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why does the tetanus shot give us muscle pain (known as a dead arm) | Mainly due to the fact that the tetanus vaccine is injected directly into the muscle.
Shots that are given subcutaneous (just under the skin) are quickly absorbed by the body. These shots are given in a way that lets the spread-out in the layers of skin.
Intramuscular shots (tetanus and gamma globulin) are injected into the muscle. These shots are slowly absorbed by the body. They also don't have the opportunity to spread-out, causing a lump in the muscle that results in the muscle pain. | |
What is the difference (if any) between medical grade Nitroglycerin (like for Angina) and "OMG Explosion" grade Nitroglycerin? | I carry medical grade Nitroglycerin (GTN/Glyceryl Trinitrate) for Angina, and I have always wondered how come it can be used for medical treatment and carried around with you everywhere, without the volatility which comes with bog standard Nitro.
Are the two the same thing but in dilute quantities? Is the medical stuff treated in some way to reduce or dissipate its effects? Are there any changes in the general chemical structure which affects how volatile the substance is?
| They are exactly the same thing, except the medical grade is in the range of milligrans, while you need at least a few grams of the stuff to create any kind of noticeable explosion. The medical grade is also very pure due to the fact that you're putting it in your body, a constraint that the explosive doesn't need. |
What's the process of making newer operating systems (like Windows 8) faster than their predecessors? | Despite its controversial UI design, Windows 8 seems to have noticeable improvements in start up time and overall speed compared to Windows 7. How is it possible for newer operating systems to outperform the old ones? | I don't think you'll ever get one true answer to this. I think it comes from many, many places, but I think one is the easiest to pin down and likely responsible for the most. (Others, such as improved coding practices and compilers will also exist)
I think the main one is when Operating Systems are built for new changes in hardware. Whether it's the ability to actually use a multicore processor correctly, the ability to use a new 64-bit processor over the 32-bit ones, or in the case of Windows 8 the ability to use EFI rather than BIOS to perform fast boot, and also to correctly use SSDs and perform TRIM commands to keep them running fast for long times, it is the case that code written for a technology will always be better than code trying to use a compatibility layer to use that technology but just pretend that it's the old technology because it doesn't truly understand it. |
Why is 8 hours of sleep considered the "perfect" time? | Not only do different age groups need different amounts of sleep, but sleep needs are also individual. Just like any other characteristics you are born with, the amount of sleep you need to function best may be different for you than for someone who is of the same age and gender. While you may be at your absolute best sleeping seven hours a night, someone else may clearly need nine hours to have a happy, productive life. In fact, a 2005 study confirmed the fact that sleep needs vary across populations, and the study calls for further research to identify traits within genes that may provide a "map" to explain how sleep needs differ among individuals.
Another reason there is "no magic number" for your sleep results from two different factors that researchers are learning about: a person’s basal sleep need – the amount of sleep our bodies need on a regular basis for optimal performance – and sleep debt , the accumulated sleep that is lost to poor sleep habits, sickness, awakenings due to environmental factors or other causes. Two studies suggest that healthy adults have a basal sleep need of seven to eight hours every night, but where things get complicated is the interaction between the basal need and sleep debt. For instance, you might meet your basal sleep need on any single night or a few nights in a row, but still have an unresolved sleep debt that may make you feel more sleepy and less alert at times, particularly in conjunction with circadian dips , those times in the 24-hour cycle when we are biologically programmed to be more sleepy and less alert, such as overnight hours and mid-afternoon.
Edit: [Further reading on sleep deprivation.](_URL_0_) | |
What happens to someone’s money/bank account after they die? | If someone has money in the bank and they have no family what happens with the money when they die? | Bank accounts are part of "the estate", that is, the sum of all the properties that the person owns. Once the person dies, the estate is distributed according to the person's will. If there is no will, typically most countries will have laws to distribute the properties as fairly as possible among the heirs (children, or other relatives which can include siblings, parents, in-laws, etc.).
It's very rare for a person to have absolutely nobody, AND no will (some people decide to give stuff to charity or church or whatever, if they have nobody). |
When subjected to extremely low temperatures, why does the voltage of a semiconductor increase, but the conductivity decrease? | Not quite sure what you mean by "voltage of a semiconductor", but I'll answer the conductivity question and we'll go from there.
Conductivity of a doped semiconductor depends on two things:
* **Carrier concentration**: How many electrons or holes are free to move and carry current
* **Carrier mobility**: How fast electrons or holes move in an electric field (velocity = mobility * field strength)
**Carrier concentration** is normally dependent on dopants, or impurities, added to the semiconductor that can either donate electrons (donors) or accept electrons (acceptor). These impurities ionize (gain or lose an electron) to create mobile charges that can carry current. However, they require energy to ionize (ionization energy). At low temperature there is not enough thermal energy to do this, so there are very few charges free to conduct.
**Mobility** at low temperature also decreases. This one is a bit hard to explain, but things that deflect the charges from moving in the direction of current lead to a decrease in mobility. It's a bit of a simplification, but at low temperature, charges' thermal motion is slower, so they spend more time around impurities which "scatter" them and decrease their net velocity.
**Summary**: Conductivity of a semiconductor depends on carrier concentration and mobility. Concentration decreases because the impurities that provide carriers can't ionize. Mobility decreases because carriers scatter off of impurities more.
Edit: If you mean the voltage across the semiconductor at some current, then it is _because_ the conductivity decreases. It's simple Ohms law, V=IR. If conductivity decreases, resistance increases (they are inversely proportional). For the same current, voltage will increase. | |
US Army camouflage | As you can see in [this image](_URL_0_), US Army camouflage seems to be pixelated. I don't know of any plant/dirt/etc in the real world that is pixelated like that - so why does the Army choose this pattern? | Look at the camoflage on a zebra. They're black and white striped. The grass/environment they live in isn't black and white, its mainly yellow. You'd be surprised how difficult to spot they can be though!
The point of camoflage isn't to make you look exactly like the background, but to break up your body shape/silouette, to make you blend in.
Plus, if an enemy is close enough to tell your camoflage is pixelated, you're probably in trouble already. |
Why do some stereotypically black names sound vaguely French? | DeShawn and DeAndre are cases in point? | The list of French speaking countries in Africa is a very extensive list. You will hear heritage in the names of people based upon their country of origin. Haiti in North America is another French speaking country. Hence why the names do sound French, however vague. |
How can not wearing glasses negatively effect eyesight? | Its like not wearing a brace if you have injured your arm/leg. Not using your glasses makes your eyes strain harder to see things. The strain is bad for your eyes and can make its resting state worse. | |
Why do some companies have different names in different areas (Hardee's/Carl Jr.'s, Checkers/Rally's)? | Corporate Acquisitions. You change the name, it's not familiar. People want familiar.
That simple. | |
What is the point of the scroll lock key on a keyboard and has anyone actually ever used it? | [removed] | Imagine using DOS. You typed a command, the computer gave you output, then you typed another command.
But what if the output of your command was too long, and your output ran off the top of the screen? There was no way to scroll back up.
Scroll lock to the rescue - it would freeze the output of your command, giving you a chance to see the results. Hit scroll lock again to resume output. (Other systems used control-s and control-q for the same effect). |
How can a fly move hours before I try to swat it by hand, but they can't see a newspaper coming at all? | Okay there was one like this involving fly swatters last week so here's my answer from that.
This takes from 8th grade physics knowledge, so I might have to ELY13.
Levers are a type of mechanism that moves up and down/back and forth, staying stationary and one end and moving on the other. One lever moves at a certain rate, but give that lever a friend and it can move twice as fast.
Now, your arm is a series of these levers. For each degree of a lever, you increase speed exponentially (meaning, it is multiplied by itself). You can hit something with your elbow at a certain rate, you can back hand someone at twice that rate, and if you're throwing something you can let it roll off you fingers to theoretically make it move 64 times as fast as it would if it were being moved with only your elbow (the joints in your fingers count, too).
The point at your wrist is a third degree lever, meaning if you're moving your wrist while moving your arm and forearm, you will be going 8 times faster than you would be if just moving your arm.
Now, in comes the answer to your question, on why it's easier to kill flies with a flyswatter.
Flies see you coming. They can react faster than you. If you're trying to kill one with your hand, you probably won't succeed, because you only have the speed of your arm and forearm.
Add in the flyswatter and that speed is at least doubled, because now you can use all three parts of your arm. The fly doesn't have as much time to react to you hitting it with a flyswatter as it does to your hand alone. | |
The Requirement for College Admission Essays and Personal Statements for Universities. | Are they really that crucial in selecting 'worthy' applicants? What are they looking for in these essays?
Are they an appropriate measure of an applicants character and won't the need to 'stand out' create an atmosphere of pretentiousness and self-superiority amongst better qualified applicants?
| I would bet it has a lot to do with reducing the number of applications they get/have to sift though. You aren't going to go through the trouble of writing an essay unless you really think you have a shot to get in |
how can companies like Mozilla make profit by providing open-source software like Firefox, if its code is available to everyone to view and edit? | How can you make profit by engaging your business in open-source software? It looks like that's profiting from community (suckers?) that builds and improves the code?
