id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
3ccw9y | why would anyone give out a predatory loan? if they know it cannot be paid back why would the loaner be interested in the arrangement? | [
{
"answer": "There are two kinds of predatory loans out there. You're probably talking about the payday type. The loaner is interested because, even if the loan is never paid out, something is going to be paid out. I can offer you $1000 now, with 25% interest due in a week, and I think that you won't be able to... | null |
2bsyd2 | Why were Union causalities so large relative to Confederate casualties in the Civil War? | [
{
"answer": "First of all a lot of times, CSA casualties were under reported. One example is from the battle of Cedar Mountain in Aug 1862, and I think Jackson reported 3 missing. this after an all day battle where several brigades were routed. I think a similar example is at South Mountain, Sept '62. CSA casau... | null |
1rkkss | Can anyone explain to me why the average US citizen views the French Military as weak and insignificant? | [
{
"answer": "The biggest thing that feeds this is everything that has happened to the French since WW1. They got hammered by Germany in WW2. They got booted out of Algeria and Indochina after long, bloody fights against insurgents in the 50's and 60's. Like other European nations they have shrunk their military... | null |
8a25kz | when riding a bike, why does turning your ear towards the wind make it more quiet? | [
{
"answer": "It forms a pocket of pressurized air that other air flows around, stopping turbulent air from making your eardrum vibrate.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Here. Get a (empty preferred, but a bit of water at the bottom is fine) water bottle with a small opening. Now blow across it. ... | null |
3scipe | why is 1/sin(x) called cosecant and not secant? | [
{
"answer": "A right triangle has one 90 degree angle and two other angles. These angles are *complements* of one another (i.e., they add up to 90 degrees). The *co-* in *cosine* means that the function is the *sine of the complementary angle*. The *secant* gets its name from the fact that the line you draw ... | null |
2v4kek | Is there a temperature that is too cold for a computer to run? | [
{
"answer": "The chips will have a minimum temperature rating, typically either -25C (248K) or -40C (233K). (As an example, the Intel Atom E3805 is -40C). \n\nBut there is an actual threshold below which SiGe (Silicon Germanium) transistors are not viable, which is between 40K and 100K depending on the exact ... | null |
enl2yv | How does the diameter of a particle accelerator influence its function? Is bigger always better, and if so, why? | [
{
"answer": "The momentum per unit charge of the beam particles on the central orbit is equal to the product of the bending magnetic field and the radius of curvature of the accelerator.\n\nUsually the magnetic field strengths are limited by what magnets can be built. So for a given field strength, if you want ... | null |
74modf | how does the police choose what cars to use as patrol cars? | [
{
"answer": "Usually the same as how any other large business makes expensive purchases. \n\nThe determine what they need, they put it out for tender. Companies reply with offers, they accept the most appealing offer. The company delivers the product. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's a bit... | null |
6krsgm | why was las vegas built in such miserable heat? | [
{
"answer": "The location was chosen for several reasons:\n\n- It's a bit of a grassy oasis compared to the surrounding land. \"Las vegas\" actually means the fertile grassy valleys.\n- It's on a major road from Los Angeles.\n- It's near a major hydroelectric dam, so plenty of electricity.\n- It's far enough aw... | null |
cd8ps7 | why is mercury poisonous? what exactly is it doing to the body, and why can it not be resisted? | [
{
"answer": "TLDR: It prevents your cells from repairing themselves from everyday damage, and it's very hard to flush out of your system.\n\nMercury like many other toxic heavy metals accumulates in your body over time. Your body has a difficult time flushing it out so even if the source of Mercury poisoning is... | null |
3e3lp3 | scientifically speaking, what is the most widely believed theory of who the very first humans were and how they came to be? | [
{
"answer": "My non-scientist understanding:\n\nLike all life on earth, humans evolved from earlier species through natural selection as well as random genetic mutation. The first anatomically modern humans are believed to have emerged in Africa about 200,000 years ago, although other hominid species had been a... | null |
80rgx0 | Illnesses like cancer and Alzheimer's are surrounded by a stigma of being incurable/immune, and have been for a long time; have any historical diseases (e.g. Polio, Measles) been considered in a similar way? When the cures were developed, was it sudden/unexpected? | [
{
"answer": "If you don't get an answer here, you can try /r/askhistorians, /r/historyofscience, /r/historyofideas, or /r/historyofmedicine",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's tricky to quantify a stigma like that, since people are still working on cures for both, but I think HIV/AIDS might fi... | null |
