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f58prc | why and how do car clutches work? | I'll appreciate any links to further reading. Currently going through its Wikipedia page but I'm not an engineer so hard for me to take so much info at once. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f58prc/eli5_why_and_how_do_car_clutches_work/ | {
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"I would suggest you to look on YouTube as there are loads of videos explaining it in detail and showing actual clutches and gearboxes in action.",
"The US Auto Industry channel presents really good videos; look up \"Spinning Levers - How a transmission works (1936)\""
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1f2ofb | the war on drugs and the stigma surrounding it | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f2ofb/eli5_the_war_on_drugs_and_the_stigma_surrounding/ | {
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"Little Bobby wanted to eat some chewing gum but the school didn't allow it. The school placed a rule that anyone who has chewing gum will go to detention. \n\nThe school did this because chewing gum was making kids have a sugar rush and they wouldn't do their work (there was also chewing gum being stuck everywhere!). The school still kept finding chewing gum all over the place and sometimes caught a few students chewing it, but this wasn't enough for them. \n\nThere were security guards to watch and protect the kids, but they were also told to look out for chewing gum. This cost the parents more money because the school had to hire these guards. The guards were meant to protect the kids but instead they spent ALL their time checking for chewing gum; there were now bad kids damaging school things and graffiti.\n\nOne day they searched through Bobby's bag and they found some chewing gum. They took the chewing gum away from him and put him in detention. They told him chewing gum was bad and he should never chew it. He didn't understand why because it tastes so delicious. So he did his detention time and went out and bought another pack of gum to eat. Instead of explaining to him that chewing gum is bad, the security guard found more chewing gum on Bobby and they would just give him another detention, never explaining to him why it was bad. \n\nWhat the school should have done was explain to Bobby why it was bad and if it continued to happen, offer him some help to further explain why it was bad. Not just catch him for chewing gum and then throw him in detention. The security guards should have kept an eye out for gum chewers instead of spending their entire time doing this, so the other kids were getting away with doing bad things.\n\nThere were other kids caught with chewing gum and they were never explained why it was bad either. So this filled up the detention room with kids that were caught. There were now too many kids in detention because of chewing gum! Instead of spreading the message around the school on why chewing gum as wrecking the school [Just to add without an ELI5, rehabilitation programs are the equivalent to spreading the message (In this case), able to provide drug users with the help they need instead of deeming them as all criminals and sent to prison, counterproductive?] and helping the kids that were using chewing gum, they just put everyone in detention.",
"To expand on /u/we_are_atoms 's post:\n\nThe school got tired of people buying chewing gum, so they stopped the corner shop, where all the kids bought their chewing gum, not to sell it any more.\n\nBecause they couldn't get it from the corner shop, they had to buy it from the older kids from high school who would stand at the corner of the playground and sell it. Sometimes they would bully the younger kids, who felt scared to go and buy gum from them, but they didn't have much choice. The older kids charged much more, and sometimes the gum was soft or tasted bad, but the kids didn't have anywhere else to go.\n\nThe security guards found out what was happening, but they could hardly ever catch the bullies in the act. When they did, they gave them lots of detentions, but the older kids kept selling it anyway - they were making a fortune. They used their money to buy all sorts of stuff the school and their parents would rather they didn't, but because they were getting their money from selling gum, there wasn't anything they could do about it.\n\n[Non-ELI5]: attempts to clamp down on drug possession and sale have lead to that trade being taken over by criminals. It can't be regulated by government so the drugs are often unsafe, and the money goes into other illegal trades.",
"_URL_0_\n\nRussell Brand testifies as an expert witness regarding the drug policies in the UK. Basically, punishment by the government in the form of arrests, jail time, and fines are not useful in deterring their efforts to use drugs in the future. These tactics simply inconvenience drug users. To get at the core of addiction, you have to consider drug addiction as a disease and attack it at a public health issue. The US government, and some other European governments, have failed to consider these with any seriousness. \n\nIn the US, we have gone from trying to bust street pushers, to literally expanding the DEA to have men fly in helicopters around forested areas to try and find relatively small batches of marijuana. The expense for these endeavors is incredible and continues to grow, yet drug use has remained the same or has increased (depending on the drug). So especially in these times of austerity, a lot of American are wondering why the fuck are we spending so much on a failed system?!"
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2rkuvn | why do i still need glasses when looking in a mirror? | I'm very nearsighted. If I'm using a mirror and look at something far away in the background, without my glasses, it is just as blurry as if I was looking at it straight on. But since its reflected off the mirror, closer to me, shouldn't everything be clear? Wearing glasses improved the distance I can see in a reflection. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rkuvn/eli5_why_do_i_still_need_glasses_when_looking_in/ | {
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"A common science-y question. The short answer is that you may be looking at a physical object (the mirror) that is within your visible distance, but the thing you're trying to look at in the mirror is represented by reflected light that your eyes still have to focus on to make out. \n\nHere's a longer explanation:\n\n_URL_0_",
"Because a mirror just reflects the rays of light coming from the object you're trying to focus on, so it's still like looking at it without a mirror. \nsorry about the shitty explanation",
"Because the light your eyes perceive still travels the same distance from the object you're looking at.\n\nBehold: _URL_0_"
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43zgfp | why won't other countries adopt the "more successful" / "better" educational programs of other countries, e.g. finland? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43zgfp/eli5_why_wont_other_countries_adopt_the_more/ | {
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"There are many, many known factors that go into educational success. Some of them are quite unrelated to the educational system, such as the wealth of parents or the time parents spend with their children. Additionally, there are extreme differences between countries--what might be appropriate for Finland will not necessarily work everywhere else, nor will it be desired everywhere; different people have different views of what subjects are most important.\n\nWe can measure the outcomes of Finland or other countries and conclude they work well. But it is quite another matter to dissect their system and ask \"what has led to their success?,\" followed by the more difficult question of \"will this be successful for us?\" Educators are always trying to learn from each other, but it's not as easy as copying another country's system wholesale--on the contrary, that is quite likely to be unsuccessful.",
"Because the cultural, and economic situations in the countries are not the same. The countries may not even have the same educational goals and so do not see the systems as even being successful. ",
"Entrenched power profiting from the status quo is usually the reason behind lack of progress",
"In the US: mostly teachers unions. There is a good documentary on education in the US called Waiting for Superman. Also check out Stupid in America. _URL_0_",
"Ever consider that they may not want educated citizens? Smart people are more likely too see through the government's propaganda. More likely to call them on their BS. That's why repressive regimes always kill off the smart people. Pol Pot? Stalin?",
"First off, other countries aren't perfect, and you have to figure out what about an education system is the source of strength and what is holding it back from being even better. Finland gets a lot of attention in policy circles partly because it used to be pretty bad, but a lot of lay commentary neglects to distinguish what was part of the reform and what it was like before that. Second, implementation can be difficult and can work in a variety of ways. For example, one of the common factors of successful education systems is professional, esteemed teachers. The US already requires teachers to have masters degrees, so it's trying to raise real and perceived rigor by treating them like medical professionals, tracking outcomes data and dictating techniques (doctors are good at diagnosis and implementation, but the numbers are much better when treatment is done via flow chart created by biologists and statisticians). Third, there's effect modification/interaction. Powerful stimulants like Ritalin help kids with attention disorders focus (nobody knows why) but hurt focus for everyone else. Similarly, two populations being different in some way can mean they'll respond to a given change differently. Fourthly, there's under-the-hood stuff like what we value and whether a system will really get it. Japan and South Korea both rely on incredibly high stakes testing, memorization-based teaching (which would probably be regarded as the teacher cheating by teaching to the test in the US), long school days, and private cram schools after school (also, most schools appear to be private in Japan). Not only do they tolerate a higher level of burnout and income-based inequality in education quality (the latter likely because they have less income inequality), but they probably overperform on international comparison tests relative to their real proficiency.\r\rLastly, people don't always or agree with the changes. People have been going after the new way to teach multiplication in the common core despite it being how teachers have been trained to teach it for decades (I was born in 1990, and all my elementary school teachers already used that method). Hell, parents were mad that the math questions their kids were being instructed in were more advanced than what they learned at that age. Reddit freaked the fuck out when a school started using a grading system in which 50% was a C and saying that's why America is falling behind despite that system being much closer to the norm in the rest of the world (I'd say it is the norm, except most other western countries use obscure terminology like the British instead of letters)."
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a44v01 | is the sugar content of any food item dictated by the amount of carbs present in it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a44v01/eli5_is_the_sugar_content_of_any_food_item/ | {
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"Other way around. \nSugar is only one kind of carbohydrate.\nThere also carbohydrates that may be listed but not fully metabolized like sugar alcohols. There are also the soluble and insoluble fibers that are listed as carbs.",
"Sugar is a type of carb. A food item can be high in carbs with little to no sugar. Sugar content means carb content, but carb content doesn't necessarily mean sugar content.",
"Well yes and no. All sugars are carbs, but not all carbs are sugars.\n\nSo if you take a glass of water and add a spoon of glucose (common table sugar) and a spoon of fructose (fruit sugar) to it, that water now contains sugars that are also carbohydrates.\n\nIf you chew on a log of firewood, you are biting into mostly cellulose. This is also a type of carbohydrate. You will however notice that it doesn't taste sweet, because cellulose is not a sugar."
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5yebuh | why do restaurants serve small items on large plates? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yebuh/eli5_why_do_restaurants_serve_small_items_on/ | {
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"Some people go to a restaurant because they're terribly hungry and need to eat A LOT of food fast.\n\nBut, typically, going to a restaurant is a social event, you're going with a date, or with co-workers / business people, or even with friends, and eating the food is often secondary to making a good impression on the people you're going with. \n\nThe atmosphere inside the restaurant, the appearance and behavior of the servers, the visual presentation of the food on the plate, etc., these are all things that pretty much any restaurant will pay attention to, and even charge a premium for.",
"To be honest, it depends on the restaurant.\n\nA nicer restaurant will give you a bigger plate than you actually need so that it looks nicer than if the food is taking up all the space. Garnishes and sides will usually adorn the rest of the plate so that it looks as impressive as possible.\n\nCheaper restaurants often are doing this because they haven't changed their plates and the food has been made smaller to cut cost. For instance, I used to go to a restaurant that served some really impressive looking steaks on big plates (as the example above). \n\nA while back they decide to cut costs and the steaks they started serving were smaller and the big plates looked like they were empty. They still charged the same, but the perceived value now was not the same. Later on they fixed this by replacing the current plates with smaller plates and creating a \"new\" menu. Now the food they serve you is still cheap, but the, perceived value is that you are getting what you paid for. Prices are still the same so I stopped going there.",
"People are chiming in with a bunch of wrong answers.\n\nThe real answer is that menu items change frequently and there is usually a wide variety of food options on a menu, whereas the largest number of different kinds of plates I've seen at any of the restaurants I've worked at is 5.\n\n5 different kinds of plates.\n\nThe fact of the matter is that plates are a sunken cost. If the restaurant ever wants to buy new plates for any reason they have to shell out money for those plates.\n\nSo what kinds of plates do they buy?\n\n- A large plate\n\n- A small plate\n\n- A small bowl\n\n- A large bowl\n\n- A specialty mystery item. Like a long plate or something. The one that juts out in my mind is we used to have a special sushi plate because sushi was SO popular\n\n- For comparison we had ~50 menu items. The menu items rotated every 3 months. We ordered new plates in batches of 150 as they broke.\n\nEveryone else is answering the question. \"Why is my food plated like it is?\" That answer (if the guy plating it gives a shit about his job) is to make the food appear to take up as much volume as possible while actually taking up as little as possible. To this end most restaurant plates are concave in design.\n\nBut the answer to your question \"why do restaurants serve small items on large plates?\" Is probably because the small plate they have is too small. Why would they order new plates for a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars (depending on the volume of plates they might want to buy) when they could just use a larger plate?\n\n ",
"Combining what /u/mpmmuirhead and /u/thereal_isaac wrote and adding some of my own insight. These are some of the ways in which a small item can end up on a large plate. Which reason applies will depend on the restaurant and the item.\n\n1. Material Cost. It is cheaper to put the small item on a large plate that the restaurant already owns than to buy new plates that are more appropriately sized.\n1. Menu Price. A small item may be placed on a large plate because of the menu cost. I see this often with things like scallops or prime fillet. I've even seen restaurants which charge by the size of the plate (e.g. Dim Sum).\n1. Visual Appeal (Aesthetic). The plating of the item on the dish may be viewed as artistic and the additional white space of a larger plate can add to the appeal.\n1. Course Uniformity. Generally speaking, dishes on the same section of the menu will be about the same size (there are many many exceptions). The idea here is that if a group of people orders a variety of entrees, everyone will get an entree sized plate.\n1. Popularity. This is probably rare, but I've seen a restaurant move a dish from appetizer to entree because it was frequently eaten as an entree. The size and price did not change, but they did serve it on a larger entree plate (vice appetizer plate). This may also be done to use dishes of different sizes more evenly.\n1. Food Cost. One way restaurants can handle rising food costs is to reduce portion sizes. A dish that looked perfect may slowly decrease in size over time until it looks \"too small\" on the plate. This is often (but not always) a sign of a poorly managed restaurants since menu prices should be increased before they get to this point."
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5vp3ns | why is chinaman considered racist while englishman, frenchman, scottsman, etc are not? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vp3ns/eli5_why_is_chinaman_considered_racist_while/ | {
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"Context and history. Words pick up a lot of their meaning form the way they're used. Most racist terms didn't start that way, but being used in a derogatory way has pretty well tainted them and whatever the old meaning was has largely been overshadowed by the new use. ",
"I'd say it's because Chinaman was historically applied to other asian people who are not actually chinese, whereas the other descriptors were/are usually only used in the corresponding cases."
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3xaej9 | how is the enormous cost of advertising worth the investment? | And how do business calculate some estimated return based upon a certain amount of advertising? I, like most other people probably, don't buy stuff just because I saw some commercial or Youtube ad. I know it's good to make people aware of your product, but the insane amount spent on it confuses me. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xaej9/eli5_how_is_the_enormous_cost_of_advertising/ | {
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" > I, like most other people probably, don't buy stuff just because I saw some commercial or Youtube ad.\n\nYes, you do. This is the most direct ELI5 answer - advertising works even when people don't think it works. You may not consciously be aware that your purchasing decisions are affected, but if you're an ordinary person, ads you see *do* affect your purchasing decisions.\n\nIt's not as simple as \"see an ad = buy the thing\". It's also not a matter of nefarious brainwashing; you can't be \"programmed\" against your will. What does happen is the ad slightly increases the *chance* of you purchasing the object or service. Let's say before you had a 30% chance of buying a given game. You see an ad for the game. You now have a 31% chance of buying the game. Does this register as a conscious decision? No. But imagine that happens over a population of 100,000 people - that's the difference between 30,000 buying the game and 31,000 buying the game. In other words, that ad turned into 1,000 extra purchases.\n\nIn reality the numbers are even more complex and subtle than that - but it's a sufficient example. As for calculating return, there are two ways.\n\nThe newer method, only possible with the Internet, is to track purchases directly. When you click on an ad - and yes, people really do click on ads all the time - the business can get data about whether that click led to a purchase. In fact, lots of ads work on a per-click basis: you *only* pay for the ad space when people actually click on it. Some ads even work on a per-conversion basis: you don't have to pay for the ad unless someone actually bought a product immediately after clicking the ad.\n\nThe older method, which is necessary for things like TV ads and is still used for many online ads as well, is to track consequences of campaigns. Say you were selling 100k products per day, you start a new ad campaign (and change nothing else), you then start selling 105k products per day. You can reasonably assume that the ad campaign resulted in 5k products per day.\n\nOf course this requires you to actually launch and run the campaign for a while. How do you decide ahead of time whether it's worth it? You turn to people who have studied patterns in advertisement, and ask for expert opinions. This isn't an exact science, but there are very sophisticated models that are actually quite good at predicting the outcomes of advertisement campaigns - *on average*. Of course, there's always an element of risk."
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3p7thz | why does our voice get croaky? | EXTRA QUESTION: Why does it sound deeper when it's croaky? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p7thz/eli5_why_does_our_voice_get_croaky/ | {
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"There are lots of reasons your voice can be croaky. \n\nLet's start with a review: Your voice comes from your vocal folds. Vocal folds are [bands of muscle in your larynx.](_URL_0_) (Yes, yes, they look like a vagina, pay attention!) Air from your lungs passes through the vocal folds causing them to open and close; this creates sound. \n\nSo, reasons your voice may sound croaky:\n\n1. Fatigue. Imagine that you've run 8 miles - during the 9th mile, your leg muscles will be really tired. You'll slow down, stumble a little, be uncoordinated. It's the same for your vocal folds - if you've talked for a long period of time, they can get tired and uncoordinated. This makes you sound croaky. \n\n2. Illness. If you're sick, your vocal folds can become swollen. This can cause a croaky sound. \n\n3. Overuse and/or abuse. If you are constantly talking (maybe you're a teacher) or yelling (maybe you're a coach) you can damage your vocal folds. If they are used too much or too roughly they can develop little sores or callouses. This can make your voice sound croaky. \n\n4. Disease or damage. If you have throat cancer, blunt force injury to the throat, or if you've done something like drink lye, your vocal folds can be permanently damaged resulting in a croaky voice or a complete inability to speak. \n\nSource: I'm a speech pathologist. \n\nEdit: I just saw the extra question. The actual sound of your voice depends on a lot of factors. Some of these are:\n\n1. The speed at which your vocal folds hit together. \n\n2. The force at which your vocal folds hit together. \n\n3. The area your mouth/throat where you shape the sound. \n\nWhen there's something wrong with your vocal folds - fatigue, illness, damage, whatever - you're instinctively going to try to protect them. You'll try to adjust your voice so that they move slower and don't hit so forcefully; this can make your voice sound somewhat deeper. Also, because you're aware that something's wrong, you'll try to make subconscious adjustments which can also make your voice sound deeper. "
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c0tle2 | how do record labels screw certain artists/bands (“360 deals”) and push others to success? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0tle2/eli5_how_do_record_labels_screw_certain/ | {
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"Record labels are there to make money - they help bands by providing capital to afford costs like recording, promotion and touring (that most bands cannot afford outright) and knowledge to do this well (the hired tour managers and marketing people that are experts in areas the band will not be), and then take a cut of the bands earnings in return.\n\nA band does well and the record company make more money than they pay the band, a band flops and the record company loses that investment.\n\nHow record labels can help or screw over bands friends on how well they do their jobs - if a band relies on the label to provide marketing for their new album, or to organise a tour and screw this up, then the band lose money...\n\nA lot will come back to contracts - before working together bands and labels will agree terms for the deal. Things like the expectations for the band (write X amount of records, your for X many months), and what the label will provide, and also limitations to try and ensure a fair deal for both parties (the band cannot release music for another label while under contract, or just meet minimum stipulations).\n\nThe problem is that contracts can be misused - is a band signs a deal for three albums but loses popularity when the second flops, the record company may not want to invest much money in a third record, but at the same time the band are under contract with that label so they cannot just leave and work with someone else. \nYou can also see problems like where a new band has released music under a small label, moved on and gained popularity, and now this early music is unavailable as the first record label own the publishing rights and may limit how it is sold"
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7ecd8i | why is it harder to be happy as we grow older? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ecd8i/eli5_why_is_it_harder_to_be_happy_as_we_grow_older/ | {
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"Its most likely because you have more responsibilities as you grow. The fun you has as a child was an innocence of care, you did stuff without having those thoughts in the back of your head like: oh man this is gonna affect me in the future or that thing i gotta do tomorrow. ",
"I think it has to do with novelty. As we get older we tend to select routine and safety, and thus don't get the same thrill.\n\nTry doing new things and you'll experience it again.",
"There are a lot of possible explanations, someone might be able to link to studies but let's go for ELI5 and speculation.\n\nNew things are very exciting to your mind. The first taco you eat is AMAZING. The first time you play a video game it blows your mind. The first good book you read is SO POWERFUL. So you keep doing these things.\n\nBut after a while, you start running out of practical new things to do. You can try new restaurants, but eventually most of the menus have the same things you've eaten at others. You can play new video games, but after you've played a few dozen it's hard to find one with completely unique mechanics. After a few hundred books, you can't find many new plots. See the pattern?\n\nA lot of people get bitter and decide this means new things are worse than they used to be. This isn't often true. But it is true that there's no way, in 2017, to recreate the feeling you might have had playing Super Metroid for the first time in the 90s. You already played it for the first time, it's hard to be surprised in the same way again. \n\nThe best thing you can do is desperately keep trying to find new experiences. Or get a really nasty case of amnesia.\n\nThere are other bad things that happen to adults. We get in debt. We love, and lose. Sometimes people hurt us. Sometimes we hurt ourselves. Time isn't very nice to very many people. That tends to have a very bad impact on how \"happy\" you can be."
