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4awumv | what does the type of tv "producer" mean to the actual end result? | Example: Current season of House of Cards opening credits: There are Producers, Co-Producers, Executive Producers, etc. all in the opening credits. How does everyone with "producer" in there name differ from a job role perspective? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4awumv/eli5_what_does_the_type_of_tv_producer_mean_to/ | {
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"\" Producer \" once was the big boss, but slowly Executive Producer has become The Man, the \" Show Runner.\" Most titles in film and tv are very detailed and policed because these people are in craft guilds and protect their territory. Producers, however, are not in unions and the meaning of the title is mostly vague.",
"Most writing teams on dramas have about 6-12 depending on number of episode and budget. \"The Showrunner\" managed the entire creative process, usually a writer, and does the most writing and creating. Depending on what his agent negotiates he's probably an Executive Producer or Co-executive producer. If a Co-executive producer is not the show runner he's probably the show runner's right hand man. Both Executive producers and Co-executive producers do the bulk of the writing. Supervision producers and producers are mid-level writers that do less of the writing load and will get assigned 2-8 scripts per season. Story editors usually keep track of the continuity and assist all the writers with additional scene work and writing. Story editors get assigned scripts as well. Staff Writers are baby writers. They might get a script. They will do support work but they are also there to get their feet wet. Some writing staff hire veteran writers that could get an EP credit but politics or budget can't justify such a high title. Consulting producer is a title that make that writer affordable yet is not insulting to the writer. There are also non-writing producers with the same titles. If there's a series director, that the show hires to direct the bulk of the episodes then he might get a EP or Co-ep credit. If directors are really seasoned they might turn into showrunners and let the rest of his team writes. the non-writing producers who manage the budget and production flow can get a title from Producer up to EP depending one the need for a super star producer. Assicate Producer usually work in post production. There are also A-list Executive Producers that have major deals with the studio and networks like DIck Wolf that get an EP credit but do little writing. They handle the bigger picture stuff. Aaron Spelling is another great example. He's the most produced producer ever."
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4a0u86 | if light moves so fast, then why to we see light blur from cars and light sabers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4a0u86/eli5_if_light_moves_so_fast_then_why_to_we_see/ | {
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"Well lightsabers aren't real so what you're seeing is artistic visual effects, particularly in their case called \"fanning\". ;) But as for motion blur, that's a feature of your eyes not being able to pick it up. I promise people have found out light moves really really fast, and it's in no danger of being disproved.",
"That effect is created by the fact that when the human eye sees an image it will be perceived by the brain for about one tenth of a second. Nothing to do with the speed of light",
"It's not the light . it's your eyes and brain.\nThe phenomena is called persistence of vision . The brain retains a light cast upon the retina of the eye for a fraction of a second beyond their disappearance from the field of sight . which cause the appearance of that blurry effect ."
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b34uon | cardiac action potentials | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b34uon/eli5_cardiac_action_potentials/ | {
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"Are you wanting action potentials for the pacemaker cells or for the actual cardiac tissue itself? There are differences that have to do with specific electrolytes and phases. If you are just asking about action potentials then it boils down to a negative resting membrane state that is made more positive by sodium irons. Eventually the cells gets to be positive enough (since sodium is a positive ion) to generate an action potential. You could say resting is -90 and an action potential will generate at say -60. These are arbitrary numbers, but this is what was used all through anesthesia school. There are also influences by potassium ions and even calcium. That is getting into some pretty complex territory though. ",
"Action potentials work by the opening and closing of channels. These channels let in or let out either sodium, calcium, or potassium ions. When sodium ions are let into cells, the action potential shoots up and becomes more positive. However, it can't go up forever. The action potential is brought back down by potassium leaving the cell. This is how an action potential in non-cardiac muscle works. With cardiac cells, calcium plays an important role by making sure that the cell maintains a continuous action potential and helps make sure your heart never stops beating. "
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1vyl60 | why do we have separate car brands for imported car brands in the us especially for luxury brands? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vyl60/eli5_why_do_we_have_separate_car_brands_for/ | {
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"Cars are seen much more as a status symbol in the U.S. than most other places. If people are paying a lot for their cars, they don't want them to say Toyota, Honda or Nissan like every other person's car, they want Lexus, Acura, or Infiniti so everyone knows how well off they are. \n\nAlso, it's not just the US. These brands are used in Europe too. I think it's mainly in Japan where Lexus's are sold as Toyotas, for example, and that just might have to do with Toyota being a respected domestic brand name, so rather than want to separate from the Toyota brand, they prefer to identify with it there."
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3jrcdf | why don't college football games aired on tv ever show the marching band? | They just show the stupid halftime shows, where they tell you everything that happened with no real analysis. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jrcdf/eli5_why_dont_college_football_games_aired_on_tv/ | {
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"Because the halftime shows have a greater appeal (and advertising/sponsorship revenue) than the marching band, which appeals to fewer people."
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64slcg | how does a pr incident lead to the decline in value of a companies stock? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64slcg/eli5_how_does_a_pr_incident_lead_to_the_decline/ | {
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"In a perfect system the stock price reflects all known information about the company. \n\nRandom bad press is unexpected and depending on the cause it can have a large impact. Yesterday's situation has a couple of unknowns. Will the guy sue? Possibly. Are people upset and deciding to let United know by choosing other companies to fly them? Possibly. \n\nSince these items are unknown, the stock market reacts by lowering the price.\n\nIt's a bit more complicated, but there's the gist. ",
"Stock price is determined by what someone is willing to pay to buy it. If a lot of people think a company is about to lose money, they might sell their stock. If there's a lot more stock for sale and you're asking for $100 for me to buy your stock, I have more options to go to other people. If a different guy will sell to me for $95, then I buy his and the value of the stock, by definition is now $95 dollars.\n\nSo, a lot of people started selling, more supply of for-sale stock meant it wasn't worth as much and could be sold for less.",
"Some people no longer want to own part of a company that did whatever the bad PR thing was. Public companies, by definition, are trying to earn month for their shareholders. But some shareholders might not be comfortable with the way a company chooses to earn money on their behalf so they sell their shares to cut ties with that company.\n\nNow this doesn't happened all the often, but the rest of the market is worried that it might, so they want to sell their shares before others do because that would drive the price down. But of course their selling action actually does drive the price down. So it's a self fulfilling worry. So even if there isn't really a strong push to cut ties with a company that has a PR issue, there's a strong enough fear that people will to actually manifest the same result. ",
"It doesn't directly... but can if there are fears of material impact on company's future performance as a result. Yesterday, United's stock didn't really budge. Today, it's down a bit, but some of that's just the stock market in general being down. It's also likely attributable to the level of press this incident is getting in China, as United has invested a lot into opening up routes to China and marketing them. If the Chinese stop flying United to the U.S., that could actually impact their bottom dollar.",
"A common measure of stock price and what it's worth is known as a the price/earning ratio, or PE. It's a means of measuring the stock's price against it's earnings per share, or profit divide by the number of outstanding shares. In theory, a profitable company creates value, and in the case of dividend-paying companies, a dividend. Some companies trade at very high PEs, in the 20s. United Airlines currently trades at a PE in the 9s.\n\nNegative PR incident - > lower patronage - > lower revenue - > lower profit - > lower earning per share - > lower stock price.\n\nIn reality, the negative incident only happened yesterday, so why is the stock price falling today? The general public believes there will be a massive backlash against United Airlines for their inhumane treatment of passengers. But in a few weeks time, the incident will be forgotten and ticket sales will go back to normal. The actual effect on revenue/profit will be minimal.\n\nHowever, public perception will cause people to think earning will go down, so some investors will sell. But we're already seeing other investors taking advantage of the drop, thinking that the incident will blow over in a few weeks time and revenue/profitability will be untouched and they will have netted an easy 5% profit by buying at the low.",
"A stock represents a claim on the residual value of a company's assets and its earnings. \n\nLet's say you believe United will earn $3/share (FICTITIOUS EXAMPLE!). The price is $30 at the time. You buy it. \n\nNow you see the news stories of yesterday, and you think of yourself as a possible consumer for United (that is, a possible airline traveler).\n\nIf I knew United would overbook a flight and then throw *me* off it randomly, with no recourse, would I fly with them?\n\nIf I knew United had such terrible customer service, would I want to book a ticket with them?\n\nNo.\n\nAnd that \"no\" means \"no money for United in sales.\"\n\nLess sales means less earnings.\n\nLess earnings means that stock is worth less.\n\nIf it's worth less, you might no longer consider it acceptable to hold on to, and thus sell it.\n\nIf a bunch of people sell, the stock price falls (supply of stocks available versus demand from buyers).\n\n"
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1ddfus | taxes and paying taxes in the us. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ddfus/eli5taxes_and_paying_taxes_in_the_us/ | {
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"Adults with jobs pay income tax every time they get a paycheck. At the end of the year we add up all the taxes we've paid and add up all the things that the government says we don't have to pay taxes on and we balance them up. This is called \"doing your taxes\" and the deadline to submit your homework is April 15. \n\nIf you find the government took more than it should, you get a check. If you find you didn't pay enough, you send in a check. The government checks your homework (called an audit) and cheating gets you put in jail. Some people think getting a check is nice, but others think it's better to not get a check because that means you aren't giving the government too much money 2 weeks.\n\nThere's also state and local taxes (on things like property, sales, and income), capital gains tax, excise tax, fuel tax, alternative minimum tax, estate tax, and fees applied to certain transactions (such as airline ticket sales) and direct government services (like national parks campgrounds). These all fund the government, which we need to protect us and make sure that everyone plays fair."
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432bh2 | do our eyes perceive a certain color as a mix of the 3 primary colors or is it just another color all together (i.e. a separate wavelength). | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/432bh2/eli5_do_our_eyes_perceive_a_certain_color_as_a/ | {
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"Our eyes effectively perceive colours as a mix of red, green, and blue because we have three types of colour-sensitive cells which are most sensitive to red, green, and blue. The yellow you see in a rainbow is a separate wavelength of light between the wavelengths of red and green. That wavelength stimulates both your red and green cells, and you interpret that as yellow. So your monitor or TV can cheat and produce \"yellow\" by producing a mixture of red and green light. The red wavelength stimulates your red cells and the green wavelength stimulates your green cells, so the effect on your eye is the same as when the yellow wavelength stimulates both.",
"Yes, though you could word it the other way around just as validly. \n\n\nOur eyes have three types of colour sensitive cone cells, and each one responds to a range of wavelengths. They don't respond equally to the entire range though, they have kinda a bell shaped curve where they respond very well to a peak wavelength then tail off the further you get away. The peak wavelength of each cone is what we call one the primary colours, red, green, and blue. The blue cells for example will respond quite well to blue, but the deep violet (even if intense) always appear quite faint and dark because it's only slightly sensitive to them. \n\n\nNow, the thing is. These cells can't tell where in the range they are detecting. All colours are is your brain doing some processing on the relative detection of each cell type. \n\n\nNow, when a pure yellow wavelength hits our eyes, it excites the mostly two of cone cell types. It doesn't lay at the peak of either, but excites both to a certain ratio. Alternatively, you could use the same ratio and excite both cell types using the peak wavelengths they respond to. Or you could use a mix of even more wavelengths amd get the same result. Functionally to your brain there is no difference, all it knows is these two cell types are both detecting something. Whether it's one wavelength exciting both or multiple wavelength causing both to be equally as excited is indistinguishable. Is your brain interpreting yellow as a mix of red and green, or a red and green mix as yellow? Isn't it really just a matter of how you chose to define it, as really the only thing that there is a ratio of the cones being simulated? Maybe the answer may lie in neuroscience? Does it actually matter? \n\n\nI'd personally argue the second, as there's many combinations that could look yellow and there's more than one set of primary colours we could use to make other colours, so the single wavelength one could be seem as the more basic one. Ie., you see pure yellow and red and green (or other combinations) are just imitations with the same result. "
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1716sn | what is nosql and how is it different from relational dbs like mysql? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1716sn/eli5_what_is_nosql_and_how_is_it_different_from/ | {
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"NoSQL is used for massive sets of data that \"traditional\" relational data bases can't handle i.e. the data size is that big! It is also used on data that doesn't conform to a schema or design, therefore it does not use relational tables. It isn't queried with SQL either (surprise, surprise).\n\nI'm no expert having never used a NoSQL database but I do believe that their application is geared toward things like data mining where you are just sifting through mounds and mounds of data to find patterns, etc. For example, I hear Amazon uses them to find patterns in customer buying habits, patterns which aren't aimed at specific customers but maybe groups of customers or seasonal shopping trends. I imagine Google also uses them to sift through search patterns, etc. Again, not aimed at specific users but regional users, etc. Useful for statistics.\n\nEdit: I forgot to mention that another use of NoSQL databses is for mass record storage i.e. historical data.\n\n "
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4ua71y | why do we completely forget the first couple years of our life? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ua71y/eli5_why_do_we_completely_forget_the_first_couple/ | {
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"The brain is developing just like all other parts ot the body as well as the ability to fully use it.\n\nIt takes a bit of time and development to form short-term and long-term memory.\n\nI have a 2.5yo and he is slowly forming a memory of events that happened days ago. Just a couple months prior he mixed up events from days and couldn´t really remember what happened a day before.\n\nIf you go further then that, the inability to speak is also preventing memories to form as a high amount of cognitive processes are verbal."
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6uvpir | why do people get sneeze attacks? | About once a week, I sneeze 15+ times, about once every 5-10 seconds. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6uvpir/eli5why_do_people_get_sneeze_attacks/ | {
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"There are lots of things that can cause a sneeze attack. Here are a few:\n\n1) A foreign object in your nasal cavilty that needs to be expelled. It just takes 15 sneezes to expel it.\n\n2) Allergies. Pollen for example can overstimulate histamine production and cause people to sneeze uncontrollably.\n\n3) It is common for some people people to have a sneeze attack after they eat a meal. The condition is called Gustatory Rhinitis. Basically the nasal membranes become inflamed and irritated after eating.\n\n4) Bright lights such as the sun can cause sneeze attacks. It is called Photic sneeze reflex. It is a very common condition affecting maybe 35% of all people. It's exact mechanism is still not understood by science."
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2n5er9 | how is frozen the most successful animated movie of all time?? | I don't understand the Frozen phenomenon... I have four children, the oldest being 11 and so I have seen most kkids movies that have been released and I just can't get around the fact that people think this is better than the lion king/toy story/incredibles etc... I truly am fascinated and curious to have the whole thing explained to me. Any ideas why this is considered such a mega hit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2n5er9/eli5_how_is_frozen_the_most_successful_animated/ | {
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"The US dollar has a rate of inflation of a few percent a year on average. This means that new movies, all else being equal, will make more than old ones.",
"It was mainly timing - Frozen was released when there was not a lot of competition from the other main animated family film produces (Pixar and Dreamworks).\n\nLike everything else, Disney are extremely adept at saturation / bombardment advertisement - you can get the Frozen Happy Meal with the toy and go home and see the preview for the movie on TV then look it up on youtube etc.",
"Yeah. Frozen wasn't really all that great. I think it captured a lot of little girl princess fantasies though. ",
"Different people have different opinions than you.",
"Its that damned song, i just know it.\n\nThe story does not even make sence. Why would the brown hair princess not be allowed outside? Nothing wrong or scary with her??? Elza is the one they had a reason to keep from the public. And whats the deal with the \"love troll\" bit? That was just a pain to watch. And why can the troll dude fix her brain injury but not her hearth? Surely the brain is infinitly more complicated than a hearth...",
"Disney princesses are always a hit.\nAnd this one has two princesses, which makes it twice as marketable.\n\nAlso, I think it has a \"classic\" Disney feel to it that hasn't been around in awhile."
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5irmxg | why does using my fingers to make my eyes appear slanted make my vision sharper but not clearer? | What I mean by this is when I use my fingers to move the the thin skin on my eyes away from my lacrimal papila and then try to use the muscles to close my eyes while making my eyes appear slanted things appear sharper but a bit blurry. Depending how far i stretch the skin away from my eye I get a varying result and how far up my face I move it up aswell. I've been doing this since I was 12 and there is this 'sweetspot' where I'm able to see things clearly but isn't too blurry. Also should mention I wear glasses. I asked my friend to do the same thing as me and said he experienced the same as well, so I don't think it's some disease or something. It is not the same as squinting because if I squint (to me at least) things don't appear as sharp but if I make my eyes look slanted and slightly contract my eyelid things appear much more sharper and clearer than squinting. Sorry for any grammar mistakes. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5irmxg/eli5why_does_using_my_fingers_to_make_my_eyes/ | {
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"You're altering the angles that light hits your eyes. That \"sweetspot\" is when you get just the right angle, it's similar to how glasses work. "
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7pxvj7 | how do animals pick up their children/foster children by their mouths without hurting them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7pxvj7/eli5_how_do_animals_pick_up_their_childrenfoster/ | {
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"These young animals weigh fairly little, so the stress on their tissue from the weight is very little.\n\nUsually the parent grabs some loose furry skin that is sort of made for use as a handle.",
"Their young have extra skin on the back of their necks and the parent usually tries to grab this and not bite too hard. The baby animal pretty much stays motionless at this time, squirming would be a problem as it might cause their skin to get bit/cut.\n\nThe biggest problem animals have is when they are older and people pick them up incorrectly by the scruff of their neck. Older animals are not meant to be carried that way and humans can easily pick them up properly."
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cp4xzq | why exactly do labrador retrievers love water unanimously as a breed so much? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cp4xzq/eli5_why_exactly_do_labrador_retrievers_love/ | {
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"They were bred to retrieve animals like ducks etc. that are shot and fall down into the water.",
"Because they have been selectively bred for many generations by humans, as an offshoot breed (from the St. John's water dog) that was also selectively bred by generations for the explicit purpose of retrieving downed waterfowl. Sure, lots of labs these days may not be purebred, but lots of those traits and instincts are still going to be there."
