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Why is our Moon perfectly round?
It's not. It just looks that way from down here.
How come when I sing while listening to music it sounds perfect to me. But when the music is off I sound horrible?
You have the vocals supporting your voice and "filling in the holes."
how do we absorb things at all from vegetables if we can't break the cellulose wall?
We can break the wall by chewing or cooking as mentioned before, but also bacteria in our gut will break down the cellulose. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. The bacteria get tasty cellulose, and we get the nutrients from the plant matter.
Why is plastic always still wet after going through the dishwasher?
Glass and ceramic hold the heat so moisture will evaporate off. Plastic cools quite quickly so moisture will not have the opportunity to evaporate.
If Java is open source, how can Oracle sue Google for making their own version?
Open Source means that you can use the copyrighted code *under certain restrictions*. It does not automatically grant you patent rights or a license to use the trademarks- those are both separate. In the case of Java, you are only granted a patent license if you pay Oracle a boatload of money to certify your version of Java. And they'll only certify your version of Java if it behaves exactly the same as their version of Java- you're not allowed to add anything.
Why is water not compressible?
When you are doing things in science and engineering, often calculations can be easier when you make simplifying assumptions. For water, if you increase the pressure to 100 times "normal" pressure (atmospheric pressure) its size will only change a small amount ( < 1%). That means if you ever have to do calculations with water operating under pressure, you can assume it *doesn't change size at all* and your calculations will still be within 1% (fine for most practical applications). Now if you are working with something like a gas (imagine a balloon) it is not so simple. If you increase the pressure, the size changes *a lot*. Doubling the pressure on a balloon, will it shrink to half its size! For these things (compressible things) you have to figure this into your calculations or they will be way off.
Can somebody please explain the theory of relativity to me, like I'm five?
I'll start, but I don't know if I can finish. Picture yourself next to a clock tower, we'll use Big Ben as an example. The moment that Big Ben says that it is noon, you fly off in your rocket ship at **half** the speed of light. Now, even though you are flying off at an obviously high speed, lets say that you can still see the clock the whole time. Two minutes later, it's 12:02, right? Well, you have traveled the distance that light can travel in one minute (since you're going half speed), so you read the clock as 12:01 since only that light which bounced off the clock has reached you so far, so only 1 minute has actually passed, instead of 2. It's not a complete answer, but it gives you a visual for time dilation. As for the second question, I forget for the moment. It has to do with time dilation though.
Is it true that the NSA/CIA is able to hack in to almost everything? If so, what enables them to do it compared to other hacking groups that cant get past the so called "unhackable systems".
They certainly can't hack everything. They are a government agency though, so they have tons of resourves, top level mathmaticians and programmers, they also have the ability to get backdoors into programs due to being an official agency. They also have a lot of money so they can have huge supercomputers to crack certain kind of encryptions. Some encryptions are assumed to be secure though(like AES).
what are mortgage backed securities..??...and what role did it played in US 2008 market crash...
Let me show you [the best youtube video you'll see all week](_URL_0_). I've watched it like 15 times. Not because I still don't get it (I do), but because it's so... nice. When you get to the CDO's... well, those are mortgage backed securities.
Why 60fps videos and movies are still not a thing?
Movies would normally be 48fps (HFR). Peter Jackson shot some of the Hobbit stuff at HFR, and there were compalints that "it didn't look like film" Video can be shot at 60 fps (50 fps Europe) but requires twice the storage and twice the bandwidth to deliver, so is less profitable for makers.
Why high end brands often hide their prices.
The “if you have to ask...” is far from ridiculous, in fact it’s one of the selling points in high end items, the exclusivity and status that comes from purchasing such an item is *really* what is being sold, not the item itself. Many of these purchased are bought because they are high priced or hidden or exclusive, that’s what this crowd wants. These are essentially lifestyle or status purchases, not “needs”. As such, biding or obscuring price is quite a selling point.
How is it that radiation, which causes cancer, can also help to treat cancer?
Radiation causes damage to the mechanisms of the cell. If you're really unlucky, it causes damage to the mechanisms that regulate the cell growth, and a cell or group of cells begin to replicate out of control. But radiation still causes damage. So you use a technique where you fire bursts of radiation from different angles, centered on the cancer. This means that the 'non cancer cells' (in between your emitter and the cancer) get small doses (because you keep coming from different directions, and so take different paths), hopefully not enough to cause a problem, but the cancer cells at the center of all the 'beams' get roasted with radiation. Since this causes damage, the hope is that it will break enough of their shizz to kill them.
Why does the sentence "I'm better than you're" not make sense when "you're" is short for "you are?"