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wy87y | why people care/get annoyed at poor grammar | It's the internet, not an English paper or whatever, so why does it tend to annoy people? It doesn't really bother me, as long as it's understandable I don't mind it.
Note - I'm not talking about those sentences that are impossible to read without correct punctuation, I'm talking mainly about spelling mistakes and people that use "u" as the word "you". | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wy87y/eli5_why_people_careget_annoyed_at_poor_grammar/ | {
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"My theory is that if people type like that they won't be able to understand the correct way, and over time people will just get dumber.",
"As someone obsessed with proper grammar, I think I can explain. The way I feel when reading a terribly-written sentence is much the same as when listening to someone singing terribly off-key. It causes an emotional reaction that makes me wince and grit my teeth.\n\nWhat's more, I can't overlook it the way I can terrible singing. Not everyone can hear the different pitches of a song, but there's no inherent reason you can't spell words and form phrases correctly. What's your excuse; you have the dumb today?\n\nIt's laziness, really. You don't know which of the homophones of \"there\" to use? Google it. You've got a fucking chance to learn, and you're blowing it off because you can't be bothered to take 30 seconds to do it? Fuck you. Really.",
"For me: I'm an adult. I don't want to feel like I'm talking to a child. I also feel that typing improperly makes you look lazy and unmotivated. I try to avoid people with those qualities.",
"Because grammar is important. Because communication is important. Because language is important. \n\nDo you have any idea how many of the systems underlying the internet rely on strict grammars to function?",
"Because being understood on the Internet is pretty much the entire fucking point of the Internet. With spellcheckers built in to browsers and connection speeds being essentially near-instant for chat, there is absofuckingno reason to not take five goddamn seconds and CHECK YOUR FUCKING SENTENCE STRUCTURE, SPELLING, AND GRAMMAR YOU IGNORANT SHITFUCK.\n\n...\n\nI am one of those people, if you haven't guessed.\n\nAs others have said, hitting errors - blatant \"this person should know better\" errors - or idiotic shortcuts (like U, l8r, Y, etc) that I'll very grudgingly admit serve a purpose in SMS but nowhere else - is like driving on a perfectly smooth road at 60mph/100kph... and then hitting a speedbump.\n\nAnd every single \"u\".. every misuse of \"their/they're/there\".. every transposed letter thereafter is just hitting another speedbump at highway speed.\n\nIt's... incredibly uncomfortable and jarring. In reading a person's words, you get a chance to crawl around in their head for a bit and see how they think - how they relate to the world - how they are as a person. Those bangs and slams of hitting horrible grammar and shortened words - even when the sentence is still understandable - knocks me right out of this mindset. No more am I flowing with the person. No longer am I in their headspace. I'm now reading crude graffiti on a bathroom wall. \n\nI've got a theory that the people it annoys the most are avid readers. Not \"They read the finest literature\" readers, just people who read books. Any books. Because that shit doesn't fly in books (outside of specific instances where the Author is doing something with the language) so encountering the familiar letters you know and love and seeing them mangled is like coming home to find someone's gone through your things, smashed up your dishes and taken a shit on your living room floor."
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5t41g8 | how does freezing water simply make ice while rain freezes and becomes snow, which has completely different properties despite being the same thing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5t41g8/eli5_how_does_freezing_water_simply_make_ice/ | {
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"This happens because when a large body of water (something bigger than a snow flake) freezes, it has a bunch of other water molecules to attach to. This allows the ice to form a really big piece.\n\nSnow forms from tiny droplets and the water eventually runs out of buddies to freeze to. It becomes a tiny individual snow flake. Snow is fluffy because it's ice made of many different pieces. If you shave an ice block, you make a bunch of tiny pieces that are also fluffy.",
"Snow isn't formed from rain. It's formed one molecule at a time from water vapor in a divergent process from rain."
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4kxj4f | if people in the us are largely unhappy with the dem/repub presidential candidates why aren't candidates from the other parties considered or talked about? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kxj4f/eli5_if_people_in_the_us_are_largely_unhappy_with/ | {
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"I think it's largely because non Rep/Dem candidates don't really stand a chance, and aren't terribly interesting to an overall, media watching public. In America, I've noticed that there are a lot of societal aspects to being 'of a party', with Republicans seen as conservatives and Dems seen as liberal.\n\nThese two elements are so polarising that people identify culturally with different views of how to 'be American' rather than voting for who they believe is the best (or less worse) candidate. \n\nAlso, saying that people in the US are largely unhappy is a little broad- both parties have huge, positive followings that do not use Reddit. \n\nLastly, the other parties don't pay for publicity or rely on the bias of news services. National media outlets will report on what the majority of their viewers watch. In other words, it all comes down to money. \n\n",
"The candidates for the Democratic and Republican nominations represent mainstream political thought in America--and the extreme sides of political thought as well. The Libertarian, Green, Communist, etc. parties have *some* support, but they are not serious contenders in the presidential race.\n\nWhat makes you say that people in the U.S. are \"largely unhappy\" with the candidates? Not everyone may like the candidate that actually gets their party's nomination, and sometimes you do have compromise candidates that nobody is quite satisfied with. But that's democracy for you. \n\nFor example, a lot of Republicans don't like Donald Trump--but they probably had a candidate they *did* like. That candidate just wasn't popular enough. The same story among the Democrats; a moderate like Martin O'Malley was available but did not have the support to challenge Clinton or Sanders.",
"It takes a certain % of votes to get the recognized as a true political party and thus available for the federal funds. This limits their ability to be full recognized. Being an \"independent \" is a good first, but it is going to take a billion dollars to really get things rolling for a true new party.\n\nPersonally, this year I'd love to see a concerted write-in campaign using one recognizable media type person that every knows and would rub against everything out there. He's probably never want to be president, but you could pull in Asian, discriminated, GBLT, nerds,and other fluff. \n\nJust to fuck with Washington, everyone needs to write in George Takai. ",
"Due to the voting system in America (First Past the Post/Winner Take All), it's against a voter's best interests to vote third-party. One has to strategically vote to try and ensure that the party you like the least is not elected. \nLet's say there's two parties, Party A and Party B. You don't care much for party A's policies, but you REALLY hate party B's. So you vote for party A in hopes of keeping the party you hate from gaining power. \nYou really, really love party C. However, party C is a smaller party, and is pretty much guaranteed not to win. If you vote for them, you're taking your support away from party A, making it more likely that they will lose and party B will win. Since you only get to vote for one person, you can't lend support to your favored party without making your worst outcome more probable.\n",
"No one votes for the party they like. You vote against the party that scares you. I doubt very many people are super psyched about Hillary. But they sure don't want Trump to win.",
"Most other parties are either extremely small or (for lack of a better term) \"gimmicky\". \n\nthese \"gimmick\" parties are often far too idealistic or small. The only 3rd party that is in the double digits in any state is Gary Johnson, at 11% in Arizona in one (likely biased) poll. \n\nThere is also the \"prisoners dilemma\" style issue. If enough people leave one party, it gives the other party an advantage. For example, if enough democrats said \"forget Hilary! I'll start my own party! With blackjack! And hookers! And Bernie Sanders!\" Then they could hand the election to trump. If enough republicans said \"forget trump! I'll start my own party! With Ted Cruz! And Rubio! And blackjack and hookers!\" Then the fear is that it could hand the election to Hilary. Both sides fear a Ross Perot or Ralph Nader effect. \n\nLastly, the electorial college is sort of fit for 2 parties, given that you need 270 to win, which is more than 50% of delegates."
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3h2zhn | why don't the billionaires from the giving pledge just give up half of their money now rather then wait till they're dead? | I guess the idea that sparked the question was the fact that we'll have to wait till they die. And that can take a really long time till we see the money be used for world-wide philanthropy. As morbid as that might seem, I truly mean it in the best way possible. Not to offend. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h2zhn/eli5_why_dont_the_billionaires_from_the_giving/ | {
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"Because if they keep it now and use it in their various enterprises they will have more money to give when they die. "
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50ik0o | is all starlight white? if the sun was a blue star instead of a yellow one would the light be any different to us on earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/50ik0o/eli5_is_all_starlight_white_if_the_sun_was_a_blue/ | {
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"White light is just what you see when all frequencies on the visible spectrum are there. A hotter star will emit more red light than a cooler one, and more blue light as well. The hot stars are called blue stars because they emit more blue light relative to the amount of red light they emit, but they still emit more of each than cooler stars. So, if you could look at a blue star from a distance, it would still emit plenty of red, green and blue light, and you would still see white. ",
"The sun is white, not yellow. Common misconception. Here's [a picture](_URL_0_) of the sun in true color.",
"The Sun is white, but atmosphere causes the light to seperate, the blues visible in the sky and the opposite end yellow where the sun is. A blue star will shift things more blue(since it contains more blue light), but since even a blue star emits a ton of yellow light, the sun would likely look whitish yellow isntead of blue.",
"It would still look white, but not for the reason you think.\n\nThe Sun is not a yellow star. It actually outputs more *green* photons than any other color ([source](_URL_0_)). It looks white to us because we evolved under it. Our eyes evolved to best use the light spectrum available to us, so our visible spectrum is centered around green.\n\nIf the Sun were a blue star instead, our eyes would have evolved differently. We would have a different \"visible spectrum\" centered around blue, making it look still white to us. But if we then took a telescope and looked at a G2-type star (what our current Sun is) it would look green.",
"Our eyes/ brain actually adjust our perception of white as the colour temperature of sunlight changes throughout the day (yellower at sunrise and sunset). If you have a modern iPhone with the night shift feature, try turning it on and off and you will see a drastic difference in the colour of white. But if you have it set to sunrise/sunset you will perceive white to be fairly consistent when using your phone at night even though the display is more yellow than during daylight hours.",
"You see yellow for the sun because of the atmosphere. I like to think about little critters eatting out ozone and the color of the sun changing... but by the time the color changes we will all die of radiation poisioning"
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21yucy | if heat comes from rays, what is coldness? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21yucy/eli5_if_heat_comes_from_rays_what_is_coldness/ | {
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"Coldness is really nothingness. It doesn't exist. \"Coldness\" is just the lack of energy, aka the lack of heat.",
"Heat doesn't come from rays, altough heat can be transmitted by rays.\n\nTemperature is the average energy (speed) of a certain group of particles, usually molecules.\n\nAs things get colder the molecules don't go as fast, until at absolute zero they dont vibrate at all."
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3nlmse | how does a company like valve not have a customer service department? | I've seen numerous reports and complaints about Steam customer service, or the lack thereof. I've also seen numerous people claim that Valve doesn't have a customer support team for Steam. For a company with the kind of revenue and reputation that Valve have, how is this possible? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nlmse/eli5_how_does_a_company_like_valve_not_have_a/ | {
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"Could be a couple of things at play here -\n\n1) You only hear the complainers. You're never going to hear that thousands of people whose issue was resolved quickly, painlessly and above all easily by Valve staff. \n\n2) The problem these people are having isn't Valve's to fix. Steam is just a platform... they can't do anything if a specific game or mod is broken... unless that game/mod is one of *theirs*. So yeah... if you complain to Valve about a third party game... they are not going to be able to help you.",
"Lets say, hypothetically speaking, that only 1% of Steam's users have only 1 issue per year for which they contact customer service. You can imagine it's probably more than that (particularly around sales/holidays), but that sounds like it would be an easy load to handle, right?\n\nWell [Steam has over 125 million active users](_URL_0_), so that ballpark estimate would work out to a new ticket being opened every 25 seconds.\n\nThe fact is, as a result of being a free service that supports free to play games, Steam has vastly more users than for-pay services such as Amazon. And on top of that, many of the users are children or teenagers who are more likely to submit customer support tickets for trivial or intractable problems.",
"I have used and got a reasonable response with Steam's User Support. I could only imagine that the people complaining had their problem with an issue that a significant portion of the population was having, to the point where responding to customer service tickets wasn't the most efficient response available to the issue.",
"They do. People may not be satisfied with their customer service, but it exists.\n\n_URL_0_"
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71p5vw | what kind of applications won't benefit from increased multi-thread performance? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71p5vw/eli5_what_kind_of_applications_wont_benefit_from/ | {
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"One reason is if the application is primarily I/O bound. Adding more threads won't make your hard drive any faster.",
"Applications that only have one thread, of course.\n\nWriting a multi-threaded application is a lot more work. The computer can't parallelize tasks for you.\n\nImagine you've written a recipe for a teenager to cook dinner. The teenager is new to cooking. They're great at following directions but they don't really know much about cooking yet so they can't really improvise and they don't understand the purpose. But if your directions are clear it works great.\n\nNow the next day they bring a friend. Now there are two teenagers following the recipe. Will they get it done twice as fast?\n\nNo, for two reasons:\n\n1. First of all, some steps just can't go faster. If it needs to bake for an hour, you're never going to finish making dinner in less than an hour no matter how many cooks are in the kitchen.\n2. Second of all, unless you carefully plan out how to keep both of them busy at the same time, they won't actually be any more efficient. You've only got one stand mixer, and if they both need it at the same time, one will be sitting around doing nothing while the other one is using it.\n"
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3odqin | what is 'ttip' and why are germany protesting against it in such huge numbers? | I'm dumb and don't understand good. I've seen it in the news today, and it looks like a massive 250,000 person march was held in Berlin on Saturday? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3odqin/eli5_what_is_ttip_and_why_are_germany_protesting/ | {
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"I can't answer about the protests but I can shed some light on TTIP. \n\nTTIP is a trans-atlantic agreement that is being debated between the EU and the US. It's basically a set of rules and agreements for trade between the two regions. However, it comes with a lot more possible powers and rules that people may not be in favour of. I recently spoke to the gentleman in charge of War on Want who has been involved in meetings regarding TTIP and he informed me that some of the powers that TTIP could have are as follows: \n\n1) member states may be forced to ensure privatisation of businesses. Let's say the UK privatises the NHS and as a result a big US firm now supplies GP care. But a new UK government is elected on a platform to bring healthcare back into public hands. Well the US firm, under TTIP, would be able to take the UK government to court to prevent just that. In effect this means that corporations would have more power than democracy. \n\n2) TTIP threatens some of the rules and regulations governing what we consume. Right now the EU has some tight rules regarding how our food is produced. TTIP will allow US firms to provide goods produced in the US that breaks those rules. This could be a risk to public health. \n\n3) under TTIP, corporations could sue governments for loss of earnings if circumstances change due to new laws. So if new regulations are brought in, a multinational could sue for the profit spent on those regulations. ",
"Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership. It's one of two massive free trade deals currently being worked out (the other is the Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP). TTIP is America & Europe, TPP is America & various Pacific countries. \n\nMuch of what they aim to do is harmonising standards and rules, so companies can make products and sell them in more countries, without having to comply to different requirements. Supporters say this will increase trade, jobs, wealth. Opponents are concerned they'll ~~need~~ lead to lowest-common-denominator standards, weaker consumer safety, corporations suing for theoretical lost-profits due to not being able to sell products, etc."
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26446h | why game theory, being a common sense, can be considered so important that it won people nobel prizes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26446h/eli5why_game_theory_being_a_common_sense_can_be/ | {
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"The 'rules' used might seem quite common sense, but to think of formalising it in that way is not, otherwise it would have been done much sooner.\n\nAlso, conclusions taken from the application of game theory can be surprising and very useful.",
"\"Or a common sense made academic.\"\n\nA common sense made academic is a common sense made useful, made quantifiable, made hard science. It is not a gut feeling -- rather, it is something one can point at and say \"I did the research, and it works out.\" Sometimes common sense actually does not work out; sometimes the intuitive response is the wrong response. These men did not get Nobel Prizes for simply stating common sense, they got Nobel Prizes for doing the necessary work to prove to the satisfaction of the Nobel Committee that that particular bit of common sense is actually right.\n\nReading the Nobel Lectures of some of the game theorists that have received prizes leaves me with no doubt that they have devoted many, many hours of their lives to a work that is almost arcane in difficulty. While the theory at heart may be simple, simplicity should not be mistaken for unimportance. Furthermore, just because something may seem to be able to be taken as common sense, it is prudent to prove everything one can possibly prove. There is little sense in making an argument on \"common sense\" if your common sense turns out to be wrong in the long run.",
"The kind of Game Theory Nash (for example) won the Nobel prize for is a little more complex that the straightforward applications that sound like little more than common-sense. I'll try to give a simple example.\n\nTake the game matching pennies. You and I each have a penny. We each turn out penny either heads up or tails up in secret, then reveal them to each other. If the pennies are both heads or both tails I win $1 from you, if they don't match, you win $1 from me. \n\nThe two strategies in this game are \"heads\" or \"tails\" for each of us. A simple (pure strategy) equilibrium to such a game is where neither of us would change strategies given the choice of the other player. But in this case no such equilibrium exists. If we both pick heads, you would rather pick tails. If we both pick tails, you would rather pick heads. If we pick different sides, I would want to swap. So you see, there is no equilibrium (like there is in the prisoner's dilemma for example).\n\nWhat Nash said was that there was another way to view such a game. Rather than saying our strategies are to play heads or tails, we pick a probability that we play heads and a probability that we play tails. And if you view matching pennies in that way, we each maximise our chance of winning by playing heads and tails exactly half of the time. We call this a mixed-strategy Nash Equilibrium.\n\nNow, the brilliant part was that Nash demonstrated that any game could be conceived of in the way that we just did (with the strategies as probabilities of playing strategies). And that any game expressed in those terms would contain at least one Nash Equilibrium. There is no way to ELI5 that proof, but it effectively means that ANY situation involving strategy could be expressed and \"solved\" in game theory.\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_"
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3mwik5 | why does the black lives matter movement not protest black on black violence in chicago? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mwik5/eli5_why_does_the_black_lives_matter_movement_not/ | {
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"Because the purpose of the movement is to bring attention to the high ratio of black victims of police brutality. Black victims of police violence are often overlooked and their stories disappear. The movement is geared toward bringing this issue to light and helping to end it. Not every organization can work on every issue.",
"They don't claim that they're trying to prevent the deaths of all black people from all causes everywhere, they are specifically trying to bring attention to the systematic racism in the criminal justice system.\n\nThis is like asking why a cancer charity ignores every other disease out there.",
"Black lives matter,( when white lives are involved.)?"