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6ccmnm | why are there not any picture of the earth surronded by satellites? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ccmnm/eli5_why_are_there_not_any_picture_of_the_earth/ | {
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"text": [
"The Earth is really big and those satellites are really small. Imagine a photo of Earth from high orbit. You can't distinguish whole cities (10 miles across), how would you expect to see something that is somewhere between the size of a mailbox and a car?"
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1pwafr | where are all the dead pigeons? | The population of pigeons in New York City alone is estimated to exceed 1 million birds. Pigeons seldom live more than 3 or 4 years. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pwafr/eli5_where_are_all_the_dead_pigeons/ | {
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"Follow up: Where are all the young pigeons? I only see them adult-sized. ",
"Wild animals rarely die of natural causes. The number one cause of death in the wild is being eaten. ",
"Everywhere.\nOnce I saw a pigeon eating another pigeon.\nA few days ago I ran over a live pigeon on my bike. +1 dead pigeon.\nThere are dead pigeons everywhere. Cars grind their bodies into the pavement pretty quickly, but you still can't go two blocks without seeing a dead pigeon in the street.",
"_URL_0_ They are the main food of Peregrine Falcons....NY, NY has the largest population of these birds of prey than any other eastern US city. ",
"Foxes, dogs, cats scavenge dead ones and Peregrine falcons hunt them. Otherwise they're just cleaned up.",
"I wondered this as well, until I started riding a bike. I see a dead pigeon squished into the road almost every bike trip. And flat rats. More flat rats than pigeons, though.",
"Having lived in NYC for the last 17 years I have developed two of my own theories.. \n \n1. Piled 5+ deep on top of every newspaper/magazine stand.\n2. They all conveniently die over the East or Hudson Rivers. \n \nActual answer is more a combination of predators, flattened pigeons that get swept up in our regular street cleanings / removed by animal control and property owners / parks department disposing of their bodies. There are a lot of people in this city, the combination of concerned citizens and the city do a pretty damn good job of keeping it relatively clean.\n\n",
"Why are all the god damn top voted answers deleted? WHAT IS THIS DEAD PIGEON COVER UP CONSPIRACY?!?"
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"http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/08/nyregion/new-york-s-tough-pigeons-fight-predators-for-survival.html"
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9d1otr | how were congressional republicans able to delay and ultimately avoid hearings for merrick garland, yet democrats couldn't do the same for brett kavanaugh? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9d1otr/eli5_how_were_congressional_republicans_able_to/ | {
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"text": [
"Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the Republicans, in the past presidential term, held the majority in the Senate at the time when the confirmation vote required a 2/3 majority. The Republicans have also since changed the rules to simply need a majority vote (greater than 50 percent). The filabuster rules have changed as well. Republicans didn't like the rules so they changed them to suit their needs. ",
"The Republicans had the majority in the Senate and could just not allow hearings on Garland. Being in the minority, there was / is nothing that the Democrats can do to stop the hearing or a vote. These appointments cannot be filibustered by the rules of the Senate.\n\nMcCains death actually improved the Dem position as they would only need 1 Rep to vote no but his replacement, Kyl is a sure vote for Kavanaugh so they need to 'flip' two Reps to block the nomination. "
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4u0rfd | why do certain rivers carve gigantic canyons while others don't? is a matter of how fast the water flows? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4u0rfd/eli5_why_do_certain_rivers_carve_gigantic_canyons/ | {
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"It's a matter of how much elevation change there is between the source and sea level, how quickly the elevation happens, the type of rocks and the way the rocks are oriented (i.e., flat-lying or turned on end). \n\nThe biggest canyons will form in relatively flat-lying, soft (sedimentary) rocks when the terrain is slowly elevated. \n\nThe speed of the water is the result of the difference in elevation from source to sea level plus the width of the river channel and of the river valley, and of course, how much water is available to run through the river. "
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1qljkp | does pain receptors stop if you are set on fire for a while? | I know you burn, but doesn't the nerves burn off and you wouldn't feel anything? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qljkp/eli5_does_pain_receptors_stop_if_you_are_set_on/ | {
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"Yes, deep burns are actually painless (the process of creating them hurt like hell though) due to the destruction of the nerves that signal pain. It's one of the warning signs of a deep burn. ",
"Everything stops if you are set of fire, actually."
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6dxpzd | why do things sometimes appear to move away from me after having stared in the same spot? | The best example I can give: When after mowing some lawn for a few hours, after having stopped and standing still it appears that all the lawn around me is moving away from me? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dxpzd/eli5_why_do_things_sometimes_appear_to_move_away/ | {
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"Your eyes got used to the image of the grass moving towards you, so it got tired of sending the signal to your brain that it kept seeing that motion - of the grass moving towards you.\n\nWhen you stop moving, now the grass is standing still. However, your \"it is moving towards you\" motion detection systems are still tired, so even though it isn't moving away from you, the \"it is moving away from you\" detectors are going off much louder than the \"it is moving towards you\" detectors. Normally, if something isn't moving at all, these detectors would basically cancel each other out and your brain goes \"ah, it isn't moving. Good, good..\"\n\nBut since now it is getting one signal stronger than the other, you perceive that motion.\n\nThis [motion aftereffect](_URL_0_) is often called the waterfall illusion since it happens if you watch a waterfall for a period of time and then look away."
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2nfiz5 | women of reddit. can someone explain the different "types" of orgasms women can achieve and how they feel? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nfiz5/eli5_women_of_reddit_can_someone_explain_the/ | {
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"That's really more of an /r/AskWomen or an /r/sex question.",
"Your going to get different answers from different women because we're all sensitive in different places. \n\nIn my experience if I were to stimulate my clit alone I find it to be a more 'superficial orgasm'. I don't really get a full body response from it but it still feels great and I'm definitely out of breath. \n\nIf I were to stimulate my g-spot and clit and achieve an orgasam it feels like a 'deeper orgasm'. I have a stronger reaction to this type of stimulation, it engages my abdomen, my back arches and I kinda in a different world for a moment. \n\nThis is so weird to write out in a non sexual way haha. Anyways let me know if you need any clarification or if you want to hear more. ",
"This question has been removed. Questions that are subjective or asking for/about opinions are not what ELI5 is for. That doesn't mean your question is bad, it would just fit better in another subreddit. Try /r/askreddit, /r/askwomen, or another more general \"ask\" subreddit. There is a list in the askreddit sidebar. \n\n/r/findareddit is super useful! "
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8fznfc | why did tv shows go from 22-25 episodes per season (lost, the office) to 10 episodes (better call saul)? | I know The Office and Lost were shorter towards the end, but they were still longer than today. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fznfc/eli5_why_did_tv_shows_go_from_2225_episodes_per/ | {
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"Tv shows have been bouncing between 22-25 and 10-13 episode for a long time, it isn't recent. It just depends on the show and how much budget they have for that season.",
"The number of episodes a show gets in a season is based on the type of story being told and the production/distribution company's standards. Shows which tells a drawn out multi level story line often get more episodes (20-30) than shows that has a singular story line (10-15). Most shows that are done in a similar manner as to Lost still have 20+ episodes, look up Gotham and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they both have over 20 each season after several seasons, while shows produced by TNT and HBO often have fewer episodes per season, but those shows have more singular stories for the entire season. Also, sitcoms often are only 30 minutes and have a lower production cost, and shows like The Big Bang Theory, which has been on for 11 season, still has 25 episodes. Shows that have higher production costs also usually have fewer episodes per season, but this all comes down to how much money the studio wants to put behind it.",
"Broadcast television works on an old model based upon advertising rates. The expectation was that most people were going to be out and about during the summer and not at home watching television. So shows were scheduled to premiere in the fall when the weather starts to turn and run through the winter. The key metrics were Nielsen ratings, wherein a research company estimates the viewing audience of each show using various methods. So shows would be timed to have big events happening during \"sweeps weeks\" when they would try to boost their viewer numbers. With those big ratings they could charge more for ads.\n\nSo shows were ordered initially for 13 weeks. Then after the network saw what kind of reaction it received, they would pick it up for the remaining season or order a \"midseason\" replacement to avoid having a struggling show tank two sweeps periods. So if you have a ratings juggernaut like The Office or LOST, you want it to run as often as possible in order to boost ratings and sell the most ads.\n\nHowever, shows on cable are in whole (AMC) or in part (HBO, Netflix) supported by subscribers. So they are not nearly as hamstrung by the Nielsen requirements or advertisers, so they can run shows whenever they feel like and for however long works. Much of the shorter prestige shows like \"Better Call Saul\" are harder and more expensive to film than a sitcom like \"The Big Bang Theory\" so there are diminishing returns for creating long seasons.\n\n\n"
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g32rbr | why don’t super glue caps get stuck by the super glue? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g32rbr/eli5_why_dont_super_glue_caps_get_stuck_by_the/ | {
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"They do once it's been open, but the tube comes sealed from the store. Once you open up the tube any stray glue on the tip will bond to the cap.",
"The cyanoacrylate in superglue hardens on contact with water (moisture). Your skin has moisture on it, and air has humidity (moisture), so that's why the superglue acts that way when you put it on skin, or after you expose it to air.\n\nOtherwise, if you manage to put the cap on without letting any moisture to come in contact with the glue, it will remain liquid. Plastics in general (the container for superglue) don't let moisture through very easily."
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bh4yp3 | what exactly happens when milk goes bad/sour? would adding fresh milk to old milk delay the process? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bh4yp3/eli5_what_exactly_happens_when_milk_goes_badsour/ | {
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"Because of bacteria that use lactose as a nutrient. \n\nLactose is a sugar, commonly called milksugar. It's found in the milk of mammals and is the main source of energy for offsprings.\n\nAll of us require energy to live and we get energy from another type of sugar, called glucose. \n\nGlucose + galactose = lactose \n\nEverything around us is covered with bacteria and some of these bacteria are lactobacterias, meaning they can break down lactose in order to get energy. \n\nWhen the bacteria break down lactose they give off something called lactic acid. Acid just means that it's sour like lemon, thereby giving it a sour taste.\n\n\nKeeping milk cold will prevent bacteria from growing and replicating at a fast pace in the milk; however, room temperature is idle for bacteria to grow fast.\n\nAdding fresh milk will just dilute the sour milk, but you'd essentially be giving the bacteria more food. \n\n\nBTW: many of these bacteria are used to make popular milk products like yoghurt, which can further aid digestion. \n\nEdit: didn't see the last bit of your question.",
"The microbes that typically inhabit milk excrete acid as a by-product. This acid is what makes the milk begin to taste sour as the microbes multiply and eat more. This acidity is also what causes the proteins in the milk to clump and begin squeezing fat globules together to form curds, which separates the solids from the liquids. \n\nIf you continue adding fresh milk to older milk that has just begun to sour, then yes, you can delay the process because you're diluting the acid and the microbes that created it, but once curds have started to form no amount of fresh milk will make them go away."
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digwsp | why do doctors perform bypass surgeries instead of removing plaque from the patient’s arteries? | Seems to me like it would be simpler to restore blood flow by removing the blockage instead of just putting a path around it? Or am I misunderstanding how bypass surgery works? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/digwsp/eli5_why_do_doctors_perform_bypass_surgeries/ | {
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"Sometimes that's what they do. In the UK, for example, they prefer to do the less invasive (and less expensive for NHS) balloon angioplasty with stent, where they put a balloon catheter into the artery, which crushes the plaque to make the artery wider. Then they put a stent in (rigid tube) to keep the artery clear. This is instead of the more dangerous and invasive bypass. My information is old at this point so this data has probably changed but they found that balloon angioplasty had approximately the same success rate as the bypass, but with fewer complications. So then they started to do the angioplasty with stent more. They can't just remove plaque but otherwise leave everything the same because the plaque could become loose and cause a blockage and/or stroke. \n\nMy understanding is that these are two options that they may use and whether they use it or not depends on the patient, the doctor, and the hospital. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders famously had a balloon angioplasty and stents placed after he had a heart attack a few weeks ago. A bypass would require long-term hospitalization and a lot of rehab, whereas Bernie was able to leave the hospital within a few days.",
"Sometimes the blockages are too large to open with a balloon or stent. Or sometimes they can’t wire the balloon or stent through a thick or complete blockage. Also if there are multiple blockages that make it too dangerous they may opt for the surgery. Or if a patient is very unstable. Occasionally the angio can become complicated (the vessel can be perforated) and surgery is a more controlled environment. \n\nI used to be a nurse in the cardiac angio lab. Fun times!",
"Sometimes the plaque is removed, but it is a risky procedure. If it isn't removed completely or cleanly, small pieces can enter the bloodstream and cause embolisms or stroke. Bypass surgeries or angioplasties are usually safer.",
"They do in some instances, for example the carotid endarterectomy is a procedure to remove the plaque from one or two of the four main arteries going to the brain. When compared to stenting, carotid endarterectomy has better long term outcomes. Endarterectomies can be performed on other arteries as well. Other options include bypass, angioplasty (balloon dilating the artery), and stenting (usually after angioplasty). It all depends upon the artery involved, how difficult and morbid accessing the artery is, the patient specific risk factors, the patient’s anatomy, and patient preferences (e.g. each procedure has different short and long term risks and success rates).",
"Plaques and stuff aren't always inside the vessel. Many times it's fat and stuff in the actual vessel's walls. You can't necessarily remove it in that case.",
"The issue is complicated because those arteries are damaged, that's why the clotting, plaque deposits are there to begin with.",
"For strokes in particular, plaque does not usually cause obstruction in its original location but instead by breaking off the vessel wall to follow blood flow to a smaller artery, one too small to allow its passage. The major risk with surgery to remove plaque from the arteries carrying blood to the brain (carotid endarterectomy) is the release of small plaque pieces that then occlude smaller vessels in the brain causing an ischemic stroke. The risk of stroke is generally considered higher with endarterectomy than with stents. For parts of the body, like the heart, that are not as susceptible to damage from closure of a small artery the issue isn’t so much about the plaque breaking off as it is the smaller size of the vessels making removal more technically difficult. It is more difficult to work inside of a small artery. Another consideration is that scar tissue is more prone to cause problems with the long incisions in the coronary arteries involved with endarterectomy. You are not dealing with a plastic pipe; any incision in an artery will cause a healing process that sometimes compromises the lumen (hollow space) of the artery. Stents on the other hand involve only one comparatively tiny incision made in large arteries with minuscule risk of obstructive scarring."
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7sesz7 | every point on the earth is accelerating upwards | I watched [this](_URL_0_) video about einstein's equivalence principle and it said that I am accelerating upwards just being on the ground! That's ridiculous.
The earth is NOT expanding radially. This makes NO SENSE.
Is this "equivalence principle" just an observation that
'gravity looks like acceleration from a small enough point of view'
or
'it's the same?'
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sesz7/eli5_every_point_on_the_earth_is_accelerating/ | {
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" > Is this \"equivalence principle\" just an observation that\n > \n > 'gravity looks like acceleration from a small enough point of view'\n\nYou can look at this in several ways.\n\nLet's say you were in a closed box on the surface of the Earth or in a closed box not in a gravitational field but was moving at 9.8m/s^2 against your feet. Both would feel exactly the same to you and you could not detect the difference between the two.\n\nLikewise, you could not tell the difference between being in free-fall in a gravitational field or simply moving at constant velocity (or not at all) absent a gravitational field.",
"You are indeed accelerating upwards just by being on the ground - but only if you consider the geometry of the universe according to Einstein's general theory of relativity. That geometry is very different from \"ordinary\" geometry, and we humans aren't really good when thinking in terms of that relative geometry.\n\nThat what you experience as a gravitational force in \"ordinary\" geometry is actually stationary in relative geometry. Now, what would happen if you were actually stationary in relative geometry? In terms of \"ordinary\" geometry, you'd be falling towards the earth. But wait! You aren't falling in \"ordinary\" geometry - you're on the ground, after all.\n\nSo, while you're stationary in \"ordinary\" geometry, you're not stationary in relative geometry and actually accelerating away from the earth.\n\nThe cause for that is the density of the earth, which essentially applies a counterforce to gravity. In relative geometry, this means that gravity isn't doing anything (because it's relative geometry), while the \"counterforce\" accelerates you away from the earth.",
"Gravity on earth is accelerating you towards the center of the earth at 9.8m/s^2. The equivalence principle simply is that, from a limited point of view, you can't physically tell the difference between this and being on a moving platform that is accelerating \"upwards\" at the same rate. ",
"So that video is not very good. There are better ones out there.\n\nIf you can't find one you like I'll try to explain it as best I can but it's quite a visual idea.\n\nGravity is the fact that masses attract. So when you let go of an apple the apple flies towards the ground and the ground flies towards the apple. \n\n- From an inert frame of reference you'd see the apple fall down several meters and the ground move up an unmeasurably tiny amount of nanometers\n\n- From the frame of reference of the ground you'd see the apple fly downwards towards it while the ground stayed still.\n\n- From the frame of reference of the apple you can consider the apple staying still and the ground flying up to meet it.\n\nThe equivalence principle basically says these three things are to all intents and purposes exactly the same. There is no meaningful or important difference between the three scenarios I outlined above. As far as any of the laws of physics occurs it doesn't matter which of the three you choose to believe. Because the earth is bigger the earth being stationary version is probably the easiest to wrap your head around, but when it comes to solving any problem in physics you can do it just as well with all three.\n\nGeneral relativity isn't that. This video is making the slightly confusing point that realising that helped Einstein come up with General Relativity. But I don't think that's the easiest way to explain general relativity.\n\nNewtonian physics says that acceleration requires a force. That's never fully explained gravity though because it's not clear what the \"force\" of gravity is. We've been able to successfully model it mathematically as a force equivalent to your mass times 9.81 but that's just a mathematical model. It's never been quite clear what it is that's pushing on you.\n\nEinstein realised there's nothing pushing on you, and invented general relativity to explain gravity without the use of force.\n\nEinstein suggests that if there is nothing pushing on you then you travel in a straight line through time and space, and therefore travel in a straight line through spacetime, which is Einstein's idea that time and space are connected to each other (see Special Relativity). So if you're a stationary apple and no force is pushing on you then your stationary in space and your path through spacetime is a straight line moving forwards through time and if you're a stationary planet and no force is pushing on you then your stationary in space and your path through spacetime is a straight line moving forwards through time and so the line in spacetime marked \"apple\" and the line in spacetime marked \"planet\" never cross and so no matter how far forward in time you go the apple and the planet will never meet and so as you are a human travelling through time you don't see the apple and the planet move towards each other.\n\nGeneral relativity suggests that gravity doesn't exert a force, but it does warp spacetime, specifically it curves it around any object that has mass.\n\nNow the weird thing about curves is that if you have parallel straight lines on a piece of paper but then the paper itself becomes warped then those straight lines are no longer parallel and in the end they meet.\n\nSo you have your apple and it's very small mass is warping spacetime around it a little bit and you have your planet and it's very big mass is warming spacetime around it a lot. And there's still no force acting on either of them so both of them want to draw straight parallel lines through spacetime as they remain stationary in space and move forwards through time. But the surface - spacetime - on which they want to draw those lines is warped, and so those lines end up meeting.\n\nAnd what does that look like outside of spacetime and back in the world we can observe? Well as we move forward through time we see that to begin with the apple and the planet are in different spaces but then after we've moved a bit through time we get to the bit of spacetime where their two lines cross, and that looks like the apple and the planet being in the same space. And walk yourself through that experience in space as you travel forwards through time and that looks like the apple falling. And that's what gravity is.\n\nNow the thing this video was trying to explain isn't really necessary to understand all of that but it's simply the fact that the way Einstein got his idea was that when he was thinking about that third way of thinking about the apple falling, the one from the frame of reference of the apple, he realised that there couldn't be anything pushing on the apple, since from the apple's perspective it was perfectly still. So gravity couldn't be explained by forces ie pushing."