kcffh | why the japanese confuse "l" and "r." | [
{
"answer": "A human vocal system can make a huge variety of sounds. Each language only uses certain number of those sounds. Once a person is past a certain age, it is hard for them to learn sounds that aren't a part of the language that they grew up speaking. \n\nJapanese doesn't have separate sounds for the l... | null |
2m6tcq | how do off brands like great value make money? | [
{
"answer": "They're still charging more than the cost of making the product. By doing their packaging and branding \"in house,\" they save a lot of money in manufacturing, allowing them to lower the price",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Typically off brands use less expensive ingredients than ... | null |
26t82q | Why didn't the Soviets keep Germany for themselves? | [
{
"answer": "During the war, Russia was aligned with Britain, France, and the United States (Allies). You're right to say that the Russians rolled over the Germans, but they actually did get to occupy a big piece of Germany. At the [Yalta Conference](_URL_0_), the Allies had to agree on several post-war confl... | null |
22so75 | What would I see if I managed to cross the event horizon of black hole? Is there an area between the singularity in the center and the event horizon where objects can still exist? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on the mass of the black hole. Supermassive black holes, like the one at the centre of our galaxy, 'stretch' objects less after passing the Schwarzschild radius, and so one could potentially survive passing the event horizon. As the Schwarzschild radius gets closer to the centre of the b... | null |
2n2sv9 | if nothing existed before the big bang, how was the subatomic particle able to create the universe? | [
{
"answer": "This is a very common misconception as we don't say that nothing existed prior to the big bang, no scientist at least says that. We say we don't know what, if anything, existed before the Big Bang and for all we know is that unknown thing it is still there. \n\nThere are a plethora of theories as t... | null |
1exhza | What societies in history were built on ideals of universal equality, particularly gender equality? | [
{
"answer": "[The Oneida Community?](_URL_0_) This might be similar to what you had in mind...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The [Taiping Heavenly Kingdom](_URL_0_) was a propertyless, classless society where genders were declared equal. It was based in Southern China and was led by a Hakka s... | null |
c1fvlw | Considering that srand() function doesn't give a true random number, what can be used to generate truly random numbers that are impossible to predict ? | [
{
"answer": "The reason why pseudo-random numbers are called \"pseudo-random\" is that in general, if you know what the seed input(s) to the function are, you should be able to predict the value being calculated. We generally presume that for most uses the fact that the seed input values are stored in RAM are ... | null |
8yu4gf | Why did the public view on nuclear energy change so drastically? | [
{
"answer": "You're going into this with a lot of presuppositions and assumptions, and that makes for a poor understanding of history. \n\nThere had been growing concerns about nuclear energy prior to meltdowns. The idea that reactors could be catastrophically risky (in that the consequences of even a low-proba... | null |
14k1sx | [META] TrueBestOf2012 awards. r/AskHistorians has been nominated for Best Big Community of the Year, and the mod team for Mod Team of the Year. Show your support and upvote ! (links inside) | [
{
"answer": "It's nice and all (and the mods here are certainly the best I've seen on the whole of reddit), but kind of a meaningless award, no? Do we (or the mods) really need/want that? (especially from a voting in a subreddit that *just started* and has less than 400 subscribers)",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
1jfnhr | Why/How were U.S. Marines in WWII so effective against the Japanese? | [
{
"answer": "Usually it was the strategic situation. In the situations you are describing, the Japanese were typically in a hopeless situation, cut off from supply, reinforcement, air or naval support, and up against a better equipped enemy with vastly superior numbers. Another less important contributing fact... | null |
2pco3s | In WWII, was there a service milestone in a soldiers career that made them likely to survive? | [
{
"answer": "For Germans and Russians there was no such point excluding such exceptions. If you belonged to the airforce or navy you were likely to survive if you achieved a certain rank since you stopped combat missions all together. If you were a special propaganda figure you maybe were forbidden to take part... | null |
7ok9x4 | Why can you not have an elliptical orbit pass through the event horizon of a black hole? | [
{
"answer": "Anything that crosses the event horizon can't come back. That's it.\n\nIf you want to analyze the motion in terms of equivalent potential, then the potential is very unlike the Newtonian effective potential which goes like\n\n > U*_Newtonian_* = A/r^(2) - B/r\n\nwhere A and B are positive constant... | null |
