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1q09wz | what's the difference between race, ethnicity, and nationality? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q09wz/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_race_ethnicity/ | {
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"Your body determines race.\n\nYour history determines ethnicity.\n\nYour paperwork determines nationality."
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68r1lk | what would happen in the minutes, hours, and days following a nuclear attack? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68r1lk/eli5what_would_happen_in_the_minutes_hours_and/ | {
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"[Get a copy of Threads](_URL_0_) (which is also on youtube, although possibly not legally so I won't link it)\n\nThere have been countless studies into the effects post strike around the world. The most comprehensive British study was used to create the movie Threads, which is kinda the gold standard ELI5 for this (but takes 1:50 to watch so I won't repeat it here)\n\nIt's pretty fucking depressing. The ELI2 is that nuclear attacks are A Bad Thing and to be avoided",
"That depends on so many factors. It would take over 20 minutes before the first warnings to the first bomb lands. In addition it would require some checking and double checking to make sure this was a real attack. There would be no time to evacuate but citizens would be asked to take cover as best they could. There is very advanced missile defense systems which would be able to take out most of the nuclear missiles. The president would be given different options. Even if there is a first nuclear attack sending nuclear missiles back might not be the best option. Or at least limit the response to not be overly aggressive. Because of the vast distances of our planet and the difference readiness states of the missile systems a complete nuclear war would stretch out for hours.\n\nWhere the bombs have hit there will have been massive devastation. However the surrounding areas would not be that bad to begin with. Shock waves will get weaker the longer away from the center they are and will also be directed upwards into the atmosphere by buildings and hills. The radioactivity levels will not be deadly either. Modern bombs are designed to get as much energy as possible into making an explosion so any accidental isotopes is a failure in the bombs design. That is not to say there will be no radiation but it will not be as bad as some people might imagine. Going to the site of the Chernobyl reactor would be more dangerous then in the newly formed crater from a nuclear bomb.\n\nIf significant amount of warheads will have been detonated the added particles to the atmosphere would cause some problems. This can vary from radioactive downpoor to completely changed climate.",
"Depends if it's a single explosion in a shipping container in some coastal city or a full-scale bombardment between developed nations. \n\nThe full scale attack is simply... well... a whole different scale. A single sneaky terrorist action or a lucky tin-pot dictator could really devastate a big city with a fission bomb... but not destroy it. A full scale attack with the big-H mofos would end the world as we know it. (But not as much as it could between 1960 and 1990, we've simply gotten rid of a lot of nukes). Take a look at [The nuke map](_URL_0_) to get a sense of scale about how big various nuclear explosions are. \n\nOne fission bomb in LA:\n\nMinutes: The explosion is over. 10,000's dead, 100,000's injured. Lots of fire and smoke. Broken windows all the way across the city, but the fireball doesn't reach downtown. People probably think it's an earthquake in Santa Monica, but there are enough cellphones running at any given time around L.A. that it's on the news with video. Everyone knows what a mushroom cloud means.\n\nHours: The resulting fires are probably a problem. Likewise radiation. Fallout, radioactive dust and ash, rains down and makes trouble for a good portion of LA. There's likely panic and L.A. traffic actually manages to get worse. Look at the newsfeeds right after the 9/11 attacks if you want to get a sense for how the media reacts to tragedy. Things will be politically \"tense\". \n\nDays: The fires are probably out. The panic is likely STILL a problem. FEMA is likely tripping over itself to try and organize relief. By now the humanitarian issues like water, food, and medical aid are a problem, but the rest of the nation will step up and help out. We get to see a lot of people die of radiation sickness. We've probably invaded or bombed somewhere by now. \n\nFull scale nuclear attack:\n\nA lot like the single bomb, but most people in most cities are dead or doomed. Fallout is a big problem for nearly everyone, even out in the wilderness. There is no aid or organized relief effort because that got bombed too. There's little to no infrastructure remaining. Life... doesn't end. There simply aren't enough bombs to blanket the WHOLE world. The resulting nuclear winter, from the soot blacking out the sun, would spell bad times for everyone though, but that's months to years afterwards. \n\nIt's a world-ending event. Not to be taken lightly. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"
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4aag98 | why is it beneficial to buy your own modem and router? | Whenever the Wi-Fi starts being slow in my house and I complain to the ISP, they always assume it is a problem with the modem/router. Does buying a new modem legitimately help you get better speeds? Are there any downsides to doing this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4aag98/eli5_why_is_it_beneficial_to_buy_your_own_modem/ | {
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"Well besides not paying monthly fees to rent equipment from your ISP, yes, equipment you buy is probably going to be better than the stuff your ISP provides. There's no real way for anyone to know that without seeing that equipment, but WiFi standards have changed quite a bit even in the last few years, so that alone might be a significant upgrade. ",
"You rarely need to change your modem or router, and they're not very expensive. What's more, they're generally not specific to any Internet Service Provider. Rental fees for modems and routers are a terrible deal for consumers.\n\nAdditionally I recommend you invest in Ethernet cables, though. If you want speed, it's a little silly to rely on easily disrupted Wi-Fi in your own home.",
"Aside from the fees, and the fact that long term it's cheaper to own your own...\n\nHow much do you trust your ISP and *all* its employees in a position to know how to remotely control your equipment? I like not having to presume that my equipment has a widely known backdoor built into it.",
"WiFi is only one of the many functions performed by a home router, and I don't understand why folks go to the trouble and expense of replacing the whole router for a WiFi problem. You can replace or augment the WiFi only. Example: I have a TP-Link powerline adapter set that provides an extra WiFI access point (and 2x Ethernet ports) upstairs in the house. The ISP-provided router is still in place and working downstairs at the same time, we just have 2x WiFi networks in the house. ",
"The ones from the ISP are usually cheap, but you pay to rent them and they aren't very good. By purchasing you're own, you may get more features and better control over things that matter to you. For most people, the supplied router and modem is absolutely fine, but for people with big houses who may want a more complicated wifi network, it's better to have your own router that allows you to do everything you want to do. "
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4aj1ii | how can rural areas sell gas at a cheaper price than in densely populated areas (despite higher cost of transport)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4aj1ii/eli5_how_can_rural_areas_sell_gas_at_a_cheaper/ | {
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"The cost of operating the station are higher in urban settings:\n\n1. real estate costs.\n2. labor costs.\n3. sometimes delivery costs, storage volumes requiring more frequent resupply and so on.\n4. urban areas are more likely to have additional taxation on gasoline, as well has higher sales tax (you'll note that gasoline prices are always advertised inclusive of taxation, unlike many products).\n\nThose are all rational. There is also the \"what the market will bear\" consideration. There is also the \"what are people will to pay\", and those forces can vary greatly based on where other stations are located, the uniqueness of your location (are you right near the rental car return place?) and so on. You'll see more variety of that uniqueness in a heavily populated area.",
"Additionally to bguy74 post, the other big thing that influences the price of gasoline is taxes. The reason California has the highest gas prices in the US is almost entirely because of all the extra tax they put on gas sales.\n\nOften times cities will apply their own gas tax and thus gas station that are outside the official city limits will have cheaper gas. ",
"The cost of land. Land in rural areas is relatively cheap because the alternative to selling the land to someone is something like growing grass for cows to eat. In a city, there are lots of alternative uses for a plot of land: stores, offices, housing, etc. They all want to be close to each other because there is a lot of value in being near customers, near other businesses, near where you work. The higher price of land means that the gas station will have a higher mortgage payment which means that they have to have a higher markup relative to the wholesale price of gasoline.",
"In Canada I've noticed the opposite, the farther out from a major city center you get, the more expensive gas will become."
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2hm6nt | what is it about denmark that consistently puts them at the top of the "happiest people on earth" list? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hm6nt/eli5_what_is_it_about_denmark_that_consistently/ | {
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"Well, to begin with - they are a society with high trust and where there are lots of equality everywhere (small wage gap etc). This creates a high standards of living where people there are very communal where people there are **very** relaxed. Like they'd only work between 9-5 everyday and everything closes after - even the shops in the main street. No overtime or anything, and everyone gets paid a fair wage. \n\n\nOh, and the government takes care of the society very much, great benefits, free healthcare, free education, free everything. Of course it comes with a high price, in terms of taxes (where Danes are taxed the highest in the world) - but the people are very trusting to the govt. If you were to give birth there, both the mom (and dad) gets a combined one year maternity leave to ensure that the kid gets adequate attention and care from the parents. :)\n\n\nSource: I lived there for a bit and it's an awesome country. :)",
"Dane here. I sometimes wonder if we just lie when asked because everybody seems pretty grumpy. \n\nThe thing is that the survey isnt about being the most happy people. It is more about having the least amount of people being in a really bad position. We have social security and free healthcare so you cant really fuck up your life completely. (Unless you are really unlucky). ",
"I think that along with other things mentioned in this thread, there is a cultural thing that plays a role.\nIn Denmark its often not ok, not to be ok. (Since the state ect. does so much). So people tend to answer better, than may be tottaly true, to these sort of questions. Even to friends ect.\nSource: Im Danish.",
"I don't really know. I was born and raised in Denmark and have lived there my entire life and honestly, I'd rather live in Canada. A lot of people seem to paint a pink picture of Denmark. A lot of it is true but there are things here and there that can be deal breakers when it comes to living in Denmark.\n\nFor instance, you do NOT get free healthcare even as a Danish citizen, if you live outside of Denmark. Many students move to Sweden at the border and then travel to and from their university in Denmark. If you do not live in Denmark and don't work a certain amount of hours every week then you won't have access to the free healthcare even as a Danish citizen.\n\nA lot of electronics aren't available in Denmark either. Which means you might want to buy them from America but the government takes 25% of your purchases price on top of the ~40% monthly tax on your salary.\nAlso did I mention apartments and houses are insanely expensive? In fact everything is expensive in Denmark.\n\nAlso the infrastructure isn't great at all. Frequent delays on the \"Kystbanen\" as well as daily traffic jams on the Køgebugt highway and other places because the roads aren't wide enough.\n\nAlso good luck trying to meet new friends outside of school in Denmark. The stereotype of Scandinavians being \"cold\" is definitely real and something you'll have to experience for yourself.",
"We actually covered this topic in sprogskole (free Danish language school provided by the government for all newly arrived people) a while ago, so here's a rough explanation:\n\nAside from the high consumption of anti-depressants in the country *ahem* there's this thing called hygge. It doesn't really have a literal translation but it's to do with closeness and coziness of being 'together' with friends and family, creating a warm friendly atmosphere. Maybe enjoying food and definitely enjoying alcohol together while avoiding the dark, grey weather in the few hours of daylight in the winter or enjoying a glass or two of beer outside on the long summer nights.\n\nIt's mostly about appreciating what you've got and being able to enjoy it with people you care about. \n\nAs a foreigner it took a while to get my head around this thing, which is really lacking back home in England. Christmas time is the best example I can give (in my new family at least). There's meals that take hours with many increasingly drunken toasts, singing and dancing around the Christmas tree and people generally having fun just being together. The gifts are almost a side thought. \n\nI should also probably mention the hard stance taken on work life balance here. For office workers; you work during work hours and then you relax and spend time doing what you want to do. There's no staying past 4pm to impress the boss or whatever, you'll probably just be asked if there's something wrong at home. And of course there's the healthcare, recycling, amazingly reasonable and incredibly reliable public transport...\n\nIt's a pretty long list of great things about this country, despite the long winter nights and grey winter days. I'll have been living here 3 years next month and I don't want to leave :)\n",
"I'm from Denmark, and I guess my perspective on this is a little different from most Danes.\n\nThe survey that once named us the happiest people on earth has taken off like a rocket. When I was getting off a plane at the airport today, there was a giant poster that said \"Welcome to the happiest nation on earth!\" (And then celebrate with a Carlsberg).\nThis pretty much sums up what I hate most about Danes in general. I respect that people may have different views or have met different people, but the Danes as a people are incredibly full of themselves.\nThis is apparent mostly in the way we treat immigrants from the middle east. Unconsciously, they're regarded as a lesser people by many - and though it's not open racism, it's an underlying atmosphere most places.\n\nOver the last couple of decades, so much of the solidarity that built this country has been lost. The younger generation don't even know what a union is, and they're handed everything on silver plates. The tough reality of life is slowly seeping into the minds of the younger people and we're creating an egocentric generation that will eventually tear the foundation that the country is built on from the land.\n\nFor this not to be a rant about Danish youth, I'll add that people here are generally MUCH less open and interested in you than almost any other people in the world. Canadians and americans for example wouldn't find it overly weird to start a conversation with a stranger at a bus stop, but here, you're regarded as a maniac if you do.\n\nI love the social system here, but so many people have said that, I wanted to share the shadowside also. These debates seem to be honey to the very fullofthemselves danish bees around which they revolve.",
"Professor of Economics Christian Bjørnskov from Aarhus Business School cites the major reason as cultural. \n\n > “The happiness surveys normally ask people to evaluate their lives. Research show what makes the Danes so happy is that they are very trusting of other people they don’t know. Trust helps make people happy.\"\n\nHe also cited survey data showing that when asked the question:\n\n\"Can other people generally be trusted?\"\n\n70% of Danes said yes, compared to only about 40% in the U.S. This attitude holds through multiple generations even for Danish immigrants in other countries. \n\nHe does not put much faith in the assumption that their happiness is caused by a large Welfare State (at the cost of very high taxation). Such things are not chosen or earned, therefore people simply adjust their expectations of said things very quickly. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nI would also be extremely curious to see the happiness survey data for Danes in Denmark compared to the data for Danes living outside of Denmark. If the 'happiness' follows the Danes wherever they go, then it would lend support to the cultural explanation and disprove the Political Structure explanation. ",
"How does one achieve Danish citizenship?",
"Living in south of sweden, 30 min trip from Denmark, I would say it's because danes don't feel ashamed to do what they want. Beer for lunch? Sure! Smoke indoors? It's fine! End work early on a friday? Yeah, we have done enough this week.. and so on",
"60 Minutes had a pretty funny segment on it, and they pretty much concluded, that danes has a low expectation of life. Denmark is the happiest place on earth because we (yes we) are content with \"mediocre\" lives. Which you can see in many parts of the society as mentioned by other comments. Danes go home early from work, gladly pay high taxes, has a small gap between rich and poor. Which in return gives a big middle class but little strive for excellence or that special snowflake life that is sought out by many Americans. I don't know if this is true. Maybe it is just about the hygge :)",
"As a Dane, I'd like to add that the Danes are also the people in the world that eats most anti-depressive medicine...\n\nBut to elaborate, the Danes are very obedient towards authority, and if Doctors say this is what you should do, the Danes will do it without much questioning. \n\n\n",
"Reading comments, and as a Dane, the concept of \"hygge\" is debated here. And it is insinuated, and also believed by Danes, to be some mystical state of bliss noone else has come across.\n\nWell...no.\n\nThe thing is, the English language has maybe ten times more words in it than the danish one does. \n\nSo, an english would explain a comfortable social evening as cozy or laid back if that was the case . Of if it had been benign debate, passionate. The english would specify the mood, whereas the Dane would just put this big mark ontop of the evening and call it \"hygge\".\n\nBasically, any event where no shit hit any fan, is described by Danes as \"Hygge\".\n\nAnd that's the humour in these discussions, the concept is not understood or can't be pinpointed by foreigners, because they look for a very specific mood that this foreign word describes, while the term is a generalisation of all pleasant social interaction. And the Danes think they have something that noone else has.",
"They probably aren't terrified of their police force, people who graduate college actually *get* jobs for their efforts, and aren't buried in student loan debt. The cost of living is reasonable enough, the people aren't shitty to eachother, etc.\n\n\nAll of these things are just guesses based on the thread title, I wouldn't be surprised if they were true.",
"(1) Ethnic homogeneity = domestic peace\n(2) Political Irrelevance = international peace",
"An American here, who lived in Denmark for 7 years. Two things occur to me that I don't think got mentioned.\n \n1 Local government has considerably more spending power than it's equivalent in the US. The net result being, more specific needs can be met region by region, and there is not as big a pile of money in the centralized government for someone to exploit.\n\n 2 Danish culture tends to roll with things. Even historically, looking at the reformation, something that was tearing Europe a part at the time, but in Denmark, people basically showed up the next Sunday and accepted that all the churches were now Lutheran.\n\n Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but this was part of my understanding of 'what makes Danes tick'.",
"Having lived and worked there for a time, a combination of:\n\n1. Saying everything is fine when they don't really feel that way.\n\n1. Rampant, Olympic-level alcoholism.",
"While I don't doubt Denmark's system is great for the citizens, here's the thing.\n\nDenmark, a member of NATO, has only 26000 active military personnel. Denmark, essentially, pays next to nothing for their military. While the USA's direct contribution to NATO is minimal, its existence means that no NATO member is obliged to develop their military.\n\nIn essence, the USA's taxpayers, by funding the USA's overdeveloped military (4.5% of USA GDP), are subsidizing social services for Denmark and every other NATO country.\n\nI wouldn't get used to it. The USA is careening toward bankruptcy, after which both direct NATO funding, and military expenditures will shrink, possibly to zero.\n",
"there's some evidence that suggests a dna variant in people whose ancestry is closely related to denmark improves serotonin reuptake (and thus mood).",
"A fine balance of good food and western european living standards without the insane prices of for example Norway and **COPIOUS** amounts of alcohol. ",
"LIES! True Korea is happiest! 100% happy all the time!",
"Have you met any Danes? They're fabulous people. Very relaxed and open. I guess the liberty and benefits of the country make that so.",
"24/7 possibility to buy beer and sausages.",
"What if the reason Denmark is happiest is not because it is very happy but because the other countries are just not as happy? What if Denmark is just the least sad?",
"If you count all the things US citizens pay for out of pocket [including profit for the providers,think health care etc] our \"tax\" rate is nearly the same as the \"high tax\" countries\n",
"They keep making monuments and wonders in each city."
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255umi | what happens to old cellphones when you upgrade or trade in? | Most cell providers offer trade in specials where they will buy your old device from you, and offer you a discount on a new device. What happens to that old device? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/255umi/eli5what_happens_to_old_cellphones_when_you/ | {
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"Probably sold to scrap dealers (most likely in China and India), who will harvest the metals (silver, gold, zinc, mercury, copper, and rare earth metals) found in the circuitry and junk the rest.\n\nOr it just goes to the nearest landfill."
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d7wvcn | what makes the sunlight appear more yellow while it's rising/setting (golden hour) and more blue during the day? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d7wvcn/eli5_what_makes_the_sunlight_appear_more_yellow/ | {
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"The earths atmosphere scatters the sunlight as it passes through (rayleigh scattering). The higher frequency colors (blue) will be more strongly scattered. The sky is blue, since you are seeing the scattered blue light rays from the light passing through it. If you watch a sunset/rise, the suns rays have to pass through more atmosphere on their way, causing them to lose more higher freq. colors, leaving only red/yellow light.",
"The atmosphere.\n\nWhile we tend to think of air as nothing, it is actually made up of matter, like anything else.\n\nDuring the day, the light from the sun hits the air, refracting it into different colors and scattering those colors around.\n\nAt the height of noon, there is less air for the light to travel to get to you, and you see mostly the blue light spread out.\n\nIn the morning and evening, you see more yellows and oranges.\n\nAnd when there is a high pressure system at the right times, the sunlight can appear red.\n\nThis is where the sailor's adage \"Red sky at morning, sailors take warning, red sky at night, sailor's delight\" comes from.",
"You are looking for Rayleigh scattering. As light passes through the air light is scattered. Different wavelengths (colors) are scattered with different intensity, blue light is scattered more than yellow light. Therefore more of the blue light is filtered from the sun if the angle you are looking at is shallower. (Because the distance light travels through air gets higher with shallower angles.)"