Generally, one uses noun-verb contractions for the subject of the sentence. Ex: You're a wonderful person. Ex2: They're the most interesting people I know. In your sentence, "you're" is not the subject. "I" is. Which is why "I'm" makes sense to you in the sentence, but "you're" at the end looks weird. **Edit:** Stop upvoting this, please. People more involved in this area disagree and the actual reason appears to be more nuanced. Others are doing a good job at explaining it. Give them your karma.
Why do some pens cost hundreds of dollars?
Why do some pens cost hundreds of dollars? Because some people will pay hundreds of dollars for a pen.
Why is it ok to draw Muhammad because of a few radicals. But, it's not ok to put a cross upside down, burn the US flag, and so on?
It isn't illegal to burn a US flag. Not aware of any laws against drawing crosses upside down.
The United States Constitutional Convention
It was the convention held in the United States which lead to the drafting of the Constitution. Do you have a more specific question?
Why I see cars with Hawaii license plates driving in the continental US?
They can be shipped on ferrys and things yes
If CRISPR changes the DNA of a cell, how does it change the DNA of an entire body?
There's a few ways, but it's all about how you deliver the gRNA and the Cas9 protein and your repair DNA (these are the components required to use Cas9 to cleave a certain site in the DNA). If you modify germ cells (like egg or sperm cells), then any progeny from these cells will have the modification in all cells because these divide into all the cells of an organism. You could also use a virus to modify certain cells (not all cells) in an organism. You could also take cells out of the body, culture them and modify them in vitro and reintroduce those cells. This approach has been [attempted](_URL_0_). Sometimes, to help treat a condition, you don't need to change the DNA in every cell. If you want to get all cells or most cells, you need to edit while the organism is at a very early stage of development.
How does Rita's water ice (or Italian ice for you non philly people) afford to give away free water ice every first day of spring?
Because frozen water is hilariously inexpensive compared to what people will pay for it. Side Note: Water ice....
Why does the loss of blood result in the 'pins and needles' sensation?
It doesn't. A limb falling asleep isn't caused by a loss of blood flow. It's caused by pressure being applied to a nerve, causing it to stop working. So signals don't make it from that limb to your brain. When the pressure is relieved, the nerve can start sending random signals as it gets back into equilibrium, which you perceive as the "pins and needles" sensation.
How factorials of non-whole numbers work
It doesn't. There's no such thing as a factorial not defined on integers. There is something called the Gamma function, which has the property that Γ(x)=(x-1)! whenever x is a positive integer, and it's nicely behaved, so it seems like a natural way to generalize the factorial function to real numbers. **edit** I said Γ(x)=(x)! and that is wrong.
Why does a sunburn not hurt for several hours after actually being in the sun too long?
As your body's response, capillaries open up, allowing more blood to the affected area. This aids in the healing process but also makes the area feel warmer and more tender. However, the response isn't immediate, taking the noticeable few hours before the inflammation sets in.
What would happen if you placed a spherical magnet on a flat magnetized plane?
I don't think there is enough information here. A flat magnetized plane isn't really a thing. Do you mean that the whole magnet is the flat top of the N side of a large magnet that extends below it? In that case the sphere would orient itself so that the south side of the sphere were pointed at the N plane. If you mean that the plane is flat and thin and the N side of the magnet is in front of you and the South side is behind you then I don't think that there would any field at all. Nothing special would happen.
do pups in a litter all share the same DNA like human twins?
They are more like fraternal twins, so they have as much in common genetically as normal siblings. Dogs release multiple eggs during ovulation, whereas humans usually release only one, which is why multiple births are the norm in dogs and not humans. It's also possible for there to be two or more fathers to a litter (this is fairly common in dogs, possible but less common in humans). In this case, the siblings would have as much in common genetically as half-siblings (same mother, different father).
The half-life of a drug
Drugs affect the human body by binding to *protein receptors* (either to turn them on or turn them off). And one drug molecule binds to one drug receptor. The more drug molecules you have in your body, the more protein receptors are bound, and the stronger the drug effect. However, for some protein, you need to cover a minimum number of receptors to feel the effect at all, thus, the effectiveness of the drug will wear off long before you reach the half-life point. For others, you do not need to cover every receptor to produce the maximum effect, thus, you will feel the full effective of the drug will extend long past the drug's half life. Generally, a drug is considered to be completely cleared from your body after 5 half-lives. Furthermore, different people breakdown drugs at different speeds, thus, the duration of effect of a drug for you may be different than for other people.
Why do gay guys sometimes have higher pitched voices?
Normal Distributions. As a population, men have a spectrum of voice pitch. As a population, straight men have a spectrum of voice pitch. As a population, gay men have a spectrum of voice pitch. You've got observation bias.
Why is heroin so addictive? What does it do to the brain? Can anyone explain the feeling?
