n% water? | [
{
"answer": "Heat it until the water evaporates, check its mass before and after and calculate the percentage",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "145865",
"title": "Parts-per notation",
"section": "Section::::Overview.\n",
... | null |
3pisc4 | Why do shadows "kiss"? | [
{
"answer": "This is because the sun is an \"extended\" light source, as opposed to a point light source. Because of this, there is an area called the [penumbra](_URL_1_), where the shadowing object creates a partial shadow. When two penumbras meet, it makes the \"kissing\" darker shadow.\n\nSee also [Shadow Bl... | null |
bx3tsu | how usa is one of top polluters in most sources but is consistently ranked relatively favorably (in the middle) for how polluted it is? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of it is just how big the US is and how much the population and industrial centers are spread out.\n\nIf I have a country that is 100 square miles and pollutes x amount, and a country that is 1000 square miles and pollutes 5x amount, the second country pollutes 5 times as much as the first co... | null |
7st35i | the waco siege. | [
{
"answer": "a ups driver was delivering packages to the compound and one broke open showing weapons, inert grenades and black powder. UPS reported this to the sheriff who contacted the ATF. This info along with reports of automatic fire from the compound led to sucspision that the Brach Davidians were illega... | null |
2ge2hd | Napoleonic Era and Uniforms (Nit-Picky Questions) | [
{
"answer": "So, there's a million questions. It would be beneficial if you reworded your question for a single question and ask a few over a few days.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "21866354",
"title": "British Army during the ... | null |
3mhzyy | what is the evolutionary benefit to a species, such as the praying mantis, to have the female kill the male after copulation? | [
{
"answer": "By eating the male, the female gains a lot of nutrients, which will enable her to have healthier and stronger offspring. In this way, there is a higher chance that the genes of both the male and the female are carried on.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To top off what palcatraz ha... | null |
417fmz | if someone is on death row and has a medical issue causing them the die sooner than their execution date, why would they be given medical help? | [
{
"answer": "Up until the moment the executioner turns the key, the state must provide care for their convicted felons. The logic behind this is that up until that last moment, the execution is not 100% certain. There are years of appeals, and the governor might still pardon the convicted at the last moment. ... | null |
3ueemv | it's common knowledge that exercising regularly and pushing yourself is good for your health and heart, but how does that logic work that the harder you work your heart, the healthier it becomes, instead of wearing it out? | [
{
"answer": "The human body is a fascinating thing. It has been developed to be able to adapt to different lifestyles. When working out, you are essentially telling your body that for your lifestyle, you require stronger muscles. The body has learned to oblige to this, thus makes muscles stronger by adding more... | null |
r6pdy | How much variety is there between single celled organisms? Would two of my red blood cells be completely identical down to the smallest measure? | [
{
"answer": "Two different questions really. Red blood cells aren't organisms. 1) Vast. 2) Potentially, but unlikely",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "25164668",
"title": "White blood cell",
"section": "Section::::Types.:Ov... | null |
51n32s | Sickle Cell Anemia and UVR / Melanin Evolution Correlation? | [
{
"answer": "It is because the sickle cell hemoglobin gene when it is heterozygous (meaning only one copy of one of your chromosomes and the other chromosome has a normal hemoglobin) protects against malaria. Since malaria is much more prevalent in tropical locations and so is darker skin, the sickle cell trait... | null |
2r7e95 | why is it that when my battery dies on my iphone it takes 10 minutes to turn back on while connected to a charger? | [
{
"answer": "Apple makes sure that the phone is charged to a minimum % (3%-5%?) before it turns on, to make sure it doesn't die again when you unplug it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "41834",
"title": "Uninterruptible power sup... | null |
1z7ra7 | What is happening during the onset, peak and duration of a local anesthetic? | [
{
"answer": "Local anesthetics, like lidocaine, work by stabilizing the membrane of cells. What this means is that they reversibly decrease the rate of depolarization and repolarization of excitable membranes. One such type of membrane is the cell membrane of pain-sensing neurons. By blocking the ability of the... | null |