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drmgvf | why are people afraid of sharing how much money they make or have? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/drmgvf/eli5_why_are_people_afraid_of_sharing_how_much/ | {
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"This is not quite an economics question, but I'll bite.\n\nKeeping your finances vague allows you to signal different amounts to different people. You want any potential solicitors, burglars and your boss to consider you poorer than you are, for obvious reasons. On the other hand, you would like your potential mate(s) and your bank to consider you more rich than you actually are. You also want to seem adequately wealthy for your friend group to keep up with them, but not be constantly asked for some money.\n\nOf course, there are other reasons, but I believe you can sum them up as \"different social groups would like to see their members at a certain level of wealth, so keeping it vague allows you to blend in.\"",
"They are afraid that sharing this information will negatively impact the relationship they have with the people who learn it. Maybe friends that make less will be jealous, or expect them to pay a bigger share of the bar tab. Maybe friends that make more will start to take pity on them. Maybe potential romantic partners will start to love their money more than their other characteristics.\n\nIt opens a whole can of worms, that usually doesn't need to be opened."
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8rjcww | can any one explain r-value of insulation, like what i'd lose if i used r-19 instead of r21? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8rjcww/eli5_can_any_one_explain_rvalue_of_insulation/ | {
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"The R-value describes how good the isolation is. \n\nThe formula is (T1-T2)/R*surface area = amount of heat lost per hour.\n\nFrom that, we can conclude that R-21 let's through about 10% less heat than R-19.",
"Heat will leak out of your house at a certain rate with R-19 insulation when it's 19° colder outside. If you used R-21 insulation instead, it would need to be 21° colder outside than inside to lose heat at the same rate. Using R-21 gives you the same heating bill with weather 2° colder than with R-19."
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26mkve | what stops me from taking free college courses by just walking in, sitting down, and taking notes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26mkve/eli5_what_stops_me_from_taking_free_college/ | {
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"Not a whole lot, but your paying for the degree, not the classes.",
"If you want to learn for learning's sake great, but there are other available avenues that aren't as time consuming plus you won't get college credit for just showing up.",
"All the others have pretty much nailed it. Just chiming in to point out that there's a name for this: it's called [auditing](_URL_0_) a course. No grade, no credit, no diploma, but you attend the lectures. If you talk to the professor, you can probably get on his/her list for email alerts, online notes, etc. as well.",
"eventually the reason why your name is nowhere on the college administration system will be a major pointer",
"All the most enjoyable classes I took in college were small enough that the professor knew who each student was. Only would work reliably in a large lecture, small lecture is iffy, seminar style courses you should get found out if the professor is any good at all.",
"Back in the 1960s, there was a TV sitcom called \"Hank,\" whose title character was a university lunch wagon operator who wanted a college education. So he collected information on students, and when he learned that some student was sick or away for a few days, he would make himself up as the student and sit in on that student's classes.\n\nI don't recall that they ever quite explained how he thought that sitting in on a few random classes for a few days would qualify as a college education, but I seem to recall that in the finale, he was unmasked as an imposter, and instead of having him arrested, the college president, impressed with his moxie, gave him a diploma. Or a scholarship, something like that.\n\nI'm *not* making this up, you know...\n\n"
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2wy9ci | how can manufacturers fit 64gb of memory into a micro sd card easily, yet pc ram is many times larger and holds less? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wy9ci/eli5_how_can_manufacturers_fit_64gb_of_memory/ | {
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"Because RAM does not aim to store massive amounts of data, it aims to be fast. RAM reads and writes about 100 times faster than an SD cad can.\n\nThe two memory types are used for entirely different tasks, so they are designed with different priorities.",
"Completely different technology and capabilities designed for different uses. SD cards are long term storage, RAM is temporary. SD cards are cheap. RAM is MUCH faster than SD cards. As a result, RAM is used by a computer when it is running (Lotsa data sticks around for microseconds) and SD cards are used to store stuff for long periods of time (Data stays around for hours to years).",
"Because even though they sound similar, you are still comparing apples to oranges. RAM is not ment for long term storage (in most cases). It is used to hold information for the processor. It changes information rapidly as each process is made.\n\nThe micro SD card is a storage device, but it is permanent storage. It is does not have the same architecture as RAM. \n\nBasically your SD card is designed for slower permanent storage. So it is made to hold large amounts of data. RAM is designed to communicate information (bits) at a very rapid rate."
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1nu355 | why do people go crazy over reddit gold when they get it? | ELI5: Why do people go crazy over reddit gold when they get it? isn't it just a virtual pad on the back? is it kind of like the thing with birthday wishes or likes on facebook? Random Goldmember explain yourself! :) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nu355/eli5_why_do_people_go_crazy_over_reddit_gold_when/ | {
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"It shows that someone liked the comment so much, the spent actual real-world money on showing their appreciation. For the internet, that's a pretty big deal, so people like to say thank you emphatically.",
"I can't remember the term neither in English or in Danish, but the term explains the act when something is worth something solely because no one else has it.\n\nReddit Gold is also a Social Currency (direct translation - don't know the actual term in English). It's not really worth anything, but it's worth something BECAUSE we agree it's worth something.\n\nAmong the jock a High Social Currency might being able to toss a ball a long way, whereas amongst the D & D's it might be awesome to be Gamemaster.\n\nOn Reddit upvotes are Social Currency. It's the way we tell each other that we agree or not. That we like the comment or not. An upvote is someone saying \"I agree with this comment\" or \"This is important and others should see this\".\n\nReddit Gold is the ultimate Upvote it's someone saying not only do I agree or find the funny or noteworthy, I do it so much that I would like to give you an actual gift. Congrats.\n\nYou can also buy Reddit Gold, but in my opinion that's like taking a hot hooker to the prom. She might be the most beautiful woman in the room, but she's still only there because you paid. You didn't ear her.\n\nAnd as to my thought on Reddit Gold itself. Had it 3 separate months I think, not that impressive."
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56k4j9 | how does google know how fast traffic is going live on every street all over the country? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56k4j9/eli5_how_does_google_know_how_fast_traffic_is/ | {
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"This is what you get when you don't read all the service agreements and boilerplate text when you sign up for stuff. \n\nUnless you specifically say no, your phone is sending data back to Google or your phone manufacturer; where you are, how fast you're travelling. It uses this data in real time to update map data; if google maps shows the road ahead is moving really slow, its because other people's phones in those areas are moving slow. \n\nedit: my wording implied I had issue with this. Not at all, its a great service. My point was a lot of people don't realize that when you setup a new phone and some service asks to use your - in this example, GPS - data, its for purposes exactly like this. ",
"They're tracking the speed of all of the android phones on the roads. They see that a lot of people on the freeway have slowed down to 30mph when they're usually going 70, so they know there's heavy traffic, and that that traffic is going 30mph. ",
"Your phone is periodically sending location data to Google. Google crunches the numbers to figure out the average speed traffic is moving on that road. Since a large number of phones are either Android or using Google Maps, they have a lot of data points. Also, for major roads, many cities have some system to keep tabs on traffic for traffic reports, Google takes that data into account as well.",
"For one, Google uses a lot of data like accidents and slow traffic from their crowdsourced navigation app Waze. But also from just android phones in general. ",
"They also pull data from local traffic management systems as well as using your phone as everyone else has mentioned. ",
"In short you tell, when you use google maps.\n\nYou are looking at traffic on google maps.\nGoogle is looking at you, how you are moving. Plus a billion others\n\nalso,\n_URL_0_?\n",
"They pull data from Waze which does social sat nav way better. They can do this for free because they own waze now.",
"I work as an engineer in the transport sector. Google does use Google Now data, however the main signal are the road loop detectors, they are at all traffic lights and usually spaced reasonably close together on major highways. This data is purchased by google to provide traffic occupancy. A great example of this is where an accident occurs, the loops will show traffic flowing even when the entire highway is stopped behind an accident.",
"Google owns waze. Waze is a community of users that share all of that data with each other. ",
"To add to what others have said which is correct, yours & the phones of others don't need to send data. Imagine you drive along a highway, the phone in your car is going to connect to a new tower every few miles for better signal. When you know where the towers are form a [map like this](_URL_0_)\nyou can guess that someone who passed some towers in a specific order and is on a specific road. And you do this with every mobile phone. So if suddenly all the cars take a lot longer to get from one tower to the next you can deduct that there is a traffic problem. \n\n",
"Android phones are sending anonymous location data to them. Basically, they don't know that you're at that spot. They know that someone is at that spot. With the number of smartphones, that'd enough for accurate traffic data. \n\nEdit: Since people are asking, I should probably clarify. I think Apple phones also send traffic data if you install Google Maps and opt in. I'm not sure, as I exclusively use Android phones. ",
"It uses gps signal from everyone using Google maps to calculate if the cars are going through a pls e faster or slower than normal",
"As was already explained, it's all about data collected from connected devices. Most of which, people aren't even aware of.\nIf you haven't seen it, check out [The Human Face of Big Data](_URL_0_). It explains a lot of how that data becomes something useful. It's a bit scary, but very cool at the same time.",
"The last person in front of you is telling you how the traffic is going using their speed through the street and you are correcting that traffic information with your speed through that same street all through using Google Maps. All over the world, people use Google Maps.",
"No one seems to mention that google owns Waze. They get a majority of their traffic information from user reports on Waze",
"I'm totally offering a lot to the conversation right now but I was just wondering this myself yesterday!",
"They also source a lot of information from the Waze GPS app, which has ways for people to report traffic, accidents, closures and slowdowns etc. They both use the same data.",
"Sometimes I laugh when people share that tired article, that the government is going to require every person to get a tubelike RFID tag.\n\nWhat you have is billions of phones spewing tons of location data (GPS and tower triangulation), whether you location is on or not. \n\nThat combined with accident data, road sensors, road cameras, etc a pretty good live picture of what you are doing, where you are going and how fast you are traveling, can be gathered in real time.\n\nCombine that with the fact that most cars now spew out location, speed, and condition data on a regular basis, in addition to the various sensors, this data just keeps getting better and more accurate.\n\nSo your answer is we are all tracked via our cars, cellphones, etc in real time whether we are aware of it or not. This in turn powers a huge network of data that is pooled together to provide live updates to your Google maps, Waze, or whatever else you use that is powered by Google.\n\nThis is the power of big data. I hear people complain that Windows 10 tracks some of your activity, but I rarely hear people do the same complaints about their phone. (it tracks what you say, what you do, where you go, what you pick up, what you look up, what you record, etc all the time everywhere you go), not to mention your TV, etc do exactly the same thing. \nThose people say well it is my computer I paid for it and I don't want people knowing what personal files I have. Those same people use online storage, the internet, and download their applications/updates to those same applications. It does not take Microsoft telemetry (which by the way is replacing testers) to know your personal secret stuff. It just takes you going about your life day by day to share that info.\n\nWelcome to the digital age of big data, big brother, etc.\n\nThe only part left is connecting us all via a virtual/augmented world and a series of human/electronic interfaces for the most amazing gaming experiences, or to update learning and general survival. ",
"Some municipalities have radio-based traffic updates. [This article](_URL_0_) gives some information on how they work to deliver traffic updates. Google may be using these resources compared to your phone's GPS position and your projected route to provide the traffic updates.",
"Because every single device in the world with GPS has its movement monitored constantly. Got a smart phone? Any big business/government in the world could monitor your movements 24/7.\n\nSleep well!",
"In the uk from a mixture of phone data and there are boxes on bridges run by companies that sell the data to google, and from councils and government who can collect data from the traffic sensors. Tomtom and the like also buy this data. "
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3egcmi | why do some countries only have presidents or prime ministers, but some countries have both? and those that have both, why is it that in some places the president is more powerful (e.g. france) and in others the prime minister is more powerful (e.g. germany)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3egcmi/eli5_why_do_some_countries_only_have_presidents/ | {
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"It's just that the different charters of government of the various countries give different powers to these offices.\n\nSome countries use the role of president to be a \"head of state\" who has a mostly ceremonial role and has little power over policy. Germany falls closer to this end of the spectrum than France, which is why you hear so much more about Angela Merkel than Joachim Gauck. Under the French constitution, the president has much more formal power.\n\nThe historical reasons for why France has a strong presidency and Germany has a weak one are complicated, but ultimately its about the decisions leaders have made in both countries about how best to form and manage a government.",
"Broadly speaking, there are two main types of government systems, parliamentary and presidential. There's a lot of variation within those types, and some countries don't really fit into either, but most countries do.\n\nIn a presidential system the president is the head of state and the head of government. They are the ceremonial leader of the country as well as being in charge of actually running the country.\n\nIn a parliamentary system, parliament picks a prime minister (or equivalent) who runs the country, but they have a separate head of state who had limited powers.\n\nSome parliamentary countries have a monarchy, so the monarch is the head of state. But others have a president who is either elected or appointed by parliament. Either way, their role is fairly similar.\n\nFrance is one of the countries that is somewhere in between the two. It has a semi-presidential system. So the President has quite a lot of power, but there is also a PM who is in charge of various aspects of running the country.",
"In my view it all boils down to the question of control and the separation of powers as identified by Montesquieu.\n\nIn most presidential systems the president has an own democratic mandate and is directly elected by the people. Most presidents therefore cannot be send packing by the legislator in case it disapproves of his or her politics. That is also why in presidential systems presidents can remain in office even though they have tremendously low popularity ratings or are faced with a legislator in which the majority of parliamentarians do not approve of the president and his government and want a different. \n\nThis would be unthinkable in a parliamentary system because in such a system the executive (government) and legislative (parliament) branches are much more intertwined. In these systems the executive can only govern as long as parliament is confident it will do so properly. Parliamentarians are elected (in)directly by the people. The government (including the prime minister) is not elected although in some systems (for example the UK) ministers can be parliamentarians as well. Instead, after the elections a government is formed that will have sufficient support in parliament to govern meaning it has to be supported by at least a majority of the parliamentarians. Depending on the electoral system there are either only two parties (first past the post) in parliament or multiple ones (proportional representation). If there are only two major parties (for example the UK) the government will usually be made up of people from the majority party. After all, such a government can automatically count on a majority in parliament. If there are multiple parties (for example, Germany, the Netherlands) then there is usually a coalition of parties, the prime minister being supplied by the biggest party. If a majority in parliament no longer has confidence in the government - for example because of extremely low popularity ratings - it can force it to resign. Usually this means new elections will be held after which a new government will be formed. This is also why the concept of a 'confidence' vote exists in most parliamentary systems. The government can ask parliament to express its confidence in the government through a vote. If it has insufficient votes the government will resign. Governments may sometimes strategically call for such a vote or indicate to parliament that it will consider a vote on a certain matter, for example a bill, a confidence vote. Failure to pass the bill will in such a case result in the government resigning. Given all the hassle this creates parliamentarians might think twice about their vote.\n\nThat leaves the question of why some countries have parliamentary systems whereas others have presidential systems. A new country started from scratch could, of course, choose any system it likes. I could be wrong but as far as I know there is no specific favourite in case of new countries and it depends on many factors which system is chosen. Some new countries have a parliamentary system (Kosovo) others a presidential system (South-Sudan) or even a mix (semi-presidential) (Timor-Leste).\n\nIt does not happen very often that a new country comes into being. For most older countries the answer depends on history. Historically – in Europe at least – all three branches of Government were usually concentrated in one person: the king. The king was also head of state and head of government. Over time parliaments were created made up of representatives of the people. Initially only to advise the king but as time passed the powers of parliament increased (meaning the powers of the king decreased). In the end in most countries the king was left with little to no real powers and all that remained was the ceremonial role of head of state. Various European countries that used to be ruled by kings therefore have a parliamentary system where the king is only head of state (for example the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Spain). Some European countries in the end disposed of their king entirely and made a president head of state. Because parliament was used to the powers it had over government the parliamentary system remained in place, however (for example Greece and Germany). \n\nPlease note that this is a simplification and generalisation of a lot of matters (for example, it does not explain why France – that used to have a king - has a semi-presidential system) but hopefully it is of some help to you."
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2bi4nw | what is the explanation behind the phrase 'peace is not profitable'? | I'm not necessarily looking to start an ideological debate, but I've always been confused by the this phrase whenever people are talking about why the US has been at war for so long.
Don't get me wrong, I am very much anti-war, but you'd think that if a country wasn't spending so much on war, they could use that money for much more important things. Who exactly is 'profiting' from war?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bi4nw/eli5_what_is_the_explanation_behind_the_phrase/ | {
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"Countries participating in a war have to free up a tremendous amount of capital to fund the war effort. They divert savings or borrow to build factories, create stockpiles of food and armament for soldiers, mass-produce vehicles, and so on. And funding a war takes a LOT of money, with all of it actually being spent and entering the economy.\n\nAll this purchasing means the economies of all the merchants, suppliers and company owners who provide all that are given a massive boost, as are the economies of the merchants who supply them (e.g. the cafeteria owner at the munitions plant), and the merchants who supply them (the local bakeries that supply the pies sold at the cafeteria), and so on.\n\nFor many businesses it creates demand that essentially removes the ceiling that peacetime businesses often hits once the market is saturated by itself and its competitors. \n\nAlso also: In cultures such as the vikings, war came with pillaging, where you invaded another country and you sent the riches of their cities home to your own country. War could be highly profitable, but a soldier during peace-time either wasn't paid or was paid a pittance.",
"Defense contractors are a big part. The government spends billions and billions directly on weapons, ammunition, and other materiel and supplies, including many big ticket items such as ships, planes, bombs, missiles. Indirectly, the government also pays for research and development of these things."
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84mm68 | why is it bad to freeze meat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84mm68/eli5_why_is_it_bad_to_freeze_meat/ | {
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"Nothing wrong with it from a health perspective, but it can change the flavor profile especially if left for a very long time. Because water get drawn out of the meat.",
"When meat is frozen, the water inside the cells of the meat forms ice crystals, which rupture the cell walls. When the meat is subsequently defrosted, the now liquid water leaks out of those cells walls along with many of the proteins, etc. that were in the cells.\n\nThis can have a very negative effect on both the texture and the flavor of the meat. It isn't unhealthy, but it does make it less pleasurable. When fast food places advertise \"fresh, never frozen\" meats, they are telling you that their meat will have a better flavor and texture than their competitors because of this fact."
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conwmb | when someone feel pain hitting some area of the body, why can we "feel" something in that area, like a pain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/conwmb/eli5_when_someone_feel_pain_hitting_some_area_of/ | {
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"Let's Take the example of hitting in the balls. If you've already been hit in the balls, your brain remembers what it feels like, and when you see someone getting hit, your brain makes the connection sight/feel and you kinda feel it",
"We have some specialized neurons in our brains called mirror neurons. They fire when we see someone do something and when we do the thing ourselves. It's hypothesized that they are behind our feeling of empathy and are likely key to certain types of learning."