Thanks for the answers! | The critical thing to understand is that a business built around open source software does *not* usually want to make money from the software itself. Instead, they have a different product that benefits in some way from the existence of the free software; this can be directly related to the free software like technical support, or the benefit could be much more indirect simply from many people using the free software.
For example, the Software company Red Hat makes a Linux distribution, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Their business model is to give away the software to get companies using it, then they make money providing technical support for those companies.
Another example: Google has Chrome. Chrome is free and open source, so it is not Google's plan to make money from Chrome directly. Instead, Google makes money from online advertisements. It's been extensively researched that users turn away from a web page very quickly if it's slow, so it's very good for Google if users use fast web browsers. That's why it's good for Google to make a very fast web browser and give it away for free: it will have benefits for Google elsewhere.
In a similar vein, Google is pretty much providing 93% of Firefox's money. With Firefox and Chrome in the market, competitor Internet Explorer will *have* to make their browser better to stay competitive. Now, *all* the web browsers around are getting faster, which is even more better for Google.
**tl;dr**: the basic idea is to give something useful away for free, hoping that many people will start using it, then charge for additional services that get the most out of your free thing. |
How come every night it takes me a long time (20-40 minutes) to fall asleep even though ive been awake for a long time. | I want to know this too. It annoys me that some people can fall asleep in seconds.
Maybe if I could fall asleep instantly I wouldn't be so tired in the morning for work. | |
Why were people open minded about rape and justice by violence before the 1950s and how/why have they grown to be against it? | I think it would be a misconception to say people were "open minded" about rape. You know who has been and always will be open to the idea of rape? Rapists... And since when did anyone anywhere stop believing in justice by violence? Do you even live on Earth?? | |
What is it about alcohol that makes me be more social and talk to people. | I consider myself to be a person that keeps to myself most of the time are rarely talks to people about how I feel but when I drink and suddenly gain the ability to socialise with people and tell people how I'm really feeling? What is happening when that happens and there is away to be like that without alcohol? | The brain is made of neurons. Neurons talk to each other by sending chemicals. One of these chemicals is called GABA; of the dozen or so major chemicals used in the brain, GABA is one of the major inhibitors - it causes things to slow down. Ethanol (the alcohol in drinks) makes the chemical receivers for GABA more sensitive, meaning the brain is inhibited overall (CNS depressant). GABA hits hardest on parts of the brain responsible for memory, logical thinking, and muscle coordination; it's the second one that allows you to be more impulsive and talk to people without overanalyzing or being afraid. |
- If my injected flu vaccination can't give me the flu, what is causing the crappy feeling side effects? | Your immune system still reacts to the inactive virus. Some of the crappy feeling you have when sick is actually caused by your immune system's reaction, not the virus itself. | |
What rules govern when and which particle/antiparticle pairs will be created during pair production? | So, I get that pair production conserves mass-energy, and that you need a photon with enough energy to account for the two new particles, but what rules govern when pair production happens? Why is it sometimes an electron/positron pair, but at other times a proton/anti-proton pair? Why does pair production happen when it happens and not at at some other time? | Assuming you're at high enough energies where there are multiple options for the final state, it's just probabilistic. Each particular final state has some probability amplitude which you can calculate using quantum field theory. The outcome of each individual event is random, based on those probabilities. |
What does it mean to "blow out" your voice? | What are the mechanics "blowing out" your vocal cords? How is it not a permanent injury and how does the body recover? | To strain your vocal muscles. Like any other muscle, you need to stretch and warm up before putting it to use. You don't run a marathon workout stretching your legs first (to put it simply). Even when you stretch properly, you can still blow your voice out. Everyone has limits, and it's good to know what yours are. Overdoing it can lead to permanent damage. |
How policing and law enforcement works in the U.K., particularly this 'policing by consent'. | I'm American and what is this?
But seriously, I was watching the live news feed on the BBC's site and they were talking about using rubber bullets and the expert they were interviewing said that this went against "150 years of Scotland Yard policing by consent"--what does that mean? It sounds to me like the majority of the community, at this point, are fine with the police using rubber bullets on the looters. | Police in the UK, unlike many european countries especially, are not a branch of the armed forces. They are, well were originally, citizens in uniform. |
Why were the five good emperors considered "good" by historians? | _URL_0_
They were considered good because they sere successful during their reigns (Nerva less so, but he started that series of five adopted emperors). Part of that may be due to the fact that the succession was not biological; rather, each of the four subsequent Good Emperors had been adopted by the previous emperor.
A strictly hereditary (father-son, brother-brother in case of no children) succession limits who can take the throne; if your son/brother is a bad administrator or a tyrant, you can't really do anything about it, as he's legally going to ascend the throne upon your death.
However, if you adopt a son to succeed you, you can essentially choose your heir, thereby picking the best traits for the successor. The first four Good Emperors had the good/bad fortune to have no biological sons survive, thereby forcing them to adopt. This, in turn led to perhaps better rulers, as they were chosen, rather than fated, to rule. | |
Why do disks store more information than cartridges? | Also, why do cartridges load faster than disks? | I'm assuming you're asking about cartridges like Nintendo DS and SNES cartridges vs disks like CDs and DVDs.
On a CD (or DVD) information is stored in little dots (really pits and valleys) arranged in concentric on the surface of the disk. To read information, a machine must focus a laser at a specific spot on the disk. There is usually only 1 laser per machine, so this laser has to physically move back and forth between the circles (called tracks) to find data. Not only that, once a track is found, the laser must *wait* for the CD to spin around so the important part is actually under the laser. These two mechanical processes (the spinning disk and the moving between tracks) cause disk read to take a relatively long time. If two pieces of information are physically far apart on the disk, it takes a non-trivial amount of time for the laser to move from one to the other.
On a cartridge, there are no moving parts, so things are much faster. It doesn't matter where information is physically storied on the cartridge, reading always takes the same amount of time.
edit: whoops, forgot your original question was about storage space.
On CDs and DVDs, the information is just little pits and valleys, and really those can be made very very small. The main limiting factor is how focused the laser beam can be. The smaller the laser, the tighter the packing of the pits and valleys. "BluRay" is called "blue" because it uses a bluish laser which can be focused very very tightly.
Cartridges on the other hand rely on transistors to store information. A transistor is significantly more complicated than a little pit or valley. I'm not certain, but it might even take multiple transistors to represent 1 bit of data. Still, transistors are shrinking all the time. It's easy to pack more transistors onto a cartridge and still have the reader understand how to read the cartridge. |
Why do gallon jugs "gulp" whenever you pour them out? | I always noticed if you go fast when pouring out something gallon sized like expired milk, it would "gup" and wouldn't flow continuously and smooth if you did it too fast. Does anyone know why? | If you just turn it upside down, it "chugs," but it is possible to pour it in a smooth fashion. The issue is that you have to allow for air to flow in to displace the water/milk/whateverjuice flowing out. If you don't, then you get large bubbled "Blorking" up the stream and disrupting it.
Another trick is to rapidly swirly something like a 2 liter bottle to create a vortex, which allows liquid to flow out while air continuously flows in through the funnel. |
Why does butter taste almost like nothing alone but makes a plain slice of bread taste so much better? | Can't give you a scientific reason, but fat helps to enhance flavor.
"Fat is the vehicle by which flavor travels." | |
If I donate a kidney, then my other one fails, am I prioritized for a new one? | [removed] | Yes, and not just for kidneys. You may not be first on every list, but UNOS does give priority to living donors. |
Why do people die on everest even with supplemental oxygen | In the last few days there's been reports of at least two climbers dying of "altitude sickness" on everest. My question is, shouldn't the bottled oxygen negate this? is the Oxygen they take not enough, or is there more to it? | Bottled oxygen increases the percentage of oxygen in the air you breathe, it does not increase pressure.
It's like bottled oxygen allows you to eat a bigger slice of the pizza, but because of the altitude the size of the pizza has been drastically reduced. At 28,000 ft the pressure is only 30% of sea level, the pizza is only a third as big. So even if you eat twice as many slices, you still get less pizza.
Besides, there are other logistical and physiological issues. The oxygen bottles must first be layed by the Sherpas who climb the mountain first. They're also human and can carry only so many bottles. After 25,000 ft, you enter the death zone, the human body is simply incapable of adjusting to that environment no matter how much time you give for acclimatization. Intense cold is another issue, exacerbated by the mind boggling wind speeds at those altitudes. Snow blindness, poor decision making due to oxygen deprivation, these are all issues to consider. |
Are zero-calorie drinks bad? | [removed] | Most 'zero-calorie' drinks are loaded with other shit instead of calories, but really it depends on the type of drink. On a linear scale, I would say Vitaminwater is better than soda but not better than water. Water beats everything you can throw at it except maybe Nuka-Cola. |
Why is satellite internet such bad quality but satellite TV can broadcast HD no problem? | I have always wondered this- we used to live in a location where the only internet available was satellite and it was truly god awful. We got maybe 1mbps download on a good day, and the up time was usually under 50%.