6v2ox8 | If Mars at some point had oceans that were filled with life similar to our own, would there still be oil there despite the harsh Marian conditions and what we know about the planet? | [
{
"answer": "It is very unlikely. Oil forms when organic matter of the right composition (with as high a H:C ratio as possible so with as little cellulose as possible) is buried rapidly at a depth where the geothermal gradient will allow the chemical transformation to oil & gas. \n\nThere are thus 2 problems... | null |
2bhi2f | why do my glasses still correct my vision if i turn them backwards? | [
{
"answer": "Your glasses might be fitted with double-concave/convex lenses.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Weird, mine don't correct them when flipped around. At least not as well. They still improve my woeful vision, but its a much lesser effect.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
2jzuzq | cross/crucifix as a symbol of christianity? | [
{
"answer": "Christianity is primarily about the idea \"jesus died for your sins\". That's why he's considered so important. The cross is a symbol of the most important thing done by the primary figure of the religion.\n\nIt didn't really have spiritual significance beforehand, although the romans would norma... | null |
bq3ft2 | how do cuts become new skin? | [
{
"answer": "Most of your skin is dead/dying cells. They are just there to act as a physical barrier. The living cells which divide and produce these dead cells are way below deep under the skin.\n\nSo when you get a shallow cut, the layer of dead skin cells is destroyed but the living cells underneath survive ... | null |
18r9cp | If polar bears and penguins were to switch poles, what would happen? Would their species survive? | [
{
"answer": "They would have to find a new food source, as polar bears mostly eat seals native to the Arctic, and penguins eat fish native to Antarctic, and also krill which does not live in the Arctic.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Switching polar bears with leopard seals would be a better e... | null |
av9dzs | how does a tire stay seated on a wheel even if all the pressure has been lost? | [
{
"answer": "The reason that you need force to remove it is because you need force to get it there in the first place. The inner diameter of the tire is lower the the outer diameter of the wheel so need to stretch/deform it to get it to fit and for large tires you need a lot of force to get it there. \n\nThe ed... | null |
hum5e | Are there any evolutionary reasons for photic sneezing? (sneezing when exposed to light) | [
{
"answer": "Just going to piggyback on your question if you don't mind. \n\nI don't necessarily sneeze when I encounter light, but it does help sometimes. I'll be at that point where I have to sneeze and I can feel it slipping away, but if I look into a bright light, it can push me back into sneeze territory,... | null |
2b7tjq | does genetics determine your bust size? | [
{
"answer": "They'll always be a reflection of your size, I.e. as you grow so may they. As far as genetics go though they are a factor of your genes to start. This is both from your father and mother, I.e. genes passed from your grandparents. \n\nI don't believe that it's controlled by any one gene though and r... | null |
s5j2h | Why do we look tired? | [
{
"answer": "\"The physiopathology of periorbital hyperchromia (which is the word for dark circles under the eyes) is not\nclearly defined; however, blood flow stagnation seems to\nbe a determinant factor involved in the development of\nthis process. This concept is supported by the fact that\nin the last years, ... | null |
2mkbk9 | /u/unidan | [
{
"answer": "Simply put;\n\nHe was a biologist who appeared everywhere, randomly in threads, typically when people weren't sure what something was, and he clarified. With extreme, intelligent, accurate detail.\n\nReddit liked him because he was basically a reddit super hero, appearing when people needed info. \... | null |
33g686 | the possibility of a bigfoot-like creature actually existing based on scientific and historic evidence. | [
{
"answer": "If bigfoot really existed, you wouldn't have to ask in eli5. \n\nAll of the new species we're discovering now, are either clarifications of what was previously thought to be a subspecies, or some small critter in some remote part of the world or deep sea. A human sized creature wandering around the... | null |
4qlh1k | How do root vegetables reproduce? | [
{
"answer": "Most of your root vegetables are among the species that can grow new shoots from broken segments of previously successful generations.\n\nA deer comes along and digs up some ginger and every few days shits out another piece of undigested root segment. Now you have 10 segments sitting in beautifully... | null |
14wpms | How many GPS satellites could we lose and still have a working GPS system? | [
{
"answer": "Actually GPS is even more important than you might think. Since it is dependent on extremely precise time keeping, the GPS system is used by many organizations including the stock exchange solely for time sensitive transactions etc.\n\nThe main reason that Europe is launching their own alternative ... | null |
120aw8 | In the sense that the blood in your brain will naturally favor the pull of gravity, what are the potential effects of falling asleep on your side? Is there anything out there showing a difference in how the left or right hemispheres may respond to this? | [
