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ELI5: How do colleges take things like race and ethnicity into consideration? How do they weigh it with against other factors? | Currently, there are two main methods used to increase racial/ethnic diversity in admissions. First is the University of Michigan Law School method. They evaluate each candidate on the entirety of their record and then assemble a class so that it has diverse viewpoints. That necessarily involves taking into account a student's background, including race and/or ethnicity. The Supreme Court approved this method in *Grutter v. Bollinger*.
The second is the Texas top 10% method. If you go to a public high school in Texas and graduate in the top 10% of your class, you are guaranteed admission to any public university in Texas. This increases diversity because it guarantees that some students at all-minority high schools get admitted to a public university of their choosing every year. Courts have found this to be race-neutral.
You can't have a quota system where you have 100 spots and say 70 are for white people, 10 are for black people, and the remaining 20 for other minorities. The Supreme Court said that was unconstitutional in *Regents of the University of California v. Bakke*. You also can't just rank candidates on a number scale and then assign extra points to applicants for being minorities. Undergrad admissions at the University of Michigan used to assign points to candidates for things like leadership positions and high GPA. Candidates also got points for belonging to a minority. The Supreme Court said that was unconstitutional in *Gratz v. Bollinger*.
Currently there's a case, *Fisher v. University of Texas* pending before the Supreme Court that addresses the race-conscious admission guidelines in *Grutter*. It was previously heard, sent back to the appellate court to resolve a technicality, and then reheard. It will likely be decided this year, though it seems unlikely that the Court will make any substantive changes to the law.
Edit: Fixed an issue about *Fisher v. University of Texas* pointed out by /u/lpzthehvy | 47 | 70 |
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When Europeans settled America, why didn't ~90% of the settlers die from Native American diseases? Why did Europeans have the stronger immune system and not vice versa? | I just read an article that explained that the Europeans brought the diseases that killed tens of millions of the American Natives. Yet Columbus and Giovanni lived to tell of their discoveries. Surely there were deadly diseases that the Natives had, right? | The European settlers were from closely packed cities which is a good way of spreading disease. The disease came from the domesticated animals that many of the Europeans were in close contact with. The Europeans had diseases that wiped out many (Black Plague for example) but they also had a chance to build up antibodies to the diseases.
The American Natives had no previous exposure to the diseases of the Old World. That meant the diseases could strike them down without any resistance. The New World peoples did not live as closely nor have domesticated animals.
IIRC, however, the Americas did introduce one particularly deadly disease to the Europeans. That was syphilis. Seems appropriate for some reason. | 25 | 31 |
ELI5: What is it about mental illnesses that makes them so hard to cure? | We don't understand mental illness as well as we understand physical illness, because the mind is a much more complex system than most individual body systems. We have some theories, but for the most part mental health care is largely based on past trial-and-error to see what works.
There's also a drug-development challenge: there is a barrier called the *blood-brain barrier* that makes it hard for most molecules to enter the brain. Many medications that would do something if we could get them into the brain are hard to get there. The space of possible drugs that you can explore for mental health is often a lot smaller as a result. | 1,025 | 1,178 |
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Yesterday when I reached my destination with my car I noticed I was carrying a bee in it the whole time(I had the windows closed).Could this bee survive hundreds of miles away from its nest or is it doomed to die?Any chances it could be "adopted" by another nest? | Solitary bees are other species than social bees, such as the honeybee. They make it on their own by definition.
And about being adopted by another nest, I've got no idea how easy it is for a bee to locate an unknown hive. If your "lost bee" would find one, she would most likely be chased away by the guard bees because her smell was different, but if she had the foresight to load up on nectar or pollen first, she might be admitted.
We did an experiment where we marked 100 honeybees with tiny number stickers on their backs. Newborn adult bees are relatively easy to handle, they don't fly yet and their stingers aren't very effective. We put the bees in the hive from which the brood had been removed. We checked the hive for the numbered bees daily. Once they were old enough to leave the hive to forage for nectar and pollen, some would end up in neighboring hives. In the end, about 10% migrated. Since these hives were pretty close together in a bee stand, maybe they just landed at the wrong address by mistake.
| 886 | 1,231 |
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ELI5: Can alcohol really effect individuals differently at higher elevations? What about THC in marijuana? | Alcohol yes, if you are not used to the elevation. Alcohol does lower blood oxygen saturation, which means that less oxygen is being carried to tissues throughout the body. High elevation does the same thing because there is less oxygen in the atmosphere. Drinking at high elevations would combine both of these effects. This would only occur within the first couple days of being at a higher elevation since the body will recognize that there is less oxygen available in the atmosphere and generate more red blood cells in order to compensate. People who live at high elevations will not be affected by this, but may have the opposite effect when going to lower elevations.
THC no, because its affects have nothing to do with the cardiovascular or respiratory system, beyond the actual smoking of it. The change in atmospheric pressure is not likely to have much of any effect on the absorption of THC in the lungs. | 78 | 145 |
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ELI5: Why is our organ of equilibrium located in our ears? | Is there any logical explanation why it's in our ears and not say in our nose, our eyes, our feet...? It seems pretty random to me that it's located in the ears.
(Sorry for maybe not so good English)
| If you want to keep balance you want the system measuring it somewhere that experiences the least acceleration during normal movement and that is the head. The position in the ear is useful, too, as it is further and on opposite sides from the center of the head and therefore experience more movement and in opposite directions when you turn your head which improves signal strength. If it were near you nose it would be more or less just measuring in one spot while the ears are far apart so you have two points for measuring.
It also needs to be close to the eyes as it causes/controls eye movement to compensate head movement so that the image you see is stabilized. | 95 | 155 |
If time slows the closer to the speed of light someone travels, what is the effect on an airline pilot over the course of their career? | Of course, we'll have to do some assumptions her, and I'll start.
1. The pilot has a 50 year career.
1. The average speed of the pilot over their career will be 300MPH.
Any more assumptions and I'll edit them in with an asterisk.
*And please show the reasoning behind it, so that I can further understand the concepts. | Since you asked for a step-by-step approach with actual numbers, I'll try to break this down a bit.
The easiest thought experiment here is to imagine a laser-clock that is defined by two mirrors `A` and `B`, separated by a distance L:
mirror A mirror B
| |
|--------»|
|«--------|
| |
|(---L---)| # mirrors separated by distance L
The clock ticks once every time a laser pulse leaves A, hits B, and returns to A. From the point of view of someone watching the clock when it is at rest relative to them, how long does it take the clock to tick once?
Before we answer that, let's answer a slightly simpler question. You roll a ball towards a wall that is 10 meters away at 4 m/s. The ball bounces off the wall and rolls straight back towards you. How long does it take the ball to return?
Well, if the wall is 10 meters away, then the ball traveled a total distance of 20 meters. And if the ball travels at 4 m/s, then that means it took **5 seconds**, since `20 m / 4 m/s = 5 s`. In other words, we can use the simple kinematics expression of
distance / speed = time
to decide the answer. Likewise, with our mirror clock, the light pulse travels at `c`, and the distance is `L`, so the stationary observer measures the clock's period as
t_0 = 2 L/c
A moving observer, however, sees something different. This time, the observer moves at a speed `v` parallel to the observer's frame of reference.
mirror A mirror B
| |
X |-- |
| -- |
| -- |
| --»|
W |(---L---)| Y
| --|
| -- |
| -- |
Z |«-- |
| |
This time, the light traced a longer path, from `X` to `Y` to `Z`. Clearly, this is a longer route than `2L`. What is the total distance it traveled?
Well, we see that `X`, `Y`, and `Z` form a triangle. Let's call the distance `XY` (which is the same as the distance `YZ`) `h`. Notice that `h` is the hypotenuse of the right triangle `XWY`. Now `h` is easy to calculate. It's just:
h^2 = XY^2 = WY^2 + XW^2
h^2 = XY^2 = L^2 + XW^2
h = sqrt[L^2 + XW^2]
So, similar to before, the light takes `t' = 2 h/c` for a moving observer. But what's XW^2 ? Well, if we moved with speed `v`, then this is `1/2 * v * t'` -- half the distance covered by our movement at speed `v`. So we can express `h` as
h = sqrt[L^2 + (1/2 * v * t')^2]
If we substitute this into `t' = 2 h/c` and solve for `t'`, then we get the time dilation equation, which is
t_0
t' = --------------------
sqrt(1 - v^2 / c^2)
Since the denominator here is a number that will be less than 1 for `v > 0`, a moving observer will observe that the clock ticks more slowly relative to the stationary observer's measurements.
Now, onto actual numbers. Let's pick some nice round numbers so the math will be easier. Also, by picking extremely generous numbers we'll wind up with an convenient upper bound.
So, to be extremely generous, let's say you're a spaceship pilot who travels at a constant 250 m/s for 50 years. Relative to a stationary observer, how much time has passed? Let's crunch the numbers:
t' = t_0 / sqrt[1 - v^2 / c^2]
t' = (50 years) / sqrt[1 - (250 m/s)^2/(300,000,000 m/s)^2]
Right away, we can see that 250 m/s divided by the speed of light is not a very big fraction, and so will not have a very big impact on the difference in time the two references measure. Let's keep going:
t' = (50 years) / sqrt[1 - 6.944 × 10^-13]
t' = (50 years) / 0.999999999999652777...
t' = 50 years + ~5 × 10^-4 seconds
In other words, a stationary observer would measure about **an extra 500 microseconds** of time relative to your own clock if all you did was travel at airplane speeds for five decades. To put that in perspective, 3,000 microseconds is roughly the time it takes for a housefly to flap its wings once. Sorry! Relativity's a bummer sometimes.
-----
Perhaps a more satisfying answer to the question would come if we reworded it a bit. What if we wanted to know how fast you need to go before there was an appreciably large difference in times measured? Let's say that we want to have a time difference of at least one year. How fast would our pilot need to travel?
51 years = 50 years / sqrt[1 - v^2/c^2]
Rearranging this equation and solving for v gives us
v = ~59,000,000 m/s, or about 0.0002 c
The fastest rocketships we have can go about 15,000 m/s, so if you had one that was about 4,000 times faster, you would be able to gain an extra year after traveling for 50 years. | 227 | 49 |
ELI5: Why do some (usually low paying) jobs not accept you because you're overqualified? Why can't I make burgers if I have a PhD? | Usually because the employer is worried that applicants who are overqualified will high-tail it out of there as soon as they can find any better job.
Edit: This can work both ways, especially in a poor economy. In the last few years, a lot of jobs that shouldn't require a college degree have been demanding them, just because the employer knows the person will probably be stuck there a while, and they'll benefit from having an (arguably) smarter employee real cheap. | 3,335 | 3,274 |
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How do I argue FOR something in philosophy? | This may seem a very stupid question, but it's something fundamental I am struggling with. I've never had a real problem arguing my theses in a literary sense, as in for an English class. Yet, when it comes to philosophy, I have a hard time figuring out how to form any meaningful argument FOR an idea of a philosopher.
For example, take Nietzsche's "Illusion of Moral Judgement." I agree with what he writes on the matter, but if I was asked to argue FOR it, I wouldn't really know what to say beyond "Yes, I read that, and I agree with it, it seems accurate to me." These philosophers are able to argue their points because they have decades of philosophical study and engagement under their belts, whereas I have at most maybe 2 years. It seems like, as an undergrad, I'm not really up to the task of arguing FOR Nietzsche's position in any meaningful way. I guess what I'm really saying is that anything I posit as an argument for a serious philosophy as an undergrad seems like it'd be bullshit...
So, does anyone have any tips in terms of arguing for something in a philosophical context? | Think about how philosophy is done. Somebody argues a point, then somebody else produces a counter-argument to show why they think the first was wrong. Maybe it's best to find a counter-argument to something you believe in, and then say why you don't think it's valid. That way, you'll find yourself defending (and thus arguing for) a philosophy. | 13 | 18 |
How do the "return on investment" figures for going to college account for the fact that the type of person who gets a degree from college is also the type of person who was going to make more money than average even if they hadn't gone to college? | Some analyses look at people just above and just below an admissions cutoff to see what the returns on college look like for people who are similar across many observable characteristics. For example, you may look at a state where most students go to the big local state university, and they automatically admit students above a certain threshold, say GPA or SAT score. By comparing students right around that threshold that significantly alters likelihood of college enrollment and controlling for other observable characteristics like parents' education level and income, you can tease out a sense of the returns of the college degree. Research design around thresholds (fuzzy or strict) are popular mechanisms for trying to compare as similar of people, but of course any method you use is always subject to bias from omitted variables that you cannot measure or quantify like personality. | 22 | 53 |
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Is there a trick to reading economics papers? | I'm a 2nd year undergraduate of economics. In some of my modules there's a large emphasis on reading academic papers directly from sources such as Economica, Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review.
To be honest, I struggle with them. The language seems very difficult and so does the theory. I find myself stuck in a circle - I don't know the theory because I don't really understand the article, and I don't understand the article because I don't know the theory!
Sorry if this type of academic question isn't welcome here. Is there a trick to it? Any advice from successful economists? | Read the introduction first. Then write down
1. What is the question the author is asking? Why do we care? is the paper primarily pedagogical, or is it answering an applied question, or is it reviewing & synthesizing older results, or is it building a new theoretical model?