However, we also had satellite TV and it worked flawlessly- never stuttering when streaming HD broadcasts or anything else.
So, what gives? I could never have streamed an HD video via our satellite internet, but could do it at the drop of a hat on TV. It fundamentally is the same theory (a transmission through a satellite orbiting the earth), right? | Satellite TV broadcasts the **same data** to millions of clients. There is no back channel. Your TV does not send any data back to the satellite.
Satellite Internet broadcasts **different data** for each user. That means of course, your total data rate is divided by the number of users on your satellite.
Even more importantly, Internet requires a back channel. The problem now is, it takes a few hundred milliseconds to get data over a satellite connection. With TV, you sometimes notice this as well: when watching sports, your neighbour with cable might cheer a goal a second before you.
With internet, the consequences are more severe. There's much back-and-forth. When visiting reddit, there are several requests send along the internet, and each needs to be sent after the other. The few hundred milliseconds each request takes soon add up. So you might have a high data rate, but a miserable latency. |
How is art appraised? | What/Who determines the value of one of Picasso's works over another? Or one artist's work over another's? | It's a free market. The value is simply determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. The highest bidder determines the price. |
With modern technology, SpaceX struggles to propulsively land a rocket on Earth, yet we landed on the Moon in the '60's? | The Earth has 6X the gravity of the Moon, and also has an atmosphere with varying conditions (such as winds). It's a pretty big challenge to land a large vehicle (or part of a vehicle) this way on Earth, particularly without an on-board pilot. | |
Why do older tv shows like The X Files look better graphically than new shows like Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia? | Because those older shows had a higher budget. X Files is a large network sci Fi drama and Its always sunny is a cable low budget comedy. | |
What's going on in North Dakota between the natives and oli company whose right and who's wrong? | [removed] | A pipeline is being built.
The protesters say that parts of the pipeline are being built on sacred/burial grounds. The company constructing the pipeline says that they have all the proper permits, and that a pipeline is, by far, the safest way to transport oil.
All of the above is correct. |
Why is claustrophobia such a common fear, given that our ancestors were cave dwellers? Wouldn't we have adapted to tight and dark spaces? | Although prehistoric humans are often called "cavemen" its likely that the vast majority of early humans did not live in caves. Caves are where we find most prehistoric human artifacts, but that's because caves preserve things that would be destroyed, lost, or buried outside.
It's far more likely that most humans lived in things like tents and huts. Keep in mind that prehistoric humans had the same intelligence as you or I, and so were perfectly capable of constructing simple shelters.
Also, you assume that fears like claustrophobia are hereditary. That's far from clear. | |
Why does this gif posted in /r/oddlysatisfying seem to pop out at you as if it's 3D? | [removed] | It's a combination of high contrast, high resolution, and the fact that it depicts a turning sphere. Although the sphere doesn't have three-dimensionality in this presentation, your mind "fills in the blanks" of what a 3-D sphere would look like. |
If the purpose of photosynthesis is for plants to absorb as much light as possible, then why are plants generally green, and not black? | We don't know the answer for sure, but there are a number of possibilities:
1. Black plants might absorb too much light, causing the plant to overheat.
2. The rate of photosynthesis isn't limited by light absorption but by [RuBisCO](_URL_0_), one of the enzymes that the plant uses to turn CO2 into glucose. Absorbing more light wouldn't be helpful if you don't have any extra RuBisCO.
3. When plants were evolving, there might not have been much green light available. The *purple Earth hypothesis* suggests that the earliest photosynthesis was actually done with retinal, not chlorophyll. Retinal is a purple pigment that's simpler and easier to make than chlorophyll, and we see it today in some photosynthetic archaebacteria. The hypothesis suggests that various archaea evolved the purple pigment first, and spread all over the world. Green photosynthesis arose as a response, with pigments that absorbed the purple light the archaea were rejecting. Then the greens outcompeted the purples, and we got a green world. | |
If law enforcement aren't allowed to enter our homes without a warrant, why are they allowed in our yards? | I'm just curious. Are there different laws for land than there are for structures on the land? And if so, why? I started wondering after hearing about a man's dog being shot and killed by police (while he wasn't even home) after they jumped his fence while looking for a suspect. Thank you in advanced! | > after they jumped his fence while looking for a suspect
This is a key piece of information. If they had a reasonable suspicion that a suspect had entered your home, they could enter it without a warrant, too.
There are four instances where the police can search private property without a warrant:
1. **Consent**: The property owner agrees to let them enter.
2. **Plain View**: If the police see something illegal in plain view from a location where they already have a right to be, they can enter and search your home without a warrant.
3. **Search Incident to Arrest**: If you're being arrested in your home, they can also search your home for weapons/people who might post a danger to them, and to prevent the destruction of evidence.
4. **Exigent Circumstances**: This the the exclusion that is relevant to your story. If police are in hot pursuit of a suspect, and that suspect enters your property, they can enter your property (including your home) without a warrant in order to search for or apprehend the suspect. |
How is ocean water converted to "fresh rain" while leaving the salt behind? | **ELI5**:
Water is very good at getting stuff to dissolve in it. Take a glass of tap water, and you can dump a couple of teaspoons of sugar and salt in it, and... Ta-Daa! You have salty sugar water (also known as Gatorade -- only to get Gatorade, you have to add fake color and some goofy fruit-like flavors -- but it's still salty sugar water).
You know what a molecule is, right? (LI5) Oh, no? It's a kind of Lego of matter.
At close to freezing temperatures, the water molecules will all be happily floating around in their container, with all the dissolved stuff loosely pulled apart by the water molecules, floating around happily with them.
Heat that up a bit, and the water molecules at the top will start moving fast enough that they say, "Hey, you know what? I think I'm outta here. I'm gone," and they leave. Where to? To the air above the glass. They become happy free-floating water molecules in the air instead of the glass. Any other molecules they might have torn apart (the stuff dissolved in the water) generally has a *much* greater temperature that causes it to say, "I'd like to be in the air too!"
As the molecules of water get excited enough to join the atmosphere, they leave the glass of Gator... er.. Salty sugar water.
The salt, and the sugar, might not get excited (hot) enough to leave the glass, so they stay behind.
Same thing happens in the ocean, only on a *much larger scale*.
Ocean water doesn't get hot enough to boil, but it does get warm enough to persuade some water molecules to just get the heck out of Dodge, and join the atmosphere.
All the poor salt and sugar (and basically any water-soluble molecule) are forced to stay behind, increasing their concentration in the ocean (or the glass).
If you heat up the water enough, and quickly enough, (like crazy hot, by the way) the salt will escape as well, but at that point it's going to be happy little (very heavy) salt molecules that are taking their trip into the air. You're not going to get salt water vapor at that point, but rather salt and water as separate vapors.
Once those little salt molecules cool off a little (slow down a little) and aren't zipping around any more (and, by the way, this basically never happens) they fall back into the sea while the water scoots up into the sky and makes clouds.
Hope this helps. | |
If photons are mass-less and travel forever without friction, If I point my flashlight at the sky, do they travel forever? | friction with the atmosphere, bends the light?
My flashlight in space would be like a mini sun?
why does my flashlight with weak batteries on only produce a dim beam of light that does not extend far, what is exactly happening to the photons then? | Within the atmosphere, the photons are being absorbed by the molecules in the air. Those that are not absorbed are scattered, which is why in dusty air you can see the dust dancing in the air - it's the light bouncing off the dust particles and flying off in different directions. The flashlight also doesn't send all the photons out in the same direction, so they spread into a cone. A laser has them more focused, which is why a laser's effective range is much larger.
Now, light does spread out ('diffract') a tiny bit on its own. But that's not at all the dominant effect until you're in space. |
why do so many things grow toward a branch or fern-like pattern? Even non-living things such as ice crystals to lightning and even dust patterns on plastic surfaces? What am I not seeing here that makes all these thing follow the same or very similar branch pattern? | Both ferns and ice crystals grow as [fractals](_URL_0_). The idea is that if you're scaling something (adding a leaf to a fern, expanding an ice crystal), you're always following roughly the same rules: "What's easy to get to from here?" and "How far away do I need to be from the last thing before I add a new thing?" and "Which way is the sun?", for example. If you apply the same rule each step, you'll get recognizable patterns throughout each level of the thing you're looking at. If the rules are similar enough to each other, the end results will look similar (like lightning and rivers).