Imagine that relaxed feeling you get when you are being pampered. For some people it's nice massage or maybe a pedicure. Or imagine that warm, relaxing feeling that comes over your body when you first lay into a warm bath or hot tub. Opiates (Heroin) are close to that feeling, but depending on your tolerance, it lasts for a few hours. Almost anything you are doing while high is just... nice, like a warm blanket on cool winter night.
Neon Genesis Evangelion, original series. From GEHIRN to SEELE, the events of the series and the end.
I love this series intensely, and I feel like /u/valarauca is really fucking up the explanation. if anyone wants to really get it, check out some of the exposition from your own site's /r/evangelion, or look to the ultimate compilation of canon, _URL_0_. I'm not trying to be a hater here, it's just cringe-inducing how bad and half-assed his explanation is. "whats his name" is not a reasonable misnomer for a main character, which was Kaworu by the way.
Why is America so polarized today? And how can it be fixed?
Basically, society changed in the 1960s as institutions that previously brought people together from varied backgrounds to interact (churchs, clubs, sports leagues) fractured and people sorted into groups of mostly very similar people (not just political groups). How many of your friends have different core beliefs than you?
How someone can describe themselves as Atheist/Secular and Jewish.
Being Jewish can also be an ethnic or cultural identity, in addition to a religious one.
Why does slice cheese get mold faster than shredded cheese?
Pre-Shredded cheese is usually surface coated with cellulose (wood pulp) and Natamycin which is is an anti-mold agent. Block cheese will have an exposed surface once you cut into it, thus the increased mold production....I think..
Where do the bubbles in caffeinated drinks start off? How do they just appear?
We call them "carbonated beverages" because they have carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolved in them. More CO2 can dissolve at higher pressures, which is why it stays in solution while the bottle/can is unopened and therefore pressurized. Once the container is opened, the CO2 begins coming out of solution. As to the bubbles themselves: they are actually forming on imperfections in the surface of the container or small particles of dust, etc.
Why do certain word/ name pairings sound "better" one way than the other? Example: peanut butter and jelly sounds better than jelly and peanut butter.
only because you're been exposed to pbj more than jpb. maybe pbj is easier to say than jpb? let me ask you, which sounds better? computer tv and telephone. or telelphone computer and tv ?
Why are "Moscow Mules" always served in a copper mug - what is special about the mug?
The reasoning that the mug gets cold is obviously a good thing, but that implies that copper has a very high exchange rate of temperature. It does, that's why they use copper for computer heatsinks. Very good at heat transfer. Which is bad. Your drink will get warmer faster and your body heat will transfer to the drink faster than a glass. If you drink it fast, great, if you spend more than a few minutes, nope. Basic physics.
If HIV has a 0.11 chance (if circumcised) and 0.62% chance (if not circumcised) of being contracted through sex, why is it such a massive epidemic (at least in western nations)?
Because some people have sex a large number of times. Also, because some people use intravenous drugs and reuse the unsterilized needles.
Why does orange juice with pulp have the same fiber content as pulp-free?
Fiber is soluble in water (try it with some Metamucil!) and the actual pulp adds an insignificant amount of fiber to that already in the OJ.
What is the difference between PDF/A, PDF/X and PDF/E?
The different versions were optimized for different purposes. Basically, they have different requirements for the information contained within them so that they can be used properly PDF/A was developed for electronic document storage. PDF/X was for graphics and printing. PDF/E was for documents used in engineering workflows.
Why do dogs enjoy Tug o' War?
same reason many hunting dogs (especially terriers) love squeaky toys and will shake them mercilessly and pull all the stuffing out. Instincts. They're trying to brutally kill the fucker.
Why is it that after we crack our knuckles, we can't crack them again until a little later?
When you crack your knuckles, youre popping air bubbles in the synovial fluid between your joints. After you pop them, it takes a few minutes for air to join back up together and form bubbles again, at which point you can crack them again. And by the way, contrary to popular belief, cracking your knuckles doesn't harm your joints. You can do it as many times as you want, it's just air bubbles getting popped.
Why do people just watch when something is clearly being done wrong by an authority figure? For example, the recent incident where the doctor was knocked cold on the flight.
There is a common and frequently studied thing called the "bystander effect". Basically it states that if someone is doing something or someone is having something done to them, that the larger the crowd the harder it is for someone in that crowd to break the mold and do something to either intervene or assist. In situations like that, there are added pressures like the intervention of law enformement/security personnel that make people subconsiously interprit "someone else is going to handle this". This is the same that happens when there is a car accident as you're passing by and you see a dozen other cars. You're going to most likely assume that either someone else already called 911, or someone else is going to stop. You'll look, but continue on about your business.
Why are female pornstars paid more than male pornstars? Isn't that illegal?
How many beautiful women do you know that are willing to let a complete stranger fuck them in the ass and spray semen on their faces? Now, while you're pondering that I ask you, how many guys do you know that would fuck a beautiful woman they've never met in the ass and spray semen on their face? I believe it all comes down to supply and demand....
