q_id
stringlengths 6
6
| title
stringlengths 3
299
| selftext
stringlengths 0
4.44k
| category
stringclasses 12
values | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | answers
dict | title_urls
listlengths 1
1
| selftext_urls
listlengths 1
1
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5v3ksx | Why does it sometimes feel like something already happened before? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddyzz5d"
],
"text": [
"You're describing the phenomenon \"déjà vu\". Déjà vu can be a feeling that you've already experienced a certain situation before, or that you've been in that exact moment previously, without seemingly ever having an actual memory of that moment occurring. Some scientist have theorized that déjà vu is a symptom of good memory function. Another theory is that people can have dreams of situations that then turn out to be eerily similar, and sometimes exactly the same, as a situation occurring in reality. There is not scientific consensus on why déjà vu occurs; we only know that it is extremely common (2/3 of all adults will experience it), and for the most part, is not associated with any mental illness or cognitive malfunctions."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v3oa4 | Faster than light travel is not possible, what would happen with a very long pipe filled with marbles if one side is pushed? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz0f5m"
],
"text": [
"\"Pushing\" something is actually the same thing as a wave going through the object at the speed of sound in that material, like a pressure wave. When you push one end of an object, one atom feels the force, then transfers it to the next, and the next, and the next at a particular speed. This speed is much, much lower than the speed of light and would show itself as a wave traveling through the object. Over short distances, this wave appears to travel instantaneously but just as sound takes time to move through the air, so does a pressure wave moving through a material. Over longer distances, this effect becomes apparent."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v3oic | Why do most continents begin with A? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz6m14"
],
"text": [
"Coincidence. URL_0 Africa is named after the Roman province of Africa, meaning \"land of the Afri\". There are several possible sources of the word Afer/Afri. America is named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (latinised to \"Americus\"), who showed that America was a new land mass and not part of Asia. \"Australia\" comes from \"terra australis\", meaning \"southern land\". Before the discovery of Australia, this \"terra australis\" was hypothesised to exist and given this \"technical\" name. After its discovery, it was variously known as New Holland or New South Wales until the name \"Australia\" came into general use at the beginning of the 19th century and \"New South Wales\" was relegated to being the name of the first colony and not the entire continent. \"Asia\" comes from the Greek version of the Hittite word Assuwa. \"Antarctica\" simply means anti-Arctic, anti meaning \"opposite\" and not \"being against something\" here."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_continent_name_etymologies"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v3qav | How is my idea of money washing not feasible? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz0qmy",
"ddz15nf"
],
"text": [
"That is actually a very common method, although the buyer doesn't need to be in on it. The seller sells a product for X dollars but claims it was sold for Y dollars. They will change the advertised/real price often in order to make it hard for any proof to surface that the sell price was a faked number. The changes are usually smaller like $1 water is claimed to be $2, $4.25 for a bag of chips is reported as $4.75. it is why cash business Lauder money easier. Every so often they find out how much money they are missing because of the inflated prices and fill in that gap with dirty money.",
"This is very hard to detect and usually requires someone to make a mistake. That mistake is usually tax evasion or putting too much money through a small source (nobody will believe a single Chinese bazaar is moving $10,000,000 a year). However, most investigations into money laundering are not discovered on their own, rather they are found as part of the investigation into the illicit activity that is generating the money."
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v3up0 | "You can't prove a negative." | I see this all the time on reddit, but it's plainly false. You can prove all sorts of negatives: * I can prove that there are no elephants in my left front pocket * I can prove that there are no objects that are simultaneously completely blue and completely not blue * P → Q ¬Q therefore, ¬P * I can prove that snooker tables are not verbs * I can prove that you can't breathe baking soda * I can prove that the air isn't made of wood etc., etc., etc. My question is, where does this idea that you can't prove a negative come from? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz1wkz",
"ddz1yy6",
"ddz1j7k",
"ddzelvb"
],
"text": [
"It's a misunderstanding of Russel's teapot and the burden of proof. Russel's teapot is a claim that there exists a teapot, floating somewhere in orbit between Mars and Earth. Russel argues that it's not upon others to disprove this theory, but on himself to prove it. Thus, in reality the statement should read : \"You don't have to prove the negative\" rather than \"You can't prove the negative\".",
"You can prove there are no elephants *that you can see* in your left front pocket. They might be invisible and microscopic, though, so you can't prove there are no elephants *of any sort* in that pocket!",
"On your P Q example, you're incorrect. P then Q actually translates to \"P is sufficient for Q\" or \"Q is necessary for P.\" Q can be true without P being true. Think of it this way: P is studying, and Q is passing the class. \"If you study, you will pass.\" You could also just cheat to pass the class, so Q would still be true. If you want it biconditonal, the notation you're looking for is P < - > Q (sorry, on mobile and can't get fancy). The can't prove a negative bit is most likely referring to if P is false, we assume the statement (P- > Q) is true. That's like saying \"If I go to school tomorrow, I'll get bored.\" You may have a great day, but if you don't go to school, we can't prove you wouldn't be bored, so we'll take your word for it.",
"First, it is a principle applied to inductive, not deductive logic. In your mostly correct example, you show it is pretty easy to prove negatives deductively. With inductive logic, the idea is that absence of evidence is not proof of absence. You can't, for instance, prove there is no life on the moon. You can amass a mountain of evidence to the point disbelief would be perverse, but you could not prove it in a mathematic sense. That said, people who use \"you can't prove a negative\" are mostly idiots. It is a coward's retreat from a lost argument. You completely dismantled my pet theory about vaccines cause autism or how 9/11 was in inside job, so now I am going to knock the checkerboard over rather than concede defeat."
],
"score": [
13,
8,
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v3xpz | If I bake a cake today with milk that'll expire tomorrow, will my cake also expire tomorrow or has the expiration been nullified? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz25up",
"ddz4c1y",
"ddzarah",
"ddz2b94",
"ddz1y1z"
],
"text": [
"The expiration date from the milk is no longer relevant. Your cake will have the same shelf regardless of whether you used milk expiring tomorrow, or milk expiring much later, because you have killed all the bacteria that were going to make the milk spoil.",
"I worked at a food production facility and it's cool how much effort went into knowing the answers to this type of question. Every ingredient in a product that ends up for sale is considered and chosen for that recipe based on freshness dates. If certain ingredients are not as fresh then the 'sell by' date is changed. Potato salad with all fresh ingredients gets, say, three days on the shelf before the mayo goes off. That's basically universal, so extended shelf life means added salts, maybe sugar or vinegar but usually salt. So if your local deli has takeout potato salad and they say it's good for 2 days refrigerated and Wal-Mart has a tub of it but it's good for 6 days and we can assume similar ingredients ( they don't have magic mayo ) then it's a guarantee the extra 4 days come from the massive amount of added salt.",
"There are a few different dates that get put on food, and they have different meanings. **Sell by** - mostly meaningless to consumers. A note for the store to discard the food after this date, but it's often a week or more before the food goes bad. Ignore this date, or add a week to it. Your milk probably has this date on it. **Best before** - a note for the customer. Quality can't be 100% guaranteed after this date, so you can't sue if it's not up to par, but it's still edible. **Use by** - this is a real one, but it only means quality may degrade after this date. If it smells okay, it's likely still safe. However, all of the above applies to ***unopened*** food. Once you open it, you introduce bacteria and humidity, and if you don't store it properly the date on the package doesn't matter. There are different ways food goes \"bad\" once it's opened: - **Stale/dry:** The flavor or texture is changed by the air. It doesn't taste the best, but it's not bad for you. - **Rancid:** Oils go bad. Some oils are prone to going bad from oxygen, heat, and light. Not only do they taste and smell bad, but they can chemically harm your body. - **Contaminated:** Bacteria grow when there's water or moisture. The bacteria can make you sick, and many bacteria (like botulism) make toxic wastes. Cooking it well kills the bacteria, but cooking won't get rid of the toxins. - **Moldy:** Fungus grows when there's moisture. If you see fuzzy mold or weird colors *anywhere* on the food, it's everywhere in the food. Throw it out. Now, back to the milk. The date on the carton is likely the \"sell by\" date, not an expiration date. Once it's home, add a week to get a better expiry date. Regardless of the date, if you haven't opened it yet, it's probably fine to drink or cook with. If you opened it in the past week and kept it in the fridge, it's probably fine to drink or cook with. It's been in the fridge open for more than a week... bacteria may have gotten in. Pour a bit into a cup and give it a smell. Your nose is good at detecting when something is off. **If it smells ok, it's probably good to cook with.** Cooking will kill off any bacteria and reset the expiration date. Cooking will likely fix stale or dry food too. You can put stale tortilla chips in the oven and they'll be good as new. You can cook with milk beyond its date if it smells fine. **If it looks or smells weird or gross, don't cook with it.** Cooking can kill bacteria, but it can't get rid of the toxic wastes from the bacteria or fungus, and it can't fix any rancid oils. However, you should know that if you're immune system is suppressed (old, very young, pregnant, or otherwise vulnerable to infection) then you should definitely keep to the printed \"use by\" dates and don't eat things after a few hours at room temperature or a few days in the fridge. This stuff may be lightly contaminated but still safe for most people, but it may be dangerous if your immune system can't handle the extra bacteria. You can still cook with it if you cook it thoroughly, but just be cautious.",
"In that case, you've heat killed the bacteria and other harmful pathogens that could grow in it. Chemically, the milk reacts with the other ingredients resulting in a new mixture that may or may not be sustainable for pathogens.",
"Somewhere in-between. The milk is no longer plain milk, it has combined with other ingredients in new combinations, and been cooked (which kills bacteria). But there are so many variables in the milk, the other ingredients, cooking time, and so on, that it's tough to set a new expiry date."
],
"score": [
71,
14,
7,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v3yrg | Why does the ring finger have different "mechanics" to the rest of the fingers? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz243s",
"ddzggtz",
"ddz23l2"
],
"text": [
"The tendon from the wrist lies partially below the tendon for the middle finger. The middle finger position restricts the movement of the ring finger. If the middle finger is curled up (tendon fully stretched), the ring finger can't move. If you leave your hand flat on the table and lift repeatedly the ring finger, you'll see the tendon of the middle finger moving upwards too.",
"You have several muscles which act on your fingers. The thumb is digit 1 and the pinky is digit 5. You have 2 muscles which flex digits 2-5 as a group, and 1 muscle which extends digits 2-5 as a group. This means the actions of the index, middle, ring and pinky fingers are all linked. Some digits have extra special muscles. The thumb has its own flexors, extensors and abductors/abductors (for side to side movement). This means it can act independently. The pinky has its own flexors, extensors and abductors. So it too, can move independently. The index finger has its own extensor, but not flexor, so it can sort of move on its own. Digits 3 and 4 have no extra muscles besides the common flexors and extensors. This means their movements are ALWAYS linked, and the position of one affects the other.",
"What do you mean by \"mechanics\"? You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that."
],
"score": [
100,
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v48cz | Why did infantry soldiers make a square formation against cavalry? | I have seen several photos of soldiers in the Napoleonic era forming square against cavalry charges. What benefits did this yield, and was it an effective strategy? Edit: Thanks for the excellent responses, guys! | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz3y1k",
"ddz3puw",
"ddzn7nr",
"ddza5e3",
"ddz3s4q"
],
"text": [
"A well disciplined square formation was absolutely very effective against cavalry (although by no means immune) but only if done right. First, there's no flank or rear to attack, which is the ideal tactic when using cavalry. In a square formation, all your weapons are facing outward. Second, horses have the same self preservation instinct as humans but without military training, and and such, they won't willing run into volley fire or a wall of bayonets. A well timed square could catch a cavalry charge off guard and take large numbers of them out with volley fire and impale the rest with bayonets. The flip side is that a poorly timed or executed square could quickly turn into a death trap. If the square formed too early or didn't time their fire correctly, the cavalry could regroup at a safe distance and harass them back with their own fire. Worse, infantry support could surround the square and attack or hold them in place under artillery fire.",
"The advantage that cavalry has over infantry is in speed and mobility. A square formation helps counter this in two way - It's hard to flank - if the cavalry attempts to go around and attack on the side, the essentially encountering another front - Because it's several lines deep it can't be charged over (and allow the cavalry to return for a second charge). The horses get \"bogged\" down and are easier to fight back against. Cavalry was usually still going to be much more effective against infantry in almost any situation though.",
"It was very effective against unsupported cavalry. At Waterloo, for example, French cavalry fruitlessly tried attacking allied/British infantry in squares for an extended period of time. Forming a square was a purely anti-cavalry tactic, as it had weaknesses, but it worked for at least three reasons (this list is probably not exhaustive): 1. As others have pointed out, there is no flank and all fronts. 2. Horses will not charge into things. 3. Squares are much more densly packed with arms than cavalry. In order, cavalry charging out of where you did not expect them to come and hitting your flanks or rear is an infantry nightmare. Squares prevent this by making sure there are no flanks. Wherever the cavalry is, it is facing an infantry front. This is no fun for the cavalrymen. And unlike what some will have you believe, horses will not charge into things. They will no more run madly into a wall of bayonets and musket fire than you will run into a wall unflinchingly. Anyone who has ever been on a horse will know this. The nearest thing to this happening was at García Hernández in 1812 when a mortally wounded horse stumbled into a square like a ram and thrashes about (opening the path to other cavalry which charged into the square and - unsurprisingly - had a field day as all the enemy were suddenly showing their rear). Finally, the firepower and bayonets of a square made it almost impenetrable to cavalry. Squares at Waterloo were mostly four ranks deep. The first rank would kneel and plant the musket butt in the ground, with fixed bayonets, creating a wall of spears. The other ranks were free to fire. The infantrymen would stand more or less shoulder to shoulder, many deep, meaning there were a lot of musekts and bayonets pr yard of square front. The cavalry, on the other hand, would ride about outside the square, needing room to manouvre, with considerable space between the horses, all the time sitting on an unstable platform (the horse moving about) whilst the infantry was densely packed and standing on firm ground. The disparity in volume of fire over the fronts of the squares was tremendous, meaning for every carbine or pistol the cavalrymen could fire at the square, many, many times that number of muskets would fire back. The weakness of the square was if it was broken, which it sometimes was when infantry panicked, it was done for. Then it became a death trap. Interestingly, in the movie Waterloo (1970) which was filmed with Red Army extras in huge numbers both as infantry and cavalry, you can in some scenes see squares disintegrating. These were extras in a movie - perfectly safe- but apparently the experience was still scary enough to break them. The real thing must have been very tough going. The other problem was the density. If cavalry was supported by infantry or artillery, the cavalry could force the enemy to maintain a square and then artillery would have a field day with an enemy presenting a perfect target. This was much of the reason for horse artillery, which could keep up with cavalry and help it defeat infantry squares. Or supporting infantry would be able to deploy in line and overwhelm the square with more efficient infantry tactics (essentially having all the infantry face one side of the enemy square, where three quarters of the square would be unable to use their weapons against them).",
"There are a lot of answers about why a square is good. Why didn't they use circles?",
"Cavalry moves much faster than infantry, so it can always out-maneuver infantry and attack from the weakest side. A square equalizes the firepower in all directions so there is no 'weakest side'. (Note: a mathematician might quibble with using a square, but you also need a formation that can be easily assumed by infantrymen jostling in relation to one another). The reason they used the square was that it was effective. Firearms were very inaccurate, so you really needed mass volley fire to do much good. If you had a situation where isolated infantrymen were put up against cavalry, they normally wouldn't be able to do much because the cavalry could close faster than they'd be able to land a lucky shot."
],
"score": [
141,
81,
27,
13,
8
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v4b07 | I live in an area close to Semi-Arid deserts in queensland. My parent's tell me that over the last 15 years rainfall in summer has increased, is it possible for areas that used to be considered desert to no longer be as rainfall increases due to climate change? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz3x29"
],
"text": [
"Of course it is possible. Desert status is just talking about the amount of precipitation an area receives. If it starts getting more precipitation for whatever reason, it might no longer be considered a desert. Just like how huge areas are *becoming* deserts due to human influence and climate change."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v4fn0 | What happens to our bodies when someone makes us jump? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz4vlq"
],
"text": [
"Your brain thinks there is an immediate danger and tells your body to suddenly release loads of adrenaline and activate a part of your nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system which deals with the fight or flight response. This has the effect of increasing your heart rate, making you more alert, making your hairs stand on end, breaking down energy stores so there's lots of glucose for muscles, dilating your pupils and a bunch of other effects. All of these effects are designed so that you can fight or run away as effectively as possible. When we realise that there isn't any danger, we downregulate all of the above effects."
],
"score": [
46
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v4gf8 | Why does baking a cookie make it impossible to turn it back into dough? | Mud can be made back into dirt and water, even after being left in the sun. What's so different about cookie dough? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz5a60",
"ddz76yl",
"ddz507n"
],
"text": [
"Mud is not a chemical reaction. It's just adding water to sand. The water creeps between the sand particles making them move around more easily. The more water the more \"fluid\" it becomes. Baking cookies is a chemical reaction where different ingredients bind together which creates new chemicals. The baking itself removes moisture but also provides the energy (heat) for the chemical reactions. Reversing the procces isnt possible because the energy is already absorbed. Think of it like this: If you take the fuel from a car, the car doesnt reverse to its original position.",
"From what I remember from High School chemistry; Applying heat to food (in this case cookie dough) disrupts the hydrogen bonds and non-polar hydrophobic interactions. This occurs because heat increases the kinetic energy and causes the molecules to vibrate so rapidly and violently that the bonds are disrupted. Essentially, the proteins denature and coagulate during cooking. Watching an egg cook is the most obvious and easy to understand example of this process. We do not have the technology to reverse this process. This would be a much better question for r/askscience if you're looking for a more technical answer.",
"Adding water without a chemical change is different than cooking something. Cooking changes its chemistry. Just like I couldn't put you into a fire for an hour and suddenly being you back to life and make you raw again."
],
"score": [
54,
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v4hzt | How does a paint roller hold so much paint? | This really hit me last night as I spent 10-15 minutes trying to get all of the latex paint out of one roller brush. A paint roller itself isn't very thick, so what physical properties allow it to retain so much paint? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz7ghj"
],
"text": [
"It's literally a sponge, but for paint. The paint roller is full of tons of little holes (most you can't see) that the paint goes into. This is why most sponges (and paint rollers) are very squishy, they're mostly air."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v4iwe | Why do some employers not advertise salary along with the job spec? How can it be advantageous to them? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz5ahd",
"ddz6ou9"
],
"text": [
"Some people, while well qualified for a position are horrible at negotiating salary. If a company can get a quality candidate and save money, it's a win-win situation for them.",
"Salaries in the profesionnal sector can change a lot from person to person within the same company. The employer wil try to get everyone at the lowest possible salary while employees will try to negociate the highest possible salary. Some people undernegociate while others negociate better. Some people are more qualified and worth extra money to the employer's eyes while others lack experience or reputation to justify a higher salary. Some employees will get a better deal if the company actively seeked them out too. In most extreme cases some companies will indicate in your employment contract that you cannot share your salary with anyone. It's often been said that the best way to start a war within the employees is to reveal everybody's salary. One time at my old job HR screwed up and sent everyone a list of all of our remaining vacation days insted of sending a personalised message. Keep in mind this was just vacation days and not salary information but it kicked up quite a storm when people realised that some people had more remaining vacation days than other people's entire yearly vacation bank."
