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49pa3a
if an electron can be two places at the same time, how do we know those are not two different electrons?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49pa3a/eli5_if_an_electron_can_be_two_places_at_the_same/
{ "a_id": [ "d0tmkiw", "d0tmkmn", "d0u3oy5", "d0unh6r", "d0uu815" ], "score": [ 33, 5, 2, 2, 3 ], "text": [ "We know because when we do these types of experiments we can limit the number of electrons to one. If there is only one electron in the experiment but you can show that there is an electron in both places at the same time you know that it is the same electron. The theory is then that the same electron is in all its potential states (places) and can interact with things as if it were in those states as long as you do not observe it as it would then force the electron to be in one state.", "Well, the easiest way to tell is that you can check the electric potential. If a hydrogen atom has one ~~positron~~ proton giving it a plus charge of 1, and one electron giving it a charge of -1, they cancel out and there's zero electric charge overall. If each hydrogen atom had two electrons, you'd end up with a wicked strong negative electric charge if you got a bunch of hydrogen together. And that negative charge would stop things like H2 from forming as the atoms would repel each other.\n\nEDIT: Thank you /u/lagerbaer for spotting my proton/positron mistake! Antimatter on the brain! & :) ", "You are asking an extremely interesting question, one which is currently stretching some of the greatest intellects on the planet. As the contributor below expresses, there are tests where we are certain that only a single electron has been released, yet it behaves as if it were more than one..... until you 'look' at it (by trying to let an instrument be affected by it's passing, for example), when it starts to behave just as if is just the one electron again. This has yet to be explained or made sense of yet. There are numerous theories, but to date there isn't a definitive answer.", "Quantum mechanics is probabilistic, not deterministic. Before being observed an electron is in a state of superposition. There is a probability of it being in a particular place and a slightly lower probability of it being in another and so on. Once the electrons position is measured the wave function collapses and the electron is no longer in a state of superposition. I am by no means a physicist so correct me of I am wrong here. ", "Quantum mechanics doesn't say an electron can be in two places at the same time.\n\nELI5 explanation: When people want to work out the likelihood that something is going to happen, the use a set of math rules called \"probability theory\".\n\nWhen people tried to uses these rules for very small things, the rules failed. I.e. The rules gave wrong predictions about the likelihood of things to happen.\n\nQuantum mechanics is a new, more powerful set of probability rules. These rules are very different. In the old \"classical\" rules, probabilities were always added together, for example. But in the new rules, probabilities (or more technically, probability amplitudes) are sometimes added and sometimes subtracted.\n\nIn an effort to explain the success of these new rules, some people say things like \"Two possibilities exist at the same time and that is why these new rules work\". But quantum mechanics does not insist on these interpretations. Many physicists believe each electron only exists at one place at a time, but accept that classical probability is the wrong way to treat the electron.\n\nNon ELI5: Classical physics employs a probability theory of variables that commute. Quantum physics employs a more general probability theory of variables that don't always commute. The latter gives the correct description of the universe. An electron is not at two places at once. It is at one place, and we calculate the likelihood of it being there with quantum physics, rather than classical probability." ] }
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1k36gh
why do most posts on popular subreddits have so many downvotes?
For example, most of the posts on /r/funny or /r/WTF have a net score of say, 2000, but the upvote-downvote breakdown is 9000 and 7000. Most posts on /r/funny aren't even offensive or too crappy. I rarely downvote, and if I do, it's justified. I don't understand where all these downvotes come from. Enlighten me.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k36gh/eli5_why_do_most_posts_on_popular_subreddits_have/
{ "a_id": [ "cbkw0dn", "cbkw0h1", "cbkw4f3", "cblbypn" ], "score": [ 8, 2, 7, 2 ], "text": [ "_URL_0_\n\n > How is a submission's score determined?\n\n > A submission's score is simply the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. If five users like the submission and three users don't it will have a score of 2. Please note that the vote numbers are not \"real\" numbers, they have been \"fuzzed\" to prevent spam bots etc. So taking the above example, if five users upvoted the submission, and three users downvote it, the upvote/downvote numbers may say 23 upvotes and 21 downvotes, or 12 upvotes, and 10 downvotes. The points score is correct, but the vote totals are \"fuzzed\".\n\nThis allows them to remove votes from people trying to game the system without directly alerting them that it's being done.\n", "As a new redditor, I would like to know this as well. Also, why do ppl post a top comment that gets 2K+ comment karma and then delete the comment?", "It's because reddit \"fuzzes\" the votes. [This is my favorite explanation of vote fuzzing](_URL_0_), originally posted by /u/Mason11987", "Wait until after Labor Day, and you'll see less of that. Really. At this time of year, a lot of kids out of school are downvoting pretty much anything that doesn't give them an immediate orgasm or -- like this comment here -- dares to question their innate superiority over all other creatures of the earth. Once summer is over and they're back in school, this behaviour will diminish.\n" ] }
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[ [ "http://www.reddit.com/wiki/faq#wiki_how_is_a_submission.27s_score_determined.3F" ], [], [ "http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/199sqp/on_reddit_why_are_upvotes_and_downvotes_fuzzed/c8m2tgt" ], [] ]
wju91
what the beatles did to the world
I was born in '90 so I never got the chance to experience what The Beatles really did to the world. And I've only recently started appreciating how good their music is but they're said to have changed the lives of people living in the 60s and I've always been curious about that. Although not possible, I would still like to love them as much as people from back then.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wju91/eli5_what_the_beatles_did_to_the_world/
{ "a_id": [ "c5dy7to", "c5dya1x", "c5dybqo", "c5dymn6", "c5dyp5l", "c5dyr7t", "c5dyszb", "c5dyu4r", "c5dzajx", "c5dzdmo", "c5dzk3u", "c5dzmdn", "c5dzqnm", "c5e03q5", "c5e060d", "c5e0ob9", "c5e2l2g", "c5e2r0g", "c5e55jb", "c5e7svq" ], "score": [ 17, 292, 67, 35, 13, 3, 2, 21, 6, 4, 5, 158, 2, 14, 7, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "Check out [this](_URL_0_) documentary! ", "Well, they were not only the definitive rock band at the time, but were highly experimental. For example: they were the first rock band to make usage of a stringed quartet in a pop song--I believe that song is Eleanor Rigby. They helped popularize eastern/world music, shedding light on traditional Indian ragas and certain cultural aspects by incorporating it into their songs. More simply, they were sex symbols, who pushed the boundaries of popular music, while remaining the most popular band of their era. Essentially, they assisted in the formation of the social/political atmosphere of their time through a musical median. \n\nTL;DR: I can't emphasize this enough: they're one of the most experimental/influential bands of the last century.\n\nEDIT: I recommend looking into Brian Wilson and the album Pet Sounds, it's another classic album overflowing with cutting edge musical experimentation.", "from this thread in r/music: _URL_0_\n\n[–]milaw 27 points 2 years ago\nWell they started out as just a great, but not cosmic, pop-rock band, during the \"I Want to Hold Your Hand\" phase. They were extremely popular, but no more genius than Buddy Holly, or Elvis before them. But some time around Sgt. Pepper, they turned the whole genre of rock and roll on it's head. They moved the youth of the nation from being into some exciting, blues-inspired to music, to being into politically charged, acid-inspired, jaw droppingly good music. Hard to imagine Hendrix, Steppenwolf, or any of the subsequent iterations on down through Kurt Cobain, or anyone from the present, even existing without their influence.\nOf course, they couldn't have had any of this impact if their music wasn't really really good, and they hadn't become really really popular before hand. I've read somewhere that some scientist found that their music matched the rhythm's babies experience while in the womb to a unique degree, but I don't know if there's any truth to that. It's breadth and depth though. They didn't stop with Sgt. Pepper's, but were extremely experimental from that point on. Most band's entire schtick represents the breadth of just one or two Beatle's songs. In that, they were kind of like the Shakespeare of rock and roll. (Shakespeare is considered the genius of English literature because, not only was his writing good, but he was a master across genres, from sonnets, to comedies, to tragedies, and he was extremely prolific.) You don't have to like them (all art evaluation is inherently subjective anyway), but you have to recognize that they're contribution to rock is just tremendous.", "So four guys from England named Paul, John, George, and Pete started a rock band. They went to Germany, and played grueling 8 hour sets almost every day for two or three years. And while it was a crappy gig, it gave them a lot of experience, and they meshed incredibly well as a group. Then they fired Pete and replaced him with Ringo. Most fans consider Ringo to be the worst Beatle, probably because he didn't have the same experience as the other three.\n\nThey recorded some music, and got very big in the early 1960s with the songs \"Love Me Do\" and \"I Want to Hold Your Hand.\" While those songs were rock 'n roll in the traditional manner (4:4 time, blues roots), they were also kind of corny. They were more along the lines of bubblegum pop music than rock as we know it today (Think Hanson, or more modern, maybe if Justin Bieber sang with a backing band rather than over top of dance music). Their first albums aren't really what made them so well remembered, only what made them famous.\n\nBut when they got famous, they began to make more mature music. They started using new instruments (E.g. sitar), collaborated with a lot of other good artists (e.g. Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, etc.), and their songs got some more substance to them. Combine that with all the experience they got playing all those shows together when they were younger, and the product they put out was innovative, unique, and technically sound. On top of that they were putting out full length albums every year, which just kind of further cemented them as the band of their era. \n\nThey broke up in 1970 (kind of symbolizing the end of the 60s). And when bands or artists stop making music while in their peak, either through death or the band breaking up (e.g. Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Tupac) they're remembered as being at their peak instead of ever burning out, and they tend to be enshrined as immortal. ", "The first LP I ever owned was \"Meet the Beatles\" that I got for my 11th birthday in 1964. Wore out the vinyl. But as they grew their music changed, and by the time Sgt. Pepper's came out in '67 they had gone vastly beyond any other act. When I bought it I really didn't like it: it didn't sound like The Beatles -- but I caught up with them within a week of listening, and Sgt. Pepper is still my all-time favorite album. It blew the roof off music and popular culture and set a very high standard for any other rock band in the world.", "For better understanding, listen to some of the biggest acts of the day and compare it to The Beatles records. You'll see just how experimental they were. More than that, their music was good and pop-sensible. (Other experimental bands aren't palatable to a wide audience) I encourage you to listen to all of The Beatles albums, in order, and pick one or two albums that also came out that year; or listen to Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll by year to see the difference. ", "I'm kind of feeling like this is hugely one-sided and I also wonder why people like the Beatles, I never found anything I liked about them.", "This is a big one that a lot of people don't note: they were the first really popular *rock band*. Before them, you had some well known rock solo artists, like Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis, etc. They played with a band but it was very much **Buddy Holly** ^and ^the ^Crickets. You also had big bands in the swing world, and you had small groups (3-6) in the more contemporary/bob jazz world.\n\nBut the idea of 3-5 guys/girls in a band that operate as a unit, write most of their own songs, all have distinct personalities, etc (Led Zeppelin, Arctic Monkeys, U2, Oasis, Radiohead, Joy Division, Poison, Van Halen, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, the Doors...the list could go on and on and on)? The Beatles pretty much started and popularized that trend.\n ", "A few years ago, I recall I read an article saying that The Beatles spoiled rock. At first I was ultraged. After reading, I understood what they meant in the title. Like nosex_justdeath said, The Beatles were highly experimental. They somewhat changed the concept of rock. \nI'm not totally sure about it, but my brother, a huge Beatles fan, told me Ringo popularized the standard way to play drums today. \nEDIT: I also recall that some people consider Helter Skelter one of the first hard rock songs.", "They combined rock and roll attitude, style, and arrangement, with a unique and complex song writing style that had borrowed heavily from pre-rock pop standards and showtunes of the 50s. They wrote great pop songs, and had a playing style that made them sound incredibly fresh and exciting.\n\nThey were dynamic performers, who were also good looking and personable to interview. They benefited enormously from the rise of television and the US baby boom - they filled the \"teen idol\" role for a unprecedentedly large group of teenagers.\n\nTheir career also coincided with significant developments in sound recording, and they were in a unique position to be the first to be able to 'experiment' in the studio and pioneer many studio techniques that are still in use today.\n\nSo in short, it was kinda the musical equivalent of Michael Jordan's Bulls -- an amazing combination of right-place, right-time, right-people. \n\nI never looked at it so much that the Beatles changed the world, it was more that the world was changing pretty quickly, and the Beatles were in an amazing position to make music that moved along with these changes.", "One element of their success and influence that is often overlooked is that the individual Beatles were born between 1940 and 1943, which made them juuuust barely older than the baby boomers, so as you had thing fastastically enormous group of kids growing up, who all had more spending money than other young generation, and then along comes this group - old enough to have their shit together, but young enough to be cool - that reflected everything these young people wanted to see in themselves: confidence, talent, growth, wit, experimentation, self-sufficiency, concern for the world and the community, the ability to exist within mainstream culture and also outside of it, the ability to change the world in positive ways, and so on. And keep in mind, at the time, there were relatively few media outlets - three or four television stations in each city, and that there were very few radio stations that only played rock n roll kids music - so when they were popular, they were *everywhere*.\n\nYes, they were among the first bands to write predominantly their own music, which helped put a premium on this form of expression not to mention the extra money people could earn from songwriting and publishing, so it became important - essential - for 'true' artists to write their own songs. (Dylan was also influential there.) That is still true today.\n\nThey (or their studio team) invented a lot of studio techniques that people still use today. Automatic double tracking, flanging among them. Close-mic'ing of drums for a heavier sound. And although people make a big deal about the quartets or orchestras they used, introducing tape loops and world music instrumentas such as the sitar was more influencial. I mean *nothing* sounded like Tomorrow Never Knows in 1966, and musicians wouldn't catch up to it until the 90s! Not to mention Revolution 9 which is probably still the most widely distributed piece of avant garde composition ever made.\n", "I find it odd that no one is mentioning how The Beatles changed the **music industry** -- it's been mentioned that they were stellar songwriters, but no one has talked about how really odd that was -- most famous bands at the time did not write their own material. The Beatles founded their own publishing company, kept all the rights to their music, and started the era of the singer-songwriter. ", "Don't miss The Beatles Anthology Documentary series produced by Apple.\nHere's [Episode One.](_URL_1_)\n\n > The Beatles Anthology documentary series was first broadcast in November 1995, with expanded versions released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1996 and on DVD in 2003. The documentary used interviews with The Beatles and their associates to narrate the history of the band as seen through archival footage and performances.\n\nSource: [Wiki entry on the series.](_URL_0_)", "Someone said to me once, \"Even if you aren't directly influenced by The Beatles, you were influenced by someone who was.\"", "Imagine you're in the 60's: contemporary popular music is swing add jazz, but fast, kind of edgy music is starting to make it's way onto the radio (think Adele v. Lady Gaga. both are widely accepted as extremely influential in music right now, but the former has a much less radical sound). Elvis has been popular for a while, and songs like [this] (_URL_0_) are what the 'kids' are listening to. Much like electronic dance music a couple years ago it's all this new music that is very fun to listen to, but older people aren't quite sure what to make of it or how (even whether) it will affect them. Around 1964 you've got these provocative, energetic, reeeally young kids coming over from Britain and being treated almost like musical saviours or gods in the US. Think about this: at a time when any hint of sexuality was deemed controversial, the Beatles are getting popular with songs like 'Please Please Me.' The Beatles released their first record in 1962, and by 1964 they were the biggest band in the world, and made up of 18 and 19 year old alcoholics. Due to technological advances, they were also among the first internationally popular bands; a lot of why they are so popular is really just right place, right time.\n\nBut then, around the release of Rubber Soul in 1965, things started to change. Their music was starting to get experimental, and you could tell that they weren't just drunk teenagers anymore. They starting using psychadelic drugs and, went from [Help] (_URL_2_) in 1965 to [this] (_URL_1_) only 2 years later. Pretty radical stuff. They had a lot more than just electric guitars, harmonies and drums going on too. Most people talk about Sgt. Pepper when they talk about how great the Beatles were, but if you really want to see how they influenced music listen to albums like Revolver and The White Album. (When people talk about how Sgt. Pepper is the greatest album ever, they're only really saying that because of the concept and the finale, A Day in the Life. The concept of a real band pretending to be a fictional band and releasing an album as that band is pretty neat, the A Day in the Life is just such a beautiful, radical, and unexpected song that it floored people when they got to it) The White Album in particular is two full discs of experimental music, most of which would have been very strange if it was on the radio. At the time, popular bands mostly had albums filled with radio-friendly songs so that they could please everyone, but the Beatles were releasing music that both not meant for everyone (how could a band be popular if not everyone can listen to them?) but something nobody had heard before. Furthermore, the White Album was very divided. Ringo had left the band for a week or two when recordings begun, and you could tell who did what song. Half the songs are McCartney, half are Lennon, with a handful of Harrison, and you can tell pretty clearly who did what song. Abbey Road was like this too: many consider the first half to be a McCartney album and the second half one long Lennon song.\n\nOkay, so I rambled a lot there, but the main point is that Beatles started of as an ordinary pop boy band, although quite a bit more popular than any other boy band, and lots of kids latched onto them. When they started getting experimental they kept it fun, and it showed people just how much they were capable of. If the Beatles could spend all their time in the studio, without the relentless touring, playing around with LSD and sitars, establish their own record label, achieving total financial independence and creative control, and use their influence to spread messages of peace and love, especially starting as just a couple nobody teenagers with no money pounding away on electric guitars... well, what can't you do?\n\nEDIT: I forgot to mention a very important aspect of the band, which is their friendship and mutual respect. They weren't business partners, thrown together like a lot of manufactured boy bands. They grew up together and were all best friends. John Lennon said that for a couple years starting around Revolver, he basically only socialized when he was in the studio. They were good at what they did, but you could really tell that they loved doing it, and this was a big reason why the were so popular. Their energy and enthusiasm meant you just had to listen to them.", "The Beatles didn't really do things first. But, when *they* did it ... it became cool/acceptable/the norm.", "To me at least (born after the Beatles' time), the love affair started with their music. Yes they were influential, but that's not the primary reason to appreciate them. The music is amazing independent of how influential it was. Focusing on the influence of the music almost makes it sound like the music is just, \"good, given the context of the time\", which detracts from how awesome the music really is.\n\n", "Before the Beatles, you could be sent home from school if your hair was too long.\n\netc.\n", "I have never listened to a Beatles album ( and I'm over 40). Maybe I should", " Essentially, I boil it down to two main points. They're more complicated than this but here they are:\n\n First, The Beatles made recorded music into something more than just a taped version of a live performance - with their experimentation in the studio they made it possible for every artist to do more with their music than they possibly could in a live setting. They used sounds and techniques that changed how music is made today, and really paved the way for the 'modern' sounds we have in todays music, and our modern recording techniques.\n\n They also changed the music industry and the way that it worked - they were some of the first artists to take control of their music and form their own label, Apple, separating them from the 'major' record companies at the time. They paved the way for all the indie labels and variety we have today in the music world.\n\n And also, they were just the most awesome band ever." ] }
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98un8k
how come humans don’t have any cool instincts or abilities that other animals seem to have (other than consciousness)?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/98un8k/eli5_how_come_humans_dont_have_any_cool_instincts/
{ "a_id": [ "e4istn5", "e4isxhn", "e4it1q5", "e4it32n", "e4it618", "e4itlt1" ], "score": [ 3, 15, 3, 3, 2, 3 ], "text": [ "1. Consciousness isn't exclusive to humans. Many other species show what we would consider to be a \"consciousness\"\n2. Who says we don't have these \"cool instincts or abilities\"? \"Cool\" would be a subjective opinion and us being the species that we are have always had the instincts and abilities we have, so it is just normal to us.\n\nIE. Dolphins are probably smarter than humans from what we know of intelligence and how it correlates to the physical brain. Would they consider it \"cool\" that they can dive so deep and hold their breath so long and echolocate, or would that just be normal everyday life for them?", "We kind of are terrifying though... I remember reading this years ago, and I could go into scientific depth, but the screenshot does a good enough job without me actually bothering to type it up:\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)", "Humans have many good abilities outside of intelligence. Our sweat trait makes us the best long distance runners of any species. Combine that with our incredible throwing ability, and you have great hunters.", "Also, this, we literally run prey to death by exhaustion by simply running for longer than them:\n\n[_URL_1_](_URL_0_)", "Even if you want to exclude consciousness, our brain power is the main reason why we could dominate the planet without fancy teeth and huge muscles.\n\nWe have the fitting physique and calculation/estimation ability to precisely throw things. \n\nWe are persistance hunters; we can literally chase after animals until they die from exertion/overheating.\n\nOpposable thumbs and bipedal motion allow for finer manipulation and use of diverse tools.\n\n", "Humans have plenty of cool physical tricks. As others have mentioned, we can dump heat really well due to our general lack of hair and abundance of sweat glands. This makes us really good at endurance tasks. \n\nOur hands are incredibly precise and capable tools compared to what most other animals have to work with. \n\nHuman vision is pretty highly tuned towards seeing a ton of detail, and a lot of colors. Other animals can see better in the dark, or have a wider field of view, or sometimes see other wavelengths that our eyes can't detect. But that often comes with other trade offs, like not seeing at nearly as high a resolution, or not seeing colors as well, or not having as solid a sense of depth perception. The center of the human retina (called the fovea) is packed super densely with cones (which detect colors) and this helps make us capable of performing way more intricate and complicated tasks than other animals are capable of. \n\nOur relatively advanced brains probably wouldn't be all that useful if we didn't have sensors (eyes) and tools (hands) capable of manipulating the world with so much precision. \n\n" ] }
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[ [], [ "https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8278903296/hEEDE23DC/" ], [], [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence\\_hunting" ], [], [] ]
2ktmzx
why are music notes limited between only a through g with there respective majors and minors? flat and sharp what's the deal with this standard?
An embarrassing question since I've played and loved music my whole life without questioning why the frequencies are defined... Any reason for this status quo? Who decided these rules. ...would separate music creating civilizations create the same rules?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ktmzx/eli5why_are_music_notes_limited_between_only_a/
{ "a_id": [ "clokxkw", "clov4w0" ], "score": [ 4, 2 ], "text": [ "The musical scale that western music created included 12 pitches per octave, 7 of which are included in the major and minor scales. We needed to name those 7 notes, so they used A-G. Then they made the C scale the one that included all natural notes, and added sharps and flats to name the notes in the other scales. \n\nThat's also why there's no E# or B# - those are the two notes in the C major scale that are followed by a half step up, so the next note was designated a natural note (F and C) even though it was only a half step difference.", "The reason the 12 tone scale sounds good is mathematical.\n\nEvery octave, the frequency of a note doubles. For example the notes labeled A are 220 hz, 440 hz, 880 hz, etc. This relationship applies to any note, which means that the ratio of frequency between two adjacent notes is the twelfth root of 2, or about 1.06. If you multiply a frequency by this value 12 times, it will be doubled.\n\nNow why is this special? Well for particular note intervals, lucky coincidence makes the notes line up with very nice frequency ratios. A major third is an interval of 4 notes. The ratio of these frequencies is 2^(4/12), which is about 1.26 - extremely close to 5/4. This closeness in waveform is pleasing to the ear. And it's not just that. A major fourth, five notes apart, is 2^(5/12), or 1.3348, extremely close to 4/3. A major fifth? 2^(7/12) = 1.4983, again ridiculously close to 3/2." ] }
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bbn0rw
why is honey dangerous to toddlers and infants?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bbn0rw/eli5_why_is_honey_dangerous_to_toddlers_and/
{ "a_id": [ "ekjv3hy", "ekjvg50", "ekjvjxr", "ekk047x", "ekkjksw", "ekkof2z", "ekkos38", "ekkzstm", "ekl1n55", "ekl1rcz", "ekl3kw5", "eklb36m", "eklnkbc", "ekluoyv", "ekm51md", "ekmdkmy", "ekmjsd0" ], "score": [ 3, 18591, 624, 39, 272, 280, 22, 4, 10, 5, 12, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3 ], "text": [ "Because they might have endospores of Clostridium botulinum which can cause botulism in infants.", "Honey often contains botulism spores, growth of botulism is suppressed when there is low water activity (such as in honey), and it's suppressed when the pH is low. It needs to get 125'C to kill the spores. Botulism produces one of the most toxic poisons known to man when it grows.\n\nThe temperature to kill botulism is too high for honey (it would ruin it). For adults this is a non-issue because it doesn't grow in honey, and when you eat it your stomach acid prevents it from growing. Babies don't have a low enough pH in their stomach (not enough stomach acid basically), so botulism can grow in a babies stomach after it mixes with water in their stomach which could be deadly.", "Honey can carry the spores of bacteria responsible for botulism (a deadly disease). \n\nThe bacteria in honey is not harmful for people over 1 year of age because the developed gut-bacteria disallow the botulism-causing bacteria to grow from spores and release the toxin in the process.", "this is interesting. i have got acid reflux and i take a pill each day to stop the production of acid. and i often eat honey. it would be interesting to know if there is any danger of getting killed by that.", "Just to note - it’s an issue for babies up to the age of 1, so not really a problem for toddlers in general (although some babies may be toddling at 12 months). Once they are over 12 months it is considered safe.\n\nIn babies under 1, the worry is the possible presence of botulinum toxin, which can cause paralysis. In older children and adults this can be defeated by the bodies natural defences so it becomes much less dangerous at that point. In adults the same toxin is used in cosmetics (Botox).", "...I've never even heard of this (not giving honey to toddlers).\n\n...and I might have a child within the next few years.\n\nSMH.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nAnyone know some other info i might need to know like this?", "TIL.. Their systems aren't developed enough to digest a certain bacterium that can cause a potentially fatal illness.\n\n[Source](_URL_0_).", "What our pediatrician told me ( and matches what I have found online) is that it's about the fact that it takes about a year for the human gut to become properly colonized with bacteria. Once we have populations of \"friendly\" bacteria in high enough numbers occupying the space, they can out-compete many of the strains of microorganisms that are not native to your insides.", "So does this mean people taking certain PPIs that lower stomach acid also shouldn't eat honey?", "Clostridium botulinum, in raw honey causes paralysis in kids , and it is used in botox injection ,it paralyzes the muscles in your face to get rid of wrinkles", "What about honey nut cheerios, honey whole wheat bread and other marginally dosed foods processed with honey? Does this fall under the 125 degrees C heating kills it?", "Since people brought up botulism already. Another thing to consider is the cheap honey most people buy is barely honey at all. It’s also mostly comes from Chinese hives where there have been other contamination issues. Only a small portion of imported honey is tested too.", "A babies blood brain barrier also isn't complete yet so the toxins could make it into the brain", "Botulism spores can survive the harshest of conditions - even autoclaves. The food industry has developed standards specifically to prevent botulism by requiring a pH < 4.6 to prevent germination and outgrowth.", "Honey is used by a rare variant of the Venus flytrap that is actually large enough to entrap and digest a whole human child. It is best to teach the avoidance of honey of from a young age, lest they fall victim to this particularly veracious Droseraceae.", "Botulism spores. Infants have basically no immune system, so they’re gonna be super fucked if they get honey with botulism spores in it. It’s like a 1 in 9 chance, but there’s no reason to risk a baby’s life.", "I'm very late to the game here but I'm a subject matter expert on botulism, feel free to ask anything.\n\nHoney, as many others have mentioned usually contains botulism spores. These are very hardy can survive most everything, including boiling. In fact, the food industry standards just assume everything is contaminated with botulism so when producing say canned food, they have to follow very strict protocol. Obviously, this protocol is broken now and again forcing recalls like this: _URL_1_.\n\nNow, back to honey. We can't exactly pressure cook honey or else it would be ruined so it's easier to just say, \"don't feed infants under one honey.\" This is because their gut bacteria can't outcompete the botulism spores, the baby's gut gets colonized, and the botulism spores grow and produce a very, very nasty toxin. And you get headlines like these: _URL_0_. And there California Dept of Health would get a call to release [BabyBIG](_URL_2_) which at ~$50k per dose is a fairly expensive treatment.\n\nThere is of course medical grade honey for wound care (definitely don't use regular honey or you can get wound botulism) that has been irradiated to kill any bacteria but I'd probably just wait until they're older." ] }
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[ [], [], [], [], [], [], [ "http://bfy.tw/NAQ0" ], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [ "https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm626013.htm", "https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2019/bottled-bar-clams-recalled-clostridium-botulinum/", "http://www.infantbotulism.org/general/babybig.php" ] ]
5aiv2j
why do we need a president? and why do we keep putting people as president when all the election shows us is 2 people will lie, cheat, and steal to victory? why do we keep putting these people in office?