{
"answer": "Circle of Willis prevents this from happening.\n\nEdit: it is both the structure (split hemisphere blood flow), pressure, and flow that prevents this. As an aphasiologist, if I could make blood flow one way, I definitely would! Sorry for the brevity.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
21b4zp | why does the legal system allow for evidence to be disregarded simply because a form wasn't completed properly? | [
{
"answer": "The idea is to make sure everything is done by the books so nothing is coerced or planted. The only way to do this fairly is to do it indiscriminately.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well. . . it's not quite that simple. For starters, I'm a lawyer, so I do have some passing famili... | null |
3qswqm | how do we determine the directional source of a sound? | [
{
"answer": "Due to the shape of our heads and ears, a sound from in front of and to the left vs behind and to the left would be heard differently in our right ear. The main portion of our ears is open towards our front, focusing on sounds coming from in front of us, the little flap thing also helps in this reg... | null |
4arhov | The credibility of Yi Sun-sin | [
{
"answer": "Note that these were *ships* and not *warships*. More than half of the Japanese fleet at Myeongnyang were logistical ships - transports and supply ships. Yi estimated in his diary that at least 133 were warships. These numbers certainly weren't exaggerated, the reason why Yi was able to defeat so m... | null |
1tr4td | How did the Mexican/Spanish elite in places like California and Texas fair under U.S. rule? | [
{
"answer": "This is a really interesting topic and you can find a great discussion of the fate of the Californios in Anne Hyde's book \"Empires, Nations & Families.\" Hyde won the Pulitzer for that book, but I'll just have to do the best I can!\n\n\"Californio\" is the term most commonly used to describe th... | null |
afkt3g | How many circles can fit in a larger one? | [
{
"answer": "There is a [Wikipedia page](_URL_1_) devoted to this exact problem. In general this falls under \"packing problems,\" which can be really hard. It took like 350 years to prove that the most efficient way to pack spheres is the way that oranges are stacked in a grocery display.\n\n[This website](_UR... | null |
3a22si | What does AskHistorians think of history.stackexchange ? | [
{
"answer": "It is good that it exists. But I think it also proves why we do a lot of what we do here.\n\nMuch of our \"arbitrary moderation practices\" are a necessity based on our scale. Both pages have been around since Fall 2011. AH has *accepted* 25 questions in the past three hours. SE received just as ma... | null |
4b7cje | if you have a two way mirror with a one way mirror right behind it to produce an infinite tunnel, why would angling it up or down make the tunnel appear to curve instead of just as a straight tunnel? | [
{
"answer": "If you angled one of the mirrors by, say, 2 degrees, each reflection would be \"off\" by two degrees more than the reflection before it. You would, in this case, see a reflection at 2 degrees then at 4 degrees. I'm not sure of the exact equation, but it's not 2, 4, 6, 8 degrees, but rather a progre... | null |
3wjt9o | why is poland poor, while its next door neighbor germany is one of the richest in the world? | [
{
"answer": "For the last hundred plus years poland has been passed around like a whore between every european empire during every european conquest. It's sad but they can't get free. \n\nEast Germany was poor as shit when they were under the red flag. They are still worse off. ",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
3gb3s0 | sovereign citizens | [
{
"answer": "Sovereigns [(they wouldn't ever consider themselves citizens) i will explain] ascribe to a certain Ideology that is built around Common Law. they call themselves Sovereigns because they see themselves as kings unto themselves. A citizen is under the rule of a government, so that is why they wouldn'... | null |
152kwr | Can you help me identify the coat of arms on this antique? | [
{
"answer": "The [fleur-de-lis](_URL_0_) is widespread in heraldry, not only in France.\n\nWhat are the symbols on the left? Rosebuds? Hearts? \n\nIt might also help to check out some crowns - if you find a similar one to the one depicted.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I can't narrow down to ... | null |
21rggl | how did the nsa tap the german chancellors phone? | [
{
"answer": "They intercepted the signal from her mobile phone and simply decrypted it. Since she often would use a normal 2G/3G cellphone the decryption is basic. Also she likes to use messaging a lot and I believe that is even easier to decrypt. \nThe US embassy in Berlin is within line of sight of the Reich... | null |
1huz16 | Biology: Speciation | [
{
"answer": " > Moreover, Bs can sometimes produce viable offspring with either As or Cs. And Cs can sometimes produce viable offspring with Bs and Ds. However, As can't seem to ever produce viable offspring with Cs or Ds, nor can Ds reproduce with As or Bs. Are there examples of this in biology?\n\nRead about ... | null |
9n12zd | what happens if there’s a natural disaster during an election? | [