],
"score": [
27,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v4uic | What is the significance of the Falcon 9 first stage landing? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz893r"
],
"text": [
"Sundays landing is just one of seven successful landings although it was the first landing on land during daylight so it makes for impressive footage. The landings is just one step towards cheap reusable rockets. Previously we have intentionally crashed the rockets after their use as there have not been any way to bring them back from that speed and altitude in one piece. The Space Shuttle were one attempt at reusable rockets and did manage to bring back most of its components in one piece but it turned out to be a very complex machinery that were expensive to refurbish between flights. SpaceX plans on reusing the first rocket in March."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v50e2 | What would happen if you were given too much blood when having a transfusion? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddz97ag"
],
"text": [
"I would suggest the weakest point in the the whole \"blood-containment\" system that is your body would be the hole in which the blood was inserted. Most likely the needle would pop out and it would bleed there. But if you did just force more and more blood in, it would cause high blood pressure. Essentially an \"acute hypertensive crisis,\" one of the signs of that is bursting the capillaries in the eyes.... so yes in a way there would be blood coming out your eyeballs. But you'd probably just die of a heart attack."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v5h09 | Why does Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea happen? | Currently taking Augmentin for an Infection and my intestines are launching a revolt. I've done some reading and I understand that it happens because of an imbalance with gut bacteria and a change in carbohydrate metabolism. But how does this translate to diarrhea? What exactly happens? For reference, I was reading this study on Probiotics to combat it: URL_0 | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzdetp"
],
"text": [
"Your digestive system is largely contingent upon literal pounds of bacteria you have in your gut, which help to break down foods and extract maximal nutrition. It is however, not a lovely home, but a battlefield against invading and malignant (to us) bacteria, fungus, and viruses. The population of \"friendly\" bacteria are in a constant (hopefully winning) conflict with the invaders, and the result is that your gut is healthy. Unfortunately antibiotics are the equivalent of gassing the battlefield... everyone dies. Then result is that your massed troops are wiped out, and the war gets *really* messy for a while until they can marshal their forces again. Good yogurt can help."
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v5hl9 | What does it mean to have a certain percentage of ownership in a company, and how does that translate into a monetary value? | This post was inspired by someone's AdviceAnimal meme, saying that he/she was offered 10% of a company for creating a product that sold out twice (whether it's true or not is irrelevant to me). I also enjoy watching Shark Tank, and of course all of the deals involve one of the Sharks taking a certain percentage of the company in exchange for whatever money is provided to the company. My question is, especially in the case of the 10% in the first example, how is that translated into dollars and cents? If I were just of the blue given 10% ownership in any one company, what does that entitle me to have/do and, let's say on my taxes, how much would I be required to pay? Thanks for any responses. | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzdfqd"
],
"text": [
"If you own X% of a company, that would grant you certain rights and privileges in guiding that company, depending on how the company is structured. Typically, you'd have some say/vote in how company runs although whether that's any actual power depends on how distrubuted the ownership is... if one other guy owns 90%, then he'll always get his way. If there are 20 partners who each own less than 10%, then you might be able to side with them against the founder if you have different opinions. An ownership stake would also typically grant you a 10% cut of whatever profits/dividends the owners pull out of the business at the end of the year. If once all the bills are paid, etc. and there is $100k profit left that ownership decides to pay out as profit sharing to owners, then he'd get $10k. But the business could decide to retain the earnings to re-invest into the business. Additionally, his net worth would go up by 1/10 the value of the business. Depending on the type of business, there is usually a ratio of profits that determine a business value... often about 8-10x profits. So let's say this business is worth $1 million were it to be sold, then his 10% ownership would be worth $100k. While it's a number on his net worth, it's not really something he can do much with unless the business goes public, gets sold, etc."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v5nd5 | Why do some people involuntarily bounce their leg(s) when they're nervous, bored, or for no reason at all? | I catch myself doing it all the time. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddze9by",
"ddzebjp",
"de03xra",
"de0fbe3"
],
"text": [
"I have anxiety and I can't really do one thing at a time, without going nuts, so I bounce my leg as an activity to add to things that I'm doing.",
"The theory in people with AHDD wiggle and fidget to keep their frontal lobe awake. I assume it's similar in that keeps certain parts of the brain activated.",
"apparently people do it to cope with adhd or anxiety, but personally if I make my leg stand on its toes it starts doing it, as far as I know I don't have adhd, anxiety, etc. I just like doing it",
"I do this too, particularly when I'm anxious or excited. I'm pretty sure it's partly to do with blood circulation. When you're in an arroused state, like anxiety, your heartrate increases. The increased heartrate is normally accompanied by movement, like when during exercise. This movement helps the flow of blood back towards the heart because when your is applied the blood can only move forward to escape it, which helps blood get back to the heart. But if you're in class stressing about the upcoming test, or excited for the bell to ring for recess, you're stuck sitting at your desk despite the increase in heartrate from your arroused state. So to compensate, you twitch or bounce your legs. So when you bounce your knee, your calf muscles are essentially working kind of like a second heart, helping the blood pumped back from your extremities keep pace with the blood pumped to them by your heart."
],
"score": [
13,
7,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v5nn8 | What makes particular adhesives bond so well with their intended material? (I.e. woodglue woodglue, JBWELD-Metal etc) | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzek48"
],
"text": [
"Adhesives work by a couple of mechanisms, but there's two basic ways to get things to stick together with glue: * Sticky substance that bonds to both surfaces * A chemical reaction that welds both surfaces together The first is accomplished by using a substance that in its initial state is liquid because it's mixed with water or some solvent, and applying it to a surface. The liquid permeates the little imperfections or fibers (in the case of things like wood or paper) and as it hardens, encloses parts of the surface within the glue itself. When the water or solvent (technically, I guess water is a solvent but we don't think of it that way) evaporates, the glue hardens and forms a bond. Another way this is done is via epoxy resins, like JB-Weld, and similar adhesives. These are two part mixes of a resin and a \"catalyst\", that are liquid or gelatinous normally, but when combined go through a chemical reaction- they get really hot for a bit- then harden into an extremely durable and solid substance. Epoxies are typically stronger than wood glue, and are more frequently used on smooth surfaces like metal, marble, tile, etc. They form very long molecular chains called polymers, and these long chains give them a lot of strength. Another way to glue things together works mostly with plastics, and is how \"superglue\" and model glue work, at least when used on plastic (when used on other surfaces, it's more like an epoxy). When applied to most plastic surfaces, the glue actually melts the plastic and when applied to another surface, the two weld together."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v5pbs | How are new words assigned a gender in languages | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzje73"
],
"text": [
"In my native language, which is Czech, the words we adopt from other languages get their gender based on how they sound to us, which is usually based on its ending. For example the word Internet is of male gender because it sounds similar to other male words (such as \"kabinet\"). Another example can be the word \"premisa\", which is female, because it ends with \"a\" which is common for female words. There are of course exceptions."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v5po3 | Seriously, assuming trickle down economics really trickles anything down, why then does the income inequality gap keep on getting wider? | Seriously, assuming trickle down economics really trickles anything down, why then does the income inequality gap keep on growing? Shouldn't we see the income inequality gap shrinking instead, as a result of the historical influence of Reaganomics on our economy? I would like to see serious answers from those who have knowledge about economics and also consider trickle down economics as an economic strategy that really works. After all, we have a new President who thinks it works. So, we should try to understand how it works, assuming that it really does work. | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzf4e0",
"ddzeorx",
"ddzk87h",
"ddzgqrm",
"ddzf42t",
"ddzfg1j"
],
"text": [
"The fact of the matter is that \"trickle down\" or \"supply side\" economics have been hyped since Regan took office 40 years ago... and it DOES NOT work. The belief that businesses will invest in equipment/create jobs because they have lower interest rates or lower taxes doesn't hold water if the demand isn't present, too. And on the flipside, a business will almost always find some way to invest in something that's sure to make them more money, even if they have to borrow, issue equity, etc. So at the end of the day, it's just a way to justify to the many poor people that cutting taxes to the rich will help everybody out and not just the rich. But, as you pointed out, the rising inequality in wealth suggests it's not working.",
"\"Trickle down\" is a pejorative term, used by critics for tax cuts and subsidies to businesses (\"supply side\") rather than consumers (\"demand\"). It's a political phrase that does not describe any comprehensive set of economic policies, so it's hard to answer your question. Your question also assumes that the United States has historically practiced \"trickle down\" policies, which is debatable--for example, corporate income tax rates in recent decades are relatively high compared to other developed economies.",
"> So, we should try to understand how it works, assuming that it really does work. Most people have commented on the trickle down part, so I'll just emphasize that logically this doesn't make any sense. To use an example, what you're asking is \"assuming the Earth is flat, how can we understand that\". The problem is, the Earth may not (And in this example, isn't) flat. You're running in circles. You can't assume something is true and try to prove itself from that. What you might ask instead is \"how might this work\" and if there's any evidence of that. But unless you're trying to do a proof by contradiction, you should be very wary of assuming something you think is false, to be true- it can easily lead you astray. > Shouldn't we see the income inequality gap shrinking instead, as a result of the historical influence of Reaganomics on our economy? It's worth pointing out, that even if trickle down did work, there is no guarantee that says it has to trickle down equitably. Mostly, the promise is that cutting taxes on the wealthy will produce economic activity lower down- there's no promise that says the lower down economic activity will be proportional to how much richer the wealthy would be, just that it's more economic activity than otherwise. If the wealthy become 5% richer, and the middle class 1%, that would increase overall inequality, but still make people richer.",
"Trickle down doesn't work. It's been shown that when rich people get more money they do not spend more, they save more. They don't increase their investments or hire more people. There is diminishing returns on rich folk getting more money because there's only so much a single person can do with money to generate jobs and economic progress.",
"It has to do with how they earn and spend their income. This makes it inevitable. The rich get their money from their investments that make them money. They spend most of their money on further investments that make them even more money. They usually do this by owning a company. Yes, they take some money out of it to live well, but most of the money the company makes stays in the company, and is being used to try and make it grow. The poor and the middle class get their money from their salary, and spend most of it on consumption (things that don't make you any money). How much money they earn is decided by supply and demand. You won't get rich if you work for someone else. Salaries won't increase exponentially, only investment does. This is the general rule. The only notable exceptions to this are successful people like actors and sportsmen, who are in high demand. They are the people who get high enough salaries to be considered rich, but they are not the ones we think of when we say \"the rich get richer\".",
"The President thinks it works because it works for *him*. It doesn't work for most Americans because it relies on investment, and most Americans can't afford to invest as much as they'd need to in order to benefit."
],
"score": [
9,
5,
5,
4,
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v61y9 | How do forensic pathologists locate a dead person's dentist to get dental records? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzhq89"
],
"text": [
"Unlike with DNA, there is no big database of dental records. So, in order for identify to be verified through dental records, we actually first need an idea of who the dead person might be. This can be based on missing persons files or tips from the public or other items found on the body. When they have a name they think might be the one belonging to the dead person, they contact that person's dentist (the might get the number through that person's family) and ask them for the dental records. Nowadays if you are reporting someone as missing, you are often asked to also provide dental records if possible. These will go on file, and if someone other police department thinks they may have found the remains of that particular person, they can contact the police department handling the missing person's case and ask them for the dental records they have on file. It speeds up the process in that they don't have to go looking to contact the dentist first."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v65zr | If I'm driving up a mountain and reach the clouds, what differentiates the low lying clouds from fog? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzi55n",
"ddzi7kj",
"ddzi77j",
"de0gcew"
],
"text": [
"Fog is just clouds at ground level. The elevation that water vapor precipitates is dependent on temperature and humidity. Most of the time, the ground level humidity isn't high enough. Sometimes it is.",
"There is no difference. Low lying clouds are called fog. However it is the exact same thing and behaves the exact same way. You can even have rainy fog.",
"fog is typically a stratus cloud, but not always. URL_0",
"Nothing. Fog and clouds are both just giant puffs of gaseous water. When it's up in the sky and we can see it all at once, we call it a cloud. When it's down on the ground and we're inside of it? Fog."
],
"score": [
7,
6,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.reference.com/science/kind-cloud-fog-147246e564726888"
],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v6a24 | Why do some people faint when they see blood | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddziz3x",
"ddzoyjp"
],
"text": [
"Seeing blood extremely stresses them to the point of their brain shutting down to relieve the stress. It's sort of like jerking your hand away from a hot surface.",
"It's an ancient reaction to save your life from aggressors. It's less likely to be killed by an animal or another human if you faint: you won't be perceived as a threat if you lie on the ground. So other humans or animals defending their territory will give up on you. This is a desperate move in case you are seriously harmed. Basically when these people see blood the oldest part of their brain kicks in, it orders the reduction of the blood pressure (less heartbeats, dilatation of blood vessels) so that less and less blood reaches the brain which shuts down partially, the more a part of the brain consumes energy/oxygen the sooner it will shut down. The most ancient part will likely remain active to bring you back to coscience."
],
"score": [
6,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v6byx | How does the Pirate Bay keep maintaining a well known easy to type DNS address? | After the big raid in 2006 and the other subsequent attempts to shut down the Pirate Bay, I naturally assumed that we would all very shortly end up needing to copy-paste IP addresses into our address bar to access the Pirate Bay site which we'd be sharing on forums or whatever. But to my surprise, I've never had to do that. Nor have we had to use unrelated addresses like " URL_0 " -- no, it's always straightforward "thepiratebay.country". How is this happening? I understand why the authorities aren't able to kill the pirate bay, but surely they should be able to deprive it of an easy obvious domain name. It has always remained so easy to access that a retarded monkey could use it. This seems remarkable. How have they done it? I've searched other attempts at asking this question but none of the answers were very good. Most didn't seem to understand that the question was about the domain name and those that did seemed to simply repeat "can't do it" without saying what's actually been stopping governments around the world from at least making it less easy to access through a super convenient and easy to remember domain. When I Google this, all I find are a bunch of articles about how to access the pirate bay, not about why governments haven't been able to take away their domain name. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzjuvp"
],
"text": [
"Well, you mainly need to understand the politics of domain names and ICANN. ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the organization that oversees the internet in general through two primary tasks, IP address allocation to ISPS, and DNS. They \"oversee\" DNS in a bit of a weird way, here is why. The ending of the domain name like .com or .org, is known as a Top Level Domain, or TLD, and while ICANN is the one to make it, it is always by request of some other organization, which becomes the administrator for that domain name. ICANN's actual control of who registers what domain name is very limited and is left largely to the administrators of the TLDs. All ICANN does is make the TLD for it by adding an entry for it in the 13 root name servers, the backbone of DNS, ask 18 cents for each domain registered if the domain is bought, and just make sure that the administrators have all the necessary infrastructure to keep that TLD up and running. Outside of that, there are hundreds of organizations responsible for their TLDs, and if you register thepiratebay for each TLD, there ain't shit anyone can do about it, Sweden forces the administrator of the .se domain (which they do because .se is obviously administered by a Swedish organization) to take it down, they switch to another one based in somewhere Sweden can't reach. ICANN has its power in the matter limited both contractually and physically, there is really no way ICANN can take down a single domain name other than asking the administrator to do so."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v6elb | What makes olive oil virgin and extra virgin? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzqvmx"
],
"text": [
"Extra-virgin olive oil EVOO is the highest-quality olive oil and is extracted from olives through a process called cold pressing, which means the oil is removed using only pressure and was not heated over a certain temperature. This is the best way to keep all of the good-for-you antioxidants and monounsaturated fats in the oil. Cold pressing also preserves the most olive flavor and keeps the acidity under 1%. EVOO has a low smoke point, which means it doesn't take a high temperature for it to start smoking. Use EVOO for anything from salad dressings and cold dishes to cooking. Virgin olive oil Though virgin olive oil (without the \"extra\") is produced through the same process and is not blended with other oils, it's made from slightly riper olives. It has a lighter flavor and is around 2% acidity. Use virgin olive oil for cold dishes or low-temperature cooking."
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v6gb9 | What degree of regulation does the financial sector currently have after the Great Recession? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzmujb"
],
"text": [
"I'm going to assume you largely mean the U.S. , since responses vary greatly by country. By far the biggest change was the introduction of the Dodd-Frank Act (for now, anyway. The current administration is looking to repeal it. If it does get repealed, we'll essentially be back where we were just before 2008). DF is a really complex law, so I'm only going to hit the highlights: Dodd Frank * instituted higher capital requirements for \"too big to fail\", including so called shadow banks like GE's finance arm (more capital means less leverage, which means they're less likely to overextend) * created the \"Volcker rule\" to limit proprietary trading (banks using deposits from consumers to trade with), which can be risky * created a \"wind down/living will\" procedure for big banks, so in the case of a crisis they won't threaten the rest of the economy. Basically, they need to have a plan if shit hits the fan (and ideally thus no bailout) & nbsp; all of the above are audited to insure compliance & nbsp; * created the CFPB- the SEC's sister orgnanization(the SEC only protects investors, not consumers), whose goal is to protect consumers (they were behind the big Wells Fargo fake account bust), mainly by consolidating regulations that were already on the books in various agencies, but not a priority * required derivatives to be traded through a clearing house, which improved transparency/collateral. & nbsp; There's various other components. As far as preventing another 2008, by far the most important are probably the increased capital standards/scrutiny You can read more [here]( URL_0 ) Like i said, there are a lot of little pieces that come together to make different things safer"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodd%E2%80%93Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v6h1r | How do companies choose "random winners" in giveaways? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzwqxc",
"ddzl3ae"
],
"text": [
"I used to have a big excel spreadsheet and would shout to the office 'someone give me a number between 2 and 16,595'",
"When you submit your information, it will be given a record with a number. They will then use a algorithm which is universally declared 'random' to generate a number from 1 to the number of people who entered. They then fetch the record corresponding to that number and declare whoever that is as the winner. If the giveaway has multiple winners it will repeat with the previously selected winners removed from the selection."
