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io1qdb
|
why are we told to wash with warm water but cold water is better for skin?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
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"Pores don’t open or close. They do not have sphincter muscles. They can become stretched over time and appear larger, though. (Don’t use biore nose strips!!! But that’s a different convo). Warmer water will remove oil from your face more efficiently, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Your skin needs to be moisturized and stripping the natural oil off your face is counter to that goal. Consult a dermatologist, not random reddit users. But if you feel cold water is working for you, do that. Edit: also don’t listen to marketing from skincare companies. They have a vested interest in you continuing to have acne... so you’ll keep buying their product. For example, in most cases acne should be treated with moisturizing agents not drying (or anti-oil) agents. Ok, removing my tinfoil hat now."
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io27c8
|
How come when we sit down where someone else has been sitting, it feels warm. Yet when we sit down where we have been sitting already, you don’t feel anything.
|
Potentially dumb question but I’ve been curious about this for a while.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"g4b39yr",
"g4b6ll4"
],
"text": [
"Neuroscientist here. Your ass is not a thermometer. It senses changes, not real absolute values. Here is an experiment anyone can do. 3 buckets. (1) gets hot water on your tap. (2) gets normal temp. (3) gets cold water plus some ice if youre feeling spicy. Dunk your hands in 1 and 3 for a minute. Then duck both into 2 and see how the temperature feels. Same temperature, different change. Anyway, your ass is the same. New warm seat feels warm because your ass cold and not used to the seat.",
"Because if we were just sitting there, we already know what the temperature is and are already acclimated to it. When we sit where someone else is, however, we do not expect that and it's the fact that it does not match what we were expected to feel that gets our attention.",
"our body is stupid it doesn't know whAt the real temperature is which is why when daddy takes drugs in the summers he sometimes thinks he's freezing his ass off"
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io2wdg
|
Why does saliva taste like blood when you exhaust yourself?
|
Why does your saliva start to taste like blood if you ride your bike up a hill or run fast for a while? Edit: Thanks for the Awards and the nice Comments. Also blew up bigger than I thought!
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"When you complete a quick, strenuous exercise, some excess hemoglobin is released from your blood cells into the lungs, which is then moved to your mouth during an exhale. Since hemoglobin is also made up of iron, that is what your receptors detect- hence the blood taste.",
"The taste that can be present in your mouth might be similar to the one of blood, or just metallic. Happens usually when performing hard exercises with not a lot of previous training or preparation, exercising at high altitudes or in cold and dry air.The taste is a byproduct of the fact that the heart is working way harder than usual causing pulmonary edema (buildup of fluids in the lungs), and with this there's an increase in pressure which causes a leakage of erythrocytes (Red blood cells) into your lungs. Haemoglobin (the molecule present in RBCs that allows transport of oxygen) are bound to iron ions and when RBCs have entered the lungs, haemoglobin can escape into the bronchi, then the trachea, larynx and finally reaches the mouth, where the taste receptors on the tongue sense iron and send a signal to your brain causing this metallic/bloody taste in your mouth. Edit: Might be a little too specific and complicated for ELI5 but I'll still leave it here",
"Since there are 397 comments here, I assume no one will ever see this. The top answer is wrong. It has to do with the decreased blood pH from retained CO2. The effect is a known symptom of patients with metabolic acidosis for instance. It is also a warning sign when free-diving. Obviously there is nothing moving into your mouth when you are underwater. You can taste it yourself if you hold your breath for 90 seconds.",
"It may sound weird, but I experienced it once and got the explanation that it's because your lungs get rid of the slimy protection film on your bronchia to get more oxygen into your blood. This slim on the other hand can have tiny red platelets which give you that weird blood taste and sometimes coughing afterwards as well.",
"Oh god I figured it was just because I’m a weakling. The two people I’ve ever mentioned it to said it never happened to them.",
"I have exercise induced asthma and I get this sensation right before I get an asthma attack after cardio exercise. It’s such a strong blood taste I used to think I was going to spit out blood but when I spit it was always just saliva. So learning the science now helps it all make sense.",
"This is weird. I work out all the time and yace never noticed any change to the taste of saliva. Interesting, though.",
"**Eli5 version**: Our blood contains iron. When you do strenuous exercise the pipes supplying blood to the balloons in your chest start leaking some of that iron-containing part of blood. When the balloons deflate, that's when you exhale, some of that iron reaches your mouth from those balloons and your taste-thingamagigs tell you that you have iron in your mouth.",
"I've never had that happen that I know of, but I will say that I have really bad teeth and have definitely spent some time tasting blood. Ok cool. Bye.",
"Am I the only person this has never happened to?",
"Basically why you exert yourself you blood cells \"pop\". Working out hard means the red blood cells are working hard too, the harder they work the more *heme* they release which is what gives that taste of metal. They can also leak into your lungs which can persist the taste as you breathe heavier during a workout. It will go away after the body adapts though!",
"There are many theories but no one knows why, some of the explanations here are a likely culprit but overall there likely isn’t a single root cause for everyone. Not everyone experiences it, and it seems not to be directly correlated to your level of fitness either. Also not everyone experiences it due to stress levels alone for example I only experience it when running in cold weather, the likely explanation for me is that colder dryer weather might cause more raptures in blood vessels in the throat, nose and tear ducts which means more blood cells get funneled into my mouth as I exhale or through the mucus. P.S. some people mentioned metallic taste before throwing up, the metallic taste before throwing up isn’t related to this, that happens every time you are about to throw up and it’s due to a reflex trigger that increases saliva production to provide lubrication to reduce choking and to protect your throat and mouth from your gastric acid and any thing you might have swallowed that didn’t or couldn’t be digested (historically and even today some animals including mammals throw up bones that they swallow and also may throw up other particulates like sand or small rocks that they swallow intentionally or unintentionally during feeding, so the vomit reflex is likely shared across all of mammals just like the mammalian diving reflex). You could quite likely cause that sensation at will by thinking about throwing up.",
"Some people have provided correct and detailed explanations that I think might be a bit too high-level for ELI5, so I'll see what I can do. First, it isn't your saliva that tastes like blood, it's the air coming out of your lungs. You should notice that the taste gets stronger if you exhale forcefully. Second, this is basically caused by your heart/lungs working way harder than they're used to, which results in some blood getting forced into your lungs. The blood contains a lot of iron, which is responsible for that metallic taste that you instantly recognize as blood.",
"I’m not sure I agree with any of the top comments. What you are tasting is likely myoglobin. This is an iron containing molecule found in skeletal muscle. During vigorous exercise muscle fiber breaks down releasing enzymes into the blood stream. Myoglobin is one of those proteins. I would highly doubt any of the theories that believe hemoglobin is released.",
"I have low potassium and magnesium and it tastes like penny's, I get muscle weakness, it feels like my legs are cooked noodles, and they get very heavy. Talk to your doctor about a blood test. But its probably something else.",
"A lot of good expalations here, but just in case, go get checked by the doctors. I do a lot of heavy exercise and I never experience that. There may actually be a bit of blood coming out of your lungs under stress, which is not good.",
"Is it not that you are breathing out high levels of CO2 and that dissolved in your saliva making it acidic, and you taste the acid which is sour?",
"Never experienced this due to exercise (probably because I don’t exercise?) but sometimes when my blood sugar get super low (T1 Diabetic) I get that gross copper-y taste!",
"I don't get this after exercising, but if I stay up too long (24+ hours) my saliva gets a metallic taste to it. I wonder if these are related somehow",
"literally ever since I’ve been little I felt the taste of blood after sprinting for a while. I have always been a bit scared that something js wrong. Is it 100% normal (healthy)?",
"So the lung thing is apparently a thing, but I did cross country for too many years while fat and having horrible oral hygiene. So if you have gum disease, there is a very real chance of your gums bleeding while working out or just when your heart rate gets up there in general.",
"I wonder if this is what happened to me in high school whenever I had my period. I'd feel super sick like I was gunna throw up or pass out. Usually had to have another student walk with me to the nurses office and once the teacher called for a wheelchair cuz I was really pale. Every single time I'd get this really strong metallic blood like taste in my mouth. I've always been curious about it cuz it hasn't happened since."
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io32r9
|
Why does alcohol feel so good?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"g4b86fo"
],
"text": [
"Alcohol blocks the reception of certain chemical signals passed between brain cells, making them unable to communicate as effectively. Essentially it disrupts the way your brain typically functions making it much less efficient. Enjoyment of this state of lowered brain functionality is entirely subjective. Not judging, just saying not everyone likes getting drunk, myself included (I do, however, really enjoy certain other mind altering substances)."
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"score": [
3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
io33nw
|
How do glasses work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4b8xbz",
"g4b99qg",
"g4b9gox"
],
"text": [
"Glasses as in spectacles?? They are usually concave or convex depending on your problem (myopia or hypermetropia). Myopic people use concave lenses. The problem with myopia is that the light rays converge before reaching the retina. The image is sharp at the focal point and for a normal person the focal point is at the retina but in myopics the focal point is before the retina. So they have a distorted image. A Concave lens diverges the incoming light rays a bit before it hits the cornea and lens so that it when it converges it does so at the retina In the same way in hypermetropic people, the light rays converges at a point beyond the retina. A convex lens is used in this condition and it helps in converging the light rays further so that it properly focuses at the retina. There are also other conditions such as astigmatism, where the corneal thickness varies and the image is distorted and wavy, in such conditions a cylindrical lens is used to correct Hope this helps!!",
"Depending on your exact issue with vision, you may not be able to see objects close to you or at a distance. This is caused by an issue with the lens of your eye being unable to focus light effectively on your retina. If near-vision is a problem for you, this means your eyes focus light onto a point that is 'before' your retina. In this case, concave glasses which cause rays of light to diverge from each other, allows for light to be focused correctly on the retina by the lens of your eye. If far-vision is a problem, the lens focuses light on a point 'after' the retina. In this case, the glasses will be convex. The lens of your eye then finishes the job, and focuses light on the retina correctly. Bifocals work by having convex and concave lenses in different parts of the spectacles.",
"I'll try my best At the back of our eyes, there are nerves to receive light (what we see). That light goes through our eyes where there's a lens (the centermost circle of our eyes). What these lenses do is they take all the light that would otherwise go in a straight line, and bend them, so that they all focus onto one spot on the nerves. Normal eyes would have normal, properly working lenses, meaning the image/light going into the eyes would be properly focused. But some of us have abnormal ones (too thin, too thick, or damaged in other ways) and so the focus is off (too far backwards, to far forward from the nerves). When this happens, the nerves dont get focused images, so what we see arent focused. So eye doctors find out how much thinner or thicker it is compared to normal ones and prescribe you with glasses :D which are just bigger versions of the little lenses in our eyes. These bigger lenses are curved in whatever way the doctor sees fit and they pre-bend the light rays that would then pass through the abnormal eye lenses. The point is so that the focus goes back onto the nerves. Hope this helps, ama!"
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io34so
|
Explain calculus like I'm Five.
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"g4b8xqo"
],
"text": [
"Calculus is the mathematical school regarding change in a system over time. Basically Calculus is to change what geometry is to shapes."
