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Why do undercooked potatoes taste disgusting, even though other root vegetables like carrots and parsnips are fine to eat raw?
Because of the starch content; potatoes basically store their energy as starch, whereas carrots store energy as sugar.
Why is jupiter considered a planet when it is basically just a big ball of gas without surface?
Because "solid surface" isn't a requirement to be considered a planet. The current classification is as follows: (1) A "planet"1 is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. Jupiter easily suffices. It's also fair to say it is more complex than simply a 'big ball of gas,' while there is no discrete boundary where air becomes 'ground' you would instead gradually transition to more solid resistance as you descended.
What's the difference between androids and robots?
A robot is at it's simplest: an automated mechanical/electrical device that is made to operate with minimal or no human control and preform specific tasks. An Android is a robot, a robot made to be specifically human looking or human like. A Cyborg is a combination of mechanical/electronic parts with biologic parts to make a half machine-half living organism thing.
Why is it that when ice cream melts and refreezes it gets icy and its texture isn't how it's supposed to be
Part of the magic of making ice cream is that little tiny air bubbles get whipped into it, and tiny globules of fat are mixed throughout the ice crystals. When it melts and re-freezes, all those bubbles get released and the fats can separate a bit, so you're left with something closer to greasy ice.
What object physically mediates the push and pull of magnets? What causes the tension between all objects we call gravity?
> In reality, only physical things have affects on other physical things. Ideas like "forces" and "fields" do not. No. That's where you're wrong.
How do we survive the Earth spinning at an incredible speed and rushing around the sun at the same time? Wouldn't the g-force kill us all instantly?
Because you started with the same momentum as the object you were born on.
Why do we say "huh?" or "what?" when a person says something, even though we already heard it and answer the question before a person repeats themselves?
for me personally often times is because I was really suprised to hear the person talk. It came out of nowhere and I was kinda "unprepared" to listen, so I intuitively interrupt them with "huh what?" to give my brain some time to prepare. But most of the time I understood them anyways.
Why is there so much backlash against Iggy Azalea in the hip-hop community, but not against other white rappers?
Because she doesn't make good music, and she's made it to the mainstream music's Eye.
Why do people have pairs of chromosomes? What does that do?
You get one chromosome from each parent. It increases genetic diversity by giving you one from each parent, rather than just one chromosome from one parent.
What exactly is a game engine?
A game engine is a program that provides many of the basic features of a game, such as graphics, realistic physics, sound, etc. Using a game engine saves game developers time, because they don't have to rewrite that code every time they make a game. Instead, they can focus on writing code that is unique to the game.
Why cant you see stars in pictures taken from the moon, but you can see stars in pictures taken from earth.
Because the Moon is too bright. If you just try to take a normal picture of the sky from Earth, you probably wouldn't see any stars either. The picture from Earth where you see stars are usually long exposure photos, captured in a very dark location. If you try to take a similar picture from the Moon, you'll also see stars.
If it is true that male humans have better sense of smell, how is this possible?
Do you have a source? Every resource I have ever read says the opposite - that women have a much better sense of smell than men. It is even suggested that during ovulation that women's sense of smell increases significantly. _URL_0_
How can a corporation like Activision-Blizzard think King Digital (maker of Candy Crush) is worth 5.9 BILLION dollars?
King Digital has about 315 million (common) shares outstanding, and earned a little north of $1.75 per share these past 12 months that puts a very rough estimate of their annual earnings at $550 million. When one company buys another, the price can usually be ballparked as some multiple of the company's proven earnings. This multiple reflects the fact that they're not just buying the company's assets as things stand now, but also its value as a going concern (its earnings going forward, which will presumably continue to grow). A multiplier of 10-11 isn't terribly uncommon for businesses in this sector. Plus, setting aside the on-paper value, a blue-chip veteran of the gaming industry like Blizzard/Activision no doubt sees additional opportunities for synergy buying up a huge chunk of the mobile gaming market for itself.
If gay marriage is made legal (which is a good thing) what arguments would one use to keep polygamy illegal?
It makes an absolute mess of family law. Right now, a marriage is between two people & a child has, at most, two parents. What happens to the children in a 3-marriage if A divorces B & C because B is abusive? Obviously, we would want to minimize B's custody rights but that would unfairly penalize C. What about a 4-marriage where A & B separate from C & D and A & B are the biological parents of children? Divorces can also be tricky - what about a 3-marriage where A & C want nothing to do with each other but still want to stay with B? Allowing gay marriage doesn't require any major changes to the legal framework of marriage - we simply change the definition to allow any two people rather than a man & a woman. Allowing poly-marriage would require a *major* reworking of the laws to accommodate arbitrary family size & structure to satisfy the needs of an *incredibly tiny* minority of people.
Why did the Japanese "let the emperor still be emperor" ?
I think it's kind of like how the Queen is still the Queen, but Parliament actually runs the country.
What does alcohol consumption feels like?