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f1ajzj | when a country sells a part of it's territory what happens to the people living there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f1ajzj/eli5_when_a_country_sells_a_part_of_its_territory/ | {
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"They are usually recognized as citizens of the country that's buying the territory. It hasn't happened often in the last 100 years, and there are special cases, but the Chinese people living in Hong Kong are considered Chinese now. They even have Chinese HK passports that replaced the British HK passports from before 1997. (Of course British citizens that happen to live in HK still have British passports, just like the Americans, Russians, and other expats.)",
"Selling territory usually involves a treaty that has to be ratified by a legislative body. That treaty will spell out the exact deals, which can change case by case.\n\nEveryone retains their property, and the current inhabitants usually retain their citizenship, sometimes with an option to become citizens of the new country. However, in the case of a colony, natives usually simply become subjects of the new country.",
"It was often negotiated in the deal between the countries, but each agreement will be specific, so its hard to make overally general statements other than--yes they discussed it can came out with some formal outcome. Now what happens in the real world might be different that what occurs in the real world, so don't take the terms of an agreement as the whole truth.\n\nFor example, when the US and France negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, the French (Creole) people living there, by the words of the treaty, became American citizens. Although, don't necessarily compare that to the modern concept of citizenship, such as getting a passport, having a national identity, and immigration status and such. Citizenship in this case simply meant \"we'll treat you and give you rights like other Americans and not like those dirty savage Indians, they get nothing... but we still don't like you French people and you don't like us, so prepare for some changes\"\n\nSomewhat similair, when the US acquired territories from Mexico following the Mexican-American war, the Mexicans living in those areas (although the population was small), became americans by treating, but gradually as more americans moved in to the area, especially california, they mexicans were discriminated against quite heavily and often had their lands taken and things weren't so great for them. There were many mexicans who owned large tracts of land in places like southern california (farms/ranches) and they gradually had lots of their land taken."
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1oq1ke | what happens to the photons if light is reflected of a colored surface ? | Ok, so I'm no scientist, therefor I only have a basic understanding of how light works. Here's what I know, correct me if I'm wrong :
* light (visible or not) is made of photons with no mass, traveling at the speed of light (depending on the medium)
* the color of a light is caracterised by it's frequency, or it's wavelength (which is basically the same thing)
* if light hits a reflective surface (or pass through a filter), a part of the light spectrum is "absorbed"
That's what I'm having trouble understanding. What happens with the photons when part of the light is absorbed ? Do they disappear ? Do they get reflected but with some changes (like their speed or energy) ? Do they pass through ?
Furthermore, what decide which photons are "absorbed" and which ones are reflected ? In other words, how does the frequency of a light translates to property of a photons ? Is it linked to their speed or something else ? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1oq1ke/eli5_what_happens_to_the_photons_if_light_is/ | {
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"Photons are nothing like glass beads or billiard balls. Think of it as an \"energy packet\", or the smallest unit of energy that can exist. What light is absorbed by a surface, the energy that is originally stored in the photon(s) is transferred to the molecules/atoms that make up the surface. So in a sense, yes, the photons disappear.\n\nWhat decide which photons are \"absorbed\" and which ones are reflected? Probability does. Quantum mechanics is the probabilistic study of such phenomena.\n\nHow does the frequency of a light translates to property of a photons ? Is it linked to their speed or something else? As you have correctly pointed out, the speed of light in vacuum is constant. Frequency is proportional to the amount of energy carried by the packet.",
"To explain the color part of things, I made a post a while back [here](_URL_0_) that may help."
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fmaxvx | how does blowing on a candle extinguish the flame? is it the air movement or the fact that we exhale carbon dioxide? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fmaxvx/eli5_how_does_blowing_on_a_candle_extinguish_the/ | {
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"A fire requires fuel, oxygen, and heat. By blowing on the flame you're still providing oxygen and the candle itself provides fuel, but you're replacing the hot gases of the flame with colder exhaled breath and there's not enough heat to keep the flame going and consuming the oxygen and fuel.\n\nninja edit: Also, there's still more oxygen in exhaled breath than carbon dioxide, as can be seen when you blow on the hot coals of a fire to produce more flames."
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a7nc5z | what is the driving factor for reproductive isolation ? | How come the Darwin finches who were living on the same island become different species due to differences only in beak shape while mastiffs and chihuahuas are still in the same species and can mate together despite numerous physical differences ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a7nc5z/eli5_what_is_the_driving_factor_for_reproductive/ | {
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"I think there's more layers to this than you're getting at.\n\nThere are multiple ways to distinguish between species.\n\nSome of them are incompatible because of physical features. I think this is more common in insects and sometimes reptiles. Their reproductive organs just don't align properly to fertilize. \n\nThere are those with social structures. I can point out a range of insects, but it's probably easier to understand Chimpanzees vs Bonobos. Genetically, I'm pretty sure they are compatible, but Chimpanzees social structure is more patriarchal and sometimes violent. Bonobos have a social structure that is more matriarchal and collaborative. Just because they could doesn't mean they normally would. \n\nAnd then we get to general fertility. We have hybrids like mules (horses and donkeys) or ligers (lions and tigers) which can grow up but are sterile. Because they cannot reproduce on their own, they don't count as a successful species. And there's probably more, but I can make my point with these. \n\n\n\nWith finches, we have the beaks which are specialized for certain diets. Cross breeding between all of Darwin's birds would likely be less successful at feeding itself when it's less specialized. Additionally, birds often have mating rituals that are incompatible socially, not genetically. \n\nAs far as dogs go, it's a combination of social and other factors. Yes we can crossbreed dogs, but they came to be by specific environmental factors. They hadn't been separated long enough to change genetically. The main restrictions between dogs then are social and physical (basically, the difference between the size of the parents can't be too much or else the mother and pups tend to experience some kind of trouble).\n\n\nNot a complete answer, but hope it helps."
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3pft7e | why are apples not "true to the seed"? why can't you take an apple seed from the fruit and grow an edible one? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3pft7e/eli5_why_are_apples_not_true_to_the_seed_why_cant/ | {
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"Apples just have a lot of variance. There are literally tens of thousands of different varieties of apples and if you grow apples from seeds you will get some of those random varieties. Most of them taste pretty bad. Modern apple farmers get a consistent product by essentially cloning one good type of apple tree over and over again through a process of grafting. If you wanted to have a delicious apple tree you would need to grow a tree from your seeds, get a crappy tree, and then graft a good trees branch onto it to grow good apples.\n\ntldr; you won't definitely get bad apples growing from seed but its very likely.",
"Look at yourself. Look at your parents. You probably see a lot of similarities, but also a lot of differences. My parents are both short and stout, whilst I'm slightly above average height and at risk of being blown away by a strong gust of wind. My mother's job involves lots of talking on the phone, which I'm no good at. My father played sport to a high standard, whilst I have poor coordination and balance.\n\nAn apple is the result of one parent. The apple seed, on the other hand, depends on both parents. Sometimes children aren't like their parents.",
"The apple itself is genetically identical to the tree the apple is growing on. The apple seeds within the apple are a cross between the tree the apple is on, and the tree that pollinated it. Apple trees are not able to be pollinated by a tree of the same type so the seeds will always be different than both parents.\n\nMany fruit trees are propagated through grafting for this reason. It guarantees you're getting the type of tree you want With grafting, often the above ground part of a tree and the below ground part of a tree will be completely different species. I have a potted lime tree and the top part is a persian lime (Citrus × latifolia) while the root structure is a trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata). Trifoliate orange is used due to it's rooting characteristics and it has no impact on the fruit generated by the top part of the tree."
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8bafzv | what exactly is an anecdote? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8bafzv/eli5_what_exactly_is_an_anecdote/ | {
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"An anecdote would usually be told to entertain, or to persuade. (by giving an interesting or amusing (funny) example)",
"An anecdote is a short, real story about something that actually happened.\n\nIt doesn't have to teach anything. It's usually amusing or interesting (cuz otherwise why say it).\n\nPeople usually use anecdotes to try and prove a point (I claim people jaywalk in the area all the time, and I use anecdotal evidence where I saw someone do it just last week) or to add interesting tidbits to a conversation (oh you're talking about Bill murray and his wacky antics? I actually saw him at a golf club last week wearing neon green shorts, no lie!) "
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ahy5ef | have/do people actually view mythology as a legit religion? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ahy5ef/eli5_havedo_people_actually_view_mythology_as_a/ | {
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"\"Mythology\" does *not* relate to a specific set of religious beliefs, it is just a general term/word that describes what individual religions do believe and the lore, the underlying story, of their beliefs.\n\nGenerally \"mythology\" refers to the lore and deities (gods) of older religions that are no longer practiced (such as the beliefs of ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, etc.). But you can also easily use it to describe religions that are still widely followed and believed (for instance, talking about Christian mythology)."
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utwca | how does a scissor cut a sheet of paper? | I know this sounds stupid, but I have been thinking about this since I learned about atoms and I'm too shy to ask.
So, I know paper is made of lots and lots of atoms linked together by atomic forces. The blades of a pair of scissors are pretty much the same thing, but with different atoms and stronger bonds. My question is how exactly do the scissor atoms get in the middle of the paper atoms and break the bonds if they're the same size? Do they bump into each other? Are any atoms damaged in the process? Do any metal or paper atoms get lost in the air?
I mean, looking at it from our scale, it makes sense, but in an atomic level, I just don't get it.
*edited because spelling is hard | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/utwca/how_does_a_scissor_cut_a_sheet_of_paper/ | {
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" > I mean, looking at it from our scale, it makes sense, but in an atomic level, I just don't get it.\n\nAre you me?\n\nAlso, maybe try cross posting to [/r/science](/r/science) ",
"[What scissors do is break these fibers apart.](_URL_0_) You're confusing atoms with molecules. The atoms can be relatively the same size (using relatively very loosely) however molecules can be infinitely different in size. I don't know much about the properties of paper (it does contain mostly cellulose) to go into how the bonds interact specific to this question. What's happening is the pressure applied from the scissors is a stronger force than the bonds holding together the paper fibers can withstand. They're not really getting in between. Think about it as a bridge collapsing in the middle under a lot of weight. Once it gives way then the cars can pass through the two parts of the bridge. In this example the bridge giving way is bonds being broken and the cars are the scissors. Once the bonds are broken you have your separation of fibers. So yes the structure of the paper is disturbed. Atoms (and molecules) are not lost. They do bump into each other. I wouldn't think any are lost in the air but it's very much possible there is a change in molecules. Again I'm not 100% sure but for the sake of a 5 year old the bridge comparison will explain how bonds are broken. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. ",
"\"My question is how exactly do the scissor atoms get in the middle of the paper atoms and break the bonds if they're the same size? Do they bump into each other? Are any atoms damaged in the process? Do any metal or paper atoms get lost in the air?\"\n\nSteel molecules are much more rigidly packed than cellulose molecules of the paper. I'm sure some atoms get lost in the air, but the overall integrity of the steel in the scissor and paper is kept intact. ",
"What you have to understand is that scissors don't actually pull the paper apart and there is nothing going in between the paper's atoms. What's happening is that one scissor arm is pushing down while the other scissor arm is pushing up causing a [shear force](_URL_0_). Since paper is weak and a single piece of paper is very thin, it does not take very much force to break apart the two molecules (not atoms, as stated in another answer).\n\nSo, to answer your question, they do bump into each other. One molecule is pushed up while the one next to it is pushed down.\n\nNot sure if a five year old can understand that. One that understands the question as it is asked should be able to though."
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bsl2aa | why is it so dangerous to have metal in or around your body when getting an mri? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bsl2aa/eli5_why_is_it_so_dangerous_to_have_metal_in_or/ | {
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"MRI is Magnetic Resonance Imaging. \n\nThat uses giant fucking magnets.\n\nThose attract metal object with great amounts of force.\n\nMetal object inside of you + giant magnet outside of you = bloody metal bits ripped out of you.\n\nGet the picture?",
"Two reasons: \n\n1) Magnets attract metals. So, obviously bringing those into a room with a large magnet can be dangerous. Google \"MRI eats hospital bed\" and you'll see why it's dangerous to bring them in.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n2) It you understand basic electronic physics, the magnetic field will generate current in metallic objects. Currents generate heat. The heat can burn you."
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2m5gvb | how do self driving cars refuel? | Does it send out a request to have a Google employee meet it at a gas station? Does Google call the gas station and ask that the attendant fuel up for them? I tried asking Google themselves but have not found an answer... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2m5gvb/eli5how_do_self_driving_cars_refuel/ | {
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54i18x | giving internet control over to the un | Why are we giving Internet control to the UN and what negative ramifications could it have? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54i18x/eli5_giving_internet_control_over_to_the_un/ | {
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"We are giving it to the UN because it is currently in charge of ICANN who despite being a part of the US government doesn't really receive much overview from them. Transferring it to the UN will just mean that the US has no formal overview either. As for what will change, absolutely nothing ICANN will control things impartially as they always have. "
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nozad | what are the 5th to 9th dimensions? | So my understanding of the spacial and temporal dimensions is limited to the following but I'd like to have a vague understanding of the rest:
1st = x-axis,
2nd = y-axis,
3rd = z-axis, and
4th = time.
Edit: Thank you for the material reddit, continue to post resources if you'd like but I have enough to tide me over for a week of reading/watching here. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nozad/elif_what_are_the_5th_to_9th_dimensions/ | {
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"There is no way to explain it except by analogy, and no analogy is perfect. For the real explanation you have to do the math.\n\nTo see why an analogy is needed, let's consider another analogy. Suppose our world was confined to a table top. We had x and y, but no z. And someone asked \"what is this other dimension z?\"\n\nWell, there would be no way to point in that direction for them, since they are only table top people, but one of them might say \"imagine we lived in a line and only had an x-axis. And someone ask, what is this y-axis?. Well, it would be a direction they could not see.\"\n\nThe point is, the extra dimensions are in directions we cannot see. We cannot even imagine them. They only exist mathematically for us, but we can sort of imagine them by analogy.\n\nBack to your 5^th thru 9^th . In those cases, the dimensions are a little different. They are \"curled up, not long\". For this analogy, imagine you are looking at a cable or wire from a distance. It looks like it only has an x-axis. If you see a bird on a wire you say it is at x = 5 or something like that.\n\nNow if you focus in real close to wire you see something strange at x = 5, you see the cable has thickness. There is a tiny little curled up circular dimension at x = 5 where little bacteria could be living. You could have a whole ring of tiny bacteria at x = 5. For big things like birds, there is only one dimension, but for very tiny things there is another dimension. That is what the extra dimension are like.",
"[carl sagan explains all](_URL_0_)",
"Also try reading [Flatland](_URL_0_). ",
"Time is not a spacial dimension in the way you are assigning it. ",
"Mathematically, the 4th dimension isn't time, but another axis of movement (usually termed the w-axis). \n\n[Here; Carl Sagan can explain it better then I ever could](_URL_0_).\n\nBasically; the fourth dimension isn't time, but instead another pair of directions you can move. (SciFi writers have termed these two directions \"Ana\" and \"Kata\", after the greek words for up and down.) You and me, as 3-dimensional cratures, can only understand Forward/Back, Left/Right, and Up/Down.\n\nA creature that exists in 4 dimensions, though, can move and interact in two more directions (Ana/Kata). Said 4 dimensional creature, being Ana or Kata to us, wouldn't be visible, but could do some...odd things, from our perspective. He could see and interact with the inside and outside of 3-dimensional objects and creatures *at the same time*.\n\nA 5-dimensional creature would have *two more* axes of movement compared to a 4-dimensional one (Forward/back, fleft/right, up/down, ana/kata, and...I dunno, let's call it widdershins/flibbity). Being widdershins or flibbity to the 4 dimensional creature, he cloud interact with the inside and outside of *4-dimensional* creatures and objects at the same time, in addition to being able to do the same to 3D ones.\n\nA 6D person or object would have another set of axes, and could interact with the inside and outside of 5D, 4D, and 3D creaturs at the same time, a 7D creature could interact with the outside of 6D, 5D, 4D and 3D creatures....You get the idea.\n\nThat pattern of additional directions of movement and ability to interact with lower-dimensional objects continues all the way up, as far as you want to go. String theory seems to imply that our universe has at least 11 dimensions, but, then again, that's an \"at least\".\n\ntl;dr: Extra dimensions mean more directions you can move, greater freedom in ways you can interact with lower-dimensional stuff.",
"5th = is where the other sock goes to when it disappears from the dryer\n\n6th = is where your golf ball actually goes when it goes out of bounds\n\n7th = is where your keys go when you lose them\n\n8th = is where your contact goes when it falls out of your eye\n\n9th = is where the dog went to hide when he found out it was bath time\n\nAll joking aside I found [this](_URL_0_) article helpful with understanding the other dimensions.\n\n- edit - formating",
"You should definitely read *Hyperspace* by Michio Kaku if you're interested in this sort of thing.",
"While cruising \"observable universe\" in wikipedia, I came across the statement \"the universe is spatially flat\". There was discussion that the idea that the universe is a sphere with the big-bang point in the center, is not correct. I'm having trouble understanding how everything shot out of the big-bang gun mainly in 2 dimensions (mainly Y, but some amount of X width, and some small amount of Z). ",
"[demensions] (_URL_0_)\n\ndoes this mean i get gaymer nerd points for the day? i hope so",
"Whoa whoa whoa -- let's take a step back here.\n\nWhen we talk about \"nine dimensions\", we mean nine *spatial* dimensions. That excludes time. Time *is* a dimension, but it behaves fundamentally differently from the three we know of. The distance between two events in space-time is sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 **-** (cdt)^2 ). We can't really say that time is *the* fourth dimension. It makes sense when you read H. G. Wells to think of time as the fourth dimension, but unfortunately, physics just doesn't agree. (:",
"I suppose you ask this having heard about physical theories with extra dimensions.\n\nOne example I'm a little familiar with goes such:\n\n* There are extra dimensions. They are spatial dimensions. But they are also compact.\n\n* What do I mean by compact?\n\nConsider an infinite line. Then, draw more infinite lines across your first one; for example, at each point of the line, another one that is perpendicular to it. The resulting image is a plane, with 1+1 new dimension. The new one is not compact. To make it compact, think of your original line. Then attach a circle at each point (like hula-hoops hanging off a clothesline). This gives you the surface of a cylinder. This one has 1+1 new dimension, where the new one is compact.\n\n* You can see the reason why these extra, compact dimensions are interesting by imagining your cylinder like the surface of a rope.\n\nImagine you're a person walking across that rope; you can go forwards or backwards. The extra dimension is useless to you because you are much smaller than it. Now, think of an ant, crawling on the same rope. The ant can go both along and around the rope, because itself is not much bigger than the circumference of the rope. The compact dimension being there makes a difference to the ant!\n\n* Like you considered things walking on a rope, physicists consider physical processes happening in a world with additional, spatial, compact dimensions.\n\nFor example, a mass (like the earth) pulls on you with gravity, but the pull gets weaker the further away you are. Exactly in which proportion it weakens (1/distance^2 ) depends on the dimensions you live in; in our daily world, that's 3. If there were more dimensions, they would both need to be compact and not larger than the distances at which we've currently probed gravity (which is about 50 micrometers).\n\nOr did you want to know about coordinates in mechanics, phase space and such?",
"Buy or find this [book](_URL_0_) in a library. I took it out of my university's library on a whim and it turned out to be a great pickup. \n\nIt's called the fourth dimension. It describes the fourth dimension (spatially, for the most part) through easy and very entertaining language and illustration. The key to understanding 5th and higher dimensions is to understand the basics.",
"After reading a lot of comments in this thread, I can undoubtedly say that I have absolutely no idea wtf is going on in the universe.",