],
"score": [
5
],
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
io38vt
|
How are bits in the hardware of a computer built?
|
A giga byte is about 8 billion bits, but I can hardly imagine that people/machines build billions or trillions of little bits into my phone or a console, if so how is that possible?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bah83"
],
"text": [
"Transistors on that scale are not \"buildt\", what happens is more comparable to printing. After all, a transistor (and by extension a computer chip) is basically just some layers of conductive, non-conductive and semi-conductive pathways on top of each other. If I recall correctly, one step is to first add a layer of copper to the chip, then shining a specific wavelength of light through a transperent \"map\" of the desired pathways onto the chip, and then introduciing gaseous acid to the chip surface. For some weird chemical effect, the parts of the copper layer that are illuminated are protected from the effects of the acid, therefore the acid eats away all the other copper, and you are left with a layer of copper pathways. The important part here is that the \"pathway map\" can be ridiculously complex and have billions of pathways, but this does not affect the duration or cost of this production step. Now, thats only one technique, and the different layers of the chip require different steps. But at no point in them does a machine manufacture billions of tiny elements one by one, or carve billions of grooves into some surface with a tiny drill."
],
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6
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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io3chv
|
Why is a double pendulum so unpredictable?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bgrdi"
],
"text": [
"Because a very small change in initial conditions can have a very large effect on the future of the system. A good example here would be balancing a pencil on a table, or building a tower of cards. You have to be very careful so they don't fall. The reason you have to be so careful is because there is only a very narrow \"zone\" where they will balance, and going outside that zone will give you a very different outcome (falling). Something analogous is going on with the double pendulum, although that is even more sensitive. With double pendulums, ever so tiny differences in initial conditions (for example tilting one of the two beads a fraction of a degree more) tend to get amplified over time. This is where the unpredictability comes in. You can only know the initial conditions up to a certain accuracy. For instance you may know the length of the distances between the beads, that they are still and that initial one is tilted at 50 degrees, the other at 10. However, the true tilts might be 50.000023 and 10.0000009 degrees, and your measurement might just not be good enough. In systems that aren't as sensitive to initial conditions, this difference may not matter. But in double pendulums, it does because it will get amplified over time."
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6
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|
io3j4n
|
How/why—psychologically—are little children so scary when it comes to ghosts/horror-mediums when IRL kids are probably the least scary things on the planet?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bamcg",
"g4bdo1u"
],
"text": [
"The [uncanny valley]( URL_0 ) and unexpected behavior. You see something that looks and acts *almost* like a normal child but you clearly see that something is very, very wrong. That contrast between \"children should be cute and harmless\" that your brain expects and \"it's not a normal child and it's not harmless\" that you see creates creepiness. When you see a monster, you at least know what to expect. There's a joke: \"In a bad horror, the screen is filled with monsters and blood but you're not afraid. In a good horror, nothing is happening, then a little hedgehog slowly enters the scene and you run to change your pants.\"",
"I see it as a mix of a corruption of innocence and the fact that children are extremely pure in their emotions. A happy child is pure untainted happiness. A mad child has no filter to tone their rage. Just imagine what a calculating bloodthirsty child would be....."
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3
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|
io3pxk
|
how do the ear wax candles work? And do they “actually” work
|
My friend swears by them but I don’t understand how they clear your ears? TIA :)
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bb9uh",
"g4bb8n3",
"g4bbfal"
],
"text": [
"They don't work. What happens is the cone of paper cannot get enough oxygen to the flame for complete combustion so a yellow residue of partly burned paper forms inside. Ignorant people assume it is somehow wax from their ears, but in reality you can get the same result by burning the cone with the tip stuck into anything that blocks airflow, like a pile of dirt.",
"They don't. There's no scientific evidence that they actually work. URL_0",
"They do not actually work. They were cooked up in modern times by a company looking to make money by selling a bogus cure that doesn't actually do anything. Any stuff \"extracted from the ear\" is just stuff that remains from the candle after it is burned. People swear by a lot of things that don't work, because the human brain is hardwired to see patterns, even if the patterns don't actually exist."
],
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5,
5
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[
"url"
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io3sxw
|
How do whales and dolphins sleep ? Do they go outside water or do they stay inside, but in this case how can they breathe ?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bbm4m"
],
"text": [
"They sleep in the water. Whales will sleep vertically. Dolphins sleep with one half of their brain at a time"
],
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8
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
io3x6j
|
How does a record player work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bggcy"
],
"text": [
"Sound vibrates the air. The air vibrates a microphone. The microphone vibrates a coil of wire. The coil of wire vibrates an electrical current. The electrical current vibrates a cutting needle in a metal plate. The metal plate now has cuts that are shaped by the sound. The metal plate is used to make a plastic disc. The plastic disc vibrates the pick-up stylus. The pick-up stylus vibrates a coil of wire. The coil of wire makes a current. The current drives an amplifier. The amplifier drives a speaker. The speaker vibrates the air."
],
"score": [
6
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[
"url"
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[
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io3z0l
|
Why does yawning while peeing cause the peeing to stop?
|
Or is it just me?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bcs5i"
],
"text": [
"Some of the muscles used for peeing is helping pushing out the urine by increasing the pressure in your abdomen. But when you are yawning the same muscles have to relax to allow your lungs to expand downwards into your abdomen. This means that peeing will slow down or even stop completely. The same muscles is also the reason why you often pee and poop at the same time as the same muscles are used for both. And it also explains why you often take a deep breath as this allows you to only use the muscles for pushing out poop rather then breathing, the pressure from your lungs also help make more pressure in your abdomen."
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5
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[
"url"
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io4111
|
when you have to cook something a 100 degrees for 30 minutes, why can’t you just do 200 degrees for 15 minutes?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bcyb8"
],
"text": [
"When you heat something up, you make the outside hot. The heat then goes from the outside to the inside. But that takes time. The risk is that you make the outside burned, while the inside is still uncooked. Also: You cannot do the reverse, because some chemical reactions that make food tasty/look good/safe only occur at certain temperatures. EG: Sous Vide cooks a steak at 57 C for 4 hours, but it doesn't look good to eat, and the outside isn't all that tastey. So they use a blow torch or really hot pan/fire to make the outside cook the way people like it, but don't cook it long, since the inside is already cooked."
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12
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"url"
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[
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|
io43lf
|
what are the obstacles that prevent USA from adopting the metric system? Why can't it happen?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"g4bdhbx",
"g4bf81l",
"g4bexeg"
],
"text": [
"1. All of their infrastructure is in Imperial and it would be very expensive to change everything to metric 2. Americans are stubborn",
"The United States is a metric country: *The Metric Conversion Act is an Act of Congress that U.S. President Gerald Ford signed into law on December 23, 1975. It declared the metric system \"the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce\", but permitted the use of United States customary units in all activities. As Ford's statement on the signing of the act emphasizes, all conversion was to be \"completely voluntary.\" The Act also established the United States Metric Board with representatives from scientific, technical, and educational institutions, as well as state and local governments to plan, coordinate, and educate the American people for the Metrication of the United States.* It just takes us longer to convert to metric than most other places. So far we have two liter soda bottles squared away. Oh, and syringes for drugs. And... um, that's about it.",
"The vast majority of Americans would be vehemently opposed to switching. That's the biggest obstacle by far. There are others, of course, but most of those can be solved given enough time and money. This one? Not so much."
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11,
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|
io43vk
|
Why does the first second you look at a digital clock feel slow?
|
So why is it so that whenever I look at a digital clock the first second always feels slower than the rest? It's the same when checking my pulse, the distance between the first two beats feels way longer than all the rest. Does this have something to do with the brain being slow at catching up or something?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bdasm",
"g4bddwo"
],
"text": [
"Vsauce Michael made a video about this very phenomenon, nearly a decade ago! [Stopped Clock Illusion]( URL_0 )",
"It's called [chronostasis]( URL_0 ). There are many factors to this. Mostly, your brain retroactively \"fills in\" the time while you were moving your eyes to the clock, making you think that the first second started earlier, and your attention shift causes you to focus on the first moments which makes you perceive them as longer lasting."
],
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7,
3
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"text_urls": [
[
"https://youtu.be/nNBTLbw1_2Q"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronostasis"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
io4bsu
|
why are clouds flat at the bottom?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bexfd"
],
"text": [
"Clouds are condensed water vapour. Condensation only occurs at a certain temperature. The flat bottom of clouds shows the altitude at which the air reaches that temperature. Below that, condensation doesn't occur. Above it, it does. So you have a relatively quick transition from no cloud to cloud. When you blow on glass, it fogs because the water in your breath hits the cold glass and condenses. Between your mouth and the glass nothing happens. The same thing happens with the cloud, but there's no glass, just cold air."
],
"score": [
5
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
] |
|
io4g7j
|
how magnets work
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bfrhw",
"g4bgixl"
],
"text": [
"The magnetic force is a specific incarnation of one of the fundamental forces of the universe. If electrons move, they cause a magnetic field around them, that's simply a property of the electrical charge. I assume you're mostly talking about permanent magnets? Some atom (iron for example) have a natural magnetic field caused by their structure. Usually they are causing a magnetic field in a random direction, but with a strong enough field from the outside (caused by a current for example) we can all align them in the same direction. Before all the random little magnetic fields cancelled each other out, but after aligning them they add up and make a strong magnetic field you can use one a macroscopic scale.",
"Iron has a special atom. It has one little electron on it's outter-most shell. It makes a very very tiny magnetic field. It shakes about in a certain direction/pattern/whatnot. Opposites attract, like the other end of the iron atom. So they'll pull on each other. Moreso that gravity, but from the charge from the electrons. They align with each other. But metals have a bunch of crystal cellular structure where all the aligned atoms don't agree with each other. If you can orient the crystal's magnetic direction, then all the cells with all it atoms sum up into a larger magnetic force."