],
"score": [
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v6l1z | How does Bluetooth work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzlqf9"
],
"text": [
"Bluetooth is essentially marketing. It branded a specific radio frequency and standardised how devices talk to each other. The actual technology is nothing special."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v6ru8 | I've heard our DNA is 98% identical to a chimpanzee but that we have 50% of our mothers DNA and 50% of our fathers DNA. How am I only 2% different from a chimpanzee and 50% different from my mom? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddznf0g",
"ddzqs9t",
"ddznc0y",
"ddzs4yu"
],
"text": [
"Your parents share something like 99.8% of the same DNA, so the 50/50 split is only in the remaining 0.2%, not the entire DNA sequence. To put it in perspective, your parents are a pair of Ford Focuses, red and blue. A Chimpanzee is like a Ford Fiesta, which is 98% similar to a Focus. You are a purple Focus, 50% mom, 50% dad, but still 98% similar to a Fiesta.",
"Think of DNA as instructions for putting together a car. All of the individual genes are like individual schematics for individual parts, or instructions for how they fit together, or references for commonly used part sizes or colors, etc. Now, imagine you had to put all of those instructions into a single book that could be used for all cars. The rough parts would be basically the same, engine, transmission, frame, wheels, steering, electric components, glazing, every part and procedure for building them all go into the book. To keep things organized, all instruction manuals are codified and ordered in the same way, so that any page from any manual can be replaced with the same page from any other manual. The page describing headlights for one car is the same as any other headlights page, but the shape, size, bulb, lens, wiring, all might vary from car to car as options. Any two manuals are compatible because they both have a page for headlights, not because the headlights are all the same. Cars have options that come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. (Some have parts in different places, but let's not get too tangled in this analogy.) Each person is like a book that has been copied from two other books. Each page comes from either the mother or the father in equal proportions. If your mother's car was blue, and your father's car was yellow, you might end up with a green car, or you might end up with a blue car depending on whether the paint is mixed (co-dominant genes) or if each color goes on as a coat and blue goes on last (dominant-recessive pairs). Now imagine the instruction manual for a truck. It would have roughly the same information, same structure, a lot of the same procedures and components. But you couldn't combine half the pages from a truck and a car. You'd end up with an El Camino, and nobody wants that. You could also have the manual for a motorcycle, which again would follow the same overall structure, but would result in a vehicle that is even further separated from a car. Taxonomy differentiates between species by which individuals can reproduce together to produce viable offspring. A poodle and a pug are the same species, but a donkey and a horse are different species (this is an oversimplification, but considering we're in /r/eli5, I'll allow it). A mule is infertile (usually) but a puggle can pop out as many designer puppies as it's poor little dysplased hips can manage. So when we say that humans and other great apes share 97% of our DNA, that means the structure and components of the manual are the same, not that the specifics pages contain the same options. When you compare your genes to those of your parents, the manuals are 100% the same in that they follow the same structure, but 50% of the information (options) comes from each of your parents.",
"The answer is that you're not 50% different from your mom. The 50% of your DNA that came from your dad is still human DNA, and this is extremely similar to the other 50% that you didn't get from your mom. For example, any human has DNA that gives us hands and arms rather than fins; lungs in our chest; a kidney on each side; skin; the ability to produce enzymes that digest certain foods; and so on. Every human's DNA is incredibly similar.",
"98% DNA is often misunderstood by the media that spread half lie. When you want to compare DNA you need to align them. Take these two sequence for example. AEKSLDDFFGGDOW vs ESLDDFFGGOEL It would make no sense to just compare the first letter or each, then the second of each, etc. Because you see that the sequence LDDFFGG is the same for both. Then you need to look at INDEL which stand for INsertion and DELetions. We talk about both with the same term because we can't know which one it is when we compare two sequences. Take a look again at our sequence of letters. Before the LDDFFGG we have a ES in both sequence. In the first one there is a K between the E and the K, but not in the second sequence. What happen? Did the K was added in the first sequence or the K was removed in the second sequence?. So scientist actually use different % to compare DNA from chim and human for exemple. If you take out the unalign sections and don't count the INDEL you end up with 98.5% similar. If you count the INDEL, but not the unalign sections you have 95.8% similar. And if you count everything you end up with 81% similar. The real answer is 81% of our DNA is similar to Chim, but the 98.5% is more flashy for an article. 98.5% isn't a lie, it's a specific number that is useful, but not the full story. The difference between human in the DNA is very small. It can go up to 0.1%, but between people of the same family it can be even smaller. So you get 50% of your DNA from your father 49.95% of it is standard in all human and about 0.05% or less is specific from your dad. The same from your mother."
],
"score": [
166,
100,
7,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7354 | Do tsunamis have the same impact on sea life and the layout of the ocean as they do on land? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzq2rj"
],
"text": [
"Nope. In open ocean, a tsunami passes just like a long wave. You wouldn't even notice it if you were on a boat."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v74kr | How do we "sense" the presence of someone near us when they haven't made any sound? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzyx60",
"ddzt0n3"
],
"text": [
"Your senses aren't like a completely clear window on the world. Think of it this way, you're constantly bombarded with all kinds of sensory input, so much that would be way too overwhelming to process it all consciously It's like, right up until you read this sentence, you weren't really aware of the feeling of the tongue in your mouth or the way your shoes or socks feel on your feet. Basically, your brain takes in all that input, processes it, then only makes you consciously aware of what's important at the time. It's like being in a crowded room with a hundred conversations going on around you. All the talking just sounds like an incoherent roar, you can't make out individual words...but if someone in earshot says your name, you hear it immediately. Your brain has been processing all the conversations, disregarded most of it as ireelevant, but at the mention of your name, your brain says \"Hey, that's important'. So, you might not have consciously heard a sound, but you'll have heard, felt, smelled or saw something that made your brain suddenly go \"Hey, I think there's someone here\".",
"Could be the change in ambience noise, in a quiet room just by breathing you create some sound and if somebody suddenly appeares in the middle of the room that changes sound reflection from that direction just enough for you to notice."
],
"score": [
20,
9
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v75vz | Why is it easier to fall asleep during a daytime nap and harder to fall asleep at night? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzxv69"
],
"text": [
"You only take naps when you _know_ you're tired and ready to sleep. Night sleep is compelled by schedule and has enough \"downside\" to failure. If you miss a nap it doesn't matter. If you don't need a nap, you don't take one. But if you miss a night's sleep it's a formula for disaster. So you get a little performance anxiety. If you ever have trouble sleeping then you worry about having trouble sleeping. Worry makes it hard to sleep. And also, something like 10% of the people are actually, empirically \"night people\" and the day-sleep is natural for them and the night sleep is an abomination. I am one of those people."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v79kt | How does a wireless phone charger work? How can the phone receive more energy without being connected at all? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzrt8s",
"ddzs0wn"
],
"text": [
"The charging base has an electromagnetic transmitter, and in your phone is a receiver that is connected to your battery charging circuit. basically, they are both magnets. Electricity and magnetism are related, and you can use the difference of potential and oscillation (think of it as a magnetic vibration) to generate electricity. So think of it like this - the plug in the wall brings the electricity to the charging base, which changes it in to a magnetic field. The receiver in your phone converts this magnetic field back to electricity which it uses to charge your phone.",
"They use \"induction charging\". The fundamental idea is that an induction coil turns an electromagnetic field into energy or energy into an electromagnetic field. If a magnetic field flows through the center of a coiled wire, a voltage is generated in the wire, which causes an electrical current to flow"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v79zt | How come you can us your finger or stylus when scrolling on an iPhone, but not a pencil eraser? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzrjhk",
"ddzsx68",
"ddzvb45"
],
"text": [
"iPhones (and other similar smartphones and tablets) use what is called a capacitive touchscreen. This means that it uses the electricity flowing through your body to complete a circuit to detect touch. The styluses that work with these screens are designed to have a conductive surface to complete that circuit. Pencil erasers don't complete that circuit.",
"Ok but once I actually opened an app by touching a bagel to my screen? Why the hell did it work?",
"I at first misread this as OP wondering why you can't erase pencil with your finger. Thought some of you might get a laugh out of it."
],
"score": [
12,
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7aio | How do Antidotes work? Why are they specific venom to venom? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0goht",
"ddztduj"
],
"text": [
"Venom antidotes (like spider, snake, etc) are antibodies to that PARTICULAR venom. The way they get these antibodies is this: they inject small amounts of a particular venom into a subject (horse, for example). The horse has a reaction and makes antibodies to the venom. The antibodies are ONLY to that venom, they are very specific. The antibodies are then collected from the horse. So when somebody gets bitten and injected with that same venom, then give them a shot of the horse antibodies, which stick to the venom and neutralize it.",
"Well that depends how the venoms work. Some may work by simply working opposite of the poison they're meant to counter, some may bind the venom, lessening its effect. Example, in atropine poisoning, one would use pilocarpine. Atropine is a paradympatholytic agent, pilocarpine is a parasympathomimetic. What that means is they affect the parasympathetic system, atropine slowing it down, pilocarpine speeding it up. Example 2, when one takes too much acetaminopben, body is unable to bind all the metabolytes, setting them free to destroy the liver n stuff. Acetylcystein binds the harmful metabolytes, making them harm-less. So basically, it goes on a case-by-case basis."
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7an9 | Why is laughter a natural reaction to something funny? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzv9ca",
"de0eyqx"
],
"text": [
"> \"It's been found that if you ask people what makes them laugh they'll talk about jokes and humour, but we laugh most frequently when we are with other people - and hardly ever at jokes. It's a social emotion and we use it to make and maintain social bonds.\" > \"Laughter is a non-verbal emotional expression and these sounds, which we typically make when in the grip of quite strong emotions, are more like animal calls than they are like our normal speech. > We make them in very simple ways (unlike speech) and they are controlled by an evolutionarily \"older\" brain system, one that looks after vocalisation in all mammals (unlike speech). > This is why a stroke can rob someone of the ability to speak, but leave them able to laugh and cry. They have suffered damage to the brain areas that enable them to speak, but the older emotional system is still intact.\" URL_0 That article near enough explains everything you'd want to know.",
"Laughter is one of science's enduring mysteries, but there are some theories that seek to explain it. One of the main theories is that laughter originated as a \"false alarm\" signal. When primates spot a predator, they scream to alert their group. However, if they later realize that they were mistaken and there was no predator to begin with, they laugh. This may be why laughter is contagious (to pass on the message) and why it lowers stress (since it indicates that there was no danger to begin with). Humor, even the complex humor found in jokes, is a result of unexpectedness, when we think things are going in one direction and they suddenly turn out to be otherwise. The fact that this triggers laughter may be an accidental side effect of laughter's the original function; any \"surprise\" combined with a \"lack of stress\" triggers the \"false alarm\" signal. However, since laughter naturally reduces stress, we have re-purposed it for creating social bonds. Many social mammals, as diverse as rats and dogs, will also laugh when tickled, although they do so soundlessly. This may be another form of social signaling, possibly unrelated to the more complex signaling of noisy primate laughter, although it is worth noting that a tickle also straddles the boundary between positive and negative sensations, being technically an offshoot of pain, yet at the same time non-threatening."
],
"score": [
19,
11
],
"text_urls": [
[
"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37311320"
],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7ayp | Do water treatment plants have special methods to remove pharmaceutical drugs (and metabolites) from the waste water? Are they effective at preventing trace amounts of drugs from going back into the drinking water? | Just wondering how water treatment plants remove drugs (and their metabolites) from water that is peed out after human consumption. I've heard that there are traces of drugs in drinking water and I wonder sometimes about how those traces can affect humans. Do the plants have to do different things to take out different drug metabolites (Like Prozac vs Cocaine vs Metformin etc) or do they just have a one size fits all (or not) method? Thanks! | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddztifd",
"ddzuhuf"
],
"text": [
"There is no method. If the drug or metabolites has a nitrogen or phosphorus in usable form, it gets ate. Otherwise no. The bacteria and other higher order life enjoy phosphate and nitrate primarily, (NO2, NO3, PO4....), ammonia (NH4) and other stuff like that. Some of the drugs may be eaten by higher order life forms, but that's not their job. So maybe some of the drugs get mitigated through the sludge wasting process. They might be in those organisms and get culled. The bleach at the end may break it apart. But overall, the plant separates untreatable solids, let's \"bugs\" eat the rest, let it settle, bleach the clear water, and return it. The primary focus is returning water similar to the receiving stream,or better. That is measured by nitrogen and phosphorus amounts in final product as well as a total allowable coliform count. Maybe that has changed in the last ten years?",
"I'm not an expert, but have a little exposure to this subject. On large scale, treated water isn't intended for reuse as drinking water. It is instead used for irrigation, thermal, or other non-potable uses, thus helping preserve potable water for drinking and showering uses ( URL_1 ). If the black or gray water is purified to drinking water standards, it goes through significantly more processing, which is usually non-economic in most locations ( URL_0 ). At a minimum this probably involves carbon or sediment filters and reverse osmosis membranes."
],
"score": [
9,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/environmental-engineering/blackwater-becomes-a-sparkling-resource",
"https://water.usgs.gov/edu/wwreclaimed.html"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v7br3 | How many words do you have to know, in order to figure out what every word in the dictionary means? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddztm9y"
],
"text": [
"An answer of sorts was provided by a linguist called Charles Kay Ogden in 1930. He created a version of English called \"Basic English\", which contains what he thinks is the minimum number of words a foreign student of English would need to communicate. Basic English has a core vocabulary of 850 words, which he thought should be enough for everyday life. He recommended that students should also learn another 150 or so words that relate to whatever job they're interested in. Further, he estimated there would be about 200 words that are \"international\" -- common to many languages -- which students should have no problem picking up. Those 1,200 words should be enough for the student to graduate with: if they learned another 1,000 words of the type often found in newspapers, they should be pretty much independent. Wikipedia has been translated into many languages, and one of them is [Simple English]( URL_1 ) -- which you can check out and judge for yourself. The vocabulary is based on Ogden's ideas, and contains 2,626 words (substantially more than Ogden estimated): you can see the word list [here]( URL_0 ). These are the words used by the Simple English Wikipedia, which is probably the closest thing to an answer to your question."
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Basic_English_combined_wordlist",
"https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7kbb | Gerrymandering. I read the definition but I still don't understand | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddztwhh",
"ddzujyj",
"ddzu470"
],
"text": [
"Gerrymandering is drawing district lines in a way that benefits one person or party at the expense of others. [Here is an image that explains it very simply.]( URL_0 )",
"Gerrymandering is a method of drawing voting districts in a way that favors the preferred candidate. Relevant WaPo article: URL_0",
"In the simple case you have a first past post election with several districts. In a first past post system the candidate with the most votes wins the election. Any votes that is not part of the majority or any additional votes the candidate gets after getting majority is wasted. Gerrymandering is the act of drawing district lines to make sure the wasted votes are for your opponent. Some districts will have 51% of your voters which means 1% of your voters will waste their vote but the 49% that voted for your opponent will also waste their votes. Other districts will have 100% of your opponents voters so 50% of them will waste their vote. This way you can turn an election."
],
"score": [
21,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"http://i.imgur.com/uscIGCR.png"
],
[
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/01/this-is-the-best-explanation-of-gerrymandering-you-will-ever-see/"
],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7n3y | Why can't doctors just surgically remove most of the fat from obese people? | I mean more than what apparently a liposuction can do. Thank you for the explanation :) | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzvth4",
"ddzugr9",
"ddzug94",
"de01s4s"
],
"text": [
"They can, because that is roughly what liposuction does. However, liposuction is expensive, dangerous, and really doesn't address most of the health issues relvant to obesity. The health problems of obesity are generally due to the deposits of fat in places where it's not immediately apparent, like inside major arteries, around the liver, and high blood-pressure. Simply removing he fatty tissue from around the belly doesn't solve these problems. It also dosn't correct the behaviors that caused the obesity in the first place. This makes liposuction pretty much exclusively a cosmetic procedure similar to a nose job or breast implants.",
"A lot of it is around vital organs. It can be very dangerous to go cutting into those areas, especially since diet changes are always possible.",
"Because carving people open and removing huge chunks of them is incredibly dangerous. It would be a surgery with a very low survival rate.",
"They can, to a degree, as others here have said. However, that's solving the symptoms not the problem, the fat will just come back without a change in habits."
],
"score": [
14,
8,
7,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v7o85 | why does hearing and balance happen in the same organ? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de01rnu"
],
"text": [
"Evolution often creates the simplest system that works the most efficiently. In order to hear, your body has a complex series of physical reactions that happen in your ear transcribing sound waves. The last stage of this transcription, which converts the sound wave messages into neural signals, takes place in fluid-filled tubes deep in your inner ear. The reason that this is usable to find balance is that fluids are, when at rest, always level with the plane of gravity. For example, when you have water in a cup, and tilt the cup, the water remains level with the ground. Your inner ear uses the same property of fluids to create a sense of balance. Construction levels use the same property. This is why very loud sounds are disorienting to your sense of balance. When your inner ear is strongly disrupted, the fluids are moving in a way that doesn't actually reflect your body's position in relation to the ground."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7o8n | Hughes Phenomenon | I am writing a paper on Hyperspectral Imaging and Hughes Phenomenon is an important limiting factor in small data sets. It has many associated terms like "peaking paradox" and "curse of dimensionality" and I just need a clear way to understand this... thank you. | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzvphs"
],
"text": [
"Accoording to [Wikipedia]( URL_0 ), Hughes phenomenon states that when you have a dataset of fixed number of samples, let's say 1000, then the more dimensions the samples have, the worse the system will be. For example if you samples are 2 dimensional (for example points on Earth surface), you'll be able to train a decent predicting system with your 1000 samples, but when you have 500 dimensional samples (for example if each sample represents values taken from 500 temperature sensors), then 1000 samples won't be enough to train a decently predicting system. This is also known as curse of dimensionality. EDIT: The intuitive explanation is that to train a good predicting system it has to \"see\" a lot of possible combinations of possible values in order to learn the patterns in the data. With more dimensions there is more possible combinations and so you need many more samples."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_dimensionality"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v7uy2 | What happens to all the insects and small lifeforms during a flood or high rain? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzwj7x"
],
"text": [
"Insects don't need as much oxygen as mammals, experiments have shown ants to live for weeks in sealed water-filled test tubes. Some ants can also form large floating rafts and simply float on top of the flood. Some will head to trees and high ground, and many will simply drown."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v7zd0 | Why are we told to cut plants back so they grow better next season? But this would not happen in the wild. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzxn33"
],
"text": [
"Plants in the wild are naturally trimmed by animals that eat them. They also don't grow to 100% potential, which is generally the goal of any human-cared-for plant."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v80jp | I empty a glass full of water. I tilt it upside down and shake it, yet there are still small bits of water in the glass, the small bits of liquid don't fall down too? | Is gravity too weak to pull down the small leftovers? or is friction holding the other bits in place? there seems to be a line where liquid behaves differently based on the amount | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzy1y1"
],
"text": [
"Not friction but surface tension. Water stick very well to itself and to other surfaces, such as the side of your glass."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v8613 | Why do almost all countries still have speed limits on highways, even though Germany has no speed limit and has a low crash rate? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzz1cv",
"de04uuz",
"de07qr7",
"de00nks",
"de07w0j"
],
"text": [
"I don't know much about the Hitler thing that other guy is talking about, but an important distinction for your question is that compared to America and the UK, Germany has extremely difficult driving standards. This is just a quick jump away from the idea that if your driving standards are higher, you will have less drivers in total, but those that do drive will drive on average at a higher caliber. With safer roads, better drivers, and safer cars, there is little need for Germany to have speed restrictions. Edit: Wikipedia states that the cost for the test and class alone in Germany is about 1800$, which was way more than the 200$ for the class and 35$ for the test here in California.",
"As a German, the reason lies probably in that you need to reverse your question – why has Germany not yet introduced a general speed limit? Because what really matters is what is by the countries seen as desirable and a thing to work towards. And a general speed limit is what is seen as the \"better\" thing, which leaves Germany as a bit of a holdout. There are actually frequently noises made about introducing a general limit here, too, but no politician ever dares to make a serious move. We Germans are serious about our cars and driving, and there is a strong lobby working towards keeping things as they are and preserving the interests of all car drivers. The German automobile club ADAC is the biggest auto club in Europe and has currently over 19 million members (in a country with 82 million inhabitants), and they also have a thing or two to say whenever the idea of a general speed limit rises its head. tl;dr: Germany with its Autobahn with no speed limit isn't seen as something to aspire to by other countries, but is instead a lone holdout unwilling to change its way. [btw, there are actually large areas of Autobahn that do have speed limits. The no-limit thing only goes for stretches that are not marked otherwise, and those often end rather abruptly. We also have on the Autobahn a recommended speed of 130 km/h, which means if you get involved in an accident at a speed higher than that, you can still be regarded to be partly at fault even if you weren't the one who caused it]",
"~~Most~~ A lot of the German Autobahn is now speed restricted, I thought. Speed limits have been in general introduced for one of two reasons. Either on the grounds of safety in response to public concern, for example in the UK the motorway speed limit came in after some major accidents caused by fog. Once in place, removing speed limits is not very popular - true, some motorists will welcome it, but safety worries are usually stronger. Note that most roads, including highways, have a \"design speed\" they're built for, with the expectation that traffic driving at that speed will be safe. Raising the speed limit beyond that would increase the risk. Doing 100 mph might be fine on the straights but come to a bend or a junction in the pouring rain and there's a risk of losing control. In the UK at least some curves in interchanges have advisory speeds posted - not legal limits, but a safety recommendation to drivers on a tighter-than-normal curve. The other reason is to encourage saving fuel. Driving at 100 mph is considerably less efficient than driving at 70. It was in response to the 1970's oil crisis that a 55 mph limit came in on American highways",
"I used to live in Germany many years ago, so disclaimer that this info may be old. Although the Autobahn mostly has no limits, parts of it do (near exits, etc.) and there is a \"recommended\" speed for the rest... roughly 120km/h. German citizens have their permits for exactly a year, during which they are kept to strict standards about what it takes to A) keep it and B) obtain a license. When I was there, I had a friend who was 18, still on her permit. She refused to drive anywhere but from work to home, because she told me that if she gets into so much as one accident, she'd lose the opportunity to get a license. Even getting in trouble for speeding on the metered highways could result in bigger ramifications than it does in the United States.",
"The question also combines two things that may not necessarily be related: speed limits and crash rates. I remember reading years ago some stats that the old Car & Driver magazine published; showing that the trend was consistent that the death rates on US highways declined after we adopted the national 55 MPH speed limit. However, they noted that the RATE was actually dropping faster before the national speed limit. It may not sound intuitive, but with adoption of safer designs of cars and tires, acknowledgement of the speeds people are actually driving would make the roads safer. What sets Germany apart in these areas? The roads are made with much higher quality than in the US. Truth is they have less roads to pave and maintain. The drivers respect each other differently. You always pass on the left. You always move over to the right if you are not driving faster. Tires in winter must be winter tires. Tighter automobile inspections (bald tires, etc) keep these hazardous drivers off the roads."