"I don't know if I can get you to 9 but I think I can get you to 6. \n\nI tripped my absolute motherfucking balls off a few years ago and and here is my take on it. \n\nI am not a scientist and this probably is just a silly trip your balls off story just fyi. \n\n\n**We've got the first three down, so lets move onto the 4th time.**\n\nWhen I was tripping my balls off I saw my consciousness as an pulse of light flowing through a fiberoptic cable. \n\n(really it was more like an electric pulse in a synapse in a neural network, but fiberoptic cables and light pulses are probably better ways to visualize it)\n\nThat fiber optic cable was me*, from my conception, to my death, all as one long solid object. Past me and future me are both apart of a solid and still object, and what moved was only my consciousness like a pulse of light. \n\n**I realized that the me I identify with as the being living this life is really only a container like a fiber optic cable, the real \"me\" is the pulse of light or the awareness itself which can and probably will continue after my death into a new life as a new being.* \n\nTime and date were a function of the location of my consciousness along this fiberoptic cable. At one end I was conceived at another I was dead. \n\nYou might be able to think of it like our physical bodies and physical lives, environment and reality and past and future is information on a DVD, and our consciousness is the laser which reads the data, and the location of the laser beam on the DVD determines where the viewer is at in the movie from start to finish. \n\n\nLike the data on a DVD, The past has already occurred, AND the future has as already occurred as well. Time is just the location your consciousness is at in the movie called your life. \n\n\n**Next the 5th dimension** was that I was not limited to one fiber-optic cable, I could travel like a packet on the internet to any other fiber-optic cable on the network available to me.\n\nThe DVD analogy doesn't do so well here so I won't use it, but the same concept would apply.\n\nI was like an electric pulse inside of a neural network, and could branch off in different directions based on my thoughts, and actions even the smallest things such as breathing were apart of this navigation. \n\nTo visualize what I experienced, imagine that you flip a coin, there is a reality to account for each possible outcome. Your consciousness will go down the path of one of these events as the event occurs, almost exactly like a light pulse down a fiber optic cable. \n\n\nIn reality, all possible realities, pasts, futures, etc are equally real and have already occurred. \n\nSo moment to moment you are presented with a near infinite series of possible choices some subconscious even that determine the direction your consciousness will move, navigating like a packet of data on the internet, or an electrical signal in a neural network.\n\nDoes that make sense? It probably only makes sense to me as I experienced it and know what I mean (no I am not high at this moment lol)\n\n**Onto the 6th dimension** \n\nI turned around and went back to before my birth, I popped out of the cable itself. In dimension 5 it looked as though there were infinite possibilities for my life, each of these possible paths were separate, however seeing that from an aerial view I realized all these different possibilities for my life were in fact apart of a solid, whole, unmoving and still object. It wasn't just experiences that were limited to me either, all beings everywhere were apart of the whole.\n\nI saw that consciousness existed everywhere, and I was just a fragment of that whole, much like a drop of water poured from a glass reuniting with an ocean, or a bubble of air of waiting to hit the surface and reunite with the air.\n\nEssentially this being typing at this keyboard sending a message to you, IS you. We are all apart of one singular consciousness. We are one being, like a neurons in a brain are apart of the whole brain, All forms of consciousness in the universe are apart of a whole. \n\nAll possible realities that cannot be accessed by choices in your life, also exist just as real as your experience, all other possible lives by \"other beings\", are really apart of one whole and unmoving and still object. \n\nWe move through this fiber optic cable we believe to be a physical body, and a physical life, and a physical reality, and it really is just a container which holds us as we travel much like a real fiber optic cable containing a pulse of light, the reality is we are consciousness itself and awareness itself, we define ourselves and our identity to be the thing which contains us, it's the compete opposite of reality. \n\n",
"There is no way to explain it except by analogy, and no analogy is perfect. For the real explanation you have to do the math.\n\nTo see why an analogy is needed, let's consider another analogy. Suppose our world was confined to a table top. We had x and y, but no z. And someone asked \"what is this other dimension z?\"\n\nWell, there would be no way to point in that direction for them, since they are only table top people, but one of them might say \"imagine we lived in a line and only had an x-axis. And someone ask, what is this y-axis?. Well, it would be a direction they could not see.\"\n\nThe point is, the extra dimensions are in directions we cannot see. We cannot even imagine them. They only exist mathematically for us, but we can sort of imagine them by analogy.\n\nBack to your 5^th thru 9^th . In those cases, the dimensions are a little different. They are \"curled up, not long\". For this analogy, imagine you are looking at a cable or wire from a distance. It looks like it only has an x-axis. If you see a bird on a wire you say it is at x = 5 or something like that.\n\nNow if you focus in real close to wire you see something strange at x = 5, you see the cable has thickness. There is a tiny little curled up circular dimension at x = 5 where little bacteria could be living. You could have a whole ring of tiny bacteria at x = 5. For big things like birds, there is only one dimension, but for very tiny things there is another dimension. That is what the extra dimension are like.",
"[carl sagan explains all](_URL_0_)",
"Also try reading [Flatland](_URL_0_). ",
"Time is not a spacial dimension in the way you are assigning it. ",
"Mathematically, the 4th dimension isn't time, but another axis of movement (usually termed the w-axis). \n\n[Here; Carl Sagan can explain it better then I ever could](_URL_0_).\n\nBasically; the fourth dimension isn't time, but instead another pair of directions you can move. (SciFi writers have termed these two directions \"Ana\" and \"Kata\", after the greek words for up and down.) You and me, as 3-dimensional cratures, can only understand Forward/Back, Left/Right, and Up/Down.\n\nA creature that exists in 4 dimensions, though, can move and interact in two more directions (Ana/Kata). Said 4 dimensional creature, being Ana or Kata to us, wouldn't be visible, but could do some...odd things, from our perspective. He could see and interact with the inside and outside of 3-dimensional objects and creatures *at the same time*.\n\nA 5-dimensional creature would have *two more* axes of movement compared to a 4-dimensional one (Forward/back, fleft/right, up/down, ana/kata, and...I dunno, let's call it widdershins/flibbity). Being widdershins or flibbity to the 4 dimensional creature, he cloud interact with the inside and outside of *4-dimensional* creatures and objects at the same time, in addition to being able to do the same to 3D ones.\n\nA 6D person or object would have another set of axes, and could interact with the inside and outside of 5D, 4D, and 3D creaturs at the same time, a 7D creature could interact with the outside of 6D, 5D, 4D and 3D creatures....You get the idea.\n\nThat pattern of additional directions of movement and ability to interact with lower-dimensional objects continues all the way up, as far as you want to go. String theory seems to imply that our universe has at least 11 dimensions, but, then again, that's an \"at least\".\n\ntl;dr: Extra dimensions mean more directions you can move, greater freedom in ways you can interact with lower-dimensional stuff.",
"5th = is where the other sock goes to when it disappears from the dryer\n\n6th = is where your golf ball actually goes when it goes out of bounds\n\n7th = is where your keys go when you lose them\n\n8th = is where your contact goes when it falls out of your eye\n\n9th = is where the dog went to hide when he found out it was bath time\n\nAll joking aside I found [this](_URL_0_) article helpful with understanding the other dimensions.\n\n- edit - formating",
"You should definitely read *Hyperspace* by Michio Kaku if you're interested in this sort of thing.",
"While cruising \"observable universe\" in wikipedia, I came across the statement \"the universe is spatially flat\". There was discussion that the idea that the universe is a sphere with the big-bang point in the center, is not correct. I'm having trouble understanding how everything shot out of the big-bang gun mainly in 2 dimensions (mainly Y, but some amount of X width, and some small amount of Z). ",
"[demensions] (_URL_0_)\n\ndoes this mean i get gaymer nerd points for the day? i hope so",
"Whoa whoa whoa -- let's take a step back here.\n\nWhen we talk about \"nine dimensions\", we mean nine *spatial* dimensions. That excludes time. Time *is* a dimension, but it behaves fundamentally differently from the three we know of. The distance between two events in space-time is sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 **-** (cdt)^2 ). We can't really say that time is *the* fourth dimension. It makes sense when you read H. G. Wells to think of time as the fourth dimension, but unfortunately, physics just doesn't agree. (:",
"I suppose you ask this having heard about physical theories with extra dimensions.\n\nOne example I'm a little familiar with goes such:\n\n* There are extra dimensions. They are spatial dimensions. But they are also compact.\n\n* What do I mean by compact?\n\nConsider an infinite line. Then, draw more infinite lines across your first one; for example, at each point of the line, another one that is perpendicular to it. The resulting image is a plane, with 1+1 new dimension. The new one is not compact. To make it compact, think of your original line. Then attach a circle at each point (like hula-hoops hanging off a clothesline). This gives you the surface of a cylinder. This one has 1+1 new dimension, where the new one is compact.\n\n* You can see the reason why these extra, compact dimensions are interesting by imagining your cylinder like the surface of a rope.\n\nImagine you're a person walking across that rope; you can go forwards or backwards. The extra dimension is useless to you because you are much smaller than it. Now, think of an ant, crawling on the same rope. The ant can go both along and around the rope, because itself is not much bigger than the circumference of the rope. The compact dimension being there makes a difference to the ant!\n\n* Like you considered things walking on a rope, physicists consider physical processes happening in a world with additional, spatial, compact dimensions.\n\nFor example, a mass (like the earth) pulls on you with gravity, but the pull gets weaker the further away you are. Exactly in which proportion it weakens (1/distance^2 ) depends on the dimensions you live in; in our daily world, that's 3. If there were more dimensions, they would both need to be compact and not larger than the distances at which we've currently probed gravity (which is about 50 micrometers).\n\nOr did you want to know about coordinates in mechanics, phase space and such?",
"Buy or find this [book](_URL_0_) in a library. I took it out of my university's library on a whim and it turned out to be a great pickup. \n\nIt's called the fourth dimension. It describes the fourth dimension (spatially, for the most part) through easy and very entertaining language and illustration. The key to understanding 5th and higher dimensions is to understand the basics.",
"After reading a lot of comments in this thread, I can undoubtedly say that I have absolutely no idea wtf is going on in the universe.",
"I don't know if I can get you to 9 but I think I can get you to 6. \n\nI tripped my absolute motherfucking balls off a few years ago and and here is my take on it. \n\nI am not a scientist and this probably is just a silly trip your balls off story just fyi. \n\n\n**We've got the first three down, so lets move onto the 4th time.**\n\nWhen I was tripping my balls off I saw my consciousness as an pulse of light flowing through a fiberoptic cable. \n\n(really it was more like an electric pulse in a synapse in a neural network, but fiberoptic cables and light pulses are probably better ways to visualize it)\n\nThat fiber optic cable was me*, from my conception, to my death, all as one long solid object. Past me and future me are both apart of a solid and still object, and what moved was only my consciousness like a pulse of light. \n\n**I realized that the me I identify with as the being living this life is really only a container like a fiber optic cable, the real \"me\" is the pulse of light or the awareness itself which can and probably will continue after my death into a new life as a new being.* \n\nTime and date were a function of the location of my consciousness along this fiberoptic cable. At one end I was conceived at another I was dead. \n\nYou might be able to think of it like our physical bodies and physical lives, environment and reality and past and future is information on a DVD, and our consciousness is the laser which reads the data, and the location of the laser beam on the DVD determines where the viewer is at in the movie from start to finish. \n\n\nLike the data on a DVD, The past has already occurred, AND the future has as already occurred as well. Time is just the location your consciousness is at in the movie called your life. \n\n\n**Next the 5th dimension** was that I was not limited to one fiber-optic cable, I could travel like a packet on the internet to any other fiber-optic cable on the network available to me.\n\nThe DVD analogy doesn't do so well here so I won't use it, but the same concept would apply.\n\nI was like an electric pulse inside of a neural network, and could branch off in different directions based on my thoughts, and actions even the smallest things such as breathing were apart of this navigation. \n\nTo visualize what I experienced, imagine that you flip a coin, there is a reality to account for each possible outcome. Your consciousness will go down the path of one of these events as the event occurs, almost exactly like a light pulse down a fiber optic cable. \n\n\nIn reality, all possible realities, pasts, futures, etc are equally real and have already occurred. \n\nSo moment to moment you are presented with a near infinite series of possible choices some subconscious even that determine the direction your consciousness will move, navigating like a packet of data on the internet, or an electrical signal in a neural network.\n\nDoes that make sense? It probably only makes sense to me as I experienced it and know what I mean (no I am not high at this moment lol)\n\n**Onto the 6th dimension** \n\nI turned around and went back to before my birth, I popped out of the cable itself. In dimension 5 it looked as though there were infinite possibilities for my life, each of these possible paths were separate, however seeing that from an aerial view I realized all these different possibilities for my life were in fact apart of a solid, whole, unmoving and still object. It wasn't just experiences that were limited to me either, all beings everywhere were apart of the whole.\n\nI saw that consciousness existed everywhere, and I was just a fragment of that whole, much like a drop of water poured from a glass reuniting with an ocean, or a bubble of air of waiting to hit the surface and reunite with the air.\n\nEssentially this being typing at this keyboard sending a message to you, IS you. We are all apart of one singular consciousness. We are one being, like a neurons in a brain are apart of the whole brain, All forms of consciousness in the universe are apart of a whole. \n\nAll possible realities that cannot be accessed by choices in your life, also exist just as real as your experience, all other possible lives by \"other beings\", are really apart of one whole and unmoving and still object. \n\nWe move through this fiber optic cable we believe to be a physical body, and a physical life, and a physical reality, and it really is just a container which holds us as we travel much like a real fiber optic cable containing a pulse of light, the reality is we are consciousness itself and awareness itself, we define ourselves and our identity to be the thing which contains us, it's the compete opposite of reality. \n\n"
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2nlun4 | how texting gloves work? | I've used them before and I'm using them now to text/check social media while waiting outside target but how do these gloves work? I mean it just seems like a different colored thread. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nlun4/eli5_how_texting_gloves_work/ | {
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"text": [
"The fingertips are conductive. The charge from your fingertips are transferred through the glove's fingertips and onto the touchscreen. The gloves do all of this in addition to keeping your hands warm and toasty. "
]
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[]
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dyp9zi | if plant-based burgers use 99% less water, take up 90% less land, and use 50% less energy than beef burgers to produce, why do they cost so much more to purchase? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dyp9zi/eli5_if_plantbased_burgers_use_99_less_water_take/ | {
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"Because a lot of the equipment is new and is operating at a much smaller scale due to the new and small market for these products. Economies of large scale haven't started.",
"There are cost issues that others said. In addition to economies of scale and moving down the learning curve. There is probably some specialized equipment or supplies needed. \n\nBut there is also the demand-side effect. People who buy plant burgers are willing to pay more. So it makes perfect business sense to charge them more.",
"Beef production is subsidized by the government in the US, supplemented by side-industries like Milk, leather, and bone-meal production, and often vertically integrated (meaning the same company owns the cattle ranch, the dairy farm, and the slaughterhouse and packing plants). Because they're usually larger corporate operations, they can buy their supplies cheap, hire cheap labor, and turn cows into burgers with a pretty decent profit margin. \n\nBy contrast, Veggie Burgers are usually made by processing vegetable matter (soybeans, often), by trained and skilled workers (not as cheap), in facilities that are both more complex (not as cheap) and not as numerous (so less economy of scale to keep the costs down), using processes that have more steps and require more additives (both more expensive). In some cases, there's vertical integration (same corp owns the soybean farm and the veggie burger factory), but it's not quite to the same scale as what beef/dairy can manage. Tack in Research and Development costs, and veggie burgers are going to be more expensive than the more resource intensive beef alternatives for a while yet. \n\nIf you give both types of production the same advantages, veggie will probably come out cheaper. Veggie burger production just isn't getting the same incentives, and isn't yet built to meet the same level of demand."
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b1960s | alcohol-free mouthwash kills some, but not all, bacteria in my mouth. doesn't using it cause antibiotic resistance? | This is analogous to this [ELI5 question](_URL_1_), but the answers there pertain to alcohol and thus don't pertain to my question here.
I list only the [Active Ingredients](_URL_0_), but please LMK if I ought list the Inactive ones too:
1. Eucalyptol 0.091% w/v
2. Thymol 0.063% w/v
3. Menthol 0.042% w/v
4. Sodium Fluoride 0.022% w/v
5. Zinc Chloride 0.09 % w/v
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b1960s/eli5_alcoholfree_mouthwash_kills_some_but_not_all/ | {
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"There are no antibiotics in it, why would it cause antibiotic resistance? Non alcoholic mouthwash contains usually CPC ([Cetylpyridinium chloride](_URL_0_)), which is simply a different antiseptic ingredient compared to alcohol. Theoretically bacteria could become resistant to CPC I suppose. "
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"https://www.listerine.ca/listerine-total-care-zero#active-ingredients",
"https://redd.it/44s60s"
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5g3pp6 | is one atom (of a given element) indistinguishable from another? can an atom be abnormally distinguishable from another of its same element? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5g3pp6/eli5_is_one_atom_of_a_given_element/ | {
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"Most of the time, yes, atoms of each element are indistinguishable.\n\nThere is a special case with isotopes, though. Elements are defined by the number of protons in the nucleus. You can substitute an atom with the same number of protons (same element) but a different number of neutrons (different isotope). There have been cases where people have used this method to track a particular atom during a chemical change.",
"Some atoms of the same element can be distinguished from each other. These are called isotopes.\n\nFor example, carbon has two major isotopes, carbon-12 and carbon-14. Both forms have 6 protons (which is what makes them carbon), but carbon-12 has 6 neutrons, whereas carbon-14 has 8 neutrons.\n\nHowever, all atoms of a given isotope are indistinguishable. So all carbon-12 atoms look the same and all carbon-14 atoms look the same."
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207gr2 | what happens to my brita filter when it is "expired?" does it really not work anymore? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/207gr2/eli5what_happens_to_my_brita_filter_when_it_is/ | {
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"Basically the carbon in the filter is no longer sticky enough to remove the nasty bits in the water"
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d2ev1d | engineering question - compass | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d2ev1d/eli5_engineering_question_compass/ | {
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"In a surveyor's compass, the markings are on the compass, and the rotating needle is an indicator that points at one of the markings. In a prismatic compass the markings rotate on a round card and a special prism contains the indicator. By looking through the prism you can see the markings rotate under the indicator."
]
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62n0ln | this /r/place thing | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62n0ln/eli5_this_rplace_thing/ | {
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"text": [
"Think of it like /r/thebutton. Every year, reddit does something silly and fun like this for April Fools Day. This is just this year's \"prank.\""
]
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5yzjhz | if i keep my smartphone plugged in all the time, is that better for the battery life cycle than if i use it until it's 5% and then charge it back up? will keeping it plugged in all the time extend the life of my smartphone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yzjhz/eli5_if_i_keep_my_smartphone_plugged_in_all_the/ | {
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"That's true, deep discharges are most damaging to a lithium-ion battery. Repeatedly running it low to almost zero and then charging to full is the quickest way to wear it out. \n\nIf it's convenient to you, you can keep your phone plugged in all the time. When it's connected, the phone is running of the mains and the battery isn't being used at all, which will extend its life. (Storing it fully charged isn't ideal either, but it's less damaging than deep cycling it all the time.)\n\nedit: since there's some contention: \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, the depth of discharge (DoD) determines the cycle count of the battery. The smaller the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine. There is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life. \n",
"I've read somewhere that the best is if you discharge the battery to 60-70% before recharging, that way you maximize life cycles.\nCan't give you any sources because this was a while ago tho.",
"Lithium polymer batteries, as found in most cell phones, are designed to be discharged no lower than about 3 volts, as this will destroy the battery. \n\nThe phone's charging circuitry is designed to prevent overcharging, generally no higher than 4.2 volts, and to prevent over discharging to below 3 volts.\n\nIf a LiPo battery is never discharged below 3 volts, which the phone's circuitry prevents, it will have a normal life span.\n\nBottom line: it doesn't make any difference if it is plugged in or not.",
"This really depends on how you plan on using your phone. Leaving it plugged in all the time and playing games and watching videos causes the battery to heat up, and Lithium Ion batteries are terrible when it comes to managing heat. (In other words, heat can shorten your battery life too). What I would suggest you do is that you keep your phone battery in between 60-80 percent, if you can. It really won't make that much of a noticeable difference. \n\nIt is true that a Lithium-ion battery has about 600 charges in it, but will most likely be increased because even though your phone says your battery is dead, there is still some charge in it. ",
" > Cycling between 85 and 25 percent provides a longer service life than charging to 100 percent and discharging to 50 percent. The smallest capacity loss is attained by charging Li-ion to 75 percent and discharging to 65 percent.\n\n_URL_0_",
"You can still fry the battery that way. I did that on a laptop once. it WAS already an older machine. the hard drive failed a few months later, had it replaced, lasted almost exactly another 6 months and the motherboard quit!",
"I went to college for renewable energy engineering and electrical engineering. It has to do with the deformation and degradation of the cathode (I think, whichever between the two is made of the lithium between the anode and cathode). The more you discharge a Li battery, the more exposed the cathode becomes to deformation and degradation. The same is true if you overcharge the battery, as it all comes down to the electrons being stripped and passed through the electrolyte. The longer the cathode is stripped of electrons, the longer that portion of the cathode is exposed to deformation and corrosion, and eventually that portion can no longer regain a free electron to pass across to the anode. This is what causes the loss of life in your battery. Keeping this in mind, you don't want to always re-use the same portion of the cathode, so keeping it between 95-100% is not ideal. Hence the desire to keep the battery between 60% and 90% charge, to vary the portion of the cathode utilized, without degrading the cathode entirely. Of course eventually, all batteries succumb to the electrochemical degradation that is ultimately unavoidable."