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io4ggu
|
How does ad blocker work and how does website know if we are using one?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bfqw3"
],
"text": [
"The ad blocker has a list of rules on what page elements, JavaScript files and content servers to block. This includes rules like \"servers belonging to Annoying Ads Inc\" or \"in Mega News site and subpages, a specific element called top-ad-banner\" or \"All scripts on Mega News site's /eviltracker/ directory\". These are usually hand-made lists and are maintained by volunteers, because it takes effort to identify these things correctly and make sure you don't block too much or too little. Previously, it was also common to use some kind of heuristics (e.g. \"All images that are yay big are probably ad banners and should be blocked\") but those aren't that popular these days. The website can detect ad blockers by detecting if some particular page element is present or not. (Of course, nothing stops the ad blockers from blocking that kind of scripts, but hey.)"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io4j0h
|
How does the "memory" part of brain work ??
|
Like the title says, I'm curious as to how we memorize stuff, and how do we forget ?? Is there a way to forget on purpose? Thanks in advance ^-^
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bfgsj"
],
"text": [
"Our brain makes connections between neurons to store memories. We forget because connections that aren't used often slowly get smaller, and less likely to trigger a recall. You can't forget on purpose, because thinking about the memory would only make it stronger because you keep using those connections. The only way to forget something is to never think about it, and staying away from things that remind you for long enough. But even when the connection is completely gone, you can rebuild it and the memory might still partly be there in your brain."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
io4kwc
|
How does our brain knows the lyrics to a song while we can't make it out when we try to sing?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bir94"
],
"text": [
"Are you saying that when the song is on you know what the lyrics are or you can go through all the lyrics in your head without music playing? If I know a songs lyrics without music playing then I can sing it. If I only know the words a moment before the singer says them then I don’t actually know the lyrics."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io4leq
|
Why does it feel good when you blow on a stinging cut?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bh4q5"
],
"text": [
"It's called: [Gate control theory.]( URL_0 ) Basically a non-painful sensation closes the \"gate\" of the painful sensation temporarily."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_control_theory"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io4ryu
|
How come animals can drink from lakes and rivers and be fine, but when we do it we are potentially risking our lives?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bgdk5"
],
"text": [
"Our immune system is kinda used to clean water. But honestly drinking from a murky river won't kill you, at least not very often. Wild animals have other deadly things to worry about, like being eaten or dying of dehydration."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io4y2h
|
why countries with weak currency don't remove multiple zeroes off their money to make it worth more?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bk1w9",
"g4bidtx",
"g4bh7c3",
"g4blkpe"
],
"text": [
"It happens, but it doesn't make the money worth more. It is only a cosmetic change that turns larger numbers into smaller ones, but it does not change anything about the underlying value. Turkey did just that in 2005. They replaced all their banknotes with new ones that had 6 zeros less on them. 1,000,000 old Lira would be worth 1 New Lira. Prices in shops and wages and bank accounts and debts would have 6 zero lobbed of them to go along with the new money. It didn't mean that anyone in turkey suddenly was any poorer or richer than before. Nothing changes on a practical level. The new currency just looked less ridiculous and was easier to handle. The main benefit that the government had been after to make a statement. the currency had undergone some very big inflation which is why they ended up with such large numbers, and the move was supposed to signal that this was now over and they were in normal times now. It was supposed to boost confidence in the currency that further inflation would be limited. This also shows why more countries aren't doing it. For example the Japanese Yen started out being worth exactly the same as the US dollar when it was crated (they were both copies of the Spanish dollar, the pieces of eight from pirate lore.) Since those days both Japan and the US have undergone some inflation. Japan thanks in part to losing WWII has undergone a lot more though. 1 US dollar today is worth more than 100 Yen and prices expressed in Yen all seem a lot larger than ones expressed in Dollars pound or Euro. Japan could lop of two zeroes of their currency to get it more in line with other world currency, but frankly they don't need to. The two extra decimal places are still manageable and Japan doesn't have to prove anything to anyone about the stabilize of their currency. Anyone looking at the Yen today will see the scars of past inflation on it, but also know that it is in the past. With Turkey observer had no such confidence and thus the government had to artificially boost it. Other than the practical aspects of keeping price tags short revaluating your currency like that is something you do when you need to project strength that people don't think you have. It might be seen as a sign of weakness itself. There is also the fact that switching out all your banknotes and coins for new ones like this will be an expensive undertaking and one not made unless there is some very good reason. Prosperous countries only undertake such projects when there is a clear benefit like all the Euro countries switching to a common currency or to a lesser degree when the British a few decades further back decided to go decimal with their coins.",
"You might be a little confused about what it means to have a weak currency. Let's say the yen is trading at 100 yen to the US dollar. In Japan a loaf of bread costs 100 yen. Japan can go \"we're changing our currency - old yen will be exchanged to new yen at a rate of 100 to 1.\" If I had ¥100,000 in my bank account, that will change to ¥1,000. What about prices? Well the likelihood is that people will now exchange you 1 dollar for 1 yen, and a loaf of bread will now cost 1 yen. In \"real terms\" there's no difference - everyone can still buy exactly the same amount of stuff, the same number of dollars. So what advantage have I got from this? Not very much. I've gone through the huge cost, disruption and confusion of changing my currency, and all I've done is made certain things slightly easier by getting rid of some zeroes.",
"They sometimes do, it's called redenomination. In most cases, however, there's no need for that.",
"If there is $100 in Canada, and lets say the Goverment has $50 and the Public have $50. That means they both have half 50% of the total \"value\" of Canada. If the Gov print another $50, the Gov now has $100 and 2/3 of the total \"value\" of Canada. The publics $50 is now only 1/3 of the total \"value\" of Canada. If we take a zero off the government's $100 and the publics $50, its still 2/3 and 1/3, the value hasnt changed. This is eli5, there's alot more to it, but thats a basic explanation"
],
"score": [
47,
16,
10,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io52eo
|
year-old who happens to do his own taxes: how do governments efficiently detect tax evasion without doing everyone's taxes for them?
|
Sorry if repost
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4c2ea6"
],
"text": [
"They do it efficiently by not trying to get 100% of all tax evaders, just like most stores don’t try to get 100% of shoplifters and other theft (otherwise everyone would be searched as they leave the store). They rely on computer analyses to understand what reasonable and common numbers are. A business whose expenses are significantly above average is far more likely to be audited. Likewise for someone making low income but still with charitable donations of 30%. People who live totally off the grid are more difficult to catch. But most people living like that probably don’t have high incomes, and might even be forgoing benefits such as the Earned Income Credit. State governments are more likely to after them than the IRS."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
io5g9m
|
Why do people toss their head back when swallowing pills, but not when swallowing food?
|
Is it a psychosomatic thing, or does the head-toss make the pill go down the throat?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bjzef",
"g4bjz3z",
"g4bjkhh",
"g4bmra2"
],
"text": [
"Pills taste horrible if they stay on your tongue (generally), so for me I do it to counter the urge to spit it out if it doesn’t go down first time.",
"I would believe it's because the head toss is often used on tv to emphasize the taking of the pill, people just copied it and each other until it became a thing, but it's actually quite a dangerous thing to do.",
"Considering not everyone does it, it's probably psychosomatic OR just a person to person difference. Though likely the former.",
"I only do it with really big pills and it's to get my throat opened up and get some help from gravity because I have a hard time swallowing things. If I don't it may end up stuck on my tongue and I just swallow all the water around it. I don't do this with food because I generally chew my food, I don't chew my pills"
],
"score": [
10,
10,
8,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
io5xgz
|
When people play an instrument why is that THEY always think that it did not sound good. When others think it sounded pretty good.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bm4ux",
"g4bnks1"
],
"text": [
"We’re our own worst critics. While I can’t find a reason behind it I can give another example. I do a podcast and for a while did Stand Up Comedy. And during both of these you can be overly sensitive to silence. A pregnant pause of 2-3 seconds can feel like eternity and you KNOW the audience notices the silence. Another possible explanation is we don’t learn or practice in a vacuum so a musician playing, say, a guitar will know what a song is supposed to sound like when played by Hendrix or the Beatles and will be overly aware if they don’t sound precisely as good.",
"Because when you're the person playing you know what you think it will sound like, and the actual sound you produce. So you can compare and find shortcomings. To an outside listener any potential \"flubs\" probably seem like little artistic flourishes."
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io63n3
|
How come junk food taste better than healthy food ?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bmwwv",
"g4bn4x3"
],
"text": [
"It contains lots of fat, sugar and salt. For most of human history, we didn't have access to a lot of those, so our evolution made it top priority to get them (by making them delicious). Now we have an abundance of them, and our evolution hasn't caught up yet.",
"In order to survive humans during the early stages of their evolution were often short of food, so their bodies adapted to \"reward\" themselves when they found high fat or high sugar food (high calorie food) as this would make it easier to survive. In the modern world many people no longer have to struggle for food, but evolution has still left them with this reward system for high calorie food."
],
"score": [
41,
9
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io6otu
|
Why is it more credible if 97% of people agree on something than if 100% agreed on it?
|
If you hear someone say that 97% of experts agree that this thing is bad, it feels way more credible than if the same person said that 100% of all experts agree that the same thing is bad. I figure that this might have something to do with suspecting that the results are cherry-picked but I wanted to know if there was an actual explanation.
|
Psychology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bq3u5",
"g4bq5ct",
"g4bqtzi"
],
"text": [
"Because 22% of the time 77% of the people can't agree with 86% of the facts. That all sounds made up because it was. It's difficult to think that 100% of a large group of people can agree on anything so it too just sounds made up. 97% sounds credible. It sounds like a fact when you say the vast majority agree on something with a few that don't.",
"100% is extremely rare on pretty much anything. There are almost always exceptions. Not only that, but the human mind and behavior are flawed at best as we are imperfect beings. Not only that but also corruptible. It is difficult to believe anyone saying \"Every single expert on the subject agree\" when it's almost certain that at least 1 or two will either have a different opinion, or will be bought. Due to the extreme unlikelihood of 100% of imperfect being to reach the same conclusion, anyone that has had to learn how to evaluate the truth of a document will more naturally come to one of two conclusion: The statement is fake, or the sample is manipulated (too small sample size or bought experts).",
"1. For any issue of significance, it is unlikely to get universal agreement. Having at least one disagreeing opinion creates the impression that the controversy has been addressed and resolved. 2. A high-but-not-perfect number suggests that a significant number of experts were surveyed. For example, if it is 100% then you could have asked as few as one expert, but with 98% then you must have surveyed at least fifty experts. 3. Excessive accuracy confers credibility because it makes it appear that more effort has gone into the survey. For example if I told you that \"71.4% of experts say X\" it sounds more 'rigorous' than saying \"5/7 experts say X\". \"80.0%\" sounds better than \"80%\" sounds better than \"4/5\", although astute readers will notice the equivalence. Perversely, this means \"100%\" is perceived as less 'accurate' than worse scores."
],
"score": [
16,
9,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
io6rem
|
Why does everything taste weird right after i wake up?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bqso1"
],
"text": [
"Your tongue is covered in bacteria cum, and it creates a film that really just doesn’t agree or blend well with whatever it is you’re eating."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io6v7e
|
What is the best way to avoid bug bites/stings/attacks? (Especially wasps/bees)
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4bqy7f"
],
"text": [
"bees are not agressive out of there hive , if you are near a hive you should worry otherwise its okay just dont do things that might trigger them like trying to hit them ...etc . for wasp they are more likely to get aggrissive so you need to be careful and get as much possible distance as you can and also dont try to trigger them stings are just defence mechanism insects dont wonder around and just sting people randomly they are afraid of us more than we are , except mosquetos their stings are for food rather than defence"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io7b4u
|
where does oxygen go in space? If a ship has a leak, it pours out, so is there a bubble of oxygen floating around?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4btyaz",
"g4btx93",
"g4btjqc"
],
"text": [
"It just spreads out until it barely matters. Space isn't a *perfect* vacuum. There's a little bit of \"stuff\" in it, but space is so big that it has a lot of room to spread out. Gas in particular likes to spread out, so it won't stay in a tight bubble. Bubbles only happen in liquid because the pressure from the liquid is keeping the gas contained, but there's no such pressure in space.",
"The molecules will spread out with the motion due to their temperature. Once they have got to the point where collisions are unlikely, each molecule will go in straight line with its last speed and direction, probably a few hundred mph. A gas cloud that small won't have enough mass to pull them back together with it's own gravity, but if there is a nearby planet or star, they could end up orbiting it and possibly losing enough speed by collisions to fall into the atmosphere.",
"Space is a vacuum which means that there are no particals. If there would be a leak the oxygen would most likely disperse and move away from each other, every partical of oxygen floating through space on it's own. If it is an significant amount of gas there is a chance that the particals might form a cloud, the same way we have clouds in the sky, because of the very small attractive powers of the particals."
