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How do attractive forces actually work? | For example gravity, magnetism and electrostatic. Do particles pull towards each other by some link like an elastic band or do they emit particles in the opposite direction to each other to push them together (if so how do they know to do that?) or is it something else entirely? | 19 | It seems you are being confused by considering virtual particles as being anything at all like actual particles. They are not. Thinking of virtual particles like this is nice for being able to draw Feynman diagrams but not really for anything else. | 10 |
I do not believe it matters whether or not there is a God or gods. CMV. | **EDIT:** First, thanks all for participating. Second, thanks for 57 upvotes - I'm glad this is a successful post. Third, I stopped replying because I was noticing all the same arguments and none of them have changed my view in any way. I remain apathetic as to the (non)existence of a supernatural creator.
This is not about the BELIEF in a supernatural creator. That can be a deep and profound and meaningful personal journey. I personally find it to be bullshit, but that's not the point. My point is you can believe or not believe and it doesn't change the world or the fact that god may or may not exist.
The argument that it matters because prayers could then be worthwhile is false: Prayer has no measurable effect. Whether or not there is a god, prayer has the same effect.
The argument about an afterlife is also false: The existence of an afterlife does not depend on a god *but* if it *did* a hell is better than nonexistence. Therefore it only matters if you fear hell, which I do not. Frankly I think all Christians feel the same way because Christian doctrine is basically engineered to ensure that everyone goes to hell.
The argument that it matters if god can intervene in human affairs is similarly missing the point: If god exists then (s)he has always existed and therefore the earth and universe spins the way it does, period. Sure (s)he could do whatever but (s)he doesn't. Worrying about god because (s)he *could* send dragons / typhoons / miracles is kind of like worrying about blackholes and aliens and the center of the earth boiling out to the middle.
In other words and to put it simply the earth and universe have and will continue to move in predictable and reliable ways irrelevant of the (non)existence of god(s). If there's an afterlife then there is, if there isn't then there isn't. It is what it is.
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**ORIGINAL POST:**Since it is impossible to comprehensively disprove or prove the (non)existence of a deity or pantheon I feel it's better to just get on with life and accept that the world is at it is and will be as it will be and the afterlife, if there is one, will be as it will be. Whether or not it's all been arranged by a theoretical superbeing / creator is irrelevant to our present situation.
To be clear, I do not believe in god. I was raised Jewish and identify as a Jew and if I were to be religious that's the sort of view I'd take, but I no more believe in god than I do in unicorns and place the same importance on the lot of supernatural creatures.
Whether or not there is a god:
* The world / universe assumes orderliness.
* Good things happen to bad people and vice versa.
* People are capable of being benevolent or malevolent irrelevant of (or because of) their spiritual beliefs.
Why should anyone care whether or not there is a god or gods? I do **not** ask why we should care whether other people believe, as the answer there is clear: Atheists find religion harmful and theists find conversion to be a holy mandate.
**edit:** I am not arguing that BELIEF in god is irrelevant because it can have a major impact on one's life. I am saying irrelevant of belief god's existence is irrelevant. | 57 | It matters if there is a god who rewards belief, and the only way to win the prize of an afterlife (or of a super-special-good afterlife) is based on the amount of devotion toward him/her/it/them you have paid during your life.
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ELI5:Why can't men (easily) continue with intercourse after orgasm? And why women can? | 1,030 | A man who continues to have sex after orgasm runs the risk of scooping out all of his own semen, undoing his hard work. There is an evolutionary advantage to letting everything cool down for a little while. | 769 |
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[Witcher] Are there giant sea monsters (Kraken)? How do witchers handle them? | 25 | For a kraken, or really most giant sea monsters, the procedure is as follows:
**Step One:** Hire out a barge and the biggest galleon you can lay hands on to tow it. Don't plan on getting your deposit back for that barge.
**Step Two:** Load down the barge with whatever farm animal is cheapest that week. Kraken aren't picky.
**Step Three:** Have your hired galleon haul your loaded barge, with you on it, into the beast's territory under the light of a full moon.
**Step Four:** While en route, take two swigs of *Yuri's Cloaca*. For the uninitiated, it's a potion that, among other things, dramatically increases the amount of oxygen that can be safely stored in the blood, allowing a Witcher to fight for hours without drawing a breath.
The name came about because Yuri, the Witcher who invented it, kept it a secret and so a rumor started up that the reason he could hold his breath for so long was that he was down there sucking air out of fish assholes.
Plus the taste is just awful, even by potion standards.
**Step Five:**Instruct the crew of your galleon to circle your barge about a mile away, and to run dark. Light torches around the barge and slaughter an animal or two, letting their blood drip into the water.
**Step Six:** You now smell delicious and are impossible to miss. You'll probably get a questing tentacle within minutes. Let it have the run of the barge. Once your prey determines that, holy shit, there really *is* a boat full of easy meat up there, it will fully emerge and ensnare the barge.
**Step Seven:** Now you've got him! While the Kraken is busy trying to crush the barge launch yourself as close to its center of mass as you can get, while avoiding things like teeth or spikes.
**Step Eight:** Start digging. You want to become the deadliest tick there ever was. A combination of katar and hook sword will usually serve you well here.
The way these monsters are built, they can't easily respond to something that's sitting right on them, and their flesh won't be heavily armored so you should be able to worm your way into its body and fully out of its reach.
**Step Nine:** Here's where the wisdom of doing so much of your anatomy training blindfolded becomes apparent. You're going to have to find what passes for a central nervous and/or circulatory system and deliver a killing blow, and do it quickly. There's a good chance your prey is freaking out right now and will dive for safety.
Diving is bad. A monster that dies underwater can't be roped by your pursuit galleon, and that means you won't have a carcass to bring back for proof of your kill.
**Step Ten:** Assuming you moved fast enough, you should now have one giant sea monster corpse ready to be redeemed for a substantial reward, minus the barge deposit of course.
**Step Eleven:** Get back to your ale and whores until something else needs killing.
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eli5: How were square roots calculated in the first place, before calculators? | 17 | You would look them up in a table. The tables were populated by hand calculation.
For example, what's the square root of 20? Well, you know it's going to be more than 4 and less than 5, because 16 is 4² and 25 is 5². So you might try 4.5. So then you would square 4.5 and get 20.25. This tells you that the square root of 20 must be a bit less than 4.5. So you could try 4.4. You square 4.4 and you get 19.36.
So now you know that the square root of 20 must be 4.4xxx. So you might try 4.45. 4.45² is 19.8025, so that's too low. 4.46² is 19.8916, so that's too low. 4.47² is 19.9809.
That gives us a second decimal place. Now let's add another decimal place. 4.475² is 20.025625. 4.474² is 20.016676. 4.472² is 19.998784...
So now by essentially guessing and checking, we've gotten three decimal places on the square root of 20. 4.472. We could keep going and keep adding decimal places through the exact same method. | 46 |
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[LotR] How do the stone giants reproduce? | Great big stone sex? | 26 | It's questionable whether the stone giants even *exist*. The original text of the Red Book mentions them "playing" by throwing stones at each other as a way of explaining loud, thunderous sounds during a rainstorm. It's entirely possible that this was a whimsical addition by Bilbo.
If they *are* real, then the giants are most likely rock animated by some sort of spirit, or descendents of such creatures. If so, then their procreation could be done via any of a dozen different methods -- they could craft children out of stone, or new giants could spontaneously form from spirits entering a cliff face, or they could have some weird form of sexual reproduction. There's simply not enough evidence to say how they reproduced (which should be clear from the fact that it's unclear if they actually *exist*). | 34 |
[Star Trek] Why does Starfleet insist on putting the bridge on the most venerable part of the ship, namely the very top deck and dead centre. One phaser strike and the whole command staff are gone in one go, wouldn't it be better to you know have it 50 decks lower and not in the saucer at all? | 186 | For one, it's not all that vulnerable. It's still behind shields that take an ungodly amount of destructive force to breach. Not an unimaginable amount, but it's really quite a lot. To boot, once the shields are gone, no part of the ship is really that much safer than any other.
And building on that, for two: Starfleet isn't in the business of getting in fights. It's not a Navy, and their ships, with a few notable exceptions, aren't built for war. Given those strong shields, the only conceivable need to bury the bridge deep in the bowels of the ship is that you're trying to fight people with very powerful weapons. This is a failure mode for the Federation, not a primary operating stance. Thus it's not something that's going to be a primary motivation in starship design. | 191 |
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[Star Trek] How can a holographic bullet kill somebody on the holodeck? How can a holodeck misfuction so much that it creates a being that can then leave the facility ala Prof Moriarty? | 32 | The Holodeck creates "hard light". If you can use the Holodeck to create a chair that you can sit on, then you can create a bat to hit someone upside the head. Or a bullet.
Further, spoiler here, but Moriarty never left the Holosuite program. He left a simulation of it, and walked onto a simulation of the Enterprise outside the Holodeck. | 54 |
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[DC] Has Jesus Christ actually make an appearance in comic? | I've read many DC comics that has relation to divinity like Lucifer,Phantom Stranger,Spectre and Constantine but I've never actually seen Jesus Christ appear.
Phantom Stranger's sin is that he literally betrayed Jesus Christ and is punished for it but that must mean that Jesus Christ does exist in DC comic.
The Presence made plenty of appearance but I have yet to see Christ himself even once.
| 18 | Jesus was just the mortal form of God himself. If you see God you see his son.
And why would Jesus need to show himself? The heavenly beings rarely bother to make their presence apparent, relying on fate and good people to enact their will. Only demons need to be physically present to prove their power | 12 |
[King Kong] Who built the wall around Skull Island? | Who built the wall and the village, and what happened to them? How did whoever built the wall not get eaten by dinosaurs and giant bugs while building it? | 21 | The inhabitants built the wall from experience of being killed by dinosaurs and etc, and through this Kong set up a kind of deal where he'd protect them if they sacrificed a girl in payment. One could argue this situation was set up BECAUSE of them building, as in it incited them to build, and Kong would protect the build until it was done | 17 |
[MONSTERS INC] I would love it if someone could please analyze the curriculum of scaring and how it could be tied to Waternoose's concerns with the future of scream energy. The new scarers, energy crisis, the "risks" and stresses of being a scarer, and the issues trying to find a good scarer | I would also love some theories and lore that most people would not know about the world of monsters inc. | 16 | Well, according to the “History of the Monster World” bonus DVD feature, monsters evolved from a race of prehumans called Mons some tens of thousands of years ago, and, chased off by early Homo sapiens, sought refuge on an enchanted island (on which Monstropolis was presumably built). Ingesting the strange fruits of this island turned them into the strange otherworldly creatures they are now. | 15 |
Eli5 How do those cranes that are on top of a building near finishing(read: bottom areas are completely done) get taken off of the roof? | 19 | They install a smaller crane to bring pieces of the big crane down. The small crane then gets disassembled and usually fits in the elevator. If it doesn’t, a smaller crane of that is used.