]
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2mlyyg | michael brown and dillon taylor were both unarmed and shot by police within 2 days of each other. excluding race, why is the brown case generating more attention? | [Dillon Taylor](_URL_0_) was shot to death by police just two days after Michael Brown's death, yet there was very little media coverage. Because of this, I have a couple questions;
1.) Excluding skin color, are there any main differences as to why the Brown case is getting so much more media attention?
If the uproar is only because Brown is african american;
2.) Are people saying Brown was shot because he is african american for the sole reason that the cop is caucasian, or is there any evidence to support that claim? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mlyyg/eli5_michael_brown_and_dillon_taylor_were_both/ | {
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"1) video is awesome. More and more departments are adopting cameras and I wouldn't be surprised if a mandate came out by the end of this decade. Also brown was already claiming the headlines\n\n2) There is no evidence supporting that claim. ",
"Michael Brown's case takes place in St. Louis area, which is an area with longstanding segregation of racial groups, and high tension between the black community and the police. You can think of the Michael Brown case as the straw that broke the camel's back: the police have had a reputation of targeting the black community, primarily black men, and details from Michael Brown's case unsettled people enough to call them to protest.\n\nSo Michael Brown had a large group of advocates for him, and a longstanding history that his case represents.\n\nDillon Taylor doesn't have either. Police brutality is typically aimed at black men or men of minorities, not white men. As such, even though his death is such as tragic, Michael Brown's case is more publicized because of the activism surrounding it.",
"The shooting of Michael Brown isn't really the reason for the community's outrage, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. When viewed as an isolated incident it's a pretty silly reason for large protests, but it sparked a backlash from people who have grown tired of nothing being done about their police department's history of documented civil rights and brutality complaints. It's especially notable because, when faced with protests against their excessive use of force, the police responded with excessive force.\n\nThen people from outside of the community showed up to riot and loot, and the media shitstorm muddied the waters — which lead to further rights violations against members of the press."
]
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"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/dillon-taylor-shooting-justified_n_5912976.html"
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1k66po | individualism vs collectivism | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k66po/eli5_individualism_vs_collectivism/ | {
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"Individualism and Collectivism are both political/social philosophies. Individualism emphasizes the importance of individual people, and argues for the benefit of the individual over the benefit of a group. Anarchy (no government) is an extreme Individualist stance. Collectivism is the opposite. Collectivism emphasizes social groups of all sizes, and specifically the importance of human connections. As you might guess, Collectivists prioritize the benefit of the group over the benefit of the individual. Communism is an example of a Collectivist political system."
]
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3lnbtu | if an internet provider promises a certain speed to its users, and connection tests show far worse than that speed, is there anything the customers can do about it? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lnbtu/eli5_if_an_internet_provider_promises_a_certain/ | {
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"This happened to me. I have like a 30mb/s plan and i was getting 2mb/s. So i just called them. They had me run some tests until they were satisfied that it was a problem on their end and then they rebooted the connection. Worked after that.",
"Contracts often have fine print that limit what you can do in that circumstance. They'll argue that you paid for a connection with speeds *up to* the advertised speed, for example. And technically, that is what you paid for, like it or not.",
"Certainly, you could call your ISP and complain about the slow speeds. They'll likely send someone out (typically free of charge) to investigate the issue and see if there is anything they can do to fix it.\n\nHowever, ISPs will often use wording like \"up to X mbps of speed.\" So legally, they're covered. ",
"Other than what everyone else has said about talking to the ISP, getting a technician over, etc. there's one thing that comes up often. Really really make sure that you aren't confusing megabits (Mb) and megabytes (MB). ISPs will almost always advertise speeds in Mb/s, but something like your web browser or Steam will show you download speeds in MB/s. There's a factor of 8 difference between the two (1 MB/s = 8 Mb/s), so the capitalisation of the b makes all the difference. "
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6amxk2 | why do things rot and where does it come from? | To my understanding, food and stuff rot mostly due to different kinds of fungi. This begs the question, what is the process? Is fungi slowly "rotting" food and it's not until a certain stage that we notice it or is there a point where the fungi start the process. One question I really want answered is where it comes from. Unless the fungi isn't there to begin with, it has to come from somewhere right?
Thanks in advance! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6amxk2/eli5_why_do_things_rot_and_where_does_it_come_from/ | {
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"text": [
"Fungi spores are microscopic. Like bacteria, they can be kind of everywhere. So it's already on your food, but you don't see it until it has grown. ",
"Spores. Kinda like the eggs or seeds of mold and fungi, spores are microscopic and everywhere. They can also hangout for quite a long time, drifting about on air currents or sitting on surfaces.\n\nWhen they find somethin' tasty, they start to mature into an adult living creature, and chow down. These colonies start microscopic, which means it's technically possible you regularly eat tiny microscopic bits of rot and fungi that are too small to notice or taste. EW! Fortunately, your stomach can deal with that tiny little amount just fine.\n\nIt's only when given enough time that the colony of fungi can really grow to large and icky sizes.",
"Fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms are basically *everywhere all the time*: as a matter of fact, there are more cells of bacteria in your body than there are of *you* right now (don't worry, they're mostly harmless, and many of them are actually helpful :) ).\n\nThese microorganisms are constantly trying to land on things and multiply, which we eventually notice on rotting food in the form of fungal and bacterial colonies. The organisms are consuming the food itself in order to fuel their growth: left unchecked, they will keep eating the food to the point where we can actually notice the \"rot\" that has formed.\n\nWe are in a constant battle with these organisms to preserve our food to the point where we can safely eat it before they do. We vacuum-pack foods to remove as much of the microbes as possible, and reduce the air supply that the remaining number need to multiply; we refrigerate food to slow down fungal and bacterial growth, as they can't function as quickly in low temperatures; we freeze food to also freeze the microbes, stopping them from growing at all for a long time; and we cook our food, using the high temperature of fires and ovens and boiling water to kill the vast majority of any remaining microbes on the food *right* before we eat it."
]
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[],
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611zgp | how do we get a still picture of earth if it is rotating at 1000 miles/hour? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/611zgp/eli5_how_do_we_get_a_still_picture_of_earth_if_it/ | {
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"short exposure time and very far away. Would you be able to tell a little blur in the clouds of earth in a photo taken from space? Not likely, not enough detail.\n\nIf you take a picture of the stars with more than a few seconds of exposure, you'll certainly start to see light trails.",
"Any space craft or satellite would also be orbiting Earth and thus moving as well. In addition, the distance make the movement less perceptible -- imagine moving something in your hand at arms length 2 ft vs. doing so across a football field and how far across your field of vision each moves.",
"Firstly, the earth is rotating at the rate of one revolution per day. Which is not very fast. Think of a marry-go-round that completes one revolution a day. Not very exciting, is it?\n\nSecondly, when we are taking pictures of earth, we are not taking them from some kind of stationary observer floating through space. We are taking pictures from satellites in orbit. And just to gain some perspective, the ISS has an orbital speed of 7.67 km/s (~17,200 mph), so the 1000 mph tangential speed of earth is entirely eclipsed by the satellites speed. \n\nThirdly, since the orbital velocity depends on the altitude of the satellite, there are [geostationary orbits](_URL_0_). Satellites in a geostationary orbit have an orbital period of 24 hours. Which means, they rotate at the same rate as earth, hovering over the same place at all times. \n\nLastly, in order to take pictures of the whole globe, you have to be pretty far away. At those distances, a the tangential velocity of earth really doesn't look that fast anymore. ",
"You have your camera moving at roughly the same speed. An easy way to demonstrate this is to get a camera and go stand outside and take a picture. Viola! A still image of the Earth as it rotates at 1000 miles per hour.\n\nA satellite, just by virtue of being 'in space' does not suddenly lose this velocity that you and the Earth and buildings and clouds and trees and planes all share. To cancel it out, they would have to exert force to change that movement, at the cost of fuel. In all likelihood, they will be moving much *faster* due to their own acceleration at launch, but as they are further away than the surface of the Earth, they can potentially remain stationary above a single point, or slow enough (relative to the surface) to take an appreciable image."
]
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| []
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[],
[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit"
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[]
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||
52stsu | how does a camera keep the subject the same size but appear to zoom in? | So I wasn't quite sure how to word this, but sometimes on TV during a dramatic moment it seems as though the camera is zooming in (the background gets closer) but the person talking appears to be the same size? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52stsu/eli5_how_does_a_camera_keep_the_subject_the_same/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7mzj1t"
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"text": [
"It's called a [Dolly zoom](_URL_1_).\n\nThe way it works is that as the camera moves forward, the lens zooms out. They also work in reverse, where as the camera moves back, the operator zooms in. As long as the focus objects maintain their position within the frame, as the camera moves back and forth the other items in frame will appear to get closer or further away (and therefore appear larger or smaller accordingly).\n\n[This video explains how it works.](_URL_0_)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://vimeo.com/60047288",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_zoom"
]
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|
|
5v01xf | why do house gecko's have low awareness but move really fast. | I've notice many times that house gecko's seem to ignore the presence of humans near them or not notice them at all. So I was wondering what's the point of being able to move quickly if you can't even notice a predator or threat in the first place. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5v01xf/eli5_why_do_house_geckos_have_low_awareness_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddy6fft",
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"text": [
"Who says they don't notice them?\n\nIf you can move that quickly, you can let a predator approach that much closer before running away, which means you spend less time running and more time doing gecko things. \n\n",
"Their speed is mostly for catching insects. They avoid predators using camouflage and hiding rather than speed generally. \n\n"
]
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| []
| [
[],
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|
|
1l8jih | insurance denial for pre-existing conditions | Why shouldn't insurance companies shouldn't be able to deny coverage for pre existing conditions? I understand that most insurance companies don't want this, but it seems counter intuitive to the whole concept of insurance. The company is basically making a "bet" that you will stay healthy, while you are getting insurance on your health. Why would they "bet" on an obvious loss? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l8jih/eli5_insurance_denial_for_preexisting_conditions/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbwrnxb",
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"text": [
"Because if you can't get health insurance, you won't be able to pay for healthcare. Most people think that you ought to be able to pay for healthcare.",
"They have the power to offset that higher chance of risk with offset premiums.\n\nInsurance markets don't work if the insurance companies only insure the people that don't get sick and exclude all the ones that do."
]
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| []
| [
[],
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|
|
4yi6yv | when reading nutritional information labels what is the remaining weight made of? | When looking at any nutritional label there is a serving size which says how much it is. It then gives a break down of what that serving size consists of, protein, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals and such.
Now I have yet to see a label where if you add up all those items weights does it equal the weight of the serving size, what constitutes the rest of the weight?
Only thing I can think of is water. Does anyone know? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yi6yv/eli5_when_reading_nutritional_information_labels/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6nw91r"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Water it is. There is pretty much nothing else that could possibly be it. A very small percentage would be some technological additives like preservatives, colourants and stuff, but they usually are used in insignificant amounts (10s of mg/kg). Oh and possibly air if you think about some puffy bread, but that too is absolutely insignificant considering its density. Even dehydrated products can not be completely dry, but youd notice the \"missing mass\" should be much lower than say ham or canned vegetables."
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2q8woo | how does password cracking work if websites don't let guess a lot of passwords? | How does password cracking work if you can only guess so many passwords on a website? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q8woo/eli5_how_does_password_cracking_work_if_websites/ | {
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"text": [
"hackers compromise the website file system or database that stores the passwords and extract that file out of the website.\n\nthen they can attempt passwords a million times without interruption ",
"You don't do a brute force password attack by going to a website and trying a lot. When you're trying to attack a password, you need to get the password hash first. \n\nA hash is a number generated from a password by a complicated algorithm such that it's impossible to work it backwards, and a small change in the password results in a major change in the hash. \n\nSo, if I was going to attack a password, I would first need a set of password hashes, which are often found on authentication servers in a table next to the usernames they're associated with. Once I have that table, I have your username and the hash that your password turns into, I can then try to put a whole bunch of passwords through a hashing algorithm until I get a hash that looks just like yours, and then I can go to the website and try to log in. "
]
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[],
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30e76i | what exactly is happening here? _url_0_ | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30e76i/eli5_what_exactly_is_happening_here/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"_URL_0_\n\nWhen you freeze mercury it resists magnetic fields. When it's in a strong magnetic field it \"pins\" the magnetism to small points in the metal. This causes the metal to hang in mid-air suspended by the \"pins\"."
]
} | [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA"
]
| [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA"
]
| [
[
"http://quantumlevitation.com/the-physics/"
]
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|
|
6b2rjg | what happens to flies/insects if they enter your house and have no way out? | They chill and die?
They jack your food and make babies? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6b2rjg/eli5what_happens_to_fliesinsects_if_they_enter/ | {
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"text": [
"Some like flies will feed, but most insects will generally fly toward light sources like windows and lights and gradually dehydrate. Most will be dead after a few days."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
|
m161l | exif data. | It gets talked about a lot on the internet, but I've never really gotten a clear explanation of what it *is*. All I really know is that it's data that's somehow connected/embedded in digital pictures. So what *is* EXIF data? Can it really be used to trace the location/photographer of any given picture? If that is the case, is there a way to delete a photo's EXIF data? Thanks in advance. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/m161l/eli5_exif_data/ | {
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"EXIF data is the digital information embedded into the photo by the camera when the picture is taken. It generally includes the make/model of the camera and the camera's settings like shutter speed, ISO setting, etc. Different cameras embed different information - for example, iPhones usually embed GPS information, where cameras without GPS data obviously can't embed that info. So it depends on the camera as far as how much identifying data it embeds. \n\nBeyond that, programs like Photoshop can also add/edit info to the EXIF data such as what was done with the photo, photographer's name, location, keywords describing the photo, etc. \n\nDeleting EXIF data is pretty easy, and some websites (imgur, for example) automatically strip all of it, whereas others (like Flickr) allow you to not have it displayed, at least through Flickr itself. There are a lot of ways to look at the EXIF data - from right-clicking the image's icon on your desktop, to websites like [Jeffrey's Exif viewer](_URL_0_) where you can see the info online.",
"EXIF data is the digital information embedded into the photo by the camera when the picture is taken. It generally includes the make/model of the camera and the camera's settings like shutter speed, ISO setting, etc. Different cameras embed different information - for example, iPhones usually embed GPS information, where cameras without GPS data obviously can't embed that info. So it depends on the camera as far as how much identifying data it embeds. \n\nBeyond that, programs like Photoshop can also add/edit info to the EXIF data such as what was done with the photo, photographer's name, location, keywords describing the photo, etc. \n\nDeleting EXIF data is pretty easy, and some websites (imgur, for example) automatically strip all of it, whereas others (like Flickr) allow you to not have it displayed, at least through Flickr itself. There are a lot of ways to look at the EXIF data - from right-clicking the image's icon on your desktop, to websites like [Jeffrey's Exif viewer](_URL_0_) where you can see the info online."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://regex.info/exif.cgi"
],
[
"http://regex.info/exif.cgi"
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86gfoi | why do composers use the note cb when they could just use b? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86gfoi/eli5_why_do_composers_use_the_note_cb_when_they/ | {
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"There are a few reasons to use the weirder notes like Cb, many of them about note/key relations, but that's getting into the weirder side of music theory. Here's a simpler example:\n\nLet's say I'm writing a piece of music in the key of Bb. So any time I write a note on the \"B\" line of the staff, musicians know to read that note as Bb, right? Now let's say that in a measure, I have the notes B-Bb-B-Bb-D-B-Bb. It'd be a weird-sounding measure, but sometimes music has some weird stuff thrown in. If I were to write those notes all on the B line, it would be a little confusing to read, because I'd have to use accidentals before every single note, besides that D I threw in there. \n\nBut if I just replaced those B notes with a C-note with a flat accidental (making it Cb, same as B), then I will only have to use that one accidental in the whole measure - the rest of it can just be written normally. This clears up a lot of the clutter and makes the measure easier to figure out. ",
"While Cb and B both sound and are played the same, theoretically speaking they are different notes. The key of Cb Major, for example, *has* no B natural, so the only reason you would write one would be as an accidental of Bb.",
"The two common reason to use an accidental (the b or # symbol, as in **Cb**) when there is a natural enharmonic (equivalent letter name without b or #, as in **B**) is because there is a Bb already in the piece (as it would be in a scale starting from Bb). \n\n\n\n",
"I’m not a composer, so forgive me if I get my terms wrong. I’m not sure if this is the correct answer, but since there are no responses yet, I thought I’d take a crack at it:\n\nIn musical notation, if a given composition is in the key of F (indicated by a flat symbol on the B), then all notation on the B is understood to be played as a B flat. If, in a given measure, the B is to be played natural (as indicated by the natural symbol), then all the subsequent B notes are to be played natural.\n\nBut what if, in a given measure, both a B flat and a B natural is needed? You could write both a B flat and a B natural, but that could be confusing, especially if the key signature calls for all Bs to be played flat. This problem is solved by keeping the regular B notation for B flats, and a C flat to indicate B natural without affecting the other Bs in the measure."
