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7arhpl | What is the meaning of Jean Paul's Quote? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A timid person worries before something bad actually happens. A coward is fearful of things when they are going on. A courageous person deals with the problem and doesnt think of \"how bad it was\" until it's over. Timid = \"No way I'm doing that!\" Coward = \"This sucks I have to bail\" Courageous = \"That sucked, thank goodness I handled it\""
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7arm7b | Why do prescription drugs have so many side effects? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Drugs don't just work on the one thing they are prescribed for but the main effect they have is helping with the issue you have. Antibiotics might kill the bacteria in the infection but they also damage bacteria in your digestive system which can make you feel worse and introduce symptoms like say diarrhea. I raised this with my doctor once and he likened it to a mild dose of poison that has a side effect that helps your symptoms. Take to much paracetamol (acetaminophen I think the in US), and it destroys your liver. A small amount just helps with a headache.",
"All drugs have side effects, even the over-the-counter ones. For example, Aspirin comes with the increased possibility of bleeding and upset stomach. You must be seeing a lot of those commercials for prescription medications where they’re required to list the side effects in the commercial. Stop watching those commercials.",
"They generally *don't*. A few do really have a huge list of side effects, but most of the drugs with a huge list of side effects don't actually cause all of those effects, and certainly not every time. 1) The nature of drug approvals requires that anything reported by a very small number of test patients get listed as a 'side effect'. So if 5 people randomly get hangovers and decide to report it 'hangover' will be listed as a side effect. It may have happened in 0.5% of the patients but they'll still report it. 2) Not all side effects occur to all patients. If you have panic attacks normally there's a lot of drugs that can make them worse, therefore side effect 'panic attacks'. But for most people it will not have that effect. There's a drug called lamotrigine that can cause potentially lethal skin rash in a random hundredth of a percent of patients - so 'lethal skin rash' is a side effect (and they very carefully dose you up on it). 3) CYA mode activated! Drug companies would rather list a million side effects the drug *might* cause rather than take a chance at not listing a side effect the drug *does* cause. I see advertisements every night from lawyers wanting clients who have suffered an unlisted side effect from drugs, including petty stuff like hair loss. It also helps that pretty much no one reads the package insert or researches the side effects of their drugs. So it's a big giant 200% comprehensive list of side effects the drug may or may not actually cause. If you want to know the real list of side effects look at the %'s and judge for yourself, as well as research the drug online."
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7arn0l | Why do people say that food preservation is bad for human health | I learnt in school that gamma rays are emited from cobalt are used in food preservation and they don't affect the human health, so why do people hate on companies like mcDonalds and such for food preservation? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You're conflating the very broad practice of food preservation with one narrow way of preserving food. The short version, though, is that people are generally scared of things they don't understand, especially when those scary things are in their food. Gamma rays emitted from cobalt are used to sterilize food without actually introducing any radioactive material to the food. Gamma rays are very high energy light. With some notable exceptions, bombarding something with radiation doesn't make that thing radioactive, in the same way that shining a light on something doesn't turn that thing into a lightbulb. The gamma radiation kills bacteria in the food, sterilizing it, but without any direct physical contact between the food and the cobalt, the food itself will not be radioactive. But people hear \"radioactive\" and \"in your food\" and get worried. So they fight it, believing erroneously that irradiating your food makes it radioactive. There are a number of ways to preserve food, and some of them involve introducing chemicals to the food that are harmful to bacteria. But those same chemicals may also be harmful to humans. Many people are worried that excessive use of those chemicals might end up causing significant harm to people who eat them. As a result, those people seek out foods that are considered free of preservatives, believing them to be safer than foods that do contain preservatives. As a final thought: if a food contains preservatives, that means it's designed to sit on a shelf for a longer period without being eaten. As a result, food with preservatives may not be considered \"fresh\". Some preservatives affect taste and texture as well. Between the lot, some people prefer fresh foods without preservatives because they are believed to taste better.",
"Because food preservation largely means adding salt, or pickling it (which is basically the same). This introduces huge amounts of sodium into their foods which is very unhealthy for you. The single method of food preservation you mentioned is pretty healthy, and people get angry about it cause they don't understand it. It is not, by a long shot, the most common method of food preservation."
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7as73h | How are racing games able to show the time with an accuracy of 1/1,000 of a second when they run at only 60 FPS? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"what's being displayed and what's being recorded are entirely separate. the game knows exactly when you crossed the line at 1/1000 second accuracy. but it only displays it at 1/60 accuracy. you'll never be able to tell the difference. it's like if you're recording something once every second, but you only give updates once a minute. that once a minute update is your fps.",
"It's true the game might calculate movement/physics more often than once per frame. But not all do, and it doesn't need to. Say you're moving fast enough to travel 20 feet before the next frame, and the finish line is 0.5 feet away. You'll cross it in 1/40 of a frame's time. The game doesn't need to calculate your position 40 times each frame to figure this out, it just needs to keep track of your position relative to the finish line, and do this math when you are about to cross it (or recently did cross it).",
"Well, I don't know how games actually do this, but I can tell you how to do this as simply as possible. First, games have two different rates you may be interested in. Tick rate, and frame rate. Frame rate tells how often you draw the current game state to be displayed. Tick rate tells you how often you update the game state. These don't necessarily have to have any connection between the two, but the simplest possible way to design a game would be to tie these together so each time you draw a frame, you first update the game state. Updating game state means things like, move car location based on its velocity. So lets assume game has this simple architecture where ticks and frames are tied so that you just update game state and then draw that game state, 60 times a second. Even then, you can have much higher precision for lap times! Simply, each tick, store the last position, or better, what distance away you are from the finish line. Then, each tick, check if car has passed finish line. Once it has, you know that actually the car probably passed it sometime between these ticks, and so, if you were 1m away from finish line earlier tick, and you're now 1cm away from finish line, you know you actually passed the finish line pretty darn close to this exact tick. However, if you were 1cm away from the finish line and now you're 1m away from finish line, having passed it, you know you would actually have reached the finish line almost exactly after the earlier tick. If before passing finish line you were 1m away and after passing you are 1m away, you would have passed the finish line halfway between these ticks. Game could also run at higher tick rate and only draw the game every once in a while."
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7asaix | Why does child trafficking happen? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Some people want to adopt children but can't because of legal reasons or don't want to go through the hurdles of legal adoption but have the money to pay someone to get a child for them. Some people want to have sex with children. Some people want children for their labor because they're cheaper in the long run than paying adults. And more pliable. Some people want to make money off the above. All objectives are easier to accomplish when the children are trafficked away from the protection of home and family, especially if they're taken out of the country to where where no one would look for them and where the child likely doesn't speak the language.",
"People do things to children because their desire is seen as more important to them than the child. Child traffickers exist because there is a market and they want money. So.. they don't care about the kids.. the kids are a commodity to them... they just care about money. If there were not people who wanted to pay money to have sex with kids.. or whatever.. there would be no child traffickers. So you have people who are more about money and people who care more about having sex with kids.. or abusing them in other ways I don't even want to think about. I knew a girl whose mom cared more about booze than about her, the mom would let people have sex with the daughter as long as they paid her with booze."
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7asg5q | in a single-engine propeller airplane - what counters the rotational force of the propeller? | As the single propeller spins to provide thrust, I would expect the body of the plane to spin (to some extent) as a reaction. What counters this? In a helicopter this is accomplished by the tail rotor. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Single engine planes do in fact have a tendency to try to turn in the opposite direction of the propeller. In most aircraft the the propeller turns clockwise from the pilot's perspective resulting in the plane trying to turn left. Here's a good article explaining the forces that constantly try to make a single engine plane turn left: URL_0 Pilots counteract this tendency by using the rudder. The rudder is attached to the vertical part of the tail and moves left and right like the rudder of a boat: URL_2 During takeoff and climb, when the speed of the aircraft is low and the propeller is producing full thrust, the left turning tendency is particularly pronounced. During this phase of flight, the pilot will maintain constant pressure on the right rudder pedal with their right foot to keep the nose pointed straight. (More powerful aircraft will have stronger left turning tendencies. I've read there was an aircraft in WWII whose pilots were identifiable by their large right calf.) Experienced pilots can feel when the rudder pressure is just right but newer pilots should be glancing at their \"inclinometer.\" The inclinometer is basically just like a level you would buy at home depot. It's a little tube filled with fluid and a rubber ball that slides back and forth. When the pilot applies the rudder just right, the ball will be in the middle. If they are not pushing the right rudder pedal enough, the ball will slide to the right. Flight instructors are constantly reminding their students to \"step on the ball\" during takeoff and climb. URL_1 Most planes are designed so that at typical cruise speeds and power settings, the turning tendency is \"trimmed out\" so you don't have to press the rudder pedals for the whole flight. This often results in a right turning tendency when the engine isn't turning very quickly, such as during descent. In most aircraft the pilot will need to apply pressure to the left rudder pedal during descent. Some aircraft are equipped with \"rudder trim.\" It's a little tab on the rudder that aerodynamically holds the rudder in a certain position so the pilot doesn't have to. It's usually adjusted by a knob in the cockpit. In every plane I've flown that has one, the rudder trim is very finnicky and sensitive. Ideally somebody manages to set it just right so you don't need rudder pedals during cruise and then it's never touched again. People don't like when you mess with the rudder trim because it's a PITA to get it set juuuuust right again. Many twin engine aircraft have counter rotating propellers, and therefore no turning tendencies. As a result, pilots upgrading to these aircraft often have to unlearn their habit of applying right rudder during takeoff and climb.",
"This is counteracted by aileron trim. The faster your engine is spinning the faster you go so the stronger force from the trim counteracts the stronger spin from higher engine speed. You can set this trim to be dynamic with a function so you have say 1% trim at 5% throttle and only 2% at 100%."
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7asmmm | When singing why do you sound perfectly in tune to yourself but not to others? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I guess it has to do with psychoacoustics: URL_0 While singing you \"hear\" the originial voice of the singer in your head. The virtual sound interferes with that of your voice which leads to an \"autotuning\" effect.",
"You hear yourself different than everyone else because of vibrations from your vocal chords going straight to your ears instead of hearing the ones from out if your mouth",
"When someone starts out learning to play an instrument that needs to be tuned regularly like guitar, they struggle to tune their guitar because they have a hard time differentiating between two pitches that are close to each other, it takes time to be able to learn the difference. If you hear yourself in tune but others can tell you're not, then that means, not that you can't hit a note properly, but that you are having trouble hearing the difference in pitch so that you can match it. The singer in question, just needs more practice being in tune."
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7asy72 | Why do some materials ‘feel’ wet when actually they are just cold. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> Why do some materials ‘feel’ wet when actually they are just cold. We don't have \"wetness sensors\" on our skin. We can detect pressure and changes in temperature. Typically speaking water is difficult to change in temperature and a good conductor of heat so it feels cold. But things like metal can also be good conductors of heat and without texture cues to determine the difference it can be confusing if something is wet or just cold.",
"Because water usually feels cold. Water is a good conductor of heat, and so will quickly take heat from your fingers, making it feel colder than other things (that are worse conductors) at the same temperature. The association between cold and wet leads to some understandable confusion when you touch something that's cold and *might* be wet."
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7at3xu | How come the electricity doesn't conduct through the person getting tased to the people supporting him during taster training? | For example, in this video, URL_0 | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Elektricity is lazy and always takes thé shortest route back. Meaning from pin 1 of the taser to pin 2 of the taser"
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7at4ch | Conditional probability (searched already. Other explanations posted are way too complex) | I was diagnosed with Dyscalculia in college, thanks to an awesome tutor that couldn't figure out why I sucked so bad at math haha. So please go easy on me. Can someone please explain conditional probability to me using VERY simple terminology and real world examples? Someone tried to explain it to me by talking about the amount of marbles in a cup, but I'm having trouble taking that knowledge and applying it to real world scenarios and facts. I'm guess I'm trying to find out if a conclusion like this, for example, would be flawed due to conditional probability: "If 19 of the 20 people I interviewed in NYC about peanut butter said they were allergic to it and wanted it forbidden from schools, it's safe to say that other people in cities all across the USA who are allergic to peanut butter would also want it removed from schools. Further, I interviewed people who live in a tiny town in Canada where peanut butter is no longer allowed in schools, and there are significantly less allergy attacks there than there currently are in NYC." Do my sample sizes being significantly different in size make that statement flawed? If so, is it due to conditional probability? If I shouldn't post here, I'm sorry, just direct me where to go and I'll be on my way. Here's an example of one of the posts about conditional probability that was made that was way too confusing for me: URL_0 Thank you! | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"What's the probability of flipping two coins and they both turn up heads? That's pretty easy to calculate, it's 25%. But what if you flipped one already, and it was heads? Now the probability of both being heads is 50%, it's just down to the second coin flip. That's the idea behind conditional probability, you have additional information that affects your guess of the likelihood of something happening. Your example doesn't really seem to be conditional probability related, but you need to be clear in what you're trying to calculate the probability of - is it the likelihood of someone with a peanut allergy saying they want peanut butter banned, or that banning peanut butter affects the probability of allergy attacks? If you're going with the second one, you could compare the probability of an allergy attack within a certain time frame conditional on peanut butter being banned or not (it seems to be lower if it is banned)."
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7at7xw | What is the reason the leaves fall off the trees in the fall. | I was raking leaves today and I thought to myself what is the biological advantage of having all of a trees leaves fall off. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"With the decrease in the availability of both water and sunlight in the winter, photosynthesis yield is pretty low. So during the winter, those big broad leaves are using up a lot of energy without really doing anything useful, so the tree basically cuts them off to conserve energy and then regrows them once spring comes again",
"In addition to not doing much useful during the winter, the leaves would be damaged by freezing temperatures and would be lost anyways. The tree actually breaks down a lot of the chemicals/cells in the leaf and withdraws those resources into the trunk to be stored. This is a big part of why they change color before falling, and it's why they're dropped in late fall rather than staying on and dying naturally when it gets too cold."