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8hcz5d | pleading "nolo contendere" in court in america. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8hcz5d/eli5_pleading_nolo_contendere_in_court_in_america/ | {
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"\"Nolo contendere\" means \"I do not wish to contest [the charge]\" in Latin, and many states refer to it as a \"no contest\" plea. It means just that -- you are not formally saying that you are guilty, but you *are* saying that you're not going to challenge the government's allegation that you are guilty or ask for the government to bring you to trial. You are thus consenting to the judge finding you guilty and sentencing you. The main difference between this plea and pleading guilty (or being found guilty at trial) is in other proceedings related to the same event. For instance, under the Federal Rule of Evidence, a conviction can be used to prove the facts that led to the conviction if the person pled guilty or went to trial, but not if they pled no contest."
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7wtmek | why do basketballs grow “eggs” when they are kicked? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7wtmek/elif_why_do_basketballs_grow_eggs_when_they_are/ | {
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"The rubber, on the inside & out, has weakened fibers after direct trauma causing a “bulge”. "
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3twlst | how do white rhinos affect the ecosystem. would their extinction affect a microclimate species portfolio? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3twlst/eli5_how_do_white_rhinos_affect_the_ecosystem/ | {
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"At this point, since there are only 3 of them, their loss would have little effect on the current ecosystem.",
"The biggest impact is that species like the white rhino, pandas, humpback whales are what is known as sentinel species. The general public might care about some other species that depends on the same kind of habitat that that the sentinel species also depends on.\n\nFor example the [Northern spotted owl](_URL_0_) needs old growth forests in a very narrow band of the pacific coast forest. Logging interest would want to harvest those trees. By protecting the owl, we also protect the forests, which is habitat for many other species. "
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4p399g | how do electrons, protons and neutrons define an element? i'm super dumb on these things what can i watch to help? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4p399g/eli5how_do_electrons_protons_and_neutrons_define/ | {
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"Khan Academy might be a good place to start.\n\nThe number of protons tells you what element it is. As in what makes an atom carbon is that it has 6 protons, nitrogen has 7 protons, etc. \n\nIn a neutral atom the number of electrons = the number of protons. \n\nIn an ion, you just need to do some simple ish maths to work out how many electrons there is. Negatively charged ions (anions) have gained electrons equal to the charge, positively charged ions (cations) have lost electrons equal to the charge.\n\nThe number of neutrons tells you what isotope of a given element it is. Carbon-12 has 6 protons and 6 neutrons which gives you the 12. Carbon-13 has 6 protons and 7 neutrons, carbon-14 has 6 protons and 8 neutrons. ",
"**I'll try and give an explanation that covers the basic things to know. It's long, but bear with me and I'll try to keep it interesting. I will directly answer your question towards the end of my response, please read through and let me build up to it.** \n\nWhen you think of different types of \"elements\", what comes to mind? Perhaps you might think of shiny metal, an invisible gas, a dark piece of charcoal, or a yellow chunk of sulfur. What makes these things so different from each other? In a word: electrons. \n\nIn your learning, you've no doubt heard some descriptions of electrons: very small, very light, very fast. These are all true, but if you only remember one thing about electrons make it this: electrons carry electric charge. Easy.\n\nWhat is electric charge? There are some classic demonstrations of its effects such as [picking up pieces of paper with a comb](_URL_3_). Why does this happen? A good analogy is to think of magnets, you know that opposites attract (north and south poles) while like repels like. Same thing with electric charge, instead of \"north\" and \"south\" there is \"positive\" and \"negative\". \n\nTo be more specific, electrons carry *negative* charge and every electron carries [*exactly the same amount of charge*](_URL_4_). This is really significant because electrons are essentially the only things in existence that possess negative charge, so you can't have half a charge any more than you can have half an electron (technically [you can](_URL_1_) but don't worry about it). Protons carry *exactly the same amount of charge* but of the opposite polarity -- positive. Opposites attract, so protons tend to attract electrons. However, like repels like, so electrons also repel each other. This is essentially why electrons \"orbit\" around the protons in the nucleus: they are attracted to the protons but repelled from each other so they don't like being in the same place.* \n\nNow, finally, I can really start to answer your question. Nature can stick any number of protons together in a nucleus, from 1 up to (roughly) 90. The number of protons in a nucleus is called it's *atomic number* and is how we as humans have chosen to *define* an element. Let's say we have 10 protons, that's an atomic number of 10 and if you look it up on the periodic table it corresponds to neon. I said it was important to understand that all electrons and protons carry exactly the same amount of charge. 10 protons = 10 positive charges. Opposites attract, so this bare nucleus would strongly attract electrons. As you would expect, neon tends to like to have 10 electrons to match the protons. If there were 11 electrons then there would a net negative charge and since like repels like this would encourage one electron to leave. If there were 9 electrons then there would be a net positive charge and this would encourage a new electron to join.\n\nAt the start I stated that electrons were the most important factor that makes elements behave differently. Although protons actually define an element, apart from balancing out electrons their role *in chemistry* isn't nearly as significant. Since electrons don't like to be near each other, their combined movements fill up a volume far larger than the volume taken up by the nucleus -- if the nucleus was scaled up the size of a pea then electrons would fill a volume the size of a football stadium. In this way nuclei (the clumps of protons) never really get a chance to get close to each other and interact because they bump into each others cloud of electrons. Chemical reactions are driven by ownership of electrons changing from one nucleus to another. \n\nNow things start to get very weird: electrons don't really \"orbit\" the nucleus at all. At least not as we might imagine it, like the earth circling the sun. [We can't say exactly where an electron is and where it is going.](_URL_2_) Indeed, electrons don't have a physical shape either -- you can't measure the diameter of an electron for instance. All we can do is to say where an electron will *probably* be, which is why it's better to think of electrons as spreading themselves out to become a hazy cloud surrounding the nucleus. The electrons within these clouds interact with each other which causes the clouds to [take on rather beautiful forms](_URL_0_). These clouds are referred to as *orbitals*.\n\nSince they're never anywhere in particular it's possible for nuclei to *share* electrons. This is the origin of bonding. As an example lets pick two atoms, each with 7 protons. That's the element nitrogen and we expect 7 electrons to associate themselves with each nucleus. The number of electrons is important because, since they don't like taking up the same space, various numbers of electrons form orbitals (clouds) of different shapes and sizes. It so happens that with nitrogen these orbitals are shapes that line up nicely, so instead of bouncing off each other like neon atoms, some electrons can move back and forth between the two nuclei. The nucleus is *much* heavier than the electrons, so while the electrons zip around the nuclei tend to stay in the same position relative to each other. In this way, the atoms become stuck together or *bonded*. \n\nTL;DR: Different elements have different numbers of protons, so they also attract different numbers of electrons, so their orbitals are different shapes and so they can bond with each other (or not bond) in different ways. These bonds allow individual atoms to stick together and form large structures that we can see with our eyes. \n\nThat was a long explanation to type so I hope at least one person gets something out of it. I didn't mention neutrons because they're really not that important for understanding the basic behavior of matter. Neutrons don't carry electric charge so they don't participate in all the behavior that I have described. They do weigh a lot though, so they play an important part in giving matter mass. Interactions that actually involve nuclei and change the number of protons and neutrons is the domain of nuclear physics.\n\n\n\n\n*You might wonder how protons can clump together in the nucleus if they're supposed to be repelled from each other. I left this out of my explanation because [the answer](_URL_5_) involves introducing an unfamiliar force.",
"All nuclei with the same number of protons constitute the same chemical element.\n\nNeutrons don't affect chemical properties of an atom, they are necessary to keep the positively charged protons lumped together as a nucleus (because protons, being positively charged, like to repel from each other). As a side note, add way too many neutrons and the nucleus will become unstable too.\n\nTake a nucleus and add just as many electrons as this nucleus has protons -- and you have an atom. Interaction between electrons of different atoms is the reason for the whole multitude of chemical reactions occurring in the Universe. Depending on which element it is -- read \"how many electrons an atom is supposed to have\", it will behave in chemical reactions in a manner specific to this electron count."
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abin5o | why does the human body require nitrogen? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/abin5o/eli5_why_does_the_human_body_require_nitrogen/ | {
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"Nitrogen is an important nutrient for protein synthesis, like DNA and cell replication. This is common for most species on Earth.\n\nBecause of the use in protein synthesis, it is used by the body for all manner of growth, healing, and reproduction.\n\nInterestingly enough, we rarely get nitrogen from the air, even though it is abundant. We get it by eating other animals or by eating plants."
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1ri4h2 | when a classical composer writes a song, how does he know what it sounds like before he performs it? | Is he just doing trial by error? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ri4h2/eli5_when_a_classical_composer_writes_a_song_how/ | {
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"Oversimplifying a lot, it's the other way around: the composer hears (invents) the song in his mind, then writes it down."
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cvoik2 | how do police enforce that you pay fines e.g. parking tickets? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cvoik2/eli5_how_do_police_enforce_that_you_pay_fines_eg/ | {
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"By summoning you to court, generally. Failure to appear in court will lead to an arrest warrant. An arrest warrant will ensure you are taken to court.",
"they keep a database with the fines issued and to who. \n\nIf you dont pay your parking tickets, your car will be impounded and kept by the police in custody until you pay your fines, \n\nIf you dont pay your fines the car will be declared forfeit and will be auctioned off to pay your fines.\n\nIn case the fines are not motor-vehicle related then they will either file an order to have you arrested for not paying the fines or a freeze on your assets to recover the fine money.",
"When they write a ticket these days, it generates that ticket in their computer. That includes your court date. When you show up, they mark that you made it and can proceed normally. When you don't, they then put out a warrant for your arrest. When they arrest you, they take you in themselves.",
"In Canada, you have to renew your license plates every year. When you renew your plates you are forced to pay the fines.",
"Parking tickets and traffic tickets work differently (at least where I've lived). For a parking ticket, there's a deadline but not a court date since the police can't prove that you received notice. So the penalties would be enforced against the car and not the driver - the car can be towed or locked with a device that prevents it from driving - but they would not arrest you over parking fines.\n\nTraffic tickets are different since they hand them to you and often make you sign. So those do generate a court date and skipping that can be a failure to appear warrant."
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c4inl3 | why does it take such a long loop and tremendous energy to accelerate really, really small particles at, say, the lhc? | What percentage of the desired speed would particles attain if the loop were the size of a hula hoop (not the crisp)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c4inl3/eli5_why_does_it_take_such_a_long_loop_and/ | {
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"There are a couple competing accelerator designs: stright-line, and circular.\n\nThe straight-line ones are obviously simpler, and easier to operate, but they can only speed up particles *once*, in a single pass through the accelerator. So the energies you can reach are limited by how quickly you can accelerate the particles.\n\nThe circular accelerators avoid this problem by using magnets to bend the particle's paths into a loop. That way, you can give them another \"kick\" every time they go around. This does however create 2 new problems: \n\n1. The faster the particles are going, the more force it takes to make them bend. We're limited by how strong magnets we can make, so you have to either make the circle bigger to make it curve more gradually, or stay at low enough energies that your magnets can handle it.\n\n2. Bending the particle's paths actually makes them lose energy. There isn't a good analogy for this, but whenever you accelerate a charged particle it radiates energy away as light (accelerate meaning any change to its motion, speeding up, slowing down, or changing direction). By bending the particle's paths, you essentially subject them to a sort of \"drag\" that makes them slow down over time. So yes, you can give them a kick every lap around the loop, but they also loose speed during the trip. The end result is like pedaling a bike; eventually you are pedaling as hard as you can just to maintain a constant speed, not managing to go any faster due to the drag forces trying to slow you down.\n\nSo, if you tried to make a tiny tabletop accelerator it could totally work! It would just be limited to low energies. That's how the field started out after all, nobody would just toss you a few billion dollars if you've never tested the design. We got there gradually building bigger and bigger ones as needed, and as the technology matured."
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3ex6xg | where does the smell of 'new clothes' come from? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ex6xg/eli5_where_does_the_smell_of_new_clothes_come_from/ | {
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"Fashion Design degree here...\n\nYou are smelling Chemicals, pure and simple.\n\nNow *which* chemicals is a very different question, and depends on the fabrics the new clothes are made out of. Oil-based textiles (nylon, stretch fabrics, etc) are treated at various stages to make the fabric more or less pliant, to color it, and to give other attributes like waterproofing, etc.\n\nCottons are dyed and also treated with starches (or with softeners) to change the \"hand\" of the fabric. (The \"hand\" is how the fabric feels in the hand... silk has a different hand than canvas, for example.)\n\nAnd leather? It's better that you don't know how leather is treated. Trust me.\n\nBut yeah... chemicals. That's what you are smelling."
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36ymlz | is it legal for congress to pass legislation that they admit they have not read? | I frequently see articles where Senator X or Representative Y say that they have not read, or do not know the full contents of a piece of legislation that they are going to vote for and pass. Is this legal? In a corporate setting, any CEO who did this will be guilty of willful misconduct and be looking at serious penalties. As I am sure this is one of the "we exempt ourselves from having to follow laws," can someone please explain.
Edit. Thank you for the comments so far, but I am looking for the actual law, rule, etc. They are not claiming they have an understanding from their staff, they are saying that they are uninformed. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36ymlz/eli5_is_it_legal_for_congress_to_pass_legislation/ | {
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"Sure, it's legal. You can't compel people to read something. Have you seen some of the laws that congress passes? They're *tomes*. Regularly hundreds or thousands of pages. Congresspeople pay staffers to read the legislation, figure out the consequences, and summarize it, and then the congressman usually just votes on party lines regardless. ",
"The legal basis is actually quite simple.\n\nIts because there is no clause in the Constitution or later bill that was passed requiring it to be so.",
"CEO's don't read every thing either. They pay people to make decisions independently, or summarize for them. There is no law compelling CEO's or anyone else to read anything before making decisions. ",
"Think about when Facebook purchased Instagram. The Purchase Agreement was probably 200 pages, single spaced. Almost no chance Mark Zuckerberg read the whole thing. Instead, his lawyers would have summarized the key provisions.",
"Yes. There is nothing in law that states that they have to have read, understand, or even been informed on the legislation they vote on. \n\nAnd no, CEOs would not be guilty of willful misconduct, they do similar things all the time. ",
"No, legislators aren't required by law to read everything they vote on. In fact, since quite a lot of the legislation that gets voted on consists of routine resolutions that are fairly boilerplate, it would be an extremely poor use of their time to read every single thing that comes across their desks.\n\n > any CEO who did this will be guilty of willful misconduct and be looking at serious penalties.\n\nWhat does that even mean? \"Willful misconduct\" isn't a crime. It's potentially a civil matter, but it wouldn't be called that, and you aren't \"guilty\" in that case. CEOs aren't required to read every single thing they make a decision about. So no, CEOs who do this aren't subject to \"serious penalties.\"\n\n > I am looking for the actual law, rule, etc.\n\nThere isn't one. You're asking to prove a negative. Things aren't prohibited unless allowed in this country, it's the other way around. It's allowed unless prohibited.\n\n"
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3dxzw1 | the argument that rape is about power, not sex | I've heard there's a heated academic debate about this? But I'm a little bit confused how it wouldn't be about sex, as its pervasive in the animal kingdom as a clear means of reproduction. How are humans different?
ELI5 The two sides of the argument and why what they claim causes such a heated argument.
**edit: obviously just because something might be natural, doesn't make it ok. Obviously** | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dxzw1/eli5_the_argument_that_rape_is_about_power_not_sex/ | {
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"There are a lot of examples which seem to contradict the idea that rape is purely about sex.\nIn warzones and prisons, where people often feel powerless, trapped and isolated, there are lots of examples of heterosexual men raping other men. Now if rape was purely about sex (and it is sometimes) then what would drive a hetersexual man to rape another man? Why wouldn't they just knock one of? What makes them turn to rape? Analysis seems to suggest that, in these scenarios, the perpetrator rapes in order to masculine their identity by feminizing the victim through the process of rape. This helps assert their dominance and makes them feel powerful; thus compensating for the powerlessness of their situation. In warzones, in particular, rape has been used as a weapon of war - being used to ethically cleanse, terrorize and destroy their opponents.\n\nI suggest reading about the Congo, because there is a lot of analysis out there about the nature of rape in these cases:\n\nSources:\n\n1. _URL_0_\n\n2. _URL_1_",
"In humans there are pretty clear cases where rape isn't about sex. Just look up any news articles from war zones where women are raped with objects like sticks or bottles. When you're raping someone with sticks or bottles, it ceases to be about sexual fulfillment. Also in war zones, rape is used as a tool by the victors to assert dominance by raping the women of the men they just killed. In these situations, people who feel powerless assert their dominance over others by using penetration (which in most cultures is viewed as dominance) to assert power over others. \n\nThen there are cases where it's pretty obvious that sexual fulfillment was the goal of the alleged rape. There are cases where women are raped by guys who didn't even know they were raping her. In these cases, it's often a sexual encounter where one party misinterprets signals that give consent. If you do some searching, you can find narratives about the many women just \"freeze up\" when they realize what is happening to them. This can confuse some men into thinking they have their consent when in reality their partners are just too scared to do anything. \n\nBoth sides have their fair points, but I honestly think rape is a complicated subject that isn't a black and white case of power vs. sexual fulfillment. I often find that those who tend to argue that rape is about power do so in as a way to dehumanize rapists. It makes it a lot easier to put someone in jail for the rest of their lives when rapists are seen as a person who just wanted to assert their dominance over someone, rather than a confused man who misinterpreted a signal. Those who argue that rape is about purely sex, haven't read articles about soldiers who rape people with sticks and bayonets. In reality, I think that rape is a complicated mix of both sexual fulfillment and power, and each case is different. ",
"It's based on 1970s feminist theory. It's a theoretical way of trying to show how devastating rape is to a woman who experienced it and to women in general.\n\n > Beginning in the 1970s this scientific analysis of rape as sexually desirable for victims was challenged by feminist writers. [...] Feminist theorists [...] emphasized the violent nature of rape and conceptualized rape as a form of social control of women.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nExamples in this thread of rape during war is not what people are talking about when they say that rape is about power not sex."
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"http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Raping-makes-us-feel-free-DR-Congos-soldiers-reveal-astonishing-stories/articleshow/36253376.cms",
"http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/why-soldiers-rapeand-when-they-dontin-diagrams"
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3u2u0i | people with social anxiety. what thoughts run through your head when your anxiety kicks in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u2u0i/eli5_people_with_social_anxiety_what_thoughts_run/ | {
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"Nothing. It's a a blind panic, sweating, and the urge to just run -some times you just lock up. "
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ddhwj9 | if exercise makes me feel good and is great for my body, why is it so hard to actually start doing it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ddhwj9/eli5_if_exercise_makes_me_feel_good_and_is_great/ | {
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"You've built a habit and lifestyle that doesn't involve regular exercise and unlike for 99.99999999% of evolutionary history, you don't need to put in a decent amount of moderate to heavy exercise every day just to survive. \n\nGet in the habit of exercising every day, eventually it becomes easier. Stick with it for a long time, it just becomes a part of life. Sure, it still sucks at times but a lot of that is a mental block. Plus if your cardio sucks, it makes everything way harder."