],
"score": [
11,
6,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io8xno
|
Barcodes. Who "assigns" them? When do you need to get them? Is there a "barcode register"?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4c7dms",
"g4ck1k7",
"g4ceyg8",
"g4c85mw"
],
"text": [
"Bar codes consist of a \"prefix\" that identifies the specific manufacturer and then an \"item number\", which identifies the exact item. There is a global registry of prefixes and you have to register and buy the prefix, but there's not a global directory of individual items. If you're running a grocery store, it's up to you to fill your cash register database with the bar code data from everything you're selling. That's why you can go into a store sometimes and the cashier scans your item and the register comes up with \"item not found\". Either it wasn't added or it was deleted somewhere along the way.",
"At their simplest barcodes are just numbers in a machine readable format. Anyone can create barcodes and use it for whatever purpose. Machines read barcodes by decoding the number and looking that number up in its database. Based on that it can action accordingly. For product barcodes in shops these will relate to their UPC code and these codes are managed by an international agency to ensure uniqueness. However the tills that use these codes will need the product added into the system to be able to read it. This record will be the stores info about the product including price, promotions, weight (for self service machines) and any other details they need. It can be used for stock counting to. Some barcodes can use letters too but again its still a case of looking up the product. Many companies will produce barcodes for there own purposes such as logistics where everything has a barcode (or 2)for Sortation. Again machines will either look up the number for routing or the label will have sort codes that simply layout part of the journey (i. E which depot its going to). For logistics often bags, cages, vans, depot doors, lorries and even planes have barcodes allowing an employee to scan an item and then scan what they are loading it into. Scanners will also log that they've seen an item and this info is used to provide tracking information to the customer. For couriers they will use a common barcode format (i.e code 128) and then lay out specific formats for this. Large customers can often generate their own barcodes within a specified range and then transfer that data to the courier.",
"Barcode is a font that's easy for a scanner to read, and usually when you see a barcode, it's the inventory ID of the item. You can create your own barcode system for anything if you wanted to, just using stickers, computer, printer. It is just a font. EDIT: [ here's a link ]( URL_0 ) Clearly there's some confusion in this thread, or just ppl who never applied a barcode system to anything before. You can write whatever in barcode, it's just a font that's very hard for human eyeballs to read, but very easy for a laser scanner to read. Mostly used to track and manage inventory.",
"Barcodes are all registered and administered by GS1 corporation. Vendors purchases big blocks of UPC code for the first few digits. The remaining digits are used for all products of that vendor"
],
"score": [
35,
7,
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.dafont.com/barcode-font.font"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io91sc
|
Why is cancer so difficult to beat and why is it so common nowadays?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4c77f2",
"g4c7myg"
],
"text": [
"Cancer is difficult to beat for 2 reasons: 1. “Cancer” is not a specific disease but a term for thousands of different types of conditions, many of which are treatable. 2. Cancer is part of your body, its your own cells mutating and growing out of control, and your natural immune system is programmed to ignore your own cells (so it doesn’t kill you by mistake). Why is it common nowadays is because life expectancy is longer. When people grow old there are more opportunities for your body to make a mistake. But overall we are really just better at diagnosing it. You’ll notice that death by demon has gone way down over time.",
"Cancer growths are usually the product of cells that did not replicate properly. These cells then replicate again and exponentially grow (1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8, etc). If even one cell is left it can grow out of control just as the first corrupted cell did. As for commonality my guess is it has to do with 2 different phenomenon. First is our enhanced knowledge of cancer. Even 100 years ago we didn't know nearly as much as we do now so many people that died of cancer and cancer related causes may have been diagnosed with another ailment. The other consideration is the higher expected life nowadays. The more times your cells replicate the more likely an error occurs and a cancerous growth forms. If you live to 100 vs 50 you have many more cell replications."
],
"score": [
24,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io9k5y
|
How can Denver go from 90 degree weather today, to a snowstorm tomorrow, and then back up to 90 degree weather?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4cco8f"
],
"text": [
"Clear air lets sunlight warm up the city. Clouds come in, blocking sunlight and carrying lots of water vapor for snow. Once the clouds are gone, the light is back and the city warms up."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
io9pfd
|
Why is the REM sleep cycle so crucial for feeling well rested compared to the other sleep cycles?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4d3vw8"
],
"text": [
"I happen to be in the middle of a pretty interesting book called, \"Why We Sleep,\" written by Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab. According to him, both REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and NREM (non-REM) sleep are crucial, and we get the bulk of these in the last couple hours of a 7-8 hour night of sleeping. As NotoriousSouthpaw stated, REM sleep is when the brain rejuvenates itself. But in his book, Walker explains how both REM and NREM sleep are important for feeling well-rested and achieving deep memory retention (the lack of memory retention being one of the obvious signs that we haven't had a good night's rest). This might be a more geeky explanation than you're seeking, but I thought this was fascinating. Our short-term factual learning -- e.g. where you parked your car, phone numbers, facts you're trying to learn for an upcoming test -- is first stored in the hippocampus region of the brain. But if you really want to commit what you learned to long-term memory, then get a good night's rest immediately following your learning session. Walker likened the hippocampus to a USB stick, because there's only a limited amount of memory storage capacity there. However, the brain's neocortex (involved in higher-order brain functions) is active during NREM sleep, and that's when memories get shuttled over there (not very technical I know, but the author's explanation was much more elegant). Being a scientist, Walker was able to cite a bunch of studies that showed how people who experienced longer periods of NREM sleep after a bout of learning were able to recall more of what they learned the following day. And that was true even if their short-term memory had felt \"overloaded\" the day before. And although most dreaming takes place during REM sleep, a lot also takes place during NREM sleep apparently. So to answer your question, if you want to feel rested and alert (and smart) then don't skip those last couple of hours of sleep at night that so many of us tend to think we can get by without. The sleep professor who wrote this book says there's still a heck of a lot we don't understand about *why* we need so much sleep, but there's overwhelming evidence of the mental and physical harm it does to us if we *don't* get it."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioah0f
|
What are those”butterflies” you get in your stomach?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ci5ks"
],
"text": [
"When you are exited or anxious your body usually redirects the blood for more \"important\" functions. Usually the feeling is like a soft tingling do to the veins contracting to rush the blood elsewhere. Is like the fight or flight but when you are with your crush."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioah51
|
What is the deal will all these drawings called “lo-fi?” It’s pictures of people sitting at desks in front of windows.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ck8q5",
"g4cjppe"
],
"text": [
"There is a Youtube channel that streams live lo-fi music. It is intended as a background music for people studying or working. Because it is a live stream video they have added a short loop of an animated Japanese girl reading a book, listening to music while her cat sits in the window sill. This animation have recently turned into a meme where people draw their own versions of this animation. And if you do not know what lo-fi is then it is a genre of music closely related to jazz. The name comes from the initial when people were playing smooth jazz through broken tape machines. This would give a very low quality sound where lots of the notes were out of tune as the tape player could not keep a consistent speed. But this have turned into its own genera of music where people intentionally detune their instruments to form more exotic jazz sounds.",
"Lo-fi is a type of music consisting of a simple drum beat and soft melody. On youtube there are playlists composed by some tubers who have cartoon drawings to act as visuals while accompanying the music. There have recently been posts of redditors cosplaying these lo-fi cartoons and recreating the scene that accompanies. That's likely what you've been seeing."
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioajh2
|
Why does boiling oil burst into large flames when water is poured in it?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4cj7n9",
"g4cjbny"
],
"text": [
"Water doesn't cause it to burst into flames, but it *does* make the oil explode out of the pot. Since the pot is likely to be over a flame and oil is very flammable, oil flying everywhere over a flame will quickly burst into flame. Oil is less dense than water, so the water sinks down to the bottom of the pot. Oil can be heated to well above the boiling point of water, so when the water gets to the bottom of the pot is flash boils and rapidly expands as steam. The rapid expansion is happening *under* the oil, so it lifts up under the oil and blasts the oil all over the place.",
"Boiling oil doesn't ignite when water is thrown on it, but it *does* vaporize the water more or less instantly because hot oil tends to be *much* hotter than the boiling point of water. Because water displaces the oil and then almost immediately turns into water vapor -- expanding further -- it results in hot oil being displaced *violently*. If the oil is already on fire, this spreads it in a rather dangerous way. If it is *not* on fire but hot enough to be very near the point that it would burn, some of the splattering oil might ignite if it is thrown onto a heat source -- such as a stove burner. Splattering hot oil is dangerous by itself, and splattering *flaming* oil is a fantastic way to set other things ablaze. This is why dealing with kitchen fires should generally be done by throwing dry goods like ~~flour~~ or sand onto them, or (preferably) by smothering them with a pan lid to cut off the oxygen supply so that the fire goes out. EDIT: flour is dangerous. I must have been thinking of something else. Don't use flour. Just use a pan lid."
],
"score": [
60,
14
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioayre
|
What is that weird, clear, dotty, wormlike thing that’s always floating around in your field of vision and moves whenever you try to look at it?
|
I’m not really sure how to describe it and maybe it just happens to me, but maybe it doesn’t.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4cltg1"
],
"text": [
"They're called [floaters]( URL_0 ). They're fairly common, and caused by debris floating in the vitreous humor (eyeball jelly) from various sources, often remnants of blood vessels that feed the eye's lens during prenatal development but disappear by birth."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iobs4b
|
why do joints or old injuries hurt when rain is coming?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4cs2g8"
],
"text": [
"This happens with quick pressure differences in the air. Your joints hold pockets of fluid. Where for normal healthy joints they feel un-phased by any quick change in air pressure. But for injuries they're more sensitive due to scarred tissue. So when the temperature drops quickly like when rain occurs, it can take time for the pressure in your joints to balance to what's outside. Unfortunately due to the scar tissue's sensitivity this can have mild to extreme pain."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iobyis
|
Why do online job applications ask you to submit your resume, but then ask you to manually fill in the information on said resume into the application itself?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ctboq"
],
"text": [
"Your resume is usually a stylized document intended for a human to comfortably read. However a lot of recruiters use computer systems to filter and sort applications and these computers can not read the documents as easy. So they ask you to fill out the information in a form that can be read by a computer but also attach a human readable version of the resume for when it is picked up by humans to read. A lot of times the resume does include information about you that is not asked for in the forms but is still very relevant."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iobz18
|
Why are two different species capable of breeding fertile offspring not considered the same species?
|
From what I learned at school, one of the criteria to differentiate species was that two different species couldn't produce fertile offspring. For example, a donkey and a mare can produce a mule, but it's sterile. Our canine friends and a wolf can breed fertile offspring, but one (Canis lupus familiaris) is a subspecies of the other(Canis lupus). But I found out about the Beefalo, the offspring of a cow and a bison, which is said to be a fertile hybrid. But those are two different species, two different genera actually (Bos Taurus x Bison bison). How can they breed fertile offspring and not be considered the same species?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4cu1jw",
"g4d5a7r"
],
"text": [
"That is one definition of a species. It does have the benefit of being quite simple to understand and test. However as you points out it does not always fit. Your example of cows and bison is one example. And even cross bread animals like mules can sometimes be fertile. Then there are so called ring species where one species can bread with two other but those two can not bread with each other. So biologists nowadays use other definitions that are more complex but work better. But your definition is still being taught in a lot of schools because it is more simple.",
"One of the qualifiers for the biological species concept is also the concept of “under natural conditions”. This means that although two species can be taken to a research farm or a lab, bred, and produce viable offspring, if in the wild this would never or rarely occur, then the two can be considered different species. This is more important when discussing the ecology and ecosystem contributions of each organism in their natural habitat. Often two closely related species will perform similar, but not exactly the same ecosystem function, and even if they could hybridize, considering them two distinct species helps us describe the ecosystem more completely."
