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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mraz5o
|
How does wireless connection bandwidth work, why does the speed differ so much from factors like connection quality compared to wired connections where it's pretty much a set speed?
|
When you use a wired connection the stability of the connection always stays the same, meaning the device knows when and how it will receive a signal. However, a, for example, WI-FI connection is very unstable compared to a wired, and the connection speed always differs during a period of time. I've always wondered, how does the receiving device know at what speed to expect to receive the incoming signal, and not lose chunks of data when the speed suddenly drops/rises?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gul4kuv",
"gul7imv"
] |
[
"The speed is always the same (agreed upon before the transmission starts), but packets might have to be resend when something interferes with the transmission. That can be anything from a random other electrical device turning on to something conductive moving through the room. Or even just being too far away and other signals being \"louder\" than yours. Each packet is checked for correctness with a \"parity bit\" wich basically just says \"the last packet should be even/odd\" (or dividable by any number for better correction) so every packet read wrongly you simply repeat it wich slows the speed since more data is sent. You don't have those issues with cables simply because you can shield them (I.E. put a fine metal webbing between layers of insulation). That prevents outside signal from disrupting your transmission."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
5mkash
|
If I have a source of light like a flashlight in a dark room, how can I see things that, when the light beam bounces off them, it doesn't reach my eyes?
|
For example, if I'm holding a flashlight in an otherwise dark room, which I'm pointing at a wall at an angle, how can I see the wall?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dc4731c",
"dc46xq5"
] |
[
"imagine that you are in a room in witch the floor is all covered in rocks. random rocks of all sizes and shapes. if you vertically drop a tennis ball it will not bounce vertically because the floor wasn't smooth. on the micro scale the wall, too, isn't smooth and the photons will scatter in every direction once they hit said wall. some of these \"stray\" photos will reach your eyes and that's why you can see the table."
] |
[
14
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
73jg2i
|
In movies, how to they get the glass in windows/windshields to break as if a bullet went through it?
|
Engineering
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dnqs7ou",
"dnqr942"
] |
[
"Other folks already mentioned the squib. However, as a separate fun fact, normal glass found in houses, drinking cups, etc is made from super heated sand (over 3000F). As you know is super sturdy, hurts like hell if you break it, etc. You can compete this same process with sugar instead of sand. The sugar glass is far far more brittle and doesn't shard as badly. However, when filmed (combine with added sound effects) appears like sand glass. So it's far easier and safer to punch, be near when a \"bullet\" punctures it, etc"
] |
[
16
] |
[
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squib_\\(explosive\\)"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
mki3po
|
What's the psychology behind getting satisfaction from imaginary achievements? For example skins/awards in games?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gtfwqfb",
"gtfxbd3",
"gtfxh0h"
] |
[
"You say \"imaginary\", but a digital world is a social space in many ways as tangible as a neighbourhood. If you engage more with people online than irl, why wouldn't you work to earn rewards for your avatar?"
] |
[
19
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
6fm3ge
|
How do doctors calculate percent/chance of survival for any particular surgery?
|
Is it simply the number of successful procedures compared to number of procedures where people have died?
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dij6ksy"
] |
[
"Pretty much. Often it's more of just an educated guess based on how complicated the surgery will be and the number of things that could potentially go wrong."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
arr4zc
|
why are some firefighting suits silver and some nomex? Is one “better” than the other?
|
Engineering
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"egp8ate",
"egp49xr"
] |
[
"There are three general types of firefighting 'suits'. Some fires burn very, very, very hot. Like a big pool of jet fuel on fire! Even though firefighters stand several feet away, the heat of the fire is radiating toward them like light waves, like a very hot heat lamp. Silver suits reflect this heat, allowing the firefighters to operate nozzles, hoses and fire trucks from several feet away to put the fire out. They work from a distance of many feet to put the fire out. These silver suits aren't as durable, get dirty easily, and wouldn't stand up to constant rubbing and scraping. These suits are usually only necessary while putting out a very large outside fire, like airplane fuel, oil fire, etc. Other fires are hot, but not nearly so hot. Like an enclosed room on fire. Firefighters wear suits with three layers - an outer fire resistant and abrasion resistant layer, an insulating later inside that just like a winter coat, and a vapor barrier with that kinda like a rain coat. These suits protect firefighters from hot (but not super hot!) fires, are also very durable allowing them to crawl around in rooms with many broken/sharp objects, and also protect them from the steam that is produced when their fire hoses put water on a fire. These suits can be black, yellow, tan, white or whatever color the department chooses. These suits are very warm (like a snowmobile suit!), so firefighters can get tired and dehydrated very quickly, and generally have to rotate in and out of a fire every 30 minutes or so. The third common type is just one or two layers of fire resistant fabric like Nomex or heavy cotton. This suit is worn when fighting fires outside, like a forest fire. Many times in this situation, firefighters work for many hours or even days at a time, and may be hundreds of feet away from the actual flames. These suits are \"just in case\" things go wrong or the fire gets too close (although some firefighters may be right up close to the flames for a time), and allow firefighters to work for many hours on days that can be over a hundred degrees while they are doing hard work. Some departments make these suits thicker with multiple layers, while others basically just have one thick layer of cotton. It is important to note that NONE of these are \"fireproof\". If any are exposed to direct flame for a period of time, they will all fail. And even if they don't fail, the temperature inside the suit will eventually be the same as the temperature outside the suit."
] |
[
11
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
775x74
|
How does an eSport organization make money beside of the sponsoring and prize money of tournaments? How can it be a sustainable business?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"doj8nm2",
"doj8npd"
] |
[
"Same way any sports team will be profitable. Sponsorship, advertising, donations, merchandise selling, and tournament winnings. eSports is a very popular audience passtime, and good teams have a lot of fans that are willing to watch their matches. Sponsors are willing to pay a lot of money to get to advertise to such a very targeted audience of this size. The teams also sells merch, t-shirts, mugs, posters, whatever that are very popular with their fans and can make a fairly good supplemental income."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
5umnpy
|
What does it mean to "Optimize" a game?
|
In response to this post: URL_0 I get the general idea of what it does, but what do developers actually "do" when they optimize something?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ddvd0qh",
"ddv9azg",
"ddv5wrr",
"ddvd83s"
] |
[
"I'll give you a quick example, as I recently released a game on mobile, a platform where you're particularly constrained on resources. There's other kinds of optimizations, especially ones that are much more \"lower level\", but this is one example that came to mind. In my game, there's an effect where you can freeze an enemy and shatter it, causing about 20-40 shards of ice to explode away. They have physics, bouncing on the ground and fading away. I was getting bad performance when these pieces were created, because instantiating an object and all its associated components can be pretty intensive on performance. As a solution to this, I \"optimized\" it by having a pool of about 200 of these shards created at the start of the game. They are dormant, and placed well off screen. When I need them to be \"created\" for the shatter effect, I actually just move them to the game world, activate them, and once they fade away they actually go back to the off-screen pool and reset themselves. This made the performance of the effect much, much better."
] |
[
32
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_unrolling"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
cjqzb2
|
Why aren't the lids of plastic water bottles recyclable?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"evf7ia4",
"evf9w2w",
"evf9tbd"
] |
[
"They are made of different plastics. Usually the soft plastic bottle is made of PET (indicated with number 1). The hard caps are made using PP (number 5). It is currently not economically viable to recycle plastics PP, so most recycling plants don’t have the equipment to handle it. If a significant amount of PP were fed into the machines recycling PET, it could jam or destroy the machines."
] |
[
21
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
aeh9ex
|
Generative grammar and cognitive linguistics
|
I know those are complex concepts but if someone could lay out the basics for me I would be eternally grateful.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"edpbbqh"
] |
[
"A little bit of history is needed first: before Cognitive Linguistics and in particular Noam Chomsky's critique of B.F. Skinner it was believed that the way young children learned language was they would 'randomly' babble sounds, ones that were close to 'adult language' were rewarded so they would start to use those sounds more often. So 'wa' might become associated with a request for 'water', 'mee' with 'milk' or 'me'. And over time children would get better and more refined at this. Chomsky argued that it would take far too long to go from emitting random sounds to grasping and successfully employing the subtle complexities of grammar. For example \"John gave Mary the book.\" and \"Mary gave John the book.\" have the exact same words but very different meanings simply because of the order they fall in. The idea behind Generative Grammar is there must be some sort of 'rules' that we all intuitively grasp as opposed to learning these rules through positive reinforcement, because it would take far too long to learn through trial and error that you should say \"The cat sat on the mat.\" not \"The mat cat sat on.\" (Notice how the latter just feels wrong/awkward even if you can grasp it's meaning?) Cognitive Linguistics is the study of the nature of those rules within the realm of the Cognitive Sciences, a discipline which attempts to study the mind and intelligence. Generative Grammar is the theory that our minds are predisposed towards certain rules of Grammar rather than these rules being arbitrary and learned through trial and error."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
bd22md
|
How do some countries with very high national debt (Japan, US) still manage to drive their economies, but some (Greece) fail to do so?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ekv6k14",
"ekv8t41",
"ekv7xam",
"ekvm0nq",
"ekv9es8",
"ekv8dww",
"ekv7w5r",
"ekvc6r8",
"ekvabbl",
"ekv9w6v",
"ekv96e9",
"ekvadxd",
"ekv918c",
"ekv84hk",
"ekvnvul",
"ekvl2wr",
"ekvat1v"
] |
[
"Investor confidence. You can borrow forever as long as people continue to think you will eventually pay it back. Japan is a technological and industrial powerhouse, and people generally think that even despite its insane debt-to-GDP ratio, their economy is still strong and continue to invest in it. Greece has no real major industry or exports, so it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. So people stop investing, and the economy crashes."