2. What is the author's strategy? Is she going to write down a proof? Will she be offering computational simulations? Will there be data and regressions? *These are basically the three methods we have. It's gotta be one.*
3. What are the author's results? Do they answer the question? Is the answer reasonable?
The (question, strategy, results) should, ideally, *exactly* be the first three paragraphs of the paper. Sometimes they aren't, and you have to hunt all through the intro to find them. If you can't find them in the intro, read the conclusion and hunt there.
So write these things down down! Write down in one sentence each, or perhaps two, the question, the strategy, and the results.
Once you have figured out the question, strategy, and results, it's time to tear the paper apart. Do you believe the results? Do they matter? Do you believe the empirics? If it's a theory paper, are the assumptions reasonable? If it's computational, do you think the model is capturing the features of reality that the author wants to explain? | 13 | 22 |
ELI5:How is radiation both a cause and a treatment for cancer? | Radiation can damage a cell by breaking and forming chemical bonds. This can include damage to DNA which can lead to mutations which cause cancer.
However, enough radiation will just do so much damage to the cell's structures that it dies.
Targeting a tumor with large bursts of radiation can kill those cancerous cells. The use of radiation as a cancer treatment is just very precise so as to not damage healthy cells. | 15 | 16 |
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ELI5: Why are LED light bulbs so expensive while LED diodes are so cheap? | Diodes are literally a dime a dozen, but a quality LED bulb is at least $10 in the US. What gives? | In addition to the difference in cost caused by adding fixtures, structure, electronics, power flux capacitors etc to the LED, costs also increase because LED bulbs are rather new and aren't as refined as Incandescent or CFL bulbs, and probably aren't made in as large quantities.
Over time, you'll see further improvements in LEDs, costs will decrease, and they'll become the pragmatic choice for both the long term and the short term. | 11 | 27 |
Sex and philosophy | What do the various philosophic traditions have to say about sex and relationships? I am interested in the philosophies that advocate celibacy and are against marriage. From what I've read, only monastic groups advocate this path.
Do the other philosophers say anything about this? I know Kant spoke against masturbation, but not much else.
| You're likely aware, but Foucault's The History of Sexuality trilogy (though not all really about sex) may be worth your time... even though it's more about the discourse surrounding sexuality as a practice that is structured through the interplay of various scientific/religious/philosophical matters. Part 1 ain't bad... the other two... meh. You'll likely have to either go to the Cynics or another ascetic related orders or branch out to various 'Eastern' philosophies who have always been much more concerned with personal relationships than they have the kinds of banal transcendent truths that Western philosophy gets it's panties in a bunch for. | 10 | 17 |
[DC]How does the richest human beings' wealth fare on a galactic/universal/etc. level? Is there a way to measure and compare wealth across different planets? | To illustrate the title with an example: we all know Bruce Wayne is one of the richest people on Earth, but is he also a one\-percenter in the entire Sector 2814? | On a wide scale, money probably does not matter nearly as much as your material resources and your people.
Gorgolons from sector 50000330 don't want dollars, but might happily trade a few warp drives for DNA samples, art, science, borium, that iron asteroid over there, a bunch of venusian methane, or maybe even anglerfish livers, which are rumored to work as aphrodisiacs for them.
Aliens capable of interstellar travel either want energy, matter, or something that they can only get from living planets. Earth's "wealth" would be our ability to produce rare items not found elsewhere. DC earth has a variety of resources, such as capes, magic, lazarus pits, geniuses, and more. Does DC have an equivalent to adamantium/vibranium? Aliens could want that too. | 26 | 34 |
ELI5: How do scientists at the Large Hadron Collider safely create and record temperatures of 5.5 trillion degrees? | Primarily by making it happen to a very very small amount of material. 5.5 Trillion degrees sounds like a lot, but in terms of mass x thermal energy, the sample size at that temperate is so small that if you distributed all the energy there into a bucket of water, it wouldn't boil.
The LHC is aiming to create a very specific set of conditions on a very small sample. They use a lot of energy to smash stuff together and witness high energy interactions, but it happens using a very small amount of mass.
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ELI5:Why don't those with authority (such as police officers) face the same penalties as ordinary citizens for crimes? | I'm just curious because everyday I hear about injustices to citizens from police offers, however they only get measly penalties such as being fired, whereas a normal person would be jailed, fined heavily, etc. | Officers are put into legally problematic positions as part of their jobs. For example it is the duty of an officer to use their service weapon to stop an armed criminal before they can injure or kill others. But if the officer makes a mistake the officer could injure or kill innocent bystanders. A regular person could avoid the whole issue by not firing at all, but an officer has a duty to fire; the reduced punishment in the event of a mistake is acknowledgment of the dissimilar circumstances. | 33 | 15 |
[Marvel] What are the pros and cons of these powers: Gamma Radiation, Chaos Magic, Power Cosmic, Phoenix Force? | From what i know:
Gamma-comes with a big increase to strength and healing. The exact details of your power come from your own psyche. There is a chance of just becoming a big tumour tho. Oh. and if you do get the power, you may become an immortal pestered by marvels true Satan. Its very much raw power, and less versatile than others on this list. Hell, standard users might not match the other powers even in raw power.
Chaos magic- tons of power granted by a dickish elder god. Will definitely try to use you as a vessel to enter/conquer your native reality. Can leave you a glass cannon, with "normal" durability for all that power. Also, you probably do need a book or teacher to use all that power properly.
Power cosmic-Really good balance of power and trade offs. You get control over the natural forces of the universe, and a way stronger body that can manage space travel. All you have to do is stay in the good graces of a large hungry purple guy and find him new food spots to try. Hell, hes been known to leave your food spot untouched in exchange for your service. Also this has the least odds of you going insane.
Phoenix force - This one enhances any preexisting power you have, and gives you fire wings and some telekinesis. Also very good at ressurecting you. Users have a VERY string tendency to go mad though. Like almost all of them lose it at some point. But you get galaxy/universe destroying power in the deal. | 28 | 20 |
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ELI5 How does plant seeds know to root downward and to sprout upwards? | Plants have the ability of sensing gravity and orienting themselves accordingly. This is called gravitropism. In the roots, there are some small pouches in the cells which produce and store starch and basically pull down the roots through some specialized signaling mechanisms. Roots have positive gravitropism (they grow towards higher gravity) and stems have the opposite.
Additionally, both roots and stems orient themselves according to the amount of light. This is called phototropism. Stems are attracted by the light (phototropism), while roots are repelled by it. | 2,069 | 1,910 |
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Applying design patterns | I'm finding it really hard to apply design patterns in my code. The thing is even though i know several design patterns and i understand those, i can't still figure out where to apply the patterns.
How you learn to apply these design patterns in your code | > How you learn to apply these design patterns in your code
You need to understand what they are for, why they are used as patterns - not just what they do.
And you need to know what you want your code to be doing, any why.
It should then become obvious - actually, it'll just be what you do, not a thing you attach to your code. | 13 | 16 |
Any suggestions for improving writing skills for a current PhD student? | I am a current PhD student in organizational behavior (think a mix between anthropology and psychology). I know all the theories I need to know, I read a lot of articles in my field daily, I have great ideas, but when I try to put papers together I can't seem to write linearly.
I'm wondering if anyone took any life-changing writing classes, practice in some way, etc etc, that made you a publishable writer? Any suggestions? I'm also in the Boston area which, surprisingly, only seems to have undergraduate writing courses that I can find for research purposes. | Write what you need to say without worrying about if it is well written. Just get all the ideas on the paper for your first draft, even if it sounds like you're talking like a caveman or an instruction manual - then go through it again and make it pretty. | 18 | 17 |
If you were teaching philosophy to first year college students, what's a short (10 page -ish) piece of writing to start with on day 1? Something fairly easy, but thought provoking. | Something that elicits wonder and interest. A classic choice (pun intended) would be a Socratic dialogue. I'm struggling to find one right now. Maybe something where Socrates is talking about the value of arguments and knowledge.
Or perhaps part of a book or some article that introduces some of the most basic issues at the center of academic philosophy. I'm leaning towards this. I don't want to confuse them with difficult prose.
Just trying to fill a small hole in my syllabus. Cheers and thanks. | Plato's *Euthyphro*, Carroll's "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles," Midgley's "On Trying Out One's New Sword," Gettier's "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?", Sorensen's "Faking Munchausen's Syndrome," Dennett's "Where Am I?", Singer's "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." | 27 | 27 |
ELI5: why so many men in the USA are circumcised | In the 1870s a few influential American doctors thought that circumcision was good for your health, so they endorsed it as standard practice on medical grounds.
50 years later, doctors figured out that circumcision didn't really affect your health one way or the other. However, circumcision had been the standard long enough that Americans thought foreskins looked weird, so circumcisions became a cosmetic decision. | 69 | 52 |
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How exactly does soap get you clean? | What chemicals in soap react with what chemicals in the body? How does this make your skin clean? Any help would be appreciated- thanks! | Soap contains (generally) alkali metal salts of fatty acids, which are formed through the saponification reaction of triglycerides (which are a type of fats that we eat). These soap molecules are considered amphipathic; that is, they contain a hydrophobic nonpolar end, and a hydrophilic end. It is an approximation to say that dirt particles which cannot be washed off with water easily have some hydrophobic quality. When soaps are added to water, they form structures called micelles; these are balls of detergent molecules where the hydrophilic carboxyl termini of the molecules of the soap face out towards the water favorably, and the hydrophobic ends cluster together out of reach of water favorable. This is favorable because the interaction of hydrophobic tails with water is entropically unfavorable. Hence, these micelles allow the soap to solve hydrophobic dirt/dust particles that normally would not easily be solvated by water. These hydrophobic dirt molecules could be trapped inside the micelles. Thus, the soap allows us to "wash away" hydrophobic stuff that cannot easily be gotten rid of by water. | 19 | 29 |
CMV: Perfect attendance shouldn’t be awarded | I’m really getting tired of going to the awards ceremony at my school and seeing the kid that shows up to school sick.
Like, people legitimately know he shows up to school sick, and it’s ridiculous. He gets awarded for it too, like what the fuck?
I’m pretty sure I got the flu from this fucker last year and your awarding him? Are you KIDDING ME?
I think the idea is that perfect attendance shows that you care about school, but it just makes people show up to school when they’re sick. If somebody has the flu and they show up to school, it’s taking away from other people’s education because it gets other people sick. These sick people now have to take time off of school to get better.
| On the other hand perfect attendance encourages positive traits like stoicism, steadfastness, dedication, endurance and willpower while discouraging negative traits like weakness, feebleness, defeatism and abandonment
Ulysses S Grant is not remembered as a not a great man because he backed down and surrendered and stayed home when things were difficult and uncertain. He is remembered because he was bullheaded and stubborn and he kept going even when everyone doubted him and when it was dark and when his work was painful | 102 | 596 |
CMV: Planned Parenthood should spin off it's abortion business and then re-brand it's health services business lines | Planned Parenthood is a non-profit, but it is still a business. Businesses spin off business lines all the time for any variety of reasons.
Since their abortion business line receives no taxpayer funds, there shouldn't be any financial loss from spinning it off into a new business. Then all the other health services that Planned Parenthood provides could be conducted free from the stigma of being provided by "America's largest abortion provider".
Such a move would direct any criticism and protests to the new "abortion only" business and away from the health services businesses. They would no longer face threats of cuts to their federal funding. I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually able to increase their funding with such a move.
The biggest challenge I can think of that would be faced would be the need for additional locations since all existing locations would have to be designated as either "abortion services" or "health services" locations. But I don't think that would be a HUGE obstacle.
Many of the existing locations could likely be split into two separate, but side-by-side, facilities. Many are in buildings that could easily be divided for multiple tenants already, so that's exactly what would be happening. Opening new "free health clinics" should be fairly easy from a local regulatory standpoint. Who wouldn't want more free health clinics in their neighborhood?
And if the total square footage needed for both abortion and healthcare services shouldn't change much (maybe a little more space for 2 reception desks and waiting rooms), so the long-term increase in rental or real estate costs shouldn't be significant. I think it would more than offset by increased revenue from greater public support, and reduced costs related to security and dealing with protests.
The only other caveat of this view is that I'm taking Planned Parenthood's contention that no federal funds are used in the abortion business at face value. I have no reason not to believe that. But if that isn't true, it would present additional challenges to any spinoff. | Not only are you duplicating facilities, but you duplicate fundraising efforts, HR and administrative positions, and all the other savings you have from being a single institution. It would not be cost-effective.
If you maintain any type of relationship where you can combine resources, then you will not remove the stigma of providing abortions. | 33 | 19 |
CMV: The world would be better off if every single person on this planet had access to the best possible education. | Edit: To clarify, by "the world" I mean our planet and every living being on it (obviously including humans)
This is something that has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of years. I want to start off by making an assumptions:
It is possible for every person on this planet to gain this proposed access to education. Maybe not now, but with proper resource allocation it is possible.
Any counterarguments should include whether or not they agree or disagree with this assumption.
It is my strong (and maybe naive) belief that knowledge and wisdom is humanity's greatest good. Since the start of the industrial revolution, our population has increased dramatically, people live longer, are healthier and are more productive during their life times. However, I find it truly sad that we aren't at least trying to realise the potential of every person on this planet by giving them access to the best education possible.
[This map](https://ourworldindata.org/tertiary-education) is showing a neat representation of how much percent of a country's population has had a tertiary education (data from 2010). We can clearly see that there's a huge discrepancy between north America and a vast majority of Europe against the rest of the world. Most importantly, China and India have one of the lowest numbers while their combined population is almost 3 billion people. I argue that if we used the potential, humanity's growth towards prosperity for all and improvements in science could be magnitudes faster than they are right now, where we mostly rely on the potential of North Americans and Europeans and an Asian elite.