Why do reporters constantly refer to Pres. Obama as Mr. Obama?
This is actually a tradition going back to George Washington. James Madison and the House of Representatives insisted that he use "mister president" because they were really wary of nobility and executive power. You know, since they had just fought a war to escape from exactly those problems. _URL_0_
What makes a peanut a common allergen? Of all foods why is it more common to have a peanut allergy?
It's not clear why peanut or tree nut allergies develop. Tree nuts, like walnuts, are another common allergy. At first they thought it was introducing these foods too early and more recently now they tell pregnant women to eat nuts to reduce the allergy. Peanuts also may not be the most common, but clearly has the most hysteria around it. 1 in 4 parents believe their kid has a peanut allergy while testing estimates that 1-5% are peanut allergic.
How does video compression work? Why am I able to comfortably stream high quality video while still images take a few moments to load?
In short, most video compression works by storing each frame as a difference from the previous one. You load a picture once, and then just change the pixels that are different in each subsequent frame, thus eliminating a lot of redundant information. (Is this too ELI5 for you?)
Why water makes your skin dry?
water that comes in contact with skin evaporates and takes with it many of the skin's natural oils. The more frequently that skin comes into contact with water the drier it gets, unless the oils are replaced.
Why are vegetables "good for you"?
Basically they're an all natural way to get vital vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, & fiber in a low calorie, unprocessed way. With the proper consumption of vegetables and fruit an average adult can forego a daily multi vitamin.
Are there planets in interstellar/intergalactic space?
Yes, and quite a few. It is not uncommon for planetary bodies to get a gravity assisted slingshot out of orbit of their star. There are even brown dwarfs and other dark stellar-mass bodies floating around interstellar space (think binary stars where one gets flung). edit: They are known as Rogue Planets, here's the wikipedia: _URL_0_
Why don't we milk pigs?
Although pigs' milk is high in fat (around 8.5% compared to cows milk at 3.9%) and is an excellent source of nutrients, sows are very difficult to milk. They have around 14 teats compared to a cow's four, and they don't take very kindly to having them touched by humans.
Placebo effect and how does it work? Also, what is the limit of what the body can achieve by truly believing it to be possible.
The Placebo effect is essentially the belief that something will have a positive effect on you. For example when you drink a cup of coffee you immediately feel more awake thanks to the caffeine? Well nope, caffeine take approximately 45 minutes to kick in. The extent of which the Placebo effect works is pretty hard to categorize, in some cases giving people fake pills can actually deal with pain and such. It really depends on the person at hand and what the Placebo is acting on. Generally however things like pain, anxiety, nervousness, high heart rate, low heart rate, sweating etc... will go away even with a placebo. Wiki link if you're interested: _URL_0_ Edit: Changed definition of placebo from "an effect" to "a positive effect" thanks to /u/SpiderHuman.
How do news sites get their new articles, which are just minutes old, to the top of search engine results?
They don't get them there, search engines are programmed to find news articles with frequent crawls, and put them there.
If I’m sitting in a car going on the interstate, and I drop a small ball from the ceiling, why does it fall in a straight line relative to me? How come it doesn’t get pulled to the back of the car as it’s in free fall?
Because it's already traveling at the same speed as the car. When it's falling, it's actually falling at an angle compared to the Earth's surface. It would be like if you were sitting on the couch and dropped something and as it dropped it went sideways too really fast. You just don't notice it because both you and the ball (inside the car) are going the same speed.
The difference between YouTube's buffering and loading an image from anywhere else on internet - and why buffering is so much faster
This might not be the complete answer but a part of the answer. Try loading a video in Youtube, and then a video from a website which is not primarily a video-hosting site (Like IMDB). You will notice that the IMDB video takes significantly longer to load for the same quality of video. Google has some amazing compression algorithms, and a great network of servers which ensure you are always getting the best speed possible.
Why are the majority of the tallest buildings in the world located in the Middle East and Asia?
Tall buildings are created for two reasons. One is that there is no space to move out so you have to go up. The other is because people need to prove that they are better than other people. If you have lots of money and plenty of space as some people do in the Middle East then you build to outdo. If you have little space and lots of people as they do in Asia then you build to accommodate. */u/mackana is right. There are 3 reasons. I'm not sure how I overlooked tourism. If you build it they will come.
If an infinitely fast car was on a finite loop, (ignoring physics laws which throw it off the track) wouldn't it just ram into itself? If not, why?
It's a truly meaningless question. An infinitely fast thing is everywhere at once, defying any notion of "where it is" or of "hitting or not hitting" anything.
Why can I hold my pees in for much longer when I'm just lying in bed?