] |
[
8009
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/the-deficits-racket-part-i-single-payer-propaganda-war"
],
[],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wealth?wprov=sfti1"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-04-12/market-madness-sees-greek-bond-yields-fall-below-u-s-chart"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
77aaik
|
Why does India have so many people?
|
Repost
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"doka3po",
"dokakpn",
"dokdroi"
] |
[
"The poorer part of India is against birth control, breeds until they have enough men to sustain the family, because once you're old you're supported by your children, and other cultural reasons that promote large families."
] |
[
11
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
gqtckh
|
why is it easier to talk to someone you don't know face-to-face than it is to call them?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fruqtxa"
] |
[
"People like mirroring. When you have a conversation you mirror the behavior and mannerisms of the person you're talking with and it helps build trust between two people. Its why some people walk in circles when talking on the phone- bc you're looking for your conversation partner! And when you can't see the person you're talking to and you can't build that trust with this new person your brain doesn't have the ability to relax and reassure itself it can trust the new person so you're anxious about it!"
] |
[
9
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
78vrx7
|
Are there any noteworthy differences between a name brand medicine and the generic version?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dox1jjp",
"doxewh4",
"doxfym0",
"dox2svj",
"doxgtbf",
"doxf5p4",
"doxlsah",
"doxngl7",
"doxdohq",
"doy1lor"
] |
[
"Generic drugs work the same as name-brand drugs. ([Source:]( URL_0 ) Food and Drug Administration.) This is a standard they have to meet to be approved for use. In particular, generics must: * have the same active ingredient * have the same strength and administration method * have acceptable inactive ingredients * be manufactured under the same standards as the name-brand * provide the same clinical benefits"
] |
[
839
] |
[
[
"https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/GenericDrugs/ucm167991.htm"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.fda.gov/ucm/groups/fdagov-public/documents/image/ucm153295.gif"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
jys2xq
|
What factors enabled dinosaurs to reach the sizes they did?
|
Why have many species after dinosaurs not reached such huge sizes?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gd70649",
"gd6td6k",
"gd6p62f",
"gd6y8rv"
] |
[
"Most dinosaurs weren't that big either, it's just that the really huge ones speak to our imagination. The most important thing that's needed is for the benefits of their size to outweigh the drawbacks. The biggest animal that ever lived is alive today, the blue whale. So animals can still get that big. It's just that size isn't always an advantage. Large animals usually need enormous amounts of food. And that's something dinosaurs had readily available. But that's usually not enough, being big needs to be an advantage. And there are lots of ways that can work out. Arctic animals are often much bigger than similar animals elsewhere. Because large bodies are better at maintaining body heat and carrying around fat reserves. Blue whales are so big because they have a very unique lifestyle. They need enormous amounts of food, so they travel around the world to feed during krill blooms. The mating season when krill populations explode. Since they only eat during those krill blooms, blue whales need to be big enough to carry enormous energy reserves while they literally cross the oceans chasing seasonal events. Island gigantism is a phenomenon where animals on isolated islands don't have any predators and plenty of food. And as a result, there's no selective pressure for staying small so they need less food and hide more easily. The giant turtles on the Galapagos are a great example. It's no different for dinosaurs really. Being large is a great defence strategy. Today we can see how elephants, giraffes, rhino's and so on are fairly safe from predation because even large predators like lions would prefer to hunt easier prey. Which means that if dinosaurs had plenty of food and opportunity, being large was a viable strategy. We have plenty of very large animals today. But being large needs to make sense. Under most conditions, there are more advantages to staying smaller. If you look at the size of all organisms throughout Earth's history, even a human is already a very, very large animal going by the average size for an organism."
] |
[
16
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
o129h2
|
Why is the amount of water required for producing something (food, clothes, etc..) used as a measure of sustainability?
|
I get that if it’s produced somewhere where water is scarce it’s important not to waste it but where I live freshwater is incredibly abundant why does it still matter?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"h1yf6w4",
"h1yf27n",
"h1yg7j9",
"h1yf8m2",
"h1yj3do",
"h1yki03"
] |
[
"Industrial production tends to use massive amounts of ressources. If not well managed, even the most abundant of ressources can become depleted given enough time. Another reason is that industrial processes often cause pollution and if not managed (often mandated by law), polluted water could be dumped back into the environment. The water may not be reusable without (heavy) treatment, therefore not sustainable for the long term. Another reason could be that a big corporation could set up shop in an area, exploit the ressources without caring about the environment. Once the ressource is depleted or the market has dried up, the corporation leaves. The local inhabitants are now left economically deprived in a degraded environment which could have been better preserved when the moneyed corporation still had an interest in the area."
] |
[
85
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
bnzq62
|
Why does "catching up on sleep" not work?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"enaweoc"
] |
[
"The same way starving yourself for a day wont immediately be fixed by over eating the next day. You need balance in a cycle not balance numerically. Increasing the problem is that when people need to catch up on sleep it is usually because they expended energy for a longer than usual time and higher rate. (Studying, writing, gaming,working,caring for a child or anyone). One usually doesn't sleep because they had to do more than usual and that alone would in itself require more sleep of a person for the added recuperation and another day to return to baseline. Continuing this for extended periods of time may lead to mental breaks, lack of ability to focus, slower reaction time. Not healthy."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
9cg8kt
|
Why is it that potassium and sodium are primarily lose during vomiting/diarrhea instead of other electrolytes?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"e5awlpr"
] |
[
"Other electrolytes are lost, too. I'm not sure why you think only Na and K principally are. Na is the major cation of extracellular fluid. So in most cases, when you lose extracellular fluid from vomiting or diarrhea, Na will be lost too. When it comes to vomiting, people tend to lose H+ and Cl- (from the hydrochloric acid in your stomach). In severe cases, this can actually change the pH of your body as your throw up acid. Your pH can go up resulting in an alkalotic, or \"basic\" state with elevated levels of HCO3. In addition to losses from vomiting, the pH change can shift K into your cells and reduce concentrations in your blood. The dehydration also activates other systems in your body who cause you to pee out K as a byproduct. When you have diarrhea, you tend to poop out HCO3 (and also Na). The K losses are principally though the secondary effects above. There are other electrolytes, such as Ca, Mag, which can also be affected"
] |
[
4
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
j4q65v
|
Why are humans (when potential partners are all the same relative level of physical attraction) more attracted to partners that make us laugh?
|
Psychology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g7l7piq",
"g7l79hb",
"g7lr0ye",
"g7liecd"
] |
[
"Laughing is a symptom of having a good time. Someone makes you laugh, your body thinks: hey, this person makes me have a good time. So you associate that person with having a good time."
] |
[
11
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
9irc28
|
how can new particles/electrons can be created?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"e6ls91h"
] |
[
"This question is rather ambiguous. Could you clarify? Do you mean creation of new mass, splitting atoms into their composites, or making new elements? TL;DR more stuff, dissecting stuff, or new types of stuff?"
] |
[
6
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
5qlqwm
|
what is the Canadian Healthcare program and why won't it work for the U.S?
|
Culture
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dd0apr6",
"dd0b1ie",
"dd0cwnc"
] |
[
"The Canadian healthcare system is administered through the government. Each province (kinda like a state, but bigger) funds their own program, while the nation sets some guidelines. What this means is that they don't pay for healthcare like we do here. Instead, they pay taxes, and then when they go to say, the hospital, the government pays all/most of it. The government also takes care of negotiating drug costs etc with companies. What that means is you don't need private insurance, like you would here (unless you're exceptionally rich). However, the public system doesn't cover everything. For example, dental/eye care works more like it does in the U.S. They do have private insurance, but it's more supplemental. The national healthcare is more basic, while private lets you get some perks that would cost extra. This also means you don't need to worry about being turned down if you can't afford treatment. No one is turned away, and the taxes you pay are proportional to income > why won't it work for the U.S? That isn't really an easy question to answer. There's no real proof that it won't- however, people are scared to try, because they think that government being in healthcare will make it very inefficient, or give people bad care. It's never been tried, so a lot of it is speculation tied to political beliefs on the role of the government. People who think the government should be small and leave stuff like this to the free market, are going to oppose national health care. (and vice versa). It's worth mentioning that Canada (as well as many european countries), tend to pay less for the same level of care that we do in the U.S. That doesn't mean it would for sure work- but it's very suggestive that it might, besides just actually trying it to see. While it is much cheaper, there are potential downsides. Canada is known for having relatively long waiting periods to get procedures done, and they tend not to have as many high end options as the US- in the US, there tends to be better specialized options, if you can afford it. A lot of people also argue that we essentially end up subsidizing R & D costs for the world, and that if we switched, less drugs would be made, but it's hard to prove if that is true or not. edit: You might find this helpful, for more detail (but easy to read!): URL_0 Or previous ELI5s: URL_1 edit2: I should also mention, that the reason it's cheaper, is that the government is a *very* big customer. That means they have a lot of bargaining power. The bigger you are, the cheaper you can get stuff (this works for insurance companies as well, they like being as big as possible for the same reason). So they can negotiate much lower prices with medical suppliers, which make much less money than they do in the U.S. The government also doesn't have to make a profit like a private insurance company, which saves as well. (Although insurance profits are relatively low in the US- it's a very competitive field. Most of the money \"wasted\" goes to providers, the people who make medical equipment or service, like doctors)"
] |
[
8
] |
[
[
"http://www.canadian-healthcare.org/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=canadian+healthcare&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
cvbqs9
|
What does it mean to have controlling shares in a company?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ey35rkj"
] |
[
"A number of decisions in the company are voted on by the shareholders. How much your vote counts depends on what % of the shares you own. So if you own over 50% of the shares then everyone else's votes are irrelevant. This is called a controlling interest, it basically means you get to make the big decisions. Which includes who runs the company."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
7ss7jz
|
Reddit, I'm passing from the realm of tipsy to drunk. What is happening inside my body and brain right now?
|
Repost
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dt77o84",
"dt77ou5",
"dt77par"
] |
[
"\"Come with meeeee, and you'll beeeee, in a wooooorrrrlllldd of pure inebriation.\" ~ your brain, right now!"