Look up Derrick crane for more info | 18 |
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[The Thing 1982] if the men survived and the events were announced to the public, would they be charged for murder? | Humans directly or indirectly killing humans in the film: Garry shooting the Norwegian, the men bringing the 2 face carcass to an unsecure location where it assimilated Bennings, the men taking Blair to the shed where he’d later be assimilated, MacReady shooting Clark
So let’s say hypothetically, the film’s plot changes quite a bit so that everyone responsible for those deaths survives and gets back to civilization. They tell what happened, including those deaths. Who if anyone gets charged for murder and what are those charges like?
I figure Mac can claim self defense more than Garry can, especially since Garry killing Lars, the Norwegian, indirectly doomed everyone there | 16 | If the video game from 2002 is considered canon, then >!the military knows about the Thing and Mac is still alive when the player character shows up and helps kill it. He's not going to be charged, especially since he escapes with the player character who has proof the army was immobilised illegally to help a bio-medical research company attempt to weaponise the Thing.!< | 15 |
eli5: Why is candle wax transparent when it’s hot and opaque when it’s cool? | 26 | When wax is cool, it's crystallized. These wax crystals can scatter light so it doesn't reach your eyes, so the crystals are opaque. When hot, the wax molecules are all loose and free, and can't scatter light. That means the light goes straight through, making the liquid wax look transparent. | 20 |
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CMV: The constant focus on groups or classes labeled as minority only exacerbates the ill effects of prejudice and discrimination. | Acknowledging, celebrating, or otherwise reinforcing the perception that a particular group is a minority and/or otherwise disadvantaged, however well-intentioned, is counterproductive to the intended goal of realizing equality.
Those in the minority group are inclined to consider themselves disadvantaged which inevitably leads to the emotional response to "fight" for equality. Similarly, those that do not belong to the minority group are influenced - even motivated to falsely consider themselves superior thus leading to an emotional response of keeping "them" in their place.
There most certainly are groups of us that are disadvantaged and discriminated against in society today, whether that is based on religion, color of our skin, sexual orientation, etc.
The real question is: How do we stop perpetuating the idea of "us vs. them" when there is so much emphasis on celebrating the diversity/differences between us, who, after all are all just humans on a rock flying through space. | 28 | I think your point us clearly refuted by the relatively recent achievements in the Gay Rights movement and their attaining the equal right to marriage. This did not come about by some benevolent move by the establishment after years of respectful silence by homosexuals and those who supported them. This right was given after years of focused activism. | 12 |
What do professors/postdocs look for in undergrad students wanting to volunteer in their lab? | Are there any particular qualities they look for? I've been told that they just assume undergrads have no research experience and I'm guessing it isn't as big a factor as it might be with grad students/postdocs. I've also been told enthusiasm is a big factor, though I'm not sure how I'd show them my enthusiasm/passion over text (since I'd have to email them before meeting with them, assuming I met with them at all).
Is there anything else they look for? | 75 | You have to show genuine interest in their work. Don't send out the generic "I want research experience, are you looking for people?". Say you looked at their work and find X particularly interesting. Say you had some questions about Y paper or research. Ask if you can meet with them to discuss more. Then at that meeting, after you've talked for a bit, say it's really interesting and you'd love to do that type of work. Do they have any openings? | 62 |
[Lord of the Rings] How would the Fellowship's journey change if Gandalf the Grey survived Moria? | 49 | Odds are high that Gandalf wouldn't have the power to remove Saruman's control over Théoden. That would mean that Rohan would be completely removed from the equation and most likely destroyed by Saruman's Army. Without Rohan's assistance at the Battle of Pellenor Fields and the addition of Saruman's Army, Gondor would most likely have fallen to Sauron's Armies as well. Even if Gandalf got the Fellowship into Mordor and destroyed the Ring, the devastation wrought by Saruman and Sauron's Armies would have brought an end to the Kingdoms of Man.
Also it would be unlikely that Merry and Pippen would wind up in the company of the Ents. If they aren't in a position to convince the Ents to march on Isengard, then Saruman's power base remains intact and his army able to be reinforced.
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ELI5: Why does looking at a bright light leave image impressions for long periods? | When you look at something really bright ( a bare light bulb for example), why do we see that object when we close our eyes for several minutes? What happens to make this occur? | 65 | Very basically, the intense light "burns" an image into your retina. It takes time for it to normalize. What's going on is more about light and chemistry, but it's very simple to say that the light just "burns" an image in your eye and it takes a minute for your eye to recover and see clearly. | 12 |
Academic dishonesty | We use OWL/Cengage for homework. If you get a chemistry question wrong, it will generate a similar question with different chemicals or values. Anyway, I would purposely get the answers wrong so OWL would show me the way to calculate the answer. I would then get the 2nd or 3rd attempt correct by using the formula OWL used.
My question is this: I turned in a homework assignment using this method and my professor reported for me for academic dishonesty, because I didn’t use the methods or formulas she taught. I was too much of a nervous wreck to do anything but nod and stammer, so I didn’t argue back or anything. Would this really be cheating? Wouldn’t this be like copying down a formula or equation? This is my first violation, and I have no idea what to say to the Dean, and I think he decides the punishment. Please, any advice would be great. Sorry if I’m rambling or not making sense.
Edit: Thank you for your replies. I'm still quite a nervous wreck, but feeling a lot more confident! Thanks again! | 32 | You explain to the dean what you did, what you thought you were doing, why you didn't think it counted as dishonesty. You might also note that there was no instruction that you weren't allowed to do it this way, and that in fact you thought this way was helping you learn better than in class. You apologize if this was against the rules, promise never to do it again if so, and emphasize that your goal here was to learn, not to cheat.
In short: just be honest about what you did and why you did it, and you'll be fine. Maybe you technically broke a rule but it doesn't sound like you were trying to get out of any work. You are unlikely to receive any serious punishment assuming what you say is true and if you comport yourself with seriousness (and not, say, obstinacy). | 75 |
[Star Wars] If Palpatine was killed prior to the events of the movies, would Anakin still have fallen to the Dark Side? | Sidious was a major contributing factor to Anakin's fall, however he just helped him down a path that was already revealing itself to him.
Would Anakin eventually have fallen had Palpatine not intervened? | 97 | Well without Palpatine Naboo probably wouldn't have been blockaded so Qui Gon and Obi Wan may have never found Anakin and he may have just lived out his life on Tatoine becoming a successful Pod Racer. | 92 |
ELI5: Why is FM radio on only odd frequencies and only frequencies between about 90 to 110? | Why can't there be a station on something like 95.4 or 56.1? Are these limitations of FM radio or are those frequencies just not allowed for public use? | 71 | Only odd frequencies are used to prevent interference.
If you had two stations on 95.1 and 95.2, you wouldn't get a very clear signal out of either station. 95,1 and 95.3 are far enough apart that you can tune into either one clearly.
And the frequencies are between 88 and 108 MHz because the other frequencies are used for other things. 76.0-88.0 are reserved for over the air TV broadcasting. 108.0-118.0 are reserved for aeronautical navigation. | 47 |
ELI5 How a casino knows that you're counting cards in your head? | So Ben Affleck has admitted to counting cards and was told not to play Blackjack at certain casinos. How does a casino know that he's counting cards if all the math is done in his head and they can't really prove it.
Thanks for the explanation and tips. Much appreciated. | 26 | They don't have to prove it. They watch your play style and if you are playing very well for a long time and appear to be matching the results of a card counter, then buh bye. It's not a right to be in a casino. | 28 |
ELI5:If 80% of taste comes from your olfactory receptors in your nose, why do some foods smell awful yet taste great? | 93 | It's more accurate to say *80% of tastes* than *80% of taste*. The flavors perceived by the tongue are by far the most important, though there are only five. Something that doesn't taste sweet, salty, savory, or sour isn't going to taste very good, even with a great aromatic profile. However, something with a bad aromatic profile can taste great if it's extremely savory, salty, and well-textured... take cheese for example. | 39 |
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Is there any Mathematical reason that (-0.5)!^2 = Pi, or is it just a coincidence? | 19 | It's not a coincidence. To extend the factorial function to non-natural numbers, you replace it with an integral. The factorial of x is then the integral of t^x e^-t dt from 0 to infinity, where t is a dummy variable.
For x=-1/2, this integral works out to the square root of pi. It is a similar integration to the Gaussian curve, which bounds an area of root-pi as well. | 31 |
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Does Jordan Peterson ever outline specific criticisms of specific radical theorists (Foucault, Adorno, Derrida etc.)? | Every time I heard him criticize critical theory (what he strangely calls "postmodern neo-Marxism"), it's something vague about "relativism," "destroying the foundations of the West," or "denying biological realities," etc. Does he ever address Foucault's views on power-knowledge, Adorno and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment, Derrida's ideas on differance, etc.? Whenever I hear him speak on the subject it seems like he has a very superficial or flawed understanding. I was curious if he ever deals with specific theories or ideas. | 152 | From what I've seen, no. He doesn't know what he's talking about. That said, life's too short to spend it sifting through Peterson's massive online oeuvre.
He *does* talk about Heidegger a bit, but he makes a hash of it (such as getting hung up on the capital "B" in Heidegger's "Being," as though he has no understanding that alll nouns are capitalized in German.)
But who knows, maybe a Peterson sub could point you to specific discussions. | 247 |
CMV: Teaching your kids to believe in Santa is stupid. | Note: this goes for other made up characters like the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy.
As a kid, I never understood people’s obsession with Santa. Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ and sure it’s now evolved to include some gift-giving and a big celebration too— I’ve known that since age 3. But I never understood why other kids in my class would insist that Santa is real or why their parents would happily go along with it instead of just communicating the real meaning behind Christmas (I’m not even Christian, so thankfully my parents never tried to push this nonsense on me). So here’s why I think teaching your kids to believe in Santa is dumb.
1. It literally adds nothing to their life. Santa is nothing more than commercialized balderdash by corporations taking advantage of children’s naïveté. He isn’t a God to pray to or instill “moral” values in the kid (other than “be good”, which is kind of meaningless). He isn’t some celebrity or amazing selfless person to look up to and idolize. He isn’t even real! Why feed your kid a load of commercialized bullshit, when instead you can be teaching them about the real world? You can teach them about why certain families can afford certain gifts and others can’t, why certain kids in their class don’t get gifts not because they’re bad but because they aren’t even Christian and don’t celebrate Christmas, where these gifts come from and maybe the economics behind creating and selling these items during a holiday season, etc. Literally all of that is more valuable than peddling bullshit to your kids.