I'm not taking sides, just wanting to know why we basically keep banging our heads against a brick wall. I mean the debates are basically 2 people pointing the finger at one another. It's like kindergarten all over again.
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5aiv2j/eli5_why_do_we_need_a_president_and_why_do_we/
{ "a_id": [ "d9gqvbm", "d9grq05", "d9gsd07", "d9gtfoo" ], "score": [ 5, 26, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "To keep up the appearance that were still a 'democracy'. If the average citizen has this one person to blame for all the country's problems, then it lets the lower level guys pull all the strings with slightly less scrutiny.\n\nVoting for your senators and congressmen are just as if not more important than choosing your president.", "A few different questions are here:\n\n1 - Why do we need a President?\n\nIt's largely because there's work to get done that we assign to a single democratically-elected official.\n\nFor example, if we're at war, Congress can't spend all day debating the strategy and voting on a plan. We need a more streamlined process with a single person who gives the go ahead on what goals and objectives the military should take.\n\nFurther, there are dozens of federal agencies that shouldn't be setting different agendas and following different policies. Having a person head them all up that can issue directives to them sets their boundaries and gets them to play nicely with one another. Congress will take too long to figure it out, and might end up deadlocked with no directives being issued.\n\nFinally, the President serves as a check on Congressional power. They can't just pass whatever laws they want. The President can force them to all REALLY agree to override a veto. Further, the President doesn't choose his own voters by gerrymandering (which effectively lets one party control the House). If the House is controlled by an over-reliance on that tool, even if the ideas and priorities of the people don't really reflect the chamber's composition, a President from a different party can be elected to keep them from doing whatever they want. \n\n2 - Why do we only get 2 feasible candidates?\n\nThis is a complicated political science question...but it's largely because of how we elect leaders.\n\nThere's only one job, and no prize for coming in second place. Suppose you have 3 major candidates, and you split a voting area like this:\n\nCandidate A: 45%\nCandidate B: 30%\nCandidate C: 25%\n\nObviously candidate A wins the whole thing. However, if candidate B and C stopped fighting each other and combine forces, they win instead. They might have to compromise, but if their platforms have at least some overlap, it may be a better situation than watching candidate A win the election, denying their mutual platform positions. \n\nWe can add fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. major parties, but it's still going to collapse into 2 major contenders in the end as they merge. Even nations with multiple national parties (who elect their legislative leaders through a different proportional process, rather than how the US congress people are elected), it's still much more common for a tiny number of parties to complete dominate the process.\n\n3 - Why are the candidates so nasty?\n\nIt's a few factors:\n\nA - Extremism and competitiveness. You don't get that far without a lot of ambition and willing to go to lengths to win.\n\nB - The other person is an obstacle. That's a reason to dislike them. They are the only person standing in the way of what you want, and they are deliberately spending millions and crafting messages to keep you from the job.\n\nC - To be blunt, it works. If you can get deny votes to somebody through negativity, that's a win. \n\nD - When it comes to live debates, it's about image. Pesky things like \"reality\" are ok to talk about in small doses, but if you notice, things like \"accomplishments\" and \"specific policy proposal\" don't get much time. For image, you don't actually have to be right. The other person doesn't even actually have to be wrong. The other person just has to look wrong.\n\nThere's a scene in the great comedy \"Thank You for Smoking\" about this. A father has his son defend chocolate as the best ice cream while he argues for vanilla. He points out that arguing over a preference can't be won, so you re-frame the debate. \"I need more than chocolate, and I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom and choice when it comes to our ice cream.\" His son pointed out that that had nothing to do with the argument and that he hadn't shown that vanilla was the best, and he responded that he had still won because he had proven that his son was wrong, and that's ultimately the same thing in some people's eyes. \"If you argue correctly, you're never wrong.\"\n\nIt's just like that. That's always why they go off topic on tangents that don't address the question, because they're re-framing things to win audience support.", "Just a random plug- in my opinion, the election process should be different. 10 candidates meet in a live-streamed room. Each gives their views on energy policy, war, and whatnot, then the public votes. Ya know, because Trump and Hillary right now aren't the greatest candidates, but very few people vote for a third party anyways. Some vote Republican or Democrat, even when the other candidate represents their beliefs more, just out of routine anyways.", "The government forces children to go indoctrination camps for 12 years of their life. They claim the children get an \"education\", but after 12 years of \"education\" they can barely handle working at mcdonalds.\n\nImagine if you practiced piano for 12 years and were still terrible at piano.\n\nAnyways the indroctrination system removes individualism and creates a sort of stockholm syndrome that makes people think they need a government. \n\nIn fact the indoctrination is so powerful that people will feel like I punched their grandmother just by talking badly about their lords." ] }
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3nxngr
how do 'illegal' websites such as the pirate bay earn money with ads?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nxngr/eli5_how_do_illegal_websites_such_as_the_pirate/
{ "a_id": [ "cvs6jxf", "cvs84s7", "cvsasuc", "cvsc5vl", "cvscafs", "cvscqvo", "cvsdind", "cvse0xy", "cvsed71", "cvsewjx" ], "score": [ 578, 60, 9, 4, 12, 2, 5, 2, 3, 2 ], "text": [ "Because TPB (amazingly) through some crazy stunts is able to stay legally afloat. They work under the fact that they store no content, just torrent files (hashes and trackers), and therefore are not a content distribution site.\n\nSome sites even add a little more of a legal buffer by using 'magnet links' exclusively. Magnet links do not even provide the complete torrent metadata or peers to connect too, which gives them more ground to stand on.\n\nClarification: TPB migrated away from torrent files a while ago.\n\nThe bottom line is as long as they can host their content legally *somewhere* (torrent sites change TLDs all the time), they can collect ad revenue.", "As noted in another thread, sites like this do not host illegal content; they simply let users find find out how to connect to a peer network and provide information about the collection of files. Also sites like PirateBay are hosted in countries with different, not-US laws and thus aren't necessarily subject to the same laws or consequences that you mention.\n\nThe bigger question though is how they actually generate ad revenue, since Internet 101 is not clicking random ads when downloading illegal or adult content.", "what is the pirate bay?\n", "What's the latest tpb website? I lost track when they started playing with the letters after the dot", "Another thing that doesn't appear to have been mentioned is that sites like this generally don't use, er, particularly reputable advertisement companies. I don't think I've ever seen a Google ad on a site like TPB.\n\nStill others take Reddit's approach and do ads in-house. (Not that Reddit is even close to an illegal website, they're just the best example of this model that I can think of.) Then they have total control over what they're putting on their sites. Some sites (like Reddit) use in-house ads to create unobtrusive ads. Others use them to make a bunch of fake download links.", "TPB itself is external financed.\n\nOther warez sites uses \"rouge\" ad providers mainly based in Eastern Europe (and now mainly incorporated in Hong Kong and Dubai) that do not give much about what you host/do. Payout is mainly Webmoney and Bitcoin there, with webmoney being traditionally hard to track/freeze by being Russia based.", "You assume that TPB is illegal worldwide and that they aren't protected by laws. Both are wrong.", "People like me sign up to a advertising network such as _URL_0_ (they serve Piratebay as well as other large Porn sites). Then we pay say $0.30 per 1000 impressions or views or the ad (not clicks). Exoclick takes a percentage and the pirate bay takes a percentage. Welcome to advertising.", "They have multiple tactics:\n\n* They often don't use the traditional ad network (Google ads and co.) as they are starting to crack down on them. See [this article](_URL_0_) for more info.\n* They often operate (and therefore also have the bank accounts) in countries where simply linking to copyrighted content is not illegal or where it is not clearly defined by law.\n* I read somewhere some time ago that they use Iframes from different domains so that the browser loads a website that loads a website that displays an add so that the add networks do not even know that their ads are displayed on the site. ", "They sell the ads to guys like me and i resell it.\n\n(Source, atleast they did back in 2012)" ] }
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[ [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [ "ExoClick.com" ], [ "https://torrentfreak.com/plenty-of-ad-networks-still-love-pirate-sites-150926/" ], [] ]
7aql5b
why does it matter if species go extinct? how does natural selection work?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7aql5b/eli5_why_does_it_matter_if_species_go_extinct_how/
{ "a_id": [ "dpc0bg5", "dpc0dxk" ], "score": [ 2, 3 ], "text": [ "The reason humans care so much is because nowadays, it's usually humans' fault that they're dying. We kill their habitats, food, or the animal itself. So we have a responsibility to make up for our reckless behavior.\n\nNatural selection would be if we *needed* to do all those bad things.", "It doesn't \"matter\" to the world in most cases. Rare or endangered species rarely play a critical role in any ecosystem.\n\nWhat does matter, to humans, is that our activities are causing a large number of species to head toward extinction at the same time. This suggests that we're doing real damage to some ecosystems." ] }
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7pr3gf
with the amount of radio signals that is being sent, does it have any effect on the environment?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7pr3gf/eli5with_the_amount_of_radio_signals_that_is/
{ "a_id": [ "dsjcmj3" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "Radio waves are super low energy, they can't damage molecules like say ultraviolet waves could. And, the earth is constantly being bombarded by radio waves from space, so it seems unlikely it would influence the environment in any way," ] }
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454rp8
how/why can superdelegates who are required to represent their constituency overrule the vote of their constituency?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/454rp8/eli5_howwhy_can_superdelegates_who_are_required/
{ "a_id": [ "czv5v87", "czv5whj", "czv5z7h", "czv61d5" ], "score": [ 5, 2, 3, 2 ], "text": [ "Superdelegates are meant to support the party, not the cobstituents. The point of a superdelegate is to push things in the party's favor when it looks dicey. They're not required to vote in line with the constituency. At least, thats the way I understand it, I'm probably a little off lol.", "Your premise is flawed. Superdelegates are not required to represent the constituency. They, just like members of the electoral college in the general election, can vote for whomever they want.", "The nomination of a presidential candidate is a party affair. The party chooses to have superdelegates in the nominating process, and these delegates are there only as members of the party--they're not exercising any official function.\n\nAlso note that elected officials are only abstractly required to \"represent their constituency.\" This is their duty as a matter of political philosophy, but the law usually leaves it to their own judgment to exercise the office as they think prudent.", "Political parties have members, constituents refer to elected gov't officials.\n\nA political party is essentially a private club, and can set up any rules they want to elect the king of the treehouse." ] }
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km7p8
the birthday problem (statistics)
I've always had trouble with interpreting statistical problems, and I really can't wrap my head around this one. You have 23 people in a room. What are the chances that at least 2 of them have the same birthday? The problem is counter-intuitive. One would assume the chances are low but at 23 people it's over 50% and close to 90% at 40. The problem is explained and solved here: _URL_0_ I've been at this for a while and can't manage 'get it'. Can anyone explain it to me like I'm five?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/km7p8/eli5_the_birthday_problem_statistics/
{ "a_id": [ "c2le9tt", "c2leayw", "c2lee8b", "c2lejjf", "c2leugk", "c2levhw", "c2lfhp7", "c2lfl0q", "c2lfplm", "c2lfzxq", "c2lg9q3", "c2le9tt", "c2leayw", "c2lee8b", "c2lejjf", "c2leugk", "c2levhw", "c2lfhp7", "c2lfl0q", "c2lfplm", "c2lfzxq", "c2lg9q3" ], "score": [ 44, 173, 24, 2, 30, 12, 2, 3, 8, 3, 3, 44, 173, 24, 2, 30, 12, 2, 3, 8, 3, 3 ], "text": [ "There's two questions:\n\n1. \"What are the chances of someone having a birthday on January 1st?\"\n2. \"What are the chances of someone not having the same birthday as everyone else?\"\n\nThe straightforward question is #1, it's your typical probability question just like 'What are the chances of rolling a 6?'.\n\nThe tricky part about question #2 is that it becomes harder and harder to fulfill as you go on. You aren't asking about January 1st anymore, you are asking each new person: \"Are you the same as person 1? Are you the same as person 2? Are you the same as person 3?\" and so on. What you're asking the 23rd person is \"Are you the same as person 1? Are you the same as person 2? [...] Are you the same as person 21? Are you the same as person 22?\". And the real kicker is that you've asked the same to the 22 people before him too!\n\nThis is why the graph curves up rapidly, it gets really hard to satisfy, very quickly, hence why it fails so deceptively early.\n\ntl;dr: You aren't just matching each new person once to check for an answer. You are matching each new person against every other previous person.\n\n**EDIT:** \n\nAnother way to think of it, is in reverse. To get to the situation of 364 people with no shared b-day, you have to get someone on Jan 1, someone on Jan 2, and so on. And as you probably know, rolling a dice 6 times and only getting one of each number is hard. But imagine having to roll a 100 sided dice 100 times and needing to get each number exactly once. That's intuitively hard and has a really low probability of happening, this birthday problem is like the inverse of that.", "The reason your brain is confused is because you interpreted \"two people have the same birthday\" to mean \"given this birthday, here is the chance that someone else in the room has it\". So for example, Billy has a birthday of January 1st. The chances of someone else having this birthday fairly low and matches your intuition. \n\nHowever, the problem doesn't give a specific birthday to match too. It asks what the chances are that two people have the same birthday, making no qualifier on the day, just that it be the same (vastly more combinations of people could be viable). This is a completely different problem statistically and yields a different result than the one above.\n \n\n Once you realize the distinction the problem loses it's appeal in my opinion.", "(This might not be a FYO question/answer, but I'll try my best)\n\nThink about it like this:\n\nEach time a person comes to the party, there is a (365-n)/365 chance that none of the n people already there have the same birthday as the new guy. This is because the first n people all have different birthdays, so if your birthday falls on one of the other (365-n) days, you don't have a conflict. Unfortunately you could have been born on any of the 365 days in the year, so that's why we divide one by the other.\n\nSo the first person gets there and there's a 100% chance no one has the same birthday as them. Then the second guy comes, and there's a 364/365 chance that the first guy doesn't have the same birthday. Then the third guy comes and there's a 363/365 chance that he doesn't have the same birthday as either of the first 2 guys.\n\nLet's recap: \nThere was a 365/365 chance for the first guy, multiplied by the 364/365 chance for the second guy, multiplied by the 363/365 chance for the third guy. That comes out to (365(364)(363)) / (365(365)(365)) = 99.2% chance that you have they all have different birthdays.\n\nContinuing the process of adding people, this number goes down as follows:\n\n 4 people = > 98.4%\n 5 people = > 97.3%\n 6 people = > 96.0% \n 7 people = > 94.4%\n 8 people = > 92.6%\n 9 people = > 90.5%\n 10 people = > 88.3%\n\nAs you can see, the chances of nobody having the same birthday start pretty high, but get smaller and smaller faster as we add more people. Eventually you get to 365 people at the party using up all the days of the year, so the next guy is out of luck if he isn't born on February 29th.", "What is the probability of 365 people all having different birthdays?", "Hmm, I think the best way to look at this is not to think of there being 23 **people** but rather think of the fact that there are 253 **chances** or **pairs** of getting the same birthday. Like if everyone shakes hands with every single person in the room there will be 253 handshakes. The math becomes easy if you understand that part.", "You felt it wasn't intuitive. Think of it this way. As people enter the room, they throw a dart at a calendar on the wall. Where they hit, they draw an X to cross out the date. Its pretty obvious that fairly soon someone will hit someone elses crossed out date. ", "For those of you that like to calculate things in Excel, I put together an Google Docs file with some calculated numbers. For me it makes it a lot easier to understand the problem.\n\nGraphed Probability - _URL_1_\n\nPercentages broken out by total people in the room - _URL_0_\n\n\nI also did a real world test based upon 23 people. According to the calculations it should result in 50/50 chance of someone having the same birthday.\n\nI did 100 calculations and got a 48% chance of the same birthday and 52% chance that no one has the same birthday.\n\n_URL_2_", "it's about randomness. to expound on the pigeonhole principle presented by unkzdomain, you're basically rolling a random number each time you look at someone's birthday. the rolls go like this:\n\n1. 0% chance of having the same birthday (first person)\n\n2. 1/365 0.27% chance\n\n3. 2/365 0.55% chance\n\n4. 3/365 0.83% chance\n\nand so on. [here is an illustrative google doc](_URL_0_). let me point out that the cumulative column is wrong (but close enough for the first 10 people or so), because it's not strictly additive. but see, i have to go to sleep, and someone else can fix it for me.", " > When events are independent of each other, the probability of all of the events occurring is equal to a product of the probabilities of each of the events occurring.\n\nSo, for example, the odds of getting three heads in a row is 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/8.\n\nIn this case, we have 23 separate events. Each event can be defined as the corresponding person not sharing their birthday with any of the previously analyzed people. What are the odds of getting 23 unique birthdays in a row, when we analyze the people one by one?\n\nThe first person's birthday is definitely unique, as we have only one sample. Person 2 has a 364/365 chance of being unique compared to the first guy. Person 3 has a 363/365 chance of being unique compared to the first two guys, and so on down the line, until we reach person 23 with a 343/365 chance of being unique compared to the first 22 guys. This is the exact same method as the consecutive heads method mentioned above, so the intuition can be extrapolated from that.\n\nAnyway, to get the total odds of everyone being unique, we multiply all of the individual odds together, just like you do in the consecutive heads calculation: \n365/365 x 364/365 x 363/365 ... x 343/365 ≈ [49.3%](_URL_0_), and the inverse percentage (50.7%) would be the chance that you *do* find a pair out of the 23 events.\n\nThe key here is to use a basic probability exercise (finding the odds of consecutive heads) to intuitively understand a more difficult problem, by using the same exact method.", "I've never tried to explain this before, but I just thought of an approach that might work for your puny 5-year-old mind.\n\nImagine, instead of birthdays, you have 365 bathroom stalls with broken locks. One person walks in, chooses a stall, and closes the door (cursing at the broken lock. Seconds later, person 2 walks in. There's a 1/365 chance that person 2 will inadvertently walk into an awkward situation. When person 3 walks in, this time there's a 2/365 chance for embarrassment since there are 2 occupied stalls out of 365. With each person walking in, you have to add the possibility of that person choosing an occupied stall with every person previous to him/her. By the 23rd person, there's a 22/365 + 21/365 + 20/365 ... 2/365 + 1/365 probability that somewhere along the line there was a moment of sputtered apologies.\n\nNow, this isn't strictly statistically identical to the birthday problem because here we're assuming the people find a new stall when they run into each other, rather than sharing a single stall (ew). But it still shows the basic principle.", "The way I imagine it is this: how many people would you need to have a 50-50 chance of sharing a birthday with you? For ease of division, I'm gonna say 180.\nWhat about you and your best friend? That would be twice as likely, so you'd need 90 people. Add two more friends, that's 1 in 45. Double it again, and you'd have a 1 in 22.5 chance, with just 8 people.", "There's two questions:\n\n1. \"What are the chances of someone having a birthday on January 1st?\"\n2. \"What are the chances of someone not having the same birthday as everyone else?\"\n\nThe straightforward question is #1, it's your typical probability question just like 'What are the chances of rolling a 6?'.\n\nThe tricky part about question #2 is that it becomes harder and harder to fulfill as you go on. You aren't asking about January 1st anymore, you are asking each new person: \"Are you the same as person 1? Are you the same as person 2? Are you the same as person 3?\" and so on. What you're asking the 23rd person is \"Are you the same as person 1? Are you the same as person 2? [...] Are you the same as person 21? Are you the same as person 22?\". And the real kicker is that you've asked the same to the 22 people before him too!\n\nThis is why the graph curves up rapidly, it gets really hard to satisfy, very quickly, hence why it fails so deceptively early.\n\ntl;dr: You aren't just matching each new person once to check for an answer. You are matching each new person against every other previous person.\n\n**EDIT:** \n\nAnother way to think of it, is in reverse. To get to the situation of 364 people with no shared b-day, you have to get someone on Jan 1, someone on Jan 2, and so on. And as you probably know, rolling a dice 6 times and only getting one of each number is hard. But imagine having to roll a 100 sided dice 100 times and needing to get each number exactly once. That's intuitively hard and has a really low probability of happening, this birthday problem is like the inverse of that.", "The reason your brain is confused is because you interpreted \"two people have the same birthday\" to mean \"given this birthday, here is the chance that someone else in the room has it\". So for example, Billy has a birthday of January 1st. The chances of someone else having this birthday fairly low and matches your intuition. \n\nHowever, the problem doesn't give a specific birthday to match too. It asks what the chances are that two people have the same birthday, making no qualifier on the day, just that it be the same (vastly more combinations of people could be viable). This is a completely different problem statistically and yields a different result than the one above.\n \n\n Once you realize the distinction the problem loses it's appeal in my opinion.", "(This might not be a FYO question/answer, but I'll try my best)\n\nThink about it like this:\n\nEach time a person comes to the party, there is a (365-n)/365 chance that none of the n people already there have the same birthday as the new guy. This is because the first n people all have different birthdays, so if your birthday falls on one of the other (365-n) days, you don't have a conflict. Unfortunately you could have been born on any of the 365 days in the year, so that's why we divide one by the other.\n\nSo the first person gets there and there's a 100% chance no one has the same birthday as them. Then the second guy comes, and there's a 364/365 chance that the first guy doesn't have the same birthday. Then the third guy comes and there's a 363/365 chance that he doesn't have the same birthday as either of the first 2 guys.\n\nLet's recap: \nThere was a 365/365 chance for the first guy, multiplied by the 364/365 chance for the second guy, multiplied by the 363/365 chance for the third guy. That comes out to (365(364)(363)) / (365(365)(365)) = 99.2% chance that you have they all have different birthdays.\n\nContinuing the process of adding people, this number goes down as follows:\n\n 4 people = > 98.4%\n 5 people = > 97.3%\n 6 people = > 96.0% \n 7 people = > 94.4%\n 8 people = > 92.6%\n 9 people = > 90.5%\n 10 people = > 88.3%\n\nAs you can see, the chances of nobody having the same birthday start pretty high, but get smaller and smaller faster as we add more people. Eventually you get to 365 people at the party using up all the days of the year, so the next guy is out of luck if he isn't born on February 29th.", "What is the probability of 365 people all having different birthdays?", "Hmm, I think the best way to look at this is not to think of there being 23 **people** but rather think of the fact that there are 253 **chances** or **pairs** of getting the same birthday. Like if everyone shakes hands with every single person in the room there will be 253 handshakes. The math becomes easy if you understand that part.", "You felt it wasn't intuitive. Think of it this way. As people enter the room, they throw a dart at a calendar on the wall. Where they hit, they draw an X to cross out the date. Its pretty obvious that fairly soon someone will hit someone elses crossed out date. ", "For those of you that like to calculate things in Excel, I put together an Google Docs file with some calculated numbers. For me it makes it a lot easier to understand the problem.\n\nGraphed Probability - _URL_1_\n\nPercentages broken out by total people in the room - _URL_0_\n\n\nI also did a real world test based upon 23 people. According to the calculations it should result in 50/50 chance of someone having the same birthday.\n\nI did 100 calculations and got a 48% chance of the same birthday and 52% chance that no one has the same birthday.\n\n_URL_2_", "it's about randomness. to expound on the pigeonhole principle presented by unkzdomain, you're basically rolling a random number each time you look at someone's birthday. the rolls go like this:\n\n1. 0% chance of having the same birthday (first person)\n\n2. 1/365 0.27% chance\n\n3. 2/365 0.55% chance\n\n4. 3/365 0.83% chance\n\nand so on. [here is an illustrative google doc](_URL_0_). let me point out that the cumulative column is wrong (but close enough for the first 10 people or so), because it's not strictly additive. but see, i have to go to sleep, and someone else can fix it for me.", " > When events are independent of each other, the probability of all of the events occurring is equal to a product of the probabilities of each of the events occurring.\n\nSo, for example, the odds of getting three heads in a row is 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/8.\n\nIn this case, we have 23 separate events. Each event can be defined as the corresponding person not sharing their birthday with any of the previously analyzed people. What are the odds of getting 23 unique birthdays in a row, when we analyze the people one by one?\n\nThe first person's birthday is definitely unique, as we have only one sample. Person 2 has a 364/365 chance of being unique compared to the first guy. Person 3 has a 363/365 chance of being unique compared to the first two guys, and so on down the line, until we reach person 23 with a 343/365 chance of being unique compared to the first 22 guys. This is the exact same method as the consecutive heads method mentioned above, so the intuition can be extrapolated from that.\n\nAnyway, to get the total odds of everyone being unique, we multiply all of the individual odds together, just like you do in the consecutive heads calculation: \n365/365 x 364/365 x 363/365 ... x 343/365 ≈ [49.3%](_URL_0_), and the inverse percentage (50.7%) would be the chance that you *do* find a pair out of the 23 events.\n\nThe key here is to use a basic probability exercise (finding the odds of consecutive heads) to intuitively understand a more difficult problem, by using the same exact method.", "I've never tried to explain this before, but I just thought of an approach that might work for your puny 5-year-old mind.\n\nImagine, instead of birthdays, you have 365 bathroom stalls with broken locks. One person walks in, chooses a stall, and closes the door (cursing at the broken lock. Seconds later, person 2 walks in. There's a 1/365 chance that person 2 will inadvertently walk into an awkward situation. When person 3 walks in, this time there's a 2/365 chance for embarrassment since there are 2 occupied stalls out of 365. With each person walking in, you have to add the possibility of that person choosing an occupied stall with every person previous to him/her. By the 23rd person, there's a 22/365 + 21/365 + 20/365 ... 2/365 + 1/365 probability that somewhere along the line there was a moment of sputtered apologies.\n\nNow, this isn't strictly statistically identical to the birthday problem because here we're assuming the people find a new stall when they run into each other, rather than sharing a single stall (ew). But it still shows the basic principle.", "The way I imagine it is this: how many people would you need to have a 50-50 chance of sharing a birthday with you? For ease of division, I'm gonna say 180.\nWhat about you and your best friend? That would be twice as likely, so you'd need 90 people. Add two more friends, that's 1 in 45. Double it again, and you'd have a 1 in 22.5 chance, with just 8 people." ] }
[]
[ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem" ]
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4tv269
are there places (maybe in the sea) where there are no laws? what about under the sea?
Are laws only applied to areas that a country claims? does that mean it is possible that somewhere in the outskirts of australia, you can build a platform and noone will harass you about it? (except maybe sea pirates)
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4tv269/eli5_are_there_places_maybe_in_the_sea_where/
{ "a_id": [ "d5kjlqf" ], "score": [ 7 ], "text": [ "The answer to your question is very complex.\n\nFor the most part, a given country's laws apply only to the territory claimed by that country.\n\nIf the country borders a sea/ocean, it gets more complicated. Up to 12 nautical miles off the coast can be considered territorial waters (basically still part of the country/territory). \n\nThe next 12 nautical miles after that is not technically territorial waters, but the closest country/territory can still enforce many laws/policies within that area including those related to customs, border control, and immigration.\n\nThe next 200 nautical miles after that are referred to as the Exclusive Economic Zone. It's similar to international waters except the nearest territory can still exercise limited control over things like rights to fish, mine, extract oil, etc. in that area.\n\nBeyond that, you get into international waters. International waters have no sovereignty. They are not owned by any nation and anyone can fish, mine, navigate through, explore, research, fly over, as well as install platforms, cables, and pipelines, etc. in international waters without permission from anyone.\n\nHowever it gets complicated because your home country (which you are a citizen of) may have laws that prevent you from violating certain domestic laws when you are outside of the country. So even though you may be in international waters, you may still be doing something that your home country considers illegal and if you return to your home country, you could hypothetically be prosecuted for your actions." ] }
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yltvz
what's the difference between a unitary system and a federal system?