Dust on your window might form in fractal patterns because the tiny static particles are following specific rules of sticking to certain surfaces and avoiding others. Rivers might spread in fractal patterns because the soil has a specific tendency to erode into forming one big river up until a certain point, when you'll see a fork split. Again, the reason for the rules might change, but they lead to common rules about splitting off vs. making something bigger, usually based on distance and rotation. | |
Tectonic plates and earthquakes | Please read before answering to save unnecessary explanation: I know the basics from school about tectonic plates and earthquakes. The specific part I am looking for help on is this:
An earthquake is caused by movement along a fault line, but how is there an epicenter with the movement localized around there? Imagine a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces represent the tectonic plates, you can't make movement between them without everything moving as well...
My assumption on the answer is that there are gaps between the plates and only the areas that touch result in earthquakes. But if this were the case, why aren't there gaping chasms going down to the mantle at the areas that don't touch?
Thanks! | The key thing to understand is that rocks on the scale of a fault are not stiff, but are actually elastic (a bit), so one part of a fault can move while other parts do not. In fact, on some faults, movement in one area increases stress on other parts adjacent that are still locked by friction.
So your analogy of a jigsaw puzzle is not a good one. Rather, imagine a network of bricks linked by bungee cords to their four adjacent bricks, all sitting on a variably rough surface. Now imagine tilting the surface the bricks are on, until they are poised to slide, but haven't yet done so. One brick (on the least rough part of the surface) will be the first to slide, and the bungees may cause adjacent bricks to slide as well, but it is possible that not all the bricks will slide at once, especially those brick sitting on rougher parts of the surface. However, the bungees at the boundary between the already-slid parts and the not-yet-slid parts will be pulling the not-yet-slide bricks downward. This is analogous to one part of a fault slipping while other parts do not.
Another issue is the boundaries between tectonic plates are fault systems, not individual faults, so there's an added layer of complexity there as well.
I would also add that the epicenter is not where the movement gets started; that's called the "focus" or "hypocenter". The epicenter is the place on the surface directly above the focus. And further that the focus is where the movement begins, but not necessarily where it ends; typically movement propagates outward along the fault surface from the focus until it gets to an area where the dynamic stress release fails to overcome friction. |
how do groups like ISIS attract middle class westerners to their cause, and why are they mostly male? | Many devote muslims, even fanatics are women but they typically aren't used as fighters for the same reasons why warriors have traditionally been male in all cultures. Those reasons are compounded by the fact that extremest Islam is very hostile to the idea of women leaving "their place."
It's not common for ISIS and groups like it to recruit people from middle class. Most are from slums that never really integrated into the country the immigrated to. The few that were better off (which likely includes the British man who executed that Journalist) are likely motivated by strong religious convictions.
Why educated people develop fanatical religious convictions is a whole other big topic that I won't go into right now. | |
How many words can be created with the englisch language before we have to make a new letter? | [removed] | Infinite. You can always just make longer and longer words. Example: an alphabet with only one letter still has infinite possibilities..
A
AA
AAA |
Why isn't it illegal for big trucks to completely block traffic? | I feel like there is always a UPS truck or beer delivery truck that is parked all janky, and in order to get around them, I have to drive in the opposing lane of traffic. Why isn't it illegal for them to do this? Or is it, but no one ever calls them on it? I've even seen a beer truck park completely across my street when delivering to the corner store....
EDIT: Thanks for all the responses. This wasn't as much a complaint about trucks blocking me, as I was just curious about whether or not they were legally allowed to park wherever, like some DOT classification. I'll take a minor inconvenience of waiting anytime, so long as it means a fresh supply of delicious beer and groceries (in that order) :) | It is illegal. But the risk of getting caught is so small that its worth them to just do it anyway, in places like new york they hve no choice... Finding a parking spot for every delivery would slow them down so far as to drive them out of business.
They do get caught and they do get tickets, its just worth the risk for them. |
How do hangnails form and why do they hurt so much? | it has to do with how nails are created and grow. If you look very closely at your nails, you'll notice that they're made up of many many tiny fibers. if you stop cutting or filing your nails for a while, you'll notice that the nails also grow outward in a fan-like shape. this means that your nail grows naturally outward into an angle. because the sides of the nails naturally grow at an angle, the side edges may splinter a bit and then you have one single nail fibre that separates from the rest of the nail. that's the hang-nail. if you pick at it, or catch it on something, then that entire fibre will pull out right down to the nail-bed which is rich in nerves and blood vessels and is highly sensitive because normally its covered by the protective shell of the nail itself. Take care of your nails, kids, else they hurt like a M-Fer. < edited for swears. I can't remember if this subreddit permits profanity > | |
What causes the whole "Check the fridge, find nothing, check it again" experience? | I tend to do this with my phone, especially with Reddit only to find that I've look at everything on the front page.
*Edit: I get that boredom could be an easy answer, but I'm more interested in the psychology of it. What makes us think something is going to magically appear there 5 seconds later? | Like any behavior, there are many possible explanations, some of which may be right or wrong at different times for different people. But here's the one that I think is closest for what you are talking about. I think it's ELI5, but it's a bit long, so forgive me for that.
So, one of the ways that your brain works is that it creates little "stimulus-reward" cycles. Think about it like typing on a keyboard. Your brain learns that if your fingers hit the keys, and the letters you wanted appear, you will be pleased. This releases hormones that make the brain feel good.
Your brain, in a sense, gets "addicted" to this, which is why it (relatively) quickly gets good at typing on unfamiliar keyboards. It is also why, if the key board is broken (now hitting the right key DOESN'T bring up the right letter, meaning no reward), the brain gets desperate for that hit of good hormones. And so you will smash the keys a bunch of times.
This behavior is called an "[extinction burst](_URL_0_)." Where the brain keeps to get that reward by doing whatever thing it thought would give it the reward Harder. It's part of why toddlers have fits, and why dieting is so hard. (because right before the body gives up on the old eating habit, it will try desperately to get that of food that makes it feel good, and that often overcomes the will.)
And, a similar thing is involved with checking the fridge/front page. Your brain---especially when it's bored---is trying to figure out things that will give it that fix of hormones. As such, it starts reviewing those stimulus-reward circuits, including getting food from the fridge, or seeing something new. The longer you go without some source of new reward, the more your brain craves it, and the more motivated you are to keep checking. |
Why screenwriters and directors are given funding when their movies are typical bombs? | Look up Craig Clyde on IMDB. His writing career began in 1992, and his highest rated movies are Castle Rock (2000) at 5.8/10 and Storm Rider at 6.3/10. He's written 21 scripts and directed 17 films, and none of them have done very well. Yet, as recently as 2013, he's still getting scripts turned into movies.
EDIT - His highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Truth or Consequences at 33%.
| Your only listing the overall critical response to Mr. Clyde's films here, not their financial success, and quite frankly, financial success is a better barometer of sustained employment in Hollywood than critical approval ever has been and ever will be. As long as Mr. Clyde maintains a profitable track record, he's going to keep getting his films made. |
Where do really rich people (hundred million to billionaires) keep all their money? | I mean there is a limit to how much you can invest in property and stock and you can only keep so much in banks with FDIC insurance. So where does the rest go? (I found an AskReddit about this but there were a lot of jokes.) | What makes you think there is a limit to how much you can invest in property and stock? |
Why do we sometimes get in bad moods for no apparent reason? | [removed] | Sometimes it's just chemistry. If you haven't eaten well enough that day, you might get grumpy. Likewise, if you haven't slept well enough the previous night.
Sometimes it could be stuff in the background that you haven't consciously realised was bugging you; noise from a neighbour's house, or the hum of traffic.
The fast pace of modern life causes stresses, too. Too much electric lighting, too many notifications on our social feeds, too much staring at bright screens at night. |
I still don't understand... Can I please get an UPDATED explanation as to why people want to impeach Obama and if it's even possible? The media won't stfu about it and I feel really out of the loop. | Some people have asked before but I find those explanations to really not explain anything. It makes seriously no sense to me and no one seems to say why they want to, just that they want it done. Are people just blowing hot air, or is the media blowing things out of proportion?
If I may throw in another question: Why do republicans hate Obama so much? | "People" want to impeach Obama because certain aspects of the media have built him up as the central figure in a massive, America-destroying cult of evil. Rationality doesn't necessarily enter into the argument.
Whether Obama has committed any crimes is pretty questionable at this point, and very much down to interpretation. However, impeachment proceedings would not succeed, because the Democratic Party maintains control of the Senate, where the impeachment trial would occur. (The decision to impeach rests with the House, and the impeachment proceedings occur in the Senate.) |
When you're struck by lightning, what element actually kill you: electricity, heat or shockwave? | It's a tossup, there's more than enough electricity to kill you a thousand times, and more than enough heat cause fatal burns. Even if it just knocks you out, if you fall over and hit your head wrong on the pavement that could kill you. If you're riding a bicycle it you could fall into traffic. If you're at home asleep it could set your house on fire which could suffocate you.