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7ats0z | Why do combustion engine cars have gears and electric cars do not? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"In a short, simple version: Electric engines can produce all of their power from a standstill, just put a charge to the motor and off it goes. Combustion engines have a 'sweet spot' where they produce the most power. An RPM range where they are most efficient. They have to work harder to put a vehicle in motion from a stop. Each 'gear' is a different ratio, at the low end you have minimal top speed, and maximum torque. The balance of top end / low end power gradually shifts with each gear ratio, again in order to maximize the 'sweet spot' and not completely stall the engine out. EDIT: also, a combustion engine is always in motion at idle. It's completing cycles, spinning all the time. There has to be a system of moving parts to engage / disengage the drivetrain after the engine in order to put it to use. An electric engine does not require this, because it can be at a stop when at rest, or 'idle'.",
"Another reason is that because electric motors can provide full torque from the standstill, the forces can simply break a conventional gearbox. The first Tesla Roadster was first designed to come with simple 2-gear box, but the torque of the motor kept mangling it. A strong enough gearbox would have been unacceptably big and heavy."
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7ats3z | Why is cereal so difficult to get off bowls when it dries to it? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Cereal usually has a high level of sugar content. Once the milk is gone or evaporates the sugar forms a strong bond to the Bowl"
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7att7m | Missile interception systems. How exactly can you stop a giant missile coming your way? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You blow it up. An atomic bomb is like a super intricate Swiss Watch. A million little pieces that have to work perfectly for it to detonate. Blow it up with another missile and you won’t have an atomic bomb. You’ll have a bunch of burned up scrap metal, and a lot of scattered uranium/plutonium. That sucks enough, but not as bad as a nuclear detonation.",
"Basically you shoot another, smaller missile at it, which is very hard. It's essentially like trying to shoot a bullet out of the air with another bullet. Sophisticated radar, satellite, and infrared tracking systems can detect a missile launch, and computers plots its trajectory. Then a missile is launched to intercept it before it reaches its target. Granted, this is all in theory. The best missile defense systems that exist now only kinda-sorta work.",
"Statistically, the only way to reliably shoot a threatening object out of the sky is to fire lots of objects at the incoming threat and hope they hit. A small percentage will get thru. It gets even more depressing when you think if lots of warheads are flying in your direction, say 60% of them get intercepted, you are still in for a bad day. The basic theory is a missile flies in a parabolic fashion, immediately gets picked up on radar by its profile and signature, and gets flagged. Because of the parabolic flight path, it can, therefore, have its flight path determined mathematically (very quickly) and fighters/missiles get scrambled in an effort to shoot it down. You want to toss as much as you can at an incoming threat to ensure it can be shot down, but this gets much more difficult the more objects you have to consider. A single ICBM from far away would have a very high chance of being destroyed from various assets along the flight path. However, a scenario of several hundred incoming missiles from nearby would have virtually no chance of being intercepted in any amount that would matter. TLDR missile interception is not easy, nor is it very accurate, missiles will get through. Any competent attack will fire several dozens (or hundreds) of projectiles (some could be decoys) in the hope to overwhelm a static defense. The best defense is to stop them from firing period with good policy and politics.",
"Option 1) Use a nuclear weapon to destroy the incoming ballistic missile. Generally frowned upon nowadays, as this could negatively impact satellites and earth-bound electronics through an electromagnetic pulse. But, you just have to get close... Option 2) Use an explosive warhead to destroy the incoming ballistic missile - You can use an explosive charge to drive fragmentation in a cloud ahead of your interceptor missile in the hopes that you will hit the incoming missile. Very fast missile moving in one direction hitting fragments moving very quickly in another direction = lots of energy to destroy things. Option 3) Use a kinetic kill vehicle to destroy the incoming ballistic missile. Basically, this is the really hard option. Think of it as hitting a bullet with a bullet. But, lots of energy hitting an incoming missile would, in theory, kill it. All three need the ability to detect an enemy launch in real time, start tracking the missile very close to launch, identify where you have assets that could intercept the incoming missile, and cue them to launch at the right time, then identify the missile warhead (because there may be decoys, too), track it and guide your interceptor to the target. It very hard to do. We've shot down a satellite before, which seems similar, but really isn't. In the case of the satellite, we knew the path, the track, and where it would be going for some time in advance. We could place a missile launch platform in the right place to intercept the satellite, and cue all the aiming, tracking systems to exactly where we knew it would be. Now, consider a missile. You don't know exactly where it's launching from, you have, at most, about 30 minutes to destroy the missile coming in before it's likely too late. And your assets are wherever they happen to be, not perfectly positioned for an optimum result."
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7au2qr | What is Bose-Einstein condensate? | My son just showed me that, in his science class, he learned that there are five states of matter. I knew of solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, but I had never heard of Bose-Einstein condensate, which is listed below a solid. What is it? How is it distinguished from the other states of matter? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This won't be at the level of a five year old I'm afraid, but we're dealing with quantum mechanics here and that just doesn't do well in an ELI5 setting. I hope you can follow along. There's four states of matter that we commonly observe in everyday life and that's the four ones you mentioned. Beside these 4 classical states there are [plenty of more exotic states of matter]( URL_1 ) out of which Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) is just one of many. The most commonly known state of matter outside of the 4 classical ones is probably supercoductivity though. Now to answer your question about BEC we first have to make a few things clear. Only some elements can become a BEC and those types of elements are known as bosons. All elements that aren't bosons are called fermions, but we don't care about those for now. Bosons are special in that they have integer quantum spins (as opposed to fermions who have half integer spins) and because of weird quantum laws bosons can therefore exist within the same energy state, something fermions can not. What is a quantum spin you might ask? Well, just think of it as some number that each particle in the universe has. Just like all particles have a charge and a mass they also have a quantum spin. Now a BEC occurs when a material is cooled to incredibly low temperatures, like a few millionths of a degree above the so called absolute zero, -273.15 degrees Celsius. When there is so little energy in the system quantum effects start to become very noticable. One quantum effect that is key when it comes to BEC is Heisenbergs uncertainty principle. What the uncertainty principle states is that you can never know a particles position and momentum at the same time. If you measure the speed of something, you can't be exactly sure of its position and if you measure the position of something, you can't be exactly sure how fast (or where) it's going. This again is something that you'll just have to accept for now. When the energy becomes so low in the material that each atom falls into its lowest energy state, their position will become very uncertain. This sounds weird, but that's quantum mechanics for you. It's not exactly possible to explain it a simple way so we just have to go with it. Anyways, the position of the atoms become so uncertain that the area, or volume rather, of possible positions becomes greater than the space between each atom, so the atoms literally begin to overlap eachother. Now when the atoms are all in their lowest state and their positions overlap the atoms become indistinguishable and impossible to tell apart from eachother. Each atom that is part of the BEC will be identical to any other atom that is also a part of the BEC, they're basically one giant atom for all we care. The atoms will become coherent, just like the photons in a laser. This results in some weird characteristics that are somewhat analogous to phenomena that occurs with lasers as well. One thing that happens is for example if you take two BECs and overlap them with eachother, instead of looking like a [Venn diagram]( URL_0 ) it will look like [two interacting waves]( URL_2 ). I really hope at least some of this makes sense. TL;DR - Basically atoms that behave like a laser.",
"Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Bose-Einstein condensation ]( URL_2 ) 1. [ELI5: What is Bose Einstein Condensate and how does it look like? ]( URL_3 ) 1. [ELI5: What is the Bose-Einstein Condensate? ]( URL_0 ) 1. [ELI5 Bose-Einstein Condensate ]( URL_4 ) 1. [ELI5: What is Bose Einstein Condensate ? ]( URL_1 ) 1. [ELI5: The fifth state of matter (Bose-Einstein Condensate) ]( URL_5 )"
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5c7wrk/eli5_what_is_bose_einstein_condensate/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f6rf6/eli5_boseeinstein_condensation/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nwm5q/eli5_what_is_bose_einstein_condensate_and_how/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5j0wi3/eli5_boseeinstein_condensate/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5kdwin/eli5_the_fifth_state_of_matter_boseeinstein/"
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7aug3c | How do programmers for large software or AAA video games manage to create one unified, compatible whole when each programmer may code with different logic and work on different parts? | I've done some programming, minor stuff, but it's always been on my own. I have sort of my own "personality" when I code, so I may think in a different way than someone else. After all, in coding, there are multiple ways to achieve the same end result. Whenever I've looked at someone else's code, it's always taken me quite a while to understand their logic, since my natural logic may differ. When I think of large games like Assassin's Creed, or any video game, it just baffles me how the programmers are able to work together on it all. I understand that they all sort of have their individual "parts" they make, and the tasks are divided among the programmers, but all those individual parts need to connect back together to create one whole. To me, this seems extremely difficult because it's not one giant brain programming the game, it's a team of probably 100 brains with millions of lines of code. How is this managed? It seems like an incredibly tough task. Person A may program one part, Person B programs another part, but when they try to bring those parts together their logic is incompatible. Can anyone provide me insight on how huge teams of programmers are able to work together on insanely massive projects? Thanks! | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"If there's 100 engineers on a project, it's going to be split into many modules, and each person (or a couple people) has responsibility for their own module. Of course, you can't program in a vacuum, you will interact with other people's sections. So like flyingjam says, you use a published API for your part, and that's how others call your code, and this needs to be well documented. Many companies also have coding standards, which describe how to name variables, how big a function can be, how complicated a single line of code can be, where to put the API description, etc. But yes, a bigger project can take longer to do than just simply multiplying the time it takes to do a small one by the difference in size with the bigger one. All that extra communication requires more testing and more meetings. And you occasionally still end up with something like that spacecraft that crashed into Mars because one group was using English units and another group was using metric.",
"Same away a hundred different factory workers can all wind up making the same car. You develop coding standards and create a lot of shared libraries that have a standardized interface. For example, most games rely a lot on random number generators. Instead of letting each problem reinvent it from scratch, and have some do a bad job, you would have one programmer create a random number generation library that everyone else uses. Since the interface to those libraries is standardized, the code can be changed without affect the people who use the library...you hope. Once you have these libraries built, programmers don't write code so much as they arrange calls to various libraries. > How is this managed? It seems like an incredibly tough task It is a tough task, perhaps the toughest in the coding process. That's why any large project is going to have a bunch of managers and architects dedicated organizing how this happens and make sure the coders adhere to their plans.",
"For one thing, you write in a way that easily composited and provide internal APIs. So programmer A is working on an internal clock for the game. He says that it will be a static class with the methods .deltaTime() (which returns the time between the last frame and the current in seconds in a 32 bit floating point) ...etc Programmer B doesn't need to know how the clock works, just that he can call .deltaTime() and get a 32 bit floating point value representing the difference in time. And remember that in multi-person projects (...and preferably in personal projects as well), people use proper version control (Git, mercurial, whatever). So, for example, in git, Programmer A would clone the master repository, create a branch to work on his clock, and when he finishes he can merge his changes into master.",
"To add to other answers, most AAA studios use their own proprietary engine which all staff are trained on, so they'll know what to call and where it'll be, as well as how to code their own sections so others can utilise their code. They also have constant meetings where they all discuss where they are, what needs doing and the best way to go about doing it. And don't forget, most programmers work in the same room, look at any decent programming studio and you'll notice it looks nothing like a typical \"cube farm\" and is quite open-plan, this is intentional to aid communication and freedom, so programmers can often talk to each other informally by simply popping their heads up, or taking 30 steps. (I did a uni placement at a game studio, won't go into detail for privacy reasons, it's a famous studio but not a Triple-A one)"
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7auhtv | the difference between murder and manslaughter | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"First degree murder is intentional and planned, like an assassination. Second degree murder is intentional, but not planned, think robbery gone bad. Voluntary manslaughter is a spur-of-the-moment killing, like a bar fight where somebody dies from a single punch. Involuntary manslaughter is a killing due to negligence, usually an accident, like a car crash caused by texting and driving.",
"Almost all degrees of homicide are distinguished by intent. (These vary by jurisdiction) **First degree murder**-premeditation and intent to kill **2nd degree murder**-heat of the moment and intent to kill **Voluntary Manslaughter**- willfull action that could likely cause death but no intent kill. **Involuntary manslaughter**- negligent action that causes another’s death."
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7aujyc | Why do so many electronics tell you to charge for X amount of time before the first use? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"For lithium ion cells, the first few full charges are important to developing the surface of the anode. It is called the solid electrolyte interphase. If it is not done, the cell's lifetime can be reduced. URL_0"
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7auosh | How small would we have to be for the edge of a piece of paper to seem like a blunt object? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well it depends on what you define as \"blunt\". If it's just by apparent size compared to ourselves I can use my ruler as an example. My ruler is probably about 1 mm thick while a piece of paper is around 0.1 mm thick. From this we can quickly and easily see that it's just a difference of a factor 10, so we should have to be 10 times smaller than we are now for a piece of paper to be as \"blunt\" as my ruler."