Also, how does it work in the USA?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yltvz/whats_the_difference_between_a_unitary_system_and/
{ "a_id": [ "c5wqxhz", "c5wrqdm" ], "score": [ 6, 3 ], "text": [ "In a federal system there are multiple and separate governments. They have no direct \"say\" over each other. But if there are conflicting laws, then one government, usually the federal one, has its laws prevail.\n\nSo for instance, if I am in Las Vegas, I am subject to the laws of the US and the laws of the State of Nevada. The federal laws cover certain things. Let's say free speech, for example, which is in the federal constitution. But the State of Nevada can make it's own laws that may have nothing to do with federal laws. So have laws on how grocery stores may be operated, and those laws apply here. But Federal law is silent on the grocery store issue. \n\nAlso, in a Federal system, these governments are truly independent. The President of the US or the Congress or the Federal Supreme Court have zero influence on who should be governor of any state.\n\nIn a unitary system, local governments only have powers that are given to it by the national government. And local officials might serve at the pleasure of the national government.", "The terms Federal, Unitary, and Confederacy have to do with how power is distributed between a large, national, entity, and smaller, state/province/county/city, entities.\n\nUnitary is the easiest concept: The national government and it's laws are always superior to the state/provinces. Any laws the local government was to pass must first match national laws or at least have permission from the national government. Most of Europe, in face most of the world, use unitary distributions of power.\n\nConfederacy is the opposite of Unitary. In a confederacy, the national government and its laws are secondary to the laws and governments of the states/provinces. Thus the 'nation' can't really do much unless all or mostly all the states in the confederacy agree. Local governments have all the sovereign power and the national government only gets what the local governments give it. \n\nFederal is a hybrid between Unitary and Confederacy. In a federal nation, power is split (though not necessarily evenly) between a national government and the state/provincial governments. The US and Brazil are the two biggest nations I can think of that use a federal distribution of power. For example of how this works, read the 10th amendment to the US Constitution. It says that any powers not SPECIFICALLY spelled out in the constitution for the national government were reserved for the states. Thus all 50 states of the US can have wildly different laws in regard to something like 'concealed firearms ownership' because the constitution doesn't give that specific power to the federal government. Often there are a mix of state and federal laws pertaining to an issue. \n\nInterestingly enough, Though the National to State level is a federal one, I believe that all 50 US states practice Unitary government when it comes to their relationship with counties. \n\nAlso interestingly is that federal, unitary, and confederacy DON'T refer to what TYPE of government a country has. You can have dictatorial confederacy and democratic unitary. Certain types of government do favor certain types of power distribution but its not a guarantee. \n\n**TL,DR** The terms unitary and federal refer only to how POWER is split between levels of a country. " ] }
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41lyq3
what part of the muslim faith gets radicalized to result in acts of terror?
I mean, the little i know about the religion doesn't seem like it could be 'radicalized' to promote acts of violence and terror, so what part of their gospel (for lack of a better word) incites radical actions in the radical muslims?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41lyq3/eli5_what_part_of_the_muslim_faith_gets/
{ "a_id": [ "cz3dpc9", "cz3feeb", "cz3k390" ], "score": [ 2, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "All religions have types of 'defending' (or more like resistance to change) mechanism embedded in them. And all religions defends (or resist the change) one way or the other. Some predicts/foresees the ongoing or upcoming change and take precautions to prevent it from happening, some don't bother (because they trust god's protection -duh). And when change (which is inevitable) knocks their door, they get scared and starts acting in desperate ways.", "There are [a lot](_URL_0_) of open-ended quotes in the Quran that justify hostility against infidels, or taking up arms against them as a way to spread the religion and save the heathens through conversion. The history of the religion, and how it spread ultimately coincides with why the book is written in such a violent way. By comparison, Judaism tells the story of a small tribe that escaped slavery and had to deal with its own inner turmoils; Christianity's founder was more concerned with spreading through the word and not the sword, and Buddhism like Judaism is more concerned with the person's inner flaws and not how outsiders act. This is why Islam is so uniquely violent.", "Pretty much *all* religions have become radicalized and have committed terrorist acts over the years. Muslims are just the ones getting all the press these days.\n\nThe common theme here is that people believe in an infallible supernatural entity, and the way they get their information about their God's will is typically through an ambiguous, self-contradictory holy book. Ten people can read the same passage and come up with 15 different interpretations of it.\n\nSo basically, people see what they WANT to see in their holy book, and they become convinced that it's \"God's will,\" and who are *they* to dispute that?\n\nThe Quran--like most every other holy book--has passages that appear to say \"love everybody\" and others that appear to say \"kill everybody who isn't us.\" People with an ideological axe to grind cherry-pick the passages that reinforce their existing prejudices.\n" ] }
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[ [], [ "http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx" ], [] ]
26w5u5
if i fart in a confined space like a car or an elevator, the smell disappears. where does it go?
Would it be different if say we were able to catch the fart in a a sealed container?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26w5u5/eli5_if_i_fart_in_a_confined_space_like_a_car_or/
{ "a_id": [ "chv1ac5" ], "score": [ 4 ], "text": [ "through the cracks in the walls and windows. Elevators and cars are not airtight, they are just more confined than a big room or an empty countryside.\n\nEDIT: yes, if you catch a fart and seal it in an airtight jar, it wouldn't dissipate." ] }
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3pcxr6
if nasa found alien life would they tell the public
If NASA found alien life would they tell the public, or would there be a difference between announcing advanced alien life found to just living alien bacteria, because i am 100% convinced they would not tell the public they found Alien life.
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3pcxr6/eli5if_nasa_found_alien_life_would_they_tell_the/
{ "a_id": [ "cw56ite", "cw56p00", "cw5j70k" ], "score": [ 2, 8, 2 ], "text": [ "Realistically, I'd expect them to announce it. Even if we discovered advanced alien life, it is unlikely it would present a clear and present danger, simply due to the distances involved. \n\nThat being said, if world governments have a plan to keep knowledge of aliens a secret, it's probably not a plan they are particularly open about. ", "NASA is run by scientists... and scientists are notoriously terrible at keeping secrets. They publish EVERYTHING. \n\nFurthermore, you cant \"find alien life\" with 3 guys in the basement; these projects involve hundreds, even thousands of contributors, many of which are not even NASA employees, university professors and the like that consult.\n\nSo even if they WANTED to keep it quiet, I very much doubt that they could. ", "Of course they would, they have literally nothing to gain from keeping it a secret. Besides, can you imagine the kind of attention and funding they would get if they could prove they found intelligent alien life? They would be drowning in dollar bills, they would have to build grain silos just to house all of the cold hard cash that would be coming there way. It would be more cost effective to wipe themselves with currency. They would have interns whose only role would be to swim around Scrooge McDuck style because they literally wouldn't know what to do with it. " ] }
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3ddv0j
help understanding this paragraph?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ddv0j/eli5_help_understanding_this_paragraph/
{ "a_id": [ "ct469l0" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Basically means that you get paid full minimum wage (whatever that amount might be) after completing 30 months of employment and each \"month\" must contain 15 work days in order for it to count as a month worked. It also apparently doesn't count if you are working a day as vacation relief (filling in for someone on vacation, ie temp work) unless that time you spent filling is was directly before you became a full time employee.\n\nEDIT:\nIt also appears that 24 of those months should come from the 24 workable months (months with more than 15 working days) immediately before the hire date." ] }
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1b30m2
why didn't jews in wwii abandon (or hide) their faith to avoid capture?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b30m2/eli5_why_didnt_jews_in_wwii_abandon_or_hide_their/
{ "a_id": [ "c933mtx", "c933pbr" ], "score": [ 6, 13 ], "text": [ "It wasn't just about obeying the Jewish religion. If you had Jewish parents, you were considered Jewish.", "Because Hitler didn't care what people *believed*. You are Jewish because of your parents, not by following religious practices. You are *born* Jewish. " ] }
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5tig15
why is golf the go to sports for rich and/or powerful people like presidents, ceos? what is special about it?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tig15/eli5_why_is_golf_the_go_to_sports_for_rich_andor/
{ "a_id": [ "ddmpyq3", "ddmq06d", "ddmq16i", "ddmqib3", "ddmqrlx", "ddmrxwu", "ddmzkdh", "ddn2wy6", "ddn4m0g", "ddn5ij3", "ddnaggd" ], "score": [ 143, 7, 16, 47, 3, 7, 28, 2, 2, 4, 8 ], "text": [ "It costs a lot of money to play, it's played in a space that is exclusive, which allows for privacy, and it is a slow paced game that allows for conversation and socializing. The slower pace also allows people to play into much older age than other sports. It's basically the perfect game for wealthy people who want to have something to do while having an informal conversation. ", "You don't need to be athletic or physically fit to play it. It's a hobby that anyone can have. ", "Golf is expensive. It takes a lot of land, maintenance and equipment to keep a course in good shape. It takes a lot of equipment for the player. Green's fees aren't cheap. This already segments the population. \n\nSecond, it takes a lot of time. 4 to 5 hours. Maybe a bit less if you are good. This means you have to be able to take the time away to do it. This also makes it a great game for doing sales or business discussion. There is a lot of downtime for that and you get isolated time with your customer. That's valuable. ", "Be careful of confusion of cause and effect. It's a sport that rewards a positive attitude and repetition over athleticism and is relatively quiet. It's a natural choice for someone who's older or wants to multitask and socialize or talk business during the event. Leaders like CEOs and presidents often fit that description but others do as well; for example my dad and I usually go golfing when I come home from college because it's a good way to hang out while getting some fresh air.\n\nEdit: Clarity.\n\nAlso, while golfing at a country club with top-of-the-line equipment is expensive, golfing at your local course with a set of used clubs is quite affordable.", "The greens fees and equipment are expensive, the physical exertion is low such that virtually anybody can play even into older age, and there is a lot of down time, walking, etc. that allows for chatting, doing business, etc.", "The reason it is great for business talk is you can learn a great deal from how someone plays. \n\nDo they rush into the drive or take practice swings? Do they cheat? Etc.\n\nThis is really helpful when deciding to do business with someone.", "As someone in sales, I use golf outings as a way to bring a client or prospect out of the office environment into an outdoor setting with relaxed conversation and booze. The client or prospect is sort of a willing captive audience for several hours. If you are building relationships, golf is a great way to do it. ", "* It costs a lot to play big league, filtering out the paupers and rabble, making it more elite\n* It gives plenty of time to talk and smoke cigars and chug beer\n* Anyone can swing a club at a ball, so even people who suck can join in\n* you can get pretty good at it without being young and athletic\n* It now is associated with deal making and rich people so it's self-reinforcing", "1. Less chance to get REALLY injured. (Unless playing with dick cheney)\n2. Privacy\n3. You can talk openly\n\nPs. I want to see DJT go bowling.", "A lot of answers here confuse causation and correlation.\nGolf can be pricey, and that does lend a certain level of exclusivity. But rich people play it cuz its fun, not cuz its expensive. The fact that you might get some privacy and exclusivity is only an added benefit.\n\nGolf can be (almost) free. There are municipal golf and putting ranges all over the world. Run by the county or state, its not going to be as amazing as a private run golf course, but that goes without saying. Cities and towns provide free swimming pools too, but they cannot compare to even a small private pool for awesomeness factor.\n\nA lot of the answers here also talk about the socialness of golf. You can take a client out, talk sales, drink a little, and make sales and partnerships. All while having a fun and competitive time.\nThis kind of captive client is perfect for salespeople, and business folk alike. SOooo, there's a built in wealth factor there too.\n", "This thread reminds me of a Business School elective, called simply Business Golf. Sounded like the perfect class. Later to find out, we had to meet three times a week for a 8am tee time, plus an hour lecture. About 8 hours a week total. It helped my swing and learned some cool history about the sport and business deals as a result. \nThe game essentially is slow-paced, yet competitive. The sport is accessible to a wide age group, and, with the \"handicap\" systems, allows people of wide skill level to play together. Ideal for networking and communication of ideas. Golf is also an amazing way of judging character. Over 18 holes or 9 even, the real traits of people can be noticed. Like do they cheat a bit, do they have an agenda, how are they under pressure, how they talk about there personal lives etc.... \nPlus its fun, and the perfect excuse to get out of the stresses of office/home.\n\nI remember reading a study that business leaders who play golf make about 15% more money. So it may be worth a couple lessons. " ] }
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8celbn
- whats the difference between pink himalayan - table, cooking and rock salt?
[deleted]
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8celbn/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_pink_himalayan/
{ "a_id": [ "dxecd1l", "dxee8wj" ], "score": [ 3, 28 ], "text": [ "All salt is sea salt. At some point it was in sea water. Himalayan pink salt has a few trace minerals that make the color pink. Typically these mineral amounts are too small to provide any real nutritional value. \n\nIodized salt is salt with iodine added. \n\nRock salt is basically just salt that’s as a lot of impurities in it. That’s why it’s sold as rock salt instead of food, because it’s fairly inedible. ", "So there are 2 things here. Colour and shape. \n\nSalts with different colours have impurities that make them that way. From rock salt to Himalayan pink, trace elements will colour the salt crystals. \n\nBut you may have noticed that some salts seem to taste different. And that has next to nothing to do with impurities. Instead, its the shape of the salt crystals. Table salt, and all its forms, are Sodium Chloride. An ionic crystalline solid formed from chlorine and sodium atoms. And all the types of salt trigger your salt receptors in the same way. BUT, there is a caveat. Different salt crystals hit those receptors in different ways, touching more or less of them per grain of salt. This combination of activated receptors changes from one type of salt to the next, making them all taste subtly different. \n\nNow, if you are dissolving the salt in water, its better to stick with table salt. Dissolving the salt destroys the complex structures, breaking it down into a soup of ions. If you are salting your vegetables before boiling them, using different salts wont make a difference. " ] }
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6dcj5u
why do wounds in our mouth feel so much larger than they actually are when we feel them with our tongue?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dcj5u/eli5_why_do_wounds_in_our_mouth_feel_so_much/
{ "a_id": [ "di1nme6" ], "score": [ 10 ], "text": [ "Have you encountered the [cortical homunculus](_URL_0_)? It's a representation of the amount of nerve endings we have in different parts of our body. The more nerve endings, the more sensitive the body part, and also the more resolution have. A way of testing this on yourself is the [two-point discrimination](_URL_1_) test: ask someone else to take two pencils and (gently) poke you with them while your eyes are closed. You'll find that on some areas of your body, for instance your back, your friend will be able to hold the pencils quite a distance apart before you can feel that there are two points rather than one. On your fingertips on the other hand you'll be able to feel two points even when the pencils are very close together. The same thing is happening in your mouth: there are a lot of nerve endings in your mouth and tongue and so you can feel a lot of detail, which gives the impression that it is a large area.\n\nEdit: word" ] }
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[ [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_homunculus", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-point_discrimination" ] ]
1p1i64
can a country as big as the us have zero debt? if so, how will this affect the economy?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p1i64/eli5_can_a_country_as_big_as_the_us_have_zero/
{ "a_id": [ "ccxrth1", "ccxse0n" ], "score": [ 2, 6 ], "text": [ "It's possible, assuming the country had a balanced budget or a budget surplus. This could, in theory, happen to the US but it'd take a lot -- better economy, more tax revenue, budget cuts, etc. over the course of many years.\n\nI'm not an economist, so I can't really say what impact it'd have on the economy. It would have a somewhat destabilizing effect of the stock market (when there's economic uncertainty, investors tend to buy federal bonds, which wouldn't be available if the government had no need to borrow money). Aside from that, it'd affect global financing rates. But to what end, and any other potential effects, I don't really know.", "Moderation is something people cant seem to understand today. Having no debt is a waste of money. \n\nTo use an extreme example just to be clear imagine the difference in the value of money today and in 1900.\n\n$5000 today is good cash. Few months salary. You could pay some bills and take a vacation with it.\n\n$5000 in 1900 was 10 years salary. You could build a business, buy land, influance.\n\nSo if you in 1900 could borrow $5000 from today... couldn't you turn it into more than $5000 in 100 years? Couldn't you start a company, build products, feed families with it? That is worth a fortune today (on mobile, not switching to calculator).\n\nThat is what debt does, it pays todays prices for tomorrows money. Debt spent well is one of the best ways of saving on needed costs.\n\nWithout debt you are putting it off and paying more for the same result.\n\nThe trick, as with all things, is moderation. People who preach absoluted tend to have skewed values on these things. No everything shouldn't be on credit, and these costs need planned, but it is a useful and needed tool. \n\nSo CAN we? Of course. Raise tax a few percent and cut costs. Very easy.\n\nShould we? No, not completely. " ] }
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10xdob
how springs 'settle'
For example, I have a spring-loaded fuel cap on my car, and since the car is kind of old, the spring is less effective, and sometimes causes me to have to go between my fuel cap lever and the cap itself several times, as they are on the opposite side of the car. I don't fuel up very often, so the spring doesn't unwind very often, but where does the energy go, and how does the metal settle into this new compressed shape?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10xdob/eli5_how_springs_settle/
{ "a_id": [ "c6hhmal" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "If you stretch a spring from its rest state and let go, what happens? It will compress and extend in ever-smaller movements until it is still. The energy stored in the spring is slowly dissipated as the spring moves the surrounding air out of the way during its movement and also through heating the metal itself with friction. If you could some create a perfect vacuum for a spring to exist in and make it out of metal that wouldn't heat as it stretched it would continue forever. \n\nIt's modeled as a [Simple Harmonic Oscillator](_URL_0_). The motion it goes through is analogous to the motion of a pendulum in vacuum, or the motion of current in an LC circuit. A subset of SHOs is damped SHOs, which include friction and would be analogous to a pendulum in air or an LRC circuit.\n\nThe whole idea is that the system is shunting energy between two devices in a regular manner. With resistance or friction included, every transit of energy from one pool to the other loses some in the process. With the spring, the energy is either stored in the coil when it is compressed or stretched from its natural position or in momentum in the mass of the coil is in motion. When it is at rest for a brief instant between compressions and stretchings, the energy is all in momentum. When it is fully stretched or compressed the energy is all in the coil. \n\nSimilarly with pendula the energy is stored in momentum and gravitational potential. When the bob is perpendicular to gravity, its energy is completely invested in momentum. When it is at either end of its range and at its maximum height, its energy is all in potential energy.\n\nLRC circuits work the same way: the energy goes from capacitor to solenoid and loses a bit of itself to resistance each time.\n\nThe cool thing about the general concept is that it is the basis for like half of physics' attempts to model the world. It was even used as a basis for the first decent model of blackbody radiation, which was an important step on the way to quantum mechanics. " ] }
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[ [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_oscillator" ] ]
3umdgw
why some stoplights have a lens over the light?
I was driving the other day and as I approached the intersection it appeared that the light was completely out. It wasn't until I got closer that I was able to see that the light was green. It looked to be behind a lens of sorts that could only be viewed from a certain angle, or once you were close enough. I've started noticing these more and more and was wondering the purpose or if there's any benefit of utilizing them? Edit: thanks!
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3umdgw/eli5_why_some_stoplights_have_a_lens_over_the/
{ "a_id": [ "cxfzjvp", "cxg0uxi" ], "score": [ 4, 2 ], "text": [ "If there are multiple stoplights placed closely together, they may do this so that one light is not mistaken fornthe next. Also this might be done to make you slow down before you approach the intersection.", "It's a modern implementation of an idea that's been around [for a long time](_URL_0_) \n\nAs /u/ghostfacr has said, it's to direct a particular set of lights at a particular line of traffic, and not at any others, so there's no potential confusion. " ] }
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[ [], [ "https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8098/8490237683_e4e9b4fb9c_b.jpg" ] ]
1trfkq
why cant the government just make more money and add it into the economy. why can't we do this?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1trfkq/eli5_why_cant_the_government_just_make_more_money/
{ "a_id": [ "ceapiq1", "ceas3s3" ], "score": [ 4, 6 ], "text": [ "Because when you do all you accomplish is making all the money worth less than before. The scarcer money is, the more value it is percieved to have. Its called inflation, and is not inherently bad. But happening in the way you described it would be.\n\n\nThis is a gross simplification, but it would take a Wall of text to go through all the potential consequences.", "Let's say you have a pizza. You can cut it into more slices, but that doesn't make more pizza.\n\nSame with money, because a dollar is basically a tiny slice of the total economy. Printing more dollars just makes each slice smaller." ] }
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euclsu
is there any difference between a sneeze from a cold and a sneeze from an itchy nose?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/euclsu/eli5_is_there_any_difference_between_a_sneeze/
{ "a_id": [ "ffnxavp" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Multiple differences. Itchy nose (typically an irritant or allergen gets in your nose) sneezes generally have very little mucus that comes out. If any does come out, it will only be clear (unless you're also sick). They're usually environmental and once you leave the area that's triggering the sneezing, it will stop. A sneeze from a cold happens because your body's immune system is going a bit crazy trying to get rid of what's attacking your body (the germs). Because colds often come with a lot of sinus congestion, the sneeze from a cold will likely have a lot of mucus. The mucus can range from clear to yellow to dark green, depending on the particular germ (virus versus bacterial infection). The cold sneeze can happen at random times, can be a few sneezes at a time or just one, and usually subside once the cold starts to get better.\n\n\n\nEdit: The cold sneeze easily spreads the infection you have, so you should try to sneeze into the crook of your arm instead of your hand; but sneezing into your hand is better than not covering your mouth at all -- please wash your hands immediately afterward." ] }
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2bfgrr
why can alcohol be made from different food items, but thc is only found in marijuana?
It just doesn't make sense you can make alcohol from different fruits and wheats, but THC is only in weed.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bfgrr/eli5_why_can_alcohol_be_made_from_different_food/
{ "a_id": [ "cj4t3vo" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Alcohol is a by-product produced by yeast feeding on the sugars in fruit/wheat/etc. It's small, simple molecule (CH3CH2OH), and it's a miracle it has any narcotic effect on our body. [THC](_URL_0_) is a highly specialized molecule requiring a dedicated biochemical pathway to build. It's much, much more complicated than ethanol. Your question is like asking why nicotine is only in tobacco plants, or why opium is only in poppies. " ] }
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[ [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol" ] ]
1uv1pc
why do i feel like i've been hit by a bus when i'm woken up from a deep sleep?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uv1pc/eli5_why_do_i_feel_like_ive_been_hit_by_a_bus/
{ "a_id": [ "celxzgu" ], "score": [ 8 ], "text": [ "Your body changes a lot when you go to sleep. Humans generally have to sleep in cycles to feel rested. \n\nWhen you go to sleep, your blood pressure, heart rate and pulse slow down. Your brain's higher functions shut down or work at an absolute minimum so that other things can get more attention. \n\nSleeping sets your body into heal mode- your immune system is more efficient in hinting down pathogens. That's when people who are still maturing tend to grow in height. \n\nYour body dives down into dream sleep first and then it goes to deep and dreamless sleep for a short time and then gradually surfaces back through dream sleep again. If you continue sleeping, you will do this a couple times each night. \n\nIf you are wakened from the deepest sleep, it is generally because of something alarming. Your body pumps out fight or flight chemicals and your heartbeat increases exponentially, which causes pain and stress. \n\n\nSince your brain takes awhile to regain all higher functions, you're basically acting on instinct for a short while and it is hard to think clearly.\n\n\nWhen you wake suddenly, you are going from 2-200 in a matter of seconds. This places stress on your body and hurts a lot. " ] }
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urlam
how do tracking cookies work?