If I had a choice to get struck by lighting or by an angry bear I'd choose the bear every time. | |
Why everyone is dressed up in paintings and photos pre-20th century. | Before photographs there were portraits. Most people barely had enough money for food, so only very rich men could afford for an artist to paint for them. They didn't just to it for fun though, rich families would hang up the pictures of their granddads because being rich meant that you came from a very famous and important family. They were very proud of their granddads and great granddads.
Having an important family means they were very important people, most likely officers in the army. So they would wear all their fancy army clothes to remind their children's children how important they were.
When cameras were first invented, people with a bit less money could afford to have this done. A big use for photography was to take photographs of their recently dead family members all dressed up, so having a photo taken was always thought of as a serious and formal thing to do.
All this changed in 1926, with the invent of photomatons! Little booths were set up by the seaside and everyone who could afford to go (everyone except the poorest of people by this point) could go and have a photo taken in their casual swimwear. Photos started to get more silly, as young people could afford to play with different poses in the machine and this is around the time 'smiling for the camera' became a thing! | |
How do EMPs work? | A change in the the magnetic field in a conductor causes a current of electricity to flow.
Electrical current through non-superconductors produces heat.
An EMP is a sudden spike and drop in the magnetic field intensity, causing a powerful current to be induced in circuits, melting or burning them. | |
What causes a computer program to crash? | And what causes one computer program to crash more than another? | There are many reasons why a program might crash. Here are some common ones:
* **Division by zero**: You may remember from kindergarten math that you can't divide a number by zero. The result is undefined. Well, if a program tells the computer to divide something by zero, the computer will tell the program that it is doing something wrong. If the program can't handle that situation, it may crash.
* **Access violation**: A program is only allowed to access certain parts of memory. Other parts are off-limits. If a program tries to access part of memory that is off-limits, the computer will tell the program that it is doing something wrong. If the program can't handle that situation, it may crash.
* **Deadlock**: Let's say you and your friend Billy are playing with blocks. You have the red block, and Billy has the blue block. You want to switch blocks, so you tell Billy that you will give him the red block after he gives you the blue block. Billy tells you that he will give you the blue block after you give him the red block. Both of you will sit there forever waiting for the other person to hand over their block, and you will never get anything done. That is a deadlock situation, and when it happens inside a program, the program freezes up and there is nothing you can do except kill it and start it again.
* **Unhandled exception**: Sometimes a program will have a special sort of error checking built into it. When an error is detected, part of the program *throws an exception*, and another part of the program is supposed to *catch the exception* and deal with it. If an exception gets thrown and is not caught by any part of the program, then usually a dialog will pop up letting you know that a problem was not dealt with properly, and the program will terminate.
All of these situations are caused by "bugs" in the program. "Bugs" are just parts of the program that are not written correctly, or don't account for every possible thing that can happen. Some programs have more "bugs" than other programs. Why? Maybe because the people who wrote the program were in more of a rush or didn't test it as well as they should have, or because the program is so complicated that it is difficult to deal with every possible situation that might happen. |
Why does our heart skip a beat when we hear a sudden loud sound? | It doesn't. That feeling you get is actually a sudden rush of adrenaline triggered by your fight-or-flight response. Your body carries out this response involuntarily so that you are ready to react in case that noise was caused by a real threat that you need some extra strength or endurance to protect yourself from. | |
How do scientists know how much voltage is in lightning bolts? How do they measure it? | One way is to make a radio sensor that employs the faraday effect and measures the flash's magnetic field. This is just a simple solenoid- a tightly wound, wire coil around a special ferromagnetic rod- that is hooked up to a signal amplifier with some other knicknacks and goodies. The sensor can be used to determine the peak current and voltage of the flash. The peak current tends to be the more important characteristic when looking at lightning events.
TL,DR: You can use a coil of wire and when the flash happens it induces a measurable magnetic field in the coil which can give you the voltage of the flash. | |
How did ancient Rome have all these grand cities and buildings, and then afterwards everything went south in terms of architecture? | Ancient Rome had massive amounts of human labor from Military, Citizens, and Slaves. When Rome fell it did so amid several waves of plagues and the kingdoms that took over afterwards did not have access to the same volume of people. When labor pools available to a single ruler/builder got back up in numbers you start seeing thing like Cathedrals being built. | |
Why is motion capture animation unrealistic, despite their supposedly recording of actual motion by the actors? | Motion capture records the motion of only a few key points of the body, such as feet, shoulders, hands, elbows ... these motions are attached to the same points of the 3D character. Recording too few motion points from the actor leaves gaps in the movement that have to be filled in mechanically by the animation software, and the character ends up having an unnatural mechanical movement.
The big challenge that separates good CG from bad CG is bending all areas of the 3D wire frame to make the entire movement seem natural. The simplest formula applied to this is "linear interpolation" which is filling in the motion data based on an assumption that all motion from point A to point B is a smooth linear movement, and maybe a little bit of ease-in and ease-out to give a sense of momentum (because movement is not instantaneous) ... the visual result of too much interpolation is the character movement is too mechanical, like a marionette puppet on strings.
Avatar was able to achieve excellent motion capture by recording a lot more motion points than just the hands, shoulders, knees, etc. They especially spent a lot of effort recording facial expressions from the actors. | |
Why are magicians often also prominent skeptics? | Houdini, Penn & Teller, James Randi. Why is it that stage magicians are often also scientific skeptics? | These guys spend their entire lives learning and designing ways to trick their audiences into seeing something that can't be explained. They know that as amazing as their illusions or performances are, at the heart of each is a fairly simple explanation.
So when someone goes around doing acts similar to theirs, making things disappear, telling the future, reading minds, etc, it stands to reason that they wouldn't say "Oh man, this guy can talk to ghosts!" Instead they'd say "Oh, there's probably a simple explanation behind this seemingly supernatural thing, I wonder what it is?"
That sort of mentality is the root of skepticism. The answer most consistent with what is known is most likely correct, and an extraordinary claim either must be backed up with extraordinary evidence, or else can be dismissed or taken apart. These guys know better than anyone how simple it is to trick people, so the most consistent answer to them is "This stuff is a trick."
EDIT: Just to give an example, Houdini famously exposed a lot of people who performed seances by attending their services, figuring out how they did tricks like floating objects or projected, ghostly voices, and then throwing his *own* seance (with him as the medium), using the exact same tricks. Once the seance ended, he'd explain to everyone exactly what he did. I think I remember reading that he exposed Arthur Conan Doyle's (creator of Sherlock Holmes) wife as a fraudulent medium in this way. |
Why can't Windows 10 spying be countered by firewall rules or other networking means? | If usage data is send back to Microsoft servers why can't most of it be blocked by firewall/host entry rules? Like a user contributed list of Microsoft servers to blacklist. I remember a crack of adobe that disables traffic to their validation servers. | It can. You can edit the host file like described here:
_URL_0_
to block a lot of the functions of it. Other spy functions are prevented by not using/removing some preinstalled apps.
There are tools that will just take care of everything automatically for you though, like "destroy windows 10 spying" |
What a dad joke is | daddy jokes are those kind of jokes that kind of make you smile, but not because the joke was exceptionally funny or clever, but rather because it was so silly. it's a joke that makes you feel ashamed for the person who made it. oftentimes the person who came up with that joke is the only person really laughing about it. my dad used to make those, my friends dads used to make them, my dad in law makes them...it's a daddy kinda thing :P | |
Why do we like watching people fight? | (1) Competitions in general often showcase superb mastery of some skillset, which is entertaining to watch.
(2) Human beings are animals and sometimes have violent urges. Organized, rule-based fighting (whether as participant or spectator) can serve as an outlet for those urges that are otherwise frowned upon.
(3) Sort of opposite to the above, watching someone get ktfo in a boxing match can make you feel oddly happy about your station in life -- like no matter what else is happening to you, at least you're not getting punched in the face; no matter how much you hate society, at least you live in a society that has rules, and the strong can't simply do what they want; otherwise, if there were anarchy, you might have to worry about Mike Tyson [making you his girlfriend.](_URL_0_) | |
Why it was decided that some months have 28, 30, or 31 days in them | In [early Roman times](_URL_0_), the calendar was based on the moon, not the sun.
In order to ensure that the months could match the cycle of the moon, and also have all the required significant days in each month (the Ides in the middle of the month, for example) and festivals fall in the correct place, most months were either 29 or 31 days long.
The cycles of the moon and sun do not match each other. To enable years to align with the sun's cycle, February was 28 days in some years. In other years, February was 23 or 24 days, and an extra 27 day month was added.
This resulted in a 355 day year, with an occasional extra month added to align the year with the sun's cycle.
Caesar decided to reform the calendar. It was well known that the year was 365.25 days long, so he knew he needed to add an extra 10 days to the calendar. He simply decided to [add a couple of days to some months](_URL_1_), and those are the month lengths we still have today. | |
what "bubbles" are (in regards to economics) | I've always had a hard time understanding what "bubbles" are. I hear people discuss housing bubbles, stock market bubbles, economic bubbles, etc. but I've never grasped a strong or definite understanding of what they are.