2. It probably teaches kids to not think critically about the world. First of all, kids shouldn’t just be blindly believing what their parents tell them. They should be led to ask themselves whether it’s even possible for Santa to exist: How does his sleigh fly? How does he reach all 8 billion people in one night? How are his elves somehow able to create the brand new iPhone and package it in the exact Apple box it comes in? Furthermore, how is it possible for people to have explored the North Pole and yet never seen a trace of Santa? (I don’t even know how kids themselves don’t ask these questions on their own, because I did, but I have to imagine it’s in part due to a lack of emphasis on critical thinking in our education systems and the parents continuing to sell a crock of shit).
3. This just delays the inevitable truth from coming out. Your kid is going to find out that Santa doesn’t exist— if they don’t come to that conclusion by considering his impossibility, they’re going to realize it because their parents are definitely buying the gifts. Why delay the inevitable? What does that even do to benefit the kid?
4. It teaches kids the opposite of learning “good” behavior for its own sake. Kids shouldn’t be learning to be good because they’ll get a present at the end of the year. They should be kind and respectful because it’s just basic human decency 101. So you’re basically ruining their own development by linking good acts to rewards.
Anyway, open to changing my opinion but this is it. | 34 | I’d argue in question 2 that part of the point is to teach kids to think critically. Kids largely figure out for themselves on that the balance of evidence Santa doesn’t make realistic sense by age ten or so. It’s one of the first times kids can find out that they can come to a different conclusion than what the authorities in their lives are telling them and be right and encouraged in doing that.
It also teaches kids, once they inevitably do find out, that there parents have been giving them gifts for years with no intent on taking credit for it, which implies gift giving is an exercise in making the recipient, rather than the giver, happy. | 17 |
ELI5: What exactly went wrong on Apollo 13 and how was so many things missed? | I just watched the Ron Howard film, and I have to say it was one of the best films I’ve ever watched. But it left some unanswered questions in my mind, like how did this miss all those errors? As well, if they used the same rocket as the successful Apollo 11 and 12, what was the difference with 13? How was everything missed? | 30 | Basically it was a design flaw, an assembly error, and a testing error: a chain of events that led to near disaster. Each thing on it's own wasn't enough to cause the explosion, but the unlikely chain of all 3. The genesis of it started in 1965, before the first Apollo spacecraft was even built. The spacecraft was originally designed with a power system to operate on 28 volts, but during the design process, this was raised to 65 volts to match the power supply of the launch tower. One of the subcontractors who built the oxygen tanks didn't change this, and continued to manufacture oxygen tanks meant to operate on 28 volts.
A few years later, in 1968, the spacecraft that was to be Apollo 13 was being assembled, and the oxygen tank was dropped, bending the vent pipe. It was determines the tank was still ok to use because there was no visible damage, so it was installed anyway. Later, during a test, the tank was filled with liquid oxygen as usual, but when it came time to empty it, it wouldn't drain, because unbeknownst to anyone, that pipe was bent. Instead, they decided to simply turn on the heater (the heater was used to turn the liquid oxygen in the tank to gaseous oxygen for use as needed) to let the oxygen vent off as gas overnight. Now here's where the wrong voltage comes into play. The thermostat attached to the heater inside the tank was supposed to cycle the heater on and off so it didn't get too hot, but the 65 volt power supply was too high for 28 volt circuitry in the tank and it blew out the thermostat. This meant the heater stayed on all night instead of cycling on and off, and as a result, it got so hot inside the tank that it burned off the teflon insulation on the wires. The next day when everyone came in, all they saw was that the tank was empty as expected.
Now it's April 13th, 1970. The spacecraft is 2 days into it's 3 day journey to the moon, and everything is going as planned. Mission control asks command module pilot Jack Swigert to stir the tanks. There's a fan inside the tanks that stirs the liquid oxygen to get more accurate quantity readings. So Swigert, flips the switch to stir the tanks. The electricity flows through the exposed wires inside a tank filled with oxygen and arcs, igniting some of the charred remains of the teflon insulation (fire + concentrated oxygen = bad). This caused the tank to explode. The explosion slammed close the valves feeding the fuel cells (the fuel cells generated power), tore holes in the other oxygen tank, and blew off one entire side of the service module, also damaging their main antenna and the main engine.
Sorry for the long answer. The only difference on 13 was the dropped tank. That triggers the chain of events that leads to the explosion, It could have happened on any. previous flight, but it didn't. | 105 |
What takes less energy? Walking on each stair, or skipping one stair every pace? | I walk up 5 stories about 4 times a day and have always wondered this. | 20 | Everyone seems to be going at this from a physics standpoint. From a biological standpoint, you'll use more energy from skipping steps.
This is because of the difference between types of muscle fibers. A slow twitch muscle fiber is generally used for long distance and low output activities, and is very efficient. On the other hand, fast twitch fibers put out more force, but are less efficient. If you're going up 2 stairs at a time, your average force will be higher, and your body will end up using a greater ratio of fast to slow twitch cells. This leads to a lower efficiency and more net energy use.
Source: *Weight Training* by Kim Beckwith | 36 |
[Dragon Age: Origins] Why can't the Warden utilize everyone in his group? | I'm a fletcher in Redcliffe, and a few weeks ago, we were being attacked by these undead monstrosities from the castle. Apparently the Arl's son was a mage, I guess the chantry is right about them.
Anyway, after being terrorized for the third night, this Grey Warden showed up asking for an army to fight the blight. Now the blight is bad, but Bann Teagan kinda set the Warden straight that we currently had our own problem going on. The Warden agreed the help us fight these things. Helped out a lot, got the good-for-nothing dwarf Dwyn and his lackey's to fight, even convinced Lloyd to fight. But the night of the attack, the Warden shows up with only 3 of his companions, another Warden, an Orlesian redhead, and some woods woman who I swore turned into a wolf.
What's the deal? I know the Warden has more people at his disposal. He's got a mage from the Circle travelling with him, I know that 'cause she helped the Arl's son. He's got some dwarf warrior with a big axe, a mabari, even one of those big kew-nari blokes. Where were they during the fight. My cousin Ted died fighting that night. Ted never fought a day in his life, he just dredged the lake, he did. If what mage was there that night, she coulda fixed him up before he turned over. A lot of lives could have been saved if we had more men. What was the Warden thinking? Why would he go into battle without all his men by his side. What army does he hope to get from Redcliffe if the whole village is dead? | 38 | The Warden has to use his companions for a variety of task. He usually chooses to travel 3 of his companions as a group of bodyguards/advisers, when he is trying to help with a particular problem. His other companions are doing various tasks at this time. Most likely his other companions were off scouting the area to make sure that other enemy forces weren't approaching. The Warden's companions are incredibly talented and they are probably the only people that could scout in small numbers and survive in the case of a Darkspawn attack. While, it did unfortunately weaken the defense of Redcliffe it was a prudent military move that could prevent a greater military defeat. | 18 |
Why isn't the Winter Solstice the coldest day of the year? | If the Winter Solstice has the least amount of direct sunlight, then why is it typically warmer than say, January or February? | 19 | A lot of variables control temperature. Different air masses, cloud cover, and wind mixing are just as important to regulating temperature as radiative heating is.
Assuming a constant air mass, a noticeable time lag in the global radiative heating balance appears. As summer progresses, more heat is entering the Earth and that continues well into the fall when a eventually a balance between the heat gained and the heat loss reach an equilibrium. As fall progresses into winter, more heat is expected be lost but the swing between heat gain and heat loss takes awhile and then it takes more time for the heat loss to become dominant around January or so. | 21 |
[Marvel Comics] Could marijuana help Dr. Banner | Hulk. Lets say, every day, the doctor takes a nice few joints full of Indica , (like 2-3) at about a gram per joint. How would this method of controling the hulk work? Can this green replace the bad green, and save the Doctor from hulking out?
If not, how much would he have to smoke, and buy, daily to subdue his beast | 146 | I don't think making Bruce Banner anxious would be a good idea. Even experienced smokers can have a bad time once in a while, a new strain or a different environment. He could accidentally hulk out even when there's no real threat if he's disoriented. Banner seems to be able to control his anger on his own, that's probably the answer, not drugs. If you did, though, you'd probably want a mood stabilizer or an anti-psychotic instead. | 113 |
With the ability to be anywhere in the world instantly, know who is being bad or not, and the ability to carry gigantic amounts of equipment, why doesn't Santa Claus become a superhero? | 73 | Santa's powers only work on Christmas Eve. That's also why he needs elves to do all the work, he *could* magically make all the toys himself Christmas morning, but that would take away from his delivery time in the Pacific Islands. He spends the rest of the year reading mail, making his lists, tending to the reindeer, and spending time with his family.
Mr. Claus also knows that the current setup is more beneficial for the world than superhero work would be. Because of his system, he's encouraging people to be "nice" year-round even though his powers don't work year-round. In the long run, he's doing more good for the world that way. | 45 |
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Eli5 What really is a fraction TIMES a fraction?! It makes NO sense. | I am reteaching myself math, but something is bugging me soooo bad and I can't find the answer. What is a real life example of multiplying a fraction by a fraction? I was wondering why .05 to the 5th exponent would get smaller not bigger. This is driving me bonkers.
Sure 1/2 makes sense, but how about 1/2 times 3/5 in real life?!?
Edit: OMFG. Math is cool and makes sense. Finally, I'm 28. Thank you all!!!!
Edit: I was given an AP Scholar award, but it was not for math.
* * * The best explanation goes to the person who explained "times" and "of" were synonomous!!!! * * *
NOW EXPLAIN THIS: How am I in the 99.9th percentile for arithmetic, but suck at math?! Do I have potential? Am I still gifted in "math" or are math and arithmetic too separate things. A professor told me they are different parts of the brain. | 15,299 | Replace the word "times" with "of"
1/2 of 3/5. Half of 3/5. Obviously it's going to be smaller than 3/5
0.05 of 0.05, that's 5 percent of 0.05. You know 5 percent is a relatively small chunk of the original.
The problem may be you were taught only the abstract math rules, but it wasn't well tied into concrete example that would build the numerical understanding. | 19,774 |
ELI5: Mountains are brown, yellow, and green and definitely not blue or purple, yet they look purplish-blue from far away. Why is this? | Noticed it on my drive home in the desert...never occurred to me to actually ask why... | 36 | Because if they are far away, there's more stuff i.e. atmosphere between you and the mountains and thus it gets a slight bluish tint. It's the same reason why the sky is blue. Blue wavelengths are scattered less easily than red ones so they 'dominate'.
You'll notice that not only mountains appear bluish at a distance but really everything does. | 12 |
[40k]The Emperor’s presence | So how powerful is the Emperor’s presence now that he’s stuck on the throne?Is it easy to get close to him or does he retaliate agains anyone he disapproves of being in his throne room? | 21 | Being in the presence of the Emperor would kill most people, custodians struggle, it burns them out and scorches their armour, not all of them can do it.