First, it was previously my understanding that cookies could only track history on the website they originate from, or websites that specifically contained code to communicate with the cookie (like how Facebook tracks you). But can cookies actually record ALL your browsing history, and send that back to their site? Can ad networks track every page you visit (unless you're in incognito or such)?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/urlam/eli5_how_do_tracking_cookies_work/
{ "a_id": [ "c4xyuit" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "I don't think your first assessment is correct. Browsing history and cookies are two different things. Your history is stored by your browser and cookies are set by websites. A cookie that's set has a name, issuing website, date, expiration time, and a value and to my knowledge, a website can only read the cookies it's created.\n\nAd networks do have other ways of tracking though. Facebook shows adds to you based on your status updates, Google shows ads to you based on searches from your computers address (or if you have a google account that you're logged into; also beware that if you use chrome, google keeps a record of your history unless you turn the feature off). As far as I know though, there isn't anyway for an ad agency to go into your machine and grab your personal web browsing history.\n\nI'm by no means an expert but, I've done some work with cookies and web development. If there is a way to do it, it's above my level of understanding" ] }
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2fljyc
what exactly is that smell that collects on your balls? is it bacteria or sweet? how is it created? aside from showering how can it be mitigated?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fljyc/eli5_what_exactly_is_that_smell_that_collects_on/
{ "a_id": [ "ckadxft", "ckadxn9", "ckae4wx", "ckaeiwk", "ckaex19", "ckahkrt" ], "score": [ 2, 4, 7, 4, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "Better yet, how can it be duplicated!? I want to sniff my balls all day.", "Try baby powder", "'Aside from showering'\n\nNo. Take a shower.\n\n...and wash your crack while you are at it. It stinks too.", "The smell is created when the bacteria that live on your skin break down chemicals secreted by skin glands into other chemicals that smell. Places like your armpits and groin tend to have less air circulation, leading to a warm and humid environment that allows these bacteria to thrive. Like most bacteria, these [skin flora](_URL_0_) can be killed by things like isopropyl alcohol. I would advise against that and just try to keep things clean and dry.", "Mom says no soap? Try rubbing alcohol. You'll reconsider soap.", "More than likely you are smelling yeast.. if you are a heavy perspire'r wear looser fitting clothing. As for underwear, wear boxers or try some \"performance\" underwear they are usually perforated, moisture wicking and dry quickly. And even then on a bad day these things don't help those who really stink... \nAlso consider your diet, amazingly much of what you eat can alter your \"personal\" odor" ] }
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[ [], [], [], [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_flora" ], [], [] ]
w9z3a
"obamacare" point-by-point - part 2
Here I continue my efforts to try and break down the **Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act**, A.K.A. **PPACA**, A.K.A. **ACA**, A.K.A. "**Obamacare**". **[Here](_URL_5_) is my summation of the bill**. **[Here](_URL_61_) is Part 1 of the Point-By-Point** . As I said before, this is a huge undertaking. The [current version of the bill](_URL_0_) is 974 pages long, and I'm going through it bit by bit. But it's going to take a while to do it. I'll keep adding to this until I'm finished, but given that I have a job and a social life, I can't say how long it'll take. Also, I'll try to address questions people have as best I can, but again, it might take me a while to get back to you. Please be patient. So, without further ado, here goes... (**Note: I am NOT an expert! I'm just a guy. If I have made an error on any of this, please let me know!**) (**Note: For the sake of clarity and continuity, any references to page numbers will be referring to the PDF file, not the page number in the document**) **[Page 198, Sec. 2001](_URL_0_#page=198)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2014, everyone up to 133% of the poverty line is covered by Medicaid. From what I can tell, looking at the Social Security Act, it looks like it's currently a mishmesh of various qualifications, one being that a person is under 100% of the poverty line. So this will make for a pretty huge number of people who Medicaid grows to encompass. This section also increases federal funding to support the increase. However, it should be mentioned that a [recent court ruling](_URL_47_), amongst other things, made it clear that individual states could opt not to do this. However, in Justice Roberts' opinion "Congress may offer the States grants and require the States to comply with accompanying conditions, but the States must have a genuine choice whether to accept the offer.", so in other words, States can't be forced to do this, but they can be given incentives to do this. **[Page 210, Sec. 2004](_URL_0_#page=210)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2014, Medicaid covers former foster children under the age of 26. **[Page 210, Sec. 2005](_URL_0_#page=210)** - Increases the amount of Medicare money given to US Territories like Puerto Rico. **[Page 211, Sec. 2006](_URL_0_#page=211)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. It looks like what it's doing is that starting in 2011, the amount of money the Federal Government chips in for medical care when there is a major disaster increases. **[Page 212, Sec. 2007](_URL_0_#page=212)** - Between 2014 and 2018, this cuts about $700,000,000 from a part of Medicaid called the Medicaid Improvement Fund, a yearly fund established to improve the management of Medicaid. Clearly, this was done to help fund this bill, which itself tries to improve Medicaid (along with everything else). **[Page 213, Sec. 2101](_URL_0_#page=213)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that Between October 2005 and September 2009, the amount of money allocated to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) increases, and this section says that states that want to get this increased funding need to make sure that the health insurance provided under CHIP meets the same standards as those in this bill. **[Page 216, Sec. 2102](_URL_0_#page=216)** - Alters two other bills, the Social Security Act, and the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). It looks like it's just coordinating everything so it all makes sense together. **[Page 217, Sec. 2201](_URL_0_#page=217)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, by adding the following section. **[Page 217, Sec. 1943](_URL_0_#page=217)** - This calls for the creation of a website for people who use Medicaid and CHIP to sign up for and renew insurance plans using their state's insurance exchanges. **[Page 219, Sec. 2202](_URL_0_#page=219)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. From what I can tell, it looks like this allows a hospital to choose whether they want to be able to make a determination whether or not a patient is covered under Medicaid. I'm just guessing here, but I think that this is to streamline things and make it easier for hospitals to sign patients up for Medicaid if a patient looks like they might qualify for Medicaid. **[Page 220, Sec. 2301](_URL_0_#page=220)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to allow Medicaid to cover "Freestanding Birth Centers", which look like they are essentially an establishment which is *not* a hospital, but which provides services to mothers giving birth. So... picture a maternity ward without the rest of the hospital, and that seems like the sort of thing they're describing. **[Page 221, Sec. 2302](_URL_0_#page=221)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to say that if a child has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the parents have chosen to pay for hospice care, that paying for hospice care doesn't mean that they are giving up any other forms of care that Medicaid and CHIP might provide for their child as well. **[Page 222, Sec. 2303](_URL_0_#page=222)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to provide those with a low income (an amount which is to be decided by each State) access to family planning medical services. From what I can tell, this means stuff like STD testing, contraceptives, etc. Okay, it looks like a lot of the stuff coming up pertains to long-term care - for people who are bedridden and need medical supervision, people who are in a nursing home or have an in-home caregiver, etc. **[Page 225, Sec. 2304](_URL_0_#page=225)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to clarify the wording of one part. **[Page 225, Sec. 2401](_URL_0_#page=225)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that beginning in October 2011, states may provide those with an income level under 150% of the poverty line (which, like I said in Part 1, is based on your age and how many people are in your household) care in a nursing home, in-home care, etc. It looks like this section is optional for States to follow, but those that choose to do it (and follow numerous standards set in place by this section) will benefit from an increase in Federal funding. **[Page 230, Sec. 2402](_URL_0_#page=230)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create regulations for various types of state-provided long-term care (again, stuff like nursing homes and in-home care), allowing states to cater to those who could benefit from different kinds of long-term care while still working within pre-set standards. **[Page 233, Sec. 2403](_URL_0_#page=233)** - Alters another bill, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Reading around on this, it looks like this has to do with states funding long-term care, and transitioning into and out of hospitals (as opposed to nursing homes and in-home care). The Deficit Reduction Act had a part to smooth this transition, and this section extends that part, as well as expanding the people it can cover (based on how long a person has been receiving long-term care). **[Page 234, Sec. 2404](_URL_0_#page=234)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. It's hard to parse through this one, since it bounces around to different sections of the Social Security Act, but the gist of it seems to deal with a part of the Social Security Act that happens when your spouse becomes institutionalized in some form of long-term care, and the state helps with your expenses during that time (because long-term medical care can be costly). This section seems to make it so that from 2014-2019, this help also includes medical coverage. **[Page 234, Sec. 2405](_URL_0_#page=234)** - Sets aside $50,000,000 (over a five-year period) to help pay for another bill, the Older Americans Act of 1965. **[Page 234, Sec. 2406](_URL_0_#page=234)** - This is basically the bill talking about how important a topic long-term care is, and saying in a general way that Congress should talk about it more and that more support should be made for community-level care (like nursing homes and in-home care) as opposed to only hospital care. **[Page 235, Sec. 2501](_URL_0_#page=235)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to increase the size of the drug rebates poor people get through Medicaid, and also to specify that no rebates are to be for an amount *higher* than the average price of the drug. **[Page 238, Sec. 2502](_URL_0_#page=238)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to allow Medicaid to cover more types of drugs, including Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines, and drugs that help people to quit smoking. **[Page 239, Sec. 2503](_URL_0_#page=239)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. It looks like this sets a way to determine what the limits are for how much Medicaid is supposed to reimburse people for pharmacy drugs. **[Page 242, Sec. 2551](_URL_0_#page=242)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. This one is cutting a lot of money from payments made to states called Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Payments. These are payments that states then turn over to hospitals to help compensate them for treating emergency patients who don't have insurance. Clearly the idea is that since more patients will have insurance after the PPACA goes into full swing, hospitals won't need as much of these funds. From 2014-2020, $18.1 Billion will be cut from the amount given to states for this, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services is to decide how much each state gets cut based on what percentage of their population is insured, as well as a few other factors. **[Page 243, Sec. 2601](_URL_0_#page=243)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. I'm not entirely sure about this, because it's hard to find information on it, but it looks like it gives states the option to get 5-10-year waivers so they don't have to follow Federal regulations for Medicaid when it comes to "Demonstration Projects" (Look farther down to see some of these), which looks like they are ways to test out new alternate approaches to Medicaid. However, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources can pull the plug on these waivers if it looks like a Demonstration Project isn't working the way it is intended. **[Page 244, Sec. 2602](_URL_0_#page=244)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to create the [Federal Coordinated Health Care Office](_URL_65_), which is in charge of managing the areas of overlap between Medicare and Medicaid, to make it more effective and efficient for people who qualify for both to get the services they're covered for, and make sure there's not any waste. **[Page 246, Sec. 2701](_URL_0_#page=246)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 246, Sec. 1139B](_URL_0_#page=246)** - On a yearly basis from 2011-2014, and then every three years after 2014, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is to write a report on recommended standards for adult care for Medicaid patients, much like a similar report that's already written for children. This section also calls for the establishment of the Medicaid Quality Measurement Program to develop and test better methods of adult care (again, like a similar program already in existence for children). $60 Million will be set aside every year from 2010-2014 to fund this program. **[Page 248, Sec. 2702](_URL_0_#page=248)** - From what I can tell, this part directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to look at individual state practices that withhold payment from hospitals for health conditions caused by the hospitals' own neglect and negligence, and adopt them as general Medicaid practices. **[Page 248, Sec. 2703](_URL_0_#page=248)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2011, states may choose to offer medical plans for those with chronic conditions that they're calling a "Health Home", which appears to be a phrase that doesn't mean what it seems to. A "Health Home" doesn't seem to be an actual "home" per se, but more like a team of specialists assigned to look after you and coordinate your care. **[Page 252, Sec. 2704](_URL_0_#page=252)** - From 2012-2016, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources will start up one of those "Demonstration Projects" I mentioned earlier to test the effectiveness of doing bundled programs in Medicaid. **[Page 254, Sec. 2705](_URL_0_#page=254)** - From 2010-2012,The Secretary of Health and Human Resources will start up another one of those "Demonstration Projects" to give participating States an option to try out a different Medicaid payment structure for hospitals, so instead of paying hospitals based on the quantity of service they give, it's based on the quality. **[Page 255, Sec. 2706](_URL_0_#page=255)** - From 2012-2016, The Secretary of Health and Human Resources will start up another one of those "Demonstration Projects". This one gives states the opportunity to allow hospitals to become "Pediatric Accountable Care Organization", which looks like it's a way to reward Pediatric hospitals who find ways of saving money without reducing the amount of care patients receive. **[Page 256, Sec. 2707](_URL_0_#page=256)** - The Secretary of Health and Human Resources will start up another "Demonstration Project". This one gives states the opportunity to allow private psychiatric hospitals to be covered under Medicaid. This section allocates $75 Million for this, and specifies that it will be a three-year project that will happen sometime between 2011 and 2015. **[Page 258, Sec. 2801](_URL_0_#page=258)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to try to improve MACPAC, which looks like it handles Medicaid and CHIP payments. This section clarifies wording, emphasizes efficiency and preventive care, and adds in a bunch of directions to communicate more clearly and frequently with Congress and the states, as well as coordinating with MedPAC, which handles Medicare payments. It also allocates $9 Million for this in 2010, as well as reallocating $2 Million from Social Security for this (out of $12 Billion that year - so comparatively speaking not much). **[Page 263, Sec. 2901](_URL_0_#page=263)** - Goes into more detail on some rules regarding Native American Indians and the Indian Health Service. **[Page 263, Sec. 2902](_URL_0_#page=263)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that a reimbursement to Native American Indian hospitals under Medicare Part B, previously due to expire in 2010, will continue on. **[Page 264, Sec. 2951](_URL_0_#page=264)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 264, Sec. 511](_URL_0_#page=264)** - 6 months after the bill passes, all states must conduct a "statewide needs assessment" to identify communities with high levels of crime, poverty, etc., how good state programs are at providing at-home medical visits for children, and the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment programs. States are report this information to the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, as well as informing the Secretary of what they intend to do to improve the situation in their state. This section authorizes the Secretary to make grants to states for these improvements (with an emphasis on communities in particularly bad shape), and directs the Secretary to track the improvements made after 3-5 years. This section also directs the Secretary to coordinate these efforts with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Administration for Children and Families. From 2010-2014, $1.5 Billion is set aside for this section. **[Page 274, Sec. 2952](_URL_0_#page=274)** - Directs the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct a study on postpartum depression, and alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 275, Sec. 512](_URL_0_#page=275)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use grant money for projects to diagnose and treat postpartum depression. The Secretary is to track the progress of these projects and report to Congress on the results. $3 Million is set aside for this in 2010, and "sums as may be necessary" in 2011 and 2012. **[Page 277, Sec. 2953](_URL_0_#page=277)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 277, Sec. 513](_URL_0_#page=277)** - From 2010-2014, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources will give each state funding (based on the size of that state's population between ages 10-19) for sex education programs (pushing both abstinence *and* contraception). $375 Million is to be set aside for this from 2010-2014, with some of that specifically set aside for youths who are homeless, have AIDS, live in areas with high youth birth rates, etc. Along with this, there are calls for studies to see how effective these programs are in reducing youth pregnancy rates. **[Page 282, Sec. 2954](_URL_0_#page=282)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to reinstate funding for abstinence-only sex education programs from 2010-2014. **[Page 283, Sec. 2955](_URL_0_#page=283)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2010, children without a parent (or who don't want their parents to be in charge of their medical decisions) are given more information about the importance of designating a Power of Attorney when it looks like they may need one to make medical decisions for them. **[Page 285, Sec. 3001](_URL_0_#page=285)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2013, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish a "hospital value-based purchasing program" so that instead of reimbursing hospitals based on the number of patients they have treated, they are reimbursed based on their success with a measure of specific conditions (heart failure, pneumonia, acute myocardial infarction), surgeries, and stuff like negligence. These measures are to take into account stuff like age, sex, race, severity of illness, etc., as well as the hospitals' prior success with these conditions, how much they've improved, and how they compare to other hospitals. **[Page 296, Sec. 3002](_URL_0_#page=296)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to extend a program called the Physician Quality Reporting System, which offers an increase in pay as an incentive to doctors to report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services about the quality measures taken in their hospital. This amount decreases in 2012, and ends in 2015. Starting in 2015, doctors who *fail* to make these reports will have their pay reduced, and in 2016 it will be reduced even further. **[Page 298, Sec. 3003](_URL_0_#page=298)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, starting in 2012, to use claims data (and possibly other data) to give doctors information about resources and methods available to them to improve care for their patients. **[Page 301, Sec. 3004](_URL_0_#page=301)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to make it so that starting in 2014, long-term care hospitals that fail to report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services about the quality measures taken in their hospital will receive reduced funding. **[Page 304, Sec. 3005](_URL_0_#page=304)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to direct "PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospitals", beginning in 2014, to report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services about the quality measures taken in their hospital. **[Page 305, Sec. 3006](_URL_0_#page=305)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a "value-based purchasing plan" in Medicare for "skilled nursing facilities", "home health agencies" and "ambulatory surgical centers", to make the pay they get under Medicare to be based on the quality of care they give based on criteria to be determined by the Secretary. These plans were to be presented to Congress throughout 2011. **[Page 307, Sec. 3007](_URL_0_#page=307)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to come up with a "value-based payment modifier" to begin in 2013, which will pay doctors based on the quality and cost-effectiveness of their care (based on measures to be set by the Secretary). **[Page 310, Sec. 3008](_URL_0_#page=310)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2015, hospitals get less money when they treat patients for problems caused by their own negligence. This section also directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a study in 2012 to see how this change will affect quality of care and costs. **[Page 312, Sec. 3011](_URL_0_#page=312)** - Alters another bill, the Public Health Service Act, to add the next section. **[Page 312, Sec. 399HH](_URL_0_#page=312)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to create a report in 2011 on a strategy to improve the delivery of health care services that will be presented to Congress. This strategy will be updated at least once a year, with annual updates submitted to Congress. **[Page 314, Sec. 3012](_URL_0_#page=314)** - Directs the President to put together an "Interagency Working Group on Health Care Quality", comprised of senior representatives from numerous agencies and departments (everything from the Department of Health and Human Services to the US Coast Guard), with the purpose of coordinating efforts between departments as they pertain to the strategy outlined in the last section. This group is to present a yearly report to Congress on their progress and recommendations. **[Page 315, Sec. 3013](_URL_0_#page=315)** - Alters another bill, the Public Health Service Act, to reorganize a part of that bill to make room for the following section, which is to be added. **[Page 316, Sec. 931](_URL_0_#page=316)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to consult with the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at least three times a year to look for any gaps in their quality measures. The Secretary will award grants to expand these quality measures as needed. This section also alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to have the Administrator of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services develop quality measures for those programs. From 2010-2014, $375 Million will be set aside for this section. **[Page 319, Sec. 3014](_URL_0_#page=319)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. The part of the Social Security Act it refers to creates a privately-owned non-profit group comprised of both health insurance representatives, as well as representatives of consumer advocacy groups, whose job it is to recommend ways to improve the quality and efficiency of health-care. What this section looks like it does is direct this group to recommend specific measures, and direct the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to keep track of how well these measures do. **[Page 323, Sec. 3015](_URL_0_#page=323)** - Alters another bill, the Public Health Service Act, to add the next section. **[Page 323, Sec. 399II](_URL_0_#page=323)** - The language is a bit confusing, but it looks like this section directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to create more efficient ways to collect data on the cost and effectiveness of health care, and directs the Secretary to give grants and contracts to organizations and individuals that will assist in this task. **[Page 324, Sec. 399JJ](_URL_0_#page=324)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to create a website to report to the public on how successful the measures taken to ensure quality of care have been. This report will be provider-specific, so it looks like this will actually be a way to compare how effective different health care providers are. **[Page 325, Sec. 3021](_URL_0_#page=325)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 325, Sec. 115A](_URL_0_#page=325)** - Starting on January 1, 2011, this section creates something called the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMI), meant to test new ways to make Medicare services and payments easier and more efficient, while keeping or improving the quality of care for patients. They have a website, which you can see [here](_URL_1_). There are 20 methods to be tested that are outlined in the ACA, but the Secretary may direct the CMI to test others that look like they have a good chance of improving Medicare and Medicaid. $10,005,000,000 will be set aside for this program from 2010-2019. Starting in 2012, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources is to submit a yearly report to Congress on the CMI. A few other minor language changes are made to the Social Security Act as well, mostly to accommodate the addition of the CMI. **[Page 332, Sec. 3022](_URL_0_#page=332)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 332, Sec. 1899](_URL_0_#page=332)** - By January 1, 2012, the Secretary of health and Human Services is to establish the Medicare Shared Savings Program. This program allows for the creation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), organizations comprised of a group of health care providers (hospitals, doctors, etc.). These organizations may then receive payments for lowering costs while maintaining standards of care for Medicare patients. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is to determine what these standards are, and how they are to be measured and reported. Basically, if a hospital or other qualified group of caregivers can find ways to reduce Medicare costs without sacrificing quality of care, they'll be rewarded for doing so (and undoubtedly successful methods can then be extended to other areas of Medicare). **[Page 337, Sec. 3023](_URL_0_#page=337)** - By January 1, 2013, the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a "pilot program" to test to see if hospitals and doctors bundling payments (like how your cable and internet bill might be bundled) can help to lower costs without lowering the quality of care for patients. By January 1, 2015, the Secretary is to report to Congress on the progress of this program. By January 1, 2016, the Secretary is to report to Congress on the results of this program. **[Page 343, Sec. 3024](_URL_0_#page=343)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to add the next section. **[Page 343, Sec. 1866E](_URL_0_#page=343)** - Starting January 1, 2012, the Secretary of Health and Human Services to create a "demonstration program" to test payment incentives for doctors, nurses, etc. that provide on-call 24/7 in-home care. Basically, it looks like the thinking is that maybe if people with chronic conditions can get check-ups at home, they'll be less likely to need to go back to the hospital repeatedly for the same problem, less likely to make a trip to the emergency room, and more likely to get better-quality care. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is to develop standards for the care given to patients, and doctors who can reduce the costs of care for their patients while still meeting these standards will get incentive payments. $30,000,000 is set aside for this program from 2010-2015, and the Secretary is to report to Congress on its progress. The next few sections focus on reducing readmissions, where a patient keeps coming back for the same problem. Apparently, this is a big drain on Medicare. "One in five patients discharged from a hospital - approximately 2.6 million seniors - is readmitted within 30 days, at a cost of over $26 billion every year" ( [Source: The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation](_URL_42_) ). **[Page 347, Sec. 3025](_URL_0_#page=347)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting in 2012, the payments made under Medicare to hospitals will be slightly reduced in cases of excessive readmission. This is apparently to encourage hospitals to fix the problem a patient comes in with in the first place. This section also adds the following section to another bill, the Public Health Service Act. **[Page 352, Sec. 399KK](_URL_0_#page=352)** - Within two years of the enactment of this section (So... March, 2012, I think), the Secretary of Health and Human Services will make a program for hospitals with a high amount of readmissions to improve their readmission rates. So, while the previous section penalizes them for having too many readmissions, this one helps them to get their readmissions to acceptable levels. Hospitals that do this will report to the Secretary on the changes they make and how effective they are. **[Page 352, Sec. 3026](_URL_0_#page=352)** - From January 1, 2011, to January 1, 2016, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources will create a program to try and improve the care for patients being transitioned from one location (like a hospital) to another (such as the at-home care or Community-Based Organizations, for the purpose of reducing readmissions. **[Page 354, Sec. 3027](_URL_0_#page=354)** - Alters another bill, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, to extend a demonstration project in that bill to last roughly another year, and setting aside an additional $1,600,000 for this. This demonstration project had to do with gainsharing. From what I can tell, it looks like the idea is to give doctors and hospital staff incentive to reduce costs (without reducing the quality of care) by giving them a portion of that savings. **[Page 355, Sec. 3101](_URL_0_#page=355)** - This section was repealed. I'm not sure what it was before, but it's nothing more than a placeholder now. **[Page 355, Sec. 3102](_URL_0_#page=355)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to renew one part that sets a bottom limit for the Work Geographic Index (used for determining Medicare costs), as well as adding what looks like some additional criteria for determining those costs. **[Page 357, Sec. 3103](_URL_0_#page=357)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to renew one part that allows people to be exempted from some of the costs due to physical therapy expenses. **[Page 357, Sec. 3104](_URL_0_#page=357)** - Alters another bill, the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000. It's really hard to read through this, but as best I can tell, this just extends Medicare payments for laboratory services for an additional year (2010). **[Page 357, Sec. 3105](_URL_0_#page=357)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. This one's also a bit difficult to read, but from what I can tell, it's just renewing funding for ambulance services for Medicare patients through 2011. **[Page 357, Sec. 3106](_URL_0_#page=357)** - Alters another bill, the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007. Another one that's difficult to read, but from what I can tell, it's just renewing funding for long-term care hospitals for Medicare patients for another two years. **[Page 357, Sec. 3107](_URL_0_#page=357)** - Alters another bill, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, extending funding for mental health treatments for Medicare patients an additional year (until 2010). **[Page 358, Sec. 3108](_URL_0_#page=358)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, so that starting on January 1, 2011, Physician Assistants are added to the list of professionals (line nurses and doctors) allowed to order "post-hospital extended care services", services that a patient can be given after a 3+ day stay at a hospital. In other words, it's just giving physician assistants more freedom to sign you up for services you need after a long hospital stay. **[Page 358, Sec. 3109](_URL_0_#page=358)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. It looks like this is just clarifying when pharmacies have to send accreditation information regarding their quality standards to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as indicating exemptions for certain types of pharmacies. **[Page 359, Sec. 3110](_URL_0_#page=359)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act. It looks like the gist of it is that some beneficiaries of Tricare (civilian health benefits for veterans) will have an additional year to enroll in Medicare Part B, if they choose to do so. **[Page 360, Sec. 3111](_URL_0_#page=360)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to reduce the amount paid to hospitals for X-Ray bone density scans in 2010 and 2011, as well as directing the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to work with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies to conduct a report on the effect that this has. **[Page 361, Sec. 3112](_URL_0_#page=361)** - Alters another bill, the Social Security Act, to cut all the funds going to the Medicare Improvement Fund in 2014. Specifically, this is cutting $22,290,000,000. Most likely this cut is because the PPACA does many of the same things the Medicare Improvement Fund is intended to, so this payment would be redundant. **[Page 361, Sec. 3113](_URL_0_#page=361)** - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a two-year demonstration project, starting July 1, 2011, where complex lab tests are paid using separate payments. No later than two years after the demonstration project is completed (so by July 1, 2015), the Secretary is to report to Congress on how this affected expenses and quality of care. $5,000,000 is set aside for this section from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Program Management Account, and the actual payments themselves are to get funds from the Federal Supplemental Medical Insurance Trust Fund. (**Aaaaaand I've hit the character limit again! [On to Part 3!](_URL_43_)**)
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/w9z3a/obamacare_pointbypoint_part_2/
{ "a_id": [ "c5bjjup", "c5bk9zs", "c5blqn7", "c5bltt6", "c5blzpe", "c5bm1wh", "c5bmbmd", "c5bn62x", "c5bot1x", "c5btbxx", "c5btcyv", "c5bu0e5", "c5buk2r", "c5buolm" ], "score": [ 158, 2, 15, 24, 13, 2, 3, 2, 5, 4, 2, 6, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "Jesus, you're going through the entire thing? Thank you for your hard work, this is very good!", "Off to read part 1 right now! ", "CaspianX2 For Congress 2012!!!\n\nThanks for doing what my representative should be doing.", "How can anyone not be in favor of this bill besides a person who is just blindly against Obama?\n\nAfter reading your first post it was made very clear that this is an amazing thing for the US. \n\nWhether you like Obama or not, this bill is fixing some of the awful ethical gaps our insurance companies have produced.", "there should be a sub-subreddit for ELI5: U.S. gov't", "I was going to make an ELI5 post asking what the significance of certain states turning down the Medicare expansion and the creation of the exchange is, but maybe the comments of this thread are a better place.\n\nI was just wondering if the actions of those states have any effect on me in a state that will have expanded health insurance, or if the uninsured in those states are just shit upon while the rest of us get health care.", "Question for you, since you're reading the entire damned thing.. With regards to the stuff that makes businesses provide insurance for their employees. \n\n* Is there a min num of employees a business has to have before they are required to provide coverage? \n* For a business that's required to provide coverage; how much of the insurance cost must the business cover, if there is a requirement for the amount?\n* If a business that is supposed to provide coverage does not, what is the penalty?\n* Does the requirement force businesses to provide coverage for Full time AND part time employees?\n\n\nMy reasons for asking this - my dad owns a small business, ~10employees; his insurance agent told him that PPACA will force his business to pay for 50% of the insurance cost for his employees; he's just about already decided that the business (but not his employees for sure) would be better off to just pay the fines and not give insurance.\n\nSecondly; my g/f's father works full time for a small business. He was recently told that due to the PPACA requirements, they are cutting Everyone's hours such that **no one** works full time anymore. This will cut his wages drastically AND he still won't have insurance (this employer currently offers insurance, but it's a horrible plan and way overpriced to the point that he has gone without ins for ~15yrs). This just seems like one fucked up shady way to get by without giving the people insurance.\n\nThanks for any possible help!", "You've more than likely already done more than most Senators and Congress already...keep up the great synopsis ;)", "When do we get to the part of the bill about the secret larger than the military Nazi federal anticitizen police force Obama is brewing? My old man told me all about it.", "I really appreciate you doing this. It's very embarrassing trying to argue for or against healthcare reform with nothing more than excerpts of FOX News and The Daily Show rebuttals.", "It's like you have the superpower of having a clue as to what the hell is going on. I tell ya the fact that your posts have been so popular really explains why there's been so much bitching and moaning over the health care bill in the first place; people literally have no clue! \n\nKeep up the good work!", "You're a goddamn hero and I love you.", "Wow. You are already doing more the most senators. ", "You deserve a hell of a lot of kudos for sticking it out with this. " ] }
[]
[ "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf", "http://innovations.cms.gov/", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=357", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=220", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=239", "http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=263", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=305", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=221", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=225", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=258", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=361", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=274", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=337", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=282", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=319", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=314", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=359", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=217", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=198", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=216", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=298", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=248", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=234", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=254", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=296", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=210", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=360", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=285", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=213", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=230", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=352", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=332", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=246", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=222", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=264", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=244", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=343", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=277", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=310", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=354", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=347", "http://www.innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/Partnership-for-Patients/CCTP/index.html?itemID=CMS1239313", "http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10berh/obamacare_pointbypoint_part_3/", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=355", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=316", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=243", "http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=255", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=235", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=304", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=307", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=219", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=312", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=252", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=238", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=233", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=256", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=275", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=283", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=301", "http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vrt9x/obamacare_pointbypoint/", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=323", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=325", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=242", "https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/CMSLeadership/Office_FCHCO.html", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=212", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=315", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=324", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=211", "http://housedocs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf#page=358" ]
[ [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [] ]
218ehu
why is there a market for cryptocoin mining hardware?