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7auqbr | Why do brands sell chips for 3 or 4 or 5 dollars in normal stores, but in dollar/value shops, they are sold for a dollar for the same brand and size bag? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It is not the brands that decide the price. It's the store owners. Supermarkets and value stores have different business strategies, and the margin they try to make on a product is different. First, what is margin. Margin is the amount of profit a retailer (like a supermarket) wants to make on a product. Retailers have contracts with suppliers to sell their items. They will buy the item at a certain price from the manufacturer, then sell it to customers at a higher price. The difference between the price they paid and the price you paid is the margin and that is where the retailers make their money. So basically what happens is Chips Manufacturer will sell their chips to both supermarkets and value stores at, say, 50 cents per bag. A value store that sells that bag of chips for one dollar makes 50 cents worth of profit on each bag; a supermarket that sells that bag of chips for two dollars makes 1.50 worth of profit on each bag. What sort of margin stores decide with often differs from product to product, but in general is determined by their business strategy. A dollar store basically makes their profit from selling large quantities. They go for a low margin on each product, and they only make a bit of profit, but they try and make up for that by selling a lot. They also try to keep their costs low by doing things like keeping their shop layout very simple, not having a lot of staff, not offering speciality items, offering a lot of no-brand items. Supermarkets often go with a different strategy. Compared to dollar stores, they aren't trying to be the cheapest, they are trying to offer a better overall shopping experience. This can be because of ease of shopping, helpful staff, the assortment they offer. But hey, all those things need to be paid for as well. So they charge a higher margin on products.",
"Discount stores buy surplus supplies but also supplies that are about to spoil. If you check out their chips, a lot of the bags best by date is within a few weeks, not months. Supermarkets typically have a clearance section for the same reasons. Now is the best time to buy Halloween candy and decor.",
"I always figured that dollar store items that were brand name weren’t 100% up to quality specifications but not messed up enough to scrap."
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7auqt4 | how diplomatic immunity works? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's usually just misdemeanors, though special accommodations may be extended to particularly important people for felonies. Yes, a diplomat in NYC is immune to parking tickets - they simply claim diplomatic immunity in court and the cases are dismissed. There was a giant hullabloo a few years ago when NYC threatened to enforce parking tickets on UN diplomats, which eventually forced NYC to back down. Typically if a diplomat does something that's covered under misdemeanors but that's still considered unacceptable (like spanking their children) they'll be asked to leave - or they'll be accosted by a group of CIA agents and escorted out of the country post-haste, literally before the law can catch up with them. As happened to a Saudi princess who spanked her children in a hotel room, not knowing it was still considered American territory. If it's something really serious they'll be arrested under felony laws, but may be later released if the country presses the issue. As happened to that Indian diplomat who hired a 'slave laborer' and switched her for failure - she was anally penetrated by the cops to book her into jail and this caused a huge hullabloo with India which resulted in her release to their custody. Or when the finance minster from France was accused of rape by a Russian agent and was penetrated and booked and had to prove himself innocent (it still ruined his French political career)."
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7av107 | How does a road work when it crosses the border of a country where cars drive on the right and a country where cars drive on the left? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"They split the lanes. At some point one goes over another and then they recombine in the new configuration. This complex maneuver can be achieved by a technology called a \"bridge\"."
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7av3e2 | How (if at all) does the external environment affect what "baby sounds" a child will make before their first words? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Babies come out able to make any sounds, of course, but they start to figure out which sounds are important for the speech of their particular language pretty quickly. They start to respond to the sounds of language differently within a few weeks. When they start to babble they makes all kinds of sounds. When they make speech sounds, the parent responds differently than they do to random non-speech sounds. These mechanisms reinforce specific sounds as bring important, and as the infant develops, their knowledge of sounds and communicating becomes their phonology. Phonology is the rules of a language for how sounds are used in spoken language. That's also where accents comes from."
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7av7mm | If fewer and fewer people can afford new houses/apartments etc. why do prices keep getting higher? (In USA at least) | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Think of it the other way around... Fewer and fewer people can afford new houses/apartments *because* prices keep getting higher",
"As long as there still is a group of people that can afford houses (either due to higher and higher mortgages or because they are (foreign) investors trying to invest their money into a safe, stable investment) prizes will continue to rise."
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7avb5h | How (or why) is the US Federal Reserve not an actual part of the government? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"The Federal Reserve is essentially a government agency that is operated privately. It was created by the government, it's leaders are appointed by the government, but it is independent. This is often referred to as being \"independent within the government.\" By making it independent and quasi-private, the Federal Reserve can run monetary policy more efficiently, without every single thing being politicized and subject to constant interference and squabbling from politicians. This isn't to say that there's no oversight, just that it's less silly."
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7avs8g | Would shooting a missile at an incoming nuke still cause the explosion? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"No, nukes are incredibly complicated and require a bunch of very intricate explosions to occur with very specific timings. Blowing it up would just result in a ton of radioactive debris, but no where near as bad if it actually detonated.",
"No. Nuclear weapons are delicately balanced devices. If you smash one you don't get a nuclear explosion, just a lot of pieces (including some radioactive ones).",
"Almost certainly the nuclear warhead would not detonate. However, there are explosives and radioactive material would disperse, but nowhere near the impact of an actual nuclear detonation."
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7avzt0 | Why does lacing our fingers the other way feel weird? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"These are probably things that have no definitive answer yet. I would imagine it is almost entirely psychological. Our mind tends to try to do things the most efficient way possible, and an action that requires minimal cerebral processing would be preferred, using muscle memory. So doing something the requires thinking, that otherwise would be almost instinctive, would feel a bit odd. Another reason could be based on the fact that touch receptors (also psychological) have become accustomed to \"feel\" a certain way when an action occurs. Like if you have ever cut your long hair and felt differently when you did an action like rub your head. So crossing your fingers differently has altered the otherwise predictable sensation.",
"Sadly, I don't know. But I do know, everyone who read this put down their phones and tried it.",
"So what you're talking about here is your \"dominant\" limbs. Although genetics play a role in determining your dominant limb, the environment has a much larger impact on it. For instance, if you live in a third-world country and have to do physical labor for work at a young age, limitations of the workspace that for an individual to use a certain limb will become the \"norm\" for that person and will most likely have those used limbs become dominant. Now why using your non-dominant limbs feels weird. A good analogy is to think of solving a rubix cube. If you learn how to do it quiet fast with one algorithm, you get the hang of it and it becomes easy for you. Whenever you pick up that rubric cube, your brain shifts gears and starts getting that algorithm into work. If you were forced to use a different algorithm though, which in this analogy would be the same as using the non-dominant limb, it becomes difficult for you. Although you are still solving the same cube; you can still learn the new algorithm; you can still use techniques in handling the cube; your brain still really wants to use that first algorithm that you know so well and can finish the cube easily with. That learning process in the cube is the part where you feel weird doing something differently from what you usually do. **TL;DR:** Your brain wants to use the dominant limbs because it knows how to use them well, and using non-dominant limbs creates a learning curve that feels \"weird\" to be on.",
"I have yet to meet one who writes with their right hand and crosses their hands with the right thumb on top of the left. I don't believe it's 50/50 as I have met most people who are right-handers. \"Does it depend on the way we happened to do it first?\" Unlikely. Maybe when you start writing and crossing your hands does dominance come into play."
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7aw2yt | In movies/TV where people are shooting guns, how do they make them look real? | Like, what's fake about it? Are they real guns with fake bullets? Is the actor pretending there's kickback with a prop gun that doesn't do anything and then effects are added later? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Some are real guns firing blanks, some are blank-firing prop guns, some are props that use a flammable gas to produce a flash and recoil, some are inert props and they just fake the recoil and add effects later."
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7awh13 | Why don't animals react the same way to bad smells like humans do? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Dogs are particularly attracted to very strong smells because they can use it to hide their own smell. It's a form of camouflage: remember that dogs are predators, and anything that makes it harder for their prey to detect them is an advantage. Humans are repelled by the smell of things like faeces and rotting flesh because those things tend to carry germs or parasites that can damage our health. They could potentially make dogs ill as well, but for dogs the advantage of not being detected outweighs the disadvantage of the risk of disease. Cats also don't like the smell of rotting flesh. You've probably noticed that your cat will carefully smell food before eating it, just to check it's fresh. Instead of trying to disguise their smell by masking it with a stronger smell, cats will spend a lot of time cleaning themselves. The smell of urine is interesting to a cat, because it gives the cat useful information about what animals and other cats are in the area."
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7awhq7 | Why is our mood so heavily influenced by music? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Our mood is influenced by pretty much any factor which interacts with our 5 senses. As for music specifically, where did you find that music has a bigger influence over other stimuli? I personally aren't influenced by music anywhere near as much as a movie/video games because those things involve more than just your hearing sense. The more parts of the human brain a stimuli activates/reacts with, the bigger influence it would have over your mood. Though some people tie certain songs to very emotional times in their life so when they rehear a song that was playing during that moment, they can 'relive' the moment in a way. So the person has an emotional connection with that specific song itself.",
"I think it is because it helps us recall memories of similar moods and circumstances which act as a feedback loop."
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7ax43o | Why do people faint when they get scared | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Fainting is caused by a lack of blood to the brain. One medical term is *vasovagal syncope*. Basically, when we get scared, the brain sends signals to the heart to speed up, the stomach to shut down, and the lungs to take in more air. Sometimes that happens really fast, and there's not enough blood left for the brain, so the person in question passes out."
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7ax4ed | Why do you wake up early and energized on days you don't have to get up to work, as opposed to normal workdays that you can't get out of bed? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Days you don't work you likely don't have an alarm so you wake up at the correct time in your sleep (when you are ready to get up during your sleep pattern). If your alarm goes off during deep sleep, you will probably feel groggy",
"You don’t have the mental stress of having to get up for work, that you probably don’t want to go to.",
"If you really like your job you probably are energized. I have yet to find that job though. I guess that's why they call it work. Ttyl. I got a meeting with the Bobs",
"You don't like your job. Congratulations on liking your weekends though. A lot of people don't wake up early and energized on weekends. That's the healthy part of your week. Go find a job you like.",
"We sleep in cycles. There's deep sleep and light sleep. If you're waking up to the sound of your alarm, there's no real way to predict whether the alarm sounds while you're in deep sleep or not. If you were in deep sleep at the time, trying to wake up is going to suck. If you wake up accidentally, it'll be because you were in light sleep. That's because you're not going to wake up out of deep sleep on accident. Waking up from light sleep is much more pleasant.",
"Good call. Why did i wake up at 4:00 in the morning today, you ask? Because its Sunday and daylight savings, of course. . .",
"You do? Personally, I've been waking up tired no matter what day it is for like a year straight, perhaps more.",
"The weight of existential dread and depression crashing down upon you sapping your energy and will to live, while making you contemplate what is the worth of your existence as a meaningless face among millions of other lifeless drones as you get ready for work. Or it’s just that you can sleep till noon on Sunday. Edit:I’m not depressed, I was joking.",
"Bad sleep pattern I assume If on your 'energised' days you wake up at like 10am But your work days you wake up at 6am Even if you go to bed 4 hours earlier, your sleep schedule is still off by 4 hours. Your body needs a good sleep schedule as much as it needs a long sleep.",
"You wake up energized? I thought that was a lie made up by ad companies. That has literally never happened to me. Waking up is the worst part of my day everyday. If you figure it, out let me know.",
"ELI5: why do I never wake up energized?"
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7ax6me | How exactly does a nail keep two wooden planks together? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Friction. The nail breaks the wood fivers apart causing mini sized splintery pieces around the nail that when they try to return to their original position, grip onto the nail tightly.",
"Many nails are driven in to block sideways motion of the boards. While a nail can be trusted to stay in its hole even if upside down, the real strength of the nail bonding is that it resists sidewards movement. Once in its hole it will not move sideways through the wood. A header board above wall studs has nails driven through it to keep the studs in place. They will not move from their attachment site. Walls will be built with header and footer boards. Most often they are built while the studs are laying on the floor. The header and footer are nailed into the studs between them. Then the wall can be raised and carried to its final position. The nails will not pull out during this. But the strength of the wall is that the nails will not move sideways. To really keep a fastener from pulling out screws are used. Ceiling sheet rock is put up with screws for this reason."
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7axa8x | Why does intermittent fasting lead to "longer living" and healthier aging? | In particular I am interested in this article and the first comment which was confusing to me regarding mitochondria. Thank you! URL_0 | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It is my understanding that it causes the body to go into more of a survival mode, rid itself of dead cells that were kind of hanging around not doing any good, and jump start creation of new stem cells. But the mechanism of action for this is still being studied and is not fully understood at this time.",
"They are not sure it does. Fasting triggers changing in your body. They are currently researching what those changes mean. As of now some studies show some things. And some people interpret those as positive Fasting can help you lose weight like anything else - reduced caloric intake."
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7axahq | How is a new country's currency introduced to the world? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"As economists keep saying, the value of something is what someone is willing to pay for it. When a country's national bank issues a new currency, it can estimate an exchange rate, but the foreign exchange market traders will make offers based on demand and their own estimates of where the currency is going."
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7axkse | How does speaker phone calls avoid feedback? | Whether it's on our cell phones or at work - speaker phones, how do the calls work so well without feedback? I realize that the quality is lower when using the hands-free or speaker phone but I still don't understand how it works at all. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Don't know about cell phones, but they probably do the same thing as a speaker phone. At least, one of them. Speaker phones are generally designed to try to physically isolate the speaker from the microphone. This minimizes how much the output is coupled back to the input through vibrations in the speakerphone itself. (This is obviously harder to do in a cell phone.) But that doesn't stop coupling through the air. The other thing a speaker phone does is to check for correlation between the speaker output and the microphone input. If it finds correlation, it subtracts the speaker output signal from the microphone input. Older/crappier speakerphones simply run in half-duplex mode...they don't allow output and input at the same time. That's not too common these days.",
"When the phone plays loud audio from the other side, it lowers microphone sensitivity in order to prevent it from being picked back up again. Sometimes it isn't enough and the other end still hears an echo of themselves."