During the war of the beast some rather high ranking harlequins invaded terra and the Palace, they didn't manage to get anywhere near to the Emperor himself but they could feel his presence and it terrified them. | 15 |
ELI5: What is umami? | 16 | Umami is another one of the "basic tastes", along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. It's also sometimes called "savory"--think of the flavor of meat, cheese, broth, or mushrooms (that isn't salty or bitter).
Chemically, it's sensed by your taste buds with the presence of glutamate, which is one of the basic amino acids that makes up proteins. This is why MSG (monosodium **glutamate**) is used to flavor foods--it gives a lovely umami taste to things.
Also, MSG has not actually been shown to be harmful or cause bad reactions in people. | 32 |
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[Man of Steel]Why doesn't the Kyrptonian armor worn by General Zod and his soldiers fold like aluminum foil when struck by Superman? | What I mean by this is: the armor worn by General Zod and his soldiers is Kryptonian, crafted to withstand Kryptonian weaponry and attacks, on Krypton. Right? So it wasn't crafted to withstand the super-strong punches, kicks, and heat beam eye attacks that Superman subjected it to during the recent events in Metropolis. It also wasn't crafted in such a way(that I'm aware of) to absorb Earth's yellow sun's radiation so as to become stronger. Why doesn't it buckle and break? | 25 | Moreover, Jor-El seemed to be saying that Kal would gain strength from growing up on Earth rather than simply being on Earth, but the Zod Squad gained their powers immediately and without enjoying the air first. Can this inconsistency be explained, as well as why Kal didn't avoid the Kryptonian air by simply holding his breath? And if he can be in space and keep his power, why does the air matter at all? | 12 |
ELI5: Why do GIFs load so slow although I have fast internet? | 230 | I take it you mean animated GIFs? Two possible reasons, one is that the site hosting the GIF serving slowly (you can only download as fast as the other side is sending) and another is that animated DIFs are actually really large, must larger than proper video files would be. They're not very good at compressing photos or compressing motion, so when you put those both together (eg. film clips) then GIF is pretty much the worst format for it.
The reason it's popular is because it's still much easier to host GIFs than it is to host videos, and browsers play back looping GIFs better than looping video files. | 101 |
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ELI5: Why is the Perseverance robot collecting Martian rock samples to be retrieved by "future expeditions"? Wouldn't future expeditions be capable of collecting the rock samples themselves? | 405 | - The plan to return the rocks are a "potential" plan and not yet set in motion.
- Collecting rock samples, especially over a large terrain, takes time. Don´t forget that we are not talking about *"yeah, get some random samples here and there, don´t really care"*, but the samples are taken according to a specific plan worked out by planetary geologists. Even for the first moon landing the astronauts (Armstrong and Aldrin) had to visit a geology crash course in order to know which samples would be interesting.
- Due to the tech requirements (small probes, low weight etc) energy generation becomes a major factor. These probes don´t drive around like a human in a jeep having basically unlimited energy (get a generator and be done), they only have X energy for Y projects, so it can takes days or even weeks to complete a single step for a single scientific programm.
- The thing is: when it comes to space travel, regardless for each orbit, moon or mars, NASA, ESA and all the other space agencies think in weights way below 1kg. Every gram is costly rocket fuel for acceleration, maneuvering and deceleration, so for a later unmanned probe NOT to have to carry the same mining equipment, but only the pickup equipment (landing system, pickup, reach mars orbit again for the mothership) saves fuel and with that time.
- It is basically an investment into the future. Funding for space activities are highly political and one of the first targets in a budget cut unfortunately, so Mars missions can work out ... or not. Having something to show for (*"well, we could build a smaller probe and get the stones back, if we cannot get a full manned mission ... "*) can make it easier for convincing people to approve the budget.
SYL | 504 |
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How can I become a programmer | Hello everyone!
At 27 years of age (a bit late), I think I’ve found something that really interests me from a career standpoint and it’s, no surprise, programming.
I’ve got the full Python, Wordpress, and JavaScript courses on Udemy, and want to dive headfirst into them. I’m hoping that by the end of the year I’ll have passed them. They not only include theory and examples, but projects that I can do that puts these skills to the test.
My question is, is it realistic to assume that I’ll have viable work options for me by having taken these courses and made my own examples through the course? Will I be screwed without a college degree?
Edit: can’t thank you all enough! | 39 | You don’t need a college diploma but you’ll definitely need a lot more than a couple of Udemy courses to learn enough to get a job. The best thing you can do is make stuff, break stuff, and read stuff online.
Learning React will probably get you a lot further than WordPress when looking for an entry level job, but that’s really up to what interests you more. | 37 |
ELI5: How does anything live on islands where the max elevation is less than about 20 feet? | Every time I see videos of boats hitting massive waves that they have to climb like a small mountain it makes me wonder how these same storms don't just wipe clean any and every small island in the ocean. It seems like whenever a big storm came, waves would just wash over any low lying islands in their path and take everything with them into the oceans. Yet you still see palm trees and sometimes even people and animals living on tiny islands. | 25 | The same waves typically peter out as the sea floor elevation rises towards the island.
While it does happen, the waves produced out at sea dont carry the same force as a tidal wave, as only the surface water is raised (vs a tsunami in which the entire depth of the ocean is raised) | 29 |
ELI5: When pouring a thick liquid (like honey) why is it giving a kind of a zigzag shape right before it touches down? | 16 | The viscosity prevents the stream from merging with the puddle you’re pouring it onto right away like with water, so as more comes down the stream, it essentially piles up and collapses as it becomes unstable, or “top heavy” within the stream | 25 |
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ELI5: When using the TOR wiki only a few websites come up, and yet people say that 90% of the internet is on the deep web, is this true? And how does one find these sites? | 18 | Most of the deep web internet is on normal sites you can access with a regular browser.
Deep web is that which is not indexed by search engines, which includes all the dynamic content of the normal web. | 19 |
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[Dragon Age] Why don't surface kingdoms send soldiers to help the dwarves fight against darkspawn? | 24 | They don't really consider it their problem. They tend to forget about the Darkspawn until a Blight happens and even then, they're not always quick to take it seriously.
Even just ten years after the Blight in Fereldan, the surface kingdoms have gone back to ignoring them again and people are once again treating the Grey Wardens like they're useless. | 37 |
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Why aren't rotational kinetic energy and translational kinetic energy as fundamentally distinct from one another as angular momentum and linear momentum? | Conservation of momentum and conservation of angular momentum each have, through Noether's theorem, their own associated fundamental symmetry of the universe: spatial symmetry and rotational symmetry respectively.
In (seeming) contrast, all different forms of energy -- translational, rotational, vibrational, nuclear, etc etc -- are lumped together in Noether's theorem, their collective conservation leading to (or being equivalent to) the universe's time symmetry. This makes sense, since you can convert any kind of energy into any other kind, so they are only conserved collectively.
But, rotational kinetic energy is directly associated with angular momentum (right?), and translational kinetic energy is directly associated with linear momentum (right?). So why are you able to convert between rotational and translational kinetic energies, but not between angular and linear momentums...momenta...?
| 16 | An object moving through space at constant velocity without rotating has angular momentum in all reference frames where it doesn't move through the origin. Be careful with statements that depend on an arbitrary reference frame. | 12 |
Why can humans cross their eyes but not do the opposite? Make them look outward. | 31 | You can cross your eyes because that's the action required to look at an object which is very close to you. You can see this by focusing on your finger and moving it towards your face; you'll end up with crossed eyes.
However, no matter how far away an object is, you'll only ever need both eyes pointing in exactly the same direction; you'll never need them pointing apart, and so there's no reason to be able to do that. | 41 |
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When building and testing the Curiosity Rover, why do NASA engineers need to wear special suits to prevent contamination if the rover is just going to get really dusty once its on Mars? | 72 | a few reasons, firstly contamination is potentially much more harmful during stages like re-entry than it is when the rover is rolling around.
and much more importantly, the rover is there to research mars, the actual results could be contaminated with substances/life from earth
microbial life can survive in space as well as reentry, if the mars rover brings life to mars then it will be extremely difficult to deduce if life had existed on mars prior | 64 |
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ELI5: Where did the tradition of having bedrooms on the second floor come from? | I know that any small room can be a bedroom but i want to know why their always upstairs in a house with more then 1 floor.
Did it come from the idea of "Staterooms" in old mansions?
| 34 | Bedrooms have been upstairs since houses had two stories, because it puts them away from the public spaces, away from the livestock, and away from some of the creatures that crawl around on the ground. Also it's warmer in the winter, and catches more breezes in the summer. | 38 |
Just how far are we off hand-held laser weaponry? | Based on technology available to us today, just how practical is it to build a hand-held laser/plasma gun? And how exactly would it be accomplished? I've done a small amount of research and it seems the biggest problem at the moment is in storing the energy to use as 'ammo' since this is difficult to do on a small-scale.
I'm also wondering just what the effects would be if these weapons were to be used on a human? Would they be practical to use over guns in terms of damage per hit?
The best example of what i'm talking about would be the [laser/plasma weapons in the fallout series](http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Laser_rifle_%28Fallout:_New_Vegas%29). These are how I imagine real-life weapons of this kind would function, though it is obviously much more complex. | 30 | The problem with directed-energy weapons is: they're really inefficient at doing the kind of damage you generally want to do (bulk destruction of an enemy object). Bullets are good because they transfer both kinetic energy and momentum. Photon beams (or bright photon pulses) don't deliver any momentum (pedantry aside); they are limited to melting or vaporizing material. But it takes a *lot* more energy to vaporize a given volume of (steel|aluminum|plastic|flesh) than it does to just scramble it with a large deposit of momentum.
Of course, one answer is to just dump a gazillion times more energy into the beam than you did into a bullet. But energy has to come from somewhere, and storing all that energy is hard. Lasers make it worse, because they're generally not particularly energy efficient -- so you might have to dissipate several times as much energy inside or around the laser gun as the beam/pulse would dissipate inside the victim. Further, most lasers use an electrical stage for the energy, and batteries and other electrical energy storage devices suck compared to (say) gunpowder, which is pretty awesome in both energy density and release rate.
Now, for some specialties (e.g. blinding enemy sensors including people's eyes, or for directing a bulk kinetic energy weapon like a directed missile) lasers are great. But you'll generally get a lot more general mayhem out of an equivalently sized projectile weapon ("gun") than out of a laser. The Fallout series laser rifles work great, because they don't exist in the physical world -- so they don't have to have an energy supply. | 31 |
[Stranger Things] what are the international implications of the events in season 3? (Spoilers inside) | This is the Cold War and Soviet military was operating deep inside the USA.