If I can make a miner that can turn a profit, why would I ever sell it for that amount as opposed to running it myself? Even if I could make millions of these miners - as long as the miner would theoretically return more than the sale price over its service lifetime, would not every sale represent a loss?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/218ehu/eli5_why_is_there_a_market_for_cryptocoin_mining/
{ "a_id": [ "cgakqub", "cgaldt4", "cgam768" ], "score": [ 3, 4, 3 ], "text": [ "You could ask this about any tool, anywhere. If a bulldozer can be used profitably, why doesn't Caterpillar just operate all of the bulldozers themselves rather than selling them for other people to use them to make money?", "To extend the bulldozer analogy by /u/SJHillman, imagine you've got a bulldozer company. Why would you seek contracts for construction in a fickle market when you have guaranteed sales of bulldozers? In this case, our bulldozers don't even have to be sitting in stock. Someone can order them and *then* we put in the work to assemble one, deliver it in a couple weeks (cryptocoin mining computers are pretty simple bulldozers) and make guaranteed profit.", "Also the market is more stable. Cryptocoins are still based on a lot of speculation, and the value can fluctuate wildly at times. Also cryptocoins can be hard to redeem. The companies are trading a possible large income from cryptocurrency for a guaranteed smaller stable income from selling the hardware." ] }
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[ [], [], [] ]
59dweu
why is that some electrical devices like computers need big "blocks" in their power cords, while other devices like a my lamp has a straight cord?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/59dweu/eli5_why_is_that_some_electrical_devices_like/
{ "a_id": [ "d97o6fy", "d97p6dw", "d97sn91", "d97sz9v" ], "score": [ 6, 3, 3, 2 ], "text": [ "Those are transformers. They convert your home's 110-240v electricity to smaller numbers because small devices need small voltages (you can see the voltage output of any \"block\" usually in a sticker placed on it). If you were going to supply a device that needs 10v with energy directly from you wall outlet without its designated transformer, you would fry it up.\n\nBig machine's like a washer don't need transformers because they require higher voltage.\n\nIndirectly, all of your devices are using a transformer, because the voltage from power lines are in the thousands, so electricity companies install them in posts or below earth to supply your home with only 110v instead of the current directly from power lines.", "They are AC/DC converters. They switch it over to a DC voltage to use. You'll notice that most devices that have these are electronics. TVs and such have them internally.", "Your lamp is probably designed for the voltage in your home's electricity network. 110 V or about 240 V depending on where you live.\n\nComputer electronics does not work with those voltages, it needs much lower voltages (something like 1.5 V to 12 V, depending on the component). It also needs DC instead of AC. The big block (the transformer) is used to convert the voltage down and to transform it to DC. The more power the device needs, the larger the transformer. Computers need a lot of power.\n\nNot ELI5 any more, but maybe still of interest: The input of transformers has a frequency of 50-60 Hz (again depending on the country), which means 50-60 voltage cycles per second. The amount of energy that can get transferred per cycle is limited by the size of the transformer. A large power means a large transformer. To avoid this, modern transformers do more steps: They first convert the input from AC to DC at the same voltage. Then they convert this DC to AC again at the same voltage, but at a much higher frequency (thousands of Hz). This is then converted to lower voltages. The amount of energy per cycle is the same, but the cycles are much quicker - the energy per cycle goes down and the transformer can be built smaller. Afterwards the low-voltage high-frequency AC is converted to low-voltage DC.", "I'm not sure if you mean the power transformers others are talking about or the round slugs near the end you plug into your computer. \nThe round slugs are ferrite (iron) filters and reduce voltage spikes on the DC. I'm not sure if they help even-out DC ripple. It's been a while since school. \nLamps and other AC appliances all use the AC ripples, and the amplitude of the voltage is also too large for those little filters. " ] }
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1eiqbc
why isn't as simple as testing serotonin and other neurotransmitter levels to diagnose depression and other psych disorders?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1eiqbc/eli5why_isnt_as_simple_as_testing_serotonin_and/
{ "a_id": [ "ca0ub2a" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "The problem is not as simple as do you have enough serotonin? The problem could be the release or the reuptake (absorption back to storage). It could even be a later reaction due to the transmitter/receptor protein coming together. \n\nThe receptor that serotonin works on, there are seven *families*. Two of which work opposite to the other five! Your body is beautifully complex especially when it comes to the brain. Don't forget theres also dopamine and norepinephrine with respective receptors. Different drugs alleviate similar symptoms in patients because shits crazy, yo." ] }
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9ysyiu
why people that teach at highschools have to have a teaching degree while people who teach at universities don't
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ysyiu/eli5_why_people_that_teach_at_highschools_have_to/
{ "a_id": [ "ea3rnzi", "ea3rou9", "ea3rvel", "ea3s6m4", "ea3s7vu", "ea3sa7n", "ea3zvc6", "ea42th6" ], "score": [ 2, 2, 28, 28, 3, 12, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "Because essentially, teachers at universities are not professors in profession but investigators and others of the like, they teach so they can have other benefits from the institution such as labs or literature, or even financing ", "They don't. Private high schools may allow anyone they want to teach. Public universities generally require that you have a teaching certification. The rules are more or less the same for both.\n\nHigh schools may have tighter requirements sometimes, because teenagers are required to attend school and may not have an option about what school they go to. Since people are generally adults when they attend college or university, it is assumed that they can make their own informed decisions about the qualifications of the people who will teach them.", "You don’t have to have a teaching degree to teach K-12 public school. You do, however, have to be certified to teach in whatever state you are in. This can happen with an education degree or not.", "It is expected that when people get to the university level of education they are capable of taking responsibility for their own education. In high school it is the teacher who educates the student but in the university it is the student who educates themselves with help from the professors. So in high school if a student have a difficult time learning a subject the teacher is expected to use his education within pedagogics to find a way that will help the student understand the subject. However in the university the student is expected to already know how he will best comprehend the subject. The professor is only supposed to give lectures and answer questions on the subject.", "This is situational — many high school teachers don’t necessarily have a degree in teaching specifically. Most all are certified to teach, but your original premise is flawed. ", "At that level of one’s education, the idea is that students are going to get more from interacting with subject experts—people literally publishing new research on a given topic—rather than from interacting with expert teachers. \n\nThis is obviously an oversimplification that ignores extreme cases. In practice, some college students don’t have the self-discipline that this educational model presupposes. And if a subject expert is a bad enough teacher, their expertise won’t be helpful even to the best students. \n\nHowever, the idea is that *for the most part*, it’s better for college students to learn (e.g.) physics from a PhD in physics than from someone with an advanced degree in education. ", "A teaching degree focuses on techniques on how to learn (sometimes called Pedagogy) rather than pure subject matter expertise. \n\nGetting a middle schooler to understand that y=mx+b or that WW1 started after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand caused tensions to boil over requires a different skill set than the research/writing skills necessary if you're a mathematician or historian. \n\nMy wife's BA is in english. She could have taught some classes with just that but in order to teach Special Education classes she needed a master's because she had to understand why some kids need the extra help in reading and writing and how to work on those things beyond just \"read this book, write a paper.\"", "My University lecturer once called me out on calling her a Teacher. She said she was an Academic, not a Teacher and now, working in a School...I actually agree and think that a Teacher and an Academic who leads educational seminars/lectures are not the same thing.\n\nedit: This is in the UK" ] }
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68ld87
everyone wants to cut the defense budget, but what would actually happen if usa removed half of its defenses around the world?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68ld87/eli5_everyone_wants_to_cut_the_defense_budget_but/
{ "a_id": [ "dgzbteg", "dgzcl4c" ], "score": [ 3, 2 ], "text": [ "If that actually happened, there would probably be a lot of geopolitical chaos, but it's not that simple. The US wastes billions of dollars in wasteful spending contracts that ends up in the pockets of CEO's of military supply companies, rather than actually going toward defense. \n\nSo cutting the defense budget and literally reducing the size of the military are not the same thing. ", "Actually, the real question is, as with all cuts, just what gets cut. And the US military is in a particularly interesting position where potentially, quite literally nothing would happen in regards to any of its forces!\n\nWe COULD remove half the defenses around the world; and this would have a destabilizing influence in some regions, and possibly finally allow others to re-stabilize. Iraq was quite the influence until we removed them and frayed the region back into a frenzied feudal mess. On the other hand our bases in Japan? Stopovers in the Netherlands? Don't worry, they weren't exactly keeping the rising sun at bay. Even when we need to get airpower elsewhere, we could simply borrow allied bases like basically everybody else does... everybody that isn't grossly over-inflating their costs to our degree that is.\n\nAnd that's the real issue at hand here:\n\nA disturbingly large (some might say 'disgustingly') portion of the DoD's budget is what to any other recipients would be deemed \"welfare\". You have probably heard of the occasional complaints both against and alternatively *BY* the US military branches themselves that the US is obtaining things it does not need? Well that's actually a fact. Massive amounts of money are being given to help keep people from being jobless, or, even more often, to keep them from having to work for a living. The latter one however is what we call \"legal persons\", and not actually joe smith and his family.\n\nMuch of the budget is 'acquisitions', and it's a tempestuous labyrinth of governors and congressmen trying to do good by their local constiutency, of parasitic marketing, of self-fulfilling-requirement commissions, of free government handouts, of busywork, and - yes - even of actual work given to actual people for things they actually do.\n\nTake the F35 'Debacle': The backing for the project was at every step of the way made dependent on the supporters individual states and even counties all getting a piece of the production pie. Nominally a slew of cottage industries surrounding the primary production plant (an easy to see example on google maps is Montreal, where there's an entire industrial sector of small businesses right around Bombardier Aerospace and the main Airport) would produce the pieces needed.\n\n Instead you've got actuator arms of the front gear being built in one state and shipped, the right flaps in another, the rubber for the tires imported from one region but added to the wheels themselves elsewhere, someone with a monopoly on the rivets, and so on for everything, including the avionics and software!\n\n Now that's a waste of money already, but you have to remember: Many of these contracts are pork. They are not awarded to local businesses out of the goodness of their backer's heart. They are given to the congresswoman's brother, with a generous markup. They are given to the governor's sister-in-law's firm, with a generous markup. They are pocketed with \"scheduling errors\" and \"production errors\" and \"Feasability studies\" by the senator himself. They disappear in between delivery companies paid for their services before production even runs and security contractors that need not even show up and warranties and so on and so forth.\n\nResearch and Development was already an iffy proposition in terms of how much is handed out due to the billions in yearly profit the developing companies make **after** all the research and expenses they complain about; but these contracts and the awards were drafted BY the company, ratified or simply copy-pasted by someone who may have been working for them two years ago, still owes them for their campaign contributions, and is getting a seat on their board two years from now if he loses re-election. Someone who may even have *stated* that they absolutely have conflict of interest despite this and even then were told \"that's no problem go ahead\" or \"there is no conflict\". On tape. Publicly broadcast.... not that any of us watch CSPAN that much.\n\n\nWhat would happen if we cut the defense budget in half?\n\nMost likely a lot more soldiers would go into battle without adequate protection, and on foot because the brass refused to cut their own pleasure-cruises for the sake of making sure the IFVs had gas. But if those who are stealing taxpayer money in all but technical-legality weren't the ones in charge of cuts? The gains could be beyond imagination if we could cut out all the fat instead!" ] }
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5xmb8t
how come almost everyone trusts their government blindly?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xmb8t/eli5how_come_almost_everyone_trusts_their/
{ "a_id": [ "dej6kcf", "dej6khj" ], "score": [ 2, 2 ], "text": [ "Really? Do they? Any time there is an election, people arrive in droves to either keep their party in or vote them out. Even if they get to stay in, there is still a vast number of people who voted against them. Doesn't that imply there is a huge percentage of the population who *don't* trust them? \n\nAlso just because you've voted *for* a party, doesn't mean you trust them either!", "What makes you think that? I'd say it's actually the complete opposite." ] }
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7wrbif
why do curlers sweep in front of the stones?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7wrbif/eli5_why_do_curlers_sweep_in_front_of_the_stones/
{ "a_id": [ "du2l70i" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "To smooth the ice, which affects the distance the curling stone travels, and to some degree how its path bends (or curls, hence the name)." ] }
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yp3ie
what makes one port better than another? (hdmi vs. vga etc.)
I understand better ports can transmit more/different data, my questiin is WHY? They all just look like little pieces of metal to me, I don't understand the difference.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yp3ie/eli5_what_makes_one_port_better_than_another_hdmi/
{ "a_id": [ "c5xk9i4", "c5xlt5r" ], "score": [ 6, 2 ], "text": [ "VGA is an analog video port. It only sends video data. Since it is analog, any interference (from other equipment, or between different wires within the cable itself) will result in a small corruption of the video signal. DVI transmits the video signals using digital, so signal corruption is much less likely. HDMI includes both digital video and audio transmission in the same cable, and the interface supports some other features like digital copy protection. \n \nWhether you can see any difference in an analog video and a digital video interface is iffy. You might, but it probably won't be a big difference on a computer monitor, but it could be noticable if you are looking at HiDef video on a large TV monitor. You shouldn't be able to see a difference between DVI and HDMI, but using HDMI means you can send the video and audio with just one cable. \n \nProbably the biggest difference is the cost of the cable. VGA and DVI cables are both pretty cheap these days; HDMI cables can be expensive. ", "Aside from the things listed by afcagroo, different ports support different maximum resolutions, HDMI maxes out higher than VGA but DisplayPort maxes out higher than HDMI, however this is only really important if you have a 2k or 4k display which some cables do not support." ] }
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b1le6q
why do most sozial medias not have an option to report content or sites for „spreading wrong information“?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b1le6q/eli5_why_do_most_sozial_medias_not_have_an_option/
{ "a_id": [ "eimhody" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "When it comes to most things that get reported on social media, they tend to be pretty cut and dry. Bigotry is pretty clear, abuse is pretty clear, incitement is pretty clear, etc.\n\nWhile the person may well be spreading wrong information, then they need to get into the business of fact checking. This also relies on the notion that the moderators are diligent enough to actually confirm information is or isn't wrong. Both a practical and logistical tough spot to be in." ] }
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1zce07
what did the 1% protesting actually accomplished if anything?
I was just thinking about it and realized.. The only thing I can see that they accomplished is awareness, Nothing else.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zce07/eli5_what_did_the_1_protesting_actually/
{ "a_id": [ "cfsfm3i", "cfsfm6s", "cfsfnhx" ], "score": [ 3, 4, 6 ], "text": [ "More people are aware of the 1% now than before. ", "It did get a lot of people talking about inequality. President Obama is spending his remaining years \"fighting\" inequality and at Davos this year I think that was the main topic. \n", "To deal with a problem, you first have to be aware that there is one, so accomplishing awareness is something. " ] }
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6dcz2s
how can an apartment advertise a "starting at" rent amount and then not honor that price because the "market rate changed"?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dcz2s/eli5_how_can_an_apartment_advertise_a_starting_at/
{ "a_id": [ "di1od1n", "di1ouxo" ], "score": [ 4, 2 ], "text": [ "It all has to do with the contract that you sign when you sign your lease. Most allow for them to change the rent based on market rate periodically. Normally it is once a year. ", "Most people rent apartments on their days off, and for most that is on the weekends. That is why market rates are higher then, and during the warmer months when its nice to move. \n\nI ran into this myself, and seriously try to ask about the apartment during a weekday. I saved about 300 a month by signing my lease on a weekday vs the weekend for the same apartment." ] }
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d7kgrv
how do objects keep their shape?
Everything is made of atoms. Say a pencil or something is made of a trillion atoms. How do those trillions of atoms keep their pencil shape? Why is it that when I hold a pencil, it doesn't fuse with my hand? How does the pencil not become a ball or something? Or if I flick my ear, how does it go back to the same position as before? Or for inanimate objects, say I squeeze a rubber ball, how does it go back to its ball shape, and not a cube? What is the physical process by which things keep and go back to their shape when hit, squeezed, etc?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d7kgrv/eli5_how_do_objects_keep_their_shape/
{ "a_id": [ "f114dpd", "f117t25", "f11a946", "f11ckd4" ], "score": [ 33, 15, 3, 3 ], "text": [ "Atoms are usually held together by many many many bonds between them. These bonds form due to several different attractions between the positive nuclei and negative electron shells. There are several different kinds of these bonds, and I don't think you need to know all of them, but suffice to say that they tend to be quite rigid. When atoms stick together, the simplest example being a salt crystal, the positive and negative atoms arrange themselves in a checkerboard pattern and then these checkerboard patterns stack. They resist force because the atoms don't want to slide past one another. When you stretch something, the bonds between atoms stretch or compress slightly. When you push hard enough, the atoms slip past one another. The reason that a pencil doesn't stick to your hand is that when you hold a pencil there is actually very little touching area between your fingers and the pencil. There is a tiny gap of air in most of the space that seems to be touching. This prevents the atoms from bonding. If two perfectly flat surfaces were rubbed together, especially if they were of similar materials, they would stick. If you look up optical flats you might get an idea of what I mean.", "Oh boy, there's a lot to unpack here. Buts let's try to make it simple. What things don't hold their shape?\n\n-Gases, and to a lesser extent, liquids.\n\nSo why is that? Well, most atoms don't just exist as atoms (though a common example might be helium). Most atoms are bonded to other atoms, which involves them sharing electrons. When they share electrons, it becomes hard to pull them apart. In most gases, there's only a couple of atoms bonded together (O2, N2, CO2). So beyond those few bonds, there's nothing to hold them together. The individual molecules just fly around separately.\n\nIn liquids, the molecules are also small, though typically a bit larger than those in gases. Each one of these molecules has a weak bond to its neighbor, so they will sort of stick together, but not completely. So water won't spread out to fill an entire room, like a gas would, but it will spread out some on the countertop.\n\nIn solids, each atom is bonded to multiple other atoms. The molecules are very large, and can sometimes even be macroscopic (a diamond is essentially one giant molecule). These larger molecules are bonded more strongly to their neighbors and thus tend to stick together. When they get long, the molecules can also get tangled up like spaghetti. The strength of that bonding determines how easy the material is to break. Pencil \"lead\" and diamond are both carbon, but they are bonded differently, and so have different strengths. To change its shape, a lot of bonds in the pencil would have to break and reform. It can be done, but it requires a lot of energy.\n\nSo that's all well and good, but why doesn't a pencil fuse to your hand? It's basically the same reason gas molecules don't hang out together - they don't form a strong bond. Glue, on the other hand, is able to form a strong bond, and thus will 'fuse' to your hand. \n\nThe last part, about shapes returning to their original shape, only applies to a certain class of materials. As you well know, if you snap a pencil, it doesn't go back to its original shape. You have broken the bonds inside it. Materials that return to their original shape are called elastomers, and they only work when you don't break the bonds. Essentially, inside these materials is a bunch of springs. When the cube or sphere or whatever is made, the springs are in their resting state. When you deform the sphere, the springs are stretching and squeezing and bending. You have stored energy in them, but they want to release that energy. When they release it, they go back to their original shape, and you get a sphere. But like any spring, if you stretch it too far, it won't go back to its original shape.\n\nTL;DR Atoms and molecules stick to each other to varying degrees. They can be springy, but only to a certain limit.", "In solids, the atoms are attached to each other in what's called a crystal lattice. These forces tend to return this back to their original shape. That's called elasticity. If they're able to reattach themselves to other atoms, they can keep the new shape. That's plasticity. \n\nLiquids have weak inter molecular bonds, making them fluids. Anything that can flow is a fluid, even solids like sand. The little bit of bonding liquids have results in surface tension, which is why droplets are round and why you can overfill your cup a little bit. The friction between the molecules is called viscosity, which results in some liquids, like honey, flowing slowly. \n\nGases have no intermolecular forces and the space between the molecules is very large.", "When I was taking higher level geology courses it helped me to think of everything as a liquid. Gasses are liquids that move too quickly to keep the atoms together, and solids are liquids that move so slowly that bonds can form, holding them more or less in place.\n\nTo simplify it, the structure of matter is determined by three forces. Pressure, temperature and bonds between atoms. The strength of bonds between atoms is always the same for specific atoms. Carbon and oxygen bonds always have the same strength. Chlorine and sodium bonds are always the same strength. Temperature is how fast the atoms move around. A burn is basically getting punched by millions of atoms moving around so fast that they mess up the structure of the atoms on your body. Pressure is how much a set of one atoms is forcing another set of atoms to stay in one place.\n\nIf you remove all temperature (movement) then everything should be a solid. Pressure is a bit different because if it gets too low then the movement of atoms in an object causes pieces to fly off where they become a gas, but if it gets too high then it causes deformation in solids and causes them to flow like a liquid.\n\nIt just happens that in our corner of the universe we have a narrow range of temperatures and pressures that cause most objects to have a form that we can easily recognize. Iron is always solid. Helium is always a gas and mercury is always a liquid. There are some weird ones though. Water can go through both solid and liquid phases in this range of temperatures and pressures, and it's gaseous phase is just outside of our normal temperature/pressure range." ] }
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2y5e43
how is electric vehicle more environmental friendly when manufacturing of lithium-ion is hazardous?
I'm a big fan of electric vehicle but I just can't quite get the idea how does electric vehicle outweigh the hazard of battery manufacturing significantly that makes sense to pursue it. Thanks
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y5e43/eli5_how_is_electric_vehicle_more_environmental/
{ "a_id": [ "cp6dziu", "cp6e0py", "cp6fjfz", "cp6gkg5", "cp6gogv", "cp6hozc", "cp6i7we", "cp6vl2l", "cp75prd" ], "score": [ 13, 11, 2, 5, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "It's debatable. How do you compare the environmental impact of burning gas and adding more CO2 to the climate change problem with the possible environmental impact of lithium ion technology production? They're not really the same thing, so economists and environmentalists will have to look hard at the ramifications. However, there is an aspect of hope in new technology. We are relatively new with respect to rechargeable batteries and infrastructure. By buying an electric car, you may be making an assumption that the technology, production process, and infrastructure will get better in the future as more people come on board.", "The energy used during operation is quite a bit less. Check out [Miles_per_gallon_gasoline_equivalent](_URL_0_) which attempts to put gasoline and electrics cars on the same energy efficiency scale. Most electric cars these days have around 100 MPGe.\n\nThere's also things like idle time. Electric cars and hybrid cars consume much less energy when idle, since they don't have to maintain the running combustion engine.", "It's s higher initial cost, but the cost over time is lower. \n\nSo if you buy an electric car, keep it for a while before scrapping it.", "Because you can recycle them and they last forever.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n", "I wonder this too. On top of that, although it is electric, plugging it into an outlet, it is still getting energy from another source (coal plant). So is the carbon footprint still less than gas?", "What hazard of battery manufacturing? Take some time to [read about how the Gigafactory will operate](_URL_0_), and then ponder how the existing global supply chain for \"regular\" cars works and then come back with a question that might actually be answerable.", "When you hear \"environmentally friendly\", ask yourself \"for which specific environment\". A vehicle, when it's already assembled, will be hands down more friendly for the environment of its owner (likely a 1st world country). Production of the batteries is done in another country, likely 3rd world, so nobody cares what kind of impact it will have. That's also the case with many similarly advertised products.\n\nAlso, with the electric car, you're moving pollution from the car itself to the power plant. There will be less pollution overall, but it's still important to see that in reality you moved the problem somewhere you can't see it, not solved it.", "Well, it seems I showed up to this discussion a little late...\n\nElectric cars are less harmful to the environment than normal cars, because they incur far less environmental impact in the operational stage. The lifecycle analysis literature that we have collectively agrees that the majority of any car's environmental impact, electric or otherwise, is incurred in the operational stage, with manufacturing, shipping, and end-of-life disposal contributing relatively little to the car's environmental impact. In particular, the concerns about the environmental impact of battery production are overblown: While it is true that it adds extra environmental impact to the car's manufacturing stage, the simple fact is that the efficiency it enables more than makes up for it in reduced resource extraction for energy, less combustion of fuel sources, and so on.\n\nNow, there are many ways to measure the environmental impact of a car: Many choose to measure it in terms of energy use and emissions, while others measure it in terms of ecosystem diversity loss, harm to human health, and resource quality loss. On the count of both [the former](_URL_1_) and [the latter](_URL_2_), lifecycle analyses have proven that electric cars harm the environment less than do gasoline-powered cars. While local variations on the exact extent of that benefit vary based on the electrical grid, electric cars are, [on average and for the majority of people](_URL_0_), more efficient emissions-wise than even a Prius.", "The problem with electric car batteries is less the manufacturing process and more about the energy losses, from energy production, transmission and storage. \n\nI don't know which is true for sure, but I would be very surprised if manufacturing a battery is worse for the environment than burning hundreds of barrels of petroleum through the life of the car. Sure, the energy to charge the battery has to come from somewhere, but the hybrid technology undeniably saves enough fuel to _mostly_ compensate for the battery's environmental impact. \n\nThe problem is how much electrical energy can actually be converted to mechanical work. \n\nElectrical grid transmission to your house loses somewhere around 30%. Charging the battery? Lose another 20-30% to heat and charging inefficiencies. The battery will lose charge on its own over time as well. On the other hand, very little energy is lost for liquid fuel, which has an incredibly high energy density. \n\nAll things considered, it's probably a draw, unless the energy source is fully renewable and plentiful, such as solar. " ] }
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[ [], [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_per_gallon_gasoline_equivalent" ], [], [ "http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/what-happens-to-ev-and-hybrid-batteries.html" ], [], [ "http://insideevs.com/tesla-use-north-american-resources-planned-gigafactory/" ], [], [ "http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/electric-cars-are-getting-cleaner-0436.html", "http://www.environment.ucla.edu/media/files/BatteryElectricVehicleLCA2012-rh-ptd.pdf", "http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es903729a" ], [] ]
15l9wz
what exactly happens if the us "goes over" the fiscal cliff?
Can someone spell it out for me? Reasons for and against are fine, but I'm more interested in the math of it all.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15l9wz/eli5_what_exactly_happens_if_the_us_goes_over_the/
{ "a_id": [ "c7nhlbj", "c7nhqua" ], "score": [ 2, 11 ], "text": [ "Nothing will happen. ", "Right now, we have a package of tax cuts left over from the Bush era that are set to go away on New Year's Day. In the past several years, because of these tax cuts, people and companies have been able to keep more of their money, and therefore spend more of their money. The reason that is supposed to be a good thing is because the more money Americans spend, the better the state of the economy, as long as they spend a big portion of that money with American companies. \nAnyways, when those tax cuts go away, people will be encouraged to spend less money because a bigger part of their income is being taxed to fund things like roads, cops, military, and (in theory) national debt relief. They call it the fiscal cliff because the result of this discouraged spending is a quickly shrinking economy(I've heard all kinds of projections on how much shrinking, but I've settled on around 3.5% next year). The shrinking of the economy is by definition a recession, and we all hate recessions because in recessions unemployment tends to go up and people are less likely to invest, causing something of a downward spiral, unless someone \"injects\" money or confidence back into the economy. The government is pretty good at that (think the NEW DEAL or Obama's stimulus package of our last recession) when they do it right. \n\nMATH TIME: If I get taxed 16% under the current tax cuts, and their expiration pushes me up towards (conjecture follows) 19%, and I make $100,000 a year, that's $3,000 dollars that I thought I would have, that I no longer have due to tax hikes. Those $3,000 could arguably be used better by investing into the economy, earning myself interest and providing some company with money to provide people with a service or product, instead of going to the government. I say arguably, because the economists always disagree on these matters for a variety of reasons. \n\nThere are basically two general directions the government could in theory take that both would solve the problem in different ways. One hurts us in the short term, but helps us in the long run, and the other vice versa. The one that hurts in the short run is called the CBO baseline(the Congressional Budget Office came up with by assuming certain laws expire and others are enacted as part of this solution). It effectively cuts the budget deficit(the government's lack of money to do what they want to, and therefore the government's borrowing needs) in half, and keeps public debt 48% lower than the other alternative, but will send the economy into a short-term recession, which is a sticky situation, as outlined above. \nThe other option is, appropriately, called The Alternative Scenario. It pushes unemployment down about 1.5% next year, and increases GDP, but also raises the public debt from 48% of GDP to 90% of GDP(fucking bad news) and will cause double the federal debt increase of the CBO baseline. \n\nTL;DR, IT'S A STICKY SITUATION WITH NO CLEAR SOLUTION, WHICH IS WHY EVERYONE'S HAVING SUCH A HARD TIME SOLVING THE PROBLEM" ] }
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88ndq2
why is it hard to breathe sometimes when you eat too much?
I don't know if anyone else has had this happen to them but when I eat too much food I find my breathing become heavier and harder.
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/88ndq2/eli5_why_is_it_hard_to_breathe_sometimes_when_you/
{ "a_id": [ "dwlwp0t" ], "score": [ 10 ], "text": [ "it could be because the stomach gets so enlarged that it puts pressure on the surrounding organs, especially if sitting, making it hard for your lungs to be properly inflated?" ] }
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77vmiv
how is research carried out in order to constantly develop and improve cpus and gpus?
