q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
list | selftext_urls
list | answers_urls
list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6wacf6 | why are the primary colours red, blue, yellow when they are not combinations for both additive and subtractive colour theories (rgb and cmy)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wacf6/eli5_why_are_the_primary_colours_red_blue_yellow/ | {
"a_id": [
"dm6lvbp",
"dm6oake"
],
"score": [
4,
5
],
"text": [
"The primary colors **aren't** red, blue, and yellow. That's an outdated model used in art, and not scientific at all. It's a useful color system for having different colors that are easily distinguishable, but it's not a \"primary\" combination of colors by any means.",
"For additive colours the primaries are red, green and blue. Red plus green makes yellow; red plus blue makes magenta; and green plus blue makes cyan.\n\nFor subtractive colours the primaries are yellow, cyan and magenta. Yellow plus cyan makes green; yellow plus magenta makes red; and cyan plus magenta makes blue.\n\nSchool teachers and others that teach young children that the primaries are red, yellow and blue are talking about subtractive colours. They don't want to be using strange words like cyan and magenta so they say blue and red instead, even though this is technically incorrect. Often they do this without even being aware of the issue themselves."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
2g0os4 | what's the point of a company owning and operating a number of brands which are in competition? | I just saw the Volkswagen Group TIL. Why have a multitude of brands competing? such as Volkswagen skoda and seat, or Porsche Bugatti and Lamborghini?
Edit: to add in other company's such as the MARS group or even Johnson johnson. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2g0os4/eli5whats_the_point_of_a_company_owning_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckei4sl",
"ckei5zr"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"The illusion of choice. Catering to different markets. A billionaire wouldn't by a VW. They *need* a BMW or a Lamborghini. \n\nYou could technically make VW Aventador. But calling it a Lambo gives the owner much more satisfaction.",
"People like choice, so you want to diversify your brands and products. But you also want to make money no matter what the customer chooses. \n\nAdditionally, most (all) of these brands were purchased after they'd been built... Volkswagon might not find it useful to build a new brand of exotic sports cars but they'd gladly buy Ferrari or whatever that has already been built up."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
7sla6b | how are people creating their own internet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sla6b/eli5_how_are_people_creating_their_own_internet/ | {
"a_id": [
"dt5mq8i"
],
"score": [
42
],
"text": [
"Take two computers, run a cable between them. Now the two computers can talk to each other. Poof, you have a network. You can stick a switch in the middle and connect more than two computers even. Just give each computer a unique name (or number, let's do numbers because those are easier for computers) so when you send a message to another computer, the other computers know which one you want to talk to.\n\nSo now you have a local area network. Let's connect it to some other networks. Run another cable out the door, down the street, and in to the center of town. Place another switch. Let other people, running their own networks, connect to that switch. You need to do some coordinating to make sure everyone's names are all unique, but other than that, they should just be able to talk to each other. \n\nThen make it even bigger, by connecting the network at the center of your town to the networks at the centers of other towns. Run some cables across the ocean, or launch some satellites and communicate through space. Now you have your own global Internet."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
4f3eyz | why does kayne west consider himself a "visionary" and have such a huge following | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4f3eyz/eli5_why_does_kayne_west_consider_himself_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"d25kc7g",
"d25oqrq",
"d25p443",
"d25p5hl",
"d25p61t",
"d25rovs"
],
"score": [
47,
16,
10,
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Kanye is one of the few artists that successfully bridged the gap between gangster rap and what we see today. When rappers like ludachris, T.I, 50 cent etc fell short and kept producing the same sounds Kanye was able to not only keep his original fans but also make new ones by changing his style and remaining relevant to the younger generation. Kanye seems to be a bit more fluid, while 50 for example seems to favor the older gangster era of guns and drugs.\n\nIts always been amazing to me that a man with so much hatred can also have such a large following.",
"He's considered a visionary because he is one. College Dropout, Late Registration, 808s, MBDTF, and Yeezus are all exceptional, and are widely held in very high esteem both critically and commercially. Maybe the beats only sound average to you because we're living in a post-Kanye world and everyone has been copying his style changes since he started. \n\nReally though, to progress as he did from the beat style on CD, to the synth/ballad/auto tune sound of 808, to the maximalist, orchestral grandeur of MBDTF, to the raw, abrasive, minimal Yeezus.... shit is seriously impressive. It's comparable to the style and sophistication changes made by the Beatles and Radiohead. \n\nNot saying he isn't influenced by other people or that he completely reinvented hip hop music or anything like that. Like everyone else he exists in a continuum. But his contributions have been incredibly important themselves.\n\nI'm not a Kanye Stan, even. I hate his new record, don't like much of Graduation, and not all that fond of LR (which a lot of people think is his best). I don't like his public persona at all, don't care about his fashion, can't stand his connection to the Kardashians, etc. I just can't deny the man's music. ",
"I sometimes feel like Kayne is a genius and his persona is just an elaborate inside joke that only he is in on.",
"Kanye has an 80 overall metacritic score. If you don't know what that is, it's a ratings composite website that gathers lost of scores to create one general score from 0-100. That puts him higher than:\n\nTaylor Swift\n\nAdele\n\nEminem\n\nDrake\n\nBeyonce\n\nAnd most other artists, keep in mind this is his solo discography plus a live album and a collab with Jay-Z. His album \"My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy\" is the second highest hip-hop album of all time on metacritic as well. He's respected by old artists, and he's loved by new ones. You probably couldn't name a relevant hip-hop artist who wasn't influenced massively by Kanye. In fact, lots of artists outside of hip-hop have claimed he influenced them as well. His discography is full of critically acclaimed albums, and he's often considered one of the best hip-hop artists of all time.\n\nYou don't have to like Kanye, you don't even have to like hip-hop. Everyone has different tastes, but you should respect him because of his influence on music and his ability.",
"Kanye is recognized by his peers as moving hip-hop into places that hadn't been sought before in the mainstream. Borrowing/learning from less successful, less flashy pioneers like J Dilla and No ID, Kanye was able to take this style of melodic-driven, creative instrumentative beats and sell them to the top artist of the day to create their greatest successes. HOVA for Jay-Z, Get By for Talib Kweli, Overnight Celebrity for Twista. He was the most sought after hip-hop producer in the business when he decided to break out on his own. The proof shows: fellow artists revere him, he sells millions, and taste-makers have marked his albums untouchable. It is what it is: he was the best songwriter-producer of his generation and the fans recognize it.",
"Kanye is constantly pushing the envelope and moving forward. He's always testing new ideas and concepts. I think that in itself is enough for someone to consider themselves a visionary (it's a pretty vague term)\n\nAs for his following, he makes music people enjoy.\n\nEvery one of his albums is sounds different from the others with a diverse selection of songs on each (except for *808s and Heartbreak*, but you should know what you're getting into from the title). He also is a trendsetter, although not every trend he started was groundbreaking (eg. the autotune resurgence after *808's*) If your friend made you listen to say, 5 Future albums or Mumford and Sons albums back to back, you'd have a really hard time deciphering where one ended and the next began. Or someone like Taylor Swift, where each album adheres more to pop influence than the last.\n\nHe also tries to use his platform to give a voice to the people, and he makes political and social statements that a lot of people can agree with. It's easy to think otherwise between the media coverage he gets (not too many artists get positive media coverage-dirt is kind of their thing) and his ego, which can be off-putting. \n\n\n > Many songs seem to be about image games, image politics, random beef, distracks, and how great he himself is\n\nMany more seem to be about love, overcoming adversity, storytelling, and introspection. Most of his albums have an overlying theme that each song helps to shape. \n\n\n\nNot saying you're prejudiced, but having someone force feed you **five albums in a row of an artist you clearly had no intention of listening to before** could make one a bit hostile as well. Maybe if you got the chance to take in the music on your own instead of having it imposed on you, you'd find more enjoyable points to it.\n\n**Edit**: Kanye's musical vision is amplified when you look at his live performances. Not too many artists, especially hip hop artists, do what he does, from [*Late Orchestration*](_URL_1_) (a performance of the *Late Registration* album with a full orchestra) to his [elaborate stage design](_URL_0_)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/uC5KR1Qzkkw?t=3m16s",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImKfG8equzY"
]
]
|
||
4a9sw6 | why can you whistle a song without practicing, but you have to practice to play the piano? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4a9sw6/eli5_why_can_you_whistle_a_song_without/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0yj915",
"d0yjhqc",
"d0yjyj7"
],
"score": [
8,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"If you didn't care about the exact notes, just a rough approximation, an experienced pianist could play it after hearing it once. However, most experienced pianist prefer the exact notes.",
"When people that can actually whistle a tune do so, they're playing one note at a time. When they listen to a song, they're picking up the strongest, boldest note in the playing, and then whistling that. So there's really not much memory involved - hold THIS note for THIS long, then THIS note for THIS long, and so on... a single chain of events. And if a note they're whistling is ever-so-slightly off, it's still really really close to the prime note that comes from the source song, so it doesn't really stand out as an error. Further, they can correct wrong notes mid-whistle. \n\nWhen a person is playing the piano, they're striking a number of notes at once and playing in several different registers simultaneously as part of the main chorus and bass line. So playing all but the simplest versions of songs involves a full ten fingers, not one single mouth, and so is much much more mentally complex. Add to this that once you strike a wrong note, it's \"permanently hit\" and clearly will be a mistake, unlike a whistled note which might be a tiny bit off-key and be corrected in mid-whistle, and piano playing requires a much greater requirement for both ability and precision.",
"It's an exaggeration to say that people whistle the right notes. Most people get an approximation of the right notes, close enough that they don't notice the difference. Example, the song [Young Folks](_URL_0_), where the whistling starts off in one key, then quickly goes out of tune. Drives me mad every time I hear it.\n\nIt's all about co-ordination between muscles and your brain. You know about hand / eye co-ordination from sports? Well, playing music or singing is all about muscle / ear co-ordination. Your brain has already learned basic co-ordination with your larynx and your lips which you can use for singing and whistling. But playing a song on a piano requires co-ordination between your ears and your hands, and most people aren't as good at that. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krz9PRm9L2g"
]
]
|
||
crlri3 | do people with lazy eyes have more "field of view" or does your brain automatically fix it and make it a normal image? | I never really understood why or what causes it either and I'd love to learn. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crlri3/eli5_do_people_with_lazy_eyes_have_more_field_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"ex6jlmz",
"ex6lrjl",
"ex6t7sk",
"ex6vw0r",
"ex71pns",
"ex7b2kl",
"ex7fzsu",
"ex7k85t",
"ex7l761"
],
"score": [
8,
303,
85,
15,
5,
11,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"what do you mean with lazy eyes? I am an optician so I can maybe help you, but I am not a native englishspeaker.",
"\"Lazy eye\" is sometimes used to describe [strabismus](_URL_1_) (eyes target different points in space) and sometimes used to describe [amblyopia](_URL_0_) (both eyes can physically see but the brain only uses one of them). Amblyopia is that \"brain fixing it\" you're asking about, and it can often result from childhood strabismus. Adults who develop strabismus will often experience double vision instead (two offset views of the scene). This technically increases the field of vision, but it tends to be pretty confusing data that's hard for them to use.",
"My left eye is the lazy one, I have insane field of view on the left side however, I can only read with my right eye. My brain only learnt to really use the right when identifying things. When driving the \"off to the left\" view sometimes gets projected over my good vision, it's confusing - I will see cross traffic over my lane. The other downside of this side view is, let's say my left eye spots something moving like a fly, it might get projected onto what my right eye sees. So I see things that aren't actually in front of me but appear so. It sucks when you're looking for something, your left eye might see it but when you focus it's gone because it was off to one side. When I focus it comes right again. You do get a lot of headaches and you have no ability to see in 3d! and yes double vision is what you can describe a lot of this as.\n\nedit: so no, you don't actually get a better field of view, great peripheral vision on one side for me, technically a smaller FOV.",
"I can answer your question with something that happened to me yesterday. \n\nMy right eye is a lazy eye. I think my brain compensates for this by making my left eye my dominant eye. Meaning most of the time I see the field of view my left eye sees. My right eye view is more or less just peripheral vision. \n\nYesterday I was trying to look behind the sofa to see if a plug was fully connected to the outlet but the wall was in my way and I couldn't get my head far enough back to see the little gap between the sofa and the wall. I could just barely see the plug but not enough to see if it was plugged in. The right side of my head was against the wall so I closed my left eye. Then I was able to see my right eye's field of view which allowed me to see the plug clearly. It looked pretty much like if I had moved an inch or so to the right as if the wall wasn't in my way. \n\nSo yeah I have different fields of view between my eyes. My glasses mostly correct this but when I go for a bit without wearing them I get a weird kind of double vision that makes focusing on things and reading difficult.",
"Hi, I have both and can control my vision since birth. Yes and no is the answer. While I do have “lazy eye” in both eyes, I can control it (unless I’m really tired) and it actually does give me better peripheral vision. My left eye floats up and left and my right floats right and down, but never at the same time. I can switch between looking out through either eye, buy my right eye is dominant. (I always see the right side of my nose without looking). Which does leave me with a kind of blind spot that my brain makes up for. \n\nAlso, as I age, I am loosing control but again, only when sleepy or the lighting is too low. I have been told that it will only get worse for me until one day one eye finally takes over. Most likely my right.\n\nNow, while my eyes are lazy, they actually point in the same direction. I have had 20/20 vision up until about six years ago (I’m 50 now) and since have used transition lenses for reading and using the computer. I am far sighted now so I don’t need them for driving or watching TV. \n\nAny more questions, feel free to ask.\n\nEdit: One more thing, I have TERRIBLE depth perception because each eye fights for control.",
"I had a bad lazy eye as a toddler... some muscle in my eye was surgically cut so that both of my eyes appear looking straight ahead.\n\nI can control which eye I am using, but can really only effectively use one at a time. \n\nI primarily use my right eye for everything. When I consciously switch to my left eye, my right eye pulls in and is looking at my nose.... so essentially if I’m not using my right eye it goes to its default position as a lazy eye looking inwards.\n\nI cannot see those infamous 3D posters from the early 90s (man I felt left out) and 3D movies today I can’t see, but with rapid switching between eyes I can get the gist “Oh, they made that snake jump out towards us”. \n\nI do not have accurate depth perception, but learned that my brain is very good at using light/shadow, and nearby objects to determine distance. \n\nFun fact: When you get your drivers license and look into that device to test your vision... half the letters/numbers are displayed to one eye, the other half to the second eye. Thankfully it was habit by the time I was 16 to preemptively rapidly switch back and forth between each eyeball whenever I was facing any kind of vision test...",
"Yes and no, in my case it is more of an extension of my peripheral vision, because my lazy eye is always out of focus no matter what, so while there is a chance that i may spot something moving with my lazy eye, i can only properly look at it until i can focus it on my working eye. \n\nIt works as you would expect, try to read with your eyes crossed or with your head perpendicular to the text and that is just what a lazy eye sees.",
"In young children their brain actually turns off the information from one eye and they only use info from the other. So their field of vision is much less. My son has this when his glasses are off but we caught it early and he got glasses. Now he has double vision without his glasses.",
"\"Lazy eye\" typically refers to either an eye that does not point in the same direction as it's fellow eye, or has a very strong prescription compared to the other eye. When this happens, the brain tends to ignore the visual signal from the abnormal eye, otherwise it would see double of everything which is extremely uncomfortable. This is called suppression - killing the signal from one eye and focusing only with the normal eye.\n\nFor this reason, folks with strabismus or anisometropia (lazy eye in one form or another) for the most part ignore their abnormal eye. Of course, early childhood therapies involving glasses, patching of the good eye, vision therapy, etc. can correct this, allowing the brain to focus both eyes together. If not caught early though, the lazy eye will persist and will not be used unless necessary or forced.\n\nSo to your question, no, the field of view is not better in people with an unused eye. In fact, since the lazy eye is usually suppressed, they will not get the outer field of vision in that eye, so their field of view is slightly reduced.\n\n(Am optometrist)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblyopia",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strabismus"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
lj4qv | why does our appearance change as we age? | Why do we become shorter, get wrinkles, grey hair, etc? Why doesn't this happen to animals? I know most don't live that long comparatively, but it seems like humans are the only species that have such a significant change in physical appearance as they grow older. Can anyone explain? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lj4qv/why_does_our_appearance_change_as_we_age/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2t42th",
"c2t42th"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"LI5:\n\nIn your body there are tiny strings called DNA. These are like the instructions you have when you build LEGO. It says what color your hair should be, your eye color, your finger's shape and length, more or less everything.\n\nThese strings are kept inside small living things called cells. these cells are what we are made of. your skin has cells, your tongue has cells, your heart has cells. All of these cells will at some point die. So before this happens, they split themselves into two identical cells. This way the cells won't die without another cell to replace it.\n\nHowever, this splitting process doesn't always go smoothly, and errors occur. Imagine someone taking away a LEGO piece from the instructions. And when enough of the LEGO pieces are taken away over, and over, and over again, it becomes visible through what we see as \"Aging\".",
"LI5:\n\nIn your body there are tiny strings called DNA. These are like the instructions you have when you build LEGO. It says what color your hair should be, your eye color, your finger's shape and length, more or less everything.\n\nThese strings are kept inside small living things called cells. these cells are what we are made of. your skin has cells, your tongue has cells, your heart has cells. All of these cells will at some point die. So before this happens, they split themselves into two identical cells. This way the cells won't die without another cell to replace it.\n\nHowever, this splitting process doesn't always go smoothly, and errors occur. Imagine someone taking away a LEGO piece from the instructions. And when enough of the LEGO pieces are taken away over, and over, and over again, it becomes visible through what we see as \"Aging\"."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
aern8g | how do people get away with filming pranks without their consent? | Movies like Borat and shows like The Eric Andre Show always make me laugh due to the raw reactions of the people they end up pranking. How is it that they get away with pulling off these stunts? Do they go through the pain of making every single person sign a film consent waiver, or do they continue to do it in secret? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aern8g/elif_how_do_people_get_away_with_filming_pranks/ | {
"a_id": [
"edrzsem",
"edskb62",
"edt0usb"
],
"score": [
9,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"a common variation of your question is why doesn't snoop or the people on drugs inc get arrested. \n\nWhat you see on tv or on some youtube video is not always real.\n\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIf it's shown on TV, everyone there is a aware that they are on a show, and have signed waivers. They might not be fully aware of what their role on the show might be, and that's part of the \"surprise\" plus of course acting. So they could be told \"walk down this street, ring the doorbell on the 5th house\" when really somoene is hiding in the bushes at 3rd house to scare them. \n",
"In most states, it is legal to film people in public places, though my understanding is that you generally need to get their permission to use it for business purposes. So you just film them, then offer to pay then to let you use it in your show if it was entertaining.",
"For a show like Impractical Jokers, they film a lot more stuff that doesn't make it into an episode because the people involved don't sign the waivers afterwards. That is just part of the process. Not everyone will agree to have their face shown on TV. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=snoop+weed&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
