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3wybzv | how political attack ads with incorrect information in the us can run with out being taken down. isn't it false advertising? | One ad in particular which catches my eye is this one by Mark Kirk of IL.
_URL_0_
You can see it was published on Dec 1st which by then we knew the Paris Attackers were not Syrian Refugees but EU citizens. And technically it's not an attack towards the opponent but other people. I understand the refugees aren't US citizens so it maybe alright but aren't ads like this adding fuel to the fire of attacks through out the country on Muslim Refugees that have nationalized?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wybzv/eli5how_political_attack_ads_with_incorrect/ | {
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"False advertising has a very specific set of conditions and rules, and I don't think political ads are governed by them, as they aren't really advertising a good or service. \n\nAs for inflaming tensions, yes they very likely are making things worse, but that isn't illegal. Unless the ads are actually inciting people to immediate violence, then they're perfectly legal in that regard."
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4vll7n | how is energy dissipated in a tuned mass damper system such as taipai 101? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vll7n/eli5how_is_energy_dissipated_in_a_tuned_mass/ | {
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"Imagine the tower to be a giant spring, which wobbles back and forth at a very specific frequency if you push it in one direction. The pendulum is designed so it swings at the exact same frequency.\n\nWhen the tower starts moving to the right, the pendulum, which is suspended freely, will not immediately move with the tower, only its hinge will. But as the hinge moves further to the right, the pendulum itself will slowly start moving right. When the tower stops moving right and starts moving left, the pendulum will still be moving right - and only slow down and move to the left when the tower is already well underway to the left. This means that the movement of the pendulum will always lag behind the movement of the tower, it is out of phase. The pendulum is therefore constantly removing energy from the tower, as it always pulls in the opposite direction of its movement. The more the tower shakes, the faster the pendulum will move, and therefore remove more energy.\n\n"
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3bxtty | what is brown sugar? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3bxtty/eli5what_is_brown_sugar/ | {
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"Brown sugar is less refined sugar that contains many of the impurities of the original sugar cane."
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3on91g | why is wearing a bra unhealthily? (happy no bra day!) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3on91g/eli5_why_is_wearing_a_bra_unhealthily_happy_no/ | {
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"It is not intrinsically unhealthy. \n\nIf it is made from a non-breathable material it can be unhealthy for your skin, if it is the wrong size it can be bad for you back/shoulders/neck, and if you are allergic to materials or chemicals in it can be bad for you but in general wearing a bra reduces pain from movement, and more evenly distributes weight and so is better for your health. ",
"I am a medical anthropologist breast cancer researcher and co-author of Dressed to Kill. I have been studying the bra-cancer link for 20 years, and several studies now show that wearing tight bras for long hours each day is a leading cause of breast cancer. It also causes cysts and pain. It has to do with constriction by the bra of the lymphatic system within the breasts, which is responsible for flushing out toxins, bacteria, cellular debris and cancer cells from the breast tissue. The lymphatic vessels lead to lymph nodes, mostly in the armpits, and these vessels are tiny and easily compressed, which would cause the breasts to retain fluid and toxins. Women who feel uncomfortable without a bra should realize this is a sign that their breasts are already damaged by the bra. They are also heavier from excess fluid from lymphatic congestion. Bra-free women have about the same incidence of breast cancer as men, while 24/7 bra users have over 100 times the incidence of breast cancer than a bra-free woman. And large breasted women do not need bras. They are not freaks of nature who need 20th Century lingerie for breast support. Of course, our culture brainwashes women into believing they need bras and shames them for not wearing them in public, which is sexual harassment. Meanwhile, the multi-billion dollar lingerie industry is doing what it can to suppress this information (although there are now several new bras which claim to be healthier for the lymphatics). The cancer detection and treatment industry has censored this information, since eliminating the bra is not a medical procedure, and there is lots of money in breast cancer detection and treatment. This is a major cover-up, but research is being done throughout the world slowly, despite the resistance, showing this is the real deal. For example, a peer reviewed epidemiological study was published in 2015 in Kenya which confirmed the bra-cancer link. Studies in Venezuela and China also show a link, as does a 1991 study from Harvard. But this does not make anyone money, so these studies are ignored. What does make money are mammograms, which is why they are pushed so much. Of course, once you have a tumor visible on a mammogram, you have cancer, so this is not prevention. Getting rid of the bra is the best way to prevent breast cancer, cysts, and pain. See my article, Breast Cancer is Preventable here: _URL_0_"
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fs8hnr | why can’t you drink water but are able to have ice chips after surgery? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fs8hnr/eli5_why_cant_you_drink_water_but_are_able_to/ | {
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"Ice slows it down, 200ml of water takes 5sec, 200ml of ice.....20minutes?\n\nAlso ice helps more with dry mouth.",
"When you are sedated or recovering from anaesthesia, your gag reflex is reduced. If you are given water there is a risk of you aspirating it into your lungs, which is bad. Ice chips require time to melt, so the risk is much lower than say drinking a glass of water.",
"Water expands when freezing into ice, a teaspoon of ice chips, when melted, will be a lesser volume than a teaspoon of water.\n\nIce chips are better because you take more time to chew and process them orally, unlike a sip of water which shoots straight through the oral cavity. Ice chips also disperse more throughout the mouth which has two benefits: your mouth feels more hydrated with a smaller amount of liquid, and it's less liquid that you end up swallowing.\n\nOften after surgery the throat is pretty roughed up/swollen after having the breathing tube removed after the procedure. Even though this is temporary and usually resolves fairly quickly -after a couple hours or so- it still messes up your swallowing for a little bit. Liquids are at high risk of being aspirated into the airway when your swallow is messed up, so the least amount of liquid you take during those couple of hours after extubation the better. Ice chips are a decent compromise in that regard, less water going in means less at risk of being aspirated."
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2t1jpt | if we breath in oxygen and out co2, how does mouth to mouth breathing work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t1jpt/eli5_if_we_breath_in_oxygen_and_out_co2_how_does/ | {
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"This was already explained very recently, your body does not consume all the oxygen you breathe in so there is still leftover oxygen being breathed out.",
"We're not terribly efficient at it, is the short version. Loads of O2 is still left.",
"You no longer need to do mouth to mouth just 30 chest compressions as the mouth to mouth isn't very effective ",
"So, your body has all these blood vessels. They're like a highway system where trucks drive around (called red blood cells) that deliver delicious, precious oxygen to all the cells in your body, and take away the garbage carbon dioxide that the cells in your body have used, to be 'recycled'.\n\nWhen they get to the lungs, they have two jobs: One is to dump out all the accumulated carbon dioxide they've gotten, and the other is to get as much oxygen as they can. However, when you breathe in, normally you bring in way more oxygen than you can possibly get onto all your trucks in the time they have. So, you breathe out some oxygen with the carbon dioxide your trucks dumped out. In fact, you breathe out *most* of the oxygen you breathed in, because there just isn't enough parking for the trucks to stop to load up on oxygen to take it away.\n\nSo, when you breathe into another person's mouth, they might get some of that carbon dioxide your trucks dumped out, but not nearly as much as they're getting the oxygen that your trucks just didn't have enough time to load.",
"The air we breathe in is not all oxygen (unless we're breathing from an oxygen tank). The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gasses. Oxygen makes up roughly 21% of that mixture in the air we breathe. When we inhale, our body consumes some but not all of that, so when we exhale, the oxygen concentration is down to about 16% which is still enough to help someone who is not breathing on their own.",
"Mouth to mouth resuscitation is used when another person is unconscious, and not breathing, and or without a pulse. The purpose of mouth to mouth is to more or less jump start the breathing process, not give the person oxygen. The goal is to get the person to stat breathing on their own, and mouth to mouth is usually used in tandem with CPR which is used to manually pump the blood, in lieu of the failing heart. ",
"Air has ~21% oxygen, after breathing out, it has ~16%, which is enough for a human to breathe."
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3fnnk4 | if banks simply pay me a small cut of the money they make with a mix of risky and "safe" investments, why should i put my money in a bank rather than investing it myself? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fnnk4/eli5_if_banks_simply_pay_me_a_small_cut_of_the/ | {
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"The FDIC. If your attempts at investment go sour, you would lose all of your money. If a bank messes up, your money is insured by the Federal Government up to $250,000, so you lose nothing. There is zero risk with putting your money in a bank, but investing is always risky.",
"The value of putting money in a bank is that you can easily withdraw it whenever you need to. You can't usually do that if you invest it yourself.",
"You're paying for convenience and knowledge. They determine what is profitable yet safe to invest in, and then do the investing for you. If you were to do this all yourself it would be much more time consuming, although not impossible.",
"A few reasons.\n\n1 - If they fuck up they still have to pay you... if YOU fuck up... you're on the hook.\n\n2 - They have teams of people whose literal job description is doing this. They've got years of experience, knowledge and tools custom built for this. In other words, they are the experts which I doubt you are.\n\n3 - They aren't just using your money, they are using all the money they have. The more money you have in the game the more effectively you can hedge against risk and generate a portfolio that will maximize return while minimizing risk.",
"Banks make a *terrible* investment. They're safer and more convenient than cash under your mattress or buried in a coffee can next to the house. Don't depend on a bank to be a form of investment. If you don't know where to start, consider getting an investment account and pick a target date fund. You pick the day you want to retire and how much risk you can afford. It starts investing risky now and gradually becomes more conservative as you age, to ensure your money is there when you retire. Municipal bonds can be bought from the second hand market in your state tax free, they benefit you directly, and have quite reasonable returns. A Roth IRA is a preferable retirement account over a 401k, but only after you've equaled your employers matching (if they offer it, FREE MONEY).",
"The purpose of a bank account is not wealth generation. The purpose of a bank account is liquidity. Liquidity is how fast you can get cash. A house might be worth $200,000 but in order to get that in cash you have to sell the house, which takes a lot of time. A house is not liquid. What if you need that money tomorrow? This is where a bank account comes into play. The money in the bank is as good as cash, you can write a check/debit and spend the money just like cash, or even get bills from the teller/ATM if you want. Bank accounts let you have access to your money at any time. A bank account is liquid.\n\nIf you were to have that money invested, you'd have to sell the stock you owned whenever you needed money, at the current market price. You need to pay your electric bill but your stock lost 30% of it's value yesterday? Too bad! you have to sell it at market price. Plus you'd have to pay capital gains tax, plus a brokerage commision on it. This is not good. \n\nSo we are left with a connundrum: Putting your money in the bank means you can use it whenever you want, but it also means that you can buy less with it every day due to inflation. Putting your money in an investment account means it will gain value, but you can't use it when you need it. What do?\n\nAny financially savy person will tell you that you need a mix of both, what that mix should be is up to personal factors and there is no one-size solution. Go to the r/PersonalFinance sidebar for more information. Or just respond to this comment and I'll clarify anything you don't understand."
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5o6j03 | why does microwaving a lit candle create plasma? (do not try at home) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5o6j03/eli5_why_does_microwaving_a_lit_candle_create/ | {
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"Not a scientist, physics major, or anyone who's explanation should be taken seriously, but I did a little reading on it. \n\nSounds like plasma is just free moving charged particles, either negatively or positively. You can make plasma by heating a gas. \n\nSo basically the microwaves start knocking the crap out of all the particles (the gas/flame created by the candle) that are already pretty goddamn hot. This either adds or removes lots of electrons from the particles, thereby making them either - /+ charged. \n\nI would wonder what would happen if you had two highly, opposite charged terminals on either side of the microwave, but out of the way of the microwaves themselves. Could you create arcs through the plasma? Isn't that kind of how lightning works? ",
"Microwaving a lit candle creates **more** plasma. \n\nCandle flames already contain plasma! Don't believe me? Take a neodymium magnet to a candle flame and watch it bend. \n\nNow here's the cool bit and why this works: microwaves can only heat up conductive surfaces. Air, hot or not, is an insulator so microwaves won't do much with it. But the small amount of plasma in the candle flame? That's conductive and gives the microwaves something to heat up. As they heat this plasma, it starts heating the surrounding air and also turning it into plasma, giving even more surface area to absorb the microwaves. So basically you have a chain reaction happening where plasma creates more plasma. At that stage, convection kicks in and starts moving this plasma plume upwards until it diffuses too much and stops being conductive again, then the process repeats. \n\n"
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11av1u | why does google tell me jesus was born in 4 bc? | I beleive everything the Internet tells me, so why was Jesus born 4 years before his era began? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11av1u/eli5_why_does_google_tell_me_jesus_was_born_in_4/ | {
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"Because he was. Historical records show that Jesus was born before the year zero-- since his birth is close to that date, we used BC and AD (although BCE and CE (before / common era) are now considered more PC).\n\nIt may have had something to do with the lunar calendar or some other factor that Jesus' birthday was not exactly year zero-- I'm not sure about this.",
"The short answer is that Dionysius Exiguus, the 6th-century scholar who initiated the custom of dating events in years since the birth of Christ, got the date wrong.\n\nBut it's actually a lot more complicated and interesting than that. See, the Bible says that Jesus was born \"in the days of Herod the king,\" Herod being the king of Judea. Now, the historian Josephus recorded that Herod died one year *after* a lunar eclipse, but *before* Passover. Since we know exactly when the various lunar eclipses have happened (they can be calculated with just absurd accuracy, down to the minute over thousands of years), we can figure the two most likely years of Herod's death. The earlier one is 4 BC (750 AUC, 3757 AM), and the later one is 1 BC (753 AUC, 3760 AM). So Jesus was certainly not born in 1 AD as Dionysius calculated, but at least a year earlier than that, and probably at least four years earlier.\n\nSo there's no absolute consensus on the year of Christ's birth. It could be anywhere from about 6 or 7 BC all the way up to 1 BC. Google presumably says \"4 BC\" because it just picked a year from some popular web page or something; it's not actually giving you correct information there, but rather just one of several possibilities.\n\nBut there *is* absolute consensus on the start of the Anno Domini era. That happened at midnight on January 1, 1 AD. The fact that that date was fixed in such a way that only *approximated* the birth of Christ rather than hitting it exactly is far less important than the fact that everybody agrees about how the calendar works and what year it is currently. If everybody *didn't* agree, we'd have a very hard time scheduling things, after all."
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50udri | why is body odor 10x worse when wearing polyester (dry-fit, tech shirt, etc) clothing ? | The days I lift and wear cotton my b.o. seems less intense than on days when I wear a technical (polyester) shirt - any idea what is going on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/50udri/eli5_why_is_body_odor_10x_worse_when_wearing/ | {
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"Dry-fit and tech shirts are designed to wick moisture. They pull moisture away from your skin and then it dries off of the fabric. Cotton just absorbs everything. Its likely that your BO isn't any worse from shirt to shirt, its just that the cotton is holding it all in.",
"Your BO isn't worse, synthetic fibers just do a better job at wicking smelly moisture and bacteria away from your skin. Slightly off topic, but relevant... Ask any climber or backpacker and they'll tell you that cotton kills people. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_",
"_URL_0_\n\n\"These textiles are not sterile and can harbor high bacterial counts as sweat and bacteria are transmitted from the skin.\"",
"Interestingly enough, we're playing around with an antimicrobial treatment for cotton apparel. I'll have to tell the production guys to completely soak the armpit area"
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bd0j7f | when you open a tap and close it, no water comes out of it. but as soon as you place your hand(s) or touch the bottom of the tap, some water comes out of it . why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bd0j7f/eli5_when_you_open_a_tap_and_close_it_no_water/ | {
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"Surface tension. Same reason why a drop of water might hold on to an edge and not fall, but as soon as you tap it, it’ll run down your finger. \n\nWater builds up at the bottom of the tap when you open/close quickly but not enough that it’ll break the surface tension, so it’s like a dangling drop."
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3avkvy | how does traffic actually form? | I understand how there is a backup if there is roadwork or an accident or otherwise obstacle, I just never got how if everyone is moving at (relatively) the same speed and not slowing down much to merge or exit, how there can be such massive traffic plugs at times. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3avkvy/eli5_how_does_traffic_actually_form/ | {
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"One person slowing down on a crowded roadway (say, to look at a crash on the other side of the highway) causes the people behind him to slow down, and the people behind them to slow down, and so on. So long as the road remains crowded enough, this wave of slowing down continues to propagate backwards. In a big city at rush hour, the reason your slowing down at any given moment was likely someone slowing down miles ahead of you 20 minutes earlier. It's much more visible when you watch timelapses of traffic from overhead. It's almost impossible to see this happening on the ground.",
"A million different reasons, but the big one is bottlenecks. Every time you see an \"exit only\" lane, the freeway is losing a lane. Going into downtown Seattle on i5, tons of lanes go down to 4, then down to 2. It is a horrific disaster every day like clockwork. \n\nNot to mention accidents, shitty drivers making people threatened and slowing down, emergency vehicles, construction, inclement weather, etc.\n\nKeep in mind most highways were built 20, 30, 50 years ago or more. The population of the Seattle metro area has tripled in that time. Widening highways is at best TREMENDOUSLY expensive, time consuming, and difficult, and at worst downright impossible. In this case, probably the latter.",
"In california, in the wee hours of the morning, traffic moves quick. Then someone steps on their brakes, either because they weren't paying attention, or someone else merged incorrectly. Good drivers will maintain enough distance that they don't immediately need to step on their brakes just because someone ahead did, but that's good drivers. The braking pattern propagates backwards, which causes drivers further back to change lanes to avoid a slow lane (which is also not good for traffic in general), causing the lanes on either side of the lane the original driver braked in to slow down, and that propagates backward, expanding to all lanes.\n\nThese sorts of traffic jams are the most frustrating, because when you finally get to the epicenter, the approximate location of the original braker, traffic just \"opens up\" and you're left wondering what everyone was slowing down for.\n\nIn conclusion, a single person's brake lights went on when traffic was flowing smoothly, generally people follow too close, and the jam expands from that point.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Partly because people drive too slow in the left hand lane, causing those moving faster to merge to the right and around slower moving traffic in order to retake their space in front of the slow moving jaghole in the left lane.\n\ndvrzero explains pretty well how traffic forms during higher traffic periods.\n\nCombine these two together and you have your average daytime driving in the Greater Los Angeles area."
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26ibjo | could a state of the usa leave the union and become an independent country? | As a UK redditor not understanding your constitution would be interested to know the answer as I have heard some folk in Texas talk about it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26ibjo/eli5_could_a_state_of_the_usa_leave_the_union_and/ | {
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"Only if the federal government let it. See: American Civil War",
"The only reason why Texas is commonly considered is because it was once an independent republic before voluntarily merging with the US. This origin of the state leads many to believe that Texas retained the right to be able to secede without consequence when they joined the Union. This is entirely false.\n\nNeither Texas, nor any other state, is allowed to secede from the US. Of course, they could try through revolution, but the US will fight to keep it.",
"Pretty much like /u/Silent_Talker says..\n\nLike any law here, there are always nuances of language that can be argued forever. The Wikipedia Article on [US Secession](_URL_0_) points to most legal opinions that under our constitution, the act of joining the Union is irrevocable. In joining, the State gives up some rights to the Union. \n\nTexas is always talking about secession.. they do have a totally independant power grid from the rest of US. They are larger than many existing Countries. Precedent shows that only through revolt could they make a real attempt. That costs a lot- in cash and blood. \n\nThe wiki article above also mentions the dozen or so other states that have threatened or considered secession over the years. \n",
"The Founding Fathers (like Jefferson) and everyone else fought about the concept of state secession until the time of the Civil War. A few years after the Civil War (1869), The Supreme Court (which is THE final word on interpretation of the Constitution) ruled in Texas v White that a state cannot secede from the Union once it joins unless there's a revolution or through consent of the other states. Another Supreme Court ruling in 1877 (Williams v Bruffy), said that if a state is actually successful in making it on its own then the secession would be respected retroactively. Because the comments made in the 1877 case weren't pertinent to the actual ruling, it's debatable whether the 1877 ruling would hold up. Either way, the 1869 should be enough to go on if everyone is willing to let Texas go and not fight about it. So the answer is yes: it would certainly be legal to do so given the right factors.\n\nEdit: Key West tried to do it as a joke but the government took them seriously and was ready to invade.",
"CPG Grey has an informative [video](_URL_0_) about the subject. ",
"One could probably write a whole book on the legal status of secession in the United States.\n\nFirst, let's recap the Civil War. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected on a largely anti-slavery platform. Eleven of the slave-holding southern states considered Lincoln's election a threat to their way of life and declared their secession from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The Lincoln administration took the position that secession was illegal and that the Founders had intended the country to be a \"perpetual union\". Thus, the U.S. government refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Confederate States of America, the whole Civil War happened, the slaves were freed, Lincoln was shot, etc.\n\nSince the Union won the Civil War and the Confederate States were brought back into the Union, the position of the Lincoln administration is the last legal word on the subject of secession. Some have pointed out that the Confederate States attempted to secede unilaterally, thus leaving open the possibility that secession might be possible if the federal government agreed to it. Of course, there's no legal framework for this and no one is rushing to create it. Quite simply, there aren't any serious secessionist movements in the United States. Sure, a lot of Texans like to talk about seceding, but all the real secessionist movements are very much on the political fringes.\n\nAnd, of course, it doesn't help that the Confederacy's slave-holding ways have caused secession to become strongly associated with racism.",
"They could try but ultimately no. The American Civil War is a good example of this. Southern states tried to set up the Articles of Confederation but to no avail. The U.S government would not allow a state to do that and secondly I don't think the UN would recognize it as a independent nation. Though stranger things have happened (Enclaves' for example)."