What does improving these computer components involve and what methods are used to develop more efficient processing units? Edit: with a strong emphasis on the experimental aspect
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77vmiv/eli5_how_is_research_carried_out_in_order_to/
{ "a_id": [ "dooyor5", "dop00xc", "dop1wsl" ], "score": [ 6, 78, 6 ], "text": [ "It's really complex, but the very simplified basics are: \n\n1) Figuring out how to make smaller circuits on the same size chip, i.e. cram in more circuits to the same space. (this is what was/is behind the famous Moore's Law) - this can require creating an entirely new process of etching out the circuits on the silicon wafer. \n\n2) Figure out how to make the same number of circuits perform more calculations in the same amount of time (i.e. better circuits, not just more of them) - this is what is referred to as \"instructions per clock\" or IPC\n\n3) Figure out how to make the circuits run faster (i.e. more GHz) without problems like overheating or random errors", "There are three main ways to improve a CPU.\n\nFirst, you can make it faster, able to execute more instructions every second. The problem is the faster you go, the hotter and sloppier the chip gets, to the point it eventually fails.\n\nNext, you can make the components smaller. The smaller the chip architecture, the more transistors you can fit into one place, and the less power the chip needs, reducing heat.\n\nFinally, you can make the chip smarter. Find ways to do things in 4 steps instead of 5, do multiple things at once, improve caching, and in general do things more efficiently.\n\nEdit: Clarified the language on the second point.", "As others have pointed out, Moore's Law/Dennard Scaling have historically made part of the progress easy. You get more/faster transistors at every generation. (That's pretty much at an end now, though.) The trick is then to figure out how best to use those benefits. \n \nWith CPUs, one of the things you can almost always depend on is making the internal cache memories larger. The performance hit from going off-chip is so huge that you almost can't have too much cache memory. \n \nAfter that, it gets complicated. One of the things that you could look at historically for CPU improvement was to look at what was going on in previous generations of mainframe and supercomputers. Microprocessors eventually put inside of a single chip the things that those systems were doing to improve performance. \n \nAnother mainstay was to simply absorb functions being done by other PC motherboard components. You didn't necessarily improve the CPU performance, but you improved the performance and cost of the motherboard as a whole, which is really the point. \n \nNo matter what changes you were going to make to the CPU, one thing was constant: simulation. No matter what changes you thought might bear fruit, the key was to build a model of your new CPU and simulate the performance under a variety of workloads. Designing and manufacturing a new microprocessor is incredibly difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. You want to be reasonably sure of what you're going to end up with at the end of the day. \n \nBack in the day, we even used to build hardware emulators, since you could get much more done with them than software simulations. But that's not really done too much these days with super-complex chips like full microprocessors. " ] }
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1bpz4p
unix philosophy
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bpz4p/eli5_unix_philosophy/
{ "a_id": [ "c98z282" ], "score": [ 7 ], "text": [ "There are a lot of ideas that are a part of the \"Unix Philosophy,\" but I think these are the most important:\n\n* Programs should be small and simple. They should do one thing, and do it well.\n\n* It should be easy for any two programs to talk to each other, so that computer users can do complicated things by using a bunch of simple programs together." ] }
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aznuem
what does it mean to “break up” a large company? for example, if apple was broken up, would there be smaller phone companies?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aznuem/eli5_what_does_it_mean_to_break_up_a_large/
{ "a_id": [ "ei921pq" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "multiple ways to break up a company \n\nask warren what her idea on breaking up apple is (since that's what sparked this question) or see historical examples of other companies that have been broken up for your jurisdiction. \n\nRemoved, try r/answers " ] }
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9r50k9
why does the lottery exist and where do all the profits usually go to?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9r50k9/eli5_why_does_the_lottery_exist_and_where_do_all/
{ "a_id": [ "e8e8nex" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Profits go to the state government, in most cases; typically they say that it funds schools. YMMV on how true that is.\n\nLike 50% of the total cost goes to the jackpot pool, and the other 50% goes into the government much like a tax.\n\nLottery exists because it generates money and people like to gamble." ] }
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5tu5lf
what causes you to hear a high pitched noise when a device, which has been fully charged, is still in the charger?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tu5lf/eli5_what_causes_you_to_hear_a_high_pitched_noise/
{ "a_id": [ "ddp353a", "ddpgj2t", "ddpi0ok", "ddpveyw", "ddpvfaf", "ddpzqaq" ], "score": [ 95, 7, 7, 20, 2, 5 ], "text": [ "Small chargers today are switch mode power supplies.\n\nThey work, simply said, by first rectifying the alternating mains current to direct current, then chopping it up again to pulses at a much higher frequency, transforming it down and rectifying it again. \n\nThat sounds overcomplicated, but transformers for high frequencies are WAY smaller, cheaper and more efficient, which is worth the hassle.\n\nThe transformer tends to make a sound, just like the \"normal\" ones make that familiar hum. It's depending on quality, cheap ones tend to have loose parts which vibrate and make them louder .. but normally the used frequency is way beyond our hearing range, so it seems dead quiet. \n\nIf the device is charging and needs less and less power to do that as the battery fills up, the power supply has to reduce the power it delivers to held the output voltage at the same level. This is done by making the pulses of the primary voltage shorter and shorter. \n\nIf the device is fully charged and in standby, it needs almost no power, but there is a lower limit how short the pulses can be, so the only choice the charger has is to drop (e.g., very simplfied) every 5th pulse completely or the output voltage would climb too high.\n\nBut THAT introduces an additional frequency component at (in that case 1/5th) the normal switching frequency, which you can hear. Since the amout of dropped pulses is varying much with load, the sound tends to be quite irregulary and if you pick it your device to use it, while still connected to the charger, you can often even \"hear\" the fluctuating current consumption by listening to the changing sound. ", "So isn't the ELI5 here more like, the unit making the noise is receiving more power in a period of time that it transfers it than it's ment to?", "This is a thing? I have high frequency hearing loss so I wouldn't know but I've never heard anyone mention it. ", "The phrase is called coil whine. The highest rated comment nailed the basics. You can solve it easiest by replacing your charger, but if you like to ne a do it yourself-er, opening the charger and securing the transformers and coils with silicone, that should reduce or even remove the sound. ", "Basically, the supply usually operates waaayy above your hearing range. At low loads, we have to employ tricks like pulse skipping or burst mode operaton so that it turns on and off at a lower frequency. (This is done for boring reasons like avoiding discontinuous conduction in magnetics, outside the realm of an eli5) \n\nUnfortunately, you can hear that slower operaton. It's still actually really doing everything at that high frequency you can't usually hear, but it's turning on and off slow enough that it introduces stuff you can hear. ", "What you're hearing is coils expanding and contracting of a buck converter, which is just a fancy way of saying a voltage converter that uses pulses(high voltage to low voltage probably). Basically what happens is that the correct voltage is generated by turning on the current to the coil for a certain amount of time and then turning it off at a certain(audible, if you can hear it) frequency. This causes the wire in a coil to expand from the heat that the current is generating and upon turning it off it shrinks again. This causes vibration in the air which is just soundwaves at that point. This frequency also varies depending on the current level of charge in your battery and how fast it's getting charged.\n\nImagine the coil being a balloon where you fill it with such a frequency that you can vibrate the air and produce sound. That's what happens with a coil.\n\nedit: there is also a bit of magnetism involved in higher currents where the coil gets pushed apart when current is flowing. However I don't know how relevant this part is for small electronics. For superconductors one of the challenges is to keep the coil together because the magnetic field inside the coil can get strong enough to rip the coil apart." ] }
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5plnew
why do people want to see trump's taxes?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5plnew/eli5_why_do_people_want_to_see_trumps_taxes/
{ "a_id": [ "dcs3l27", "dcs3t28" ], "score": [ 3, 11 ], "text": [ "Tax returns would contain information about potential conflicts of interest. People want to see Trump's, in particular, because one of his core campaign promises was a (dubious) claim that he was very rich and therefore awesome.", "All Presidents in the last few decades have done it to prove they have no illicit income, foreign gifts, or anything else unsavory. They do it voluntarily to prove that they are honest and have nothing to hide \n\nTrump refuses to follow this tradition. Although he is not required to do so, the fact that he does not indicates he has something to hide," ] }
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15zqam
why are there contribution limits on retirement accounts, and what happens if i contribute too much by accident?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15zqam/eli5_why_are_there_contribution_limits_on/
{ "a_id": [ "c7rbypd" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "There are contribution limits placed on many retirement accounts because they are tax-advantaged accounts. For example, in a RothIRA, the money grows tax free. Normally if you invest say $10000 in a stock, and it turns into $15000, you owe capital gains tax on the profit when you sell the stock. If the government didn't set limits, then wealthy people would put all their money into tax-advantaged accounts and avoid paying a lot of taxes.\n\nI would imagine when you open one of these accounts the bank reports it to the IRS, so I think it would be very easy for them to find you and fine you." ] }
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cyp7xv
why do some plane models have winglets but others don’t?
As examples a Boeing 737 has large winglets, a 773er has none, and an airbus A320-200 has minuscule tips?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cyp7xv/eli5_why_do_some_plane_models_have_winglets_but/
{ "a_id": [ "eytcjhw", "eytdl0w" ], "score": [ 6, 2 ], "text": [ "It’s often a cost analysis. It depends on their intended usage a lot of times too. Winglets increase efficiency, but they also add weight and cost. For many shorter haul flights where they aren’t cruising at higher altitudes as long, the extra weight isn’t worth the increased efficiency for the shorter distance, or cost.", "One reason is that for years Boeing really didn't like Winglets and didn't put them on any of their planes :-)\n\nWe like to think that the super-technical companies do careful cost and benefit analysis, but really, they don't." ] }
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5otxym
why does shaking hard-boiled eggs in water make them peel so easily?
As demonstrated here: _URL_0_ I just tried it myself and it worked like a charm. Why?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5otxym/eli5_why_does_shaking_hardboiled_eggs_in_water/
{ "a_id": [ "dcm3vf5", "dcm409o", "dcml45o" ], "score": [ 7, 15, 2 ], "text": [ "Probably works similarly to the garlic trick.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nWith the egg, the water likely creates a buffer preventing you from smooshing it too much while cracking the shell and loosening the membrane around the egg.", "I imagine it's like pouring vegetable oil onto a bull rider as he tries to hold on. Eventually the liquid is going to get in and help the separation take place.", "Older eggs are the ones easier to peel. I found cool it in cold water for about a minute right after it's done cooking and that usually helps separate the egg from shell, it reverse expands inside, and you can crack it up and peel easier." ] }
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[ "https://youtu.be/FkWISKfgqZ0" ]
[ [ "https://youtu.be/Dc7w_PGSt9Y" ], [], [] ]
5kgcdk
why do places like domino's and pizza hut have really high pricing yet always offer codes that give you 50% off etc
For example a large pizza here is £18.99 which is ridiculous, surely no one pays full price. It seems that everyone uses codes anyway so why not reduce the price. Do they just rely on the odd person here and there paying full price.
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5kgcdk/eli5_why_do_places_like_dominos_and_pizza_hut/
{ "a_id": [ "dbnppmw", "dbnpsxz", "dbnptvt", "dbnqmfu", "dbnsaol" ], "score": [ 6, 3, 13, 9, 2 ], "text": [ "It makes it seem like a much better deal if you smack a 50% off or 2 for 1 or whatever kind of deal on. \n\nSo while you're right that not many people will pay full price, it is effective marketing. Merely having a massively overpriced pizza makes a slightly less overpriced pizza seem more normal/reasonable.", "It feels exclusive and you think you saved money with codes. \n\n50% of 2X feels less and a better deal than simply X.", "Incentivizing the consumer. A person who gets email coupons or offers is probably someone who has used the service in the past, and is probably going to use it in the future. Say they are trying to decide between dominos and pizza hut, and they check the email and see a half off coupon from pizza hut...well then the decision is made. Then two weeks later, when the same person is ordering another pizza, they'll think \"well pizza hut offered me half off once, they must appreciate my business\" and thus they'll continue to order from pizza hut, who will then send them another coupon, and they'll order more, and get another coupon...until the end of time. ", "It actually makes people more likely to buy. When we get a discount, we feel we are getting a better deal. If you offer a 9 dollar pizza and an 18 dollar pizza with a 50% discount, people will be more likely to buy the discounted one. Even though we are both paying the same amount for each pizza, it feels we are getting something that is worth more with the discounted pizza because our brain is tricked into believing we got something of a higher price (which we do link to higher quality) for cheaper.\n\nAdditionally, if a discount is time sensitive (so like 'order within the next five hours and get X% of) that also creates a sense of urgency that makes you more likely to buy. Because else you feel you are missing out on something.\n\nThere was actually a clothing store that did an experiment with this. They eliminated all discounts and instead offered reduced price clothing all throughout the year. Sales dropped because as much as everybody swears they are not affected by marketing, we are.", "One thing that isn't mentioned is that the price of something has a signaling effect about its quality. If you walked in a restaurant that was offering a $8 steak vs. another that cost $45, consumers are going to draw some conclusions about the meal just from what the restaurant thinks it's worth. Then you add in the coupon effect. " ] }
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4ndsf9
why do sturdy crackers (like triscuits) come in a bag in a box, but more fragile chips (doritos, potato) come in a bag with no protective box?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ndsf9/eli5_why_do_sturdy_crackers_like_triscuits_come/
{ "a_id": [ "d4344au", "d434jdt" ], "score": [ 4, 2 ], "text": [ "Most the crackers that aren't stacked are heavier, more mass, would jostle and break each other up, whereas chips are so light they, for the most part, don't collide with each other as 'violently'. Same principle that applies to loose pills, like aspirin, in a bottle, hence the cotton ball to keep them from loosely bouncing around.", "There certainly are brands of crackers packed just in a bag, like chips, mostly newer brands or new types.\n\nThe boxes are mostly for ease of packing on the shelf and showcasing your branding. Cereal never needed a box, but a box was added to have somewhere to put your logo!" ] }
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56qofw
how did humans discover equations that relate to each other and other values?
This is a bit difficult to explain. I was sitting in shop class and we were reviewing Ohm's law. For example to find current you can divide the voltage by resistance or divide wattage by voltage and then square it. How did people think of such equations?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56qofw/eli5_how_did_humans_discover_equations_that/
{ "a_id": [ "d8lll24" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "There's a couple ways. One (probably by far the most important!) is experiment. For your example, it's pretty easy to hook a resistor up to a battery, and see what you measure- and that's actually basically exactly what Georg Ohm did. If you start fitting your data, you're going to see very very quickly that it's a line.\n\nLaws in particular, in physics tends to be \"based on observation this is how things are related\". There's no math proof or anything.\n\nThere are other indirect ways, mainly based on intuition. If you think about Ohm's Law (i'm simplifying a bit, but the point is the same), it has to be arranged a very certain way. \n\nUnits wise, there's only one way to get a (simple) equation out where you relate voltage to current and resistance.\n\nAlso, they \"make sense\". Ohm's law tells you you need a larger potential (which we know is related to electric field) if you have a higher resistance. Intuitively that should make sense- you need more \"force\" to overcome a bigger resistance. Similarly, if the resistance is the same, and you have a bigger potential difference, you should have more current flow.\n\nGenerally in a new field, you go for the simple stuff first. Not every material is Ohmic- but a lot are, and it's the simplest versions. There are things like diodes which don't act like a normal resistor.\n\nYou can also draw analogies to other areas that are similar, and see if it holds out.\n\nThe theme between all of these- you look for patterns. Either for things similar to what you've seen before, or what seems reasonable. Then you test it with experiment to see if it's right or wrong. We learn all the famous equations, but we tend to forget all the wrong theories people went through to get there\n\nedit:\nIf you're interested, wikipedia has a very nice section on the history of Ohm's Law, which i think you'll find very illuminating.\n\n_URL_0_" ] }
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[ [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm%27s_law#History" ] ]
76bzxz
how do combined smoke/co detectors work, when co detectors are traditionally on the floor (due to co being a "heavy" gas) and smoke detectors on the ceiling (because smoke is hot, and rises)?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/76bzxz/eli5_how_do_combined_smokeco_detectors_work_when/
{ "a_id": [ "docubhd" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "This is incorrect. CO is actually slightly less dense than air. CO detectors should be on the ceiling.\n\n\nCO2 is more dense than air and those detectors should be at ground level." ] }
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1meutm
how can documentaries be made about drug addicts and others who engage in illegal activities? do they face legal consequences?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1meutm/eli5_how_can_documentaries_be_made_about_drug/
{ "a_id": [ "cc8j3qu" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "Just like how in the states selling sex is illegal but making pornography isn't, recording drug addicts as a means to create art (I.E A Film) is legal under the First Amendment under certain conditions. \n\nIt differ from illegal act to illegal act but documenting something is difficult to prosecute as long as you aren't encouraging the person to do an illegal act (Freedom of the Press). \n\nFor example shooting some to get the perfect death scene would still be murder.\n\n" ] }
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2pbjfl
why do some plastic surgeries look good and others look horrible?
Ex: Kris Jenner Sharon Osbourne vs Lara Flynn Boyle Meg Ryan
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pbjfl/eli5_why_do_some_plastic_surgeries_look_good_and/
{ "a_id": [ "cmv5ktt" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "* some plastic surgeons are better than others\n* cosmetic surgery is an inexact science, and even the best surgeon can't predict exactly how it will turn out\n* some people want a lot of work done, and push the limits of what is possible\n* some people take better care to follow their doctor's recovery instructions" ] }
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d4x68c
how is it dangerous to swim in quarries?
I understand that in quarries there are shocking drops in depth but I'm confused on how it causes drownings. Wouldn't you just swim up and move back onto the ledge? Never been around a quarry so I'm genuinely confused.
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d4x68c/eli5_how_is_it_dangerous_to_swim_in_quarries/
{ "a_id": [ "f0hbxhd", "f0hc7ru", "f0hcjg8", "f0hf2ty" ], "score": [ 7, 5, 18, 8 ], "text": [ "Not sure about elsewhere but the Quarry near me has steep sides (difficult to get out of the water), it's freezing so you'll tire quicker but most deaths in it have been scuba divers. It's hard to sense up when it's pitch black and you're floating. People tend to get snagged on equipment left down there.", "The ledges are mixed stone, dirt and clay, which makes it not so easy to get out of it, but thats not all. The waters are quite cold (especially the more deep you go), and its way easier to get a cramp. Combine that with sharp rocks where you can hurt a limb, and its way harder to climb up after that.", "Quarries are dangerous because they look really clear and deep so people jump in. However they are usually ice cold even in summer because the sides of the quarry block access to the sun for most of the day. The plunge from height can put you into shock really easily. Also sharp rocks, lack of trained help if you get into trouble, and quarries are not usually on main roads so getting to them if someone gets into difficulty is harder than the pool or the beach.", "Have you ever jumped off of a cliff into the water anywhere?\n\nThe impact is pretty disorienting and if there is not a bottom for you to sense you might not realise which way is up. The height of the ledges around the quarries and the low temperature of the water compound this effect. \n\nAlso, there tends to be a lot of crap down in them. There are sharp rocks, false ledges, abandoned equipment, stuff people have thrown away etc. \n\nSome of the false ledges I mention are especially dangerous for scuba. It will look like a shelf to go under and explore something but there could be a hole leading down or under the edge, it could collapse, it could be so dark you might not be able to find your way back out etc. \n\nAlso, some of them are very deep and since there is nothing around when you are in the middle and you do not see a bottom it is easy to descend past your safe depth and not properly decompress on ascension. \n\nAs others have said, the enclosed nature of them tends to not allow the Sun to penetrate the water very well and it gets pretty dark pretty quickly. There are many reports of divers who have sworn down word or laterally instead of ascending because they could not get their bearings. \n\nThe low temperatures strain your body even more and numb you to some things which could be warning signs also. \n\nUsually quarries that are set up for recreational diving have limited daylight hours and safety precautions such as depth markers and medical personnel. \nMost of the ones I know people go to around here are not set up for divers but there is no security to stop people from doing it and they aren’t experienced or prepared enough. \n\n" ] }
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3dxirp
why do lots of people hate us muslims. please be serious.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dxirp/eli5_why_do_lots_of_people_hate_us_muslims_please/
{ "a_id": [ "ct9jznc", "ct9k3m6", "ct9k3x3", "ct9kdaj", "ct9kiih", "ct9kjgt", "ct9knja", "ct9l2ea", "ct9lnyq", "ct9lokk", "ct9lol4", "ct9mgz1" ], "score": [ 4, 11, 7, 8, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 5, 2, 7 ], "text": [ "Personally.\n\nI can't speak for everyone, but this is why, for me.\n\nI don't like Islam and I don't like Muslims because of the culture and traditions behind it.\n\nIt feels like an invasive culture that seeks to dominate the world, and I feel that my nation is being robbed of it's identity because of Muslims and Islamic laws.\n\nThey immigrate to a nation, set up Mosques, etc, and then they have families, big families too, then they have Islamic Schools, etc.\n\nAnd then we're racist because we don't want our nation to adapt to foreign values and beliefs - this is nonsensical. \n\nBecause the government is afraid to offend everyone, they don't really stand for anything or defend anything, they're just *there* and allow Islam to have greater influence.\n\nI don't like it because it is rooted with a foreign culture, doesn't allow for any kind of assimilation, and subverts national law and tradition.", "Because it seems like lots of Muslims hate *us*. The watchword here is \"seems\". I don't deny that a lot of people hate Muslims but it's probably not that much more than the 2% level that reflects the number of crazy radical Muslims. Look, it's hard to respect people who claim that a 1300 year old book gives them the right to kill unbelievers and treat women like crap. Same with people who spout \"truths\" from a 2000 year old book that was written in a nearby neighborhood. Time to move on from the superstitions of the past.", "Not the people per se, but the religion itself. The Islamic religion by its nature is what makes both a larger proportion of extremists exist in the first place, as well as their religious justification for their actions.\n\nI know extremists are just a small proportion of the total Muslim population, but they're still the largest proportion out of any religion, and Muslims are population-wise a dominant religion, so there's a huge number of extremists total.\n\nAlso, Muslim extremists, as I've said in the first paragraph, just cause a lot more trouble and pain and suffering than most extremists of other religions, because of the religion itself and what extremists think it teaches.\n\nNo, I will not personally have any problem with an Islamic person under everyday circumstances, but I will judge any individual that I see taking part in a violent mob of religiously-motivated Muslims as an extremist and I will have angry thoughts about them.", "In Europe, some Muslim immigrants insist on living differently from the local culture. Some long-time locals, who love the local culture, find this insulting.\n\nIn the USA, most people have never met many Muslims, so what they know of Muslims comes from major news stories. Unfortunately this means that when people hear about the religion it is usual in the context of a Muslim group making war on other people.\n\nSo if you don't know much about a group, and what you *do* know is about them rejecting your culture or being killers, you aren't going to get a good impression of that group.", "Well every day i see on the news that some muslim has blown himself (or a car) up in a market or another crowded place somewhere, and it seems to us that the entire midle east is going to war against each other... ", " > Yes we have crazy radicals and I don't deny that they are Muslims but it's like 2% compared to the other billion Muslims around.\n\nVery few people take the initiative to do anything. So 2% may not be a small number. In any case the percentage appears to be much larger than what other religions have.\n\n > We are really peaceful.\n\nAs long as everyone does as Muslims say. Otherwise there are flashes of violence. Tolerance does not seem to be big in the Muslim world. Except for Indonesia and Turkey, most Muslim countries discriminate against non-Muslims in some way. \n\n > Radicals also kill muslims. In Syria Iraq and Afghanistan. Lots of Muslims are killed on the hands of other Muslim radicals. So why do lots of people hate us.\n\nA non-muslim looks at this and thinks, \"look at these people, they cannot control their radicals **even** when they kill their own people. Just think what they will do to non-muslims if they get the chance. We should make sure they never get the opportunity\"", "How do you define \"extremist?\" What percentage of Muslims are OK with stoning adulterous women? What percentage are OK with death for apostasy? Or for homosexuality? I can accept that only 2% of Muslims support terrorism. But I have heard statistics from respected sources, not from right-wing Christian lunatics, suggesting that some of these other beliefs that I would call extremist are much more widely held in the Muslim world.\n\nI don't hate you. Thank you for coming here and posing this question. I try very hard to differentiate between groups and individuals. I'm human and don't always get it right.\n\nI do hate the notion of theocratic government. I hate the idea that one faith should dictate everyone's lives. My perception is that Muslim-majority countries tend to do just that.\n\nI was recently surprised to read about how many Arabic states are officially secular, and Lebanon has a particularly fascinating way of ensuring a religiously diverse government, but I believe that Muslim nations are more likely than other groups to set up theocratic states, and that's part of what gives me the creeps.\n\nI wish you peace and happiness in your journey. Thanks again for being a seeker.\n\nEdit: I am happy to admit that I am only half-informed on these matters and have no problem with being corrected on anything.", "Because they are slowly populating other countries to spread their hate and weird culture ...yeah it's true!", "First before i speak of the matter i want you to know im a christian and my best friend is muslim. I live in belgium and i see this everyday. Most muslim live here on welfare get a free house and alot of support while my grandparents are living of a tiny income and dont have all that support. The goverment is afraid because if they dont support these muslim they will say the goverment is racist. And then there is the fact that most of them dont respect the local culture here. I can go on and on giving examples. Sorry for my bad english\n", "Because you belong to a supposed \"religion of peace\" that worships a homosexual pedophile (according to your book, the koran). You base it on a book that advocates savage violence like cutting off peoples' heads if they don't worship like you do, cutting of the fingertips of people who offend you, stoning rape victims to death (the rape VICTIMS, mind you, not the rapists), and going on violent shooting sprees because somebody drew a picture of the homosexual pedophile.\nAccording to your \"religion of peace\", a rapist's punishment is being forced to marry the woman he raped. \nAccording to your \"religion of peace\", all Jews should be exterminated simply for being Jews.\nMuslims are hijacking American planes and flying them into American buildings; they are putting people in cages and burning them alive; they are strapping homosexuals to chairs and tossing them off tall buildings (this last one doesn't make sense to me, as you worship a homosexual pedophile, so why kill other queers?). Your women run around in ridiculous full-body beekeeper suits. You move to other countries and instead of integrating into their culture, you demand that they adjust their culture to accommodate you. You demand barbaric sharia law and scream about \"islamophobia\" when the DMV wants you to take off the beekeeper hood for your driver's license photo.\nYou (not you personally, but \"you\" as in \"muslims\" scream and make death threats toward beautiful, fine-ass [Mia Khalifa](_URL_0_) for making porn while wearing a beekeeper scarf. I mean, seriously?\n\nYes, I realize that some of these things aren't done by ALL muslims, but it happens too much. And I NEVER see other muslims coming out and condemning all that shit. \nSo there you go, that's why lots of people hate muslims.\n\nOkay, social justice warriors, here's where you jump in and start bitching and crying about how \"racist\" and \"islamophobic\" the **facts** I just presented are. Or start screaming about the Crusades (as if that's at all relevant) and all the supposed evils of Christianity. Go ahead, defend islam by bringing up shit that other religions do.", "Some of their beliefs are not compatible with western beliefs. In my country, a high proportion of the muslims living here have failed to integrate. Instead, they live in their own communities and talk their own language, rarely interacting with anybody else.", "I can only speak for myself, but if you're really interested, here goes... \n\n**Muslim Societies:** \n Look at what happens when Muslims are left to their own devices (I know that sounds condescending, but it is an accurate way to describe my feelings - which OP asked for...), it's not just that Muslims oppress other religions, they oppress other Muslims. It's Shiite vs. Sunni vs. Baath vs. whothefuckknowselse, and THEN vs. Christianity, Buddhism, et al. If the Sunni are in power, you can bet the farm that the Shiites are taking it right up the ass not only by roving gangs (that the government not only ignores, but tacitly approves) that assault them even in their own homes at night. But there's institutionalized discrimination and oppression of an epic scale. \n Look at the shitshow the Taliban created in Afghanistan. It was one uninterrupted exercise in oppression and brutality that is waiting for the opportunity to reestablish itself, and bring back the joys of fundamental Muslim rule. \n Then there's the way Muslim cultures treat their women. Roving gangs of \"religious leaders\" that beat women with clubs for not being dressed properly, or for talking to (or even being near) a stranger, or that keep preteen and teenaged girls from escaping a burning building because they would not be properly attired if they did. \n\n*They made young girls burn to death, because their heads would have been uncovered in public if they escaped.* \n\nThen there's the genital mutilation, the \"Honor Killings\" where a young man murders his own mother or sister because she was the victim of a rape. It's not silly shit like \"ooh, they don't let the women drive a car…\", it's the horrors that Muslims dish out on a daily basis because they think their religion tells them to. \n\n**What do Muslim societies even contribute to civilization?** \n Their \"schools\" (Madrasas) are simple dogmatic religion schools. Where's the Muslim equivalent to Harvard Law? Cal Poly? Stanford? MIT? What Medical, Agricultural, Technological, or Humanitarian contributions has the Muslim World offered up to human civilization since the sacking of Constantinople? \n\n\n All that I see Muslims contributing to this world is suffering and strife. So, my question for OP is: \"Why should I have any respect for the Muslim world?\"" ] }
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[ [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [ "http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/who-mia-khalifa-meet-muslim-pornhub-superstar-provoking-islamic-outrage-1481960" ], [], [] ]
3vi201
why do cut vegetables release water when you add salt to them?