6g4uhs | why does ukip have so many meps as opposed to other government positions? | [
{
"answer": "UKIP supporters really, really, *really* hate the EU.\n\nMost everyone else just doesn't care about MEPs.\n\nSo UKIP voters are more energized in European elections than the general public.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The First Past The Post system also does them no favours in ... | null |
92yvvv | - why is, what seems like rape so prevalent in the animal kingdom? | [
{
"answer": "Because most animals don't have morals. Humanity has gotten to a point of intelligence and society that we don't need to allow ourselves to just procreate willy-nilly. \n\nCats, dogs, and other animals rape as part of procreation because they don't have the morals, the intelligence, the sense of ca... | null |
3rd7sv | why don't vending machines keep their change topped up from the money people put in? | [
{
"answer": "Filtering a coin box and setting it up so that it can provide change is possible, but requires a more expensive model of vending machine. Most vendors are willing to pay for a cheaper model because guess what, people are still going to use it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That w... | null |
2u25b2 | What did ancient teenagers do for fun? | [
{
"answer": "You mean a 'really' ancient civilisation such as the Greeks or the Egyptians, or will a more recent example do?\n\nRoman teenagers from the 17th/18th/early-19th centuries grew up in the street and the society they lived in was rife with violence. Every *rione* (ward) of the city usually had a long-... | null |
9cje19 | why do egg-whites foam when we whisk them and do not when there is just a very tiny amount of egg yolk in it? | [
{
"answer": "The foam form the whites is formed by proteins from the protein-rich egg-white. The yolk contains fats that destroy the protein foam (also called an emulsion). You can try this by mixing in a tiny amount of cooking oil into the egg-whites: it will have the same lack-of-foam effect as a tiny amount ... | null |
3vk6hr | how do we not run out of telephone numbers? | [
{
"answer": "10 000 000 000! There are ten billion possible numbers you can create with 10 digits plus all the recycled ones and youre done. Its true however that we are soon to be running out of them and companies are already looking for a solution.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "How did you ... | null |
14gmpx | What memorials/monuments, if any, has the USA donated to other countries that is not about the US in anyway. | [
{
"answer": "[Does this count?](_URL_0_)\n\n > Studentendorf Schlachtensee (Schlachtensee Student Village) is a student accommodation complex located in south-west Berlin, in the Schlachtensee area of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough of the city. It was constructed between 1959 and 1964 to provide accommodation... | null |
86vtql | What exactly was the Battle of Actium? | [
{
"answer": "Not to discourage any further answers but while you wait you'll probably enjoy these older posts:\n\n[What was Mark Antony's intention when he gave Rome's lands to Egypt in 34BC? And why did it take Rome two years to start a war against him?](_URL_6_)\n\n[What were some of the rumors about Cleopatr... | null |
4l5sjd | seeing as video/picture quality is constantly increasing (1080p, 4k etc..), is there a limit to the quality that the human eye can notice a difference? | [
{
"answer": "Theres alot of conversation about this actually...\n\nYou really need to focus on DPI, since 1080p is very different on a 20\" tv vs an 80\".\n\nBut then it matters how far away it is, and how good your vision is...\n\nSome would say we already eclipsed that limit with 1080p tvs at normal viewing d... | null |
2yktlq | how do studios get to film in places as dense as new york without interrupting business and traffic, while also not being interrupted during filming? | [
{
"answer": "The majority of the time, it's just green screen. [Here's the VFX video for the Time Square scene in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've got 10+ years working in the industry, my father was a camera operator and my grandfather was a Director/Pro... | null |
cintr9 | why do large amounts of flammable material in a small space explode (ex: gasoline can) when ignited instead of just lighting on fire and burning like wood | [
{
"answer": "Burning causes things to expand, heat up and release gases. if its in an enclosed space such as a pipe, grenade casing, gas can, etc... then the pressure from these reactions builds up causing the big bada boom.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Whether a mixture of air and gas is co... | null |
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