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1mou5x | how is cities in the desert like las vegas (or dubai) is supplied in water? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mou5x/eli5_how_is_cities_in_the_desert_like_las_vegas/ | {
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"Las Vegas gets its water from the Colorado River which, in turn, is fed by snow melt and precipitation from other--less arid--regions in the Rockies.\n\nLA gets its water from farther north in California, transferred south by the [Los Angeles Aqueduct](_URL_1_). Watch the movie CHINATOWN for a fictionalized version of how it came into existence.\n\n\nEven large cities in wetter climates need to import water. NYC gets water from as far as the [Catskills](_URL_0_).",
"Hey, make sure your grammar is correct before posting something. People will be disinclined to answer your question unless you do so. So, replace \"is\" with \"are\" and take out the second \"is.\" ",
"In Vegas, most water comes from the impoundment of the Colorado River at Lake Mead (Hoover Dam). Some of this water goes to California as well. The Colorado River is used so extensively, by the time it crosses Mexico, the water is highly polluted and salty. It's flow has been so affected, it no longer reaches the sea. _URL_0_\n\nI think Dubai uses desalination plants.\n",
"How are* cities in the desert like Las Vegas (or Dubai) supplied with* water? (not to be a dick if English is your second language, totally to be a dick if it is.)\n\nAlmost all cities are founded around a source of water, so there probably is a natural source there. But cities in deserts do sometimes have supplement their natural supply.\n\nThey bring the water in from a couple different sources. Canals or pipelines can divert water from rivers and bring it in. \n\nPipelines can also bring water pumped from aquifers (underground lakes) Or if the city sits atop an aquifer it can have wells locally.\n\nThey recycle water from waste and reuse it whenever possible. \n\nCoastal cities can also supplement a little by removing the salt from seawater, or at least reducing it so it can be used for non-drinking purposes.\n\nHopefully this helps answer you question.",
"Dubai uses seawater desalination plants to provide the bulk of its fresh water. It relies primarily on a [2GW plant at Jebel Ali](_URL_0_) that can produce around 140 million gallons of fresh water per day using multi-stage flash distillation. \n\nA small amount of spring water comes from the Hajar mountains, which is used for bottled mineral water, and there are also some small underground aquifers, which historically were the source of fresh water for the inhabitants, but as the population grew, so a larger supply was needed and the desal plants were installed."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Aqueduct",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Aqueduct"
],
[],
[
"http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/photos/rivers-run-dry/"
],
[],
[
"http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/uae-s-largest-power-and-desalination-plant-opens-at-jebel-ali"
]
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|
||
t4y07 | how are the version numbers of patches and software decided? | For istance we've got Battlefield 2 with its first patch 1.45 and second patch 1.50. How does it work when diciding upon the patch number? Why skip the first 45 decimals, and after that, only five? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/t4y07/eli5_how_are_the_version_numbers_of_patches_and/ | {
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"Well *usually* you just go 1.44, 1.45, 1.46 etc. However, if it's a major release, developers will often push it to more of a landmark, such as 1.50. \n\nAlso, the 1.46-1.49 may have been in development, but then gain significant improvements before release, and become the next number due to so many changes, and this can repeat, so occasionally you'll see software go from 1.45 to 1.60.\n\nHowever, it's mostly due to the first one. \"Patch 1.5\" is easier to market / discuss than \"Patch 1.46\".",
"It's up to the developers and entity that manages the software. Some teams will go in increments on MAJOR.MINOR.REVISION, some will be even more specific, some will be less specific. It's what the development team decides. I've seen software with Major.Minor.Revision.SubRevision. I've seen some software that only increments Major and has nothing after it. \n\nThen marketing can come along call it something else. So SoftwareX Build 1.2384.7791 can be called \"SoftwareX 15 Pro\" or \"Software 1.3 Pro\" (which can admittedly get a little confusing). \n\nThe BF2 example probably involves a team going in .01 increments for their software builds. ",
"As both JakeSteam and iamapizza have said, it's differentiated based on the size/scale of the update.\n\nFor instance, World of Tanks was at version 5.5.1, then jumped to version 6.1.5 with the addition of a whole new series of tanks (the US tanks). In 5.5.1, there were only German and Russian tanks, so this was a major change. Similarly, going from 6.7 to 7.0 included the official release of the game, as well as the introduction of tank companies (basically, customized teams that players could arrange), the ability to save and watch battle replays, and a complaint system.",
"It's totally arbitrary.\n\nThe company gets to choose whatever version number they wish, and it's not standardized across software.\n\nTypically it goes with Major.Minor and maybe a 3rd value for build number or whatever. But that's not always the case.\n\nFor example: Ubuntu Linux goes by Year.Month of release. So the current release for Ubuntu is 12.4, and the last release was 11.10\n\nFirefox went by Major.Minor for a long time, where going from version 2 to version 3 was a huge leap and took 2 years in between. Version 3 to 4 took about 3 years in between. And then they started copying Chrome's version numbers, and started changing the version number very rapidly. Version 4 to 5 only had a few months between, and now they've been releasing new versions of Firefox almost every 6-8 weeks.\n\nVersion 5 to the current version of FF, version 12, only has a difference of less than a year.\n\nAfter only 3 years since being released, Google Chrome is at version 18 right now. \n\nIn the Linux Kernel, they were on version 2.x for a very long time... years. And then Linus decided it was time to change to version 3. The change from version 2.x to 3 was actually minor. Nothing major changed... it was completely arbitrary.\n\nI'm a software developer and I once worked at a company that bumped up the major version number in a minor release so that we could increase sales. \n\nSo yea, it's completely arbitrary. The only thing you can count on with a version number change is that the software has changed in some way.\n\n"
]
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dpgmty | why do lady bugs gather in corners on the wall? | Every fall I notice groups of lady bugs congregate in one or two corners up high on the wall. I just cleaned up 5 of them that were in the high corner in my bedroom all huddled together for a couple days without moving. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dpgmty/eli5_why_do_lady_bugs_gather_in_corners_on_the/ | {
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"Their instinct as the temperatures get cooler is to climb up out of ground based danger and find a niche to hide in and go semi-dormant for the winter. In a room, a corner is about the best that they can do. Wasps, flies and many other insects do the same. If you find a wasp hiding under something they are so passive due the slow metabolism, not being warm blooded, that you can pick them up to move them without getting stung."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
|
1hjf0b | amy's baking company | I didn't understand what it was about when it became popular awhile back and I still don't now. Could someone please explain to me what the whole ordeal is? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hjf0b/eli5_amys_baking_company/ | {
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"Gordon Ramsay had a show called kitchen nightmares where he approaches a restaurant that is failing or underperforming and attempts to fix the problems. The show is mediocre at best with the typical reality tv show bullshit. However the Amy's baking company episode was so outlandish and so bizarre that many people couldn't help but watch.\n\nAmy's baking company was a restaurant that had somewhat dinner food that was founded by a couple, I don't remember there names (and you won't want to know them either) but for the sake of being pc the husband was a wealthy Indian and the wife was a crazy white cat lady. The whole restaurant was run horribly. There was only one chef, the wife, because they couldn't trust any other help. Their waitress staff were not allowed to bring orders to the kitchen only tell the husband what the orders were and he would use the pos system. The son of a bitch also stole all the tips from his waitresses justifying it by staying he paid his staff higher than average wages. The wife was no better she could not handle criticism and while she possibly had the makings of a decent baker, he food was absolutely awful. When patrons complained of slow service (due in part to the chef and the husband fucking things up) there were kicked out of the restaurant called assholes and in the episode even assaulted. \n\nAt the end of the show Gordon Ramsay realized that these people were scum of the earth and that he could not change their ways. S the show basically abruptly ended. Just like that, the helps kitchen chef walking away defeated.",
"Here it is. _URL_0_"
]
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| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjgHEctcy0"
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|
47cu77 | why has the price of meat increased so much over the past 10 years or so? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47cu77/eli5_why_has_the_price_of_meat_increased_so_much/ | {
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"text": [
"Feed has increased in price, transportation has increased in price, there is a lot more emphasis on humane raising of animals, which means more space, better feed, fewer antibiotics and hormones (more sick animals that can't be used, smaller animals mean less meat).",
"Global demand for meat, and for the grain that helps to feed meat animals, has risen due to population growth and due to the increasing wealth of China and other developing countries."
]
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| []
| [
[],
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||
4m0eao | do your brain cells die and get replaced just like every other cell in your body? if so, how is the "data" held in these cells transferred so you do not lose everything you have learned/experienced? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4m0eao/eli5_do_your_brain_cells_die_and_get_replaced/ | {
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"First answer: \n\nThe human brain and spinal cord contain approximately 100 billion nerve cells. They are the only cells in the human body that do not regenerate. For example, human skin, liver and heart cells regenerate at a high rate. Other animals, such as fish, amphibians and birds, have a high turnover rate of brain cells. Turnover of brain cells in mammals is more limited than other animal groups. For example, only two regions of rodent brains continue to acquire new cells throughout life. (From _URL_0_ as that was the simplest version of the subject I could find on it.)\n\nSecond answer: n/a",
" > Do your brain cells die and get replaced just like every other cell in your body? \n\nNo, if a neuron dies it dies. Neurons do not undergo mitosis. Peripheral nerves (not central) can however do axon regeneration in order to repair damage (though this doesn't always work). There are additional cells called neuroglia which help these neurons. Neuroglia can divide ( & thus are the actual source of brain tumors if this division gets out of hand).\n\n > If so, how is the \"data\" held in these cells transferred so you do not lose everything you have learned/experienced?\n\n\"Data\" such as memories are not actually held in a specific neuron. There is a limited number of neurons in your brain, so if they were held this way you'd have a limited number of memories. Long term memory is held in something called memory trace, which are basically a pattern of neurons that fire, over mainly the cortex, when a memory is pulled from long term & placed into short term in order to be used. So if neurons associated with a particular memory is damaged, you lose those memories. This is called retrograde amnesia.\n\n",
"Most brain cells do not divide/copy/make new ones.\n\nSome do.\n\nThe one's that do divide are not neurons (\"brain cells\"). They are support cells for the neurons, providing structural integrity, nutrients, and cerebrospinal fluid.\n\nThe neurons that we popularly call \"brain cells\" can die, but they don't really get replaced the way that something like skin cells regularly do. This accounts for why skin cancer, for example, is pretty common while brain cancers originating in the brain are relatively rare.\n\nInterestingly, neurons can sort of \"rewire\" themselves to make up for being unable to make new neurons.\n"
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"http://www.ask.com/science/can-t-damaged-cell-brain-replaced-9356a3ee3ca9af35?qo=questionPageSimilarContent"
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[],
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d5z6px | if plants can die from over watering how do they survive heavy rainfall during monsoon? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d5z6px/eli5_if_plants_can_die_from_over_watering_how_do/ | {
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"The plants that are native to regions where heavy rainfall happens have adapted strategies to survive. Plants that can die from over watering are more likely to be from drier climates and don’t need as much water to flourish. \nMoral of the story: not all plants want tons of water. Those that do come from wet places.",
"Plants can certainly suffer or even die from too much rain, but this is rare. Outdoor soil usually has sufficient drainage to mean that the main problem of overwatering (drowning roots, which need access to underground air pockets) rarely happens except in the case of severe flooding. When you overwater a potted plant, most of that water gets stuck and the roots drown.\n\nThe other problems of overwatering is rot and washing away nutrients. These both definitely happens to naturally-growing plants outdoors."
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[],
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bx7or0 | how do restaurants determine menu prices? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bx7or0/eli5_how_do_restaurants_determine_menu_prices/ | {
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"(generalizations get off my nuts this does not include elitist places or local markups)\nRent 5k\nElectricity 1k\n3 employees paid (monthly) 7k\nAverage cost to owner of example meal (nothing special) 4.00\nNot including any other franchise rates or local taxes or costs of maintenance repair or upgrades.\n\nCost to consumer before tax...\n9.99. \n\nSo in there. The 5.99 profit per meal you have to make \"X\"number of meals to pay all the above. 13k a month minimum. You as the owner will have to sell 2,171 of that 9.99 meal to cover your costs. Just to stay open.\n542 of that meal a week\n78 a day.\n\nIf you want more profit you either change the price of the food up incrementaly or lower the cost of the food you source. Or sell alot more",
"It's called [cost accounting](_URL_0_). Practically speaking any item on the menu has two types of costs. \n\nThe first type of costs are variable costs, in a restaurant it's the prices of the main ingredients of a meal and the amount of labor used to cook the meal and to distribute it. Some of the variable costs are easy to allocate to a dish, e.g. if a steak costs $10 it's $10 in your books. Other variable costs are not so easy to allocate. For example, your cook works the whole night on many different meals. So you do estimate how much cook needs to prepare the meal and add this to the costs of the meal. \n\nThen there are the fixed costs, which includes rents, electricity, water and all the other overhead. You may distributes these costs on a per item basis, e.g. a steak has the same fixed costs as a glass of coke. Or you use some other kind of distribution, e.g. on the basis of total monthly revenue of the items.\n\nA newly opened restaurant has to make some guesswork about distribution of costs while an established restaurant may simply take the numbers of previous years.\n\nYou can probably do this in an sophisticated excel-sheet but there also exists specialized software (e.g. SAP if your company is big enough.)"
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6nndlo | how do cellular providers give consistent bandwidth to multiple users at one time while my wireless router gets slowed down with multiple users? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nndlo/eli5_how_do_cellular_providers_give_consistent/ | {
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"Your router has a set amount of bandwidth that it is getting from your internet provider, and a set amount of bandwidth the users on your end of the router can have in total.\n\nImagine you're distributing water. The pipe coming into your house is coming in at 10 liters per second. If you have 3 people in your house, and they're all asking for 15 liters per second, none of them are going to get what they want. Without other configurations, the requests will be balanced out to use up the 10L/Sec.\n\nCellular providers have a lot more than 10L/Sec to give, and they set limits on what each person is allowed to get.\n\nAt home, you can set Quality of Service limits on specific devices to put a ceiling on how much bandwidth they can use.",
"Actually they don't. Their towers have a total bandwidth limit just like your router. That's why service is sometimes slow at very crowded events, like sports games or rock festivals."
]
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[],
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x5gfh | why does my throat hurt if i make certain sounds? | When I make some growling sounds, my throat starts to hurt. However, all I'm doing is passing air through tubes, so why does it hurt? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/x5gfh/why_does_my_throat_hurt_if_i_make_certain_sounds/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5jc0xl"
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"text": [
"The way you make sounds is passing air over vibrating vocal cords. When you make loud gutteral sounds your vocal cords have to work harder. They are like a muscle, if you work them too hard you can make them sore or even tear them. "
]
} | []
| []
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[]
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2r9ef0 | if deleting a file on your computer doesn't actually delete it the how do anti virus programs delete viruses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r9ef0/eli5_if_deleting_a_file_on_your_computer_doesnt/ | {
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"You don't need to delete a virus, you just need to stop it from running, and stop it from re-running. That mostly means changing settings in your computer and ending processes.\n\nAnti-viruses DO delete the actual .exe file if that's the form the virus takes, but that's the least important part of the process, and they generally just delete it like any other deletion you do. **Viruses don't damage your computer by simply existing in some folder**, they aren't actual viruses, they're just bits of code that fuck with your stuff. If you (or some automated process) don't try to execute that code, nothing happens. So you could conceivably turn off your anti-virus then use an undeletion program to restore the virus that it just deleted. That's dumb of course, but it's just like any other file in most cases.\n\nThe problem is that viruses make it very hard to stop executing it once it's started, that's what anti-viruses are good at, and they're also good at identifying viruses before they get started, and preventing them from getting too much control over your computer.",
"File systems work like a book with a table of contents. When you delete a file, most file systems just delete the reference to the data in the table of contents, but the actual data is still there. The OS can't access the data because it sees that space on the drive as empty. It will eventually be overwritten with new data. To truly delete files, you have to shred the data as well as deleting the reference to it. This means actively overwriting the data with new data. This can be all zeros or a random sequence of data any numbers of times. The more times the data is overwritten, the harder it is to recover.\n\n\nWhen a virus is removed by an antivirus program, it usually moves the file into a folder it controls and keeps it from executing. When you delete it completely, it just deletes the file's reference like any other file getting deleted.\n\n\nIf anybody has a better explanation or I'm wrong, please tell me."
]
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[],
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||
3x1f75 | why does higher quality sound feel more distant? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3x1f75/eli5_why_does_higher_quality_sound_feel_more/ | {
"a_id": [
"cy0ogps"
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"text": [
"Haven't hear anyone describe it like that before. However, my best guess is that since the lower quality version is more heavily compressed, all the sounds sound more mashed together, whereas the less compressed (higher quality) version has more information (more frequency range and bitrate), so that all the sounds can be more \"distinct\"."
]
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[]
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|
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526x8f | how does something like samsung note 7 get through production and to consumers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/526x8f/eli5how_does_something_like_samsung_note_7_get/ | {
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"text": [
"Under 40 units have actually caught fire out of the original 2.5 million units produced. That's around .0016%. Even the best QA processes can't expect to detect that percentage of defects."
]
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exbnxv | what happens in the body when you get diarrhea - the first stool is for the most part a solid mass, a short time later the second stool is a complete explosion, 95% liquid and seems like twice as much excretive material as the first? | Having recently had the experience of being ambushed by this explosive experience in a fast food restaurant, I wondered how it could have taken over my bowels so quickly and created so much liquid. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/exbnxv/eli5_what_happens_in_the_body_when_you_get/ | {
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"text": [
"Your large intestine is the last stage of your body extracting goodness from your food - in its case water. The water should go in to your body. If there is a problem with your lower intestine, it won't take the water from the paste that's left over from the previous stages. The final section of the tube isn't designed to hold all that excess water. If the problem isn't fixed you'll be losing water through breathing and sweat and your body won't be replenishing it and you will die.",
"The diarrhea doesn't create liquid, the toxin that you body detects over rides the normal process of water absorbtion, which happens in your intestines.\n\nWhat you eat becomes saturates in liquids after chewing, swallowing, and sitting in your stomach. This makes even dry food wet. You body cannot process dry food. \n\nSince no, or very little moisture has been removed, and moisture has been added, there is lots of moisture, which probably acts as a terrible type of lubricant, causing the internal evil to slip around corners easier. \n\nWhen it exits, it has not been digested, it is saturated with liquids, which are carrying toxins. These, I suspect, are why cause the ring of fire effect, as they interact with the sensitive skin around the rear exit. \n\nIf it burns your ass, imagine what it could do to your insides."
]
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[],
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7h7dhf | why do we naturally bend our knees while trying to walk silently? | Hi there, just wondering why do we do this instinctively, and is it even effective? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7h7dhf/eli5_why_do_we_naturally_bend_our_knees_while/ | {
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"When we bend our knees, we get more balance. That added balance gives us more control over our movements, which helps us take quieter steps. Try walking quietly without bending your knees, it's gonna be hard. And even if you pull it off, think of any situation where walking silently and upright would be necessary. There aren't many, it's more of a stalking maneuver. I actually thought about this while I was out hunting today trying to creep up on what I thought was a deer.\n\nSlightly related fun fact: humans actually walk very poorly compared to other animals. We kinda just \"fall\" into each step, it's pretty unbalanced compared to other animals.",
"Another way of explaining it is that by bending your knees pre-emptively, it reduces the variation of the angle required at your knee joints to move your body a given amount vertically. Thus, it makes it easier to absorb the shock of your repetitive steps.\n\nIndeed, noise when walking is mostly done by sudden change of velocity; the sharper the deceleration, the more energy will be dissipated through sound wave. And you guessed it right, your body mass being unable to keep going for a little bit on that downward motion before coming to a stop just contribute to make your steps louder.\n\nWhereas when you bend your knees, your body mass will be able to slowly decelerate through a smooth adjustment in your knee joint angle (coupled with your hips). \n\nTLDR/ELI5 : Bending your knee prepares the spring that it is to be more readily activated."
]
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[],
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5crqdp | if looks are subjective, why are the same people (like celebrities) considered attractive by so many people? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5crqdp/eli5_if_looks_are_subjective_why_are_the_same/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9yt941"
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"text": [
"There's the basic evolutionary stuff we're all born with that dictate who's \"beautiful\" based on preferred biological mating characteristics. A woman with good size breasts and hips is considered better from a biological stand point for procreation. Her breasts show she can provide for a baby while her hips show she can birth easily.\n\nThere's also lots of standards for beauty that we get programmed with by society growing up which differ from culture to culture."