947m93 | how and why bombs or explosions are measured against x kilotons of "tnt" - is the explosive behaviour of tnt even that well known as a comparison? is there a better measure? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/947m93/eli5_how_and_why_bombs_or_explosions_are_measured/ | {
"a_id": [
"e3iwktj",
"e3iws8h",
"e3iy68h",
"e3j1noh",
"e3j5ac2"
],
"score": [
13,
2,
2,
2,
7
],
"text": [
"A ton of TNT releases a pretty fixed amount of energy ( 4.184 gigajoules ) and TNT has been the standard for measuring the strength of bombs for the last hundred years or so. We have some better explosives but none of them are more than 2x the strength of TNT.\n\nIt's a pretty natural unit of measure for the military to talk about things.",
"The explosive power of TNT may be known to few people, but it is still better than giving the released energy in joules, which may mean nothing even to people who are experts on ordinance. Besides, those who will use a bomb will want to know how it compares to better known bombs; those who will die in the explosion will not care how faster or \"better\" they were killed by it.",
"It's a measure of energy: A nuclear detonation with 1 kT releases as much energy as a thousand tons of TNT. It doesn't say anything about the explosions themselves, and they do behave much different from one another.\n\nFor example, much of the destruction from a nuclear bomb comes from the intense heat it radiates. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the damage from this heat was far greater than the damage from the actual explosions. Conventional explosions don't do that, since they don't produce such high temperatures.\n\nThe actual explosion of 1 kT of TNT would be far more damaging though. That is because most of the energy of a nuclear bomb is concentrated on the air surrounding it, blasting it away with immense speed - but without much mass behind it, so it slows down quickly. The TNT meanwhile creates a thousand tons of hot gas, which needs to go somewhere, which makes the blast very powerful.\n\nYou can imagine the nuclear bomb to be a rifle bullet shot against a wall, whereas the TNT is a sledge hammer swung with an equal amount of energy. The bullet causes a lot of destruction in a concentrated area, might even penetrate the wall - but since it is so lightweight, it'll stop very quickly. The sledgehammer meanwhile is very difficult to stop, and might bring the entire wall down with a couple of blows.\n\nEdit: I forgot to mention that the rifle in this analogy also sets the entire building on fire and gives everyone who survives that a lethal dose of radiation.",
"As part of the Trinity test, the US actually did stack 98 tonnes of TNT and detonated them to have a \"measuring stick\" for the nuclear bomb itself.",
"Well first of all we only describe nuclear bombs in terms of kilotons of TNT. The US's biggest conventional bomb is 30,000 pounds, that's 15 tons. Or 0.015 Kilotons. \n\nWhen you are trying to describe nuclear bombs the scale of the energy being released simply dwarfs people's ability to understand. For example if I said that the kinetic energy of a baseball moving at the speed of light would equal about 20,000 hiroshima bombs you would go \"holly shit... how?\" If I told you that it equaled 4.49 X 10\\^ 16 you wouldn't really know what the hell that means.\n\nTo tell a general that a bomb releases 100 gigajoules of energy doesn't mean anything to them. But to say it has the explosive power of 25 tons of TNT a general can say \"Well Jesus H Christ our armory at Da Nang doesn't even have 25 tons of ordinance! And you put all that in this one bomb?\"\n\nSo its just a convenient unit of measure. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2yfioq | the federal reserve has kept interest rates low for several years to stimulate economic growth during the recession. what benefits are there to them raising the rates ever if low rates strengthen the markets? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yfioq/eli5_the_federal_reserve_has_kept_interest_rates/ | {
"a_id": [
"cp90q37",
"cp919gz"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Raising rates can prevent a boom or bubble, where previously cheap interest rates would allow people to borrow money cheaply on high risk speculation.",
"Raising rates slows inflation, which becomes an issue if rates are too low and the economy is doing well."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
afi5s5 | why do things seem to get worse? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afi5s5/eli5_why_do_things_seem_to_get_worse/ | {
"a_id": [
"edys1hd",
"edyuw7r"
],
"score": [
4,
5
],
"text": [
"Well for a part it has to do with you only remembering the good parts of a certain era\n\nThat said, social interaction is on a decline since the internet, that and other things have indeed gotten worse as technology progresses, not saying technology is bad, but sometimes we need to learn to \"put it aside\"",
"Most people are nostalgic for the time when they were children and teenagers. It makes sense: you are carefree, no real responsibilities, your parents provide for you, your live is structured and the world is simple.\n\nYou don't realize the day to day struggle of your parents when you are a kid. If you ask them, they'll probably be nostalgic for a period of time even further in the past, same for your grandparents.\n\nThis is not to say that in some places and for some people, life really was better in \"the good old times\". But mostly, it's just you not wanting to be an adult and dealing with life. Because in most of the world and for most of the population, life is getting better as time goes on. We live longer, healthier lifes, have access to better goods that provide superior services at a smaller price in an ever more open society that allows a higher degree of self-fulfillment. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3lk5bu | could a currency have a negative value? | What about a cryptocurrency? Would it be possible to start a currency that has a negative value? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lk5bu/eli5_could_a_currency_have_a_negative_value/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv6x1r4",
"cv6x28c"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"Your credit card is a currency with negative value. You accept some debt and goods together, then later have to exchange that currency for USD, because you're earning way too much compound interest on your anticurrency.",
"Would it be possible? Maybe.\n\nIn order to have a negative value (Someone willing to PAY YOU to take it), you would have to build in some sort of cost to keeping the currency (like forcing people who hold it to keep paying in other money), but if that was the case, why would anyone get it in the first place? "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
1rwd9m | why is recycled toilet paper rougher than regular? | It seems silly to cut down trees just to make paper to clean my backside. So I like to try to get the recycled stuff. But it's never as nice and soft as the non-recycled TP. Why not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rwd9m/eli5_why_is_recycled_toilet_paper_rougher_than/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdrm671"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's in the fibers used to make the paper. Softer toilet paper requires longer fibers which come from old growth trees. However, once you recycle the fibers, they aren't as long as the fibers are originally found. So they're shorter than they originally were, therefore producing a rougher feel. The toilet paper that isn't as soft but isn't made out of recycled paper comes from younger trees, hence the rougher feel. Younger trees = short fibers = rough tp. Older trees = longer fibers = softer tp. Recycling = making fibers shorter = rougher tp. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
1k7pn7 | why do people fund and produce movies if most of them don't turn a profit, and some are huge losses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k7pn7/eli5why_do_people_fund_and_produce_movies_if_most/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbm72zo",
"cbm747a",
"cbm7oi0"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"they don't fund them for the losses, they fund them in hopes that it'll be a mega hit. The movies that bomb in the theater they will make money back on DVD sales / Rentals and pay per view revenue. ",
"Because there are movies that do turn a profit. \n\nTake a look: _URL_0_\n\nA movie producer is the same as any other investor. You can lose your money or you can make money. In some cases, maybe you lose $100 million. In others, maybe you triple your investment. You can do it too. Look at those low budget movies that made a killing. I mean sure, it probably will never take off, but that's the risk/reward of the business.",
"Because you can't predict a megahit reliably and nobody wants to be \"that guy who turned down the Beatles\" or \"the publishing company who didn't want to print Harry Potter\" (both really happened)\n\nAlso, 1 hit is enough to offset the loss of a hundred failures. So overall it's worth it."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.php"
],
[]
]
|
||
2hzz2i | html5 gifs | How are they able to take up so little space while being able to provide the same, if not better, quality then the original GIF? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hzz2i/eli5_html5_gifs/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckxixsd",
"ckxjg9v",
"ckxmsgs",
"ckxne67"
],
"score": [
24,
65,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"Gifs uses multiple images as frames to show animation. HTML5 only replaces the pixels that were to be changed...",
"Because they're *not* GIFs. They're videos that use better compression than GIF does.",
"gifs are like loads of image one after another\n\nwebm is a video wrapper, much like other wrappers like mp4, it finds ways of compressing those images (either by finding and keeping just the differences or other various complicated ways) to make the files smaller\n\nlook into vp8 or vp9 if you want detailed explanations ",
"GIF is pretty old format and uses old compression scheme, that is not very efficient compared to modern compression techniques. Not even ideal for images or video. It uses only limited number of colors and has limitations that were reasonable at the time with hardware that was available.\n\nOn the other hand, HTML5 uses compression techniques used for video encoding, that are far more sophisticated, modern and effective. Video encoding evolved very much over past years and you can see fruits of active research in that area. Compressed video files are tiny compared to uncompressed files."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
6n8ds8 | why does the usa, one of the richest countries in the world, use a lower voltage than pretty much the whole rest of the developed world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6n8ds8/eli5_why_does_the_usa_one_of_the_richest/ | {
"a_id": [
"dk7hv68",
"dk7kbxz"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"One of the disadvantages to being a rich country is that you are often the early adopters of new technology. But replacing the early standards as improvements are made is not easy or cheap. You do see this in other areas as well. Richer countries end up with a worse standard as they were early adopters and ended up with a subpar standard. For example several countries ended up with the same line voltages as the US but using two live wires for appliances instead of a live and neutral. This does give you 220V for the appliances but does not give you the advantage of a neutral conductor and does not give you higher line voltages. At least in these cases it is possible to convert without having to replace all your appliances, only the three phase appliances.",
"110 was picked as a compromise between efficiency and safety- Edison's bulbs ran well at about that voltage. Europe electrified later. Although parts of Europe started out at low voltage (127), much of the electrical infrastructure was destroyed in WWII and fewer people in general had refrigerators and household appliances. \n\nThere's really not a good reason for the US to ever consider switching at this point. Besides the enormous base of appliances, 110 works just fine for running lights and small appliances. US outlets lack the safety mechanisms like recessed housings, insulated pins, and shutters that Europe has.\n\nWith out two phase system 220 is available for running heavy fixed appliances like water heaters and air conditioners. A lot of garages will have a 220 outlet for a welder. Those of us that make tea (coffee made in pots that work just fine on 110 being far more common) do it on a stove. Although a few expats that just couldn't give up their electric kettles have had an electrician put a 220 outlet in their kitchen. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3qtkl9 | how cold would earth be without our sun, and how fast would it drop to this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qtkl9/eli5how_cold_would_earth_be_without_our_sun_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwi7dt1",
"cwi7eg1",
"cwi7v1l",
"cwi82d0",
"cwibgdk",
"cwice4q",
"cwiis95"
],
"score": [
32,
4,
12,
2,
2,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"I saw a documentary about that once.\n\nOf course, around 8 minutes after the sun disappeared, it would get suddenly dark. The temperature would not drop immidiatly, our land and in particular the oceans storag a lot of heat. It would take month in which the earth becomes cooler and cooler, temperatures slowly dropping to an level that don't sustain human life. The complete earth wouldn't freeze solid, since we have still a hot core, but the humans would have to digg themselves in to come closer to the warm underground. \n\nFurthermore, the plantlife would be destroyed basically in no time. Without the sun, everything would die that depends on light, the only source of food would be fungi. Also, the human body would get problems because we need sunlight as well.",
"Vsauce made a video about it here. _URL_0_\n\nBasically, without the Sun's gravity, we would be hurled into outer space. And then it gets really really cold.",
"For stuff like this i highly recommend universe sandbox. You can disable the sun and see what that will do to earth over many millions of years.",
"I wonder how much heat the earth itself would produce. I guess the natural hot springs near volcanic activity would stay at the same temperature? \n\nCould we concentrate all our nuclear power to one big city were some people will survive? ",
"A good video on this is on a YouTube channel \"vSauce.\" It's titled \"what if the sun disappeared?\" \nIt's a great channel and this is a great video on this topic. ",
"...he asked twirling his mustache, nonchalantly sliding his issue of \"villains monthly\" over the doomsday trigger.",
"Most of these answers are assuming the sun is the only heat source for the atmosphere, which isn't the case. Radioactive decay of certain elements in the earth also produce heat. Not a lot, but enough that many thermal phenomena would still occur.\n\nSo: it would take about a week for global temps to hit 0 Celsius, and about a year to hit -100c At this point a pretty sizable layer of ice would be formed over the ocean and would insulate the water, allowing it to stay liquid due to the earth internal heat, for a few million years. \n\nPlant life would die quickly due to the end of photosynthesis, and as plant matter is the first link in the food chain for virtually all life on earth, except a tiny fraction of a percentage of the biomass that survives on deep sea thermals, things would get interesting as the biggest mass extinction event in history would start happening. \n\nSome animal life could subsist on geothermal energy, and humans would probably find a way to survive in small numbers and produce synthetic food using artificial light. \n\nAbout winds: we have observed that the less sunlight a planet received the faster the winds. Neptune has winds well over 1000kph. The reason is that when all the energy is internal, it tends to radiate out in very small quantities and into a very stable temperature map, which means there is almost no turbulence in the atmosphere, so we would over time see predominant winds start to establish themselves and once they get some momentum would achieve a fairly high and constant velocity, although nothing like Neptune since land obstacles would act as a brake and introduce small local turbulence. \n\nWeather patterns would start to follow slow predictable cycles, and discreet temporary phenomena would be Coriolis based, so we would storms form predictably in similar spots at regular intervals. \n\nThe moon acts as a pretty good gyroscopic stabilizer so the direction of earth's rotation would remain quite stable. \n\nThe earth would fly off into space, but it wouldn't matter unless we were to fly off towards something bad like another star, at which point approaching the star at the correct angle to be captured by the star and not be destroyed by it is extremely unlikely, but not impossible. However even if we were to fly off towards the nearest star it would take a very *very* long time to get there. \n\nSo this would be a very very bad thing, though not as immediately fatal as the sun going supernova or something. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rltpH6ck2Kc"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
3fzlfz | how exactly does the airplane toilet work?. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fzlfz/eli5_how_exactly_does_the_airplane_toilet_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"cttf274",
"cttfiv2"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"I know how old C-130 bathrooms work. \n\nStep 1: Pee into bucket.\n\nStep 2: Empty Bucket \n\nRepeat for #2",
"When you go to the potty on a plane you press the flusher which makes all the wee wee, doo doo, condoms, drugs, doff ends, etc. get washed into a special tank. When the plane lands the tank is taken away and emptied."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
2mr89i | why did we go to the moon so many times? | It seems massively inefficient. Was it just to piss off the Russians? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mr89i/eli5_why_did_we_go_to_the_moon_so_many_times/ | {
"a_id": [
"cm6u67y"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The primary purpose for the Apollo missions was science. In particular to answer the following questions:\n\n* How old is the moon?\n* What is it made of?\n* How was it formed?\n* Was it once part of Earth?\n* How stable is it;s orbit?\n\nTo answer these questions the astronauts went through rigourous scientific training - in particular the study of geology. Their teacher in this was a geologist named Harrison Schmitt, who was eventually sent to the moon himself on Apollo 17. \n\nTo find the answers to these questions the astronauts explored the surface of the moon, looking for interesting rocks and geological formations to get samples from. They also installed instruments on the moon, including a retroreflector allowing scientists on earth to accuratley track the moons distance and orbit using a laser.\n\nOf course there was a subtext to the Apollo missions - beat the russians. If not for that Apollo would never have been funded to the extent it had. The project had so much momentum that once we were able to go once, it was relatively easy to go a bunch more times because the infrastructure, manufacturing and personnel were already in place."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
bf79si | if chinese letters represent meaning instead of pronunciation how do they write foreign words like air conditioning or computer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bf79si/eli5_if_chinese_letters_represent_meaning_instead/ | {
"a_id": [
"elbf5ui",
"elbknsw",
"elbmcjm",
"eldgrfr"
],
"score": [
28,
8,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"They represent both meaning and pronunciation. So when expressing a loan word, proper noun, or brand in Chinese, you would ideally find characters that convey the sound and meaning as close as possible. \n\nHere's a [page about that ](_URL_0_) that expresses the concept well. \n\n\"Coca-cola is one of the most popular soft drinks in China. It’s called 可口可乐 (kě kǒu kě lè.) The character “口,” for “mouth” suggests that the brand is a food or beverage. The character “乐” means “joy.” Literally translated, it would be “can be tasty, can be happy.” 可口可乐 sounds very similar to Coca-cola, while giving the brand a light-hearted and happy essence.\"",
"by meaning. what does the foreign word mean. \n\n\nair conditioner 空调 \n\n 空 = sky / space (as in \"this spacious room\" ) \n调 = adjust / change \n\n\ncomputer 电脑\n\n电 = electric / electronic \n\n脑 = brain",
"Think about how \"gunpowder\" was originally a Chinese word but it somehow got translated into every other language.",
"I studied Mandarin in college. Names for technology and loan words are quite charming.\n\n电脑 = electric brain = computer\n\n电话 = electric speech = telephone\n\n电视 = electric vision = TV\n\nSo on and so forth. More complex characters are also usually built of what's called radicals, which basically are elements of simpler characters put together in such a way to create new meaning. Also, some words are definitely phonetic, such as grammatical markers, which inherently don't have any meaning in the character itself."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://blog.tutorming.com/business/brand-names-in-chinese"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
9n7ofv | why do some things sound better in our head but don't when spoken out loud? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9n7ofv/eli5_why_do_some_things_sound_better_in_our_head/ | {
"a_id": [
"e7k9jbl",
"e7kagcc"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm not quite sure what you're asking. But I'd venture that it's because while thinking your words aren't constrained by the physical aspects of speech, so it is possible to think of a sentence that flows well in your head, but is difficult to say aloud the exact way you thought it.",
"Its merely your confidence when around people (you may not know much or have limited relations), around people (who are very close to you) or around no people (i.e. in your head). This impacts the way you speak or deliver your thoughts on spot. Some people are highly confident when no one around compared to when they are around people with whom they don't know much."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
bt93v3 | why specifically does the northern part of africa have desert land? i’m assuming it’s on the same geographical level as other countries that have no desert at all? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bt93v3/eli5_why_specifically_does_the_northern_part_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"eov94u6",
"eovaogl",
"eovax5s",
"eovc45o",
"eovdk1c",
"eovdrxr",
"eoxfioh"
],
"score": [
3,
3,
21,
5,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"You don't have to assume you can look at a map. Most areas around the same latitude as northern Africa have similar climates, with exceptions being parts of Asia and the eastern United States, and some bits of Mexico. It's essentially a giant open area of land without many rivers or any sources of water to make it lush. \n\nAlso I'm no expert but wind and ocean currents would be a big factor.",
"I may be wrong here, but winds at that latitude blow east to west. Where they're carrying moisture from an ocean, the land will be wetter than where they're far from the ocean. North Africa has a lot of land between it and the nearest ocean to the east, so it is dry.",
"Climate is much more than just latitude\nThings like altitude, geography, air currents, water currents, all of that factors in.\n\nEngland for example is at the same latitude as parts of Canada that are covered in snow much of the year, yet England has a much milder climate. This is because the north Atlantic ocean current drives warm water and subsequently warm air right to the British isles.\n\nAs for the Sahara it is believed that northern Africa regularly went through periods of humidity where it rained a lot and there were lakes and rivers and forests full of life, and periods where the air was dry and all the water dried up and everything died. This was caused by small changes in the planets tilt on its axis. Then at some point some factor changed in this sensitive balance that threw the whole system out of whack. \n\nCurrent thinking is that this coincides with the spread of humans and agriculture across africa. As northern africa was transitioning from a humid period to a dry period humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer to domesticated animals and farming in order to survive which could have lead to over grazing, over farming and destruction of vegetation. This vegetation would have been needed to provide the moisture in the air to trigger a new humid phase when the time came. Without it the next humid phase was never triggered and the system spiralled out of control leading to the eventual creation of the Sahara desert.",