The first argument against this would be the fact that knowledge could be weaponized to harm other people and I agree with that. However, I want to further argue that "the best possible educations" includes a better understanding of our violent history to a point where people realize we could achieve more if we took a more altruistic approach to society.
I want to further note that the access to the best possible education does not mean that everyone has to get a college degree. It means that everyone has the means available to pursue a college degree if they choose to do so. | What exactly is the best education possible? Suppose that given the education budget (which can't grow without limits, so that countries will have some left for transportation, infrastructure, defense, etc.), you can give everyone in the country a certain level of education.
Suppose that on top of that, some rich people who aren't satisfied with the "best education possible" you've achieved, want to give their children even better education, by spending their private resources to, say, build better labs. At this point these rich kids are getting better education than the "best possible", and the only way to prevent that would be to keep this sort of private education illegal, so that from this baseline (which is more or less the situation in many European countries), the only way for everyone to get the best education possible is for some people to get worse education than they do today - which would perhaps be more 'fair' or 'just', but not strictly 'better'. | 22 | 404 |
What gives sea creatures their fishy taste? | Fish need to maintain osmotic balance in a saline environment, and one of their strategies to manage this is to load up their tissues with Trimethylamine Oxide (TMAO). This is odorless and not offensive, but when the fish dies bacteria rapidly begin to break the TMAO down into the very nasty, very fishy smelling Trimethylamine TMA.
Because this is an adaptation to ocean water, freshwater fish are much milder, much less fishy. It's also why smelling ocean fish is a useful metric of its freshness, although by no means the only metric. | 26 | 27 |
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CMV: The end of Moore's Law will drastically reduce the pace of technological change | A few years ago, the CEO of Intel said that if cars had developed as quickly as computers, they would go at 470,000 mph, get 100,000 miles to the gallon, and cost 3 cents. This got me wondering, what would the world be like if computers developed as slowly as cars?
With the delay of Cannonlake to 2017, we have the first objective signs that Moore's law is slowing down, and most experts seem to be predicting it will come to an end within the next ten years or so. This is significant since shrinking components is really the "low-hanging fruit" of the computer industry, with each shrinkage allowing 60% more transistors (which allows the processor to do more things) and having 60% lower power consumption (fairly important for mobile applications). Outside of just processors, shrinking transistors are also a key enabler of increasing SD card sizes and SSD drive storage.
The increasing speed/power ratio of processors, and the increasing ability to store large files on solid state memory, have enabled practically every computer-related technology. PCs, digital cameras smartphones, tablets, smart watches and the like all began their lives, and continue to improve rapidly, thanks to Moore's law.
Once Moore's law stops, all of these devices will stop improving at such a rapid pace. There will be no more iPads which double in speed from one generation to the other, no more laughing at the phones from 5 years ago.
I am well aware of the developments relating to graphene, optical computing and the like, but I believe that they will end up improving much slower than the old improvements of Moore's law, i.e. they are "high-hanging fruit" which will be slow to market and slow to improve. In other words, I am aware that computers will keep developing, but I feel they will develop at the same speed as cars, where a model from ten years ago is outdated but not really all that different.
Having computers/mobile devices/other electronics which grow at a much slower rate will sap much of the dynamism from the entire technology sector, as fundamentally new software and applications often grows from the enabling factors of new hardware. The entire world of technology will grow at a similiar pace to the car world, where improvements in engine efficiency and the like are constant and gradually, and kind of boring.
As a technology lover, I really hope I'm wrong about all this, so I hope someone can Change My View!
Edit 1: Delta awarded to Omega037 for pointing out that cloud computing may make restrictions on speed and storage in end user devices irrelevant. However, the issue of stagnation at the server farm remains.
Edit 2: Delta awarded to forestfly1234 for pointing out that "Slow or even slower innovation doesn't mean that mind blowing, experience altering change wouldn't happen."
Edit 3: Delta awarded to Armadylspark for pointing out that [3D chips](http://electronicpackaging.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/article.aspx?articleid=1849813) could easily allow a similiar magnitude of growth in chip speeds to Moore's Law for quite some time, even once the process of transistor shrinkage ends.
Edit 4: Delta awarded to wellACTUALLYdtdtdt for pointing out that innovations may lag behind the hardware improvements that enable them by many years, e.g. Uber, AirBnB, online dating. Bonus imaginary points for the beautiful quote that "the post-transistor age will be one of pure ideas", now I'm excited about the post-Moore era. | This change has been gradually occurring for some time now and not just for processing power, and we can already see how the industry has begun adapting to it through the use of cloud computing.
With cloud computing, the ability of a single chip/device to process and store data is almost irrelevant. Your phone doesn't process your images and tag them, a massive server farm does. Same goes for converting your voice to text or finding the best route to a GPS location.
In fact, many of our devices are theoretically overpowered. Apps on your iPad or iPhone don't have to run locally, it is just easier and uses less data to do so. If we move completely towards a "Virtual PC" or terminal system, all the device will need to do is transmit inputs and display returned graphics. | 13 | 24 |
ELI5 why do we have to install a specific Android OS for a specific phone when we can install Windows or Linux on any machine(x86) and expect it to work without too much problems? | Like, If want to install a custom rom(LineageOS) for my Galaxy s9, I have to use a build specifically built for the s9.
But when I go to install Windows10 or a Linux distro on my laptop, I can use one version of to install on any x86 machine.
Why do we need to make specific versions of android operating systems per android phone? | In comparison to phones, computers are very standardized in terms of their software architecture. Computers also enjoy an advantage in that an OS manufacturer (like Microsoft) can include a whole host of drivers to work with any combination of hardware, even if you don't use them all.
Phones don't have that advantage. Consumers want their phones to be fast, lightweight, and streamlined- and the hardware on them is fixed. That means trimming all the excess fat off an OS so it fits exactly to a specific phone and its hardware, not to mention adding carrier-specific tweaks and features as selling points.
The trade off is that by doing that you lose a lot of compatability as each manufacturer's flavor of Android ventures farther and farther from the original software.
It's an interesting example of real world evolution. Phone software too far removed from the original OS isn't compatible with it, while animal species with common ancestors too far removed from each other can't interbreed. | 100 | 100 |
CMV: There will be a major economic catastrophe within the next 4 years. | After studying the causes of the Great Depression, and considering the results of the U.S. Presidential election, I have been working myself into an anxious frenzy over a disturbing set of similarities between the Depression and today:
1. Financial Bubble - then it was stocks, now it is student loan debt, and likely housing again.
2. Deregulation - little regulation of the market prior to 1929, deregulation caused the crash in '08, and Trump has vowed to strip similar regulations away today.
3. Fed Action - in the 1930s, the Fed raised the interest rate which throttled the economy. Today we face a liquidity trap that would severely limit the Fed's ability to respond to such a crisis.
4. Tariffs - During the Depression, the Hawley-Smoot Act was disastrous. Trump has made similar policies a cornerstone of his platform.
5. Persistently low wages - The Dust Bowl and a decline in global demand for American agriculture impoverished rural Americans throughout the 1920s. Today, low wages and a high cost of housing and education have taken a similar toll.
These five factors look to me like a perfect storm is brewing, and a Second Great Depression is just around the corner. I would love to be able to calm down a bit, and look at things with a bit more optimism, so please help me CMV.
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> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | At work, but here's something to consider. The Great Depression is most studied economic event in recent history.
The Federal Reserve is filled with people who more likely or not, studied this as well, and are aware of the what factors caused it. Do you think they'd recklessly raise interest rates if the circumstances you describe actually exist?
| 139 | 222 |
ELI5: When did American Healthcare become so terrible, ie when did jobs with benefits become the epitome of a career? | Health care being tied to employment started in World War 2. The government realized that with a lot of young men joining the military, and the increase in military production, that there would be a serious labor shortage. To try to control things somewhat they prevented employers from increasing wages. Once employers couldn't compete for labor using pay, they started looking for other perks that they could offer, one of which was 'free' health care. It stuck around after the war as something that people sort of expected. | 11 | 15 |
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Why does food you heat up in the microwave cool down faster than food you heat up in an oven? | Is this real life? I've noticed that food, say a slice of pizza, can be just as hot coming out of the microwave as out of the oven, but it cools down in what feels like a few minutes, where the pizza out of the oven would stay hot much longer. I can tell because I can start eating the microwaved pizza without burning my mouth much sooner than if it came out of an oven. Or is this all an illusion? | All heating sources tend to heat the outer layers of food first. Microwave ovens transfer heat into food much more efficiently than convection ovens, so food generally spends less time in a microwave. In a convection oven, the heat on the outer layers of the food has time to diffuse into the inner part of the food, resulting in food at a more even temperature. In a microwave oven, it is possible to heat the outer layers of your food to a similar temperature very quickly, but the inside of the food is cooler. When you take the food out, the outside layer is loosing heat to the environment and to the cooler inner part of the food, so it will cool much faster than food which is a fully uniform temperature. | 31 | 21 |
[Warhammer 40,000] What is life like for the native inhabitants of a Pleasure World? | Surrounded by incredible beauty and wondrous natural vistas, inhabitants on Garden Worlds want for very little, and dedicate much of their time to tending to the needs of the various guests from important Imperial stations. Rogue Traders, nobles, high ranking Inquisitors, and Imperial commanders find solace on these worlds, resting and recuperating from their heavy burdens. Occasionally, members of the elite warrior class may find their way to these gardens to train and hone their craft before returning to the crucibles of combat. Life is easy on these Paradise Worlds, and industry is generally unheard of there. The people that live there are calm, in an almost unsettling way, but posses an uncanny ability to reassure others, often becoming priests or orators. In short, life on a Pleasure World is serene, peaceful, and relaxing. Until Tyranids show up and devour everything in sight. | 49 | 40 |
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ELI5:Why use a primary language and a scripting language in game dev? | I've noticed that a lot of games are coded in both a primary language (eg, C++) along with a scripting language (eg Python).
As someone who only knows scripting languages, I sort of know the difference thematically but not completely functionally.
Basically, my question is: if you're already coding in a primary language like C++, what is the point/benefit of also having code in there that was written in a scripting language like Python? Why not do everything in C++? | Scripting languages are usually faster to work with. They don't need to be compiled, changes can be made on the fly. They don't have hard to debug memory leaks and corruption. The downside is they usually have lower performance.
The performance critical graphics engine is written in C++. The game logic is written in a scripting language.
It also allows modders to modify the game logic while keeping the source code to the engine secret. | 52 | 122 |
I believe that public school teachers in the U.S. should make double to triple their average salary. A large portion of the money for this should be taken from the federal defense budget. CMV | As it is now the average salary for being a teacher in the U.S. hovers right around $50,000, although in some states it's as high as $70,000. Right now I think it's safe to say that teaching is not a competitive market. If you are a really bright student in school, what fields do counselors or advisers encourage you to go into? Among others primarily law and medicine, and this is because they are very competitive fields with high salaries. This attracts our best people into being those things because you can make a lot of money doing those things. I'm not saying that doctors and lawyers aren't important to society, or that bright students shouldn't be proud of becoming a doctor or a lawyer (well, maybe a lawyer).
What I'm saying is that teachers are diametrically important to developing a better society because, in America at least, EVERYONE is legally obligated to attend school school as a child and is influenced by educators, either positively or negatively. If being a teacher was a bad ass job where you're making at least 6 figures students would dream of being a teacher and study their asses off to become the best teacher they could because only the top students were accepted into teaching positions. This would inject the teaching work force with our best and brightest people (the desired effect obviously being improving the quality of education received by students overall). And if this were a government initiative (where they put the extra money into the education system for higher salaries, better equipment/facilities etc.) the students who would be most impacted by this would be the ones who went to public schools. Now a quality education isn't only available to those who live in the right school districts or who can afford to send their kids to private schools. Hopefully the biggest effect from this would be that education would become more dynamic and exciting for students. If this is true than every field that has an educational prerequisite would become better/more competitive, thus greatly improving our country in multiple dimensions.
In 2010 the government estimated that there were a little over 3.1 million teachers employed by public schools in this country with less than 2% growth. If we doubled the teaching salary in public schools, the average teacher in the US would be making about $100,000 a year. To do this it would cost the US government roughly 150 billion dollars (I am estimating this figure based on publicly available census records put out by the U.S. Census Bureau). Now I'm not saying that the entirety of this sum should be simply cut and pasted from the DOD budget, but even if we did take that approach, that figure is only a little over 20% of their annual budget. Now a figure smaller than 20% could be supplemented by tax dollars and other creative methods that the government uses to get money. And I'm guessing our country wouldn't implode overnight if we cut back on military spending and didn't involve ourselves in foreign conflicts as much. | The only way that doubling the pay of teachers would have any effect was if there was some kind of competitive market for the job AND that market could not be flooded.
The first is currently not true because teachers are not measured or sought after in the same way that engineers, accountants, or other higher dollar professions are. Great teachers make no more money than mediocre ones. Only the truly awful/abusive get fired.
THe second is not true now, and would be even less true in a high-dollar scenario. Teaching has a very low barrier to entry. Essentially any adult can do it.... although we expect college degrees. With today's college graduation rate that cuts the pool roughly in half, but that is still an ENORMOUS number of qualified individuals. That many applicants is going to drive the price of teachers right back down from where you try to set it.