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lniixk
|
What do the links that you get through those fraud texts, actually do to your phone if clicked?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"go15rwz",
"go1itdt"
] |
[
"At the very least they tell the spammer that you click links in emails and texts and that they should continue to send you more as well as try to sell your details to someone else as a “live” target. At worst they can exploit your device, spy on you, steal your data and money, and much more."
] |
[
10
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
6w8jhn
|
why does resign v fired make a difference, either way you're out right?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dm6485h",
"dm63xzf",
"dm6eksy",
"dm643we"
] |
[
"Resigning is leaving of your own volition. Fired is being unwillingly removed. Although for people like Gorka (I assume that's what brought on the question) the difference may be immaterial; it is traditional to fire White House staff by asking them to resign. But for regular schlubs like you and me, quitting vs. being fired matters for whether or not you qualify for unemployment benefits and it will make a difference to potential future employers."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
hmvquq
|
Why do flys tend to be around/on humans instead of just flying around?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fx7jnin"
] |
[
"Flies have an incredible sense of smell and a love for salt. Humans excrete salt water in warm weather to cool down. So naturally, the flies sniff you out and try to sneak in for a couple licks."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
b1ms2w
|
Why does used gum stick to the pavement forever?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"eimv7rf"
] |
[
"It doesn't. You can scrape it up if you're feeling squirrelly. It turns black from dirt, mud, etc as people walk on it and eventually loses its stickiness (think dirt and gunk on tape), but you can still scrape it up. I'm pretty sure it's easier to do the older it is, but don't quote me on that."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
9pe514
|
Why do drugs like SSRI/SNRI take so long to have an effect on brain chemistry? (1 week-1 month)
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"e811zvj"
] |
[
"There are a lot of mechanisms built into the blood-brain interface to protect the brain from dangerous chemicals you might ingest. To bypass this a chemical needs to be sneaky, like cocaine or nicotine, or it needs to be patient. The sneaky chemicals shoot up and then crash down, sorta the effect SSRIs are trying to avoid. So SSRI engineers take a patient build-up strategy to be effective."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
8fcukh
|
Why are the sides on a ship called Aft, Port, Bow, and Starboard, instead of Front, Left, Right, and Back?
|
Culture
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dy2f245",
"dy2g4us",
"dy2jqi7",
"dy2f7vy",
"dy2gogw",
"dy2m72v",
"dy2f8i0"
] |
[
"because then it doesn't matter where you are standing. They reference portions of the boat and not the surroundings or your perspectives. This makes communication clearer."
] |
[
51
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
jvf5zm
|
Why does fasting or losing weight very quickly increase the chance of developing gallstones?
|
It is said that when you don’t eat for a long period of time or you lose weight quickly, your liver releases extra cholesterol into the bile. Why would it want to release "extra cholesterol" into the bile? What is it trying to achieve?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gcjltlu",
"gcl2ebl"
] |
[
"Body Metabolizes fat during rapid weight loss to provide energy, you are literally using up the fat to provide energy for your body. To support this metabolization, the liver excretes extra cholesterol into bile. How does gallstone form? when too much cholesterol is secreted that bile can't dissolve fast enough forming clumps and harden. So you see the problem. More body fat lost = more cholesterol released = more cholesterol that bile can't dissolve = stone."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
jhyida
|
Where does the color go when you bleach something? And why does it go?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ga33757",
"ga34qg2"
] |
[
"There's a little bit of chemistry to be known here. Chlorine bleach is an *oxidizer* -- that is, it removes electrons from chemicals. The reason clothes have color is because of the way visible light interacts with / bounces off of the molecules that make up the pigment. When it's oxidized, the removal of the electrons causes them to become different molecules that don't interact with light the same way, or at all."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
6e8cta
|
Why do some credit cards consider your rewards "points" instead of just considering them cash, since they then (generally) give them a fixed value of $.01?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"di8cuak",
"di8cwpz",
"di8elds"
] |
[
"That's not true. I get Chase's points with the cards I have. I can redeem each point for 1.5 cents on their travel portal, and possibly even more if I transfer them to another loyalty program."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu/images/weekly/20120516-Accounting-for-Airline-FFP.pdf"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
o7f1cz
|
why are bicycles more stable when moving than when still?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"h2yhl63",
"h2yhmvw",
"h2yihk7"
] |
[
"This question was asked before, and had the correct answers posted at those times: At slower speeds, the stability comes from the clever engineering of the bike's steering axis, so the front wheel naturally tends to steer toward the direction of tipping, keeping the bicycle upright. That steering can't happen when the bike isn't even moving. Only at higher speeds would the gyroscopic stabilizing effect of the spinning wheels be important. At slow speeds, the gyroscopic effect is too weak to matter."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/332/6027/339"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
6ppnx9
|
Why are flies and other insects drawn to rotting/foul smelling things more than any other living thing?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dkr67q4"
] |
[
"I challenge your premise. You're ignoring some famous examples, like hyena and the multitude of carrion eating birds - crows and vultures being some of the most well-known."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
asfh3h
|
the change in income tax law between 2017 and 2018.
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"egtx8of",
"egtwlmv",
"egtwgqk"
] |
[
"So every time you get your paycheck your job's payroll department took out some of your estimated taxes. That's called your \"withholding\". Remember your w4? That doc that asks if you're married or have kids? That's what goes into how much is withheld and how two people at the same salary might take home different amounts if someone is single vs someone who has a family. After the new tax law was enacted the IRS came out and said \"hey instead of taking out withholding like *this*, do it *this way*\". And a lot of companies followed suit. Fast forward to tax time: When you do your taxes what you basically do is count up how much was withheld from you throughout the year and compare that with what you actually should pay. If you have too little withheld through the year then you owe. If you have too much then you get a refund. But thanks to the new witholding calculations a lot of people who are used to to big refunds instead had more accurate withholding through the year which means that a refund is lower than what they're used to. So instead of getting $1000 all at once in a refund they just got paychecks that were about $50 more per period. It's the same amount of money at the end of the year but it can be a shock if you didn't know that your company enacted a new way to calculate how much they hold back. Link to the basics: URL_0"
] |
[
7
] |
[
[
"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/14/693976808/anger-confusion-over-dwindling-refunds-is-trumps-tax-plan-to-blame"
],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
7101rr
|
When you get shot by a bullet and the bullet is removed, what happens to the bullet wound and how does it heal?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dn76onw"
] |
[
"Your body has a remarkable ability to heal itself rather well, while not perfect. Once the bullet/missle is removed, they will check for any potential infection sites, cauterize (seal the extreme parts of the wound with heat) any major sources of bleeding, then bandage the wound closed and continue to monitor it while the wound heals itself, as Stem cells are poured into the area from your bone marrow to change into the cells needed for that area. Bandages are usually changed and wound cleaned twice a day with active bleeding, or once every 3 days while wound is active healing. Eventually the bandage can be removed as the wound scabs over and the skin takes over infection control. Some wounds, such as the golden zone located at your armpit/shoulder zone, the bullet can go straight through and only bandaging is required."
] |
[
4
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
8jb7v7
|
Why does 360° make a full circle? Why isn't it a round number like 100?
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dyygr90",
"dyyave4",
"dyyh523",
"dyyeuh9",
"dyzbhwh",
"dyygtj4",
"dyyb2ix",
"dyye1rh",
"dyyi0a0",
"dyyim2n",
"dyyjm2c",
"dyymyq9",
"dyyjyh2",
"dyzqr3c",
"dyyrcxn",
"dyyrxw7"
] |
[
"As many people have already brought up, but here in more detail of the history The Sumerians watched the Sun, Moon, and the five visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), primarily for omens. They did not try to understand the motions physically. They did, however, notice the circular track of the Sun's annual path across the sky and knew that it took about 360 days to complete one year's circuit. Consequently, they divided the circular path into 360 degrees to track each day's passage of the Sun's whole journey. This probably happened about 2400 BC. That's how we got a 360 degree circle. Around 1500 BC, Egyptians divided the day into 24 hours, though the hours varied with the seasons originally. Greek astronomers made the hours equal. About 300 to 100 BC, the Babylonians subdivided the hour into base-60 fractions: 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. The base 60 of their number system lives on in our time and angle divisions. An 100-degree circle makes sense for base 10 people like ourselves. But the base-60 Babylonians came up with 360 degrees and we cling to their ways-4,400 years later. A 100degree circle is actually used to a large extent in my profession (land surveyor) where a circle has 400 as its base, called Gon instead of degrees. When I was in the military we used a circlebase of 6300 for proper targeting with artillery."