"Desert regions are mid latitudes, about 30 degrees from equator both, north and South and towards the west of land masses. The Sahara is lined up with the American deserts Sonoran and Chihuahua. The Mohave and great basin deserts also in America is lined up with Gobi and Turkestan desert. Australian desert lines up with Namib and Chilean desert.\n\nThis happens because sunlight warms the air at the equator, causing it to rise. As air rises away from the Earth, it cools.\n\nCool air can't hold as much water as warm air, so this air has to start getting rid of the water it is carrying. Rain clouds form above the equator and then pour down rain, this creates the tropics. \n\nThe cool air has dumped most of it's rain, so what is left is cool dry air, that moves away from the equator and as it sinks it warms up again. The warm air can hold more moisture so the dry are starts to pull moisture from the land through evaporation which causes the deserts.\n\nAlso Africa is not a single country.",
"The horse latitudes/Hadley Cell typically result in dry climates around °30N and °30S (e.g. the Sahara, Atacama, Kalahari, Sonora, Australia, etc.). Some places around these latitudes on eastern coasts get warm, humid air brought to them from the tropics by ocean currents, however, resulting in lusher, humid climates (e.g. Southeastern USA, Southern China and Japan, Eastern South America, etc.).",
"The Atlas Mountains block a lot of the wet wind coming in from the Northeast end of the continent. This leads to the Sahara as we know it",
"In addition to the other explanations given, the Sahara is also a heavily 'rain shadowed' region, where moisture is essentially blocked by mountains.\n\nMoist sea air from the north-west is blocked by the Atlas Mountains, and the potential monsoon rain from the south-east it is blocked by the Ethiopian Highlands."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
28u3px | why is legalizing marijuana good for america or bad. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28u3px/eli5_why_is_legalizing_marijuana_good_for_america/ | {
"a_id": [
"ciehnth",
"cieiczx",
"ciej013"
],
"score": [
3,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"If people are buying from regulated retailers, then they're not buying from shadey back-alley dealers who will want to peddle other, more harmful stuff. ",
"Decriminalizing it will take a huge strain off the legal system. It would also be a huge blow to the drug cartel in South and Central America who sell marijuana to fuel themselves. Additionally, the government can make billions of dollars in tax revenue that can then be used for anything we want. Some people think it's bad because it is a mind-altering drug. Long term use can lead to memory issues. But used recreationally no major negative effects have been found. There are definitely more pros in my opinion, but I see the cons side as well. I have a lot of friends who are down right stupid because of the drug. They lost all of their motivation, and all they do is deal and smoke weed. Does that make them bad people? No. But they aren't going to be successful in life. And I think that's what most people against legalizing marijuana argue.",
"This question is one that is, and has been, under constant debate for many reasons. There is no simple answer to the question, but I will try and break down both sides to give you the information to decide for yourself whether it really is one or the other. \n\nThose arguing that marijuana is bad basically state that as a hallucinogen and a narcotic it should be made illegal, under no exception. There have been a number of claims over the decades (many exaggerated or simply untrue) that marijuana causes brain damage, or could cause death as a result of over dose. There was a lot of media coverage decades ago depicting it as a drug that would turn people crazy and cause them to make incredibly bad and harmful decisions. The majority of this was used to try and scare people out of using, just as many commercials do now for alcohol use. More recently the argument has been made that marijuana is habit forming and will consume your life and will cause you to throw away your job and friends as a result. A lot of the negative effects that are assumed to be associated with marijuana usage is very hyperbolic and in many cases is simply not true. I would be willing to bet that if you were to ask a number of people why they think it's bad you would doubtfully get a consistent answer.\n\nThe other argument is more or less the opposite. A quickly growing number of people are working to make marijuana use legal in one way or another, either medically (California is famous for having done so) or recreationally (Colorado has recently become one of the first states to try this). When compared to other intoxicants such as alcohol, marijuana is much less harmful and is responsible for a fraction of the number of accidents while under the influence. The enjoyment and relative harmlessness of marijuana has convinced a surprising amount of people to reconsider the legalization and prohibition of marijuana and are now fighting to have this changed. \n\nAs I said previously, this is a very large and complex issue. There isn't a very easy way to simply say the good and bad of marijuana, and it always comes down to personal opinion and conviction. I personally feel it should be made legal, if only to cut down on the resources used to enforce the prohibition and because we are already allowed to indulge in so many more activities which has an incredibly higher danger associated with them (smoking, drinking and the use of prescription drugs are all immensely more harmful to the human body). I feel we should not be concerned with something that has never been proven to be terribly harmful or destructive. There are many other problems in the world, and many things that need attention and control. Marijuana use, in my mind, is not one of those things."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
26spzs | how can we eat leafed vegetables when we can't digest cellulose? | How come we can eat leaves of some plants but others like grass would make us sick? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26spzs/eli5_how_can_we_eat_leafed_vegetables_when_we/ | {
"a_id": [
"chu396t",
"chu3q3n",
"chu3tym",
"chueadp"
],
"score": [
10,
3,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"What we eat and can't digest comes out the other end, as naturally as the day is long.",
"Some plants have lower cellulose amounts. The ones we can eat are less cellulose-rich than the ones we can't. That's unrelated to getting sick though. We get sick not because of cellulose content (indigestibility just means you'll poop it out whole) but rather because of other chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. ",
"Cellulose is just filler. It doesn't do anything to you and passes right through uneventfully. When you eat a spinach salad, you're not digesting the cellulose, but you are digesting some of the other stuff, like vitamins and minerals and a very small amount of protein and digestible carbohydrates. The \"filler\" then gets pushed through until it's Mr. Toilet's problem.\n\nAs for grass making you through up, I don't know if maybe you're a cat or something, but I've never eaten a leaf that gave me that reaction unless it was poisonous. So maybe that's what happens to you when you eat grass. It can't be the cellulose that's making you ill because like I said, cellulose does not interact with your digestive system chemically. Why are you eating grass anyway?",
"'Eat' and 'digest' are two different things. There are many things we can safely eat that we mostly or entirely cannot properly digest. Cellulose is one of those things. But it does serve a valid and worthwhile digestive purpose, which is to act as bulk fibre helping to move the rest of the chyme along through our digestive tract."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3zd5k4 | if diamonds aren't rare and intrinsically worthless, which gemstone isn't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zd5k4/eli5_if_diamonds_arent_rare_and_intrinsically/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyl6dx5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Any kind of diamond may not be particularly rare, but natural gem-quality diamonds (with high clarity & weight, & correct colour) are still quite rare.\n\nIt's hard to say that diamonds (or any other type of jewellery) is worthless, because people pay large amounts of money for them, thereby giving them worth."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2we6rs | why does obama always say isil instead of isis? | I've never understood why this happens and no one I've asked knows. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2we6rs/eli5_why_does_obama_always_say_isil_instead_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"coq0eb3",
"coq0hnm",
"coq0n9e",
"coq0pku",
"coq3cwv",
"coq3q4v"
],
"score": [
28,
10,
5,
102,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"The State Department picked ISIL a their name before it was rebranded as ISIS. In order to avoid continuosly changing the name to whatever the group decides to be called next (now it's Islamic State) they just picked a name and stuck to it.",
"He's probably trying to distance the US from getting involved in Syria. The S in ISIS stands for Syria, the L in ISIL stands for levant. Levant is a larger area that includes Syria and Iraq. It's all semantics.",
"ISIL was the earlier name of the organization - Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. Then it was rebranded as ISIS - Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or Al-Sham). Recently they renamed themselves just Islamic State, which naturally is getting a lot of backlash from legitimate Islam. The Government refers to them as ISIL because that's the original title. ",
"ISIS = Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and ISIL = Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.\n\nISIL is actually a more accurate translation of the group's original name, which refers to Iraq and \"al-Sham\", or the Levant. But now the group has actually abandoned the geographic restriction and now simply calls itself the Islamic State (IS), so the media and the administration are currently using the names for political and branding reasons.\n\nThe US is happy to continue to intervene in Iraq, but doesn't want to get involved on the ground in Syria, so they've chosen the name that emphasizes Iraq and downplays Syria. \n\nThe media, as far as I can tell, prefers ISIS either because they like the sound, because it was the first name they committed to, or because they know Americans are even more clueless about the word \"Levant\" than they are about Syria.",
"Because there are a large number of legitimate organisations, businesses and even people who are called Isis after the Greek god and it is unfair to use their name for a terrorist group.\n\nNobody should use ISIS. ISIL or Daesh is superior.\n\nedit: yeah Egyptian- sorry",
"None of these are exactly right. The Obama administration uses the name \"ISIL\" to separate the group from simply being another Islamic terrorist organization. Obama does not agree with the labeling of the entire religious group with radicalism or terrorism. In fact, just today he clarified this, saying \"We aren't at war with Islam, we are at war with those who perverted Islam.\" Conservative foreign affairs experts hate this, which probably further pushes Obama to use such wording."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1mb9ox | how are we able to perform experiments or gather data on things in the universe that are so far away? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mb9ox/eli5_how_are_we_able_to_perform_experiments_or/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc7j1qd"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"We can't perform direct experiments, but we *can* see things that are far away. And we can make predictions based on what we see, or combine that with other bits of science. For instance, we know that different elements have different emission and absorption spectra (that is, each elements will emit certain frequencies of light when heated, and will absorb those same frequencies when light hits them). Based on that, we can determine what elements stars and nebulae are made of."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6ztdg8 | - why do all the cows lie down when it's about to rain? how can they sense this? coming from indiana, i was surrounded by farms and cornfields, so i saw this all the time. if you drive past a farm and all the cows are lying down, you can guarantee it's about to rain. what's the explanation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ztdg8/eli5_why_do_all_the_cows_lie_down_when_its_about/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmxvr31"
],
"score": [
29
],
"text": [
"Cows are more likely to lay down when they get cold, as rain fall is preceded by a drop in atmospheric pressure-- it gets colder before the rain. Cow lay down as the storm front approches, giving the illusion that they lay down for the rain, when they are just keeping warm"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
9dl4mk | when older men piss why does the stream stop and go so frequently? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9dl4mk/eli5_when_older_men_piss_why_does_the_stream_stop/ | {
"a_id": [
"e5iag9j",
"e5iatf4"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Older men have weakened internal muscles which are used to force urine out, so it causes stop and go urination.",
"It's a symptom of an enlarged prostate which is common in older men. As the size of the prostate increases it applies pressure on the urethra so that it takes more pressure to push the urine through. This can cause stop and go urination.\n\n_URL_1_ \n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.webmd.com/men/prostate-enlargement-bph/features/enlarged-prostate-bph-complex-problem#1",
"https://www.emedicinehealth.com/enlarged_prostate/article_em.htm"
]
]
|
||
8voji8 | what happens to non-perishable or preserved food after it has been stored for over 200 years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8voji8/eli5_what_happens_to_nonperishable_or_preserved/ | {
"a_id": [
"e1p6jli",
"e1pcbzf"
],
"score": [
10,
3
],
"text": [
"Honey pretty much never goes bad. Bacteria and stuff cant survive in or on it, so honey left sitting in a tomb 6,000 years ago is just as safe to eat as honey harvested today.\n\nAlthough the dust wont be great for you and any toxic substances on the surface still fuck you up pretty good.",
"with honey, due to its high sugar to water ratio, bacteria can not live, it literally dries them out till they die. so in tombs the honey just dries out even more, and become rock hard, and the taste goes bad from dust and other things that get in it. but still edible\n\nDry rice is the same way, as long as it's kept dry and away from moisture it will be good for hundreds of years. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
53nyje | what happens if your appendix bursts in space and need surgery? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53nyje/eli5_what_happens_if_your_appendix_bursts_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7upc31",
"d7upnpi"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You're fucked. There is a device in development called Aqueous Immersion Surgical System that can make it possible but there hasn't been any info on it since 2012.",
"Shipboard surgery used to be much more successful than surgeries in crowded hospitals in big cites. The pathogens which will invade humans simply do not exist on board a ship at sea.\n\nSimilarly surgery in space would be reasonably safe. MRSA does not exist in spaceships.\n\nThe specific answer depends on the specific emergency. Similar things have happened at the South Pole. The possibilities include: Emergency evacuation. The ISS has emergency evacuation procedures, Subject matter experts talking the on board astronauts though it. Crew selection would include someone with some skills, medical or veterinary, willing to see blood and to cut, alternative risky treatment, most burst appendix do not result in death. using alternate treatment, high dose antibiotics and good support can help a lot in any crises."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
2nxgjz | how is dean karnazes "the ultramarathon man" managed to run 300 miles with no energy intake? | While Dean Karnazes is also known for achieving 50 marathons in 50 U.S. States in 50 days, which is something I could believe (not easliy but still i can live with it), I think its physically impossible to run 300 miles ( aprox. 480 km) in 80 hours without sleep or energy intake. Just by seeing it as the Law of Conservation of Energy (for the lay person: Energy is neither created or destroyed its only transformed) its impossible. Could someone just explain me how is this not a hoax? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nxgjz/eli5_how_is_dean_karnazes_the_ultramarathon_man/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmhsq46",
"cmhswol"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Who says he didn't eat?\n\n_URL_0_\n\n > 11:22 p.m. \n\"I ate some fresh berry pie, but I think I needed something with more salt. Yesterday I had a burrito and lots of trail mix, granola, and almonds. I have a variety of foods to choose from, but I always seem to want something else.\"\n\nHe also mentioned \"sleep running\":\n\n > 2:21 a.m. \n\"I've been sleep running. I suddenly woke up and realized I'm still running. And the really bizarre thing is that I feel like I got a little catnap.\"\n",
"Same way a guy can hold his breath for 22 min. People are awesome. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/far-out"
],
[]
]
|
|
3sm1gt | why doesn't burj dubai crumble and break from swaying 10-20 meters at the top? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sm1gt/eli5why_doesnt_burj_dubai_crumble_and_break_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwyh38f"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
" > “What they’ve done on the Burj Khalifa deliberately,” explains Garber, “is keep introducing changes to the shape of the building with height so that the flow pattern can’t organize itself. It’s almost like you have several different buildings with height and each one of them has different vortices shedding at different winds speeds. All of those things can’t happen at the same time so what you’re left with is very little vortex shedding.”\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/124/confusing-the-wind-the-burj-khalifa-mother-nature-and-the-modern-skyscraper"
]
]
|
||
l31zf | why macs boot up way faster than pcs. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/l31zf/eli5_why_macs_boot_up_way_faster_than_pcs/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2pcxeq",
"c2pd0oc",
"c2pcxeq",
"c2pd0oc"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"It's basically the design of the OS. Imagine you own a lot of toys that you like to carry around when you go for sleepovers with your friends. But your friend doesn't have so many toys that he likes to carry around. When you both go to that sleepover, your trip will be cluttered, messy and slow. Your friend will reach there fast and efficiently.\n\nYou are Windows and your friend is a Mac. Macs don't have to start up a lot of stuff when they boot up.",
"Because your PC sucks (fragmented HD/crap ton of stuff loaded at startup/old hardware)",
"It's basically the design of the OS. Imagine you own a lot of toys that you like to carry around when you go for sleepovers with your friends. But your friend doesn't have so many toys that he likes to carry around. When you both go to that sleepover, your trip will be cluttered, messy and slow. Your friend will reach there fast and efficiently.\n\nYou are Windows and your friend is a Mac. Macs don't have to start up a lot of stuff when they boot up.",
"Because your PC sucks (fragmented HD/crap ton of stuff loaded at startup/old hardware)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1lbxyz | why are papercuts so painful? | Why are they so unpleasant compared to larger injuries, such as scrapes or bruises? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lbxyz/elif_why_are_papercuts_so_painful/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbxoi63",
"cbxqtpr",
"cbxruit",
"cbxt35b",
"cbxtwry",
"cby1jvm",
"cby4tsk",
"cbycdow"
],
"score": [
856,
23,
9,
52,
7,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Paper cuts are often very shallow, but cut through many pain receptors. Because of how shallow they are, they don't bleed as much and that can allow the pain receptors to stay exposed much longer since bleeding allows the injury to form a protective scab. ",
"You also have to consider where you are getting the wound. The hands have a lot more pain receptors and other nerve endings than anywhere else on the body, check out this [homunculus](_URL_0_) ( a depiction of how sensative the different parts of the body are). So a small wound there triggers a lot more nerves than a scraped knee or a bruise",
"Paper is not very uniform on a microscopic level. As a result, when it cuts more of a tearing than a slicing that would occur with a sharp knife. The tearing action is much more painful.",
"you have two types of proprioreceptors (touch/pain) in your body. pacinian corpuscles, and meisner corpuscles. they both do the same thing, but they do it in different methods.\n\npacinian corpuscles are located very close to the surface of the skin and are fragile things that look something like trees. when these are damaged, like in the case of a paper cut, a specific kind of pain signal is sent and received by the brain. these signals are interpreted and do not cause the release of adrenaline. these are also the receptors capable of feeling \"fine\" touch, the miniscule levels of pressure fealt by the skin.\n\nMeisner corpuscles are deeper in the dermis (these look kind of like halved onions) and are the \"deep\" pressure receptors, they pick up feeling pressure at the pacinian's maximum. when they're damaged they release a nerual signal similar to that released by the pacinian corpuscles as well as a compound creatively called \"compound P\". its this compound that when interpreted by teh brain stimulates the release of adrenaline, which has the immediate effect of dulling pain, as well as opening your veins and arteries, quickening the heartrate and supressing higher brain function (all the things that happen during \"fight or flight\".\n\nPapercuts dont cut deep enough to damage the meisner corpuscles and becauese of that compoud p isnt released, so no pain dulling effects from adrenaline.\n\nTL;DR, brain doesnt care about paper cuts because it knows they're not a danger to you.",
"The real reason is that paper cuts usually fit two main characteristics. \n1, they are on a very sensitive area, the fingertip or hand. \n2, paper is dull and does not cut cleanly. A knife cut can be far less painful, especially if the blade is sharp and in good repair, because the cut is straight and the damage is actually less noticeable that way. Paper cuts are rough, and cause uneven surfaces of skin that don't fit together as well, and are therefore more noticeably painful.",
"_URL_0_\n\nRule 3 explains the deleted chains.",
"People have already mentioned pain receptors and nerve endings and such, but the other reason is the edge that paper has. Take for example, chef's knives. They keep them incredibly sharp, not only to be able to cut food better with, but because it's safer. The sharper the knife, the less force you must exert to make a cut. If you're using a dull knife, you exert more force, and if you slip and cut yourself, you'll cut yourself worse. The important part of this that relates to paper cuts is the dull edge. Paper's edge is not only dull, it's jagged. When a sharp knife cuts your skin, the cut has two fairly straight, neat sides that heal nicely together. A cut with something dull, such as a paper's edge, literally tears your skin apart, and your body has a much more difficult time healing itself.\n\nI tried my best to make a picture explaining it. \n_URL_0_",