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pgn76 | the steampunk genre (i just don't understand.) | Edit: Thanks everyone! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pgn76/eli5_the_steampunk_genre_i_just_dont_understand/ | {
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"Science fiction set in a sort of alternate Victorian Britain. Technology is more advanced that it actually was in the 1890s, but in a different direction: there's no internal combustion engine, and everything is powered by steam. The science is quite \"soft\", and mostly relies on everything being cool enough that the readers won't notice how infeasible most of the technology is.\n\nArguably based off the works of Jules Verne, but taken in a completely different direction since. Some steampunk settings include fantasy elements as well.\n\nEdit: There's really no simple way to explain it. It's an entire genre and setting. The best way you could learn about it is to read some steampunk things.",
"Today's technology, if plastics had never been invented.",
"To understand steampunk, you must first understand cyberpunk. \n\nCyberpunk is effectively film noir set in an 80s/90s concept of the high-tech near future in a society dominated by large corporations, with strong brand awareness as a recurring theme amid seamy tales of industrial espionage and corporate politics.\n\nSteampunk is a derivative of cyberpunk. Instead of an 80s/90s concept of a high-tech near future, it is set in a Victorian-Britain concept of one.\n\nThus instead of neon, black plastic and Japanese kitsch, the aesthetics are dominated by riveted brass instrumentation everywhere, pneumatic tubes, oak paneling, zeppelins and occasionally fanciful ray-guns. \n \nThe society depicted is typically more Victorian - dominated by the state and military rather than commercial interests, and the protagonists, while roughly fitting the noir genre, tend to be more accidental adventurers and slightly dashing engineers than the cynical, gritty anti-heroes that dominate cyberpunk.\n\nSteampunk as an aesthetic rather than literary genre simply consists of a design aesthetic based on a weird mix of art deco, Boy's Own Paper and early science fiction. \n\n",
"In addition to all of this, Steamboy (a Japanese anime) is a very good steampunk film. Worth the watch even for a non-steampunk fan.",
"The punk culture revolves around a DIY ethos. Punk music was about recording and releasing music without getting contracts with record labels. Industrial was about making electronic music by building one's own equipment, making use of stuff just lying around, instead of spending the thousands needed to buy the synthesisers of the time. \nSteampunk has a similar attitude. Instead of buying shiny plastic toys, steampunks build their own with whatever's readily available. The aesthetic borrows from industrial revolution and Victorian England, so there is a lot of stuff that uses brass, clockwork mechanisms and so on. [_URL_1_](_URL_0_) is a go-to site for the subculture. Or try Wikipedia's article. That will also tell you about other related scenes, such as dieselpunk, atompunk, biopunk and others."
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4j9td1 | what would happen if everyone in the world was given $1000? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4j9td1/eli5_what_would_happen_if_everyone_in_the_world/ | {
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"A temporary economic surge in first world countries, a longer economic surge in third world. Then back to normal.",
"That's only $7 trillion roughly. So not inflation because that's fuck all compared to the global GDP. \n\nI think it would have mixed effects. A lot of people in poor country's would have it so l stolen from them or extorted out of them. Harm might come to the because of it. \n\nOn the other hand, in first world country's it world both save a lot of struggling people from their debts and cause a great week in alcohol sales. \n\nI'd say net positive effect, part of which would come from the great amount of information sociologist could gather on how people used the money. \n\nI wish this would happen!!! Of I had $9 trillion id do it."
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2bb4s1 | why is the british pound worth much more than the usd, when it seems like the equivalent goods cost the same face value amount? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bb4s1/eli5_why_is_the_british_pound_worth_much_more/ | {
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"Money is like a stock, the more people want it, the higher the price it is. In the world, people want the British Pound more than they want the US Dollar so it costs more to get one.",
"The british pound will not get you the same amount of groceries as USD.\n\nTake 5 pounds. You can get a load of bread, some milk, and even some cereal.\n\n5 USD. You can get a loaf of bread. And MAYBE a candy bar at the register.",
" > Why is the British Pound worth much more than the USD, when it seems like the equivalent goods cost the same face value amount?\n\nThey don't. Box of cornflakes at Walmart: $3.28. Box of Cornflakes at ASDA, UK subsidiary of Walmart: £2.65. £2.65 = $4.52",
"Remember that tax (20%) is pretty much always included when you see a price in GBP.",
"Point of sale costs, government services and methods of taxation all matter.\n\nWhen you buy X in the UK you're buying all of the labour along the chain. So if the guy who delivers the package to the store, the store clerk etc. all get paid more in the UK you're paying more money for the same product otherwise.\n\nIt's not easy to compare \"The US\" to \"The UK\" either. Costs in New York or London are relevant to averages, but you shouldn't compare the cost in London versus say Texas.\n\nThen you get into other 'costs'. If you need healthcare in the UK the government has your back. For that about 10% of GDP covers everyone in the country and provides better care. In the US if you need healthcare the government might have your back (~7% of GDP) but might not, at which point you pay out of pocket or have private insurance (~10% of GDP). And lots of stuff like that. This means the average british person is paying more in taxes towards healthcare, but less money overall for healthcare (and getting better care) compared to the average american. \n\nThen you have just straight up cultural differences. Comparing the price of a can of coke between the two places isn't necessarily indicative of 'typical beverage' because the british and americans consume different things. This applies to cars and houses and expensive stuff too.\n\nSo what you do is you start doing complex averaging. So you add up all the stuff people spend money on, housing, transport, food, healthcare, education (including post secondary), entertainment, power, telecoms etc. and you say what does 30 000 pounds in income get you in the UK versus 51KUSD in the US? And currencies float up and down because these are constantly being reassessed and constantly have many factors playing a part, and in the end it's just an average anyway. Because 51K in New York city is not the same as 51K in Plano Texas, and 30K GBP in London is not the same as 30K GBP in Northern Ireland. \n\nOh and how you do taxes is tricky. The EU is big on value added tax (which is about 22% on average or something), and looks a lot like a sales tax, whereas the US has more income tax. Some countries are borrowing more than others to provide services etc. \n\n**TL:DR** there's no simple 1:1 comparison. It's about the average of all of the spending that happens, which requires considering a LOT of data about a lot of different things. \n",
"I am pretty sure that it has more to do with the foreign exchange market and less to do with the price of every day goods, although they are probably related.\n\nThe foreign exchange market is similar to the stock market, but currencies are traded instead of shares of a company. This means that the value of a currency is just based on supply and demand within the foreign exchange market. If the british pound has more value than the USD, this reflects a higher demand/lower supply of the pound relative to the USD. \n\nThe demand for a currency depends on a lot more than the price of everyday goods. If interest rates are higher in one country, investors will demand more of that currency to invest there etc."
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2otzcq | how was it legal to raid the pirate bay's servers if the servers don't have the actual data on them? | Torrents work by having several people host the file. And because TPB wasn't hosting illegal files, was it actually doing anything illegal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2otzcq/eli5_how_was_it_legal_to_raid_the_pirate_bays/ | {
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"text": [
"We should wait to see what the Swedish govt says, no one has said anything yet other than that they raided a specific datacenter"
]
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11lxpi | what happened in libya and why is it a presidential issue? | I feel like an idiot. I understand that the Lybian ambassador was assassinated, but do we know why? Someone please explain this whole situation to me! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11lxpi/eli5_what_happened_in_libya_and_why_is_it_a/ | {
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"I think it was more about how Mitt Romney claimed the President handled the issue. In recent history, President Bush received substantial criticism for continuing to read to children instead of immediately leaving the room to handle the issue.\n\nIn turn, Obama criticized the Governor for sending out a press release a couple days after the fact. This was considered in bad taste.\n\nI think I'll put together a timeline really quickly.\n\nEDIT: In researching the timeline, I found [this article](_URL_0_) from CNN. I think it does a better job than what I could do.\n\nPresident Obama used the phrase: \"No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.\"\n\nFour days later on Sept. 16, Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN: \"We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.\"\n\n",
"[edit: not really 5 year old speak, but hopefully still helps you. ] \nOn Sept 11th, 2012, four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, were killed when a group of armed people attacked the US Consulate. \n\nThe main debate was whether it was a premeditated terrorist attack, or the spontaneous outburst of the riots over an offensive YouTube trailer for a (possibly non-existing) movie that a rude guy produced. \n\nThat seems to be resolved, in that it was unconnected to the film protests... But the election debate questions center around 2 things: 1) was the administration mis-labeling a terrorist attack for some reason (like appearing more secure during an election season) ? And 2) did the ambassador request more security before the attack, and if so, why wasn't that granted? \n\nSo those things are why it's brought up in the debates. Also, attacks on American diplomats can be seen as acts of war, and the general unrest in Libya could be a threat that the president will have to deal with. ",
"Libya shot a policewoman in London when she was outside the Libyian Embassy then they exploded an plane over Scotland."
]
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"http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/12/transcript-president-obama-remarks-following-deadly-attacks-at-us-consulate-in/"
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1rh2sa | how a projector displays my computer screen using a lightbulb | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rh2sa/eli5how_a_projector_displays_my_computer_screen/ | {
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"Just as an LCD screen is an array of colored pixels with light source shining through, a video projector is a light bulb shining through an LCD. The difference is, rather than viewing the LCD directly, the output is focused by a lens onto a reflective screen.",
"There is an LCD screen in there that acts like a stained glass window and the big bulb provides the powerful light to get those colors to be visible over a distance.",
"These comments were about LCD projectors. The more common ones now are DLP. \n\nDLP has a lightbulb, a small chip, and a color wheel\n\nThe chip has a million small mirrors that can move really quickly. Let's say you put a purple picture on your computer\n\nThe color wheel has red blue and green\n\nWith the spinning color wheel when it's red the mirror is bouncing light from the bulb to the screen. The the wheel keeps turning to blue. Again the mirror reflects the light. Then green comes up on the color wheel so the mirror on the chip moves. Light isn't getting to the projector screen. So the screen only saw red and blue. Your eyes only saw red and blue. Because it happened so fast your mind combines them to purple. Dark purple means the mirror is only on half the time for red and blue. And still zero for green. \nM"
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3ssyte | why do we have dreams, and what causes us to remember them? | Please ELI5 :)
edit: Thank you all for the replies! :D | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ssyte/eli5_why_do_we_have_dreams_and_what_causes_us_to/ | {
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"One of the things that your brain does while you sleep is put all of the things you've seen, felt, and experienced throughout the day into your long-term memory. When this happens, you dream. We don't know exactly why this happens, but we do know that sleep (and dreaming) helps us retain our memories. \n\n\nWhen you're dreaming, the areas of your brain responsible for emotions and memories are the most active. However, the areas of your brain responsible for logic and decision making aren't, which is why things that don't make a lot of sense happen in your dreams--there's no \"logic police\" there saying \"Wait, this doesn't make sense!\" \n\nGenerally, if you remember your dreams, it's because you've woken up during the dream or shortly after it's happened, so it's still in your short-term memory. The same things that cause you to remember things in your life generally cause you to remember your dreams better: paying attention to your dreams, having emotion involved in your dreams, things like that.",
"So ELI5: we don't know. There is no consensus on one model or explanation of what dreams are, how they happen, and what their purpose is if anything.\n\nCurrent popular neurological theories include your brain fires randomly at the \"pons\" which is kinda in by your brain stem and this causes firing all over the brain. Firing causes you to experience things even when you're sleeping.\n\nPsychological approaches to dreams find practical uses in their implications of the subconscious. Some believe perhaps some dreams could be simulated scenarios in which the brain prepares itself for future outcomes. Or perhaps you're just sleepy and stuff you're scared of surfaces when you sleep. There is no reason that dreams must be profound windows into our mind, although there is quite a lot of support and anecdotal evidence that our dreams can be meaningful representations of crucial thoughts our mind feels we must address.\n\nThe exact mechanism of how dreams are created isnt really understood, or why it might have an evolutionary advantage. The exact mechanism of thought itself in the brain isn't understood at all. There are many many theories and explanations and we just don't know the answer yet.\n\nFurthermore, studies have shown that the parts of the brain responsible for REM sleep and dreaming are in fact separate! These two things were always associated with each other due to the fact that people seemed to dream during REM (rapid eye movement) stages of sleep. However it's important to remember that we really only have a vague understanding of how brain regions interconnect and communicate.\n\nThere are a lot of fringier explanations out there that delve into philosophy and metaphysics, because dreams are inherently related to consciousness, which is a phenomenon we still don't understand neurologically.\n\nI'm not an expert in any of this btw but felt like I could give some eli5 insight. If im outdate or just plain wrong please correct me!",
"Popular theory/What I learned in my Cognitive Psychology class: When you sleep, your brain does this thing called Consolidation, which basically is like translating your memories into long term memories. This is done by your Hippocampus. Dreams are the psychological experience of consolidation. That's why some weird memories sometimes get mixed together in your dreams. This process can take years, even decades, that's why things that happened the day before sometimes interact with things that you haven't thought about for years. ",
"I subscribe to the idea that dreams are our subconscious working out the unresolved emotions of our day. (this comes from the Human Givens school of psychology)\nIf we have too many unresolved emotions, we wake up tired since there wasn't enough time during sleep to work out the unresolved emotions - a typical symptom of depression."
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2dsora | if we devoted one year to working really hard on fixing up the environment, could we stop global warming? | Is this possible? I guess we'd have to keep the economy running somewhat for this to work. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dsora/eli5_if_we_devoted_one_year_to_working_really/ | {
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"Well, we wouldn't 'stop' it overnight. We've done damage that can't be undone quickly and will need to run its course.\n\nWe can do *a lot* to stop the *increase* in global warming by switching our energy infrastructure. \n\nSwitching to electric cars, cleaner electricity, upgrading the grid and replacing gas stations with charging stations will take more than a year though... It could be a 5-10 year plan instead of 50 year plan if we prioritize it.",
"For one year? No.\n\nHalting humans' effect on the environment will require a permanent shift in how we act.\n\nAt the moment, this permanent shift won't be too painful - however if we put it off for more than a couple of years it will be.\n\nIt would require everyone to produce less greenhouse gas - to use less electricity in places where electricity comes from the burning of fossil fuels, to eat less factory-farmed meat, to switch to more fuel efficient vehicles.\n\nIt wouldn't even hurt that much from an economic standpoint - it's just people in general aren't willing to act.",
"Depends on what happens during that year and what we are able to achieve:\n\n* Do we simply work really hard at turning our economies into ones that function not on growth, but some other measure of equal value? Infinite growth in a finite world in my mind is at the heart of most environmental problems, including global warming. How do we shift the very essence of what is our global economy in one year? Very difficult and this change would have to be permanent. I think we have to move away from growth based economies if we want to live sustainably in perpetuity with nature. Other's may not agree with this, but I ask how can we keep taking more and more, in a finite world that only has only so many resources to offer. \n\n* Lets assume we maintain a level of technology that we are familiar with (e.g. we cannot all of a sudden mine off-planet). It becomes too fantastical to assume that some future technological fix will clear everything up, and it rids us of the responsibility of doing anything about the problems we have created. We need to act now, with the technology we have today. In this case switching to green technologies would be possible but it would take enormous effort. Wind, solar, hydro, thermal - we have it in place but in such minute amounts and its so scattered that really it barely puts a dent in our energy use. If we put as much effort into green technologies as we do fossil-fuel and non-renewable energies than I think we could make it work. That being said I don't think that we should want try to achieve the level of energy use by fossil fuels (e.g. maintain or better the status quo) - if we really want to make a change - and this goes back to my first point - we need to change the very way we look at energy use. We (western developed nations) would all have to live much smaller footprints in order to achieve environmental sustainability. \n\n* Ok, but now that we are all on green technologies have we solved the problem? No, because there is is an exuberant amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere warming the planet and they remain in the atmosphere for decades. Another problem is we now are one a positive feedback loop, the artificially heated planet is heating itself through natural means - mostly through the thawing of the permafrost. So we would also somehow have to remove all the GHG's from the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels. Even then the Earth would probably take decades, if not centuries to recover. A good analogy is a boiling pot, we have turned the heat on - if we turn down the dial it still continues to warm but at a slower pace. Maybe that gives us time to adapt to the eventual rolling boil. However, if we turn off the heat all together and all at once, then the water will remain hot and will take time to cool before it reaches room temp again.\n\nTL;DR: to solve all our current environmental problems we need to shift the very way we think and act permanently. We must shift away from perpetual growth economies, and we must all reduce our ecological footprints, to the extent that will be very likely uncomfortable for most western developed nations. Can this be achieved in one year? unlikely. Will it ever be achieved? With the current state of how entrenched we (and I) are into our current way of being, I think not. \n"
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4yv0n8 | what makes it more or less likely to have a good dream vs. a bad dream on any particular night? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yv0n8/eli5_what_makes_it_more_or_less_likely_to_have_a/ | {
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"Improve chances of a good dream by putting down the cell phone and start thinking and imagining great situations and stories happening to you. Won't work for all. But can work for most. Not having a ton of not fixed or closed issues helps. Either minor on that day or major.",
"Chemicals can have a strong influence on dreams, I guess somewhat unsurprisingly, as do various medications. Nicotine withdrawal, for example, is notorious for causing violent nightmares. "
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1bn2c7 | knighthood, obe, cbe, sir/dame, etc. | Basically what do they all mean, I think they're mostly honorary titles but how does one earn them? Who qualifies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bn2c7/eli5knighthood_obe_cbe_sirdame_etc/ | {
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"In the British honours system, honours are awarded twice a year, on the Queen's official birthday and at New Year. There are no formal requirements for awarding them - the decisions are made by committees of people. In recent years, there have been moves to award honours to more \"ordinary\" people who have performed extraordinary things in some form of public service or charity, although a lot of the awards are still given to politicians, dignitaries, etc.\n\nThe highest award is a Knighthood, followed by CBE, OBE and MBE in that order (Commander, Officer and Member, in turn, of the British Empire).\n\nKnights are allowed to attach the style Sir to the front of their name, and their wives can use Lady. Female knights can generally use the style Lady, although in the case of some lower orders of knights, the female equivalent is a Dame, and uses the style Dame. Recipients of other orders don't add a style to the start of their name, but may use the letters of the order on the end of their name, eg. John Smith OBE.\n\nThis is a fairly abbreviated description, leaving out lots of the detail. There's far more detail on [Wikipedia](_URL_0_)"
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6bdmkc | what does the prescription for my glasses mean? | I want to buy glasses online but I have no idea what the prescription my doctor gave me means. This is it:
Prog'R 1
+0.75
-0.75
and then there's a +2.25 off to the side.
Like, what would the spherical values for the OD and OS be? Are there cylinder values?