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2mcwx1 | do animals whisper? do animals communicate in a way not to be heard/understood by members of the same species? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mcwx1/eli5_do_animals_whisper_do_animals_communicate_in/ | {
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"I am positive that I read about some type of bird (chickens?) that does this. \n\nMales show they are ready to mate by pecking at food on the ground and making a specific noise. However, smaller and weaker males will do the pecking motion *without* making the sound, which still attracts mates without alerting the bigger, stronger males. \n\nI cannot find anything that isn't citing a print (not online) source for this, but [**here**](_URL_0_) is an article about monkeys that whisper to each other, which also mentions some other animals that do similar things. "
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9iw9gz | why are piano keys in sections of c d f g a b and not a b c d f g? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9iw9gz/eli5_why_are_piano_keys_in_sections_of_c_d_f_g_a/ | {
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"The original key first written down in the middle ages was A minor, which is the white notes of the piano: ABCDEFGA, with the music written in this key \"centred\" on the A.\n\nHowever musicians found that they could achieve a different effect by choosing a different note to \"centre\" on... The most popular being C, which gives the major scale CDEFGABC.\n\nMajor and minor are two of the seven possible \"modes\", each using a different \"central\" note. "
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7naq4r | why do soccer players and their teammates always protest yellow/red cards, when they never get overturned, anyway? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7naq4r/eli5_why_do_soccer_players_and_their_teammates/ | {
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"Because soccer is a physically exhausting sport without breaks. A person's already stressed trying to formulate game plays and coordinate their motion to execute those plays, so when something like a yellow/red card comes out emotions are bound to run high. It's a way of letting out some of the frustration that's pent up, too. Plus sometimes the cards are just legitimately based on a BS call that the referee made without all the information, and it's human nature to not want to be unfairly judged for something you didn't do.",
"They like to be dramatic. They also fall on the ground writhing in pain trying to get penalties called only to pop up absolutely fine 4 seconds later. ",
"You're also trying to work the refs for future calls. So maybe if you protest a close call, you can get the next close call to go your way (so it's \"fair\"). It mostly never works because refs know what you're doing but it doesn't hurt you why not at least try it.",
"Arguing with the referees/umpires/officials is pretty common in any sport, regardless of whether or not there is some replay/review system in place. People treat sports as serious business and tempers get hot when people are being super competitive. Sometimes it's just a way to save face or deny responsibility: if you lost it must be the refs' fault, not your own team's mistakes and bad play.\n\nEven though the calls aren't going to be overturned, people protest them in the hopes of getting a \"make-up call\" or something later. The irony is that being an ass to the officials is generally not a good way to gain their favor, but everyone seems to think that it is for some reason. "
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8zloey | what exactly makes something a vitamin and how did they get their names (c, b6, b12, e, etc)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8zloey/eli5_what_exactly_makes_something_a_vitamin_and/ | {
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"Vitamins are small organic molecules that we need in tiny amounts in our diet. So for example amino acids are not vitamins because we need large amounts of them. Sodium is not a vitamin because it is inorganic. \n\nAs for the name, basically they were lettered in order we realised their existence. However knowledge was incomplete (and may still be incomplete) so it turns out that what we thought was one single vitamin (B) was in fact a complex of several closely related substances, so those got numbered. Some of them were originally vitamins G-J, hence the sudden jump to vitamin K. Others were found to be non-essential and dropped. ",
"In the early days of organic chemistry, scientists tried to identify and extract the chemicals that were necessary for life. They labeled them A, B, C, etc., based on when they were first isolated.\n\nBut their technique wasn't perfect, and it turned out that some vitamins, particularly B, was actually a mixture of a bunch of similar chemicals. So they started labeling them B*_1_*, B*_2_*, etc.\n\nThen it turned out that some of those chemicals weren't needed by living things, so they had to take some of them off the list.\n\nFinally, vitamin K was discovered later, and since it had to do with coagulation and the scientist was German, it was named K for koagulation."
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17yq84 | processes and threads in computing. what exactly they do and so on. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17yq84/eli5_processes_and_threads_in_computing_what/ | {
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"Imagine a fairly simple math problem: a^2 + b^2 = c^2, where I give you that a = 3 and b = 5 and I want you to tell me what c is.\n\nIf you were to do this yourself, you would probably square 3 first and get 9, then square 5 and get 25 and then add them together to get 34, then take the square root and get approximately 5.8. This would be a process in a single threaded state.\n\nNow, because of the way math works, you MUST square 3 and 5 before adding them. However, you don't have to square 3 THEN square 5. In a simple, multi-threaded process, you could tell the machine to square 3 and square 5 at the same time (each function would happen on its own thread). Then, once all the threads had completed, you add the result and take the square root and that's your answer. It is still one process, but multiple functions are happening at the same time.\n\nNow, imagine that I gave you two independent equations (the answers have nothing to do with each other. That would represent two processes. Again, you could solve one then solve the other (single threaded) or you could have each process takes its own thread and do them at the same time.",
"Or the more ELI5 version:\n\nImagine working at a restaurant and someone orders a hamburger. You need to find out what they want to eat, prepare the ingredients, cook the hamburger patty, make the sandwich and then give it to them.\n\nThere are somethings you have to do in order (find out what they want to eat before making it) and others you don't (cook the patty at the same time as preparing the ingredients).\n\nProcesses and threads allow you to do the things that can be done at once at the same time. Kind of like having multiple people working at the restaurant."
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7fc211 | why do we jerk forward when we sneeze? if we're expelling mass forward, shouldn't the jerk be in the opposite direction? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fc211/eli5_why_do_we_jerk_forward_when_we_sneeze_if/ | {
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"You're also contracting your muscles specifically the ones near your diaphragm. Specifically, you clench your abs/core when you sneeze.\n\nThe mass of air leaving your lungs is negligible.",
"Sneezing is like squeezing a near-empty ketchup bottle. You lurch forward to give the mass some initial forward momentum. This is followed by the actual expelling air, which drives the mass even more. "
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2yi0dk | why is someone who identifies as the gender they are born with called a cis in a derogatory manner, and where did the phrase come from? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yi0dk/eli5_why_is_someone_who_identifies_as_the_gender/ | {
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"Cis isn't derogatory, except in that one South Park episode that played it as a joke. Cis is a scientific prefix: \ndenoting or relating to a molecular structure in which two particular atoms or groups lie on the same side of a given plane in the molecule, in particular denoting an isomer in which substituents at opposite ends of a carbon–carbon double bond are on the same side of the bond.",
"\"Cis-\" is a Latin prefix(meaning it's added to the beginning of words), and it means \"on the same side\".",
"Cis is not derogatory. It is simply the opposite of trans in latin.",
"Thank you all for the etymology of the prefix. I guess now I just don't understand why it is necessary. I've heard it said in derogatory ways, but I must be an outlier.",
"Are you talking about the tumblr feministas who attack cisgendered? They feel victimized in ways that don't really exsist and want to take it out on someone.",
"The term Cis is rarely used in a derogatory manner. (at least no more often than any word is used in a derogatory manner.)\n\n\"Cis\" is the Latin prefix that means \"on the same side\". \"Trans\" is the Latin prefix that means \"on the opposite side\". They are the opposites of each other and. Cis is used to refer to people who identify as the gender they were born because to use the word \"normal\" would be a derogatory statement to any who are not Cis because abnormal has inherent negative connotations in English. ",
"I'm cisgendered. I've never heard anyone say that in a derogatory way. Who are you hanging out with? Maybe your friends are just mean. ",
"Someone who identifies with the gender they are born with are referred to as \"cisgendered\" because in Latin \"cis\" means \"on the same side\". This is the opposite of \"transgendered\" (someone who doesn't identify with the gender they were born with), \"trans\" in Latin meaning \"on the opposite side\".\n\nThe reason why the word cisgendered was invented was because if we just had a label for those who were transgendered and not one who are now identified as cisgendered then those who are cisgendered would be thought of by mainstream society as \"the norm\" while transgendered people would be considered \"the other\". This of course would lead to the marginalization of transgendered people by mainstream society and in more extreme cases prejudice, discrimination, harassment and worse. \n\nAs for why some people are called \"a Cis\" in a derogatory manner, well I can assure you that this is not a common occurrence. However, in some places (most notably Tumblr) people who feel victimized by those who do not belong to any identifiable group that have ever faced systematic discrimination lash out. Usually this occurs in an over reactionary misguided way to the general population of those identifiable groups, in this case cisgendered people (almost always cisgendered males to be specific).\n\n*edit: referred not refereed."
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1vp1fr | why does the us government have a vested interest in keeping a federal ban on marijuana? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vp1fr/eli5_why_does_the_us_government_have_a_vested/ | {
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"Leading question. Who says they do?",
"Because they use the imaginary scourge of drugs to justify the militarization of the police and the gradual stripping away of constitutional protections. ",
"Largely, marijuana prohibition is a holdover from the temperance movement from the early 20th century. It didn't track with the progression of alcohol prohibition because there was not large popular use and therefore support for its legalization. Those who did use it (Mexicans and Patent Medicines) were not popular at this time either. Since then, it has been associated with other undesirables (god damn hippies) and criminal elements. Only recently has weed gone \"mainstream\" and been regarded as mostly harmless by the majority of the populace. \n\nIn the mean time, the government has spent a great deal of time and money combating it. We have entered into nearly global treaties promising to keep drugs (including weed) illegal. These couldn't even be overturned by a simple act of Congress. Of course there must be a large amount of pride involve. No one wants to admit that we lost the drug war. Not to mention congress is always a decade or two behind the American public."
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19bwyk | why hiphop artists/fans are so obsessed with the illuminati? | Hiphop is the only genre of music that I hear people talking about the Illuminati, really it's the only place I ever heard talk of the Illuminati. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19bwyk/eli5_why_hiphop_artistsfans_are_so_obsessed_with/ | {
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"I don't think I have ever heard any of that. Also look at Old rock n roll it is filled with references to the Ocoult and stuff. ",
"While hip hop certainly isn't the only genre to mention the Illuminati or similar groups one possible reason it seems prevalent could be because the culture of hip hop often has an us versus them mentality, especially when it comes to 'The Man' keeping people down and/or under control and the Illuminati theory fits in nicely with that. That is from within hip hop. From outside it I think it's mostly because conspiracy theorists have a tendency to see signs and patterns in places they're looking for them so when it comes to the main stream entertainment industry (of which a large part of hip hop falls into) that's exactly where they expect the Illuminati to be working their craft. The two feed into each other, you've got artists who include the Illuminati in their work because it fits in with their perception of the world they live in and you've outsiders drawing attention to this being included in hip hop because that fits in with their perception of how the Illuminati work. Either way it helps with sales and site views because a lot of people (including hip hop fans and conspiracy 'fans') are attracted to secrets and power and that sort of thing. The idea of some ancient, mystical all powerful group is a very interesting prospect and when you can connect them to almost anything it lends itself to good story telling if nothing else and at its heart hip hop is about telling stories.",
"Hiphop is, at it's roots, the music of the disenfranchised. There's a great deal of machismo & claiming to be more powerful than one actually is. In the old days it was enough to have gold chains, a boom box & new sneakers. As things progressed, people needed to be bigger than that - this gave us rappers claiming to be drug dealers and gangsters. For a short period of time there was a mafioso thread in the hip-hop world, organized crime being seen as more 'legitimate', successful and powerful than petty street crime.\n\nFast forward to today, people like Jay Z and P. Diddy are actually worth hundreds of millions of dollars and run large corporate empires rather than just pretending to be rich and powerful. We have a Black man as president of the most powerful country on earth. How do you get bigger than that? What could be bigger than that?\n\nAn ancient secret society that has controlled all world governments for hundreds of years. Being the puppetmaster pulling the strings of history, where you can control the behaviors of presidents, kings & billionaires is the ultimate boast.\n\nAdd into the picture that drugs can make one paranoid as fuck and a large amount of copy-cat-ism, and you have frequent reference to the Illuminati."
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5mi93r | how do autopsies work? | In TV, movies, and videogames forensic scientists just look at a computer screen, or a corpse and they just kinda *know* how the victim died. How is an autopsy performed and is it as simple as in media? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mi93r/eli5_how_do_autopsies_work/ | {
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"A pathologist cuts the body open and examines all major organs and takes representative samples of them. They may be able to determine the cause of death by gross examination (just looking at the body), or they may need to look at microscopic slides from the samples in order to determine the cause of death. ",
"Autopsies can be very lengthy and detailed operations. Even a case which seems cut-and-dry may have additional facets. For example, someone was found washed up on the shore, but was their death by drowning? The lungs may be examined to see if water was inhaled, the brain to look for other signs of trauma, and the blood taken to see if drugs or poisons were present.\n\nIt is a very \"hands-on\" practice, and a lot isn't fit for TV. A coroner or pathologist can do things a surgeon can't in terms of opening up the body and removing organs to be individually examined. Bodies which have been dead for some time may be decomposing and rotting: it looks much better on TV to show a computer screen with some vague \"scans.\" "
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47i3r6 | how come carnivorous plants know that insects actually exist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47i3r6/eli5_how_come_carnivorous_plants_know_that/ | {
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"They do not. All they do is close when something lands on a designated part of them. It doesn't matter what, they close them in anyways.\n",
"I think you are asking the wrong question here. I don't think carnivorous plants *know* anything at all. They don't really have brains.\n\nThey evolved to get nutrients from their environment that just happen to come from living insects. Same way plants evolved to use insects for pollination - those plants with mutations that benefited from interaction with the prolific insect family were prominently selected for naturally, outcompeting their non-mutated brethern. Over time this has caused a wide variety of evolutionary adaptations.",
"They don't. Primitive bugs have been crawling on primitive plants for a long time. The plant doesn't know about the bug, but if the bug eats the plant, that's the end of the plant.\n\nSo at various points, plants have mutated to secrete chemicals that dissolve bugs. This helps the plant, so they evolve to secrete more chemicals. \n\nEventually the plants evolve to secrete chemicals that can serve as digestive enzymes. Now they don't just protect themselves from the bug. They steal the nutrients from the bug. This helps the plant, so they evolve to secrete more digestive enzymes. \n\nFrom there, the plants eventually mutate structures that happen to help catch and digest more bugs. Sticky chemicals, Pitfall traps, etc.. The plant is incapable of knowing why this is helpful, but if one pitcher plant randomly mutates to have a slightly deeper pitcher, and another pitcher plant randomly mutates to have a slightly a more shallow pitcher, the one with the deeper pitcher will catch more bugs, thrive, and spread more genes. No awareness required.",
"Land-based insects evolved before dry-land plants emerged from the sea. Thus plants emerged into an already dangerous and precarious new evolutionary niche when they first ventured to poke their fledgling roots above the waves.\n\nThus it is therefore reasonable to assume that evolution found defenses against insects - else otherwise plant life would never had found a foothold on the earth.\n\nTrapping and eating is just one such defense. Being tough or tasting bad or being poisonous are another. Also tactics such as camouflage or hiding under rocks may have been tried."
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1su5k0 | why am i compelled to look at or watch gory/disturbing things (such as videos, pictures, films), despite knowing that it will make me feel bad afterwards? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1su5k0/eli5_why_am_i_compelled_to_look_at_or_watch/ | {
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"I'm not quite sure but it could be the face that humans are naturally curious and cannot simply forget or ignore a situation where you have the opportunity to learn or discover the \"mystery\".",
"Naturally curious.\n\nFor me it was the ability to pretend I was dying. (I have depression)",
"Your brain needs emotional highs and lows.",
"In the relatively safe world of today, gory and/or disturbing content is attractive to us because it stimulates the underused flight/fight response.",
"Maybe it helps you find perspective on your life... at least my life isn't that bad, etc."