"ELI5: Why did my whole body tense up when i read this? Similar to the feeling you get when you see someone get kicked in the balls. Why do we simulate that pain in our own mind?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://neurobonkers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/3d-homunculus.png&imgrefurl=http://neurobonkers.com/2010/07/31/a-review-of-sorts-of-the-emotiv/&h=390&w=376&sz=54&tbnid=KbSN1FDIbbaYHM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=84&zoom=1&usg=__CcME-rjVGMnC5E0JnqkH2kFRyOY=&docid=0Q_aE2IRdOwc4M&sa=X&ei=gnEfUtGeJaroiwKR_4GQDQ&ved=0CFYQ9QEwBg&dur=551"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/rules"
],
[
"http://imgur.com/vEUslL9"
],
[]
]
|
|
ajc8rn | why can’t humans see all wavelengths, and what causes them to be harmful? | If visible light is the only wavelength we can see, and is harmless, why can some wavelengths damage the skin such a ultraviolet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ajc8rn/eli5_why_cant_humans_see_all_wavelengths_and_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"eeuandg",
"eeuaou6",
"eeueacd",
"eeuhj6i"
],
"score": [
7,
4,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"We can't see all wavelengths because our eyes evolved to see underwater, and the visible spectrum is the only spectrum that could penetrate the ozone layer and large bodies of water. We never really needed to see that kind of light early on so it never became a survival necessity to human specifically, though some animals can see UV and IR better than we can.\n\nIt's less harmful, not completely harmless (see light sensitivity), because it is easily absorbed by or bounces directly off our skin and other objects. UV light penetrates deep into our skin and can destroy cells and mess with DNA. Infrared light is warm but not harmful, so UV light can still cause sunburn on a cold day.",
"Probably most importantly, the sun emits a lot of visible light, and our atmosphere is mostly transparent to it. So it's around to make use of, instead of blocked in space or lacking in quantity. And solid objects are mostly *not* transparent to it, so it lets you discern objects, whereas something like x-rays, if they were present in sufficient amounts, might pass right through objects letting you bust your nose on them (they'd be transparent!). And that's assuming biology could even come up with a decent receptor that *wasn't* transparent to x-rays. You can't see them if they don't interact with your receptor and pass right through it.\n\nVisible light *could* cause harm, with sufficient intensity. However, you aren't likely to encounter that in the natural world. If you absorb non-ionizing radiation, it warms you up. Enough heat can cause damage, of course. \n\nBut when you talk about wavelengths damaging your skin, typically the main differentiation people mean is non-ionizing (stuff like visible light, microwaves) and ionizing (x-rays, gamma rays). \n\nIonizing radiation is energetic enough that if it strikes an atom or molecule, it can detach an electron from them (making an ion, hence the name). This can do stuff like create free radicals, and break chemical bonds, things that interfere with the functioning of cells. This might kill the cell, or make it malfunction. ",
"Limiting the wave lengths we can see allows the brain to focus on things that are important to our survival. Hawks and Spiders see UV because it helps them hunt. Some amphibians and fish see infrared because it helps them. \nWe don’t hunt by tracking trails of mouse pee, or need to seek out warm spots like a cold blooded creature, so those wavelengths would add noise to our visual cortex.",
"Think of evolution as the laziest person you know. The ability to see and process a wavelength of light costs energy in processing. Therefore, evolution will try to find the least energy solution to being able to navigate the world, so it just picks a part that gives information valuable to humans.\n\nNOTE: Evolution is not directed or intelligent and does not have goals, but in this case, you can think of it that way. Really what happens is humans that don't waste energy processing UV rays have a greater chance of surviving long cold winters."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
17q1x3 | can you please explain the whole "horse meat in meat" debacle? i've had horse meat and it was yummy. | Is it just because people thought they were eating cows? Any health-related implications? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/17q1x3/can_you_please_explain_the_whole_horse_meat_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"c87svtd",
"c87sxqg",
"c87vygy",
"c87wpmu",
"c87z7zx"
],
"score": [
4,
3,
3,
7,
4
],
"text": [
"Meat is subject to a large number of federal regulations having to do with food safety. That something foreign - in this case, horse - could creep into the supply shows a break down in the regulations. Was the horse tested for various conditions like cows are? If the meat made people ill, could we trace the contaminated meat to its source to prevent other people getting ill?\n\nFor a lot of people, the main problem is that they didn't want to eat horse. But the true issue is in the safety of the food.",
"It's a two-fold thing. Some people don't want to eat horse meat (I live in Sweden and most people don't mind, we sell [horsemeat-based cold cut](_URL_0_) in pretty much any store). The UK and the US really don't seem to like horsemeat as food.\n\nBut in Sweden we still don't want to buy one thing and getting another and that's the other side of it. If the producer can't keep track of what goes into what product you really can't tell what you are buying and if they know what they are doing.\n\n",
"In Ireland, where 2 of the recent factories where this scandal brook recently, we pride ourselves on having some of the best beef in the world. It is one of our largest exports and we pride ourselves on having traceablity from \"farm to fork\". So when horse meat turns up in burgers produced in Ireland that are labelled Beef, that is a big worry for our export industry.\n\nMe personally, I have no problem eating horse but I like to think when something is labelled, i know what i am eating. ",
"To me, as a restaurant owner, the biggest issue is what else could have gone wrong. \n\nIt's one thing for it to be horse. It's another thing if my supplier tells me it's inspected and regulated meat, and somehow, it was Z grade pet food, or chicken mixed in with my burgers cooked medium rare.\n\nIf my supplier can't track what animal is in the food, they have bigger issues than just flavour. ",
" > Is it just because people thought they were eating cows?\n\nI think you are minimizing the seriousness here. People were buying one thing, and getting another, and denied the choice of what they wanted to eat. You might not mind horse, but what if it were dog or cat? It goes beyond taste, people don't like to eat animals they identify as pets."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsemeat#Sweden"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
29q4rr | why we don't have a base-10 time measuring system, and if it would be possible to create one. | Seems like it could be made to be more accurate then the current system of random intervals. Is there anything stopping us from making a base ten system? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29q4rr/eli5why_we_dont_have_a_base10_time_measuring/ | {
"a_id": [
"cine7r1",
"cine8gz",
"cineazz",
"cinf16e"
],
"score": [
4,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Culturia inertia. Also, time works pretty nicely, they're not random at all. 24 hours divides into 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12. 60 minutes divides into 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30. ",
"Our current system is a base 60 one, it isn't random at all, it was created by the babylonians that used base 6 and base 60 on a regular basis. \n\nYes it would be fairly easy to create a base 10 system, but the switch wouldn't be practical. There is all that literature and scientific background in taking those time scales as the natural ones",
"[The French tried it](_URL_0_), but it didnt catch on",
"What makes you think it would be more accurate? We currently have extremely accurate clocks that lose a fraction of a section a century, and changing the system we used would have no effect on that."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time"
],
[]
]
|
|
c8p84i | when you take a sip of water, why doesn’t it diffuse through the cell membranes in your mouth on its own? | When I tried it, it didn’t work, lol. So my question is, why doesn’t that happen, even though if you pour water on your skin, it will dry after some time. Is it because the type of epithelial cells is different? Or is this type of diffusion a much different process from water drying on your skin? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c8p84i/eli5_when_you_take_a_sip_of_water_why_doesnt_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"esoj11x",
"esoj3rh",
"esox8on"
],
"score": [
11,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Water drying on your skin is mostly an evaporation process not the water diffusing into your skin cells. \nSome water does enter your cells in your mouth but they aren't really designed for that purpose so they can't hold very much water and compared to the parts of your digestive system that are designed to absorb water your mouth has very little surface area for the water to touch.\nYour small intestine is very good at absorbing liquid and nutrients because it has trillions of little fingers called villi that make the surface area of your small intestine (that would be the area the water comes into contact with) much much larger than your mouth. So now more cells are in contact with the water you are trying to digest and in addition the cells are set up in your body so it is easy for the cells to transfer the water to your bloodstream and make room for more water so it is much more efficient. \nall those things combined make it much faster than absorbing through your mouth but it is still a long process because your body wants to do things slow and absorb as many nutrients as it can.\nHope this helps.",
"Good question!\n\nYeah, cells are water-based but not 100% water. The short answer is because water-vs-oil chemistry prevents water from freely moving through cell membranes. Longer answers are below.\n\n\n[Cell membrane]\n\nThink of cells as water balloons sitting in a pool: wet interior and exterior, outside barrier preventing water from leaving OR entering. If you've ever heard about how oil and water don't mix, that's one of the reasons water just doesn't leak through. A \"lipid-bilayer\", fancy term for a two-molecule-thick layer of fat around the cell, does the same thing as a water balloon's rubber skin. This works because water is polar and the fatty membrane is nonpolar. There's a chemistry saying \"like dissolves like\"; because the membrane and water are non-polar and polar, respectively, they don't mix well so the water can't travel across the cell membrane.\n\n\n[Polar vs Nonpolar]\n\nThe oxygen molecule in water is electron-greedy and pulls the hydrogens' electrons closer to itself; the collection of electrons near the oxygen give that side of the water molecule an overall negative electrical charge and the hydrogen side, which has fewer electrons, has an overall positive charge. This makes water molecules polar. Polar molecules are attracted to each other, positive-to-negative and vice-versa. But the fatty lipids in the cell membrane have a pretty even distribution of electrons so they DON'T have an overall electrical charge. So when the two interface, the water molecules are so strongly attracted to each other, because of the polar electrical charge, that they can't separate enough to dissolve into the lipid membrane. The result is that the water can't freely travel across the membrane because it is energetically too difficult to do, en masse.\n\n\n[Skin]\n\nSkin's primary job is to keep everything out that's currently out and everything in that's currently in. In addition to using the same chemistry trick I explained above, the cells of your skin (and most epithelial cells, in general) are effectively stapled to each other, preventing unregulated travel of molecules through gaps between the cells. There's a bunch of different structures responsible for this but the main one is called a \"tight junction\" (if you're curious). The water drying you're talking about, on the skin, is just because the stagnant water sitting on your skin eventually gets enough energy to evaporate and become vapor. \n\n\n~~There are caveats, of course, like how sitting in a bath/pool will cause your skin to absorb water (and make those \"wrinkles\" you see) but that's a different story.~~ EDIT: Uhp, hold on, this last statement is wrong. Check below for /r/Phage0070 's comment.\n\n\nI hope I answered your question to your satisfaction! Lemmie know if I didn't or you're curious about something else.",
"Just wanted to add: alcohol does enter your bloodstream by just holding it in your mouth. Just a tiny bit though."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5zd8dg | how are clubs and other social gathering places allowed to have "ladies night" without people pulling out the discrimination card? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zd8dg/eli5_how_are_clubs_and_other_social_gathering/ | {
"a_id": [
"dex5csh",
"dex5dnr",
"dex5ja4",
"dex6r7r",
"dexcm05"
],
"score": [
2,
8,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"People pull the [discrimination card](_URL_0_) all the time. But it has to be done each time as it is a civil matter, not a criminal one.",
"People can pull out whatever cards they want. It's a free country.\n\nThey generally don't, because it also benefits guys in that it brings more women to bars - men often go to bars to meet women or at the very least enjoy their presence. Having a Men's Night with discounted drinks for men would mean they're paying less for drinks but it would also exacerbate the existing issues with too many men and not enough women at 99% of bars.",
"In general it is because 'ladies night' benefits both groups. Yes, men don't receive the monetary discount that women do, but they gain the benefit of there being more women in the club/at social gathering that would not otherwise be there. Therefore no one complains. \n",
"There was recently a court case around a gym that offered a ladies only time. A guy sued because he paid the same amount as women but they got more time in the gym. So they settled by adding a man's night. So it does happen.",
"It's important to remember that discrimination is legal, except in some very specific circumstances.\n\nIn some places, a ladies night at a club isn't legal for precisely that. But in many others, it's legal to discriminate on pricing at a club because nobody ever wrote a law banning it.\n\nRemember: in a free society, things are legal until there's a law making them illegal."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/features/2011/should_ladies_nights_really_be_illegal_an_excerpt_from_richard_t/week_1/should_ladies_nights_really_be_illegal_an_excerpt_from_richard_t_1.html"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
4zxdc8 | how is lag compensated in fps games? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4zxdc8/eli5_how_is_lag_compensated_in_fps_games/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6zicgp"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"There are a bunch of ways but one way is for each client to predict the future movement of other players. For example if they are moving forward assume they do until the next updated location.\n\nThe server then tries to resolve different ideas of the state of the world various ways. Blizzard's Overwatch tends toward trusting the view of the shooter rather than the player being shot which makes for a good feeling shooter at the expense of some \"shooting around corners\" incidents. The alternative is to favor the person being shot which can result in players feeling they shot people on their screen but the game rejecting the hits."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3737qg | leninism. | Keep it brief. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3737qg/eli5_leninism/ | {
"a_id": [
"crjb4pp",
"crjgky9",
"crjgwpv"
],
"score": [
29,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The working class can't emancipate itself, therefore an intellectual vanguard is necessary: the party. The party has to stay in power and guide the society toward communism with dictatorial powers. Once we're there, the party will no longer be needed. ",
"The difference between Leninism and Marxism is that Marxism would only come about via spontaneous uprising of a large worker class.\n\nLeninism, however, would be a planned revolution, led by professional (Ie: Trained, Armed, Prepared, and Pre-planned) revolutionaries, *plus,* did not require the Worker Class.\n\nRemember: A communist state was to occur when factory workers finally decided to seize the means of production - the factories. However, Russia was still very unindustrialised - something like 90% of Russia were serf farmers. \n\nDue to there not being a means of production (Ie: Economic Choke-Point - Seize the factories, seize the economy, seize the country) the revolution needed significantly more pre-planning.",
"Lenin theorized that in order for the working class to achieve communism, a vanguard party made of the most class conscious members of the worker must be established to organize the Revolution and maintain unity.\n\nDecisions of the party can be freely debated internally but once made, must be stuck to at least until the next party meeting.\n\n "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1l6y72 | the future of data cables- currently metal, is the future optic fibres? how does data travel through both? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l6y72/eli5the_future_of_data_cables_currently_metal_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbwbdab"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Data travels through metal in electric impulses, which are moving electrons.\n\nData travels through optical fibers in light impulses, which are moving photons.\n\nCore networks in most developed countries are already based on optical fibers. They're lighter, more corrosion resistant, and more resilient to electromagnetic disruption."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
7e1hfm | why do ads load first, rather than the content of the site itself? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7e1hfm/eli5_why_do_ads_load_first_rather_than_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dq1rbl1"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Because the site gets paid for how many views on the ads they get. Therefore add content is more important than the actual content. Sites prioritize this to make sure they get paid essentially."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
a0p2q7 | how do power plants synchronize their ac phases? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a0p2q7/eli5_how_do_power_plants_synchronize_their_ac/ | {
"a_id": [
"eajrsj4",
"eaju3xp"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Think of it as synchronizing wall clocks. Everyone but you has a wall clock running and everyone’s clock agrees with everyone else (except you). Your clock runs at the correct speed (frequency) but the time (phase) is wrong. You need to adjust the speed of your turbine/generator very slightly to either catch up or slow down so that you get near the correct time (phase) as the rest of the grid. Once your phase and speed (frequency) matches the grid you connect the power plant to the grid with a huge circuit breaker. If you do it right, the power plant comes online without a hitch. ",
"Generators are also motors, and vice versa. Power plants synchronize their generators before they're connected, because if the generator is out of phase the power on the line will back feed, it'll act like an over-powered motor and SLAM into phase. All the interconnected generators stay in sync because they don't have the enormous power they'd need to get out of sync.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
1b8r8u | what causes the difference between a dream and a nightmare? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b8r8u/eli5_what_causes_the_difference_between_a_dream/ | {
"a_id": [
"c94n1je",
"c94nahk",
"c94r8nb"
],
"score": [
2,
14,
2
],
"text": [
"The question is a little confusing, did you mean \"What factors cause a dream or nightmare?\"",
"A more appropriate question would be \"what is the difference between a bad dream and a nightmare\" - people use the terms interchangeably, but they are neurologically distinct events. Oliver Sacks touches on this in *Hallucinations*, but I dug up a couple of articles which might help answer your question - \n\n[More Than Just a Bad Dream--A Nightmare's Impact on the Waking Brain - Scientific American](_URL_1_)\n\n[Learning to Fight Chronic Nightmares - ABC News](_URL_0_)",
"[This might help a little.](_URL_0_)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4954892&page=1#.UVWsKleUVOw",
"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=more-than-just-a-bad-dream"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GH-inRcedU"
]
]
|
||
2cxyu1 | the situation right now in iraq and why obama is ordering airstrikes. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cxyu1/eli5_the_situation_right_now_in_iraq_and_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjk6w39",
"cjk6yum",
"cjkcgn5"
],
"score": [
19,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"To expand on the comment below me - There is a group of about 40,000 people (Christians) that ISIS is threatening to kill unless they leave. ISIS essentially has these people surrounded and they are living without food or water. These actions are being taken at the request of the Iraqi gov. Also we don't want Iraq to completely devolve into a \"terrorist state\", for our safety and theirs.",
"ISIS or ISIL is getting too close to where US personnel are stationed. And to aid the 35-50k who fled their homes for the mountains with no food, clothes, etc.\n\nThat's the basic message to what Obama said.",
"There was a sticky post a while back about the whole situation in Iraq... I'd actually find it great if it would be brought back as this is still a pretty relevant topic.\n\nNow to give you an answer. The ISIS is a splinter group of the Al Qaeda (they btw. don't support their actions) which started with taking over places in Syria (using the situation there) and then moving into Iraq and subsequently taking over large parts of the country. \n\nThey are driven by Islamic extremism and generally don't hold back on killing people with other beliefs. Their goal is to create a [Caliphate](_URL_0_) in that region. \n\nObama is now ordering airstrikes to support the Iraqi government. IMO it is in a great part the US' fault that ISIS was able to be that successful against the Iraqi army (their army was totally disbanded when Saddam was captured and built up from scratch but is no nowhere near as competent as they used to be). \n\nAlso note that apart from the airstrikes the US is also sending aidpackages to the people starving."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate"
]
]
|
||
1nvln1 | how do those batteries tell you how much is left in them when you push the sides with your fingers? | I'm talking about these: _URL_0_
There are two places on the battery that you touch, and then the bar lights up to show you what percentage of the battery life is left. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nvln1/eli5_how_do_those_batteries_tell_you_how_much_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccmh7q9"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"When you push the two places they connect to the + and - of the battery and form a circuit through a resistor. The resistor heats up a different amount depending on how charged the battery is. The display you see is thermochromatic - that is it is driven by the temperature. The more charge in the battery the more heat is generated over the resister, more heat over the resister results in a higher reading on the display."