]
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| [
[]
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|
||
o8im1 | why people say the u.s. invaded iraq for the oil? | I thought it was nationalized? If they didn't invade for the oil, like people say, then why did they? I'm read then it was proven Iraq had almost no connections to al-queda. Was it truly because Iraq was a dictatorship? Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/o8im1/eli5_why_people_say_the_us_invaded_iraq_for_the/ | {
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"Halliburton is an oil company who won multi-million dollar contracts with the US military in Iraq. Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton as well as being the vice-president of the the United States of America.\n\nPeople took those two facts and put them together to make a conclusion that the invasion was purely about oil.\n\n",
"because people like simple sounding answers to complicated questions, particularly when they make people they don't like look bad.",
"If it was nationalised, taking out the regime would free up all that oil for (western) companies to come in and take. However I believe the Iraq war was for different reasons:\n\n\n\n\nIraq was a weakish target in the same kind-of area as al-Qaeda were based and America wanted revenge. The 9/11 bombers were Saudis trained in Pakistan, but there is no way Bush would invade a nuclear country (Pakistan), and Saudi Arabia are too powerful with their oil reserves. Bush needed a propaganda victory after getting stuck in Afghanistan, and taking out a dictator near Israel seemed like a quick and easy way of bolstering national support. \n\nHowever, it took 8 years before the last troops were out and the country is so much more unstable now than it was before. Bush got re-elected, yes, and he enjoyed good approval ratings during the war so in the short-term it worked; however the total financial cost is estimated at around $4trillion, which is about four times the national deficit. If it was for the oil, it was a spectacular failure: the money bought back to America cannot be as much as the money spent on Iraq.",
"War is like a sophisticated machine in the United states. When there is war, certain individuals make lots of money. Missiles, weapons, clothing, cleaning, food preparation, security, any kind of service possible in some basic form is required for war. The people in control of these organizations that provide all the things listed above \"coincidentally\" have positions of influence, and or money to push for war, to feed the machine.",
"People here saying our invasion had nothing to do with oil arent being entirely truthful. This is a website that I feel gives a thoughtful, fair, and critical look at the factors that led to a US invasion. _URL_0_",
"Exxon recentlky enterend Kurdistan, chevron and occidental petroleum are not far behind. All Massive petrol companies fromstates. the amount of oil in Iraq, from Kirkuk, Shaikan Rumaila etc is insane, and Iraq WILL overtake Saudi shortly. Why fight a million wars when you can fight one for energy independace\n\nSorry for thr spelling! Mobile tipsy",
"I think a simple way to answer this question would be to take oil out of the equation. Would the USA have invaded Iraq if that country had no natural resources to speak of? Many people such as Alan Greenspan, Ron Paul, etc... believe that the answer to that question is no we wouldn't have. It took a lot of effort, false intelligence, propaganda, and political capital to get the war on Iraq started. Without oil it simply wouldn't have been worth it. Peak Oil is coming. Our government knows this and securing those resources from other world powers and positioning ourselves to invade Iran is a good move from a realpolitik standpoint. I don't think that this rational is correct and the treasure and blood expended over the war in Iraq was in no way worth it. But to some one like Dick Cheney and the New American Century crew it makes sense."
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27bmf4 | if hair is supposed to be "dead", how does shampoo+conditioner+hair creams work in order to make "dull, life-ess hair" into smooth, shiny and silky? | I understand that hair is dead keratin biomaterial. But sometimes different aciditied (travelling to different countries) would make my hair really frizzy and rough as well as dull. Different shampoos/conditioners have different effects. Some work pretty well and other just suck. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27bmf4/eli5if_hair_is_supposed_to_be_dead_how_does/ | {
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"text": [
"You know how shoe polish and leather conditioner will make old shoes look new again while exposing them to water, mud, and sun light will make them deteriotr faster? Even though hair is not living, they could still benefit from adding more moisture while exposing them to the elements could still destroy them. "
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[]
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6jai2s | how are some bathroom exhaust fans very powerful, yet virtually silent? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jai2s/eli5_how_are_some_bathroom_exhaust_fans_very/ | {
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"There are two main ways to quiet a fan: design it better, and move the fan further away from the people.\n\nThe design includes things like the quality of the bearings, sound insulation on the housing, and blades that don't vibrate.\n\nMoving the fan further away is even more important. Instead of putting the fan right overhead in the bathroom, you can mount it at the exit, where the air comes out. The fan is still making noise, but it's outside the house.",
"Hey there friend,\n\nYou'll notice that as the price goes up, they tend to be quieter yet still maintain or increase air flow.\n\nIt's a classic design trade-off of performance vs. cost. The cost per unit goes up as you add things to your fan design to improve it in some way. For example you could add special blades that are balanced and shaped with high precision. You could use exotic roller-bearings, and noise-isolating motor mounts, and use thicker metal for the chassis, etc. \n\n",
"there are 2 things in a fan that you can hear. the first is the mechanical systems that run it. this is the bearings, the motor, etc. these can be controlled by using higher precision parts and noise dampening.\n\nthe other is the movement of air itself. this is fairly complicated to explain, but to oversimplify, this is caused by turbulence. the air makes sharp turns creating chaotic airflow and vibrations. through careful control of the inlet shape, these can be minimized. "
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ap6xql | what caused chinese people to be really good at table tennis (ping pong) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ap6xql/eli5_what_caused_chinese_people_to_be_really_good/ | {
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"Decades of practice. Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War, circa 1930, were particular fans of the game, and it was likely promoted among the country as a way of celebrating individual achievement as a product of national unity.\n\nThat is to say, if lots of people play the game a lot, then it will be easier to find prodigies of the sport."
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1urzp7 | how does a space shuttle can stop, maneuver and link it to the space station in an environment free of air resistance? | I was thinking about it and realized that I don't really understand how a space shuttle can stop the inertial force when it's already in the vacuum of space. And it gets even more confusing to see how perfectly they maneuver it and put it together with all the other coupling parts. How is it possible in the space? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1urzp7/eli5_how_does_a_space_shuttle_can_stop_maneuver/ | {
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"It doesn't \"stop\", it just matches the motion of the station. They have little maneuvering thrusters that allow it to change its speed/orientation a little bit.",
"To move in the vacuum of space, there needs to be some sort of pushing force. The space shuttle, for example, had three principal types of engines. \n\nThe three very large nozzles in the back were the main engines, used to get the ship into space, fueled by liquid hydrogen stored in the big orange tank. These could not be re-ignited after launch, and ran out of fuel after the ship reached space.\n\nThen, there was the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS). These are the two smaller nozzles in the back of the ship. These were used to perform maneuvers after the vessel was in orbit, such as intercepting targets, and slowing down enough to re-enter the atmosphere and deorbit. The fuel for these was stored within the shuttle itself, and consisted of fuel that was less efficient than the liquid hydrogen used for launch, but in return was more stable and ignited simply after mixing, meaning that the engines could easily be started multiple times for these different maneuvers.\n\nFinally, space ships have Reaction Control Systems (RCS). These are the tiny little ports/holes around the ship, very small rockets essentially. These are located away from the center of mass, so that when they fire they produce torque and spin the ship, allowing the ship to change its orientation. The RCS controls can also be used for small, gentle linear movements.\n\nSo, to intercept/dock with a space station, after getting into orbit, the shuttle would 1) use the OMS to achieve an orbit that would intercept the station, 2) use the OMS again to match speeds with the station when next to it, and 3) use the RCS system to orient itself and carefully approach the docking port.",
"Newton's Third Law: Equal and opposite forces. Technically, nothing is fully \"stopped\" but rather equal forces pushing on an object to make it seem immobile. In space, they use thrusters to help balance and counter-react the constant \"floating\" sensation you experience in space. "
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7x6w9o | how were scientists able to take a photo of an atom? | Based upon the post [here.](_URL_0_) There were a lot of technical responses, but could somebody ELI5 how this was possible? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7x6w9o/eli5_how_were_scientists_able_to_take_a_photo_of/ | {
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"They took a slow exposure of a single atom that was emitting its own light. The slow exposure allowed it to capture lots of light that came from the single atom.\n\nThis is similar to how we take better pictures of stars.",
"the atom is being held in place by a magnetic field, also the element chosen has light emitting properties. Without the light from inside the atom itself(absorbed from a high powered laser focused directly on it and set to our visible spectrum) it would not be visible, that's my basic understanding.",
"Ok so I'm no expert at this sort of technique, but I can take a whack at it from reading from one of the comments in the post. \n\n\nEssentially you put an atom in a very clean, empty environment - a vacuum. The atom is pushed on by electrical fields - a positively charged electrical signals push on the positively charge atom, from opposing sides to keep it suspended in place. Doing all this puts the atom all by itself, so if you shoot something at it, like light, there's only one thing it would hit. You can hit the atom with a specific wavelength (color) of light, and what happens is the atom gets a little boost of energy and uses that to push out a different color of light - this is called excitation and emission. If you take a picture of that excited atom with a low enough light level setting (using a long exposure on a camera), you can see that single atom sitting by itself between the electrical fields. \n\n\nWhat's interesting is this isn't even the only way to look at individual atoms. You can use microscopy techniques that basically work like record players to read the bumps on a surface, which can be of [a fine enough resolution to look at single atoms](_URL_0_). I think what the big deal is is that this lets you look at one atom and how it acts in its environment, like how fast it spins. I'm made to believe this has a lot of applications for things like timekeeping and even data storage, but that's where my understanding ends."
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| [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/7x4o27/picture_of_a_single_atom_wins_science_photo/?st=JDL55CN0&sh=cc22a7fa"
]
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_(atoms)"
]
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|
|
cjhztd | why do laser beams have "brighter dots"? | While using one of those green lasers in the dark I noticed some "brighter dots" in the beam, what is causing that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cjhztd/eli5_why_do_laser_beams_have_brighter_dots/ | {
"a_id": [
"evdglo2",
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],
"score": [
6,
3
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"text": [
"The light is striking dust and other particulate matter in the air and therefore being scattered/reflected. Some gets reflected toward your eyes so you perceive those spots as brighter.",
"these are called \"speckles\" and are typical for coherent light like lasers. \n\nThey are created by interference from irregularities within the beam, created from the irregularities of the surface where you observe the beam scattered (as you won't look directly into the beam).\n\nOften these speckles are unwanted, as they give a certain \"noise\" in the beam. Sometimes they are needed for certain applications where you need coherence, and sometimes they are actively exploited (those speckle patterns can act as a very sensitive sensor to the exact location of your laser beam to the scattering surface, say in a laser-based computer mouse)."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
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]
|
|
116of3 | can someone explain to me why high-frequency trading is allowed? is there some economic benefit? | See this story - _URL_0_
How does HFT contribute to the economy beyond the investment banks? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/116of3/eli5_can_someone_explain_to_me_why_highfrequency/ | {
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"c6jsf3u",
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],
"score": [
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"text": [
"What do you mean, \"allowed\"? Why would the default be not allowing it?",
"The argument in their defense is liquidity. Open markets are how capitalism decides how useful capital will flow to sources that are most deserving. The faster that money can flow, the better the market is. \n\nThe argument against is that perhaps there is such a thing as too much liquidity where the sheer number of transactions actually imposes a cost on the market. \n\nBut since liquidity is generally good and HFT is just an evolution of what we've always done, the burden of proof is really on those who would ban it. ",
"There is a certain market benefit to high-frequency trading in that it takes advantage of small inefficiencies which incorrectly price stocks at a certain amount. By engaging in these large volume trades and making a fraction of a cent on each share then the traders make money and the market should (in theory) more accurately reflect the underlying value of what is being traded. There is the risk that systemic fear or an extremely large trade could create a \"flash crash\" but new controls have been in place to freeze trading if a single stock rapidly moves 10% in either direction. "
]
} | []
| [
"http://www.cnbc.com/id/49333454"
]
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
ads08c | musicians and people who understand sound, why is it so much easier to tune an instrument up from below the desired note, even if the problem is that it's pitched too high/sharp? | I used to think this was because it was easier to control tightening than loosening a string, however my experience is the same with the fine tune pitch control on synthesizers. As with guitar, even if it is sharp I have to tune it down then back up to get it right. My partner says she has the same experience. Why is this? Is it something to do with how we hear changes in pitch? Is there a physical or maybe even social reason we can more easily differentiate changes in notes when they're going up rather than down? Or do I just suck at tuning instruments? Would love to know. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ads08c/eli5_musicians_and_people_who_understand_sound/ | {
"a_id": [
"edjqzoz"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"The more tense the strings are, the more they resist additional tension. But when tuning down there are metastable States where in the string is not loosened as much as turning the key would imply. As a result it is difficult to hit the exact right tension oh, and even if you do it is possible while playing that you break the metastable state and cause the string to slip into a looser States, lowering the pitch.\n\nBut since it resists additional tension it does not hit these kinds of metastable states and it is easier to find the exact tension you need."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3s4zph | why don't video games come out when they're finished? | Fallout 4 and every other game I want makes me ask this question everytime.
-When I mean "finished" I'm referring to the content on the game copies sent to stores and what is pre-downloaded through steam or xbox live. Not day 1 patches. The stores have the copies. The marketing for Fallout 4 or Halo 5 was well completed before these games hit the shelves. Is it common courtesy to come out on Tuesday and never any other day or is it due to some places wont be shipped the game until "launch" day so they have it fair for everyone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s4zph/eli5_why_dont_video_games_come_out_when_theyre/ | {
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"text": [
"Because that would mean there is no time to do a successful marketing campaign that makes sure that the intended target audience not only knows that the game is coming out, but is also properly hyped to buy the game ASAP. You pay most for the game right when it is newly released, so it is important for companies to get as many people as possible to buy it quickly. For which you need successful marketing. ",
"It is impossible to make any software absolutely perfect. Development is a very long process and releases are timed with an estimate on when it will be done and coordinated with marketting.\n \n Would you rather every game be delayed at the last minute because a clipboard animates like a shield?",
"Because publishers want to get a return on their investment as soon as they can, so they don't wait until the game is finished and instead force the release when it's deemed 'good enough'. Usually this means there are still some bugs and issues that need to be addressed in post-release patches, sometimes content that's not quite ready yet has to be cut in order to make the deadline, and occasionally the game is in a bad enough state that the launch ends up being a complete fiasco (e.g. the recent Batman game). A small development studio might release a game too early because it runs out of money and has no other options, but with AAA games backed by big publishers it really is just a question of greed.",
"Because consumer willingness to buy is different every season.\nYou also need count preperations. The marketing campaign has to start and hype people up, the game needs to be printed and shipped to stores, the servers need to be put up in case of patches/online funcionalities, debugging/polishing needs to be done, even though that gets neglected lately.\n\nThere is probably a lot more but I don't know that much"
]
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| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
89w5du | why are chocolate stains so hard to get out while other stains aren't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/89w5du/eli5_why_are_chocolate_stains_so_hard_to_get_out/ | {
"a_id": [
"dwu72wu"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Part of it is that chocolate is super dark, of course. It's also ground very fine too make, so it gets everywhere. And the bits that are not tiny teeny chocolate powder are brown cacao oil. So you've got those three things (each of them a hard stain alone) to make the perfect storm of stains. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
7ta03d | why do frozen objects stick to our skin? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ta03d/eli5_why_do_frozen_objects_stick_to_our_skin/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtb10a2"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Ice adheres to things it freezes on. If you want an example, add a drop of water to a piece of plastic, let it freeze, and then turn the plastic upside down: the ice is stuck to it.\n\nWhen you touch your tongue to something really cold the moisture on your tongue freezes and thus becomes stuck to the cold object. \n\nThe object needs to be cold enough where your body heat (specifically the warm blood circulating through your tongue) isn't enough to overcome the coldness of the object. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1jcddl | why when you are depressed alls you want to do is do stuff that makes you even more depressed? | Why is it when you're depressed you don't want to do anything at all, or do things that make you even worse? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jcddl/why_when_you_are_depressed_alls_you_want_to_do_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbddp7l"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Everybody likes to be right about stuff. It's that good feeling you get when you say Told you so! I saw that coming! Knew it right from the start!\nSo, let's say you're depressed, feeling not just sad but empty, as if you could never feel another thing, and there's just this dark suffocating vacuum where your life used to be. \nYou \"know\" that this empty space is real, and that everything else is an illusion. So you make sure that your version of reality stays true.\nIt works a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1vlc10 | how can i watch an hd video link intently on my phone but a gif can take anything up to a minute to fully load? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vlc10/how_can_i_watch_an_hd_video_link_intently_on_my/ | {
"a_id": [
"cete56c",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Enter [gfycat!](_URL_0_)\n\n > We built gfycat to solve a problem: gifs are awesome... but they suck. They are huge, slow, CPU burning, limited to the color space of 1987, they don't stream, and they can't be interacted with (pause, rewind, speed controls, scrubbing).\n\nIn short, GIF is an old format that does not do compression very well, meaning they also end up taking a lot longer to load than most videos.",
"HD movies use compression and key frames. Basically the information of 1 frame is stored and in the subsequent frames the only data that is stored is parts that have changed. GIFs have all the information stored in every frame. HD movies are also meant to be streamed while GIFs require you to download the entire file before it can be viewed the way it's meant to be seen\n\nedited",
"It's partially because of how these 2 different files are handled on the device by your phone.\n\nFirst and foremost video will be buffered, what this means is that a portion of the file will be downloaded before it starts playing. Then as long as you can download the rest of the file faster then you are watching it you will not notice it's continuously downloading.\n\nFor the gif file on the other hand, the phone is not very good at \"Buffering\" the animation and will stutter and take a long time depending on how it's implemented.\n\nWhich is another significant part. Your phone probably has a dedicated part of hardware to decode video. What this means is that the decoding of the video to something that can be displayed on screen gets done by a different part of the hardware that is specialized to do this quickly. Your phone doesn't have a specialized component to decode gif files. Not that decoding a gif file is particularly complex, but it's why decoding HD video doesn't brick your phone for a few minutes.\n\nGif files are also not generally optimized for animation. This is not to say you can't have stunningly smooth and hi-ress gif animations that aren't even all that large in file size, but your standard gif encoder won't do that for you. For instance you can create a gif animation by having full images per frame or only having the differences since the last key-frame(full image), the file size differences between these 2 options are quite big. Most software however will not automatically do this for you, so if someone for instance converts a bit of video footage to a gif format it might very well end up being a 5-10MB gif file, depending on length and pixel resolution. \n\nThen there is the delivery. When you go to a website the browser will download the page and then read the (more often then not) HTML code, in the HTML code there will be dozens of references to other files. So called CSS files, Javascript files and a bunch of images. One of those images might be the Gif file you want to see. But the browser doesn't know and doesn't really care and will lump it in with all the other images to download.\n\nHowever with video, in the case of say youtube there will be a reference to a flash application which is essentially the video player. This will trigger loading flash (on some phones) or ask you if you want to watch this video in a dedicated native youtube app. Either way, the loaded video application will then dedicate it's life to buffering that video for you. (or load ads, but let's not get into that) It's not going to wait for that nice background image to loaded or the icons on the side. \n\nWith HTML5 video's or just plain video files instead of flash video's it's essentially the same story but sans flash. A native video player will be loaded to handle the video file. \n\nI'll add though that the above is fairly dependant on the browser, different browsers will do things differently. \n\nHaving said all that I too sometimes wonder why even small gifs can take ages to load. But the above is why a HD video file can play much faster and smoother then a gif file.\n"
]
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| []
| [
[
"http://gfycat.com/about"
],
[],
[]
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|
||
3b0l1t | why do you get a strange feeling in your pelvic/abdominal region when going up and down hills in a car? what causes it? | (Also I think it feels good...) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3b0l1t/eli5_why_do_you_get_a_strange_feeling_in_your/ | {
"a_id": [
"cshtqzg"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"I wouldn't normally answer this because I don't know for sure, but for some reason all the other comments are irrelevant and downvoted to oblivion.\n\nI would assume that it's just your organs moving in response to the difference in gravity. When you go up or down a hill in a car, you're \"pulling Gs,\" effectively a very gentle version of what fighter pilots are doing when they pull extreme maneuvers. Your body is feeling either slightly more (if you're going up a hill) or slightly less (if you're going down one) than the force of gravity. I would guess that because these are unnatural motions (i.e. our body did not evolve to be familiar this sort of motion), we're very sensitive to them which is why you can feel them so clearly despite the fact that you're only weighing a tiny fraction more or less. If your body is used to feeling a very specific force on connective tissues in your gut (because the weight of your organs is something that wouldn't ever change at a noticeable rate), then it responds strongly when your liver suddenly weights a couple grams less."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
6bjxwp | william of orange. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bjxwp/eli5_william_of_orange/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhn9cf3"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"William of Orange's great grandfather, also named William but known as William the Silent lived during a period of dramatic change in Europe. It was the Protestant Reformation, and most of Northern Europe was converting, which resulted in massive political upheaval. \n\nWilliam the Silent inherited the principality of Orange from his uncle who required him to be educated as a Catholic (he was born to a Lutheran family) and he was educated by the Holy Roman Emperor and earned the trust of the Emperor's son, Phillip who would soon become King of Spain). \n\nBecause of their trust in him, William the Silent was named Philip's Steward (or *Stadtholder*) of the Netherlands (the Netherlands and Belgium were under the King of Spain at the time). Philip was more harsh to the protestants than his father had been, and because of their treatment and William the Silent's proximity to Dutch Politics he led a rebellion against Spain. \n\nEventually William the Silent was assassinated, and several of his sons became *stadtholders* of the Netherlands until the title fell to William of Orange's grandfather. \n\nBecause they retained their other title, the Principality of Orange, he retained the title of Prince, even as he was head of state of the Dutch Republic (note that due to the wars with Spain, he didn't always control Orange). "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
||
awlugz | solar cell's "band gap". | So, I realize this may be a little past the scope of a 5 year old, but I think it's more about the spirit of the subreddit.