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7axljt | if the Earth can pull in things like the moon how can something like a helium balloon get away? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"A helium balloon wouldn't get away. It is still caught by gravity. It's just that the helium balloon is lighter than the air around you. So it will float up higher until it reaches a point where the \"weight\" of the balloon is equal to the volume that it occupies in the atmosphere. At this point, the Helium balloon will just float around the earth in that higher part of the atmosphere (i'm sure someone else can do the math on that one). Main point is, gravity is always acting on the helium balloon. The helium is just so light that it makes the balloon go up higher in the sky. The balloon itself is so heavy that it will prevent the helium from escaping the atmosphere. But if the balloon pops, the helium could escape the atmosphere, because it is so light, gravity barely affects it (compared to heavier matter).",
"Heavier things are pulled down harder by gravity then lighter things. This causes the heavier objects to push the lighter ones up. Air (mostly Oxygen and Nitrogen) is heavier than helium, thus the air pushes the balloon up. This is the same mechanism that allows boats to float on water. The earths gravitational pull is stronger on heavier objects. The moon is in space, a near vacuum. It is in stable orbit around the Earth. Stable orbit is where the gravitational pull is cancelled out by rotational momentum. EDIT: Some people have very incorrect misconceptions about gravity or what I was saying. I think in my attempt to ELI5 I was too vague, so let me clarify some things: Gravitational force(AKA weight) is proportional to mass. Gravitational acceleration (AKA falling rate) is equal on all objects in a vacuum (this was the feather and bowling ball experiment). 9.81 m/s^2 or 36 ft/s^2. Displacement and buoyancy are caused by differences of gravitational force on objects based on mass. Displacement in zero gravity would be driven on surface tension and gas diffusion."
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7axsfw | My ISP claims to provide 16mbps internet, then why does a 16mb file actually take 6-7 seconds to download rather than one second? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dpdlji2"
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"text": [
"MB and Mb are off by a factor of 8 Capitalization is important here. Your ISP is proving 16 Mega*bit* per second internet, the file is 16 Mega*Bytes*. A byte is 8 bits so your actual downspeed is 2 MBps so the file should take 8 seconds"
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7axzhb | Why are the coaches of National Teams not required to be of that country? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpdnjm6",
"dpdnoov"
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"text": [
"I've always wondered the same thing. Like when Sven Sven Sven goren erikson was manager for England. He's a very nice man but don't forget he's from Sweden",
"The job of a coach and manager is hard to regulate. It is easy for players because they have to physically go on the field and play the game. For coaches, however, they can still do their job without direct participation. Let's pretend FIFA creates a no foreign coach policy. The team would hire a local coach and he is the one that will be on the sideline and attending press conferences. However, what would happen he if got on the phone with another manager, a foreign manager, and asked for advice? Instead of a few pointers, what if he asked the foreigner exactly who he should put on the field and what tactics to use? It would be pretty hard for FIFA to enforce a no contact rule between managers and anybody from a foreign nation. Since FIFA can't prevent foreigners from indirectly coaching the team, there is no point to ban foreigners from directly coaching the team. Also, would this ban extend to the entire staff? If a player gets injured, would he only be permitted to be treated by a local doctor? Is the team not allowed to use stats gathered by a foreign agency?"
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7ayc0v | What exactly is happening when an LCD TV breaks and those black lines appear? | My kids are 6 and 3. 3 chucked the remote at the TV yesterday and while it's still alive, it's got fat black lines running vertically from the point of impact. Note that the black area goes forms a vertical line going up from the spot, but the pixels below the spot still work. The lines going horizontally are thin and faint - the pixels seem to have shifted their color, but are still functional. 6 asked why that happens, and I realized I didn't have a good answer. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpdro4v"
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"text": [
"An LCD works because of a few layers. There are more than I will mention and multiple types but I'll keep it basic to explain what is happening to your screen. Light shines from the back and goes through a polarizing filter. Then through a liquid crystal layer. Which lets the light pass or doesn't (it works along with the polarizing filters. That's a bit complex for here) If your screen is color it next goes through a color filter that is red green or blue based on what color that sub pixel is (each pixel has a red green and blue sub pixel that is turned on and off to make that pixel color). The light then goes through another polarizing filter and comes out as a picture on the screen. The pixels are addressed in a grid like battleship, so the physical damage can take out columns or rows leaving the streaks you see. Depending on the type of screen and exactly how it is damaged it can permanently turn on a whole row of red pixels or any color making a colored streak."
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7aydev | Latin declinations | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"< dictation of my mom's explanation > You look at the ending it has in the nominative singular. They're all different except the second and fourth declensions are the same, so you should probably memorize the ones that are the 4th declension. < /dictation of mom's explanation > **Edit:** second and fourth, not first and fifth",
"In the first place, the word you want is *declension*, not *declination. Declination* is a measurement in astronomy and navigation. When you first encounter a Latin noun, it's usually presented in two parts, the nom (s) and gen (s). So when you learn the word for *king*, you'll see *rex, regis.* This clues you in to which of the five declensions it belongs to, and, for third-declension nouns (which are the tricky ones), it shows you the stem you'll use for the inflected forms.",
"You got good answers but a few more bits in case it's helpful: A \"declension\" is just the name for a pattern of case endings. So all of the ones that use \"-a, -ae, am, -ae, a\" in the singular are called first declension words. You can tell because the nominative ends in \"a,\" and the genitive in \"ae.\" Like regina, reginae, or nauta, nautae. And then as soon as you know the nominative and genitive, you'll automatically know what all the rest of the case endings are. If I gave you a fake world glauba, glaubae, you would know that it would be glaubam in the accusative and glauba (with a long a) in the ablative. Same with all the other cases: in the third declension, the genitive always ends in -is. So if you know a noun is \"auctor\" in the nominative and \"auctoris\" in the genitive, you know the rest of its forms will be auctori, auctorem, auctore, auctores, auctorum, auctoribus, auctores, auctutibus\" instead of \"aucturae, auctoram.\" TL;DR: knowing what declension a word is tells you which pattern of endings to use, and you can tell what declension it is by looking at the genitive singular."
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7ayxuh | What are the white moons on your finger nails? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe219v",
"dpeels5",
"dpefsmo"
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"text": [
"They’re called lunula. Basically they’re where your nail begins to grow distally(meaning away from the lunula). It’s practically your nail plate (part of your nail that is visible) except it’s white because it’s much thicker than the rest of your nail plate. This thickness hides all the blood vessels that are underneath it making it appear white.",
"Others mentioned what it is, Ill answer the “what can it indicate.” The moons can be used to indicate capillary refill rate. If you press your fingernail into the nail bed, it squeezes all the blood out of your finger and turns it white. This is called “blanching”. When you let go, the blood will rush back into the capillaries (tiny blood vessels) and return it to normal color. Medical professionals can count the amount of time it takes for the color to return to normal, to help monitor your hydration and efficiency of circulation. “Capillary refill rate” refers to the amount of time it takes for the blood to return and bring the normal color back.",
"What does it mean if you don’t have those?"
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7az1nu | how these clouds have lines in them | URL_0 | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe10d8"
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"text": [
"You know how water sometimes gets waves? Or how sand will occasionally look wavy? Its basically the same thing - air patterns forcing the water (clouds) into separate lines of waves - in the sky. Cool pic. Btw."
],
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14
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7az3u5 | How can deodorizer products that absorb scents also be scented? Shouldn't they counteract themselves? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe4itc"
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"text": [
"Scents are gaseous substances that enter your nose and produce response in your brain. Deodorizing agents may act by trapping those scented substances through some chemical or physical reaction and keeping them from reaching your nose. Scented substances (as well as deodorizers) have various chemical formulae and can or cannot be trapped in a specific kind of deodorizer, which can be designer to release an odor unaffected by itself. Some scented deodorizers act more like a mask, producing a more noticeable smell and keeping you from perceiving others. The mechanisms of deodorizing are various and many aren't really \"odor removal\" like the word implies."
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13
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7azcye | Paradise Papers | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpeal4o"
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"text": [
"Documents were received and analyzed by journalists, from secretive law firm which advises Russian oligarchs and multinational corporations on tax avoidance based in Bermuda which is a tax haven. The files indicate co-mingling of private and foreign government funds in lucrative ventures including Commerce Secretary Ross' investment vehicle and particularly its role in restructuring transoceanic shipping firm Navigator, which Ross personally maintains a sizable and profitable stake. Navigator is an example of Ross' pursuance of energy contracts as a means of reforming stressed assets. Here, Navigator contracted with Russian firm Siber, one of Russia's largest energy companies. Siber's leadership consists of characters hand-selected by Russian President Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev, including Putin's son-in-law, former KGB officer from Putin's Dresden station. Although not directly sanctioned by the US government, officials who were under potential sanction attempted to hide ownership by transferring assets through shell corporations. VEB, a Russian investment bank noted for geopolitically strategic investments that align with national intelligence goals important to Russian leadership and that is under sanction, also partnered in similar ventures. This particular venture was and is very profitable for all involved although hidden from tax and transparency authorities. As another example, PM Medvedev's friend from Uzbekistan is a major investor in Facebook and Twitter since 2011, and his ties to the Russian state were noted by US and private sector investigators. His explanation of where his mass fortune and investment strategy comes from is murky at best, and Medvedev and Putin have decided to strategically invest in foreign tech firms. As part of the attempted thaw in US-RU relations, Medvedev visited Facebook headquarters for example. When the public thaw froze over, the investments and access to these tech firms (and possibly internal affairs) was not halted but obscured further through shell corporations. These VC investments increased since 2014. Ross was not directly asked about Navigator by the Senate during confirmation although he was asked about similar investments. He self-reported that he relinquished strategic control of the venture, but the manner he did so, by becoming a general partner, is more profitable than his previous role. Ross is known as a oracle of turning around bankrupt assets, including the Trump brand when most US allies found the name to be costly to their ventures. His Commerce chief of staff was previously a leader in Navigator. Ross has a history of working with Russian business leaders, of which all successful business magnates in that country are part of or were part of the Putin administration, former employment, or family, while those out of favor have their assets or freedom seized by Russian authorities. Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law, had his and his brother's real estate firm financially boosted by one of these oligarchs through a similar shell arrangement. Kushner did not initially or fully disclose this arrangement and any security concerns. Ross' involvement and lack of transparency in his Russian energy venture is concerning from tax and counterintelligence stances. The Commerce Secretary is part of the national industrial and technical security establishment, and this lack of clarity presents blackmail opportunities for foreign actors similar to other administration actors who hid disclosures from investigators and the public (see Lt Gen Flynn lying to the Vice President and the public). Ross' spokesman claims the Commerce Secretary has now recused himself from all transoceanic shipping matters, despite Ross' continued investment in Navigator."
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7azkwl | How did doctors determine what decisions teens could and could not make at their alleged stage of brain development? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe11z8"
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"text": [
"If you’re talking about drinking and voting ages and the like that has nothing to do with neurological development and is squarely in the realm of culture and politics."
],
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3
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7azlh2 | Why are some websites so difficult to click back out of? | For instance I'll do a Google search and then click on a link, then if I click back it just reloads the current screen, so then I'll have to do two simultaneous clicks to be able to get out. Then there's [This]( URL_0 ) website that I can't even click out of. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe0l8c",
"dpe0oir",
"dpe4pmi",
"dpe0voj"
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"text": [
"Some sites redirect you: you land on one page, it redirects you to another. You go back one step and you land on the redirect page, which then redirects you again ...",
"You probably got redirected to that page via a chain of other pages. So when you click back, you just go back to the previous link in the chain, which then instantly redirects you back to the page you are trying to go back from.",
"It’s kinda like stepping into quicksand. The more you try to get back out the more you sink in. When I find myself in this situation, I click and hold the back button then a string of previous pages pops up. I carefully look and select one of the page I was on before the quicksand to back myself out into safety.",
"The web wasn't really designed for highly interactive applications. It was built with static pages in mind: a URL would correspond to a single page, and you navigate from one page to another. Modern apps need to jump through a lot of hoops to attain app-like functionality within a platform not designed for it. So one of the weirdnesses you encounter is pages using different URLs to point to different \"states\" on the same page. At this point, the \"back\"/\"forward\" model breaks down, and your browser no longer behaves like you'd expect."
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7azpms | What excludes us from perceiving the 4th dimension? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe1m5w",
"dpe1rao"
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"text": [
"There is as of yet no evidence that a fourth spatial dimension exists. We cannot perceive that which doesn't exist.",
"The 4th dimension is time. You can't travel anywhere in the three physical dimensions, whether it be an inch or a light-year without traveling through the forth dimension of time."
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7azyua | How exactly do solar panels create energy? | How is the energy made usable by the sun? What are the processes that go into making usable power? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe3z3a"
],
"text": [
"Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Solar panels. How do they work? ]( URL_3 ) 1. [ELI5: How do solar panels work]( URL_4 ) 1. [ELI5: How do solar panels work? ]( URL_7 ) 1. [ELI5: How do solar panels work? ]( URL_2 ) 1. [ELI5 how do solar panels work? ]( URL_1 ) 1. [ELI5: how_do_solar_panels_generate_electricity]( URL_6 ) 1. [ELI5: How do solar panels generate and store electricity? ]( URL_5 ) 1. [Eli5: how does solar power work? ]( URL_0 )"
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2julyl/eli5_how_does_solar_power_work/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/60aqg9/eli5_how_do_solar_panels_work/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6aaar7/eli5_how_do_solar_panels_work/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5oah3o/eli5_solar_panels_how_do_they_work/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1obefa/eli5_how_do_solar_panels_work/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vf80o/eli5_how_do_solar_panels_generate_and_store/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70xo6k/eli5_how_do_solar_panels_generate_electricity/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37e7xv/eli5_how_do_solar_panels_work/"
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7b07qc | Why does The Simpsons, a show FOX, have a ride at Universal Studios, which is the parent company of NBC? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpe65x0"
],
"text": [
"The 'Universal Studios Florida' is a theme park. In this case, the theme is 'movies and television'. As part of this, they are known to license properties they don't currently own. Simpsons is owned by 20th Century Fox. Star Trek, CBS. And so forth. Basically, even though they (Universal) don't own the IP (Simpsons), the owning company (Fox) and Universal Studios work out a price and such to say \"Okay, pay us (Fox) $X million, and we will allow this ride/attraction to appear at Universal Studios.' **EDIT:** changed the price to read \"$X Million\" instead of \"$XXXX\" to prevent any confusion or weirdness."