Most commonly cabbage, but I have also seen it with zucchini. Why is it that when you cut cabbage, for example, add salt, and leave it in a bowl, it releases its water over time?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vi201/eli5_why_do_cut_vegetables_release_water_when_you/
{ "a_id": [ "cxnq8e1", "cxnqac5" ], "score": [ 12, 2 ], "text": [ "If there's a high salt concentration on one side of a cell membrane the net water flow will move towards the salty side to balance the concentration on both sides.\n\nThis is also why you can't drink ocean water, it actually further dehydrates you by forcing water out of your cells.", "Adding salt affects osmosis. The salt concentration, both inside and outside the cell walls of the vegetables is stable, and the water doesn't move across the membrane. When you add salt, the water moves from inside the membrane to out, to balance the salt content inside and out if the cell. Ultimately the salinity of the water will remain the same inside and out." ] }
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9i4rgt
how medical billing codes work for medical procedures and why one can’t get a straight answer about the anticipated cost before the procedure is administered.
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9i4rgt/eli5_how_medical_billing_codes_work_for_medical/
{ "a_id": [ "e6gtqjg", "e6gv6kj" ], "score": [ 9, 3 ], "text": [ "most offices know how much they’ll charge for the procedure but as far as what the insurance will pay, they may not know 100% so they’ll tell you to contact the insurance. now, the insurance more than likely won’t know what the provider will bill but they usually have approved amounts they’ll pay up to for procedures, and they should be able to tell you that. \nsource : worked for 1800Medicare and got a lot of shit behind this. ", "Each payer has their own fee schedule, and each CPT (procedure) code has a fee attached to it. A lot of things could affect the pricing-if the procedure takes extra work, isn’t successful, etc. a pricing modifier is then placed on the CPT which changes the fee. \n\n*I’ve been a medical coder and auditor for 9+ years. " ] }
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6628w2
the process of how our taxes go to certain things
For example, you have x% deducted from your paycheck at the end of the week, how does that money go to its allotted purpose? What about sales tax?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6628w2/eli5_the_process_of_how_our_taxes_go_to_certain/
{ "a_id": [ "dgezfsn" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Your employer will send it to the government (i.e. the IRS in the USA) and then they send it to wherever it has been decided that it should go.\n\nWith sales tax the shop will add it up for each accounting period and then send it to the relevant government department too.\n\nUsually the money itself goes to a bank to repay a loan, because most governments borrow the money they spend on things and then repay it from taxes they collect later on" ] }
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jmgv8
i just traveled to russia. instead of flying west, why couldn't we have just flown over the north pole?
I understand the principles of curved flight paths being the shortest route, but i have never seen a flight path that goes over the top of the planet. Bonus points: At what point does north switch to south when you go towards the north pole? Thanks ELI5ers!
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jmgv8/eli5_i_just_traveled_to_russia_instead_of_flying/
{ "a_id": [ "c2dbpxd", "c2dcngv", "c2dcp8d", "c2dfldx", "c2dbpxd", "c2dcngv", "c2dcp8d", "c2dfldx" ], "score": [ 19, 2, 48, 5, 19, 2, 48, 5 ], "text": [ "I have to ask - from which city to which city? Both the US and Russia are very large countries, and if you go from Washington (DC) to Moskva, the direct-route flightplan will go directly over the south tip of Greenland, and then over Iceland.\n\nLike so: _URL_0_\n\nOtherwise, I imagine the explanation is that most commercial flights are directed to reserved \"flight corridors\" - areas of the skies, set aside for types of flight (there are also military flight corridors, and civilian flight corridors for sightseers (above NY city, for example)", "Airplanes, especially commercial ones aren't just allowed to fly wherever the hell they want!\n\nIt requires all kinds of deals between countries to let planes fly over certain areas of that country. Flying there without a license can be seen as an attack and planes have been shot down before...\n\nTherefore using the \"safe route\" is a lot easier and cheaper than trying to convince all the involved parties to allow flights over the North pole, especially if only a few flights would use it. ", "A civilian aeroplane must be within 60 - 180 minutes (aircraft dependent) of an alternative airport to land at in emergencies. It's possible that the most efficient route would pass through these no go areas.\n\nFor more information\n\n* [ETOPS Wikipedia Article](_URL_2_)\n* [Great Circle Mapper](_URL_0_)\n* [Your route with 90 minutes ETOPS](_URL_1_)", "If they flew over the north pole you would be able to see the secret hollow earth entrance. They can't have that happening.", "I have to ask - from which city to which city? Both the US and Russia are very large countries, and if you go from Washington (DC) to Moskva, the direct-route flightplan will go directly over the south tip of Greenland, and then over Iceland.\n\nLike so: _URL_0_\n\nOtherwise, I imagine the explanation is that most commercial flights are directed to reserved \"flight corridors\" - areas of the skies, set aside for types of flight (there are also military flight corridors, and civilian flight corridors for sightseers (above NY city, for example)", "Airplanes, especially commercial ones aren't just allowed to fly wherever the hell they want!\n\nIt requires all kinds of deals between countries to let planes fly over certain areas of that country. Flying there without a license can be seen as an attack and planes have been shot down before...\n\nTherefore using the \"safe route\" is a lot easier and cheaper than trying to convince all the involved parties to allow flights over the North pole, especially if only a few flights would use it. ", "A civilian aeroplane must be within 60 - 180 minutes (aircraft dependent) of an alternative airport to land at in emergencies. It's possible that the most efficient route would pass through these no go areas.\n\nFor more information\n\n* [ETOPS Wikipedia Article](_URL_2_)\n* [Great Circle Mapper](_URL_0_)\n* [Your route with 90 minutes ETOPS](_URL_1_)", "If they flew over the north pole you would be able to see the secret hollow earth entrance. They can't have that happening." ] }
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[ [ "http://imgur.com/pJ2Z8" ], [], [ "http://gc.kls2.com/faq.html#$etops", "http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=DME-JFK%0D%0A&amp;RANGE=&amp;PATH-COLOR=red&amp;PATH-UNITS=mi&amp;PATH-MINIMUM=&amp;SPEED-GROUND=&amp;SPEED-UNITS=kts&amp;RANGE-STYLE=best&amp;RANGE-COLOR=navy&amp;MAP-STYLE=&amp;ETOPS=90", "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS" ], [], [ "http://imgur.com/pJ2Z8" ], [], [ "http://gc.kls2.com/faq.html#$etops", "http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=DME-JFK%0D%0A&amp;RANGE=&amp;PATH-COLOR=red&amp;PATH-UNITS=mi&amp;PATH-MINIMUM=&amp;SPEED-GROUND=&amp;SPEED-UNITS=kts&amp;RANGE-STYLE=best&amp;RANGE-COLOR=navy&amp;MAP-STYLE=&amp;ETOPS=90", "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS" ], [] ]
64zatv
why do we just "click" with some people?
Sometimes, I just click with someone. A single group Skype call with them or a first time talking to them can finish with a good friendship. Others, not so much. I can go to dozens of gatherings with them and see them daily yet despite that there's just something missing between us and there's a feeling that we'll never be friends. Why is this? Is it because we only get drawn to similar people? Do first impressions count so much they affect years in the future? Or is there some deep psychology to this?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64zatv/eli5_why_do_we_just_click_with_some_people/
{ "a_id": [ "dg669dn", "dg66n0o", "dg69t2i" ], "score": [ 6, 15, 6 ], "text": [ "I'm completely introverted and it takes me a while to come out of my shell. For some reason certain people come talk to me over and over regardless of how awkward it is since I'm also socially really deficient. Eventually I crack and we can become really good friends from there. That's the closest to clicking I get. I don't typically go out of my way to talk to people. In fact I don't think I've initiated a single friendship that I can remember since my late middle school days. Guess it's just different for everybody.", "Because our personalities relate in some manner. I figured this out by looking into it and wondering my friends were my friends. It really just came down to being weird, funny, spontaneous, talkitive and stuff like that. My brain just likes these people and gets a 'high' off of them. Sorta like a drug", "The general answer is \"Similar Personalities\" - but for you to find out if someone has similar likes/dislikes and approaches can take quite a while. The more specific answer I think is humor. Humor is generally universal, but what you find humorous can be extremely specific. Since there's so many types and approaches to humor it's a great indicator of other things in that person's life.\n\nLPT - try to start off every relationship with a joke, could save you a lot of time " ] }
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3ws1ll
how can i turn off 10 alarms in five minute intervals and fall back asleep without even being able to remember this happening?
About once a month I'm very late to work because of this shit, and I usually don't even remember doing it. I'm very slow in the mornings anyway, but it's so frustrating when I can't even remember choosing to go back to sleep..
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ws1ll/eli5_how_can_i_turn_off_10_alarms_in_five_minute/
{ "a_id": [ "cxylocf" ], "score": [ 8 ], "text": [ "Same - I'm a nightmare to wake up of a morning. I can function like I'm awake but actually be asleep! \n\nI managed to find a brilliant alarm though. It makes you do maths (of varying levels of difficulty) before it'll switch off. Your brain has got to click into gear instead of autopilot and you do wake up! \n\nEdit: It's called \"alarm clock plus\" and it's by a company called binary tactics. " ] }
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22iei5
i hear that there are several types of twins. how many types are there? can you please explain?
Google tells me there are 8. It also tells me there can be 10 different types. I'm a bit confused. All I know is identical and non-identical twins. Would someone please explain. Thanks.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22iei5/eli5_i_hear_that_there_are_several_types_of_twins/
{ "a_id": [ "cgn44hg", "cgn45aq", "cgn4d1j", "cgn4j3v" ], "score": [ 2, 3, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "I always though there was only two. Fraternal and Identical.", "I'm not sure how the sources break it down, but there are a few ways they could arrive at that number.\n\nFirst, identical and non-identical could more properly be called monozygotic and dizygotic respectively. A zygote is the cell you get when a sperm and egg combine. Monozygotic means they come from one egg/sperm combination, and dizygotic means they come from two. The embryos develop from a zygote by division.\n\nMonozygotic twins mostly occur when an embryo spontaneously divides in two. They almost completely share their genetic makeup because they are from one sperm-egg combination; differences come from mutations during development and are usually not enough to make them look different. They are almost always the same gender of course, but there are *very* rare cases where they can be different; this usually occurs when either the sperm or the egg has two or more sex chromosomes. Strictly speaking then, you have male-male, female-female, and the very rare male-female identical twins.\n\nDizygotic twins happen when two eggs are fertilized at the same time. They therefore only share the same amount of genetic information as you can expect from any sets of brothers or sisters (this is of course actually a range and not a set amount). They may be male-male, male-female, and female-female.\n\nThere is another rare case called semi-identical twins. They share the same maternal genetics but different paternal genetics. This can by a couple ways: two sperm fertilize one egg, producing a triploid zygote (rather than diploid as usual) and the zygote splits. Another is called polar twins. An egg basically has three genetically identical cells called polar bodies with it; a sperm can fertilize one of these though it's extremely rare. \n\nThen of course there are conjoined twins which occur when an embryo partially splits during development.", "Well you do basically have two types of twins, identical (made when one egg splits into two) and fraternal (when two eggs get's impregnated at the same time). You could separate identical twins into a few categories depending on when the egg split, but far as I know it's not really done that much. At least not enough to talk about different types.\n\nHowever you do have a few special cases that are interesting, so that might be what they mean?\n\nSuperfetation: Sometimes someone can get pregnant even if they are already pregnant. If this happens they are in a way still twins, since they are in the stomach at the same time (and they might be born on the same time), but they are conceived at different times. \n\nHeteropaternal Superfecundation: Also sort of cool. If a girl has sex with two people close together she can get pregnant from both of them at the same time. So you get two twins that are half-brothers. \n\nConjoined twins: This is normal twins that just lie a little too close, so they grow together. In this vein you also have parasitic twins. This is conjoined twins where one develops normally, but one don't \n\nPolar Body Twins: There is a theory that sometimes the egg splits into two before being impregnated. In this case the twins would have identical DNA from their mothers, but different from the father. \n\nThat's all the types I can think of, but there might be a few more edge cases, where things go wrong and the twins differ in different ways.", "Well... there are monozygotic, which are twins that form from a single zygote that splits into two zygotes early on. These have the same genetic info as they started as one fertilized egg, so these are identical. \n\nThere are dizygotic, which are fraternal/soroal twins, forming from two eggs and two sperm and thus having two different genetic codes. \n\nHalf Identical Twins happen when two sperm have a devil's threesome with one egg. This results in one of two ways: Sesquizygotic- where the sperm both fertilize at opposite ends and the zygote splits or Polar Body, where the egg splits and then gets fertilized by two sperm. These result in the babies have the same genes from the mom, and different genes from the dad. \n\nConjoined Twins start as monozygotes, but the zygote never completely splits, so the babies develop attached. \n\nChimeric Twins are basically conjoined twins, but one is only partially formed. Usually there is some freaky deaky skin patterns or eye discoloration. The most extreme case I've read about was a woman who was actually using her chimera twin's ovaries as well as her own. This came to light when it was discovered that she was not the mother of her own children. Her \"sister\"'s ovaries had produced the eggs that her husband had fertilized and she carried to term. \n\nThere are also parasitic twins, where one twin drains the nutrients from the other, until they die (monozygotic twins share a placenta). And Molar twins (monozygotic where one twin's body consumes the other like a cancer early on in gestation). \n\nThat's 8. And technically, you can count Miscarriage twins (one twin is miscarried, the other goes full term) and Vanishing twins (twins from initially, but one never reaches cellular cohesion and dissolves early on becoming a gummy mass in the amniotic fluid and is eventually consumed by the other twin). Counting those, you get 10. \n\nThere is also the Minnesota Twins. These are identifiable by sucking at baseball. " ] }
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3ff2os
why is gold the standard of wealth when things like iron, wood, or food may be more useful and fossils (ie) may be just as rare.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ff2os/eli5why_is_gold_the_standard_of_wealth_when/
{ "a_id": [ "cto039k", "cto0fpd", "cto0oeo", "cto1q80", "cto3ofi" ], "score": [ 11, 3, 4, 14, 2 ], "text": [ "It's shiny. Steel can rust, wood rot, but gold does not corrode. Gold jewelry lasts for thousands of years.", "Gold is very non reactive. I bet early civilizations liked it cause it was shiny, but noticed the fact that it didn't change over time like iron", "You don't want your main currency to rapidly shift in value due to changes in price and demand. Hence why resources like iron, wood and food are not a great idea.\n\nEven for gold this was a problem. Spain created a financial crisis when it started shipping in gold from the new world.", "A few reasons:\n\n1. Gold is rare. If you're going to use something as a medium of exchange, you need it to have a stable supply. You want to know that when you accept a gold coin for your goods or service, it will still have a similar value next year when you spend it. \n\n2. Gold doesn't tarnish, so you can store value. Iron rusts, wood rots, food spoils. We still find gold coins from the ancient world that are in good shape today.\n\n3. Gold is very dense. At the time it started to be used as a currency, it was the most dense metal known. This made it impossible to counterfeit, as any additives would decrease the weight of the coin and be immediately identifiable. \n\n4. Gold is easy to work with. It is soft and melts at a relatively low temperature. If you decide your gold coins are too big, you can easily melt them down and recast them into smaller coins.", "Take a listen to this episode of Planet Money by NPR. They basically go through all of the elements on the periodic table of elements, and give reasons why most of them wouldn't work as a currency. \n\n_URL_0_" ] }
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[ [], [], [], [], [ "http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131430755/a-chemist-explains-why-gold-beat-out-lithium-osmium-einsteinium" ] ]
9d2nwt
how do light dimmers work?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9d2nwt/eli5_how_do_light_dimmers_work/
{ "a_id": [ "e5ezk2s", "e5ezkbs", "e5ezm9c", "e5f1prz", "e5fc4om", "e5fed8f" ], "score": [ 4, 2, 3, 3, 4, 3 ], "text": [ "They change the amount of power that is going to the lightbulb thus decreasing or increasing the luminosity.", "Traditional dimmer switches divert some of the energy that would go through the circuit and to the lightbulb and send it through resistors.", "the real ELI5: the turning switch controls the voltage, less voltage in = less energy (light) out \n\n\nEli~5: _URL_0_ visuals from here will help a lot. ", "If you switch an led on and off too fast it just looks dimmer. This might happen if, say, you're programming a microcontroller to flash a row of lights in sequence and didn't think to include a timer/countdown after each flash. ", "Depends on what kind of dimming. These days it seems to be either DC control - so just increasing or reducing the amount of DC voltage the lighting system is receiving (popular for flicker-free backlighing on LCD panels);\n\nor PWM (pulse width modulation) dimming, where the lighting is switched on and off many thousands of times per second, based on a \"duty cycle\" signal received.", "Older ones used a resistor, wasting some power as heat and sending the rest to the light bulb, but more modern ones us what’s called “PWM” which basically means they turn the power on and off very very quickly so that the lamp is on for less time in a second, therefore appearing less bright." ] }
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[ [], [], [ "https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5-wPkFv6eJE" ], [], [], [] ]
2270n1
since jupiter is composed of mostly hydrogen, would it be possible to ignite it?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2270n1/eli5_since_jupiter_is_composed_of_mostly_hydrogen/
{ "a_id": [ "cgjxpg9", "cgk26ql" ], "score": [ 11, 3 ], "text": [ "Only if there was enough oxygen (or some other similar agent that readily combines with hydrogen) to allow for combustion. I don't believe that it is mixed that way through most of the planet. ", "Fun Fact. The Mass that makes up Jupiter's inner layer is believed to be \"Metallic Hydrogen\". This is not actually a solid metal that you would think of on earth though. The hydrogen within Jupiter is more like a super dense liquid, but not a solid. This hydrogen is under so much pressure that the atomic properties shift, and the hydrogen can begin to conduct Electricity! If you look at the periodic table of elements you'll see that Hydrogen is actually on top of the Alkali Metal group, which I believe is why it can conduct electricity under these specific circumstances. \n\n_URL_0_" ] }
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[ [], [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen" ] ]
19z3oc
heaters and power usage
In an effort to save as much as I can on my gas and electric bill, I've been trying to understand what the most efficient way to heat my house (really, just my living room). My house has gas central heating with a boiler and radiators in each room. My gas bill has been sky high this winter with rather conservative use, so I've tried looking into other types of heat, like halogen heaters, oil-filled electric radiators, and fan heaters. The most detailed explanations I've seen say something along the lines of that they use the exact same amount of energy to put out the same amount of heat. I'm sure that probably makes sense somehow but I can't quite wrap my head around it. So can anyone explain exactly how efficient these types of heaters are for heating my living room (not really bothered about the rest of the house!)? (My radiators vs. a halogen heater vs. an oil-filled radiator vs. a fan heater.)
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19z3oc/eli5_heaters_and_power_usage/
{ "a_id": [ "c8snqpr", "c8st9tf" ], "score": [ 3, 2 ], "text": [ "Well the short answer is that all heaters convert some kind of energy into heat. How efficiently they do that depends on both the type of conversion and the specific product. A poorly made product will have a worse conversion ration and more loss than a quality product. Which is cheapest or most cost effective can depend a lot on fuel and electricity prices in your area.\n\nAs a rule of thumb space heaters aren't exactly the best method for heating rooms. Their first focus is usually portability rather than efficiency which makes them a poor choice for heating decent sized rooms. They can also be fire and CO2 hazards.\n\nYou can also look into cast iron wood stoves or multi fuel stoves. They require a relatively high initial investment in the form of constructing a flue hole and buying a cast iron stove, but they do produce a lot of heat and fuel can be cheaper than conventional means of heating in some places.", "I have the answer. I have dealt with the gas vs. electric in the small colorado town of Gunnison, which often got -35 in the winter and got to a record -50 when I lived there in the winter of 2002. It was dangerous. \n\nI was allergic to the gas by-product fumes so I was forced to use electric space heaters. They turned out to be marvelously efficient with only 2 units creating a cross-pattern of heat in my small efficiency. Here is an example of the best electric space heater I used. I don't know if it is the exact model, but it was a Patton. It's called a Milkhouse heater. [Check it out](_URL_0_)" ] }
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[ [], [ "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003C1W9DU/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1" ] ]
7p26ip
osi layer functions
Everything I read makes each layer sound very similar. Anyone care to break it down for me?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7p26ip/eli5_osi_layer_functions/
{ "a_id": [ "dsdyyzx" ], "score": [ 8 ], "text": [ "Layer 1 (physical layer) is how you transmit your message (through the air, through copper wire, through fiber optic cable, etc.).\n\nLayer 2 (data link layer) is how you communicate with the device next to you. You don't care whether you're connected to the device via radios or fiber optic cables or wires, just that you're connected.\n\nLayer 3 (network layer) is how you send a message to any other device on the network, even if it's not directly connected to you.\n\nLayer 4 (transport layer) is about how you communicate with the computer on the other end. As far as you're concerned, when looking at level 4, the messages may as well teleport directly from your computer to the other computer, but layer 4 will cover things like making sure the message arrives reliably and in-order. \n\nThe separation between the higher layers is a bit more murky. By the time you get to layer 4, you have your core network working- you can send messages between any two computers. The higher levels are about how applications interpret the data that was sent across the network." ] }
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2yjgha
why is marriage a thing?