It burns against your throat and down into your belly. Then it kinda fizzles into a warm happy feeling that spreads through your body. The effects on your brain can be completely unnoticed initially, but continued drinking exacerbates them. For me I smile more, talk more, and become more relaxed. If I get drunk I think everything is funny, I involve myself in every conversation, and I slump or lean on things. I've learned to identify this stage and stop drinking. Because if I continue the silly/happy feeling turns into anger and sadness, I shout a lot, and my arms and legs seem to operate on a delay.
Why do people shit themselves with fear?
Most animals have a natural aversion to fecal matter. As such, it can be an effective escape/survival strategy to shit yourself and hope that a predator smells/sees it and leaves you alone. It can be hardwired into the "flight" part of fight/flight as it's a pretty good deterant/distraction.
Why is it easier to "see" things in your mind, rather than "touch" or "smell"?
Note: I'm not a neuroscientist. It is possible that the modern human brain has more dedicated visual processing over the other senses which my allow for "visual thought" to be predominant. I've also heard it said that the sense of smell is a better trigger for memories than any of the other senses. Also, I may be talking out my ass.
What is the advantage of spending more money to buy an unlocked phone?
The only advantages are that you can choose any provider and you can get a prepaid plan. If you text/ring a lot, it's better to not get an unlocked phone and just get a contract.
How is it that you can have some or all of a brain hemisphere removed and maintain motor function on that side, yet a stroke can cause lifelong paralysis?
The short answer is that the brain is fucking weird. The long answer is that the muscles are controlled in clumps spread through the brain. But those clumps are mostly together. That's why a stroke will often hit only certain muscles, if it's a small one, the blood to certain bits of the brain was cut off long enough to cause brain damage. In a larger stroke it will hit large parts of the brain, and so might get all or most of your muscle functions. And then the part about the Brian being weird, the brain can often shift stuff around to compensate for damaged or missing bits depending on what's missing and how. So you can have one hemisphere missing, and the brain will be able to compensate (sorta). But, that takes time, people have learned to do stuff like talk, post stroke. But they had to give their brain time to rewire. So in the short term, they loose mototr functions. See: _URL_0_
What's the dark spot you see when you poke your eye in certain ways? It's almost like a movie cue mark.
I think that's from messing with eye pressure. You probably shouldn't do that.
Why do teeth occasionally hurt when you eat something sweet?
I get the same thing. Dentist didn't really have an explanation, but said it wasn't cavities.
Waking up suddenly at 4:30AM feeling full of energy vs falling back asleep for another 30mins and waking up feeling like you could use another 6Hrs.
One possible reason is that we have sleep cycles (~90 mins) that dictate how we feel when we wake up. If you wake up at the end of one, you feel good. Too early or too late while you’re in deep sleep, and you feel horrible. Going back to sleep after waking can slip you back into your cycle, and you end up in the middle of a new one after 30 minutes.
What are the cons of electric cars?
The electricity has to come from somewhere. The grid is built to handle a certain amount of people using electronics. Charging electric cars uses a massive amount of power. If enough people start using electric cars (~3-5%) the power grid will be overloaded and fail. Furthermore, batteries are hugely inefficient. Producing and disposing of a battery is enormously unfriendly to the environment. We aren't that good at making batteries either. You cant travel significant distances on a battery... a normal commuter using an electric car would go through a battery every year or two. There are dozens more problems, but suffice to say on a large scale the downsides significantly outweigh the benefits.
How difficult would it be to intentionally build an immunity to a lethal poison, a la The Princess Bride?
There isn't a blanket answer to this. Some poisons you simply cannot develop an immunity to, and they will end you no matter how hard you try. If you were curious, the practice itself is named Mithridatism.
How do non-partisan entities maintain nonpartisanship? Don't presidents, chairs, board members, justices have internal biases?
Level headed people are able to see when they have a bias about something and view the opposing side and their own without their bias and determine a course of action based on that. It is similar to a woman saying she would not have an abortion but at the same time not wanting to make that choice for another woman by voting to outlaw abortion as a whole.
How does a vending machine recognize a dollar as opposed to a dollar sized piece of paper?
They take a picture. Your piece of paper doesn't look like a dollar bill. They read the fine patterns. Your piece of paper that you tried to commit counterfeitting does have the fine patterns that a real dollar bill has, because your printer isn't capable of printing the fine lines. Take a magnifying glass to right side of 5 dollar bill, you'll see "five dollars" repeated in the side bar. You'll see "USA five" on the purple 5. You'll see names on top of the Lincoln memorial.
What is happening to someone physiologically when we get our "second wind" of energy?
Our bodied realize they are under undo stress so they release adrenalin. The release of adrenalin makes us feel better and more energetic.
Why are boobs attractive?
This is more of a shower thought that I had a few months ago, but everyone loves boobs. Gay, straight, male, female, so there has to be some basis in biology. My hypothesis is that everyone loves titties because they're babies primary biological food source and therefore breasts are associated with feeding time, cuddles, and good times. Even as a 24 year old male when I see a nice pair I think, "wow I'd like to nuzzle up and suck on those". To add to the biological basis, there is significant social pressure to find boobs attractive, again regardless of sexual orientation. Gay guys and girls have much greater access to breasts than I ever will, friends of women with nice boobies will just squeeze then and say " wow your tits look amazing " whereas when I do that it's all "stop you perv" and "what are you doing in the women's locker room"
How did "ZZzZZzzz" come to represent sleep and how did it become so common?