],
"score": [
62,
31,
4,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8711 | emotional eating. Why do some people "eat" their feelings? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0bgq0",
"de003ui",
"ddzzht5"
],
"text": [
"Not the full answer by any means, but our stomach contains oxytocin receptors. Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that releases when we have comforting physical touch. In essence, by overeating we get a big food hug. There are likely individual differences in the size of food hug one can get, as well as how much needs said food hug. Funnily enough, I read this while eating peanut butter by the spoonful alone in my apartment.",
"Eating, triggers many of the same responses as say doing a line of coke or heroin. Same chemicals are released in the same parts of the brain and we get the same \"good feeling\" just in a much lower dose. When you are happy or joyful we want to celebrate. When we are sad or mad or depressed we want to escape. Different sides to the same coin. However this is the \"why\" people eat their feelings. Just as an alcoholic turns to a drink to \"take the edge off\" after a stressful day. Or having a great time and want to \"enhance\" those good vibes, food can and does do the same thing in our brains. It feels good. Who doesn't want to feel good or better? Some people's brains are more sensative to that \"reward response\" than others.",
"From personal experience it appears as a form of control, usually when you aren't able to control other aspects of your life, in a similar way people go out and get drunk or self harm. We eat with our eyes and usually to get fast food or ice cream or cake is quick and easy. In the same respective get a rush of dopamine from doing something we enjoy like eating favourable food, gambling or doing drugs, it all works on the same receptors, I.e. the reward receptors. There's a comfort in it because it's a reliable source, easy access and availability, though it could be short term. Depending on the person and its frequency can depend on repeated events, often when people aren't able to resolve issues it becomes a habit, long term it can cause weight gain, health issues and confidence issues. Usually it is a secret habit underlined with negative feelings and reliance, it is a vice we turn to when things are usually bad, as some would go for a run or cry, punch a wall."
],
"score": [
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v876l | Why are nuclear weapons seen as the "be all end all: of weaponry so to speak | I understand that they do damage which is what you want in a weapon but you can get similar results with cheaper means. I'm not slandering nuclear weaponry or anything like that, just curious as to why they are so sought after. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"ddzz3sz"
],
"text": [
"Nuclear weapons tend to be much, much larger than conventional explosives in terms of output. The Hiroshima bomb was a single bomb equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. That's a _lot_ of TNT. During the Cold War the US and USSR fielded weapons in the tens of _millions_ of tons of TNT, per bomb. You simply _can't_ accomplish that with conventional means — a 10 megaton bomb can essentially destroy the entire New York metro area in an instant (it is 3-4 times the explosive output of _all of World War II_, including the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Modern thermonuclear weapons are on the order of hundreds of thousands of tons of TNT equivalent — smaller than those monster bombs, but still 10-20 times the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When you can threaten to destroy an entire city in an instant — much less an entire nation in a day — it does change things. Such things are _not_ normally attainable by conventional means."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v89qt | how can we tax robots that replace human jobs as Bill Gates suggests. | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de010y1"
],
"text": [
"It's not taxing the robot exactly, as much as it would be taxing *for* the robot. If a company fires people to move towards automation they would tax the company for the using the robots. As best I can understand it: A company pays a person $5 to produce a thing the company sells for $10. Then the government taxes the person on the $5 of income, say 20%, so the government makes $1. If a robot replaces the person to produce the $10 thing, the government then taxes the company $1 for that product. Now the government is making the same money, the company has a larger profit margin, everyone's happy. There are a crap-ton of other issues to consider though in doing this because it isn't going to be that simple. The government would need to pay people a living wage, which means they'd more likely need to tax the company $4+ for their robot."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8ef4 | how do we know x^0 is 1? How did we figure this out? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de00wvu"
],
"text": [
"It follows from a fundamental property of exponents: x^n+1 = x & middot; x^n Let n = 0. Then: x^1 = x & middot; x^0 x / x = x^0 (when x ≠ 0) 1 = x^0"
],
"score": [
22
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8hgo | Is it true that beer can be "cooked"? For example, if left in a hit car for a while, then put in the fridge to cool will the taste he dramatically altered? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de01j31"
],
"text": [
"Beer going bad is generally caused by getting hit by the sun if it's bottled beer. Canned beer will be fine in a warm car. If you have a few six pack bottles in your car just throw something over them to keep the sun off."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8r5x | Why do stickers not stick to frozen surfaces? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de06e3m"
],
"text": [
"Because the adhesive on the sticker only remains sticky when it is in a semi liquid form. Once it is too cold it becomes too hard to stick on anything. Alternatively, frozen surfaces also usually have moisture on them. When those surfaces get cold, warmer moisture in the air condenses onto the surface and freezes, and stickers don't stick to wet surfaces either."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8tgt | Why are African markets and industries largely ignored in important current affairs sections of news reports | I've seen overviews of European, Asian, North and South American markets every day when watching and reading the news but very rarely are politics and market movements about the African continent covered | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de03wbp"
],
"text": [
"Because for the most part they are not important in current affairs section of news in Europe or the Americas. Their industries and markets are too small to be of any major concern."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v8tk5 | How does exposure to the sun give our bodies Vitamin D? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de04lgj"
],
"text": [
"Vitamin D is made in your skin. When you expose your skin to ultraviolet light, something called “photolysis” happens to a chemical called 7-dehydrocholesterol, which turns it into previtamin D₃. This happens on the outermost layer of your skin, called the epidermis. This previtamin D₃ is rearranged into vitamin D and then ejected into the extracellular fluid space. From there it's into the bloodstream and the liver/rest of the body."
],
"score": [
19
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8weh | How do people with a hearing impairment think words? I think the way words sound to me - how does it work for others? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de06l0h"
],
"text": [
"You know that thing you do when you're thinking to yourself and your move your mouth as if you were speaking, but without actually speaking? That's called [subvocalization]( URL_2 ), and you do it even when you don't want to. Whenever you read, whenever you think to yourself, you're subvocalizing subconsciously. When your brain is recalling language, it activates every part associated with that, including the parts required to actually speak it, even if you aren't speaking it. Deaf people do the same thing with the muscles in their arms, hands, and fingers. They \"subvocalize\" whatever sign language they use (also, as an aside, there is no single universal sign language: there is American Sign Language [ASL], British Sign Language [BSL], Australian Sign Language [Auslan], French Sign Language [which for historical reasons is the basis of American Sign Language], etc.). Their muscles twitch slightly, imitating the nerve signals that would normally be required for signing, just not fully activating the muscles to sign in the same way that you don't fully activate the muscles in your mouth and larynx. Mind, that is for those who are *Deaf* (capital D Deaf). Meaning, those who are part of the Deaf community and most likely know a sign language as their first and primary language. If someone is lower case d deaf (someone who cannot hear but isn't part of the community), or hard-of-hearing (but still capable of understanding spoken language, even if it's with a cochlear implant) they probably still think in whatever spoken language they learned before they lost their hearing. If you could magically hear their thoughts, it probably wouldn't sound very familiar, but then again, someone from the [American Southeast]( URL_0 ) listening in on the thoughts of someone from [certain parts of England]( URL_1 ) would probably be very confused."
],
"score": [
14
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAqm5ls8Ep8",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oezh9RwLpkA",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocalization"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v8zre | Canned meat not needing refrigeration? | How come if you get tuna in a packet or sliced meats etc it has to be refrigerated, but if you get canned tuna or soup with meats in it, it doesn't? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de07qus"
],
"text": [
"Part of the canning process is heating the cans after they are sealed. The heat kills any bacteria present in the contents, and the sealed can prevents any new bacteria from getting in. As long as the can isn't compromised most canned goods remain safe almost indefinitely (although many won't taste good after a long time)."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v91hc | Why do tennis balls come in pressurized containers? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de06b5a"
],
"text": [
"My father and uncles are huge tennis fans, as far as I remember balls are filled with gas (dont know exactly what) and the container is pressurized so the gas wont leak and the balls stay \"firm\". This is also the reason pro tennis players usually have more than 1 tennis ball at all times, bouncing it to the floor to \"feel\" it."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v92h8 | Why do spicy foods make it easier to breathe out of a stuffy/congested nose? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de06md9",
"de09umk",
"de0db6a",
"de0retz"
],
"text": [
"The spice irritates your mucus lining, causing the mucus to move either down the throat or out your nose, clearing your airways for easier breathing.",
"It's an irritant, and your body responds by producing mucus to envelop the capsaicin to make it easier to expel.",
"I think the most plausible explanation is that the capsaicin activates irritant receptors which stimulate the dilator naris muscle. This expands the nasal airways, reducing airway resistance and thus...improves airflow. Capsaicin has been shown to do this experimentally (though the only study I found was when it was given intravenously, rather than inhaled, though the effect was still on pulmonary irritant receptors). Next time you have a stuffy nose, try sniffing it in front of a mirror and see if your nose flares slightly. The additional mucous production is likely counterproductive to decongestion, but is effective in trapping and expelling unwanted irritants.",
"Currently congested after taking medicine, and Vicks. Will try a spicy food later and post the results. (Hint: I may require a Zantac)."
],
"score": [
126,
22,
14,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v92wb | What is the difference between elk and caribou. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de078hd"
],
"text": [
"Caribou are adapted to live within the arctic circle, where as elk tend to live in more deciduous areas. The diets of these species are quite different as well, mainly due to the availability of vegetation in their respective habitats. Here is a list of physical differences Caribou * Max weight (male) 350-400 lbs * Both females and males grow antlers * 15 year life expectancy * Fur color- Within a grey range, from white to dark grey Elk * Max weight (male)710-730 Lbs * Only males grow antlers * 12 Year life expectancy * Fur color- Brown to reddish."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v9d64 | Why does the US aid countries in need? Logically, shouldn't the US be keeping all of the money to itself, since there are so many issues ? | Not an American, but in the light of recent events I just can't think of a justification to send billions of dollars abroad for altruistic reasons. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de08zx1",
"de092v5",
"de0anl0",
"de0crhl",
"de0d2im"
],
"text": [
"When you hear \"$500M in foreign aid\", we don't just hand them a blank check. Most of that money is required to be spent on goods from American companies. In a way, it's a way for the government to improve our exports & help keep factories and farms running. Secondly, it's a lot easier to help keep a country stable by making sure they can buy food than it is to send the military in to clean up the mess once they start having problems. Similarly, it helps keep our allies closer to us so we don't need to directly engage in foreign conflicts.",
"To paraphrase *The West Wing*: When your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't haggle over the price of your garden hose. We don't provide aid just because it's the right thing to do. We provide aid because we live in an interdependent world. The people we help today can be selling us raw materials tomorrow, or buying our products tomorrow, or sending us their brightest minds tomorrow. Or they could be bombing our embassies tomorrow, killing our allies tomorrow, perhaps flooding our streets tomorrow. We give them our garden hose because that's how we keep the fire from spreading to our house.",
"Imagine you live in a town where there's two rich guys and everyone else is dirt poor. One rich guy is a Ferrari dealer and the other rich guy builds mansions for a living. These rich guys have a couple of problems: 1. They each run businesses where they can sell to the other rich guy but to nobody else. This makes it hard for the rich guys to earn money. 2. Even when the poor townsfolk do come into some money, they don't want to spend it on Ferraris and big houses. 3. The poor townsfolk are prone to feeling resentful of the rich guys, so the rich guys have to continually spend money on security. These problems mean that there it actually costs the rich guys real money in order to not give money away. By contrast, if the rich guys give money away to the poor townsfolk, they can help solve some of these problems. 1. Giving money away in the right way can lead to more of the townsfolk becoming rich enough to afford Ferraris and big houses. That's a win for the rich guys. 2. Moreover, perhaps your gifts come with a free copy of \"Your Big House and Ferrari Monthly\" magazine and a chance to win a free ferrari. The gift buys the rich guys the right to make the townsfolk read this magazine and this over time shapes their values in a way that suits the rich guys. 3. Finally, the gifts build good will that allows the rich guys to not need as much expensive security.",
"There is nothing altruistic about foreign aid. The vast majority of foreign aid is in American made arms and weapons. Those are given to nations like Israel or Pakistan who are advancing our strategic objectives I those parts of the world. The other foreign aid is either used to buy goods from American companies, advance US trade interests, support political stability (and an environment friendly to US trade), or to foster partnerships. The most altruistic US program is the US Peace Corps, which relies on volunteers to work in the various Peace Corps programs around the world. That budget is tiny compared to other foreign aid.",
"Giving aid might help to make the world a more stable place, generally. A more stable world is a hell of a lot better for trade. Think of the Somali pirates that started attacking commercial ships a few years back. Piracy is not good for our ability to conduct international trade, obviously. And piracy comes from poverty. If we can help alleviate that poverty, maybe we can prevent the piracy by addressing its root cause, and our commercial ships get their cargo to its destination. This isn't the only reason but it's a big one. A lot of geopolitics is balancing the interconnectivity of trade and peace."
],
"score": [
41,
26,
10,
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v9d8i | What is the difference between computer science and computer engineering? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de09e76",
"de0bbr6",
"de0gmmy"
],
"text": [
"\"Science\" is a research activity whereby new knowledge is identified. \"Engineering\" is applying knowledge to solve a specific problem. For computers, this is often seen as two fields: \"software engineering\" and \"hardware engineering\".",
"If we're talking university majors, Computer Science is more software based with a bit of a research bent, and Computer Engineering has more hardware focus. Source: am Computer Science major",
"Computer Engineer here. The difference is in focus. Generally, CS is solely the study of software, with a minimum approach to understanding the hardware of a computer. As in, CS study algorithms, data structures, multiple languages, etc. They do usually take a class which gives them an overview of the low level interpretation going on inside a basic processor, but that's about it (also depends on the school and how integrated the department's are. Personally, my school has CpE in Engineering, and CS in Science). Computer Engineering however, is more of a combination of CS and Electrical Engineering. CpE majors/grads study the software and hardware side of electronics/computers as opposed to just software (CS) or just hardware (EE). We don't go nearly as in depth in software as CS, but we usually have a pretty thorough understanding of it. But we do focus a lot on hardware. However, depending on the school the curriculum is usually either a 50/50 split focus on CS/EE or a 75/25 split. Note: when I say hardware, I mean electrical circuits/components/electronics"
],
"score": [
6,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v9f55 | My trainer said that if one muscle group, like my shoulders, are sore, then it's likely that it is caused by a muscle imbalance in another part of my body, like my lower back. Can someone explain? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0b6fb"
],
"text": [
"I was having the same conversation with my physiotherapist last week. The way she explained it was that just about every activity you can think of recruits muscle groups all over your body. Lifting, running, walking, bending, even standing all involve various combinations of back, core, leg and arm muscles. What you're talking about can happen if one muscle group gets hurt and the rest pitch in to take the burden off of the injured muscles. When I pulled my right hamstring while running last year, my physiotherapist suspected that it happened because of a smaller injury to my left hip and IT band which caused me to overwork my right side. It might happen because of poor form when exercising, not recruiting back and core muscles when doing squats will put all of the strain on your legs, making them work harder than they need to. And like others have said, if the muscle group that you're working on isn't strong enough, you'll start recruiting other muscles to finish the job. This is why proper form is so important when exercising."