Here is the link to the prescription picture: _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bdmkc/eli5_what_does_the_prescription_for_my_glasses/ | {
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"They're written in the format of: \n\nOD: Sphere | Cylinder | Axis \nOS: Sphere | Cylinder | Axis \nAdd: \n\n---------------------------------------------------------- \n\nOD should be the top line.\nOD is your right eye and OS is the left. (Sometimes as OU if they're the same)\n\nYou won't have an Add listed unless you need bifocals. Cylinder and Axis measure astigmatism, if you have one.\n\nPupilary Distance (PD) won't be on the prescription as that's measured by the Optician during fitting and not the doctor.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nEdit: fixed OS/OD"
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| [
"http://i.imgur.com/A9E4pwP.jpg"
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"http://www.allaboutvision.com/eyeglasses/eyeglass-prescription.htm"
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22hw0x | does 1 gb = 1024mb or 1000mb? | For years I thought it was always 1024 because of binary, but I keep hearing how now it's 1000 instead of 1024 when it comes to data. Is there an actual difference between them or is it just shortened to 1000 to make things simpler? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22hw0x/eli5_does_1_gb_1024mb_or_1000mb/ | {
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"1024 because binary\n\n1000 if using SI units. \n\n",
"Both, it depends on who you ask. Computer scientists and programmers say it's 1024, because they like everything to be in powers of 2. Computer engineers and hardware manufacturers don't care as much, because they're not concerned with how the machine works, but the machine itself, so they use standard SI units. This is one of the reasons why, when you buy a 1TB hard drive, your operating system sees it as ~980 GB. "
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6vqeka | what's with the daily mass earthworm suicide on my driveway? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6vqeka/eli5_whats_with_the_daily_mass_earthworm_suicide/ | {
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"They try to take advantage of the cool, wet morning conditions to surface and cover longer distances. Once the sun heats up they burrow back under the topsoil before they dry out.\n\nBack in the day this was a good strategy to spread the worm population far and wide, but now they often find themselves stuck on pavement when the sun starts cooking them and there's nowhere to go.\n\nThey don't turn around and go back to the edge because they have tiny worm brains, so most just get fried.",
"Is it possible that your sprinklers are watering your lawn too much and the ground is saturated to a point where they are drowning and seek higher ground?\n\nI see this at my house when it rains a lot.",
"Maybe try a straw broom to sweep them off the drive way to safety, or a water hose with a spray nozzle to spray them back to the grass. Or maybe try creating a worm barrier around the driveway, like stack some rocks or make a \"moat \" to keep them off the pavement. ",
"I save them when I can, scoop them and drop them in shady grass.\n\nOne time I was a foot away from a guy, flopping and writhing. A bird swooped in and ripped it apart. I had my hand held out whispering I'm sorry...I'm sorry...\n\nEdit: words, words, words. "
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5lawvr | how is graphene made? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lawvr/eli5_how_is_graphene_made/ | {
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"While i dont know current methods. The first known way to isolate the one molecule thick layers was by 2 manchester scientists. One friday night they put a piece of tape on a piece of graphite and found that they could seperate the graphene sheets from the graphite by just sticking the tape on and removing it. Modern graphene is lab grown to reduce imperfections."
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c9zpe8 | if 50+ spf is best, why are there sunscreens on the market with much less protection? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c9zpe8/eli5_if_50_spf_is_best_why_are_there_sunscreens/ | {
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"Not claiming that I know how this works, but I think I have a good explanation:\n\nI once bought an SPF 50 bottle thinking \"bigger number means it's better\". Lo and behold I did not get a tan after applying it.\n\nIn fact, one day I forgot to cover the area from my ankles down. The difference was like day and night: everything above the ankles was pale and below was burned to the point that I could not walk in slippers.\n\nSo to answer your question, there are different levels of sun screen protection because the process is analogue (i.e. every point from 0-50 is quantifiable in terms of how much UV light it lets through)\n\nIf you want to learn more, check out Veritasium's video on \"The world in UV\"",
"The SPF rating tells you how much UV light the product blocks. Higher numbers means it blocks more UV light. UV light is also what makes skin get tan. So, some people use lower SPF sunscreens to both protect their skin somewhat and still get a tan.",
"I heard from a pharmacist once that you do need limited UV exposure to get your pro vitamin D converted. Is that true? Would that explain the need for lower protection factors?",
"SPF 50 is not much more protective than SPF 30. Here is why.\n\nThe number refers to the fraction of the UV radiation you are exposed to compared to no sunscreen. SPF 30 means 1/30th the UV exposure. This is 3.33%. SPF 50 is 1/50th, or 2%.\n\nThere is greatly diminishing returns in the increased protection. Most societies, like American Academy of Pediatrics recommend at least 15, and up to 50. But 50 is hardly more protective than 30. It's what I generally recommend to patients.",
"This is purely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt. My gf and I play outdoor volleyball often, and here in Colorado there are a string of tournaments that occur in many of the bigger ski towns (Vail, Aspen, etc.) We obviously have to wear sunscreen at an altitude of 8-9000ft above sea level, or you'll fry. We found that sun tan oil works better than outright sunscreen...even though its only like 8 SPF, it lasts all day without needing to reapply. SPF 50+ is great but if you sweat too hard or dont reapply in an hour or two, you're toast. The tanning oil resists sweating completely off (it kind of mixes with sweat and ensures it covers all of your body evenly), and you're lightly tanned at the end of the day. I'm sure in the long term we would regret not using higher SPF sunscreen though, idk.\n\nAlso CBD salve works wonders when you do get burned. Slather that on a sunburn the day it happens and wake up the next morning and it's gone. Crazy stuff."
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uwu2w | do you ever actually touch anything? | Last year I learned about atoms and all the cool stuff that is and like isn't the only way your hand or something can't go through a door because the atoms in your fingers repel the atoms of the door so your hand stops. So if at the atomic level it's magnetic repulsion, are we ever truly touching something? Or are we just feeling the resistance from our atoms? Idk if that made any sense but if someone out there understood it and could explain it to me i would love you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/uwu2w/do_you_ever_actually_touch_anything/ | {
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"Do our atoms ever literally collide with the atoms of surfaces we touch? No. That does not happen in nature (outside of extremely high energy environments like the interior of the sun).",
" > the atoms in your fingers repel the atoms of the door so your hand stops\n\nThat's just what it means to touch.",
"its a matter of probability density, isn't it? At the quantum scale, there is some (small) probability that the electrons orbiting your atoms in your hand are actually inside the doorhandle. And an increasingly small chance that they are actually sitting thousands of lightyears away. So not only are you 'touching' the door, you're touching everything, to some small likelihood ;]",
"\"Touch\" has no meaning at the quantum level.",
"It depends on what you mean by you. If by \"you\" you mean the atoms that you are made of, then yes the borders of your atoms touch each other. But if you think of \"you\" as just the nucleus of those atoms, then no."
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14b1t1 | why is the crime rate in america so high compared to other developed countries? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14b1t1/why_is_the_crime_rate_in_america_so_high_compared/ | {
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"The true answer: no one is really sure.\n\nThere are many theories of varying validity.\n\nI'll outline a couple (and refutations in brackets).\n\nWealth inequality, the poor people are poorer, and the rich richer, then in other developed countries. This creates a system where the poor get desperate and resort to crime. (Saudi Arabia has worse economic inequality and lower crime rates)\n\nIts a statistical effect not a real effect. Example: the US populations report more crime then in say Japan or China because they have more trust in the police (or something) thus it isn't that the crime rate is higher just that the reported crime rate is higher. (This doesn't explain a country like Canada which has similar reporting rates and yet a lower rate).\n\nPopulation density, the rates are driven up by places like New York which have higher density (and therefore higher rates). (This doesn't account for lower rates in similar cities like Berlin, or Tokyo)\n\nMore guns. (The swiss have more guns but less crime)\n\nMore handguns (I don't really have an argument against this one)\n\nIf I was a betting man, I'd take a guess and say that it probably is a combination of factors. Increased number of guns makes it easier for 'unsavory types' to get their hands on guns. Large gaps in economic opportunity can create an atmosphere where the legal repercussions to crimes not seems so bad. This is exacerbated by how segmented the US can be, with rich people living in gated communities and poor people living in 'poor areas'. Also some cultural groups have relatively low faith in the legal system. (See: Hispanic and African communities in LA).\n\nLike I said no one is sure but that's my guess.",
"I'm going to say a politically incorrect answer: Lack of cultural and racial homogeneity. \n\nWhen people perceive someone different to them (as in, outside of their kin/race), it's easier to dehumanize that person and feel less remorse for the bad things that happen to them, and this can go both ways: \n\nThe Tea party feels no remorse when deporting illegal aliens or rallying against free healthcare (\"why should I have to pay for poor people's mistakes?!\"), and black thugs feel no remorse when they steal/murder/rape someone (\"We're just getting back at whitey!\")."
]
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| []
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[],
[]
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|
||
4xasa2 | why are sticker backs so sticky but the paper on them is so slick, yet if i peel the backing off then put it back on again it'll get stuck this time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xasa2/eli5_why_are_sticker_backs_so_sticky_but_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6dwovc"
],
"score": [
18
],
"text": [
"The glue interacts with the air and becomes tacky. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
1wff8d | would confessing a major criminal act in the confession room make the religious figure legally obligated to say something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wff8d/eli5would_confessing_a_major_criminal_act_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cf1gpkn"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Because your post isn't asking a simplified conceptual explanation, but rather for an answer, its been removed. \n\nYou should try /r/answers, /r/askreddit or even one of the more specialized answers subreddits like /r/askhistorians, /r/askscience or others too numerous and varied to mention. \n\nRest assured this doesn't make your question *bad*, it just makes it more appropriate for another subreddit. Good luck! "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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||
23llp9 | why do cows huddle together when a storm is expected? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23llp9/eli5_why_do_cows_huddle_together_when_a_storm_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgyc714"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I'm definitely no expert, but I'll make an educated guess, based on, of all things, \"Happy Feet\", where the group huddles against the cold. Those on the outside are exposed more than those in the middle, but are still exposed less than they would be standing alone, and can rotate into the middle for more protection later, leaving others to take their original position. I do know that cows and other herd animals don't stand under trees during storms, which, as we all know, would be a good way to get struck by lightning. Gathering together would seem the best alternative.\n\nAs I said, just a guess, but I'd be surprised if I'm too far off the truth."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4wym50 | how are the single-celled organisms arise from organic substances? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wym50/eli5_how_are_the_singlecelled_organisms_arise/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6b01kv"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The first person to answer that will almost certainly win a Nobel prize. Abiogenesis is one of the large open questions of biology.\n\nThere are plenty of theories out there, everything from coastal puddles to glaciers and deepsea black smokers have been proposed as suitable environments for life to come into being.\n\nWhat probably happened was that certain substances formed small bubbles and trapped other materials inside them. Once the bubbles grew, eventually they became so big that they split into two smaller bubbles. Presto, you have primitive entities which kind-of-but-not-quite \"reproduce.\""
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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||
5iatwf | why you "don't pass on the right"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5iatwf/eli5_why_you_dont_pass_on_the_right/ | {
"a_id": [
"db6o6l8",
"db6o9kv"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"It's difficult to see into the right hand lane until you're pretty much all the way merged. If there happens to be an obstruction in the road then you wouldn't be able to see it until it's too late. \n\nSlower traffic should always be in the furthest right lane anyways, but not everyone does this. ",
"The idea is that traffic should always be as right as possible.\n\nThis has the function of separating lanes based on their speed, with the right-most lane being the slowest and the left-most lane being the fastest.\n\nThis means that when you merge right to pass, you're very likely to get stuck behind someone going even slower than the person you were trying to pass. \n\nIn addition, there are visibility issues as another user explained, and the fact that you'd be messing with traffic speed by going faster than traffic in that lane."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
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||
6wc6tr | why cameras and screens go crazy when recording/displaying lots of thin stripes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wc6tr/eli5_why_cameras_and_screens_go_crazy_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"dm6wzz5",
"dm733k0"
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"score": [
12,
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"text": [
"Most cameras today are digital. This means instead of a chemical pad that light hits, it has a sensor pad that's a bit like a computer screen, full of pixel-like light sensors. Right now the way these sensors work, a little processor pays attention to one horizontal row of these at a time, writes it to memory and then moves down a row. This method can cause weird artifacts when trying to scan thin details or fast moving things, as the objects trying to be photographed will change a lot visually, even in the time for the \"scan-line\" to move down a row. It's the same reason propellers look the way they do when recorded by a smartphone. _URL_1_ _URL_0_\n\nAnother reason would be for the same as why cameras seem to hate taking videos of snow, rain, confetti or fireworks: many videos stored digitally do so by a more efficient method than storing a whole picture for every frame. Often, it'll store one key frame every few moments, and then much simpler motion frames, which contain no color information, but just motion data on how to smear the last key frame to make it look like things are in motion. This method can make a movie file much smaller when there are times when not much is happening or things move slowly and predictably without much color change (face to face conversation, slowly panning across a city, showing a landscape as a single spaceship goes by) but it can break down of there's too much object movement (many things lines, tiny detailed things moving fast, gunfire).",
"It's called a [moiré pattern](_URL_0_), caused by two overlaying patterns that aren't identical or aligned. In this case the \"patterns\" are the square grid of the pixels in the camera sensor and the other can be a pinstriped shirt, overlapping when the image of the shirt is projected onto the sensor. \n\nDepending on the orientation of the two patterns, the moiré changes. Since just small changes in the orientation can have large changes on the resulting moiré, a moving camera will shift through new patterns with each frame, causing the haywire-like behavior."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/15/47/1447700421-propeller.gif",
"http://resourcemagonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Effects-of-Rolling-Shutter-on-a-Propeller.jpg"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern"
]
]
|
||
5dwy9e | why does feelings of romantic love give some people anxiety? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5dwy9e/eli5_why_does_feelings_of_romantic_love_give_some/ | {
"a_id": [
"da7zfxj",
"da80edm"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Because it can make some people feel vulnerable. If you love it might be lost. If you love it may not be reciprocated.",
"Having something you want is scary, because you'll loose it. Feeling good is an ill omen of horrible hurt just around the corner. Runaway in fear now while you still can!"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3bsa13 | why do speakers make a buzzing noise when the volume is turned up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bsa13/eli5why_do_speakers_make_a_buzzing_noise_when_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"csp0q06",
"csp7rph"
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"score": [
25,
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"text": [
"Speakers are powered by an amplifier.\n\nAn amplifier takes a low-level signal as an input, amplifies it, and pushes it through the speakers to make sound.\n\nWhen no input is present, the amplifier basically amplifies the background noise. When you turn it up, as you might expect, it gets louder, and becomes more noticeable (but it's *always* there, in *every* amplifier, you just can't always hear it.) There is some amount of electronic interference from everything with electricity, including within the amplifier itself. This is where that buzz/hiss/white noise/static (whatever you want to call it) comes from. It's the sound of the amplifier being on, essentially.\n\nAudiophiles refer to this as a \"noise floor\". When you start looking at higher end amplifiers, better parts and designs are used, resulting in less interference, and therefore, a lower noise floor.",
"Some of the other answers you already got are also correct, but since your question wasn't very specific, I figured I'd help cover all the bases to make sure at least one of us answered the right question.\n\nYou might be talking about distortion from clipping.\n\nInside your sound system, the sound signal is represented by voltage. The more voltage, the louder the sound. But an amplifier can't produce more voltage than what it's supplied with. So if you turn up the volume beyond a certain point (which depends on a lot of things, including how the sound was recorded), the loudest sounds will end up needing more voltage than what the amplifier can produce. The amplifier instead just puts out the maximum voltage available for those parts of the sound. That's called clipping, because it clips off the tops of the waveform where it exceeds the supply voltage.\n\nWhen you have just a little bit of clipping, it tends to sound a little bit like buzzing, because most of the effect shows up as high pitched sound. The top of the waveform, where it's clipped, takes on a square shape, and the corners of that shape represent a high frequency signal. So you'll end up with a high pitched buzzing.\n\nIf you have access to a preamp volume, you can try turning it down a little bit. And don't use your equalizer or bass/treble settings as a volume control (i.e., by turning everything up). Those can potentially cause clipping at some intermediate stage. Or just turn down the master volume until it stops clipping. Otherwise, the only real way to achieve louder sound without clipping is to invest in an amplifier and speakers with a higher power rating."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
6fedv4 | why do cicadas spend such a long amount of time underground? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6fedv4/eli5_why_do_cicadas_spend_such_a_long_amount_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"dihhe5z",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Hard to be eaten when you are underground, and there's a lot easier access food down there (assuming of course, the eggs were laid in the right place)\n\nBasically, maybe at one time some cicada grubs tried to make it above ground. I mean, there's generally plenty of grass and smaller insects to eat. But, there's also birds and other animals that love to chow down on large, slow moving grubs. So, the ones that adapted to burrowing in the dirt, eating worms and roots, were not eaten by birds and other animals until they went above ground and mated. Those passed along the genetic programming to burrow and avoid predators until absolutely necessary ",
"From Wikipedia:\n\n > The nymphs emerge in large numbers about the same time, sometimes more than 1.5 million individuals per acre ( > 370/m²). Their mass emergence is a survival trait called predator satiation: for the first week after emergence, the periodical cicadas are an easy prey for reptiles, birds, squirrels, cats, and other small and large mammals. Early ideas maintained that the cicadas' overall survival mechanism was simply to overwhelm predators by their sheer numbers, ensuring the survival of most of the individuals. The emergence period of large prime numbers (13 and 17 years) was hypothesized to be a predator avoidance strategy adopted to eliminate the possibility of potential predators receiving periodic population boosts by synchronizing their own generations to divisors of the cicada emergence period. Another viewpoint holds that the prime-numbered developmental times represent an adaptation to prevent hybridization between broods with different cycles during a period of heavy selection pressure brought on by isolated and lowered populations during Pleistocene glacial stadia, and that predator satiation is a short-term maintenance strategy. This hypothesis was subsequently supported through a series of mathematical models, and stands as the most widely accepted explanation of the unusually lengthy and mathematically precise immature period of these insects. The length of the cycle was hypothesized to be controlled by a single gene locus, with the 13-year cycle dominant to the 17-year one, but this interpretation remains controversial and unexplored at the DNA level."
]
} | []
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| [
[],
[]
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|
||
6j6dng | why does it seem like tv networks sync up their commercials? do they actually do this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6j6dng/eli5_why_does_it_seem_like_tv_networks_sync_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"djbwpha",
"djcpm8j"
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"score": [
6,
2
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"text": [
"Pretty simple explanation. Each show has a standard number of commercial breaks. They want those commercial breaks to divide up the show evenly (usually two in the middle and one at the end/beginning). Since nearly all shows in broadcast TV start during the hour or half hour mark, that means that the commercials are all going to come at about the same time in every show.",
"Consider that companies advertising may pay extra to have a little more control of the timing of their ads. If they do this across networks, boom! you can hardly avoid hearing of their product."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
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|
||
168ixv | headphone price to quality. | So, I've spent the last week trying to find a decent pair of replacment headphones, and deear god is it impossible!
I understand that as a general rule of things, more expensive means more quality.
Yet why is it, that headphones I pay 250 dollars for, sound like i'm listening to music through a tin can, yet the 30 dollar pairs I used to pick up at K-Mart sounded like I was listening to a high quality surround sound setup?