I'm looking to get a layman's understanding of the "band gap" phenomenon that limits a solar cell's ability to obtain energy from wavelengths of light. I've got a basic grasp of the concept so far : basically, I know it's 1.) a thing that exists, and that 2.) it limits the efficiency of solar cells, somehow. It's got something to do with light wavelengths and electrons, yadda yadda. I'd love if someone could help me get a better grasp on it conceptually.
Thank you in advance! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/awlugz/eli5_solar_cells_band_gap/ | {
"a_id": [
"ehnh7p8"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Solar cells have a \"junction\" in them, its where a piece of silicon with a lot of electrons meets a piece with less than normal.\n\nEach side of this junction has a band of energies that the electrons are sitting at, but one side has them at a much lower energy which results in a gap between the bands if you graph it, hence the phrase band gap.\n\nThe band gap is going to be a specific voltage which depends how the cell was made. To make current flow you'll need a photon to come in with enough energy to kick the electron over this gap and to the other side. If the photon doesn't have enough energy then the electron can't cross over, if it has too much then its wasted the extra.\n\nThe band gap voltage is directly related to the frequency of light that will be turned into power. Higher band gap voltages are for bluer light, lower ones are for redder light. We generally target green light because that's where the sun's peak output is; but for fancier solar panels they'll have layers with multiple band gaps so you can capture blue, green, and red light rather than blue *or* green *or* red light."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
|
1d9nwp | how do cameras make things seem bigger than they are in real life without losing any quality? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1d9nwp/eli5_how_do_cameras_make_things_seem_bigger_than/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9obfcb"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Do you mean how a camera can take a photo of an apple that you can print out to be 2' by 2'? It all has to do with resolution. If you stand a few feet away from the Apple you won't be able to see as many details in that apple as your camera will from the same distance. The camera has a higher resolution and the ability t capture more minute to details in a larger area than your eyes/brain can. If you lean in close t the apple you'll be able to see all of those details, but not all at once. The camera's innate resolution allows it to get that closeup level of detail instantly for multiple areas. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3ql5cx | why are some people so bad/good at accents/mimicry? | I think I'm a passable mimic/accent imitator and it seems simple. You hear a manner of speaking and you imitate it. I wouldn't be able to explain to someone how, you just do it. So why can some people do it very well and why are some people really incredibly woeful at it? Is there an explanation for this apparent talent?
Edit: I suppose what I was looking g for was somebody with an understanding of linguistics or speech to explain some kind of link between heard speech and produced speech. It's a complex relationship involving distinct parts of the brain which is why you get weird conditions such as aphasia. I just wondering if there is any lingual or anthropological research on the subject. I'm not trying to be abstract. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ql5cx/eli5_why_are_some_people_so_badgood_at/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwg6ezi"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"A few factors I guess; longer exposure to a culture and it's habits, being a phonic learner, a generally good ability to pronounce words, and a solid understanding of different language structures. \n\nAn understanding language structure makes the difference between and accent and a racist accent. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
|
3n5fs7 | why do you need to stay warm when you are sick (have a cold) if your temperature rising is a bad thing? | I'm sick right now, why do I need to be bundled up! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3n5fs7/eli5_why_do_you_need_to_stay_warm_when_you_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvkyxds",
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"score": [
2,
2
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"text": [
"Temperature rising isn't necessarily a bad thing, and there is [some evidence](_URL_0_) that fevers help reduce the duration of colds and the like.\n\nPersonally it seems that way to me, but I'm OK with sweating it out having occasional showers to remove the stench.",
"Your temperature rising is not a bad thing, it's a result of your immune system attempting to destroy an infection. It's seen as a bad thing because a fever generally indicates illness, which *is* bad; but the fever itself is actually a good thing.\n\nOne benefit of a higher body temperature is that the heat can kill off many invading agents in itself. Bundling up and staying warm helps maintain your higher body temperature, thus assisting your body in destroying the infection."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever#Usefulness"
],
[]
]
|
|
1ejg9i | common-law marriages. are people who live together automatically common-law married? | This question refers to the United States and elsewhere. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ejg9i/eli5_commonlaw_marriages_are_people_who_live/ | {
"a_id": [
"ca0ttgb",
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"text": [
"[It depends on where you are](_URL_0_).",
"Short answer: no. \n\nLong answer: Not all states allow common law marriage; only a handful do anymore (see the [wiki link ameoba posted](_URL_0_) if you want to know which do). In those states, you generally have to meet the standard requirements for a statutory marriage (being old enough, legally allowed to enter into a contract, intent to marry, etc.) but you also must \"hold yourselves out\" as being married. That means you act as a married couple in a meaningful sense. This will typically include cohabitation (often for a prescribed period of time), shared finances/bank accounts, and/or shared responsibility for leasing/buying a home. The details vary by state."
]
} | []
| []
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage#United_States"
],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ejg9i/eli5_commonlaw_marriages_are_people_who_live/ca0ttgb"
]
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|
|
4uowlx | why do we use water for steam in turbine-based generators, such as with nuclear or coal power? why not use a liquid that evaporates at a lower temperature, like methanol? | Edit: or any substance with a lower evaporation point, really. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4uowlx/eli5_why_do_we_use_water_for_steam_in/ | {
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"text": [
"Water vapor has uniquely good heat capacity. You can make it super hot at high pressure, and then get almost all of that energy back through expansion. It is also completely safe. If there is a leak it sprays out into the air. Unless the hot stream burns you directly, if cools very quickly in air and poses no risk of fire/explosion. Super-heated methanol would be a huge fire risk.\n\nWater is also very low cost, even at high purity.",
"Mostly because the vast majority of the surface of this planet is covered in water, not methanol. This makes water *extremely* cost-effective. ",
"A lower boiling point doesnt make the generator any more efficient. Keep in mind that a liquid's poling point depends on temperature and pressure. Increase the pressure and boiling point goes up. The turbines require pressure to turn, which means you would still have to heat the liquid enough to create the pressure to turn which increases the boiling point.\n\nThe exact relationship between pressure and boiling point does depend on the material. I don't know if water is the best choice in this regard but it's one of the safest and cheapest to work with.",
"Now, that said, there are some turbine-driven heat engines that use things other than steam. I believe there was a project a while back to use solar heating to heat hydrogen and to use that instead of water/steam.\n\nThe hope was to get the hydrogen to as high a temperature as possible with limited input energy. Hotter turbine input fluid and colder turbine output fluid increases efficiency for complicated reasons (Google \"Carnot Efficiency\" if you want a rabbit hole) , so the hope was the increased temperatures and efficiency would offset the weirdness of using hydrogen rather than steam.\n\nEdit: here it ishttp://_URL_0_\n\nIt's not actually a turbine but it's still a heat engine. Oops"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"www.greenoptimistic.com/31-efficient-stirling-engines-used-to-convert-1-5mw-of-arizona-solar-power-20100102/#.V5eAM4r3bCQ"
]
]
|
|
1r26zb | does an engine use twice as much fuel at 4000 rpm than it does at 2000 rpm? | Thanks for all the reply's. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r26zb/eli5_does_an_engine_use_twice_as_much_fuel_at/ | {
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"text": [
"If the same amount of air (and therefore fuel) is drawn into the engine on each revolution, then yes.\n\nNow, imagine you're driving at 50mph, at 2000rpm. You shift down a couple of gears, so you're doing 4000rpm. If you maintain 50mph, the throttle won't be open quite as much as before. So each revolution will draw in less air, and will require less fuel. You'll use more fuel, yes - but not twice as much.",
"The short answer is no. It has to do with how much you've pressed the gas pedal.\n\nIt is a common misconception that x amount of fuel is used per revolution. This is false. Instead, it's directly related to how much you press the gas pedal, which opens the throttle. The throttle determines how much air is sucked into the engine. The carburetor or fuel injectors adjust the fuel amount based on the amount of air, not how fast the engine is spinning.\n\nIf you think about it, this makes sense. Say you rev your engine to 4000 rpm and take your foot off the gas pedal. If it used the same amount of fuel, you would never slow down to 2000 rpm (at least without load). When you take your foot off the gas pedal, the engine is still spinning, but the throttle is closed, and the fuel is cut.\n\n",
"Engines aren't equally efficient or powerful across their entire RPM ranges. So it's possible that an engine at 4000 RPM will use less fuel overall to maintain a given speed than the same engine at 2000 RPM, because at the higher RPM it's making more efficient use of the fuel."
]
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2u7978 | how would potential employers differentiate whether on not someone's social media account is mine when we have the same name?! | I'm applying to become a police officer and they do in depth background checks. One of the things they do is Google your name and look at any potential social media accounts of yours. When I Google'd my name a guy white guy (I am also a white guy) with the same name as me comes up. Keep in mind I have no social media profiles so this would be the only person to come up in my name. His twitter bio is "take away my booze and I lose at least 80% of my personality" need I say more?
How do I not let this guy fuck my future?
PS: I do not have a common name and we live in the same province!
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u7978/eli5_how_would_potential_employers_differentiate/ | {
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"If you have a common name, then hopefully they'll think of that. Or if you live in different locations (assuming he has a location listed) it should be clear. If your name is something like Streetlamp LeMoose that could be more problematic. Either way, you could probably call the hiring department about it or make a note of it on the most relevant part of the application.",
"You could create your own profile with info specific to you. But not too much info...just enough to show there are two different guys with the same name in the same province. ",
"Make your own account and just post pictures of you with kittens and ponies. Write your own bio and talk about your charity work in the community and how you want to serve by being a great police officer. ",
"Speak to the hiring manager:\n\n\"Because I know that part of the background check you do is to look at social media profiles, I Googled my own name the other day, and I found some other joker with my name. I want to assure you that that guy is not me, his actions are not mine, and so on. I don't have any social media accounts and I don't intend to create any.\""
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34zpzv | why do home air conditioners have to suck air from outside? why can't they suck air from inside and just make that air cold? | I just installed an AC window unit today. I have a better spot for it inside my apartment rather than the window that it's in.
Edit: Thank you all! Did not know about the exhaust and the dripping water. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34zpzv/eli5_why_do_home_air_conditioners_have_to_suck/ | {
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"Because they need to 'dump' the heat they removed somewhere. An Air conditioner takes in a flow of warm air, and turns it into a flow of cold air (that goes into your room) and a flow of hot air (that goes outdoors).",
"Nothing can 'make' cold, it can only put the heat elsewhere. Putting it outside is the most practical way to do it for home-use. Just thermodynamics; your fridge is also spewing out warm air to keep it cold inside. ",
"The purpose of the window is not to suck air in but so it has access to somewhere to dump the excess heat (or cold, in winter).\n\nYou fridge doesn't have a window but it still keeps things cold inside. It transfers the heat from inside the fridge to outside the fridge using special fluids, and then transfers that heat to the room via a radiator.\n\nA split-system air conditioner works the same way. Air doesn't flow between the inside and outside units, just the recirculating fluid.\n\nA window air conditioner is cheaper to build because it is all-in-one. The window isn't used to push air in and out. It is just a mounting point for the box, so that part of it can be inside the house and part of it can be outside.",
"They may take a little outside air for fresh air, but think of it as 2 halves. There are 2 coils. A compressor pumps refrigerant from the inside coil at a low, cold pressure. Your inside air blows over this. Heat is absorbed from the air into the cold refrigerant, pumped into the outside coil as a high pressure hot gas. The outside fan blows air over this removing the heat (from your house). It then goes through a metering device lowering the pressure and flashing it into a cold liquid and gas low pressure mix into the inside coil, heat is again absorbed from your house air, and back to the compressor to go around again.",
"It's best if we look at how an air conditioner works. Basically it has tubing and a compressor filled with some gas. The compressor pressurizes the gas. This creates heat. It then runs the gas through the tubes and as it depressurizes it cools. Once its depressurized and reached ambient temperature it goes back to the compressor and does it all again. There is a fan that blows over the cold piping and into your house and there is another fan that blows over the hot piping and outside. Most air conditioners aren't taking air in from outside and cooling and then pumping it into the house, they just need the hot side of the system to be outside. ",
"It's best to think of an a/c as moving heat from inside to the outside. The unit will cool the room without outside air, but the a/c would get hotter and hotter until it stops working properly because the heat has nowhere to go. The a/c sucks in outside air in order to blow it across the hot radiator fins in the back. That outside air cools them down enough to keep the system running. ",
"they you'll learn about humidity coolers and you'll be more confused.\n\nThey dont work that well though, and they can make things very humid.",
"They don't suck air from outside, the pull the air from inside, but the heat and moisture need to be dumped elsewhere.\n\nThey do make fully interior ac's. But it's more of a swamp cooler than a standard ac, and you need to add water to it.\n\n_URL_0_",
"They do pull the air from the inside. The heated air is removed with the humidity and sent to the outside by a condensor and fan. It is basically a window refrigerator.",
"Actually, i don't see this in here: Air conditioners DO pull air from inside and cool it down. but they cool it down by dumping the heat on the outside half. They heat the air outside, but the air that's coming back into your house IS the same air that is pulled from the inside.",
" > Why can't they suck air from inside and just make that air cold?\n\nThat's exactly how air conditioners operate--they take interior air and make it cold.\n\nThe reason the unit you're talking about needs to have access to outside air is the following--when it takes interior air and makes it cold, it has to put the resulting heat somewhere. That somewhere is outside. The refrigerant in the air conditioner absorbs heat from inside air and transfers it to the outside."
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3wv845 | if our stomach acid is strong enough to digest razor blades, why can't we digest corn? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wv845/eli5_if_our_stomach_acid_is_strong_enough_to/ | {
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"There's something in plants called cellulose. We know it as \"fiber.\" We can't digest all types of fiber. A lot of mammals have a thing called a coecum attached to their digestive tract, with bacteria inside, which digests the cellulose for them. Not an easy task for an animal, because it takes incredible amounts of energy to digest it yourself. That's why they employ bacteria.",
"Im taking biology 12 and we've covered a lot about the human body. Including digestion.\n\nBasically, there are different types of sugars. Carbohydrates can be derived from glucose and starch. The difference being that starch has less pathways than glycogen (glucose converts to glycogen in liver and is gradually released as glucose by the liver when sugar levels are low). \n\nGlucose has a 5 carbon based structure. It is the simplest type of sugar. There can be different types depending on the molecules present but all are basically saccharides (monosaccharide, disaccharide, etc).\n\nSo. Our digestive system can digest starch and glucose perfectly fine. Starch is the sugar found in plants, it is somewhat like what glycogen is to us. There is another structure in plants though called cellulose which cannot be digested. It's fibre. The very reason for this is due to its molecular composition.\n\nRemember. Glucose has a 5 carbon based hexagon shape. Connecting to other glucose to make glycogen creates those big pathways which are linked by peptide bonds which follow in a single link pattern. Think of 5 balls with a string attached to them. All strings are linking to each other consistently from the middle of the ball. \n\nCellulose, which corn has, is different in molecular structure. Instead of the strings being even and following the same chain pattern, the strings alternate. So one string would be on the top middle of the ball and another would connect with its string from the bottom middle.\n\n**This alternating state is the one and only reason we cannot digest cellulose**. Fibre is literally passing through us with little to no digestion done. Our peptin stomach enzymes can only mainly digest proteins. Sugars are generally done in the mouth via the salivary amylase but whatever isn't finished off can be done in the intestines. Fibre is helpful though and helps push wastes throughout the large intestine. Lack of fibre can cause trouble for the colon. It's like a truck pushing snow out of the roads. \n\nHopefully this makes sense. This section was a couple chapters ago as well so I'm jumping here and there but this is the gist of it. \n\nIt's the **molecular alternating structure** of cellulose. These alternating bonds make it difficult for our enzymes to digest.",
"Also, on a finer point, \"digestion\" of a razor blade doesn't mean that we can break one down into biologically useful units. It's just an illustration to point out that stomach Ph is very low and has the chemical capability to dissolve thin strips of metal. \n\nScale it up- ask if you can \"digest\" a battle axe- and it's somewhat less impressive of an illustration. \n\nUnknown_citizen has pretty much nailed it. \nOther than arrangement , cellulose is just like the table sugar in tea. The human body doesn't have the proper compliment of enzymes to break it down , so it passes through relatively undigested. ",
"Some metals are easy to dissolve in acid. But the cellulose in some plant parts does not break down in the acid we make.",
"How strong an acid is, is a measure of how easily it releases hydrogen ions into solution. A low pH (and therefore very acidic) means there are a lot of hydrogen ions floating around in solution.\n\nIn order for something to be destroyed by an acid, it needs to react with the hydrogen ions.\n\nNot everything reacts with hydrogen ions.",
" Well there are actually some interesting misconceptions that are widely held as true here, so maybe I can clear some up. So, in fact, the stomach does very little in the way of \"digestion. It's two primary purposes is to kill bacteria (though it can't kill all bacteria) and to store food that has been eaten. It does have some ancillary purposes of straightening out proteins, but largely it does the aforementioned. True digestion really happens in the small intestine. There, enzymes from the pancrease really start doing all the work. To say that the stomach can digest metal, is really just pointing out that the acid is strong enough to eventually dissolve metal. The problem is, during normal eating, metal would never stay in the stomach long enough and not enough factors would be released by the metal being in the stomach to drop the ph that low for that long. In fact, if you eat metal, you're gonna see that in the toilet same as the corn, good times :) ...as for the corn, the rest of the responses generally are right, except for the stomach digesting things, hope his helps :)",
"metal and acid is a classic chemical reaction. happens readily. Corn ain't no metal. corn is made of a bunch of stuff including cellulose, which is not broken up so easily by acid, needs a bunch of enzymes to do that, and the human body doesn't make them. Or at least not anything near what creatures like cows do"
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3l6b70 | how do braille signs tell people which button to press in emergencies? | e.g. In an elevator there is a bank of floor number buttons and a red emergency button. How would a blind person distinguish between them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l6b70/eli5_how_do_braille_signs_tell_people_which/ | {
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9elad9 | how does conversion of food into energy in our bodies work? how can ~500 grams of food sustain an ~80 kg human for approximately 6-8 hours? | Are our bodies that efficient? Or is there more energy in the food than it looks like there is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9elad9/eli5_how_does_conversion_of_food_into_energy_in/ | {
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"* It's like how a gallon of gas can move a 2000 pound car for 30 miles. Or it's like how a full glass of water just needs enough extra water added to account for evaporation. You aren't growing a whole human with the extra energy. All you're doing is accounting for the energy that was burned off.\n\nAs for 500 grams of food, if it was all simple carbohydrates, that's 2000 calories. That's plenty of calories, even for a 175 pound person. Human metabolism is slightly more energy efficient than a car engine. If you're talking about 500 grams including fiber and water weight, it would be less. \n\nAs for your main question of how does the conversion of food into energy work, [it works like this.](_URL_0_) The short version is you take food, break it down into smaller and smaller molecules so that the various parts of your cells can use them."
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