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3ktewm | why are mexican immigrants running from the cartel not considered refugees? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ktewm/eli5_why_are_mexican_immigrants_running_from_the/ | {
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"Someone classified as a Refugee is endowed with some legal protections aka. costs the government money. ",
"They would likely fit under the term \"Economic Refugee\". However, international law that the U.S. has obligated itself to follow does not cover economic refugees. The current definition of a refugee is:\n > A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.\n\nAnd the reasons for exile: \n\n > race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion\n\nUnfortunately, fleeing a cartel doesn't really fit into those categories. ",
"To call the Mexican immigrants \"refugees\" would be to acknowledge that the government of Mexico is a failed democracy. The US gov't, businesses and other agencies have way too much invested in Mexico and get too much political use out of Mexico, to acknowledge that Mexico, for most purposes, is a failure as a state.",
"The US considers Mexico a \"safe\" country with a reliable government. Officially, the USA believes that the Mexican government is capable of protecting its citizens."
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2pcu08 | what do special police units do the whole year? | For example hostage negotiators, or anti-terrorist squads?
Do they just wait (except for some trainings), and when some dramatic event takes place (such as today in Sydney), they come out of waiting, saying "this is our day", or what?
(Probably not, that's why I'm asking.) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pcu08/eli5_what_do_special_police_units_do_the_whole/ | {
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"They work regular policing jobs. In addition to doing their regular police work, they have taken part in training in weapons, tactics, negotiating, etc. They regularly train together as a group but would otherwise return to their regular police roles until needed."
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bjokjm | how can a baby scream for hours and be fine, but i yell for 30 minutes at a sporting event and lose my voice. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bjokjm/eli5_how_can_a_baby_scream_for_hours_and_be_fine/ | {
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"Some babies develop problems due to screaming. See Emma Stone, for example, she got nodules and calluses on her vocal cords.",
"Children scream with false ligaments, and you to break the ligaments. I am sorry for my English."
]
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2fzz32 | us tv censorship | I am watching the Louie TV show and it has some words censored. Each time someone is suposed to say "fuck" a "beep" hides it. But there are a lot of worse words or expressions that are not censored: cum, blowjob, faggot, even the "n-word" if i recall correctly.
I know there are TV channels like HBO without censorship, but I don't get Louie censorship.
Please explain this to me. Thank you! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fzz32/eli5_us_tv_censorship/ | {
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"With basic cable shows, like Louie its simple. Advertisers are either unwilling or afraid to buy ad time on programs that use certain words, or show certain body parts during certain hours. In order to appease the advertisers, they hold a certain set of standards and practices. Example, Comedy Central, late at night on weekends will show the uncut versions of movies with some words in them, because the ad rates have dropped low enough that it really does not matter, and they can actually benefit. Broadcast TV has more laws regulating content, because they use the public airwaves. HBO has none, because they are a separate subscription from basic cable. ",
"I also noticed they censor the \"hole\" part of \"Asshole\" but not the \"ass\" part, or when they say \"God damn\" they usually censor \"God\" but not \"damn.\"",
"Legally there's two types of tv in the US, broadcast (which are those channels that are freely available like abc, nbc, cbs, etc.) and cable (which is everything else). \n\nSince the government, and thus the people, own the broadcast frequencies the FCC has authority to regulate the content on it for decency (protecting the public interest and all that jazz). \n\nCable is legally allowed to show whatever it wants, but chooses to self censor (generally according to FCC guidelines) because advertisers require it as a condition of then paying for commercial time. \n\nSubscription channels generally don't censor because they don't have advertisers to placate and their subscribers don't seem to mind"
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bb6on2 | how did mormons develop their beliefs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bb6on2/eli5_how_did_mormons_develop_their_beliefs/ | {
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"Someone wrote a whole new book in the US, said it was buried there by ancient Jews and was the next part of the Bible. Some people believed him and here we are.",
"Joseph Smith, a man with a history of divining water, seeking treasure using a \"Seer Stone\" and making other questionable claims he was visited by the Angel Moroni and all of it was revealed to him.\n\nIt's pretty similar to how Scientology was revealed to L Ron Hubbard, or the prophecy of the 7 Seals was revealed to David Koresh, or how a 900 foot tall Jesus spoke to Oral Roberts to assure him his city of faith would be built.",
"Some guy writes fanfiction of the Bible. It gets a large following. The followers decide to try and make the fanfiction into official canon. The result is Mormonism."
]
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368b04 | is it better to be in the front or back of a train going 100mph that is about to derail? | Is it better to be in the front or back of a train going 100mph that is about to derail?
Experts please weigh in.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/368b04/eli5_is_it_better_to_be_in_the_front_or_back_of_a/ | {
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"It depends on where the derailing happens. If it starts with the first car then absolutely it is better to be in the back as the linkages between the cars and the friction generated from the derailing will slow the train down to the point where rear cars (depending on how long the train is) wont experience as strong of an impact (sometimes rear cars dont even go off the tracks). However if the derailing happens at the back/mid of the train it is better to be in the front as rear derailings often seem to result with the rear swinging outward which will significantly increase the odds of your car impacting something. However in general, it is better to be in the back. Think of it this way. If a train crashes and you are in the front you still have a whole bunch of train that has to crash into you. But if you are in the back you only have to crash into the car in front of you and you should already be slowed down. "
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2ccu8c | why do so many cities share street names? | Street names like First, Second, and Third seem pretty obvious, but it seems like many cities have common street names, like Dundas or Richmond. Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ccu8c/eli5_why_do_so_many_cities_share_street_names/ | {
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"They sound nice and there are a finite number of words in the English language. Another benefit of intentionally doing this is that everyone knows how to spell these street names. This makes life easier. In my city they have some WEIRD street names \"Katimavik\" for example. People who live on this street have to spell out that street name anytime they want to tell someone their address.",
"Generally, streets are named after their location (First, Second, Third, etc), their original purpose (Market, Bridge, Water, Main, etc), or people important to the city's history (Dundas, Richmond, Douglas, etc). The first two have obvious reasons for repetition. The third is because either they have the same people influencing them (expecially if it's named after royalty or explorers), or because it is (or was) a common name.",
"Streets might be named after important people (like here in Australia we have so many Queen, Adelaide, Mary, Elizabeth, George etc streets named after royalty). Lots of streets are named after trees and landscapes as well, and these are often streets with nice sounding names. Most of the street names that you see lots of are important people or are streets that have nice sounding names. \n\nThe fact is, no one wants to live on Gross Avenue or Wanka Road, so you're only going to get one of those."
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6gtx5m | why is eradicating poison ivy (and oak/etc) so difficult? | Or even just "permanently get rid of it from places where we don't want it" - like on known hiking trails, campgrounds, etc?
ps - not asking for any form of insight into how we'd be impacting mother nature, just how come we have such a difficulty with this plant in particular when we can certainly control the heck out of most other wildlife | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gtx5m/eli5_why_is_eradicating_poison_ivy_and_oaketc_so/ | {
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"Its a hard plant to kill becasue the best removal is to pull it out, But that has the issue of touching the plant, the precautions you have to take, covering up etc etc etc. The next is weed killer but their are environmental impacts of that.\n\nSo short of your local parks having goats around, its just a pain to remove since you cant freely touch any of it.",
"It wouldn't be hard to do.\n\nBut it would be hard to remove it all without destroying the rest of the plants.\n\nKilling an individual poison ivy plant is trivial, you just pull it up by the roots.\n\nFinding all of the position ivy plants in a large enough radius that they don't just re-seed and grow again is all but impossible."
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2bngwx | if the sun suddenly exploded, what exactly would happen? would we even know right away? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bngwx/eli5_if_the_sun_suddenly_exploded_what_exactly/ | {
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"I don't think we would know right away. It takes ~8.5 minutes for light from the sun to get to earth. So, basically the sun could have just exploded, and we won't know until 8ish minutes from now.\n\nFor the effects of it? I have no idea.",
"The sun is approximately 8 light minutes away. Since nothing moves faster than the speed of light, it would be at least that long until we noticed anything unusual. And then we'd be vaporized.",
"The sun is 149,600,000 km from Earth. If we assume it would explode at the fastest velocity it ejects stuff from it 3200 km/s. Then it would take just shy of 13 hours for the explosion to reach us. It takes 8.5 minutes for us to begin to see the explosion, so you would still have the better part of 13 hours to see the sun rushing at you. So yes we would know.\n\nWhat would happen? I lied you would die well before 13 hours, at some point you would cook to death (sorry no vaporization...well no vaporization until after everything is dead). Temperatures on Earth would rise rapidly cooking all of us to death. It would probably be better to be on the sunny side rather than night side as the Earth would protect you for a while but still reach unlivable levels."
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f87i10 | how do they supply hot tap water in whole country ? | I am currently in Russia and there is hot water supply in every building. I can see the pipes which contain the hot water but what is the source ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f87i10/eli5_how_do_they_supply_hot_tap_water_in_whole/ | {
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"Each building has it's own water heater. Only cold water is supplied and it's heated inside the building and usually wamed and contained in an insulated tank until it's required.",
"The source is the local power station, as well as producing electricity the power station can use the exhaust heat to supply building heating and hot water to surrounding buildings, this only works in relatively densely populated areas.",
"In Iceland (where I live) we get all our hot water from the earth. It is pumped via insulated pipes and stored in insulted tanks near cities. We actually have a quite nice tanks like that here in Reykjavík. We built a restaurant and observation deck on it. Here is an image of it. Hot water for most of Reykjavík is stored in these tanks.\nImage: [Perlan (the pearl)](_URL_0_)",
"I believe the term you're looking for is district heating (DH). It is used to supply a large amount of buildings with hot water by heating the water in combined heat and power (CHP) stations or thermal power stations. In some countries or especially in rural areas district heating isn't really used, but it's common in cold, densely populated areas where the need for heat is large.\n\nSo the heat is usually generated by burning coal, biomass, natural gas or other fuels with different methods, and the released heat is captured to water and/or steam. If it's a CHP plant, part of the heat and energy is extracted as electricity in steam turbines. Most of the remaining heat is transferred to DH system in heat exchangers. DH system is basically just a huge system of insulated pipelines with some pumps to keep the water flowing. The pipeline is connected to buildings, where there is a separate heat exchanger that takes heat from the DH water to your domestic hot water, that you'd get from your tap. Domestic water is just clean, cold water coming from your local water supply, and the hot water is the same water but just heated.\n\nELI5 explanation: power plants heat water in a water circulation system, and your house takes part of that heat.",
"I remember seeing that a mall in Russia had flooded with hot water, apparently they have hot water pipes throughout the city."
]
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[],
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"https://imgur.com/krJxPLy"
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44ze4g | what's the difference between archiving and email and deleting it? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44ze4g/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_archiving_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Its basically the difference between shredding/burning a physical piece of mail and having your secretary file it away, and in this case you don't know where your secretary puts them.\n\nthat is to say deleting an email is more or less destroying it whereas archiving it gets it out of your inbox but saves it away so that it could be somewhat easily recovered later",
"Archived emails can be accessed, at least for a period, but it is moved to a separate \"archive\" folder that stores data in a slower to access, but more memory efficient, state. Look in your email program or site for a folder marked \"archive\"."
]
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[],
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3rtr3f | how long could a dolphin survive on land, provided it has an endless supply of food? | For example, if a dolphin gets beached, how long could it live being stranded on the beach? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rtr3f/eli5_how_long_could_a_dolphin_survive_on_land/ | {
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"Dolphins are cetaceans, IE mammals and they breath air just like you or me. The problems they deal with on land would be mainly 2 things, exposure and their weight. \n\nThe humidity in the air, spraying water on them is for comfort, and supporting and spreading out the force ontheir bodies is life threatening. \n\nWhen in the water their weight is spread all over their body from buoyancy with no particular parts bearing any more load than others. \n\nOn the land though, the weight is crushing them down from above, cutting off circulation, putting pressure on internal organs, and this leads to shock and then death. This takes time to kill them though like in the cases of beached whales or dolphins, but it will kill them even if you try to make them comfortable and support their bodies to prevent pressure points. The larger the animal, the faster this happens. \n\nThink of it like having your body weight supported on your esophagus, even if you spread that force out to prevent it from being crushed, eventually it will begin to collapse, strangling you to death and cutting off blood flow and respiration. \n\n"
]
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6bz5oo | in the us, if a president dies/becomes incapable of performing his duties, does the time his vice president spent as acting president count as a term? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bz5oo/eli5_in_the_us_if_a_president_diesbecomes/ | {
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"text": [
"This is covered by the 22nd amendment. It's counted as a term if the acting president served more than two years.",
"If the amount of time that a Vice President takes over is 2 years or less (half a term) then it does not count as a term for them and they can still run for 2 terms. If the amount of time they take over is more than 2 years they can only run for 1 additional term. "
]
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[],
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||
eyakuv | how do fingerprint scanners work? what format are the scans themselves stored in? | Basically, how do fingerprint scanners "capture" a fingerprint, and how does each scan compare to the stored fingerprint scan from when the scanner was set up? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eyakuv/eli5_how_do_fingerprint_scanners_work_what_format/ | {
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"text": [
"Not an expert, but I used to work on police in-car software services. The fingerprint scanners they used at the time identified the branches and terminations of the ridges and recorded their relative positions. Those were called \"minimals\". You can turn that into a map of your prints and use math/analysis techniques to match best fit."
]
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|
czb6yn | if a trading partner's currency deflates, what negative impacts could that have on my country and its economy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czb6yn/eli5_if_a_trading_partners_currency_deflates_what/ | {
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"text": [
"If their currency deflates, then it would cost them more of their currency to exchange for your currency. This would make your exports to them more expensive, which might cut your sales as the effective price to them increases. Weaker demand for your export products can hurt sales and profits, cause layoffs, and showball the effect into sectors not directly affected as those laid off pull back their spending."
]
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||
1jw5hz | why does traffic seem to 'bunch up' on long strings of highway? | I've been doing a great deal of driving lately and I prefer to drive at night when there is little traffic. Still, I will go for miles without seeing another soul, and all of the sudden there are like 5 cars all bunched up together. I searched the subreddit and read about the ripple effect, but that is during actual traffic times. I'm referring to times where there aren't stops or jams, just empty road and why cars seem to group up together. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jw5hz/eli5_why_does_traffic_seem_to_bunch_up_on_long/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbiyc8r"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"because many people naturally slow down and maintain speed when they are near other people\n\npeople going faster catch up to people going slower and simply adjust to stay behind\n\nits the natural inclination of people to form a group\n\n"
]
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|
425ts0 | why is it that when someone touches me in a certain place on my body it can send "chills" throughout my body? for example, when my so nibbles on my ear it makes my whole body tingle. why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/425ts0/eli5_why_is_it_that_when_someone_touches_me_in_a/ | {
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"A lot of the time its a multitude of stimuli.\n\nShe's physically close to you, touching you.\n\nShe bites on your ear to stimulate that area, heightening the experience\n\nThe smell of someone you are infatuated with\n\nIn the end all of these physical stimuli then start a chain of memories of being with them\n\nThis all adds up to the over stimulation of your mind and body, sending the shivers.\n\nSo that's about it.",
"It is associated with Auto Sensory Meridian Response, ASMR, in my opinion. Basically, there are certain visual, auditory, and physical perceptions that can send the \"chill\" over your body. Check out r/asmr to learn more. ",
"[Erogenous zones](_URL_0_)\n\n\nSome people find whispering or breathing softly in the ear to be pleasurable and relaxing, as well as licking, biting, caressing and/or kissing it especially the area of and behind the earlobe.",
"This is ASMR. i never knew it was a thing until recently. I experience this to an extreme and can really almost feel like rolling on MDMA or having a really long orgasm. \n\n*edit. yes, its like when a lover whispers in your ear, or gently caresses your face. certain noises and certain voices can trigger it. if your interested check out [UKASMR](_URL_0_) on youtube, theres also [Heather Feather](_URL_1_) (my current favorite!) and of course there is [Tony Bamboini](_URL_2_). ",
"TL;DR: Blame your hypothalamus.\n\nDisclaimer, I'm just a simple code monkey, not a doctor.\n\nIt all starts when someone is touched in an area with a lot of nerves and interprets that touch as a good emotion. The hypothalamus, a tiny part of your brain just above the brain stem and about the size of an almond kicks in. It is responsible for releasing a bunch of brain hormones that help control stuff you don't usually think about like breathing and body temperature. \n\nWhen this gland receives the good feeling and good emotion it lets out extremely powerful hormones that make you feel very good. The hormones stimulate the rest of your body to do things like give you goose bumps, change your breathing, and importantly for your question, let out another special hormone called adrenaline. This adrenaline plus the activation of specific nerves is the main reason for the shiver in your spine.",
"Theres a tiny tiny spot on my lower back which I can rarely find but if I scratch it I get a weird nerve shock on neck...why is this?",
"Something that hasn't been mentioned is the receptive field, or how densely innervated a particular tissue is. The most sensitive parts of our bodies have different systems of nervous wiring. Your arms and legs, for example, will have an arrangement by which one single nerve cell will supply sensation back to the brain from a large patch of skin (large relative to that of the hand/ear/erogenous zones). So think of one nerve shooting out a bunch of branches that extend to a patch of skin on those parts.\n\nNow, shift over to hands, lips, and as they say in French, le junk. Much much smaller patches of skin now each get their own individual nerve. So touching, for example, on square inch of forearm will essentially trigger one neuron, but touching the same surface area of finger tip will activate signalling on MULTIPLE neurons. The effect is multiplied. \n\nSignificant enough stimulation will elicit effects in the brain that result in signals being sent down the spinal cord and out to the little muscles at the base of your hairs that make them stand up. Similar signaling also triggers involuntary contractions of the shivering muscles. It may also cause your pupils to dilate, and breathing and heartbeat to increase. These are all results of the sympathetic nervous system, which definitely kicks in when you are with a special somebody and feeling . . .amorous.",
"Same thing gets me... I (24m) get the chills with ear nibbling too. Don't understand it and the entire time I'm thinking \"this is retarded, but keep going....\"",
"Or when I lick my SO armpits? She goes absolutely batshit (to clarifly- I mean balls to the wall DEFCON 0 batshit insane. I can make her having a screaming/flailing orgasm just by licking her armpits) \n\nI need to know what is going on so I can further hack her.",
"semi related.. I get a similar feeling while passing random people in a hallway or I drive past a random car on the road... any ideas what causes this sensation?"