Can someone please help me understand? Thank you I appreciate your time! | A bubble occurs when people artificially place value on something.
For example, people thought that they could make money by buying a house, fixing it up, and selling it. People were also willing to spend a little more on their purchase, thinking that their improvements would increase the value of the house whenever they sold it. Some people did make money on this, as did banks. Banks make money off of the loans people use to buy houses, so they were more than happy to give out loans to almost anyone who wanted one.
However, as more and more people bought houses, something dawned on them: no one wanted to buy their fixed up house. Not only could they not sell at their fixed up house at the new higher price, but the value of houses dropped so far that they couldn't even sell them at the price they bought it. This loss of value is the "popping" of the bubble.
This de-valuation effected those who weren't even out to make money. An elderly couple who bought their house way back when for $130,000 may have been expecting to sell their house for roughly that much (and retire on that), but found it was now only worth $80,000.
This happened in housing and Tech Companies in the 90's. Possible future bubbles include Facebook Stocks and College Education (if you spend $70,000 on a degree only to have no job to pay for it, then that degree isn't really worth $70,000). |
Is there mental illness like sociopathy or psychopathy in animals? | [removed] | Hey. Neither Sociopathy nor Psychopathy are considered diagnoses nowadays. While Psychopathy is sometimes described as an extreme form of antisocial personality disorder neither of those terms are part of the big classification systems ICD-10 and DSM-IV so they are not regarded as a diagnosis or a medical condition.
But generally speaking : Yes, animals can get mentally ill. Scientists have shown that rats can develop anorexia for example. Addiction is quite common, I remember a case of an Orangutan with a smoking habit. Of course it is hard to diagnose animals with mental conditions because you need to be able to talk to your patient in most cases. That does not mean however that animals with higher brain function can not suffer from malfunctions in those brains (quite obvious, if you think about it) |
how do we make different notes when we whistle? | By changing the shape of the hole between your lips, you make the air passing through it move past your lips at different pressure and speeds, which changes the way it vibrates, which is what sound is. | |
How many pixels are really in a 1080p television? | All your guesses are right. This is the easiest eli5 ever :D | |
If ants and termites are spread all across the planet, how come armadillos and ant-eaters are confined to south and Cenrtal America only?? | Ants and termites have the ability to easily migrate to new areas either through flying, or by piggy-backing on other animals or debris in the water. So it was easy for ants to migrate across the globe. Ant-eaters on the other hand cannot migrate so easily, and being much younger on an evolutionary scale than ants, only have had time/ability to migrate along land. Unless humans introduce ant-eaters to other continents, which would be bad, their range will probably always be in NA/SA.
The role played by anteaters and armadillos in regards to ants is filled by other animals on other continents. | |
Why is it on movie posters actor names are rarely in the order that they appear on the cover art? | Some googling came up with mixed results and a lot of people guessing. Some people suggested that the bigger names go to the left and others said the biggest name goes in the middle.
Wouldn't it be counter productive in terms of marketing the for the actor? A lot of people (I still get a some stars mixed up, only example I can think of right now Marky mark and Damon took me for ever after watching the Departed in theatres) don't know the names of anyone who isn't huge (I am a bit of a film buff and I probably couldn't name 20 actors a few years ago) and this makes it harder to remember when people talk about actors being in various things. | It's unbelievable how much goes into the order of names. Who gets top billing is very important to people. The names go in order of how the producers and actors eventually agreed on them going with typically the "biggest" star on the left and then declining order as you move to the right. Sometimes they put the names alphabetically to make things smoother.
Sometimes you'll see "with" or "also starring" or something like that. Those are big names but aren't the stars of the movie. Again, this is political so lots of discussions regarding this.
tl;dr - A lot of importance is placed on what order names are listed in movies and the names have nothing to do with the picture. |
How did people with celiacs disease survive in the 18th and 19th century? I feel like there weren't that many "gluten free" options.. | True Celiacs make-up a very very small portion of the population. Were talking like 0.5-1% of the population. They wouldn't have even registered on the radar. Plus a true Celiac living back then would have probably died of something else way more prevalent and life threatening (e.g. nutritional deficiencies, infection) before their condition killed them. | |
This quote from "The Cider House Rules" | [removed] | IMO it could have a couple of different meanings. At first glance, I imagine it has to do with the fact that grammatically, items placed in parenthesis aren't integral to a sentence. Another way to say this is, "When time marches on, we realize that people who used to mean the world to us aren't as involved in our lives as they used to be." |
Why do certain store-bought, counter-ripened fruits (peaches, pears, nectarines, etc.) often acquire that gross, mealy texture without ever becoming properly ripe? | I understand that the best way to get good fruit is to buy it in season, but even out of season I can buy two peaches from the same bin in the supermarket (with seemingly the same firmness, color, and scent) but one will ripen perfectly and the other will go mealy. | Some (scammy) sellers will freeze them for storage, then thaw them before they go on the shelves. Freezing destroys the texture of the fruit due to ice expanding and bursting the cells, and makes them tasteless, but they look the same on the outside. This results in tasteless, mushy textured fruit that leaks juice. |
What would happen if the Federal Reserve/Congress placed a forever permanent "cap" on the amount of dollar bills in circulation? | Would the value skyrocket? Would the economy fall out of the bottom? What would be the events immediately following such an announcement that no new money would be printed ever again? | Well valuation of other goods would plummet as there would be pretty large deflation. It wouldn't bottom out overnight but it wouldn't be pretty by any means. One of the things that most people aren't considering is that most transactions really don't occur without cash leaving the banking system.
Cash in and of itself is thought of as the M0 level of the monetary supply, whereas most money that's sitting in accounts is at the M1 level and can transfer between institutions with no real trouble.
Wikipedia has a very good example to give you can idea of these levels. M0
M0
> Laura has ten US $100 bills, representing $1000 in the M0 supply for the United States. (MB = $1000, M0 = $1000, M1 = $1000, M2 = $1000)
>
> Laura burns one of her $100 bills. The US M0, and her personal net worth, just decreased by $100. (MB = $900, M0 = $900, M1 = $900, M2 = $900)
> M1
>
> Laura takes the remaining nine bills and deposits them in her transactional account (checking account or current account by country) at her bank. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $900, M2 = $900)
>
> The bank then calculates its reserve using the minimum reserve percentage given by the Fed and loans the extra money. If the minimum reserve is 10%, this means $90 will remain in the bank's reserve. The remaining $810 can only be used by the bank as credit, by lending money, but until that happens it will be part of the bank's excess reserves.
>
> The M1 money supply increases by $810 when the loan is made. M1 money is created. ( MB = $900 M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
>
> Laura writes a check for $400, check number 7771. The total M1 money supply didn't change, it includes the $400 check and the $500 left in her account. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
>
> Laura's check number 7771 is accidentally destroyed in the laundry. M1 and her checking account do not change, because the check is never cashed. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
>
> Laura writes check number 7772 for $100 to her friend Alice, and Alice deposits it into her checking account. MB does not change, it still has $900 in it, Alice's $100 and Laura's $800. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $1710, M2 = $1710)
>
> The bank lends Mandy the $810 credit that it has created. Mandy deposits the money in a checking account at another bank. The other bank must keep $81 as a reserve and has $729 available for loans. This creates a promise-to-pay money from a previous promise-to-pay, thus the M1 money supply is now inflated by $729. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $2439, M2 = $2439)
>
> Mandy's bank now lends the money to someone else who deposits it on a checking account on yet another bank, who again stores 10% as reserve and has 90% available for loans. This process repeats itself at the next bank and at the next bank and so on, until the money in the reserves backs up an M1 money supply of $9000, which is 10 times the MB money. (MB = $900, M0 = 0, M1 = $9000, M2 = $9000)
> M2
>
> Laura writes check number 7774 for $1000 and brings it to the bank to start a Money Market account (these do not have a credit-creating charter), M1 goes down by $1000, but M2 stays the same. This is because M2 includes the Money Market account in addition to all money counted in M1.
The downfall now is though that you've entered into a deflationary spiral of which you apparently can't get out of. Now that people are getting rewarded for sitting on their money it behooves them not to purchase as many goods. With lower consumer demand less is produced, which causes many companies of lay off workers or just fold entirely. This creates a ripple effect throughout the economy as demand is now lowered and even less people can find jobs. |
Why don’t rockets launched in to space hit any of the junk circling earth’s atmosphere? | [removed] | There are a few main reasons. First, the people launching the rockets try to avoid what they know is up there. The second factor is that space is very large and there just isn't that much stuff up there in the first place. If I dropped you somewhere in the Pacific Ocean at random would you really be afraid of hitting a plastic bag? Sure, there are a lot floating around out there, but the ocean is *huge* and they just aren't that common in comparison. Now consider that space has three dimensions and the ocean surface only has two. |
Please explain me this burn: “This is what you get when you found a political system on the family values of Henry VIII." | [removed] | Henry VIII decided that he was above the law of the Church and of the country when he wanted to divorce his first wife and the church wouldn't let him. Instead of abiding by the law, he split from the church, formed his own church, changed the law, divorced his first wife, called his first child a bastard, married a younger, prettier woman ... and it was all good because he was the King.