Someone thought it was a good onomatopoeia for the sound of snoring and it stuck.
how does the military keep on getting hacked?
The kind of hacking that is being done is not the ordinary wire fraud hacking. The US military is being hacked by professionals in other countries who have a similar budget, both for cyberdefense and cyberwarfare. We hack into their systems as much as they do ours (like all of the projects that Snowden so helpfully ~~compromised~~ exposed), but they don't publicly acknowledge it like the US does.
Why do videos from the 80's-90's always look like someone smudged grease on the camera lens?
Video quality has improved since then. And so has playback quality. With an older video there is less information there. The older video has information for a smaller number of lines of pixels. So when you play it on a new screen, the screen can display many more pixels than it is getting information for. So your computer or tv or whatever has some ability to extrapolate what it needs to fill in spaces, but will mostly use more than 1 of its pixels to show the information that was 1 pixel 20 years ago.
SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but is anyone searching for "dumb" life?
There are people looking for life on Mars. It's one of the things that the rovers are doing, and the next one [has it as one of the main goals](_URL_0_) (though they don't expect to find current life, just past). The problem is that we can't exactly put rovers on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, due to the distances involved, so we can't do that type of search on planets outside our solar system. Even reaching mars is a serious technical challenge, so we've not started looking as seriously at Europa or other possible incubators of life.
Why has there been a vinyl resurgence in the music industry?
You can get them cheap. They have a slightly different sound quality, and many people enjoy that difference. Album art is pretty great in and of itself. You can roll a joint on an album cover, but you can't on digital music. People like actually having physical items. They have a cool factor that dates back more than a century (the term groovy specifically refers to the grooves in an album, for example). If you are into certain scenes, 7" singles are a great way to pick up and try out new music in a more interactive way than simply going through youtube. Many people enjoy the nostalgia factor. You can give them away as physical objects to people who also enjoy albums, and that beats the hell out of just sending them a link. You can leave them to your kids. You can get them from your parents. People like them.
Why do we make that "hurr-durr" voice when mockingly impersonating someone? Why does that voice signify stupidity?
It sounds like someone with a mental disability, like Down's syndrome. They are seen as stupid, so its a natural voice to use to convey stupidness
How is this man able to hold on to this chopper for that long?
That's very little acceleration on top of 9.8 m/s^2 of Earth gravity. Downwash probably adds a little more effort. Still, it isn't much more physically demanding than holding on to a stationary bar. Mind that it's pretty easy to hang even from a single hand. With two hands it's a piece of cake. You don't have to pull yourself further up just to hang. It isn't so much that you're likely to fall as that the consequences are big if you do fall.
What is the difference between a republic and a democracy? Which one is the U.S.?
A republic means a small group of people are chosen so that they can make the governing decisions of a country. A democracy means that the people vote on the governing decisions of the country. The United States is a democratic republic. The people vote to choose the small group that will make the governing decisions.
What does contemporary military jet fighting look like?
[Simulation games seem fairly close to the real thing.](_URL_0_)
How does calling an african-american "black" make you a racist?
I don't think it does at all. People call me 'white' and not an American. So why would it be racist to call someone 'black' instead of African American?
why Obama is criticized for going golfing?
It's part of the partisan bickering that comes with a two party system. If the President is a member of your party and takes a break, he's been working really hard and deserves it. If he's a member of the opposition, he's a lazy bum.
Why does anyone attend for-profit colleges like ITT Tech when anyone can attend community college?
People just plain get duped. The see the ads, and it all looks legit enough. You go into the sales meeting, and the representatives are trained to do literally whatever it takes to convince people to sign on for attending the schools. It's not until it's too late that they realize how worthless the degree is after they graduate. Community Colleges are, however unfairly, seen as "lesser" degrees than other schools. For Profits like ITT Tech prey on that and manage to convince people who don't matter that their degrees aren't worth even less.
Why is it that in the USA you will most likely always have a criminal record if you have been accused of a crime, even if you were never convicted or were later found to be wrongfully convicted?
Having something on your record isn't the same as being guilty. The record would simply say you were charged but found not guilty, in the same way an officer would still make a note that he gave you a verbal warning even if he didn't write you an actual ticket. It's just a record of your interaction with the justice system. In exceedingly rare circumstances, ie there wasn't even real evidence to warrant you being investigated or charged, let alone found guilty, you can have the record *expunged* which makes it as if it never happened. But this really is reserved for outrageous police incompetence or conspiracy. I have no idea what the other guy is talking about with DUIs and getting arrested. If you get pulled over for driving intoxicated, the officer will place you under arrest. You will be charged with DUI and go before a judge. Most people get arrested before they end up in court and get convicted, that's kinda the entire way the system works.
How does "RNG"/Random work in Video games?