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571s5g | what is hydrated salt, and how is it different from saltwater? | I recently read that NASA has reclassified the flowing water they believed to be on Mars as 'hydrated salt.' I tried to look it up for myself, but the explanations I got described it as salt molecules with water molecules attatched. Is it just as issue of the majority?
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/571s5g/eli5_what_is_hydrated_salt_and_how_is_it/ | {
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"Sort of. A hydrated salt has water molecules incorporated into its solid crystal structure. Each formula unit in a hydrated salt includes a certain number of water molecules squished in with it, so there is water there, but the whole thing is a solid crystal like dry table salt. Salt water is a fully dissolved solution, where there is no crystal structure, just ions floating through liquid water. There is more water in the aqueous saltwater solution, but the chemical structure is different, too."
]
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|
endnw9 | why are some planets tidally locked and other spin? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/endnw9/eli5_why_are_some_planets_tidally_locked_and/ | {
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"No known body is in 1:1 tide-lock to the Sun. Mercury was believed (until 1964?) to be so, but it's more interesting than that. Because its distance to the Sun varies more than that of any other major planet, and a body moves more slowly when farther away, if it were in 1:1 lock it would see the Sun oscillate by a wide angle. Instead Mercury rotates at such a rate that the Sun appears to stand nearly still in its sky at perihelion*,* when the tide is strongest.\n\nMost moons are tide-locked; the distances are much smaller, and tide drops off in proportion to the inverse cube of distance. (Saturn and Pluto are each known to have at least one moon whose rotation is chaotic.)",
"The earth spins because of leftover momentum from the time it was formed billions of years ago. But other objects can take that momentum. In our case the moon and the sun. \n\nThe earth could become tidally locked to the sun (like the moon where the same side always faces earth) but I think I saw that the time it would take for that to happen would be after the sun destroys the earth, so it won’t happen to earth.",
"All planets have a *slight* force drawing them to be tidally locked. For example the tides of the oceans on Earth (from the pull of the moon) cause the Earth to tend to slow down and the moon to speed up, so the Earth will become tidally locked to the moon... in a very, very, very, very long time:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe makeup of certain planets will make them more or less prone to this, but the passage of time is necessary for it to happen so, and the initial spin of a planet may be faster depending on the motion of the materials that make it up. If 2 dust clouds collided head-on they might stop and form a planet that's not spinning but in 99% of cases they will have some average spin-- but it's extremely variable how much."
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1yfyze | - how does the p-value mathematically work to predict whether an effect is significant or not? | I know what the p-value itself means, the percentage of an extreme value arising by chance. But how exactly does that work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yfyze/eli5_how_does_the_pvalue_mathematically_work_to/ | {
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"Its requires understanding what the \"hypothesis\" is.\n\nUsually for statistical tests the hypothesis is called a \"null\" hypothesis which translates as: There is **no** relationship between the two variables.\n\nThe P-value says: Given that the null hypothesis is **true** this is the probability of us getting the result we did.\n\nIf the P is low, the H^o (the term for the Null Hypothesis in an equation) has got to go. (its wrong)",
"Example:\n\nSuppose you want to determine if a coin is a double headed coin (not allowed to look at the sides...lol). Flip the coin 5 times. Heads appears all five times.\n\nCan we be sure that the coin is a fake? Well, we know that a double headed coin would be certain to produce 5 heads; however, it is also possible for a normal (fair) coin to produce 5 heads. The odds of this happening are (1/2)^5, or 1/32, which is roughly (guestimate) 0.03. \n\nSo we know that, given a fair coin, this result will occur ~3% of the time. This is the 'p-value' of our experiment given the null hypothesis \"the coin is fair\". In statistics, the p-value is interpreted as:\n\nGiven the null hypothesis, the experiment we conducted would yield such a result only 3% of the time -- given the unlikelihood of this scenario, we conclude that the null hypothesis is false.\n\nNote that this does not tell us the \"real\" odds of our (supposedly rigged) coin turning up heads; we can only say that we don't believe that the coin is fair (50/50). \n\nAnother consequence of this method is the importance of reproducing results -- given thousands and thousands of medical studies, we can expect 5% of them to get a p-value of 0.05 (5%) based on CHANCE ALONE -- if scientists only publish 'significant' studies, we could expect to see a disturbing trend of false positive results. \n\nThis is slightly off topic, but it's always worth explaining the subtle pitfalls of statistics in any sort of science -- look at what it did to cancer research: _URL_0_\n\nOf 53 \"landmark\" cancer studies, only 6 could be reproduced. This means that this research (which may be 'significant' by pure chance), and all the research based on it, needs to be completely reworked. "
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"http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21588057-scientists-think-science-self-correcting-alarming-degree-it-not-trouble"
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4muqup | why do certain products (like the gopro) stay at virtually the same price, while other products decrease in price over time? | For example, [compare the Samsung S4](_URL_0_) with the
[GoPro Hero 4 Silver](_URL_1_).
Shouldn't the GoPro decrease in price as everything else? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4muqup/eli5_why_do_certain_products_like_the_gopro_stay/ | {
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"The original GoPro can be found very cheap. It stays the same price because they keep adding new features.",
"they do keep updating it and adding features, so your not exactly buying a 10 year old gopro for the same retail price.\n\nwith that said, gopro is in pretty dire financial trouble because their market has been yanked out from under them by bigger competitors with less overhead and more efficient supply chains. They existed in a niche market for a short while when things werent worth a larger companies effort.\n\nThey sustain themselves on brand image, marketing, and high margins. but that is quickly eroding and they will probably be bankrupt in the near future.\n\nLong way of saying \"they dont\".\n\nFor other potential examples, see Iphone or Tesla. seems likely that apple will be run under by samsung before long. Will Tesla remain competitive in 10 or 15 years?",
"Mostly because of supply and demand, and the industry the product is in. Your example compares a smart phone with an active wear camera. In this case, the smart phone industry has numerous competitors that will offer lower prices for similar phones in order to get their business. Additionally, the smart phone market is pretty competitive, as many smart phones offer similar features. \n\nHowever, if you take the GoPro, which has largely dominated the \"active wear camera\" industry, they don't necessarily need to decrease their price due to lack of competitors. Granted, more and more competitors are coming into the market, but so far, GoPro has a very recognizable brand name for being the \"active wear camera\". I would imagine you will see prices decline in the future as the industry becomes bigger and more players enter the industry."
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"http://camelcamelcamel.com/GoPro-CHDHY-401-HERO4-Silver/product/B00NIYJF6U?active=amazon&context=browse"
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f2ukm4 | what causes some heart attacks to be instantly fatal while others you might not even notice? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f2ukm4/eli5_what_causes_some_heart_attacks_to_be/ | {
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"It just depends on the size and location of the clot in the heart. The more heart tissue thats affected and not getting oxygen/blood flow, the more tissue that dies/becomes dysfunctional, the more likely for a lethal cardiac rhythm",
"The main issue is whether the clot causes an arrhythmia or not. People often confuse the terms \"heart attack\" and \"cardiac arrest\", but they are not the same thing. A heart attack is when blood flow is blocked to the heart muscle, usually via clot (though the arteries that supply the heart can sometimes spasm and cause a heart attack as well). As a result of the heart attack, the muscle starts dying (slowly, so there is time to stop it and save it) and can respond erratically to the heart's normal electrical rhythm. At this point, the heart can go into \"cardiac arrest\", which means that the heart stops beating. Sometimes it means the heart still beats, but too weakly to generate an effective pulse (this would be called pulseless electrical activity or PEA), or it may cease all electrical activity altogether (called asystole).\n\nThe heart attacks that kill quickly are those that induce a fatal cardiac arrest, through the disruption of the heart's normal electrical pattern. A heart attack can also kill relatively quickly by making the heart so weak (a big clot in the left main coronary for example) that it can't pump blood around the body anymore. The brain will quickly die without a pulse and oxygenated blood.",
"As others said, it's mainly where the clot is. But it's not that people don't necessarily notice, it's that they dont think it's a heart attack. People think if they don't get the classic crushing chest pain think it's something else instead. Like heart burn or they're getting sick."
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8p46ul | why is the u.s. infant mortality rate so much higher compared to japan? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8p46ul/eli5_why_is_the_us_infant_mortality_rate_so_much/ | {
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"One aspect is premature births. In many countries, a child born like at 21 weeks would be considered a stillbirth, due to the poor odds of survival. In the US, it’d be counted as a birth if it was alive upon exiting the womb, even if it died a few days, weeks, etc later. \n\nSIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is another reason. An article/study I read from Texas A & M University stated that a lot of parents are still not following the recommendations for preventing SIDS (allowing infants to fall asleep on their stomachs, bed sharing, etc) and that increases the mortality rate. Also, those of African heritage have a higher rate of SIDS than other ethnic groups. \n\n",
"Japan has a significantly better healthcare system than the US, and Japanese citizens have better access to that system than Americans have due to higher population density and better transit links."
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3sd300 | why is french so common as an alternative language on our products in the us? | Most of the things in our lives with labels have a French translation on them. By far the most popular language in the US besides English is Spanish, yet many of these labels have French instead. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sd300/eli5_why_is_french_so_common_as_an_alternative/ | {
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"Many products in the US either come from or are also sold in Canada, where it's a requirement to have French in addition to English.",
"All of the answers below are correct, but I think Americans only began seeing French on their labelling after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Before NAFTA, Kellogg's may have made Corn Flakes in three or four different factories in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Once NAFTA came into effect, it was easier and cheaper to consolidate all of that production in a single plant. And it's easier and cheaper still to use the same packaging for all three countries.\n\nThat said, the quality of the French on some of these products is often hysterically bad. Just a couple of weeks ago my daughter got a box of \"Playground Chalk\" from Wendy's in a kid's meal. The French translation was more or less \"The Chalk from the Enclosed School Play Yard\". \n\nAnd then there was the box of crackers made in a factory \"Liberated from Nuts\" (but only metal hardware nuts as in \"nuts and bolts\"). Not to mention made in Turkey t-shirt that was \"Fabrique en Dinde.\" Turkey the country is \"Turquie\" in French. \"Dinde\" is the bird."
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52o1kb | what process takes place in your body after you have your baby? | Clearly- I have not had a child. I just saw on FB a picture of a woman who gave birth without medicine. She was holding the baby and her stomach was still big. Now, I'm not saying she was fat or whatever. I'm genuinely curious about the steps that happen from the time you pop that screaming bundle of joy out till the time that you aren't round any longer. I'm just curious because some people don't even look like they had a kid, so what are the causes, how does this happen, etc.? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52o1kb/eli5what_process_takes_place_in_your_body_after/ | {
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"The uterus stays swollen and gradually decreases in size due to hormonal changes and blood release. It is a remarkable muscle that starts about the size of a large lemon or small apple and stretches to the size of a watermelon. It takes a while for this to go down. For some women there is extra weight gain which causes a larger tummy also. When a women breast feeds her baby the uterus cramps down and becomes smaller, shedding blood as it cramps. Women who look like they didn't have a baby still have stretched loose skin and a larger uterus. They usually had a healthy weight gain without extra weight. Some women gain too little weight and can have small babies because of this."
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2xm160 | the relationship between gravity, the speed of light, and time dilation. | Hi folks. I need you help with this - I have a fundamental understanding of the relationship in the title, but whenever I try to explain it to my SO, I get stuck in the metaphors of elevators in space, a golf ball on a train and a bowling ball in a blanket.
What I need is someone very clever to really dumb it down for me and answer the question - why does time slow down for someone travelling at relativistic speeds? Why should it? Why would being near something like a black hole make you experience time slower than if you were standing in a park on a Tuesday afternoon?
I've searched extensively, and while there's plenty of material explaining the hows, the formulas etc, and I almost have my head around it - but can someone please explain why?
Thank you
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2xm160/eli5_the_relationship_between_gravity_the_speed/ | {
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"An explanation for the special relativity part.\n\nFact: regardless of how you're moving, everyone measures the speed of light in a vacuum to be the same, exactly 299,792,458 meters per second.\n\nImagine an astronaut is standing on an asteroid, and a spaceship with it's headlights on passes him at 95% the speed of light. He will measure the light that comes out of those headlights to still be moving at exactly the speed of light, not the speed of the ship plus the speed of light, as you expect for normal things.\n\nThe weird part is the person inside the spaceship will also measure the light coming out of the headlights to be racing ahead of the ship at the speed of light.\n\nThe *easiest* way to resolve this apparent paradox is to have space and time change, depending on how fast things are moving. Space and time conspire together to keep the speed of light the same for everyone.",
"First of all, I'm no specialist in this, but I'll try (anyone can correct me if I'm wrong) . One of the most popular theories in how the Universe works is Einstein's General Relativity Theory. As far as I know, it all revolves around light, most importantly its speed. The speed of light is considered constant (in a vacuum). Since it's basically a fixed number (the way I see it, it's needed in order to make all equations work out), it means you can't go faster than that. As you approach that limit, time dilation appears, which means basically that \"your\" time is not the same as the other's time. If one were to measure time from an exterior perspective, they can notice that in one second of \"your\" time, more seconds of \"normal\" time have passed. That happens because time has to change its \"value\" in order to accommodate the fact that light is a constant value: if you turn on the headlights of your spaceship as you're flying at the speed of light, the beams won't be twice the speed of light, but still the speed of light, only measured in a \"squished\" dimension of time (where time flows at another pace). \nIt's late now and I can't get a clearer explanation at the moment. \nAnd if you're entering a black hole, you don't \"experience\" time slower, because the rate at which you experience stuff slows at the same rate (like how fast your brain works), so you experience time the same ( I think ). Only your SO, which you left behind to watch from Earth, will see you move slower and slower (until you percievably stop), because then Black hole's gravity is pulling back the light that tries to go to Earth and to your SO's eyes. \n\nEDIT: Found a [video](_URL_0_)",
"Read this a long time ago, I like this a lot so I have it saved:\n\nEverything, by nature of simply existing, is \"moving\" at the speed of light (which really has nothing to do with light: more on that later). Yes, that does include you.\n\nOur understanding of the universe is that the way that we perceive space and time as separate things is, to be frank, wrong. They aren't separate: the universe is made of \"spacetime,\" all one word. A year and a lightyear describe different things in our day to day lives, but from a physicist's point of view, they're actually the exact same thing (depending on what kind of physics you're doing).\n\nIn our day to day lives, we define motion as a distance traveled over some amount of time. However, if distances and intervals of time are the exact same thing, that suddenly becomes completely meaningless. \"I traveled one foot for every foot that I traveled\" is an absolutely absurd statement!\n\nThe way it works is that everything in the universe travels through spacetime at some speed which I'll call \"c\" for the sake of brevity. Remember, motion in spacetime is meaningless, so it makes sense that nothing could be \"faster\" or \"slower\" through spacetime than anything else. Everybody and everything travels at one foot per foot, that's just... how it works.\n\nObviously, though, things do seem to have different speeds. The reason that happens is that time and space are orthogonal, which is sort of a fancy term for \"at right angles to each other.\" North and east, for example, are orthogonal: you can travel as far as you want directly to the north, but it's not going to affect where you are in terms of east/west at all.\n\nJust like how you can travel north without traveling east, you can travel through time without it affecting where you are in space. Conversely, you can travel through space without it affecting where you are in time.\n\nYou're (presumably) sitting in your chair right now, which means you're not traveling through space at all. Since you have to travel through spacetime at c (speed of light), though, that means all of your motion is through time.\n\nBy the way, this is why time dilation happens: something that's moving very fast relative to you is moving through space, but since they can only travel through spacetime at c, they have to be moving more slowly through time to compensate (from your point of view).\nLight, on the other hand, doesn't travel through time at all. The reason it doesn't is somewhat complicated, but it has to do with the fact that it has no mass.\n\nSomething that isn't moving that has mass can have energy: that's what E = mc2 means. Light has no mass, but it does have energy. If we plug the mass of light into E=mc2, we get 0, which makes no sense because light has energy. Hence, light can never be stationary.\n\nNot only that, but light can never be stationary from anybody's perspective. Since, like everything else, it travels at c through spacetime, that means all of its \"spacetime speed\" must be through space, and none of it is through time.\n\nSo, light travels at c. Not at all by coincidence, you'll often hear c referred to as the \"speed of light in a vacuum.\" Really, though, it's the speed that everything travels at, and it happens to be the speed that light travels through space at because it has no mass.\n\nThis also covers the common ELI5 question of why nothing can ever travel faster than light, and why things with mass cannot travel at the speed of light. Since everything moves through spacetime at c, nothing can ever exceed it (and no, traveling backwards in time would not fix that). Also, things with mass can always be \"stationary\" from someone's perspective (like their own), so they always have to move through time at least a little bit, meaning they can never travel through space as fast as light does. They'd have to travel through spacetime faster than c to do that, which, again, is not possible.",
"The best explanation that I've come across is from Stephen Hawking in a documentary from a while back.\n\nParaphrase:\nIt's as if the universe bends the rules so that the speed of light is always constant from all frames of reference. If you shoot a beam of light on a super fast train, in order for the speed of light to remain the same, everything else will have to slow down.\n\nThe rest of the documentary I found rather unimpressive, but the special relativity explanation was the most accessible I've heard."
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1uzl02 | question about legal sentencing in the usa | Hi, so I have a strange question. Say a serial killer killed two people, one in a state where the death penalty exists and one in a state where it didn't. They're tried in both states, and found guilty in both, and sentenced to the death penalty and life imprisonment respectively. Which sentence is honoured? Presumably the death sentence, but does it throw up any problems?
I hope this makes sense! My boyfriend and I are watching a documentary about serial killers and the question struck me. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uzl02/question_about_legal_sentencing_in_the_usa/ | {
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"The person is actually convicted and imprisoned in whatever state caught him first. No state is required to turn over a person charged with a crime in another state.\n\nThis is not a hard and fast rule. Two states can come to any arrangement they see fit for transferring a prisoner between them. But it is somewhat unlikely that a non-death penalty state would transfer a prisoner in that case unless the other state agreed to take the death penalty off the table.\n\nBottom line: The death penalty is expensive. If the person is going to spend life in prison at the expense of another state, another state would be unlikely to even request extradition."