Gravity, mostly! Also, when you are lying in a supine position, your core muscles are not contracting as much as they would be to stabilize a standing position to keep you upright. Both of these things contribute to the "urgency" feeling you get when your bladder is full.
Why did Google Fiber's replacement "Google Wireless Broadband" fail to expand/develop more?
Google probably realized that it wasn't going to be as profitable as they expected and decided to stop dealing with the hassle that is being an ISP with physical lines to maintain
Why aren't there any normal 5.5% alc./vol beers that are also light in calories?
There is a direct correlation between alcohol content and calories. Calories are units of heat. Alcohol is literally flammable. Your body can absorb a pretty tremendous amount of energy by metabolizing alcohol. The high the alcohol content, the more calories, pretty much as a rule.
How do developers make "better" compression algorithms?
The algorithms are usually around for years before they get widespread acceptance. The catch is that better compression algorithms require more CPU time and memory to run. When you see a new algorithm start getting used, that usually just means that modern computers have improved to the point where they have the resources to practically compress & extract data with a better algorithm.
Instructions given to pilot by co-pilot in rally car racing.
One interesting addition which is often overlooked. Usually, for safety reasons, distances less than or equal to 100m are called in multiples of 20. Distances greater than that are specifically not. E.g. 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 But then 110, 130, 150, 170 etc. This prevents a misheard note causing a massive accident - e.g 40 could misheard as 140, causing a flat out boo-boo... "Odd" number = far away. "Even" number =close. Easy to remember and becomes second nature quickly. Exceptions are 200, 300 etc as the word hundred is called, which is difficult to mishear. Edit - oops i thought this was in rally subreddit. So to summarise my post as an ELI5, far away roundy number make big bang.
Why does every nightly news report on the major networks run the same stories every night?
Here's pretty much how they pick stories: 1. What can we get from the Associate Press (AP) 1. Did anyone mail us a VNR? 1. Is anything important actually happening (this is rare.) 2. Election? Talk About Candidates. 3. Relevent Historical Events. 4. Anything on the Police activity report today? Go stand in front of it and read the one line of news. 5. Weather. The AP is a big organization and "The News" buys a subscription. Anything the reporter sees in there that's interesting, they run with. It saves them time on actually finding stuff out. A VNR or Video News Release is a fully filmed and produced video from some else's PR team that you just air and don't have to do anything to. Usually the PR team just gives them to every station. The stations like them because they don't have to do anything, but press play on the tape.
Why do humans need purified water when animals can drink whatever water they want?
It's a safety thing. You could go drink water out of a spring and probably be fine. Maybe. But you run the risk of the water containing harmful bacteria. It's the same reason we cook most foods but animals eat it raw. Now, if you had always drank from that pond, your body might have adapted to those bacteria and they would be rendered harmless by you. But since you mostly drink purified water, your body isn't ready for contaminated bacteria. My dog has always had tap water, so he sometimes gets sick if I let him drink of natural water sources because he's no more used to those bacteria than I am.
Why are those last few drop's of pee such a relief?
As a male I cannot relate to this, might just be me though. I just never heard of this. Theoretical I assume it is because of the pressure. When you pee it forces a pressure on your urethra, and the walls expand. When the pressure stops, the expanding of urethra stops, and you feel a relief. I presume someone has a better answer. This is just what popped into my head. Again I have never experienced what you explained.
Why do Formula One look like super technological advanced driving vehicles, while NASCARs just look like cars?
Nascar and stock car racing evolved out of redneck bootleggers with a carload of moonshine trying (and usually succeeding) to outrun law enforcement back during prohibition. They did this using every day vehcles, perhaps with modified angines and suspension, but they were still "off the shelf" or "stock" cars. These days, they only LOOK like regular cars, of course. They are extremely high tech cars, nothing really "stock" about them at all. But they LOOK like regular cars because of tradition.
How the body knows when to start digesting food and when the food exits the stomach?
When you eat something, it goes in your stomach. In your stomach, the acids eat away at the food, but not all of your food. Then it gets thrown into your small intestine, the intestines have little things kinda like an antennae which touch the food and go, "We got food in here from the stomach, bring the chisels and the hammers". The stuff that came down now breaks up the food in your intestine. Then tentacle like things grab onto the smashed up food and eat it with smaller tentacle things. What doesn't get eaten goes into your large intestine and water gets taken out, and little bacteria eat the food and poop out other stuff we need. Then we poop out the stuff we don't need. And if you eat a lot of beets, it turns red. So don't eat a lot of beats. TL;DR eat food, antennae tell body to send stuff to break food, food gets broken up, tentacles eat food, we poop it out.
Why would Chechen terrorists want to attack the US?
I'm Chechen. It's because those two were fucking idiots that's why. I hope the survivor is interrogated and put to death. They are traitors to the country that took them in, and traitors to every Chechen alive. I'm at work, but if you got questions ask them. As somebody who's fiercely pro-American and pro-Chechen.... you can imagine I'm on damage control today..