Pseudo-random number generators use an algorithm to generate a number. The algorithm starts with a "seed" value to create the number. Then it crunches through the algorithm (essentially a formula). Since it is an algorithm, if the seed is the same, the result is the same. So systems will try to pick a seed value that is essentially random. For example, when the event occurs that triggers the RNG, take a few of the least significant numbers of the system clock. Such a system is generally good enough for a video game "random" number. If you are using cryptography to protect something valuable, however, you might want something that is more robust.
Bandwidth. What exactly is it and how does it work?
Bandwidth originally is from transmission techniques that use bands of frequencies (eg: radio waves). Each station gets a range of frequencies to use (called a band) and is allowed to fill up that band with their broadcast transmission. With clever technologies, you can send multiple different broadcasts within the band you were given. the size of the range, or bandwidth, determined just how many streams of information you could send at once. More generally, the term is now used to refer to how much stuff can be sent through something at one time. For instance, if you have a 100 Mbps connection, it means you are able to send, at most, 100 million bits of information through the connection every second. TL;DR: bandwidth is the maximum amount of stuff we can stuff through a pipe within a given time frame.
how come the rings of Saturn orbit on a flat plane around the planet, as opposed to evenly spread out?
Same reason why the planets are in a relatively horizontal plane around the sun. Angular momentum is conserved, so as orbiting materials collide, they eventually settle into a disk. What conservation of angular momentum means, is that the total sum of each particles momentum, must but equal to their ending momentum. So you get a lot of chaotic collisions when the cloud first starts, but as more and more collisions take place, more and more of the upward and downward momentum is converted into horizontal momentum. This creates the plane or disk.
How do people who went through transsexual procedures change their voice?
Basically it's hormones. Women who transition to men will notice a bigger change in their voice when they start taking male hormones. But, men who transition after they've gone through puberty won't be able to change as much because the physical changes the voice box goes through at that time are hard to undo.
Why are college textbooks so expensive when other non-fiction authors - ie Noam Chomsky - release books on similar topics for substantially less?
The simple answer is, of course, because they can. Students are required to buy their books, so they can charge whatever they want for them. To elaborate on some other points: * Noam Chomsky's books probably don't have massive problem sets and accompanying solutions -- those take a *lot* of time to come up with. * Other books tend to not have nearly as many pictures, drawings, and diagrams. Someone has to get paid for all of those. * Typesetting plain text non-fiction books takes much less time than typesetting a 1000 page book with 5 pictures and 6 different fonts on each page. * Textbooks will probably go by many more editors and reviewers before being published compared to non-peer reviewed non-fiction * Textbooks are almost always hardcover, which is more expensive, and they are often glossy full color pages, which are more expensive
When cloning an animal (let's say a dog), how much of that cloned animal is exactly the same as the original animal?
Essentially, a clone of an animal is the same thing as an identical twin. 100% match genetically, but everything else is a wildcard. Anything that is directly genetically controlled will be the same, such eye or fur color. Anything that is affected by environment, habits, temperament, coat quality, size, health, etc... Will be up to chance essentially.
Please explain this joke, I'm having a hard time
It sounds like an anti-joke. The standard setup is inverted and that is the cause of the humor. The bartender sees the joke coming and want's nooo trouble in his place. I don't think it's funny, but we've all got different tastes in that regard.
Why do extremely big things seem to move slower and extremely small things seem to move faster?(Realtive to human hight etc.)
If something extremely big moved without it looking slow it'd have to have close to supernatural strength. Take a human that has 3 times our height, and everything in proportions. That'd mean it has about 27 times our mass. Not if he moves on the same rate as we do, it'd take 27 time as much energy as is, but to appear moving on the same rate as we are (effectively travel 3 times the distance) it'd take 81 times as much energy. There is no living creature that could intake 81 times as much energy as we do - basically eat and drink as much a day as we do in 3 months' time.
Why do we need discipline?
First, you (and I'd say a lot of other people too) need to look up the definition. Second, self-discipline allows you to make the right decisions in your life using critical thinking and to make yourself better (in every aspect) even though you may not necessarily want to. Literally means: "the ability to control one's feelings and overcome one's weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it". So instead of like..... pounding down that half tub of ice cream every night, put it away and grab some carrots and hummus instead.
If you went back 10 years with an iphone 6 and handed it to a high-tech corporation to dissect. Could they use it to increase the rate of technology?
There might be a few neat ideas that they could learn from it, like the placement of the fingerprint sensor. But they wouldn't be able to re-create the processors because they wouldn't know how to make processors that are etched with features so small and looking at the device wouldn't tell them how to do it. Ten years ago, processor features were 65nm wide. Now they're ~~28nm~~ 14nm wide which lets them fit more things on each chip. That's much of the reason why new devices are faster. EDIT: thanks /u/m1l4droid for reminding me that I missed a couple steps down since I last bought a computer.
How come some phones/cars can supercharge like 40% of the battery in minutes, but the remaining of the battery takes hours to fully charge?
Think of it like a balloon you are trying to blow up. You can start huffing and puffing with great abandon as the balloon isn't going to pop. but when it gets to certain size you start to worry, You want the balloon bigger but you worry it might go bang. So you have to slow your puffing down.