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4lt0qg | how do people physically lose weight, i know fat is burned off and what not but scientifically how are those cells destroyed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lt0qg/eli5_how_do_people_physically_lose_weight_i_know/ | {
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"The cells aren't destroyed. They shrink. Fat is stored in the cells and the cells multiply and grow larger, but as fat is burned for fuel, the cells just get smaller, but never really go away.",
"Very simplified: fat is an organic molecule made of carbon, hydrogen and some oxygen and other elements. When it breakes down you get water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The first leaves via sweat and urine but most of the list mass leaves via exhaling CO2. When you lose weight most of it is exhaled. ",
"'Fat cells' are actually more like fat storage cells. They play a really important role in the body's endocrine (hormone/signalling) system, so for the most part we keep around the same number of them. The fat cells don't get destroyed when we lose body fat.\n\nWhen the body is hungry, it uses a little bit of stored sugar for energy, but it also takes stored fat from inside the fat cells and turns it into something else. That 'something else' is not sugar, but it allows the body to do the same thing that it would have done with sugar in order to 'make energy.'\n\nWhen this happens, we end up losing stuff that weighs something; after a lot of this, you can notice the difference in pounds.",
"Fat cells are not destroyed, they simply shrink. They can expand like balloons to store fat.\n\nYou lose all of your body fat via respiration. Specifically the CO2 you breath out. CO2 is the waste product generated when your body burns energy. \n\nIt's a couple of steps from stored fat to body energy (ATP), which is why it's tough to burn fat. Your body will burn the existing ATP stores first and then the glycogen (carbs stored in your blood). \n\nOnce glycogen stores are depleted then your body will start converting fat and protein into ATP to keep you going. "
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3sa5gn | why are activists angrier at seaworld for their practices and not as angry with regular zoos? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sa5gn/eli5_why_are_activists_angrier_at_seaworld_for/ | {
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"Well, yeah. I'm against SeaWorld but zoo's are just as high on my things-that-aren't-cool-list. But zoo's usually hide behind the same agenda that SeaWorld does - they claim what they're doing is animal welfare. In my home country [they discovered a bunch of dead animals in a big freezer](_URL_0_) that they claimed had been sent back to the original habitat, saying they were rescued. Somehow, it's still up and running. It's hard to fight these places. ",
"Seaworld is large globally recognised organisation, its much more visible than your local zoo and would have bigger ramifications ",
"Keeping a lion in a compound is not the same as keeping a giant whale in a tank. The ocean is immensely vast and full of sounds and motion. Keeping a whale in captivity is akin to keeping a human in a coffin.",
"The idea behind zoos is just as bad, but the size of the enclosures and the treatment of the animals is exponentially worse at SeaWorld. The size of the tanks compared to the whales is insane. Orcas swim up to 100 miles in a day, that's over 1200 laps in the SeaWorld tank. Like /u/Fez_and_no_Pants said, it's like a coffin for a human. Compare that to a Lion's living space in the zoo and you see the difference. Also, they separate the whales from their children and mates. This is one of the worst offenses because whales are extremely social.",
"I am going to try to give you an objective response. This is obviously a very heated topic and everyone has their opinion. But what we need to be concerned about is how to objectively measure animal welfare. This is critical in order to establish quality institutions that provide stimulating, enriching, fulfilling environments. Not all institutions will meet this standard, but before we react we need to be able to properly evaluate these animals and institutions. M\n\nIt’s relatively easier for us to construct humane and stimulating habitats for land animals. Not only do we have more space, but we have better resources. Humans can easily alter the enclosure to make it more challenging and rewarding. Humans are also better able to respond to land animals that are in distress - veterinarians, zookeepers, and biologists are better able to recognize signs of boredom, disease, illness, malnourishment, stress etc, and be able to do something about it. Manipulating, changing, or constructing land enclosures is much easier than water ones.\n\nFor example, many zoos in NA recognize that it isn't in the interest of the elephants to keep them in small spaces. Not only do these species require more land, they are highly social and need to be in herds. My zoo recently transferred their elephants to an elephant sanctuary in the USA where they have more space and more socialization. Accredited zoos (as opposed to circuses or road-side zoos) place the needs of the animals in their care before profit. Our zoo recognized we didn't have the space or climate to be able to care properly for our elephants, and so we transferred them. Zoos are better able to make these necessary changes, even if that means that animal has to be moved to another institution.\n\nIt is much harder for humans to construct appropriate humane and stimulating habitats for marine mammals. It is also a lot harder for us to recognize signs of distress. For example, we can see the boardroom, frustration, or anger on a primate or tiger...but a dolphin is always \"smiling\". Their internal state isn't reflected in a way humans can easily interpret or understand. So it is hard for us to adjust to meet their needs, as compared to land animals whose expressions and mannerisms match ours more closely. Unless you work with the marine animals day in and day out, you won't see how inadequate their enclosures are...but any given member of the public can immediately tell when land animals are living in inadequate enclosures.\n\nAnother argument I have heard is that places like SeaWorld are using the animals for entertainment, where as a zoo does not exploit animals in this way. Zoo’s also engage in active conservation programs either by directly funding conservation research, directly funding conservation sites abroad, funding programs that rehabilitate wild animals, or funding species recovery projects. For example, my zoo has directly contributed to saving over four regional endangered species and has actively contributed to the release of a once extirpated species into a national park. In many cases animals that are already in zoos cannot be released into the wild either because there is no wild to return to, or because they would not be capable of surviving due to lack of survival skills. Finally, most zoos do not acquire their animals from the wild, they acquire them from other zoos, inhumane zoos, private owners who thought they could take care of that animal, or rescue organizations. For example, my zoo has a number of raptors and owls, all of which have been resuced from the local wildlife hospital. These animals were either to sick or injured to be released back into the wild, but not hurt enough to be humanely euthanized. Instead they serve as ambassadors for their wild counterparts, hopefully inspiring individuals to give back to projects which actively try to save them.\n\n**Disclaimer** Its worth noting that when I am talking about zoo’s in this case I am talking about accredited institutions where their mandate is to provide ever improving welfare to the animals in their care - even if that means giving them up. I am not talking about roadside zoos, private zoos, or unregulated “sanctuaries”. There is a big difference between SanDiego Zoo and say an underfunded roadside zoo.",
"Keeping a lion in a compound is also a lot different from then telling that lion to do a bunch of tricks while others watch. it's the exhibitionism of the whale shows that make them worse than a zoo.",
"Many people are citing the difference in environment and enrichment for SeaWorld vs. zoos, but I personally think a lot of it is due to the entertainment vs. education aspect. SeaWorld is obviously an amusement park, meant for entertaining; they even go as far as perpetuating false information about wild orcas in order to appear more humane. Zoos are meant for educational purposes. There is no handling of animals at a reputable zoo, except for necessary medical treatments. Zoos work with conservationists to protect the species displayed in the wild. Exhibits in zoos are made in order to offer the highest levels of natural environments and enrichment. Although SeaWorld has a great wildlife rehabilitation program, they are obviously an entertainment venue. Also, there is a whole other can of worms about where SeaWorld has gotten their marine life, and the entire situation happening in Taiji (read about The Cove for more information; although SeaWorld no longer gets animals from these places, SeaWorld was the start of cetacean shows becoming popular and now other places get marine mammals cruelly from the wild, which also directly supports the hunting of cestaceans for meat). ",
"Zoo = conservation, sea world= entertainment. Zoos let a lion be a lion, lions can be reintroduced back into the wild. Sea world train and domesticate wild animals who have shown that they cannot be reintegrated back into the wild. ",
"Zoos have changed a lot in the last 40 years. I remember as a kid going to the Columbus zoo and being disgusted and sad at the conditions as well as the enclosures the animals were in. If a little kid feels that way think about what those conditions must have been like for the animals.\n\nThen there was new way of thinking about how zoo animals should be kept. Many directors at the time thought that it would actually be bad for the animals to put them in natural surroundings that could not be disinfected regularly. But it persisted and the animals showed a remarkable difference in their behaviors. Now you see most zoos following this practice of providing more natural rewarding environments for their animals, and the animals are better off for it. \n\nNo aquarium can provide a large enough space for marine mammals in order to provide the same stimulus as they do for zoo animals. Even if they could it is more than just having room, there are activities that allow the animals to engage in behaviors that either mimic those in the wild or at least provide stimulation for the animal. You cannot do this with something as large as a killer whale. It just isn't practical.\n\nZoos have evolved over the years to provide enriching environments for their animals. An analogy would be imprisoning a human someplace where they have access to books and movies and other people to interact with or shoving them into solitary for life. ",
"Zoos are scientific institutions rather than entertainment. SeaWorld is putting on a show, zoos are trying to educate people about animals and advance research. A lion born and raised in the zoo can, and often will, be reintroduced into the wild. Many zoos seek to treat injured animals before reintroducing them into the wild. Additionally zoos have many conservation related functions, such as the breeding and raising of endangered animals. Modern zoos pride themselves on creating a natural, healthy environment for the animals that is as close to their natural habitat as possible. Most zoos augment these goals with educational programs that seek to teach the public about these animals. SeaWorld does not have these scientific, conservation, and educational functions.\n\nEDIT: Additionally many animals in zoos actually live *longer* in captivity than in the wild, while marine mammals such as Orcas live significantly shorter than they would in the wild."
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333bqr | why is standardized testing still the norm when a lot of studies say that it is negative for the learning system? | Why don't the people in power listen to studies?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/333bqr/elif_why_is_standardized_testing_still_the_norm/ | {
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"Least worse practical solution - Have to evaluate teachers and students somehow.\n\nBureaucratic inertia (ELIFifteen) - It's the system we currently have and while most agree it's not too great, it's very difficult to get all the stakeholders to agree on what should replace it.",
"At some point you have to determine if a student/teacher/school is better, worse, or the same as the national average.\n\nThat means that you need to determine the average, then test each student to see where they fall.\n\nBasing funding and salaries solely on standardized test scores is a bad idea, but we need to have some way to quantify performance.",
"First, its hard to drop a system that appears to be doing its job just fine. We've built our educational systems around it and its not that simple to just make it go away. Universities like it because it lets them evaluate candidates much more smoothly. What will replace it?\n\nSecondly, politics.",
"Because people who have no background in education call the shots instead of those who work in education. Too many people think that because they were a student they know exactly what goes into teaching.",
"There are just as many, if not more studies saying that standardized testing is a net positive or neutral effect on the learning system.\n\nThe obvious reason why it's still being used is because there's tons of money put into it, so it'd be hard to get rid of it.",
"Science is based on numbers, and to make education better you want to boil it down to a number, even if it's not a perfect measurement of what you want to improve. Then you can do experiments to see if there is a way to improve education to improve the number. Or if there is a way to change how you measure the number to make it more accurate.",
"Hey! I'm actually working around this issue in Ed policy right now! \nOut of curiosity, just wondering what studies you're referencing. \n\nI saw some responses about needing to know how schools/teachers are doing. This is correct, but does not really clarify WHY we need to know that. The reason that we have tests like these is because we want to ensure that students in each school are receiving *equal* opportunities in education. To be blunt: a low-income student (frequently a student of color) in the inner city may not be getting the same education as a student in a wealthy suburb. These tests are *meant* to protect them by showing the actual quality of their education. I say \"meant\" because it doesn't always work out the right way, particularly monetarily, but the intention was to make sure that kids everywhere are getting the same education regardless of race, class, or location. Even disregarding any issues of race or class, how else do we make sure that children in rural areas learn the same skills as students in urban areas??\n\nIt's a civil rights issue. I think that gets lost in the big picture a lot. The (generally unfair) punitive measures imposed on teachers and their pay/evaluations really overshadow the larger purpose of the test. \n\nDoes that lend a slightly different perspective and answer your question? Happy to answer more questions if I wasn't clear. ",
"Tests are what keeps teachers accountable, so that the schools may maintain their financial backing.",
"Can you link me to those studies?",
"I'll speak to admissions tests rather than all standardized testing. Schools need a system for weeding out large numbers of candidates quickly. A big state university might have 40,000 undergrads, so quantitative measures are important to keep the workload reasonable for the admissions officers. It's not the entire admissions package, nor is it the most important element, but it's one piece.\n\nStandardized tests help schools predict how well a student will do in school, which is what schools want to know when they are weeding out applicants. \n\nEvery indicator has some flaw, but together they try to balance each other out. GPA is a good measure of long term work ethic but susceptible to grade inflation. Admissions essays and letters of recommendation give you a qualitative picture of a person's personality but are difficult to compare between applicants. Standardized tests are standard, so they are great for establishing a baseline for comparison. They have flaws too, which is why they are not the only criteria by which schools select applicants.\n\nIf you want to do away with standardized admissions testing, your obstacle will be designing a system which works at large scales."
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29jc0s | how do glory holes work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29jc0s/eli5_how_do_glory_holes_work/ | {
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"Are these actual things in real life? Or just things made up by the porn industry?"
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1lh73h | why do people take loans and get in debt instead of saving to buy stuff? | Honest question. I'm a relatively new adult and I've always refrained from buying stuff I can't pay in full. I just want some eye-opener logic. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lh73h/why_do_people_take_loans_and_get_in_debt_instead/ | {
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"They don't like waiting and credit is relatively easy to get.\n\n\n\nSaving requires waiting and often has setbacks, creating more waiting.\n\n\n\nShort answer its fast and easy.\n\n\n\nPeople however are poor judges of the effort required to pay off debt.\n\n",
"If I were to wait to buy my house with cash, I'd be too old to enjoy having my own place before having that money available.\n\nI took out a loan for a new-to-me truck because the car it replaced was well-worn and needed repairs well in excess of its value. \n\nGoing into debt for non-necessities, toys, etc, is idiotic. No argument there.\n"
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5riwk1 | why do wealthy people form their own charities instead of donating to existing charities? | It seems relatively common for extremely wealthy people to form their own charities. Considering the amount of money that goes into hiring staff to run the charity and what not, this seems less efficient than just donating directly to a respected existing charity. Is there any justifiable reason for doing this other than controlling the money directly/ego?
Edit 1: Grammer | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5riwk1/eli5_why_do_wealthy_people_form_their_own/ | {
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"Starting a charitable foundation allows the rich guy to accomplish a few things:\n1). The moment the dollars get assigned to the foundation they are a tax deduction. This can simplify tax filings in the future. \n2). A well managed foundation can invest those dollars tax-free. That way the \"profits\" can be distributed and the \"principal\" can stay intact. In other words, a lasting source of donations. \n3). The foundation can use its influence to choose and guide the use of the funds if it's big enough. \n4). It gets rid of people and charities continually asking. Just refer to your foundation. \n\nComments- I'm not an accountant, a lawyer, or a rich guy. \n\nBut even middle class people can do something similar. Some brokerage companies have a setup to create a charitable trust. ( I know Fidelity does). Operates in a similar way. Just smaller scale. Professional management on the investment. Your little fund gets managed with everyone else's, but the directed donations are by you. \nSay you have an unusually good financial year. Put a bunch in the trust. Get tax deduction.. you don't have the money but you save on taxes. And then can donate how you want over several years. \n\n\n",
"You can use your foundation to employ family members and thus keep the money in the family. "
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5x0sy9 | why are we able to pick out numbers in large pieces of writing so easily | for example if you gave me a page in a book and told me to find where the number is it would take me much less time than if you told me to find the letter z | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5x0sy9/eli5_why_are_we_able_to_pick_out_numbers_in_large/ | {
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"I have 2 ideas(I know.I'm on a roll):\n1. Our brain categorizes numbers and letters differently as we are taught that from a young age.\n2. It's easier looking for one thing. If there was only one g on a page and you told me to find it, it'd stand out more, I think.\n\nOop, just had a 3rd idea and I don't want to edit my comment: some numbers would stand out more than others. 1 might blend in"
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2cgb48 | why is it called hardy's on the east coast and carl's jr. on the west coast? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cgb48/eli5_why_is_it_called_hardys_on_the_east_coast/ | {
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"Because Carl's bought Hardees. Instead of changing Hardee's to Carl's, they kept the name and gradually changed the menus to be pretty much the same things. I would guess that Hardees has a loyal following, so they left the name alone. ",
"They started out separate, being regional chains located in different parts of the country. Carl's Jr. bought out Hardee's, converted the menu, but kept the name, probably for name recognition reasons (growing up in Hardee's territory, I hadn't heard of Carl's Jr. until my 20s, I don't think)."
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1h59kr | why the supreme court's ruling on doma was so close (5-4) | Do the dissenting justices oppose gay marriage on moral grounds, or is there another explanation?
EDIT: I'll rephrase the question to clarify - Why did nearly half the SC vote to uphold DOMA? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1h59kr/eli5_why_the_supreme_courts_ruling_on_doma_was_so/ | {
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"The 4 dissenting justices have the belief that the Constitution, from a legal perspective, just simply does not guarantee the right to a same sex marriage. \n",
"There were three separate written dissents in the Windsor case. Meaning there were a lot of different detailed and fine point reasons given as to why they opposed it.\n\nBy and large though, most of all three dissents were were on standing. Basically according to the dissenters, congress does have a right to define marriage at a federal level. And the supreme court does not have the right to intervene. The details differed. Some argued that marriage is not a right. Some argued that sexually orientation is not a protected class. Some argued that the traditional definition of marriage does not include same sex marriage, and until granted by statute would not be protected."
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1qkcro | why would snapchat turn down $3 billion dollars in cash from facebook? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qkcro/eli5_why_would_snapchat_turn_down_3_billion/ | {
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"Assuming it was purely a business decision: They're expecting their payout from holding onto it longer, either in direct profits or in a future offer, to be larger.",
"They're looking for more money",
"They think they can get a better deal. Just what \"better\" means is up to interpretation, but it probably means they think they can get more money later or from someone else. It's possible that they just hate Facebook and would consider it better to take the same or less money from someone else, perhaps Google.",
"It could be for multiple reasons that we will probable never know unless the owners come out and say. Some possible reasons that come to mind include:\n\n1) They may not like facebook. \n\n2) They may like facebook but not like facebook's management or management style. \n\n3) Since they have been valued at [4 billion](_URL_0_) they maybe holding out for more money. \n\n4) Facebook may have wanted to buy out the company and then fire everyone which the owners of snapchat didn't want. \n\n5) The payout offer was probable a combination of cash and stock that snapchat didn't agree with. \n\n6) They may not want to be bought out and think they can become the next Facebook. \n\n\nHonestly unless the owner comes out and says why anything anyone says will be pure speculation and I doubt the owner will say as it could make it harder for them to sell the company if they do decide to sell the company. ",
"There's a lot more that goes into the consideration of these offers than just the bottom line. I haven't looked into Snapchat, but if we assume the current executive staff is made up of one or more of the original founders, here are some other considerations...\n\n* Is this an acqui-hire (FB buys Snapchat and the current Snapchat employees keep working on it, only as FB employees) or an outright purchase? If it's the latter, the founders have to be willing to not only sell their \"baby,\" but also single-handedly give away the jobs of their current staff with little advance notice. If it's the former...\n\n* ...there are additional considerations. Will the current Snapchat folks appreciate and fit in with the existing FB culture or will they butt heads? Also, there's no guarantee that Zuck & Co. will keep them around for any length of time. If someone creates friction, they can be fired pretty quickly without remorse. Also, the current founders, if they consider to stick around, would effectively become product managers instead of CEOs.\n\n* Similarly, as has been mentioned by others, the current Snapchat execs may just not like the management or culture at FB. They might have someone else they would rather work with or they may be content to keep going at it on their own in pursuit of a higher valuation.\n\nLong story short, it's not all about the money. It's hard to tell why they turned it down, but odds are it was either in the best interests of the team they've built or they have bigger plans for Snapchat in the future."
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2m3lne | if i don't digest a seed (flax, chia, sesame) do i get any nutritional benefit out of it? | Seeds are high-energy foods, but often protected by a tough outer shell. If it appears intact at the 'other end', does it simply serve as fibrous roughage? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2m3lne/eli5_if_i_dont_digest_a_seed_flax_chia_sesame_do/ | {
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"Yes. Essentially it helps things move through the intestines quickly and efficiently.",
"The gastrointestinal tract (mouth - > stomach - > intestines - > butthole) essentially makes the human body an elongated doughnut. Typically what happens is food passes slowly through the hole, and your body releases a whole bunch of stuff to break it down so that it can be absorbed (ie brought into the doughy part). \n\nIf you drop seeds in the top and they aren't broken down (digested) and absorbed into the doughy part, you're not getting any nutritive effect. It's possible that digestion occurs to a limited extent such that you absorb some of the surface layers, but for the purposes of explanation I've assumed that the seed is coated in a gastrointestinally inert layer."
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1r7pv2 | airline boarding zones and the efficiency of the current boarding procedures. | I've been on multiple flights across various carriers both civilian and military. When flying overseas on a military charter flight through the Marine Corps, the junior enlisted board first, filling up the rear row-by-row, all the way to the senior officers (who land in forward coach/first class). To me it is fast, efficient, and simple. On a civilian flight, they board first class early, then go straight into a zone system that seems to board different parts of the cabin at the same time.
Is this an efficient procedure, or simply placating to higher paying customers? additionally, how are such zones developed?
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r7pv2/eli5_airline_boarding_zones_and_the_efficiency_of/ | {
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"It's known to be inefficient and [better ways exist](_URL_0_), but the present way caters to privileged passengers with priority boarding. Also, first class passengers receive perks like pre-flight beverage service that require additional time. "
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41ycrd | regarding the economy, and the widening gap between the rich and the masses, would dispersing large fortunes really make the masses better off? | Some people have this understanding of the economy that too much money is trapped in the fortunes of the wealthy. This leaves less money to be spread around for the rest of us to access. Is this theory accurate or is this misunderstanding the issue? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41ycrd/eli5_regarding_the_economy_and_the_widening_gap/ | {
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"This would not be sustainable. It would involve liquidating many large corporations (as many of the richest's assets are tied up in businesses). Liquidating all of these companies would mean millions (maybe billions?) of lost jobs. Maybe some of those that receive the distributions would start new businesses... but in 5-10 years you would have a wealthy class, a working class, and likely a poor class again.\n\nUnless equal wealth distribution is 100% government mandated, those who work, innovate, self-educate, manage money well, have special talents, or offer some other unique contribution to society will likely again be wealthier than those who struggle with health issues, addictions, idleness, etc. It is not always fair... but mandating wealth distribution also takes a lot of steam out of those who would otherwise be extremely ambitious.\n\nI lived in a communist country for a couple of years. While the system's intent may have been genuine, it really caused a lack of innovation and everyone as a whole suffered. ",
"Inheritance taxes are helpful, not so much because the government gets revenue as what it does to encourage spending. It seems better to encourage setting up charities and giving money to friends and family earlier (while the wealthy person is still alive). Any changes to inheritance laws that encourage gifting earlier and with incentives that reduce concentration of wealth would be helpful. The best inheritance tax law would be one that would be easy to avoid by doing things society considers worthy.",
"In general, yes, the theory is accurate. People with lots of money spend a smaller percentage of it per year than people without lots of money. Spending drives the economy, so as money concentrates into the hands of fewer and fewer people, this results in slower economic growth.\n\nHowever, at the same time, the capitalistic principle of seeing monetary reward for higher efficiency is critical to economic growth, and perfectly equal income is opposed to that.\n\nIn general, you don't want to just take large fortunes and disperse them to the masses willy-nilly - the government has not proved to be particularly good at that. It's far too susceptible to corruption. Like with most government objectives, you're better off trying to figure out how to get the market to do what you want by itself. For example, in the 1950s, there was an extremely high tax rate on the top tax bracket. This meant that if you had a very high income, almost all the income above the top tax bracket was going to the government.\n\nWhat did this mean? It meant that people didn't want to have those high salaries. Business owners in particular didn't want to take a bunch of money out of their businesses to pay to themselves. Instead, they used that money to grow their business, expanding their wealth in lieu of giving themselves direct spendable income. "
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1ojom8 | does having a larger penis increase the likelihood of conception? | I was having a discussion about the difference in penis size among races (I know that the data is fairly inconclusive on this subject), and this made me start wondering this question, and I realized that I actually had no idea. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ojom8/does_having_a_larger_penis_increase_the/ | {
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"No, just like a longer needle doesn't increase the effectiveness of a vaccine. As long as it's sufficient for injecting the genetic material in the correct hole, that's all that matters.",
"Nope. The vaginal tube is only about 6-8\" in length, the only thing longer than average does is make it potentially painful during intercourse. "
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4lcsp7 | how can phones like the samsung galaxy s5 neo be water resistant while having completely open headphone and charging ports? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lcsp7/eli5_how_can_phones_like_the_samsung_galaxy_s5/ | {
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"All of the internal electronic components in those phones are treated with a water-repellent coating so that if water were to get in, it wouldn't do anything to those components. Headphone and charging ports are designed so that they're better equipped to encounter stuff like liquid and dirt. Those ports probably won't work if they're submerged in water, but assuming they eventually dry and resist corrosion, there is no reason they wouldn't work after getting wet.",
"headphone jacks don't have enough voltage to short circuit, and in many cases the phone may need something physically plugged in for it to power the jack anyways.\n\nThe charging port meanwhile connects to the battery, and lithium battery's (good ones anyways, shitty knockoffs may not apply) have a lot of protection to stop that from happening. Short circuits and overcharging etc are all capable of damaging that battery, and Li batteries that get damaged like to explode and catch fire. \n\nWater doesn't cause it's damage by short circuiting the phone, instead it corrodes the heck out of the circuitry, preventing current from passing properly, damaging parts, it can also cause nearby parts to bridge shorting it out, or create a scenario where arcing can occur. This is why phones will survive a dip in fresh water better than a swim in your pool (the higher chlorine level in the pool will cause more and faster corrosion) \n\nA water resistant device is often fairly sealed, which prevents water from getting inside in the first place, and is then the parts inside are coated in something to repel water and resist corrosion \n\n",
"Because electricity doesn't need holes to flow through. The ports are just where you insert the connector, the metal on metal of the connectors conduct the electricity inside. Plus the insides are treated with water resistant material.",
"[Here's a good video that dissects the phone and explains it pretty well.](_URL_0_)",
"My galaxy s5 active has a cover over the charging port, and FYI the speaker hasnt worked since I took it in the shower with me. Supposed to water resistant up to 2m.\n",
" > Surely the water would short circuit the charging port/headphone jack?\n\nAs an ex S5 owner this is exactly what happened when I fell into water - it damaged the internals through the headphone jack. Then of course Samsung weaselled out of the warranty claim.\n",
"The inside of the ports is sealed, there are metal contacts but there are no gaps into the phone itself. \n\n\"short circuiting\" is only an issue if the circuit was not designed to work that way. Most new phones have connector sensing, which it uses to determine whether something is plugged in.\n\nOn a charging port, the circuitry is smart enough that it doesn't connect it through unless it senses a charger or a device connected. So getting it wet makes no difference so long as its dried before connecting.\n\nSome phones are not so great at this. My Sony Xperia z5, for example, I had to disable the \"smart connect\" function as after the headphone socket got wet it would randomly think headsets were plugged in when they weren't, and vice versa. Even once it was dried out it had this issue.",
"Maybe because the holes in the device are full of air..\nand the air needs to be displaced before the water can enter...\nIm no plumber ..but I know how farts work",
"In my experience, the Samsung 5S with the S View cover is about as waterproof as a ham sandwich. The way Samsung makes their phones \"water resistant\" is to void the warranty if they get wet."