],
"score": [
14
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v9gpb | What do professional mathematicians do? What are they still trying to discover after all this time? | I feel like surely mathematicians have discovered just about everything we can do with math by now. What is preventing this end point? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0bxjy",
"de0axc9",
"de0oj21",
"de0he6w",
"de0j8q5",
"de0bccl",
"de0gagn",
"de0itw1",
"de0nl7q",
"de10n7p",
"de0l4x9",
"de0eg0z",
"de0lowe",
"de0o5uh",
"de0gwxq",
"de0i2y4",
"de0inja",
"de0opdm",
"de0dujl",
"de0o7ur",
"de0whwq",
"de0un0v",
"de0om0k",
"de0r5qu",
"de0sxx2",
"de0t8d4",
"de1nv7b",
"de0sqg5"
],
"text": [
"As a mathematician I get this question a lot. One can say that there are two parts of mathematics. The first is applied mathematics, which is revolutionizing fields from biology to computer science to finance to social work. The second is pure mathematics, or the development of mathematical structure, theory, and proof. Why study pure mathematics? Consider that when Einstein wanted to describe general relativity he used Riemannian geometry from the 1800s. String theory? Uses functions studied by Euler in the 1700s. Mathematicians are developing the tools and knowledge upon which the discoveries of tomorrow are built.",
"All I'm gonna say is there are a few people from the past who have said \"we've discovered or invented everything by now.\" A few of them have been wrong. To move it further, you're smarter if *you know how much you don't know.*",
"Professional mathematician, here! > I feel like surely mathematicians have discovered just about everything we can do with math by now. Heavens, no! What you learn in school as mathematics is actually just a small *subset* (and many say a very *boring* subset) of what mathematics is generally. There are branches of mathematics that deal with things like studying the properties of prime numbers (which is *one* element of a field called number theory, and is studied from a variety of different perspectives), or with understanding the behavior and structure of surfaces as you stretch or fold or manipulate them (part of topology), or with understanding how the solutions to certain polynomial equations can lead to beautiful links between geometry and algebra and even topology (one aspect of algebraic geometry), or with understanding arrangement of objects that meet certain requirements of symmetry (design theory, which is a subfield of combinatorics). In each of these fields, there are plenty of open questions. Some of them are technical and intricate-- you would need some serious background to understand the question itself. But some of the questions are easy to understand, but still a real *bitch* to answer. For instance, there's the [Collatz Conjecture]( URL_0 ), which is straightforward enough as a problem (do all positive integers eventually settle into the 4-2-1 pattern?). We don't have a solution for the problem, and our toolkit for going after this sort of problem isn't very well-developed. It's likely to remain an open problem for a while. Trick is, mathematics is the study of relationships and interconnections of ideas. Those ideas are often very carefully defined, but that care and precision allows mathematicians to bring a variety of tools to bear on those ideas. And ideas are... well, ideas are everywhere. Somebody wondered what would happen if you brought mathematical ideas to bear on the Rubik's cube. Or Sudoku. At a big math conference this year, somebody discussed what could happen if you put the game \"Flow Free\" onto a different shape, like a ball or a donut. Mathematicians looking at quantum physics said, \"Hey, that looks like the symmetric group!\" and helped build models for the behavior of particles at a ridiculously small scale. There have been mathematical tools developed to measure gerrymandering. Somebody looked at data science and data analysis, and realized that some of the problems looked a lot like topological problems-- and so there is a field called \"topological data analysis\". > What is preventing this end point? I would say the fact that mathematics has an infinite number of questions to ask, and at least SOME of those questions will always be interesting to SOMEBODY. Fermat's Last Theorem captured the imaginations of mathematicians for CENTURIES-- which is all to the good, because many of the failed attempts led to interesting new tools, or to related questions. Even in \"failure\", mathematics often advances itself.",
"Here is an example of what an applied mathematician might be doing: A widely studied (yet still not completely understood) phenomenon is fluid turbulence. When you look at the smoke coming from a fire, and you see all the swirls in the smoke, you are observing turbulence. When you are on an airplane, and suddenly the plane starts shaking, you are experiencing turbulence. Given how common fluids are in the world, understanding how turbulence behaves is super important. We would like to be able to explain how turbulence behaves using mathematics. The reason we are using mathematics, is because mathematics is the tool that physicists and engineers use to do what they do. Think about how you can use mathematics to calculate how long it takes for a ball to fall from a tall building. The same is true for using mathematics to explain how turbulence behaves. Unfortunately, trying to characterize turbulence, and trying to predict how it behaves using mathematics is very difficult to do. It's so difficult, that there hundreds of mathematicians and scientists all over the world studying it, and working out the mathematics needed to fully describe turbulence. You need complicated mathematics to be able to calculate things like how a fluid flows around objects, or how objects moving through fluids are affected. At some point (not too far ahead though, unfortunately), the mathematics needed just hasn't been developed yet. You need mathematicians to come up with ideas, and to work out these ideas, to make sure that these ideas are indeed correct. They spend a lot of time proving things, because they want to be sure that what they are discovering is correct. This field has been around for a few hundred years now, and there is still a lot more to learn. I hope that helped. Although my example was for applied mathematicians (mathematicians whose work directly relates to real world applications), pure mathematicians do a similar thing, except their work is more abstract.",
"This may be one of the most clear examples of Dunning-Kreuger in action. The more you learn about advanced math, the more you realize there is a lot of room to learn more. Their are equations that should be solvable yet unsolved (the couch going around the corner problem, for example I forget the name). Their are ideas that cannot be expressed mathematically that should be. Their are mathematical things that we can test and turn out to be true, but we cannot yet PROVE are true. Now some of these are irrelevant, but some of them could do major things for modern day biology, astrophysics, energy, and such. But the problem is, they are such highly specialized fields, its even hard to describe how they help without getting technical and confusing to a lay person. Hell, remember Newton's version of calculus was invented so he could describe physics better. It's like that... we need the \"mathematical discoveries\" so we have a way to describe our new surroundings more accurately, and thus affect them more predictably. Imagine discovering a math system that could accurately predict stock market fluctuations? Or one that could predict disease spread even faster than we can now (logistic curves are notoriously hard to map until you reach the maximum acceleration point)? There is so much about the universe we don't know, and math is central to describing all this.",
"There are many different types of mathematicians. I'll mention just a few possibilities - - Finding new crypto algorithms, or finding weaknesses - Quants building stock market models - Applied math, modelling geological processes - Building statistical models & experimental analysis It's rare that there is a new \"discovery\" in the way that you are thinking, like a new way to add/subtract. But there are always new ways of applying math to the world around us.",
"> I feel like surely mathematicians have discovered just about everything we can do with math by now. Well, that's where you're confused. Your premise is incorrect - there's a lot of unsolved stuff out there. Even problems that are stated simply, like the Goldbach Conjecture or the Twin Prime Conjecture. Solving some problems will even give you a million dollars! URL_0",
"I think the OP's perception that mathematics should be \"finished\" may be based on an overly narrow idea of what mathematics is, because in school it's not represented well at all. They teach you arithmetic and trigonometry and quadratic equations, but that's about it. Mathematics is so much bigger than that: not just because there are other topics, but because the very concept of a [proof]( URL_1 ), without which you're not really doing mathematics at all, is largely glossed over. Professional mathematicians aren't working on school-level examples any more, but they are working on things at the forefront, where plausible, important conjectures that remain unproven are plentiful. If you want to get a feel for what mathematicians do, do yourself a favour: go read some lecture notes on, say, [number theory]( URL_0 ) (the study of positive integers; it's mainly about prime factorisation, remainders upon division by prime numbers etc.) Currently mathematicians are working on \"more of the same\" (plus many other fields, of course), but if you read such notes you'll see that the whole way you thought about mathematical problems in school, where you memorise some handle-turning methods of solving the same handful of problem types, isn't what the subject is about at all. In fact, good lecture notes are more like a narrative.",
"As others have noted, there are still tons of unsolved questions in maths. There's an interesting phenomenon no one seems to have mentioned here: many times when we solve a problem it raises new questions. Imagine there was a (possibly finite) list of \"mathematical questions\" to be answered. If you think of that list on its own then yes, as we answer more questions, we get closer to the end of the list. But we don't know how long the list actually is, and when we solve a question on the list the tools we use to solve that question often let us see new questions we hadn't considered before. Take arithmetic and algebra as an example. Consider the question \"If I have 2 apples and then get 3 more apples, how many apples do I have?\". Arithmetic lets you figure that one out easily (2+3 = 5). But then once you know how to solve that question, another one comes to mind - \"If I have 2 apples and want 5 apples, how many extra apples do I need to get?\" - so you come up with algebra to solve that (2 + x = 5 = > x = 5 - 2 = 3). Once you have algebra, the idea of formulas emerges, i.e. the idea you can describe rules that hold for things in general (e.g. instead of asking \"what is the area of this particular circle?\" you can now ask \"what is the formula for the area of a circle in general?). Eventually you figure out graphing an equation in Cartesian coordinates and someone asks \"can we find the area under these things, as we did with a circle?\", which leads to integration. And once you have a concept of integration you try to apply it to all sorts of things and discover some cases where standard Riemann integration doesn't quite work, so people came up with more sophisticated notions of integration for those cases, which lead to measure theory, and so on. Here's a physical analogy: someone sees a hill. Humans seem to be naturally inclined towards exploration (at least while young), so the person climbs the hill. From the top they can see more, including other hills they didn't know about previously. Every now and then they run into a really tough mountain that takes a long time to climb but once conquered reveals massive new lands full of more hills to climb. Will we ever run out of things to climb? Hard to know, since every time we climb one we seem to discover another hill on the other side!",
"I can give you a sort of perspective on this because both of my parents are theoretical mathematicians. I've studied math myself, but not to a level where I would really be qualified to answer the question directly. Examples of what professional mathematicians do: My father sits in a comfortable chair with a pad of paper and a pen. For hours. Then he drives to his office, where he types things up, prints them and then marks up the printout with a different pen. This repeats. The various papers end up in piles. He has abandoned rooms when they become full of paper. Eventually someone ignores his protests and cleans out the room so that he can use it again (likely because the next room he has moved to is now full of paper). I have been told that once, one set of papers succumbed to termites. My mother does most of her work at her computer. She also communicates with people via email, skype, phone, and speech significantly more than my father does. From what I can tell, she spends much of the body of the day preparing classes, talking to students, grading and doing various organization and then comes home so that she can relax and write math papers at night/on days off. We occasionally manage to stop her from working on christmas, but not always. She also spends significant amounts of time travelling, usually to conferences, workshops, bureaucratic meetings, and to visit collaborators or family. She usually goes on multiple trips per month, and I would be surprised if there was a year in the last ten when she didn't visit at least three continents (although I admit I might be mistaken - I can't keep track of her schedule at all). Trips are often webbed together in insane ways - I distinctly remember her flying from the east coast of the US to China via England so she could have a one day stopover there. That's when school is in session. Summer is conference season, since almost everyone can get out of summer teaching (that's usually for grad students). She might be gone for weeks at a time in summer, as she chains one conference into another or spends the time in between them in whichever of the two places is nicer to relax and do math in. Dad does the same, but less. Trying to hold her travel schedule would kill him. Occasionally Mom will go on sabbatical and move to some new place for six months to work at a different university or attend a series of workshops in order to make new connections/get new ideas/spread her math. Usually she travels home every other weekend to see us. They both have to deal with various bureaucracy/teaching work (although Mom has semesters where she has no teaching duties, and Dad has become immune to students). Once they have that cut back they will: prepare a talk for some coming event, work on a paper/book, revise an already published paper/book, or explore problems/ideas, in about that order of priority. There are also social duties - parties or dinners for visiting professors, grad students, and sometimes donors. When I was young, I would be the babysitter for the children. We would hide in the basement and creep up to steal food. Mathematicians stand in clumps of 3-5 and speak at each other for long periods of time without using any comprehensible words. In general they keep more social contact with other mathematicians than you might expect. There is a lot of visiting/gathering for conferences, because talking to various people with different ideas/skills is a major part of problem solving, and also of discovering new problems to work on. Another important aspect of this is promoting the problems you are already working on, and your results. Some topics and problems are well established as interesting/important, but from what I've seen people often end up working on things that interest them but don't necessarily have a purpose. At that point you have to convince people that the problem is inherently interesting, or try to create connections to things that people already find interesting. There is a surprising amount of social power involved in what gets worked on - mathematicians can have \"good taste\" in problems, and if well known people start working on something, more people often follow them. It can be important for a field to have young or exciting adherents, or it can die off - often there's no real world need motivating an area of study (or at least nothing very direct) so no one but the mathematicians will care if some problem or technique gets dropped for 30 years till someone picks it up and connects it to something else again. One great thing about theoretical math is that it doesn't require much support. It is not very expensive to fund a mathematician. I get the impression that most of the cost is travel expenses, building space, and allowances for grad students/post-docs. Also, you don't need/can't use teams of people working under you. Math grad students get to do their own work instead of sitting around doing all of the frustrating/boring parts of their supervisor's work. I need to sleep. I'll probably revisit this in the morning in case there are questions or I feel regret and need to activate backspace. Edit: I forgot a major aspect of the job, which is the reading. They have to keep up with the work others are doing in your field, and probably keep an eye on some others, so you read piles of papers and journals. The papers are usually extremely dense, so the process of reading one can involve hours per page and scrap paper to work things out/play with examples (it depends on the topic and how closely they are reading it, of course). They are also asked to peer review the work of others, on occasion, and that can be a very involved process. Sometimes someone has claimed to have proven a big result, but no one can understand the paper and so a team of established people who work on similar things is pulled together to figure out what's going on. The original author may be cooperative, or may be running around claiming the result at conferences.",
"I'll give one example related to the field I did an honours thesis (not original research) in. Internet banking security, and other encryption (including your Reddit password), is based upon the assumption that finding two large primes is an 'easy' problem. Multiplying them is an 'easy' problem. But factoring the resultant product to determine your original primes is 'practically impossible'. __________________ For example, if I give you the number 10001 and ask you what was multiplied to get it, and provide a calculator, you will take several minutes to come up with the answer. If instead I handed you the calculator and said 'What is 73 times 137', you would take seconds to answer '10001'. _________________ Assuming the large numbers are 'randomly' constructed (I won't go into that), our current best algorithims for factoring large numbers are limited (in practice) to numbers of at most a couple hundred digits. If we find a way to factor multi-thousand-digit numbers, internet security as we know it pretty much dies. A lot of mathematicians are looking for innovative new ways to crack this problem, and also look for other methods to encrypt that are more resilient to these attacks.",
"Clearly we don't know everything about math if we can't prove or disprove something as simple as the [collatz conjecture]( URL_0 )",
"Counterpoint to some other posts here: Sure sometimes there are useful side effects, but this is not at all **why** people study pure mathematics. That has more to do with curiosity, the appreciation of mathematical beauty, and the feeling of power that comes from uncovering abstraction and finding solutions. This is probably incomprehensible, but to ask why someone studies pure math is sort of similar to asking why someone is an artist. It's something \"pointless\" to many that is beautiful to some. \"Math is the music of reason\" said someone. I think its misleading and not fair to claim that pure mathematicians are really doing it for the potential applications. Perhaps when trying to get funding they might play up this angle... But pure math doesn't require much money anyway. And I say all this as someone who studied pure math but moved into statistics of all things -- I still have a lot respect for the abstract pursuit (even if it's not the career for me)",
"Mathematicians are designing the hammers, wrenches, and screwdrivers for scientists and engineers to use. We have scroll saws, bandsaws, circular saws, and table saws, but still people keep inventing new ways to cut wood. If you didn't see that hacksaw on the shelf, you would have never thought of that as an option when you're working on your next project. We need mathematicians to create the tools for science and engineering, so when a phenomenon is observed, the mathematicians have already created the tools for dealing with it. Boolean algebra was invented in the 1800's and was a fun little plaything of math, but the moment computers were invented, we realized that those concepts were EXACTLY what we needed for understanding computers.",
"TLDR: There are many problems today, usually complex ones, that even the smartest mathematician doesn't know how to solve. Mathematicians seek to find the methods to solve these problems and publish papers detailing those methods. As a math major I get asked this constantly by peers and even family. What the average person doesn't know, either because they've never encountered such a situation or because they couldn't recognize it, is that there are tons of unsolved problems. Now, what does it mean to say a problem is unsolved? In actuality, it means much more than, say, a specific equation that no one has solved. In other words, say no one had ever solved the equation 3x-5=7. That wouldn't constitute an unsolved problem because we have a method to solve it. In other words , an unsolved problem is one that we haven't developed a method for solving. After all, someone had to be the first person to calculate the area of a triangle, find the roots of a parabola, etc. Nowadays, these problems are at least a little more esoteric than the ones you'd encounter in a high school or even an average college level course. However, there are tons of unsolved problems and mathematicians set out to solve them.",
"> What are they still trying to discover > I feel like surely mathematicians have discovered just about everything we can do with math by now I'm honestly interested to hear what in the world makes you think like this. What makes you think that we've reached \"the end\"?",
"GF is mathematician. She works as an analyst and builds data sets for a large company, also figures out how to save them thousands (and even millions, occasionally) of dollars per year with small business tweaks here and there. They reward her with bread crumbs and free graduate school.",
"> > I feel like surely mathematicians have discovered just about everything we can do with math by now. What is preventing this end point? Someone has said this every year about every subject since subjects were created. It shows more of a lack of imagination on your part than a lack of scope on the subject's part tbh.",
"Mathematics is like a language. Let's look at English. The smallest thing that has meaning is the word. In Maths, it's numbers. We can categorise the use of words into two sections-- using them to make stories (fiction), and using them to get a point across (nonfiction). Numbers, too, can be divided in such a way-- pure maths and applied maths. Applied maths, just like nonfiction (think essays, explanations, guides), is used in every field, and the end goal isn't to discover more maths. Your question seems to be focusing on pure mathematics though. Think about all the fiction genres out there. Detective mysteries, dystopian novels, historical fiction, fantasy, romance, horror. Theses are like the different types of maths-- geometry, calculus, discrete, etc. We probably won't be seeing a new type of maths anytime soon. But think about all the different books in those genres, and just how many there are. Will we ever run out of stories to tell? Eventually, I suppose, but not anytime in the next thousand years. Mathematics is just like that. Why do we want to write more stories, more ways to put numbers together? Because we can, and we hope someone in the future uses it to make something great. Alexander the Great slept with a copy of the Illiad underneath his pillow to inspire him. Shakespeare's greatest plays were inspired by Greek mythology. Newton's idea that everything has gravitational pull was inspired by Kepler's mathematics and his explanation of planetary motion. Mathematics is the building blocks with which science explains our universe. So why not make a new building block?",
"Oh man, there's so much to discover. It's hard to give a singke answerr for all mathematics, because mathematics is *huge*. I mean, I'd grab beers with five or six other PhD students, and none of us haf any idea what the others were doing. Applied Mathematics is certainly more accessible to layfolk. Math is useful for all sorts of practical things in science and engineering. But I'm a theory junkie in the purest of pure realms. I'm a proof theorist: I study formal systems of logic and mathematics, trying to prove their consistency, categorizing these systems by how strong their assumptions are, and what sort of theorems they can prove. What is that useful for? Well, there's a big project called reverse mathematics that takes major theorems from across the various fields of math, and shows that they're equivalent. These collections of equivalent theorems are, in turn, sorted by how strong they are, and what you can prove with them. It seems very abstract and esoteric, but it can provide useful insights into how to approach certain problems. Simply based on how the problem is stated using rigorous mahematical notation, you can make certain assumptions about the techniques you'll need to solve it. \"I'll need to use particularly powerful proof techniques in order to somve this problem\" or alternatively, \"There should be a simpler proof using weaker techniques.\" That's jusy *my* field, a tiny corner of logic, which is itself a small corner of pure mathematics.",
"Professional mathematicians mainly focus on entering programs into a TI-83 so that the graph it produces shows a picture.",
"The quality of the responses in this thread are **phenomenal**. What a conspicuous testament to the beauty of the minds working/interested in this field.",
"A slightly different answer than what others have given I believe. Mathematics is the study of patterns. As you might have noticed, the real world has rules and patterns. Interest in banking and radioactive decay in nuclear waste have nothing in common, except that the math is disturbingly similar. The Fibonacci sequence describes the amount of rabbits you get, if you leave a young opposite-sex couple alone to have some private time, and it describes the spiral of the spinning galaxy or the spiral of a seashell. It goes beyond that, concepts that are completely abstract and detached from reality can be used to help solve real-world problems. Some concepts can help solve some problem completely different and unrelated problem that is just as abstract and detached from reality. Along this path of asking questions and answering them and using those answers to help answer something else, you get questions. What is one plus one is a simple question, but what does one mean? What is addition? What does it mean when something equals something? Does the order matter? What about 2 plus 2? What about infinity plus infinity? A simple or even a very specific question always has a more general question behind it. For every question, there are more related questions and for every answer you get even more questions. Simple or meaningless things often are more complicated than they appear to be studying them leads to more questions and answers. TL;DR Mathematics is disturbingly good at describing the world and even when abstract it can do a 180 and be applied to the real world in unexpected ways. There is always a new question to ask and there is no way of knowing if that path leads to something groundbreaking somewhere else.",