],
"score": [
49,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iodd6o
|
Why do squirrels climb up trees in a spiral pattern instead of in a straight line?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4d2o5p",
"g4d2tk0"
],
"text": [
"Answer: Gotta do a sweep for predators and rivals. When the climb straight up there's a big blind spot",
"Zig zagging makes it harder for predators to get you. Hawks and and owls love small rodents. The zig zag pattern makes it difficult for flying predators to make a high speed kill. Anything that strikes its prey does so by aiming for where it will be, a zig zag helps make it harder"
],
"score": [
10,
8
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iodpd7
|
why do fish eyes not rotate? I was looking at a fish tank at a restaurant and I realized that the fishes’ eyes did not change orientation to match the movements of the fish. (More info in text)
|
For example, if the fish went from swimming horizontally to swimming straight downwards the eyes would not rotate or change position at all. Why do their eyes not rotate? Or am I just tripping? They almost seem like gyroscopic.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dqcn0"
],
"text": [
"Most fish have eyes on the sides of their head to give them a much larger field of vision, at the expense of limited binocular vision. In general they actually can move their eyes within their sockets, however their ability to do so is extremely limited compared to humans. Basically their eyes don't move much because they don't need to. Most fish can see everything around them without moving their eyes, with the exception of a small blind spot behind them."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioe4j0
|
In international football games on live tv, every country sees local ads on the billboard screens surrounding the field. How does this work?
|
When the camera zooms in, I clearly see pixels in the 'ad ribbon' surrounding the field, so the billboards look like physical (low res) screens to me. But how can screens show different ads for each country at the same time? Are they not screens? Sometimes I see projected ads next to the goals, and those clearly look like CGI because they 'glitch' when people walk past them, or look different depending on the camera angle. The ads in the long 'ribbon' look nothing like that and don't seem to glitch, ever. I'm trying to follow the game, but I can't, because of this questiong haunting me. Help? Edit: Example: URL_0
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4d83zn",
"g4da6oc",
"g4dr5yt"
],
"text": [
"Wait, are you telling me that if you turn on Premier League, La Liga or the World Cup you see country-specific ads on the billboard? Can you tell me what country you are from, what league you’re watching and what ads you are seeing?",
"~~I honestly have no idea what you are talking about (I live in the US and don't watch sports), but I have a couple guesses.~~ 1) Its possible that the displays simply show a solid blue or green screen (or maybe a marker, like a QR code) and then local channels superimpose their own advertisements over it. ~~2) it's also possible that they simply show local commercials from major population centers in the countries currently playing.~~ ~~Of course, neither could be true as well. If possible could you provide an example of what you mean? Is there like a video or image you could share? We might be able to get a better idea of what's going on if we can see exactly what you're talking about.~~ Edit: Found it! Basically the first one. It's called [virtual advertising]( URL_0 ).",
"It's actually not that exciting. There are real LEDscreens around the pitch. But the home team or the (in case of a tournament) Fifa/Uefa holds the sponsor rights. This is normally given to the sponsors of the hometeam or country and they sell this per minute to their sponsors. Sometimes these rights are sold commercially and it happens mostly with international friendlies that they use a simple trick. They sell the surrounding pitch but put the advertising of Team A on one side and Team B on the other side and then they use 2 cameras on opposite sides. The small advertisement next to the goal post is indeed called virtual advertisement and sometimes they do use a real carpet printed in perspective. When they use the virtual one they use an extra camera where they mount an extra lens with a virtual grid inside that consists of approximately 80 marking points. This way the CPU on the camera always knows when to virtual print the logo in the right spot. These logos need to be preset in the grid. So you can't see other logos on other channels unless they use multiple cameras."
],
"score": [
6,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_advertising"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioed7z
|
A full day is approx 23 hours 56 minutes rather than 24 hours. This is why we have leap years. But why doesn’t that gradual daily 4 minute shift not cause our daylight hours to shift?
|
A 4 minute time shift daily would be a one hour shift in 15 days. So how is it that daylight is basically the same day to day outside of a minute adjustment. I would think that this discrepancy would eventually cause it to be dark at 12 noon and light. Obviously this is not the case, so please enlighten me!
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4damrh",
"g4dab71",
"g4d9pbt",
"g4ef1fb"
],
"text": [
"Firstly this have nothing to do with leap years. What you are citing is not the length of a full day but rather the length of a full rotation of the Earth. You are right that a 4 minute daily time shift would be an hour in 15 days, 2 hours in a month and 24 hours in a year. But by that time the Earth have rotated around the Sun once and you have gained another day. This makes up for the missing 4 minutes a day. If you were to observe the sky and look at a distant star then it would appear in the same location approximately every 23 hour and 56 minutes. However because the Earth is constantly moving around the Sun it shows up 4 minute late every day compared to all the other stars. And thus you have 24 hours in a day even though the Earth rotates 4 minutes faster.",
"A full day is measured by how long it takes the earth to rotate on it's axis relative to the sun (giving the 23 hours 56 minutes figure. But a year is the amount of time it takes the earth to do a full orbit rotation around the sun (and it's very slightly more than 365.25 days) these two things are completely unrelated to each other though. But to answer the question I think you were trying to ask, it's because of the relative placement on the orbit around the sun, between each day that takes those 4 minutes out of consideration. Basically the planet has to spin an extra degree every day Because of the direction that it travels around the sun.",
"The 23 hours and 56 minutes is for the earth to make a full rotation once, but we are also moving around the sun that corrects the 4 minute delay but not exactly as to why we have leap year Edit, ignore the last few words",
"The Earth is very close to the Sun. At least compared to other stars anyway. There's two ways of counting days: the time it takes for the Earth to do a full rotation on itself, and the time it takes to find the sun in the same place in the sky: noon is when the sun is the highest. Surprisingly, those two things are not the same. Since the sun is relatively close, and the earth moves around it, while [it spins in the same direction as the direction it's rotating around the sun]( URL_0 ), it takes a bit more than one rotation to find the sun in the same place, because by the time you've done one rotation, you're not in the same place, and the sun is a bit further forward. The time between noon and noon (when the sun is the highest in the sky) is 24 hours. The time it takes to do one turn is 23h56, but no-one except people that want to look at stuff that's very far away cares, because our whole lives revolve around the sun (pun intended)."
],
"score": [
36,
13,
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_time#/media/File%3ASidereal_time.svg"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioeffy
|
why does water evaporate (turn from liquid to gas) without boiling?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4da9ni"
],
"text": [
"**Evaporation** turns liquids into gas. **Evaporation** can take place at temperatures below **boiling** point since the molecules in the liquid have different energies. As the molecules in a liquid collide, some achieve higher energies, allowing them to escape."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioeimg
|
. Why do birth rates decline as a country develops?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dd2vi"
],
"text": [
"There's a lot of reasons. In less developed countries the birth rate is higher, but so is the infant mortality rate. The US has the highest infant mortality rate in the Western world at 6/1000 births but as recently as the 1940's-1950's the infant mortality rate in the US was as high as 20-25%. Or to make that more obvious if you had 5 kids one wouldn't make it to 6 months. Having a big family for the sake of having 'spare kids' was a thing. My own grandparents each had a family of 5 that made it and lost 2 and 3 kids respectively at only a few months old. In a low-tech more agrarian society (larger percentage of the population have farms or family businesses) you need kids to help with the daily labor just to help the family survive. Having more mouths to feed can make survival more difficult, but generally having more hands and feet available makes survival easier. One of the biggest human survival traits is that we form families and work together. Increased education + technical work leads to people focusing more on their careers and less on raising a family. Because of how we educate people, by the time well educated people graduate, get a job, get settled, buy a house, and do all the things you're supposed to do before you start a family you are already well into your 30s. A lot of people get used to the no-kids lifestyle, or by the time they want kids they are already fairly old so it's better to have a smaller family. Better medical care, and increased education leads to increased use of birth control and condoms reducing the rate of unexpected pregnancy. Retirement is another factor. In less developed countries retirement as we know it doesn't really exist. The parents can't reasonably accumulate enough wealth over their lives to stop working and stay home and travel for the rest of their lives. Select kids (the youngest or oldest for example) become responsible for caring for the grandparents as they get older and keep them in their home/inherit the house. While the grandparents in turn help raise the kids."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioez4h
|
Why do humans get knocked unconscious so easily when hit on the jaw.
|
I saw a video on Reddit today of a person getting knocked out from a bending excersise thing when it hit his jaw. People also get knocked unconscious when lightly hit in a fight. Why is this? How can we take huge blows to the head and shake it off but not our jaw? I kinda just figured the jaw was a critical hit zone and you do double damage. Anyways, thanks in advance
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dgohs"
],
"text": [
"Glass jaw, bad/ suspect/ no chin is the susceptibility of a person/fighter to receiving a brain injury due to a blow to the head (specifically the chin though it can happen from other angles). It is thought to be due to the brain getting knocked against the skull and injuring the brain stem with the loss of muscle control. This can be due to the force of the blow itself or the inability of the muscles to soften the blow either from muscle tone/ strength or the muscles being braced for impact. Prior injury can also make you susceptible. So if a regular person is not used to being hit in the jaw, he will not have muscles conditioned for it or know how to brace properly for the blow. In your video the person wasn't expecting it at all, so wasn't in any way prepared. The opposite is noted too. There are fighters who have granite/ iron / good chin that don't ever seem phazed by a shot to the chin."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioezen
|
Why can some animals, when they freeze mid-movement, keep their limbs perfectly still without shivering even a little, whereas humans can not?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dlj9n",
"g4dqoxg"
],
"text": [
"Are you asking why some animals can stand so still they look frozen. While when humans try to stay still they seem to have to move very slightly always? Or are you asking why do humans shiver and some animals do not?",
"Well i'm no scientist but I think it would have to do with evolution, and body type. Humans don't naturally have to stay very still, we're kinda bad at it. Some can train to be good like those being human statues, but most people will tend to sway a bit. If we're mid walk it can be especially difficult as we walk on 2 legs and shift our weight to balance. If we suddenly freeze movement and have only one foot then we're in an awkward position to try and stay still in. A cat can easily freeze mid walk and usually still have 3 feet on the ground, they're lower and more balanced, oh and thier body type and muscles are trained to do this well by evolution. After all, a swaying cat with poor balance will be much easier to spot, it might fall over or make noise, and moving will make it harder to focus on that target. Watch a cat stalk and they basically move quietly over obstacles with each food without looking, even stepping mostly in the same spots as the front paws. Humans by nature are not quiet ambush predators. Our main hunting style has been to chase and track prey using our intelligence and stamina to throw it into heat stroke from running too much. Then it's just easy pickings."
],
"score": [
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iofnzh
|
Why can’t a car outrun a tornado?
|
Everyone says to never take the risk of trying to outrun a tornado to get out of the area... but if the average speed of a tornado is 10-20mph, my car going 60 could definitely hustle me out of there. Much safer than just getting out of the car and laying down in a low area right? Edit: these answers are so awesome, I might never do that again. Thanks!!!