As far as I can tell the only two "quality" headphones I've ever owned were the 30 panasonic pair I would buy from K-Mart, and the Microsoft live X-Chat. Everything else seems like people are just putting them all on a wall and literally throwing price tags on them.
As a small aside, why is it that every pair of headphones I've looked at over the last week only have 20,00 - 20,000khz while the 30 pair had 10 - 27,000khz?
(Sorry for no dollar symbols, my keyboard is breaking.) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/168ixv/headphone_price_to_quality/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7tq9zu",
"c7tqlp8"
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"score": [
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"text": [
" > As a small aside, why is it that every pair of headphones I've looked at over the last week only have 20,00 - 20,000khz while the 30 pair had 10 - 27,000khz?\n\n20 Hz - 20,000 Hz is considered the range of human hearing. So, it makes sense that headphones would want to claim that they can produce sound in that range. \n\nThe cheap headphones are looking for any way they can stand out. They know that people aren't going to be doing in-depth listening tests for a $30 pair. They're not going to be doing research comparing response curves. People are going to pick the package up off the shelf and look for the biggest numbers. So, they fudge the numbers and claim ridiculous frequency response.\n\nMy guess is that if you crank the volume up to max you might get some kind of response at 10 Hz and some kind of response at 27,000 Hz. But, it would be so quiet that everything else would sound absolutely horrible.\n\nCheck out the frequency response of the [Sennheiser HD-800's](_URL_0_[]=863) which are some of the best headphones money can buy. Even they don't have a perfectly flat response curve for all frequencies.",
"I have the Sennheiser 380 Pro and its the best buy I have ever made for ~200$.\n\nI can wear them for as long as I want without them hurting my ears and they have excellent sound.\n\nI love them."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID"
],
[]
]
|
|
2p8akh | how do ethnic groups in geographic regions form? why are japanese considered a different ethnicity to han chinese or french to german? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p8akh/eli5how_do_ethnic_groups_in_geographic_regions/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmu982c"
],
"score": [
2
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"text": [
"This is actually a very complex issue and has been debated since ancient times. The Greek philosopher Herodotus gives us the first known example of determining what ethnicity actually is. According to him, ethnicity is not only a shared descent (looking similar to everyone else), but also a shared language and shared culture and customs. That's why a country like China can have 56 different ethnic groups - while many look incredibly similar (especially to Westerners) they each have different cultures and most have their own unique language. \n\nIn China, for example, the ethnic minorities are often foreigners who travelled to China. Some came from the Middle East centuries ago to preach Islam, but never returned home and instead decided to stay in China. Eventually they were no longer considered to be Middle Eastern, but also looked different to other Chinese and spoke a different language. They don't fit in with either group so they are considered to be a brand new ethnicity.\n\nThere is also an element of time associated with this. One family wearing different clothes to another is not enough to be considered a new ethnicity, but if they wore those clothes for 2000 years and their ancestors all wore them as well then perhaps they *would* be considered a new ethnicity.\n\nThat's a very basic explanation. Like I said there is a lot of literature on this and the very definition of ethnicity is still debated among modern anthropologists. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6euqng | how exactly does traffic work? | Why are some days stop and go and the next day at the same time absolutely fine? Aside from the obvious like accidents and construction, what causes the slow movement? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6euqng/eli5_how_exactly_does_traffic_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"did56lj",
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"text": [
"Differences in acceleration. When you are at a red light, there is a line of cars behind you. You see the light turn green, and so does everyone else. You begin to accelerate, but the cars behind you don't until they see you have began to move.\n\nTraffic could essentially be eliminated if all the cars accelerated together at the same time, but humans are not perfectly coordinated enough to ever pull that off. Some days traffic is worse than others because of a \"chaos theory\" sort of phenomena or \"butterfly effect\" where one light going red at the right time can put the flow of traffic out of sync.\n\nHere is a great video by redditzen CGP Grey. _URL_0_",
"Let's take into account that a lot of the large metropolitan infrastructure were built a hundred years ago and mostly only expanded upon. At some point, you reach critical mass in terms of population that that infrastructure can handle. Now there are more vehicles on city center highways than capacity allows, imagine if one of those vehicles brakes suddenly, every vehicle behind it does the same, upwards of 10 miles back, which can via rippling, cause the vehicles in the back of that line to sit in a parking lot for hours on end until the entire mess can ripple forward again. ",
"You are driving 50mph. You slow down to 49mph. I could slow down to 49mph too, but by the time I see your brake lights I've already moved a little closer to your bumper. So I have to slow down to 48mph to maintain a safe distance. The guy behind me does the same to 47mph. And so on.\n\nThis is how you get traffic even though there is nothing blocking the road."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHzzSao6ypE"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
90m9yy | why is it that whenever my girlfriend takes me shopping my legs immediately get tired and i want to sit down, but i run 10km everyday without breaking a sweat?? ty in advance | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/90m9yy/eli5_why_is_it_that_whenever_my_girlfriend_takes/ | {
"a_id": [
"e2ri8ql",
"e2rjupq"
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"score": [
8,
3
],
"text": [
"Generally motion is easier to endure because humans are long distance running pack animals of high endurance. And because of this, sedentary standing is not as easy. When shopping, you are not in constant motion, you stop and look around adding to the restlessness, sedentariness, and general bordum that amplifies your discomfort.",
"The answer is while running you're doing a constant, and consistent repetitive motion. While shopping you're stopping and starting, being dragged around the same clothes against your will and it's mentally draining and can we please go home now?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
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|
||
232c14 | eli18: hormones and the 'lock and key' mechanism | Could someone please explain to me, in detail, how hormones work in relation to the 'lock and key' mechanism. More specifically, what does this phrase refer to? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/232c14/eli18_hormones_and_the_lock_and_key_mechanism/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgsq1s2"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Hormones are specially shaped to fit into certain receptors, like a key is shaped to fit into a particular lock."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1v3uqs | - why does alcohol affect everyone's personality differently? | Is there a simple answer to this? When I drink, I become more mellow and quiet while most people become loud and obnoxious. What's up with this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v3uqs/eli5_why_does_alcohol_affect_everyones/ | {
"a_id": [
"ceogl67",
"ceoglni",
"ceogy37"
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"score": [
2,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"\"A drunk mind speaks a sober heart\" -Rousseau (I think)",
"What we consider to be normal behavior or the normalization of behavior is usually very conscious and the result of effort. Remove inhibitions from the equation and personality differences become more exaggerated between individuals and less consistent within a particular individual. Source: My mom is an alcoholic sociopath... I'm not sure which is the cause or effect, but it doesn't really matter.",
"Alcohol reduces your observance of mores. Basically you have your personality, and then your brain filters out actions that you want to perform but don't because you know that they're unacceptable or taboo. When you drink this filter is weakened or goes away. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2kyl09 | why does the type of drawing with doubled eyes, hurt your eyes to look at? | As seen here in this top post,
_URL_1_
and here it is in the traditional depiction of the Chinese legendary figure Cangjie,
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kyl09/eli5_why_does_the_type_of_drawing_with_doubled/ | {
"a_id": [
"clpu7kp"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"We're a social species which communicates using the face, so our visual systems have evolved special circuits which identify faces in our visual input. This kind of image is pretty confusing for them, basically.\n \nThey're also the culprits behind ~90% of [/r/pareidolia](/r/pareidolia)'s material. "
]
} | []
| [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangjie",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2kxtwm/tried_my_hand_at_the_twoface_face_it_went_okay/"
]
| [
[]
]
|
|
516c2o | why 90% of species lived on this planet are now gone? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/516c2o/eli5_why_90_of_species_lived_on_this_planet_are/ | {
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"text": [
"Very simply:\n\nClimate changes -- > Selective pressure on existing species-- > unfit members of existing species die (ultimately become extinct) -- > (simultaneously) evolution of a subgroup of existing species into a new species -- > repeat",
"Mass extinction events happen every now and then. Things like the permian extinction where almost 90% of life on earth died in a pretty short time frame. As for how these things happen, there are a lot of answers. Ice ages, super massive volcanoes, asteroid impact to name a few. ",
"Earth has been around for a very long time. The extinction of thousands of species of dinosaurs, for example, opened up the world for the rise of mammals, and thus humans. Nothing lasts forever.",
"New species keep getting made. Zoom out a little on the timescale and most species are transient things. It takes a REALLY long time for a small furry mammal to turn into a dog or a cow or a human, but we're all descended from the first mammal. That original mammal was a separate species, and it died out. ",
"The same way that 90% of all humans who have ever existed are already dead. Billions of humans have been born, but many of those humans have died so there are only seven billion alive now. "
]
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24zzi1 | would it ever be possible to have a person remain conscious and mentally "active" if their brain were put into a jar after their heart stops (like futurama depicts)? | _URL_0_
^ For those of you who are not familiar. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24zzi1/eli5_would_it_ever_be_possible_to_have_a_person/ | {
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"text": [
"No. If the human heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing. If no new blood, full of vital oxygen, is pumped to the brain continuously, meaning every single second of your life, braincells will start dying.\n\nIf you had some kind of fake blood pumping through tubes attached to the head, and that blood was being replenished with oxygen...then theoretically yes, that could work.\n\nIn theory, a human brain can live much longer, maybe for several hundred years, than the rest of the body.\n\nSide note: in Futurama, they explain this wacky head in a jar thing with the quasi-magical concept of *opalescence* in the episode [All the Presidents' Heads](_URL_0_), which keeps the heads alive through time-manipulation.",
"I believe it can be, but in a different way. I believe we will beable to download our counsciouness on to computers one day. The question then becomes do \"you\" die and the machine is just a perfect copy of you."
]
} | []
| [
"http://discovermagazine.com/~/media/Images/Zen%20Photo/S/sci-fi%20timeline/1735.jpg?mw=738"
]
| [
[
"http://theinfosphere.org/All_the_Presidents%27_Heads"
],
[]
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|
|
9qn48z | why did brazil belong to the portuguese and the philippines belong to the spanish? | It's been years since I took any classes on the heyday of the Spanish and/or Portuguese empires, but I still do remember some things. Notably, I seem to remember that at one point, the two fledgling empires signed an agreement that essentially said that everything west of the Atlantic was Spain's to colonize, and everything east of that was Portugal's. (The name of said agreement escapes me now). However, Brazil (which was on the western side) was allowed to stay Portuguese, while Philippines (on the east) was allowed to stay Spanish. How did this happen? Even just giving me the name of that agreement would be good enough (I swear it exists.)
P.S. I understand that Africa's a different story altogether. The agreement I'm thinking of was signed in the 1600s or 1700s, whereas the scramble for Africa only really got going around the 1800s. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9qn48z/eli5_why_did_brazil_belong_to_the_portuguese_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"e8af0l5"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The dividing line wasn't the Atlantic, but [a line roughly halfway between Cape Verde and Cuba](_URL_0_). That puts the eastern part of Brazil on Portugal's side. However, Brazil did then expand over the line, and the Philippines are on the Portuguese side. In both cases, the answer seems to be simply that neither country cared enough about strict adherence to the agreement to start a war over it. Portugal wasn't that interested in the Philippines, and Spain wasn't that interested in exactly where the Brazilian border should be."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas"
]
]
|
|
7gxzbk | why does rubber cause so much friction? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gxzbk/eli5_why_does_rubber_cause_so_much_friction/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Because rubber is soft and squishy but also durable, rubbers compounds are slightly adhesive to most surfaces, they stick rather well,it causes a lot of friction. Ad that to the fact that it easily gets into the small cracks of a surface and it doesn’t break down easily and you have some good grip \n\nPs winter tires get better traction by being softer but that makes them break down faster ",
"If you look very very closely at rubber you'll see that on that level, it's not very flat, but rather very bumpy, the bumps make it much easier to collide with other surfaces. \n\nIt's like a tiny and very squishy version of sandpaper."
]
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| []
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[],
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22cgsk | how does medication dissolve into our blood stream after we take a pill? | From what I understand the pill goes to your stomach like any piece of food would but I don't get how it dissolves and gets to your blood stream by there. Does it diffuse through your stomach's walls? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22cgsk/eli5_how_does_medication_dissolve_into_our_blood/ | {
"a_id": [
"cglftwx",
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"text": [
"the medicine travels to the small intestine and is absorbed into the bloodstream there along with other nutrients in the food",
"Pharmacy student here:\n\nMany medications diffuse through the cell *membrane* because there's a high concentration in the gut vs. on the other side of the gut wall. Some medications are transported across the cell *membrane* by transporters.\n\nIn order to get through the other side, the medication first has to dissolve. Many pills are made of things like lactose, which will dissolve easily. Highly fat-soluble drugs may not dissolve very well, so in that case you may be told to take the food with a meal.\\*\n\n\\* there are other reasons to take medications with food.\n\n**Edit:** it's not a wall it's a membrane"
]
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| []
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[],
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2wasok | the fcc and the internet "scandal" | I just don't get the gist of what any of it actually means. Explain without using some of the terms people use that have no meaning to me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wasok/eli5_the_fcc_and_the_internet_scandal/ | {
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"text": [
"You're going to have to be more specific. The two biggest and most recent issues have been the Title II reclassification and the hotel WiFi restriction ruling. I can explain more on either one, but if neither of those sound familiar and its something else we'll need more to go on.",
"There are three matters in front of the FCC right now that concern the Internet, either directly or tangentially. All of them pit business against customers. They are:\n\n* Comcast wanting to merge with Time-Warner\n\n* Net Neutrality and assigning common-carrier status to ISPs\n\n* Interference with private WiFi usage\n\n**Comcast merging with Time-Warner**\n\nThis is about two very large cable companies, which are also ISPs, merging, and thereby getting control over most of the Inetnet service in the country. It's a problem because a company that big will have a lot of influence over the Internet as a whole (and also over television service) because they collectively control such a large slice of the consumer market. Most of the consumer market doesn't have a significant alternative to whichever ISP is available in their area.\n\n**Net Neutrality/Common Carrier Status for Internet**\n\nIn essense, the FCC is ruling that Internet providers are to be considered common carriers. This means that the providers can't discriminate with respect to what traffic they carry. All traffic must be treated the same way, regardless of where it is going, where it is coming from, and what it contains. \n\nThis is happeneing because the ISPs have demanded payment from third-party services such as Netflix to improve their connectivity to the end-users. Simultaneously, various forms of preferential treatment have been given to services owned by, or affiliated with, the various ISPs. \n\nOn a side note, I'm particularly irritated over the idea that my ISP has demanded Netflix pay to be brought to me, because I was pretty sure that this is what *I* was paying them for.\n\n**WiFi Blocking**\n\nMariott hotels run a for-pay WiFi network for their guests and conferees. The rate that they charge for conferees is extortionate, being a 3-4 digit price per device per day. Obviously, people would prefer to use their own portable hot spots (Mi-Fi or similar device) and Mariott's response was to jam such devices.\n\nThey were fined for this. The FCC later clarified their position that it is altogether not permissible to jam WiFi deliberately.\n\nHope this helps."
]
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[],
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19s0a4 | how off-shore banking works? | Just don't understand how people go about opening off-shore accounts and how it works to evade taxes. Maybe just sophisticated tax accountants/financial planners? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19s0a4/eli5_how_offshore_banking_works/ | {
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"Let's say my company does a bunch of work for you, and you owe me $1M.\n\nInstead of paying me directly, I have you pay a shell company in the Cayman Islands. The IRS has no idea who owns that company, and no way to track it to me. I am legally obliged to pay taxes on it, but if the IRS doesn't know about it, it is harder for them to make that happen.\n\nEven better, I have your Cayman Islands shell company pay my shell company, that way, the IRS doesn't see either end of the transaction."
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3vtkyi | if france drops the euro as its currency, how would that effect the rest of europe, and u.s.a? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vtkyi/eli5_if_france_drops_the_euro_as_its_currency_how/ | {
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"text": [
"One fewer country, particularly one with a stable economy, dropping the euro would likley devalue the euro against other countries' currency. The dollar is already strong but something like this could push it over the euro in value which wouldn't necessarily be a good thing for the US."