{
"answer": "It's up to the state/local election board. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I've been looking to see what the procedure would be in the UK, where fortunately natural disasters are rare.\n\nReturning Officers - the people in charge of the election in each area - have the power to ad... | null |
5umyv5 | can an electric car be charged wirelessly like the samsung galaxy's? | [
{
"answer": "It is coming:\n\n* September 2015 AUDI Wireless Charging(AWC) presented a 3.6 kW inductive charger during the 66th International Motor Show (IAA) 2015.\n\n* September 17, 2015 Bombardier-Transportation PRIMOVE presented a 3.6 kW Charger for cars, which was developed at Site in Mannheim Germany.\n\n... | null |
4v5f78 | why are "-ese" used to describe only asian people? | [
{
"answer": "Because those countries were first explored [with respect to Europe] by the Portuguese, whose language uses that ending. And it's not *only* Asian demonyms; consider the Portuguese themselves, or, in Africa, the adjectives Congolese or Togolese.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > ... | null |
5x3lxq | why are some people more likely to have sleep paralysis, while others never have it or have only experienced it once? | [
{
"answer": "Everyone or, at least, most people are capable of having sleep paralysis. Its nothing special as far as chemical imbalance go or something in genes or dealing with immune (it's been noted to be a common occurrence in narcoleptic people). But experiencing that transition from physically awake to men... | null |
2azb5w | How are RSA keys converted to numbers? | [
{
"answer": "It actually is just a number already. Displaying it as letters takes up less space.\n\nAs you mentioned you're aware that it's really just 1s and 0s in the computer, but displaying it that way would take a very long time because of the limited amount of differentiation per digit. To describe 24 u... | null |
1nnnpp | Why is it that if you multiply any number by nine and add up the digits of the product, they also equal nine? For example 9x12=108. 1+0+8=9 | [
{
"answer": "It is actually a multiple of 9. not just 9\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's got to do with the relationship between 9 and 10, the base of our numeral system:\n\nWhen we write the number \"324,\" what we really mean is \nthree hundreds, plus two tens, plus four ones, or \n... | null |
9gvgar | We are usually taught that the American civil war was simply the North against the South, but were there different factions besides the Union and Confederate armies who fought in the American civil war? | [
{
"answer": "The closest thing to this would be the involvement of various American Indian nations, who both participated in the conflict on both sides, as well as engaged in conflict against the Union seperate from the Civil War itself. I talk at good length on this [here](_URL_0_) but am happy to answer any f... | null |
2kj3ua | Is a tectonic collision significant enough to form a new mountain range still possible? | [
{
"answer": "I get the sense that you are envisioning that the collisions between continental plates that form mountains are A) catastrophic and B) occur quickly, but neither of these things are true. The rates of convergence between plates that drive the building of mountain ranges are, in extremely fast scena... | null |
bhocn2 | Willingly transmitting HIV is a criminal offense in many countries, were the transmitters of syphilis also subject to persecution when it was more prevalent? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not aware of laws that punish the syphilitic in particular; it would seem unlikely, since from roughly the early 19th century to 1905, it was understood that while syphilis was most infectious when patients can the primary lesion of the chancre, people could still be infectious years later, and... | null |
3rkh7w | explain the drunken spins. what is that feeling where your mind is telling yourself not to get too nauseous. what is taking place where a body's alcohol content can fight with a mind's grasping for preventing sickness. | [
{
"answer": "When you drink, alcohol gets absorbed into your bloodstream. Its main effects occur when it gets transported by your blood to your brain, but as you can imagine, once something is in your blood, it goes pretty much everywhere in your body.\n\nOne place it goes is your inner ear, which is involved i... | null |
1iqf36 | How did the Japaneses manage to defeat the Mongols during their invasion of Japan? | [
{
"answer": "**Disclaimer**: English isn't my first language so there might be a few passages in this post which may sound a bit strange. Please forgive me if you come across any!\n\n---\n\n**First Mongol Invasion of Japan (1274)**\n\nDuring the First Mongol Invasion of Japan, the Japanese were greatly outnumbe... | null |
37jqry | why do reporters still use overly large hand-held microphones instead of headsets or a boom mic off screen? | [
{
"answer": "Hard to interview people with a headset mic and news crews usually consist only of the camera person and the reporter, which leaves no one to hold a boom mic overhead. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "44718293",
"tit... | null |