What is the "revolving door" in politics?
When you work in government agencies, you build up contacts within those agencies. Then, when you leave, you get hired - for fairly substantial salaries - to lobby your former colleagues on behalf of people who have business with that agency. The questionable part about this arises because you *know* that's your career path. So when you're attempting to perform your duties for the government, you're also in charge of regulating the same people who will - in a few short years - be paying you hundreds of thousands of dollars to do little more than take your former colleagues out for drinks. The 'revolving' part comes into play when you're high enough in the hierarchy that you cycle in/out based on political cycles. So you'll spend some time in government building up your contacts, then some time in the private sector exploiting those contacts for a big payday.
I have seen some of the recent North Korean propaganda about the USA. How much of what we know about the terrible things going on in NK can be confirmed, and are we subject to lies/propaganda about what it's like there?
There is a book called Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick which was written with input from six people who defected from North Korea. The are very candid about what living conditions were like there and what they were told about China, Russia and the US.
Why does lemon juice "cook" fish when making ceviche?
It doesn't actually cook the fish. The acid just denatures the proteins in fish meat in a similar process to cooking. It won't, for instance, kill pathogens in the fish.
How do they match a single fingerprint against all the millions of fingerprints in the fingerprint database?
There's different ways a computer can do image comparison. One way is basically break down a fingerprint onto something like [grid paper](_URL_1_) with x,y positions. Then my fingerprint will say something like: Black at (4,5), Black at (4,6), White at (4,7), Black at (4,8) etc. hundreds or thousands of times. Like [this](_URL_0_). Then you can compare all these grid co-ordinates to another fingerprint. If say 99% of the squares are filled the same (Black or White) that's a good match. This is obviously a lot of work, but computers are great at doing millions of simple fixed logical comparisons in a very fast time. There's other ways to tackle this. There's also surrounding problems programmers need to solve too, like "centering" images so that they aren't off by one, how do you handle a fingerprint that's "bolder with thicker lines", etc.
Why were popular songs of the 50's so short (2 min) in comparison to popular songs of today (4-5 min)?
Up until the early 60s the most singles were distributed on 10" 78rpm records which could, at most, hold about 3 minutes of audio per side.
Could quantum entanglement be used for long distant instant communications/High bandwidth data transfer?
> From what I understand, once you entangle two (or more?) quantum bits a change in one bit's state will immediately affect the state of the other. This is the main reason most people misunderstand the entanglement. Changes to one particle does not affect the other once they are split up. Entangled particles are more like a sheet of paper with 'A' and 'B' written on it. Cut the paper in half so one letter is on each piece and stuff them in separate envelopes. Send someone with one envelope to a far off place while the other stays put. The far off person can check their envelope at any time and know what was left behind. If the traveler has B in their envelope, then they know that A was left behind. Erasing the B and writing in C does nothing to the piece of paper which has A on it.
Why are most batteries 1.5v or multiples of 1.5v?
The reason for this is chemistry. A single cell of a alkaline battery (i.e. your "normal" battery) has a voltage of about 1.5V (when full). This voltage does not change if the battery becomes bigger or smaller. If you want to have a higher voltage, a battery is made by connecting more than one cell in series (you can see the single cells in [this example](_URL_0_)). Other types of batteries can have similar voltages per cell (a zinc–carbon cell has also 1.5V) or different voltages (e.g. a lithium ion cell has about 3.2-3.7V, depending on the type). Cars and trucks use lead acid batteries which are made by connecting 6 or 12 cells in series, each cell has about 2.1V (no load, when full) so we call these 12V or 24V batteries.
How do we know so much about the different stages of a star's life if they last for such a long time?
We can examine the life stages of a human without having to watch one in particular for its entire life. Similarly with stars, we see them at all different stages of their lives. We see the transitional states so we know in what order they occur.
Difference between "buffering" and "loading"
Just technicalities. Buffering is partially loading something for streaming. Loading is loading the entire thing
Since the US president is the commander in chief of the armed forced, how does the US constitution prevent him from planning a coup and ordering the military to do something potentially unconstitutional?
The Oath taken by all military personnel is to support and defend the Constitution. Training is given reminding servicemembers (especially commissioned officers) that they should not obey an unlawful or unconstitutional order.
The universe is expanding, but where is the center of the expansion? is that the point in which the big bang happened? And where are we relatively to it?
Every point is expanding away from every other point. There's no "center of the expansion". Imagine an infinitely large rubber sheet, with a 1" grid drawn on it. Now stretch out the rubber sheet so that the grid lines are 2" apart instead, everywhere. Is there a "center" to this stretching? Every point is moving away from every other point.
Isn't the CBC reporting on Jian Ghomeshi a conflict of interest?
It is a conflict of interest. News organizations have conflicts of interest all the time, but that doesn't mean they stop reporting news. Journalism ethics says so long as you disclose the conflict, so people can judge if you are being biased, you are covered.
Where do files go once they're deleted? I just don't accept that they disappear...