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91i8hk | before the 1900s, did everyone everywhere had to pay for healthcare, or were there insurance companies/ state run healthcare services? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/91i8hk/eli5_before_the_1900s_did_everyone_everywhere_had/ | {
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"Health insurance is new in the US. Before the 1920s everything was paid by the patient. I'm hoping someone can maybe expand on this, I'm curious too. I'd like to know the cost difference once insurance came the norm.",
"Part of the answer is tied to the fact that healthcare was barely a thing in the 19th century. Its effectiveness was much less than today and seeing doctors was not seen as an essential they way it is now. Not having money to see a doctor was not a crisis that people faced back then.\n\n > And when did the debate about who should pay for it really start?\n\nIf you are asking about insurance companies, they did exist for a while. What tied insurance to employment in the US is during the depression, the government froze wages. Businesses reacted to this by increasing other incentives. They couldn't raise wages, but they could offer more generous insurance packages, vacation time, etc.",
"Keep in mind that penicillin wasn't even widely available until after WW2. The entire medical industry as we know it today pretty much evolved over the past ~100 years. Prior to that medical treatment was often hit-or-miss, there was almost no regulation of drugs, and what drugs did exist you could just buy over the counter.",
"There are some really great documentaries about the beginnings of universal healthcare in England. Long story short, after the industrial revolution sick people who could not afford a private doctor would enter the workhouse where they were given free medical care. After working for a set period of time they were free to leave if they wished. Many people would be in and out of the workhouse their entire life based on fluctuations of health, the prominence of chronic diseases like TB, and environmentally spread diseases like cholera. The workhouse health care was the foundation to universal healthcare in England today. \n\nPre industrial revolution in England, if you were lucky enough to live near a monastery sometimes said monastery may provide free medical services depending on the “religious mission” of the monastery. "
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240w65 | how does the brain decide when to release adrenaline? | How does the brain decide when releasing adrenaline is an appropriate response to a given situation? And consequently, is it possible to train yourself to release adrenaline on command? (I assume not, given that I don't think it's possible to release any other hormone at will.
I ask because I realized that my adrenal glands squeeze themselves dry when I am giving a speech or performing in theatre, while I feel no sensation of adrenaline while skiing or white-water rafting. Which seems counterintuitive. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/240w65/eli5_how_does_the_brain_decide_when_to_release/ | {
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"I think this would do better at /r/askscience",
"In short: Adrenaline release centers upon many factors, such as physical threat, excitement, noise, bright lights, and high ambient temperature. All of these are processed in the CNS (central nervous system).\n\nSo the brain release adrenaline when exterior factors catches the brains 'attention'. Adrenaline makes the body and mind alert and ready to run or fight (called the fight-or-flight response).\n\nSo that feeling of higher alertness when you hear a loud noise behind, that's the brain releasing adrenaline.\n\nFor a bit over a 5yo's level:\n\nAdrenaline doesn't have a 'negative feedback system'. That means that the body doesn't stop making adrenaline when a certain concentration in the blood is reached (unlike many other hormones). That's where the term adrenaline junkie stems from. The high they seek is caused by self-inducing a fight-or-flight response by intentionally engaging in stressful or risky behavior, which causes a release of epinephrine by the adrenal gland. Like bungeejumping, a big rollercoaster and lots of other stuff. "
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3shf0u | why do more experienced drivers find the interior lights distracting when driving at night? | Title. I started driving ~half a year ago and the interior lights have never bothered me. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3shf0u/eli5_why_do_more_experienced_drivers_find_the/ | {
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"It makes it harder to see out when it's dark outside. Stand at a house window at nighttime with the lights out and then with the lights on and it'll be a lot harder to see outside.",
"If you're paying attention to the road you're constantly aware of small sources of light - these could be the headlights or taillights of other cars, reflective stickers on lane markings or guardrails, road signs, stopped cars, or the flashing light on an emergency vehicle. You're also pretty constantly looking ahead, to the rear, to both side view mirrors, and over your shoulder into your blind spot. Having a much brighter light right next to your eye while you're trying to scan for much dimmer lights at the limits of your vision is really shitty. I don't think of this as an experience/inexperienced driver thing, though... maybe you just haven't don't much night driving yet? Or you only drive on roads that you're very familiar with?",
"The pupils of your eyes constrict (get smaller) as opposed to dilate (get wider) when enough light is available. At night, you want your eyes dilated so you can see the road. ",
"By 'experienced' drivers, I assume you mean drivers who are minding the road and their surroundings. If you are minding the roadway and your surroundings, you will definitely notice that your ability to do so at night is diminished, possibly significantly, by interior lights. I do hope that you can make it to 'experienced' status. ",
"I prefer to even turn my dash lights almost out when I drive at night, less eye strain that way."
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2ypm4o | why do people get the urge to write obscenities on toilet cubicle walls? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ypm4o/eli5_why_do_people_get_the_urge_to_write/ | {
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"Because they can.\n\nReally, that's all there is to it. It's not an uncommon thing to do so adding your own witticism or slur next to the rest gives you a faint feeling of contribution.",
"I used to see it a lot more before the proliferation of smartphones. Basically, boredom.",
"I can think of two things: \nFirst a toilet is a nice private place where nobody is watching you (hopefully!) which means you have a smaller chance of getting caught defacing property compared to in public.\nSecond, when,you're taking a dump, the mind wanders and you look for something to do. If you happen to have a sharpie in your pocket, it probably just seems like an entertaining thing to do while you're bored and taking a shit. ",
"It's like reddit. You're anonymous and a bunch of people you don't know get to read whatever you'd like to share. "
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1wzad0 | what is that feeling when the room suddenly feels a lot bigger and you almost feel like you're not really connected to your own body? | I honestly have no idea how to describe this feeling I get sometimes. I'd say I get it between once a month and once every two months. It's a very weird feeling where the room suddenly feels massive and I feel very weird inside my own body, as though everything's not quite right... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wzad0/eli5_what_is_that_feeling_when_the_room_suddenly/ | {
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"Is it possibly a type of dissasociation?",
"Younger brains often feel disassociated with with the scale of their body parts or surroundings, imagining to be much smaller than the room that they are inside right now.\n\nIn fact Humans grow pretty fast, and growing 50 centimeter in a short timescale is likely the cause of some confusion in the brain. \n\nSome experiences that have been true for years suddenly are off scale. Either all spoons in the universe have shrunk down or my hand grew a lot, but how large is it really? Some parts of your brain still strongly believe that you are a small child because all the sensory input still comes trough the same wires while some parts of your brain know that you have grown a bit. But its all relative. Either you grew, or everything else shrinks, and you have no easy way of testing this.\n\nUsually only while you close you eyes, the older experiences of your brain tent to revolt and claim to be still valid and that you are much smaller than you are right now and everything around you was much larger than it is right now, while they are obviously in conflict with newer experiences. Your brain realizes either that you have been much smaller in the past or that all the experiences from the past where you have been much smaller where actually superstitious and have to be discarded.",
"I may have experienced a similar phenomenon, does it feel like the corners of the room are staring at you and that suddenly all the bones in your body have become incredibly thin?",
"I get this feeling, too. People and screens seem smaller than they are ? Its hard to explain.",
"You should definitely look up something called \"Alice in Wonderland Syndrome\", it is a legitimate phenomenon that sounds like it could be something you're experiencing. \n\nEdit: link: _URL_0_",
"Dissociation: a feeling that your mind is disconnected from the body. It frequently comes acompanied by sensations of spatial distortion of either your body, the environment, or both. The [Dolly zoom](_URL_0_) is a very accurate depiciton of the most common dissocative space distortion.",
"I get the opposite of this and feel like I'm suddenly a huge person that is feeling every sense more intensely.\n",
"Ketamine. That is called ketamine.",
"I get this too. I asked a few friends about it and they all thought I was full of shit. It hasn't happened lately, but I use to get it about once or twice a month when I was trying to relax or sleep but my mind kept racing.\n\nI would be lying in bed and it would feel like the room expanded out to the size of an arena. Then after a while it would shrink down to the size of a cardboard box and I would feel like the ceiling was just barely above my face. \n\nAlso my inner voice would sound like a whisper and a scream at the same time. This was the weirdest and scariest part, as well as the hardest to explain.",
"I get this in a mild form like once every 2 months or so when healthy, and about 50% of the time while i'm reading a lengthy document on the computer (maybe just correlation, because i spend a lot of time on the computer and reading). \n\nBut it ALWAYS happens when I run a fever (maybe once every 1-2 years), and the effects are more acute.... I literally become partially paralyzed by the immensity of the room and something akin to the feeling your arm or leg might get after falling asleep (right before you get pins and needles) but across my whole body... and then it blends with fever dreams making it worse. Needless to say, I hate it when it happens. \n\nWould love to see some sort of explanation - always thought it had to do with brain or inner ear temperature given the fever association. ",
"I used to experience something like this often as a child. It would primarily occur when in bed. It seemed the walls, floor and ceiling would pull away from me. The result would be my feeling terrifyingly small in a very vast environment. During these episodes I would often experience sleep paralysis and could hear my family. Sometimes my mom would even walk in my room but assume I was sleeping. I wouldn't be able to speak and always did the whole 'try and scream' thing, like during a nightmare, to no avail. The episodes diminished as I aged, but I still have horrible agoraphobia from the episodes. ",
"Good old Reddit. Once again making me realize that I am not a beautiful and unique snowflake.",
"Your description reminds me of what I experience when I have a fever.\n\nThe room grows to the size of a football stadium, and back.\n\nAlso, when I close my eyes, I get these spheres up in my face that are actually really small, but they seem fantastically huge and space-taking. All in my imagination of course.\n\nI associate this with displeasure, obviously, because of fevers, but I can get this other times too. At this point, I'm mostly fascinated with it. When I was little, it was petrifying.",
"low blood pressure",
"Anybody feel extremely disconnected from your own body and life when you're walking down the street sometimes? Like it's not really you, you're just an observer along for the ride?",
"I get this feeling quite a bit more frequently than you do. Possibly not the same though. The dimensions of my location distort, I lose maybe 10-20 seconds of time, dissociate and basically forget what i am as an entity. After this memory and identity rush back.\n\nAlmost like an out of body experience.",
"This is strange. I feel like this is similar to what I've experienced, but what everyone is describing is not what I have personally felt. The feeling that I usually get is one of an oncoming epiphany that's just near the brink of breaking through the surface of a suppressed memory or understanding; like I'm about to figure out the secrets to life or something equally dramatic. I have a brief moment where this feeling comes on and all I can do is just stare and question what is happening around me; if what is around me is truly real while willing this mysterious knowledge to come forth, but it never does. I had it more frequently as a child and less as an adult, but it was always a strange and surreal feeling I randomly got. The only thing I can compare it to is the feeling of déjà vu, but it's much more intense.",
"Its called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and it happens to me when I get migraines. ",
"Depersonalization sounds like...almost. _URL_0_",
"This is fantastic. I have not been able to properly put it into words until I read this post and some of the responses. \n\nHappened very frequently in childhood and not so much any more. This may sound strange, but I found that holding your hand close to your face and simply looking at it helps sort of \"re-calibrate\" your depth perception. It may just be a psychological trick of doing \"something\". \n\nHowever, some people in this thread have said that it is a physiological phenomenon (increased blood flow in certain areas of the brain) so I am not sure how the above would work. Worth a try though!",
"I get it when I have a fever. I think. Is it when the TV seems like it's a million miles away...sounds are all echoey, a paperclip seems like it might weigha million tons?",
"It means it's not a microphone, pass that shit. ",
"happens to me all the time and I am a grown up.",
"I've also experienced this since childhood but never talked to anyone about it. It ALWAYS occurred when falling asleep. Like, I was laying there peacefully when suddenly my brain zoomed out and I felt the room was huge and I was lead heavy and stuck and tiny at the same time. To make it stop I had to fully choose to sit up and wake myself up and sort of \"reboot\" the falling asleep process. It's like my brain started dreaming before I was actually asleep, or being cognizant in a live dream. It was pretty terrifying, but I couldn't resist sometimes trying to grasp it and stay in that place to try to control it somehow. \n\nI know it's not vertigo, because I had that diagnosed later in life from an inner ear particle and that's a totally different sensation. I'm glad to learn I'm not the only person who has experienced this!",
"Could you be referring to disassociation or depersonalization?\n\n",
"Sounds like anxiety. I get the same feeling"
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16o4qw | the sandy hook conspiracy | I finally saw someone on my newsfeed post something about it and I wanna know what the validity of the claims made in the film are. I plan on watching it tomorrow but I'm just too tired right now. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16o4qw/eli5_the_sandy_hook_conspiracy/ | {
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"Read [this post](_URL_0_) after you're done watching. ",
"One in four Americans are retarded.",
"A profound abundance of fucking morons. \n\nSorry, like you're five: lots of darn poopy headed morons. ",
"This \"conspiracy\" is for people who are unable process how truly shitty the world can sometimes be. I guess it's easier to be in denial and imagine it's a hoax of some sort. The details of this \"conspiracy\" are irrelevant, because unfortunately, there are still 20 dead first graders and families who miss them terribly.\n"
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5uwsee | why do we suddenly remember awkward moments in our lives while we are trying to sleep? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5uwsee/eli5_why_do_we_suddenly_remember_awkward_moments/ | {
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"much like a computer processor, our brain can never 'not run', so while we are in bed and our mind is not occupied in any activity, it starts remembering things since it's the only activity it can do. and sadly embarrassing things are the things we remember the most"
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6aw7i9 | why do police sometimes offer deals to criminals? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6aw7i9/eli5_why_do_police_sometimes_offer_deals_to/ | {
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"Police Officer here:\n\nIf you're talking about plea deals; police don't offer those. Prosecutors do.\n\nPolice investigate crimes and can bring charges. Prosecutors then decide if there is sufficient evidence to charge the person, and bring the case to trial.\n\nThe reason they might offer a plea deal is because it avoids a trial altogether and gets a conviction.\n\nIf you put yourself in a prosecutor's shoes- imagine having a 1st Degree Murder case (premeditated murder). You have sufficient evidence to prove the crime, in your opinion. A trial is still risky though. You risk the defendant getting off on some technicality, or a hung jury, or something that prevents an expert witness from testifying.\n\nSo you offer the defense a plea deal. The defense can plead guilty to 2nd Degree Murder. He still goes away for life, but maybe doesn't get the death penalty or is eligible for parole in 20 years.\n\nThe prosecution is happy because they got a criminal convicted. The defense is (relatively) happy because the charge and/or sentence is reduced."
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5cbl6l | why are knuckleballs in baseball so unpredictable and why do they "dance" | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cbl6l/eli5_why_are_knuckleballs_in_baseball_so/ | {
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"When a projectile is spun, it's flight path is more stable. That's why gun barrels have rifling and football players throw spirals. A knuckleball is thrown with as close to zero spin as possible. The unstable flight path is what makes it dance.",
"As the other commentors have said, the lack of spin results in a dance. Furthermore, the ball is prone to breaking unpredictably due to outside forces. If you want a comparison of a ball that spins versus one that doesn't as much, look up comparisons between the world cup model soccer balls between 2014 and 2010. The 2010 model had very thin seams, so the ball couldn't channel air in the way a spinning baseball does, leading to unpredictable breaking in the flight path. The 2014 model, on the other hand, had more seams that were also deeper, giving it more reliability."
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cb2qtp | why is flushing the toilet bad for the environment? | I know newer toilets use less water, and that's somehow better for the environment, but why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cb2qtp/eli5_why_is_flushing_the_toilet_bad_for_the/ | {
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"Each flush uses about 2.5 gallons or more which then goes back to a water treatment plant to be treated. Less flushing less retreating of the clean parts. Less waste. At least i think thats a good reason. \n\nI was with out a water pump for a year so flushed the old fashioned way hence the 2.5 gallon knowledge."
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877i5f | why is classical music considered the best for studying? | We've all heard about researches proving that classical music is the best music to listen to while studying. I've been trying this lately, and it works like magic. What's the reason, though?
Also, what kind of classical music works the best? I've heard about piano music doing the best job, can anyone confirm? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/877i5f/eli5_why_is_classical_music_considered_the_best/ | {
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"It's not so much classical music as it is gentle instrumental music in general. You want to avoid music with lyrics because it takes your focus away, and you also want to avoid music that has rapid changes. Basically, you want something that creates a constant audio atmosphere that you can kind of forget about. I find that video game soundtracks work pretty well for that purpose, given that they're specifically designed to help motivate you and create ambiance without ruining your concentration.\n\nAs for why music helps in the first place, research is inconclusive. Good music might have a motivating effect, and it helps calm anxiety. It might also help keep you from zoning out and getting lost in your own thoughts. However, the effectiveness of music on concentration also depends on the type of task you're doing, and it apparently has a negative impact on short term memory so it's not great for tasks that require you to keep track of lots of information.",
"AFAIR There was an experiment trying to figure out what music prompted the best concentration. In this they found classical to perform best. However, it turned out they had adjusted the volume \"to fit\" the music. So classical was at a low volume, rock at medium and metal at high. (there probably were other styles, but this is what I remember) ",
"When I was studying brain function localisation as part of my Psychology degree, I learned that classical music has phrasing and patterns in it that \"appeal\" to the right side of your brain, whereas most studying tasks make heavier use of the language processing centres in the left side of your brain.\n\nEssentially, the music is acting as a fidget spinner for your right-brain, stopping it from grabbing attention from the left-brain, which is doing the work.\n\nThis is a gross simplification, but I thought it may be appropriate for an ELI5 situation. And of course, it may have been debunked since I studied..."
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4exo1m | why do so many games struggle with alt-tab and proper fullscreen? | Hello,
now with the Battleborn Beta, that not only crashes when exiting the window, it does not even show up as an own window when I alt-tab. Other games completely black out or crash too.
Why is every second not able to run in a proper fullscreen window? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4exo1m/eli5why_do_so_many_games_struggle_with_alttab_and/ | {
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"Windows has a problem. It wants to let multiple applications share the screen, and be the traffic cop decision who gets to draw what where. Unfortunately, this slows things down, so Windows also has a mode where an application can get near exclusive access to the the screen while Windows stands aside. That is what DirectX is all about.\n\nTo make their games run as fast as possible, developers are going to use every trick in the book to push the system to the limit, sometimes even taking shortcuts they shouldn't. Do this too much, and Windows or the game can get confused when switching between exclusive and non-exclusive modes."