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/user/Asmrer"
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2oafpo | disregarding the impossible. vertically, how deep / high must i be before i am no longer within my country's boundaries? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oafpo/eli5_disregarding_the_impossible_vertically_how/ | {
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"There is no official, universally accepted standard for where a nation's airspace ends. The United States has a line at 80 km for where space begins, but it's regularly ignored even there. The general range used by nations is somewhere between 30 km to 160 km.",
"Down to the center of the earth, and up to the edge of space— the edge of space doesn't have a solid definition, but mostly it's taken to be around 100 km up, or thereabouts.\n\nIt's not completely without controversy. Some equatorial nations have argued that they own the geostationary orbital positions above their territory. But I don't think anyone else acknowledges those claims. The [Outer Space Treaty](_URL_0_) of 1967 is still held to by all the nations with space capability, as far as I know.",
"The traditional definition of property is that it's down to the center of the earth and up to infinity. Heinlein wrote an excellent story about applying this concept to buy the moon, called, uncreatively, \"[The Man Who Sold the Moon](_URL_0_).\"\n\nIn law Latin, \"[Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos](_URL_2_)\" or \"whoever's land it is, it's his as far as heaven and hell.\" You can, of course, sell interests in your property above or below certain elevations or for certain reasons, like mineral rights or view easements. \n\nMost countries have, however, given up whatever traditional definitions of sovereignty or real property may apply to the moon in the aptly named [Outer Space Treaty](_URL_1_), which says that planetary bodies are \"the common inheritance of all mankind.\"\n\nThe problem is that there is no definition of when \"airspace\" ends and \"outer space\" begins. The United States says anyone higher than 50 miles is an astronaut and presumably, therefore, in space. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale says it's 100km (~62 miles). The lowest stable earth orbit is supposedly somewhere around 160km (~99 miles).\n\nSo the answer, dear five year old, is that it's not clear and it depends on what your country thinks: anywhere from 50 miles to infinity.",
"There is no law to cover this in any national or international legal system as far as I know.\n\nThe closest thing is mineral rights. The mineral rights of a property end where the crust meets the mantel as that is about as far as we are able to go. \n\nAs the crust thickness varies from place to place there is no universal thickness I can give you. ",
"The Kármán line is a commonly accepted definition of where space begins as it is a convenient 100km above the earths surface. \n\nIn the US, the Federal Aviation Act dictates that the US government has exclusive rights to all navigable airspace above minimum flight altitudes, which are defined as 1,000 ft above any structure within a 2,000 ft radius of the aircraft.\n\nFor the purposes of maximum altitude it means that as long as an aircraft can fly in it, it's US airspace. Above that is no longer navigable and thus no longer US airpsace",
"The practical definition is \"as deep as you can drill, and as high up as you can shoot down\".",
"100km is where space begins and borders are meaningless. \n\n30km is the point where most countries can't stop you flying over them regardless of borders. ",
"straight down, you own it all unless there is minerals, fuels, indian graveyard, etc, then you have to acquire those separately in the US and some other Commonwealth countries. As far as up, depends on the nation again, though theoretically, as long as you can breathe and can build that high, you're still in your country. "
]
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1qba9c | how can the fbi and other government agencies not shut down deep web sites like the silk road without finding the owner? | With Ross Ulbricht, why couldn't the government shut down his website before they caught him? Why can't they shut down other websites that include child porn, hit men, drugs, etc? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qba9c/eli5_how_can_the_fbi_and_other_government/ | {
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"text": [
"No one here seems to have given the right answer. Not even close. \n\n\"The Deep Web\" is a over used term that really just means computers you cant connect to normally. Things that arent indexed by search engines, content behind paywalls or logins, or networks blocked off from the rest of the internet in some way. Silkroad falls into the last category, it was within a hidden network. \n\nThe most common way people access a large section of \"the deep web\" is through software called TOR, The Onion Router. TOR encrypts your traffic, so it cant be read, and proxies your data between at least three other computers. Every time data is passed to a new computer, its wrapped in a new layer of encryption. This is why its called Onion Routing, its wrapped in multiple layers of encryption, like an onion. \n\nNow, the TOR networks main and really only function is anonymity. Its made in such a way that no two computers that interact with eachother know the IP of the other. I can connect to silkroad through TOR, but at no point do I know silkroads real IP, and at no point does silkroad know my real IP. When I connect to a normal website, they see my IP. Its actually necessary for the connection to be made. When I connect to a TOR website, the connection is made with a special cryptographic identifier that lets me connect to the site without reading its IP. \n\nThe police couldnt shut down silkroad easily because they had no way of knowing where the server was; what its IP was. \n\nNow, be aware that TOR is not the entire deep web, remember the definition I gave you before. TOR is only one section of the deep web. The deep web has existed for as long as the internet, there is nothing special or mysterious about it, its just content you cant easily access. The Deep web existed for decades but tor has only existed since 2003, and with its creation came a whole new section of the deep web. \n\n**TL;DR:** The silkroad operating inside the TOR network, a complex piece of software that uses cryptography and proxies to hide the IP of both servers and clients. "
]
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[]
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|
3f199t | why are we being bombarded with so many superhero movies? | Not that im mad about it just wondering. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3f199t/eli5_why_are_we_being_bombarded_with_so_many/ | {
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"text": [
"Because they make god awful amounts of money. Not that I'm complaining either, I have enjoyed this run this far.",
"They make obscene amounts of money would be a big one.\n\nAnd we now have a studio (marvel) that is dedicated to nothing other than that... but thats really just another effect of how much money spiderman, xmen, and batman earned.\n\n",
"In addition to the other responses about how they make a lot of money, computer generated imagery (CGI) has gotten much more advanced and believable.\n\nTherefore, if you wanted to make a very explosive action movie, you don't need to hire a pyrotechnics team, get fire permits for the filming site, etc. Heck, nowadays, you don't even need to film on site. You can just film in front of a green screen and have a team of people remotely working on computers add the explosions and backgrounds later.",
"I think the biggest factor is that Hollywood has realized to make the most amount of profit in a movie, the story or idea needs to have a pretty strong pre-existing fan base. Comic books are in abundance with fan bases stretching out multiple generations, so it seems like the stories that will have the best success in the box office.",
"In addition to the amounts of money they make, superhero franchises are less dependent on stars to open a picture. During the 80's and early 90's stars like Schwarzenegger and Cruise made a shit ton of money in fees and in add ons, as percentages of global Box Office. If the movie bombed the studios were hit but the stars still pocketed up front fees. If the movies went through the roof, the stars took a percentage of the gross, as did the distributors and exhibitors so the studios didn't do nearly as well as one might think.\n\nWith superhero movies the audience, generally, become fans of the superhero, rather than the star, because of this the actors' upfront fees are smaller and their percentages are miniscule in comparison to earlier blockbusters. They still make millions but not the hundreds of millions that Nicholson made for The Joker.\n\nWhile there are exceptions to this rule, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, for example, one need only think of the number of Batmen or Spidermen, even in relatively recent times to see how the actors are, while not quite interchangeable, less important than heretofore. Superheroes are similar to James Bond in this respect.\n\nSuperhero movies also offer the studios better opportunities when it comes to merchandising with everything from fast food to toys by way of clothes up for grabs. More merchandising equals more money in the studios' pockets.\n\nAdditionally studios are quite conservative and so tend to follow proven formulae. This holds as true for genre of picture as anything else. If musicals suddenly began to consistently do far better than superheroes the studios would begin to switch.\n\nSo much for the supply side - the making of movies - it's also important to look at the nature of demand for movies - the watching of films; audience has migrated away from the more adult fare of the 70's with episodic television stealing much of the adult audience. As the audience skewed younger, movie themes became less ambiguous to appeal to a younger audience and superheroes, with their simple Good V. Evil story lines, fit the bill.\n\nGlobal audience is also important with overseas box office accounting for billions of dollars, and unambiguous superhero tales are more easily translatable in thematic terms.\n\nThe long and the short of it is, movies are incredibly expensive to make and anything that shaves the cost of making them, increases their reach to the audience and potentially adds to the return makes the bean counters happy."
]
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1qvtei | why doesn't water vapor in our air turn to liquid? | Basically I'm asking how humidity exists...At regular room temperature, wouldn't water be in liquid form? And if it is, how does its molecular weight not just force it to the ground? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qvtei/why_doesnt_water_vapor_in_our_air_turn_to_liquid/ | {
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"text": [
"At room temperature, water exists in both liquid and vapor form. Humidity (water vapor) does turn to liquid when it touches a cool surface. It's called condensation. Notice the outside surface of a cold drink you've poured. It will become wet. This is condensation."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
8do5de | what causes exhausts to have that rasp-y sound people tend to associate with tuners? (civics, integras, etc) | I've been having trouble trying to understand why this stuff happens. I've done research and it can happen with titanium or stainless steel exhausts, and I know that it also tends to happen more if you have test pipes instead of catalytic converters. Is there a simple way to explain *why*? People on car forums all have their own theories as to why, but it seems like overall it has something to do with the flow of exhaust? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8do5de/eli5_what_causes_exhausts_to_have_that_raspy/ | {
"a_id": [
"dxorkdj",
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2
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"text": [
"It has a lot to do with the resonater (muffler) design. Being a resonater, the size volume and pathway makes different tones. Think of how different brass instruments make different sounds.\n\nIf you are tuning for high rpm horsepower you will likely end up raspy, if you tune towards low end power you will sound more burbley.\n\nThings like header design makes a difference too. Like a 4 to 2 to 1 header might sound burbley while a 4 to 1 might sound raspy screamy.\n\n\n",
"The exhaust pipe it self doesn't make contribution to the sound,unless it rattles due to being poorly hung on the frame, or the exhaust pipe has rusted or had holes drilled into it.\n\nIt's the muffler that does most of the work. Pretend the engine is at 100 RPM, so on a 4 cylinder engine an explosion and the venting of the exhaust gases happens 400 times a minute. So there is a rapid pulsing of exhaust gases out the pipe.\n\nSome of sound created by the explosion and rushing exhaust gases will be high frequency and low frequency. Generally it's desirable to reduce the high frequency. A simple tube with holes punched in it going through a can filled with fiberglass will dampen some (very little) of the sounds by providing a place for the gases to expand and slow down.\n\nMore advanced ones will have a series of baffles and chambers to let the gases expand, absorb the sound waves, slow down the gases. For example let's say the Toyota Camry, Lexus is350, es350 and gs350 all have the same engine block. \n\nThe manufacturer or a tuner might change the muffler to be one that gives a certain sound, maybe reduce back pressure from the exhaust. But they might also alter the engine timing, headers and other parts to make it quieter or perform different"
]
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[],
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22mvqq | why are revealed female breasts/nipples considered erotic? | I realize that in the Amazon and some parts of Africa topless women are the norm as they are not considered sexual/erotic. Boobs have no purpose in sexual reproduction (outside of nursing), so why is it sexual? I've always wondered. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22mvqq/eli5why_are_revealed_female_breastsnipples/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgod0d2"
],
"score": [
8
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"text": [
"They're [secondary sexual characteristics](_URL_0_). Essentially characteristics that appear during puberty to say that the person is able to reproduce. It's important for mate selection, as mating with one unable to reproduce is evolutionarily a bad idea. \n\nIt's interesting to me because it shows just how important biology is to psychology. Our culture and practices are shaped by our emotional and hormonal instincts, which are in turn controlled by our evolution and environment."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_sexual_characteristics"
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|
4pwpht | why do ceiling fans have two speeds: hurricane and is this on? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4pwpht/eli5_why_do_ceiling_fans_have_two_speeds/ | {
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"text": [
"Every ceiling fan I've personally known has had 4 speeds: off, low, medium and high.\n\nEach has their uses, such as low being good to spread heat around in the winter without causing a cooling draft (this is also why they usually have the reverse switch). High works best when you are sweating to create as much of a draft as possible to cool you through evaporation. Medium is a decent general speed. And off, well, off is best for when you don't want/need a fan."
]
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[]
] |
||
2h0stp | phase/neutral/3-phase how does electricity work ? | What is Phase and what is neutral, what's the difference between single phase and 3-phase system and how does it affect the consumer (appliances running on it) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2h0stp/eli5phaseneutral3phase_how_does_electricity_work/ | {
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"text": [
"Phase is the positive side of the circuit (240 volts here in the UK) and neutral is at 0 volts. Now imagine electricity as water. Water will always flow downhill, electricity will always want to flow to 0. The voltage is the difference between the low and high points of the water system, the water will be in a tank 240 meters above the ground. The higher the tank (higher voltage) the more 'potential difference' there is in the system. \n\nAs for 3 phase, this type of distribution system has 3 phases 240 volts per phase at 120 degrees apart, imagine the single phase as a small spot on the tyre of a wheel, as the wheel rotates, the spot moves around in a circle, when the point is above the axle (top half of the wheel) , then it means the appliance is receiving power, when it's close to the floor (bottom half of the wheel), the system isn't receiving power. When there are 3 spots on the outside of the wheel, 120 degrees apart (3×120 = 360 =full circle) there will always be a spot above the axle, meaning ye device is being supplied with power at all times. \n\nTried to be as clear as I can, not done an ELI5 before :)\n\nSorry if there are typos, typing on a new phone difficult :) "
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[]
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|
3xwkha | how to herbivores get enough nutrients from just grass? | How is it possible that cows, for instance, get enough nutrients from eating just grass? Like, a bull is HUGE, how? Plus when you realise that cows essentially turn grass into nutrient rich milk and protein rich meat it kinda blows your mind. It's grass. Should bodybuilders start a grass only diet now? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xwkha/eli5_how_to_herbivores_get_enough_nutrients_from/ | {
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"The short answer is that they eat a shitload of grass.\n\nCows spend pretty much every waking moment of their lives eating and have a very complicated digestive system designed to get maximum nutrient and caloric value from grass.",
"Many herbivores eat more than one herbaceous material, which provides some nutritional diversity. Except pandas, which is why pandas are dumb. "
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1db6nk | how am i suppose to charge and maintain my lithium based laptop battery? | Here is a link that I don't fully understand. Can you break it down for me in bullet points? What am I suppose to do and not do?
_URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1db6nk/eli5_how_am_i_suppose_to_charge_and_maintain_my/ | {
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"Avoid fully discharging the battery. Try not to go below about 30% on a regular basis.\n\nAvoid heating the battery above 30C (86F).\n\nUse the battery semi-regularly. Avoid maintaining a perpetually full charge, especially at temperatures above 30C."
]
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"http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries"
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[]
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|
38lvga | why do people walk in a circle when they're in a fistfight? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/38lvga/eli5why_do_people_walk_in_a_circle_when_theyre_in/ | {
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"I'm no professional boxer, but I spar once a week. Constantly moving is good for three things:\n\n* It makes you harder to hit\n* It makes looking for openings of your opponent easier, since people can only protect their front and not their side\n* It hides your attack movements. Good power comes from low in the body, so it is more difficult to predict where a blow is going if your whole body is moving.\n\nBecause you are moving and always trying to keep your arms between you and your opponent to block, the result is fighters moving in circles.",
"in reality, one person would start to strafe ( move sideways), in an attempt to be on their opponent's side, or back. the other person, to compensate and not give his opponent any advantage, strafes as well. \n\nadditionally, fist fights require a great deal of focus. with one's background constantly changing, their focus could be broken more easily. while this is an equal disadvantage, it makes the fight a battle of wills as well, to a degree.",
"You want to fight me. I want to fight you.\n\nWe begin to fight. I walk to my side to try to get a better angle on you. You stand still. I keep moving to the side. You don't. At some point I am now behind you, and have a complete advantage. I punch you in the back of the head while you face away from me.\n\nRealistically... as I try to come around, you will counter by rotating yourself. As we both try to get an advantage while facing each other, we end up going around in circles.",
"Offensively, fighters are looking for / trying to create an opening. Defensively, fighters are looking to keep themselves in as advantageous a position as possible. \n\nBelieve it or not, this is hard behavior to train. Inexperienced fighters will typically move in a straight line backward away from their attacker. Source: Martial arts teacher."
]
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1l328q | why does bread become doughy again when you squish it up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l328q/eli5_why_does_bread_become_doughy_again_when_you/ | {
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"text": [
"Bread is airy because of the bubbles baked into the bread and held in place by gluten (or the gluten-free equivalent). Squish the bubbles and you're left with a dense, baked dough that feels squishy instead of pillowy."
]
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[]
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||
3ys3de | why do we have capsaicin receptors on our buttholes? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ys3de/eli5_why_do_we_have_capsaicin_receptors_on_our/ | {
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"Those receptors are in mucus membranes, which are in your anus. It would sting if you shoved it up your nose as well.",
"Capsaicin triggers ordinary neurons which are present in all sorts of tissue. [Source.](_URL_0_) Nothing special about that one region.",
" > I mean I understand evolving with capsaicin receptors in our mouth because we consume food that orifice\n\nYou didn't evolve receptors to detect capsaicin. Capsaicin evolved because it irritates existing receptors in your tissues, making mammals less likely to eat the plant or its seeds. That the receptors exist in other tissues than your mouth is immaterial to the evolution of the substance, they're in your mouth too and that's good enough for the benefit to plants. \n\nThe plants that typically have capsaicin are typically distributed by birds, who are not sensitive to the substance and are less likely to destroy the seeds.",
"basically capsaicin is like a kid putting a lighter to a fire alarm. you got these alarms all over so you know if you are on fire.",
"Capsaicin makes you feel 'hot' because it binds to a receptor molecule (TRPV1) that is meant to signal high temperatures (greater than 43 degrees C). I.e., if you burn your tongue with hot water, your tongue senses the temperature using this receptor. Capsaicin is a molecule that abnormally stimulates this sensor molecule, mimicing the sensation of 'hot' - i.e., your body thinks it is burning even though it is not.\n\nThis same receptor exists in many different types of tissues all over the body, so it can be stimulated whenever any of these tissues come into contact with capsaicin."