A final point... the United States spends more per student than nearly any other country on the planet. Our spending per student had gone up every decade AFTER inflation since statistics began in the 1960s. Whatever our problems are in education, the evidence does not suggest that lack of funding is one of them.
| 127 | 442 |
eli5: How do retail credit cards (including those you can use in any store) work and how do they benefit the issuers and retailers? | Some of the specifics I’m wondering about are: How do they tend to be structured? Who provides the capital? How do they differ from standard bank issued credit cards from the issuers perspective? Where can I learn more? | Retail credit cards are backed by a particular bank, just like a regular credit card. They benefit retailers because they allow people to spend money they don’t actually have, exclusively at their stores. Many retailers will even provide additional incentives just for using their credit card, like point systems/rewards or additional discounts. For example: using your Victoria Secret credit card on purchases earns you points. When you reach a certain number of points, you’re issued a $10 reward. With the Target Red Card, your purchases at Target are automatically 5% off. Many stores will also provide an additional discount on your purchase just for applying.
While sometimes the benefits of a store credit card might seem worth it, if you’re not careful, they can really bleed you dry. They generally carry absurdly high interest rates, think 25% and higher. Anyone not paying their balance off every month is paying a lot for the privilege. They typically have high late payment fees as well. And while many regular cards will not increase your credit limit unless requested, you might be surprised to find your store credit card limit increased multiple times a year. Anything they can do get you to do borrow more money and pay it back very slowly. And for a lot of people, a store credit card will be their very first credit card because they are not as discriminating against those with little to no credit. It’s definitely an easy way to build credit, but again, if you’re not careful, its an easy way to build debt too.
Credit cards that bear a company’s name but function like a regular visa/MasterCard, etc. are a little better. They can usually offer a better APR (depending on current starting rates and your credit history), and better benefits, like cash back options. The Chase Amazon Card offers 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases, 2% on gas and 1% on everything else. Not bad if you’re someone who shops on Amazon a lot, and you can still use (and earn cash back) the card anywhere that accepts Visa too.
Hopefully this answers some of your questions! | 18 | 29 |
How would the distinction between Mill and Bentham's attitudes towards higher and lower pleasures (regarding utilitarianism) change their assessment of whether a legal system is just? If we perfectly applied one or the other's ideas to society, how would the legal systems differ? | To be clear, this is really the crux of an undergraduate question I've been assigned for a jurisprudence module; it's not worded like that really at all on the assessment but this is the main bit I'm struggling with.
Edit: Sorry if the phrasing of the question was unclear, I'm a law student and this is my first philosophy module. So far in my degree I've only done black letter law modules so it is an unfamiliar style of thinking to me. | Try to think of areas where legal systems are called to regulate practices involving pleasures. Maybe make a list of all the possibilities you can think of. Then try to identify which ones of these pleasures would be considered lower or higher according to Bentham and Mill. Then you might start seeing how a legal system which promoted lower pleasures might be different to one which promoted higher ones. See where that train of thought takes you... | 10 | 72 |
why does squinting help us see better? | The lens of your eye is a refractive lens. If you use a camera lens as an analogue, the higher the f-stop (the smaller the aperture), the less spherical aberration. In other words, fewer light rays to scatter. The result is a clearer picture. Squinting may act on the eye in the same manner. | 12 | 15 |
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ELI5: Why do most foods in the US have a calorie count ending in 0 or 5, especially in processed foods? | Rounding off to the nearest increment of five is allowed to account for inaccuracy in the measuring and cooking process. A single tic tac mint has 2 calories, so they can legally say that a single tic tac has zero on their packaging for example. | 45 | 23 |
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Why is NaCl used in the kitchen instead of any other salt? | It basically comes down to availability. Historically most salt was obtained either from mines or through the evaporation of sea water. These salts are mostly NaCl, although they can contain small amounts of other salts.
It is possible to obtain other salts for use in the kitchen, but they would be more expensive and confer no real benefit to the food. The exception to this is products like Lo-salt, designed for people trying to restrict their sodium intake. Lo-salt is 66% KCl, and 33% NaCl. The reason for the inclusion of NaCl is that alone KCl is reported to add a bitter metallic taste to food compared to NaCl. The health benefits of this are a bit dubious, and if you are on a restricted sodium diet you should avoid adding salt to your foods at all.
*edit:* As /u/Osmanthus points out, KCl can lower blood pressure for people that suffer from hypertension, so in those cases the use of reduced sodium salts would be beneficial. | 898 | 1,685 |
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ELI5: Why do babies have to sleep so much more than adults? And why can’t they get all that sleep in one go each day, rather than over multiple naps? | Once born babies will do one thing for the first months: Grow more.
Their stomach is the size of a marble, that is how much they can eat in one setting. After that more sleep because that is energywise the cheapest way: All energy not used for activities can be used for growing.
Once their stomach is empty they want it to be filled up again and the cycle repeats.
So multiple naps because their stomach is smaller, so much to conserve energy so it can be used for growing.
PS After about three months of this and when the parents go from "Will this ever change????", the baby will smile and the parent's heart will melt. | 27 | 15 |
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ELI5: Orgasms, how do they work and why do we even have them? | After Googling for a good 2 minutes, I decided to post this here. As stated earlier, what is the point of having one? Do other animals have orgasms as big as ours? | From an evolutionary standpoint, a woman is more likely to have an orgasm when the man is caring, attentive, reliable (has sex with her often), physically fit (able to produce healthy offspring and protect her from danger), etc. All these are qualities that would make him more likely to be a good father figure. An orgasm is probably nature's most obvious incentive for choosing a mate wisely.
For a male, parenting investments are often significantly lower so orgasms are a quick reward for behavior that is likely to increase the total number of his offspring.
From a creationist standpoint (if you're so inclined), orgasm is an obvious bonding experience that would be likely to encourage long term relationships (a recurring trend in religion). | 38 | 86 |
The apparent "mixing" of skin colour in humans defies everything I understand about mammalian genetics. Can someone explain how it differs from determination of fur colour? | As I understand genetics (bearing in mind that this is my first year of study, so I posess by no means a comprehensive understanding of the subject), one trait is determined by different alleles, yet when humans of different skin colours reproduce, the apparent result is that the alleles of both parents have actually "merged" to create a colour that is an average of both parents.
To offer an example, a white man sires a child with a black woman. Both parents hold lineage only of their respective skin colours. The child, however, is [significantly darker than the father, but significantly lighter than the mother](http://mulattodiaries.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/307899002_51b37e2c82.jpg). How does this happen? As I understand it, the child should either be patchy (I am aware that a pigmentation disorder exists causing an individual to have patches of colour), or the same colour as one of the parents.
Ninja edit: Found an image. | Skin color is a polygenic trait, meaning it's controlled by more than one gene. It's also a continuous trait, which means that human skin can be a wide range of colors rather than a small number of distinct colors. Humans can be anywhere from albino white to Nigerian black and everything in between. Height is another example of a continuous trait. There's also an effect of incomplete dominance. In incomplete dominance, the heterozygous individuals (Aa genotype) have a phenotype in between the homozygous dominant (AA) and homozygous recessive (aa) individuals.
Combine those factors together (and more since this is simplified) and you get a situation where the offspring can have a skin color in between those of the two parents. Take this very, very simplified version.
Let's say there are 10 genes responsible for skin color. Each has the same amount of control over your skin color (10% per gene). And they all have incomplete dominance so AA will give you darker skin, aa will give you lighter skin, and Aa will be in between. In this scenario, the blackest woman in the world would be AA for all 10 genes. The whitest man in the world would be aa for all 10 genes. And their child would be Aa for all 10 genes... and have skin right in between the two parents.
This is all incredibly simplified since it doesn't take into account genes without incomplete dominance or epistasis or many other factors. But it gives you an idea how you can end up with a child who has a skin color in between the parents. | 44 | 46 |
How does 'finding your balance' while learning to ride a bicycle actually work? | The cerebellum region of the brain is responsible for muscle memory. This allows your brain to quickly recall the muscle pathways involved in a given activity. Riding a bike feels awkward at first because you have to focus on the specific motions that are new to you. Over time the cerebellum will be able to adapt to the activity and it becomes more subconscious by automatically triggering the previous muscle pathways without as much conscious effort. | 22 | 61 |
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How can audio be sped up without increasing in pitch? | For example, say that you increase the speed of a recording of a voice. Normally, the pitch of the voice would increase as the sound gets sped up, but some software allows you to increase the speed of an audio file while maintaining the pitch. What's the difference between these two functions regarding how the sound waves are behaving? | Understanding Fourier analysis is key to knowing how this works. Any complex wave signal (like a sound wave) can be represented by a sum of pure sine waves at varying amplitudes. This collection of equivalent waves as a sum constitutes the frequency spectrum of a sound at a given instant.
The frequency spectrum is constantly changing, as pitch, volume, and sound quality change over time. However, in small slices (say, 10 milliseconds), the spectrum is relatively constant.
What the software is doing is finding the frequency spectrum for a chunk, and reproducing that spectrum for a slightly shorter amount of time. So say for each 10 millisecond block, it generates that spectrum's wave for 8 milliseconds and then moves on to the next block, giving you a 20% increase in speed without changing pitch or sound quality.
This process isn't perfect. It causes distortion with low sounds, distortion with rapidly changing sound, and distortion from errors joining the chunks together which will naturally alter the final spectrum. It can be improved with sliding window averaging, clever joining of sections, dynamic chunk sizes, or any number of tricks. | 24 | 22 |
Are there cubic energy formulas? | Like potential energy is m*g*h, a linear function, movement energy is 0.5mv^2, a squared function.
Is there a function for energy that grows faster? Maybe a cubic or an exponential one? | Yes, many. You don't see them often as textbooks like to pick simple examples.
Here's an example:
Potential energy of a charge distribution in a dielectric material is:
U = 1/2 Integral\[ rho (x,y,z) \* phi (x,y,z) dV\]
where rho (x,y,z) is the net charge density at each point (units C m^(-3)), phi is the electric potential at each point (units V) and the integral is over the whole volume (so dV = dx \* dy \* dz and it is a triple integral).
The two functions rho (x,y,z) and phi (x,y,z) can be any function depending on your system in question.
Let say you have a box with area A in dimensions y and z and the functions only vary along X with a length of L. with rho (x,y,z) = e^(Bx) and phi (x,y,z) = Ce^(Dx) with A B C and D being constants
Then the electrostatic potential energy would be
​
Integral\[ e^(Bx) Ce^(Dx) dx dy dz\] = A\*C / (B + D) e^(Bx)e^(Dx)) evaluated from 0 to L
​
or A\*C \* (e^(B\*L)e^(D\*L) \- 1) / (B + D)
​
which has an exponential dependence on the length L
**You can probably see why this does not show up in intro textbooks often.**
Edit: intro physics textbooks (like 101 and 102). As the comments pointed out, that equation is in every intro E&M textbook. | 120 | 233 |
What does Duhem mean when he says that no theory or hypothesis in physics is ever falsifiable? | Here's what Duhem wrote in *The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory*:
> The prediction of the phenomenon, whose nonproduction is to cut off debate, does not derive from the proposition challenged if taken by itself, but from the proposition at issue joined to that whole group of theories; if the predicted phenomenon is not produced, not only is the proposition questioned at fault, but so is the whole theoretical scaffolding…
This is an account of scientific discovery from observations, which invoke a modus tollens. Suppose the truth of a theory, P, implies the observation of some phenomenon, Q. However, if Q is not observed, then P can't be true:
P → Q
¬Q
∴ ¬P
This means we have to reject P. However, Duhem's idea is that there is always one or more more auxiliary theories, a, in conjunction with P. This changes our result to:
(P & A) → Q
¬Q
∴ ¬(P v A)
Where, A=(a1+a2+…+an).
Hence, there is no way of deciding from this logical schema whether P or A or both is the cause of ¬Q. ¬Q only implies that either P or A or both is at fault. According to Duhem, there is no way of isolating any P of auxiliaries and therefore it is in principle impossible to ever falsify any P beyond doubt.
As for Quine, i *think* this is pretty close to what he means by
> …our statements about the external world face the tribunal of sense experience not individually but only as a corporate body
How should we then decide between two competing theories given that neither is strictly falsifiable? According to Duhem, the best we can hope for is that:
> The day arrives when good sense comes out so clearly in favour of one of two sides [of conflicting theories] that the other side gives up the struggle even though pure logic would not forbid its continuation. | 19 | 27 |
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ELI5: Why do towels and wash-cloths lose the ability to absorb water over time? | There are a few ELI5’s about new towels needing to be washed a few times before they become absorbent. I’ve observed the opposite too - my old dish towels and other cloths just don’t soak up water very well over time. | The ability to absorb water is that, when it touches water, the tiny water molecules get scooped into air pockets between the fibers of the towel.
However, it's not picking up only water. It's also picking up whatever is in the water. This could be dirt, soap, hair, dust, etc.
When the towel dries, the water evaporates, but the non-water stuff doesn't. Over time, these pieces stay clogged in the fibers and build up. The more stuff is clogged in the fibers, the less water it can absorb.
Also just wear and tear. If you scrub the towel against a surface, the fibers will come off. They'll also come off from being cleaned. Less fibers means less scoops to catch water, so it absorbs less. | 32 | 15 |
ELI5: How is it possible that my car keys unlock only my car and not all the others? Is it theoretically possible that my key could unlock a second car somewhere on the world (given I'm close by)? | Edit: Apologies for the poorly phrased question. While the mystery of mechanical keys is fairly interesting I always figured that there would be a limited amount of key/locks available. My question was particularly referring to the (new) wireless keys!! | Most modern cars have 3 layers of security when it comes to keys. Remote Identification, Physical Identification, and Encryption Identification.