uq0xk | Is it possible to use the Sun, Moon and Earth's gravitational influence to find your location on Earth? | [
{
"answer": "The problem is that Earth's gravitational field varies from place to place to a much greater level of magnitude than any of those other effects. You could possibly do it by measuring the long term cyclicity, but not by one-off measurement. The other problem is that even if you have equipment sensit... | null |
11n0fz | Why didn't European disease wipe out African slaves in the new world like it did ti Native Americans? | [
{
"answer": "Asians, Africans and Europeans have been in contact with eachother since who knows when and thus shared a similar immune system. However, native Americans did not come in contact with the \"old world\" until the 15th-16th century and thus their immune system could not defend itself against the dise... | null |
2pugbi | how a person who commits horrendous acts against humanity, such as albert speer get 20 year sentence while illegally downloading documents, such as done by aaron swartz, holds a potential for 35 years ? | [
{
"answer": "In most jurisdictions, the maximum penalty that can be issued by a court is much more severe than the typical penalty. The maximum penalty is usually reserved for only the most heinous of crimes or repeat offenders of serious crimes. \n\nAlso, sometimes the maximum penalty is exaggerated because it... | null |
2wvgkn | why does the drug trade particularly thrive in latin america? | [
{
"answer": "Good climate for growing drug crops.\n\nLow labor costs for harvesting crops.\n\nWeak/corrupt governments allow the trade to go on.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's a few reasons:\n\n1) Drugs grow there easily. The climate and soil makes it incredibly easy to grow illicit dr... | null |
5orv3u | how do certain parts of the world have so many undetonated landmines? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on who, where, and what type of mine. But the ELI5 version is that people just don't give a shit. \n\nImagine you are a soldier. You get handed a box of mines and told to scatter them around a certain road. So you do it. Then a month later you move somewhere else. Maybe your boss w... | null |
13jvgm | How does digital media degrade over time (specifically hard drives)? I know film (if stored properly) will still last longer than digital storage. | [
{
"answer": "Basically... that IS the long and the short of it...\n\n\nA CD is like a \"digital record\" in that a laser burns pits and grooves of information in a dye layer on the CD. The dyes used in this process are highly susceptible to UV light and the biggest killer..oxidation. Film also produces a better... | null |
2ramiw | How much is true about the female pope Joan? | [
{
"answer": "The story of Pope Joan is an interesting one. \n\n > [A] learned woman in male disguise managed to get herself elected pope. She reigned for two years. During a procession on its way to the Lateran Joan gave birth to a child, which in the most dramatic fashion imaginable unmasked the deception. ... | null |
3rvn8c | When two identical waves of 180 degrees phase difference meet they cancel out.Where does their energy go? | [
{
"answer": "The waves must be going in the same direction to cancel at all times. So the wave from the first source is passing through the second source. So the second source is actually absorbing the waves and energy from the first.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "As /u/rantonels pointed out,... | null |
2pvtfy | They called it a gold rush back in the day. How many people rushed for gold? | [
{
"answer": "Your question seeks answers that involve an enormous region and a historical process that spanned a great deal of time, so answers could be very different for specific locations.\n\nThe classic Gold Rush was the one that occurred in 1849, bringing one hundred thousand, more or less, to California. ... | null |
135jt3 | Does an atom bomb really work by splitting the atom? And if so why doesn't that explosion split other atoms around it and create a gigantic chain reaction? | [
{
"answer": " > Does an atom bomb really work by splitting the atom?\n\nSure does. Specifically Uranium or Plutonium atoms, though in principle others could be used.\n\n > And if so why doesn't that explosion split other atoms around it and create a gigantic chain reaction?\n\nThey work based on a chain reac... | null |
546hoi | why do big ship pull water from shore? | [
{
"answer": "These things are moving so much weight that when they're moving they push tons and tons of water behind them. That creates a bit of an up-lift behind, and a depression in front. The water around the depression moves to fill in the depression which pulls it away from the shoreline.\n\nI passed an oi... | null |
th32d | How responsible is IBM for the holocaust? | [
{
"answer": "IBM punch cards were used by the Nazis to track Jews, but I doubt the modern company bears any culpability. Imagine you're an SS guard at Auschwitz... You drive to work in your VW, put on your Hugo Boss uniform, kill Jews tracked by IBM tech with Zyklon B gas manufactured by IG Farben, owners of Ba... | null |
j6t4a | why does china replicate everything? | [
{