How does the US government react? It seems like they have kept the whole issue under wraps, but why??
Soviet military conducting research and operating on US soil is an act of war.
Why aren't nukes flying already? | 19 | It's all covered up because the American public and the world would flip out if they knew they were all almost destroyed by an interdimensional monster twice, and that the Soviets were able to build a big underground base right under their noses.
They also want to keep L a secret so noody finds out about their unethical experiments, and that she has incredible powers. | 17 |
ELI5 why replace old battleships/aircraft carriers but not the b52? | Old time/battle tested warships are scrapped to make way for new ships that bristle with brand new tech that isn't battle tested, but they keep using the b52 bomber from 55 years ago?
&#x200B;
Edit; Thanks for all the comments, I was thinking aircraft carriers mostly, it makes sense that actual battleships are outdated but the superstructure of an aircraft carrier should be able to be modified in the same way that a b-52 is modified over the years, also didn't consider the erosion from exposure to salt air and seawater. | 18 | You had better believe there is new tech in the B-52 of today. But the airframe, the flying around bit, hasn't really changed in 50 years. What does it need to do now that it didn't back then?
Battleships on the other hand have changed quite a lot. Instead of slugging it out with giant cannons and meter thick armor, they now launch missiles and have small, rapid firing cannons for close defense. You can't retrofit a battleship with 3 meter thick armor and 20 inch guns into one that has 6 inches of hull and missile bays. | 55 |
ELI5: ohms law and how it works | 289 | V = Voltage = pressure of electrons
R = Resistance = well.. resistance.. how difficult it is for them to flow
I = Current = how many electrons are flowing
Imagine instead of electrons you are talking about a water pipe with a tap. You can turn the tap in order to open/close it, or you might say in order to reduce/increase the resistance. And the city can increase or reduce the pressure of the water in your pipes.
If the city increases the pressure, more water will flow when you open the tap. In other words: more voltage means more current.
The more you close the tap the more resistance you have. The more resistance you have, the less water will flow. In other words: more resistance means less current.
Therefore: Current = Voltage / Resistance
If you increase the denominator the result gets smaller (more resistance, less current) and if you increase the numerator the result gets bigger (more voltage, more current). | 132 |
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ELI5: Will certain Olympic sports reach a point where progress can't be made in them? | To fix ideas, consider the 1600 meter race. While its astounding that people continue breaking record in this event, am I correct in assuming that eventually "peak human performance" will be reached? For example, it seems unlikely that an unmodified human will ever reach a point where they can run the 1600 meters in 30 seconds. When "peak performance" is reached, will such events be meaningful (given that records will never be broken)? | 43 | While record breaking may become increasingly rare, remember that participants aren't racing against records, just each other. So sure, records may one day become harder to break, but the races themselves will mean pretty much as much (or as little, depending on who you ask) as they do now. | 22 |
ELI5: If a couple has five sons, how is possible that their next baby has a 50% chance of being a boy while it is simultaneously statistically unlikely that they'll have six boys? | How do these two probabilities coexist? I can't grasp it. If it's too complex to ELI5, at least ELI10 because my math skills are fairly poor. | 203 | The two probabilities coexist because you are asking different questions.
Question 1: Given that a couple has 5 sons, what is the probability that their next child is also a boy? Answer: 50%, because the genders of the previous siblings does not affect the next outcome.
Question 2: What is the probability that a family with 6 children has 6 sons? Answer: (1/2)^6 , or less than 2 percent.
Think about it this way: For every family of 5 sons, there will be many more families with a mix of sons and daughters. | 394 |
[Fallout] Why are there power armor repair stations all over the Commonwealth? | I understand that they would be present in military installations, but it seems like every civilian garage and repair shop has one. | 26 | Actually there are two kinds. One is a simple lift for supporting heavy objects like engine blocks, and it just happens to be tall enough to hold power armor upright while somebody works on it by hand, and then there are the more purpose built arches designed for power armor. | 37 |
[General superheroes, especially Marvel] Are there really that many crimes every day in NY that it would require multiple superheroes to be able to fight them? | 24 | In the MCU at least, Stark has decided that there's no real benefit to being located in NYC, and has moved the Avengers upstate. Of course, he might just be tired of paying NYC's income tax.
As for the lower-tier heroes, they tend to stake out a claim and stick to it. Daredevil doesn't leave Hell's Kitchen, while Spider-Man stays in the Bronx. Luke Cage watches over Harlem, Jessica Jones watches a bottle of whiskey, and Iron Fist will get around to heroing just as soon as he reminds us that his parents are dead, he can win any fight, and that he hasn't had his nap today and is very cranky. | 40 |
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ELI5: Why do people throw up and get nose bleeds when lifting a lot of weight like during a competition? | [Reference](http://www.gfycat.com/SophisticatedScratchyBandicoot) | 55 | Throwing up is a result of the contraction of their muscles, which puts pressure on their internal organs (specifically contraction of core muscles like abs, chest, back and diaphragm muscles). Your diaphragm is also a muscle which can get engaged when making the quick clenching movements required for heavy lifting.
When all these muscles clench at once they squeeze your stomach and if there is too much food in there then it comes out the only opening it can get to, your mouth.
Most weight lifters closely monitor what they eat during competitions for this exact reason.
As for nose bleeds, that comes down to blood pressure. Lifting weights puts a lot of strain on a lot of areas of your body and as a result your blood pressure increases when you lift. This is exaggerated even further when you're lifting to your limit such as in competitions.
The blood vessels in your nose are generally pretty thin so, depending on the person and their standing blood pressure, it can result in a burst blood vessel in your nose when you're under great strain. | 17 |
CMV: Internet access should be a nationalized utility in the US. | I don't have much to say about this other than the following:
1) Internet being privatized is *why* the world is so entangled in it. ISPs and the PC hardware industry, in at least a few ways, have pushed the world towards digitalization, specifically so they could get us dependent on it, and eventually have a scenario where we don't have a choice but to pay $150 a month for 25mbps connections (an exaggeration, maybe, but not that large in my experience). If we nationalize, and take the profit motive out of it, maybe we'll see people start to revert away from being so tech crazed.
2) The only way that the Progressive movement America so desperately needs is going to properly gain traction in this country, is for their voices to be protected by constitutional law. Right now companies have *allowed* us to push for certain ideals, so they don't reveal their true extent of control too much. If they just outright squashed the Progressive movement in every regard, it'd be the tipping point for massive outrage. ***But make no mistake***, that eventually, they ***WILL*** start pushing back. By nationalizing the internet, taking control of any and all current web infrastructure, and writing the law such that anyone who maintains a website is an extension of the government, the First Amendment will apply. And no, I don't think Uncle Cletus being allowed to say the n-word without repercussions is a good enough deterrent against this.
3) Tying into point 1, taking the profit motive out of the industry will make it more accessible to people. Sure, we'd still need to pay for it, so that it's not entirely reliant on tax revenue (because leaving it as such is a surefire way to leave it open for exorbitant underfunding), but $40 a month for gigabit fiber sounds a lot better than the $100 I currently pay for 100mbps down, 10mbps up. And having a cheap way for the world to be so interconnected will only improve the benefits the internet has already displayed (such as showing Americans that other countries have long since solved bullshit we ***still*** can't seem to take care of). | 53 | If internet service is nationalized would it follow that access would have to be equal for all Americans? Would one living in the middle of WY be able to expect the same service as one living in NYC? Where is the money going to come from to extend fiber lines or other high speed access to remote areas with very few people? | 24 |
ELI5, How are the children of illegal immigrants in the US (who, therefore, are also illegal) able to attend high schools and universities? | I am speaking about children who were not born in the US, but rather, were taken there as young children under the age of 16. Specifically, my questions arises from watching the CNN report about the children of illegal immigrants lining up to apply to remain in the country without fear of deportation for at least the next two years. They interviewed a young man that was illegally in the country, yet he is a junior at UCLA. How is this allowed? | 62 | Public schools generally only require that you list your place of residence and you arrange for transportation, whether by school bus route or personally picking up or dropping off. Most school districts don't check citizenship because it's never been an issue.
Colleges just don't care about citizenship. They only look at high school grades, financials if you apply for loans, and extracurricular activities for applicants.
Bottom line: no one checks. | 103 |
I feel laws should have no moral footing. That the purpose of laws is purely to make society function efficiently. CMV | To elaborate, I believe terms like freedom, liberty, justice, right/wrong, good/evil, etc… don’t inherently work as an argument to enact or abolish any particular law. Sometimes these thoughts line up with making society function, but not always, and alone should not be a reason for enacting a law. You can, however, use them as a basis of why a law can work.
For example: “Freedom of speech is required to have a productive society because without this we cannot have debate on issues that are unpopular. Without this debate and the considering of things that are not popular, we cannot change public opinion, and in turn, change policy to one that would better benefit the populous as a whole”. See, the argument for freedom of speech is not made because freedom is right, it is made based on it’s benefits to society as a whole.
Argument, from the past couple of days here on CMV:
On abortion legality, the question continues to be “where does human life begin?” This question is great when debating the morality of abortion. However, when the legality of abortion is brought up, the question should not be this, but “how does the legality of abortion benefit/hurt society as a whole”. When it comes to legality, this is the proper question.
Another example of a current law on the books that is there, IMO, for the right reasons, and shows that this point does not lead to anarchy: Murder is not, or should not, be illegal because it is morally wrong. It is illegal because allowing murderers to walk free creates vendettas/vigilantism which hurts many innocents in the process and removes otherwise productive members of society to seek justice (I didn’t use justice as the reason, I used it as an action people will seek without the state assisting in obtaining, which will harm society as a whole).
Basically, murder, rape, theft of property, rights of property, etc…all have their basis in making a society run and optimizing as many members of said society. The also have a basis in morality, but I don’t feel that is the reason for their existence. Other laws that I believe are right to be on the books, such as seat belt laws, sin taxes, progressive taxes in general, are all things that are not really dealing with morality, but they do help society function better/efficiently (at least that is the argument).
My point being that if we believe that law=morality, or use morality to justify laws, we wind up with many laws that will actually be detrimental to society, i.e. marriage laws, laws on adultery, premarital sex, lying, decency laws, etc… things a significant portion of the country believe to be morally wrong. You may hear this and think “I don’t believe those things are wrong”, well maybe that is why we shouldn’t base laws on morals, everyone’s are different. Shouldn’t the one and only goal of laws be to make the country run better? That if you leave this premise in any way, then you have left the debate of law. | 26 | How do you define running better? If we were to enslave half of the population and force them to be incredibly industrious and work for basically nothing, the other half would live in absolute splendor. This would be a very efficient system, and think of the wonders we could create...
It may be more efficient (depending on how you define efficiency with regard to society) but does that justify it? Is that how the laws should be written?