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25xc87 | if skipping breakfast leads to less hunger throughout the day then why is it not an effective dieting method? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25xc87/eli5_if_skipping_breakfast_leads_to_less_hunger/ | {
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"Because your metabolism slows during the night. Because you aren't eating while you sleep, you are fasting. Hence why breakfast is called Break Fast.\n\nWhen your metabolism slows, it burns calories more slowly.\n\nBecause of this, it doesn't burn as much if you skip breakfast than if you were to have a healthy breakfast like fruit.\n\nIt's the same reason most diets that work will tell you eat 3 good meals a day, with a snack in between like an apple or orange, and then a small snack an hour or two before bed, this keeps your metabolism going evenly all day, burning more than if you ate nothing."
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2f8aua | why is movie theatre popcorn always better than home popcorn? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f8aua/eli5why_is_movie_theatre_popcorn_always_better/ | {
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"They usually use coconut oil for the popping. There's also way more butter and salt added than you would use if you were making it at home.",
"**Movie theatre popcorn butter level:** 617728288747382\n\n**Home popcorn butter level:** 1",
"You can buy the same ingredients and make the same quality of popcorn at home.",
"Buy yourself a movie style popper with the hanging pan in the glass box. They aren't that expensive, but we have one and eat popcorn almost daily due to the deliciousness. ",
"get a [whirley pop](_URL_0_) & it won't be."
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1h3pwc | how is rezoning used to discriminate in elections? | I hear about rezoning districts, and how this is used to affect voters, but I'm not sure how it works or why. Could someone explain it to me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1h3pwc/eli5_how_is_rezoning_used_to_discriminate_in/ | {
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"So let's say you had a state made up of three districts. We can represent them simply like this:\n\n > [G][P][G]\n\nWhere green people are on the side and purple people in the middle.\n\nNow if the demographics says it's about 2/3 green and 1/3 purple and this state gets three representatives you might expect that the 3rd representative would be purple, or at least someone the purple people mostly support right?\n\nThe problem is since the green people decide how districts are drawn then can draw lines that actually go in the other direction. So they can draw lines so that **every** district gets 1/3 purple, and 2/3 green. This means that every winner is someone green people support, and no one supported by purple people, and the candidates can just ignore the purple people altogether.\n\nLet me know if this makes sense, if not I can do an actual drawing that clears it up.",
"Suppose you have two zones, one with a 90% white population, and another with a 70% black population (lets assume we only have white and black people for simplicity). The first 90% white population is a bit larger than the mostly black one and gets 2 representatives, and the mostly black district gets 1 representative.\n\nNow, suppose we rezoned in such a way as to split the black population up between the two new districts. Now each district is about 70% white and 30% black, so all three representatives tend to vote along with the white majority.\n\nOr, perhaps we have a big district with 2 representatives and a smaller one with 1 representative and they are each 90% black. We rezone the districts so that each district has about the same number of people, but that makes the first dip below the dividing line where you get two representatives, but doesn't push the second over the line. The formerly three representatives are now two, and the voting power of the black majority in the area has been reduced.",
"[Gerrymandering](_URL_0_) is a process where political parties use their elected majority to rezone districts to their advantage, ensuring that they maintain power. In doing so, it creates a political landscape where a small number of people can have their votes mean more than a majority by splitting the majority's vote among several districts. \n\nSay you have a large urban center, which normally votes Democrat, surrounded by affluent suburbs voting Republican. By splitting the districts up so that the large urban center is covered by several districts encompassing part of the city and a few suburbs, the Republicans can ensure that the urban Democrat voters are negated by suburban Republican voters, giving the Republicans a potential advantage and more representatives in government. Conversely, the Democrats could consolidate the districts to urban and suburban, leading to more urban districts and more Democrats in government because the suburban and rural districts are fewer and more spread out.",
"I live in a once jerrymandered electorate in Australia, in 1980 the conservative government pushed my urbanised district into a larger rural seat to prevent it being used in a swinging region, which means until 2007 we were always lumped with a conservative who was very popular with farmers but actively screwed over suburban voters. At 2007, the population had changed since 1980 when the border was redrawn and now the majority of voters are centrist or leftwing urban residents. "
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79nnun | hematuria caused by utis, how does this work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/79nnun/eli5_hematuria_caused_by_utis_how_does_this_work/ | {
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"Kidneys filter blood, if they are not working properly due to infection you'll see blood in urine. Also if your UTI is due to bladder stones or kidney stone they are possibly causing the hematuria. A urologist would best answer your question.",
"Bacteria irritate tissues and cause inflammation. Part of the inflammation response is increased blood flow and increasing how leaky your blood vessels are. This allows things that aid repair and infection fighting to come out, but also allows red blood cells and the rest of blood components."
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8u40j4 | why aren't patients, especially children, given something to numb the surface skin before getting a shot? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8u40j4/eli5_why_arent_patients_especially_children_given/ | {
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"Because it would slow down the process significantly, as well as adding cost and more time for the kid to think about how he/she is totally about to get a shot, instead of just getting it over with. Since the areas we get shots are typically not especially sensitive to the pain, it is a very minor inconvenience and much of the discomfort is psychological rather than physical.",
"It takes a long time to work, which just gives the person more to think about the impending pain. A shot hurts for only a few seconds, so putting a numbing cream on and then having the kid wait 30 minutes wouldn't be worth it. They would just get more worked up and be in more distress. And needles/blood draws/having a cannula placed are generally not very painful. The needles are very thin and sharp and out within seconds, so most of the pain is in your head.\n\nAlso, you never know if someone would have an adverse reaction to the numbing medication.",
"It wouldn’t do much for intramuscular injections. After you get a flu shot it’s usually that your muscle is sore, not that your skin hurts.",
"Because shots don't even hurt, it is only about fear, and anesthetic doesn't stop you from being a pussy.\n\nMillions of kids have conditions that means that they need to get shots regularly. Think diabetics with insulin or kids with allergies that get weekly to monthly allergy shots. They all get over it soon enough because eventually they have to realize that the shots don't even hurt, it hurts more when their friend pinches them hard during recess.",
"The children's hospital I've been to offers a lidocaine injection using CO2 or something to that effect when you're getting an IV, I don't remember the exact name for it, but it costs something like $20 to get",
"There's a really good marketing scheme in there somewhere for topical pain relief creams. Apply those beforehand and it basically numbs the area for shots. \"Every good mom bring one with her kid to the doctors.\"",
"I worked at a pharmacy that did immunizations and we had ahohol wipes with benzocaine to numb. But we didn't always have them in stock and most people didn't want to wait sevral minutes to wait until it is completely dry and in effect before we could give the shot. Also had a couple pharmacists that were convinced they actually made it hurt worse by only numbing the skin but being pushed in by the injection and causing the site to sting so they wouldn't use it unless people specifically asked for it. ",
"In dentistry, we often use topical anesthetic, but as someone else mentioned, studies on their perceived effectiveness haven’t shown them to be that great. Furthermore, most can only numb the top few millimeters of the skin/mucosa, but the needle needs to travel much further than that to reach the targeted nerve. I usually apply topical as a nicety, but I’ve been on both ends of that injection and know it’s really hard to make sticking a needle 20-25 mm into someone’s face pleasant. ",
"This device uses cold and vibration to numb the area distal to application prior to a shot. Developed by a peds EM doc, and used at the hospital/clinic I work at. Neat idea IMO. _URL_0_",
"The topical cream, EMLA I think it is, needs to sit in contact with skin for 30 minutes at least. When I have patients in the ER or trauma bay who need to be sutured up, I always tell them the numbing shot is the worst part. A little poke and a burn. I've had a lidocaine shot before in my face, so I know it's not fun. If someone is super sensitive, I will take a 4x4 with lido on it and swan down the area before even giving a shot, but that is really more of a placebo thing I think. It needs to go intradermal to actually work, but for those patients of mine who tear up at the needle, I've found this trick to work. ;)",
"The most likely thing to be used for something like this, [EMLA cream](_URL_0_), can take up to an hour to actually be effective, and once it is, the pain suppression is pretty much only skin-deep. You'd still feel most of the pain from the injection and only a bit less of an initial jab from the needle tip.\n\nThe cost/benefit ratio for both time and money isn't really worth it. ",
"They do, I was always given lidocaine/emla when I was a child maybe it varies country to country.",
"I am a nurse and we offer a lidocaine subcutaneous shot before any intramuscular shots. Most patients prefer just having 1 shot though. The patients that have taken the lidocaine said it didn't really seem to change much since they got 2 shots total.",
"Hell, I think it was the 80s before they started using anything on babies during surgical procedures. They just thought babies couldn’t be traumatized by pain, so fuck it, strap ‘um down and let’s do some open heart surgery.",
"I used to work at a Children's Hospital in the Child Life Department. Like others have said most things take forever to actually numb so it's better just to distract the child (with an iPad,book,etc) and get it over with. But there are a few things they tried to use when possible. A small vibrating bug shaped thing called Buzzy Bee. Apparently holding it where the shot is going to be given and removing it quickly then giving the shot or just holding it close to where the shot will be given is supposed to help block or \"confuse\" the pain receptors. Also, they would use a freeze spray but it works better with two people bc the cold feeling goes away very quickly.",
"They are, or at least they are where I work. \n\nI've worked at a Children's Hospital in Canada for around 5 years now. We have three main kinds of anaesthetics that we use for things like this: tetracaine and lidocaine, chemicals that cool when decompressed, and vibration.\n\n- Tetracaine and Lidocaine are in the form of an ointment that's put over the shot site.\n\n- A spray in a compressed can that gets super cold when sprayed. The name is escaping me though since it's not considered a drug, so I don't deal with it directly (I work in the Pharmacy). It comes in a white can with a green lid. I must have seen it a thousand times :/ (Edit: It's Pain-Ease that we use. Thanks for the comments pointing that out) \n\n- Something called a \"buzzy bee\" which is basically just a bee shaped blob of plastic that vibrates. Apparently constant vibration numbs the area under it, and doesn't require drugs, which is nice.\n\nAlso, it should be noted that in neonates, glucose can be used as a pain reliever, and we use it in the form of \"Toot-sweet\" nebules. I'm not sure of the science exactly, but I seem to recall it involving the opioid receptors. It should be easy to find information on it. (Edit: I remember reading a posting on a wall in a med room that talked about the association with opioid receptors. I can't find anything definitive on Google Scholarly though.)\n\nI should note that my experience is in Canada. I have no idea what happens in the states or elsewhere. I'll also note that I'm not a nurse; I'm a Pharmacy Assistant that stocks medication. The information I posted here is from years of reading postings and newsletters on the walls in med rooms intended for nursing. When it's your job to count a few hundred tablets and vials of medication, your brain tends to wander to the stuff on the walls. ",
"This is somewhat related. Our hospital at one point had a policy where on my floor we'd offer lidocaine 1% prior to IV placement. Usually a little wheal and a bit of time makes it fairly painless.",
"I really don't think it's necessary... Due to a childhood incident I'm stuck with a phobia of needles, I know I need an occasional shot or need to draw blood so I still do it, but on the minutes before and during I usually go into a mild shock. (Clammy, cold sweats, light headed, dizzy, impending sense of doom yadda yadda) so for me it would only make the agony last longer. While for my son, the last shot he had he didn't even notice it because he was watching a cartoon. So it's really nothing to do with pain unless you get unlucky or the person poking you screws up. ",
"There are these little circle patch things that a doctor once used on my youngest before a shot. He said it helps with the sting. ",
"You can be, I used to be scared of needles when I was a kid and I got this numbing cream. It didn't help though as it was not the pain that was a problem it was the thought of the needle going under my skin. ",
"Because it's not really that painful. People who freak out over needles will do so even if they're numb, so it wouldn't help that much.",
"My son has Downs Syndrome and had leukemia. In order to make his blood transfusions, chemo and shots less painful, lidocaine was used regularly. I swiped some before giving blood, just to see what the needle felt like. To see how much pain he was in. It was like the needle was in someone else’s arm! I felt nothing! ",
"Some nurses and physicians will use an ice pack to temporarily numb the pain (esp in children) but the pain of shots is mostly due to tensing up in fear/anticipation of the shot and then really releasing when done. ",
"They have given one of my children a cream to apply before vaccines. She used to be deathly afraid of shots. She is fine now and never asks for it. ",
"Because it barely hurts at all. Pain is a natural part of life. U cant cotton bud your children and give them panandol every time they have a minor headache. Harden the fuck up. Honestly the world is so soft these days",
"Because the only way to truly numb someone is to give them a numbing shot. And if you’ve get had one you know why they don’t give them for stuff like that. That shit hurts wayyy more than anything normal shot. ",
"because shots don't actually hurt that bad, the needle is just scary. Also it would just add on to the time and cost.",
"I'm severely needle phobic (rapid breathing and sweaty palms even reading this) but it's not the actual pain I fear. I cannot stand the idea of that fine tube puncturing my skin and forcing fluid in there. Same with blood tests. Disgusting tiny pipe in my arm draining my blood? Makes me shudder. The pain is a second thought for me. \n\nOn another note, my daughter has recently got her 12 month vaccinations. She seemed much more upset about being restrained than the shot. Sure, she clearly did not enjoy it but the nurse pulled out some bubbles and she stopped cry immediately. ",
"Just throwing this out there: my four year old takes a shot like a champ. She had three the other day in the leg, watched it happen and not even a blink. \n\nI think kids/people are mostly scared of what a needle is and the actual pain is not that bad. There might be some soreness later but if you don’t realize the connection, you don’t become scared. Kid especially respond to how their parents react. The early you don’t make a big deal out of it, the better. ",
"I had cancer when I was 13, I had to get a shot of something at least once a week, almost every time I did I would ask for freeze spray or they would give me (novocaine?) gel to put on an hour before the shot, it usually helped quite a bit.",
"My grade school son recently had to have an IV at an er. They did the numbing cream beforehand and it was amazing. He didn’t even blink when they gave him the IV port",
"Just has my 11 year old at his pediatrician’s office last week. He had labs run and the tech put lidocaine cream on both of his arms for the blood draw. In the fall when he got a flu shot, they did the same thing for him. The kid is absolutely fine with needles/shots but I must add that we have excellent heath care providers in my metro area. It’s really helpful, especially when a child has to undergo any type of procedure. A specialist comes in to explain to kids what will be done and how and make sure they’re okay to proceed. ",
"People already explained IM “shots,” however:\n\n\nThere are sprays given for IVs, because for a good IV you want the largest bore you can get so the needle is usually somewhat large, and therefore the surface pain is significant. Pain-Ease is the spray we used to use in the hospital. It’s almost as cold as turning a can of compressed air upside down, and it sprays similarly to silly string so I’d always horse around with it and spray nurse coworkers from like 15 feet away and try to hit the back of their neck. If I missed the spray evaporated so fast you’d never know, but if I got a hit you’d see people jump!",
"When I was in the Army, I went to the hospital for appendicitis. For a while, I was getting a (rump) shot every morning and evening. (They thought I had prostatitis.) The shot every morning was given by an expert corpsman who slapped my ass just before he slipped in the needle. I didn't feel it **at all**. The shot every evening was given by an inexperienced corpsman who slowly pushed it in and it hurt like *Hell*. I asked SP4 Morning and he said that as long as the ass (skin and muscle, I guess) was shaking, I wouldn't feel the needle -- and I didn't!\n\nOK. Slapping the ass of a 10 year old before giving a shot might be unconventional, but I'm glad SP4 Morning did it and I wish that SP4 Evening would have.",
"I don’t know the exact procedures he used and I’m not about to call him at midnight to find out, but my dad is a retired dentist and he used to do something like this when working on kids. Sorry for the ridiculously vague incoming explanation.\n\nHe’d have a tiny needle containing something relatively mild that he’d kind of sneak in, and it would really just feel like he was shaking their lip or something.\n\nA few minutes after that, the injection site for the bigger needle with the more potent stuff would be numb and he’d make the real injection. \n\nHe always took pride in how he was able to deal with kids.\n\nSorry I couldn’t provide more specifics. If anyone’s interested in the AM I can try to get more details out of him.",
"I work in a pediatric hospital. More specifically an ER. We use lidocaine on kids like 2-10yo to numb before we place an IV. I have used lidocaine to numb the skin and then child life plays a movie on the iPad and I can start my IV, draw blood and secure it down all while they never even knew it. Injections are quick and just do the poke. But have you ever tried to get a 3yo to hold still while you poke em and draw blood. Never. We have something called a “j-tip”. Basically uses compressed air to pressure spray a small amount of lidocaine under the skin to numb the injection site. Works instantly and is only a tiny amount. Here’s more info on that. _URL_0_",
"I'm an allergy nurse. I give tons of shots all day every day, to many pediatric patients.\n\nWe use \"cold spray\" (Ethyl Chloride), does not slow down the process at all.\n\nOr, the doctor will prescribe emla cream and we tell the parents to apply it half an hour before they come in.",
"Not sure if you're talking about dentistry, but I remember when they used to give Novocaine shots without numbing. Now they numb the area before they give you the Novocaine, and I barely feel the needle. I prefer the numbing.",
"This is a fairly effective way to block the sensation of the needle piercing the skin, and with no drugs - it simply overwhelms the nerves in the area by stimulating them all at once with the plastic nubs. I have used it to give myself injections at home and also brought it along to the pediatrician - I don't know why they don't have one.\n\nShotBlocker _URL_0_",
"We do it where I work- children's hospital in Toronto. As long as we can....time, emergencies etc. We try to as much as possible. ",
"In my experience with doctors, the only times I’ve ever gotten any kind of numbing agent on the surface skin was at my dermatologist when they needed to stick a needle in my face (obviously a very sensitive area). My dentist would also use a numbing gel before giving shots (he’s the only dentist I’ve been to that does that, none of my other dentists did). \n\nBoth of these places were slightly more “upscale” than your typical doctors/dentist office, so that may have been part of it. My general doctor doesn’t give a shit if the shot hurts. ",
"We actually do numb the skin of children requiring IV placement or lab work in the facility I work at.",
"I have a morbid dread of needles (trypanophobia), and they use an ice pack for 10 minutes before I have the drug infusion I need every 8 weeks for my IBD\n\nIt can be done, it's just they try not to except in extreme cases because of the delay.\n\nWhen I used to be a blood donor, I got a tiny shot of Novocaine before they used the transfusion needle, that's gone now, because of costs.",
"I live in France and whenever my kid had to get a shot, we’d get an Emla patch prescription along with the vaccination, to apply roughly an hour before getting said shot. Also, when she stayed in he hospital before drawing blood a nurse would come in an hour before and apply “la creme magique”. ",
"Is there anything you can use for dogs? My dog is diabetic and gets a shot twice a day. ",
"A shot doesn’t hurt because it breaks the skin, a shot hurts because it stabs through muscle. The only way to numb a muscle would be to inject it with an anesthetic which would make no sense",
"You mean like a second shot? Uh that sort of answers your own question there",
"Numbing the skin for children gives them the impression that needles are not harmful so they're later much likely to use needles for heroin later in life.\n\nIf prefer my child be a bit scared of needles rather than rotally fine with them. I feel that numbing them and then damaging their skin is abusive. Then, these same parents are puzzled then their daughter gets as many tattoos as the average prostitute.",
"Lidocaine is often offered.\n\nHowever....\n\n1) if you are going to get injections on a regular basis, lidocaine results in greater scaring, and thus more problems for people being regularly poked.\n\n2) Lidocaine produces a burning sensation that is, IMHO (and experience), worse than the needle poke itself.\n\nI spent 8 years on dialysis, and have been through a liver-kidney transplant with all the requisite bloodwork done on an annual basis, plus some other problems. I always refuse lidocaine, and I'm very annoyed with nurses that have stuck me with lidocaine on the presumption that I'd want it."
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51q4s1 | why do leaves turn brown and fall off certain types of trees in the autumn (fall)? | Because there is still sunlight available for photosynthesis, right? What's the advantage of shedding their ability to photosynthesize at this time of year? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51q4s1/eli5_why_do_leaves_turn_brown_and_fall_off/ | {
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"Tree leaves are only appear to be green because of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll are a factory like cell that uses a lot of energy to produce tree food. As temperatures drop in autumn, the tree close the factory like chlorophyll cells to save energy. The trees use smaller \"cheaper\" factory like cells which appear yellow and red, and eventually all the factories close and the leaves fall off.",
"With the changes in temperature and the amount of light received throughout the day, deciduous trees (leafy trees) know that winter is coming.\n\nThey have evolved to respond to this by stopping the flow of nutrients and water to the leaves which causes them to wither and dry and fall to the ground.\n\nOtherwise they would continue pouring nutrients and water into the leaves which would cause them to freeze, as well as the branches and the trucks of smaller tress which would kill the plant.\n\nConifers (needle bearing trees) avoid having to lose their leaves by having their leaves grow hard and therefore aren't as easily affected by changes in temperature.",
"The Earth is both revolving around the Sun and rotating in its own axis. Because of that, the [angle of the sun rays changes throughout the year](_URL_0_). That means that in some portions of the year, the same geographical place receives different quantities and qualities of light. \n\nChlorophyll, the pigments that gives plants their distinctive green colour, is a molecule that absorbs sunlight and used that energy to make chemical reactions. Chlorophyll works better at certain wavelenghts.\n\nOther effect of differential radiation is that the places with less sunlight become colder. Even though leaves can work in cold environments, the payout is minor (compared to a warmer environment), thus, the plant \"decides\" to turn off the photosynthetic system, move all its resources to storage and wait for everything to be better."