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7b0vj3 | Why do the entertainment systems on airplanes have those annoying double 3.5mm headphone outputs. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpec8bd"
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"text": [
"> What was the point of having double outputs? Back when people didn't regularly carry around headphones the airlines would hand them out for free to use on the flight. By using an irregular plug it reduced the motivation to walk off with them. Also it provided redundancy so if one jack had trouble they could put off maintenance on the seat until they both broke."
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7b12l6 | How do individuals and companies void taxation by putting their money in the Cayman Islands? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpeg7pn"
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"text": [
"In part by breaking the law. The Cayman Islands have pretty strict finance privacy laws, so it is difficult for law enforcement to trace money once it makes it to a Cayman bank. Let's say I want to buy a house from you. I could pay from my US bank from your US, but that money would be completely traceable and you would have to be honest when you reported that income as a capital gain. But if we both use Cayman banks, you can pretty much tell the IRS whatever you want, even that you took a loss on the house and deserve a deduction. It is illegal, but there is little to be done to prevent it. The only downside is that your money is kind of stuck in a Cayman bank, and it can be hard to get it back into the US. But if you do business with a lot of people who also have Cayman banks, it is less of a big deal."
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7b15f8 | Why are plastic and aluminum often collected together for recycling but paper has to be separated? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpeg69o"
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"text": [
"Every recycling plant is going to have their own policies based on what separating machines they have available. Aluminium and plastic is easy to separate. The ELI5 version, is, aluminum is magnetic, so magnets can separate. To be a bit more precise, you would use eddy currents to separate aluminium from plastic. Your local recycling plant probably doesn't have a great way to separate plastic and paper, so they make you do it."
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7b1ldj | where do the bubbles at the bottom of your soda come from? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Soda's are carbonated, which is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide (a gas) in the solution. The soda's are kept in pressurized containers (which is why you hear gas escape as a hiss when you open them). That pressure keeps the gas in solution (literally squeezes the gas into the liquid layer) when the vessel is pressurized, but when the vessel is opened, the gas slowly escapes the liquid layer as a series of bubbles."
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7b1wag | How are tree representations used as a data structure? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpeoetm"
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"text": [
"Tree structures are all over the dang place. You're looking at one right now! The elements on any web page are stored in your browser's memory in a tree structure called the Document Object Model (DOM). The filesystem on your disk has one obvious tree structure (the directory tree) and usually a few internal ones that keep track of which blocks of data on disk belong to which files. Trees are useful any time you want to represent ideas like \"containment\" or \"hierarchy\"."
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7b204f | Why do Kenyans win long distance running competitions more so than others? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Long distance running in a sub-tropical climate just like Kenya is like the super-power humans evolved, the one thing physically we do better than any other animal. Our ancestors used it to just jog other animals till they died of the heat. Genetically, the country is full of people who never left that environment; which may give them some natural advantages over people who migrated out. Culturally, running is very popular there. They train hard to develop their natural talents. A confluence of the proper biology, culture positive to a sport, and the willingness to train hard can bring notable success in mosts sports.",
"In Kenya, they run very long distances everyday to get what they need and to go places. Many are poor and don't have cars. They start running at a young age. Also living in Africa for many millennia, they have developed excellent stamina that was needed to track, chase down food, as well as escape the deadly animals that live there."
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7b224m | What is Blackbody Radiation? And how do we know it's real? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It's the thermal radiation emitted by any object due to its temperature. If you want to experience it in action, just hold your hands close to a really hot object or fire: You'll feel the heat, even though there is no hot air. It's called that way because a hot, black object is used to measure it.",
"/u/Fauler_Lentz answered this correctly, but I am going to try to expand a bit. Every object emits thermal radiation. Every object. The qualities of this radiation change with the temperature of the object; for example, look at a piece of metal heat up as it goes from red, to orange, to white. The color of the radiation being emitted--that is, the wavelength of that light--is changing as the temperature heats up. \"Blackbody\" radiation is sort of an idealized form of this. A lot of science assumes a perfect object and then generalizes from there to describe any object. In this case, a blackbody is a perfectly black object--one that absorbs all radiation that touches it, but does not reflect any. Blackbody radiation is the radiation (as a function of temperature) from this idealized object. From there, we can figure out other equations that model non-perfect objects. We know it's real because we can measure it experimentally. You can, too--stick your hand a foot or so away from a hot electric stove. The heat you feel is thermal radiation from the heating element."
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7b22x1 | Why are Fish and Aquatic Mammal Tails different? | So as far as I've researched and can find, most Aquatic Mammals have tails that move vertically and are oriented horizontally (Dolphins and Whales,) while most fish have tails that move horizontally and are oriented vertically (Sharks.) Is there a reason for this? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"If I remember my biology classes from a few years ago, it is because while fishes have stayed in the water, aquatic mammals have moved and evolved on land for a while before returning into the oceans. Scientists have deducted that because of a few anatomical differences between fishes and the mammals : lungs, which were much easier to use on land, a different position of the organs as gravity has a bigger act outside of water and the composition of their Limbs. When looking at their tails, it looks like the whales and dolphins have hands and feet inside, with similar structures to the ones you'd see in humans or other mammals bodies. Those different tails, which have the same purpose, but which have been acquired differently, are called analog traits. It's the same for bats and birds : while bat's have wings just like birds, they still have a different bone structure and different wing forms. EDIT : this article explains also some other point linked to undulations : URL_0"
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7b25mn | Why does your left arm hurt during a heart attack? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpeo1wa"
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"text": [
"The nerves which innervate the heart may have some connections with the nerves that connect to the left arm. The result is \"referred pain\" where a nerve signal bleeds over into a pathway from another area of the body and is perceived as originating in a different location."
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7b2gia | why, in the days of dial-up internet, if someone picked up a phone on the same line it would drop the connection. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Data was being communicated via sound on the phone line. If someone picks up an extension, that adds noise via the microphone on that phone, and causes errors in data transmission. If there are too many errors, the connection is lost.",
"Dial up modems communicate by noises over the telephone, the beeps and buzzing noises. For two modems to stay in communication, they have to establish and maintain a connection. If it doesn’t, the models lose track of what they’re saying to each other, so to speak. Sort of the same way that if you and I were talking and other people were talking loudly around us, at some point we wouldn’t be able to hear each other over the other voices. We’re still making noises at each other but we’ve lost track of what we were saying and aren’t effectively communicating anymore. Lifting up the phone, even the ambient background noise and the click of the receiver being picked up is enough to break the connection, since the modems are relying on such subtle noises to talk.",
"Imagine you're playing a huge game of battleship on the phone. You're taking turns telling each other moves, like C8, and giving responses. If you lose your concentration, and miss something, the whole game is ruined -- did you try C8 already? Did your opponent sink your battleship? Now imagine your little sibling picks up the extension and starts yelling \"d 10! X eleventy one! Sixty q!\" You have to backtrack, maybe start the whole game over again. Your computer has the same problem when you interrupt it. The sequence of numbers it's using to talk loses meaning when a chunk goes missing."
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7b2h48 | Why does it help to increase sodium intake when you're dehydrated? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"When you sweat it isn't just water. You are removing salts with the sweat as well so an increased sodium intake (along with water) help to replenish fluids and electrolytes"
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7b2hey | 1. How can a company like Broadcom offer to buy Qualcomm while they have almost equal market capitalization? 2. What would be the implications for each company (their employees, investors and higher ranked officials) if they reach an agreement? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"1. They can always offer. Its up to the Qualcomm shareholders if they are willing to accept the offer. Often times merging these companies can be a significant net positive for investors, even if the initial offering inst too much, you're thinking longer than that. 2. It depend on the specifics, which we don't have yet."
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7b2z1i | How does a particle accelerator accelerate particles? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: How exactly does the particle accelerator work? What all can actually be achieved by using it? ]( URL_0 ) 1. [ELI5:How does a particles accelerator work? ]( URL_5 ) 1. [ELI5:Particle Accelerators ]( URL_1 ) 1. [ELI5: How does a particle accelerator work, and what are things that we are hoping to gain by studying its' findings? ]( URL_3 ) 1. [ELI5: A particle accelerator. What do they actually do? ]( URL_4 ) 1. [ELI5: What is a particle accelerator and how does it work? ]( URL_2 )"
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7b37jo | How do cough lozenges work if you’re swallowing it down your esophagus and your windpipe? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Depending on the type of cough lozenge, they're mostly just offering a thick coating around your throat down to the splitting point of the esophagus/windpipe. Some contain ingredients that numb the nerves underneath the tissue in the throat, but most over-the-counter lozenges don't do much of that. If you're coughing a lot, it's probably because your throat is irritated, rough, and a little raw. A cough drop dissolves into a nice thick coating that sticks to the throat, smoothing out that rough surface."
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7b37zl | How would a corpse decompose in space? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It would dessicate, as with no atmospheric pressure all of the liquids would boil away, and freeze as the temperature is cost to absolute zero. Decomposition would be non existent.",
"If you were inside a spacesuit, and therefore exposed to oxygen, you would decompose until the oxygen ran out. Aside from that, you would not decompose; if you were next to a heat source, you would mummify, and if you were not, you would freeze. Either way, you would most likely just float around in space indefinitely."
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7b3djv | What would happen if all the cells in your body went through apoptosis simultaneously? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Probably something like [this]( URL_0 ). (NSFL probably) *Note: this may or may not be Ouchi himself. This is Hasashi Ouchi, who was exposed to 17 sieverts of radiation (with 8 sieverts being normally considered fatal and 50 milli sieverts being the maximum limit of annual dose allowed for Japanese nuclear workers) after an accident involving an experimental nuclear reactor. The amount of radioactive energy that he was exposed to is thought to be equivalent to that at the hypocenter of Hiroshima atomic bombing. The radiation was so severe that his chromosomes were destroyed and his white blood cell count plummeted to near-zero. Most of his body had severe burns and his internal organs received severe damage. Apparently none of Ouchi’s chromosomes could be identified or arranged in order - utter destruction at the cellular level. He died multiple times, but doctors kept bringing him back (turning him into an experiment on acute radiation poisoning). He was kept alive for 83 days before he finally died when he would have naturally died of the radiation in about a week. This doesn't answer your question precisely, as Ouchi's cells were likely so damaged that apoptosis wasn't even possible - the \"programming\" of his cells was utterly destroyed, but the result is functionally the same; all function at the cellular level ceases simultaneously resulting in a horrific death. TL;DR - You die."
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7b3giq | Why do CPU cores always come in even numbers? | For example, I've never seen a tri-core processor, or a penta-core, or a hepta-core. Is there a reason for this? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"AMD Phenom processors were triple-core - the Phenom X3 series. The Xbox 360 also had a triple-core processor from IBM. Playstation 3 also used a processor with an unusual design - one main core and seven extra smaller cores.",
"Two main reasons: * Addressing. The computer need to tell which core to use, and with binary, even numbers means there is minimal waste. For example, 2 bits could adress 4 cores, so why use only 3 (1 bit could only address 2 cores)? * Chip space. The cores are pre-made blocks that are rectangular, usually more or less squarish. It's easier to pack the chip to use available space with an even number of cores.",
"Symmetry. It keeps things simple, scalable, and easy to position...dies next to memory etc. There have been many tri core cpus since this is an easy way to sell 4 core cpus that have a defective node...gpus are essentially low ipc cpus with insane core counts and commonly have only a specified number of nodes operating since they are counting on every card having defective nodes....we are looking at you titanXP..."
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7b3mow | How does the body use Serotonin? | I have OCD, depression, and General Anxiety Disorder (though I think without the OCD, I wouldn't have anxiety). I know that popular belief is that OCD is due to the body not having enough serotonin in the brain and treatments are therapy and SSRIs. I was just wondering, how does the body use serotonin? Like, is there a certain amount it makes and that's it? Does it continually make it throughout the day? Is my brain just allowing it to be re-uptaken before it can get to the receptor? Are there ways to increase serotonin? The reason I'm asking is I notice my OCD gets worse toward the end of the day and I'm almost wondering if I'm burning through my supply of it or something, but I feel that's stupid. Thank you! | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The body doesn't \"use up\" serotonin in the way that it uses, say, carbohydrates. It is a neurotransmitter, which is secreted by certain cells under certain circumstances and removed from the system by other cells under other circumstances. The effects of serotonin are realized while it is in your bloodstream; the body stores it when not in use, so you never really \"run out\". In a simple sense, serotonin is the chemical that is associated with *satisfaction*, much as adrenaline is associated with the flight-or-fight response and dopamine is associated with new experiences and learning. Most vertebrates release serotonin after eating, when it's time to relax and digest food, although social animals (like us) use it for social satisfaction as well. Serotonin is *supposed* to be released when you *should* be satisfied, and is supposed to be re-absorbed when it's time to get moving and do stuff. When there's something wrong with this process - either the body not releasing it when it's supposed to, or re-absorbing it when it's *not* supposed to - you wind up with a deficiency in serotonin. This can result in a general lack of satisfaction (depression) and/or difficulty in recognizing when you have completed a task to a satisfactory degree (OCD). Drugs to fix the issue work by either increasing the amount of serotonin, or reducing the speed that it is absorbed. Some non-drug methods for increasing serotonin include healthy eating, exposure to sunlight, and exercise. Basically you're trying to get your body into the mode of \"I worked hard to get food, I ate the food, and now it's time to relax and digest\".",
"I dont really understand your question but I can tell you how SSRIs work. Basically serotonin causes an uplift in mood. We need an adequate amount of serotonin in the body to maintain a healthy mood. What SSRIs do is they block the reuptake of serotonin so that theres more serotonin in the synaptic clefts. The serotonin then binds to regulator cells. This causes a decrease in serotonin release. After weeks to months of SSRI intake, the regulator cells will autoregulate the release of serotonin. Therefore, the brain begins to release more serotonin into the synapses and this helps uplift the moods of patients of major depressive disorder."