Why does my body crave exercise even though I hate it when I'm actually doing it?
I believe the body releases hormones that make your physical well being better after exercise and thus not having those endorphins for a while will cause withdrawal like symptoms. They improve your mood, circulation, sexual hormone intensity and also stimulate your metabolism and digestion so that your body is aware of it's fuel burning properties. It's not at all a bad thing; if however you really do dislike running while you're at it, perhaps switch to resistance training to keep things interesting? Same effects, I can vouch for that.
If Matter Cannot Be Created or Destroyed, How is the Universe Able To Keep Expanding?
It's the space that's expanding, not the matter in it. We aren't getting new matter, there's just more space for it to be in. Also, matter can be created from energy and "destroyed" back into energy. It's the amount of energy in the system that can't change, not the amount of mass.
Who takes over essential jobs during a strike?
If you are referring to essential services such as police, firemen, emergency rescue etc, in many jurisdictions it is actually illegal for them to strike. For example in New York State the Public Employees Fair Employment Act has banned all public employees from striking since 1967, and in the UK the 1919 Police Act bans all police from going on strike. In exchange, many of these laws have a binding arbitration clause in case of an impasse in labor negotiations.
Why do clothes shrink when you put them in the washer?
thats true clothes shrink in the dryer not the washer. they shrink because the moisture leaving the cloth forces the weave of the cloth to tighten together.for natural fibers such as cotton, linen they will shrink when washed then heat dried for the first few washes only then they should wash with little or no shrinkage. but man-made fibres such as lycra and acrylic tend to be much weaker than natural fibres and cant handle high heat. so when you dry it at high heat you weaken the fibres and it will lose its shape, shrink or even disintegrate. some man-made wont shrink, such as polyester,nylon, vinyl, and rayon. if ever in doubt if something will shrink of not look at the label! if it is made out of man-made fibers or says to wash at low heat, then do. if your ever unsure wash on the lowest possible setting and be esp. careful with 'machine wash cold' synthetics.
Why isn't tax added on to the list price in the US?
This has been asked before: _URL_0_ But every time it gets asked again, I appreciate how many people here aren't from the US, which is good.
How does pain medicine work?
Most medicines work by having a more favorable bond to the specific receptors. The medicine blocks the feeling of pain by not allowing your natural signalling molecule to bond with the pain receptors.
Why do women still go to Chris Brown concerts while knowing he abuses women?
Because they like the music, presumably. Plenty of people don't change their buying habits just because they don't like what the person they're buying from does.
What would be the affect of an asteroid striking the ocean as opposed to it striking land? Would it cause a mass extinction?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the asteroid of the K-T extinction *did* strike the ocean, just off the coast of the Yucatan
Why does my stomach "growl" when I'm hungry?
Normally, your stomach muscles goes through a process called Peristalsis where it expands and contracts in order to move food around and keep digestion going. From what I understand, when you are hungry your stomach is moving a lot more to get every scrap of food and use it for digestion. This movement is the "growling" that you sometimes hear. This what I understood from my biology class, if I am wrong someone please correct me.
Why does it seem like more technological change happened between 1900 to 1950 than from 1950 to 2000?
Seriously? Since 1950, we've turned into a computerized society that understands how to manipulate our own genomes, we're building robots and actually getting somewhere (slowly) with AI. There are literally robots wandering around on Mars right now. We are reprogramming viruses to defeat genetic diseases. The internet contains a huge portion of human knowledge, and the amount is increasing daily, and millions of people carry around devices that can access it anywhere they go, and each of those devices are computers ridiculously more powerful than all the computers on earth back then. We're building massive physics experiments like the LHC, an array of space telescopes orbiting the Earth, the Moon, and Mars as we speak. There's a gigantic international space station orbiting above us which is now being resupplied by privately run space companies. We're tying electronics directly into nervous systems. The world's barely recognizable compared to 1950 :)
If you were to rip out a person's eyeball without snapping the optical nerve, and then made it face the other eyeball (aside from pain and whatnot) how would your brain put together the image?
I assume it would try its best to make "sense" out of the information. You might get two superimposed images and just see a "single" eye. You can definitely do this with mirrors and some plywood.
If every major country is in billions (if not trillions) of debt, where are they borrowing from?
There are a whole bunch of sources. The major ones are: * Themselves. One of the major holders of US government debt is the US Social Security system, for instance. * Other countries. You can simultaneously owe money to someone and be owed money by them, and there are a few countries (eg, some of the major oil producers) that are net lenders. * Non-governmental entities. Retirement funds, personal investment accounts, corporations, etc, all purchase government debt because it's one of the lowest risk investment options available.
WTF is going on with the scoreboard & items??