Imagine your hard drive as a giant wall, like the Great Wall of China. Now imagine that your files are painted on this wall (Images, text, music notes). When you delete a file, your computer finds the spot on the wall where that file was painted, and marks that section of the wall as "free". It doesn't scrub off the painting, but the next time your computer needs to store a file, it can just re-paint over the "free" portion of the wall, and that's when the original painting will be gone/replaced. The computer *could* scrub away the painting at the moment you delete the file, but marking it "free" is quicker and takes less work. There *are* ways to tell your computer to scrub off the painting at the moment you delete the file, but normally there's no need to do that. You can even run a program later on that will walk along the entire wall, and scrub off any old paintings.
How we can say the earth is tilted on it's axis, when it's a sphere?
The tilt is the angle between earths rotational axis and the orbital axis (the plane of the orbit around the sun). [Like this](_URL_0_)
how the hell did line dancing to "aches breaky heart" become a Mexican party tradition?
I have no idea but you should repost this to /r/TIL as > TIL line dancing to "achey breaky heart" is a Mexican party tradition.
The hullabaloo over The Hobbit being filmed at 48 FPS, and why a lot of people consider that a bad thing?
soap operas are filmed in higher FPS. This means it DOES have the "look" of a soap opera. But it also means it has a better, smoother picture. It's perception and tradition at play here, that's all. I don't know why it would make people sick, besides it being more action then most people are used to seeing at that high of a FPS (although games should have the same effect for those people)
Why does everyone hate comic sans?
This should explain it both entertainingly and fiveyearoldishly. _URL_0_
How a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) works.
Have you ever ridden a bicycle with multiple front and rear gears? The difference between the size of the gears, or ratio, helps balance how much work you do with how fast you go. On a 10-speed bike, you have only 2 gears in the front and 5 in the back with a chain connecting them. With a CVT, you have two cones with a belt between them. By moving the cones in and out you can achieve *any* gear ratio, rather than just a handful discrete gears give you. As an added bonus there's never a point where you stop delivering power because of shifting - it's always moving. The specifics of how they move & how the belt stays in place start getting more complicated quickly.
What causes "asparagus pee" and how does it happen so fast after eating it?
Short answer is that asparagus contains a natural chemical aptly named asparagusic acid. This acid is broken down by the body into sulfur-containing compounds. Those sulfur compounds smell. This is the same reason rotten eggs smell. And once made, the breakdown products end up in your urine. Because they are highly volatile, they make it into the air as you pee, and float on up your nose! I don't know exactly why it shows up so quickly, but my best guess is just that the smelly compounds are made from asparagusic acid very quickly, as soon as you begin digesting the asparagus. Source: _URL_0_ Not an asparagus expert, nor a pee expert. Just googled your question and found a good article.
When someone is given the death penalty, why are they on death row for so long?
There's an appeals process that has to be followed, and that can take years because the courts are really very busy. Then there's the fact that issuing stays of execution is a very easy, low-cost way for governors to earn brownie points with more liberal constituencies who understand how many innocent men have danced the sisal two-step because the State was in a rush to punish someone.
Why do some injuries hurt when partially submerged and then feel better fully submerged in water?
If the injury is to a weight-bearing part of your body, the extra weightlessness of being in water can relieve it. It’s also why older people do a lot of exercise in pools, it’s less impact on your body
how many more satellites can we launch into space before we run out of room and are there any viable methods for clearing out space to fit more?
Others here are right, space is infinite. Except that there's only one geostationary orbit, and there's only room for ~3600 active satellites there (the current closest two satellites there are 1/10th of a degree apart), otherwise their radios might interfere with each other.
Why is 1 meter 1 meter?
There have been a few basis for the definition of the meter. One of the earlier methods was tying the definition as a fraction of the lenght of the line between the north pole, passing through Paris, to the equator. Another method that came about was the lenght of a "prototype meter", a physical artifact that represented the lenght of a meter Then we tied it to the wavelength of the radiation from a specific isotope of Krypton, and then later we defined the meter as a fraction of the speed of light in a vacuum.
how the University of Phoenix works.
My friend's cousin who I met a couple times was doing an MBA at the University of Phoenix. She didn't think her grades were reflective of her effort; she would work hard and be surprised by how low the mark was, and sometimes hand in crap and be surprised by how high the mark was. Then she handed in a blank paper and got 80%. I really hope this was just one a-hole lazy prof teaching one class and the place in general is not like that.
Force Touch on the new iPhone and other phones that have it. What are the real benefits or features?
Force Touch on the MacBooks acts like a right click. 3D Touch on the new iPhones adds a 3^rd option, users can now tap, tap+hold, and deep press. So for app icons, a deep press will bring up shortcuts; so for camera, instead of opening the app and switching to video, you just deep press the icon and slide your finger down to video record, it saves nanoseconds, but those add up. I am waiting to see what in-app functions it can utilize.
how do Dan Aykroyd and Eddy Murphy make Mortimer and Randolph go broke at the end of Trading Places.. how did they get rich?