If you have a problem with any brutal but supremely efficient system, it is because of morality. If you think that laws should be stifled from becoming too terrible on people for ultimate "gain", it is because of morality. Many people would find many problems with these laws because of general morality. While each individual person's morality is differing, there is a general sense of what is right and wrong. The laws tend to stick close to this. | 33 |
[Portal] If a celling were to come down to crush me, and I place one portal directly above me, and portal directly below, and the celling meets the floor, where would I go? | 636 | There's no space "inside" the portal. Entering one portal *is* exiting the other portal. There is no significant void space between them.
So if this scenario was somehow created you would be crushed against your own body. | 652 |
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Eli5: How come humans need around 1,500-2000calories for basic survival of the Body but people suffering from severe anorexia can carry on for years eating a lot less. | 22 | 1500 to 2000 calories is what the body needs to remain healthy. Less than that and the body begins cannibalizing non essential things. It starts with fat stores, then it goes to muscles. All in the name of keeping energy supplied to the vital organs. Severe anorexics will consume just enough calories to keep their brain, heart, and lungs functioning but their body will essentially be digesting itself. That's why you'll see malnourished people looking like skeletons with skin stretched over the bones. Their muscles are barely there anymore. | 47 |
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ELI5: After someone designs something like a breakfast burrito, what do they do for the rest of their career? | I touch a lot of things that are clearly at some point designed, today I was eating a burrito from McD's, someone came up with the shape of this wrap.
But it's been this way for many years. What is that person doing now? It's not like McD's has a bunch of menu changes every year, were they just a contractor that does this for many food chains?
Edit: I'm a product dev engineer myself, so just curious. | 88 | Big chains like that actually go through a lot of product development and testing continuously. Have you ever seen a commercial for a new burger or something where it says "in select markets only" or "for a limited time only". That's them testing a new product. They are testing them all the time, but it might just not be in your area, so you don't know about it :)
Before it even gets to a limited run though, they have people developing things, and if it seems like it might do well, they make a very small amount of them (maybe 100), and they feed them to a random focus group of people who give their opinions and thoughts, and depending on what they say they may tweak some things and do it again, or they may scrap the product all together, or they may put it out for a limited run to see how it does in stores.
Somebody at McD's didn't just wrap up one breakfast burrito once, started selling it, and make it big, there is a huge long process before a product gets to the stores, and then if it is a hit or not, they start the process all over again with a new product. | 47 |
CMV: I think Affirmative Action is essentially racism | As most of you know, Affirmative Action is a policy often implemented by colleges and workplaces to give minority students and workers more spots in the workforce/university. I am Asian-American, which means that Affirmative Action hurts my chances of getting into good schools or jobs. I didn't ask to be Asian American, it's not a choice I've made. It's also not something that necessarily helps me in any way. Asian Americans are not genetically predisposed to be more intelligent than others, nor are they more hardworking. Even if you can find several studies proving I am wrong on this point, I can't control my birth race any more than anyone else can. By penalizing me for something that is against my control, my race, I think Affirmative Action qualifies as a form of racism.
Edit: /u/The_Account_UK (and others) have pointed out a language issue with my post: What I am describing here is racial discrimination, which is a bit more specific than the blanket term of "racism".
Edit 2: There are like a ton of comments on here, forgive me if I didn't get to everyone ><. Trust me, I've been reading pretty much everything :D
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Colleges and workplaces may value diversity. There are some colleges and workplaces that don't value diversity, but their populations tend to devolve into completely homogeneous shitholes. Colleges and workplaces are thus incentive to cultivate a diverse environment to be more competitive in the marketplace.
But it's racist to treat people differently based on race. The trick is, you'll get a racist result anyway, if you never treat people differently based on race, because of racism in the past.
For example, say you have a college that doesn't let asian people in. Then one day, the college declares "We're opening admission to everyone. You'll be judged on a variety of racially equal factors, such as 'did your parents attend this school.'" If there was never any racism in the past, this would be fine. But because of the racist history of the school, Asians are going to be disproportionately discriminated against under the (currently) egalitarian admission policy. So they're going to be racist if they don't factor in race and they're going to be racist if they do factor in race.
In that situation, the organization is just going to do whatever adds the most value. It's a racism zero sum game where you are just unlucky. | 187 |
[Spider-Man] Does Carnage lose pieces of itself when he fires "darts"? | I'm just going in my head, I'm guess they are some how keratin based organic that he makes from alien biology and replenishes when he eats?
I also read when he made a hammer with his arm it shattered upon hitting steel. Does that hurt him? | 44 | First of all, when you say "him" you're actually talking about the symbiote. So, no-human carbon based biology.
They all seem to have the power of just drawing mass from somewhere (presumably the meat dimension). In one scene the Carnage one went form the size of a drop of blood to full size fast enough for carnage to act while those nearby were still surprised. Venom can be form-fitting and sleek or add mass to hulk size or bigger. It can also shove people it eats there, as symbotes have eaten people and then slimmed down to normal clothes size seconds later.
If one shoot off something like a dart the default assumption is it would remain hardened for an indeterminate time, to eventually be reclaimed by said dimension. Just melting into nothing.
Few things seem to cause the symbiote real pain - fire and sound being the most notable. Physical damage is something the host needs to worry about but not the symbiote. | 23 |
[Avatar] How would Ozai feel if he knew that Azula cheated on the final Agni Kai? | I mean he definitely favors her to Zuko so he might not be too salty but on the other hand since he doesn’t respect Zuko he might find it extra disgraceful that she needed to cheat to “win”. | 19 | He would be so proud.
Ozai and honor are not a thing. In Zukos childhood flashbacks he was shown plotting against his brother who was out performing military duties while he sat in the palace.
Its implied some tomfoolery went on so that he could be declared firelord instead of iroh. | 52 |
Why is partially hydrogenated oil (or some variation) in so many types of processed foods? | Is there a certain chemical reason to it? Why is it so universally used? | 19 | It's cheaper to partially hydrogenate a vegetable oil than harvest an animal oil with similar properties. Hydrogenated oils have longer shelf-lives before they go rancid. You can also customize the oil's properties somewhat by controlling how it is hydrogenated. | 17 |
[Predator] When the Predator laughs at the end he sounds just like a human laughing. Is this really what his species sound like when they laugh? Or was something else going on? | 87 | They use voice mimicking technology. The laugh you hear at the end while Dutch is running away is a recording of Billy laughing at one of Hawkin's jokes from earlier, just amped up to 11. Real Predator laughter probably sounds more like a series of grunts and clicks. | 132 |
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If I am hungry does that mean I have spent more calories than consumed in the day? | 15 | Hunger is actually not directly dependant upon caloric need, although that is one influence. You can continue to desire food even though you may have already consumed over your caloric requirements. The hunger centre appears to be located in the part of the brain called the arcuate nucleus. A variety of inputs can influence it; hormones such as insulin will inhibit it, whilst a substance called ghrelin stimulates it.
Interestingly, when you are sick, inflammatory mediators, such as cytokines are produced as part of the body's response to illness. These also act on the hunger centre, inhibiting it, which explains why you lose your appetite when unwell. | 10 |
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Which is the appropriate statistical test? | 40 | Why is your data in ratios? If it is weight or something you can just use a t-test.
If you want to compare expected vs observed results use a chi-squared goodness of fit test.
Is this just the weight of black sees compared to the weight of yellow? If so perform two tailed t-test. | 12 |
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[Chemistry] What factors do we know for sure cause living organisms to age? | 127 | We don't know anything for sure, but the theory is that it is a combination of DNA damage (e.g. through free radicals) and chromosome shortening during cell division. Both effects accumulate over time and cause aging. | 26 |
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ELI5: Why is the english language so bad at describing weekly occurrences? (Next Tuesday and this Tuesday can mean the same or different things, biweekly means twice a week or every other week, etc.?) | Edit: I think all the argument in the thread below establishes that yes, this is indeed a confusing topic. My question remains why? Is there a linguistic explanation for gaps in a language that seem easy to fill with new, specific words but just aren't? | 46 | It is actually the opposite. In general there are accurate terms that change meaning as the popular use changes. English is a living language, and the meanings and use of words are constantly changing.
For example, Biweekly strictly meant every two weeks and was a replacement of fortnightly (first used in print in 1832). Some people were confused, understanding the 'Bi' meant two, and used it as a replacement for Semiweekly (first in print in 1890). The incorrect use of biweekly is so common now that English dictionaries list both definitions.
Starting with dictionaries printed in 2014, Merriam-Webster has now changed the definition of *Catfish* to include *a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes*. | 11 |
The Human Genome Project cost $2.7 billion. 20 years later, it costs <$1000 to sequence the genome. Was the cost of the project fundamentally necessary for subsequent progress, or could we have "waited" for the technology to become cheaper? | I'm very much a clueless layman, but I'm learning about genetics for the first time. I don't mean this in any sort of combative way–the Human Genome Project had countless benefits that we can't possibly track, and I'd imagine $2.7 billion is a trifle compared to its broader impact.
My question is just narrowly about the way that genome sequencing has dropped rapidly in cost. Was it fundamentally necessary to first use these exorbitantly pricey methods, which provided the foundation for the future research which would make it affordable? Or are the two questions inherently separate: the Human Genome Project gave us a first, initial glimpse at our mapped out genome, and then a decade later separate technological developments would make that same task much cheaper (as is commonly the case in science and technology).
The "could we have waited" in the title is probably misleading–I really don't mean any sort of value judgment (the project sounds enormously important), I purely mean "could" in a narrow hypothetical (not, "would it have been a good idea to wait", which I highly doubt). | 12,771 | The cost of gene sequencing has dropped dramatically, but these two numbers are apples and oranges. The Human Genome Project "mapped the genome". Meaning it created a "reference genome" that is roughly accurate for every human being on earth. It's like a scaffold upon which you can place any individual sequence you might read.
Today, you can take short reads of roughly a human genome-worth of DNA for less than $1000. That sequencing can tell you if the person has any small mutations. But without the reference genome, all that information would be worthless because you couldn't place all the little fragments of DNA where they sit on the larger genome.
Think of it like having a big jumble of small phrases that you know belong in a big epic novel. Your job is to tell us what page the phrase belongs on. HGP pieced together the whole novel for the first time, so now your job is much easier because you can just do a CRTL+F.
Today, people continue to assemble new reference genomes (e.g., new species) and reassemble the human genome to look for larger variations that don't agree with the original reference genomes created by the HGP and others. You typically can't do that for <$1000. It could cost you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on what tools you use and what accuracy you desire.