] |
[
2367
] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.storyofmathematics.com/sumerian.html"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
bajy7z
|
What is mass spectroscopy and how does it work?
|
Need an easy explanation without using difficult vocabularies...
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ekc3yui"
] |
[
"It's spectrometry, not spectroscopy* but at a very, very basic level: Stuff is made of molecules. Those molecules are made of atoms. Each atom of a specific type weighs a specific amount. Therefore if you know what a molecule weighs, it can tell you something about which atoms it is made up of. Spectroscopy covers a wide range of techniques that separate the components of a substance out so you can detect them one at a time. Mass spectroscopy separates the components of a substance out according to their molecular weight. You mash some stuff up into little bits. You make sure those bits are 'ionised' - i.e. you break a molecule apart into + and - charges (basically where the electrons from the atoms end up). You fling those bits down a long tube, through a magnetic field and round a bend. Depending on the charge of the ion and the weight of the molecule, the bits of stuff get deflected a varying amount to one side or the other of the long tube. The stuff hits a detector. Depending on where it hits the detector, that tells you how heavy the molecule was and what charge it had. So positive molecules of a certain weight always hit the same spot of the detector. That, combined with a few other techniques to understand what stuff you're putting on or can then put the molecules through afterwards helps you work out what molecules hit the detector. *spectroscopy is studying the phenomenon, spectrometry is using it to measure things. One really simple version of something very similar to spectroscopy that you will have seen - called chromatography - is where you drop water on ink. The ink spreads out into the different colours that it is made of based on the size of the molecules and how fast the water can carry them through the structure of the paper."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
f2k47e
|
how does someone get signed to a record deal?
|
Culture
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fhd2gwi"
] |
[
"Anyone can sing, to make a career out of it, is much much harder. First get trained, get a vocal coach. And now the fun part... sing and sing, and try to get people to give you money. Now getting signed, is 50% luck and 50% skill. Someone with money has to think you can make them more money, be you be your best and good luck."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
j35h0m
|
. Why is it so hard to move your ring finger?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g79t120",
"g79rcoe",
"g79ril0"
] |
[
"the middle and ring fingers [lack the extensor muscles]( URL_0 ) (the ones that straighten the finger) that the other fingers do, so they’re harder to move independently and feel weaker than the other fingers. the thumb, index, and pinky all have dedicated muscles that straighten them."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensor_indicis_muscle"
],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
805dx3
|
A lot of Olympic Athletes were not born or live in the country they represent. I have heard that one parent or grandparent was from country they represent. How does that work? They are not good enough for one team so they use this loophole?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dutdo8o",
"dut6xj3"
] |
[
"My father was born in Canada but played on the Austrian Olympic hockey team. They simply made him a citizen to allow him to play there. I’d imagine that’s pretty much the basis for most countries but I’m sure there are countries with varying protocols to allow such a thing"
] |
[
4
] |
[
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Swaney"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ct1p85
|
How to tell non-planet time of day (if day is defined)?
|
ELI5: How does one tell time when a person no longer lives on a planet or among a multi-planetary society? (Rotation/orbit of a planet nor long/lat will not influence measurements)
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"exi1ima"
] |
[
"Well if location and orbit are removed there's nothing left to alter a \"days time\" or a year seeing as they're both related to rotation and orbit. So theyd all be the same at that point."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
7zzebd
|
What is the point of groomsmen and bridesmaids at a wedding?
|
Culture
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"durvdf1",
"durtwrs",
"durw8ob"
] |
[
"Practically, it's for moral support. On the big day the bridesmaids all get ready with the bride, get dressed and get made up together, calm jitters and have a good time. The groomsmen hang around with a brandy and a cigar and talk shit. Protip: assign one of your singleton groomsmen as the designated 'Bridal Butler' on the day. His job is to obey the bride's commands, bring up breakfast and fetch anything they need. Mid-morning, he surprises them with champagne and strawberries. The bride won't have time to do anything so having a guy on hand to help fetch and carry is essential. The guy looks like an absolute hero and any single bridesmaids hanging around will see him in a good light in the evening ;-)"
] |
[
8
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
bkjuh6
|
Why does holding your breath get rid of hiccups?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"emhmiaw",
"emh85oj"
] |
[
"Hiccups are the vagus nerve getting irritated and over stimulated by some reason (like alcohol, allergenics, etc) and then messing up movements in your diaphragm. The vagus nerve is also responsible for the autonomous coordination of your respiratory function. When you hold your breath (or hyperventilate, or drink a lot of water non stop) you are getting more CO2 in your blood, which tells the bulb (the nerve center that commands the vagus nerve) that you really should breath more. The bulb then overrides all sort of signals in the vagus nerve (such as the signals that were giving your hiccups) because it needs the diaphragm to move properly so you can get that nasty CO2 out of your bloodstream. True ELI5: imagine you are making a phone call to your grandma. Now imagine everyone in your house decides at the same time to call your grandma as well. She can't pick up all those phone calls, but she also doesn't want to let anyone fell ignored, so she rushes back and forth to try and answer everyone. Eventually, something important happens, and you yell to everyone THAT YOU REALLY NEED to speak you grandma, so everyone stops calling, and you can finally talk to her normally."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
aygwsu
|
Why does stretching feel so good?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ei12r3m"
] |
[
"Why does stretching my hamstrings feel so unpleasant, while stretching my calves feels good?"
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lphbxk
|
Magnetic pole flip? What happens?
|
I've been reading about this magnetic pole flip for years. Some scientists say it's imminent. Whats likely to happen if it does - from a technology points of view - are we talking satellites falling out of the sky, mobile network decimated? From an environment point of view - crazier weather? [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 )
|
Earth Science
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"goc0x4c",
"gobujxe"
] |
[
"The reversal of the Earth's magnetic field is a recurring phenomenon in Earth's geological history, the magnetic north pole moving to the geographic south pole, and vice versa. It is the result of a disturbance of the stability of the core of the Earth. The magnetic field then panics for a short period (1000 to 10,000 years) during which the magnetic poles move rapidly over the entire surface of the globe, or disappear, depending on the theories. & #x200B; During this transition, the magnetic field is very weak and the surface of the planet can be exposed to the solar wind, potentially dangerous for living organisms. If this were to happen today, many technologies using the magnetic field could also be affected. & #x200B; At the end of this transition period, either the magnetic poles return to their initial positions, it is then only a matter of a geomagnetic excursion, or they permute and one then speaks of inversion. & #x200B; The earth's field has reversed about 300 times in the past 200 million years. The last reversal was 780,000 years ago and the last excursion 33,000 years ago, no one knows when the next will happen."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/QGTPr3CG6GA"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
l78zic
|
Who sets the prices for a companies stock?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gl5bjrd"
] |
[
"After the initial moment / IPO, the price is whatever people are willing to pay. You offer it for sale, and if someone buys it, that is what it is worth."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
joztex
|
If a bird/insect were to "hover" in a fast moving car, why do they not smash into the back window?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gbbimzr",
"gbbjwqc",
"gbbkdlq",
"gbbi78k"
] |
[
"The air within the cabin of the car is being accelerated along with the car. You accelerate, the windows push the air along with it. Thus why you don't feel 70 mph of wind in your face when driving at freeway speeds. Flying things move relative to the air they are in. If the air they are in moves, they move along with it. So when you drive around in the car, the air in the car moves and thus the bug flying in that air moves as well."
] |
[
29
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io4y2h
|
why countries with weak currency don't remove multiple zeroes off their money to make it worth more?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g4bk1w9",
"g4bidtx",
"g4bh7c3",
"g4blkpe"
] |
[
"It happens, but it doesn't make the money worth more. It is only a cosmetic change that turns larger numbers into smaller ones, but it does not change anything about the underlying value. Turkey did just that in 2005. They replaced all their banknotes with new ones that had 6 zeros less on them. 1,000,000 old Lira would be worth 1 New Lira. Prices in shops and wages and bank accounts and debts would have 6 zero lobbed of them to go along with the new money. It didn't mean that anyone in turkey suddenly was any poorer or richer than before. Nothing changes on a practical level. The new currency just looked less ridiculous and was easier to handle. The main benefit that the government had been after to make a statement. the currency had undergone some very big inflation which is why they ended up with such large numbers, and the move was supposed to signal that this was now over and they were in normal times now. It was supposed to boost confidence in the currency that further inflation would be limited. This also shows why more countries aren't doing it. For example the Japanese Yen started out being worth exactly the same as the US dollar when it was crated (they were both copies of the Spanish dollar, the pieces of eight from pirate lore.) Since those days both Japan and the US have undergone some inflation. Japan thanks in part to losing WWII has undergone a lot more though. 1 US dollar today is worth more than 100 Yen and prices expressed in Yen all seem a lot larger than ones expressed in Dollars pound or Euro. Japan could lop of two zeroes of their currency to get it more in line with other world currency, but frankly they don't need to. The two extra decimal places are still manageable and Japan doesn't have to prove anything to anyone about the stabilize of their currency. Anyone looking at the Yen today will see the scars of past inflation on it, but also know that it is in the past. With Turkey observer had no such confidence and thus the government had to artificially boost it. Other than the practical aspects of keeping price tags short revaluating your currency like that is something you do when you need to project strength that people don't think you have. It might be seen as a sign of weakness itself. There is also the fact that switching out all your banknotes and coins for new ones like this will be an expensive undertaking and one not made unless there is some very good reason. Prosperous countries only undertake such projects when there is a clear benefit like all the Euro countries switching to a common currency or to a lesser degree when the British a few decades further back decided to go decimal with their coins."