Short selling. At the beginning of the trading day, the Dukes have a fake, unreleased forecast report saying that there will be a shortage of oranges, and therefore the price of frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) will go up. The Dukes' goal is to buy as much FCOJ as they can before the report is released and take advantage of the price increase. Lewis instead waits for the price to go way high and then starts *selling* FCOJ he doesn't even own. Basically, he's borrowing shares and promising to buy them back later. The real crop report comes out, saying there is no shortage of oranges. The price of FCOJ tanks, and Lewis finishes his short sale by buying back the shares he has to own to cover his earlier sale. Lewis sold high and bought low, in that order. The Dukes bought high, much more than they could actually afford, and what they own now is worthless, so they can't pay back the exchange (the "margin call"). This bankrupts them. _URL_0_
Why is quantum physics so often mentioned in philosophy and so-called "enlightenment" texts?
One of the main points of overlap between philosophy and quantum physics concerns whether or not there is true randomness-not just events that are beyond our current predictive ability but things that just truly cannot be pinned down or explained beyond "random." If those truly random events exist, that's (potentially) a huge blow to a strict determinist worldview and a big boost to those who believe in freewill. Similarly, there's another big overlap on the macro end of the physics spectrum and philosophy too. Determining the mass of the universe and whether it's continuously expanding or if it will expand and then begin to contract again has huge implications for physicists as well as philosophers
Why are we taller than our ancestors?
Better nutrition is a good start. Compare the average height in South Korea (5'8 1/2") with the average height in North Korea (5'5"). And that's after just half a century of malnutrition. Not sure about the rest, but the importance if better nutrition cannot be overstated here. I can imagine there's been some evolutionary selection in mates favoring taller, stronger, healthier-looking people, as well, but that depends on how far back you go to define "ancestors."
What gives the federal government the right to ban marijuana? And why can states violate that? [Serious]
The Commerce Clause of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to regulate items that have a high probability of being trafficked across state borders. States that have chosen to legalize marijuana are simply choosing not to enforce federal marijuana laws and have gotten rid of most of their own criminal & civil penalties on the sale and trafficking of the drug. If the federal government wants to enforce those laws they now must carry out enforcement itself. Prohibition was put through as a Constitutional Amendment because proponents felt it would be a more permanent change than a simple law that could easily be overturned. Remember when Prohibition passed no Amendment had ever been overturned at that point.
Why did Britain and France declared war on Germany over the invasion of Poland, but not the USSR?
They were already at war with Germany when Germany invaded the USSR. If you were asking why the USSR didn't declare war on Germany, then it's because of the [Molotov-Ribbentrop pact](_URL_0_). The Germans violated that pact when they invaded the USSR in 1941.
How hard is it for a horse to carry a human? And what would be the equivalent for a human?
From what I've found (this site: _URL_0_) it looks like an average horse can easily carry about 240 pounds. It can carry up to around 360 pounds with some effort, and over that only with considerable strain. So a horse carrying an average-sized person would be within that easy weight. Another quick search shows that around the maximum recommended backpacking weight for humans is around 1/3 of body weight. Which is around where the horses really start to struggle. So for the comparison, just imagine a very heavy backpack as about the maximum a horse could take (around 360 pounds for the horse, or around 50 pounds for a person). An easy weight to just walk around would be around around 200 pounds for a horse, or around 30 pounds for a person.
what is a kardashev civilization?
Kardashev created a (very) loose scale to describe hypothetical civilizations based on how much energy they could harness, as energy harnessed roughly translates to work that can be achieved and people that can be supported. A Kardashev-1 (K1) civilization is capuring the full energy potential of their planet. A K2 civilization is capturing the full energy potential of their solar system (think Dyson Sphere) A K3 civilization is capturing the full energy potential of their galaxy.
How supplements are not drugs and drugs are not supplements
It entirely depends upon whether that particular substance has been put through the rigorous multi-year testing required by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prove that said substance does actually help or cure the condition the company claims it does (and won't kill anybody in the process). That process is Hella fucking expensive, and if a company can avoid it, it does, because prefer to make as much dough as possible, without being bothered by pesky things like prosecution for wrongful deaths. So if a company sells a substance (like Echinacea or St Johns Wort) as a supplement, they ain't gotta do any testing. This doesn't save them from prosecution if people die, though. And if enough people complain, the FDA will get 'em on false advertising anyway (As is currently happening with the weight loss product Garcinia Cambogia)
Why was the Irish potato famine such a big deal? Didn't they have other foods they could eat?
Ireland produced enough food during the famine, but it was seized by/owed to the English. The potato famine was less of a natural famine, and more of a genocide. Similar things happened to the Ukrainians at the hands of the Soviets during the Holodomor.
If many states have no laws regarding age of tattoo with parental constant. How is it not considered child endangerment/neglect to allow your 6 year old to get a tattoo?
The same way it is not considered child endangerment/neglect to allow your 6 year old to see a rated R movie. Just because something has an age range does not make its particularly dangerous for people under that age...
How is it possible to completely shut down a country's internet?