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21it4n | will social security run out in the foreseeable future? when? | What will prolong Social Security? Are we going to see tax hike to cover the difference between paid out benefits and brought in taxes? Will all the baby boomers see their SS?
I saw a stat saying that due to immigration, we can effectively say 99% of the original baby boomer population is, numerically, still alive and getting ready to receive their social security. A lot of my baby boomer relatives have said pseudoproudly that their generation will wipe out Social Security. They have little to say for when or what the repurcussions will be. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21it4n/eli5_will_social_security_run_out_in_the/ | {
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"It depends on how you look at it.\n\nFrom the perspective of \"Money collected by Social Security is less than money going out to Social Security\" then, yes, SS is going to go broke, and fairly soon.\n\nBut that's not how it works. SS funds just go into the general fund; SS has been paying for our overspending for four or five decades. So when it's time to pay up, any deficit in the program itself will get taken out of the general fund. At that point, we will either need to raise taxes, cut spending, or go further into debt. And by quite a bit, too.\n\nChances are it will be a combination of all three.",
"Social Security was designed to run at a slight profit, because increasing numbers of workers would fund it, and (in theory) the pool of retirees would always be a smaller group. It is only the huge number of retiring Baby Boomers combined with the smaller pool of young working citizens that is throwing that out of balance.\n\nFortunately, unlike Y2K, we saw this coming decades in advance, and in 1983 the Reagan Administration enacted the [Social Security Amendments of 1983](_URL_0_) (note: link is a PDF). Social Security is funded through the next fifty years or so without any further changes. A few minor tweaks, such as a less-than-a-single-percentage-point increase in SS taxation, will keep the system solvent even longer.\n\nA complication is that because SS has been sitting on an enormous pile of cash for decades, some politicians (on both sides of the aisle) decided it would be okay to raid that cookie jar to cover deficits elsewhere in the budget. So, while on paper the numbers still work out just fine, the reality is that SS will need to be repaid at some point, and *that* will require cuts elsewhere. When Republicans claim SS is insolvent or in danger and should be privatized, that is what they are not telling you. SS is not the problem - the rest of the budget is."
]
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"http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v46n7/v46n7p3.pdf"
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3kw1fj | what power to influence policy does the uk's shadow cabinet actually have? | Does a member of the shadow cabinet actually have any more power to define policy than any other (non-cabinet member) MP? Or is its existence just to define policy so the opposition can say "If our party were in power, our policy on this topic would be X, you're doing it wrong"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kw1fj/eli5_what_power_to_influence_policy_does_the_uks/ | {
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"Shadow cabinet can't directly affect government policy so it's the latter.\n\nHowever as members of Parliament they can vote on acts and issues put before the house.\n\nThe government can be defeated on an issue if enough MPS vote against them. This is why any party likes to have a majority so that they can push through their acts.\nIf members of the ruling party vote against government it's embarrassing for the prime minister and can lead to their downfall.\n\nYou can see MP voting records at:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nLog of votes and proceedings:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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"http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/votes-and-proceedings/#session=27&year=2015&month=8&day=11",
"http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mps/"
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35mem6 | how come places have sales and sell stuff for only $1 | I am at my local car dealership and I notice balloons all over the place saying 'buy 3 tires and get the fourth for only a dollar' how come they just don't I've the 4th tire for free? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35mem6/eli5_how_come_places_have_sales_and_sell_stuff/ | {
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"Their system might not allow for a zero dollar sale. They also still have to track all tires for inventory management. \n \nAlso management can pull up sales to see how many of those deals they sold. \n \nEdit- Grammar. I can't believe I mixed up They're and Their"
]
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1g8r6h | can someone please explain a reciprocal in algebra? | Ill post this in learnmath, but really it's best to talk to me about math as if I'm a toddler. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g8r6h/eli5_can_someone_please_explain_a_reciprocal_in/ | {
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"it's a number, when multiplied by the denominator(the bottom number in a fraction), equals 1. so, 1/2 is the reciprocal of 2, because when you multiply 1/2 by 2 you get 1. so, in keeping with that the reciprocal of 837 is 1/837.",
"So, in algebra, you have numbers. There are integers, which are whole numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. And there are also decimals, which is everything between: you can have 1.1, 2.5, 3.14, 4.124135, or anything else like that that you want. \n\nSometimes, though, it's hard to understand what a decimal is. If I tell you I have half of an apple, that's the same as 0.5 apples; it's a lot easier to understand half of an apple, though. You could represent half of an apple as 1/2. That's called a fraction. \n\nThe **reciprocal** of a fraction is that fraction \"upside down\". So the reciprocal of 1/2 would be 2/1, which is just 2. The reciprocal of 2/3 is 3/2. \n\nThis lets us do some really cool things. First of all, since all it takes to get a reciprocal is flipping the number upside down, the reciprocal of the reciprocal is just the original number! Think about it: the reciprocal of 3/5 is 5/3, and then the reciprocal of 5/3 is 3/5. So the reciprocal of the reciprocal of 3/5 is 3/5: the number we started with. \n\nIt also lets us do some cool things with algebra. The reciprocal is what is known as the **multiplicative inverse**. All that means, is that when you multiply a number by its reciprocal, you get 1. That's a really cool feature of reciprocals that makes a lot of sense when you really think about it. If you have 2/3, the reciprocal is 3/2. 2/3 * 3/2 is 6/6, which is 1. You multiply the 2 in the numerator (the top part) of the original by the 3 of the numerator in the reciprocal, and then the 3 in the denominator (the bottom part) of the original by the 2 in the denominator of the reciprocal. This applies to *any* number you take the reciprocal of, since you'll always be multiplying the same two numbers (the numerator times the denominator), and any number divided by itself is 1. \n\nThis can be explained by the **algebraic definition for reciprocal**. In algebra, the technical definition of the reciprocal of a number *x* is 1/*x*. When you have 2/3, for example, you get 1/(2/3), which is 3/2. The easiest way to prove this would be looking at the idea of the multiplicative inverse. \nRemember that if you have an equation that says *x* * *y* = *z*, that's the same as saying *z* / *x* = *y*. We know that (2/3) * (3/2) = 1, so we know that 1 / (2/3) must equal 3/2. You could also prove it by doing the math the long way or by converting the numbers to decimal and back, but I won't do that here. \n\nKeep in mind that there's a limitation to reciprocals! Remember that you can **never** divide by zero, so zero doesn't have a reciprocal! The reciprocal of zero would have to be 1/0, which doesn't exist. Keep that in mind! \n\nGoing a bit more in-depth now, since the question was asking about in algebra. I'm assuming that, since you were asking about reciprocals in algebra, you might be interested in how to use them to cancel things out in an algebraic equation. \nLet's say, for example, that we have the equation 4x/5 = 12. That's the same as saying 4/5 * x = 12. We want to get rid of the 4/5 so that we can have x on the side by itself! Keep in mind that something multiplied by 1 is itself, so we want to turn the 4/5 into a 1. To do that, all we have to do is multiply 4/5 by its reciprocal, which is 5/4. Keep in mind, though, that everything we do to one side of the equation, we have to do to the other as well, so we multiply both sides by 5/4. \n\n4/5 * 5/4 * x = 12 * 5/4 \n\nThe 4/5 and 5/4 cancel out to equal 1, leaving us with: \n1 * x = 12 * 5/4 \n\n1 * x is just x, so we have: \nx = 12 * 5/4\n\nDoing the math on 12 * 5/4, we get 15. 12 * 5 = 60, 60 / 4 = 15. \n\nx = 15\n\n--- \n\nSorry for the huge wall of text! Hopefully that answers your question and explains reciprocals well enough. If you have any other questions/anything I didn't go over, let me know and I'll do my best to help!"
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5haw9a | how do epoxies work on a molecular scale? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5haw9a/eli5_how_do_epoxies_work_on_a_molecular_scale/ | {
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"Epoxy resins form ionic bonds at an atomic level with the bonding surfaces. \nDisadvantages of epoxies are that they have a high coefficient of thermal expansion and they are not that strong at elevated temperature. The high CTE becomes an issue if you are bonding low CTE materials like Titanium and then using the resulting assembly at the low temperatures of space since the bond will want to contract more than the bonded materials and thereby put mechanical stress in the bond. Similarly the high temperatures of space pose problems as well."
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1s6pl4 | is it better to leave my desktop running all the time or to turn it off every night? | I have heard and read so many different explanations about this. Some say that turning the computer off is bad because starting up a computer is bad for the electronics. Others say leaving it on costs way more and that dust accumulates faster. Any experts? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s6pl4/eli5is_it_better_to_leave_my_desktop_running_all/ | {
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"In most scenarios you should be turning off your electronics when they are not in use. Your electronics do not suffer from being turned on and off. Your computer does consume extra power and gather extra dust while it is running during the night.\n\nThis doesn't always apply to business scenarios, where they will want you to keep your PC on at night so that automated tasks can be run while you're out of the office.",
"Honestly? Now-a-days it's negligible.\n\nYes, there is some wear and tear on the parts, but most parts now-a-days are geared towards being power cycled on a regular basis.\n\nThe best way is to use the computers in built \"sleep\". This turns off power to things that don't really need it while keeping parts of the computer supplied with power. This also prevents the dust build up you are talking about, as the CPU and HDD's are turned off, thus no fans are needed.\n\nNow, back in the day when the components weren't as mature, turning the computer off put a pretty significant strain on the power supply resulting in loss of product life. \n",
"Not an expert, but i've got my fair share of experience. Turning it of doesn't really hurt the computer, 'cause it's made to be turned on and off. \nLeaving it running on the other hand means that the fans will be spinning and, depending on your configuration, will mean that they will gather dust. \nThe best thing would be to set the computer to sleep mode. In sleep mode, the computer makes an image of your computers state, and shuts of. (Kind of). Then when you start it again, it will be just like you had it before.\nHope that explains it.\n",
"I thought that if you commonly powered on and off a lot more than just letting it run idle, with an traditional HDD it would wear out the life potential of that hard drive, I'm probably wrong but that's just what I thought.",
"Some answers in here already. My 2 cents is I'm an IT guy and my computers both at work and home are never turned off. The hard disks can go to sleep when idle but otherwise I never shut it down.\n\nOnly thing this ever wears out for me is fans, which are cheap. ",
"I find the Windows install benefits from being left on for long periods-- it has less boot cycles to encrust itself with cruft, unwanted automatic updates, etc. My current box is ~4 years old and windows (7) is still pretty lightning fast."
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8vnvy2 | i give up. exactly how do resistors work? | Yeah, I know there are formulas I can calculate with but I still don't get it. Here's an example:
Running a laptop power supply, 15V, 2.5A, to power some chinesium LED strips. (I'm mainly doing LED projects and I know LEDs pull as many amps as they can and will burn out. I get that.) I put a 1 Ohm resistor on there and it's just about as bright and cool as ice. No resistor and it gets fairly hot. We good so far?
I put a **5** Ohm resistor on an it barely powers the light. 22 Ohms and it's about the same, 47 is right out. How is this possible when resistors are measured in **thousands** of ohms? I pulled some from a tiny circuit board that (according to an online calculator) measure between 1 and hundreds of thousands of ohms.
I am so lost.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8vnvy2/eli5_i_give_up_exactly_how_do_resistors_work/ | {
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"You need to determine the maximum safe current for the LED. Back when I used to work with these a lot, it was typically 20 mA or so. Then you need to determine the supply voltage. Use Ohm's law to determine the resistor you need to limit to that current. Then calculate the power for the resistor based on the voltage and that current.\n\nEdit: BTW, your LED may actually have a resistor or other circuitry built in to limit the current. In this case, you just need to know the voltage (range) it is rated for.\n",
"I think your question is more how LEDs work since your changing the resistors and seeing the LED behavior change. \n\nSince the resistance is changing the amount of current is also (the formulas you mentioned). The more resistance the less current that gets to the LED. \n\nSo your questions is why does the brightness of the LED change... less current going through it means less light to emit. The light source are the electrons in the current. So less electrons, the less light you see.",
"A resistor is kinda like putting a kink in a hosepipe. You restrict the flow (amps) which creates a pressure (voltage) drop/difference across the kink.\n\nYou can hopefully see that the three things (amps, volts, resistance) are related (see Ohm's law). Changing one leads to the other two being affected.\n\nIn your case, you're trying to limit current (to stop the LED's burning out) but in doing so you're causing too much voltage drop - the LED's need a certain voltage to light up.\n\nThis 3-way relationship is why using resistors as a way of regulating current or voltage is a bad idea.\n\nYou can get very basic current-limiting power supplies for peanuts, I'd suggest one of those."
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1hsg9d | aircraft stalling | While browsing reddit I ended up traveling down a Wiki-hole, leading me to read many articles about airplane crashes. A lot of them mention [stalling](_URL_0_), and no matter how many things I read about it, I still simply can't get my head around this idea.
Could someone please ELI5? Any means of explanation are appreciated. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hsg9d/eli5_aircraft_stalling/ | {
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"As fznsw said, when we talk about stalling in an aircraft, we're talking about the wing, not the engine.\n\nWhen a wing moves through the air, the angle between the wing and the air is called the \"angle of attack\".\n\nWhen the angle of attack becomes too big, the pattern of the airflow over the wing changes. This is shown in [this diagram](_URL_0_). This change results in a loss of lift, and is called a stall.\n\nIn general terms, to maintain level flight, the slower you go, the higher the angle of attack you need to fly at. This is because the wing has to work harder to keep the aircraft in the sky. So, as you slow down and increase the angle of attack, a stall can happen.\n\n(However, i_noticed_you is wrong to say that the stall is caused by the low airspeed. The stall is caused by the high angle of attack. Low airspeeds only correspond to high angles of attack in level flight. For example, in the incredibly poorly named [\"stall turn\"](_URL_1_), the aircraft doesn't stall at all, despite its speed being almost zero just before the turn. This is because its angle of attack is not increased as it slows down, since it is not in level flight.)\n\nYou can recognise that you might be approaching a stall by the following symptoms:\n\n- Airspeed lower than it ought to be\n\n- Nose higher than it ought to be\n\n- The controls will becomes sloppy and unresponsive\n\n- The turbulent airflow causes the controls to shake a little, called \"buffet\", and light buffet is a sign that you are approaching the stall\n\nThe stall itself will be recognised by these symptoms:\n\n- Heavy buffet\n\n- The nose will drop as the lift decreases\n\n- One of the wings may drop if one wing stalls before the other\n\nDuring the stall, ailerons should not be used, because they work by changing (and perhaps increasing) the angle of attack of the outer part of the wing. Although modern aircraft are designed so that the outer part of the wing stalls last, so the ailerons will continue working for as long as possible. Rudder must be used to prevent yaw, since yawing in the stall may result in a spin. To recover from the stall:\n\n- Lower the nose until all the symptoms of the stall go away\n\n- Almost simultaneously, apply full power in order to reduce height loss\n\n- Rolls the wings level, and remove the final stage of flap (drag flap) if it was selected\n\n- Pitch the aircraft into a climb attitude\n\n- Once a positive rate of climb has been achieved, raise the gear and the rest of the flap, if they were selected\n\nThe actual speed at which a stall occurs depends on many factors, including the power setting, flap setting, and g-force (which is related to the wing loading). The aircraft manual will usually give two different stall speeds. Vs1 is the stall speed clean (no gear or flaps), at 1g, in straight and level flight, with the power at idle, at the maximum allowable weight. Vs0 is the same but with gear and flap selected down.\n\nFinally, it's worth noting that the design of most modern airliners means that they don't experience buffet, and that recovering from a stall would be difficult if not impossible, because of the way the air flows off the wing and onto the tail. Because of this, they use artificial systems - a \"stick shaker\" makes the controls vibrate when you fly at a high angle of attack, similar to buffet, and a \"stick pusher\" physically forces the controls forward if the angle of attack is increased even further to prevent a stall from actually occurring.\n\nHope that fills in the gaps. Please ask if there's anything else you want to know.\n"
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3dtkmj | how exactly does google's self-driving car know to stop for red lights, stop signs, other cars etc? | I have so many questions as to the technology behind this car. What if it runs out of petrol/battery? How does it know where to go? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dtkmj/eli5_how_exactly_does_googles_selfdriving_car/ | {
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"Well, it knows to stop for lights and other cars because it has a sophisticated system of sensors that look for those things and then a software system that tells it to stop when it see them. The cars don't have the ability to refuel or plug themselves in. They do know, however, if their current path will take them beyond range of their gas tank and will alert the passenger.",
"Does it react too when there are emergency vehicle want to get through?",
"one of the reasons a car was their choice (as opposed to a boat or walker) is because roads have rules. a stop sign is always in such-and-such a position, relevant cars are always in certain positions relative to the google-car, etc.\n\nthe google-car depends on a number of systems to \"see\", from conventional cameras to UV and IIRC sonar. while all of this data is great, the challenge is getting the car to understand and act on it. this is normally an incredibly processing intensive (and therefore time consuming) task, which is a problem for a giant metal crate rolling around at highway speeds. \n\nthe clever bit of the google car is using the rules of the road to reduce the work load of the car. lets use the stop sign as an example.\n\n\"search (camera data) for stop signs, stop when found\" so the car has to constantly scan all its visual data for stop signs. that's horrendous.\n\ninstead perhaps tell it \"scan sector XYZ for red, if red, check for hexagon, if hexagon, stop\" because we know that stop signs generally sit on posts a few feet off the ground on the corner to the right of the car.\n\nobviously google's programing is way more nuanced, both for its basic function and to account for safety concerns, but it mostly comes down to breaking down the task of driving into small enough chunks that modern computers can walk through it fast enough to keep up with road conditions.",
"Also, if I may ask a question along these lines, how does it deal with emergency vehicles that may not abide by the stop signs, such as ambulances, firetrucks and police cars?",
"The current ones are programmed to run in known locations so they know where the stop signs and lights are located. ",
"Here's an interesting TED-talk about how the driverless cars see the world. Maybe it answers some of your questions.\n\n_URL_0_"
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2g1c97 | if ebola is contracted "through contaminated bodily fluids" only, how is it that so many people, including health care workers, are getting it? do they go bashing on each other bodily fluids or something? | In my little 5 y.o. mind, other diseases should be spreading just as bad, because I'd think that pretty much all our diseases are in our fluids. Also, why are these health care workers dressed in astronaut attire? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g1c97/eli5_if_ebola_is_contracted_through_contaminated/ | {
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"Ebola is incredibly infectious once you've been exposed to it; it takes far less contact to become infected than most other diseases. The disease can also cause vomiting and diarrhea, so it creates a lot of bodily fluids to be potentially touched. Finally, it remains infectious even in a dead body for a good bit of time, so people can get infected while cleaning the corpse for burial.\n\nHealth care workers tend to get sick because they're exposed so frequently; because the virus is so infectious, even the slightest mistake can cause them to be compromised.",
"This is a disease that causes a person to bleed from most of their orifices, so it's not just a matter of it being in an infected person's fluids, it's also that they are producing *a lot* of infected fluids, including vomit and diarrhea. Apparently it must be able to survive outside the body for extended periods of time because I've read that it can be passed onto people who are preparing a victim's body for burial. \n\nI've also read that many people who are infected do not seek medical treatment. They are afraid that if they go to a hospital they won't come back because, well, pretty much everyone else who goes to the hospital doesn't come back. [There's a lot of misinformation going around about the disease](_URL_0_) prompting violence from the general public which can also deter people from seeking treatment. So they hide in their homes and pass it on to their families. ",
"There was an NPR interview about it. It's very hot and chaotic in Liberia and sometimes the health care professionals' procedures get slapdash in the heat and chaos. Mistakes happen. The folks who were flown back to the US were in air conditioned facilities where people had the time, care, attention and climate to take the necessary precautions to prevent transmission."