In other words, the values of church and country and God and family were sacred ... until they interfered with what he wanted. Then they were throwaway values. |
why do lights flicker during a storm but other electronic devices seem unaffected? | Lights are connected directly to the AC Line power.
Most electronic devices(TV's Radio, and small appliances) actually run on DC. They have a circuit inside that converts AC to DC. This circuit requires a filter to operate. The filter makes it immune to transient drops in AC power. Specifically, there is a large capacitor that stores charge.
EDIT: You can think of the filter capacitor like a small battery. | |
Why does my brain start randomly playing songs in my head that I haven't heard in years? | It's actually less random than you perceive it to be. You have an incalculable amount of information floating around in your head, but obviously you don't need access to it for the overwhelming majority of your existence. It's just sitting there, waiting to be called upon or activated, which can happen quicker than a ray of light.
One of the major ways we learn things is through association. If this, then that. Your brain forms tiny little connections between stimuli* and outcomes, which might seem "random" or even arbitrary. For example, whenever I hear my niece's dog Stacy suddenly get up from lying down on the couch, the bell on her collar rings and moments later her Mom walks through the door. I start to associate the bell with her mom coming home. This is a ELI5 version of classical conditioning, but I hope you take my meaning. The point is that it's not a conscious thing, and it can happen with stuff like "I heard this song while I was jogging once, and I saw a person jogging which reminded me of the song."
We don't always catch these things, because again, they can seem so disjointed and "random" to us when we consciously consider them. You might find yourself listening to a song on YouTube one day and suddenly something in the video reminds you of this comment. The mental assocation happens so fast, and in an mmmbop it's gone, but you find yourself at the end of the song wondering why you're thinking about Reddit comments.
*EDIT: Said stigma. Meant stimuli. Thanks to /u/mdilty for knowing where all the cowboys have gone, who let the dogs out, and other valuable information as well. | |
how do bugs, like ants, walk on the ceiling? | Imagine a cube 10cm on each side sitting on the ground. It has 100cm^2 on the floor with a volume of 1000cm^2 . 10 unita volume (ie mass) per unit area.
Now double each side to 20cm. Floor area? 400cm^2 . Volume? 8000cm^2 . 20 units vol per area!
The pressure (weight per unit area) has doubled, even though it's the same shape. This is why you can't just scale up a lego building into a real one.
Ants are so small that the mass per unit area of their feet is tiny. Their feet are sticky, so this allows them to stick to the ceiling. At the same time they're really strong for their size (for the same reason I explained above) so can easily move a foot or two to keep walking. | |
Why is fire blue at the bottom and Yellow at the top? | [removed] | Someone will probably explain better, but from what I learned in my image class in film school, blue literally is the warmest colour, and the fire is hottest at the "root" of the flame. As the flame goes up, it becomes less hot and the colour shifts to yellow/red. Someone please come in an explain the physics side of things, cause I chose film school for a reason ;v |
Why do people have varying levels of tolerance to spice/heat? | How come there is such a wide range or spiciness tolerance and preference? How can the same level of heat be perfect for one person and make another cough, tear, and have difficulties breathing? Is any of the aquired? Is there an absolute limit for what humans can tolerate? | Part of it is acquired through food you eat as you grow up part of it also depends on the bitter tastebuds section of your tongue...Some puerile have a very high tolerance bc of eating so much "hot" food that the portion of the tongue that detects spiciness namely the bitter tastebuds are over stimulated and so dint detect those flavors any longer....once you've stopped eating spicy food for a long time this tastebuds recover and things become spicy again |
Why does the same type of GPU take 8 pins when another one of another brand takes 16 or 18 | Like take the 1070 Gigabyte Turbo. It only takes 8pin but the MSI 1070 gaming takes 16 pins I believe. Why is that? | More power hungry fans, rgb, better pcb power delivery for OC, or a combination of any or all 3 |
why can't pharma companies just recreate the drug producing an outrage at the moment if the patent is expired? It's good PR and an open-ish market to seize on? | Generics still have to be approved by the FDA, and they have a fairly huge backlog that keeps growing. Median review time for an ANDA application was [42 months](_URL_0_) in 2014 (page 65), and estimated to be about the same in 2015 and 2016. In 2003 that was 17 months, and in 2009 it was closer to 24 months.
The GDUFA, introduced in 2012, is supposed to help speed this up by a lot, and they are working hard on it. But even then, the **goal** is 10-15 months per application. | |
Why do some Animals (like bugs etc.) literally just sit and stare for hours? what are they doing? | currently have a bug in my sink i just left alone, it's been on pretty much the same spot for two hours now... and it got me thinking, i see various animals do this from time to time.. what exactly are they doing? planning for world domination? | Oftentimes insects, fish and other animals are engaged in [torpor](_URL_0_) when they "literally just sit and stare for hours". |
How do you make a company? | I'm trying to start up a company that is a general contractor which deals with all aspects of home remodeling and construction, including electric work, flooring, painting, etc. | If it's a sole proprietorship (a one-man business), you have to do almost nothing. Go read this: _URL_0_ |
If two puppies were seperated at birth and met later in life, would they know they are siblings? | [removed] | This is difficult because the most correct answer is "we don't know for sure". But, we do know a few things:
- In terms of episodic memory - consciously remembering past events - it is unlikely that the dog would have any recollection of the sibling. Even humans don't remember their infancy and early life, and dog memory is not as good as ours.
- In terms of their concept, dogs can discriminate between dog and non-dog images, suggesting that they have a mental category for "dogs" and possibly sub-categories for different species. This is a far cry from having a concept of "family" or even "things that are like me", but they might (MIGHT) recognize the sibling as belonging to a special category.
- In terms of behavior, the dogs would probably act somewhat differently to each other than they would to a "stranger" dog. BUT, this would largely be because the olfactory (scent) cues from the sibling were similar to their own and they recognized this. The dog would almost certainly not think "that is my family member" but on some level they would understand that this guy is different than other dogs. Dogs do recognize their own scent and treat it differently, and so the same would likely be true for very similar scents.
Of course, even if two dogs live their whole lives together it is not clear that they "know they are siblings" or have any concept like that at all. Dog thinking is largely confined to conditioning, remembering simple objects, and other things that don't involve abstract relationships. |
How can cops tell which car was speeding when there is a lot of traffic? | I'm not an expert, but I do know that radar guns have at least two modes they can operate in - "fastest signal" and "strongest signal" (some do both at the same time). When you point a radar gun at a group of cars, it shoots out a radar beam and then gets bounces back from multiple cars in the group.
If the radar gun is in "fastest signal" mode, it looks at all the responses it got and displays the highest speed. The officer can then look at the group of cars and see which one is travelling the fastest and know the speed of that car.
If the gun is in "strongest signal" mode, it shows whichever return signal came back the strongest, this is usually the vehicle in the center of the radar gun's beam, or the closest vehicle to the unit, or the largest vehicle in the beam.
By using both radar modes and visual cues, the officer can identify which vehicle he's tracking. For instance, if a small sports car is speeding and hiding on the far side of a large truck that is going the limit, the strongest signal will be the truck, but the fastest signal will be the sports car.
It's not a simple point-and-shoot operation, but with training they can tell which car they are tracking relatively easily. | |
How can a service (I.e.: WhatsApp) offer end to end encryption, when the patriot act forces them to hand over personal communication of at least some of their users? | Do they simply hand over the encrypted messages and say: figure it out yourself? Do they need to have a backdoor installed? Or did I get it completely wrong? | IIRC, the patriot act doesn't force companies to keep records on communications. What it does is allow the government to see the records that companies do keep, without a warrant. If there is no record, then the government can't see it. |
German redditors, i have a question for you! | when you were learned about world war 2, what were the two military forces called? here, it's called the allies and the axis. i was just curious if it was called the same names there.
thanks !
| The Axis powers named themselves the Axis. It comes from a speech by Mussolini where he said the alliance between Rome and Berlin would be the axis upon which the world would turn. The Germans obviously use their own language so it's Achsenmächte. |
Biologists/geneticists, why can't genetic modification in humans work now? Lack of research? Danger? (Specific question inside) | This question stems from the fact that I'm Asian and I get all patchy/spotty all over when I drink alcohol (after one pint or so, depending on alcohol content). I was reading an article the other day about the genetic 'defect' of most Asians, not having the enzyme to properly digest/breakdown alcohol. The article also talked about the risk of cancer and that it was about 10x more likely for someone without the enzyme to develop cancer (even when controlling for drinking amounts and other factors).