(x-post from the other thread) Alright, I got this. So today, Reddit is a text based Team-Fortress 2, but Orange vs Blue as the colors. All user accounts have been assigned to one of the teams. Evenly split, I would assume. At random intervals, you gain hats in your inventory, much like TF2. You can apply these hats to other users as if it were "flair" throughout today. Also in your item inventory are weapons. The weapons are one-time use items that do a variety of things, such as the ability to change the formatting on other people's posts. It would be advisable to use these against the enemy team. There are subreddits for each team to strategize on. /r/periwinkle and /r/orangered The fight will probably last all day and points will be tallied in four-hour intervals, presumably for more arbitrary internet points. So go out there and fight for your side! (also fuck team orangered)
How does one go about learning a language when they don't have anyone to speak it with?
There is no way to become fluent in a language without speaking with people who are native to the tongue. That being said I would recommend a free website called Duolingo. You could also try watch videos online in French or reading articles. I am no way an expert but these are some great places to start.
Why is it hard to make a fist when you first wake up?
When you go to sleep, in a simplified sense, your brain deactivates your muscles. When you just wake up, your muscles are also beginning to "wake up" so it would be hard for you to have total control of them right off the bat.
Why is women’s handwriting generally better than men’s?
This has been asked many times before (don't use reddit's search to check for previous answers, google seach on reddit ... works much better). While there are some physical explanations, like development of motor skills happening earlier for girls... There are also social reasons, like girls being encouraged more to care about looks and boys to be fast and rough. Whichever is more important we can argue about but I doubt we will be able to reach a conclusion. Personally I'd argue for the social part because there is too much variation in the development and age of children in the same class, so by that logic the boys born early should be able to learn to write as nice as girls born late in the year (or vice versa). Personally I can write as nice as a girl if I want to take my time to do so but most of the time I write fast and rough because used to be a little boy many years ago.. I'd really like to be able to write nice AND fast though, but I have not mastered that yet. _URL_0_
Why is one side of aluminium foil less shiny than the other?
When the aluminum foil gets really thin, it could be torn by the tension required to further thin it. To prevent this they run it though the rolling machine in two layers. There the aluminum is on the polished steel rollers, it is shiny. The side that's against the other sheet of aluminum is not as shiny. Here is a [Video explanation](_URL_0_ ). The doubling up starts about 5:40 in the video.
Why do companies state that your refund would take 5-7 business days to appear in your bank account, when in reality I always get it on next business day ?
It's better to under-promise and over-deliver on services than to over-promise and under-deliver.
Why would females want to follow the religion of Islam when there are clear preachings about them being worth less than a man?
Almost all religions treat women worse than men. Islam, Christianity, Judiasm, Buddhism, Hinduism... all essentially identical when it comes to women as far as the respective holy books are concerned. Of course, people pick and choose what parts of the book stop follow and only the more extreme or fundamental follow the oppression aspects of their books. But now I've gone off topic. Why do women want to follow Islamic religions? The same reason why anyone wants to follow any religions; it gives them comfort. Everyone has something different that comforts them, and maybe they see something they want in Islamic religions. Oh, and if you weren't talking about those who convert; almost everyone who is religious is the same religion as their parents. Converts are rare. This is just how it works.
why do downloads start completely over when interrupted?
It's far easier to implement. Essentially, your web browser communicates to websites using a whole set of protocols. One of them is HTTP. HTTP has a command called GET. You can use this to retrieve files. Due to the nature of this protocol (which was developed a long time ago) there is no way to GET **part** of a file. So if you have to download the whole thing again anyway then you may as well discard the corrupted file and start over. When the protocol was created, they probably weren't expecting such large files to be send over the internet. So the idea of starting again probably wasn't so scary! There are other protocols that exist. For example this isn't a problem when downloading Torrents. But in that case you use a torrent program instead of a web browser.
Why didn't the big bankers go to jail after the Wallstreet collapse?
Because the government hasn't believed it can prove violations of criminal laws. Simply issuing an investment that drops in value isn't a crime and proving fraud is hard. It's like the difference between inattentive driving resulting in a collision, and intentionally driving one's car into a pedestrian. It can be hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what a driver was thinking, unless the driver tells someone or leaves other evidence of their thoughts. The settlements the banks have signed with the government contain admissions of misrepresentation and don't generally settle firm nor employee criminal charges. Allowing the government to continue investigating any criminal charges it may have been pursuing, but criminal trials require a higher standard of proof than a settlement.
Why do old people's voices change?
True ELI5-Their vocal cords get stretched out. There is a surgery that can fix this. I seem to recall seeing an older person who had it done, and it was jarring to hear them with a young voice.
What's different about the air inside a bag of chips from the air outside of the bag, that it doesn't make the chips go stale?