Remote identification is your keyless entry. It’s like when you yell for your mommy outside a locked room, if she recognizes your voice, she will respond and unlock the door to let you in. Voices can be similar, so if in the rare case some other kid sounds like you, she could be confused and let the wrong kid in.
Physical Identification is the cut key itself, or in the case of Push Button start, the physical proximity of the key. When your mom opens the door, she would make sure you look like her child. You have a unique face but doppelgängers or your twin brother could fool her into thinking another kid is you.
Encrypted Identification is the RFID chip inside the key that the immobilizer has to sense to allow the car to run. Even if you can duplicate the remote entry or physical key, the RFID reader will still need to read the encrypted code programmed to each key matches to the Immobilizer before the car is allowed to remain running for more than a few seconds. This is extremely difficult to duplicate and very short range, so the real key would need to be within a few inches of the ignition to work. It’s like your mom verifying your fingerprint or DNA to make sure you are you, even if you look and sound like her child.
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[TheCulture] In use of weapons there's race who Special Circumstances predicted would only just now be using crossbows and steam engines without external help. Is it plausible a society would develop (useful) steam engines before firearms? | Sure. Completely separate technical advances, physics vs chemistry. Steam happens once you figure hour that heating water and trapping it can produce work. Gunpowder happens when you mix charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter, grind them and dry them. As a discovery, it's genuinely not easy to come by, and once you do discover it, it's easy to keep the formula secret. | 24 | 29 |
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Today I saw the equation "PV=nRT". Why do the variables all match exactly? Why don't we have to multiply R by 1.25? Or P by 0.5? | It boggles my mind that everything is so.... perfect. Did n and R only come about because of this equation, and so were given arbitrary values that caught on? | The gas-constant, R, was chosen in such a way that this equation would hold.
In discovering a equation like this, people will first discover relations between various observables. For example "keeping other factors fixed, pressure is proportional to tempature" or "pressure is inversely proportional to volume". This gives rise to a propotionality relation: PV ~ nT (~ denotes "is proportional to"), which is already very useful in describing physical phenomena. However, for calculations, an exact equality is preferable, so a proportionality constant has to be introduced.
In this case, this is the gas constant R. It's value can be obtained by carefully measuring the other variables (P, V, n & T) and plugging them into the equation.
Note that the value of R is completely dependent on the choice of units. Pressures are normally measured in Pascal (Pa, or Newton per square meter), but if you were to measure pressures in pounds per square inch (psi), the value of R that you'd need to balance the equation would change.
However, the underlying proportionality relation, PV ~ nT, which is what actually describes what is happening, remains unchanged. R is just there to balance the books. | 80 | 15 |
If you have an amputated body part, does your body still make enough blood for that part? | If you lose an arm' does the body still produce blood for that arm and just redistribute it through out or does it just stop making excess blood? | If the body continued to produce/maintain the same blood volume as before, there would be an overloading of fluid in the circulatory system. The body continually monitors volume and osmotic status ("salinity") of the blood and regulates fluid and electrolyte balance in order to reach its set point. When there is an excess, it causes excretion (of fluid and electrolytes respectively) and if there is a lack, it causes retention.
If a limb is traumatically amputated, there will be an immediate blodd loss greater than the amount of blood normally in the limb. The body will respond by retaining water and salt, thereby expanding its volume state back to normal filling of the rest of the body. Then production of blood cells, clotting factors etc. will commence.
If the limb if surgically amputated and it is held high or blood is emptied out by overpressure before amputation there will be an excess of fluid in the circulation. It will be excreted (you'll pee more for a while) and your hemoglobin will temporarily increase until it adapts and a lower production results in a normal Hb again.
With an amputated limb the body needs to supply less force to push it around, and the blood pressure drops a bit (permanently) after a limb amputation, but afaik that is not related to the amount of blood in circulation | 11 | 16 |
ELI5: Ignoring any legal issues, how effective would going to a veterinarian for medical care be? | Let's say that the town vet is fully stocked with electricity and supplies post-apocalypse. How good of a medical clinic would it be? | Depends on what your issue is. For injuries and other immediate care issues, a vet would be helpful as the general first aid procedures would be more or less the same. For surgeries and such, it would be a little trickier but the vet might be able to adjust the drugs for human use. Long term care or more subtle problems, a vet wouldn't be able to help you as much. | 105 | 240 |
ELI5: How do we know gravity actually affects time? | Einstein first described it in his theory of relativity, and since then it's been directly observed using atomic clocks in orbit. In fact, in order for GPS to stay accurate, the clocks on the satellites used for GPS have to be occasionally corrected. | 28 | 25 |
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ELI5: How are MAC addresses generated for virtual or physical network adapters? Do they have to be globally unique and not reusable? If so, how is that guaranteed? | There are many types of network adapters, many different manufacturers, all on potentially huge internetworks. Adapters get removed, changed, and added all the time. Is a guarantee of ARP that the link layer address is unique? If so, how is that uniqueness ensured at that layer? If it is ensured by the nature of MAC addresses themselves, how are those addresses generated or issued so there is no chance of collision? | For physical devices, the manufacturers are allocated ranges of MAC addresses and are responsible for setting the default network address to be different for each device they manufacture. It's possible to configure network devices to use a different MAC address, other than the default, and this is sometimes done so that routers can have multiple devices, each on a different network, all with the same MAC address.
For virtual interfaces of the kind used to allow multiple IP addresses on the same network, there's still only one hardware ethernet device and the MAC address is the same for each IP address. Packets are allocated to the virtual interfaces according to their IP addresses.
You talk about "potentially huge internetworks" but MAC addresses only need to be unique on the same Ethernet network (at what is known as layer 2). The Internet Protocol, with routers passing packets around the world, works above that at layer 3. | 29 | 36 |
ELI5: Why can people understand languages, but not speak them ? | Because recognition of language is a lot easier than generation of language. If you've ever studied a language, you've probably noticed that you have more trouble thinking of the foreign word when presented with your native word than you do if you're presented with a the foreign word and have to come up with your native word for it. Then consider grammar and sentence construction. Even if you don't know how to construct a sentence in the language, if you understand the words you can probably get the gist of what they're saying just because you recognize the verb and nouns that are there. But if you had to create a well-formed sentence on your own, you'd have no idea how to do it. | 54 | 48 |
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[Star Wars] What does it feel like to be a solider under the effects of battle meditation? | Calming effect. You move with precision and focus. There's no shaking from adrenaline or nerves. No fear or trepidation. And everything feels slower like you're under the effects of an adrenaline rush but in control of it. More time to react to the situation around you because it feels like it's moving slower than you are. And a minor sixth sense like you can see your enemies moves before they happen to some degree.
Or the opposite where you can't focus on anything. Your constantly fighting the nerves and shakes. Battle plans just seem to crumble instead of work. Your opponent always seems one step ahead of you. Your vision is off like you just opened your eyes after having them closed for awhile. And an overwhelming sense of defeat at the back of your mind nagging at you constantly. | 33 | 21 |
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ELI5: Why do bread and milk expire so quickly, when cheese, ranch, and croutons seemingly last forever in comparison? | Bacteria required a suitable environment to grow. Chief among this is water; they cannot survive if they cannot keep their insides liquid. Croutons are very dry so they are protected that way. Cheese is basically eaten already, but by organisms which leave behind tasty remains. They are often pretty dry too, which makes them last. | 24 | 64 |
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If I want to study the syntax and semantics of programming languages like how linguists study the syntax and semantics of natural languages, which textbooks should I read? | If I want to study the syntax and semantics of programming languages like how linguists study the syntax and semantics of natural languages, which textbooks should I read? | - Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser
This contains the basics of theory about computability, which is directly tied to the syntax of languages. It's necessary to understand at least the different types of grammars before moving on to semantics.
- Types and Programming Languages by Benjamin C. Pierce
- Semantics With Applications: An Appetizer by Nielson and Nielson.
These are both good introductory books to the theory behind programming language semantics and types. | 28 | 29 |
ELI5: Why do we like foods better in certain shapes? | Some people like spongebob shaped mac n cheese better than the regular stuff, or curly fries instead of regular fries, even though they are the same thing? | Different shapes of food have different ratios of surface area to volume, which can affect how they're cooked or how they soak up sauces. For example, thin fries are crispier than thick fries because most of the potato in a thin fry is on the outside getting itself fried in hot oil. Thick fries keep a lot more of their total potato content on the inside, away from the oil, which keeps them softer.
Shapes of macaroni that have lots of little holes can absorb more cheese sauce than standard elbow macaroni, so you tend to get more cheese sauce per bite with them.
So the shape of food can do a lot to affect the texture and the way it'll end up tasting. | 27 | 17 |
eli5: What do CEO's actually do? | Depends on the company but generally it is their job to make their company succeed. That does not translate into internal management 9/10 times. It translates into raising funds, hiring an executive team, creating long term corporate visions, and making executive decisions - i.e. we have 200M in the bank, do we hold it for a rainy day, do i invest and grow company, do i give raises or our stock price went down by 50% do i fire or stop hiring etc. which department do i dissolve which department do i invest in | 325 | 130 |
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Were there any reasons why homosexuality was so stigmatised in religious texts? | I know throughout history different cultures have had varying attitudes to homosexuality, but the attitudes mostly seem to be negative and often extreme, e.g. scriptures in many religions prescribe the death penalty for homosexuality. Even in societies where homosexuality was allowed, from my understanding they were still seen as less good than heterosexual relations, and often involved a master and slaves rather than consenting people.
I am just wondering, were there any real social reasons why so many religions and societies became so anti-gay, to the point of prescribing the death penalty? For example we know many of the dietary restrictions in religions were originally made for safety or health reasons, to avoid eating foods that may kill you, etc. Was this sort of logic used when societies decided homosexuality was wrong? Did homosexuality bring about dangers to a society, that caused people to stigmatise it so much? | There is a lot of religious studies scholarship that brings together information from historical and linguistic sources to help understand why the holy texts of many ancient religions, especially the Abrahamic religions, condemned homosexuality. See, for example, Daniel A. Helminiak's What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality.
One likely aspect is emphasis on procreation, since many non-procreative forms of sex are commonly condemned. Procreation might be particularly important for tribal societies vying for resources with other competing groups. Exclusive male homosexuality might be seen as particularly threatening in patrilineal societies.
Another element is the use of male-on-male rape as a form of asserting domination in some cultures. This could create an association of male homosexuality, at least, with humiliation and/or inhospitality.
As a final example, in some ancient contexts homosexuality was associated with temple prostitution. For cultures without those practices and particularly those in competition with groups with such practices, condemning same-sex sexuality could be an effort to reinforce cultural distinctiveness and ritual purity. | 52 | 115 |
CMV: I have to try out drugs to truly evaluate them and the people using them | Only by trying out and experimenting with hallucinogenic and dissociative drugs I can achieve an unbiased mindset. Drug use puts me into situations that are common to people using these substances and therefore I can gather experiences with other humans I wouldn't be able to get in a sober state of mind.
This gives me the right to evaluate these drugs and the groups using them. It broadens my horizon and pushes aside the opinion imposed on myself and the unknowing society.
In conclusion, there is no way for me to think outside my own box without the risk of using such drugs because I simply won't experience the real emotions and the truth.
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> *This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | Why do you need to evaluate the drugs or the groups using them at all? To expand your horizons? Isn't taking the drug on its own expanding your horizons? It honestly feels to me like you're just looking for a reason to take drugs. I'd argue that that's generally a bad idea, but if that's what you want to do, then just do it. You don't need to have a secondary reason. | 271 | 458 |
CMV: High school should prepare students to become responsible adults, rather than focusing on college prep | I realize this has probably been done to death, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Also, a couple of disclaimers. I'm coming from a US perspective, so I apologize if any terms or concepts don't correlate to other cultures. And, I graduated from high school ten years ago, so it could be that high school curriculum has changed since then.
I understand why schools focus so much on college prep. In the US, college is treated as a requirement, despite the fact that a huge number of people never get a college degree. So many jobs that pay a living wage have the luxury to require a bachelor's degree due to the sheer number of applicants, even when the position really doesn't require any advanced education. They can afford to be picky, if only to reduce the applicants to a manageable number. So parents know that for their child to achieve a financially comfortable life, they need to get a college degree. Parents vote for educational leaders who will implement policies aligned with that goal.
And when I say college prep, I'm talking about the more specialized classes we take in high school, like chemistry, biology, college algebra, and basically all the AP courses. Of course all of those teach valuable skills that apply to multiple areas in life; I'm not trying to say that these classes aren't valuable. Consider biology for example. There are many aspects of biology that are relevant to the average citizen, things like overall health awareness, understanding common medical procedures like vaccines, how diseases work and how they spread. The only reason I remember dissecting frogs is because I hated it, and I didn't really learn anything meaningful from it other than the haunting image of what a dissected frog looks like. I suppose you could say it helped me understand how life forms in general work, like how things have organs and blood vessels and system and such. I just find myself questioning the importance of knowledge like that, when there are other things I needed to know that were not taught to me.