]
} | []
| [
"http://i.imgur.com/zI2tKhm.jpg"
]
| [
[]
]
|
|
98km2a | why does placing certain adjectives in a different order sounds weird? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/98km2a/eli5_why_does_placing_certain_adjectives_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"e4gou4w",
"e4gowfo",
"e4gp4b9"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
8
],
"text": [
"It's called adjective order. It's something almost everyone does without realizing it and we all learn it from hearing other people speak as we learn to talk at a young age. \n\nHere's an article that gives the order in a list:\n_URL_0_",
"_URL_0_\n\nin short, as a fluent speaker raised in the language, you subconsciously learned this without ever actually being \"taught\" it. ",
"Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, blue big cars can't exist.\"\n\nNot mine, but a fairly common anecdote regarding this very question. Hope it helps!"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"www.google.com/amp/s/dictionary.cambridge.org/amp/british-grammar/adjectives-order"
],
[
"https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/adjectives/order-of-adjectives/"
],
[]
]
|
||
rkpls | what is really happening when i "jump" a dead car battery? | Bonus: Why should I connect the black clamp to whatever a "ground" is instead of the dead battery? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rkpls/eli5_what_is_really_happening_when_i_jump_a_dead/ | {
"a_id": [
"c46lfgr",
"c46lq1n"
],
"score": [
12,
26
],
"text": [
"You're using the other car's battery to provide the energy needed to start your car. If your alternator works, then you can let your car charge the battery up again as normal, and it should take a half to three quarters of an hour or so of normal driving (without turning the engine off). If your battery died because the alternator died and so is not charging your battery anymore then you'll find the car won't start the time after that. There could be other reasons too, but at this point you ask a friend with a multimeter to check the voltage across the battery with your engine running. It should be 14 volts with the engine running, 12 without.\n\nI don't know why you would need to clamp to a ground - the ground is connected to the negative terminal on the battery, so you shouldn't be getting much of a difference between the two.",
"The reason you are not supposed to attach the black connection to a ground* is that batteries sometimes leak hydrogren gas, which is highly flammable, and the last connection usually causes a spark as the circuit is formed. Spark + hydrogen gas = bad. A ground is simply any piece of unpainted, uncovered metal that is part of the car and attached to the chassis. It could be part of the engine block, a bolt somewhere, etc. Attaching to somewhere other than the battery keeps sparks away from the battery."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2wgszt | why do car batteries die after 1 night with the lights on, but can last for years otherwise? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wgszt/eli5why_do_car_batteries_die_after_1_night_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"coqonk7",
"coqou7a",
"coqsbvs"
],
"score": [
42,
4,
4
],
"text": [
"They do not die in the sense that they are broken. They are just empty.\n\nUsually, the battery is recharged while you are driving the car, thereby converting chemical energy from your fuel into electrical energy to recharge the battery. ",
"Batteries are charged by something in a car called an \"alternator\". The car must be in motion for this to happen. If you life the lights on and the engine off, the battery just drains.",
"As the battery discharges, it precipitates lead sulphate. If the battery is allowed to discharge too far, some of that lead sulphate forms crystals that are too big to be reabsorbed on charging so the battery can't hold as much charge any more. Additionally, those crystals form on the surface of the plates. They act as insulators which reduces the usable surface of the plates so the battery can't provide as much charge as quickly (reduces cold cranking amps)."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
30phlk | what causes the prolonged choking feeling when i swallow a tiny amount of something the wrong way. | I mean, its in the same place it would be if I swallowed it normally. So why does it feel so different. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30phlk/eli5_what_causes_the_prolonged_choking_feeling/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpuldmg",
"cpuo27l",
"cpupwlb"
],
"score": [
79,
3,
5
],
"text": [
"After your swallow things, there are two tubes they can go down. One is your esophogus. This is the good one, and it leads to your tummy. The other is your trachea (tray-kee-ya), also called a \"windpipe\". This tube leads to your lungs. If food or water goes down the windpipe, you'll cough and/or choke. \n\n\nWhen you make the effort to swallow, there's a little flap that comes down and usually covers the windpipe so things will go to your tummy and not your lungs, but it's not always perfect. The flap is called the epiglotis (ep-eh-glot-ess).",
"So when people say you'll prolong a cold by sniffing and then swallowing the mucus in your nose it actually goes to your stomach...",
"What about when you swallow something that doesn't go down quite right and it feels as if you may start choking on it but it just scratches its way down the right pipe? What exactly is happening? And am I the only one that this happens to? Lol"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3l72oi | if one were to stop time would light stop moving (since it's a wave) or still "shine" (since it's also a particle)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l72oi/eli5_if_one_were_to_stop_time_would_light_stop/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv3phwb"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Light itself is invisible anyway, and would stop moving.\n\nHowever, you would still be able to see. We don't see light, we see what light reflects off, so you would be able to see what light has reflected off, as the wave is still travelling through space, just infinitely slowly (from your perspective)."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3ehfyl | why was the senate able to completely change the name, subject and contents of the h.r. 644 bill after the house had already passed the original bill but not this completely different one? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ehfyl/eli5_why_was_the_senate_able_to_completely_change/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctezty5",
"ctf0lvy"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It's a common tactic for a bill the Senate would never pass anyway, but they want to pass something else.\n\nSee, there's something in the Constitution called the \"Origination Clause\", which states that revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives. This basically means that laws that involve money cannot originate in the Senate.\n\nBut sometimes, the Senate wants to originate a bill like that. Since each House has the ability to make changes to legislation sent from the other house and send it back, the Senate does this procedural \"trick\".\n\nThey change the bill... completely. Every last thing is changed *except* for the House resolution number. Then, the Senate puts in the legislation they want. Doesn't have to have anything to do with what the House passed. This bill can involve money since, technically, the House originated the bill. It then goes back to the House for them to vote on.\n\nIt's a pretty crummy way around a Constitutional restriction (kind of like how the Senate strips the power of recess appointments from the president by never adjourning). The only thing to remember is that if they didn't do this, the bill would have been dead in committee *anyway*. So, it wasn't something strange they did to this specific bill. They never liked it, they killed it, and then they stripped it for parts.",
"Please use search. This got asked and answered a few days ago: _URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dxv21/eli5_how_could_the_house_of_representatives_just/"
]
]
|
||
1oxod2 | why do waiters/waitresses immediately take away your menu once you've ordered? | There may be a totally obvious reason for this, but i have always wondered | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1oxod2/eli5_why_do_waiterswaitresses_immediately_take/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccwnndl",
"ccwnrqo",
"ccwo9zk",
"ccwou5j",
"ccwp8tc"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"So you have open table space. ",
"Restaurants only have a certain amount of menus. They need to take those after you've ordered so other customers can order their food.",
"Also signals to other servers that you've been helped. ",
"Because you don't need them anymore?",
"The reason: *Service a la russe.*\n\nFrom the Middle Ages to c. 1800 food was served using *service a la francaise* - French Service (what we might now call \"family style\" or \"buffet style\") All the food was brought to the table and guests passed it around.\n\nAround 1800 Alexander Kurakin rocked France with *service a la russe* - Russian Service (perhaps \"restaurant style\" today). This service had all the utensils and a menu set out before guests arrived, then food was plated in the kitchen and served in courses. This meant everyone got their food at the same time and everyone got it at the right temperature. When an item was no longer needed, staff would remove it - **this includes the menu.** This meant the table looked tidy throughout the meal.\n\nThis rocked the high-societies of western Europe such that *service a la francaise* was soon considered barbaric.\n\nProper *service a la russe* would have the menus already on the table, but the waiter would open the menu and hand it to you to discuss your options. As the lower classes started visiting restaurants more in the 20th century, we've quite sensibly taken to opening our own menus so we know what we want before we're asked."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
3ffw6f | how hard is it for a horse to carry a human? and what would be the equivalent for a human? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ffw6f/eli5_how_hard_is_it_for_a_horse_to_carry_a_human/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctoarv5"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"From what I've found (this site: _URL_0_) it looks like an average horse can easily carry about 240 pounds. It can carry up to around 360 pounds with some effort, and over that only with considerable strain.\n\nSo a horse carrying an average-sized person would be within that easy weight.\n\nAnother quick search shows that around the maximum recommended backpacking weight for humans is around 1/3 of body weight. Which is around where the horses really start to struggle.\n\nSo for the comparison, just imagine a very heavy backpack as about the maximum a horse could take (around 360 pounds for the horse, or around 50 pounds for a person). An easy weight to just walk around would be around around 200 pounds for a horse, or around 30 pounds for a person."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.horsesciencenews.com/horseback-riding/how-much-weight-can-a-horse-carry.php"
]
]
|
||
9sd46g | why do drinking fountains have two separate jets of water that combine to form one arc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9sd46g/eli5_why_do_drinking_fountains_have_two_separate/ | {
"a_id": [
"e8ntwna",
"e8o3cdj",
"e8o99ul",
"e8oaau5",
"e8oig2i",
"e8oivw7",
"e8oydsc",
"e8plpjn"
],
"score": [
5669,
1640,
356,
43,
617,
80,
6,
6
],
"text": [
"Two separate small jets running parallel with each other produces a less chaotic flow of water than a single large jet. You can notice this in those elaborate fountain shows: each jet is actually a bundle of smaller jets that combine to form the big \"ribbon\" of water.",
"It's like putting hair into a braid.\n\nIf you have just one handful of hair, it will eventually spread out and get messy. If you twist different handfuls together, they stay organized for longer.",
"From _URL_0_\n\nIn 1896, Halsey W. Taylor lost his father to an outbreak of typhoid fever caused by a contaminated water supply. This personal tragedy led the young Halsey Taylor to dedicate his life to providing a safe, sanitary drink of water in public places. … The historic Double Bubbler projector [spouter] was designed by Halsey Taylor himself, and still ranks as the most important innovation in the industry’s history. It projects two separate streams of water, which converge to provide an abundant `pyramid’ of water at the apex of the stream. This gives the user a fuller, more satisfying drink.”\n\nThe folks at Halsey Taylor are being polite here. What they mean is that the Double Bubbler enables you to take in more water and less air when you drink. As a result, you don’t burp. Think of all the delicate social negotiations you’ve been involved in that have gone awry because of an ill-timed eructation (that’s belch for you dropouts). Had you been drinking from a Double Bubbler, that fat contract (job, babe, whatever) might have been yours.\n\nThe Double Bubbler serves other purposes as well. You get less spraying, presumably because the water slows down when the two streams merge. The double streams also act as a sort of pressure regulator. If the water pressure is unusually strong one day, a single-stream fountain might give the unwary sipper a shot in the eye. When the twin streams of the Double Bubbler meet, however, their upward momentums tend to cancel out no matter how high the pressure gets.",
"It's the most basic of laminar flows. Those jumping fountains, and the ones that make globes of water come from laminar instead of turbulent flow.\n\nA whole container of drinking straws filling a pipe will make the water coming out more laminar than if if just allowed to do whatever chaotic turbulent nonsense it wants.\n\nReal, turbulent... juice!\n\nEDIT: Turbulent means \"swirly\" and Laminar means \"not swirly\"",
"The surface tension snaps them together and they 'braid' and prevent splashing and spraying. Keeps the stream tidy.",
"I don't understand. What type of drinking fountain has two separate jets of water?",
"Where on earth are those type of drinking fountains common enough for the OP to phrase the question as if that's the norm? All my life I haven't seen any such drinking fountain until seeing the 500$ picture someone posted in this thread.",
"Laminar flow means fluid flowing smoothly. The bigger the pipe, the more pressure it will take to make things smooth because of scaling effects. Using smaller diameter holes makes things smoother. I've seen four small holes frequently in drinking fountains, it can be more than just two. \n\nStraws tend to be as narrow as possible. The only times straws are made bigger are for tapioca teas and thick milkshakes. If you have ever tried to suck on the larger straws, you realize it is a jerky and less enjoyable experience of drinking the beverage. Even when not blocked, the fluid can arrive unexpectedly slower or faster, forcing you to adjust the pressure with your mouth.\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/770/why-do-some-water-fountains-produce-two-streams-of-water-that-merge-into-one/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
bb2hxx | why do kids like toys so much? and why do they prefer cartoons over regular shows? i understand that they probably won't be able to understand documents or regular (inappropriate) tv shows, but is there something about their psychology that makes them susceptible to liking big colorful things? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bb2hxx/elif_why_do_kids_like_toys_so_much_and_why_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"ekfww47"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"A childs brain is more maleable. The neural pathways are still being formed. The colors and sounds of a cartoon are easier for a kids brain to engage with as colors and sounds are some of the first neural pathways built.\n\nToys help kid's brains develop by channeling their energy into something constructive. By playing with toys they're developing their motor skills, practicing their imagination and building memory."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
879zis | why does splashing cold water on my face calm me down? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/879zis/eli5_why_does_splashing_cold_water_on_my_face/ | {
"a_id": [
"dwba4a9",
"dwba79l"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"That's the [mammalian diving reflex.](_URL_0_) Basically, it forces your breathing and heartbeat to slow down, which resets your psychological state.",
"The [diving reflex](_URL_0_) is triggered when your face makes contact with cold water. This triggers your brain to automatically slow your heart rate down."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammalian_dive_reflex"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_reflex#Bradycardia_and_cardiac_output"
]
]
|
||
2bziup | why is it that my newborn kitten can learn to use the litter box in a day but my little brother poops in his pants till he is 2? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bziup/eli5_why_is_it_that_my_newborn_kitten_can_learn/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjafako",
"cjafcxc",
"cjafi2n",
"cjafwmh",
"cjagith",
"cjany5k",
"cjaqg32",
"cjar1ne",
"cjar2us",
"cjatfz4",
"cjaz4xo",
"cjazpza",
"cjb41ak"
],
"score": [
33,
88,
34,
16,
3,
2,
2,
2,
3,
3,
2,
8,
3
],
"text": [
"Cats have an instinct to hide their poo (from other predators). Also most animals are born far more developed than humans are. Humans are born less developed so that they can fit through the birth canal.",
"Because we are human. Humans are smart and we use tools. To use tools we need to walk upright so our hands are free, and to be smart we need big brains. To walk upright we need narrow hips, and to protect a big brain we need big skulls. But the skull of a human child needs to pass through the hips! This conflict of factors pushes human children to be born relatively undeveloped and grow outside of the womb. This is why they are comparatively helpless and incompetent.",
"In addition to other comments, compare the life expectancy of humans vs. cats. Scale the maturation rate and voila!",
"All the other comments seem to imply that infant humans are somehow less intellectually developed than newborn kittens, which isn't true. Your average newborn baby will still have a significantly higher cognitive capacity than kittens. However, kittens have a natural instinct to hide their waste (and will look around for somewhere that they can dig it under, usually a litter box or your potted plant's soil). Pants and toilets are relatively recent inventions by contrast, and as such, there is no natural instinct on which babies can rely in order to use a toilet. As well, newborn human babies do not have the same locomotive ability as kittens, and so they are physically incapable of finding an appropriate location in which to relieve themselves. If you were to remove the ability of a cat to search for somewhere to hide its waste, it too would simply go wherever it felt it wanted to.",
"The reason humans develop slower is because we have bigger brains. Source: Vsauce",
"Cats are smarter than humans. ",
"You're a better parent to your cat than your parents are to your brother",
"Perhaps you should get your little brother a litter box too?",
"Humans tend to be born before they are ready to be, in a sense. Their brain isn't ready to develop, and are essentially born before the stage an animal is typically born in.",
"Cats cover their poop so predators don't smell it. ",
"I read that it takes humans so long to develop because in order for them to learn faster, their brains would have to be bigger (more developed) at birth. If they were any bigger, the mothers hips would have to be further apart because the birth canal would have to be wider. This would make it nearly impossible to run from any predators or dangers while pregnant.",
"According to my Grandmother, b.1889, delaying toilet training until age2+ is a modern world occurrence. She said her two children were potty trained by 8-9 months. When I expressed disbelief she told me that training started as soon as the babe could sit in a triangle on a chamber pot. She would tap the pot to get a ringing noise that would stop when the child pee'd or defecated. Like Pavlov's dogs, I guess. I still didn't believe her. And she ended the conversation like this: If you had to, Every Single Day, first pump water, wash nasty diapers by hand, dry in all kinds of weather, you'd be motivated to train your child. She thought washing machines made Mother's ridiculously lazy about TT. I can only wonder at what she would say about 4 yr olds in throw away diapers.",
"HUMANS ARE DISGUSTING CREATURES"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
c0ami6 | how come we don't notice a difference (e.g. in centrifugal force) between standing at a geographical pole and standing at the equator? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c0ami6/eli5_how_come_we_dont_notice_a_difference_eg_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"er36dyy",
"er3721t"
],
"score": [
27,
9
],
"text": [
"The centrifugal force at the equator is about 0.3% of gravity. We could “feel” it, in the sense of being able to measure it with sensitive enough equipment, but it’s not enough for people to notice the difference.",
"Because the difference in gravity between the equator and the poles is only about 0.5%.\n\nYou would be lighter at the equator but by so little that it would not really a difference that you can feel.\n\nAcceleration wise it would be the equivalent of accelerating at 0.2 km/h per second or the equivalent of accelerating for a full 9 minutes to get from 0 to 100 km/h.\n\nIf you don't look out the window you won't feel yourself accelerating at all."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
mqzap | cybernetics | What is it and why do we need it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mqzap/eli5_cybernetics/ | {
"a_id": [
"c338bdz",
"c338bdz"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"DAE automatically think of Starcraft?",
"DAE automatically think of Starcraft?"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2p5fyd | why are some terms more politically correct than others? | For example "colored people" vs. "people of color", things like that, that seem to mean the exact same thing, but one is more correct? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p5fyd/eli5_why_are_some_terms_more_politically_correct/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmtjfn9",
"cmtji90"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"when terms become mainstream, some people use them mockingly, or with a negative context. over time people defined by those terms feel verbally violated or harassed more often than not when they hear it. they no longer feel that term defines them, they suggest another term, and the cycle continues. \n",
"Many of the terms that exist that are considered not 'politically correct' are ones that originate from ideas that we no longer agree with or are associated again with ideas that we no longer agree with. The term \"Colored people\" was used in the early 20th century by racists \"Coloured people's fountain\" and so on and this is now the modern association, \"People of color\" is the hip new way to say it that is still understandable, but doesn't have as many negative connotations attached to it and is therefore 'more correct'"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
1s3pcm | why / how does common table salt sterilize wounds and make water boil faster? | Found nothing related, expand my mind reddit. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s3pcm/eli5_why_how_does_common_table_salt_sterilize/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdtl3og",
"cdtlkfd"
],
"score": [
3,
8
],