] |
[
47
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
9zv2kr
|
How do DNA tests determine which country your ancestors came from?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"eac8xh1",
"eac8wzm"
] |
[
"By comparing it with other DNA tests from people who live in those countries. Different areas tend to have people with specific traits. As a simple example, people in China generally have black hair. Someone with black hair is more likely to be from China than a blonde. Now if you repeat this trend with hundreds of traits and millions of DNA tests, you can pretty accurately say where someone was born. Sites like 23 & me are creating detailed maps of which traits are common in which areas. Using huge amounts of data, these maps can be quite accurate."
] |
[
10
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
9xxjxy
|
Is "Dense" Muscle Tissue a thing?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"e9wa5qh"
] |
[
"> My question I guess is besides technique what allows someone who looks significantly smaller than someone else to be stronger and do they have denser muscle tissue from their style of training. [It isn't density that is the factor.]( URL_0 ) However I think what you are talking about is the proportion of \"fast twitch\" muscle to \"slow twitch\" muscle. Those with more fast twitch muscle fibers can produce explosive bursts of energy but will tire quickly, so if that proportion is increased in a given muscle you could briefly get greater output for a similar or lesser size. > I got to thinking about this looking at Chimps who while being substantially smaller than humans are much stronger This more has to do with how their muscles are anchored to their skeletal structure and the manner in which their nerves control them. Their muscles are anchored in a way which can provide greater leverage, but are less efficient at things like walking or throwing objects. [Another factor is the nerves used to control their muscles doesn't provide as much fine control as with humans.]( URL_1 ) Our ability to recruit a more granular amount of muscle fibers to a task means we are capable of more delicate movements, yet overall weaker in peak exertion."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26473521",
"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090330200829.htm"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
gxr61t
|
When banks process an online transfer for 3-5 business days, what is actually happening to the money?
|
And why is it such a long period of time, rather than a shorter software-based authentication of say, one hour?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ft4jcit",
"ft4k5hp",
"ft4pwab",
"ft4fmwg"
] |
[
"These transactions are being sent by ACH. There are a ton of rules around ACH transactions called NACHA rules. ACH is the first type of electronic money movement in the US that wasn’t a wire transfer. As such ACH is about 30 years old with very few upgrades. Now to the meat of your question. ACH transactions are typically sent in a bulk file. When you schedule your transfer it is saved in this bulk file and at the end of the day it is proceeded and released to the Fed with a value date. The value date is typically two days in the future. The receiving bank will usually get it the next day, but will not release it to the account until the value date. ACH has been upgraded recently and next day and same day transactions are possible, but same day has not been widely adopted. Same day ACH also has limits on the dollar amount and cost a little more to process"
] |
[
34
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
86rwaq
|
How do food manufacturers work out the calorie and nutrient content in their foods?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dw7e92s",
"dw7jclk"
] |
[
"To work out the calorific content of food, you can use something called a “bomb calorimeter”. This is basically a combustion chamber immersed in water. You burn up the food and measure the change in the water temperature, which tells you how much energy is in it. There are other tests for various nutrients. In reality though, they look up standard measures for the ingredients they add to the food and combine the values."
] |
[
20
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
nzcueg
|
Anselm’s Ontological Argument for the Existence of God
|
As much as I try learning about it, I don’t get it. What is the ontological argument, and why is it special?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"h1oy9y8"
] |
[
"His proof goes something like this. 1. God is greatest possible thing. 2. Everything is imaginary and/or real. 3. Something is better when it is real than when it is imaginary. 4. If God is only imaginary, then he wouldn’t be the greatest possible thing, because a real God would be better. This would contracts God as the greatest possible thing. 5. God must exist by proof of contradiction. In short, the guy thought he was really smart, when in reality, he was going in circle."
] |
[
12
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
bqk6mn
|
Why do pregnant woman sometimes crave strange food combinations?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"eo566i8"
] |
[
"Lots of times it has to do with what the baby needs to grow, or some deficiency in the mother's body. Craving ice cream could be a sign of calcium deficiency, for example. Besides being important for bones and muscles calcium is important for the heart and nervous system."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
a6olsl
|
What is a probation?
|
I recently saw that video where Gary Plauche kills his son's molester, and he gets only 5 years probation for murder. I searched what it means on Wikipedia, but English is not my first language, and I didn't understand much.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ebwml9g",
"ebwy9l1",
"ebwnfjs"
] |
[
"Basically means he can live feely as long as he abides by certain conditions (not out after certain time, keep the peace, and/or abstain from drugs/alcohol, etc...)."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
9neokv
|
How does a Geiger-Muller tube work and detect/count radioactive particles?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"e7lqekp",
"e7m1wbl"
] |
[
"It is filled with a gas which can be ionized readily. That means the electrons can be easily knocked away from the atoms temporarily. A wire runs down the middle and is insulated from the metal surrounding tube. Several hundred volts is applied to the wire. If a high energy gamma ray, x ray, electron or alpha particle enters the tube it triggers an avalanche of ionized gas atoms which briefly lower the resistance of the tube. A single particle can cause a billion atoms to be ionized. The high voltage dips and that is fed through a DC blocking capacitor to a meter and headset."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
izzo6x
|
Should we be using percentage of GDP or percentage of discretionary spending to conceptualize how much the United States' spends on it's military?
|
My friend and I had a debate whether it was correct to say the United States doesn't actually spend that much on its military because it's only like 3% of its massive GDP. But I said that still makes it spend more than the next 10 countries, and that half of discretionary spending is on defense. So who is right here?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g6mh9hy"
] |
[
"Neither. In terms of total dollars, we spend more than other countries, but that's not a straight comparison. It's like if you barely make ends meet, and your neighbor has several nice cars. He's spending more in absolute and relative terms than you on cars, but it is also easier for him to afford those cars than it would be for you. So in that sense, his cars are \"cheaper\" than yours. In the same way, we spend more, but it is also \"cheaper\" for us to spend more. E.g., the UK, Germany, and France each spend ~50 billion and have a population of ~70 million each. So on average, the per-person contribution is $714. For the US, it's ~730 billion and ~330 million, the per-person contribution is $2200. 3 times as much! BUT, the GDP per capita of the UK is $41k, which ranks behind every state except Mississippi ($40k). The overall US GDP per capita is $67k. So the US is \"better off\" than those other countries in the same way that your hypothetical neighbor is better off than you, and consequently can more easily afford the relatively more expensive military. Another way of seeing this is to look at the percent of total federal spending on the military. It's something like 15% of total spending. That is pretty small, especially if you add in state and local spending and look at overall government spending, then total military spending would only be a few percent. I.e., the tax burdeon supporting the military is very small compared to everything else the government does."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
6byog5
|
Why was/is there no special prosecutor for the top secret emails or Flynn unmasking or Clinton foundation?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dhqs6gf",
"dhqnrhg",
"dhqjohe"
] |
[
"There have been no credible issues with the Clinton Foundation. It's routinely one of the top rated charities in the world and publishes audited financial statements. URL_0 URL_1"
] |
[
10
] |
[
[
"https://www.charitywatch.org/ratings-and-metrics/clinton-foundation/478",
"https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=16680"
],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
6ozh1v
|
Could a woman take testosterone supplements while pregnant to increase the chances of the child being a boy?
|
I'm not a woman or pregnant, just curious.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dklfjoj",
"dklfk7v"
] |
[
"No. Sex is not a hormonal issue, it's a genetic one. Your sex is determined based upon whether the sperm cell that fertilized your mother's egg had an X or a Y chromosome. No amount of testosterone will change that."
] |
[
34
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
937ar9
|
What are MLM scams and what are examples of them?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"e3b4jkb"
] |
[
"The hallmark of a Multi-Level Marketing scam is that the emphasis and reward are heavily weighted against recruitment instead of the actual work of selling a product. If I hire you to sell vacuum cleaners door to door, and pay you based on your time/amount of sales, then it's a legit job. If instead I pay you relatively little for selling vacuums, but pay you very well for recruiting other sellers, then it's an MLM."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
mkyvdk
|
From a psychological perspective, how does intuition work?
|
People are often able to make correct decisions based on kind of a "gut feeling" but will arrive at a different, incorrect conclusion when trying to make that gut feeling conscious. How does that work? Why do I sometimes hear the response of a person I know well in my head before they actually say it, but when I consciously try to guess what they're gonna say, I almost always get it wrong? Looking for a psychological explanation here, I know there are lots of spiritual ones but I'm agnostic so I'd probably end up just being even more confused by those.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gtimmcr",
"gtilxtf",
"gtjf3f4"
] |
[
"So, your brain is great at finding patterns. It’s literally the thing it does best. It’s a human being’s superpower. Any time your brain gets a bit of information about the outside world, it tries to categorise it. That’s why you can recognise a chair as being a chair even though you’ve never seen this particular type of chair before. Your brain looks at it, cross-references it with everything you’ve ever seen before, and goes, “Aha! That looks like the things in my ‘chair’ file! It must be a chair!” And your brain does this *so fast* that there is no lag. You just *know* what you’re looking at. This served us really well when we were trying to survive on the savannah in the prehistoric era. When we heard a specific rustle, our brains would *instantly* bring up that time we heard that exact same rustle and a lion jumped out and we nearly died. So this time, we know there is a lion! In the modern world, there are very few lions. But our brains still use this phenomenal power. You can put together a series of circumstances and realise what is about to happen based on your own experience. This is called *intuition*."