When I think back to when I graduated high school ten years ago, I realize that I knew basically nothing about how to be a functioning member of society. School taught me about all of these advanced, college-level topics, but I didn't know a single goddamn thing about the following:
* That I had to pay taxes. I'm serious. I didn't pay my 2012 taxes because I didn't know I was supposed to. (I was part time minimum wage so don't worry, I don't think the IRS cares. It would have been a refund anyway, so technically I saved the government money)
* How to calculate my tax bracket. I had to learn this myself when I was self employed in 2016, and I ended up miscalculating and was $3k short in my self-withheld tax savings. I also didn't know that self employment tax had to be paid quarterly rather than annually, so I had to pay a nice fee for that.
* How to send a letter. My first landlord actually taught me because that's how he wanted me to send rent checks.
* How to budget effectively. I spent my first few years of employment paycheck to paycheck, sometimes being completely out of money days before my next paycheck, when I could have been saving money if I had a budget.
* How to maximize my savings, things like tax-advantaged accounts, investing, stocks
* How to build and maintain good credit
* How to build a resume. I actually learned this in my last year of college, everyone in the class had no idea.
* How to apply for jobs effectively, tailoring the resume and application to the position, nailing the interview, etc.
* How to get involved with the local community, townhall meetings, council meetings, boards and commissions, nextdoor, local news, etc.
* The importance of being politically involved and voting in both local and federal elections. I voted for the first time in 2018, before that I just never cared about politics because I didn't keep up with the news at all.
* Almost anything related to the law other than really simple things like don't attack people, or driving laws (which I didn't learn in school, technically). I didn't know anything about labor laws, local codes and ordinances, residential laws, my rights when interacting with the police, etc.
* How the government works, which branches are responsible for what, which elected official have the power to make what changes, etc.
* Almost everything related to the home. Maintaining the systems and foundation, utilities, how and when to buy a house, etc.
I don't think I'm the only one who graduated high school without the above knowledge. But now, as a 28 year old adult, I don't know how I could function without knowing those things. How could we expect any 18 year old to become a productive member of society without this knowledge? The only reason I made it is because I had a lot of privilege. Between my supportive parents, friends, other mentors, and the internet, I managed to learn everything I needed to know, but I often had to endure hardships because I didn't know these things when I needed to. In fact, if not for my somewhat natural talent with computers, I don't think I would have been able to learn what I needed to know before it became a very big problem.
Many people who support the current curriculum believe that it is the parents' responsibility to teach what I listed above. I will say my parents taught me a lot of important things that allowed me to learn what I needed to learn. For example, how to use computers and the Internet effectively, that was hugely important for me. But I guess for me, I just don't think it's right to expect certain things like paying taxes and being politically involved without making sure that the federal education curriculum teaches those skills. Just look at how many young adults end up in prison or homeless because they just don't know how to do basic things like maintain a budget, get a job, communicate effectively, and so on. These people end up being a drain on society whereas they could be meaningful contributors. I felt cheated when I got out of high school and realized I didn't know any of the things I was expected to know. Again, I don't think things like biology aren't important, but what does it say about my education when I remember that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but I don't know anything about paying taxes? It just feels like we've got the priorities reversed.
There are other things I think high school should teach based on what seem to be many shortcomings of current adults. The most important one, in my opinion, is how to research and evaluate sources effectively. I learned a little bit of this in high school, mainly that wikipedia doesn't count as a proper source for research papers, but college taught me so much more. Things like how to identify bias, how to evaluate research methods, red flags like spotting whether or not an article lists any sources, or if those sources are credible, diversifying information sources, being aware of my own biases and not only agreeing with titles that agree with my preconceived notion.
Literally just think about that for a second. How many people read a title that agrees with their bias and just assume it's true? How many people read or hear something very charismatically delivered and assume that they must be telling the truth? This is why there's such a prevalence of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, and so on. If we all understood the basics of fact checking and how to evaluate credible sources, these things would almost certainly disappear. We would immediately have a better educated society. We would start to see presidential candidates based on merit rather than popularity. This is one of those things that I genuinely think could solve a tremendous number of problems all by itself.
High school is supposed to prepare children to become responsible adults. I think rather than hoping that parents should teach life skills and government mandated responsibilities, the school system that our taxes pay for should give us at least the bare minimum of knowledge to do everything an adult is expected to do. Ideally other life skills like finances and job preparedness should also be taught, and for those who intend to pursue a career that requires higher education, they should have the option to include college prep courses. I don't think someone should be allowed to graduate high school without being taught how to do what is expected of them in adulthood.
Edit: Many have made the point that the aforementioned content would likely add at most a semester of material, but probably even less than that. As such, I no longer think this content should *replace* college prep, but rather it should simply be included. I do still believe that some of the more specialized courses such as higher level math, sciences, and so on should be electives for those who intend to pursue relevant fields, especially if the additions I'm proposing could not be added seamlessly.
Edit 2: Here's what I have learned or changed my view on so far:
* I should have clarified that I spend all of my grade school years in private school rather than public school. It's entirely possible that private schools may not be held to the same expectations about their curriculum as public schools, so my experience may not match what those who went to public school experienced.
* Some of these things I did learn in school, such as the structure of government. I honestly just misspoke there, because what I meant to describe was that I didn't really understand how I was supposed to interact with the government. Same thing with taxes, of course I understood the overall idea of taxes, but I didn't understand what I needed to do specifically. I knew that a portion of my income had to go to the government, but I wasn't taught that I needed to report it. So when my first job explained that my taxes were automatically withheld, I assumed I didn't have to worry about it. It wasn't until the next year that someone explained to me that I needed to file. As for interacting with the government, I knew about the branches of government, but I didn't understand that we voted for more than just the president.
* I agree with many who have said that this information in total would likely not require a substantial change to the curriculum, maybe just some added courses at the most. As such, if I could I would revise the title such that these concepts were taught *in addition* to college prep rather than *replacing* college prep.
* I would concede that perhaps rather than even a single course, with the prevalence of technology and the Internet, it may be optimal to impart this information in a concise, easily digestible collection of digital resources. Maybe just brief documents or infographics reminding upcoming graduates of what tasks they will be expected to perform as adults, and other information they can refer to rather than just being tossed in the pool and told to swim. With the Internet, they could easily look up the details when needed.
Edit 3: Some final reflections. I originally intended to reply to every comment, but there are far too many responses at this point for me to even try that.
In retrospect, I regret using "rather than" in the title. I think it created an unnecessary focus on defending specialized subjects. The reality is that I enjoyed nearly all of the advanced courses I took. I should have been more careful with my wording, because honestly the true feeling I had was that these life skills should be considered more of a requirement than they are.
Many people brought up courses like civics and home economics, which my school didn't offer, not even as electives. However, I seem to be in the minority with that experience. Even so, it doesn't change my belief that those courses should be required, not electives.
Despite what some have assumed/implied about me in this thread, I'm actually a pretty smart person. I was very successful in both high school and college, and now in my career. I had a 3.9 in high school IIRC. Somewhat embarrassingly a 3.1 in college, but that was mainly because I figured out what career I wanted to pursue, and it didn't require higher education, so I lost the motivation to keep my grades up in the last two years. I was one of the only people to make an A in calculus II, for whatever that's worth.
I should have been more clear in the original post about my understanding of taxes and writing letters. Many people thought that I didn't have any awareness of taxes at all, and of course that's not the case. I feel like this became a point many people dwelled on rather than spending time on other points. And many pointed out that letters were taught in elementary school, but I genuinely don't remember learning it, and I just never needed to send any letters growing up. I set up my first email account in 1999 when I was 7 years old, so I sent most of my messages via email rather than sending letters.
To be fair, some of the issues like sending letters are really not that big of a deal. It was honestly a bad example, I was just trying to be thorough and got carried away. And I definitely did learn about the structure of the federal government in school, maybe also state government, but I don't recall learning anything about county or local governments.
There seemed to be a fundamental debate underneath all of this in the form of what schools and parents ought to teach respectively. I didn't expect how divided many of the opinions would be on this issue, but I feel that the arguments were very instructive and meaningful.
I think many people oversimplified the issue by saying that all of these things could be figured out in a google search or youtube video. Of course that's true, but if you don't know it's required of you, you won't know to look it up until you're already in trouble. Some brought up that these moments of messing up and then doing the research are part of learning in the real world, and I suppose I can't really dispute that. I just don't think it's unreasonable to give students some easily digestible information for the common things they'll likely need to know as adults, and if I had been given that information, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Many brought up that high school students won't care or listen anyway. I mean sure, but those students aren't paying attention in other classes either, yet we still require those. We can't force students to pay attention, but we can at least make sure the information is made available to them.
Overall, this thread has been very interesting. I've got a lot to think about for sure. | I was personally taught many of the things you list but it's not very effective. You're teaching a child the rote steps to a procedure in the hopes that will use it multiple years later and remember how to do it. The likelihood is that they won't and will just google "how to address a letter" when they need to use it. The goal of teaching more abstract concepts, like biology, is so that students develop an intuition about the underlying systems. They don't need to remember the specific facts about the parts of a cell to remember that the human body has a highly advanced system for filtering and removing waste so that expensive juice cleanse that "removes the toxins from the body" is likely bullshit. | 682 | 13,598 |
ELI5: How does an engineer inspect a large building or bridge to know if it’s safe? | What are they look at / for ? | Are there cracks where there shouldn’t be any?
Where cracks are expected are they bigger than they should be?
Are any cracks showing signs of widening?
Is there visible corrosion?
Is concrete spalling? (Popping off the reinforcement).
Is water getting in?
Are beams/columns/walls/floors heavily deflected when they shouldn’t be?
Has anyone made any modifications to the structure - eg has someone cut a hole in a structural wall to install a door, or commonly in houses has someone cut pieces out of wood floor beams to install cables and pipes?
Are there any other signs of damage?
Is the current building use consistent with the loads it was designed for? | 14 | 18 |
ELI5: Why does water sometimes taste like nectar of the gods while other times its just, meh? | It's nice to know other people have these conundrums | The human brain has a way of regulating how much water a person can drink. When a person is thirsty, similar to feeling hunger, drinking water will taste better than when the person drinks past the feeling of being thirsty.
This is because if a person drinks too much water, the person could deplete sodium levels in the body, and develop hyponatremia, or cerebral edema (excess fluid in the brain).
So just think about when you eat something after being hungry for a long time and then trying to eat the same thing after being full. It will taste better when you're hungry versus when you're full. | 4,536 | 4,545 |
ELI5: Conductors, and why musicians need them. | I'm a bit confused why musicians in an orchestra need a conductor. Why can't they just read the notes and play the music in the written notes and tempo?
Also, I assume the musicians don't look at the conductor often since they're reading the notes off their sheets. What do they need him for? | First, I'd like to point out that a good musician is **always** watching the conductor. Sometimes it is out of peripheral vision, so when it looks like the musician is looking at the music, they are still watching the conductor. Actually, when a musician has practiced the music enough that they are performing it, they usually have the majority of the music memorized, and they can actively watch the director for the majority of the song. Now, why can't they just play the notes and tempo?
1. Try singing your favorite song right now. Then try listening to the actual song. You will probably notice that you were at least a little bit fast or slow. Imagine 10-100 or more people each starting at slightly different tempos. They're going to start getting way off very quickly. The conductor tells the musicians when to start, and exactly how fast to start at.
2. It is very hard for a human being to keep a steady tempo for ~~longer than~~ very long, depending on the person and the piece they're playing, especially when there are lots of different things being played at the same time (melody, harmony, counter-melody, percussion, and possibly more.) It's like playing 4 different songs at once. Plus, people have the natural tendency to play faster as they play louder and play slower as they play softer. The conductor is there to prevent that.
3. In many songs there are things called fermatas, which are symbols that basically tell the musician to hold the note until the director says to stop. There are also tempo changes, where the song gets faster, either suddenly or gradually. The conductor tells the musicians the tempo that they will be changing to.
4. Cues. When one instrument starts playing a part, the conductor will cue them in, which is basically reminding them that they come in at that time. This isn't strictly necessary if all of the musicians are counting the beats perfectly, but because people are people, they sometimes accidentally lose count. The conductor is there to help them get back to where they should be. The conductor will also cue the music becoming louder and softer. This is also should not be strictly necessary, but it helps the musicians play how the song is intended. For instance if the song goes from medium volume to loud, the conductor will wave his arms bigger and conduct in a way that helps the musicians think of being loud. This is much like a personal trainer at the gym: A personal trainer could say "Go lift that 100lb bar 20 times" and you would do it, but you would do it better if the personal trainer yelled at you, said things like "you can do it", and encouraged you. That's what the conductor is doing, he is encouraging the musicians to get in the mood and play louder.
There are some other reasons, but those are the big ones. Almost any musician that has played in a band with more than about ten people will tell you that it is nearly impossible to do it well without a conductor.
EDIT: Typos | 1,143 | 335 |
How does an equalizer work? | Specifically, how does it affect the volume of only specific frequency range(s) and is this mechanism significantly different for the different types of EQ? Assume a fairly basic understanding of sound and electronics. | An equalizer can be implemented in digital or in analog circuitry, but the basic concepts are similar. Divide the spectrum into different bands, and for each band have a band-pass filter. Send the sound through all of the filters in parallel, and each band-pass filter will output only the sound within its band, cutting off all of the others (mostly). Then mix the outputs of all of the band-pass filters together again, but put in a circuit with the ability to adjust the amplitude of each first.