"I haven't seen a satisfactory answer in the top comments so I'll go with my explanation. Mathematicians are employed by the private (banks, companies with large R & D department, etc) or public sector (universities, research labs, ministries although their jobs is similar as in the private sector) **In the private sector** It is hard to pin-point they're often hired as consultants and consequently the type of tasks they are asked to do may vary quite drastically. But their function is always essentially the same: bring their knowledge in areas of mathematics to solve some (industrial) problems. One example is the following. Say that you design supersonic planes for commercial use. One of the objective when designing such a plane is to reduce the noise when the plane flight over the city. But how do you design such a plane? The theory on this subject is not really well known but you are eager to be the first on the market to make all of this sweet money. You could try to design planes but testing them are costly and you are not sure if the plane you will end up with will be the best. A group of engineers and mathematicians could undertake the task differently by trying to solve the problem theoretically. They can first write the problem to minimise. Such a problem is difficult to resolve since it has to take into account not only the shape of the plane and the noise created but aerodynamic constraints and fuel efficiency. It is at this time that computers are used to make numerical simulations to obtain the shape of the plane. Then the shape can be built, tried, and a feedback can be given to the team of engineers and mathematicians. **In research in the public sector** You could see mathematics as a giant tree. There are essentially three big branches: analysis, geometry and algebra. All these branches divides in smaller and smaller branches and sometimes mix with branches from other area or sub area. These branches were (and are still developed) developed overtime by mathematicians doing research. When you are doing research, you are trying to solve a theoretical problem using the knowledge you already know. If the problem is too easy to solve, then it is not considered interesting because it doesn't bring any new knowledge. However, a problem is considered difficult if it is not easy to solve, meaning you had to have good ideas to solve it. The way to solve it may bring a small tree branch to the theory if you solved the problem using existing techniques and not a significant amount of new ideas or a big tree branch if you used new techniques or new tools. This technique or tool can then be used to try solving more difficult problems and sometimes the tool is complicated enough to be studied on its own or fall into a category of tool that looks alike and the structure of all these tools can be studied at once. The difference between a small advance in the theory and a breakthrough is often a new idea. It is those new ideas that help resolves a lot of problems and contribute to the general activity of a research field. One of the reason why most people have the feeling that there's nothing else to discover in mathematics is because there is a 300 years old gap between the common mathematical knowledge (just before university) and the research fields. I had issue as well to see what there is still to do in mathematics before the bachelor degree. tl;dr: in the private context, mathematicians are often used as engineers but with stronger mathematical background. In pure or applied mathematics, there are still a lot of things to do as there are plenty of things we still don't understand. Research advances because of open questions and theory is built with the tools used to solve previous open questions.",
"as a software engineer, I worked with mathematicians. We used them to come up with the equations for things, then I would code it up. They would look at plots, graphs, or just tabular data, and give me some equation. Also the best software engineers I worked with didn't have a comp sci degrees, but rather had a mathematics, chemistry, or music degree. Go figure the music one.",
"My undergrad degree is in math with a numerical analysis emphasis. I subsequently went to law school and am now a patent lawyer. While I can't claim to be a working mathematician, I interact with many mathematicians in a whole lot of commercial settings that most people don't think of. Firstly, it is possibly helpful to consider that a whole bunch of the founding fathers of what we consider a separate field computer science were mathematicians first. Check their degrees. At a very fundamental level, computer programs are algorithms and computers are calculators. It is pretty common when I am talking to a senior programming manager with 25+ years of experience at a major tech client that their college degrees are in math because computer science majors simply didn't exist. So some of the discussion of what makes a person a mathematician are semantics. Mathematicians are responsible for an entire new field of study and a worldwide economic boom. You are welcome, everyone! Stop picking on the mathletes! Personally, I know several mathematicians employed at tech companies working with data optimization and predictive modeling and it is fairly common for professors at universities to work with professors in other fields as needed. I've worked with a couple pretty simple app development companies that hire math professors with expertise on set theory as consultants to help them make their operating algorithms smarter. Data analysts and actuaries are often mathematicians using their skills in a very applied way. You may be tempted to say they aren't doing \"real math,\" but you'd be wrong. The stuff they are doing is cutting edge. I grew up in a neighborhood with a guy who worked for IBM when they first developed their spell checking programs. He was a mathematician working with predictive modeling and if you ask yourself if math has solved every question left in the world, an easy response is \"not yet, because autocorrect is still kind of an idiot.\" I guess what I am saying is that mathematicians are more common than you would think, but a whole lot of the time when they work in the private sector, we call them something else. And as for theoretical mathematicians who tend to reside at universities, what starts as theory sometimes becomes very useful. Imaginary numbers where first \"invented\" in the 17th century. Many thought they were useless. Then particle physics, radar, electrical engineering, and Schroeder's wave equation came around, each of which all found them quite handy. It is a mistake to think that the high complexity of some math problems means they have little applicability.",
"> What do professional mathematicians do? Study math. > What are they still trying to discover after all this time? Math isn't just about counting apples or doing times tables. Most advanced theoretical work in mathematics isn't directly about numbers at all, it's about what kinds of numbers there are and what various categories of numbers can do when they interact in certain ways. It's possible to ask really hard questions about numbers, and it's not always obvious that a simple-*looking* question is actually at all simple to solve. For instance, here are four short and rather simple-looking questions: - Is it possible to make a set of 3 natural numbers {A,B,C} such that A^(2)+B^(2)=C^(2)? The answer is yes, and if you do a little searching with a pencil and paper, you'll soon discover that {3,4,5} has this property. - Is it possible to make infinitely many sets of 3 natural numbers {A,B,C} such that A^(2)+B^(2)=C^(2), *without* allowing A, B and C to all share a common factor? Most people could probably think about this for some time without coming up with a definitive answer on their own, but it turns out there is a [fairly straightforward method]( URL_1 ) for creating just such an infinite series, and anyone with a basic understanding of arithmetic can see why it works. - Is it possible to make *any* sets of 3 natural numbers {A,B,C} such that A^(N)+B^(N)=C^(N) for any natural number N *larger* than 2? You could easily spend your entire life working on this without figuring out the answer. Other people have. The answer is *no, you can't,* but this wasn't known for sure until 1995, when [this guy,]( URL_0 ) whose incredibly geeky appearance nevertheless understates his actual geekiness, published a hundred-page-long proof showing that it has to be that way. - Is it possible to have a set of 3 natural numbers {A,B,C} such that √(A^(2)+B^(2)), √(A^(2)+C^(2)), √(B^(2)+C^(2)) and √(A^(2)+B^(2)+C^(2)) are *all* natural numbers? Maybe, maybe not. We straight-up don't know yet. Sometime in the next few decades we probably will, but if and when we do, it'll be thanks to professional mathematicians doing what they do best. There are plenty of other math questions of varying complexity and importance that we also don't know the answer to. (Indeed, there are probably infinitely many interesting math questions you could ask, with no endpoint to be found anywhere. And if there aren't, that would *also* be interesting.) Wikipedia has a list of some of the most well-known unsolved questions here: URL_2 A particularly important one is the [P vs NP problem.]( URL_3 ) It may sound like geeky stuff with no real-world relevance, but depending on how it turns out, it may mean that there are ways to crack your online banking password relatively quickly, or it may mean that there aren't. So it is definitely something we want to know the answer to for practical reasons.",
"I'm a second year grad student in math and get this question a lot from my calc students. Though I'm not a \"professional\" mathematician just yet, I spend my days mostly reading through papers and books, talking to peers and faculty about problems I've come across and/or wasn't able to solve. Math is a very do-it-yourself subject, so a lot of my time is spent filling in deliberate gaps in papers I'm reading or working out some included exercises to get a better understanding of the subject. I haven't taken candidacy yet, but I've decided on homotopy theory as my area of research. It's not a particularly flashy area of math, I guess, and it's rather abstract even for mathematicians so even some of my math friends make that grimacing face when I talk about what I've been working on (though to be fair I've done the same for some nasty analysis problems....). I think homotopy theory is a beautiful subject though. It has its roots in algebraic topology, which in the broadest sense is a way to characterize spaces (think shapes: circle, square, sphere, donut, two-holed donut and many many more complicated things) by assigning them algebraic invariants. For these to be of any use, we have to know that these invariants are actually invariant under some sort of continuous deformation of the shape (imagine taking a piece of wire, bending it into a square and then smoothing it out to a circle--they are basically the same shape, right?). With the right framework, then, there are a lot of really nice results in the subject that beautifully classify a lot of characteristics of shapes and spaces. Homotopy theory itself is an abstraction of a lot of the core results that came to be in algebraic topology in the early days, using the very general language of Category theory. Here's where it starts to get really abstract, though, and trying to explain what exactly is going on would seem a bit anticlimactic unless you already have some background in the subject. What's great about it is that once you've abstractified the ideas into a short list of axioms, using the language of Categories you can \"do\" homotopy theory in many other settings as well, allowing reinterpretations of more classical results as statements of Homotopy theory. Basically it just unifies everything, but that's not the end, rather just the beginning. Now you can go and try to put these structures in new places where people never have before. One thing I've been reading about lately is motivic homotopy theory, where people want to do homotopy theory not on shapes but on more technically difficult and rigid structures called Schemes. It's a big effort just to put the structure on the category, yet alone start to make any propositions about what should or shouldn't be true once you have. Math is all about having an idea and trying to overcome roadblocks that stand inbetween you and figuring out how to do it. Along the way you learn some obstructions and revamp your theory to better reflect the reality you're trying to understand. Math research, at its core, is freedom. You have some questions and you just think deeply on them and try to answer them. Now, when I tell my students all this, they give me that look like \"and people pay you to do this???\". Currently, yes (though certainly not much...), but I also feel like my __job__ is also partially to teach classes. I love to teach and inspire younger people to learn more about math and just to ask questions and try to answer them. I didn't get into math til I was 20, as a third year in college, I switched majors and ended up in grad school three years later. I've met some ridiculously smart people in my class, many who feel just light years better than me technically. But I love what I do, I love the subject I'm researching and I love to teach class and relate to students. So that's sort of what it's like to be a grad student in math. Taking the step towards research mathematician with a tenure position is a bit different. They will (likely) take on students and be knee deep in research and working groups all the time. Everyone is different though, and there is certainly not a shortage of peculiar personalities at my math department... Feel free to ask questions!"
],
"score": [
8381,
1178,
1138,
278,
140,
89,
87,
82,
34,
33,
28,
24,
24,
22,
22,
15,
11,
9,
9,
7,
6,
5,
5,
5,
3,
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collatz_conjecture"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics"
],
[
"https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-781-theory-of-numbers-spring-2012/lecture-notes/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_proof"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collatz_conjecture"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Andrew_wiles1-3.jpg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formulas_for_generating_Pythagorean_triples#Fibonacci.27s_method",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_versus_NP_problem"
],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5v9p8c | The difference between inductive and deductive reasoning | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0liaa"
],
"text": [
"Induction is like based on past events, like statistics. It can be weak or strong E.g., It rained last time I went outside, therefore if I go outside it will rain. (weak inductive) The wire heated up the last 1 000 times I put current across is, therefore it will heat up if I force current across the wire. (strong inductive) Deductive is pure logic. Think maths, 1+1=2 type stuff. This is concerned only with the form and the premises of the reasoning. If the form is acceptable we say it is a *valid* deductive argument. If the premises are acceptable we say it is *sound*. If the form is acceptable and the premises are acceptable the outcome *must* follow and it must be *true*. However, the premises and form being correct are independent, so we can have examples where there is true outcomes from faulty reasoning. The textbook example is Premise 1: All men are mortal. Premise 2: Socrates is a man. Outcome: Therefore Socrates is mortal. If we accept the premises are true, then the outcome of Socrates being mortal must follow because this form is acceptable. Next example. P1: All men are mortal. P2: Socrates is a mortal. Outcome: Therefore Socrates is man. Even though every thing in this is true and the premises are sound, the form is not acceptable. We cannot conclude from this information that Socrates is a man. Premise 1 is not *only* men are mortal. We could have other mortal things. Socrates could be my cat. We can also have untrue premises and acceptable forms P1:All redditors are murderers. P2: Socrates is a redditor. Outcome: Therefore Socrates is a murderer. In this case it's untrue that every redditor is a murderer. It is *unsound*, but because the form is good, it is *valid*. If we pretend this is true, then the outcome must be true because of the form of the argument. TL:DR Inductive is like stats based on past events. X happened in the past, therefore will occur again. Deductive is like maths. It has premises and particular forms. If these are both good the outcome must follow as true."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v9ue3 | The process of dating | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0dad4"
],
"text": [
"You meet someone. You talk to them. You do things with them. You do more things with them. You develop special things you only do with each other. You do things together until you decide you want to do things with other people in the future or not. Then maybe you get married or break up but those are different eli5's."
],
"score": [
13
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v9vwp | The Pioneer 10 and 11 anomaly. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0dmsc"
],
"text": [
"The old Pioneer probes showed systematic and unexpected deviations in their acceleration as they left the solar system - they slowed down a bit faster than was predicted. People were very excited for a few years, thinking perhaps that it was an effect of dark energy or some other clue about physics working differently on large scales. Turns out it was almost certainly due to the radiation pressure from asymmetric heat loss from the spacecraft, a well-understood phenomenon. No new physics, just disappointment :("
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5v9xcx | How does deodorant work? | Does it prevent your armpits from producing what smells or does it just cover it up? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0e4q4",
"de0egl9"
],
"text": [
"Bacteria lives in your sweat, and bacteria produces the smell. Antiperspirant deactivates/clogs up your sweat ducts. No sweat = no bacteria = no smell. Most antiperspirants also have a deodorant, which covers any smells that might remain with its own smell.",
"There is usually aluminum in antiperspirants. This causes your pores to limit sweat production. Regular deodorant works by covering up yo stank."
],
"score": [
6,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5va29y | Why are there many conditions that prevent one from being able to see or hear but none really that affects someones sense of smell? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0fpjl",
"de0hlpw"
],
"text": [
"There's actually [quite a few]( URL_0 ) out there. People don't focus on it as much as sight and hearing because we use those to orient ourselves in the world a lot more, but there are definitely conditions that will temporarily or permanently reduce your sense of smell.",
"I know someone who was born with no sense of smell. I guess she could be lying, but she's the only person who doesn't leave the room after I fart"
],
"score": [
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosmia#List_of_causes"
],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5va6ep | If a store buys something for $1 and sells it for $10 and it gets stolen, do they say they lost $1 or $10? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0g3xj",
"de0lwck",
"de0hsgb",
"de0gbpo",
"de0lye7",
"de0sxci",
"de0g1sw",
"de0vd6k",
"de0jyx1",
"de0vmqm",
"de0yk06",
"de0n0qa",
"de0nusr",
"de0k5zw",
"de0nd8c",
"de0jdad",
"de0ufsi"
],
"text": [
"For things like tax purposes they can't say they lost $10 if the item was never sold, but instead stolen. If insured: they will only cover the $1 Edit: for extra clarification -- if the insurance company did pay them $10 for that $1 item, at that point the insurance company would be paying into the profit center of the business, paying for their expenses, costs, and such. There are some exotic forms of insurance, but for the most part they will only cover what you lost and what you paid for it, they aren't going to cover what you *might* have made in profit For things like internal metrics, they can totally say \"We had $10 worth of potential revenue vanish this year due to theft\" Value can only be assigned once an actual transaction takes place, until then the only value associated with it is the $1 the company paid for it. Otherwise there's nothing to stop crazy/greedy people from saying \"This Coca-Cola bottle we have here for sale is worth $500, crap it got stolen, now we can declare a loss and not pay as much taxes\". Nope, doesn't work like that . The age old saying is very true: \"It's only worth what someone is willing to pay\"",
"In terms of financial bookkeeping many of the answers given are correct. In terms of prosecuting or suing the thief, $10. The reason is that, as you see from the other comments, there are many different ways to understand loss. One way the law deals with this is by choosing the idea of loss that fits the blameworthiness of the wrong doer. For example, someone accidentally knocks over and breaks a glass figurine, they are likely to pay only replacement costs. Whereas if that same person purposely broke or stole the figurine, their worse behavior would allow for a greater recovery.",
"Where I work at almost everything is presented at \"Cost\". There are a rare few reports that are in \"Retail\" but those most always apply to reports of sales. If we had something stolen from us it gets reported to police and our loss prevention team as \"Retail\". If something gets damaged or spoiled in store then it gets written off as \"Cost\". tl;dr - If it leaves the store it's 10$. If it stays in store it's 1$.",
"There are different ways to account for inventory loss but I believe it is recorded as an inventory expense for $1. Shrinkage.",
"Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) require it to be recorded at the actual cost they paid.",
"In my state under NJS 2C:20-11(b) b. Shoplifting. Shoplifting shall consist of any one or more of the following acts: 1. For any person purposely to take possession of, carry away, transfer or cause to be carried away or transferred, any merchandise displayed, held, stored or offered for sale by any store or other retail mercantile establishment with the intention of depriving the merchant of the possession, use or benefit of such merchandise or converting the same to the use of such person **without paying to the merchant the full retail value thereof.** So, $10 for the courts, $1 for insurance.",
"If it's reported as \"goods to the value of X were stolen\" then that's most likely the retail (higher) value. If they had a fire and were claiming on their insurance then it would be the wholesale (lower) value. If they were declaring the value of stock held in their accounts then that's also the wholesale cost. Also, I wish I could find stuff to sell at 10 times what it cost me.",
"Manager at a major chain retailer here. Contrary to popular belief, we have no theft insurance. When someone steals an item, it comes straight out of our profit (and therefore the bonus of everyone that works there.) That said, when we talk about, \"shrink,\" it's generally in terms of retail price. That's for a couple reasons: First, shrink is largely thought of in terms of percent to sales (which is obviously always in retail price). For example, if we shrink a million dollars in a year, and our store made a hundred million in sales, we say our shrink is 1%. Second, the retail price is a much more accurate measurement of loss: If we buy an item for $1 and sell it for $10, we don't make $9 profit. There's also other COGS (Cost Of Goods Sold), such as shipping fees, etc. Then there's the labor of loading it at the warehouse, unloading it at the store, stocking it, etc. For that $9 markup, about 45¢ is actual money in the bank (on average-ish). When something is stolen, we have to pay all those costs over again... Another $9.55 for that $10 item. Edit: clarification",
"I deal with the couriers at my work who deliver our products to our customers. They frequently lose our packages (so much so I'm looking in to other couriers to take our business to). I have to send a proof of purchase to show how much we bought it for, not how much we charge the customer. What makes it worse is we have to pay for it to be redelivered also. That company really sucks.",
"Depends on what the item was. If it was a CD, they could easily lose trillions of dollars. Source: RIAA",
"As a GameStop employee of 9 years, let me throw in my 2 cents... We are particularly careful of theft of new games and systems. This is because there is not much profit in the sale of those items. For instance, a $60 new game costs the company $55 to buy, netting them a $5 profit (these numbers fluctuate between games, but generally this is the largest profit margin). This means they have fronted all that money. Now, when a new game is stolen, we are at a loss of that $55 of fronted money. To make that back, we must now sell 11 copies of the game to generate $55 ($5 of profit per game). Systems are even worse. A $400 console generally costs the company around $390 \"wholesale\". That means there is a $10 profit per console sold (of course the market here is to put consoles in the hands of customers, thus enabling them to buy games, controllers, etc.). However, when a new console is stolen, we must then make up that $390 of fronted money... meaning we must sell 39 consoles just to break even ($10 profit per console sale x 39 consoles = $390). It can take all month or more to make up for the theft of a console. However, on the other side, used sales have much larger profit margins to keep the company afloat. They may buy a PS3 off a customer for $40, and resell it for $120. That's a 300% profit margin. Due to this, theft of used merchandise is not as big of a deal. In fact, I specifically remember one year around Christmas, our District Manager told us to take all of our used console boxes and put them by the door. The idea behind this was that with them being right in their face, more people were likely to pick one up, have it physically in their hands, and thus be more likely to buy it. I argued that putting them right by the door was just asking for theft. The DM told me he would rather every console be stolen than miss out on this opportunity. We ended up getting like 5 consoles stolen, but we easily doubled and possibly tripled our Used Console sales. At that +300% margin, the bonus sales more than made up for what I deemed \"acceptable theft\". So to answer your question, it's usually based on what the company has invested in the product, not potential sale.",
"Accountant here, inventory is held at the lower of cost or net realisable value (value at sale). As other people have noted, generally this means that the insured amount is the cost price unless an item has devalued enough in the market place (e.g. Outdated computer hardware) when it should be impaired to net realisable value. Cost is a good price because it is a defined value that someone (you) has paid for the item in a recent time frame.",
"Several very good answers in the thread. But I feel I should point out that they're talking about reasonable accounting principles. None of these apply to the special case of the recording industry. If we're talking about a Justin Bieber mp3, they buy it for $1, and sell it for $10. [If it's stolen they say they lost one *MILLION* dollars!]( URL_0 )",
"If you have it in your inventory and it's stolen, you report a loss equal to your inventory value. There are different ways of value your inventory, but they are all based on the purchase price, $1 on this case. (The different methods deal with if you bought some at $1.25, some at $1.00 and some at $0.90, and then set the value of the ones you have in inventory now.) If you sell it, but they just don't pay you and in that way steal your item, you'll record a loss of the receivable amount, $10 in this case.",
"Many of the answers here address what tax law or accounting principles require stating for the cost. We could also ask what was the economic value of the loss. In most cases, the stolen item was just one of several on the shelf, and they do not sell out. The absence of the item from the shelf did not prevent a sale, and, if the store buys a new item to replace the old one, the only loss is the cost of the new item. (This can be more complicated: The store might not own the item; it might belong to the manufacturer until a sale occurs. I do not know what such contracts say about who is responsible for theft of an item—does the store have to repay the manufacturer, or does the manufacturer suffer the loss rather than the store?) On the other hand, suppose the item was selling like hotcakes, so we know that the absence of the item means the store almost certainly did not make a sale it could have otherwise. Then the economic loss to the store is actually $10, especially if it takes considerable time to get a new one of the item. Tax law and accounting principles might not allow them to declare that, but an investor evaluating the company might count the loss as $10. E.g., suppose a shrewd and extraordinarily detail-oriented investor sees a company repeatedly suffering inventory losses that could have been turned into sales. If they buy the company and replace a manager with a new person who is able to stop most of these thefts, they could increase the value of the company by about $10 per stopped theft (minus any increased costs the new manager causes). The loss might also be less than the original $1 cost. If the wholesale market price of the item has decreased, it might have been worth only, say, $.50 at the time of the theft rather than the $1 paid for it. The store could restore its previous inventory level by replacing the missing item for only $.50, so it only lost $.50, not $1. So the economic value of the loss depends on circumstances.",
"The $10 includes shipping, labour, etc. These are already on the profit and loss report. So reporting $10 would be double counting costs.",
"The real **cost** will be somewhere in between. They had to buy it, ship it, receive it, stock it, scan it, shelve it, and handle it through loss management; so the item ultimately costs them the same as any they sell. That overhead is often overlooked and quite high, which is why Amazon can compete even after sending you something by purolator and doing many of the same things."