] |
[
23
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
a8gkx3
|
How the hell do studios produce bad movies. With all the cast, production crew, investors, and higher ups, how does one produce a bad movie without anyone, even a janitor, expressing how trash a film will be in theaters?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ecahnuk",
"ecahgb9",
"ecaim1z",
"ecaib9s",
"ecahquc",
"ecahqu3",
"ecaj1mp",
"ecanxd1",
"ecallv0",
"ecalp9p",
"ecanoz3",
"ecam40k",
"ecaouz9",
"ecahne7",
"ecap0oq"
] |
[
"So many movies are made or ruined in the editor’s box. Between the director and the editor the final movie is decided. Principal photography gives them the material to work with but they have many takes and many options for what to use and how. Music cues, scene timing, character development, so much is decided in the hectic days of the editing room."
] |
[
499
] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMyMxMYDNk"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMyMxMYDNk&t=630s"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
kthvvr
|
How come our brains can convince us that we know the lyrics to a song while listening to it, when we really don’t
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gim7wcf",
"gim9r8q",
"gimeot0"
] |
[
"I can't remember lyrics for shit by themselves, but the minute the song is playing. Boom, you'd think I spent my whole life memorizing the lyrics..... Only to forget them again the minute the song ends. I truly don't understand it"
] |
[
12
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
crpbl4
|
What is the reason for certain guns to not have a safety?
|
Every now and then in tv and movies someone will get a gun and someone else will say “careful there’s no safety on it” or something of the sort and I never knew the reasoning of it.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ex7z4d0",
"ex7s9wy"
] |
[
"Most firearms have some mix of passive and manually operated safeties. For example my 1911 handgun has a mechanical safety that prevents the gun from firing when it's in the safe position, it's got a grip safety that makes it so it won't shoot unless there's a hand on the grip and it's also got a little piece that covers the back of the hammer and makes it less likely to go off if it's dropped, it's got a little notch cut in the chamber to make it possible to see if there's a round chambered, and it's got a disconnector in the trigger mechanism that will keep the gun from going off if the chamber isn't closed. Some guns have even more features meant to make the gun safer, what exactly is present on any individual gun depends on what it's meant for and the design philosophy of the maker. When Glock first started selling handguns on the civilian market they were the first semiautomatic handguns with no manual safeties that most people had ever handled. The lack of a manual safety wasn't unheard of (most revolvers don't have them, and some mid 20th century shooting experts advocated pinning them permanently in the off position) but their instant popularity combined with the accumulated bad habits of a generation used to being able to rely on a manual safety lead to a bunch of \"ooopsies\" early on. This lead to a lot of people thinking that designs like this were inherently unsafe. Modern training tends to really emphasize that you shouldn't pull the trigger unless you want bullets to come out and this seems to have solved the problem. However, most movies aren't written by people who are all that familiar with guns and old myths tend to pop up even in modern films."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
7opxl1
|
Crayons
|
How do they work?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dsbd99c",
"dsbg29p"
] |
[
"The same as pencils. Basically, you have a material, it's atomic structure mean it loses atoms easily. So, when you run it on whatever surface, the atoms drop or stick onto that surface."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
imb97d
|
Why do we keep shaking our leg when we are sitting on a chair?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g3yimkj",
"g3yoyxc",
"g3yjdvq",
"g3yhut3",
"g3ys6dc",
"g3yqqbf",
"g3yzbrv",
"g3yp25d"
] |
[
"It could be Restless leg syndrome, or a genetic disorder called “essential tremor”, or due to something like anxiety or just a form of fidgeting. Side bar according to a study on it; fidgeting while sitting or standing actually increases the amount of calories you burn by 29% and 38% respectively (as compared to lying still), which leads to less weight."
] |
[
41
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
8i57tw
|
why does the radar on big boats spin?
|
A lot of big boats have some spinning thing at the top. I believe it’s the radar, but why is it spinning? Only seen them on boats.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dyoy9nk"
] |
[
"A radar not omni-directional. Just like a satellite TV dish it must be pointed in the direction of the signal in order to receive it. So in order for the ship to know what's going on around it it has to point in all directions. It spins 360° and scans all the signals around it."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
hlwvhq
|
How a four-stroke engine lubricates when the piston is stroking upwards?
|
In two-stroke engines there is oil everywhere, and I get that there is lubricant when the piston goes down. But how does it lubricate on the way up whilst always staying below the piston?
|
Engineering
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fx1r5hd"
] |
[
"While the piston is up, there's oil being splashed on the cylinder walls from below. Then, the piston moves down. The piston rings glide over the oil, and push the excess back down. On the way up, they're riding on the residual oil from the previous step."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
b4my26
|
How are panic attacks and anxiety attacks different?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ej7seey"
] |
[
"Anxiety attack is not a clinical term, whereas panic attack is. People can experience panic attacks with or without a precipitating event. Panic attacks tend to be short lived, around 30 minutes. They tend to make the person feel as if they are in imminent danger of losing all control and possibly even of dying. Source: DSM as reported on Wiki. Since anxiety attack isn't a clinical term, its use depends on who is saying it. I use the term to refer to episodes I have where my anxiety increases exponentially over my normally high levels and leaves me non-functional, lasting anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks in extreme circumstances. In my case there is always a precipitating event. But that is my usage of the phrase. As I said, it's not a clinical term. Some people use the terms panic attacks and anxiety attacks to mean the same thing. I personally don't because I have a friend who has true panic attacks and don't want to confuse her."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
dxi8yg
|
If you lose vision in your left eye, would your right eye take up your entire vision or would there be a darkness on the left side?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"f7qxxij",
"f7qpz8u",
"f7qre1j",
"f7qmqp1",
"f7qqafa"
] |
[
"blind in my left eye. I dont see black but my brain tries to fill it with a distracting emptiness that i often have to fight when looking at an object moving from right to left. its hard to explain. there really isn't a word for it or i just don't have the vocabulary. the close up depth of field is really the most annoying part. i cant use tall glasses. i usually spill a wine glass at weddings and stuff. i put wine in a rocks glass. you'd think after so many years I'd get used to it, but I'm not."
] |
[
25
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
c140hn
|
Why does the body have panic attacks and anxiety when it's completely productive (I.e. paralyses the person in the face of a challenge)?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"erap2xl"
] |
[
"Think of a cat freaking out when it sees a cucumber. It's an automatic flight or flight response that gets triggered by things your brain thinks is a threat - but isn't. The heart beats faster, pumping adrenaline around the body, making you feel anxious and want to run away or fight. Or turn to ways of dealing with it, like alcohol (which makes anxiety worse in the long run, leading to a vicious cycle). This automatic response is part of the 'animal' part of your brain, which also deals with hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness. It reacts quicker than the 'logic' part of your brain - the part that makes you, you. A technique to reduce anxiety is to do a quick scan of whether you're hungry, angry, lonely or tired... or scared by cucumber. This puts the 'logic' part of your brain - you - back in the driving seat. Learning to control anxiety in this way is a skill that can be learnt, like any other skill. Anti anxiety medication (like propranolol) works by stopping adrenaline from moving around your bloodstream as quickly. The cat has time to realise that the cucumber is just a cucumber. Talk to your doctor. Anxiety is an actual thing that people have. It can be treated."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
aseflp
|
Why in movies and series they sometimes make character's voices start at the end of one scene, before the scene where they speak actually starts?
|
Sorry for bad English, if it doesn't make sense! I mean, you watch a series, and sometimes at the end of a scene starts the speaking of characters from next scene? For a few seconds, and then they start the scene with this characters. What exactly is it done for? How does it make a movie better?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"egtoezo",
"egufv5t"
] |
[
"It is a way to directly connect the dialogue to the next scene, and implies that dialogue is specifically relevant to the scene it bleeds into. If done correctly, the bleed-over dialogue provides extra poignancy to the scene. Either that or they ran out of runtime and had to compress the scene and dialogue in order to get all the dialogue in without messing up the setup of the scene."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
fh0to2
|
How does drinking a lot of water help our body?
|
The more the water we drink the more the need we have to pee. So how does it actually help your body when it only consumes the amount of water it requires for its functioning and releases the extra one. Basically i am confused why Doctors recommend drinking 8 or more glasses of water when our body doesn't retain much of it
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fk83smg",
"fk82i86",
"fk8b40d"
] |
[
"Your kidneys job is to filter out bad stuff from your body. It's only method of doing this uses water, which is mixed with the junk and excreted out as urine. Drinking a lot of water promotes kidneys to function a lot (also why you're supposed to drink lots of fluids when you're sick) which helps clean the body out. 8 glasses a day is more of a marketing scheme than a doctor recommendation. There's no biological need for your urine to be clear instead of yellow (if there was, one would think that animal urine would mostly be clear too, but they don't over-drink either, cause they don't need to)."