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
cx7l36 | why did queen elizabeth agree to suspend parliament? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cx7l36/eli5_why_did_queen_elizabeth_agree_to_suspend/ | {
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"text": [
"It's 2. The Queen's involvement with Parliament is almost entirely symbolic, and she is expected to approve whatever decisions they make. Should the Queen actually do otherwise, it'd be a major political upheaval. While \"If things get bad, the Queen can override you\" is a possibility, it's effectively the nuclear option, as it more or less destroys the power of Parliament."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
afm4zr | if cables transfer data in "1/0" by being "on/off" with electricity, what's the difference between cables? like what happens in an hdmi that doesn't happen in an aux cord? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afm4zr/eli5_if_cables_transfer_data_in_10_by_being_onoff/ | {
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"text": [
"That's how digital cables work. By chance you've actually picked a digital (HDMI) and an analogue (AUX) cable in your question.\n\nAn analogue cable transmits data in a continuous flow where it changes the voltage over time. A digital cable, like you described, sends pulses of electricity to represent distinct ons and offs.\n\nBut I assume your question is asking how do different types of digital cable differ to each other? And the answer is mostly in how they format the data in order to represent it in ons and offs - different methods are referred to as protocols.\n\nA standard HDMI cable for example has 19 pins. Each one is used to send different information through the wire so that on the other end they can collectively be understood.",
"Aside from the digital versus analog difference, cables have several properties that can effect high speed signals. The most important is capacitance. The faster the signal switches in the cable, the more capacitance can be a problem. HDMI has to move a lot of data so those cables have to have really good insulation and have to be specially made (carefully twisting pairs of wires together inside the cable) in order to work properly. That's also why they can't be longer than 30 ft without repeaters.",
"The differing ports (only reason to use different cables, really) are matched to signaling standards. How many wires are in the cable, how the wires are paired, how a series of 1's and 0's translate to physical voltages, how fast the data is sent, and things like that are defined by the standard. \n\nHowever, things like gold-plated connectors, low-loss wires, and the like are just marketing gimmicks. "
]
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||
c2sgj8 | why if arms and legs are exposed to the sun for the same amount of time, do arms typically come out more tan/burnt? | I thought maybe because the arms have less surface area than the legs but my arms always tan faster than my legs. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c2sgj8/eli5_why_if_arms_and_legs_are_exposed_to_the_sun/ | {
"a_id": [
"erma506"
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"text": [
"The sun is above you. The first thing it hits is the arms. Your body and clothes provide an intermittent shield of shade to your legs. If you were to, say, sunbathe by laying on a lounge chair and don't move, your legs will tan equally as fast. In some cases, even faster than your arms since the arms have more sunburn preventing melatonin in them from more normal exposure."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
|
1ybjmr | is there a reason why nazi germany is referred to as the third reich, however the german empire is not referred as the second reich? | Just wondering as Reich has a similar meaning to empire, however it is more common for it to be used for Nazi Germany instead of the two previous German empires. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ybjmr/eli5_is_there_a_reason_why_nazi_germany_is/ | {
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"text": [
"It was propaganda used by the Nazi regime to legitimize their nationalist ambitions.\n\nSpecifically it came from a book written by [this guy](_URL_0_) who was a strong influence in the Nazi party. So calling the HRE or German Empire the 1st/2nd Reich would be legitimizing the Nazi's propaganda riddled historical 'interpretations'.",
"A nationalist author, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, coined the term in his work Das Dritte Riech (The Third Reich). This book was released in 1923, and so was really an invented term. A German in the middle ages in the Holy Roman Empire would have likely called his nation the \"Reich\" colloquially, so it wasn't a complete coining of a word from no where.\n\nI've also heard, but couldn't back this up, that being the third \"Empire\", Hitler thought himself to be the leader of the 3rd Rome. The First being Imperial Rome, and the second being the Medieval Roman/Byzantine Empire. Again, I merely heard this from a German I know, so take it with a grain of salt.",
"The First Reich would have been the Holy Roman Empire. The HRE was neither Holy, neither Roman and nor an empire. It was a vague and loose confederation of over 350 different states. It lasted around 1000 years, from Charlemagne until Napoleon finally killed it off. \n\nThe Second Reich would have been the newly united Germany under the Prussian Kaiser, which lasted from 1871 to 1918. \n\nThe Third Reich was the name the Fascists gave their \"rule\" and it was meant to last for 1000 years. It only lasted from 1933 to 1945. \n\nThe word \"Reich\" simply means \"realm\" in English. It means the area of the country and/or nation. The term \"Reich\" is not used anymore in Germany. However, other countries use the term \"realm\", like the Netherlands (\"rijk\") in some bureaucratic instances. "
]
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| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Moeller_van_den_Bruck"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
53i44v | what happens from a chemical perspective when you're in love? which reaction affects you in which way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53i44v/eli5_what_happens_from_a_chemical_perspective/ | {
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"text": [
"By love, do you mean actual love? Like, married for 50 years love?",
"**EDIT Everything I previously said here was wrong, apparently, refer to /u/optrode's comment for real shit**",
"Others have stated, serotonin, dopamine and what not. I just wanted to input that ecstasy (MDMA) mimics serotonin and norepinephrine and thus creates the overwhelming feeling of love and happiness. Used in rave settings creates a group love effect where everybody cares about each other and it's so easy to pour your heart out into conversations with complete strangers. Legal mdma clinical trials for therapy have just became a thing despite every person who has tried it could testify to its power. "
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6tk7n1 | why does a common house fly insist on repeatedly landing on a person despite having an entire property to fly around in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6tk7n1/eli5_why_does_a_common_house_fly_insist_on/ | {
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"text": [
"To lick off your sweat. At least some species anyway. Human sweat is full of salt and protein (more so than other animals because of our high salt intake). Basically they're using you as a salt lick. ",
"Flies taste with their feet, and take it or leave it as a compliment but the fly finds you delicious.",
"Flies, and most insects for that matter, only have a very rudimentary nervous system compared to higher animals. They don't have a centralized brain, just clusters of nerves called ganglia. They're basically little robots that respond to only to stimuli from their sensory organs (antenna, eyes, feet). They have very limited memory capacity. If a fly finds something it likes (like your deliciously salty leg), it'll keep coming back because it forgets you've swatted it. It'll only leave if you leave, or it gets distracted be something better. \n\nThis is also the same reason why they'll repeatedly bash themselves into a window until they die of exhaustion. They navigate by light and can't comprehend that there's a barrier there. So they just keep ramming it until they find a hole. \n\n"
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23lfqp | why was the soviet union called communist when socialist was in the name ussr? | Or why was "Socialist" in USSR if it was a communist country? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23lfqp/eli5_why_was_the_soviet_union_called_communist/ | {
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"text": [
"Socialism and communism are very closely linked -- in fact, socialism is a stepping-stone on the road to communism. The party that ran the USSR was the Communist Party.\n\nYou shouldn't pay too much attention to names, though. The official title of North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and \"democratic\" is one thing it most certainly is not.",
"The Communist party hoped to usher in an age of communism. According to Marxism, though, a communist state is actually an oxymoron, as a communist society would be stateless and classless. So on the road to communism, the Soviets had to set up a socialist state in order to try to move society in the direction of communism. "
]
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24n64i | why isn't the cover to nirvana's album, nevermind, considered child pornography? | Always wondered. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24n64i/eli5_why_isnt_the_cover_to_nirvanas_album/ | {
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"text": [
"Pictures of nude babies, or even children/teenagers, are not considered generally pornographic. There is nothing sexual about the picture.",
"Because nudity isn't automatically pornography. Among other things, pornography generally involves a focus on the genitals or sex acts. The picture on Nevermind doesn't really have those qualities. There's also a lot more leeway with art. That's why sculptures and paintings of naked people aren't considered porn. I'm sure there are other factors that come into play, but pornography is [notoriously hard to define.](_URL_0_) ",
"I wonder if the same cover would fly today? The world has gotten a lot more batshit insane in the 20-something years since Nevermind was released.\n"
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1pcr3c | what does a doctor do to clear an athlete to play following a concussion? what is a baseline test and what kinds of things do they ask you? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pcr3c/eli5_what_does_a_doctor_do_to_clear_an_athlete_to/ | {
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"text": [
"1. Check for swelling\n\n2. Check with a \"brain xray\" that there was no damage\n\n3. Check that there isn't excessive fluid in brain area\n\n4. Eye, hand, hearing and other tests including nausea check\n\n5. Bending over and coming up again without rapid eye movement or lightheaded.\n\n",
"Baselines involves basic cognitive tests with reaction times. Choose an image, recall a detail or recognize a pattern, basic problem solving. They get a reaction time and record it, then compare the baseline results to post concussion results. You have to get back to baseline as one of the hurdles, which also include being free of other symptoms for a certain period of time.",
"Baseline testing occurs at the beginning of the season and each athlete is given a test to see what their normal (baseline) scores are. The test includes a written portion that tests among other things, memory and problem solving skills. There is also a balance portion that tests the athlete's balance and coordination. The results are collected and saved. If an athlete gets a concussion the test is administered again and his scores are compared. The athlete will not be cleared for playing until he is asymptomatic (no headache, memory loss, trouble concentrating) and his test results have raised to his pre-concussion level. Although it depends on the person and the severity of the concussion, it usually takes about a week before they can return to play."
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1jzs42 | found on front page can somebody explain the mechanics behind how it works | subreddit only accepts text so heres the photo i was talking about : _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jzs42/found_on_front_page_can_somebody_explain_the/ | {
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"Sorry that i don't know much, but I do know that when the trigger on the top is pulled it creates a chemical reaction(sorry I do not know the chemicals), which increases the pressure inside of the shell, resulting in an explosion which scatters the metal cubes(this is why it is called a fragmentation grenade). Sorry for not a very good explanation/answer.",
"I'll try to use descriptive terms for the items on the photo. I'm not exactly sure how this one works but will try to give you enough info to understand though clearly not enough to make your own.\n\nWhen you pull the handle off it causes the spring below it (right below the big turquoise rectangle) to expand and hit the blasting cap. The cap then ignites the explosive material on the bottom.\n\nAll those shiny metal squares around the edge of the grenade are the fragments (the frag of frag grenade). When the grenade explodes it sends those little pieces out like lots of mini-bullets. This causes a lot of damage.",
"I dont have an amazing understanding of it but basically when the pin is pulled it allows an impact powder/primer (red stuff on the top) to go off and light a slow burning fuse (the blues stuff) which then sets off another primer (the red stuff above the pin) which shoots the pin with a a large amount of force into a an impact powder(green stuff) which then ignites the red explosive under it which in turn sets off the powder at the base which then sets off the powder that the empty space would normally be filled with. After all that occurs the grenade fills with gas from the explosion until the metal can no longer handle it and gives and all those little square things on the lining become like little shrapnel. Sorry I couldn't explain it better as i'm not familiar with that design of grenade but im 90% sure thats the process that takes place ",
"Mostly wrong. It is not \"pulling the pin\" which activates the grenade. It is releasing the handle. The pin is a safety device. The handle cannot be released when the pin is in, only when the pin is pulled. You can pull the pin to get ready to throw the grenade, not have a chance to throw it, and put the pin back in to make the grenade safe again. \n\nBy the way, this type of grenade is a US military variety called a \"Mills grenade\"."
]
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3kd3vh | what would happen if another galaxies merged with ours? | what would happen to earth and our solar system if another galaxies merged with our at a speedy rate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kd3vh/eli5what_would_happen_if_another_galaxies_merged/ | {
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"text": [
"Most likely absolutely nothing would happen to individual plans and stars. While galaxies at a large scale have billions of stars, their distance from each other is so vast that it is very unlikely our sun and earth will actually collide with anything. Think about how far our nearest star is: 4 light years. That's *a lot* of empty space between stars, and when the other galaxy collides (Andromeda is projected to merge with The Milky Way in the future), the stars will just slip past through each other, although gravity would bind them into a larger galaxy (just like gravity binds our galaxy together now)."
]
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7al6co | noise isolating headphones vs noise cancelling | I see lots of headphones that are Noise Cancelling or Noise Isolating. What's the difference and how do they work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7al6co/eli5noise_isolating_headphones_vs_noise_cancelling/ | {
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"Noise isolating headphones block sound. Noise canceling headphones effectively add anti-sound.\n\nAnti-sound is identical to the original sound, just out of sync by half a wavelength. A sound is just a pattern of high and low pressure air waves. By adding another sound that has high pressure when the original one has low pressure and vice versa, you cancel out the sound.\n\nNoise canceling headphones generally require their own batteries in order to analyze sounds and make the corresponding anti-sounds. Noise isolating headphones just need to cover your ear with something that doesn't transmit sound very well.",
"noise isolating. \n consider this ear plugs that have earbuds in them. THey block outside noise by providing a noise reducing barrier. In fact my isolation earbuds are so good I use them as Earplugs when using a circular saw or mowing the lawn. NO music and not even plugged in.\n\nNoise Cancelling \n Headphones that essentially listen to ambient noise and produce an opposite sound wave to blank out the unwanted sound. Fill your bathtub with water. Drop two rocks into the tub one at each end. When the waves collide you will see a spot where the water seems calm because the waves are cancelling each other out. Noise cancelling headphones produce this negative wave by listening in to the outside noise and producing the opposite wave to cancel out the wave just like in the water.",
"ELI5: can noise cancelling headphones mess with my hearing? I mean, that signal being pushed into my ears over time. Especially as someone who suffers from tinnitus.",
"\"Noise isolating\" headphones are like earplugs with headphones in front. The sound outside your ears hits the earplugs first, which makes it quieter. Since the headphones are on the ear side of the earplugs, they don't have to be as noisy for you to hear them over the noise the earplugs are blocking.\n\n\"Noise cancelling\" headphones use a neat trick to make sound \"disappear\". For every sound, there's an \"opposite\" sound. If both sounds happen at the same time, you \"hear\" no sound. So \"noise cancelling\" headphones have a microphone and a computer. They constantly and quickly sample the noise around you, create the \"opposite\" noise, then add that noise to the music you're hearing. To your brain, this sounds like \"I am in a quiet room and this music is playing\".\n\nBecause of this, \"noise cancelling\" headphones need batteries even if they have a wire, because the computer and the microphone need a little bit of power to work. They tend to be fairly big and bulky if they work well. Since \"noise isolating\" headphones are just earplugs, they can be smaller and don't need batteries to work. Unless they're wireless, but that's unrelated.",
"Imagine you're standing on the long rope bridge at the playground and Jimmy is on one side of the bridge shaking it up and down. When he shakes the bridge like that, you move up and down, and that's kind of how sound works.\n\nFor a noise isolating headphone, imagine that we lay down a bunch of heavy blankets all along the bridge to weigh it down. Jimmy's still shaking the bridge up and down just as much as before, but you don't move around quite as much. That's like how a noise isolating headphone tries to quiet down the sound waves that are coming to your ear.\n\nFor a noise cancelling headphone, imagine that I'm standing on the ground in between you and Jimmy. While he's shaking the bridge, every time he lifts the bridge I pull down on it, and every time he pushes down on the bridge I lift up on it. The better I'm able to perfectly counteract Jimmy's shaking, the more it's like you don't feel any shaking at all. That's like how a noise cancelling headphone tries to cancel out the sound waves that are coming to your ear.\n\nPlease don't hang out with Jimmy at recess anymore.",
"Noise isolating is like using insulation to keep your house warm. Noise canceling is like adding a heat source to the house. ",
"Lots of good explanations here. I'll just add more info as a headphone collector.\n\nNoise cancelling (also known as ANC/active noise cancelling) headphones generally sound worse because of the \"anti-sound\" that they make. They also produce nauseating sensation that can make you feel fatigued. If you don't need to deal with constant and regular noise (e.g. engine noise), avoid ANC headphones.",
"Noise isolation is just insulation.\n\nNoise cancelling uses a tiny microphone to \"listen\" to the incoming ambient noises and cancel them out with destructive wave interference before they reach your ear.",
"Another functional difference: isolation headphones have to clamp tighter on your head and ears to do their job, so they can be worn for shorter periods before causing discomfort. They are more effective at muffling ALL external sounds, expecially sounds with fast transients, like people talking or tapping drumsticks on electric drum set heads.",
"The noise isolation ones are passive, like the ones you find on construction zone. They isolate you from the environment by blocking the exterior sound from reaching your ear.\nThe noise cancellation one are active. They usually have one or several microphones to listen for the exterior sounds and cancel them by sending the same sound \"reversed\". Imagine you meet your boss and shake hands. You are both sounds and the eardrum is your handshake. You want to have a firm handshake (no noise or no movement of the eardrum). To do that you need to kinda apply the reversed hand movement of your boss. In this way, you will both move your arms but the handshake will have a fixed position.",
"Isolating is a passive device, Cancelling active (requires a power source). The cancelling headphones listen to the ambient noise, & emit the negative of it to try & zero it out. If this isn't done well then they are basically adding to the noise",
"ELI5:\n\nNoise Cancelling use batteries and microphones to listen to the noise outside your headphones and try to cancel it with magic. Some people think they hiss a little.\n\nNoise Isolating just try to cover your ears so sound from outside can't get in. Like ear plugs or other ear protection."
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3ens3q | why is greece public debt seen as the beginning of the apocalypse, while japans public debt is far greater, in terms of % of gdp? and why is not the media talking about this? | _URL_0_
_URL_1_
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ens3q/eli5_why_is_greece_public_debt_seen_as_the/ | {
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"If Japan's debt gets out of control, they can just print more Yen. This would weaken their economy initially, making their exports cheaper and encorauging the Japanese market to grow.\n\nGreece does not have this option because of the Euro, Greece is not allowed to print more Euro so must find other ways to make their economy grow. The next option when printing more money is not an option is usually taxes and spending cuts.\n\nAnother thing to remember is the Greek economy is highly tied in with Europe. Japan's debt has no effect on China or Russia but Greece's debt can have a significant knock on effect on the rest of the Eurozone",
"Japan's debt is owed mostly to its own citizens and banks, who show no sign of giving up on it, for now. This is entirely unlike Greece.\n\nIt is talked about quite a bit in that part of the media which talks about such things."
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2s26xx | what is the origin of golfing terms like 'birdie, eagle and bogie'? | Always wondered why they have such strange names compared other terms in different sports. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s26xx/eli5what_is_the_origin_of_golfing_terms_like/ | {
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"Birdie (finishing a hole 1 shot under par) originated from an old slang term 'bird' meaning great or awesome.\n\nEagle (2 under par) and Albatross (3 under par) are extensions of birdie, with American's coining eagle as a more impressive birdie, and the British coining Albatross as a more impressive eagle.\n\nBogie (1 shot over par) originates from the idea of trying to determine how many shots it takes a good golfer to finish a hole. This hypothetical golfer was named after the idea of a bogeyman as a joke. The fictional golfer then became known as Mr. Bogey or later Colonel Bogey, and golfers aimed to beat his hypothetical score."
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1u5ehs | what that random loud noise is that you sometimes hear when you're trying to fall asleep | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u5ehs/eli5_what_that_random_loud_noise_is_that_you/ | {
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"It is probably [Exploding Head Syndrome](_URL_0_). It isn't nearly as disturbing as it sounds but it should be known most people don't hear that. ",
"When in the transitional stage of wakefulness to sleep, a state called hypnagogia, many mental phenomena can occur including: lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. \n\nOne type of hallucination is called Exploding Head Syndrome. It occurs at the onset of sleep or early into the sleep cycle and is an exploding noise, much like a gunshot or crash of cymbals, that seems to originate in one's ear and usually results in being awoken.\n\nThis phenomena is often compared to that of a hypnic jerk, when you begin to fall asleep and awaken with a sudden start.",
"I have this. It apparently manifests in a number of different ways and the version I have is like an electric shock in my brain, a really violent \"bzzzzt\" sound. I thought for years that I had a tumor or something and would eventually die of it, it was only out of a chance conversation with a work colleague that I learned it was something harmless and more than likely stress induced. Still scares the shit out of me on occasions though..."
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5uwlev | how are there more stars in the universe than grains of sands in all the beaches on earth? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5uwlev/eli5_how_are_there_more_stars_in_the_universe/ | {
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"OK, how about some calculated guesstimates ? 1cc of sand contains x grains. 1,000,000,000 cc / cubic meter X number of cubic meters on earth = ? Number of stars/ average galaxy × estimated number of galaxies / given volume of space × estimated volume of known universe =?",
"[This is a picture of one thirteen-millionth of the night sky.](_URL_0_) Most of the ~10,000 objects pictured are galaxies. Astronomers estimate that there are somewhere between 100 billion and 300 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is admittedly on the large side for a galaxy. Overall, the current estimate is 70 billion trillion stars ( 7 x 10^22 ).\n\nOn the other hand, there's approximately 7.5 quintillion ( 7.5 x 10^18 ) grains of sand in the world."
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7gh1ju | if blood circulates around the body in a circuit how does cutting off a limb not break the circuit and stop the flow? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gh1ju/eli5_if_blood_circulates_around_the_body_in_a/ | {
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"Because blood doesn't circulate in a circuit. It branches out and the converges back together. ",
"Blood flows in a network of ever-shrinking vessels, until it gets to the tissue, then back in ever growing vessels. So if you cut off some of those vessels that it travels out within, it just moves to other paths instead.",
"Blood doesn't go around the body, like a lazy river, it doesn't make one big loop stopping at a lot of places.\n\nInstead you have like a bunch of 2 lane highways going to every part of your body. Blood goes out from the heart to that spot, then take a similar route back via the veins. The blood that goes to your right big toe and back never went anywhere near your left foot or arms or head on that trip. \n\n_URL_0_",
"Vascular remodeling! Happens almost immediately after a severed body part falls off. The blood vessels will rearrange themselves naturally to correct the flow; the human body is perfect and beautiful and already had a answer for this problem!",
"Others have already noted that the circulatory system is much more complex than a single linear flow path, but worth noting that cutting off portions *does* add resistance to the system. Amputees have additional strain placed on their heart from this resistance, while you might intuitively think that losing a limb would reduce strain, since there is less body to push blood around."