"text": [
"Salt actually makes water boil slower, by raising the boiling point. The water takes longer to get to the higher boiling point, but your pasta cooks faster because the water is hotter.\n\nAs for why that happens, chemically speaking? No idea :)",
"Boiling:\nWater actually causes water to boil at a higher temperature, taking longer to begin boiling. In the process of boiling, the liquid water molecules are slowly moving around each other and must 'break free' and exit the water's surface with enough energy to move quickly through the air as vapor. The salt molecules in the water sit on the surface, causing a barrier to allow less water molecules to 'jump out,' and the water need more energy to overcome this greater barrier, translating to a higher boiling point.\n\nWounds:\nSalt does not 'sterilize' wounds, but it does have the ability to kill certain bacteria. The salt removes water from these bacteria, killing them through diffusion. However, there are certain bacteria that have adapted to salty environments, allowing them to survive this condition.\n\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
41d77s | why did we skip 3k tvs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/41d77s/eli5_why_did_we_skip_3k_tvs/ | {
"a_id": [
"cz1fvf6",
"cz1ghvb"
],
"score": [
5,
18
],
"text": [
"In 2013 MSI did a 3K laptop. \n\nOn my personal point of view (working with video) if you have a platform that supports \"more\" why not use it. The technology is there but it will take time to adapt for everyone so I think we need and we will need to skip over to where the technology arrived instead of doing little steps .",
"Common display resolutions tend to just be previous standards multiplied by 4, as that way you can scale previous content up and future content down with no calculations as its a straight conversion.\n\n1080p was the previous standard, 4K is literally just 4x1080p. 720p was the standard before 1080p, which got multiplied to 1440p, which never really got widespread adoption as it wasn't 'enough' over 1080p to justify."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
2nmttu | if principle photography is done and a teaser trailer is out, why wont the new star wars be in theaters until next december? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nmttu/eli5_if_principle_photography_is_done_and_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmezpnr",
"cmf0yqt"
],
"score": [
23,
7
],
"text": [
"Post Production. This is when all of the CGI, sound mixing, editing, scoring and much much more is done.\n\nAdditionally, they're will probably be reshoots. Therefore, the one year gap gives them plenty of cushion time.",
"The majority of the man hours will be done in post production. They have a lot of green screen footage, now they have to turn it into a movie. Space battles set extension character animation. Foley, sound mixing, editing, scoring, compositing. The principal photography just gives them the building blocks to work with."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
3m842d | why did vw fake the emissions tests in their cars? (does compliance cost more, does it make the car less efficient, etc.), what is/are the advantage(s) to not meeting emissions standards? | Thanks for the clear answers! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3m842d/eli5_why_did_vw_fake_the_emissions_tests_in_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvcsgw0",
"cvct58l",
"cvctv2z"
],
"score": [
8,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"There's long technical explanations but here's the short and sweet version.\n\n1. Not meeting emissions requirements provided better fuel economy. (More miles driven for the same amount of burned fuel.)\n\n2. Not meeting emissions requirements provided their engines with better acceleration/performance.",
"NOx is created from oxygen and nitrogen at high temperatures.\n\nHigher engine temperatures result in better efficiency, but also greater creation of these pollutants.",
"First-up - we don't know exactly what they've done so a BIT of guesswork and speculation is required.\n\nI've read everything I can find and my understanding is they've included software which disables anti-pollution systems in certain situations - could be as simple as 'is the car moving over a certain speed' (all emissions tests taking place on stationary vehicles)\n\nDiesel cars use a variety of systems to reduce pollution - some of those deplete power/MPG and increase maintenance requirements which would make the car less desirable.\n\nIn some ways it's easy to see why they'd do this - getting caught required not only someone to suspect somethingh and find it but also prove it was deliberate (e.g. find the system/code which is doing it) \n\nI can't help thinking back to the Toyota Rally Team 'cheating' scandal - they developed a turbo with a clever variable intake so it was within the rules when taken apart and checked but 'got bigger' when being driven. They only got caught because their cars were SO much faster than other cars and people got suspicious and so started looking - I wonder if other manufacturers didn't wonder how VW seemed to have 'better' diesel perf/emissions - maybe they pushed-their-luck??"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
8ljn0q | why is it necessary to have incredibly specific writing formats like mla or apa? why can't there be in universal format? | Why does there have to be many specific ways of formatting papers/bibliographies. Simply stating a Url or book title is enough for most people. I feel like these formats make things unnecessarily convoluted | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ljn0q/eli5_why_is_it_necessary_to_have_incredibly/ | {
"a_id": [
"dzfzx3f",
"dzg10jz",
"dzgay8d"
],
"score": [
40,
17,
2
],
"text": [
"There's a great XKCD comic that sums this all up.\n\n_URL_0_\n\ntl;dr: Nobody wants to cede theirs to the 'better standard', because they all think they're the best.",
"The point of a citation or bibliography format is so a reader can independently assess the information derived from it. They can go to that source for themselves.\n\n > Simply stating a Url or book title is enough for most people. \n\nNo it isn't. URL's are dynamic and can change. The lifespan of a URL is a couple of years. By giving additional information, a person might be able to do their own search and find the original information.\n\nSimply putting a book title is right out. Plenty of books have the same title, but are written by different authors and cover different materials.\n\n > I feel like these formats make things unnecessarily convoluted \n\nJust because you don't personally make use of that information doesn't mean it's \"unnecessarily convoluted.\" That information is there so people can have access to source material. Title alone is not always sufficient. Title \\+ Author isn't always sufficient. Plenty of technical books undergo revisions, but keep the same title. The point is not for every single people of information to be used, but to provide enough information that any person looking to find the source material can find it, over a long period of time.",
"Generally the different formats are for different fields or areas of study. For example, MLA is pretty much the standard for the humanities while APA (or some slight variation of it) is the usually the standard in science. Some of the differences in format reflect different priorities between them. MLA includes page numbers in citations because being able to directly refer back to the exact place in the original text is important when discussing literature, plus these sources tend to be much longer than scientific ones, which are usually short articles rather than whole books. While APA citations include the year because in science it is important to show how up to date your information is since science can \"go out of date\" pretty quickly. \n\nFor a lot of people, the real problem is that most high schools use one like it *is* universal, so if students go into a field that uses a different one they have to adjust (my high school was \"all MLA\" and I had to switch to APA in college and after). But then again, most of them are fairly similar so it's usually not *that* big of a change. \n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://xkcd.com/927/"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
1av35f | why is it rude to acknowledge that someone is fat? | I'm not talking about going up to a stranger and saying "you're fat!", but when someone (friend, SO) asks if you think they're fat, why is it rude to say "Yes, you have some extra fat"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1av35f/eli5_why_is_it_rude_to_acknowledge_that_someone/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9107dl",
"c91099k",
"c913o1u",
"c914jms",
"c916qpm",
"c918c4j"
],
"score": [
6,
10,
14,
3,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"Fat is not an acceptable form of being.",
"If you're giving them an honest answer?\n\nThey know they're overweight. They seek emotional comfort. The more mature among them hope to hear it's not crippling to their presentation. \n\nBut people aren't always mature. Some need a second witness for the lies they tell themselves. Others want to hurt themselves, and hate you for helping them do it. ",
"As somebody who is overweight (270lbs, 5'11\"), I am very comfortable with acknowledging that I'm overweight. What's the alternative? Self-denial? \n\nThere are exceptions, when somebody bringing attention to it would annoy me:\n\n1. I don't like people pointing it out as if I shouldn't care. Very few things will get me riled up more than a complete stranger calling me \"big guy\"\n2. If I'm clearly feeling horrific about my body, having a discussion with a friend and it's obvious to the person I'm speaking to that I want some emotional comfort, I'm going to be a bit pissed off if their contribution is \"well, to be fair p7r, you are a bit of a lard arse. Why don't you do that thing from the Goonies? That always makes me laugh...\"\n3. When that statement is made with a tang of disgust. Me: would you like to go for a drink sometime? Her: What? Ha! No, you're like... fat! (actually happened once)\n\nI know other people *are* in denial, and they're trying to get you to say everything is fine, but the reality is it's unhealthy and - for most people - unattractive. So, you need to be sensitive about it because they're looking for emotional comfort, but cheer them on when they try to shift it.",
"the same reason when you acknowledge that someone is thick. ",
"Learn from Thomas the Tank Engine. The Engines call Sir Thopham Hatt the Fat Controller, but never to his face.",
"Most of the time they know. It's against social norms to point out obvious things that may hurt someone's feelings. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
7w973b | are we lighter during the night due to centripetal force from orbit? | And heavier during the day?
How big is this effect in comparison to Earth's gravity and tidal forces? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7w973b/eli5_are_we_lighter_during_the_night_due_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtyinzv",
"dtyrmgy"
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text": [
"It would be the opposite if there is any fluctuations as at night the gravitational pull of the sun is also pulling you toward the earth while during the day the sun would be pulling you away from the earth ever so slightly. \n\nThere is some fluctuation but it is less than 1%. ",
" > Are we lighter during the night due to centripetal force from orbit?\n\nYes!\n\n > And heavier during the day?\n\nNo, we're also lighter during midday, because we're closer to the Sun so its gravity is pulling us away from the Earth. All else being equal, we're heaviest during sunrise and sunset, when neither effect is strong.\n\n > How big is this effect in comparison to ... tidal forces?\n\nThese two effects *are* the Sun's tidal forces! They're utterly tiny compared to Earth's gravity (about 0.5 millionths as big), and small compared to the Moon's tidal force (about half as big). But the imbalance you're talking about between gravity and centrifugal \"force\"[*] is where tides come from.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n[*] Go ahead and call it centrifugal force. As you know it's not a \"real\" force, but it acts like one in this situation, and it's better than talking about an outward centripetal force, which is a contradiction."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_force"
]
]
|
|
7w8pg5 | how do high speed (slomotion) cameras work. if you are filming 1,000,000 fps wouldn't that mean your fastest shutter speed is 1/1,000,000th of a second, how do the cameras get enough light at that quick of a shutter speed? | ELI5 how high speed cameras work | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7w8pg5/eli5_how_do_high_speed_slomotion_cameras_work_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtyedlk",
"dtyj9pn"
],
"score": [
8,
11
],
"text": [
"Lots of ligths, bigger lenses to capture more ligth and mostly lower resolution, so u can add the ligth hitting multiple pixels next to each other",
"As others said we blast the area with light and/or crank up the gain on the camera. If you look close you'll often see the slo mo images are grainier than the other video sources because the sensor is struggling to capture the light. \n\nSource: I'm a professional cinematographer. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2ne9jo | why is freedom of speech disallowed in the u.s. for supporters of isis, yet is commonly accepted to be a fundamental right for advocates of other extreme groups? | 2 Minnesota men were just charged with supporting the Islamic State terror group. Yet the U.S. isn't charging supporters of others on it's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (HAMAS, Hezbollah, Real Irish Republican Army, etc.).
Furthermore, most everyone criticizes the Alien & Sedition Acts as a violation of 1st Amendment rights, yet the current situation with outspoken ISIS supporters in the U.S. seems to pose a similar situation. So long as supporters of ISIS aren't physically killing anybody, how is the U.S. justifying the suppression of ISIS supporters' right to freedom of speech? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ne9jo/eli5_why_is_freedom_of_speech_disallowed_in_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmct6xq",
"cmct8mv",
"cmctb13"
],
"score": [
2,
11,
3
],
"text": [
"Speech inciting riots or seen to be encouraging violence or terrorism is not protected by the right to free speech because it puts others at risk.\n\nAs an example, if you were to go into a theater and yell \"Fire!\" you'd be arrested, and rightfully so, as your actions (your \"free speech\") could put people in danger as they crowded over one another trying to escape a fire that didn't exist. Free speech only extends so far as it doesn't put people in danger.",
"Because it wasn't speech. It was material support, i.e., money or goods.",
"They were not arrested for their speech nor their opinions. \n\n\n\nThey were arrested because they are suspected of attempting to commit a crime. \n\nYou can talk as much as you want. You can cry out against ISIS detractors. You can even denounce those who arrest ISIS supporters. You just can't make the leap from verbal supporter to actual supporter. \n\nThink of the sting operations where they catch a child molester when he shows up to where he think some child will be waiting for him. S/he isn't arrested for speech supporting sex with underage children. S/he is arrested for attempting to have sex with an underage child. \n\nAlso keep in mind the difference between an arrest and a conviction."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
cyuz4j | is your immunity stronger after recovering from a cold? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cyuz4j/eli5_is_your_immunity_stronger_after_recovering/ | {
"a_id": [
"eyuc31b"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"You're proof versus that particular strain, yes. But the rhinovirus mutates very rapidly. Which is why you'll probably catch cold again next season."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3dn03o | what is lucid dreaming really like? do you actually see everything like in real life? can you feel everything? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dn03o/eli5_what_is_lucid_dreaming_really_like_do_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"ct6p498",
"ct6pik1",
"ct6r4ta",
"ct6rgdw",
"ct6rxsf",
"ct6rzl8",
"ct6sapt",
"ct6skc4",
"ct6ss0j",
"ct6tym2"
],
"score": [
53,
3,
2,
25,
5,
7,
2,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"In my expreience is dreaming but aware that you are dreaming, so you can do anything you want, fly or whaterver.\nIn some cases I did stupid things while dreaming like stealing a car, because I knew it was a dream and then thinking \"Wait, this may not be a dream, and I just fucked up\". Is awesome.",
"I suppose it depends upon the person.\n\nI have battled with insomnia for most of my life. My Lucid Dreaming training taught me to lightly concentrate upon positive scenarios with an outcome. Although I started with sleep-aiding drugs... within 2 weeks, I was going to sleep without any medical assistance.\n\nYour dreams will be unique to your personality, but just as an example...\n\nI am a traveler. I have been involved in the travel industry for my entire life. When I lay my head down on the pillow at night, it is specifically for sleep. As most sleep therapists will tell you... the bedroom is only for two things... f***ing and sleeping. If there is a TV, or any games or books in your bedroom, they need to GO! That's the First Rule.\n\nSecond Rule... If you don't fall asleep within 10 - 15 minutes, get up and walk out of the bedroom for at least 30 minutes. Watch a TV show, do a crossword puzzle, etc. ... and DON'T get upset about it! After that 30 minutes, go back to the bedroom and try again.\n\n\n\nMy typical dream begins with me laying my head on the pillow and thinking, \"I'm going on sailboat from San Diego, California, to Hawaii. The water is perfect, and we'll be sailing on a broad reach, once we clear the harbor. I'll settle down with a bottle of water and my smartphone, sending 'on my way' text messages to all of my family and friends. If anything unexpected happens, I am in command of the boat, and I'll fix the situation.\"",
"In my experience, yes, I am fully conscious as if it were real life, but I'm somehow aware it's a dream. Yes, the detail is a perfect replication of real life in my opinion, yes you can feel everything. The first thing I like to do is explore whatever setting I'm in. I remember my first one and it's to this day one of my favorites.\n\nI'm just standing on a road that goes in either direction as far as the eye can see, grass ditches and a red wooden fence on either side, grass fields beyond that. I inspect the road, getting my face really close to it, sure enough, it looks like asphalt, it feels like asphalt, the lines have the exact same look in feel as in real life. I walk over to the grass ditch and lean down to touch the grass...it's grass alright, I pick up a bit and let it blow from my fingers into the wind. I move to the fence and get my face really close to that...yup...exactly what wood looks like...feels like wood, get a splinter...it hurts. I feel the sun on my face, can even close my eyes and feel the warmth on my lids. \n\nYou can do anything you imagine, fly, run a million miles an hour, become giant, have DBZ powers. And it all feels real, easily one of the best things of being alive.",
"It's sort of like experiencing your imagination from the first person perspective. Stuff doesn't look quite like it is supposed to (because you don't remember things perfectly and your mind fills in the gaps), stuff changes constantly, and everything is sort of foggy/ethereal.\n\nDoing stuff while lucid dreaming isn't like doing stuff in real life. You don't have to coordinate all sorts of movement and pay attention to where you are and where you're going. It's more like thinking, where stuff just happens instantly, and feelings/sensations are sort of like memories of those feelings/sensations. If you want to walk somewhere, you think about walking, and then, you're walking. It's hard to explain - it's not like you have to coordinate the action itself, it's more like thinking about the action puts your body on autopilot.",
"For me, lucidity is less about sensation and more about control. My dreams have always been extremely realistic at times, to the point of having disorientation when I wake up. But that's not what makes dreaming \"lucid\" in my opinion. \n\nI suffered horrible nightmares as a child. It wasn't until I got older that I realized things that happened it my dreams were because I thought of them. I was creating my scenarios in my head.\n\nExample: Monster is chasing me. I hide in closet, thinking \"I hope he doesn't find me\". Well, guess what happens? He finds me.\n\nI got to where I could actually identify when that was happening, and it triggers a sort of change. The dream goes from something I'm experiencing to something I can actually control to a certain degree. I'm still at the mercy of the uncontrolled thought, but I can actually exert some influence right back.\n\nSort of like being the Matrix, if you will. Knowing it's a dream, I can bend the rules. A lot. Flying, summoning things from thin air, even \"changing the channel\" and forcing myself out of the dream entirely. It's my safety switch, and it's been the most useful tool I've had in dealing with my sleep disorder :)\n\n",
"I used to lucid dream but it wasn't that great. You knew you had no reason to fear anything and you had the freedom to do as you like but for me there was a limit to this. For instance I dreamed I was being chased by a monster but when I realized it was a dream and turned to fight I was still sluggish in my movements. I always figured it was because I was trying to move my body in real life simultaneously. Anyway it was also hard to stay in the dream when you became aware of it. You wake up seemingly much faster. Also you still aren't thinking clearly in a lucid dream. For instance I kept trying to carry things into the real world from my dream. Never did I realize in my lucid dream that that was impossible. Thats my two cents anyway.",
"For me it isn't like real life. There is a certain level of focus around whatever I'm doing in the dream and everything outside of that focus is somewhat abstract or in a fog. Almost like the movie 300; the focus is on my actions and the surrounding is of little importance. It is because of that distinction that I can regularly tell I am dreaming and take control. \n\nThe only things I feel while dreaming is excitement, heartache/fear, or fatigued muscle activity (inability to lift a normal object or the feeling of being unable to run). The fatigue is the most annoying part. I know I'm in a dream but still am bound by stupid dream tropes. \n\nThe best part is being able to have a \"reset\" button for bad dreams. Recognize I'm having a bad dream in the dream - \"screw this\" - wake up and go back to sleep.",
"Anytime I realize I'm in a lucid dream I find the next female in the dream and have sex with it. It's actually quite frustrating/amazing. I did teach myself how to fly though.",
"I had a lucid dream once as a teenager. After I realized I was in a dream I tried eating pussy. I hadn't yet done that in real life so my brain wasn't able to recall anything in terms of taste or sensation so it errored out and I woke up immediately. Sucked.",
"Best experience but maybe fucked up was when i would leap across buildings. It felt so surreal. I did it repeatedly, and then for fun id jump off a building and splat to the ground. It would feel like a heavy THUD and everything went black but no pain. REBOOOT. WEEE"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
5is41n | why do companies care about their shareholders? | I know that companies go public to get funding for projects or if they are broke.