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4djonx",
"g4djkkv",
"g4djvbk",
"g4dpucl",
"g4djuct",
"g4dp371"
],
"text": [
"Tornados don't follow roads. If you can drive 60 mph in a straight line then great, but there is no guarantee you can go faster than 20 mph as the crow flies when in a city or subdivision where the roads aren't aligned with its path. More relevant though is what the advice is supposed to accomplish. It might be the case that there are some circumstances where a car could get you out of harm's way. However it is difficult to estimate the exact path of a giant vortex of air, especially while driving in a storm, and they don't want every driver with a view of the tornado to be flooring their accelerator and recklessly hurtling down the roads. That would lead to every tornado being surrounded by bad car wrecks as well because people are stupid and panicky.",
"You can’t do 60mph off-road and the tornado doesn’t know and doesn’t care what direction the road goes. IF the tornado catches your car you’re in trouble and you have no way to predict the tornado’s path in real time.",
"Well the average moving speed of a tornado is not 10-20, it's 30mph (from a quick search). That's also only the average, they can move at speeds up to about 70mph and have erratic paths. Tornado's also create high winds, which can flip cars meaning you're now traveling 0mph. The problem isn't that you *can't* outrun a tornado, the problem is you have to know where you are in relation to the tornado and where it's headed. You can't just jump in a car and drive off without knowing this, because you could be driving straight into the path of a tornado without knowing it until it's too late. Because of that, it's *generally* safer to stay put and seek immediate shelter, so that's the advice most often given. If the tornado is south of you heading east and you are going to head north to north-west, it's absolutely possible (and even safe) to outrun a tornado....that is if traffic allows (because if many people try to do this, or there's lots of debris from high winds, etc, you might be doing 20mph on the highway while the tornado changes direction and catches up to you at 70mph).",
"Tornadoes generally don’t have to obey traffic lights and stop signs and aren’t likely to get slowed down by traffic jams that frequently occur once an evacuation order is given. They can also follow a straight line, whereas many roads and streets meander.",
"You are assuming a straight road with a tornado that is following the road. A tornado more likely will be coming towards you at an angle and may be a mile wide. Also on smaller tornados, the ground end can jump from place to place in a very short time, much faster than the overall funnel cloud is moving.",
"A tornado does not follow the roads, but in order to keep over 10 mph you have to go on the road. If you keep to the roads or even just turning to avoid obstacles your average straight line speed will be far less then your max speed. And tornadoes do tend to throw obstacles at you for you to constantly having to watch out for and avoid. Smaller debris will also hit your car and damage it, puncture the tires and reduce your visibility. But even if you can keep up with the average speed of a tornado remember that that is the average speed. A tornado tends to jump around erratically and can move a mile down the road in just a few seconds. So even if you get some distance to it the tornado might still be able to catch up to you very fast. But then there is also another problem. A tornado does not always come alone. The conditions that creates one tornado can easily form other tornadoes so you might be driving away from one straight into another."
],
"score": [
11,
9,
9,
6,
6,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iofrm7
|
What is the point of Cursive writing?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dk6l6",
"g4dkfh4"
],
"text": [
"Cursive writing is much faster when you are writing by hand, since you don't have to break after every letters. Nowadays it's redundant since people mostly type.",
"Block script developed as an abstraction for symbolic writing where each symbol represented an idea or concept. This evolved into a system where each symbol represented a syllable or sound. As writing became more important, and with the advent of ink, speed became a factor and cursive was invented to write faster since you didn't need to take your quill or pen off of the page."
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iofv14
|
-why are we not born ambidextrous ?
|
As the title states. Is there a gene or something that decided - "right" is the way to go? If I were born left handed and wanted to teach my right hand to be at the same level even though left has had decades worth of practice is it possible to bring it up to same level? Would we be smarter as well consider each hemisphere of our brain is responsible for something and if both operated at same level then what?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dmlxk",
"g4draby"
],
"text": [
"As a former leftie who was bullied by teachers into being right dominate, it's totally doable to train your other hand to catch up and even surpass your main \"birth dominant\" hand. It's hard af and takes a lot of determination (or a lot of detention) but it's very doable. I dont know if being ambidextrous makes you smarter, persay, but it definately makes things easier in life. Being equally capable on both sides really reduces physical limitations. I think it would be worth the effort if you can pull it off.",
"Humans are odd. Testing on animals have found that their versions of right and left handed are normally split 50/50. There is no known reason why we have a majority of right handers. & #x200B; Many people who study this actually believe that no one is born with ambidexterity and that have a dominant hand is the default. Ambidexterity can be trained, but according to this theory you aren't born with it. Only Left, Right, and Cross handedness are the defaults you are born with."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iogo9f
|
what is systemic racism. I genuinely don't know.
|
Title explains it all. Edit: This blew up way more than I thought it was, the awards you are giving me are really nice of you and I am very thankful. And to the people who continue to send me information, thank you. I have enjoyed learning.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dqa4c",
"g4dqia2",
"g4dxfjn",
"g4dtnvx",
"g4dwrsh",
"g4dqm5k",
"g4dqxhc",
"g4drifd"
],
"text": [
"Well Billy, I'm glad you asked. So, when you learn about racism in school, you probably learned that some people are man and nasty to other people because of the color of their skin, or the shape of their eyes, or a bunch of other things. That is naughty, and you shouldn't do it. Systemic Racism is when the rules in a society are set up in a way that is unfair to people who belong to a certain race. This can be intentional, or it can happen by accident. For example, because of how badly treated African Americans were back in the past, a lot of black people today live in really really poor areas. This is because a lot of black people didn't have the opportunity to move out of poor, predominantly bad neighborhoods, so their kids live there today. Schools are funded by local taxes, so while white people in rich neighborhoods get to send their kids to well funded schools with a lot of teachers, tools, books and fancy classes, black kids from poor neighborhoods wind up in poorer schools with worse books, fewer teachers, and worse equipment. People aren't intentionally trying to give black people a worse education, but it happens because of the ways we fund schools. EDIT: Holy Guacamole! I did not expect this to blow up like this! Thanks for all of the awards guys!",
"Racism within the system/a system designed to be beneficial/detrimental to differing races If your neighbor Bob is racist that is not systemic racism. Thats just racist If the laws are racist that is systemic racism. If people treat you differently because of your race that is not systemic racism. Its just racist If the government treats you differently because of your race that is systemic racism. If the bank teller treats you differently because of your race that is not systemic racism, thats just a racist employee. If bank policy treats you different because of your race, that is systemic racism. This is a very dumbed down version obviously but its basically if the rules are against you because of your race, or better for people who are a different race, then it is systemic racism.",
"\"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.\" - John Erlichman, counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Nixon. And so, in the early 70's all the progress of the 1960s civil rights movement was brushed aside in favor of institutional racism against those elements they wished to silence and enslave. Nothing has really changed at the federal level since, and the Klan, ~~outlawed~~ disgraced overtly, sent its members out to infiltrate and indoctrinate police forces nationwide. Songs have been written about it. URL_0 Edit: A word",
"One example is to have most of the minorities living in poor neighborhoods with low property taxes and then fund education through property taxes. Giving great mortgage terms to people in white neighborhoods so they can buy homes and start building wealth, and offering much worse loans to black neighborhoods so that they can't ever begin to own things and accrue wealth. It's called [Redlining]( URL_0 ). Another example is that black people tend to not be included in drug trials or medical research so they tend to have worse outcomes from the same healthcare system. The legal repercussions of being caught with cocaine (a drug traditionally associated with white people) versus the much more strict and severe repercussions of being caught with crack (a drug traditionally associated with black people). Then the war on drugs leads to a LOT of black men in prison for very long sentences, and their children grow up in single parent homes, which when mixed with low income, poor education systems, and very little social/societal support, leads to increased rates of crime. There are dozens of examples that add up to make it much harder to be a minority in America. It's not about having a guy yelling the N word at you in the gas station, it's about having a much harder time getting ahead, and a much easier time sliding down to failure.",
"In the 1600’s it was slavery In the 1700’s it was the 3/5 compromise In the 1800’s it was the Jim Crow Laws In the 1900’s it was “separate but equal” and the War on Drugs It’s laws designed to keep minorities at a disadvantage to white and privileged people. Sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. The War on Drugs for example wasn’t specifically targeted towards blacks but it allowed extremely harsh punishments for a vice that heavily slanted towards blacks- weed and crack. Whereas the white equivalent- opioids like Vicodin and the epidemic that ensued, was treated like a “health crisis” with almost no imprisonments.",
"Systemic racism means an entire system (like the police, or housing, or medicine) has flaws built right into their framework so that it's just not possible to treat those with color as equals.",
"Great question! Racism is the idea, action, or outcome of placing the needs, rights, and respect of one race below another. In other words, when one race is given worse treatment. There are four kinds of racism: Internalized, Interpersonal, Institutional, and Structural (or systemic) racism. An example of internalized racism is believing that black people are more likely to be criminals. An example of interpersonal racism is using a racial slur. An example of institutional racism is red-lining, where banks intentionally reject loan applications for black neighborhoods more than for white neighborhoods. And structural racism is where society as a whole bends favor torward one race, like white people, over black people. Voting white supremacists into office might be an example, or the way in which black teens are depicted on television, the scarcity of produce in black neighborhoods, and the way in which the civil war is depicted in textbooks. It is the complex compounding effect of generational trauma and the many ways in which one person can be subtly harmed over their lifetime for their race.",
"It’s the lingering effects of being in a racist society. I’ll pretend you’re actually 5 years old: Let’s say you broke your leg really bad after so many bad accidents. You finally go to the hospital and get a cast but you’ll need time to heal and a bunch of medication to get better. However, people want you to leave the hospital and start walking like everyone else. They’re not doing anything to your broken leg but it still hurts because it hasn’t fully healed and by walking it continues to get worse. It gets to the point where you get an infection and have to go back to the hospital and people get mad at you for it. They say you didn’t have a ‘bad’ accident so why do you have to go back to the hospital. You’re just a big baby that keeps making excuses. The broken leg is the oppression minorities go through, the hospital and cast are the temporary relief that serves as band-aids to gushing wounds, the medication and time were suppose to be the cure. The nagging from out of touch folks is self explanatory."