"answer": "Because it is cheaper than innovation, and the government has not been very strict about it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because the way they grow is by exporting a lot of things. Has they need to export more than others they must have this made cheaply, so they replicate with ... | null |
e7c9y3 | what happens when the liver fails and why is it fatal? | [
{
"answer": "The livers job is to filter blood for toxins (or in otherwords foreign bodies not necessarily biological in nature). The liver is also responsible for processing and metabolizing key vitamins and other nutrients. Thus, liver failure greatly impacts tuebtodisfffffrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... | null |
1gq6b5 | Why are batteries measured in Volts and not Watts? | [
{
"answer": "You are thinking about batteries correctly. \n\nBatteries are not just measured in volts, although that is sometimes used as a shorthand. Batteries are more properly measured in volts and amp hours.\n\nHere's some examples:\n\n*car battery 12 V 40 Ahr\n* D (alkaline) 1.2 V 17 Ahr\n* AAA(alkaline) ... | null |
3bpj8k | how do magic tricks work? | [
{
"answer": "There's no real way to answer this one in ELI5, unfortunately, because every trick has a completely different explanation, and also because I'm not really one to reveal methods like that. One good way to look at it though, is this (paraphrasing Penn Jillette): You're willing to spend half an hour... | null |
16wyl5 | Why is the animals brain usually located in the head of animal? | [
{
"answer": "It's closer to the majority of sensory structures there i.e. eyes, nose, ears. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Studying for my high-school biology midterm right now, here's what my textbook has to say about the subject (known as [(Cephalization, here's the wiki in case you want to... | null |
b73yrw | The ocean is full of plastics: What are the primary sources of these plastics? | [
{
"answer": "The \"Pacific Garbage Patch\" gets a lot of press, and [its single largest component, at 46% by weight, is fishing ~~gear~~ nets](_URL_1_), but it makes up only a small fraction of the oceanic plastics.\n\n[This report](_URL_0_) indicates coastal detritus makes up about 74% of the total, and that m... | null |
6q4hrn | Can plasma electrocute you? | [
{
"answer": "Plasma is a gas composed of positive ions and electrons in roughly equal amounts. By itself it can't electrocute you, but the process which created it could. Man made plasmas often use high voltage. A small neon bulb needs around 90 volts. A neon sign uses several thousand. A static electric shock ... | null |
9tqhr1 | How is Georgy Zhukov viewed by Russians? | [
{
"answer": "I'm curious, what have you been reading up on Zhukov? I read a biography of him by a French author ([\"Zhukov, the man who beat Hitler\"](_URL_0_)) and well, as you can guess from the title, it doesn't paint him as a \"ruthless sociopathic human being\" but rather as one of best officers in the Red... | null |
38vsgp | what is so great about cuban cigars? will the quality of the cuban cigar go down if the u.s. embargo is lifted? | [
{
"answer": "The tobacco is high quality (pure Cuban tobacco, no blend), and the method of creating a single cigar is high quality, usually resulting in a perfect cigar.\n\nThat's about it.\n\nThe demand increase won't change quality, as the Cuban government takes their major export very seriously.",
"prove... | null |
4jwb5a | On changes in the scope of Classics/Classical history | [
{
"answer": "This sounds like a question that could benefit from multiple perspectives, since its partially a question of institutional tradition. There is generally a sense in which Near Eastern history is more prevalent in ancient (western) history than in years past. This is particularly true at an undergr... | null |
f280x2 | why aren't republicans pro choice and democrats pro life? (u.s.) | [
{
"answer": "In the 70s, 80s and 90s, the republicans found that Christians shared many conservative values. The party made a conscious effort to embrace the conservative Christian Right and made opposition to abortion part of the party platform to gain the large religious base. \n\nThe Democratic Party respond... | null |
787vid | what is the difference between all those different types of toothpaste? | [
{
"answer": "There's not a lot of difference. Some manufacturers will add materials that have certain properties, but in real-life use, those properties will be minimal.\n\nExamples:\n\nWhitening toothpaste contains a higher level of ~~surfactants~~ abrasives, essentially \"scrubbing\" the surface of the tooth ... | null |
fjtxj | How dangerous are toy laser pointers really when shined in someones eye? | [
{
"answer": "Milliwatt laser pointers shouldn't do much, because your blink reflex prevents your eyes from staring into the beam. However, invisible IR lasers can do serious damage to your retina because you don't know when you are staring into the beam. The main hazard is that cheap high power lasers often use... | null |
5mf13f | The word lord comes from "loaf warden" and formed well after the rise of Christianity, so how did they retroactively apply that to the Bible? What word would a Roman in, say, the 4th century have used in its place? | [
{
"answer": "The Latin word used in the Vulgate (ca. 4th Century) was \"Domini\". For example, [Matthew 1:20 in the NIV](_URL_0_) reads,\n\n > But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, becaus... | null |