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7b3tsn | What causes a penis to be shorter or thinner on one side? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> What causes this? There are a pair of spongy tissues called corpus cavernosum (collectively they are the corpora cavernosa) which inflate with blood to make the penis erect. If one developes to be slightly smaller than the other the penis will curve when erect. This is common and as long as it doesn't cause pain or difficulty with intercourse is completely fine. Everyone is a little bit asymmetrical, look carefully at people's faces and you can see that one eye will be lower or ears will be a little different in location. This is just another example."
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7b3ulj | with wildly different writing styles, left to right, right to left, and more importantly in columns, how do international programmers make everyone's name display correctly? | Basically, I play online games, and was wondering how usernames or titles are displayed in vertical text cultures. Everyone I play with or against has a name that reads left to right, like this paragraph. But say, I play with someone from Asian country who generally writes their information in columns, how would their name be displayed? How would a programmer make the two different format styles function, if it's even a need? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Most online only sources use the standard English model when they're expected to be used internationally; even ones that are developed in places like Japan or Korea. If possible, they also like to make regional specific alternates, which is called \"localization\". With regards to things like news agencies, they tend to localize their websites. If you're accessing from China, for example, they'll have their site formatted in the Chinese standard. This involves having native speakers on staff, but it definitely pays off for making things accessible."
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7b3vnp | Why do stores offer cash back as an option at checkout? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"At the end of the day, counting and transporting cash to the bank is a hassle. It's easier to let people take some of it & it's a convenience for customers which builds good will.",
"> Is it of any benefit to them? Or is it merely there for the convenience of the customer? It is a benefit for them *because* it is convenient for the customer. If they are the odd store out that doesn't offer cash back then they might lose some small amount of business."
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7b3wte | If I had $1Billion, what "Bank" would/could I deposit it all in. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It would be stupid to put it all in one bank because, for one, banks can fail, and two, it could be put to much better use. Ideally one would invest most of it in various forms of assets like stocks and bonds, real estate, etc."
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7b3y1q | How do pirate streaming operate? Where do they get the resources to host such large amounts of content? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"There’s a site that hosts an embed. They don’t have much legal exposure because they haven’t downloaded and are not hosting the actual file. By embedding the stream they’re just functioning as a search engine, sort of, for the unlicensed content. The site actually hosting the stream has more legal exposure. But how do they have the resources? Same way any site does... ad revenue mostly"
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7b3yrv | Why superglue doesn't stick to the inside of it's tube? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"In order to stick, superglue needs to react with oxygen (air). This is why the hole is generally small, to avoid solidification of the glue inside the tube."
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7b3zid | How did humans discover what food is edible and what is not? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They tried it and saw what it did. Just like dumbasses nowadays someone probably said \"Yo I dare you to eat that plant\" at some point and humans figured out what was poisonous, what was nutritious, and what fucked you up.",
"Someone with more bravery than brains eats something weird. Others watch. If he gets sick and/or dies, everyone knows to not put that weird thing in your mouth. If he lives, he tells everyone else what it was like.",
"Everything was sorted out literally by trial and error. Kinda like libertarianism in a more primitive form.",
"Humam beings have a strong instinct for social herd like behavior. Early humans lived in a vastly more close knit relationship with other animal species, and over time attempted to eat those things that they always had (prior to each evolutionary step they maintained their diet), as well as attempted to eat things that other mammalian species they witnessed ate. Example: The idea that tree leaves are not good for food is because no other primarily predatory species eat them. Animals are food, however, as this is a basic understanding of a predatory species (Which we are.). However, we also attempted to then eat those foods that we witnessed being eaten by other animal life - primarily through trial and error - to discover those things we prefer... which is why some cultures eat 'disgusting' things compared to our own. We discovered what was poisonous to us via trial and error, however we are a learning species... we observe before attempt, even those things that seem \"insane.\" It is rare that a member of our species tries something wholly new, and when they do it tends to be revolutionary... or fatal."
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7b3zr9 | What is thinking? Why do we have to `learn to think`? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I'd say that thinking is the process of arranging the information you already know using it in a way that is useful. When you learn data is like you are adding random pieces to a puzzle. When you learn how to think, you spend time looking at those random pieces and connecting them together where they belong. Afterwards, the final image is what you use in your life. Using the scam example other commenter used: knowing what money, Zimbabwe and scams are are the random pieces. Connecting all the concepts together, and reasoning why it doesn't sound like a good idea is learning the process to think. Using the knowledge that this is a scam to avoid other similar scams is using the revealed \"image\" for a real life issue.",
"Here is ELI5 from the lou. :Humans are born with the ability to recognize patterns; after recognizing a few, humans start making predictions based on past patterns. That is how we \"learn to think\"",
"Thinking is the way we organise our thoughts. This helps us understand things, or it can also be a distraction when you daydream, worry about something, etc. We have to learn to think because it is a learned skill. Not knowing how to think is like trying to cut wood with a blunt saw. You'll get something done, but it may not be complete, and you sure as hell are going to spend way more time than is needed. It's going to be faster and more effective if you have the right tools. Thinking is a tool. Learning to think is sharpening that tool.",
"Well, what is thinking? It is firstly a way to identify things, including ourselves. It is how we know what *we* are as selves, and a proof for ourselves that we are distinct from other things. Thinking is an emergence that occurs in intelligent beings (not only humans). Thinking *is* consciousness. It is the hallmark of being a person. Without thinking, what is there? Automatic response to a stimulant. Limited learning through cause and effect, or innate behavior. One could argue that our brains are pretty similar, and that thoughts are actually constructed in a predictable manner based on our environment. Noam Chomsky believed this. But even if that is true, our thoughts are pretty unique. It defines us as unique individuals. Very rarely do two people actually share the *exact* same experience, and thus share the *exact* same thought patterns. There will always be some sort of deviance if there is even the smallest difference. There are also different types of thinking. We learn to think more *critically* because it helps us as individuals. It helps us solve problems much faster than we would with trial and error. It helps us avoid the consequences that would force us to learn things the \"hard way\". For example, if you know that fire burns wood, it is beneficial to be make a small connection that fire might also burn your skin. Being able to improve our thought process is incredibly beneficial to us.",
"Id say its the process of understanding; looking at a situation or thing and being able to comprehend every bit and how it works together, and what you should do with that information. If you just go off of instinct or whatever the first thing to come to your mind is, you make really horrific decisions. Say you get contacted by a prince from Zimbabwe offering you a million dollars if you put down 100 now. If you were never taught to think things through, you might think this is a good idea. However, take a second to think it over and you learn that it is a scam",
"We know a lot of things. We know we can create a fire out of wood. We also know touching a hot iron hurts. We know fire is hot. But if we know these things, yet don't process (think) that information, how would we know that sticking one's hand in the campfire hurts? Thinking is processing the information we have. This allows us to figure out things we wouldn't otherwise know, such as the hand + campfire = bad example used above. If we couldn't think, only know (= possess information) we would have to try everything to know what would happen. We would have to try every knife we get our hands on to know if it actually cuts, and then try cutting ourselves to see if it hurts. But since we can think, we know the general structure and look of a knife, and thus we can see if something fits those general criteria of a knife, it most likely is a knife, and will cut, and also hurt if you cut yourself with it. Thinking, in essence, is processing the information you have and combining them to get new information you didn't have before.",
"This is a difficult to do as an ELI5 because it's not something that can be easily proven. There are a lot of theories from different psychologists and neuroscientists about what thought is. It also depends on how you define the word thought, which people might have different opinions on. So to summarize what \"thought\" is in a sentence or two makes a lot of assumptions about these things. So let's just take a look at one theory from Charles Fernyhough, a professor at Durham University who specializes in developmental psychology with a focus on social, emotional and cognitive development. I'm paraphrasing his work extensively, but my understanding leads to this summary: > **Thinking is using language to correlate multiple words (or symbols) to create meaning.** Yes, he believes words are *necessary* for thought. It's more than just a running dialogue in our head; having words is a necessary part of our ability to perceive and understand our world in a complex way. This isn't some crackpot theory. It's been studied with a reasonable amount of scientific rigor. Fernyhough goes over some of that in his books, but for a great summary of some of his ideas and their evidence, there is a great Radiolab episode about [Words]( URL_0 ) which goes into it. His segment starts around 10 and a half minutes into the segment. Let's take a creature like a rat (discussed in the segment). They able to perceive the color blue. They are able to perceive directions, like left and right. But they are incapable of putting these two concepts together. Meaning, they can't understand \"left of blue.\" The theory is that language is the thing that unlocks the ability to put together these concepts. And the theory is somewhat reinforced by the fact that children before they have language act very much like the rat. They can perceive blue; they can perceive left/right. But they can't understand \"left of blue.\" But once they start unlocking words, they start being able to connect words together. Eventually, they are able to create more and more complex thoughts. I could summarize the contents more, but I would just be ripping off their work. So I recommend giving it a listen. I honestly think the segment is well done enough for a 7 year old to understand some of. Radiolab does a great job of taking complex ideas and making them simpler to understand.",
"What is thinking?Thinking is what your brain does. Imagining is thinking. Planning ahead is thinking. Why do we have to 'learn to think'? When a person spends time to plan ahead, it usually has a better outcome. We need to practice thinking about the future so that we can be prepared. Example: if a person is going to the grocery store, it is better for them to think of all the things they need and make a list rather than driving to the store without thinking about what they need.",
"A few people have answered that thinking and learning to think are essentially related to understanding and pattern recognition, but I'd like to add that when we talk about thinking (as opposed to just 'fact-knowing') we're also talking about what thoughts we think are useful. Everybody thinks - children, academics, politicians probably - but when people talk about clever or 'good' thinking they basically just mean the thoughts that contribute towards a particular discourse or narrative most clearly, coherently, or usefully. Stupid thinking is thinking that does none of that. If we imagine a detective looking at a crime: If they're a good detective, they'll have learned to think along the particular narratives usually relevant to crimes - a bloody knife at the crime scene probably isn't there because someone did some meat prep, unless the crime scene is actually a butcher's shop, in which case it won't be useful to automatically consider ever bloody knife as a murder weapon. Bad thinking would be a detective that walks in and fails to understand the narrative, coming to a conclusion that isn't clear (e.g., the logic behind it doesn't make sense), isn't coherent (their conclusion follows a logic, but not the one we typically understand), or isn't useful (their conclusion has nothing to contribute to the efforts to solve the crime). Alternatively, if a teacher complains that a schoolchild need to learn to think, they mean that they need to learn to follow the logics and consider the things that that teacher deems useful. Obviously a child behaving selfishly or ignorantly is still thinking, either about themselves rather than others or about something totally irrelevant, but as far as the teacher is concerned, they aren't thinking about the right things in the right way. On the other hand, as a somewhat different approach, here in the West we're very heavily influenced by Cartesian discourse, and its pretty much the universal case that people have been taught - passively and actively, by individuals and by the way our institutions are configured - that we are isolated individuals rather than nodes in a network of relationships, and that things exist discretely rather than fluidly. In this context, learning to think is more about learning how to 'shape' our thoughts - or probably more accurately, having our thoughts 'shaped' - by the environment we come to exist in. Edit: sorry, just realised how long this is. TLDR: learning to think is about learning how to think along the lines that make us useful to other people."
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7b4j47 | why underwater lighting illuminates objects underwater much better than objects above water | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It’s called total internal reflection, basically the light is reflecting off the internal side of the surface of the water. Basically the same way fibre optics work"
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7b4mju | Are sanctions against individuals, eg the Magnitsky Act, bills of attainder? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"No. A bill of attainder is like a criminal conviction by the legislature; they were made unlawful in the U.S. Constitution because it was thought such a power denied a person due process and was subject to political abuse. The Magnitsky Act deals with who is eligible for a visa, which is a different area of law; it is well-settled that Congress has the power to decide who is eligible for admission to the United States. This is not like a criminal punishment; aliens do not have a right not to be deported from the United States. They do have a right to due process in which the government must show they are in fact removable by law. Moreover, the Magnitsky Act does not specifically ban any person from the United States, but rather defines a new *class* of people ineligible for visas: those persons who (according to the president) were \"responsible for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, participated in efforts to conceal the legal liability for the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, financially benefited from the detention, abuse, or death of Sergei Magnitsky, or was involved in the criminal conspiracy uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky.\" A list of individual people was published by the president, but only because they were identified as members of that class. This is not so different from the longstanding ban on people who were specifically involved with the Nazi regime. The Constitution does not require Congress to define the classes of ineligible aliens in purely generic terms."
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7b4nrj | Why does clicking with your left hand and clicking with your right hand produce a different tone? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Snapping, you mean? Strength of muscles/handedness. Basically, with your dominant hand you have a more coordinated \"snap\" than with your non-dominant hand. Faster, more powerful movement = louder or different toned snap."
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7b4pg8 | Why after having a meal do I feel less bloated when smoking a cigarette ? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Some chemical compounds in a cigarette (I believe nicotine in common) has an effect on your intestines. It speeds up the digesting process, which sends a signal to your brain and tells you that you fell less “bloated” after smoking."