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36ycxm | how we change the pitch of our voice for singing and know it's the right note. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36ycxm/eli5_how_we_change_the_pitch_of_our_voice_for/ | {
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"Well, first you can try to match it up with the tones on a keyboard. Closing one ear with your finger can sometimes help. Of, course learning and studying other instruments always helps. I was practically tone-deaf before learning to play music."
]
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||
3lc1ok | why does it take a printer so much longer than a copier to do pretty much the same thing | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lc1ok/eli5_why_does_it_take_a_printer_so_much_longer/ | {
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"You're probably comparing a $100 home inkjet printer to a $2,000 commercial copier you'd find in an office.\n\nCommercial printers - or commercial all-in-one copiers/printers are quite fast, typically at least 20 pages per minute and they can be quite a bit faster than that - with no warm-up time.\n\nCompact home printers aren't designed for such high volumes so they're slower on purpose.\n\nAlso, one other difference is that printing isn't quite the same as copying - the image to be printed has to be sent over the network, which can take some time for large documents. Also, documents need to be converted from vector form (like PDF or PostScript) to the bitmap that's actually printed.\n",
"Ink printers have to lay down rows of dots of ink from a single moving head. The paper has to stop for each row and wait for the head to move past. This is very slow.\n\nFax machines and laser printers only have to deal with one color. A heated rolling element develops a static electric field. A laser discharges certain areas as it scans across the roller - these will be where the white of the paper shows through. The static charge will pick up toner, which is ferrous, and it will melt on the roller. This toner will get pressed on the paper as it rolls through. It's a much faster process.\n\nHome models have to heat up first because they're designed to be cost efficient, whereas an office printer is always heated and on standby, designed for high print volume.\n\nEDIT: Data transfer is mostly inconsequential, whether it comes from the network or the onboard scanner; bad drivers can waste cycles and take time to initialize the printer. Copying from an onboard scanner is faster because the printer can initialize while the scanner is scanning."
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1nk9jf | why do some people come on the daily show? | I think this question may apply to other shows as well, but the Daily Show is the only example that I can think of. What I'm wondering is why certain people come on the show, not the interviews at the end, but the segments that often use other people besides Jon Stewart. They often compare two people on a side of an argument, one being supported and the other not, shouldn't some of the people that come on know they are not going to be supported? Don't they watch or know about the show beforehand? It's not hard to see which argument the Daily Show will support. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nk9jf/eli5why_do_some_people_come_on_the_daily_show/ | {
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"Frequently, if you're not actually scared of someone who disagrees with you, showing up such a show demonstrates a bit of bravery. \n\nThe audience is fairly large, predominantly young but politically intune. It is similar to why people go on Fox News; frequently, by not being their typical guest, you are more likely to get something out of it.",
"America has become so partisan that conservatives, especially older ones, really have little clue what the Daily Show is about. So when they call they agree to it not realizing that they are going to be made fun of (and the Daily Show doesn't clue them in). Not everyone is politically savvy and the Daily Show takes advantage of that. They've become too well known in liberal circles to get many liberals to come on but conservatives still have no clue what they are getting into.\n\nPeople on Reddit seem to forget that the Daily Show actually has a very small audience. "
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ft2poo | why does caramel taste so different than sugar when it’s just melted sugar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ft2poo/eli5_why_does_caramel_taste_so_different_than/ | {
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"It's not just melted sugar. It's sugar that's been melted and heated to the point that it undergoes chemical changes.",
"An apple tastes good and sweet when raw. But add heat and cook it for awhile it tastes sweeter and little different. The same thing is happening when you make caramel. The heat changes the sugar at a molecular level and that change produces a sweeter and different taste. This is a big reason that most foods we enjoy are cooked.",
"It's not just melted sugar, it's caramelized sugar. That's why it's called caramel. Caramelization is a chemical reaction that happens when you apply just the right amount of heat for just the right amount of time - too much heat or time and the sugar will burn, too little heat or time and the sugar will just melt, like you said. But when you apply the right amount of heat for the right amount of time, the chemicals in the sugar change and create new chemicals that have different flavors.",
"That is because melted sugar undergoes decay. What you have in caramel is not the original sugar molecule you started with. You break down fructose and glucose into furans, diacetyl, maltol, and ethyl acetate. None of these compounds make up sugar. What you've done is broken down and rearranged the atoms into entirely new molecules. Of course, caramel isn't purely this list of chemicals - it's still sweet because there's plenty of sugar left over, you only convert some of the molecules, but these molecules lend fruity, toasty, nutty, and buttery flavors and aromas."
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80551j | why humans would be torn apart by the vacuum of space but other things (like satellites and spaceships) would not | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/80551j/eli5_why_humans_would_be_torn_apart_by_the_vacuum/ | {
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"Humans would not really be torn apart by the vacuum of space.\n\nIt would kill them, but not likely in a gory explosion type of thing.\n\nIf you go into a vacuum the difference in pressure between your outside and your inside would be one atmosphere at best and your skin is easily strong enough to keep your insides inside under these conditions. You would not burst like a ballon.\n\nYou would still die messily in space but you wouldn't explode or be torn apart."
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||
2tlitg | how does currency/money work? if we donate 100 million to a country, it's not like we send a crate of money over | How does money really work? Especially when there is no physical money. Like a bank really doesn't store the exact amount of money each person with an account has in the bank. How do we give other countries money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tlitg/eli5_how_does_currencymoney_work_if_we_donate_100/ | {
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"Numbers in accounting books change to reflect movement of money. ",
"Money is just a representation of value. Bartering, trading stuff directly is inconvenient. So we invented money as a \"value holder\", for example instead of trading my goat for your 100 apples. But I don't want 100 apples at once as they will spoil before I can eat them all. I instead get 100 apple tokens as a promise that I can get the apples later.\n\nAnd the more people that agrees that the tokens are valuable the more useful the currency is. So if we understand that money is just a promise of value, it makes it easier to understand how a bank doesn't actually need to hold your physical money in a vault. You trust the bank to keep track on how much money you have, so your bank account is just a number in a computer. ",
"Oddly enough, sometimes we literally do send a crate over. "
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1pgfc3 | if airlines only allow hand/cabin baggage that falls under strict size limits, why is there not enough room for everyone's baggage? | This is happened to me quite a few times on flights, where people have to put suitcases under their seats.
I have a small hard suitcase that is a hair under the allotted dimensions for cabin baggage. I have also seen plenty people forced to check-in bags that are only less than an inch above the allowed size. If everyone is only allowed baggage that fits a certain size, shouldn't everyone's bags fit in the overhead storage compartment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pgfc3/eli5_if_airlines_only_allow_handcabin_baggage/ | {
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"Most cabins were designed when there was much less incentive for people to carry hand-baggage. As a result, although some passengers would carry on bags which were as big as the limit allowed, many passengers would have little, if any, hand-baggage. And cabins were designed to fit these requirements.\n\nIn recent years, there's been an explosion of low-cost airlines that are changing the business model of how airlines work, and passengers are adapting to that new model.\n\nOne relatively recent change is that it is becoming more and more common to charge extra for checking in bags. That's encouraging more people to carry all of their luggage as hand-luggage, and therefore to use bags which just about fit the maximum size restriction.\n\nUnfortunately, cabins weren't designed with this in mind. Which is why there isn't room for all these bags in the cabin.\n\n > I have also seen plenty people forced to check-in bags that are only less than an inch above the allowed size\n\nIf a bag is over the maximum size, even by less than an inch, then the airline have every right to insist that it be checked in. There may be safety implications (e.g. the bag won't fit in the space under the seat in front), but more likely, it's a way for the airline to make money. And also, it helps prevent the cabin become over-full with all the maximum sized bags.",
"Airlines make educated guesses about how many people will choose to bring a carry on, and how many will have the maximum dimensions.\n\nIf the airline took the amount of storage space and divided it evenly for everyone, you would have a small amount of personal storage space, and there would be a large amount of space left free.\n\nSince they \"oversell\" the carry on baggage, they enable passengers to bring larger carry on bags, with the assumption that not everyone will take full advantage of it. ",
"I wouldn't say that the size limits are strict...as in enforced. Yes they are clearly defined firm limits that the airline states based on the limitations of the overhead/underseat storage specifications.\n\nThe problem is that most people don't follow the limits. I wouldn't consider myself a worldly traveler but in the dozen times i have flown, i have not once seen a person use the cages to test if the carry on was too big. Nor have i seen any airline staff even check unless the bag is obviously oversized (read: massive fricken suitcase). \n\nWhat is common on every flight is seeing passengers try to jam there full size suitcase that seemed to sneak passed everyone, into the overhead compartment. Then they scratch their head in disbelief because it wont fit.\n\ntl;dr Most people are like honey badger and don't give a fuck."
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3mnuu0 | are cellphones voip? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mnuu0/eli5are_cellphones_voip/ | {
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"No, VOIP is voice over internet protocol. Cell phones use a different technology and protocol for communication that does not use the internet.\n\nInstalling Skype and using that to make a call is using VOIP as the information would be sent over an internet connection.",
"Usually no, but sometimes yes, and the answer is going to be \"yes\" more and more in the near future.\n\nTraditional cellular networks use other protocols and encodings for voice traffic. But phones using \"4G LTE\" use the [LTE communications technology](_URL_1_) which uses IP as the network-level protocol. At first this was used only for data, with voice traffic being handled by older, existing tech.\n\nBut there was always the plan to move voice calls over to the LTE system, an approach called [VoLTE](_URL_0_)—Voice over LTE. Which would qualify as VoIP. You can see from that Wikipedia page VoLTE is still in the process of being rolled out by carriers and phone manufacturers."
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoLTE",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_%28telecommunication%29"
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z25wq | why can i not pay network providers (eg: espn, nbc) to watch their channels online? | This is a serious question for me.. as it just doesn't make sense..
I'm going to pick on ESPN here just as an example. I love American football and I live in America! For various reasons, I do not have access to cable or satellite.. (really) but I am lucky enough to have a DSL line that is fast enough for things like Netflix. ESPN (and NBC's Olympic coverage) requires that I provide them a login for my TV provider.. so the meat of my question:
Why must I have a TV provider to access their content? They don't offer a way for me to pay directly for the content...?
I feel like I am a reasonably educated person but this simply. just. doesn't. make. sense. to me. I'm sure there is a reason but I can't find it online in any forums or searches. I did find an article that stated that ESPN makes about $4 per TV subscriber per month.. that doesn't seem to be a hard amount for me to pony up each each month. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/z25wq/eli5_why_can_i_not_pay_network_providers_eg_espn/ | {
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"They don't want to lose money from the companies that advertise during their TV broadcasts.\n\nIf they make it too easy for people to watch it online, the companies that buy ads on TV will get upset and start paying less money to advertise during their show. Those advertisers are paying millions of dollars a year for those commercials, and ESPN doesn't want to lose that over a possible $4 subscription from a few thousand people.",
"Espn has espn3 which plays everything. I don't think you have to have a cable subsciption. Its either free with a free espn online account or it might be with an espn insiderf account which is like 2 dollar a month. They have a bunch of games on espn3.",
"ESPN has big deals with providers like Comcast and DirecTV. They get a certain amount of money from them, whether their subscribers watch ESPN or not.\n\nThose providers want to be the only game in town, and part of their deal with ESPN says that ESPN can't compete with them in providing programming directly to users. \n\nESPN might want to, but then Comcast isn't going to pay them as much, because it will lose customers to people who just want ESPN. ESPN figures the sure money it is getting from Comcast is better than the maybe money they might get from individual subscribers.\n\n**TL;DR** Cable and satellite providers pay networks not to."
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9lnbz4 | what is the wavelength spectrum, ie: visible light | People always say that light is a wavelength within some sort of spectrum, but was is the actuall wave itself?is it some sort of energy?particles? I really don't know | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9lnbz4/eli5what_is_the_wavelength_spectrum_ie_visible/ | {
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"Visible light is part of the electromagnetic wave spectrum with wavelengths from about 400nm (blue, violet to be exact) to 800nm (red). \n\nOther electromagnetic waves you might have heard of are microwaves, radio waves and radioactive gamma radiation.\n\nThe question of what electromagnetic actually are is a bit difficult since the attempt to answer this question is what brought about quantum mechanics. To put it in ELI5 terms, classical physics differentiated between waves (for example water waves), which are energy in movement, and matter. Light was able to pass all the necessary tests to qualify as a wave (mainly the double-slit experiment)so it was regarded as such for a very long time. Eventually, observations were made which caused people to believe that it might be matter after all. It was able to be proven, as Einstein had correctly predicted, that light would be affected by gravity, which should not be the case for waves.\n\nThe solution is to regard electromagnetic waves as both matter and waves and use whichever definition better suits your needs. There are other particles which also behave like this and thus the name \"quantum particles\" was given to them."
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3ev4lm | could a company like apple or google found their own country to avoid government intervention and the majority of the taxes they have to pay today? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ev4lm/eli5_could_a_company_like_apple_or_google_found/ | {
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"Although they could try, it would not work because other countries would not \"recognize\" the new country -- that is, they would not formally agree that really is a separate country.\n\nWhen companies want to do something like this, they \"shop around\" for a country whose laws will accommodate them. This is why ships are often registered in Panama, and why many companies have an extra division in Ireland, for example."
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3yrs4u | how do people sense that a situation or person feels "off"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3yrs4u/eli5_how_do_people_sense_that_a_situation_or/ | {
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"There's two levels in a person's perception. There's the stuff you outright notice and the stuff that you don't quite consciously realize. Examples of the latter for situations might include a slight breeze that your skin feels but that you don't really notice or a curtain that's slightly out of kilter compared to the last time you were in a room and it makes a different pattern that indicates someone might have been in there. Examples with respect to people might be someone who changes the nature of their eye contact or someone who's a little twitchy and you're not aware of a reason why they should be, or when someone gives you direction to do something and it just doesn't seem to make immediate logical sense.\n\nWhether you directly notice it and consciously evaluate it, or it's a collection of not-quite-directly-observed little things that add up to a perception that makes you a little antsy, those types of things can make you get the feeling that something's \"off\". ",
"The top comment is a very good overview of this phenomenon. If you are interested, I highly recommend the book *The Gift of Fear* by Gavin de Becker, which delves more deeply into the topic, in a very accessible and easy to understand manner. "
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b2fgay | why are car brakes mounted in different positions? | Why are discbrake calipers mounted on differing positions on the brake rotors? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b2fgay/eli5_why_are_car_brakes_mounted_in_different/ | {
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"The wheel on the left side of the car turns the opposite direction to the one on the right. Some parts are mirrored, but that's more expensive, because you need a \"left\" and \"right\" part. Where possible, the same part is used on both sides, which can make it \"backwards\" relative to the other side.\n\nDifferent car manufacturers have lots of other factors to consider, specific to their suspension design."
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1oznx5 | why are single serving yogurt cups from most major brands designed to be the shape they are? | It seems like the worst possible design to be functionally eaten with a spoon and to be able to consume the entire product without leaving excess in the nooks and crannies. Is there a scientific reason for the odd shape? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1oznx5/eli5_why_are_single_serving_yogurt_cups_from_most/ | {
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"Easy to make, easy to stack."
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484pnw | how did they manage to successfully lay a telegraph wire across the atlantic in 1866? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/484pnw/eli5_how_did_they_manage_to_successfully_lay_a/ | {
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"It took a few goes to come up with a suitably waterproof cable before trying to cross the Atlantic, but once you've got that you can pretty much put a big spool of cable on the back of a ship and feed it out behind the ship as it travels across the ocean.",
"How long does a cable like that work? I'm assuming they can't just patch it if there is a problem at any point",
"[Mother Earth, Motherboard](_URL_0_)\n\nThis is a very long article from Wired, written by Neal Stephenson. If you are interested in this topic, the answer is in there. If you have a couple of hours, read the whole thing. It is in pdf form so you can also search for terms using ctrl-F",
"Mildly interesting - the first transatlantic cable was laid from Valentia Island, Co. Kerry in Ireland (very near the Skellig Islands, now of Star Wars fame). ",
"Arthur Clarke wrote an excellent book on the subject, \"How the Earth became One\" Writes about the attempts being made to run a line across siberia and the Bering strait, Canada. How it paid half of it's cost with one message. Very good read.",
"How did they know for sure that the cable wouldn't get destroyed by sea life, like curious sharks chomping on the cable, or random fish slowly gnawing away at the cable over a period of a few years? Also, how did they protect it against hooligans who would try to cut the cable for sh*ts and giggles where the floor is more shallow?",
"Because they didn't - they laid the cable across a corner of it. \n\nThe first cables were strung from Newfoundland, Canada to Ireland a distance under 2,000 miles (London to New York is over 3,000). They used special ships, the most famous of which is the *Great Eastern* that would create the transatlantic cable as it went, splicing smaller spools together. \n\nThere were frequent mishaps (like the cable breaking as it was being unspooled and sometimes they lost the end. Sometimes they could then work their way to the broken end and sometimes it was a lost cause (the cable is typically *2 miles* under water).\n\nAnd almost all of those cables are still there in some form or other - when they stopped working or a new one was laid down, the old one was simply abandoned for the most part. ",
"I remember reading about this a long time ago, but if memory serves me correctly, the number of telegrams that people wanted to send exceeded the bandwidth of the system ON THE FIRST DAY.\n\nThey decided to increase the price to stem the flow but found that they had to raise it several times before the capacity of the system was not exceeded.\n\nThey had no trouble getting funding to repair the cable when it broke!",
"Im curious as to what kind of connectors they used, say if one length of cable couldn't be made long enough and they needed to connect two together. I know enough from automotive wiring that even the best made connectors under the hood can find moisture inside of them and then soon its game over. And thats just under a car hood, not thousands of meters under the sea. ",
"Here's a video that describes a lot about the history of undersea cables _URL_0_",
"Is the cable still down there, does it have any use now?",
"This is all taken from \"The Victorian Internet\" by Tom Standage, which I highly recommend.\n\nThe first, unsuccessful attempt at running a transatlantic telegraph cable was sponsored by eccentric Amercan paper magnate Cyrus W Field. He had chosen Dr Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse to design the cable, which was unfortunate because Whitehouse was, in Mr Standage's words, \"totally incompetent\". Whitehouse managed to screw up the cable's design in pretty much every way: the diameter of the wire was too narrow, and the high voltage he chose ate away at the insulation until the cable was unusable. It took four attempts by two ships (the [USS Niagara](_URL_3_) and the [HMS Agamemnon](_URL_0_)) to lay the cable, and it failed in less than a month. (Edit: [Here's](_URL_1_) a good picture of how they did it. The picture is of the stern (back) of the ship; note the line of men on deck holding the cable as it runs off the back into the sea.)\n\nIn the inquest that followed, Whitehouse was totally demolished by William Thomson, a professor of natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, better known as Lord Kelvin. Thomson designed the much more successful 1864 link between India and Europe, and was chosen to design the next Atlantic cable. Because this cable was so much larger and heavier, the only ship in the world that could carry it was the [SS Great Eastern](_URL_2_), the largest ship ever built at the time. Again, it took two tries to run the cable, spooling it carefully off the back of the ship, but they finally managed it in July 1865.\n",
"There a paragraph or two on this subject in this awesome article - search for \"Atlantic\" or just read the whole thing, it's great.\n\n[Mother Earth Mother Board \\(Wired\\)](_URL_0_)",
"_URL_0_\n\n20 year old article written by Neal Stephenson about laying \"modern\" cable. Quite long, detailed and rather good reading.",
"That first cable only lasted three weeks.\n\nIt was very difficult. In fact, I'd say one of the most important applications of technology, as it allowed information to travel so much faster between Europe and the US. ",
"The AT & T Tech channel, specifically the archives, has some great films about undersea cables:\n\nAT & T Archives: Cable to the Continent, a 1959 film about the second transatlantic telephone cable\n\n_URL_2_\n\nAT & T Archives: Cable to Cuba, an AT & T film about laying undersea cable in 1950\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAT & T Archives: Submarine Cable Systems Development\n\n_URL_1_",
"I want to clear up some misinformation that has been voted. The original cables across any ocean where laid out behind a ship that just sank to the bottom. Then they tried it with submarines and a diver to place the cables.\n\nWe now bury cable with a special machine that runs along the bottom of the oceans floor being pulled behind the ship with huge reels of cable that is being pulled. We do not lay cable directly on the floor. This machine varies between depths it buried depending on the currents of the water around it. It uses a technique of that of farm equipment plow to have the soil moved out of the way in the front and then the cable is laid in the middle and then on the back is a blade that covers it up.\n\nWe have multiple runs across the Atlantic and down through the Gulf that I have been apart of. I don't want you to just think the cable that is being laid is just like one strand. There are fiber that is being pulled today wrapped in a single line. This stuff is massive and heavy. _URL_0_\n\nThe multi fiber is the in middle and has a lot of steel reinforcement around the outside. Also these lines have anti theft / physical hacking protection enabled like SCIFs. ",
"Watch \"Undersea Cable\" on YouTube\n_URL_0_.\n\nMore recently, about Alcatel-Lucent, now Nokia, laying much of the world's submarine betworks. ",
"I read a book about the telegraph one time. Actually really fascinating. Apparently there was saboteur or prankster on one of the ships who was driving nails into the cable. It would corrode through and ruin it. It stopped when the captain said that if anyone was caught doing that, they'd be thrown overboard without a trial. ",
"As a random fact. There was a massive underwater landslide (Covered over 1000 miles I believe) in 1926 (I think) and they measured it's speed and coverage by the various points along the trans Atlantic wire that it had snapped. This gave rise to a whole new area of study within geology.",
"by using ships and linking wire segments. When one load of wire was empty another was spliced in and laid down until they reached the other side. They used quite a few ships on loan from the British government and a lot of wire.\n",
"Thanks for asking this question! This is actually something I've thought about far too often :)",
"Anybody know what would happen if someone cut the cable. I'm sure it's fucking huge but couldn't a shark chew through it or a boat go over it? ",
"Actually, you can read exactly how they did it here:\n_URL_0_\n\nThere is no ELI5 explanations for this. This was the equivalent of the moon landing for its time. Some of the most brilliant engineers alive at the time worked on this. Sailors, manufacturers, planning and coordination, all unparalleled. ",
"They managed it because of mathematics. Lord Kelvin developed [cable theory](_URL_0_) to predict how much insulator and how much conductor would be necessary to successfully send a signal. The government first went with a competing submarine engineer's design that had a thin insulator layer and a thick conductor, because for most cables, a thin insulator is plenty insulating enough. However, using cable theory, Kelvin realized that the engineer had it backwards and proposed a thick insulator and thinner conductor. Kelvin ended up being right - the thin-insulator cable failed.\n\n\nWhat's really cool is that cable theory is a central model for computational neuroscience as it perfectly describes the propagation of signals down dendrites and axons.\n\n\nSource: was a TA for cable theory.",
"My senior year of college one of my textbooks had a mention of the laying of the telegraph wire back then. While it was only had a passing mention in the text, the book included a reproduction of a newspaper article of the time, complete with illustration. According to the newspaper's drawing, the cable was being laid by men in diving suits all the way across.\n\nI knew it was incorrect, and it always stuck in my mind to learn how it was done. This is the second time today this subreddit has explained a longstanding question of mine. I need to come here more often.",
"While it's slightly more modern this video is worth checking out:\n_URL_0_",
"I posted a image gallery about this last year. You can see the gallery [here](_URL_0_).",
"Thank you for all of the great replies everyone, I never though this would make it to the front page!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.neverendingbooks.org/DATA/stephenson.pdf"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/Ve810FHZ1CQ"
],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Agamemnon_(1852\\)",
"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:H.M.S._%E2%80%9CAGAMEMNON%E2%80%9D_laying_cable.jpg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern",
"http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/images/i02000/i02908.jpg"
],
[
"http://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/"
],
[
"http://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/"
],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=495IC6YtJ3I&index=22&list=PLDB8B8220DEE96FD9",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVRL4UcT1sQ",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqRj3lvvg7Y"
],
[
"http://i.imgur.com/1FiOCrZ.jpg"
],
[
"https://youtu.be/v1JEuzBkOD8"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://atlantic-cable.com/Cables/1857-58Atlantic/"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_theory"
],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5od6roIMtQ"
],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/2pxz18/the_french_cabletelegraph_museum_in_orleans_ma/"
],
[]
] |
||
4f5bfo | why do pets hoard things? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4f5bfo/eli5_why_do_pets_hoard_things/ | {
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"Not an explanation for the hoarding cause I'm dumb, but I'm pretty sure that cat just happens to get the caps stuck under there coincidentally. My cat has a few spots where she likes to play where things easily get stuck under. You move it and you find balls and caps and all sorts of things she was batting around."