] |
[
16
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lzhb6a
|
Why does flipping your rear view mirror up tone down brightness?
|
When’s there’s an asshole behind you driving with their high beams on, why does flipping your rear view mirror up help?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gq3xnih"
] |
[
"It's a triangular piece of glass. When mirror is down, you're seeing the reflection from the surface layer, which reflects most of the light to you. When you flip it up, you are seeing the reflection from the \"back\" layer, which reflects the little bit of light that passes through the surface layer and isn't reflected. The bulk of the light is still reflected by the surface layer, but up to the ceiling."
] |
[
4
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
etxg2e
|
Botanists and agronomists, do cloned plants start at age zero?
|
I was wondering about cloning perennial plants - if once rooted the cutting behaves as a new plant or it takes in account the age of the mother plant? If I rooted successfuly a new shoot from a 50 year old tree, would the clone behave like an old plant or a seedling? If so, does this mean that a single plant could in theory live forever through cloning? Or does a clone have a shorter life span if taken from an old plant? Another things I was wondering, are there any side effects in making multiple generations of clones of clones of clones, etc?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ffj7kv4",
"ffjo3s5",
"ffjalfa"
] |
[
"In my personal experience, the clone acts the same age as the original plant. That's just my experience cloning a weed plant of unknown genetics that turned out to be autoflowering :)"
] |
[
3
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
g78x62
|
Why are roses seen as the most romantic flower?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fofki4g",
"fofk82h",
"fofqe2p",
"fofva72"
] |
[
"Roses are really thorny and painful. Only an idiot or someone in love would go through the effort to make them presentable. This is how it started and tradition kept the symbolism. Nowadays you can pay the flowerist to do the job for you."
] |
[
20
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
buevnb
|
Why do domesticated animals enjoy and/or crave having their faces pet?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"epb6555",
"epb5xhx"
] |
[
"The maternal instinct of most animals is to nuzzle or lick their young to clean them and show comfort. The young creature learns to associate the sensation of being stroked or licked with feeling safe and warm and well fed. As adults these creatures still have this association so when we pet an animal on the head or stoke their fur in general it evokes these memories and feelings. So when we stroke a dog or cat it releases endorphins similar to what happens in a human when we are hugged. To add to this young kittens have an instinct to press their paws into the mother cat in a massage style motion to stimulate the flow of milk. When an adult cat is happy and feeling loved it will repeat this massaging paws motion as it remembers the happy times of being a kitten and feeding from its mother."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
kz6kau
|
What is the difference between being brain dead, and being in a vegetative state?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gjl8fuv",
"gjl2wfr",
"gjl6x31"
] |
[
"Brain dead comes with a declared time of death. There is no neurological function within the skull. On an exam a patient is without the ability to construct the pupils, move the eyes, cough or gag when a breathing tube is wiggled. The most protected part of the brain is the brain stem. It controls breathing. In brain death it no longer functions. (I can explain an apnea test later if desired) Another test used to confirm brain death is a brain flow study. Contrast dye (very mildly radioactive) is injected into the blood stream. If imaging shows there is no blood going to the brain you have brain death. Brain death is irreversible. The media often uses the term poorly creating confusion. If they “woke up” then they never were brain dead. Source: Years of practice in organ transplant. Now in palliative care. One of my patients was declared Friday."
] |
[
16
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ni76k3
|
Why does meth make your teeth rot?
|
How does meth mouth occur?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gz0z5lj"
] |
[
"Several reasons 1. Methamphetamine's actions in the nervous system inhibits the production of saliva from the salivary glands, and chemicals in your saliva help protect your teeth from bacteria that cause tooth decay. This effect lasts much longer than the high/euphoria one gets from meth. 2. Another nervous system side effect of methamphetamine is bruxism, or teeth grinding/clenching (similar to what happens to users of MDMA/ecstasy). Excessive and prolonged grinding and clenching of teeth wears away tooth enamel making them more susceptible to the bacteria that cause tooth decay like in problem #1. 3. The smoke from smoking methamphetamine contains various corrosive compounds that directly wear down tooth enamel, damages the gums which exposes less protected parts of teeth, and can block salivary glands from releasing what little saliva they are producing from the effects of the meth itself, all of which further compounds problems #1 and 2. 4. Chronic methamphetamine use, like many addictive drugs, causes behavioral changes that often lead to less attention paid to personal hygiene...i.e. brushing teeth regularly. Again compounding problems #1 and #2. The sum of these reasons together lead to \"meth mouth\" but the meth itself doesn't exert any effect on the teeth. Good oral hygiene and use of saliva-promoting mouth washes can largely mitigate the problem. A bite blocker or even a \"pacifier\"/teething-like device you give to babies can prevent the damage from tooth grinding too."
] |
[
9
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
knm3ms
|
Do objects in space have to be spherical to orbit the sun?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ghl89r2"
] |
[
"Friend is right. Between Mars and Jupiter, our solar system has a big asteroid belt, thousands and thousands of rocks all orbiting the Sun, and they're in all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes. For that matter, Earth isn't exactly a sphere either. It's close! But it's a little fatter around the equator and still orbits no problem. And there are satellites (like the ISS) and pieces of debris orbiting Earth that are nowhere close to spherical. All you need to orbit something is enough 'sideways' or tangential velocity that you fall 'around' the object instead of falling into it. The gravitational force that will keep you in orbit doesn't care what your shape is. (In other words, gravity pulls the same way on a 1-pound sphere as it does on a 1-pound any-other-shape.)"
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
hcclka
|
Why isn't every video game character hitbox perfect?
|
(Ignoring, of course, the cases in which the hitbox is smaller/bigger on purpose) I'm mostly referring to competitive shooters and that kind of games, where people want pixel-perfect precision. I know that the model that we see and the zone of the hitbox itself are two very different things, but here's my main doubt: You must create a 3D model for the character's look: then why can't you just say to the computer "THIS is the hitbox, copy that" and problem resolved? You are literally converting what you see into what you can touch. I tried to be clear. Thanks in advance
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fveatfq",
"fveau4q",
"fvec5uj",
"fvemae5",
"fvfui7z"
] |
[
"Good looking models have lots of polygons. Lots of polygons means lots of math. Computers have limits, so we make a simpler model for the hitbox, and now we can do less math, and the game still works pretty well."
] |
[
55
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_detection"
]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
87c4vd
|
Why are bugs attracted to electric light, but not fire; they're both bright and warm?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dwbqanq"
] |
[
"I often see bugs flying into our fire pit, attracted by it. Makes me sad every time. Perhaps you haven't recognized their actions because they immediately incinerate?"
] |
[
4
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
5m61b0
|
Why September, October, November, December are 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th months of the year when in Greek (on which I guess it's based) it is more like Septa = 7, Octo = 8, Nona = 9, Deca = 10?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dc11j14",
"dc11hhg",
"dc11o55"
] |
[
"The Roman Calendar had the New Year starting in March and went like this: * Martius (March) * Aprilus (April) * Maius (May) * Iunius (June) * Quintilis * Sextilis * September * October * November * December At some point January (Ianuarius) and February (Februarius) were added, but different versions have them placed in different places. Finally we have the Julian Calendar, set by Julius Caeser, which set the beginning of the year as Ianuarius (January) and renamed Quintilis to Iulius (July) and Sextilis as (eventually) Augustus (August)."
] |
[
13
] |
[
[],
[
"http://blog.dictionary.com/september/"
],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
l3frk3
|
It's been more than 40 years since the first successful space shuttle launch. However, as we saw with the recent NASA launch, we still have launch failures. Why is it so tough to achieve reliability in space shuttle launches? Does this apply to all space technology?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gkemp40",
"gketp4w",
"gkeobfw",
"gkfe9oz",
"gkg8vw0",
"gkg8zca",
"gkgsj0v",
"gkfehc4",
"gkexvup",
"gkgixkx",
"gko07vq"
] |
[
"\"It's Rocket Science\" is a meme for a reason. To get maximum efficiency, rocket designers are pushing the limits of human technology. Sure, we could more reliably use old technology, but it's not affordable."
] |
[
232
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
6n34ls
|
What exactly happens to our bodies during sleep that allow us to recover from injury and illness so effectively?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dk6dsyq"
] |
[
"Think of your body as a space ship. When you are awake, the ship is on alert. You need to divert energy and people to activate all your sensors (all your senses) and have your engines and weapons ready to deal with anything that life throws at you. If ship sustains any injuries like a hull breach, only the immediate treatment is done (seal the injury by clotting). When you are asleep, the ship changes to a much lower alert state. The sensors and weapons can be powered down. Energy and people are diverted to work on maintenance and repair."