],
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19793,
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614,
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370,
19
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"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGV1xYJFAEI"
],
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iogv74
|
What is the reason for the “chills” sensation?
|
When you something captivating/creepy/nostalgic and you got the chills followed by the goose bumps.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e8ht8"
],
"text": [
"It's called frisson, and the unsatisfying answer is that we don't really know. URL_0 /r/Frisson"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iogwnr
|
When you’re parked illegally and your car gets towed without you knowing, how does it get onto the flatbed tow trucks?
|
I know that the car is hooked up to a winch and pulled. My question is more so in regards to how they actually move the car since it’s not in neutral and the tires are locked. Do they just drag it up onto the bed? Can’t that damage the car and they become liable for that?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dsdug"
],
"text": [
"There are several ways of doing it depending on the vehicle, how much room there is and what equipment the tow truck have. Some cars can be put in neutral from the outside by accessing the shifter or a special leaver from under the car. This is often intentional by the manufacturer for just these kinds of scenarios. Some flatbeds might also have a crane to lift one axle of the car or even the entire car. It lifts it from the wheels just as if it were on flat ground. You can also get trolleys to put under the wheels and roll them onto the flatbed. But dragging the wheels is also an option. To avoid damaging the wheels and to help it slide a bit better it is possible to put small wedges under the wheels to act as sleds that it will glide on. However the deck of a tow truck is usually quite slippery anyway. The last option is to unlock the doors and put it in neutral from the inside. Modern techniques do not intentionally cause any damage to the car but there might be some scratches or panel misalignment if not done correctly. But no matter the technique the tow truck driver will be very careful and chose the technique that have the least likelihood of doing any damage as he will be liable for it."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioh0u7
|
During a commercial for a product, why can’t they use other rival products name?
|
Like during an Oxyclean commercial why do they say “10x more effective than the leading detergent brand?” Why can’t they just say “10x more effective than tide” or something along those lines.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dsswv",
"g4dv95t",
"g4dsssx"
],
"text": [
"Lawyers. When you make a comparative claim you need to have a lot of documentation. You need to have run scientific and auditable tests that can be recreated. And if they run the tests and you are only 8x better and not 10x better, guess what? You lied. And you would lose in court. There is little upside for most products like cleaners in making the claims. I worked for 30+ years in computers and semiconductors. That was crazy with lawyers. Dell once screwed up in an ad against compaq and has a consent decree that for ~10 years they could not do a competitive ad against compaq. How’d you like to be the guy that screwed that up and hosed the company for 10 years?",
"Another factor is that you simply don’t want to name that other brand and so give them publicity. This is also why campaigning politicians will refer to their rivals as “the other party’s candidate” and avoid using their name.",
"the other answer is wrong. they can absolutely destroy you in a commercial as long as it isn't fake. if your product performs twice as well, you're more than welcome to advertise that. but if it only performs marginally better under certain circumstances it would be libel or slander, you don't want those cases against your product."
],
"score": [
12,
11,
9
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iohfru
|
What are the limits and legitimate expectations when a person/persons are held liable for an enourmous sum (ie: cost of a wildfire/cost of crppling a stock exchange/bank)? They must be allowed to buy food I assume. What happens to the debt upon death?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4duu4y",
"g4dux1t"
],
"text": [
"The details are typically set by a judge, but the main idea is that someone ordered to pay money they don't have will have will first hand over all of their wealth (savings, stocks, potentially home equity). Then they have their wages \"garnished.\" This means that the court will take a percentage of all their earnings until the debt is payed back. Presumably any other windfalls (inheritance, lottery winnings, etc.) would also be owed to the court. Debts are generally discharged upon death. It would be deeply problematic for children to inherit the debts of their parents.",
"Government imposed fines like you're describing are handled very similar to private collection agencies. The government has more power and can issue judgments against the debtor but ultimately their ability to collect is limited by the regulating entity. It could be a federal or state agency that's attempting to collect and there are laws that limit the amount they can take. For example, in the event of an tax debt, in the state of CA the agency (Franchise Tax Board) can garnish up to 25% of your \"gross\" wages. In this case gross means, your net after taxes but before other deductions like health insurance or retirement savings. In the U.S. the law is that debts do not transfer to family members so when a person dies the debts refer to the estate and, once probated, the remaining balances are typically written off."
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iohh7c
|
how do fruit flies just come to exist?
|
ELI5: I’m slightly stoned, so bear with me, but I was just thinking about how clean I keep my kitchen, which made me think about how gross my kitchen got when I was college age. My roommates were just as bad as I was — food left out, expired stuff in the fridge, full trash, etc. Naturally, fruit flies would show up when the kitchen was left in this condition, but whenever we’d clean it, they’d all vanish, then they’d come back the moment any kind of scrap or empty wine bottle was left out. So my question is...who what when where why and how does this happen???
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dy2ir"
],
"text": [
"Fruit flies need two things to live, food and water. Take both of those away and the fruit flies die off. Leave food around and flies from outside will be attracted by the smell then move back in. You hardly notice their eggs or larva until they're adults that are flying around your trash can, so it's easy to think they just appeared from no where. In the past, people believed that filthy conditions lead to animals like flies just spontaneously popping into existence in a process called [spontaneous generation]( URL_0 ). Since it was quite difficult to witness flies laying eggs, most people assumed this was true. It wasn't until they did experiments like leaving two sets of rotten meat out, one covered and one uncovered that they were able to convince people that the flies must need to land on the meat and lay eggs first."
],
"score": [
16
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iohii3
|
In space, how do foods go down to astronauts' stomachs and stay there?
|
Since there is no gravity how is it possible that food go down to the stomach, always wondered..
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dv6ll",
"g4dv8lh",
"g4dzi5e"
],
"text": [
"The peristaltic movements (I hope it's correctly written in English) is what pushes the food to the stomach (yes it basically pushes). Not the gravity. That's why you're able to eat being upside down (don't recommend with liquids it will probably go up to your nose because gravity). And also astronaut food is prepared for gravity 0 occasions. Edit: pushes, not punches.",
"Your stomach and esophagus are a muscle, so they actively move, kind of like a snake, pushing the food down. Of course gravity helps, but you can try it yourself, lay somewhere making your hips higher than your head and try to swallow something (this is even more extreme than space, since gravity is against you)",
"Imagine a toothpaste tube. Does it really matter what direction the tube is facing when you squeeze it? For the purposes of this discussion we not trying to squeeze it anywhere specific like into a toothbrush, just trying to move toothpaste from one part of the tube to another. Like the previous posters have mentioned, there's a series of muscular contractions called peristalsis and it more or less works like squeezing stuff from one end of the toothpaste tube to the other, only in the case of our digestive systems the tube is really long. There are some spots in the tube that stop anything from going through unless certain conditions are met, so the food isn't going to float back out. You can sort of test this by standing on your head and taking a sip of water using a straw. (I mean, you can try without a straw, but you're much more likely to make a mess)."
],
"score": [
47,
40,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
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]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iohuyl
|
What is the difference between bacteria and bacterial spores? And in relation to cooking: Why aren’t spores killed by the heat that kills bacteria, and are they more/less/as dangerous as bacteria?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dye29"
],
"text": [
"Fermentation enthusiast here. My understanding is that spores are essentially the bacteria’s version of a seed or egg, which they use to reproduce. Like a seed, these spores are less developed and so may survive conditions that kill the organism that created them. The spores themselves are generally only dangerous because they produce more bacteria."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iohvt5
|
Unincorporated Communities
|
What are these? I went on a trip this holiday weekend and kept seeing green signs with a community name with "unincorporated" under it.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e49yy",
"g4dxy4e"
],
"text": [
"It means it doesn’t have its own government. Instead, it receives all its services from the next level of government up. I live in an unincorporated hamlet. That means there’s no government of my hamlet; rather, it receives all its services from the town. (Except some special districts which we assume has something to do with the mafia idk)",
"It means means that community is part of the county but not within city limits, and may not be big enough to become its own town."
],
"score": [
7,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iohwtr
|
Why does water extinguish fire?
|
My daughter asked me, daddy, why does water extinguish fire? All I could think about was the idea that it pushed air away, preventing the fire from consuming oxygen. Is that correct? Are there other factors at play?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dx994",
"g4dx8st",
"g4dy6bc"
],
"text": [
"Fire needs heat, fuel, and oxygen. Water removes oxygen and heat, assuming this isn't a fancy chemical fire.",
"Water puts out fire by creating a barrier between the fuel source and the oxygen source (it also has a cooling effect which has to do with the energy required to convert liquid water into water vapor). It does this because it is a completely, 100% oxidized material. ... This smothers the fire.",
"It is partially due to creating a barrier between oxygen in the air and the combustible material, as others have mentioned. But I've only seen one other person here cover the heat angle. Fire is a chemical reaction that converts (in the simplest, ideal case) fuel and oxygen into carbon dioxide, heat and water vapor. Like all chemical reactions, it has a certain \"activation energy\", the amount of energy needed to make the reaction happen in the first place, and this almost always comes from heat. Because fire produces heat, once started, it can keep itself going by continuously using its own heat as the activation energy for the next bit of fuel. But water is a lot colder than fire. Dumping water on a burning log sucks a *ton* of heat away really really fast - heat that the fire needed to keep clearing the activation energy threshold to keep burning more fuel. The log might still be hot afterwards, but if it's not hot *enough*, it can't burn."
],
"score": [
5,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iohxg4
|
Why do we sometimes talk while asleep?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4fch3d"
],
"text": [
"Long story short, it's a bit like a mild form of sleepwalking - i.e., the failure of the neurochemical measures your brain undertakes to ensure that your body does not actually react to anything you experience while dreaming. So while there normally would be inhibitors which would prevent your sleeping body from doing stuff it should only do while it is awake, these inhibitors sometimes don't work. Why exactly this happens still isn't entirely understood by science. Potential factors may include * excessive stress (i.e., your brain being on such high alert that it can't shut down entirely even when it should) * fever (i.e, disturbance of your general brain chemistry due to disease) * genetics (i.e., people are more likely to sleepwalk when their parents also have a history of sleepwalking, as they inherit the responsible traits of the brain) Bear in mind this is a very simplified answer, as human neuroscience in general is an extremely complex topic."
],
"score": [
11
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioi5rq
|
how a headphone (or speaker) driver can produce multiple frequencies at 1 time
|
like how can an electromagnet alternate current at 2 different speeds?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4dzaei"
],
"text": [
"It doesn’t have to. When sound waves overlap, like waves on the ocean, They merge together if two peaks of the waves overlap they amplify, if a peak and a trough overlap they cancel each other out. This is called Construction Interference and Destructive interference respectively. So effectively, all these ways of vary amplitudes and frequencies all overlap each other and can effectively be combined into one really strange looking and kind of irregular wave. That combined wave is that the speakers copy and put out, so instead of the speaker shaking at two different frequencies at once, it actually shakes at a specific mix between both of them that to our ears sounds the same."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioihrd
|
Why do we get angry when we get physically hurt?
|
For example- when you stub your toe.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e246k"
],
"text": [
"I think it's because it triggers your fight or flight response. Your body is expecting to have to fend off a predator."