]
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[]
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1rg2oe | why is the coldest temperature in the universe not very low compared to the hottest temperatures? | The coldest temperature is estimated to be around -459.67 Fahrenheit, but the hottest possible temperature is 1.41678571×10^32 Kelvin, apologies for inconsistent temp. units. The way I understand it is that absolute zero is when all molecules/atoms stop moving and the point at which there is absolutely no heat energy remaining to be extracted from a substance. I'm just wondering why that number isn't the negative equivalent to the hottest temperature. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rg2oe/eli5_why_is_the_coldest_temperature_in_the/ | {
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"text": [
"Absolute zero is in fact zero kelvin. That is just the way that particular scale works. No point in stretching kelvin into the negatives because that would imply a negative amount of thermal energy which isn't possible. If you can only go as low as 0 heat, start the scale at 0.",
"It's because the point that was selected to be 0 on the Fahrenheit scale was somewhat arbitrary. In other words, right now 32 degrees is water's freezing point and 212 degrees is its boiling point. You could just as easily shift the scale over a degree and make current 0 degrees equal to -1 degrees, freezing to 31 degrees, and boiling to 211 degrees. It's completely arbitrary. The numbers were selected in part for convenience. Most things we encounter in our daily lives like weather stay in the 0-100 range. That's easy to work with.\n\nThe thing to remember is that there's no such thing as negative temperature. With Farenheit or Celsius nothing changes as you go from -1 degrees to +1 any differently than when you go from +10 to +12. To put it another way, all temperatures are effectively positive. To deal with this, for the purpose of scientific equations, a scale is used called Kelvin. Simply put, there are no negatives on this scale. Absolute zero is 0K and it goes all the way up from there. \n\nTL;DR: There isn't really negative temperature. 0 degrees Fahrenheit is just a convenient, but arbitrary place to start counting for everyday temperatures. ",
"Units of measure are relative to some kind of reference or constant.\n\n* Fahrenheit's basis very odd\n\"On Fahrenheit's original scale the lower defining point was the freezing point of brine, defined as zero degrees.\" _URL_1_\n\n* Celsius is scaled against water and absolute zero\nCelsius scale are currently defined by two different temperatures: absolute zero, and the triple point of VSMOW (specially purified water)._URL_2_\n\n* Kelvin\n\"The Kelvin scale is an absolute, thermodynamic temperature scale using as its null point absolute zero, the temperature at which all thermal motion ceases in the classical description of thermodynamics.\"\n_URL_0_\n\nSo to answer, your question, Fahrenheit is based of something arbitrary and is measured to have both a positive and a negative.\n\nCelsius is anchored on pure water to give you a good idea of cold.. IE negative is freezing positive is not for the most common thing on earth water.\n\nKelvin exists to describe having zero energy or more in a very detailed scale for science.\n\nThere is no negative in Kelvin as 0 means no energy.. You don't make things cold, you just remove energy from them.",
"We happen to exist at the lower end of all possible temperatures. "
]
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[],
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius"
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7q533g | what's the science of why breakups are so difficult? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7q533g/eli5_whats_the_science_of_why_breakups_are_so/ | {
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"dsmey17",
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"text": [
"Because if they weren't, a commited relationship would be effectively meaningless and no secure bond could be made. Humans are social creatures and pair bonding is part of our evolutionary history, gained as a result of having parents bonded together in a relationship being better at raising children successfully. If breaking up wasn't rough, it wouldn't have resulted in successful babies, so that trait was naturally discouraged since the people who could easily break up didn't have as successful offspring.",
"It's the same reason gambling is so powerful as an addiction. It's called loss aversion, and the sunk cost fallacy. Let's say you've been in a relationship for about a year and things have been great. You love her and she loves you, and then the honey moon phase sort of ends and the real demons start coming out one by one. The bad habits, the insecurities, and the political ideologies come out of the wood work and you don't like a damn thing, hell she seems like a completely different person. But you had that one good year, you put a lot of effort into this relationship and your not about to let a couple of little things like that end a long and steady relationship. Here's the catch though the longer you go the harder it becomes to end it because of the time and effort already put in. Meanwhile your relationship starts turning sour because she's been having the same thoughts about you but neither of you can honestly imagine what life would be like without the other. At this point the only way it can end is horribly "
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a2ixym | what is color theory and how does one master it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a2ixym/eli5_what_is_color_theory_and_how_does_one_master/ | {
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"text": [
"It's an art/design theory about what colours go together. Just Google a small cheat sheet for it ",
"It is very similar to how music theory works. If you're familiar with the circle of fifths, you will know that musicians have made great use of it to explore chord changes and key changes that follow geometric patterns on a wheel. Similarly, you can think of colors on a wheel suggesting color combinations that are as pleasing to our eyes as certain musical motifs are to our ears "
]
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[],
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62o7jm | if my bmr (basal metabolic rate) is 2,000 calories but i eat 1,500 calories worth of high fat junk food per day. will i gain or lose weight? | I've started focusing more on what I eat and this question popped into my mind. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62o7jm/eli5_if_my_bmr_basal_metabolic_rate_is_2000/ | {
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"text": [
"You will lose weight but will feel like crap and probably be too hungry to stick to that calorie limit. ",
"Lose. Weight loss is 100% directly related to calorie deficit, NOTHING ELSE.\n\nEating 1500 calories of bacon will result in weight loss. Eating 2500 calories of lettuce will result in weight gain.\n\nYou certainly won't be healthy (though some evidence to counter that claim - read up on Mark Haub, the \"Twinkie Guy\") but you will definitely lose weight. ",
"You will lose weight. Probably quite a lot. If you eat 2000 calories at your BMR you will also lose weight. Your TDEE is how many calories your body burns in a day and your BMR is usually 10-20% less than that. Your BMR assumes you're in a coma and using no excess energy in your day to day movements.\n\nCalories in - calories out works for any healthy person who doesn't have a metabolic syndrome, and even then it can be adjusted for them.\n\n",
"You lose weight. Losing weight is simple math, calorie-wise. If you don't put more than what you need, your body doesn't store it as extra weight.\n\nBeing healthy, on the other hand, involves a little bit more."
]
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4fdi2q | how come cartridge video games don't need to load new content but disc games do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4fdi2q/eli5_how_come_cartridge_video_games_dont_need_to/ | {
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"text": [
"They all need to load more data, but access to the cartridge data is much faster. That said, ROM cartridges are typically handling less data so less data, transferred faster is going to win the race!",
"A cartridge was literally an expansion card for your console. So it could never contain more content than the readily accessible memory since it bundled that memory with the cartridge.\n\nIn contrast, modern games are stored on some sort of media that is slower than ROM for access and then loaded into a common store of RAM dependent on your computer."
]
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||
2fbkz7 | how does a stock exchange (nasdaq, nyse) make money? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fbkz7/eli5_how_does_a_stock_exchange_nasdaq_nyse_make/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck7olla"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"By taking a percentage of each transaction either sold or bought."
]
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||
4xnki6 | can someone explain why in recent years youtube's comment section is only filled with toxic immature kids? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xnki6/eli5_can_someone_explain_why_in_recent_years/ | {
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"text": [
"They were banned from reddit? ",
"Recent years? It's been that way since the beginning.",
"The best one explaining this is the image of John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory: _URL_0_\n\nNormal person + anonymity + audience = Total Fuckwad.\n\n",
"It only became really apparent when youtube changed the way comments were shown. Instead of having two \"top\" comments at the top of every video (the most upvoted), and having all comments underneath it be in a descending order, Youtube instead took that out. What replaced it is a system you see today, a random mess of comments that have seemingly no rhyme or reason to them.",
"I thought alot about this, I believe its due to not having any consequences. If you offend someone on the street you can be beaten up or face legal consequences or loose credibility in your society. In the web there is almost none of that. Also it might be possible that some empathy funcionality is lost when you don't phsically see the person (making this up really). Finally you don't know who is makig these comments. Its possible that those toxic commenters are rellay kids or mentally ill people. \n\nIts not just Youtube. Almost everywhere on the web, say something that someone doesn't like, %90 of the time you won't get a civilised response, they will declare you an idiot or something. I stopped commenting on the web long time ago. If I feel the urge to comment 100 times I actually do it maybe 2-3 times. I only try to attend real and contructive discussions. There is no benefit in commenting on a cat video or whatever. Got more important stuff than arguing with strangers on the web."
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ay97pt | why cant all plugs just be round (like an aux cord) and not weird shapes (hdmi, usb, etc.) so they’re easier to plug in? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ay97pt/eli5_why_cant_all_plugs_just_be_round_like_an_aux/ | {
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"text": [
"1) Different shapes are a good thing. It prevents you from plugging your monitor into your networking port or audio jack when you really wanted the video port.\n\n2) Lots of digital protocols involve various input and output wires that have to be connected correctly. If you were to plug it in backwards or to the wrong port, nothing would work.",
"With a round plug, you have a limit to the number of unique connections that can be made The most common types of round plugs use one, two, or three connections. A single-line connector is for mono sound (on a pair of headphones or speakers, the same audio would play through both sides). A two-line connector supports stereo sound (differentiating left and right). A 3-line connector is stereo with an added microphone port (basic headsets). Additionally, the potential for 'bleeding' across lines increases. Certain electrical pathways in many electronics have sensitive components, and if too much voltage goes across those pathways, it'll damage the components, rendering the device inoperable. It's much easier to make a device with minimized 'bleeding' using a non-round plug and port.",
"Round plugs that you can plug in at any angle have problems getting you more than two or three connectors.\n\nIf you look at your headphone plug you will see three separate areas that function as connectors. Non-stereo plugs only have two connectors.\n\nUSB plugs despite being serial have 4 or five connectors. HDMI has 19.\n\nHow would you cram all these into some coaxial plug that can be turned every which way? The plug would have to be very long insanely complicated and very fragile.",
"I assume that you mean round and symmetrical because there are round connectors that are keyed and you need to turn them. The have multiple pins side side but the casing is round. They work fine for multipel pins but they are all large like the common XLR for professional audio because the pins have to be large enough so you do not bend them. The pins are above 1.5 mm in diameter and the connectors have a diameter of 16mm . PS/2 connectors used for mouse and keyboard in the past was small but the key and the pins was sensitive so they was worse the USB. Larger round DIM connectors have been used for audio in the past and still for MIDI but it moved round RCA connectors to connect audio equipment at least in older product in Europe. RCA connectors is cheaper to mass produce and is smaller. So round keyed connectors work fine but the are large and expensive. You do not like a USB connector on that type on your phone.\n\n\n\nSo you can use round connectors but they are larger and more expensive. Consumer connection are designed to be cheap and small. There is a reason that USB added mini and then micro connectors because of thinner phones. USB-C is a bit larger the the micro but you can insert in both direction and is can handle a lot more speed and power.\n\nSo the rest is for round symmetrical connector like in headphones that have multipel problems.\n\nOne is to have enough connections. For headphones with microphones you only need 4 rings but HDMI used 20 wires and uses all of them. The connector has to be long to have thick enough ring for good connection. \n\nThe next part is impedance control. For high frequency signals you need control the resistance and capacitance between the wires if the are not like the shod be there will be reflections and other problem. It is a lot simple to match it for more common connector where the only thing you have is uniform small thin unformed pins but the inside of a round type of connector is more complex with springs and large metal part with complex shapes that make contact. Look at the inside of one [here](_URL_0_) Impedance control is a important part of high speed connection.\n\nA third is power and ground. The connectors we used is designed for more complex stuff is designed so the first part that make contact is it is often a external metal shield like on USB and HDMI but is a bit different on for example lightning. So you ger earth first and all line then connect to the right line on the other side with the connectors that is used but for a round the will be in contact will all that is farther out that could result in damaged part. \n\nSo round connectors work fine for low pin count connection where the frequency the signal have is low."
]
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192dwv | why does watching porn help people fall asleep faster/easier? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/192dwv/eli5_why_does_watching_porn_help_people_fall/ | {
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"text": [
"Do you really think people should talk to five year olds about watching porn?",
"Probably because they are masturbating and orgasms can help you sleep. "
]
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2yzcn8 | why won't most countries cooperate and just try to wipe out isis immediately, when they now made the statement, they will fight till they conquered the world? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yzcn8/eli5_why_wont_most_countries_cooperate_and_just/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpecar8"
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"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Nutjobs call for world dominance all the time. If ISIS was an actual threat to the world they'd have been wiped out long ago."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
4kp69b | if water naturally seeks it's own level, how does it end up gushing out of springs at the top of a mountain? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4kp69b/eli5_if_water_naturally_seeks_its_own_level_how/ | {
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"d3gmo51",
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"text": [
"The same reason as when you fill a balloon with water and orient the hole upward the water comes out there rather than somewhere else. The water is trapped in pockets of stone and other materials under pressure, and sometimes the path of least resistance is at the top.\n\n",
"There are no springs that gush out from the very top of a mountain.\n\nBut there are springs that come out of the side of the mountain, from the water that entered the earth from above the spring. Water can also enter the water table at, say, 3000 meters and then be trapped in bedrock, and then there is a crack in the rock at 2000 meters where the spring comes out. the 'level' of the water is at 3000 (or maybe at 2750), but with the opening at 2000, it comes gushing out. "
]
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[],
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||
6pw4sg | can anyone explain awful dubbing on tv ads? | I've noticed that here in the UK some adverts have English actors doing the voice work, but the dubbing is terrible! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6pw4sg/eli5_can_anyone_explain_awful_dubbing_on_tv_ads/ | {
"a_id": [
"dksmf2h"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"It's cheaper to poorly dub a foreign ad than to remake it from scratch.\nIf you're talking about ads where it's clear they're speaking English but it's still dubbed, that's because they try have more local accents. It's easier to sell a product to a Brit if it's a Brit telling them to buy it and not an American. Usually it's just cheaper and easier to do one quick recording than try match it up properly."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
c98rjz | why do light bulbs stop working when their glass covering is broken but filament intact? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c98rjz/eli5_why_do_light_bulbs_stop_working_when_their/ | {
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"text": [
"They don't. At least not the ones I have tested. They work one, last, bright time.\n\nIf you turn on a lightbulb without the glass, the filament burns bright, then melts, causing it to break. \n\nThe glass prevents the filament from overheating and oxidizing.",
"The filament gets extremely hot when operating and this makes it likely to react with oxygen in the air, forming an oxide that isn't as conductive and will break the filament. Normally the glass covering keeps an inert atmosphere (nitrogen usually I think) around the filament, but with it broken the oxygen can get to it.",
"The filament is incredibly hot, around 4500 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temp the filament oxidizes rapidly so they fill the bulb with Argon which is inert. If the bulb is broken the oxygen immediately reacts with the tungsten filament destroying it."
]
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30m6dx | why are gas station pumps so adamant about removing credit cards so quickly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30m6dx/eli5_why_are_gas_station_pumps_so_adamant_about/ | {
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"text": [
"The part that reads the card is narrow and stationary. It can only read the whole code when the card is moving past it. If the card is moving slowly, it can't tell the difference between the card's magnetism and the ambient magnetism.",
"I always thought it was because if you pull the card out fast, it has a nearly constant velocity which reduces the chance of an error when reading (like interpreting a 101 as a 1001, or vice-versa), but there may be other reasons.\n\ne*: apparently this is not really an issue for modern card-readers.",
"The signal from the read head is going to be stronger the faster you pull the card through. It might not read properly if you pull it out too slowly.",
"Basically - as the card moves faster it creates a stronger electrical field which can be read more reliably by the electronics. This is because the card's magnetic strip creates a very small magnetic field.\n\n > The law of physics describing the process of electromagnetic induction is known as Faraday's law of induction and the most widespread version of this law states that the induced electromotive force in any closed circuit is equal to the rate of change of the magnetic flux enclosed by the circuit\n\nMore here: _URL_0_"
]
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||
27b6ao | the difference between homicide and murder? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27b6ao/eli5_the_difference_between_homicide_and_murder/ | {
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"text": [
"Homicide - Well it just happened. Murder - You planned it to happen.",
"Homicide is a generic term that is used when one person causes the death of another person, I.e all murders are homicide, but not all homicides are murder."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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||
18jj7l | wikileaks and why i should have a stance on it. | So with the recent announcement of Julian Assange running for office, it got me thinking about the whole WikiLeaks thing again. I never quite understood it, or why it was important, and I am hoping for some insight.
It would be super helpful if you don't just spout your side of it, I would prefer to have as unbiased a view as possible so I can make my own conclusion. Anything you guys can tell me would be awesome!! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18jj7l/eli5_wikileaks_and_why_i_should_have_a_stance_on/ | {
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"WikiLeaks is a journalistic organization dedicated to publishing leaked documents to the public. This isn't really a new concept; just look at things like the Watergate scandal and you'll see a proud history of people publishing leaked information. And leaks happen all the time, sometimes intentionally and sometimes by a whistle blower. WikiLeaks is a modern version of this - it takes leaked documents and, instead of analyzing them and chopping them up for public consumption the way a newspaper traditionally would, they simply put the whole set of leaked documents up online for anyone to look at and analyze. Wikileaks *does* do some base level of verification and scrubbing for information that would endanger others, but the idea is to provide as much of the original document as possible.\n\nThis causes lots of people in power concern for obvious reasons, but the leaked cables provided by Bradley Manning are the ones that generally cause the hottest contention. They're classified diplomatic communications that cover all sorts of activities. For example, one of the cables revealed (per Wikipedia): \n\n > The leaked cables revealed that diplomats of the U.S. and Britain eavesdropped on Secretary General Kofi Annan in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, in apparent violation of international treaties prohibiting spying at the UN\n\nWithout the cables coming to light, this violation of law would have remained secret. But the information being made public had other side effects, such as:\n\n > The naming of mainland China residents reportedly \"sparked an online witch-hunt by Chinese nationalist groups, with some advocating violence against those now known to have met with U.S. Embassy staff.\"\n\nSo the issue is essentially this: Is it important that lies and deception on the part of powerful organizations like governments, corporations, and the military be freed up to public scrutiny through documents meant to be classified? Or do classified documents exist for a reason - to protect military lives & to ensure corporation's PR and profits despite internal screwups? Is public knowledge of secrets a universal good? Do you have a legal right to secrets, even if you're doing something wrong? What if you're not? Have modern media conglomerates grown too powerful to support concepts like leaking information since they likely have similar secrets? Or are we prepared to democratize our system of filtering leaks such that accountability for the leaks rests with the whistleblower instead of the journalist? If so, what does that do to whistleblowers and their protections?",
"The basic question is this:\n\nDo you have a right, or duty, to expose illegal or immoral actions, even if the act of exposing them is a crime?\n\nI will illustrate with a few examples that frame the question, and hopefully this gets you started.\n\nExample 1: \n\nA government has a program where it tortures individuals to extract information. It uses that information to prevent greater harm. But because of it's nature, this program is classified. If you have information about this program, and you reveal it, you will be charged with a crime. Do you still have an obligation to reveal it, and should you be charged?\n\nExample 2:\n\nA business has dealings with organizations that do harm to people. (Think terrorist, drug cartels, etc). Someone who works for that bank gives you a large amount of data, and says, this will prove everything. But you can't tell them who I am, or how you got it. So, you release it to the public. Should a government be able to force you, through courts or other means, to expose your source of that information?\n\nThat last question is really the core of it. If you stand up and blow the whistle on something that is wrong, should you be protected for doing so? Even if you're maybe not the nicest of people, and you have to do some gray area things to access that information. \n\nThis is how I've always framed the underlying question anyway."