Where did the custom originate and why is it still relevant in today's context? Romanticism aside, what is the actual function of two people joining together in matrimony? It's not procreation, as that can happen out of wedlock. So what is it? Edit: Left out romanticism because I understand the romantic idealisation of a relationship culminating in a marriage as a 'successful' end point. More curious about the functional/practical reasons that marriage was created and why it still exists beyond the social ideals of romance.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yjgha/eli5_why_is_marriage_a_thing/
{ "a_id": [ "cpa3apj", "cpa3oib", "cpa3tkk" ], "score": [ 8, 6, 2 ], "text": [ "Marriage is a legal contract where a man offers his excess resources to a woman so she has the resources to breed. SInce men lack a uterus marriage is a way to \"buy\" the use of one from your wife. In exchange the wife is guaranteed access to her husbands resources so she can focus on their mutual procreation.\n\nThe legal protections of marriage are there to make sure the man and woman have a social assurance that their needs will be met. It's origins are probably lost to time as pair bonding is a thing in other species as well as humans. ", " > Where did the custom originate and why is it still relevant in today's context?\n\nMarriage was a business transaction. Women were property, children were resources. \n\n > Romanticism aside, what is the actual function of two people joining together in matrimony? \n\nDepends on culture and government. In French law, any child born to a married women is *by law* her husbands child - regardless of biology. In other countries, there are still the \"transaction\" reasons. In America, its still very much about creating a family - many laws and social customs support married parents as opposed to non married ones. \n\n > It's not procreation, as that can happen out of wedlock. So what is it?\n\nIt is though. The baby doesn't just raise itself. \n\nIts also a public commitment to that partner. In America at least, we still very much hold monogamy and the idea of \"soul mates\" and \"true love\" near and dear to our social hearts. ", "From what I've read, the earliest recorded marriage-like structures were for the purposes of property management and inheritance.\n\nIt's still relevant in today's context because people believe it is relevant (that's how culture works). It's still used for property management and inheritance, as well as other socially and civilly designated rights and responsibilities, such as the ability to make medical decisions for the partner or the default expectation of monogamy." ] }
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opjyv
the ultraviolet catastrophe
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/opjyv/eli5_the_ultraviolet_catastrophe/
{ "a_id": [ "c3j0yk2" ], "score": [ 7 ], "text": [ "There's an equation called the Rayleigh-Jeans law. You can derive it from other equations that were known to hold at the time, and it describes how things at a given temperature emit light. The problem is that it predicts that everything should emit infinite amounts of high energy light; this was called the ultraviolet catastrophe, because things obviously *don't* emit infinite amounts of energy. " ] }
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aok7jb
how can some game services (origin for my case) allow you to play games mid-way through download, before it's complete?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aok7jb/eli5_how_can_some_game_services_origin_for_my/
{ "a_id": [ "eg1fwah", "eg1g1oq", "eg1giu4" ], "score": [ 4, 3, 2 ], "text": [ "Most of what makes a modern game so huge is the assets, especially graphical ones like character models and maps.\n\nSo if they have it ordered in such a way where the base game code downloads, along with the assets needed for the first couple levels or so, you can play the game while it works to download the rest of the levels and stuff in the background.", "What takes the longest to download is usually assets (models, images, video files etc), while the programming itself takes up a relatively small amount of space.\n\nThus, if you only download the assets needed for the first stage of the game, you can allow gameplay while downloading the assets for the second stage of the game.\n\nAlso, for many games that works like this (I know World of Warcraft uses this method), it will download the lowest quality textures and models first to get it to a playable state as fast as possible.", "Depending on the game (e.g. WoW, GW2, most other MMOs as well allow you to play while downloading), many will install essential files required to load the base game FIRST, and save optional files only utilized in later-game for later in the installation.\n\nFor example, in games such as WoW, playing as soon as you are able to while still installing the rest of the game, you will notice the graphics are horrible compared to the options you have for graphics when your installation is completely done. This is because optional higher resolutions and features are not prioritized first. \n\nAnother example of how games may set this up is seen in GW2, where the first few zones are prioritized first when being installed so the player can jump right in; and if the player tries to enter any zone that is not finished, they can request it be prioritized in the installation of files so it can be entered nearly immediately. \n\nHope this covers what you were asking!" ] }
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1pqxtc
even though other countries have cheaper labour and cheaper ways to produce goods, why is everything still "made in china"?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pqxtc/eli5_even_though_other_countries_have_cheaper/
{ "a_id": [ "cd52kjp", "cd558b1", "cd55vj9", "cd56duz" ], "score": [ 45, 2, 2, 2 ], "text": [ "Chinese Labor is still very cheap, especially compared to most of the developed world.\n\nBut more importantly, China has all of the infrastructure already in place to manufacture goods on a massive scale. They have the factories, the organizational process, the business relationships, the shipping ports, everything you need to make and sell THINGS.\n\nIt's not as easy as it sounds to move a factory. There's huge expenses. It takes literally years to build one from scratch, and that's just the factory.", "Almost anywhere else you run the risk of inflating the economy to the point where workers will begin to expect rights. The few other countries that could absorb that kind of income don't have governmental powers in place to ensure worker compliance in a market with so many readily available jobs. Regional powers from within the country would begin to compete with each-other. \n\nChina has the stability to enforce worker compliance while at the same time has the population to absorb the increased number of jobs into the economy without changing the class structure. \n\nIt's a horribly unjust and abusive system. Corporations would have us believe that it is the only affordable way to mass produce consumables on a world scale in the current system, but that's a lie. All it's good for is ensuring that the corporations themselves can hoard vast amounts of resources instead of putting them back into the economy as intended for capitalism to function. ", "Even though some people relate crappy made stuff coming from China, they are actually the leading country in [ISO9000 quality certificates](_URL_0_). ", "You have to remember that by \"cheap\" one means \"low cost\". One cost you must include is the cost of moving production from one location to another. If production is currently in a Chinese factory, and it costs (for the ease of explanation) $100,000 per month to operate the factory, if you recommend sending that production to another country (let's say India) which would cost $80,000 per month, a clear savings, right? More profits, right? \n\nThe problem is the cost of moving production from China to India could cost a billion dollars! Perhaps the factory cannot be sold in China so that would be one of the costs you have to factor it. \n\nTake, for example, tuna canneries in America Samoa. Congress kept increasing the minimum wage in AS until the costs were so high that the companies decided to leave America Samoa and move to automated processes. \n\nLong before they actually left AS, the costs of doing business there were very high (minimum wage increases, the VERY HIGH cost of shipping supplies/produce to/from AS, etc), however, the costs did not exceed the opportunity costs (cost of not doing something else/producing elsewhere) so they didn't move. \n\nEventually the costs grew too high and some of the canneries decided to shut down to try automated production methods. \n\nSimilarly, there may be cheaper labor in other countries, but the production is currently set up in China, so it is still cheaper, after all costs are considered, to stay in China. As the Chinese government interferes more and more with production facilities in China (they recently removed some tax breaks, for example) the costs will rise. \n\nIf the costs increase too much, you will certainly see movement out of China. " ] }
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[ [], [], [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000" ], [] ]
5bqs4z
- why does the urge to urinate or deficate come and go, instead of remaining constant until it's relieved?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5bqs4z/eli5_why_does_the_urge_to_urinate_or_deficate/
{ "a_id": [ "d9qlsfg", "d9qm1ge", "d9qq9b9", "d9qs9x3", "d9r08wp", "d9r2072" ], "score": [ 14, 314, 7, 2, 4, 145 ], "text": [ "You're urethra has two valves, the first (closest to the bladder) is made of smooth connective tissue and is involuntary, it allows urine to pass once a certain volume is obtained. The second contains skeletal muscle and is voluntary. If you're in a situation where you aren't around a restroom your body can involuntarily close the first valve, making the sensation of having to go disperse. \n", "Nerves really can only detect changes in signals. If you've been drinking at night sit outside and stare at one particular light as strongly as you can. You'll notice your peripheral vision fade to black and you'll experience temporary blindness.\n\n\nAlso if you're laying in bed with your arm across your body, lay as perfectly still as possible and eventually you'll loose sensation of your arm. \n\nAll sensory nerves work in this way. When fecal matter moves into your rectum, your pressure nerves signal that your bowels are filling/stretching, and you get the urge to empty them. If the volume stays the same you will not feel as strongly. However getting up/ jumping up and down, will reactivate the nerves.", "So far both answers make sense.", "The urge to urinate never goes away in my experience it just gets stronger and stronger to the point where it'll force itself out. But the urge to shit definitely goes away.", "I have noticed this as well. Once I had a severe turtle head and I thought I had it under control. Without warning the entire turtle jumped out.", "The short answer : It's a trained reflex.\n\nThe long answer : It's all in your head.\n\nLet's turn the clock back and put on some diapers.\n\nWhen humans are born, they are generally born with an intact nervous system. \n\nThis system has two components, an autonomic system, that has two arms, namely the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic systems.\n\nThe Parasympathetic system is our chief focus here. In layman's terms, this is the system that does most of the housekeeping. It's primary function is to keep the body running in tip-top order when there is no danger or threat around, and this involves things like eating, sleeping, urination and defecation.\n\nAs a child, we are born with the ability to sense a full bladder and a full rectum, but do not immediately know how to control it. The parasympathetic system is able to detect the filling of a bladder or the rectum by nerves that are stimulated by mechanical distention. This has its own unconscious feedback system to ensure that the bladder and rectum are emptied promptly to rid the body of waste.\n\nThat's why babies seem to poop and pee themselves all the time. They can't help it.\n\nNow, when cognition starts to develop, the child begins to learn how to control its impulses. This is where voluntary control comes in. In addition to an unconscious set of smooth muscles that poop and pee, we have a set of sphincters, basically rings of muscle, that we can actively control with our mind.\n\nAs the brain develops it learns that it is not always appropriate to poop or pee in certain situations, so it learns to suppress the urge to urinate. The signals that have come to the brain that signal the bladder is filling, will stop after some time, once the nerves have adjusted to the change in volume. After the brain has overcome the initial urge to go to the bathroom, the sensation goes away for some time until the bladder/rectum gets filled further.\n\nThere are other situations where this urge can be overridden, such as during sexual excitement, extreme situations of stress (Not always), and in places where it's not possible to actually relieve yourself. That's sometimes why dancing around helps a little with controlling the urge. It's a bit like mental distraction until the elephant in the room goes away.\n\nAfter a while though, once the bladder or rectum reach their filling point, the urge will override your voluntary control, and you will feel the extreme need to relieve yourself.\n\nAs an added note, there are instances where this urge is uncontrollable, and people who don't attend the call of nature immediately find themselves in an awkward situation. This is what's called urge incontinence, and it's either due to bad urination habits, or a bladder that is being irritated by some toxic insult.\n\nTL;DR\n\nThe urge is only a temporary warning from a filling bladder or rectum to empty out the trash, but it can be ignored by training the brain. Much like any other habit, the brain can exert control over the decision to pass urine or stools, but only up to a certain point.\n\nPeople who experience spinal cord injury may not be able to appreciate the urge, i.e. they cannot feel their bladder filling, and may sometimes find they have no control over their bladder either." ] }
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1vpjod
what are psychoactive pharmaceuticals made out of?
I've learned about the basic mechanisms of these drugs in psychology, but am absolutely at a loss as to how someone would produce them. Just as opioid painkillers trace their manufacturing origins to poppy seeds, what is the raw ingredient for a stimulant like Adderall or an SSRI like Prozac? Any other literature or videos on the subject that can be understood by someone with little knowledge of the subject would be appreciated.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vpjod/eli5_what_are_psychoactive_pharmaceuticals_made/
{ "a_id": [ "ceujwev", "ceul7er" ], "score": [ 2, 3 ], "text": [ "Can vary a lot really. You can find SSRIs in dirt and some plants like St John's wart, you have the infamous magic mushrooms and all that for hallucinogens, nicotine in tabacco, etc.\n\nThere's also just a lot of different means of going about synthesizing these drugs without anything but chemicals without any of the desired properties to begin with. There's so many little variants that need this modification or that to a general synthesis or a new synthesis method entirely.\n\n", "It very heavily depends on the compound. Take adderall, which is a mixture of amphetamine salts:\nOne way would be toluene (pine oil, coal or petroleum derivative) is oxidized (usually through liquid phase chlorination) to benzaldehyde, or you can source that from bitter almond oil. Add nitroethane, which is produced by reacting propane with nitric acid at heat. These are reacted with base and then a palladium catalyst to reduce.\n\nAnother way is to take toluene + Cl > benzyl chloride; benzyl Cl + Na cyanide > benzyl cyanide; hydrolyze with acid to phenylacetone; this is reacted with hydroxylamine (itself having a several-step synthesis process basically involving ammonium nitrite, sulfur dioxide, and sulfuric acid).\n\nEssentially every synthesis of amphetamine is many steps removed from the initial sources. It is an entirely synthetic drug.\n\nCursory searches indicate fluoxetine (Prozac) and therefore presumably the other SSRIs are the same way. Same with first-generation antipsychotics." ] }
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2p5umu
how do you become stateless and live on other countries?
I just read this article: _URL_0_ So my question is how do you live in any country if you don't have a valid passport or citizenship?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p5umu/eli5how_do_you_become_stateless_and_live_on_other/
{ "a_id": [ "cmtms5d" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "\"Statelessness\" is a \"Fast and Dirty\" way to arrange to live abroad. If you are in a country, you can go to your Consulate in that country and renounce your citizenship.\n\nOnce you have done that, the country in which you currently reside really has nowhere to send you. No other country will accept you, so your current country of residence really has no choice other than to keep you or kill you." ] }
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[ "http://rt.com/business/213803-bitcoin-saves-stateless-people/" ]
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4mz9tl
how to ftm transgenders end up with big beards and other features generally seen only on men?
I just read an article about a girl who transitioned to male and he had surgery to have his genitals changed. In one picture of him, he had a full beard. How is this possible if he is biologically female?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4mz9tl/eli5how_to_ftm_transgenders_end_up_with_big/
{ "a_id": [ "d3zgq2b", "d3zgv5k", "d3zhqjw", "d3zkwvx", "d3zr6p0" ], "score": [ 18, 7, 5, 3, 2 ], "text": [ "They take androgenic hormones. Men don't grow hair on their face because of the Y chromosome, they grow it because of testosterone. So if you give a woman testosterone, she'll start growing hair too.", "Most transgender people take hormones as part of their transition. A transman (so someone who was born female, but transitioned to a man) will commonly be on testosterone which stimulates beard growth. In combination with their genetics (just like how not all men will be able to grow a big beard), some can grow a really impressive big beard", "The idea that men grow beards and women don't is simply a generalization, not a fact. Not all men can grow beards, and there exist women who can grow beards.", "With hormones, specifically testosterone. Cis men [ men who are not transgender ] don't grow facial hair because of the Y chromosome, they grow it because of testosterone. though obviously not all trans men will grow beards bc genetics is still a factor, it's just that testosterone \"unlocks\" the ability to grow facial hair?", "Hormones.\n\nThis is embarrassing to admit, but might explain things.\n\nI am a cis female. Two X chromosomes and no disorders of sexual development. And I have to shave to eliminate facial hair.\n\nNow mind you, it's not as thick as most men's, but I will definitely have noticeable stubble if I miss a day.\n\nThis hair growth has nothing to do with chromosomes and everything to do with hormones. As an interesting counterpoint, look up \"androgen insensitivity syndrome\". In short: folks with a Y chromosome, due to a generic mutation, are variably resistant to the effects of androgens (hence the name). Those with COMPLETE AIS have a Y chromosome but develop as phenotypically female: shallow vagina, breasts, and limited body hair. So as you can see, hair growth is definitely more about hormone levels than chromosomes :)" ] }
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e0de90
how is it that every winter i'll have a few random flies that somehow get into my house when the weather outside is too harsh for their survival,
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e0de90/eli5_how_is_it_that_every_winter_ill_have_a_few/
{ "a_id": [ "f8dcvup" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "This is better in r/answers." ] }
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aew5s9
how does silicon turn into a cpu that can calculate things?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aew5s9/eli5_how_does_silicon_turn_into_a_cpu_that_can/
{ "a_id": [ "edt7ddh" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "That silicon (along with some other stuff) is shaped into transistors. Transistors are essentially switches with no moving parts that run entirely on electricity.\n\nBy organizing switches in complicated patterns you can construct engines capable of handling logical statements and doing arithmetic.\n\nYou can google things like [logic gates](_URL_1_) and [adders](_URL_0_) to see (relatively) simple examples of this.\n\nYou could theoretically accomplish the same things with comparatively giant mechanical switches (in fact, this is how some of the very earliest computers worked)." ] }
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[ [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adder_(electronics)", "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate" ] ]
3ei1dd
the current privacy reminder from google.
Recently, a link to a privacy reminder from Google shows up before the first link on any Google search. It says a bunch of stuff about how Google collects data on searches to somehow^? improve user experience, and then asks you to agree. Could someone ELI5 what this means, what they want you to agree to, and why they are sending this message out right now (has something changed)? I know this shows up when doing searches in Chrome, but I'm unsure about whether Firefox/Safari/other browsers are affected.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ei1dd/eli5_the_current_privacy_reminder_from_google/
{ "a_id": [ "ctf54ee" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "When you search something using Google, they keep track of what links you click on and whether you go back and click on something else later (and how long it took you to do that). This gives them a pretty good estimation of \"did this link answer your question\". They also keep track of what you search for to figure out what you're interested in so that they can show you ads relevant to your interests, both on Google sites and on any sites that have ads from Google's ad network. \n\nMy guess is that you're in Europe and Google was required to post that message as part of a ruling from some European court over privacy concerns because they're collecting the data you give them (the search information)." ] }
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3r60ir
why don't the oceans mix in the alaskan gulf?
Why is there solid break line between these two oceans, instead of a smooth transition from one to another? _URL_0_
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3r60ir/eli5why_dont_the_oceans_mix_in_the_alaskan_gulf/
{ "a_id": [ "cwl7j4x" ], "score": [ 8 ], "text": [ "They do. Basically the lighter color water is glacial run-off, and it's full of iron and ice and other stuff, and the dark blue water is normal ocean water.\n\nThey DO eventually mix, but it's common to see these clear lines at certain times.\n\nMore details here: _URL_0_" ] }
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[ "http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1qcy51_two-oceans-meet-but-do-not-mix_news" ]
[ [ "http://www.adn.com/article/mythbusting-place-where-two-oceans-meet-gulf-alaska" ] ]
1khs3v
are there any other animals that do things like farm, build villages or other things that humans did in our earliest evolutions?
And if so, why haven't those creatures eventually built cities, or utilize technology?
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1khs3v/are_there_any_other_animals_that_do_things_like/
{ "a_id": [ "cbp1xpe", "cbp2c9u" ], "score": [ 6, 2 ], "text": [ "There are a couple. I know that there are ants who do a few of those these things. For example, the leaf cutter ant cuts up pieces of leaves and they cultivate a type of fungus that the colony eats. \n\nOther types of ants raise aphids and collect their dew. Like cattle I guess haha. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n\nAlso to answer OP more. Insects really do build cities. Bees make those giant hives, termites and ants create huge cities and colonies. \n\nI'm not a evolution scientist or anything but I don't think the animals utilize technology because there was no reason to. They're already well off with what they have and don't require that additional technology to adapt to their habitat. ", "Certain species of octopus know how to fish. (That sounds weird)" ] }
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[ [ "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leafcutter_ant", "http://insects.about.com/od/coolandunusualinsects/f/antsandaphids.htm" ], [] ]
4djzn3
why when bump or tow starting a quad or car do we put it in 3rd gear? why would it not be easier in first gear to turn the engine due to gear ratios?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4djzn3/eli5_why_when_bump_or_tow_starting_a_quad_or_car/
{ "a_id": [ "d1roka3", "d1rqiuj" ], "score": [ 2, 3 ], "text": [ "Bump starting usually puts the car beyond the speed you would use for first gear, causing it to rev very high and maybe not starting at all, or jerking the car forward violently. It may also just...start.\n\nUsing second or third gear provides enough RPMs to roll the engine over but not so many that the car will stall or accelerate dangerously once the motor catches, it will just sort of idle along about the speed it was already rolling until the driver inputs some more controlled demands.\n\nEdit: just as a for example, my car in third gear with no input from the gas (idle engine speed) rolls itself along at 14 mph on level ground; about the speed a bump or running start uses. In first gear that would translate to about 5-6k RPM, a ridiculous amount for running around in a parking lot!", "You need to look at your gears backwards. You are trying to move the car to turn over the engine. Normally, you would use the engine to make the wheels turn.\n\nFirst gear is the gear in which the engine has the easiest time moving the car. Thus, it's the most difficult gear to turn the engine by moving the car.\n\nTop gear is the hardest gear for the engine to move the car. This makes it the easiest gear in which to turn the engine by moving the car.\n\nThis is why, when placing a car in a gear to hold it when parked, you would typically choose the lowest gear.\n\nIf you try to roll-start a car in first it will often just stop when you take your foot off the clutch.\n\nIf you try to roll-start a car in top gear, you have a hard time spinning the engine fast enough at the speed one can typically push a car.\n\nSo you pick something in between. It's a happy medium between too hard to spin the engine and spinning the engine to slowly to start it." ] }
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20y30g
why, exactly, can i see through glass and not steel.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20y30g/eli5_why_exactly_can_i_see_through_glass_and_not/
{ "a_id": [ "cg7tfk2" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ "Absorption in the ultraviolet and visible (UV-Vis) portions of the spectrum depends on whether the electron orbitals are spaced so that they can absorb a photon of a specific frequency. In glass electrons have no available energy levels above them in range of that associated with visible light, so light passes through it. It can still reflect light if the angle is right." ] }
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5xy164
how do websites like bitly and google (and maybe other websites) shorten links?
Do they host them? Sometimes I even see other links shortened, like Washington Post to _URL_0_ or something
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xy164/eli5_how_do_websites_like_bitly_and_google_and/
{ "a_id": [ "delrfnj" ], "score": [ 5 ], "text": [ "Say you tell _URL_0_ to generate a short link for your user profile page, Bitly will tell you to use a link that looks something like this: `_URL_0_/aabbcc`\n\nWhen you asked Bitly to generate the link, they write a note in their private database which says: \"The short link /aabbcc should send the user to the full URL _URL_1_\".\n\nThen when you go to the URL _URL_0_/aabbcc the Bitly website will generate a small, simple webpage based on the note in the database. That small, simple webpage will use some means to tell your browser to go to _URL_1_ instead (this can be an HTTP header or some Javascript code).\n\nURL shorteners are mainly used on Twitter due to its aggressive character limit. A lot of more technologically inclined people don't like URL shorteners, because (1) they hide exactly where a link is going to take you and (2) it allows Bitly to gather information on who's visiting what website, that's a little invasive (although TBH avoiding this sort of tracking on the web of 2017 is a losing battle for most people).\n" ] }
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[ "wpo.st" ]
[ [ "bit.ly", "https://www.reddit.com/user/ByeHammet", "bit.ly/aabbcc" ] ]
1g3oo4
how do charge cycles for batteries enhance the batteries' life? (ie: phone/computer batteries)
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g3oo4/eli5_how_do_charge_cycles_for_batteries_enhance/
{ "a_id": [ "cagguvo" ], "score": [ 2 ], "text": [ " > How do charge cycles for batteries enhance the batteries' life? (Ie: phone/computer batteries)\n\nI don't know what you mean by \"charge cycle\", but if you mean \"fully discharge, then charge\" that does not enhance the batteries life much. LiIon batteries don't suffer from a strong memory effect like the older types did (NiCd, NiMH batteries) so discharging e.g. to 70% and then charging again does not harm them ([source](_URL_1_)).\n\nIf you want to increase the batteries life charge them only to about 90-95% and skip the \"topping off\" charge because high voltages harm the batteries lifespan ([source](_URL_0_)). " ] }
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[ [ "http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries", "http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/do_and_dont_battery_table" ] ]
41ctwi
what is the seed's job in a pseudo-random generator?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41ctwi/eli5what_is_the_seeds_job_in_a_pseudorandom/
{ "a_id": [ "cz1duui" ], "score": [ 8 ], "text": [ "Multiply 32 by 98 over and over, repeat until you have enough digits. \nCongratulations, you have just created the world's crappiest psuedo-random number generator that basically fails every standard test, but gives you a bunch of digits. \nI bring this up because a better psuedo-random number generator works basically in similar manner. \nYou start with some number, you do stuff to that number until you got enough digits. \n32 is the seed for our crappy number generator, but you still need start somewhere; no matter how good the function is.\nA consequence is that if you start with the same number you will always get the exact same sequence of \"random\" digits. Because you are doing the same things to the same original number." ] }
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4xgqyi
how do the added flaps on the back of this truck make it more aerodynamic?
_URL_0_ It appears that the air that will come into contact with these flaps would normally already be past the vehicle, so how is it that they improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xgqyi/eli5_how_do_the_added_flaps_on_the_back_of_this/
{ "a_id": [ "d6fbu5m", "d6fbxah" ], "score": [ 16, 6 ], "text": [ "They disrupt the air the would normally \"roll\" off the trailer and create an area of low pressure behind it that pulls on the back of it. Basically they keep the air flowing straight back off the trailer. They are also good for destroying dock doors when drivers have a \"moment\"", "the low pressure and turbulence formed behind an abrubt end to the trailer creates alot of drag, those panels are intended to help smooth that slip stream and reduce the low pressure behind the truck.\n\nthink of it this way, in nascar, its easy to figure that someone drafting behind another car would be faster, but infact, it makes the car in front faster too because the follower creates some positive pressure behind the front car." ] }
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[ "http://www.ccjdigital.com/files/2013/11/ATDynamics-TrailerTail.jpg" ]
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y3nqn
"state's rights" and libertarianism, even if these things are related or not.
I had a conversation today with someone who kept saying they were libertarian and kept saying things about "states rights" and the founding fathers and how agencies like the TSA, DEA, and ATF shouldn't exist. I couldn't really contribute to the conversation because I didn't know what he was talking about.
explainlikeimfive
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/y3nqn/eli5_states_rights_and_libertarianism_even_if/
{ "a_id": [ "c5s1e7a", "c5s1nx8", "c5s2e9o" ], "score": [ 5, 3, 3 ], "text": [ "They're not necessarily related. Libertarianism is the idea that government should be very limited, while state's rights is the idea that the *federal* government should be very limited. It's possible to believe in one without believing in the other, but since they both agree that the federal government should be limited, they tend to be allied in modern American politics.", "Broadly speaking, libertarians are for smaller government. The degree to which they want government reduced varies, from a complete elimination of the state at the extreme, to more \"moderate\" reductions.\n\n\"State's rights\" is a big part of Ron Paul's brand of libertarianism, which is where I would guess your friend is taking his cues from, although the two ideologies aren't completely linked. Ron Paul appears to want a sharply reduced government at the federal level (hence no TSA, DEA, ATF, etc.), but has fewer concerns about the size and scope of state governments. For instance, he wants the federal government out of the debates on marijuana legalization and abortion, but accepts the right of the state to regulate both. Again, the definition of libertarian is a bit vague - it doesn't necessarily mean \"no government\", it means that individuals should be in control of their freedoms and liberties, and have the say over which they give up to an authority (with the caveat that they can reclaim them). State governments are smaller than the federal government, so the argument is that it's easier for an individual to have control over their liberties at that level, although with the massive size of some states, it's questionable how big the difference is.", "A true libertarian believes in minimal government at all levels.\n\nSome people call themselves libertarians, but really just believe in a minimal federal government, and have no problem with intrusive state and local government policies. Some of them oppose, say, the federal drug war, or federal policies on abortion, but then believe that states should be able to set their own policies criminalizing drugs, and their own restrictions on abortion. Ron Paul is one of these." ] }
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4ubymm
why does being at high altitude cause dehydration?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ubymm/eli5_why_does_being_at_high_altitude_cause/
{ "a_id": [ "d5oha3d" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Lower pressures make gasses evaporate easier, you lose more water at higher altitudes because atmospheric pressure is lower." ] }
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55wxr8
why do "daylight" bulbs emit blueish light when sunlight isn't blueish?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55wxr8/eli5_why_do_daylight_bulbs_emit_blueish_light/
{ "a_id": [ "d8eh5bi", "d8ex8kn" ], "score": [ 10, 2 ], "text": [ "The measurement is called Color Temperature, and is expressed in Kelvin. The higher the number, the bluer the light (think ROYGBIV). \n\nActual \"daylight\" varies in color temperature, depending on geographical location, weather/cloud cover, and time of day. 6500K (6500 Kelvin) is typical daylight. Think \"high noon through early afternoon\". However, daylight can actually be as low as 2000-3000K at sunrise and up to about 6500-7000K on an overcast day. Atmospheric disturbances can also play a role in this, with pollution and smog influencing the color temperature - sometimes making the light appear more red. \n\nDaylight bulbs tend to range from 5000K – 6500K, so depending on the factors mentioned above, this can be pretty close or it could be off by several thousand K. A big part of the reason why daylight doesn't look \"blue\" outside is because there isn't much else to compare it to, where competing light sources are concerned. Another factor deals with the objects the sun is hitting, and how they interact with your eyes (reflecting light back at you). However, if you see the sun streaming through the window and then compare it to a table lamp (2700K – 3000K), you will see that there is quite a difference. ", "Sunlight absolutely is blue, compared to incandescent bulbs. Or rather incandescents are yellow compared to the sun, same thing. Your eyes adjust automatically to the color difference so you don't really notice unless you're looking at both simultaneously. Old color cameras make the difference really obvious, but newer ones have a color-adjustment system built in." ] }
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fhyqwc
why does a pandemic cause such an economic downturn?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fhyqwc/eli5_why_does_a_pandemic_cause_such_an_economic/
{ "a_id": [ "fke0r4f" ], "score": [ 3 ], "text": [ "Here is a good example: College basketball in March is a billion dollar industry. This year it is a zero dollar industry." ] }
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51je8b
first time adulting... what do i need to know about taxes?
explainlikeimfive
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51je8b/eli5_first_time_adulting_what_do_i_need_to_know/
{ "a_id": [ "d7cfgq8", "d7cfopa", "d7cgw7s" ], "score": [ 2, 2, 5 ], "text": [ "Assuming you're American, and I know this is a plug, and I know it's supporting an organization that benefits from a byzantine tax code, but I'd recommend sitting down with someone experienced or going with TurboTax, which is cheaper than paying a person that would sit down with you like H & R Block. \n\nIf you can sit down and fill out those forms by yourself, then you're in a rare category.", "You need to know that you need to stay on top of them & lodge a return every year to avoid big fees & fines - I'm nearly at the end of 6 years worth of overdue tax returns & just paid $3500 in fines because of it. $740 in accountant fees, plus a $600 tax bill on top (but hey that's not so bad for 6 years worth of late).\n\nMake sure if your employer doesn't pay your income tax that you set aside a chunk of money each pay/week/month to go to the tax man.", "Assuming you are an American and a \"regular\" worker (not self-employed, but working for a regular business). \n\n1.) **You have to pay taxes.** Some of these are straightforward, like a sales tax that gets added to your bill. Some require a bit more effort on your part, like income/payroll taxes or property taxes. But you have to pay them. If someone tells you otherwise, they are selling you something (and that thing is liable to get you in trouble).\n\n2.) **Your big decision is about withholding.** Withholding is something that your employer does (at the government's and your choice) to make it easier to ensure you have enough money to pay your taxes when they come due. The basic idea is that every paycheck, the employer makes an informed guess about how much you'll owe in taxes at the end of the year, and then \"withholds\" that money from you. You then get credit for that at the end of the year. \n\nYour employer bases that guess on information you give that employer, like the number of dependents you have. You can also choose to do no withholding. And, depending on how your year goes, they can withhold more than they need to (in which case you get a refund) or less (in which case you will still owe some money at tax time). \n\nSome people joke that withholding is an \"interest free loan to the government,\" since they get your money early, and pay you back what you gave them already in your refund, but for many people it's a convenient way to make sure that they don't face an unexpectedly large tax bill. \n\n3.) **Taxes are due in April, but you can pay them any time after 1/1 of the new year.** Usually it will be hard to pay that early, since you require some forms to make paying taxes easy, like your W-2, which is the form your employer sends to tell you how much you made and how much was withheld, or other forms (like a 1099, which tells you about loans and interest you've received/paid). . \n\n4.) **If you need help, get it.** Whether it's a service like H & R Bloc or Turbo Tax, or just calling the (surprisingly helpful) IRS directly, if you have questions it is way better to ask in advance then find out you were wrong later. \n\n5.) **Keep your address current.** Anything you do that involves making money or borrowing money should be done with a current or a permanent address. This is the easiest way to ensure you get all the forms you need without a struggle, and thus have all the info you need to pay your taxes. \n\n6.) **Don't forget state and local taxes.** There are parts of the country where you might have to pay property taxes on your car, parts of the country where there might be an assessment for work done on your street, states that charge you for working in them, even if you don't live there, etc... If you've moved to a new place, ask around, and don't be afraid to call the local government to make sure you know what they expect. \n\n" ] }
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