],
"score": [
1148,
81,
58,
35,
34,
19,
13,
13,
11,
6,
6,
5,
4,
4,
4,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.cracked.com/funny-4003-the-pirate-bay/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5va82m | Why hasn't a "new Facebook" broken through after all these years? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0kg39",
"de0g778",
"de0ia4s",
"de0glif"
],
"text": [
"Well, for one thing there HAS been a large number of successful social networks that have risen up since Facebook became popular, like Twitter, and Instagram. If you look at more specific services that exist to fill a certain niche, there's tons like Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc. that have plenty big enough userbases. Each one is a bit different, however, because any company that has the budget needed to actually compete with Facebook isn't going to risk competing directly. Instead, they try to provide a different sort of service, so that people not only are more likely to have a reason to use both, removing the need to actually sway Facebook's users to their side exclusively. The reason no successful service that attempts to do pretty much the same thing as Facebook has come to be can be boiled down to 3 reasons. 1. Everybody already uses Facebook. For the single user, it's already going to be difficult to convince them to jump ship since they already have so much they've put on FB that they wouldn't want to abandon, as well as the simple familiarity of the site they know. However, when you consider that FB is a community-driven service, it becomes even harder to get people to switch to a competitor, since all of their friends have to as well, not to mention all the new friends they won't be getting by using an obscure site. 2. Facebook is pretty decent, and is aimed at a mass audience. MySpace was replaced by Facebook because it had some major flaws to its system, as well as certain design choices like giving users more customization of their page made the site less likely to appeal to a wide audience. Facebook is not perfect, but it's good enough that few people are going to complain enough that they go looking for an alternative. 3. Advertising. Facebook has ludicrous amounts of money to spend on advertising, as well as the sheer amount of free publicity it gets every time someone or something tells you to add them on Facebook. This ensures that for every new potential user, Facebook is almost always the first place they look, cutting out millions of people from finding a competing service.",
"Because there already is pretty much everything. For something new to break through, it has to be original. Which is hard nowadays, considering the amount of different social networks there are. There is Facebook, Twitter which has the 140 character feature, Instagram which lets you share pictures and short videos, YouTube which let's you share videos in general and so on...",
"I think it's both a networking effect and anticompetitive practices. The networking effect as Gnonghgoi explained is simply that it's difficult to get people to join a network unless the network already exists. That means it's hard to get a network started. Anticompetitive practices involve taking ideas from other services and integrating them with their own. Facebook has integrated new ideas from Twitter and Snapchat, for instance, without negative repercussions. Or did you think \"Facebook Live\" was an original idea?",
"A lot of this is down to the network effect. Because almost everyone have facebook and facebook makes it hard to integrate with other competing services it is hard to get started in the market. For instance if you were to make a messaging service without any more features then the facebook messaging service and with fewer of your contacts then who would use it when there is facebook messaging. When faceboot messaging were first developed you could integrate it with other messaging services like Google Talk but both of those have switched to proprietary protocols to deliberately make it harder for people to integrate with."
],
"score": [
13,
6,
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5va9pj | What is going on in a person's brain when they're meditating? How does meditation affect a person physically? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0h1m9"
],
"text": [
"Well a non-scientific answer would be that when you are meditating, it is usually accompanied by some type of deep breathing exercises. In turn, this brings more oxygen to your brain, claiming you and slowing down your whole central nervous system. When you are relaxed and able to maintain this state of consciousness, you can really gain some beneficial effects that really help to alleviate daily stress and physical tension. Meditation is actually really healthy for you mind and your body. This is why I say the action is more oxygen to the brain, which tends to make someone a lot more clearance headed."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vafo9 | Did people sound like they do in black and white movies in real-life or was it an affected accent? If it was, why did they do it in the movies? | Flair: other | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0iaz5",
"de0icww",
"de0kvix"
],
"text": [
"Some people did actually talk like that. Specifically the very rich of New England. It’s called the transatlantic or mid-Atlantic accent. It was specifically taught to kids in boarding schools. Not naturally occurring accent, but one developed to sound kind of British and kind of American.",
"A little bit of both. accents have changed a lot in almost hundred years. You can even notice a difference in just a few decades. In addition there were a notion that there was a standard or better way to talk. So when actors were on stage they cleaned up their accents and used more posh accents. Another major difference is that the movie studios were originally based in New York and used Broadway actors and crew. However as the industry became more focused on movies and not theater they could move their studios west to Los Angles where the weather were better and there were a lot more room for sets.",
"IT's both. The accent was 'real', but unlike most accents, it was a cultivated one. The one you are talking about would be either [received pronunciation]( URL_0 ) from the UK or more likely, the [transatlantic]( URL_0 ) from the US (heavily influenced by the UK version). Basically, some (mainly very wealthy) people trained themselves to speak a particular way that was seen as 'correct'. These accents are also heavily associated with theatre and film of that era."
],
"score": [
15,
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5van01 | Why do people write "2k16" if "2016" literally has just as many characters? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0kug6",
"de0jmzh",
"de0l3ij",
"de0jm8n",
"de0mu96",
"de0m24k"
],
"text": [
"I've never heard of this ever happening out side of video game titles. The reason why it happens in video game series is because the generic titles of \"Series+Year\" was started with EA and when a new studio wanted to make similar sports games they needed to differentiate their version from EAs version (for example NHL 2k6 vs NHL 06 from EA) So they created the 2K version of sports games.",
"Hey, linguist here and you've definitely brought up a pretty interesting point. The usage of shorthand is actually a product of cultural socialization that has happened with generation y and z; with the death of distance and instant messaging becoming more prominent with social media platforms it's often much easier for various shorthands and trends to spread; having said this 2k16 and now 2k17 is actually derived from the verbal shorthand of the year. Reading it out loud in English feels shorter when you replace the the \"twenty\" or two - zero with 2k because 1000 is socialized to be shortened by simply the letter k. In a sense because we're so used to seeing it it spreads and provides a \"easier read\" in our minds. It's kind of like reading 1k998 when The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell in a Cell and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.",
"It's like why do people say www as \"double u double u double u\" instead of \"world wide web\". It's 9 syllables vs 3",
"They are writing it like they would say it. 2k16 is easier to say than two thousand and sixteen.",
"It started before the 2k16. It started with just 2k (y2k) but people continued using it after 2k9.",
"Why do people abbreviate words that start with W when a lot of the words have less syllables than the letter W? WTF? I mean, what the fuck?"
],
"score": [
233,
118,
21,
17,
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vap1z | why do humans enjoy eating spicy food even though it's painful? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0noeb",
"de0kfqs"
],
"text": [
"Eating spicy food releases dopamine in the brain. The body *really* likes dopamine (that's what *actually* causes the “high” from drug use), so we eat more food with more spice to release more dopamine. Plus, u/winterdust is correct in his closing assessment, though I don't know what that has to do with enjoyment as such unless you're congested 😂",
"I think sometimes it has to do with enjoying the taste of the food, despite the heat. For me, hot cheetos taste really good, so I can work past the burn to enjoy them. Maybe that's the deal with a lot of other people? There's also the fact that it opens up your sinuses and helps with congestion."
],
"score": [
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vatdq | What is the chance of us being alive ? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0ka7o"
],
"text": [
"Descartes said it pretty well. \"Cogito, ergo sum\" \"I think, therefore I am\". The fact that you are able to think and put together thoughts is proof in itself that you exist. You do not have proof that your body exist however and your senses might just be a simulation. However you do exist in some form or another. It then becomes a definition question on what it means to be alive or not. Even if you are an artifact in a computer simulation that might still meet the criteria for being alive."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vawkm | Why is it easier to follow a line when cutting something? | Let's use a piece of wood as an example. Cutting as straight as possible will be jagged and uneven. But if you draw a line with a ruler, and cut along the line it's perfect. Another thing that I was wondering about that's basically the same idea is why is it so hard to draw a perfect circle? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0kunu"
],
"text": [
"A drawn line is just a visual reference. It makes it easy to check if your line is still straight without using complex visualisation. It's easier to draw a line once and simply compare rather than continually imagine a line whilst trying to cut something. Drawing perfect circles is difficult because the human body doesn't really have many joints naturally arranged to allow our hands to move in a perfect circle. If our wrist was a ball and socket, maybe it'd be easier - but it's not. Further, our muscles aren't arranged to move optimally for circles - they're arranged for things like picking stuff up and using tools and stabbing deer. If you had to design an instrument to draw a circle, it wouldn't look a lot like the human body."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vaxgr | Why can't we reach the speed of light? | I'm sure there's a really simple answer for this, but assuming that one could just accelerate infinitely in space, why is the speed of light impossible to attain? And if acceleration is somehow asymptotic at the speed of light, why? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0l3qy"
],
"text": [
"> but assuming that one could just accelerate infinitely in space if you would simply assume this than reaching speed of light would be possible. but accelerating infinitely is not possible. to accelerate an object that has some kind of mass to c(speed of light) it would take an infinite of energy. since we can't provide an infinite of energy, it is impossible. light can reach that speed because it has no mass, and it can only hold that speed because it would require mass to slow down."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vay5x | What does pure H2O taste like? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0l1la"
],
"text": [
"Nothing at all. It's a really strange experience... You could try it; just buy a bottle of demineralized water. But don't drink a lot of it because it binds a lot of minerals. When entering your body."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vb1wi | What is going on in our brains when we get the feeling that we think we have forgotten something? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0n8sq"
],
"text": [
"**The^easy^version**: when you remember something there are 3 things that happen, you obtain the memory, you connect the memory with actions ( this can me a smell, something you see, something you hear) and you store it in the brain. For instance, if you always do something in a specific order. Take myself for an example. first I take out my contact lenses, then I brush my teeth, and while brushing my teeth I fill a glass with water. BUT, if I start with brushing my teeth . I wake up in the middle of the night, only to find out I'm still wearing my contacts. **TL;DR : You only remember that you forget something if one of the critical aspects of your memory is lacking. for instance: different smell, different light-fall in your room.** & nbsp; **the^more^difficult^version** First of all you have to know that there are 3 (basic) stages of remembering. - Obtaining a memory (Acquisition) - Associate the memory with an action (Consolidation) - Think about the memory later (Retrieval) - In the first stage, Acquisition, information that you've just learned is stored in your short-term memory before either being discarded or encoded as long-term memory. If you're not paying attention to something, such as where you put your glasses down before leaving the room, you're very likely to forget their location when you come back. - In the Consolidation stage, information that you've learned is transferrend into long-term memory. This is more likely to happen if this information relates to other long-term memories of yours, is meaningful in some way (related to historical or important events; deaths, births, w/e) or has a strong sensory impression connected to it. - In the third stage, retrieval, information stored in your memory is retrieved by activating the neuronal pattern used to store it. This stage is often where the feeling of having something \" on the tip of your tongue\" occurs, and there are some things you do to prompt this stage. The third stage is also the part that remembers that you forgot something but you don't know what. This happens when there is a specific aspect of the memory lacking, for instance a different smell then there is usually at the spot where you \"think of that\". & nbsp; I hope this answers your question, feel free to ask about parts that are not clear to you!"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vb5f8 | Why are people getting arrested for having Kodi? Doesn't Kodi just organize the user's media? Even if the media is illegal or not, it's the user's issue. | Just as the title says. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0n278"
],
"text": [
"It's hard to say specifically, since you do not refer to a specific incidence. However, several people have been arrested for distributing boxes that *have* Kodi, not because Kodi is present but because they have also pre-loaded software on them which features unlicensed (and thereby illegal) forms of content."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vb69k | why do lotteries require you to complete a skill testing math question in order to claim a prize? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0mio1"
],
"text": [
"In some states it is against the law to run casinos, which have games-of-chance, and the way the laws are written also apply to lotteries. In some of those states, if you can argue in court that it is not a game-of-chance, it is a game-of-skill, then ok, it's legal. So they attach a math question to make it a game-of-skill."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vb78h | Why are oranges sweet and lemons aren't? | I understand the fruits we have today are not "natural" and we farmed them to be the way they are today but I'm assuming that oranges were always sweeter than lemons. Is there any benefit to the lemon for not being sweet or the orange not being sour? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0nvkv",
"de0nzru"
],
"text": [
"Just as all dogs are descendants of the wolf and (almost?) all the Brassica (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) species descended from three ancestors, all the citrus fruits are descendants of hybridization of three or four ancestors, which in turn were selectively bred over centuries by humans or inbred through geographic isolation. After enough iterations, one originally small feature becomes particularly salient (like the Hapsburg chin or a Chihuahua's tiny size).",
"First of all, there are some varieties of orange that are more sour than certain varieties of lemons. The ones you see in your grocery store are not the only breeds of these fruits. The development of different breeds through artificial selection is the same regardless of what the base species is that's being modified. A long time ago, there was a farmer who planted a bunch of lemon trees. Of those trees, he found that one in particular (through random genetics) happened to be more sour than the others. He decided that this was a desirable trait, and so he cut down the other trees and planted seeds from that lemon tree. Of all the new trees, he found the one of those that, through random genetic variation, had the most sour fruit. Different people have different tastes and different ideas of what the \"best\" orange or lemon is, and from that we get dozens or hundreds of different breeds, just like we did with dogs. The interesting thing about plants is that, once you've got a \"perfect\" specimen, you can use cuttings from that plant to make an exact genetic duplicate. So for example, all Hass avocados can trace their lineage back to a single tree. The disadvantage is that, if a disease hits one of those plants, it is likely to hit all of them. Such is what happened with the Gros Michel banana and Panama Disease, which is why the most common banana today is the Cavendish."
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbb67 | [Physics] When we go to other planets does our strength change or is it just our weight? | Like the moon's gravitation is 6 times smaller than earth. So if we can lift a 100 Newton force on Earth can we lift 100 Newton on Moon or can we lift only 1/6 th of that because our weight has decreased by 6 times too? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0npgi"
],
"text": [
"Your muscles now can lift 100 Newton (10 kg x 10 m/s^2 ) . On the moon you would be able to lift also 100 Newton, but that corresponds of a 60 kg object (60 kg x 10/6 m/s^2 ) because Moon's gravity pulls down that object 6 times less than on Earth."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbcay | Why do most people refresh the desktop a couple of times after they start their computers? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0nvsz"
],
"text": [
"Could be that the user isn't actually triggering what appears to be a refresh, rather you're seeing a slower system going through its startup routines, checking the desktop shortcuts' file associations, for example."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vbdoe | Why do different countries/regions have different voltage outputs and outlet shapes? | For example, the US and Canada have 110-120V output while the Middle East has 220-240V output. The shape of the wall outlets are very different too. I know this is rectified using adapters and power transformers but why have different systems in the first place? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0oms3"
],
"text": [
"Most of the world has a 220-240 V / 50 Hz (All of Europe, most of Asia, most of Africa). America (US, Canada, Mexico, central america and a couple of countries in south america) have 110-120V/60 Hz. When changing from direct current to alternate current (DC/AC) two standards settled. In America, 60 Hz and in Europe AEG decided to go to 50 Hz (it was a more \"metric\" number). The standard was applied to the colonies too. In the beginning, however, Europe had also 120 V. Then everybody realised they needed to go to a higher voltage to have less losses, so Europe went up to 220 V. In the US they decided that many households already had a lot of electrical appliances and that would have cost a lot of money. Europe, well, we were building Europe back from the second WW, so we didn't have so much stuff as the war-intact US... Anyway, the US did go up to 240 but figured out a workaround. Those 240 V split in two 120 circuits in your houses. And some appliances like the clothes drier do use the 240 V. Edit: outlet shapes. No idea."