So now some bands can be mixed down with respect to the others. (Alternatively, you can adjust the amplitude of the whole signal going into each band-pass filter.) When the bands are re-mixed together (and amplified, if required) the sounds in some are reduced in amplitude. | 89 | 360 |
Chemically speaking, what is "Fishiness?" | A lot of fish and other seafood definitely share this trait, sometimes with smell more than flavor. What causes a fish to be "fishy?" | In order to keep their hydric balance, marine creatures have to have something inside their cells to be isotonic. What most of them have is trimethylamine oxide, a somewhat volatile compound when broken down to trimethylamine. The problem is, trimethylamine happens to smell... bad. | 38 | 23 |
ELI5: Why do we often feel tired after low-energy activities such as sitting on a plane? | Well, that particular example inflicts quite a bit of stress, both emotional (lines and such, even assuming you aren't afraid of heights), and biological (altitude change, uncomfortable seats and restricted ability to move, persistent noise, and the like). Driving is another good example, again emotional stresses (if you're not occasionally getting mad while driving, you're probably not paying attention), and physical (restrained seat with limited ability to shift positions, sustained effort and concentration). | 18 | 42 |
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ELI5: How does the destruction of thousands of tons of illegal ivory help fight poachers and the black market? | Wouldn't that make them that much more valuable? | In order to make money on poaching, there's two steps. First, kill the rhino. Second, sell the horn. (or whatever animal.) If you only complete step one, you wasted a lot of time and effort.
By destroying confiscated ivory, you ensure that step two doesn't ever happen for a LOT of poachers. Yes, a few who didn't get caught will make a lot of money. But it means that *most* poachers will be frustrated out of their profits and hopefully discouraged from trying again. | 38 | 52 |
ELI5: Why are there still radar dead spots over the oceans, despite all of the modern technology? | Radar needs a direct line of sight connecting the tower and the object. The earth is curved so if you go far enough away from a tower you can't see any radar towers.
The ocean is just too big to have a line of sight to from a tower to every part of it. | 28 | 38 |
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ELI5: How does counting cards work in blackjack? | You assign point values to each card.
* 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ➤ +1
* Cards 7, 8, 9 ➤ 0
* Cards 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace ➤ -1
After each card is played, add the points of the count to the running total. The lower the count is, the more likely it is that you'll receive a lower card.
The higher the count is, the more likely it is that you'll receive a high card.
Counting cards does not guarantee you to win over the casino. Generally if the cameras catch you, you'll be thrown out and to truly have an advantage, you need to be really good. Even then, you need to have a lot of chips, because the odds are so slim, that you'll only truly make money in the long run. It is statistically likely that you'll lose because you'll wind up on a bad streak and the casino can outlast you because they have more money. | 27 | 41 |
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ELI5:How did the ancient Polynesians find places like Tahiti, the Cook Islands and Hawaii | I visited Hawaii for the first time this year and I am fascinated with Polynesian culture. How did they look out at the ocean and know how to sail to such small remote islands? Obviously, their astral navigation was extremely sophisticated but how did they know something was...out there... | There are whole books on the subject.
Basically, if you live on the sea and can read the signs, you can tell that an island is near even though you are hundreds of miles away. It has to do with the cloud patterns, the birds, the wave patterns and the wind.
For example, if waves are passing an island, they will be distorted around the island. This distortion persists for many miles.
Also...luck. If you are able to be at sea for a couple of months, you can explore a lot and still return home if you find nothing. | 31 | 44 |
ELI5: How were artists capable of depicting kings or persons who were deceased by the time they're about to do so? Did they used existing manuscripts about the person, or was there any complex research and studies made before depicting the subject? | They used existing descriptions, interviewed people that knew them, and studied existing artwork.
A lot of medieval artwork was also done to make the subjects look better than they actually did.
But in some cases they just guessed. With Jesus for example there were no descriptions or artwork available so the image traditional associated with Christ (Long hair, beard, white skin) is completely fictitious. They made him look like a contemporary European Noble. | 32 | 33 |
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ELI5: Why do some dried fruits (raisins, prunes, etc) have their own names while others (dried apples, dried mango, etc) do not? | Raisins, prunes, etc., are whole fruits that will preserve naturally if dried properly. They also date back to antiquity, along with dates, figs, etc., which don't have nicknames.
Apples, mangoes, etc., will not dry whole, but simply rot. They need to be portioned and dried rapidly, a task made all the easier by using a modern dehydrator. | 38 | 70 |
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Why are red blood cells safe from natural killer cells? | I'm currently reading Philipp Dettmer's excellent book, *Immune*. In it, he explains that unlike other immune cells, natural killer cells identify infected/corrupt cells by (among other things) detecting the absence of MHC Class I molecules on the surface of the cell, which are normally in abundance on all healthy nucleated cells in the human body.
In a footnote, he explains that infected red blood cells are safe(r?) from NK cells because they don't have MHC Class I molecules anyway.
What's not explained (as far as I can tell; I haven't quite finished the book) is how the NK cell knows the absence of MHC I on a red blood cell is normal. Is there some other marker that says "I'm a red blood cell" or is there more to activating NK cells than the reduction of this molecule? Or can the NK cells simply not trigger apoptosis in red blood cells for some reason?
I'm not sure if I am missing something or my understanding is just fundamentally incorrect and I should go back and re-read a few chapters. | So the way that NK cells function is by responding to activating signals and inhibitory signals through their activating (NKG2C, KIR-2DS, 3DS) and inhibiting receptors (NKG2A, KIR 2DL, 3DL). The inhibitory receptors recognize MHC I, which recruits protein phosphatases (SHP-1 and 2) and inhibit signaling. The activating receptor induces phosphorylation and activates the killing function of NK cells.
Erythrocytes lack both activating and inhibitory signals, so the NK cells are not receiving a signal that tells them that the RBC is stressed and needs to be destroyed (no activating signal to tip the balance towards destruction). There are also many other signals that help the immune cells distinguish between self vs. non-self; the one that is usually referenced is CD47. | 34 | 29 |
ELI5: How can frosting/icing made with dairy be left on an unrefrigerated cupcake for days without spoiling? | If the sugar concentration in a food is very high, the sugar acts a desiccant and preservative. It literally pulls water out of the cells of microorganisms, mummifying them and thereby preventing them from spoiling the food.
Similarly, if the water has been removed from a dairy product, as with butter, it doesn’t go bad very quickly. Butter is basically just oil and has had most of the water removed from it. So butter can be left to sit out at room temperature for days without going bad. | 178 | 103 |
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How do rising interest rates combat inflation? | Printing a bunch of new money the past couple of years is what caused this huge increase in inflation, right? How exactly does raising interest rates combat all this new printing of money? | There are at least a couple of different ways to think about this. One way is to realize that raising the federal funds target is synonymous with taking money out of the economy. In order to push the rate up, the fed sells bonds and takes that money effectively out of circulation, lowering the money supply.
Another way to think about it is to realize that higher interest rates disincentivize economic activity. Saving becomes more attractive relative to consumption. Borrowing becomes more expensive, raising the cost of investment and consumption of durables. This lowers aggregate demand and puts downward pressure on inflation. | 143 | 90 |
ELI5: why is smokable marijuana prescribed? | With all the other ways of introducing marijuana into the body (edibles, supplements, etc.), why is smokable marijuana prescribed? It just seems to be not healthy to me as you’re inhaling smoke, which cause all kinds of other health issues. Is there some benefit that smoking it has vs ingesting it? | Ingesting marijuana by smoking it causes the effects to become apparent almost immediately, which is desirable in many cases where medical marijuana is prescribed. This can include pain management, and anxiety management. The faster you can stop the symptoms, the better, and inhaling marijuana smoke is the fastest way for the effects to become apparent. It does, however, present many of the same health risks as tobacco smoke, but most users would probably say that the benefits of feeling the effects relatively quickly outweigh the damage done to the lungs and respiratory system. | 30 | 25 |
[marvel] How can Emma Frost move when her skin is in diamond form ? | The same ability that allows her to tighten the bonds between her carbon atoms and reconfigure them into diamond allows her to loosen them at the molecular level to allow movement, likely without conscious thought. | 13 | 21 |
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Why does a number raised to zero equals 1? | When you multiply a number by zero it equals zero.
x * 0 = 0
Why does it equal 1 if you raise it to zero?
x^0 = 1 | This helped me understand.
2^3 = 8
2^2 = 4
2^1 = 2
2^0 = 1
2^-1 = 1/2
Each time you decrease the exponent by one, you are in effect dividing by X.
It makes sense that if moving from X^3 (X * X * X) to X^2 (X * X) means dividing by X, that X^1 should mean dividing by X again. And X^-1 means dividing by X again, or 1/X. This is just a convention based on the relationship between X^2, X^3, X^4, etc. It would be possible to come up with a different convention, but this one works well and is quite useful. | 78 | 48 |
CMV: In calculus, integrating should be taught first before taking derivatives. | I apologize if this is the way most of you have learned it. I was taught derivatives first...
I think integration should be taught first because it's much easier for a student with no exposure to calculus to understand the concept of what an integral is. Students learn about areas before middle school. They have a concept of what integration is already. In fact, when I took Calc I in high school, we learned about Riemann Sums before we started actually taking derivatives! I think the idea of a derivative is much more conceptually difficult.
Can someone explain to me why Calculus is taught with integration second?
Disclaimer: although I share this view, it was first brought up by my multivariable calc professor.
Edit: I know think I have a better understanding of why the sequence is structured how it is... having said that, those of you who say that it is impossible to do what I suggest should know there is a textbook out there that does it this way.
_____
> *Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to* ***[read through our rules](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/rules)***. *If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,* ***[downvotes don't change views](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/guidelines#wiki_upvoting.2Fdownvoting)****! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our* ***[popular topics wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/wiki/populartopics)*** *first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to* ***[message us](http://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/changemyview)***. *Happy CMVing!* | Differentiation is easy - there is a simple algorithm to differentiate any differentiable function, while integrating is much more difficult without any simple algorithm covering all cases.
There are also real-world analogies for differentiation - e.g. speed (edit: velocity) and acceleration which you understand on some level even before you start attending elementary school. | 348 | 354 |
ELI5: What are the main differences between Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy? | As the church got more organized differences in how churches were organized and how they practiced the rituals of their faith grew. Eventually these differences grew large enough that a church split, in church history the most important splits are called schisms.
The first major schism occurred between the now Orthodox and now Catholic churches and involved the major issue of would Rome be sole head of the faith or would each nation have its own head of the faith. The Catholic church follows Rome, while the Orthodox churches have national heads.
The next major schism occurred after Gutenberg greatly reduced the cost of printing books. Prior to then, only the church and very wealthy individuals could afford to pay people to hand copy books (so the church was the only interpreter of the bible because they were nearly the only owners of bibles). As a result of cheap books, a difference grew between soon to be Protestants who preferred decentralized interpretation of the bible (right down to individual believers owning a copy of the bible and reading and interpreting it themselves) and Catholics who prefer a single interpretation of the bible. While the seeds were planted by the printing press, Protestantism got started when Martin Luther nailed 95 theses (or protests) of Church practices to a church door (hence the name Protestants). | 11 | 22 |
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With the introduction of vaccines, even if a variant isn’t strictly “covered” by the vaccine due to changes in proteins, would there be enough “training” of the body’s immune system on how to deal with a corona virus that the body would be more efficient if infected later? | At the start of the Pandemic, a lot of the concern was about the novelty of the virus and the fact that the majority of humans would most likely not have contacted a coronavirus and so the body wouldn’t know how to efficiently “fight” it
This is often cited as why the flu is no longer (generally) as bad, due to “people” having seen some form of flu at some point in their life. | Short answer: Yes
Long answer: Probably
When you get exposed to an antigen (by getting infected or by getting a vaccine), your body generates B cells (generate antibodies) and T cells (recognize and kill infected cells).
I'll focus on B cells:
First, there will be a B cell that, just by random chance, has some affinity for the antigen. That B cell will divide like gangbusters but, in doing so, will undergo something called "somatic hyper mutation". This means that the DNA that codes for the "recognition" part of the B cell will be modified in countless ways. Invariably, some of these new B cells will be even better at recognizing the new antigen, and these will be selected for. In the end, you have a population of B cells producing antibodies that have been selected for their ability to bind the novel antigen really well.
Generally, these antibodies will also be good at binding other things that *look* a lot like the first antigen so small mutations in the virus won't be able to escape.
​
A (silly) analogy:
Gang of criminals from London moves into your neighborhood and your crime-fighting robot AI generates anti-gang drones. Some recognize the tattoos of Big Ben that all the members have, some recognize the Union Jack, some listen for their specific slang words ("Bloody hell!") or go after mini Coopers. The drones are, of course, tested first to make sure they don't accidentally recognize civilians (in the body this is called "negative selection").
Obviously, if a brand new Viking gang moves in and they're from Norway and drive motorcycles and wear furry horn hats, your crime fighting drones will not be much help. If, on the other hand, another gang from London moves in, your current drones might work pretty well and require few adjustments.
A bit more of a stretch might be a gang from Australia. Some of your drones might recognize just enough aspects of the new guys to keep them at bay while a new batch of drones that goes after cans of Fosters and dudes with crocodile teeth sewn into their hats comes online. | 26 | 112 |
If a quantum computer is basically trying all the solutions at once, how does it know which is the correct solution? | Quantum computers don't "try all solutions at once". This statement is predicated on real-world (i.e. classical physics assumptions) that don't all hold up. There is a model of computation that does "try all solutions at once" called a Non-deterministic Turing machine, but it is widely believed to be impossible to simulate by a conventional Turing machine in polynomial time. (The P v NP question).