It is a web of interconnected servers, but they have to be connected. If you control the points where your internet crosses the border to connect to other internet infrastructures, and/or you control all the ISPs within your country you can take your country down.
why do muscles get better the more you use them
It's efficient. A pound of muscle burns a dozen or so calories a day, just to sustain itself. By only building the muscles needed for your particular lifestyle, you save a lot of calories that can then be put toward reproduction or not starving. A fisher needs mostly upper body strength, a [persistence hunter](_URL_0_)) needs calves of steel, but if everybody got both, they'd waste lot of calories maintaining useless meat. Over a lifetime, a few dozen calories a day can really add up - 77,000 calories gets you an entire extra child (well, plus 3-500/day for breastfeeding).
Why were the the bodies of those who died of a fatal dose of radiation at the Chernobyl disaster still considered toxic and buried in Zinc lined coffins?
Two things. First, they probably got radioactive material from the accident site all over themselves. It's not just radiation that's escaping, it's also actual physical radioactive material that can contaminate body and clothes. This what they mean by nuclear fallout. So it's not like a bullet-riddled body, but more like a gun-riddled body, and those guns still shoot occasionally. Second, one specific kind of radiation, neutron radiation, can actually make materials it hits radioactive. Neutron radiation is produced in nuclear reactors, and although it's hard to say whether it'd be still produced after the meltdown, it depends, it's possible that they were exposed to it. Then it'd be more like bullet fragments inside a body growing into loaded guns. Those analogies were unexpectedly gross.
How are planes able to fly vertically.
Most planes can't fly straight vertically for any length of time without stalling (losing their forward momentum and plummeting). The ones that can have *extremely* powerful engines relative to their size, like in fighter jets, which provide so much thrust on their own that they don't need the lift from their wings to maintain their upward momentum.
Why do you get startled/feel a rush of a adrenaline if you catch yourself falling asleep?
Are you talking about hypnic jerk (sometimes called hypnagogic jerk)? That feeling where you jerk suddenly back awake sometimes when you're falling asleep? The prevailing theory is this is an evolutionary holdover from our earlier primate days, and is a danger response so our ancestors didn't accidentally fall out of trees.
Why do delivery truck drivers wear high visibility jackets?
I would assume it has to do with Health & Safety regulations and legislation, I'm not sure about South Africa but in the UK, Health & Safety dictates that employees working in certain professions need to take certain precautions in their job, one of which could be the need for protective or high visibility clothing. I would imagine truck drivers wear high visibility jackets so that other drivers can see them clearly, being in truck yards and delivery depots, they walk around large vehicles with many blind spots, so to minimize the risk of getting run over they wear clothing that makes them as visible as possible :)
How can a sample of 2200 people represent the opinions of 315 million.
Imagine you have a massive jar of M & Ms filled with thousands of pieces. Now if I were to ask you what percentage of them were blue, yellow, brown, and red how do you do it most efficiently? You can dump all of it out and count them one by one but it would take forever. Or you can shake the jar until everything is randomly mixed up and dump out the first one hundred. There's a very good chance, if everything is randomly mixed up, that the percentage of M & Ms in the first hundred has the same distribution as the rest of the thousands of M & Ms. That's essentially how polls are done everywhere. The most difficult part of all this is making sure the sample size is completely random and accurately reflect the rest of the sample.
How does cutting tinfoil with scissors sharpen them?
This works by cutting several pieces of folded foil. As you cut the top layer of foil that layer is "pushed" sideways by the angle of the blade and rubs along the blade. As you cut more layers the combined pressure of the sheets means the blade is not able to "push" the next layer as sideways, so the next layer presses more firmly against the blade This means that each layer is a little closer to the blade, in a kind of V shape. All these edges scrape up the side of the scissors and scratch away a tiny layer of the metal right up to the edge of the blade. When we remove this tiny layer, we make the blade sharper, like in this diagram: _URL_0_
Is there a biological reason why men don't appear as frightened as woman during dangerous situations?
I don't think men appear less frightened. Have you ever seen pictures taken at haunted houses? The men react just as badly as the women in most cases. If they do react less strongly, it would be because they were socialized to believe that equates to strength and attractiveness. Nothing to do with evolution.
how does vaping vegtable glycerine, propylene glycol, and flavor concentrates (electronic cigarette juice) effect cilia trying to restore itself from cigarette smoke?
We don't know for sure yet because vaping is so new there aren't any long term studies. There have been studies about fog machines, however, which use similar glycol or glycerine based fluids. _URL_0_ It's a long section, but tl;dr exposure to glycol fog has been associated with negative respiratory effects by a number of studies.
How does Moore's law work.
They don't. It's not a law. He basically observed that: > the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. *([Source] (_URL_0_))* Not that it **has** to, but that it **seems** to do this when he made the statement, and is likely to continue to do so. He also said every 2 years, Intel revised this to 18 months. ***** Of course, there's the issue of beginning to reach the physical limits of our current methods, so we'll have to look into quantum computing but.. that's all the future, and not too relevant to the question. :)
why will the sun burn something through a magnifying glass but if the sun hits eye glasses it wont burn your eyes?
Because glasses don't so much magnify as distort the light going through them to focus it where the eye needs it. You can create a heat spot with some lenses but you have to aim them directly at the sun and angle them just right so generally it's not an issue.