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2bqmdc | when going to remove software can i just delete all of the files or do i have to do the uninstall process? (pc not mac) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bqmdc/eli5_when_going_to_remove_software_can_i_just/ | {
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"No. Windows programs strew files all over your computer along with registry entries. \n\nYou have to use the uninstaller to get at least a semblance of a clean removal. ",
"You can delete files, but there will be files in the Windows' registry that will assume it's installed. It's better to uninstall them (it usually erases those files from registry).",
"You can't even find all the files in most cases.\n\nUse the uninstaller.",
"You could delete all the files and manually delete all the registry entries, but it's hard to be sure you got them all."
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1rzkdk | what is time where there is nothing to measure it by? | This is a very convoluted question with an even more convoluted answer. I can't wrap my head around it for the life of me.
Say you are plopped into the middle of intergalactic space with the nearest mass being a few million light years away, and miraculously you don't start spinning. So there you are in the middle of space with no point of reference to anything. In such a context, what is time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rzkdk/eli5_what_is_time_where_there_is_nothing_to/ | {
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"Light would be passing you, and the speed of the light arriving and moving past would define time for you.\n",
"In that frame of reference, you aren't moving through space, but you will still move forwards through time. Time may be functionally meaningless in such a state, but that doesn't mean it stops existing."
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j2omu | bayes theorem? explain it like im five...if that's possible. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j2omu/bayes_theorem_explain_it_like_im_fiveif_thats/ | {
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2skn7h | why is it so easy for people to routinely o.d. on drugs and quietly die in thier sleep, but when a state attempts an execution, its complicated, often botched, and generally controversial? | Also, vererinarians. Putting a dog or cat to sleep is a simple procedure performed every day with no complications.
Why is the business of executing people so incredibly complex, with "cocktails" of lethal drugs required to be administered over multiple doses. Why not just inject a large dose of morphine or some other opiate to lull the person, have them fall asleep, and simply stop thier heart? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2skn7h/eli5_why_is_it_so_easy_for_people_to_routinely_od/ | {
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"People OD on illegal and legal drugs. Often the death is not quiet and clean.\n\n\nThe government isn't going to use illegal drugs.\n\n\nLegal drugs that kill you nicely aren't sold to governments by the drug companies - they don't want to associated with the death penalty.\n\nThe cocktails are of legal drugs that, individually, don't kill you nicely. The hope is that the combination will.",
"Why not a bullet in the back of the head? \"Guys, we know he did this shit? like no doubt? Video evidence plus he's admitting he did it and he's been a known psychopath for many many years. Pow. Well that solves that.\"",
"I survived an accidental (well, semi-accidental - I took the drugs in excess on purpose but not to kill myself or anything) mixed overdose on benzos and barbiturates two weeks ago this coming Sunday. The quietly die in their sleep thing maybe doesn't happen as much as people think.\n\nI fell asleep like one normally would with so many pills inside them and nothing felt any different from normal. I awoke suddenly choking on my vomit 4 hours later, very confused at what had happened. Got cleaned up and my mum took me in with her in case I was sick again but wasn't woken up... I fell asleep within 5 minutes. 10 minutes after that I was sick again, whilst laying down, and then had a seizure. Last thing I remember is my mum screaming down the phone to 999 and my Dad shouting to lay me on my side, the next thing I know I'm awake with a paramedic with his purple gloved hand in my mouth. Lovely.\n\nBasically, drug overdoses can often be \"botched\" too. I am guessing way more people end up throwing their guts up, in hospital on an IV like I did than die peacefully in their sleep. ",
"Veterinary euthanasia, with pentobarbital, is not always quiet and clean. It can often cause seizures and audible respiratory distress, which can be upsetting to watch. \n\nAdditionally, manufacturers of pentobarbital do not want to sell their product to governments that execute prisoners. In the case of European owned companies, they are not allowed to",
"Drug overdoses on illegal drugs do not happen as often as most people believe. Similarly, botched executions don't happen extremely often.",
"Here is a short film by Terry Pratchett examining voluntary euthanasia. Warning: It's not easy to watch, and it shows a man's death. He was clearly at peace with his death - insistent upon it - but I wouldn't call it \"easy\". Seriously, please don't watch this if it will distress you.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Interesting article from a pharmacist on this subject:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n > Midazolam is the common denominator in all these fuckups, used with the narcotic hydromorphone in Ohio and Arizona and with a muscle relaxant (vecuronium) and potassium chloride (to stop the heart) in Oklahoma. So let me tell you a little bit about midazolam. It's what's known as a benzodiazepine, related to the Xanax and Valium so many people have made friends with. All in all they're a pretty good class of meds, gaining popularity in no small part because they are safer, particularly in overdose, than the class of meds they replaced, known as barbiturates.\n\n > Now, I'm gonna pause here, and place a large bet that even if you haven't had a day of any kind of medical training in your life, you can read that last paragraph and figure out the problem here, and offer a possible solution.\n\n > Some 6th grade dropout probably just said something like \"um...maybe they shouldn't be using the safer one if they want to kill someone, and maybe go with that barbiturate stuff instead\"...and that person... would be smarter than the Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona Departments of Correction.\n\n > How many of you have had to have a pet put down? How long did it take? Seconds, not hours, yes? Guess what they use? Read that paragraph again and just take a wild-ass guess.\n\n > \"Um......a barbiturate maybe?\" the dumbest person on earth might say. And he would be right. Pentobarbital to be specific.\n\n > The olive in the martini here is that some states have figured this out. You won't hear about botched executions in Texas or Missouri because pentobarbital is exactly what they use.\n\n > So let's recap here. There is a successful model of a lethal drug that has a proven track record in both animals and humans. Yet some people in power think it's a good idea to go their own way and come up with a plan that uses a drug that is popular in medical practice in part because it is safer in overdose than the drug that is successfully used to kill lots and lots of living creatures.",
"They most certainly not die quietly in their sleep. \n\nSource: I watched Jane die. "
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91e8t5 | what distinguishes light that reflects on a window and light that travels through? | If you go to a window, you can obviously see out of it and also see your own reflection to an extent. My question is: someone on the other side of the window can also see you in the window. So, if a photon of light is reflected from a point on your body, what decides whether that photon is going reflect on the glass or go through?
Follow up, no widows have patches of “dark spots” as you can see your entire reflection as well as the entire of what’s on the outside. So is this a completely random selection process as a photon from the same point will sometimes reflect, sometimes not?
I’m gonna be surprised if I get an answer to this, but I hope I do! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/91e8t5/eli5_what_distinguishes_light_that_reflects_on_a/ | {
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"First, ELI18, then ELI5.\n\nELI18: When any electromagnetic wave meets a discontinuity in a dielectric medium, part of the wave is reflected and part of the wave is transmitted. The amount reflected and transmitted depends on the dielectric constant (or index of refraction) of the medium and the frequency of the electromagnetic wave (it happens for radio waves as well as visible light waves). It also depends on the angle of the light to the interface, and if you are traveling from a medium with higher index of refraction to lower index, the wave will be totally reflected if the angle if incidence is below the angle of total internal reflection*. It also depends on the polarization of the incoming wave, with the reflection coefficient depending on both the angle and the polarization state.\n\nELI5: When light enters a material other than air, some of it goes through, and some of it bounces off. How much goes through and how much bounces off depends on the material, the color of the light, the angle the light hits the material, and from which side you are shining the light. For glass, if you shine the light straight at the glass, or look at your reflection, about 4% (or 1/25) of the light bounces back, and 96% (24/25) goes through. That amount changes if you tilt the glass. But what if you shined the light from \"inside\" the glass? In that case you can get 100% to bounce off the inside surface of the glass. For example, think about a fish tank. If you shine a light into the water, part will go through and part will bounce off. If, however, you shine a light through the side the aquarium at a shallow angle and off the surface, you can get all of the light (100%) to bounce off the surface and back out the other side. Similarly, if you shine, for example, a laser pointer into the edge of a sheet of glass so that it skims the edge from the inside, then at a low enough angle 100% of the light bounces back in. That is how optical fibers guide light - by shining the light *inside* the material at a low angle to the sides, the light just keeps bounding along the edges (or surface if the fiber is round) until it comes out the end nearly as bright at it started.\n\n*edited based on zuppenhuppen's comment - thanks!",
"Ok, I think I can give a nice ELI5 answer. Here is a diagram I drew for you! [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\nEvery thing partially reflects and partially transmits light. Even your mirror in your home. It is made out of aluminium which reflects MOST of the light, but still transmits some. Why? Because of matching! It is fundamental to everything. Electrical engineers know this from impedances (simply: resistances). If the impedance of two circuit elements is not matched, there are bound to be reflections. Perfect transmission with no reflections can only happen when the material remains constant. When the current or light faces an obstacle i.e. a change in material, some of it is transmitted and some of it is reflected. This is one of the jobs of engineers working on lasers. They want as high reflections as possible with no transmissions. So, they essentially build several mirrors back to back until almost no transmissions can occur. \n\nA roughly similar way to think intuitively about partial reflectance is by imagining water dropping through a tap on a sponge or a strip of paper. Some of the water goes through while some of it is bounced back. \n\nNow as to your specific question: A window is an obstacle in light's path. So light coming from both sides of the window (sun and lightbulb) face reflections and transmissions. What you see \"outside\" through your window is only due to the partially transmitted part of sunlight reflected from various objects. Additionally, you will also see the partially reflected parts of light that has originated in your room (from the lightbulb). Which one is more visible depends on the intensity of both the sources.\n\nHave you ever been in an air conditioned train in the night or in a tunnel? Here, since the outside light source is practically zero, you only see the reflections from the light source inside the train! People outside the train would see you clearly because they see the transmitted part of the light source inside the train. On the other hand, during the day, you can see the outside clearly because the sunlight is much brighter than the light inside the train. However, people outside the train cannot see you clearly but can only see their reflections!\n\nIf no light source is too bright to drown out the reflection/transmission from the other side, then you will see both the outside and the reflection simultaneously!\n\nEdit: this topic is very general with lots of applications. Do you know of anti reflection coatings on spectacles? These coatings are used to eliminate such partial reflections. A simple Google search on anti reflective coatings for spectacles will help you understand what I wrote here much better and with better drawn diagrams! ",
"The answer is: random chance, if you're looking at an individual photon. At the scale of individual light particles, quantum mechanics dictates that there's some probability of a given event happening and that game of chance is a fundamental feature of nature.",
"A ray of light is made up of lots and lots and lots of photons. Each photon of light responds to a magnetic field : a ray of light, and all the photons in that ray of light will bend if they pass a magnet. It's a very weak effect, it only occurs if the photon passes very close to a strong magnet. \n\nNow a sheet of glass as a whole isn't a magnet, but each and every atom in the glass is a magnet. Now atoms wouldn't be magnets if they were at absolute zero, because then the atoms wouldn't be moving around, they would be still. See, how hot something is, is a description of how much it's atoms are moving around randomly : jiggling, vibrating. \n\nYou probably remember that an atom is made up of protons (positively charged particles) and neutrons (uncharged particles) both located in the nucleus of the atom, and electrons (negatively charged particles) located kind of in a cloud surround the nucleus. \n\nWhen an atom is hot enough to jiggle back and forth, all of the charges, both positive and negative, jiggle back and forth as well, but, since they aren't exactly super-imposed on each other, the negative charges are more spread out, and so, all around the edge of the atom there is a net negative charge, jiggling around. There is also a net positive charge jiggling around inside the atom, but we don't care about that, it is shielded from the outside world by the negative charges of the surrounding electrons. (This is alway exactly true with molecules, since molecules can have pretty complex geometries, where part of the positive charges of some of the atoms are exposed at one end of the molecule and because the electrons are spending their time mostly at the other end of the molecule. But we don't have to worry about that. Just think about a atom, with the positive charge shielded, surrounded by the negative electrons. \n\nA moving electrical charge induces a magnetic field. That's how electromagnets work. So all of those jiggling atoms are surrounded by a little magnetic field, generated by the jiggling negative electrons. \n\nNow, a very key thing is, that although a pane of glass looks and feels completely solid, there is actually a LOT of empty space in there. Each atom is surrounded by lots and lots of empty space. The reason why the atoms don't collapse is that the negative electrons of one atom repel the negative electrons of all the atoms surrounding it. So, there is lots and lots of empty space through which a photon can travel through the material -- IF it doesn't get too close to one of the magnetic fields being generated by the atoms in motion. If it gets too close to one of the magnetic fields generated by one of the atoms, it's path will bend, in response to the magnetic field. If it hits the atom's magnetic field straight on, like hitting a bulls eye, it will bounce straight back out again, just like a ball bouncing off the floor would. If it just hits the edge of the atom's magnetic field, it won't bounce straight back, but it will bend, and how much it bends, depends on how far out on the edge of the atom's magnetic field it passes. It can bend just a little bit, or it can do like a ricochet. \n\nSince there are so many, many photons in a ray of light, you will get photons hitting atom's magnetic field at every possible distance from the center, including hitting it so far away that the effect of the magnetic fields on the photon is zero, and it just keeps going straight. \n\nSo lots of photons just pass right through the glass, others bounce straight back, (180 degrees) others bounce back, but at an angle, and others pass through, but are affected a little bit, so their forward path gets bent. \n\nDepending on the type of material (which is to say the atoms/molecules the material is made up of, and how closely packed together the atoms/molecules are, and the geometry of how they are packed together) photons might mostly pass through, (something transparent, like a window); or it might mostly reflect (like a piece of metal); or actually get captured by the material and get absorbed by an atom (like something black); or somewhere in-between with a lot of scattering of the photons, but some still getting through (like something translucent)."
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"https://imgur.com/AsMAwXN"
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13f6y1 | why does my urine sometimes smell like honey smacks breakfast cereal? | I first noticed it after eating a bowl, so that explained it that time. But sometimes it happens when I haven't eaten it in months? Is there a certain protein or enzyme or something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13f6y1/why_does_my_urine_sometimes_smell_like_honey/ | {
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"In all my years, you are the first person to perfectly phrase what I have thought for decades. I hope someone smart provides an answer. ",
"It's ketones. Get tested for diabetes. ",
"It's actually a sign of dehydration. Drink more water. Yes, I am diabetic (type 1 for over 25 years). I saw a website that talked about this very subject. I will update with a link when I find it. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nI also asked my doc and he said the same. I am not much on drinking water. I drink mostly diet soda all day. I HAVE to force myself to drink a bottle of water after every soda. \n",
"it means that your kidneys are not functioning properly. your kidneys should be able to filter that stuff out (sugars), and apparently they are not. go see a doctor as soon as you can.\n\nthis can be a sign of a renal disorder, or perhaps diabetes.",
"Please stop drinking your pee.",
"Because you are lucky.",
"I find that when I eat smacks my urine smells vaguely of them too. But never otherwise.",
"Seconding the recommendations to see a doctor to check for diabetes.\n\nAs a fun side note, the full name of the diabetes everyone is referring to is called Diabetes Mellitus, a name coined a long time ago, when diagnostics were, say... less sophisticated and more yucky. In Latin, *diabetes* means (approximately) \"something that passes through\" and *mellitus* means \"honey-sweet.\" I'll let you figure out how this condition was first diagnosed.",
"What about if your pee smells like coffee after drinking coffee?",
"From Wikipedia:\n\n > The first described cases are believed to be of type 1 diabetes.Indian physicians around the same time identified the disease and classified it as madhumeha or **\"honey urine\"**, noting the urine would attract ants.\n\nSeriously, get checked!",
"Hi there! First thought: because you have diabetes. Go to a doctor.\n\n",
"Im just gonna claim that there is no problem at all. One weekend when i was a younger teen, me and few of my friends were sleeping over and had honey smacks in the morning. Later in the day when we all peed, our pee smelled like it. None of us has diabetes.\n\nEDIT: well i didnt read that this has happened to you when you dont eat honey smacks.. Well dang.",
"I just came across this a few days ago by accidental browsing...there is a very serious disorder where urine smells like malple syrup and it means you need to get to a doctor asap.",
"You got diabetes, mate."
]
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"http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=20&m=846495"
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7ulj9e | what's the difference between molecular weight and formula weight? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ulj9e/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_molecular/ | {
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"text": [
"So imagine your material as a steel chain. Each link is identical but the length of the chain can change.\n\nMolecular weight =total weight\nFormula weight = each link weight."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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||
3nfiw5 | can someone give me a crash course on the irrational numbers like pi? | Wikipedia and various searches are just not helping. The Fibanacci sequence (sp?) Didn't really help either. What are they used for? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nfiw5/eli5_can_someone_give_me_a_crash_course_on_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvnl3dg"
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"score": [
2
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"text": [
"Irrational numbers are simply numbers than cannot be expressed as a ratio between two intergers (a fraction) . Pi is used to calculate the radius of a circle. Euler's number (e) is used to calculate compound interest and natural logs."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
7xncct | what do server farms/data centers create? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7xncct/eli5_what_do_server_farmsdata_centers_create/ | {
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" > but what does the farm actually make? Is it upping the RAM of the site?\n\nThe server farm *is* the site.\n\nA website is just a series of files which are accessed remotely. They exist on a computer which is connected to the computer on which you are viewing them. The computer that holds and provides the files which make up a website is called a \"server\" (it \"serves\" the files to anyone who requests them).\n\nBig sites have lots of users and one computer would be overwhelmed. If you take a bunch of servers and put them all together it is called a \"server farm\", sort of like how a farmer might raise a pen of chickens or cows. Having a bunch of servers means the load of serving all the people who want to see the website can be split up between them and be successfully managed.",
"A server farm is just thousands of computers in one place. They allow Google/Amazon/Facebook/etc. to actually exist. You can't run websites that scale off of a single machine."
]
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||
5zvg9o | why do tomato-based sauces stain so markedly and quickly? | I just dumped the remnants of some spaghetti sauce into our sink and within 5 seconds was rinsing it down the drain. Yet after it washed out there was still a very noticeable reddish stain caused by the sauce. Clothes get permanently stained, fabrics, etc. I assume chemical processes/properties are involved. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zvg9o/eli5_why_do_tomatobased_sauces_stain_so_markedly/ | {
"a_id": [
"df1hhxw"
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"score": [
3
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"text": [
"The pigments in tomatoes are highly non polar molecules. They stain plastic because a small amount of lycopene gets absorbed into the plastic. Its particularly bad with HDPE and similar plastics because they are long hydrocarbon chains bound primarily by vander waals forces and let the pigments into their structure more readily than something with polar groups in its structure."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
28wn7a | why is twoxchromosomes a default sub while there is no default male counterpart? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28wn7a/eli5_why_is_twoxchromosomes_a_default_sub_while/ | {
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"cif63ps",
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"text": [
"Because Reddit is a male dominated website.",
"Because defaults are not placed on the list for any sense of balance or fairness, but based on both the quality of a sub as well as it's novelty. There may perhaps be a male equivalent, but with quality standards not up to par.",
"Guys can find a welcome audience to talk about guy things in nearly any sub, so there's not really a need for a special \"guys only\" sub.\n\nThis is like if someone opens a vegetarian restaurant and you ask \"but why isn't there a restaurant for people who eat meat?\" You already have tons of options for that! Go anywhere, they'll have meat on the menu. A restaurant that serves meat is by far the norm.\n\nYou're not being cheated out of anything just because a tiny fraction of subreddits are oriented to women's interests.\n"
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