Tl;Dr: creating a new reference genome is much cheaper than it used to be and has certainly enabled by technology created in the course of the HGP and others. But still very very expensive. | 7,501 |
ELI5: Why do leaves not degrade when placed inside the pages of a book? | 48 | Effectively they mummify. If you remove the water most biological materials don't decay. Paper will absorb moisture and it slowly dissipates out into the environment while the book keeps the leaf (or flower) flat instead of crinkling up like dry leaves in woodland. | 66 |
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Why does paper 'remember' when it's been rolled up? | As in, if I roll up a bit of paper and then un-roll it, why will it bend in the direction it's been rolled? | 25 | The outside of the roll is under tensile stress. Therefore, the interface in between the paper fibres and the matrix is deformed more than the inside. When you let go of the roll, the paper recovers the elastic portion of the deformation, but not the plastic portion. | 24 |
ELI5: How did Isaac Newton "invent" calculus? | I've never taken any math above algebra 2 or stats in college, so forgive me if this is common knowledge! I've always been confused by the fact that Isaac Newton is credited with having invented calculus. Few questions:
Did he invent or discover calculus? Semantics, I know, but I'm curious to hear what the argument for invention would be.
Do any of his thought processes survive?
Has anyone since invented (or discovered) a type of math? (for that matter, is calculus a type of math or just math or both??) | 17 | In a way, it's both. The concepts that underpin calculus (derivatives, integrals) were already "there" and, in this sense, Issac and Liebniz "discovered them."
But, to discover them, they had to "invent" a new mathematical framework, new symbols and processes, to access this new field.
For example, the instantaneous slope of a curve, f(*x*) = *x*^2, being equal to 2*x* was always the case. But the processes that can be used to derive 2*x* from *x*^2 were invented. | 13 |
[Halo Franchise] Why didn't the forerunners build Halo rings that could destroy the flood, rather than merely wiping out "their food source"? I would think such an advanced civilization could build something that specifically targets them, or at least kills them along with everything else. | Are the flood somehow classified as "non-life" even though they are clearly capable of reproduction, growth, infecting organic hosts, etc? Why can a spartan with a gun wipe out thousands of the things but galaxy-spanning superweapons can't? | 19 | The Halo Array as well as most Forerunner/Precursor tech is based on neural physics, a concept that the Galaxy itself is alive and all sentient minds are connected (akin to the Force in Star Wars or other such pantheistic ideas), the Halo Array works by indiscriminately killing any being with a sentient mind connected to the neural network, which is a lot easier than trying to identify and kill individual species and races. It's easier for modern humans to just build nukes than it is to build bioweapons that target specific peoples' DNA. Graveminds and intelligent forms might die to the Halos but the Flood can survive in spores and other less advanced forms.
&#x200B;
> Why can a spartan with a gun wipe out thousands of the things but galaxy-spanning superweapons can't?
The Flood can infect tech as well. The Flood had planet-sized forms and could infect the Forerunners' massive armadas of thousands of capital ships. Humans and the Covenant were lucky that their tech wasn't as advanced since the Flood would have used it against them. | 23 |
[Turtledove] How would the WorldWar series have progressed if The Race had tried to conquer the Southern Victory/Timeline-191 version of Earth? | The "Alternate Point of Departure" is still sometime between December 1941 and May 1942, which places the arrival of the First Fleet sometime during the events of *Return Engagement* or *Drive to the East* from the *Settling Accounts* series.
In the Southern Victory series, the CSA and USA fight multiple wars that only end when the CSA surrenders and ceases to exist in 1944. Now we ought to expect The Race would carry out landings worldwide, including Confederate Florida, Unionist Illinois, Unionist Idaho, and Unionist New York in North America, which would further destabilize the North American theater of the Second Great War as both Union and Confederacy have to scramble to contain the beachheads of the Lizards inside their own territories.
The Race could easily become a 'deus ex machina' (like the original POD of Timeline-191) that would distract the United States from its long-term campaign to finally reconquer the Old South. How ironic it would be, if this second POD was instrumental in saving the Confederacy from its destined destruction, once again. | 55 | The Lizards only recognized the Not-Empires when they showed they had nuclear arms. All the radiation was gonna muck up the whole planet, and the Emperor doesn't send space armadas for nothing.
I would think that the CSA wouldn't have been able to develop the nuclear technology and would have either been conquered along with Mexico, or ended up as a buffer state similar to Poland's fate. | 12 |
Are military service contracts akin to indentured servitude or slavery? | I am a naval officer and have been in the navy for about 2 years. I don’t want to be in the military at this point, but I have 6 years left on my contract and have no legitimate way of buying my contract out. I am forced to perform a job that I don’t want to do every day. The alternative is jail or receiving a bad discharge.
Is this morally wrong in the same way that slavery and indentured servitude are considered morally wrong?
| 19 | I think typically slavery and indentured servitude are bad because you can't quit, not because you can't quit without suffering consequences that were stipulated when you signed the contract. But a job you can't quit without bad consequences might be bad for reasons similar to indentured servitude (even if it's not as bad). It depends on the consequences, presumably. | 15 |
[God of War] Is Greece located in Midgard? Is the Earth we see in the original games Midgard? | I thought this was confusing. I know Midgard is Earth in Norse mythology, but is it the same Earth we see in the original games, where Greece, Persia, is located? Both Kratos and Tyr traveled from or to Midgard from "other lands" (Greece, Japan, Egypt), but is it the same realm? | 24 | Yes, there is only one physical Earth that includes all of the continents and geographical locations you're familiar with. But different gods and cosmological forces have taken control of different regions, and enforced different magical rules over those little realms. When Kratos travels across the land, he's simultaneously moving across the continents and magically moving between several different magical realms. | 38 |
[MCU] How does Captain America have the strength to momentarily hold back Thanos in Infinity War, but that same strength doesn’t shatter every bone in Batroc’s body when actually trying to beat him in CA Winter Soldier? | 143 | Cap wasn't holding Thanos back, he was using every ounce his might just to hold Thanos's fingers apart (while Thanos just stood there in confused admiration at the futility of it).
He was putting just enough into the fight with Batroc to incapacitate him. | 230 |
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[Halo] Has the Master Chief ever eaten anything in between Halo 2 and Halo 4? | Reason why I left out Combat Evolved is because after the game, the novel First Strike takes over.
Right after the first cutscene in Halo 2, when the Chief is in the Cairo station, the Chief automatically jumps into action. He's plunged into fighting throughout many locations, Africa, the Halo installation, High Charity, and back to Earth in Halo 3. Even then he's thrown into more locations on Africa and eventually when he's back on another Forerunner there seems like no eating break has occurred. Even on human ships it seems like he's just on stand by.
When he awakens in Halo 4, it has been several years. I'm positive he could have had a chance when he runs into the UNSC Infinity, but what we've seen was him squabbling with Del Rio. By the time the events of the Escalations series he probably had something to eat but even then he seems to have jumped back into action.
I know his augmentation helps with quenching and controlling basic human urges, like sleep, sexual drives, etc., but for a man his physical stature, you need a lot of calories to maintain his metallic skeletal structure and muscle density. Plus, he's always moving and fighting other organisms beyond his physical strength, he must use a lot of energy. I also doubt he has much body fat to burn off as emergency energy reserves. So how does the Chief do it?
ninja edit: what about water? and how much does he sweat? | 18 | Yes, he has eaten, but we just never see it. He probably finds time to eat in the few bits of downtime that he gets; en-route to a location on a ship or Pelican, any extended time when he is waiting for something to happen or come to him, etc...
Also, what he is eating is probably some sort of energy-rich superfood like Lembas bread from LotR. It probably takes him only a few minutes to eat something that can provide the necessary nutrients and calories he needs for an extended period, possibly more than a day. So even during that downtime, there is only a small window that one might actually see him eating something.
As for water, he probably has some sort of suit-internal reservoir that can last him a bit, but it is probably a similar situation to the food question. | 25 |
ELI5: What is sexual tension? | 41 | When u both wanna bone each other
A lot of the time it includes wanting to bone each other but not being able to for some reason, like friends not wanting to ruin a friendship or co-workers who don't want to ruin a professional relationship | 55 |
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Is it coincidence or simple logic that during both a lunar and solar eclipse the moon and sun respectively are almost perfectly eclipsed? | The earth's shadow is just about the same size as the visible surface of the moon and the moon's apparent size is just about the same as the sun's apparent size. Would this be the case in any planet/moon/star setup or is that just plain silly? Could the earth's shadow just as easily have been a spot on the moon's surface? | 17 | "The earth's shadow is just about the same size as the visible surface of the moon" -- this part is not correct, actually earth's shadow at moon's distance is larger than the moon, so lunar eclipses do not have the tight fit as the solar eclipse.
The moon's apparent size versus the sun is a coincidence. | 29 |
[Star Trek]Why do the lights get dim when ships go to Red Alert? | Surely the crew would want to have clear lighting while fighting? | 21 | Diverting power from non-essentials to shields, phaser banks, etc. It also has the effect of making it easier to focus on your displays without a bright environment to distract you, and in the event of total power loss the sudden change to a dark environment is less jarring when already starting dim. | 55 |
[SCP][Batman] Special Containment Procedures for Arkham Asylum | Let's assume that for some reasons the Foundation decides to *covertly* assume responsibility for keeping the Gotham worst in jail and prevent them once and for all from escaping. Seeing how they regularly contain so many world ending events, objects and creatures, what would they do with Arkham inmates?
Will they classify Joker as a reality bender, seeing how much unexplained survaivability he has and how dangerous he is? Will Penguin get "standard humanoid containment cell"? Will Poison Ivy be under constant threat of plant killing agents?
Quick reference: SCP articles are documents for fictional organisation (The Foundation), which holds the horrors at the bay, that comprise at the least the threat level, special containment procedures (hence the name) and description of the threat, in that order. Example: http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-173
The procedures are usually pragmatic, scientific and leave as little as possible room for error. | 18 | Penguin would be D-Class and be eaten by the first thing that came along.
The Joker would be decommissioned AKA shot by snipers. Fifty of them.
Ivy meets 2800, breaks out, never seen again.
Mr. Freeze will have his brain picked because he is good at containing.
Zzsaz gets sent to the Old Man see who can kill who.
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ELI5: Why do drinking fountains have two separate jets of water that combine to form one arc? | 7,535 | Two separate small jets running parallel with each other produces a less chaotic flow of water than a single large jet. You can notice this in those elaborate fountain shows: each jet is actually a bundle of smaller jets that combine to form the big "ribbon" of water. | 5,669 |
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[DC/Marvel] What would Batman turn out like if he took the super soldier serum? | Considering he's in peak physical condition and has good intentions, what would he end up like if he went though the same process as Steve Rogers did. | 36 | It raises you to the peak of human perfection, and there's somebody who achieved Steve Roger's results through genetics, diet, and exercise. So Batman wouldn't be much stronger or faster, but he'd greatly benefit from improved healing and recovery. Things he can't train or practice, like vision, would be improved. | 27 |
ELI5: Why and how does a Anti-Static wrist band protect and prevent our electronics from being damaged? | Why does static even ruin our electronics, and what exactly does an anti-static band do to prevent that from happening? | 35 | Your body is not a very good conductor. It's ok, nothing special.