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbeh1 | How and why does gravity effect time | I apologise for the shoddy wording of the title but I haven't been able to comprehend this one for a while. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0ojzz"
],
"text": [
"First thing: What is gravity? Gravity is indestinguishable from acceleration. Situation 1: If you got into a lift (an elevator if you're American) in a hotel on earth and the lift did not move. Situation 2: You are in the same lift, but being towed behind a spaceship which is accelerating , going at 9.8 meters per second faster every second. For you, in the lift / elevator, with no external view, you couldn't tell the difference between situation 1 and situation 2. So gravity = acceleration. So what? Go back to your lift / elevator. Now you are going to be truly static in space (not moving), far enough away from any planets so gravity is very small. The light from the button on the wall of the lift / elevator shines. This light is made up of litttle packets of light, called photons. You measure the time it takes the photons to go from one wall to the opposite wall. Now, you are in situation 2: the lift / elevator is moving upwards at 9.8 meters per second per second. What if are the photons crossing the lift / elevator doing now? To go straight across they must move down as the lift moves up. So they are really covering a larger distance, which takes a longer time. The faster the lift is accelerating (higher gravity) the more down the photon will have to go to keep in a straight line."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbg9v | how is the universe expanding in all directions from all points? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0op7y"
],
"text": [
"Think about a balloon. When you inflate it, it expands at all points on the rubber not just from one point. If you draw a few dots on it, it's a bit easier to visualise from A < - > B < - > C to A < - - - > B < - - - > C"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vbgzp | How did climate change and conservation become such a political issue? | Shouldn't the environment be something everyone cares about? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0qir1",
"de0p6m1",
"de0req7",
"de0oq6o"
],
"text": [
"Unlike other \"scientific debates\" the impacts of climate change are heavily dispersed, unequal, and most importantly, methods to reduce the rate of climate change are extraordinarily expensive. Major oil corporations still employ hundreds of thousands of workers and have revenues that are larger than many countries. Policies that curb emissions, place quotas or enforce regulatory plans cost those firms, and a credible argument could be made that they also cost jobs. Politicians in states where many of these jobs are located (Texas, Oklahoma) need to serve their constituents to be reelected and that means protecting fossil fuels. Politicians in New York or Oregon don't have the same priorities, and thus the political debate. In contrast, anti-science movements such as the anti-vaccine groups not only lack scientific studies and money on their side, but vaccines also protect people in every state. There aren't enough anti-vaxxers voting. Tl;dr It isn't about climate change per se, it's about politicians doing more or less what their constituents believe is necessary to protect their economy. If that means denying science to feel better about it, then so be it.",
"If you want a slightly biased but accessible and interesting source for a lot of the factors that have played into this phenomenon, you should check out \"before the flood\" documentary by Nat Geo. It came out pretty recently and is really informative, while being pretty engaging. The best part is that rather than just leaving the viewer with a sense of overwhelming depression, impending doom, and a hate of humanity unparalleled since the release of Avatar, the documentary provides real, immediately applicable ways to promote change and resist the anti-science propaganda that has seemed to seep out of the woodwork of our current political administration in the US. At the very least, watch the doc's interview with Piers Sellers, a NASA astronaut with a powerful perspective.",
"Environmental regulations and carbon emission standards can costs businesses considerable money. The republicans allegedly want to save businesses money by cutting environmentally conservative procedures (or getting rid of fines). There's also the politicization and lobbying of the coal industry, the oil industry, the environment lobbies, renewal energy industries etc. Tl;dr - political because of $$$",
"It became political because both sides of the argument use false or misleading statistics to try to enact change. Most of the new regulations politicians attempt to put in place harm the economy with minimal or no measurable outcome so people debate whether harming the economy is worthwhile. There are many regulations that make sense that should be in place. Most of them already are."
],
"score": [
27,
9,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbla4 | Why do things that are burnt turn either brown or black? | So as I was packing to move, I had to pack spices. Since I didnt want them getting everywhere, I burned the ziploc bags shut, and notices it turned black. I then went on a burning frenzy and it was either black or brown. Why is this? Edit: welp im retarded, I just needed to search it. Thanks to the bot i suppose | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0rgso"
],
"text": [
"Almost everything is made up of carbon compounds. That is carbon bonded with some other element/elements.When you burn something the bonds are broken and carbon residue is left which is black/brown in colour. (That's the most basic way to explain it. It is way complex if you really get into the details)"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbpql | Why is space dark? | I don't understand how it is light on earth but when you go into space it gets dark. Shouldn't it get lighter the closer you get to the sun?? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0qgtb",
"de0qim2",
"de0r6u0",
"de0tk5p"
],
"text": [
"Space isn't dark. Space is *empty*. You only see colors because light from the Sun is reflecting off of stuff here on Earth, or stuff in the atmosphere. But space is basically just emptiness, so there's nothing to reflect off of, thus it just appears black.",
"> Shouldn't it get lighter the closer you get to the sun?? There is plenty of light in space, but there isn't air to reflect it to your eyes. This means it passes right by without being seen and appears black.",
"Despite huge number of twinkling and bright stars, sky looks dark. It appears intriguing and unexplainable. But this is not the actual situation. In order to simplify the matter, it would be prudent to understand the stars, galaxies and the rays of light. Sun, in our galaxy called Milky Way, is a moderate star. However there are stars bigger, heavier and radiating more energy in the galaxies. A galaxy is a cluster of stars. There are 100000000000 or 10 raised to the power eleven stars in a galaxy or Milky Way. There are 100000000000 or ten raised to the power eleven galaxies in the universe . That makes 10 raised to the power 22 (or twenty two zeros proceeding one) stars in this universe. This is a very huge astronomical figure. But despite such large number shining stars, there is darkness in the sky at night. Why is it so? I am not considering the reflection from moon which lit the sky at night. 2. The probable answer would be that these stars are distantly situated and can not contribute to illumination of sky. But what stops light rays from huge number of stars from illuminating the sky? That may seem a bit technical question. To understand this , it would be better, to know in brief, the law governing these heavenly bodies. Hubble, an astrophysicist, gave the world law of recession of heavenly bodies. This law states, heavenly bodies recede from each other with velocity directly proportional to its distance. That means, as the distance will increase, the velocity increases. This velocity at the most can tend to reach that of light as per Einstein. Einstein stated that maximum achievable velocity is velocity of light and nothing can surpass this velocity. That means maximum achievable velocity for cosmological bodies would be velocity of light. It is obvious if the bodies were moving with the velocity of light, the Rays from these would not be able to reach us. We thus can not see these. We can only see or detect those cosmological bodies whose velocity are less than that of light. Such galaxies which have velocities less than that of light, will fall in the universe visible to us. With the passage of time as velocities of such bodies tend to approach that of light, these would be out of our visible universe and beyond our detection. Visible universe is, therefore, losing those bodies whose velocities get increased to that of light with passage of time. 3. It is an admitted fact that ordinarily, all stars emit light rays, but these rays travel huge distances to reach earth. The distances traversed by the rays can be judged from the fact that rays take 4.67 years to reach here from our neighbouring nearest star Alpha Centauri. Stars situated even more distantly also exist in galaxies and these may take thousands of years for the rays to reach here. The journey of the rays from the source stars is not easy and smooth. The rays after emission from the stars pass through intervening some massive and some moderate stars. The rays when near the gravitating massive stars, get bent or attracted to the star and lose a part of their energy. These thus get red shifted. In addition, the relative receding motion between the star and the sun also causes a red URL_0 understand the red shift, it is submitted that a ray of light can be split into light of seven colours . This splitting can be done by glass prism or spectrometer. These colours of light denote its energy bands. These seven colours can be remembered by the word, ‘VIBGYOR’ where V stands for violet, I for indigo, B for blue, G for green, Y for yellow, R for red Rays of light. That is the energy of the rays from their colours, violet to red is in descending order. When rays are deflected towards gravitating heavy star, their energy get decreased and the rays are shifted towards red band in spectrum. This deflection of light rays due to the gravitating star is similar to that in optical lens and gives rise to the image of the star causing confusion in the location of the real star. This phenomenon is called gravitational lensing. In addition to this , the relative motion between the source star and the sun on account of recession, also causes an appreciable amount of red shift due to Doppler’s effect. Because of high red shifting, the rays fall in infra red zone and are too weak to illuminate the sky. 4. As submitted above, the rays traverse large distances, these pass through intergalactic gases, dust etc. That causes absorption of the rays and this further weaken the energy. At the same time, the rays are also blocked by the intervening stars and that also reduces their energy. The rays then possess the energy far lower than that at the time of their emission from the source star. 5. Also flux density of light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between source and destination, larger distance will reduce the flux density to larger extent. As stated earlier the distances of stars from the sun in some cases, is thousands of light years, therefore, flux density gets appreciably weak. 6. It is also submitted that some stars emit light for some duration and then these do not. Therefore, light rays are available to the extent t/t’ where t’ is time from Big Bang and t is time during which it emitted light.That also reduces the flux density. 7. Without going into details of the Big Bang, I submit that expansion took place after after Big Bang and energy converted to mass. But relic of Big Bang is still present in the universe in the form of cosmic microwave background or CMB. Hot photons cooled down and reached that temperature which was in thermal equilibrium with matter. The result is 2.7 K microwaves. These CMB is still present in the universe equally at day and night. But these are not strong enough to illuminate the sky. This is also called Olbers’ Paradox. 8. Summing up, it is submitted that despite huge number of stars, obstructions by intervening stars to rays, absorption of rays by galactic gases and dust, exponential reduction of flux density due to large distances between source and the sun, intervention to the rays by massive stars, reduce the energy and the rays are highly red shifted to the extent of infra red band. CMB, a relic of Big Bang, is too weak to illuminate the sky. Thus though 10000000000000000000000 stars twinkle yet these can not illuminate the sky. This is a situation similar to, ‘Water water everywhere but not a single drop to drink.’",
"URL_0 I guess this should clear your doubt."
],
"score": [
63,
25,
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"shift.To"
],
[
"https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJ4M7tyLRE"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbs2t | Why do elementary school students have to memorize the times tables up to 12? Why not 13 or 11? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0y97s",
"de0r7gg",
"de0ue5p",
"de1aalt"
],
"text": [
"This varies from place to place and from time to time. Going up to 12 is pretty common, but stopping at 10 is also fairly common.",
"Eleven is easy, 12 is useful (inches in a foot), 13 is hard and of no more use than 14+, so 12 is a good stopping point.",
"For the most part, you can understand most basic arithmetic with the first 12 digits. Anything more and we're needlessly complicating division and multiplication. 12x1-100 is more than enough for most applications rather than having to figure out, for example, 19x33 in your head. Plus, it's all about prioritising. Would you rather have to spend twice as long learning twice the integers, or learn the minimum necessary for the majority of their math education so they can move on to more complicated scenarios?",
"Places using the imperial system go up to 12 because it's based primarily on 12 so it makes the common multiples a bit easier. Countries using the metric system usually only teach to 10 because metric is base 10 and any number higher than 10 can be worked out only using 0-9."
],
"score": [
11,
8,
7,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vbvf9 | How large is the smallest known star? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0zw1i",
"de0s0w6"
],
"text": [
"The smallest star discovered (2MASS J0523-1403) is only slightly larger then Jupiter. It was crazy the process the scientific community went through in order to classify it as an actual star.",
"It will certainly be a Neutron star of some sort. That are small and incredibly dense; almost but not quite as dense as a black hole URL_0 They are often only about 10km wide."
],
"score": [
7,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star"
]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vby3q | What are the risks or ramifications for getting a home mortgage when you only plan to live there less than 5 years? | The general rule of thumb is to only purchase a home if you plan to live there more than 5 years, but none has ever given me a good reason as to why. I am considering purchasing a home but I may only live in it for 3 years. How am I better off renting for 3 years than purchasing and building equity? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0sldm"
],
"text": [
"The costs of buying a house (inspection, closing costs, realtor/broker costs, moving costs) are prohibitive in the short term. It would be cheaper to rent in order to avoid $10,000-20,000 in additional costs. After ~5 years or so, though, those initial costs are paid for and your equity in the house begins to build toward a profit. However, if you incur those expense every 5 years, in addition to the cost of housing, it'll be more than renting."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vbzvw | Why does bacon shrink when cooked? | always wondered this... | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0swnm"
],
"text": [
"Bacon shrink when you cook it because the fat turns to grease and oil which causes parts of the bacon to decrease only where the fat is so the meat gets all ripoli because where the fat is usually lengthwise of the bacon shrivels which crossed the whole thing they get wrinkly"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vc2xd | How do the little green glowing sights on my handgun continue to glow in the dark despite being kept in a dark safe for months? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0tn7i",
"de0ttsm"
],
"text": [
"They contain a radioactive element, tritium. That excites the gas inside and glows green. They usually glow for about ten years and you will need to get them replaced of you still want that feature.",
"Probably because they use Tritium (Hydrogen-3). The radioactive tritium decays by emitting an electron (beta decay) which interacts with the phosphorus coating, producing light."
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vc3ba | What is the reason for the sudden clarity and lucidity that happens right after the orgasm, that makes the whole thing seems absurd? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0ujdr",
"de10k9a",
"de0tufs"
],
"text": [
"Dissonance between your \"fantasy\" and your morality. See, when you are searching for porn generaly you start with some classic fantasy, but at the same time of your excitation become bigger and bigger, you drift to some more exotic fantasy. It's basically because your \"reptilian brain\" (not sure if it's correct in english, I mean the basic brain) take more and more control during this time. And this part of your brain don't understand complexe/social morality. But after the orgasm, your consciouness take back the control and \"see\" what you watched and don't feel confortable with that because it's influanced by your morality. (And also your brain hate dissonance)",
"After a man's orgasm, sexual desire drops quickly. And *as* men (and women) orgasm, our brains release oxytocin, which has been called the \"cuddle hormone\" - it increases empathy with and connection to our partner. So when men having *partnered* sex lose their arousal (so, \"go back to normal\") and have an oxytocin-assisted rush of warm, empathetic feeling, that's **not** absurd; it's a normal part of pair-bonding. But when you orgasm with *no* partner, that warm, empathetic feeling can be out-of-place - especially if you're masturbating to a porn fantasy or to a celebrity that you don't know in real life, who doesn't and can't and won't return the affection.",
"You basically want to orgasm because of the hormones that increase and tbh you will do anything to get there kind of like a drug. But sometimes after you do it and the pleasure is gone the hormones rest and you can think about why you would masturbate to animal bukkake."
],
"score": [
38,
18,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vc4na | What is a computer 'memory leak'? | I see it's a huge issue with PC software but have no clue what it means. Can someone kindly explain it to me in simple terms please | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0uuqu",
"de0uy56",
"de0uj2d",
"de0uf4y",
"de0xh8m"
],
"text": [
"Modern operating systems let you run multiple programs at once, but you only have one pool of RAM that they all have to share. The way that works is that when a program wants memory, it asks the operating system for however much it needs, and the OS finds a block that's not being used and loans it to the program. When the program is done using the memory, it's supposed to return it so other programs can use it. A memory leak happens when a program forgets about a block of memory the operating system gave it. As far as the operating system is concerned, it still has that block \"checked out\", but the program can't do anything with it, and it can't return it back to the operating system because it can't find it. The memory isn't gone permanently- when the program exits, the operating system knows it doesn't need the memory any more so it marks all the memory that was checked out by the program as \"available\" again. But it's not going to be available as long as that program is still running. It's only a big problem if the program keeps doing this. If it keeps hitting the code where it asks for more memory, but never returns any of it. Since it's not giving any memory back, the program will, over time, consume more and more of your computer's memory until you don't have any more memory to give it. At that point, the computer has three choices: 1. It can start rejecting requests from programs that ask for more memory (which generally results in those programs crashing) 2. It can try storing additional data on the hard drive, which keeps the computer running but is something like 1000x slower than RAM so your computer will slow to a crawl 3. It can try to figure out which program is stealing all of the memory and terminate that one (Linux does this, Mac and Windows don't since some programs don't deal well with not having time to clean up) EDIT: formatting",
"Software developer here, Memory is a finite resource, your computer has only so much of it. Every program needs memory, and it's use has to be coordinated to ensure no two programs overwrite each other. That coordination typically happens through the OS as the mediator between all other programs and memory. Every program keeps track of what memory addresses it's using. Typically, when a program needs memory, it will request what it needs, and when it's done with that memory, it will release it back into the pool of available memory. Most programs, it's the responsibility of the programmer to allocate and free the memory. Oversights are common, and an algorithm may allocate memory without releasing it when finished. The OS doesn't know the program is done with that memory, it doesn't know there's an error that is allocating without releasing memory, and the program error may be such that the program loses track of which bytes it no longer needs, and now it can't release it back to the OS. This is a memory leak. The pool of memory is slowly draining. This can bog down your system until the offending process is killed and the allocated memory can be reclaimed, if other processes don't themselves start failing.",
"It is a symptom of a programming error. When a program needs to store things in memory (basically whenever you do anything) it needs to request a certain amount of reserved space which is allocated by another program, usually part of the operating system. Then when the program is done it needs to tell the operating system to release that memory so others can use it. If a programmer screws up and doesn't release the memory when their program finishes those patches of memory never get released. The total amount of memory the program has allocated to it increases as the process is run over and over, gradually crowding out the other programs which need to allocate memory as well.",
"Let's consider those Halloween stores that randomly pop up in deserted shops. Every October, they rent out 100 empty shops (allocating memory). After Halloween, they need to make sure to make sure they stop their lease in all 100 shops (freeing memory). However, due to an error in accounting, they managed to stop their lease in 99 shops but not the last one. The next year comes around and they rent another 100 shops. The error strikes again and after Halloween, they now have 2 shops they're paying all year round for. Over time, if the Halloween company didn't manage to find this mistake they will lose a great deal of money! This is a memory leak. Due to improper programming, not all the memory is freed in a program so it starts to consume more and more over time, eventually hogging enough of it to slow down or crash the system.",
"I think the best ELI5 would be to equate a computer as a teacher, and computer programs as little students. So... a little kid asks for a marker from the teacher. Teacher hands it out. When the student is finished with the marker, they return it to the teacher - and the teacher puts it back into the marker jar. Now what ends up happening, is that there's *a lot* of little kids asking for markers. At once. Teacher dutifully hands them out. Now, little kids being little kids, some *forget* that they already have a marker and ask for another one. They inadvertently keep the first marker, while using the second marker. Sometimes they forget they have two, and then ask for a third. So when the teacher runs out of markers, she freaks the fuck out. Yells at all of the kids, kicks them out of the room, scours the whole room for markers, and puts them back. Now imagine each \"marker\" being a piece of memory. A memory leak occurs when the little shits (programs) forget that they have markers yet keep asking for more, and the teacher knows that they exist somewhere but not sure *exactly* where. You reclaim memory (markers) when you refresh everything and start over."
],
"score": [
15,
5,
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
5vc5wh | What is a "memory leak" (in a PC/phone/etc..) and how does it happen? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0uszg"
],
"text": [
"In its simplest form, a memory leak is what happens when a program doesn't discard memory it isn't using anymore. Think about it like a bookshelf. Every time your program needs some memory (a book), it goes and gets it from the shelf. When it's done with it, it frees up the memory (puts the book back on the shelf). If it doesn't return the book, you'll eventually run out of books to get (memory to place objects in). Things will run slowly (or crash that program)."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
|
5vc7g4 | Why do humans need to go to the dentist and brush their teeth to avoid tooth decay, but animals can go their entire lives without a toothbrush and be fine? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"de0ut0y"
],
"text": [
"We live a long time, and many modern diets are rich in sugars that bacteria love, and they poop acid all over our teeth, degrading them. Animals can't often get the same, sugar rich diets, often don't live as long for harm to accrue. But animals *can* have tooth decay. Often, an animal with bad teeth is an animal that can't eat effectively, at which point it is a dead animal, and something else will then eat it. So you see animals with relatively good teeth, because they're the ones that haven't died and been eaten. Other animals may utilize different strategies. They may have teeth that grow continuously, or they may replace their teeth throughout their lives, while humans do neither."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
]
| [
"url"
]
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.