You often read on the internet (especially in connection to videogames) that companies to certain things to make their shareholders happy. But why do they care? They already got paid. I know that shareholders have a limited say in what the company does, is that why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5is41n/eli5_why_do_companies_care_about_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbak8o6",
"dbaktv7",
"dbalhax"
],
"score": [
13,
5,
2
],
"text": [
" > But why do they care? They already got paid. I know that shareholders have a limited say in what the company does, is that why?\n\nShareholders elect the board of directors. The board of directors appoints the CEO. If the CEO doesn't keep the shareholders happy the board will remove them, and if the shareholders don't think the board is representing them well the board will be replaced.",
" > They already got paid\n\nAnd the investors can take their money back at any point. Sometimes for a gain sometimes for a loss. It's not like they gave the company the money. You start pissing off the investors and they'll take their money back and depending on how heavily you rely on that money you could go bankrupt.",
"The shareholders are the owners of the company. They elect a Board of Directors to represent their interest. The Board of Directors hires a CEO who oversees the day to day operations of the company. In a nutshell the shareholders are the company. They are in charge, they are deciding how things are run, they are hiring and firing people."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
57zbv6 | how the hell did we make transistors so small? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/57zbv6/eli5how_the_hell_did_we_make_transistors_so_small/ | {
"a_id": [
"d8w5uct",
"d8wbpkg"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Determine efforts by many extremely intelligent and clever people. The main process is lithography, where light is used to cause chemical reactions and then tiny structures are etched into material. By etching layers away selectively, then adding more over the top which are then etched away a variety of complex structures can be formed.",
"If I can add to this, the advances in indoor air quality control to create dust-free rooms has tremendously helped the field. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
1w6pfe | endorphins | What are they made of? How are they stored? What exactly triggers their release? And how can I manipulate them to my advantage? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w6pfe/eli5_endorphins/ | {
"a_id": [
"cez6umd"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They are morphine-like chemicals (endorphin is a contraction of \"endogenous morphine)\" found in your brain. they are released by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus when you are in pain or stressed to temporarily block fear and pain.\n\nYou can't control them."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
2sl4lw | why do cops sometimes give out warnings rather than tickets, and why is it legal to do so? | I've never been the beneficiary of a "warning" rather than a ticket, yet I know plenty of people who have talked their way out of a ticket. What gives? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2sl4lw/eli5_why_do_cops_sometimes_give_out_warnings/ | {
"a_id": [
"cnqhz39"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Cops aren't required to arrest everyone for every minor violation of the law. They're allowed to use their personal judgement for minor infractions, especially when there is no victim or material damage (ie - a speeding ticket).\n\nThe purpose of the police is to create an ordered society & keep people safe, not throw people in jail. Jail is a *tool* for creating social order, not an end goal."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
62297g | how did people chew foods like meat before we cleaned our teeth? | Wouldn't the earlier hunter-gatherer societies have trouble eating tougher foods if their teeth were falling out? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62297g/eli5_how_did_people_chew_foods_like_meat_before/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfj4m6i",
"dfj4ow9",
"dfj5pup"
],
"score": [
3,
8,
4
],
"text": [
"There are ways to clean your teeth naturally without abrasive toothpastes.\n\nGnawing on bone would have been common, as would have chewing on certain roots and tree barks (which is how a LOT of tribal societies clean their teeth today).\n\nTheir teeth weren't falling out, if anything they were stronger than ours.\n\nThey just would have been more of an pale-yellow color intead of bleached white.",
"Hunter-Gatherers had much healthier teeth than we do now. \n\nThink about why our teeth are in poor condition. Most of the time it is because of sugars and carbohydrates. That was never really an issue until they transitioned from hunting-gathering to farming. ",
"They didn't require the dental hygiene we do because their food had less sugar and carbohydrates. Also, earlier evolutions of humans had larger molars and stronger jaws for crushing plants and uncooked food before fire was a thing."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
5of2kh | why are fish kept on ice vs being put in a fridge | Basically wondering why fist markets use the ice approach vs putting them in the refrigerator. Is it just to show that they are fresh? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5of2kh/eli5_why_are_fish_kept_on_ice_vs_being_put_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dciuy83"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"Ice is cheap, and fish are fine with the concept of getting their outsides wet. You can't sell steaks on ice, because the outside of a steak is the insides of a cow and it's not supposed to get soaked in water. Fish live in water, so they are pre-made with water-friendly outsides. Refrigerators need doors, or lots of cooling (think the dairy case). Fish can be colder sitting on a nice bed of ice, so they last better."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
4y42lr | flicker fusion threshold | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4y42lr/eli5_flicker_fusion_threshold/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6ktiws"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"\"Flicker fusion\" is the name for a quirk we've observed in human vision. If a light is flashing on and off, we tend to notice. However, if we speed up the rate that we're toggling the light, there will be a point where it's flickering so fast that we lost the ability to distinguish it from a steady light. **The exact speed varies with several factors, like brightness and tiredness, because it's ultimately a matter of the biology of the eye.**\n\nWe take advantage of this in modern fluorescent and LED lighting, which flicker along with the electrical current, faster than most people can detect (technically, older incandescent lamps flickered too, but they worked by keeping something hot enough to glow. They didn't cool enough between pulses to stop glowing) . Some kinds of fluorescents flicker slowly enough that some people *do* notice it, and it can actually give them headaches.\n\nThis is also very closely related to *persistence of vision*, which is the behavior that lets us see apparent motion from the still images that make up a movie."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2qk23i | why do off-brand foods taste so different than brand foods of simple (one ingredient) items, i.e. grated parmesan cheese? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qk23i/eli5_why_do_offbrand_foods_taste_so_different/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn6seip",
"cn6vfr1"
],
"score": [
4,
4
],
"text": [
"Because theses items are made on different and cheeper ways than the brand ones, like the cheese (Age, milk quality, etc).\n\nAnd, in the way of a lower cost, some items can be synthetic flavored to taste like cheese, but it's not cheese.\n\n(Sorry, English is not my mother thongue. Let me know if I said something wrong).",
"Cheese is probably a horrible example when you're looking at \"identical\" products. The type of milk used, how concentrated the milk gets, how it's processed, how it's aged, how long it's aged, etc *all* make a huge difference when looking at the taste & quality of the final product. If you go to the grocery store, there is a *huge* gap in price between cheap domestic parmesan cheese & the high-quality, aged, imported stuff.\n\nIf you want to compare apples to apples, try looking at a product that actually is simple - like oatmeal."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
abf7nn | the weather today is 20'celsius, there are no clouds in the sky and have been none all day - the sun is out. last week there were no clouds in the sky too at this time of the day and it was 35'c. why does the sun not feel as hot today? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/abf7nn/eli5_the_weather_today_is_20celsius_there_are_no/ | {
"a_id": [
"eczyx95"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"The direct sunlight you get is only part of the situation. What you also feel is the warmth of the atmosphere covering you.\n\nThe Earth is unevenly heated by the sun. The sunlit and dark sides of the Earth have different temperatures, but the composition of the ground, whether it be desert, mountains, ocean, or whatever has an effect on temperature as well. Warmer air will have greater air pressure than cooler air — that’s a property of physics. So there are masses of higher pressure air and lower pressure air swirling around the Earth as it spins. The air moves from high pressure to low pressure, creating wind.\n\nNow, as the different pressure masses of air are moving around the atmosphere, they take their temperature with them. That’s the temperature you feel on the ground — the temperature of that particular mass of air as it passes over you (and yes, direct solar radiation adds to it).\n\nHope this helps. You can do a search for convection in the atmosphere for more info. Maybe _URL_0_ has more weather info, too."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"noaa.org"
]
]
|
||
5o2bw3 | what does "±" symbol mean? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5o2bw3/eli5_what_does_symbol_mean/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcg47tv",
"dcg49kw"
],
"score": [
2,
6
],
"text": [
"It *should* mean \"plus or minus,\" but that doesn't really make sense here (how could someone have minus 16 years of experience?).\n\nI'd be willing to be they meant \"approximately,\" which is generally ≈ or ~, depending on how formal the setting is.",
"It basically means \"plus or minus\".\n\nIn this context, it looks like they're using it to mean \"approximately\" as in \"give or take a couple years\".\n\nUnder more typical circumstances though, it would be used to indicate a range. For example, if it said 16±2 years, then it could mean anywhere between 14 and 18 years of education (ranging from 16-2 to 16+2 years).\n\nIn sciences, the symbol is frequently used to express tolerance or statistical margins of error in measurements (i.e. indicating a range of possible values). In mathematics, it can indicate that a value may result from either an addition or subtraction operation, or that a given value can be either positive or negative."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
2fv6rl | the benefits of buying a used car vs a new car | I am in the market for a new car. I am looking at cars and leaning towards more of a new car. My dad is telling me that getting a used car would be better long term. This is the first car I will have any input in choosing and would like to know some pros and cons to new vs used. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fv6rl/eli5_the_benefits_of_buying_a_used_car_vs_a_new/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckd1hyn",
"ckd1kf1",
"ckd1ufs",
"ckd222x"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Used cars are cheaper, but older. You can expect to have to put money into repairs at some point. New cars will have a warranty. They will last longer. A new car is likely to have better gas mileage. A new car will cost more per month in insurance. \n\nYou'll save money in the long run buying used.",
"Cars lose a lot of value once they roll off the lot. But with a new car, you can have a better choice of color, features, etc. and you know the car history. It also comes with a hefty increase in car insurance.\n\nWith a used car, you're inventory is limited to whatever other people have decided to sell. And depending on how used it is, it may need more work after you purchase it. If buying used, you can either go with private owners which cost the least but carry the most risk of needing repairs or with a dealership which often have \"certified used\" options which they claim mitigate the chances of buying a car that's about to fall apart.\n\nIf buying used from a dealership, my wife and I had a good experience using websites like autotrader and carmax to search the local area for inventory.",
"Pros: New!!! Cool features less likley to break down when you drive it off the lot (accidents always happen). I guess you could say there is a self pride thing you get for buying your first new car.\nCons: a lot of money! Think about intrest, insurance rates and dealing with sleezy car salesman. Also the depreciation of the car as soon as you drive away \nPros:(used) not as much money maybe more reveiws on the type of car because of it being out longer?\nCons: definitely higher risk for breakdowns and maintenance costs. Also it could be USED as in the seats are torn radio or ac doesnt work.\nIf it were me i would go with used but only for the fact that money is an iasue for me, i dont need a new car, and a new car is just a royalty that i am willing to wait for",
"used cars are better if you're going to maintain it. \n\nthe best used cars are ones that a as new as possible. preferablly someone that bought it last week, decided they really can't use it, then sold it back to the dealership. the INSTANT you drive a brand new car off the dealership lot, the value of the car plummets a good 5k, that you'll never see again. \n\nthe other kind of best used cars are the ones that literally last a lifetime. these are the ones you hear mechanics go on and on about that are \"built like tanks\". these models include mid to late 80's mercedes 300 diesel's, mid 80's to early 90's bmw 325/318's, volvos....all of them, late 80's to mid 90's nissan pickups. civic's accord's and camry's deserve honorable mention. they're not exactly tanks, but will run a long long time. \n\nhow to know what cars will run damn nearly forever? just take a look at what cars are used by: poor country farmers, terrorists, african warlords, etc etc. their criteria for a car is very specific. it's rugged, able to run in bad conditions, it's cheap to maintain, it's cheap to fix. nissan pickups and mercedes sedans are king in this aspect.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/pictures/million-mile-club-the-worlds-longest-lived-cars"
]
]
|
|
102kzl | why don't polar bears get cold in snow? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/102kzl/why_dont_polar_bears_get_cold_in_snow/ | {
"a_id": [
"c69uuad"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"There's a number of reasons. Their blood vessels aren't as close to the surface of their skin, they have fur, they're warm blooded and they have layers of fat in the right places..."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
am7uka | if light from the andromeda galaxy tookbillions of light years to come to earth, would this mean the galaxy is closer to us than seen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am7uka/eli5if_light_from_the_andromeda_galaxy/ | {
"a_id": [
"efjzfa6",
"efjzm7z"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"It has indeed been in motion since the version you are now seeing.\n\nYes, as it happens, Andromeda is moving toward us at something like 400,000 km/h so it's now a bit closer than what we see.",
"Yes and no. \n\nLight from Andromeda does not take billions of years to reach us, only about two and a half million years. That does mean the galaxy is a few million years of relative motion closer to us than it appears, but this is such a tiny fraction of its actual distance as to be meaningless. \n\nIf Andromeda was billions of lightyear away, it wouldn't be moving towards us, so it would be far further away than it appeared. For some of the most distant galaxies, this makes them appear just over 10 billion lightyear away while in reality they're 30-45 billion lightyear away. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
e8nssq | when a band is recording in a studio and everyone has on headphones, what are they listening to? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e8nssq/eli5_when_a_band_is_recording_in_a_studio_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"fadd5ij",
"fadd63r",
"faddx6m"
],
"score": [
15,
8,
6
],
"text": [
"They're listening to themselves. It's easy to lose track of just your own instrument/voice in all that noise, which means you could start playing slightly incorrectly and you might not notice, which could ruin a take. How awful it would be to tape a full song and then notice someone was one key off for half the song during the editing process.",
"They are listening to each other. Most of the instruments are mic’d in isolatiom so that the engineer can later mix each track individually which means that the band needs headphones to be able to clearly listen to what each other is playing. Aside from that you need headphones for instruments that dont require mic’s and are connected directly to the mixer. You also need headphones to listen to the engineer in the booth talking and giving instructions while the band is in the main room/booths. You might also need headphones for playback if you are overdubbing and for click track (metronome) if you record with it.",
"Well, think of it this way: let’s pretend we have a group of people sing happy birthday. They need to hear each other, so they sing the right notes and words at the right time. Otherwise, grandma’s saying “to you” while dad’s still on “birthday.” Also, when folks record music, we want to mix it; we want some things louder or quieter than others. Using the birthday analogy, maybe uncle has a voice that can sing the low part—but he sings a bit quietly. If we just put one microphone in that room, we can’t control how loud each voice is, or where the listener hears it in their ears; maybe dad sings off-key and super loud, and we can’t quiet him down, or the microphone is too near him. Plus, even if we record mom and dad at the same time with two microphones, you’ll hear mom faintly in the background of dad’s take, and vice versa.\n\nChange these family members to individual instrument parts—a singer, a rhythm guitar, a guitar with a fancy riff, a bass, a keyboard, a drum set, etc.—and you can kinda get why the headphones. Mixing is super nuanced, and people really want to balance how much you hear of each part, and what ear it’s in. Therefore, nowadays most tracks are recorded one-by-one (person by person). Even if a song has mostly computer-made sounds, the singer will wear headphones.\n\nSo there’s your answer! Recording with headphones solves the paradox that:\n-We don’t want to hear one track in another track (i.e. dad in the background of mom’s), and we want to control them one-by-one\nBUT\n-The people need to play along to other tracks so they are in sync (i.e. grandma isn’t saying “to you” while dad says “happy”)\n\nI hope this makes sense! I’m largely self-taught at studio engineering, so people with more formal training might have a more nuanced or better explanation; but about thirteen years in, this is the understanding I’ve got."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
1mnbjq | why every british tv or radio show i've ever heard of is on the bbc. | Don't they have other channels? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mnbjq/eli5_why_every_british_tv_or_radio_show_ive_ever/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccaswy3",
"ccat8hz",
"ccatp4g",
"ccauxde",
"ccavwq5",
"ccaxdea",
"ccb2scj"
],
"score": [
46,
16,
5,
22,
7,
11,
2
],
"text": [
"Yes, we have lots of channels. However, the BBC puts out a lot of original programming, and is also unique in that it is non-commercial (we pay a yearly TV license fee which pays for the BBC). This means it's easier to negotiate licensing issues without sponsors involved etc. Also, I believe that a lot of programming that is broadcast in the US on BBC America is originally broadcast on other channels here. \n\nDowntown Abbey isn't a BBC production, by the way. ",
"The IT Crowd is from Channel 4, not BBC",
"If you mean BBC America, the show remarkably few BBC programmes.",
"Spaced, Father Ted or Black Books? All Channel 4.",
"In the UK you pay a tv licence. This is because when TV started the BBC was the only channel and you helped fund it basically. BBC is one of the main channels along with ITV and Channel 4.\n\nBecause it's funded by us it dosen't have commercials and there are several BBC channels, such as BBC, BBC 2, BBC 3, Cebbiebies (tv channel for younger kids) CBBC (tv channel for more older kids 7-12) \n\n BBC shows get shown more over in the states because they have channels over there so I presume it's just easier, while the others, I presume, have to get other channels to buy their shows. ",
"I'm assuming you're American. BBC America actually takes content from other UK channels to broadcast in the USA (presumably it's more cost effective for the other channels to hand over their shows to the BBC which already has an American presence rather than try to make their own name known). \n\nSo essentially BBC America is like a funnel taking the best content from a variety of UK channels and putting it in one place, but the content is not all produced by the BBC.\n\nPlus, as others have said, the BBC is publicly funded, has an immense history, produces a lot of original content and in terms of radio it is generally considered to be the pinnacle of broadcasting. So (arguably) the best of the best presenters are on the BBC which allows for huge exposure which in turn is why you'll have heard of them.",
"Just because BBC is amazing."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
d7vdlr | why particle accelerators exist, and what exactly do we benefit from them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d7vdlr/eli5_why_particle_accelerators_exist_and_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"f14xl4z",
"f14xuqp",
"f14xzf2"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
" > Why particle accelerators exist\n\nBecause humans make them. To accelerate particles. Because otherwise where would we get the really fast particles we want on demand?\n\n > what exactly do we benefit from them?\n\nThere are bunches of different applications. Radiotherapy is one major use, where accelerators are used to make the radioisotopes used to do things like help kill cancerous tumors. Another use is ion implantation where ions on one element are accelerated to be embedded into other solid targets, changing their physical, chemical, or electrical properties. This can be important in things like semiconductors, or things like toughening steel or producing stronger metal surfaces on something like an artificial joint that must withstand a lot of wear.\n\nAnd then of course there is the research applications. This can be directly practical stuff like material sciences where organizations are researching different materials to make various products better, or it can be the highly theoretical high energy physics where we are gaining a greater understanding of our universe. Such knowledge may not be immediately, directly applicable but a greater understanding of how everything works has been a huge benefit to humanity so far.",
"The stuff we see all around us is generally the most stable stuff that can exist. Any really exotic particles decay very quickly so they don't last long enough to exist anywhere that we can find them.\n\nBut a lot of those particles can teach us a lot about how the universe works. The universe is defined by how particles interact, so if we can find some really strange ones and see what they do, it'll tell us more about how the laws of the universe work.\n\nSo how do we find them? Well, you shove a metric ass-load of energy into some ordinary particles to energize them into those really unstable particles. *All* particles are made out of energy. The universe is made out of *fields* that exist everywhere at normal background levels of energy. If you put a bunch of energy into one spot in that field, it starts interacting with other fields in certain ways. So, for example, if you put a bunch of energy into the electromagnetic field, you get a photon! If you put a bunch of energy into the electron field, you get an electron! And that little packet of electron energy interacts with the electromagnetic field so that it can trade energy into it to make a photon, or photons can be absorbed into the electron field to do stuff to electrons.\n\nSome particles don't seem to exist in normal interactions because the energy needed to make them don't normally happen. Like the Higgs field, which exists everywhere but Higgs particles do not. There's just not enough energy gathered up in one spot in the Higgs field to make a Higgs particle. When enough energy *does* end up in the Higgs field to make a particle, that particle very very very quickly falls apart and the energy ends up in other fields. But we want to study the Higgs field! And the best way to do that is to look at Higgs particles! (The Higgs field is involved in giving particles mass.) What we have to do is make our own Higgs particles by introducing a ton of energy into the Higgs field.\n\nWhat's the best way to shove an ass of energy into a field? Make some particles go *really* fast and then smash them into each other! If they smash into each other hard enough, the energy sort of bleeds over into other fields and if there's enough, it'll form new exotic particles that we can measure and study for the fractions of a second that they exist in the detector.",
"Because our particles are slow.\n\nSorry. Basically because we know very little about how our universe works in the grand scheme, and the best way for us to discover new things about physics (that we know of) is by using particle accelerators.\n\nAs for the benefits? Well, what you're reading this on for starters. All technology that has ever existed has come from experimentation.\n\nBasically, it helps us know about reality, why we exist. But also helps us make cool stuff like the internet and phones."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
2he18q | why is academic writing so impossible to understand? | I'm not sure if this is necessarily an appropriate question for this sub, but I'm curious for all you scholars out there (particularly the published ones): why make scholarly writing so difficult to understand? I'd like to think I'm not especially stupid--I'm working on my master's (albeit in music performance rather than music theory or musicology), but many of my peers share my frustrations, and it makes homework near impossible when I have to sit and translate every sentence into workable English instead of just reading and understanding it. Here's an excerpt from what I've got if anyone's interested, to see what I mean:
> Zuckerkandl's more radical claim is that metrical music makes time itself perceivable. First, he held that motion in its purest sense inhered in and was perceivable in music: "Tonal motion is the most real motion." But of course nothing really moves. So Zuckerkandl goes on to note: "We have come to know - music itself has taught us - that no objects and no object space are necessary to motion. For tonal motion begins precisely where all that - things and their space - comes to an end. But we can name one factor without which motion cannot be, that is, time." But where does this time exist? Zuckerkandl answers: "The time that is at work in music - whose work, indeed, music to an essential degree is - this time cannot be 'in me,' it is not 'my' time. It is where music is; I find it where I find music." Thus for Zuckerkandl, music "both is time and is a symbol of time."