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7b4zwx | If a low carb diet works by restricting carbs so that the body burns fat for fuel, how does a normal calorie restrictive diet work? | So a person does a low carb diet < 50g carbs per day, then after a few days their body will produce ketones that burn fat for energy. But if someone just restricts calories, say by about 500kcal under their daily requirement keeping their macros roughly even, the body is getting ample supplies of carbs, so how does the body then burn fat without the ketones produced from a low carb diet? I'm probably misunderstanding something here. Please ELI5 | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your body has 2 primary concerns in daily life. 1. Get enough fat or carbohydrates to run the brain, typically this is either 30 grams of fat (if you're in ketosis) or 100 grams of carbohydrates. 2. Get enough protein to be able to keep making cells After this it's all kind of meh, during respiration your body typically burns through a mix of 60% stored carbohydrates and 30% stored fat, 10% protein. As those stored carbs are used up your body begins to turn towards the fat to get more energy, and as long as the brain's needs are satisfied it won't try to burn through any of your musculature. On ketosis the percents are flipped between fat and carbs, and there's a solid chance you don't really have anything to worry about with running out of fat to run on. That said, either way your body is producing ketones, but with a normal dietary usage of about 10% you're going to have very few in your blood stream.",
"Ketones don’t BURN fat – they ARE fat. Your fat reserves are converted into ketones by way of ketogenesis. Your body doesn’t want to resort to ketones for energy. If it were sentient, it would perhaps be thinking: “Well, there isn’t a total lack of food around, so there must not be a famine. Better to hold onto fat reserves and try to lower my metabolic rate.” So often what you’ll see in 500 kcal restricted diet is not necessarily muscle wasting (though that indeed happens on some level, especially with even stricter caloric restrictions), but an overall drop in resting metabolic rate via various corporeal regulations called adaptive thermogenesis. There isn’t a lot of research on this stuff, but it is observable. The “Biggest Loser” study is maybe the best example of this occurring. Compared with other lean adults with similar BMIs, they had lower RMRs across the board. Now, when a normal, insulin-sensitive adult slips up and eats cake, their body has the metabolic rate to necessary to burn the extra calories. From what I’m aware, their body will even compensate by increasing their metabolic rate. Not so with our biggest losers, who ultimately end up rebounding in weight gain. As for how they still lose weight: well, a resting metabolism can only dip so low. But anyone will find themselves constantly hungry, because of an insulin/grehlin (the stuff that makes you feel full) imbalance. This is showcased beautifully in the Minnesota Starvation study. Obsessive thoughts about food, etc."
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7b582k | Why do so many VR game developers claim that free roaming in first person games plays terribly and use teleportation instead (e.g. Doom VR, Skyrim VR), yet games like Resident Evil 7 VR completely disprove that claim? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because having your senses tell you that you are moving forward when you are not is disconcerting and can cause nausea. And even if some people can handle it, people who build a game from the ground up for VR aren't going to ignore the many people who would not enjoy a free roaming VR experience.",
"Teleportation is *definitively* less nauseating. Some people prefer smooth movement (myself included), but those people have stronger stomachs than the average user. The exception is cockpit games, where you still have a stationary frame of reference around you even as you're moving and rotating.",
"Artificial locomotion in VR is still an area where there's a ton of experimenting and learning to be done. The biggest concern isn't that it 'plays terribly', but rather that a significant portion of the population is prone to 'VR sickness', and artificial locomotion is one of the prime causes of that. Various techniques have been developed that generally lessen the negative effects, and some people have been able to build up a tolerance over time, but it's still a pretty big issue. Not many people are interested in playing games that make them physically feel terrible. With the VR industry being so young and fragile at the moment, a lot of VR developers are concerned about the possibility of a bunch of people's first experience with VR making them feel sick, and potentially pushing them away from the platform. Within the VR industry and enthusiasts, it's not as much a belief that free roaming has no place within VR, but rather a sense that a significant portion of the potential user base is subject to VR sickness from it, and financially it's probably not the best decision to make a game that's essentially unplayable to those people. The 'ideal' solution is for your game to include a range of movement options, from teleportation to unrestricted free roaming, and that's what the current VR player base generally argues for. Although from a developer's point of view, that's usually a significant increase in development time/costs/etc. and it can get especially tricky when trying to balance those various movement systems if you're making a competitive multiplayer type game. There's pluses and minuses to all the different movement systems that people have come up with so far. The big plus of teleportation is that it rarely makes anybody sick."
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7b5ldr | Do babies from surrogate mothers end up with that surrogate's DNA/genetics? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Actually yes! It has been speculated that mitochondrial dna may pass from mother to fetus in utero, even if they were not a genetic contributor to the embryo (these cells aren't thought to have much of an effect on the future of the baby however). Likewise, some of the foetal cells may remain with the mother past birth, called fetomaternal chimerism. Most important however, are the nutrients and diseases the surrogate is exposed to during her pregnancy, as they affect the genetic development of the embryo enormously i.e. she can affect how their DNA is used in their future life. Source - science degree More sources: URL_1 URL_2 URL_3 Science lite sources: URL_0",
"Does the surrogate mother's immune system alter gene expression, or epigenetics in any way?",
"[I found this:]( URL_0 ) A woman who carries someone else's baby contributes very little, if any, DNA to the child. This is because the child already has its DNA from its mom and dad. Also, the baby's own blood passes through its body – not the blood of its surrogate mom. However, there is a possibility that some DNA could be transferred from the woman to the fetus that she is carrying. And vice versa, from the child to the mother. This exchanged DNA will have almost no effect. At most, it will be a few cells (with DNA) hiding out amongst the trillions of original cells of the child. Too few cells of the surrogate mother are passed to the child for them to actually pass on any of her characteristics or affect the child in any significant way. Remember – a child's DNA comes from two places. Half comes from its mother and half from its father. But in this article, we're talking about changes in DNA that happen during pregnancy – while the child is developing. So, all of what I talk about is true for both mothers carrying their own child, as well as for surrogate mothers carrying the child of another woman.",
"This is really interesting! I am a parent via surrogacy -- my own uterus is on strike and I failed to be able to carry a baby to term. We turned to surrogacy, and it was a wonderful experience. We used our embryos, so my son is genetically mine and my husband's. Some of my son's DNA definitely crossed the placental barrier and went into my surrogate -- that is how the new NIPT (non-invasive prenatal testing) is done. It's a blood test at 10-12 weeks that can detect anuploidy (abnormal number of chromosomes) in the fetus. The blood is drawn from the pregnant woman (my surrogate; in most other instances this person would also be the genetic mother) and sent to a lab. As long as the free fetal fraction of DNA is above 6%, they can build a karyotype of the fetus. This is how people are finding out gender at 10 weeks.",
"Can someone clarify this question, I must oty be understanding what a surrogate mother is. The pregnant woman would obviously give that baby her genetics despite who raises it, but based on the answers here I must not be getting it.",
"I'm a mom to a donor egg daughter. I lost my ovarian function in my late 20s from having to do chemotherapy for breast cancer. In my late 30s, my husband and I went to a fertility clinic in NC where we participate in an anonymous donor egg program. After I started taking certain hormones to sustain a pregnancy, my anonymous donor was hyper stimulated with other hormones so that she would produce multiple eggs. They were then harvested and fertilized with my husband's sperm. After a few days, three viable embryos were implanted in my uterus and I continued with my hormones. One baby survived and she's now in college and the light of our lives. Science is freaking awesome and so is that wonderful woman who donated her eggs! It's is NOT easy and quite painful as I understand. They definitely deserve the financial compensation (I highly doubt it's 1K per egg as another person posted but maybe times have changed).",
"Holy cow, didn't expect this question to be so successful. I'm glad a lot of people found the answers interesting and helpful. Definitely interesting and helpful to me. Thanks errbody."
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7b5owo | If I buy a steam giftcard from GameStop, who is actually profiting? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Gift cards are typically \"sold\" to stores below face value, and the retailer of the card gets some cut of the proceeds for the card sale. I can't remember if steam handles the distribution of their own cards or not, but many gift cards are produced and/or distributed by a third party who may handle cards (and part of the back end system) for a lot of companies."
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7b5soy | what is a reverse mortgage | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It works the opposite of how a mortgage does... They are most common for elderly to use for living expenses in their later years... they own a house outright, but need cash on a regular basis. Each month, the reverse mortgage issuer gives them money, and in return gets a portion of the home's value upon sale. Say they give you $1000/mo. This goes on for 10 years, before the elderly person passes away. Then when their estate sells the home the reverse mortgage issuer would get $120k (120 mo x $1000) + interest from the sale proceeds before it goes to their children or other beneficiaries.",
"it's like a regular mortgage, except for two things: 1) You don't get a lump-sum payment at the beginning, the bank gives you the money in monthly installments; 2) There is often a provision that the homeowner doesn't need to make any payments on the loan, although the borrower can repay the mortgage if they have enough income to do so. When the house is finally sold, then the bank gets paid first out of the home sale to pay off the mortgage loan. Depending on the homeowner's financial situation, this may be preferable to taking out a traditional mortgage and making payments, and lenders often like these loans because in poor economic times it's easier to send somebody $1000 a month instead of a flat $100,000 upfront, and they're pretty much guaranteed to get paid in the end due to the mortgage document (and they count on home values increasing over time)."
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7b5t1m | Why do small groups of birds (30-50) huddle on stoplights and then take off all together and fly in small circles above the intersection repeatedly? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Catching insects. Insects tend to swarm at dusk, and birds take advantage of that. They will pick a location that has a large concentration of insects, sit around until a swarm goes up, and then catch them on the wing. Once they have been consumed / have moved on, the birds then conserve energy by sitting nearby until the next swarm comes along. Look up \"murmurations\". They are what you're describing, but on a much larger scale."
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7b5t8u | Why do we cough when we are sick? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We don't always cough when we are sick, we only cough when we are sick with an infection of our upper respiratory system. The infection irritates our throat such that mucus is produced as a defense, and coughing acts to help clear out the obstruction. People don't cough when they get a stomach virus.",
"Coughing is a defense mechanism of the body. When microbes infect our respiratory tract the body wants to rid you of them and coughing propels them out. Mucus is made to trap the organisms and then coughing will release them. This is why covering your cough is a good idea as bacteria are being forced out. Think of coughing to the lungs as vomiting is for bad food in the stomach. body is just getting rid of what is not supposed to be there."
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7b5z6k | How do fish and other aquatic animals deal with the change in pressure from going from shallow water into the deeper parts? | I know most species kind to stay around a certain depth but some species go from a miles down to near the surface. The pressure difference must be insane so how do they compensate for that | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because fish don't have air inside them - they have water, due to having no lungs. Water isn't compressible (well, not much), and as a result they don't get compressed at significant depths. Whales deal with things differently. They allow the air in their lungs (and other cavities) essentially \"collapse\" so that their body adapts as it dives. They can go pretty deep, but not as deep as fish.",
"It is not as much of a problem as you might think. Human scuba divers can reach depths of 1000 feet, which is about 30x normal pressure. It is very dangerous and requires a lot of preparation, but their bodies are just fine at that pressure. The real danger is keeping the air their breath safe. At that depth, anything more than about 5% oxygen is toxic, and the air is so thick the effort you expanding your lungs to draw it in can exceed the energy you get from its oxygen...you literally can suffocate from breathing too hard. There are proposed liquid breathing solutions, like those in the move *The Abyss*, that would allow for much deeper diving, but the technology is not there yet. Most aquatic animals don't vary their depth by that much. Once you get beyond a few thousand feet in depth, the oxygen content in seawater drops to the point only animals specially adapted to it can survive. Air-breathing animals that dive that deep can hold their breath for extended periods of time, which avoid many of the issues divers face. That also tend to have special adaptations, like collapsable lungs, that help them survive the high pressures. Beaked whales are the deepest divers, and can reach up to 10,000 feet."
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7b69cz | Why is it so hard to make a current-gen console emulator? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"An emulator is a program which uses a computer to pretend to be a different computer or console. When you run programs natively on the console, you push a button and the console calculates a response. When you push a button in the emulator, it can't just calculate a response directly, because that response won't be in the same format the game expects - instead, the emulator has to do extra work to decide *how the console would perform that calculation*. If one of your friends asks you what your favorite candy is, you can answer immediately. But if they ask what your *brother's* favorite candy is, you have to think about it for a minute. Similarly, an emulator needs some extra time to do those extra calculations. But games need very rapid responses, so pushing a button has an immediate effect. That means the emulator needs to run on a computer which is a lot faster than the hardware it's emulating. Not a big deal when you're using a modern quad-core processor to emulate a Super Nintendo. But modern consoles use a lot of the same components as modern computers, and are roughly the same speed. That means there's not really any time to do those extra calculations.",
"An emulator tries to respond to the software in the same way that the real system would. For example, some games exploit unusual behavior or glitches in the hardware, and an accurate emulator will faithfully replicate this. This means that the more complicated the console system is, the more complex the emulator becomes. Perfectly replicating the console is not possible on current hardware, so that some sacrifice of accuracy is necessary. And now you're dealing with all sorts of bugs in many different games that pop up because of that lack of perfect accuracy. Finding special handling for each of those takes a lot of development work. There is an emulator, DICE, that mimics the Pong console down to the very circuits--it's *exactly* the same. No current hardware could do that for a Playstation 4 and let you play a game in real time. Even consoles like the SNES can't be emulated with perfect accuracy and still run on consumer hardware.",
"Software developer here, CPU instructions do not map 1:1 between different processor architectures. There are subtle side-effects when trying to faithfully reproduce a foreign instruction on a host platform. There are incongruencies in timing, memory access, instruction cycles, and interrupts. In order to reproduce some of these effects, an emulator will have to perform them in software, which lends to additional overhead. When trying to keep instruction timing in sync with the original platform, some instructions may execute too fast, so the emulator has to wait to deliver it, or maybe it executes too slow, so the rest of the emulator has to wait for it to arrive, and the emulator is trying to pretend that the slow instruction on the host CPU is actually very fast in the emulated environment. This timing is crucial because old games especially didn't use calculus to pace a game like all modern games do. Instead, they relied on the speed of the CPU. So if you run on a faster CPU, the whole game would run faster. Are you old enough to remember when x86 clones all had a Turbo button? This was to slow the CPU down to properly run older software that was written so naively. And then you have to consider older platforms especially were realtime, and your emulator is running in a multi-tasking OS, so the emulator is going to be interrupted, and so that has to be taken into account. And on a PC, you have any number of video hardware capabilities that won't map to the original platform. In order to faithfully reproduce the original NES would require an x86 processor running at 5 GHz. No emulator or hardware exists that does this, and great compromises are made to provide a suitable user experience. Most people don't notice or care, but a faithful reproduction will also include all the bugs of the original platform. I have friends who will only play Tecmo Super Bowl on the original NES because no emulator spills the runtime data into the video buffer on the bottom of the screen like the original, and the game doesn't lag when too many sprites are on the screen like the original. This is part of the experience for them and they swear it changes the game.",
"People answering “because of architecture” or “processing power” are not really correct. They used to be correct, but not so much anymore. The Xbox One and PS4 use standard x86 CPUs just like your PC. They also use essentially off the shelf motherboards, ram, and graphics chips. The drivers are different, but driver compatibility layers don’t add much overhead. The difference is one of complexity and will. As the newer consoles and games have approached PC level complexity and power, the ability for relatively small groups of reverse engineers to legally make emulators has been reduced. Note that to legally make an emulator (at least according to US copyright law), you cannot have anyone on your team with inside knowledge- you must be entirely flying blind while reverse engineering the process. For a simple system like the N64 or SNES, not a huge deal. These days, there’s just not enough people interested in putting in the massive amount of work it would take to emulate a modern console."