The bag is filled with nitrogen. Because the chips sit in this altered atmosphere, no moisture, no oxygen, and no micro organisms, the chips stay fresh, crisp, and in top quality longer. Here's more about modified atmosphere packaging _URL_0_
Why aren't you supposed to wake somebody who is sleepwalking?
because of the old wives tale that the trauma would kill them. in fact, you can wake up a sleepwalker at any time to no detriment. it would be just like waking them up from bed.
How does air horn generate such a loud noise?
U/Blesshope is talking out of his ass ,he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Sorry brother. The airhorn uses a diaphragm similar to reed in a wind instrument. The cone is there to amplify the sound/ direct it, but the sound is actually created by vibrations on the diaphragm. _URL_0_
How did our ancient ancestors in Africa deal with sunburn?
By being black, black people don't burn as easily and since the sun is so bright they don't need the skin to absorb as much sunlight to produce vitamins.
How does anything exist tangibly outside of the 3rd dimension?
Dimensionality is a mathematical concept. It's used to describe properties of spaces. If we lived in a 2D world, we would only be able to perceive lines. Any intersection of our universe with a 3D universe would appear to use as a line. We live in a 3D world, so everything we perceive is in 3D. However, we can **describe** everything we see in 3 dimensions: width, length and height. We can also describe our world in 4D (adding time). > If you make a dot on a piece of paper with a pen the point would have measurable height, length, and width no matter how minuscule it be; The dot as you describe it, is a mark made of ink on a cellulose surface. It's a visual representation, not really a 1D dot. There may be multi-dimensional universes out there that we can't experience since we can't perceive more than 3D+time.
Why is it good for Canada to get more residents ?
Far from a complete answer here but it has to do with aggregate demand. People come to Canada and need jobs, but they also need to spend money and buy things, like gas, food, housing which gives people who work here already either more business or the chance to have a job they maybe didn't have. It is similar to why the central banks always try to keep inflation, you always want some growth otherwise the economy would turn into a crappy swap meet.
Why do dogs stare at us?
They're asking you if you're going to eat the rest of that.
I'm a Senior in High School in New York. We are required for our government class to do 10 political hours, what are they and how do I get involved?
I would ask your teachers or advisers what "political hours" are. I've never heard of them.
Institutional Racism
Institutional racism is typically a holdover from periods of blatant racism. Imagine you are born *just after* the end of Jim Crow and other formal, racist laws. Growing up, your family will be poorer than average and less educated than average. As you look around yourself, you will have few people who are very successful with whom you can talk, network, learn from, or model your behavior after. *That's* institutional racism. Nothing is explicitly keeping you down, but you are at a huge disadvantage none-the-less. This is the idea behind special programs like race-based scholarships or affirmative action/race quotas in hiring. It helps to level the playing field a bit, so that underprivileged communities can begin to build some wealth, as well as a resource of people to serve as a guides and role models to the following generation.
What is the point of 120Hz monitors when we can only perceive 60fps clearly?
Actually, our eyes can quite comfortably perceive differences of up to around 80fps. It's not a *huge* difference above 60fps, but it can be noticeable in frame-by-frame rendered scenarios, such as games. [This diagram](_URL_0_) might help you see the peak point. The added benefit of 120hz monitors is that they're capable of generating 60hz *3D* images (if paired with the right technology, such as glasses).
How do chameleons camouflage themselves?
They do not. They change colors in response to temperature in mood, not as camouflage. But as to how they do *that*: they have cells called chromatophores in their skin. These cells are layered on top of each other and can expand and contract. When a cell on top expands, it blocks the one underneath. When it contracts, you can see the one underneath. By controlling which colors are visible this way, the chameleon changes color.
"The captain always goes down with the ship". Why is this a thing?
Captains wont intentionally kill themselves no, but they are supposed to be the last ones off since they are responsibly for all crew and passengers. > "The captain goes down with the ship" is an idiom and maritime tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his ship and everyone embarked on it, and he will die trying to save either of them. Although often associated with the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and its captain, Edward J. Smith, the phrase predates the Titanic by at least 11 years.[1] **In most instances the captain of the ship forgoes his own rapid departure of a ship in distress, and concentrates instead on saving other people. It often results in either the death or belated rescue of the captain as the last person on board.** Think of it more as a figure of speech, like women and children first.
How does a deaf person know what you are saying when they gain hearing?
I was born deaf, and I had a cochlear implant surgery when I was seven. Prior to the surgery, I was wearing hearing aids, I was not able to hear well with it, and the cochlear implant helped me to hear, but I can tell you this, it took a lot of practice to understand what people are saying without reading their lips. I am able to understand people and know the surrounding sounds, but it took me, I would say about 5 years to actually understand what I am hearing. It takes a lot of practice, patience and most likely an intensive speech therapy for a deaf person to understand what they are hearing.