a2tkf8 | How did you know which branch you were drafted into? (WWII) | [
{
"answer": "I answered a question similar to this [here](_URL_0_), but I'll repost it below.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "53203918",
"title": "Ernest Warwick",
"section": "Section::::Biography.\n",
"start_para... | null |
24f5tt | What year is my globe from? | [
{
"answer": "Certainly post-WWII (e.g. Yugoslavia possesses Istria). It looks like it comes from 1948-1949. The termini seem to be (a) the existence of Israel, founded in May 1948, and (b) a single Germany, divided in May 1949. A bit later than that is also possible, since the makers of the globe may have taken... | null |
dh57ix | What does the bacteriophage do once it injects it’s DNA into the host cell? | [
{
"answer": "Viruses aren’t exactly alive. They don’t consume energy and grow and replicate themselves. The protein envelope basically attaches itself injects the DNA, the cell does all the work. The original envelope dissolves I guess. \n\nBut it isn’t a sacrifice really, it is not a parent child relationship,... | null |
pgfo8 | What happens to energy when it enters a Black hole? | [
{
"answer": "The black hole gains mass.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This thread has become somewhat uninformative, but here is the answer: the earth doesn't get sucked into a black-hole, the earth and the black-hole get mutually attracted.\n\nThe difference is that at the end, momentum shou... | null |
denbpg | when a star dies, is it possible to see this occurrence with the naked human eye? say you're looking up at a star at night, and you see a slight flash and then it's gone. is that possible? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, but the flash might last days or even weeks, and is only visible with the naked eye if it's really close or an extra-large explosion.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Supernovae have been seen repeatedly throughout human existence. There are reports of a supernova vi... | null |
2gp59w | Directly after Japan was nuked, what was the worlds reactions after learning about nuclear weapons? | [
{
"answer": "I'm specifically interested in the Soviet reaction. Did they condemn or support the decision?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The scientists who developed the atomic bombs felt tremendous remorse after the bombing. Many actually signed a petition that was given to Truman asking to ... | null |
sackc | A question all men secretly want the answer to. Is there really any point at all to washing your hands after you take a piss? Is there really bacteria on your dick that needs to be washed off? | [
{
"answer": "Think of all the things you touched in order to take that piss. In your own bathroom, you touched the doorhandle, the toilet flush lever, and your junk. Now, take that to a public bathroom - you touched a public door handle (or push area), you touched a public toilet flush lever, and in the proce... | null |
1m03oo | If someone is in a completely black room, and somebody fires a single photon into one of their eyes, what would they see? Would they see anything? | [
{
"answer": "I'm going to self plagiarize here but...\n\nI am not aware of any psychophysics study that suggests a human can *reliably* detect a single photon. \n\nThe usual threshold for detection I've seen in the literature is around 100 photons ([source](_URL_0_)). If you think about it, you wouldn't want th... | null |
2xo3u0 | if nature is so jagged, colorful, and seemingly random (yes, i know all about the golden ratio), why do us humans find straight lines, clean edges, and muted colors so aesthetically pleasing? | [
{
"answer": "2 things most likely.\n\n1) We like these things because they are different from nature. We can get all the other stuff from nature easy enough, but we have to work at making a straight line.\n\n2) Nature is dangerous. Disease, predators, poisons, and natural disasters are all natural, so why shoul... | null |
3sx0q3 | how do american soldiers, who serve their country in wars around the world, result in americans getting freedom? | [
{
"answer": "Well think about today. We have had several terrorist attacks in the U.S. and our veterans are fighting in the middle east where the majority of them are ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We fought for it in the revolutionary war, the war of 1812... WWII. We haven't really fought fo... | null |
41bi5r | how do fresh water springs emerge and how does the water keep coming? | [
{
"answer": "springs show up where the water table (a layer of always-wet porous rock with a clay or otherwise non-porous bottom) reaches the surface. they continue to emit water due to the pressure of the dry layers above pressing the water out. same thing with the artesian wells. very similar to squeezing a t... | null |
5rnf8k | Is Kurt Gödel's claim about the US Constitution true? | [
{
"answer": "Hi there, a [fairly similar question](_URL_0_) got asked here about a month or so ago. You may be interested in u/restricteddata's answer from that thread. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "11120766",
"title": "No Tre... | null |
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