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di16na | how do people have access to winter sports like luge and skeleton at a young enough age to become olympic level good? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/di16na/eli5_how_do_people_have_access_to_winter_sports/ | {
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"They live near places where those sports are practiced (usually major ski areas) and have parents who can afford to buy them lessons and equipment.",
"Sled sports (luge, skeleton, etc.) a lot of times get their next crop of athletes by doing tryouts for young people in their area; almost always the kids doing the tryouts have never participated in any of these sports before. \n\nNo one really independently gets into these sports or practices for them, its not really much of a public sport. The organizations for the sport will hold a variety of tryouts and offer to take some of the top performers on into the sport and their organization to start training from a young age.\n\nFor athletes later in life, usually they are track athletes who didn't make it, and get hooked up into the sledding world and go through a rigorous training program after higher school or during/after college"
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3so3m9 | why does slang (or more informal ways of speaking in general) form in language? is it just a natural part of the gradual change in a language over time? what makes slang stick around or fall out of use? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3so3m9/eli5_why_does_slang_or_more_informal_ways_of/ | {
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"I'm not a linguistic major, but I am a history one so let me take a crack at it \n\nHistorically the Everyman is uneducated, and doesn't know the proper way to speak or the proper words for certain things\n\nIt's the reason we call it a bath instead of An ablution "
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lf79x | the warhammer 40000 universe | Specifically how the chapters came about. Im kind of a fair weather fan of Warhammer. Enjoy what little of the lore I understand. Play the videogames. Sorely tempted to buy and paint some. But too "proud" (replace with overwhelmed, bashful, shy) to actually enter a Games Workshop.
Today I was playing Dawn of War II and was delighted to find out you play Blood Ravens in the campaign, my favourite chapter.
However even though Ive read the wiki article I don't understand how the chapters came about. Something about the emperor sending out people who mutated and something something...
So explain like I was 5 please. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lf79x/eli5_the_warhammer_40000_universe/ | {
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"At the beginning of the 29th millennium (year 28,000), the Emperor, an immortal being, perfect in nearly every way, began a project to create for himself 20 sons. These 20 sons, the Primarchs, would each embody a particular aspect of the Emperor's perfection.\n\nThe project nearly came to fruition, but for the intervention of the Chaos Gods, four representations of humanity's darkest emotions. Their powers scattered the 20 children across the galaxy, each to a separate planet, to be raised in different ways.\n\nAfter the scattering of the primarchs, the Emperor decided to launch a Great Crusade, to reclaim the galaxy for humanity, to reunite the planets separated by 7000 years of darkness and war, and to find his sons in the bargain. To this end, he created 20 Legions of genetically-enhanced super soldiers, the Space Marines. Each of these legions were thousands strong, and each Space Marine's enhancements came from the genetic code of their primarch. \n\nAs the 30th millennium, and the Emperor's Great Crusade, raged on, the primarchs were found, one by one. The first to be found, and soon to be the Emperor's favorite of all, was Horus, primarch of the 16th Legion, the Luna Wolves (soon to be renamed the Sons of Horus). Horus most closely embodied the perfection of the Emperor. The last to be found was Alpharius, primarch of the Alpha Legion, and he embodied the Emperor's secretive nature. There were, however, two primarchs about which very little is known. Their Legions have been struck from Imperial records, and the primarchs themselves were forbidden to speak of their unknown brothers.\n\nIn the beginning of the 31st millennium, Horus found himself lured to the Chaos Gods, and convinced eight other primarchs, and their Legions, to rebel against the Emperor in what would be known as the Horus Heresy. At the end of the Heresy, three primarchs lay dead. Horus himself was obliterated by the Emperor's own hand. The cataclysmic duel between Horus and the Emperor would force the Emperor to be enshrined in the Golden Throne, a life support machine powered by the souls of humans.\n\nShortly after the Emperor's Ascension to the Throne, Roboute Guilliman, the primarch that embodied the Emperor's tactical genius, wrote the Codex Astartes, a book that defined tactics and organization for the Space Marines. Shortly after the completion of the Codex Astartes, the nine loyal Legions were broken down into forty one-thousand-strong Chapters of Space Marines in the Second Founding. Nine of these chapters retained the names and insignia of their founding Legions.\n\nSince that time, there have been at least 24 other Foundings of Space Marine Chapters, as chapters wax, wane, and are destroyed altogether. The great majority of Space Marine Chapters can trace their genetic lineage back to a founding Legion, one of the original nine, and this lineage defines many aspects of a particular chapter, including the level at which they follow the Codex Astartes, the value they place upon different aspects of war, and even some genetic traits, such as the Salamanders' coal-black skin or the Blood Angels' Red Thirst.\n\nThe Blood Ravens in particular are notable because they have no knowledge of their primarch, and as such, have no chapters that they can truly call \"brother.\" This is extremely rare, for a chapter not to know their primarch, and is a source of great frustration for them. The Blood Ravens therefore value knowledge above all else, as there must be someone in the galaxy that knows the identity of their primarch.\n\nI think that should do it...",
"Try this 90 seconds youtube [video](_URL_0_).",
"As a newer player of 40k who's delved a little into the fluff I think I can help. korbaton has pretty much everything for the chapter foundings already, so I'll present the differing races and the fun they do.\n\nSpace Marines: genetically enhanced post-humans armed with the best weapons and armour available to the imperium of man. They are the elite. They are immortal, ironically, as they do age but since they are created to fight, they will die in battle eventually.\n\nImperial Guard: Think of the red army. Conscripts and hastily trained humans with endless numbers. Lots of tanks, lots of artillery, but the guys are really squishy.\n\nChaos Space Marines: Betrayers, heretics, blood frenzied former brothers of the Space Marines who followed their Primarchs into the folds of Chaos. In-game they are statistically the same as the SM but their weapons and tactics are very different.\n\nChaos Demons: Chaos made flesh. The fury and anarchy of the warp spilling into the material world. The four Chaos Gods are constantly at war with each other within the warp and with everything else outside of it. The four gods are Khorne: The Blood God, Tzeentch: Lord of Change, The Great Sorcerer, Nurgle: Great Lord of Decay, and Slaanesh: the Dark Prince. All of their units have specific allegiances to their respective gods but you can any of them in your army.\n\nEldar: Space Elves. A dying civilization that has existed long before the human race started banging rocks together. Very psychic as a species, in their heyday they grew bored of the excess of peaceful utopia and eventually their decadence spawned Slaanesh, the god of chaos. In the game their units are very specialized but powerful, \"nobody's good at everything, everybody's good at something.\"\n\nOrks: The green tide. Beasts that thrive on combat, literally. They grow larger by killing. Spread throughout the galaxy in pillaging hordes called \"Waaagh\"s, they live to fight.\n\nTyranids: We are the swarm. The great devourer. Born of another galaxy, the tyranid hive mind creeps into the edges of imperium space to feast on the biomass of planets teeming with life. The creatures themselves are very psychic, but also mostly mindless, linked instead by a gestalt hive mind that lends its intelligence to the more powerful creatures of the swarm.\n\nTau: A new species, they have unbelievably powerful weaponry but are individually weak. Their technology aids them most as they expand their growing empire. Other species that they have encountered have been either eliminated or offered the chance to join in the fight. Very versatile and deadly at long range, they suffer in close combat.\n\nDark Eldar: Fallen brethren to the Eldar, they exist only for pleasure at the expense of others. They raid like pirates caring little for territory or expansion, instead taking advantage of weakness and surprise.\n\nNecrons: Ancient beyond imagining. Their consciousness transferred into cold robotic shells, they have slept for eons as the galaxy turned around them. Now they are awakening, and they don't like the way that things have changed.",
"LI5 was unnecessary. The only way to understand 40k is LY5.\n\nHere's a wiki for all the minutia:\n_URL_0_",
"At the beginning of the 29th millennium (year 28,000), the Emperor, an immortal being, perfect in nearly every way, began a project to create for himself 20 sons. These 20 sons, the Primarchs, would each embody a particular aspect of the Emperor's perfection.\n\nThe project nearly came to fruition, but for the intervention of the Chaos Gods, four representations of humanity's darkest emotions. Their powers scattered the 20 children across the galaxy, each to a separate planet, to be raised in different ways.\n\nAfter the scattering of the primarchs, the Emperor decided to launch a Great Crusade, to reclaim the galaxy for humanity, to reunite the planets separated by 7000 years of darkness and war, and to find his sons in the bargain. To this end, he created 20 Legions of genetically-enhanced super soldiers, the Space Marines. Each of these legions were thousands strong, and each Space Marine's enhancements came from the genetic code of their primarch. \n\nAs the 30th millennium, and the Emperor's Great Crusade, raged on, the primarchs were found, one by one. The first to be found, and soon to be the Emperor's favorite of all, was Horus, primarch of the 16th Legion, the Luna Wolves (soon to be renamed the Sons of Horus). Horus most closely embodied the perfection of the Emperor. The last to be found was Alpharius, primarch of the Alpha Legion, and he embodied the Emperor's secretive nature. There were, however, two primarchs about which very little is known. Their Legions have been struck from Imperial records, and the primarchs themselves were forbidden to speak of their unknown brothers.\n\nIn the beginning of the 31st millennium, Horus found himself lured to the Chaos Gods, and convinced eight other primarchs, and their Legions, to rebel against the Emperor in what would be known as the Horus Heresy. At the end of the Heresy, three primarchs lay dead. Horus himself was obliterated by the Emperor's own hand. The cataclysmic duel between Horus and the Emperor would force the Emperor to be enshrined in the Golden Throne, a life support machine powered by the souls of humans.\n\nShortly after the Emperor's Ascension to the Throne, Roboute Guilliman, the primarch that embodied the Emperor's tactical genius, wrote the Codex Astartes, a book that defined tactics and organization for the Space Marines. Shortly after the completion of the Codex Astartes, the nine loyal Legions were broken down into forty one-thousand-strong Chapters of Space Marines in the Second Founding. Nine of these chapters retained the names and insignia of their founding Legions.\n\nSince that time, there have been at least 24 other Foundings of Space Marine Chapters, as chapters wax, wane, and are destroyed altogether. The great majority of Space Marine Chapters can trace their genetic lineage back to a founding Legion, one of the original nine, and this lineage defines many aspects of a particular chapter, including the level at which they follow the Codex Astartes, the value they place upon different aspects of war, and even some genetic traits, such as the Salamanders' coal-black skin or the Blood Angels' Red Thirst.\n\nThe Blood Ravens in particular are notable because they have no knowledge of their primarch, and as such, have no chapters that they can truly call \"brother.\" This is extremely rare, for a chapter not to know their primarch, and is a source of great frustration for them. The Blood Ravens therefore value knowledge above all else, as there must be someone in the galaxy that knows the identity of their primarch.\n\nI think that should do it...",
"Try this 90 seconds youtube [video](_URL_0_).",
"As a newer player of 40k who's delved a little into the fluff I think I can help. korbaton has pretty much everything for the chapter foundings already, so I'll present the differing races and the fun they do.\n\nSpace Marines: genetically enhanced post-humans armed with the best weapons and armour available to the imperium of man. They are the elite. They are immortal, ironically, as they do age but since they are created to fight, they will die in battle eventually.\n\nImperial Guard: Think of the red army. Conscripts and hastily trained humans with endless numbers. Lots of tanks, lots of artillery, but the guys are really squishy.\n\nChaos Space Marines: Betrayers, heretics, blood frenzied former brothers of the Space Marines who followed their Primarchs into the folds of Chaos. In-game they are statistically the same as the SM but their weapons and tactics are very different.\n\nChaos Demons: Chaos made flesh. The fury and anarchy of the warp spilling into the material world. The four Chaos Gods are constantly at war with each other within the warp and with everything else outside of it. The four gods are Khorne: The Blood God, Tzeentch: Lord of Change, The Great Sorcerer, Nurgle: Great Lord of Decay, and Slaanesh: the Dark Prince. All of their units have specific allegiances to their respective gods but you can any of them in your army.\n\nEldar: Space Elves. A dying civilization that has existed long before the human race started banging rocks together. Very psychic as a species, in their heyday they grew bored of the excess of peaceful utopia and eventually their decadence spawned Slaanesh, the god of chaos. In the game their units are very specialized but powerful, \"nobody's good at everything, everybody's good at something.\"\n\nOrks: The green tide. Beasts that thrive on combat, literally. They grow larger by killing. Spread throughout the galaxy in pillaging hordes called \"Waaagh\"s, they live to fight.\n\nTyranids: We are the swarm. The great devourer. Born of another galaxy, the tyranid hive mind creeps into the edges of imperium space to feast on the biomass of planets teeming with life. The creatures themselves are very psychic, but also mostly mindless, linked instead by a gestalt hive mind that lends its intelligence to the more powerful creatures of the swarm.\n\nTau: A new species, they have unbelievably powerful weaponry but are individually weak. Their technology aids them most as they expand their growing empire. Other species that they have encountered have been either eliminated or offered the chance to join in the fight. Very versatile and deadly at long range, they suffer in close combat.\n\nDark Eldar: Fallen brethren to the Eldar, they exist only for pleasure at the expense of others. They raid like pirates caring little for territory or expansion, instead taking advantage of weakness and surprise.\n\nNecrons: Ancient beyond imagining. Their consciousness transferred into cold robotic shells, they have slept for eons as the galaxy turned around them. Now they are awakening, and they don't like the way that things have changed.",
"LI5 was unnecessary. The only way to understand 40k is LY5.\n\nHere's a wiki for all the minutia:\n_URL_0_"
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3och9k | why does installing some linux distribution take no time at all, while windows takes hours? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3och9k/eli5why_does_installing_some_linux_distribution/ | {
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"Depends on the hardware. On an ssd it takes me less than 20 minutes to install Windows. Also, most Linux distros are much smaller than a Windows os.",
"Installed a fresh copy of windows 10 the other day from a USB 3.0 drive to an ssd and it took about 15 minutes. ",
"Its a data transfer problem mostly. The era you are rememberimg for windows is CDs and HDDs well those are slower then what we use now. The enthusiast uses usb3 and SSDs. Those are several magnitudes faster then a decade ago. \n\nYou can install windows seven in 10-20 minutes from a fast thumb drive. Its 3-4x longer from a DVD. I personally have no optical drives in my PC. Its a waste of space. I use a super powerful fan in place of my optical bays to assist in getting hot air up and ojt of my case. Much better utilization of space then a DVD drive. ",
"Oh sweet, a question i can answer... i work at microsoft, and while not on the windows team, i get a lot of insight into the install process.\n\nthe main thing that takes time is installing all of the necessary files. because windows is HUGE in comparison to linux (windows is around 8 gigs of disk space installed, where linux can be < 200mb) all of those files are compressed. Chances are when you are installing, you are doing so off of a USB 2 flash drive. During the windows install process, those files need to be decompressed, then transferd onto the system. \n\nthis means you have to take the file on the flash drive, load it into memory, do some process to unpack it, then copy the decompressed file to the disk... hence it takes time. the bottle neck here is loading the file from the usb drive.\n\ni recently installed windows onto a VM on a new macbook. it was astonishingly fast. probably in the 5-10 minute time frame. this is because the files were being loaded off of the ssd, then written back onto an ssd.\n\nwith all that being said, use linux, the open source community is great :)"
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3acocb | how verizon got away with not building fiber networks in nyc, despite having been paid to do so | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3acocb/eli5_how_verizon_got_away_with_not_building_fiber/ | {
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"Technically, they're not getting away with it. The city audited the implementation, and now everybody knows they've been being bad. It's just too bad that it's six years later. They'll probably have to pay some fines and finish the project."