When you say "try a solution," you imagine an oracle of some kind, like in Nethack or Delphi that will answer your questions. When you try many solutions at once, you may imagine that you ask every query to every oracle at once.
But that's not how quantum computers work, really. In a classical computer, you could imagine a model like that. Each gate is performing a query on some inputs and using those queries, they perform other queries. At each stage in the computation, you could measure the state of the computer and have some answers to some questions.
Example: You want to add 3 + 3. Computer looks at this as 11 + 11 in binary.
It adds the units digits together to get the first digit is 0 and the second digit is 1 + 1 + 1 mod 2 = 1. And the third digit is 1. Each of these computations involves partial information. For instance, after the first computation, we know that our solution is an even number, thus eliminating half of the possibilities.
So now we think about quantum computers and we realize they work very differently. Instead of performing queries and storing them in a register, they build up massive superposition states and perform partial measurements. So those are kind of made-up words (made up by quantum physicists in the 1920's) but quite invaluable.
A superposition state is an explicitly quantum state where the true *state* of a system (a state is a variable that stores all meaningful physical information about something) is given by a set of possible outcomes rather than by a single outcome. This is not a very strange concept naively. For instance, we consider ordinary matter to have a Temperature which specifies a set of possible energy states that the matter can be in. We don't know the exact energy of every molecule in a cup of coffee, but we have a pretty good idea of the average.
In quantum computing, however, the superposition state of a system is not just a statement of our uncertainty about the state variable. The state just has many measurement outcomes.
Someone had the bright idea that if we purposely create this bizzare state of matter up correctly, we can prepare it in massively superposed ways and then *interfere states with eachother*.
Thus, we can build up computations with special rules, where some final states are allowed and others are not. Instead of thinking of the quantum computer as "trying every solution at once", it may better to think about it as "imposing certain special rules on a big state and then seeing what that implies".
The principle difference is that quantum computers don't have any partial queries.
Another way to look at this is the difference between classical and quantum information. We believe that there is a different type of information content contained in quantum systems that has weird properties: It can travel faster than light; it cannot be cloned or copied; we don't know very much about it.
This quantity is fundamental to our advances in quantum computing but it works very differently than many articles lead one to believe.
tl;dr:
>"Instead of thinking of the quantum computer as "trying every solution at once", it may better to think about it as "imposing certain special rules on a big state and then seeing what that implies"."
Thanks, Velcommen | 217 | 349 |
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Why can't salt water fish breathe in fresh water and vice-versa? It's all water right? | I feel like I should have learned this at some point but I haven't. | saltwater fish are less salty than their surroundings to stay physiologically stable so they constantly drink saltwater to keep hydrated while using chloride cells in the gills to excrete excess ions. continuing this process as needed keeps their body osmolarity stable. on the other hand, freshwater fish are hyperosmotic to their surroundings and will have water diffuse across skin and gills directly to their system. to keep from swelling up and dying they have advanced kidneys that allow them to quickly get rid of this excess water. salt and freshwater fish cannot live in each others environment without having the others adaptations. This however has nothing to do with breathing as they will both receive the same amount of oxygen across the gills from either water supply. fish who are brackish have features of both and can go into either system. | 18 | 27 |
ELI5: How is an economy "stimulated", what does it mean to stimulate an economy, and what leads to inflation? | This might've been asked before but it's something I've never understood, so thought I might as well ask. | Two methods: fiscal policy (government decisions to tax more/less or provide more:less subsidies and payments to businesses or people) and monetary policy (a central bank managing interest rates). These days the big one is the latter.
All interest rates in a country (eg your interest rate on a line of credit, personal loan and mortgage) are based off that country’s Policy Rate. Commercial banks can borrow from the central bank at that policy rate (well, not exactly at that rate but let’s not go into details about that). They in turn lend that money to people and businesses. If the policy rate goes up, then the rates at which they lend go up (to maintain their profit margin). If the policy rate goes down, then the banks lower the rates at which they lend to consumers.
The policy rate is raised to cool down an economy (that is, to keep inflation in check) if it’s overheating. This happens since higher central bank rates mean people and businesses are less likely to take out loans to spend on things like houses, cars etc. If people aren’t spending as much there is less demand for products so prices don’t increase very fast, which means inflation won’t increase (in theory) very fast. The economy starts to cool off since spending is one of the main components of a country’s GDP (the others being investment, government spending and net exports)
Or the central bank can do the opposite: lower its policy rate so banks can lower their lending rates. People decide to borrow more money to buy more stuff, increasing gdp. demand goes up but that also leads to inflation.
Basically it’s a big game of equilibrium and balance. Banks like to keep an inflation target typically around 2% since that leaves a nice buffer to avoid deflation (ie negative inflation, or decreasing prices) which is a whole other story and which can be very dangerous to an economy. | 22 | 34 |
What is the job market like for economists? | I don’t know if this is the correct place to ask this question, but I’m going to ask anyway.
I am a final year undergrad Economics student. I am from Sub Saharan Africa. I am very heavily considering doing my postgraduate degrees in Economics/ Development Economics. I however am not sure what the job market for economists is like in Northern America (Canada and the US) or Europe since I am considering on moving out of my home country for a period of time. | Jobs are great for economists if you’re flexible. It depends on what you want to do. Phd works great for research, if you like helping on research projects with current undergrad projects you probably have a good idea of the work that will continue to be involved. Private sector jobs for economists typically split out into two general paths which are data science based analysts finding trends in data and finance related jobs depending on your econ program | 38 | 55 |
(Superman) What would happen if Superman where to be locked in a kryptonite cage and then flown into the sun? | Superman lives due to a variety of outcomes:
* On certain occasions extreme exposure to solar energy has given Superman the ability to quickly overcome the dangerous effects of krypotnite. As he draws closer to the sun, he gains the strength to break free.
If he cannot gather enough energy to break out...
* Superman has been shown to be able to enter the sun and survive. Kryptonite isn't known to survive such extreme conditions. Depending on which area of the multiverse you're in, it will either **A.** Turn into black kryptonite, allowing superman and his evil clone to easily break free or **B.** Melt.
If somehow the sun doesn't alter the cage...
* Superman has a long life span. At least a million years long. Kryptonite's half-life is substantially shorter than that. The cage's ability to harm superman will gradually reduce over time, and his powers will be restored.
If somehow the same solar energy that makes pieces Krypton poisonous to its former native inhabitants indefinitely prolongs its decay...
* Certain instances of Superman have been known to become immune to Kryptonite after constant exposure from villain after villain getting their hands on a piece. Long term exposure to the cage speeds up the process, and he breaks free with one less weakness.
If this immunity never develops because his exposure is constant...
* Superman is saved by Batman, because Batman has prepared for everything. *Everything.* | 42 | 16 |
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Any recommended books for developmental economics? | I am currently working as an undergrad in a group doing research on poverty. I am really interested in learning about both developing countries and how that might apply to the inner cities in America. I'm not an econ major but have taken a few classes on economics, and I really do believe that I need to gain a better understanding of economics in order to understand the issue of poverty. Any suggestions? | There has been a surge in good popular books on development economics. All of these are worth reading:
1. de Soto, "The Mystery of Capital."
2. Easterly, "The Elusive Quest for Growth."
3. Easterly, "The White Man's Burden."
4. Sachs, "The End of Poverty."
5. Collier, "The Bottom Billion."
6. Collier, "Wars, Guns and Votes."
7. Sen, "Development as Freedom."
8. Acemoglu and Robinson, "Why Nations Fail."
9. Yunus, "Banker to the Poor."
10. Yunus, "Creating a World Without Poverty."
For a textbook perspective, Weil's undergraduate book "Economic Growth" is good.
These all focus on developing countries. | 10 | 22 |
ELIF: How do products like 3-in-one shampoo/conditioner/bodywash work? How do they get it all "in there?" | First, know that there is a difference between soaps and detergents.
A bar of soap is soap.
Everything else that you use that is a liquid is actually some type of detergent. They are made of many things, but the main ingredients involve some sort of ion complex that has polar and non-polar (greasy) properties. The non-polar greasy parts adhere to the dirt and oils, and the polar parts adhere to water, allowing you to wash it away. Many detergents have some sort of ingredient to make it foam up, but the foam does not make it clean any better, contrary to popular belief.
The 3-in-1 is actually one detergent that was developed to do a good job cleaning your hair and body. The conditioner part is just a silicone like dimethicone to give the hair a slightly shiny, smoothed appearance and feel. Most shampoos actually have this built-in "conditioner."
Happy to explain it further if you'd like | 14 | 19 |
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ELI5: why does rain in the tropics come down heavy for an hour and then vanish, but in europe the rain is mostly light and can last all day? | Rain in the tropics is normally air mass thunderstorms and other downpours from vertical convection (heating at the surface causing air to rise).
I think you're imagining Western Europe. In Western Europe the Atlantic is so warm it provides warmth to the land in Fall, Spring, and Winter--the tradeoff of supplying that warmth is steady, misty moisture as the warm moist air condenses on the cooler land. | 1,670 | 3,867 |
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Is there a reason a greenscreen has to be green? Can other colours be used? | Any color can be used, however bright green is often used because it's a color that doesn't appear commonly in clothes or in the human body, making it easier to separate out the background and things in front of it. If you try to, for example, use white you rule out white clothing which is common, because the software wouldn't be able to distinguish between the clothes and background, or the whites of your eyes for example. It's a color that usually contrasts well with things you want to film, but other than that it isn't special. | 52 | 31 |
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ELI5: What are the core differences between a pyramid scheme and an actual business | A business sells products and/or services. A pyramid scheme pretends to sell goods and/or services, but is actually selling its own marketing opportunities.
It can be hard to tell the difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate MLM since the lines get blurred and they often have the same marketing strategies. But at the end of the day, a legitimate company will have something worth buying. | 18 | 23 |
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What is energy? | I'm a kinesiology major so the energy I learn about comes from ATP. When the terminal phosphate breaks off from the rest of the phosphates, the bond breaks and energy is released. But what *is* that energy? Is it actually something, or is just a term used to describe something with no physical qualities?
Also, I suck at categorizing my posts so sorry if I should have chosen something else. | Energy is a conserved mathematical property in time-invariant systems. It lets us quantify how much work can be done. It is no more or less physical than any other measurement - say, height of a table.
So let's say a book sits on a shelf. We can say it has gravitational potential energy because once it falls off that shelf, it will gain kinetic energy. The _system_ of "book on shelf" therefore has energy - more energy than the system of "book on floor".
I will just add that the breaking of a bond does not release energy - it's a very common but incorrect short-hand taught, especially in biology. In all chemical systems, the breaking of a chemical bond _requires_ energy, since a chemical bond is by definition an energetically favourable configuration of electrons - think bottom of a valley if the valley is the energy landscape. Therefore to break the bonds requires input of energy.
When you say that the phosphoester bond in ATP is broken and energy is released, what's meant is that the bond is broken _and new, more stable bonds are formed_, and that total reaction releases energy. It is akin to pushing a ball out of the aforementioned valley, only to have to roll down to a even deeper valley.
So a chemical bond stores energy in the sense that there can be alternate configurations of atoms that are even more stable, thereby releasing energy to do work on something else. | 48 | 18 |
ELI5:Quantum Mechanics and its relation to Physics | Up to date, I have not a solid comprehension of the term Quantum Mechanics. | Quantum mechanics is a set of mathematical approaches to making predictions about the behavior of very small things. It's conceptually similar to, but completely different from, classical mechanics, which is a set of mathematical approaches to making predictions about the behavior of normal-sized things. | 11 | 19 |
AskScience AMA Series: I am Victor Ray, a sociologist who writes about race and social theory. My most recent focus has been on how organizations use ideas about race (and racism). AMA! | I am an assistant professor with appointments in Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies at the University of Iowa. My work applies critical race theory to classic sociological questions. I've been published in academic venues like the American Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, and the Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. I've also written about my scholarship and commentary for venues like The Washington Post, Boston Review and the Harvard Business Review. Follow on twitter [@victorerikray](https://twitter.com/victorerikray)
I will be on at 1pm ET (17 UT), AMA!
Username: raceandsocialtheory | To what extent do you worry that data collected on race could be used to oversimplify a complex problem and push a politically motivated solution instead of the right solution? The 'superpredator' thing in the 90s comes to mind. | 130 | 1,296 |
ELI5: What determines if a plant is a fruit or a vegetable? | It depends on the context since different words mean different things in different contexts.
In botany, fruit refers the part of a flowering plant that has seeds. Things like apples and pears are botanical fruits, but so are tomatoes, cucumbers, legumes, and eggplant. The thing that makes them all fruit is they come from flowering plants and contain the seeds from that plant.
Vegetable is not a botanical term.
In cooking, fruit usually refers to any part of a plant that tastes sweet and is often eaten uncooked. A vegetable is usually any part of a plant that is savory and is often eaten cooked.
There are some legal classifications for foods too that may be different than the above definitions. For example, imported vegetables might be taxed differently from imported fruits and the law would just have to have a list of what counts as a fruit and what counts as a vegetable. Or it might matter for meeting nutritional guidelines (this is where "Congress said pizza sauce is a vegetable" comes from).
So a tomato is a fruit botanically speaking, but a vegetable in terms of cooking. On the other hand, jicama is not a botanical fruit, but it is a culinary fruit. | 120 | 154 |
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