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bkaqtq | a question about the color of the sky | Why is the sky blue only in the distance?
What I’m trying to say is that why isn’t the air around us blue like a fog just like the sky in the distance. I know this is kind of a silly question but I’m curious about it.
I hope I was able to explain myself. English is not my native language. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bkaqtq/eli5_a_question_about_the_color_of_the_sky/ | {
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"It's not only blue at a distance. \nBut it's only very slightly blue and mostly transparent. So you need to be looking through miles and miles of it before you will notice that. \n\nThink of a piece of glass that's just very slightly dirty. You can probably see out of it just fine. But stack a few 100 of them right next to eachother and you can't see through at all. \n\nFun fact, this is also the case with water. It's very slightly blue so it looks clear until you look through several feet of it.",
"Sunlight is white which is all of the colors in the spectrum at the same time. When it hits the atmosphere the light is scattered which is called Rayleigh scattering. Blue wavelengths scatter more effectively which is why the sky is blue. The air is not blue the light scatters blue better when it hits the air at a high angle. A sunset happens when the light from the sun hits us at a low angle because the light is shining through more air than when it's directly above us so it give the red end of the spectrum more of a chance to scatter. When there is no sun (night) the sky is clear because there is very little light scattering through the air."
]
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bsxbzs | what benefit is there to drinking water of higher acidic value? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bsxbzs/eli5_what_benefit_is_there_to_drinking_water_of/ | {
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"It is a money grab that preys on people's ignorance, not many folks know what pH numbers mean and even if they do they don't know how acidity affects their bodies.\n\nOnce you drink water it goes to your stomach where the pH of your gastric acid is anywhere from 1.5 to 3.5 (a relatively mild acid, about as strong as grapefruit juice) and once the water mixes with it the pH goes to equilibrium quickly.",
"PathtoExile said it perfectly.\n\nThey pretty much pray on people who do not understand pH values and what they mean. The higher the pH value, the more increasing alkalinity is (very basic and not acidic). If it is a lower value, it is more acidic. Being very basic will not have any noticeable affect, but if it is acidic it can damage your teeth over time. All in all, its false advertisement and it has no extra nutritional value because of a higher pH value.",
"That's actually a higher pH, which means it is LESS acidic. \n\nBut yes, it's a marketing thing. People try to make their bodies more alkaline (less acidic) by drinking this water. It doesn't really have any proven health benefits. Also, your body adjusts very easily, maintains its pH right at 7.35-7.45. It has some buffering mechanisms, and your lungs and kidneys also control your pH. You can drink a bunch of alkaline water, and ultimately piss out a bunch of base, while your pH stays pretty much unchanged."
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9cohbj | how can files on a computer take up space? people give me the analogy of real folders. but i just don't understand how something virtual can take up space and requires a hard drive. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9cohbj/eli5_how_can_files_on_a_computer_take_up_space/ | {
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"The real world representation of files is 1's and 0's stored in some kind of medium that takes up physical space. It's no different than letters written on a page. The letters themselves don't take up much space, it's the page that they are written on that matters.\n\nOn Hard drives and floppy disks its magnetic impulses on iron and other metals.\n\nIn Solid State Drives it's the position of electrical switches\n\nOn CD's it's engraved into Aluminum.\n\nAt the end of the day it's just 1's and 0's. On or Off. True or False.",
"The data that makes up the files actually has to exist somewhere. For instance, in an HDD a file exists by magnetizing a disk of material. The device reads the variation of the magnetization and translates this into something, like a text document. ",
"well, it's not \"virtual\", it's physical.\n\nThere is a very specific arrangement of actual, physical material on your harddrive that represents that file. If that file is using up that material, other files aren't able to use it, so it takes up space."
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2pekb6 | why do job applications ask for personal information before the hire? | I just filled out yet another job application. They want to know what year I graduated high school, my last salary, my street address, and my misdemeanor record. Some of these questions aren't even legal.
But why ask my address or SSN before I'm hired? It's required information on most online applications, but it isn't necessary until I'm actually hired. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pekb6/eli5why_do_job_applications_ask_for_personal/ | {
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"It's probably for a background check so they can see your criminal record, etc.",
"Word of advice. Never give your social security address before your first interview! Many times I have applied for jobs that I immediately get a response to \"Please email me your SSN.\" Always say no! There is no need for an SSN before an interview.\n\nYear you graduated from high school, address, last salary and your criminal record is all-ok. (I get a bit iffy about the address part, so I just write my city.) \n\nI don't see why you should hesitate about providing information like last salary or graduation date."
]
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[],
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64nw81 | why do most software programs (web browsers, for example) display an error code that you have to look up instead of just telling you the error? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64nw81/eli5_why_do_most_software_programs_web_browsers/ | {
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"The use of error codes is considered a good practice in programming, because it allows different errors to be strictly defined and distinguished from one another. The name and explanation of that error can then be easily localized.\n\nFor example, HTTP error \"404\" has a detailed specification indicating when it should be issued. It happens to be called \"Not Found,\" but a web site may choose to return a page with a different name and an easy-to-understand explanation if it wants to. Or a browser can choose to provide that information, even translate it based on the user's language. Either way, behind the scenes the web server and browser both understand just what is meant by \"404.\"",
"The error codes are not really for the users. They are for the application programmers and for programmers who write software that interacts with that application. \n\nThe codes make it easy for diagnostic tools to track the errors. There really isn't a need for the code to explain in plain English what the issue is when it happens. ",
"In addition to what others said about users not being able to fix and therefore not really caring specifically about teh error, there's also the fact that other programs consuming the program you are using will look for those errors to handle them in specific ways. But they can't parse your error *message*, they need something easier to parse and more unique than that.\n\nLet's say the error was \"Page could not be located\" and you set up your browser to show a certain toolbar on invalid pages. Now let's say you decided to change the wording a bit to \"Page not located or inactive\". Now all the code that was looking for your previous message has to update. By using special codes, it lets you change the human-readable side of things without impacting any consuming code.",
"There are a few reasons:\n\n* unhandled standard errors - some web sites have [custom 404](_URL_0_) pages, while some let your browser handle it\n* non-standard errors (getting a strange error like 452 on a web page). Your browser won't know what that is\n* avoiding giving implementation details - ERR #587. It doesn't want to say \"Joe's code broke\"\n* easy debugging - when you click too much on menu X and it crashes, it might give you error \"mX5clk\". When you talk to customer support, they can quickly give you advice",
"Another factor is that the source of the error isn't always clear. Errors have domino effects. The final result of the programming crashing could be caused by many things, resulting in the same error. You and a friend could both go to the doctor and say \"I have a pain in my stomach.\" The causes for your pains could be radically different though.",
"Going against the grain of most here - as a software developer and a person experienced in software QA, I think it's bad practice to display an error code. When I'm writing code and dealing with catching errors, I generally display a human readable message about the error (easy for the consumer to understand) and often include the error code somewhere in there for a consumer to google. As for other devs working on the same codebase, I always print the localized description to the console so that when replicating bugs, they know exactly what's going on. "
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q2smv | why people who originally liked/supported obama are now unhappy with him | I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't pay enough attention to politics, even though it's something I care about. Anyway, I'd like to think Obama has done a good job so far, especially since he's the one I'll be voting for in the upcoming election, but it seems like a lot of people who voted for him are not happy with what he's done in office. Can you explain why please? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/q2smv/eli5_why_people_who_originally_likedsupported/ | {
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"I think because a lot of people were expecting more from him. He's made plenty of improvements, but not the leaps and bounds that some people were expecting/hoping for.\n\n",
"I was expecting kind of a centrist Democrat who I hoped that because of his background and education would understand some of the underlying problems with class and race that still exist in this country.\n\nHowever, I was also a pretty serious civil liberties voter. The PATRIOT act, all of that was pretty repugnant to me. So his rhetoric on those things sounded okay, if not great.\n\nWhat has appalled me and made me feel unable to vote for Obama again is that he's done things that nobody forced him to do that I feel are absolutely beyond the pale when it comes to civil liberties:\n\n1) His administration is considered to be harder on whistle-blowers than nearly any other in modern history. This administration has punished more people who exposed *genuine* wrongdoing with prosecution in four years than in eight years under Bush. \n\n1a) At the same time that they vociferously pursue whistleblowers, it's their policy to \"Look forward, not back\" when it comes to torture and civil liberties violations in the name of the War on Terror. \n\n1b) So what we have then is an administration that prioritizes exposing and punishing people who blow the whistle on wrongdoing, and ignores prosecuting or even exposing the people who were committing those wrongs in the first place. Shield the criminals, and hang the principled defenders of our liberty out to dry. \n\n\n2) Anwar al-Awlaki's assassination. A US-goddamn citizen who, because of a secret interpretation of the law, supported by secret evidence, decided by a secret panel, was marked and assassinated by his own government without due process or oversight. The Magna Carta was written to prevent this kind of thing in *1215* yet we're somehow so lazy or incompetent we can't even maintain a basic minimum standard of treatment for our citizens that was decided almost 800 years ago.\n\n\nThose things turned me against him. Nobody made him do either of those things, and no self respecting liberal/leftist/constitutionalist/civil liberties voter should ever support any of those things.",
"(FYI, if you want nitty-gritty legal details, ELI5 is the **wrong** place for it.)\n\nWhen Bush was in office, we had a lot of things change, things which people expected Obama to fix. A lot of these are things that he could fix if he wanted to, even if Congress doesn't agree. But he didn't. He's made some of them even worse, when you really look at it. One reason these things are bad because they are often against the law, against the US Constitution (the most important laws.) \n\nParticular areas where there has been no improvement or it's even gotten worse\n\n* Spying on people without giving the kind of good reasons they're supposed to give\n* Arresting people and then keeping them in prison forever without even charging them with crimes \n* Using ways of putting people on trial which are only supposed to be used in an emergency, even though there's no legitimate need\n* Doing things and then saying that the reason why is too secret to tell, even though they are required to tell\n\nIn short, a lot of things that bad countries do. We don't want to be a bad country.\n\n",
"He squandered a historically large majority in the Senate, passed a watered down abortion of a healthcare bill, failed to make a case for his accomplishments choked on the midterms, and has caved into the Republicans on multiple occasions without getting anything in return. He has also failed to reverse a lot of the civil rights erosions of the Bush era, in some cases making them worse. \n\nAlso, it is pretty easy to campaign on vague notions like Hope and Change...it gets a lot hard to enact them when everyone has a different idea about the Change the were Hoping for."
]
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3s321x | how come bluetooth is so much slower than wi-fi? | It takes quite a while for me to transfer files from my laptop to my phone using bluetooth but when I use an app to host a local webserver, it's significantly faster.
Why don't devices communicate using something that's more like Wi-Fi? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3s321x/eli5_how_come_bluetooth_is_so_much_slower_than/ | {
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"Bluetooth is designed to be short-range very low-power for small portable equipment. Part of the power-savings of Bluetooth come from diminished bandwidth (just as much as the weaker signal). One could speed up Bluetooth to Wi-Fi speeds, but then it would defeat the purpose of BT's major design feature.\n\nIf you're looking for something that works like plunging a cable between devices but has Wi-Fi speeds, you might like wireless USB: _URL_0_",
"They can, but it's complicated. Original Wi-Fi (the 802.11 specification) is just as slow as Bluetooth 2.0 (the most basic standard). They both operate in the same 2.4GHz frequency band and use similar frequency hopping algorithms. \n\nWith the 802.11a specification IEEE changed the game by moving the frequency band to 5GHz (increasing bitrate) and improving their modulation algorithms. This had the effect of dramatically increasing power consumption and hardware costs, a move Bluetooth couldn't take. At the same time, the 802.11b standard was released which moved the 802.11a improvements to the 2.4GHz spectrum for less speed. It was after this (and the subsequent 802.11g standard) that Bluetooth began to simply incorporate the Wi-Fi standards into their own, resulting in the 3.0 HS specification. This spec simply allowed people to shove a Wi-Fi radio onto Bluetooth chips and have the protocol be able to use them when necessary, bringing the theoretical throughput up to a WiFi-comparable 24Mb/S. \n\nAll subsequent Wi-Fi standards have used higher frequencies with larger bandwidths, which have detrimental effects on battery life. Bluetooth devices are also required to operate at ranges of over 100m in very noisy environments while maintaining that power consumption, features Wi-Fi trades off to achieve high throughput.\n\nBluetooth is a very good protocol for the market it hits. Very few people need to transfer files larger than a few MB regularly and not optimizing for that unusual case has huge benefits for reliability and power consumption. The simplicity also allows it to encapsulate very different data models within a single protocol that can serve everything from keyboards to headphones to car keys. This has enormous manufacturing cost benefits since similar hardware can be used to make completely different devices, increasing economies of scale.",
"Because it was designed that way on purpose. It's intended to be low power and short range specifically because WiFi is usually overkill for devices that need to be low power and short range."
]
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6nl1jm | why is the northeast region of the united states more developed than any other region? | The northeast region is considered one of the most economically developed, densely populated, culturally diverse regions of the United States. What led to the success of this particular region over the other parts of America? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nl1jm/eli5_why_is_the_northeast_region_of_the_united/ | {
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"Basically, that's where everyone settled. It's at the coast, which is most easily accessible. That's why the West Coast is so developed too. But the East is where the first towns were, has been civilised by America for the longest, and it's where the US was basically born. The midwest was mostly white farmers looking for land; ergo, the midwest is predominantly white. \n\nThe advantage of a coast is also that it's easier for shipping, as well.",
"I'm sorry if this isn't what you're looking for but i took this question in a historical context rather than seeking to provide modern day reasons.\n\nAs you know, some of the northeastern-most states were contained within the original 13 colonies, thus giving it much more time to develop than other states. Along with that, the vast majority of immigrants passed through Ellis Island in New York to come to America, hence the diversity. People wouldn't want to travel too far after arriving for the most part before starting their lives (aside from basically the mormons) leading to a large influx of cheap labor and densely populated cities. In the industrial era of America, the North had a huge advantage over the South in the fact that their economy was largely factory-based while the south was reliant on slave labor and indentured servitude for most of the 19th century. ",
"California is actually more economically developed and more populated than any other state in the country. Likely due to the various gold rushes, combined with its easy shipping routes from Asia and the very nice weather all year round. \n\nAs far as cultural diversity, the northeast definitely has it beat. New England especially, due to the various parts of history in which we've \"imported\" a large variety of various ethnic groups to fuel labor industry growth.",
"Settled first, close trade routes to Europe, climate suitable for agriculture, and there is natural resources that can be extracted. \n\n"
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752jc3 | what is the link between the neurotransmitter gaba and anxiety disorders? | Just for some background, I have good foundational knowledge on how neurons and neurotransmitters work within the brain. With this, I know that many mental and physical disorders are rooted in the way the brain produces or interacts with these neurotransmitters.
I remember learning that the neurotransmitter GABA is linked to anxiety disorders, but I cannot find a simplified explanation of this link.
How does GABA work and, in the case of anxiety disorders, what is the dysfunctional aspect?
EDIT: Just wanted to add that I understand anxiety is complex and can be caused by many factors (both cognitive and biological). I just wanted to understand the purported link here. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/752jc3/eli5what_is_the_link_between_the_neurotransmitter/ | {
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"GABA is an inhibitory NT, meaning that it blocks certain synaptic activity including the same receptors that help anxiety which we use Valium or Librium. They cause chloride ions enter the neuron causing less synaptic activity."
]
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|
djbsf9 | in situ hybridization | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/djbsf9/eli5_in_situ_hybridization/ | {
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"Idk what your level of knowledge in biology is but in the tissue(in situ) you have a DNA, RNA... that is there naturally and if you wish to find where in the cell a certain sequence (a gene for example) in that natural DNA/RNA is, you can do it with probes, which are a complementary sequences to the DNA/RNA you are looking for (you can design them to fit the sequence you are looking for, i think you can design and order them online), the probes will attach to the natural sequence. To locate the probes (and therefore the sequence you are looking for, they can be labeled with different \"signals\", most common with a fluorescent protein, FISH - Fluorescent in situ hybridization. You can see it the under the fluorescence microscope.\n\nMore: _URL_0_"
]
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"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_situ_hybridization"
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||
5mkek8 | why cant we go beyond planck units? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mkek8/eli5_why_cant_we_go_beyond_planck_units/ | {
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"I mean there's nothing really stopping you. A Planck length is the theoretical shortest length that can be measured. Planck time is the amount of time it takes a photon to cross that distance. Planck's temperature is the temperature a black body has to be to emit photons with wavelength of Planck's length.\n\nYou could go smaller than the first two and higher than the third, there's nothing stopping you. As far as we know, spacetime is continuous. It's just distances smaller than Planck lengths are impossible to measure even theoretically.",
"Basically, every object emits certain wavelength of radiation, dependant on their temperature. The higher it is, the tinier their wavelengths become. \n\nSo now the question is, how hot can you make an object? So, you are heating and heating and heating it up and you are measuring the wavelengths the body emits. At one point you reach the Planck Temperature - temperature so hot, that you wouldn't be able to measure the wavelengths any more tiny than that. The distance of the wavelengths are called Planck Distance and the time it takes for a photon to travel that distance is called Planck Time. \n\nAnd as mentioned above, it doesn't mean that you can't go beyond these numbers. Just add more heat to the object. Problem with that is, that our models of this all break and we can't predict what is gonna happen. ",
"Well, assuming the Planck units are what we think they are, it's just the way the universe works. They're what we call natural units, because they are derived from natural constants and not human-centered stuff (for example, meters originally come from the Earth's diameter, Celsius and Kelvin come from the boiling point of water at Earth's sea level, etc.). \nThe Planck constant is the quantum for action, aka the smallest amount of energy doing stuff over time. A quantum is the smallest amount of a thing you can have. For example, a quantum of light is a single photon, because you can't have less light than a single photon.\n\nThe units come from a bunch of constants; for example, the Planck Length is derived from the gravitational constant, the Planck Constant, and the speed of light in a vacuum.\n\nThe Planck Temperature scale goes from 0 (absolute 0) to 1 (the Planck temperature). To get an idea, it is over 141,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 C. We can't go above the Planck temperature because, at those energy levels, physics as we know it doesn't work anymore. We literally have no idea what would happen and no way to predict it. now, in theory you you could add more energy to the system even after hitting that high, but physics just breaks beyond that and temperature (or anything else, really) wouldn't mean much.\n\nAs for the Planck Length, I know it has to do with the Uncertainty Principle, but I'm not really sure beyond that. It could be that there are distance short than that, but they have no meaning."
]
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5ujgph | why does everyone feel the need to go to university after high school? where did this culture come from? | I'm pretty sure the majority of people in the past turned out fine and didn't feel the pressure to apply to university even though it doesn't guarantee jobs. But the main issue i have is that people who clearly weren't meant to go to university still go. Where did this culture originate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ujgph/eli5_why_does_everyone_feel_the_need_to_go_to/ | {
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"The world got more complicated and jobs got a lot more competitive. \n\nThink about how much more a doctor needs to know these days than they did 100 years ago. The level of knowledge required to be adequate at a job keeps going up because we know more AND because standards are rising. Jobs are getting more competitive because of this and because we're getting more and more efficient at everything. It's taking less people to get the same job done. ",
"3 reasons:\n\n1) In the past, having a college degree was a lot rarer than it is now and was seen as a competitive advantage. Most high paying careers (doctor, lawyer, finance, engineer, etc.) required a degree. Hence, it was very desirable to go to university if you and your family could afford it (remember student loans didn't exist back then). Because of that state of affairs, it became social knowledge that a degree is a path to success. Many from those generations then wanted to ensure their kids had that opportunity.\n\n2) Jobs have been shifting from manufacturing and skilled labor towards science, engineering, and technology. These fields require degrees. At the same time, opportunities to earn a decent living without a degree are shrinking.\n\n3) Easy access to student loans had removed the financial barrier to entry into university. Now anyone can get a loan and go to college. People realize that they need degrees to get high profile jobs. Unfortunately, some students try and fail, racking up huge amounts of debt."
]
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