Your clothes/shoes, on the other hand, are good insulators and they can charge you up to tens of thousands of volts. Discharging 15,000V into a computer circuit designed to run on 3.3V will fry it.
The anti-static band uses your ok conductor body to bleed off the charge your clothes/shoes have built up. That makes you have only safe voltage on your skin, as long as your anti-static band is hooked to ground (through a resistor, for safety). | 18 |
ELI5: What's the deal with the centrifugal/centripetal forces? | There's the xkcd, https://xkcd.com/123/ which says that centrifugal force doesn't exist, only centripetal and I've seen a discussion in another thread, but it just made me more confused. (Also, where does Centripetal force come from?) ELI5? | 36 | What the comic claims is closer to the truth. Depending on your frame of reference, there is *either* a centripetal or centrifugal force, but never both at the same time.
If you examine the system externally, you see the centripetal force. This is considered the 'true' force because it takes into account the entire system.
But if you are inside the system, you see the centrifugal force.
Physics teachers overcompensate for everyone saying "centrifugal force" when they mean "centripetal force" by stating that centrifugal force doesn't exist. | 10 |
Is the human immune system basically the same as other mammals, or does it have any adaptations unique to us? | 3,973 | All metabolic organisms on earth share the common innate immune system. The exact compounds and mechanisms can vary a lot, such as antifungal peptides, antibiotics, membrane disrupting compounds, and DNA targeting enzymes. Many organisms either share these, or can reasonably be shown to have evolved their own variants from a common ancestor. It is believed this evolved in the first organism(s) and, therefore, all innate immunity derives from a single or small group of common ancestors.
All vertebrates have what's called an adaptive immune system. There are specialized cells that perform specialized immune functions that can adapt to specific pathogens, and even create long term templates for antibodies that can attack that pathogen at a future time. Many vertebrates likely share this through descent from a common ancestor, though, as another comment pointed out, some vertebrates generate unique types of small antibodies, but the underlying mechanisms of the immune system are still ultimately the same.
Those organisms also produce what can be thought of as conventional antibodies, and have specialized cells that derive from stem cell lines and perform the same basic functions as analogous immune cells in other vertebrates. It's pretty clear that these unique smaller antibodies are derived from the more conventional antibodies as they are made of exactly the same building blocks, but only use one type of building block, what's known as "heavy chains," where conventional antibodies are made of a combination of heavy and light chains. The main advantage of these smaller antibodies is they can fit into tighter pockets in target molecules.
Humans have a pretty run of the mill vertebrate immune system. Of course, all species have variation in the specifics of immune function, but overall there's not really anything unique about human immunity when compared to other vertebrates. In fact, because vertebrate immune systems are so similar, it's a common medical practice to use other vertebrates, typically mammals, to produce antibodies which are then harvested and used in treatments, though the most modern techniques attempt to produce antibodies using immortalized cell lines rather than relying on harvesting from animals. Antibodies are still commonly produced this way for biotech and research needs. That said, there are large variations in specific details even between individual humans because the immune system is so mind-bogglingly complex and relies on very specific "lock and key" mechanisms. Genetic variation plays a huge role here.
TLDR: Overall, the human immune system is very similar to that of other mammals and even to other vertebrates in general, but it's notable that there can be large variations even between humans, and some vertebrates produce unique types of antibodies derived from the more ubiquitous type of antibodies. | 1,413 |
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[MCU] How would Loki have reacted to the knowledge of his true heritage, if he had been the favoured child of Odin? | It is well-known that Odin showed parental favouritism towards Thor, given that Thor is his biological child. As a result, part of Loki's rage at the truth is because it "explains" why he was side-lined and treated as what he perceives to be the inferior sibling.
But what if *Loki* had been the favourite child? What if Odin praised Loki whenever he cast a new, more complex spell -- "my son, he is truly a talented sorcerer!"? Not to say that Thor is side-lined to the same degree as Loki, yet it would be clear that Odin favours his adopted. In this scenario, how would Loki have reacted to finding out he is a Frost Giant? Better or worse, and why? | 47 | Better. Loki saw it as the revelation that Odin probably actually did prefer Thor because he was his true son instead of any perceived slights. If Loki had been the favored child he wouldn't have those feelings of inadequacy that would have been further stoked by discovering he's a frost giant. | 35 |
ELI5: How on earth is the "Chance of Rain" calculated? | 22 | Meteorologists collect lots of information about weather. They measure wind speed, cloud clover, how much it rains, the barometric pressure, etc. With all this information, they notice patterns and can use those patterns to predict the weather to some extent.
For example, if in the past, it rained 40% of the time when the clouds formed like they are today, and other weather factors were also similar, they would say there is a 40% chance of rain. | 19 |
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[Star Wars] Why didn't Lord Vader sense the force in Leia during The Empire Strikes Back? | 20 | Because she hadn't awoken to her potential yet.
Think of it like a fire. Luke and Leia have a large pile of firewood and kindling. Obi-Wan had provided Luke with a spark needed to ignite that fire, and he was burning slowly until he went to Dagobah, whereupon Yoda poured a bit of kerosene on top.
Leia had never gotten so much as a spark in the original trilogy. She has great *potential*, but she's never had the training and opportunities to learn that Luke had, so her Force presence was still relatively low. | 26 |
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ELI5: Why did ancient civilizations make so many damn vases? | 30 | Storage and transport.
Once agriculture and irrigation really took off, people needed a way to store and preserve harvest for the next year. Also imagine how hard it would be to trade items like beans in Mesoamerica without a way to move them.
Some cultures also saw vaseses something you'd need to take with you in the afterlife to help you in your journey. | 28 |
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ELI5: Why does sugar sometimes act as a preservative (sugar-cured fruits, honey) and sometimes encourage bacterial growth? | 15 | Moisture is the enemy of preservation.
A high salt or sugar solution around the food will attempt to reach equilibrium with the salt/sugar levels inside (Osmosis). You end up drawing water out of the food and having sugar and salt molecules flow into the food to try and balance the levels. With less water in the food it resist spoiling.
That said, there are some bacterias and yeasts that love high sugar and salt foods so they can actually flourish in preserved foods. Also, in lesser concentrations sugar is an excellent food source for some bacteria, like the ones that cause cavities. | 11 |
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[DC/Godzilla] Would Batman be willing to kill Godzilla? given the chance? | Out of all of the Superheros throughout DC and Marvel, Batman has one of the most strict No Kill Rules, even more so than Spider-Man which says alot but Batman does have exceptions I believe, such as if the thing he is fighting was never human but would it's intelligence and such a major role in the environment stop him from killing it?
Godzilla is one of the most destructive and unstoppable creatures, he could wipe out all of humanity if he really wanted to but instead he punishes humanity for their sins against nature and the use of the atomic bombs but he is not just some beast that mindlessly attacks, he has very complex emotions and is like a human in alot of ways and despite attacking humanity alot, he is not evil at all and Godzilla has such high levels of intelligence for a creature, it's beyond that of whales, Dolphins, and primates and he understands complex concepts BUT one of the biggest factors here is Godzilla's role in the environment due to the fact that he is a MAJOR protector of earth and while he doesn't purposely protect humanity, he does save humanity alot from giant monsters and even aliens and in a scenaria where he dies and stays dead, humanity would probably suffer big time and be destroyed and so would the planet.
Godzilla can withstand just about anything, literally but given the chance would Batman be willing to kill him? would Batman see him as a big enough threat to risk killing him? and would Batman's no kill rule allow him to kill Godzilla? | 34 | If Godzilla rolled up on Gotham and started dominoing buildings then sure Bats would kill him... If he could and absolutely had too.
I can see Batman running multiple contingencies while he ramped up levels of fire power trying to keep Godzilla at bay. Like calling in a telepath like Martian Manhunter to try and communicate with or pacify Godzilla and try to get him to go peacefully or maybe someone like Superman or MM again to physically BFR Godzilla. Captain Atom would be a good ally to call in as he can nullify the atomic breath and physically match Godzilla. Zatanna or Constantine could just use magic to make Godzilla the size of a mouse.
Batman may even just come up with a way to do that mechanically with some sort of Batsuit that absorbs radiation and uses it as a power source and just fight him off to a stale mate. Or he could use a Boomtube or something to just get him out of Gotham.
But yeah to counter your wording, Batman wouldn't kill Godzilla if he got the chance, but he'd do it if he had too. But he has too many allies and technological gizmos to really need too. | 35 |
Berlin just voted to expropriate real estate from big corporations. What impact do you expect this have on the housing market there? | Also, what if this causes capital flight from German real estate in general? How would that likely impact the nation's housing market and economy in general? | 88 | First of all, that was just an opinion poll, not anything binding. The leader of the Berlin senate also doesn't really want to do this.
>What impact do you expect this have on the housing market there?
It would most likely help the people living in those apartments. Depending on how it's financed, it would lead to higher taxes, or less spending on other projects (or a mix), so it would hurt everybody else.
The housing market has experienced pretty massive pressure for quite a while, and it's doubtful this would fundamentally change the situation. The issue is a lack of supply, this does nothing to alleviate that, and if we go a step further and assume that this money would be spend on constructing more housing otherwise, hurts everybody else.
It's just the same problem that has plagued housing politics for ages, policies that benefit a select few but do very little to address the issues that cause high prices in the first place.
>Also, what if this causes capital flight from German real estate in general?
That is highly unlikely.
Berlin is not particularly representative of the rest of Germany and investors know that. | 53 |
ELI5: Why does squinting work? | To an extent. | 20 | When you squint you cut off the top and bottom edges of your pupil, making your pupil closer to a pin hole camera. The smaller the hole, the sharper the image, regardless of the shape of the eye or the shape of the lens. The trade off though, is that the image is dimmer. | 24 |
CMV: Most Incels are not actually INVOLUNTARILY celibate | Most of them are in fact ***voluntarily*** celibate.
A lot of them may not be able to have sex as they are right now, but that doesn't mean they can't improve themselves to the point that they become appealing and attractive enough to get people to want to have sex with them.
Its their overly cynical view of women and dating and even the world that causes them to *choose* to remain unappealing because at the end of the day they think that any real effort to become better is pointless but not because there is any meaningful truth to that idea but because they're just too scared to make a legitimate attempt at bettering themselves. | 16 | Just because it's through their own fault doesn't mean it's voluntary.
If you speed and crash, it's your fault, but that doesn't mean you **wanted** to crash.
Involuntary means they didn't **choose** to be celibate, and they didn't. | 12 |
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