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3o5w18 | how were the worlds first words agreed upon and how did everyone know what they meant? | . | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3o5w18/eli5_how_were_the_worlds_first_words_agreed_upon/ | {
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"I have seen anthropological linguistic background, and the best guess I have is that the first words were:\n\n1. Animal Sounds (like birds or prey or pets)\n\n2. Innate sounds, like a sigh of pleasure, a shriek of surprise or laughter\n\nEven today, these sounds don't need to be explained and are just understood by their context. Moreover, people have never been able to agree on what words mean, now or before. A dictionary's definition is a general guide, but to think it's any more \"true\" of a definition than any other definition is a ruse meant to sell dictionaries and consolidate the power to define.",
"The meanings actually came first, before there was proper language.\n\nHuman ancestors would have a variety of call, not unlike modern apes. One sound might mean \"Help! Danger!\" while another might mean \"Who is that over there?\". These grunts and screams got progressively more refined to express more subtle meanings, until they evolved into a true language.",
"Language doesn't work like that. Speakers and listeners don't have to agree. Rather the speaker simply speaks and the listener interprets.\n\nThe easiest examples are \"mama\" and \"papa/baba\" which are pretty much in every language. Those sounds are easiest for babies to say, and parents just assume the babies are referring to them. The parents then use it the same way and bam, you've got a stew going.",
"That's... actually a really hard answer, because many believe that it was a hominid ancestor that developed language, possibly even [Homo Ergaster](_URL_0_), and language evolved with the species. It's entirely possible that human language actually pre-dates humanity itself. \n\nEdit: fixed.\n "
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3i9uuv | (nsfw) why is it that men "get back to their senses" after ejaculation? | Why is it that when I'm horny I want to do freaky stuff but once I bust a nut, it's all like nah never mind. The change can be instantaneous sometimes and it's weird to think about. We are also able to think more straight afterwards. What is it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3i9uuv/eli5_nsfw_why_is_it_that_men_get_back_to_their/ | {
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"[This comment](_URL_0_) summarizes it relatively simply. It comes down to the limbic system, which is a set of brain structures responsible for controlling instinct and mood. Basically, when you're that horny, some areas of your brain have less blood and oxygen going to them, and as soon as you ejaculate, the limbic system allows normal flow to the brain again, and you're back to thinking normally, for better or for worse. I would assume that this also explains why sometimes you may feel light headed right after ejaculation - there is a rush of blood back to the brain. In the end though, always remember to masturbate before making any important decision.",
"The way this effects me most is if my wife is sexting me and sends me naked picks before I get home and we have sex I think its the hottest thing in the world, and I'm like I'm saving these for a future time for sure! then I get home we have sex and I'm like \"I'm deleting these so i don't accidentally upload them, I don't need them anyway.\" then like ten minutes after that I'm pissed at post sex me for deleting them lol",
"How much variation is thought to exist among men? I've heard of this many times, but I've never really been able to relate to it. ",
"There is a really good bit in Cryptonomicon about this. Graphs and everything. Someone find it? It's /r/dataisbeautiful -worthy. "
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afgw51 | why is dust so omnipresent and no matter how frequently we clean an area, it still comes back? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afgw51/eli5_why_is_dust_so_omnipresent_and_no_matter_how/ | {
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"Dust is just tiny flakes of \"stuff\". As long as there's \"stuff\" moving around a room, you'll have dust. A lot of dust is made up of you: dead skin/hair and whatnot, but it's really just any fine particulate that settles on a surface over time. ",
"Stuff falls off of you constantly you just can't see it, such as little bits of dead skin and hair. A small portion of dust is even coming down from space! ",
"Just wanted to refer you to wikipedia's page about \"cleanroom\". It's a room that needs to be VERY clean, and uses air filtering systems and other methods to avoid dust.",
"I worked in a brand new hospital and we got brand new navy blue scrubs. After a while we noticed all the dust was blue. House keeping mentioned it first and then eventually we all noticed it in areas that the housekeepers didn't clean, like if you had to get behind the computer monitor for some reason. "
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8tg0pq | if pink eye is super contagious, how can it infect only one eye without infecting the other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tg0pq/eli5_if_pink_eye_is_super_contagious_how_can_it/ | {
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"text": [
"Because most things that carry germs and touch your left eye also carry germs and touch your right eye. In the off circumstance that you only contacted one of your eyes with the fomite then it’s possible it only infects that one eye.\n\nI had pink eye a couple times as a kid and it was always in both. Never heard of anyone getting one eye infected only. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3tasf5 | why does peanut butter only stick to the roof of my mouth, and not the other surfaces i.e. my cheek? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tasf5/eli5_why_does_peanut_butter_only_stick_to_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cx4n7i6"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Someone will have a much more scientific explanation, I'm sure, but do this test for me:\n\n* Open your mouth wide. Swallow any excess saliva.\n\n* Breathe in deeply a few times. Four or five times should do it, just until your breath starts to feel \"cold\" and you start getting the urge to close your mouth again.\n\n* Now run your tongue along the roof of your mouth. It meets a bit of friction, right?\n\n* Now run your tongue (you may have to repeat the breathing part) along your cheek. Still no friction?\n\nThe roof of your mouth is different fleshy material than your cheeks, and dries out much faster (also caused by a much firmer surface than your cheeks, etc.), causing peanut butter to \"stick\" there. Peanut butter also gets stuck in the crevices of your mouth and is sometimes hard to get out, these areas are similar in texture to the roof of your mouth.\n\nAgain, not wholly scientific, but hopefully answers the question."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
bir7ev | why do dimes have the little ridges all along the side? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bir7ev/eli5_why_do_dimes_have_the_little_ridges_all/ | {
"a_id": [
"em2f2l2",
"em3rwjk"
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text": [
"Back when coins were made of precious metals, some people would shave tiny bits off the sides of the coins. They would then melt down the metal and sell it. The tiny ridges allow you to verify that the entire coin is there.",
"Those \"little ridges\" are call \"reeds\". And as someone mentioned earlier, the were invented to keep people from shaving off tiny bits of precious metal from coins. BTW, this practice is called \"clipping\". In the old days some coin might start life at about the size of your thumbnail, and in a few years might have been clipped down to the size of your pinky nail! Interestingly enough, pennies and nickles (US) are NOT reeded. That's because pennies are (or were) copper and nickles are (or were) nickle. Neither of these is a precious metal, so no one ever clipped them!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
l80a0 | how does focusing a lens work? | What's happening in my camera's lens when I turn the focus ring from 2m to 20m, and how do lens designers know what "settings" will focus on 20m? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/l80a0/eli5_how_does_focusing_a_lens_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2qj6z8",
"c2qj6z8"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"A glass lens changes the direction of light that goes through. What happens with a focusing lens is that the light rays coming from an object at a specific distance in front of the lens will focus at another specific distance behind the lens. [Like this](_URL_0_). Objects at a different distance will focus at a different point behind the lens.\n\nFocusing with your camera is simply moving the lens so that the point where your subject is in focus falls precisely on the camera film or sensor.\n\nDesigners know what settings will focus on a specific distance because the diffraction through the glass is completely predictable and can be calculated.\n\nYou can also [read this article](_URL_1_).",
"A glass lens changes the direction of light that goes through. What happens with a focusing lens is that the light rays coming from an object at a specific distance in front of the lens will focus at another specific distance behind the lens. [Like this](_URL_0_). Objects at a different distance will focus at a different point behind the lens.\n\nFocusing with your camera is simply moving the lens so that the point where your subject is in focus falls precisely on the camera film or sensor.\n\nDesigners know what settings will focus on a specific distance because the diffraction through the glass is completely predictable and can be calculated.\n\nYou can also [read this article](_URL_1_)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/camera-diagram2.gif",
"http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/camera1.htm"
],
[
"http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/camera-diagram2.gif",
"http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/camera1.htm"
]
] |
|
eg8vzk | if condoms were invented in the 19th century, how were stds not a globally widespread issue when condoms did not exist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eg8vzk/eli5_if_condoms_were_invented_in_the_19th_century/ | {
"a_id": [
"fc510dr"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
"The short answer is they *were* an issue. The difference is the names those diseases went by."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
4rfwcn | why can non-american actors so commonly mimic a perfect american accent, but rarely can an american actor accurately mimic a foreign accent? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rfwcn/eli5_why_can_nonamerican_actors_so_commonly_mimic/ | {
"a_id": [
"d50s74i",
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"d50smxq",
"d50t5m7",
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2,
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"text": [
"Money, mostly.\n\nThe US has the largest, richest media market in the world. If there is one accent that with enhance a non-American actors earning potential, it is the American accent.\n\nAmerican actors don't have anywhere else to go that will greatly increase the opportunities. And even if they wanted to work internationally, which accent do they pick? British? Mexican? Brazilian? There is no one clear choice. ",
"In part there's a survivor bias. If you can't do an American accent, you won't land a role playing an American. So we don't get to see actors with poor American accents.",
"Consider also that many English speaking actors have likely been exposed to American accents in music, movies, stand-up comics, and television shows all their lives. ",
"Exposure. \n\nAmerican media is seen and heard all over the world more than any other country's media. \n\nEspecially back in the day. Most people wanted to see those Hollywood hits and popular shows over what their own countries had to offer because there was more and arguably better quality (visually). \n\nFlip to Americans and they are also watching mostly their own stuff. Not a brirish tv show or a spanish one. So everybody got exposed to america while america exposed their oil. I mean nothing. ",
"Check out Poirot on Netflix. You'll hear American accents that will make your ears ring. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3fss2n | how can you create a local currency that has actual value? | I have researched many, many times about local currencies like the Ithaca dollar in New York, and I am very fascinated with the process of an item or currency having value and being used to obtain things or receive services.
I want to enact a currency with my girlfriend and roommates (they are on board), but I just don't understand how to give the currency value, and why they would even think twice about using it?
I'm just doing this as a little experiment, nothing serious like bitcoin. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fss2n/eli5_how_can_you_create_a_local_currency_that_has/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctrlpz4"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The problem is what is actual value? Value is only derived from someone else being willing to exchange something for it. If you made your new currency gold backed and issued say 100 fake dollars the sum of which equaled the value of one ounce of gold that you had stored in your fake central bank you and your friends could go about using that currency however you chose. 2 things can happen, if none of you ever cash in for the gold then the system is no different than using a system that isnt backed by gold, like the US dollar. Or some day in the future all the bills are eventually cashed in for gold, hopefully the guy who ends up with the most gold did a lot of work for the rest of you guys, otherwise he is coming out with a pretty nice profit. Regardless of what happens that gold always had a vlaue in both US dollars and in your fake dollars, so at any time you could have exchanged for US dollars and it would make no difference."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
20vygt | how do insulated bottles (such as thermos brand) so effectively keep warm foods warm? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20vygt/eli5_how_do_insulated_bottles_such_as_thermos/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg7923s",
"cg7979l"
],
"score": [
4,
6
],
"text": [
"You have hot/cold on the inside, then empty space (the vacuum), then the outer wall of the bottle. The vacuum cannot transfer heat because heat needs a body/material to move through.",
"There are 2 containers, inner and outer with an effective vacuum between them. This cuts off 2 main processes of heat transfer [Conduction](_URL_1_) and [Convection](_URL_1_). The surfaces in contact with the vacuum are brightly polished which reduces the heat absorbed by [radiation](_URL_0_), by reflecting it away.\n\n[This is a diagram of a thermos flask](_URL_2_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conduction",
"http://www.uq.edu.au/_School_Science_Lessons/23.05.GIF"
]
] |
||
18afjl | everything that has happened with the chris dorner situation to this point | I know he is doing this because Of some injustices? he saw within the LAPD. I know he was also in the Navy. And the latest I've heard is he is in Big Bear, CA (which is about 30 min from my college). Im just confused as to the whole story piece by piece. Thank you | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18afjl/eli5_everything_that_has_happened_with_the_chris/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8d2na9"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"_URL_0_\n\nThis pretty well explains everything you'd need to know about it.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southern_California_shootings"
]
] |
|
20bna1 | if only 3% of the water one earth is fresh, how is there so much drinkable water (at least in developed countries)? | This is one thing that has always fascinated me: that I can turn on my faucet and seemingly endless amounts of clean, drinkable water will come out. And when I get my water bill, it's hardly very expensive. How is there so much drinkable water available to so many millions of households? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20bna1/eli5_if_only_3_of_the_water_one_earth_is_fresh/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg1mnfv"
],
"score": [
26
],
"text": [
"3% of all of Earths water is still a fuckton of water."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
11cckn | rocket propulsion. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11cckn/eli5_rocket_propulsion/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6l7lm5",
"c6l9fho"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Any action has an equal and opposite reaction. When the propellant in a rocket is burned, it expands rapidly and causes it to shoot down out of the bottom of the rocket very forcefully. The equal and opposite reaction is that the rocket gets pushed up very forcefully. ",
"Newtons 3rd law: for every force applied there is a equal force applied in the opposite direction.\n\nOk in ELI 5 terms: Have you ever punched a wall? well you know that it is gonna hurt right? well this is because when you punch the wall the wall is actually \"punching you back\" with the same force you punch the wall with.\n\nNow how does this apply to rockets you may ask? well rockets have really big engines that put out a lot of force. So when those engines light up they exert a force on the ground and the ground (like the wall) pushes the rocket up with the same force causing it to lift."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
wda5t | why we think the "bloop" sound is from an animal and not a natural occurrence. | For the uninitiated: the "bloop" is a supermassively loud sound that happened in the ocean, and really smart people that study the ocean think that it was made by an animal, even though any animal that made that sound would be many times bigger than the biggest whales. The sound was heard at the same time from really far away listening stations in the ocean.
The "bloop" comes back into my view every once and a while, and I've always wondered this. The [Wikipedia page](_URL_0_) goes into a little detail, but I want more. What makes us think that the bloop is organic in nature? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wda5t/eli5_why_we_think_the_bloop_sound_is_from_an/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5cc4i2",
"c5cg8oh",
"c5cgc67"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Huh.. sped up like that it sounds like an air bubble. \n\nPeople think it's an animal sound because we know animals can make sounds kind of like it. There's also reason to believe it's something else because it was so loud and because we've never heard it before. ",
"As a small note of correction, \"even though any animal that made that sound would be many times bigger than the biggest whales\" isn't fully correct.\n\nIf the sound was made by a whale-like creature it would have to be several times larger than the biggest whales, however it could be made by a yet undiscovered creature who is simply more efficient at producing such a sound in terms of a volume:size ratio",
"If it is an animal, then why did it only make sounds between 1997 and 1999? You'd think it would be blooping every year and we could track it down. Maybe it's just some odd ocean floor tectonic gurgle that happens every thousand years or something. Heck, it could even be a technical error, interference or something."
]
} | [] | [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop"
] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4y84zy | why do we have difference suffixes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, but all the rest* use th? | and why is it that only 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, etc use those different prefixes as well? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4y84zy/eli5_why_do_we_have_difference_suffixes_for_1st/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6lpsb7",
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"d6m2pdb",
"d6nep9a"
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39,
4,
5,
5
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"text": [
"It is an extension of the word itself; fir'st', seco'nd', thi'rd'. Same in fif'th', six'th'... see? Besides, ever try saying 'firstth'?",
"\"First\" or 1st comes from the word \"foremost\". \n\"Second\" or 2nd comes from Latin \"secundus\" which means \"following\" or \"next\". \n\nSource: My 8th grade math teacher. ",
"It's just the last two letters in each word. e.g 1st - Fir**st**, 2nd - Seco**nd**, 3rd - Thi**rd**, 4th - Four**th**",
"Once I read an interesting thing on this issue, (sorry for my English, it's not my first language).\nTipically, when you see three or less items piled up together, you don't need to count, just seeing the pile, you know the amount, but with 4 or more items, your brain needs to do the actual counting to know the exact amount of items.\nThat is the reason why, in some ancient languages, the numbers were just \"one, two, three, many\". So there are linguistic differences not only between singular or plural, but in some languages, with small and large quantities.\nFor a much better explanation, the book I read was: \"From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers\" by Georges Ifrah, there are lots of interesting facts on numbers, just in the first episode, it's a very nice thing to read.\nEdit: grammar",
"[*First*](_URL_7_) comes from Old English *fyrst* meaning, \"primary or foremost or original.\" Old English also had [*forma*](_URL_0_), meaning \"first.\"\n\nThe *-th* ending, by the way, is also something that we get from Old English, though it used to be [*-þa*](_URL_2_) (þ is an old letter that makes a th sound).\n\nHowever, [*second*](_URL_4_) came into English via Old French which in turn got it from Latin *secundus*, meaning \"following or next\" (it's related to *sequel,* among other things). This pushed out the Old English form [*ōþer*](_URL_5_) (though it stayed around as the word *other*).\n\n[*Third*](_URL_3_) comes from Old English *þridda*, which simply meant \"third.\" It's close-ish to how other ordinals were formed, but why it ends in *-dda* instead of *-þa* I'm not sure. Maybe something to do with Old English *þrī* (\"three\") starting with þ as well? Or maybe the long vowel? Or something else?\n\n[*Eleven*](_URL_6_) and [*twelve*](_URL_1_) are kind of strange cases which seem to derive from words meaning \"one left\" and \"two left,\" i.e. that many numbers left above ten. They're exceptions to how we form the other -teen numbers (which are themselves different from how we form higher numbers).\n\nSo what's up with all these irregulars? Languages tend to have irregulars show up in commonly used words. You'll notice, for example, that irregular verbs are generally ones like \"to go\" or \"to have\" or \"to say\" and not ones like \"to depart\" or \"to possess\" or \"to articulate.\"\n\nWhat seems to happen is that these common words get reinforced a lot, so speakers (and importantly, children learning the language) just memorize them and the words stick around. And then for less common words they memorize the rule for forming them (e.g. in this case something like \"add -th, unless the spoken cardinal number ends in one, two, or three\").\n\nAs far as why separate words for *first* and *second* came about at all, it's hard to say because they go back very very far. Maybe they got used a lot in other contexts and then got drafted over into the number system? Maybe they predate the ordinal rule and stuck around after it was introduced? Maybe different languages or dialects came together and we ended up with parts of each?\n\nAnyways, the basic answer is that we have historically used *first, second*, and *third* quite a lot and so when kids learned the language they didn't generalize and apply the \"add -th\" rule to get words like *oneth, twoth*, and *threeth*."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forma#Old_English",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/twelve",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Old_English_ordinal_numbers",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/third",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/second",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/o%C3%BEer",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eleven",
"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/first"
]
] |
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