Now, even though I've been studying music for 14 years and am in my master's degree, this makes absolutely no sense to me. And it's not like this course needs a pre-requisite apart from fundamental theory (which is nowhere near this complex). He might as well be speaking Estonian or something.
TL;DR - why don't academics make their writing more accessible? unless I'm just really dumb | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2he18q/eli5_why_is_academic_writing_so_impossible_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckrswym",
"ckrtpan",
"ckrv52s"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm not sure what you're missing here. Listen to Smetana's *Die Moldau* and get back with me ([Link](_URL_0_)). Perfect example of what Zuckerkandl was talking about.\n\nBasically Zuckerkandl is referring to how meter and tone can create a sense of movement and time to the listener. The rest is basically philosophy about how music time can't be in a musician, it's a part of the work instead.\n\n(I took piano lessons from like 5-14. Studied vocal music in high school [went to an arts school]. Did some college work in music ed).",
"\n(I've had a few journal articles published, as well as articles appearing in some major newspapers)\n\n1. Part of it is ego. Academics and professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc..) all have a rather high opinion of themselves and so they're already inclined towards puffed-up language. It's beneath them to write like a common pleb, because they are Serious Academics writing for a Serious Audience. \n\n2. Part of it is tradition. Law students read centuries-old cases written in the most obtuse language by Lord Thistlewig, which in turn influences how lawyers write, which influences how academics write and so on down the line. \n\n3. This one drives my academic friends nuts: I would say a further part of it is they're insecure about their argument and so they try to muddy the waters by adding layer after layer of dense, archaic language. And it works; because a judge or other lawyer or academic doesn't want to look foolish by not understanding what the text in front of him means.\n\nFor me, I hate it. When I edited a law journal, I rejected countless papers because it was like someone had spooged a thesaurus over the pages. Look at a Washington Post or New York Times op-ed; clear, to the point and engaging. That's how I wish young academics would structure their papers.",
"In the fields of mathematics and physics we must generalize axioms and presumptions that an individual may percieve and let them work properly in order to be understood whilst simulataneously differentiating between our intentions and common errors.\n\nI can say \"The normal force no longer exists when the perpendicular application of the force vector is in the x direction rather than they y direction to the object in contact\"\n\nWhich is a fancy way to say \"There's no normal force when the book is sideways to my hand when I hold it.\"\n\nBut in reality, what is true is \"The normal force, for all purposes for the useage of this course, is equal to a value of 0 Newtons although it still exists, but the angle of the book situated on the surface changes the amount of force the normal force exerts and because FN < FG we can assume it is 0 when the x direction is parallel to the normal force (assuming orthogonal angles for the normal force to an object make it \"real)\n\nThat means the normal force is still projected, but basically for what we need to do it equals nothing applied to the book because its aligned differently. \n\nYou really do sometimes have to use very careful, specific language. Look at Godel's Incompleteness Theorems or the Monty Hall Problem because in physics and math veeerrry common misconceptions and assumptions can lead to accumulative error and misunderstanding. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKsHwqaIr4"
],
[],
[]
]
|
|
8msfvg | why does a car steer with its front wheels, while an aeroplane steer with its tail rudder? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8msfvg/eli5_why_does_a_car_steer_with_its_front_wheels/ | {
"a_id": [
"dzpzabh",
"dzq0342",
"dzq1znc",
"dzq2ujq"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"From what I know (I'm no expert), the front wheels of small planes, like Cessnas, are connected with rudder pedals, that's why when they're turning, the rudder is turning too, but they're steering with the front wheels.\nDon't know how it is with bigger planes.",
"Cars steer with the front wheels, because the engine is usually in the front, and its weight makes for better traction. Also, it is much easier to turn the front and have the rear wheels follow. \n\nAn airplane doesn't really steer with its rudder, most of the turning is done with the ailerons on the wings. The rudder is more about keeping the airplane aligned with the direction of travel.",
"Cars turn in two dimensions. The road 100% controls the up/down dimension (unless you're driving a rally car or otherwise aren't constantly in contact with pavement).\n\nPlanes turn in three dimensions. \n\nIf a car points to the side, unless it's on ice, it will start traveling the new direction.\n\nIf a plane points to the side it won't immediately start moving that way. Much like a car on ice, a plane trying to turn \"flat\" will slide sideways.\n\nPlanes turn by banking. It's more like turning a bike, except a bike still has the road to control up and down.\n\nIf you bank a bike you'll turn that way. If you simply bank a plane you'll sort of turn that way and sort of slide downward that way. \n\nThe rudder turns the half turn half slide into a controlled banked turn.",
"Tails create a lot of drag and if you where to position a control surface Infront of the aircraft engine you would end up with an incredibly unstable plane. It'd be like oversteer on steroids. Imagine trying to keep a pencil oriented vertically, you try two methods. One is you tie string around the tip and tie the string around your finger, it works well and the pencil is very easy to keep vertical like that. Next you try balancing the pencil vertically on top of your finger, it's incredibly hard to keep it there. It's essentially the same as that for aircraft, but your finger represents the planes engine. Cars can do it because they have stabilisation at the back as well. If you look at something like a hovercraft and how hard they are to control you get an idea of what the issue is. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
||
vhulz | coronal mass ejections | I tried the wiki page on them, and I understand that they're basically caused by opposing magnetic fields on the suns surface. What I'm mostly curious about is the effect on the earths atmosphere. The wiki page said it can cause "disruptions", but didn't go into much detail. What does it do to the atmosphere? Does it effect anything else on our planet? What kind of affect would a really big CME have? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vhulz/eli5_coronal_mass_ejections/ | {
"a_id": [
"c54parn"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The most obvious thing they do is create incredible auroras near the poles as the charged particles pass through the upper atmosphere. \n\nAs far as damage, basically they can wreck satellite electronics, irradiate astronauts, and theoretically can create power outages on earth, etc."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
3sjtlv | why are people entitled to go on strike? | It just doesnt make sense to me. Everyone, it might seem, reads their employment contract before signing it. You know exactly what you sign up for and what you are going to get paid. Recently, a lot of people in different companies around Germany have went on strike. Why would you be allowed to force your employer into paying you more? To me thats pretty much extortion and seems not right. If you are not happy with your pay, alright, just quit. Why is this lawful? What am I missing?
P.S. And why do companies not simply fire some employees during a strike to scare the other workers back into their job?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3sjtlv/eli5_why_are_people_entitled_to_go_on_strike/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwxtnur",
"cwxtq9e",
"cwxtyvh",
"cwxvsp8"
],
"score": [
6,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Generally people strike because their pay has been dropped, or their working conditions have changed. Or, when they signed on to the job, they were not made fully aware of what was to be expected of them. I don't know the case for Germany that you talk about, but that's the case here in the UK. Often times people just want to have a better working environment. Sometimes the outside environment of their work has changed, and external factors are making their life more difficult and they need their work environment to change to make their life more livable. If the cost of living goes up and up, should they be expected to live on the same wage they signed on to?",
"Although I'm not privy to labor laws in Germany, in the United States, most states follow the principle that the worker and employer are free to terminate the employment at any time, unless they agreed otherwise.\n\nEmployers use this to their advantage all the time. If someone underperforms, they're out the door--there's a lot more workers waiting for a job. This leverage is used to win concessions from employees on wages and other terms of the employment. But when all the workers go on strike, they reverse this dynamic--now it's the employer who is desperate for workers. It's not extortion, just an application of the same principle, that the employer-employee relationship is voluntary.\n\n > And why do companies not simply fire some employees during a strike to scare the other workers back into their job?\n\nStrikes only work with mass participation. It doesn't make sense for an employer to fire just a few workers, because what he wants most is to end the strike and stop losing money. But the strikers know they have more leverage if they stick together. Some employers do try to just replace their entire workforce.",
"Absent legal frameworks involving labor unions and the like (which exist in lots of places and make things like this more complicated), the general situation is that you're free to not work if you want, and your company is free to fire you for it. It's not illegal to do badly at your job, and it's not illegal to fire a worker that's not working.\n\nThe general philosophy of a strike is that if most of the company refuses to work, the company can't feasibly fire all of them, because the workers are the ones that know how to do the job and it takes a long time to hire and train new ones. They could fire a few of them, but it doesn't solve the problem and the rehiring of those would certainly become a condition of the other workers coming back to work, so it's not an effective thing to do. Sometimes they do fire all of them and hire entirely new workers (see, for instance, the air traffic controller strike in the US in the '80s), but that's really expensive and generally means you have a bunch of really bad employees for a while.",
"Well, for starters, people not having the right to make the choice not to work is called slavery."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
bzf2re | what is the difference between meat and muscle? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bzf2re/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_meat_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"eqryksp"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"There is no difference. Meat is muscle tissue.\n\nThere are other things on a typical \"piece of meat\", though. Fat, cartilage, sinew (the tough stuff between meat and bone). But the meat itself is the animal's muscle tissue."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
3cm83k | why don't these magnetic "free-energy" devices work? | It's 2AM so it's random YouTube-time. How come these magnetic free energy devices like [such](_URL_0_) are called out as fake? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cm83k/eli5_why_dont_these_magnetic_freeenergy_devices/ | {
"a_id": [
"cswumiq",
"cswuzon"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"If you notice in the first few minutes of the video the charlatan is moving the magnet back and forth. \nHe's adding energy to the system. \n \nIn the last segment of the video he's actually made a pretty clever device. But perpetual motion and free energy it is not. \n \nPerpetual motion would not be seen over any great time. It would slow and stop. As soon as the device started doing any work it would slow almost immediately. So no energy is actually being generated. ",
"Physics. The most effective any machine could be is (theoretically but not in reality) 100% -- but the problem with that is it means you can't take any energy out of it, so while you may have a pretty kinetic sculpture, you don't have a generator, so it can't really do anything.\n\nYou could take energy out, but that would lower the efficiency even more, so it would gradually slow down until it finally stopped. \n\nBut you don't have to take any energy out of the system because the rules of physics do that for you, generally through waste heat, and you wind up with the same situation. A machine that starts out somewhere less than 100% efficient and loses energy due mainly to friction will wind up at a point that there's no longer enough energy left in the system to keep it moving and it will stop.\n\nVery well designed ones may keep going for a long, long time, but they all stop eventually.\n\nTL;DR: They don't. Because, physics."
]
} | []
| [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqG-TL0WnjE"
]
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
64fitt | why some tv adverts/commercials have dubbed over voices? | I don't know if this happens elsewhere but in the UK it happens a lot and it can be really annoying. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/64fitt/eli5_why_some_tv_advertscommercials_have_dubbed/ | {
"a_id": [
"dg1qaty",
"dg1qsdy",
"dg2c1cx"
],
"score": [
4,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"(I assume you mean dubbing over the voices of someone you are seeing speak on screen? not dubbing a narrator over a shot.) This actually happens way more than you probably realize. A lot of big budget movies will re-record dialogue in a studio that couldn't be captured well enough on set. What you are probably noticing is that a TV ad doesn't have the best editors/sound people out there, and the dubbing is unsynchronized enough that you notice it.",
"I've always assumed it's because the original is in German or whatever and they're just dubbing over the voices. \n\nIt's that \"Stork with butter cake\" one that gets me ",
"It is odd to see dubbed over commercials in the UK, but in other countries that don't speak english the commercials are dubbed into the countrys language, as most commercials come from different countries. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
2k90uv | when banks say that you can take a picture of a check and send it to them instead of going to the bank itself, how can the bank tell whether or not it's a valid check? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k90uv/eli5_when_banks_say_that_you_can_take_a_picture/ | {
"a_id": [
"clj1obk",
"clj1t51"
],
"score": [
4,
7
],
"text": [
" > how can the bank tell whether or not it's a valid check?\n\nThe same way that they tell that a physical check is valid: They reconcile the check with the issuing bank. After all, it's possible to forge a physical check, so having the check in-hand isn't some sort of ultimate proof of authenticity.",
"You're depositing the check in *your own* bank account.\n\nIf you're caught forging a check, that's fraud - a serious criminal offense. They can hold all the money in your bank account & send the cops to arrest you if you do it.\n\nThat's more than enough reason for most people to not do it. To deal with the rest, they'll only make a few hundred dollars available through this method until they can make sure the information is cleared with the other bank."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
||
5q139w | what is the reasoning behind the us constitution so adamant about checks and balances and separation of powers, yet lawmakers are the ones who get to appoint and select the only people (judges) who could hold them accountable? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5q139w/eli5_what_is_the_reasoning_behind_the_us/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcvgg29"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"They don't select the judges. The president chooses the judges, the Senate confirms them. Perfect balance of power. It takes the executive and the legislative to put someone on the judiciary. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
d5mxxm | why does the body store more food as fat than water as fat if you can survive longer without food than water? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d5mxxm/eli5_why_does_the_body_store_more_food_as_fat/ | {
"a_id": [
"f0muhdr",
"f0muivl",
"f0my5kv",
"f0mydeq"
],
"score": [
5,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"During animal’s evolution, water was generally available to find and drink with relative ease; if not, you were probably somewhere you wouldn’t have been able to be born in the first place. Food for carnivores was a lot more unpredictable, and came in the form of big animal carcasses. Therefore we eat as much as possible before it rots, and store the energy until we kill something else, but don’t for water. However some organisms do this; camel and cactus for example.",
"Our bodies are adapted to living in places where water is relatively easily accessible. A stream or river will almost always be available while food is much more variable.\n\nThe amount of water we would need to survive a given time is also much heavier and bulkier than the fat we would need. It is practical to have the fat necessary to survive a month without eating but not to store that much water.",
"Its easier to store energy in the form of fat than water. \n\nWater would take up a lot more space, you wouldn't be able to store much of it without inflating like a balloon ehich would have other risks. \n\nStoring fat is easier because a relatively small amount of fat goes a long ways.",
"we can’t really get energy from water. We’re just not biologically built that way. Like 99% of all energy utilized by humans (and most of life) involves carbon bonding to stuff, usually other carbon."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.