I wouldn't consider myself extremely stupid, but I really can't wrap my head around the specific reasons that prevents us from doing genetic modifications to humans. I understand that ethical issues are of concern, but something like genetically modifying one gene to provide an enzyme to break down alcohol shouldn't be of major ethical concern (as compared to altering genes in Down's syndrome or other genetic disease/illnesses). The fact is (specific to this question), we know which gene affects the enzyme production, and we have research about genetic modifications (like maize and food, even rats and other animals), why can't we do it (yet)? How long will it take? | I believe that while some modification may be possible, you have to keep in mind that this "one gene" you are trying to modify is actually present in every single cell in your body, since every cell carries an exact copy of your whole genome, or DNA. Also, modifying one gene would mean changing around the sequence of base pairs on the DNA, which is what ultimately produces RNA, which makes proteins, which in turn perform most functions of the body.
But once again, this one gene is present in every cell of your body, making it difficult to "modify" it.
There is something nowadays called Gene Therapy, which uses a vector (sometimes a virus) to introduce DNA into a cell and change the gene temporarily. However, this poses many problems, which I think Wikipedia does a very nice job of explaining:
"Some of the problems of gene therapy include:
Short-lived nature of gene therapy – Before gene therapy can become a permanent cure for any condition, the therapeutic DNA introduced into target cells must remain functional and the cells containing the therapeutic DNA must be long-lived and stable. Problems with integrating therapeutic DNA into the genome and the rapidly dividing nature of many cells prevent gene therapy from achieving any long-term benefits. Patients will have to undergo multiple rounds of gene therapy.
Immune response – Any time a foreign object is introduced into human tissues, the immune system has evolved to attack the invader. The risk of stimulating the immune system in a way that reduces gene therapy effectiveness is always a possibility. Furthermore, the immune system's enhanced response to invaders that it has seen before makes it difficult for gene therapy to be repeated in patients.
Problems with viral vectors – Viruses, the carrier of choice in most gene therapy studies, present a variety of potential problems to the patient: toxicity, immune and inflammatory responses, and gene control and targeting issues. In addition, there is always the fear that the viral vector, once inside the patient, may recover its ability to cause disease."
Of course, this is just a brief explanation to a very complicated topic, which is just now starting to emerge as viable research proponents in the growing field of Biotechnology. Many scientists dedicate their lives to research like this, and most of this information falls beyond the scope of this comment. If you are interested and plan on learning more about this topic, in greater detail, I recommend [this](_URL_0_) article on wikipedia, which does a great job explaining the pros and cons of gene therapy.
Hope I could help! |
Why does wetting your hands make it easier to open a plastic bag, when having wet hands usually makes it difficult to handle other things? | Title pretty much says it. I searched and couldn't find an answer. But having wet fingers seems counter intuitive, but makes opening trash bags and such way easier. How? | Your dry fingers have difficulty adhering to the smooth plastic. When you wet your finger, the water fills the spaces between your skin and the plastic bag. Water molecules are slightly bent, which means that they act a little bit like small magnets, with a small attractive force between them. This small attractive force (Van der Waals forces) causes the water to bond to both your fingers and to the bag, allowing you to grip it better. The forces in this case are small and the bag is light, so the force your hand apply is lower than the Van der Waals force.
When opening a jar, the Van der Waals force is still there, but you are applying a much larger force to try to open the jar. In this case, you grip the jar much harder, which increases the surface area contact and allows you to transmit the force from your hand to the jar and lid, hence opening it. When the jar and lid is wet, the water gets between your hand and the jar. Water is a fluid and cannot transmit shear force (the force of objects moving alongside one another), so your hand slips as soon as you apply a force greater than the Van Der Waals force. |
Why do I feel better after I break and smash things while I am in a fit of rage | Because fits of rage often arise from feeling like you are not in control of the situation. Destroying things gives you back a sense of control. | |
If a human grew up with absolutely no other human contact other than the initial infant stage how would they behave? | Assuming it's past the infant stage and learned to walk upright dropped off in a forest with no human contact. And if they survived to grow up how would they act? Would they mimic other animals? Would they be able to understand how to make shelter, get food etc. would they know that they are *different* to other animals? If brought back to civilization would they be able to learn on their own certain things?
I know this is an inhumane question I'm just curious. | Genie (aka Susan Wiley) is probably the most-studied and most-famous case. The only contact with other humans she had for most of the first 13 years of her life was the abuse of her insane father. Edit: ugh, linking to a URL with parentheses in it via reddit formatting not working right. _URL_0_
Further edit: Basically, she was raised normally (inasmuch as one can be raised normally in an abusive home) until age 3, when her father locked her in a small room in their Los Angeles house, where he kept her, alternately, strapped to a child's toilet chair during the day and strapped into a locked, covered crib during the night, almost never speaking to her. Most of his interaction with her consisted solely of physical abuse, and the other residents of the house (Genie's mother and brother) were forbidden from entering Genie's room or even speaking about her. She was rescued when her mother visited a Department of Human Services office in an attempt to get some financial assistance with raising her kids, especially Genie, whom she found too difficult to handle due to her prolonged isolation. She could barely walk, barely speak and was still in diapers at 13. The social worker who first saw her called CPS in immediately. Her father committed suicide before he could be prosecuted.
There's a decent, if old, NOVA documentary made about her that provides a good overview of the case. [It's on Youtube](_URL_1_).
There have been other examples throughout history, but none quite with as much clinical study behind it. |
What does A/B/C/D on X/Y/Z mean in basketball? | For example when the stats say: Kobe averaged 30.2/5.5/5.3/1.7/0.9 on 46/35/88 in 2009 | Typically it means
Point/rebounds/assists/steals/blocks
Those other numbers are shooting percentages or field goal‰
Overall fg%/ 3pt fg%/ free-throw ‰ |
How do cells know what they are supposed to do? | Certain genes are turned on or off, depending on the extra-cellular environment. | |
Why are Indian Americans so good at spelling bees? | Tonight two Indian Americans won the Spelling Bee. They were so good that the Spelling Bee ran out of words. The last 8 champions are of Indian descent. | Parents.
It all starts at home, with parents. The ones that push you. The ones that help you study. No matter what, the ones that guide you. |
Why are cocaine and heroin illegal? What harm do they cause to us? | Well, I grew up with people who became addicted to both. First the cocaine. Cocaine is a hell of a drug. Once you get a line up your nose you want more. I've seen people snort the rent check in a weekend. 48 hours of straight up tweaking and snorting and drinking. Then the money runs out and you crash and you sleep for two days and you wake up with a nose full of dry blood and an eviction notice on your door. Now heroin. Heroin is a hell of a drug. You NEVER want to come off heroin. You will steal your grandmas dentures to get more heroin. You will suck fifty dicks to get more heroin. You will get high and stay high for the rest of your life if you can. Which might not be very long because you'll probably overdose eventually. | |
If skin renews itself every 30 days, why do humans get wrinkles? | [removed] | The part of your skin that renews itself is the visible layer or upper/top epidermis. That's why tattoos stay forever, the needle leaves ink in the lower area called the dermis. When you're young your skin can "spring back" from various expressions. But as you age all the layers of your skin overall become less elastic (due to the loss of collagen and elastin fibers from age, UV lights, etc.). Therefore your skin is also looser and drier thus creating the appearance of wrinkles. |
how is bios installed on a motherboard? | There are special memory chips on the motherboard that contain the BIOS. In ancient times, these were actual ROMs, read-only memory chips. That's too hard to maintain, so today most mobos use flash memory, like in a USB drive or camera card, to store the BIOS. That way you can do a firmware update with a special program rather than screwdrivers. | |
Would 2 equally loud noises combine to make a louder sound? Why or why not? | Like if i dropped 2 of the same object and they hit the ground at the exact same time...would it be louder than dropping one object? | Sound travels through air much like ripples in a pond. What would happen if you dropped 2 pebbles in a pond at the same time? You would get spots in the water where the waves would cancel each other out and then some spots where there would be a wave that is twice as big. (see: _URL_0_ with some nifty information). You can think of the crest as the part of the sound wave that is compressing the air and the trough as the part of the sound wave that is decompressing the air.
So, if you dropped 2 things at the same time, it would be either twice as loud or silent depending on where you were standing. |
What is the 'return' statement in Python? | Why use 'return' instead of another command like 'print'. What is the point of the return command? Everywhere I've googled I've seen explanations which seem to require knowledge of computer science. I'm just a noob programmer so I'd appreciate a simple explanation. | A return means "end this function, and optionally give the value back to the caller".
In other words, let's say you have a function that calculates some value:
def myfunc():
# do some math stuff here
return n
What the return statement does is say "give the value in the variable n back to whoever called me."
So if you call the function like this
foo = myfunc()
After the statement executes, the variable foo will have the value in n from myfunc() in it.
To answer your question, the reason you would do this instead of, for example, using a print statement, is that you don't want to display the value to the user, you want to store it for future use, in case you want to do something with it later. |
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