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7b6dfw | How do you speed read? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You either read an enormous amount, and build a huge vocabulary to slowly increase your reading speed to a fairly high rate (this tops out at 600-1000 wpm for most), or you learn techniques designed to allow you to skim and attempt to maximize speed at the cost of comprehension, which isn't as costly as it sounds, most text has some redundancy.",
"There are several techniques, and of course everyone is different, but here are the basics: The first and easiest step for most is to shut down Subvocalization, which is something that slows down the majority of readers - this is your mind \"saying\" each word that you read. Most people do this naturally and they'll \"hear\" the text that they're reading in their heads, which helps with comprehension and appreciation of the text. This slows things down quite a bit for those trying to speed read - a lot of people can stop it naturally, but others have to focus to avoid it, or do something else like chewing gum to disrupt it until they get the hang of it. The next trick is teaching yourself to read at a phrase- or sentence-level rather than word-by-word. Again, this is something that most people do naturally, but it might otherwise take practice. Most people do this by chunking words together into meaningful phrases, and putting them together mentally. An example might be the sentence: \"Ben wore green pants with bell-bottoms and orange shoes with a big Nike logo.\" Reading that word by word would take a lot of time and give you very little important detail; your brain does that a little like this: \"Okay, Ben - that's the guy. Wore - he's wearing clothes. Bright - there's going to be a color next, it's a light color. Green - cool color. Pants - okay, the pants are bright green. With - oh, there's more to these pants...\" and so on. Reading at a phrase level, it's more like this \"Ben wore - okay, Ben's wearing something, the next phrase or two will be details. Green pants.... yeah detail. And orange shoes.... more detail. Got it.\" You can see that the comprehension is probably less. If you asked the second reader what logo was on the shoes, they might not remember as well as the first reader. But they got the idea of \"Ben wore odd-colored clothes\" well enough to move on in a fraction of the time. There are lots of other tricks that vary depending on the genre being read - I've heard people who say tracing with a fingertip or a pen speeds things up, others who say it slows you down, and I know people who read the first sentences of paragraphs very thoroughly and skim the rest unless a big detail jumps out. But the crux of speed reading is that \"getting an idea\" is the most important part, and important details will tend to jump out at you. You're never going to have the comprehension of a full reading, and that's okay. If something is important or needs to be read word-by-word (detailed law studies, good fiction, etc) it shouldn't be speed-read, but for quick studying or reading the news in the morning, it can be a handy tool."
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7b6fia | Why are most Tax Havens islands? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because they have no commodities and industries to trade with other countries to create GDP. They are too small to be self sufficient. The main value that they can offer to the international community is their sovereignty and the ability to set their own laws. Many colonial powers in the Caribbean have set up these finance and tax breaks to foster development, because they would not be able to support a population and the high cost of living on an island without economic development."
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7b6hpk | How can someone recover files that were permanently deleted from a drive? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Deleting a file is like abandoning a self-storage unit. All the stuff is still there, it is just marked as available. If someone needs that space, the old stuff is cleared out. The main difference is they don't make crappy reality shows about deleting files.",
"Permanently deleted? they can't. But computers rarely permanently delete files. What they do instead is mark the space as okay to be overwritten. If nothing is saved over it, then its still there, but you won't run into the problem of filling the drive because it will simply overwrite that space.",
"Most delete operations don't delete the file, they delete the record of the file. This is sort of like the difference between condemning a building (the space that building occupies can now be reused) and actually knocking it over (the building is removed and something new is put in that place). Unlike construction, computer files can be overwritten pretty easily and the process isn't very different than writing it over previously empty space. So at some point in the future, a new file will be written over the old data. So recovery process recreates the records of the file, and it works when the space hasn't been reused. Note that there are file deletion applications that actually overwrite the data that was in the file's location (usually several passes with all 1s or all 0s) to increase the difficulty of recovering data that's intended to be securely lost. It doesn't really matter if the \"blank space\" on the drive is old files or nothing, the two are pretty similar to for the operating system and hard drive to overwrite. Think of building a sand castle in a place where there may be some remnants of an old sand castle, vs a place where there are just footprints, you still need to smooth the surface to start your own sandcastle."
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7b6jn4 | How do bee hierarchies work? | I am particularly interested in how one of x bee's suddenly becomes a queen? Is there no other female or is there a genetic difference between her and other female bees? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Each successful hive has a queen. This queen might live several years, but she is only a good egg producer for a few years. Several things can make a hive rear a new queen. Scenario 1. Queen gets old. Eggs are not as steady as before. The workers harass the queen, chasing her around trying to get the egg she hasn't laid to fill the comb. Queen lays less, walks more, gets thinner. Workers notice this, start making queen cells, which are usually oriented 90 degrees from the regular comb. (Queen cell generally point down.) Old queen waits about a week or 2, then decides she's outta there. Takes 40% or more of the bees and leaves. Or, she may decide to hang out and live her last year or so with a new queen in the hive. This is rare, but not unheard of. Sometimes the old and new queen will fight to the death. I don't know what determines which course of action. Scenario 2. Hive is full. No room for anymore eggs. Queen is at the top of the hive, and the honey is still coming in. Queen makes a note of it, slows down egg production. Workers notice, they harry the queen, she decides to go find a new rent with more room. In both cases, the workers find an egg less than 3 days old, install it in a queen cell, then feed it what we call 'royal jelly'. This causes the less than 3 day old larva to turn into a queen. When she hatches, the new queen will most likely walk around, chirping a 'queen call' that other, almost hatched queens answer. Too bad for them because the already hatched queen walks over and stings them to death. Sometimes not all the new queens are killed. In this case, there are 'after swarms'. This is when you get several new queens who mate, return to the hive to pick up their posse, then leave to start a new home. This is bad because each swarm takes almost 1/2 of the bees in the hive. After a swarm or 2, there are few bees left to the very weakened hive."
],
"score": [
12
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7b6jtu | How can the inside of the microwave be made of metal, but if I put metal inside it and turn it on it burns and sparks? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpfkx6m",
"dpfmomn"
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"text": [
"Actually one of the things that causes sparks on say a fork is the shape of the metal. It's having two points that build potential energy close to eachother cause sparks. The inside surface of microwaves are specially designed not to act in the same way.",
"It's not the metal itself but rather the shape that matters. Things like forks create an electrical potential as a charge builds up in the tines, eventually arcing across. However, a flat piece of metal will allow the charge to evenly disperse without building up a potential. There are even a few metal products designed for microwave use such as those heating sleeves used in many microwaveable products."
],
"score": [
13,
6
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|
7b6mi7 | What is a Gas Planet? | Like what’s the difference between earth and Jupiter or Saturn? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpflx8e",
"dpfqjvv",
"dpfmh7q"
],
"text": [
"Gas planets have no real surface on them. The gas gets denser and denser as you descend, like water going from water to slush to ice. On gas planets, as you go towards the core, the pressure increases (and temps too) until the gas is liquid, then solid. There may be a rocky core under thousands of miles of gas for Uranus and Neptune, but the other 2 outer planets are probably without that core.",
"Knowing a bit about early solar system history helps explain this. Before the planets formed, the solar system was a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a very hot early sun. Close to the sun, most of the volatile elements (think hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, carbon, etc.) were in gas form and were blown out by strong, energetic winds emanating from the early sun. This left only the more 'refractory' elements which is why all of the planets in the inner solar system are rocky and are largely comprised of things like metal oxides and silicates which were solid and could aggregate together to form planets, even in the heat of the early solar system. Further out, it would have been cold enough for lots of the volatile elements and compounds to freeze out and form ices (not just water ice but ammonia, methane, etc). This provided a lot more material for planets to build up, so they could grow more rapidly than planets in the inner solar system. As they grew, their gravity became strong enough to capture huge gaseous atmospheres. Remember that all of the gas from the inner solar system was blown out into the outer solar system - this provided even more material for the outer planets to grow. Gas planets have the same rocky material that planets like the Earth and Mars have (the other response suggesting that Jupiter and Saturn do not have rocky cores is incorrect), the difference is that ice being able to exist as a solid where they grew allowed them to grow very rapidly and accumulate a large mass very quickly, allowing them to capture a massive atmosphere. Most of the material in the solar system is gas in the form of (largely) hydrogen and helium which is why they were able to accumulate so much of it. **tl;dr:** There was more material available in the early solar system to allow outer solar system planets to grow more rapidly, which allowed them to capture massive gaseous atmospheres.",
"Gas giants are planets typically a certain distance from the sun. When the sun was formed there was a massive area of space filled with fundamental elements. The sun collected all it could from around it using gravity. Once ignition happened it blew a huge swath of the gasses and lighter materials away from it. Leaving heavier material in the inner orbits. The gases out there went through the same process while in orbit around the sun. They never reached star size so they sit as massive balls of gas collected through its orbit. Gravity only reaches so far so every few million miles another is formed until all the original materials from the formation of our solar system have been locked into sustainable orbits. Other things get pulled into orbit over time. These are usually orbiting at odd angles to the bulk of other objects in orbit."
],
"score": [
10,
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
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} | [
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7b6o9n | How does a contagion spread from contact with an open wound to the target organ in the body ? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpfm5z6"
],
"text": [
"Generally through the blood stream or the lymphatic vessels. When a contagion attacks a specific organ I.e. Hepatitis, it is because something about those cells allows that particular pathogen to attack/reproduce better than they do in other cells. They don’t move towards that organ specifically, they just keep getting pumped through the bloodstream until they find a good place to start reproducing, or they’re killed by the immune system"
],
"score": [
6
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|
7b6ti9 | Can somebody please explain sound to me | I snap my fingers and it makes a sound Banging metal together makes another sound Could somebody explain the physics behind it please | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpfndbb",
"dpg06nu"
],
"text": [
"Think of air being like water. They're both fluids, though one is a mixture of gases and one is a liquid. If you drop a rock in water, ripples travel away from where the rock landed, right? It's similar when you snap your fingers in air. They cause small ripples in the air that travel out from your fingers. When those ripples reach your ears, you have an ear drum that amplifies the ripples, and an organ called the cochlea that is full of liquid and lined with hairs. The liquid vibrates, and the hairs are moved, which causes a signal to be sent by nerves to your brain, where it's interpreted as sound. Different sounds can be made by increasing the height of those ripples (amplitude), the length of those ripples (wavelength), and how fast they travel (frequency). That's why sound cannot travel in a vacuum. It requires something to ripple through (a medium).",
"Basic physics of banging metal. All materials when deformed have a tendency to return to their original shapes. They are springs. Once it returns to that shape, it has momentum, and it keeps moving past it's neutral position to the opposite deflection. Friction eventually stops it. It winds up that the time it takes a given material to move back and forth does not depend on how much you move it. So if you deform metal, it will move back and forth and vibrate. Gasses can also compress and expand, and something vibrating will cause this to happen to the gas around it. Vibrations travel through the air and hit your ears. Your ears detect that vibration and you decode that in your head into the sound. Every sound starts as some physical object (solid, liquid, or gas) made to vibrate."
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
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} | [
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7b6umg | Why does diarrhea happen? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpfntbr"
],
"text": [
"One of the main jobs of your colon/large intestine is to take the waste that's left over after food has gone through the rest of digestion, and to extract most of the water out of it, so that when you go to poo, what comes out is mostly dried out and your body hasn't wasted too much moisture. It takes some time for the colon to handle this dehydration, so food passes through pretty slowly, over the course of a few hours. But if you eat something bad, or if your body is reacting to an illness, it will often tell the intestines \"We need to get this stuff out of the body, get rid of whatever you're working on!\" So your colon skips the water-draining part of the process and just starts pushing your waste right out the body. So your body is pushing out waste that hasn't been properly processed - it's still very watery. We call that diarrhea."
],
"score": [
4
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|
7b6uqp | What makes spreadable butter/cream cheese spreadable? | I'm assuming there's some sort of additive that accomplishes this but couldn't think of what it could be. | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpfz9rp",
"dpfndmd"
],
"text": [
"They add another oil to the butter that has a lower melting point than butter. Often Canola oil. Outside of the realm of your question, but a lot of people would stay away from spreadable butters because usually the oil added to butter to make it more spreadable is less healthy than the fats in butter. Most of the time, the more solid an oil is at room temperature, the healthier it is. The short, saturated fats found in oils like butter and coconut oil are considered very healthy compared to the polyunsaturated fats found in liquid oils like vegetable oil.",
"I think that at least with spreadable butter they add vegetable oil of some kind. Usually canola oil, in my experience. Spreadable cream cheese is usually spreadable because it's whipped, no? Unless there's a similar product to spreadable butter"
],
"score": [
4,
3
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7b710d | what is it that makes deep deep sea creatures able to withstand such immense pressure? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dpfptwo"
],
"text": [
"For some its the ability to push all the gasses in their bodies out, so the pressure doesn't rupture their flesh. For others they are made of mostly fluids that are then at the same atmospheric pressure as the surrounding water. And for alot of the really strange ones, they need the pressure to hold together. When brought to the surface for study they fall apart and die. So.... science doesnt know all of it"
],
"score": [
3
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