] |
[
32
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lcj1v0
|
What is the barrier of sound and why does it takes a certain speed to break?
|
Just curious :)
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gm02x5l",
"gm0g4b2",
"gm02gvb"
] |
[
"Sound moves at a fixed speed, much much slower than light. That's why you hear the crack of thunder after you see the flash of lightning. When you have a plane trying to cross from flying slower than sound to flying faster than sound, it experiences stress from the air \"piling up\" just in front of it, as the sound of an airplane is a compression wave in the air. Many planes were destroyed figuring out how to do this, thus the term \"sound barrier\". It turns out that only some shapes of planes can go through this transition without being damaged."
] |
[
7
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
kw8xr8
|
... How do gnats just... show up?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"gj2z4wo",
"gj41pg8"
] |
[
"A single gnat will lay somewhere between 20-100 eggs. Possibly even more. So one gnat gets in, and about a week or two later, boom, instant swarm of gnats. Also the eggs can lay dormant for a few weeks. So they can wait to hatch, though it's still a few days till the larva turns into flying gnats."
] |
[
19
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
chqhsp
|
Why do small bugs divebomb your ears?
|
Except for being annoying, what is the purpose of trying to enter an ear? Or is this a misguided instinct, like when moths gather around lights at night?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"euwo9zw"
] |
[
"They don't. There are simply more of them flying around , at any one time, due to the increased buoyancy (of warm air rising)"
] |
[
4
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
85p8fj
|
Why does WD40 pop balloons! Ive seen in a few videos when sprayed onto a balloon it will pop almost immediately
|
Second attempt at having this question posted, it was auto-removed for something not even similar.
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dvz3rmn",
"dvz3tiy",
"dvz4qyk",
"dvz8nhp"
] |
[
"WD40 is an oil-based product and many balloons are made out of latex. Oil will dissolve through natural latex products, and a balloon which is already under pressure doesn't need much damage to the latex to create a weak spot where the air will push through. It's the same reason why you never want to use oil-based lubes with latex condoms."
] |
[
66
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
6qpj3c
|
Passing out from donating blood?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dkyz1qx",
"dkyyzrq"
] |
[
"No your body can function without being awake. All your organs are all needed to stay alive. Take being asleep, your organs can't shut down or you'd die, but for the most part your brain shuts down."
] |
[
6
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
gitodf
|
- Why do our bodies sometimes twitch while we’re falling asleep?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"fqgr34d"
] |
[
"Your body suppresses voluntary motor neuron stimulation while sleeping, to prevent us from acting out our dreams, but sometimes the actual falling asleep and suppression of movements don’t synch up correctly, leading to twitching, jerking, even sleepwalking, and the opposite - sleep paralysis"
] |
[
10
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ckey13
|
Why is it okay to eat mayonnaise - which contains raw eggs - but not cookie dough, which also contains raw eggs?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"evmlkeh"
] |
[
"Because mayonnaise has been pasteurized to remove bacteria from the raw eggs. Your cookie dough has not."
] |
[
5
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
8hh02c
|
why is reddit's video hosting so much worse than gfycat and imgur?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dyjrmwu"
] |
[
"It's not that they cant, they just don't want to. Reddit doesn't run as many ads as imgur or gifycat so it doesn't have as much money per user to spend on big hard drives and fast internet to server better gifs and videos. Reddits idea is to just have people link to other content so they can put all the work on other sites."
] |
[
16
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
5ulds8
|
How does piracy affect revenue for films, TV shows, video games, and books?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"ddux4c0"
] |
[
"Ok - music producer here: Basically, its very difficult to \"prove\" or show a direct relationship between piracy and any adjustment in the receipt of revenue for the creative industries. Piracy has been around decades, people used to record songs from the radio onto blank cassettes using a \"What U hear\" loop. Its nothing new, and has been affecting the creative industry ever since. Essentially, a percentage of people who pirate stuff don't actively pay for their films, tv shows video games and books. That deprives the creative industry of revenue they would of had, should that person not have access to the copies of their material for free. This in turn hurts the profits of the people who hold the copyright and are more often than not investors and stakeholders who contributed to, or made the material which has been pirated. Because profits are down, they are less well off and not able to invest/speculate on unknown talent than before, which reduces the diversity of artists in the mainstream media. Sure, a lot of artists get discovered after they have ploughed their own resources into \"making it\" and there are a myriad of different ways to become famous through being creative, but the traditional model of copyright owner and copyright purchaser is being eroded, slowly, but steadily. A little history on piracy: Several very high profile musicians and copyright holders have tried and successfully sued the originators and creators of copyright sharing software. Names like Napster and Morpheus spring to mind (old and malware infested p2p clients). The Pirate Bay was also sued to death but keeps springing up on new servers every time they take it down. Back in the late 90's when Napster, Limewire etc were the next big thing, pandoras box had been opened. People had the ability to access and download for free music from the internet. In terms of the speed and reliability of this access, it was revolutionary, but it was not a new concept all together. People have been sharing their music collections with each other for decades (perhaps this is a legal grey area?), loaning their albums to friends who couldnt afford them or just could not get them in their area etc. Nobody batted an eyelid. Suddenly you have the entire world being able to do this for free and this was a huge wake up call for the major record labels who realised (almost too late) that they were being deprived of income. Its not a straightforward \"theft\" case. If I buy a lawnmower and pay for it in full, I can do whatever the hell I want with it, I can lend it to Jim on the corner for a month and get it back or I can strap tyres to it and ride it around my lawn drinking a beer. If Jim keeps the lawnmower and doesnt give it back to me, its theft and I can sue him for it, or press criminal charges etc. But If I walk into a record store, see an album and have a test play on their machines and I like it, but instead of paying for it I decide to swipe it and run, that is also theft and is almost identical to what is happening online in the file sharing community. By stealing that record, I have deprived the record label of the sale price in revenue and also something called mechanical copyright royalties. Now, stealing from record stores isnt that common, a record label will expect to lose a hundred or so in a year to petty theft. Now imagine that thousand and thousands of your records are being stolen accross the world. Each time that record is ripped and uploaded its theft. Every time someone downloads that record to their computer its theft. Every time someone shares that record with a friend or anonymous person through torrent, p2p or usenext, its a theft. Sounds bad? Well its not as bad as it seems. Millions of people file share and torrent and download stuff, but the record industry has survived and is doing well. In truth, piracy accounts for a very small percentage of losses for record labels. A lot of people who do download the releases for free often buy from the very same people they have stolen from and go see the artists live."
] |
[
10
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
icyesw
|
how we measure the parallax angle. Isn't the "background" moving too?
|
I might just have a massive brainfart, but I was looking at: [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 ) and got a bit confused. Isn't the "background" we're comparing the objects to moving as well?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g25kena",
"g25m0jn"
] |
[
"Well, by definition, the background isn't moving as much. Here's an example. Hold your thumb out in front of you at arms distance, for the background do it outside or something far away. Now close one eye at a time and see how your thumb position changes and the background changes very little, if at all."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
mqc2ya
|
How do we raise and lower our voice?! What is the actual volume handle?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"guf3fso",
"guf4b3l"
] |
[
"You change the volume of your voice by blowing more or less air past your vocal cords. Kind of like blowing harder in a trumpet creates more sound. The air comes from your lungs offcourse. Edit: The amount of air that is being pushed out of your lungs is controlled by the diaphragm."
] |
[
10
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
c5xyac
|
How can certain foods have so many more calories while being so much less material? For example 3 Oreos have more calories than a whole can of tuna.
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"es4upsi",
"es4s9lk",
"es4upsw",
"es4s320"
] |
[
"Oreos are basically sugar and fat. Sugar is 4 calories per gram, protein is 4 calories per gram, fat is 9 calories per gram. 100g of Oreos contains 69 grams of carbohydrate, 20 grams of fat and 5 grams of protein. Which means 100g of Oreo contains around 500 calories. Tuna is mostly water. 100g of tuna contains 0 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fat and 20 grams of protein. For a total of about 90 calories. Size of food isn’t important, composition is. This is exactly why so many people over eat."
] |
[
28
] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
j034m3
|
A 4-D cube
|
I'm unable to visualise the geometry of a 4-D cube. I have seen quite a few videos of 4-d cube and they all say it's like a cube in a cube but I'm not able to actually visualise it like how would it be if I ever saw one in reality.
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"g6ntm7k",
"g6ni31y"
] |
[
"Well, it's literally impossible to visualise 4D shapes properly, such is the limitations of our 3D monkey brains. [This short video]( URL_0 ) does an excellent job at explaining what a 4th dimension 'looks' like."
] |
[
4
] |
[
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t4aKJuKP0Q"
],
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
6eoj6c
|
Why do all ancient Egyptian drawings use the same style with subjects heads looking to the side?
|
Culture
|
explainlikeimfive
|
[
"dibvof5"
] |
[
"I love art history, it's been a while since I studied this subject but I'll explain to the best of my memory: There are a couple of reasons, one major one being that the drawings interacted with heiroglyphs in such a way that they were sort of their own writing system. The drawings weren't intended to be art, they needed to be streamlined and consistent to be readable. Another reason is that they drew based on the simplest and most recognizable traits. Shoulders always faced front, heads, legs and buttocks were always sideways. Perspective in paintings didn't become popular until the European renaissance in the 1400's. The first known example being from 1423, a painting of St Peter by Masolino de Panicale. There was depth to the subjects of paintings before this, but the overall image was flat and lacked perspective, instead the emphasis was on making religious figures large and emphasized regardless of their placement."
] |
[
3
] |
[
[]
] |
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
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