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioizp3
|
why do smelling salts wake you up as they do? And what are their limitations?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ecgvw",
"g4ei01h",
"g4ejr72",
"g4ean7w",
"g4fvsav",
"g4gv8ar"
],
"text": [
"Smelling salts are basically a really strong smelling powder, which irritates your nose, making you take a big breath. They were used for rousing people who had \"fainted\" from a shock, a bad smell, or the sight of blood. They can occasionally make people focus on the smell or simply breathe more deeply, which can prevent a syncope. They don't do anything when someone is actually unconscious though, and they can cause irritation of the airway if used frequently.",
"Smelling salts ampoules contain a small amount of ammonia. Ammonia triggers an inhalation reaction. Taking a deep breath brings more oxygen into the body. As an aside, this also illustrates why ammonia spills (in large industrial quantities, not household quantities) are so bad. The ammonia displaces the oxygen, but also triggers a reflexive reaction to inhale, so a victim breathes more of it in. Pretty much every safety team training plan includes having to watch a video where a highway patrol cop arrives on scene at a semi wreck where the container the semi was pulling was venting ammonia. The cop either wasn't trained for hazmat response or forgot his training and grabbed his first aid kit and ran in to try to help the driver. He succumbed to the ammonia gas in a few seconds.",
"Anecdote from my dad, who is a doctor: My dad worked in the radiology department. Occasionally the contrast dye (injected liquid that shows up on scans,) would cause someone to pass out. A new tech who has never encountered this would usually try to wake them up with smelling salts. The tech would sit the patient up while waving the salts under their nose. A more seasoned tech would then come in, drop the table to the flat position, lay the patient down, and throw the smelling salts in the trash. The reason the patient passed out is because the contrast caused a drop in their blood pressure. Sitting the patient up is the exact opposite of what they need. They need blood in their brain, which can't happen with low BP and the brain higher than the heart. So, smelling salts are not effective when the patient's brain is deprived of oxygen.",
"They smell really strong and they mostly were good for dramatic \"fainting\" rather than actual unconsciousness.",
"they're ammonia. inhalation causes minor irritation to the airways, triggering a reflex that counters certain kinds of fainting. fainting is caused by vasodilation. basically, your blood vessels open up too much and instead of trying to push your blood through a straw, it's trying to power a fire hose. doesn't work too well. the disruption to breathing caused by the ammonia causes reflexive vascular constriction. this can sometimes be enough for the body to pull itself together and maintain a proper blood pressure. the reflex itself is quite powerful and can illicit *some* response in all but the worst circumstances. its ability to restore consciousness depends on the cause being vasodilation, and the body being able to maintain the elevated blood pressure after the salts hit.",
"You cannot “smell” while unconscious, hence why so many people die in house fires. Ammonia specifically triggers a pain receptor in the brain. The “pain” that your brain thinks your experiencing is what wakes you up."
],
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75,
28,
14,
7,
6,
4
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"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioj8du
|
; Despite seeming like a good choice, why does cold water make spicy food “more spicy” instead of cooling off your mouth?
|
Just curious.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e724c"
],
"text": [
"Capsaicin is not water soluble, it's hydrophobic and is repelled by water. So when you drink water it tends to just spread it around rather than carry it away."
],
"score": [
12
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioj956
|
how do touch screens work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e6fnh"
],
"text": [
"Your body is a big battery, when you touch the screen it detects the charge. The gloves either have a conductive coating on them or they are a bad enough insulator that the device still detects your finger"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iojhpd
|
how do fire detectives find the start of a large fire? Is it more burnt in that specific area where it started somehow?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ec8cf",
"g4ec67f",
"g4efb66",
"g4egj0a",
"g4ei2la",
"g4eiykf",
"g4fguzp",
"g4fn8qj",
"g4eeg3w",
"g4fxsas"
],
"text": [
"> is it more burnt That’s a big part of it. If you’re investigating a house fire and you can see that the end of the house where the garage is has been almost completely burned away but the bedroom end is intact, there’s a very good chance that the fire didn’t start in the bedroom. So then you can start investigating what’s left of the garage for an ignition source. Same thing with brush fires. If you’ve got a huge field that burned, absent any wind or changes in fuel density, the origin point will be near the middle of the burned area. If there is wind, you can guess where the origin is based on wind speed and direction.",
"Fire investigators are required to have a vast array of knowledge on fire dynamics, including how specific objects and fuels burn and what pattern a fire would likely take in a specific environment given the fuel. Using that information, an investigator can usually determine whether a fire burned in a way it shouldn't have been able to (perhaps indicating a fuel or accelerant like gasoline had been used) or whether the fire originated in a location with no obvious ignition sources.",
"I always wondered how they could figure out that it was a cigarette that started a fire. That’s next level.",
"They will also do things like cut the burned studs. They can see which side has more damage and determine direction of the flames. Had a friend study it and his textbooks were very interesting.",
"One time after we put out a wildfire a more experienced firefighter pointed out several signs to me that a small fire in the woods was set intentionally. It was in close proximity to a main road but far enough away that it wasn’t from a chain spark or something and had started at the bottom of a slope, allowing the fire to “run” uphill. Searching around the bottom area he found scraps of fabric that could have been soaked in gasoline to accelerate the process. There were small signs that I would have never caught and were so clear to him, and he wasn’t even a fire investigator.",
"I heard on Joe Rogan arsan experts are full of shit. Anyone care to explain?",
"They don't. It seems that most of the \"expertise\" in this field is bullshit. Sure, there are some experienced people who can make educatd guesses, but they are just that - guesses. Same is true for things like bite marks, blood patterns etc. They look great in movies, but are totally unreliable in real life. [random google ling]( URL_0 )",
"They aren't always good at it. We owned a rental property when I was a kid. The fire marshal claimed it was opened paint cans that somehow started the fire. It was latex paint. No way for it to auto-ignite. He insisted that was the cause. We ended up doing the research ourselves for the insurance. It was a defective hair curler that was related to a class action because a recall was never issued.. It had no temperature shutoff and would overheat hot enough to set wood on fire if you forgot to turn it off. That's what started the fire. The cans of paint were open because they burst from the heat. The fire guy was a douche bag. We found the source of ignition because the wood desk that the daughter used was complete ash with the fire spreading from there. Then we figured out that was where she curled her hair. No other possible ignition source. Nothing else plugged in there. She didn't smoke and didn't use candles. We got the claim.",
"Also interviews with first responders and witnesses. First firetrucks on scene, how fire spread from room to room. Was it in the attic, basement, etc.",
"Basically yes, but \"Fire Investigator\" in alot of places is a 20 hour course and is incedibly flawed and prone to false results and wrongful convictions."
],
"score": [
116,
39,
29,
10,
10,
7,
6,
6,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2013/jan/15/scientific-advances-in-arson-investigations-reveal-wrongful-convictions/"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iojj81
|
How does carbon dating work?
|
How are they able to tell us that a rock is 4.4 billion years old? URL_0
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e904i"
],
"text": [
"Not with *carbon* dating. That only works with organic material less than about 50k years old. For zircons, they know there was no lead in the crystal originally, so any present now must be the result of uranium decaying. Measure the amounts of lead and uranium, and figure out how many half-lives it's been since the crystal formed. URL_0"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium%E2%80%93lead_dating"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iojki8
|
Why does including numbers and special characters in a password make it stronger if a hypothetical brute force hacker has no prior information about the composition of the password?
|
I've seen a lot of explanations for why including numbers and special characters in your password makes it stronger, and they all rely on the fact that adding them increases the number of possible combinations for a given password length. But a hypothetical brute force hacker has no way of knowing whether or not the password they're trying to figure out has both letters, numbers, and special characters or just letters. As long as the password could *potentially* include numbers and special characters, shouldn't all passwords of a given length be equally safe from brute force attacks?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ecdqn",
"g4fwl8w"
],
"text": [
"Imagine you have a password lock, but it is only one character and can only be a 1 or a 0. Pretty easy to crack isn't it? There are only two possible combinations, you've got a 50/50 chance of guessing it on the first try. Now imagine the same one character password can be any number between 0 and 9. Guessing the password just got five times harder. If instead it can only be a letter between a and z, including capital letters, guessing becomes almost 50 times harder. Experts call the number of possible combinations a password could be the \"key space\" and the larger the key space is, the harder it is to crack. Computers can guess tens of thousands of passwords per second, so making things hard for a computer involves using the biggest possible key space you can. By using numbers 0-9, letters between aA and zZ and all the special characters found on most keyboards you have roughly 90 possible one character answers. Every additional character used multiplies the number of combinations. Example, with every character having 90 possible answers and two characters required is 90x90 or 8100 possible combinations. A three letter password would have 729,000 possible combinations. A 12 character password has BILLIONS of possible combinations. All of this assumes a user will use a random selection of passwords. In the real world though people prefer to use very simple passwords, often easily remembered phrases. Many hacking attempts start by running through the 100 or so very commonly used passwords. (As a former I.T. pro, the number of people using \"password123\" or \"LetMeIn\" is depressing) Forcing users to use at least one capital letter, one number and one special character is something of a compromise between the best practice and what actually works for humans.",
"The reason you force users to include non-alphanumeric characters is because most people will use weak passwords if given the chance. There's a reason why the most common passwords lists includes the word \"password\"."
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iojma7
|
Are there massive objects made of minerals that would be like stone suns?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e8zv1"
],
"text": [
"Well, there are big, rocky planets. If you get a ball of material that's around 1/10 the mass of the Sun, the gravitational crush at the center will be intense enough to fuse hydrogen and your ball will want to turn into a star itself. If the whole ball is made of stable elements like iron that don't want to fuse, then you could just get a hot glowing rock - but if there's a decent amount of hydrogen or helium then the object's mass will 'ignite' fusion reactions in the core. So we'd be unlikely to find a Sun-sized space rock that actually looks like a rock. Even our neighbor Jupiter isn't too far short of the ignition threshold, and sometimes people refer to it as a 'failed star'."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iojs9n
|
What makes humans such good conductors of electricity as opposed to other species?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4e9u45"
],
"text": [
"Lack of thick fur, relatively thin and moist skin, the large salt content of modern diets probably has a little to do with it. It’s not really an appreciable difference though, humans are just as conductive as any other moist bag of meat"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iokado
|
Why African countries were never able to flourish. And if it involves colonialism, why were those colonial countries able to have this kind of control over African countries, if African civilization likely began first
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4eda4r",
"g4edftk",
"g4egro3",
"g4edpy1"
],
"text": [
"There are a lot of historical “explanations” of why certain areas were able to thrive and others didn’t. Quite famous is the much-maligned Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, who basically said it all has to do with geography. Truth is, there’s no one reason. It’s a confluence of a whole bunch of historical facts which together led to certain places being vulnerable to colonial exploitation more than others.",
"Egypt would like a word with you along with quite a few others that you haven't heard or been taught about. However a lot of it boils down initially to malaria, it is really difficult to found a large civilisation if half your population are ill with malaria.",
"Fundamentally, there are no \"great why\" answers to history. Actual historians understand the contingent nature of history. There's really no \"reason\" that African states didn't industrialize on their own. They just didn't have the specific confluence of ideology, geography, and resources that allowed for it. But then, neither did Spain or Greece or the United States anywhere besides the coal rich mercantile areas from England to Belgium. Industrialization and \"development\" was exported from there to the entire world at whatever pace that coincidence and specific individuals on the ground determined.",
"Guns germs and steel explains it well. They had to be nomadic because of migration and rain patterns, they couldn't get fires hot enough to make metals, and they never had the cattle to develop disease capable of enabling colonializing. Africa is a shit place to build cities, the drought and monsoon cycle makes early civilization hard. They still were advanced though. 300 years before Europeans they did with stone and bone tools, a cesarean birth, and cataract surgery. Edit: I have learned that my highschool failed me and that movie is kinda bullshit cherry picking. Thanks US school system."
],
"score": [
25,
12,
8,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iokplz
|
Why do our minds replay our most anxious or terrible memories when we’re trying to sleep?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4epj3j"
],
"text": [
"It’s both a defense mechanism and survival technique your body uses. For example, say if you said something that you think REALLY offended someone. You didn’t mean to, you just never really thought about the statement before you made it. A situation that specific had never come up in life. So now when you have a terrible or cringe moment, or something in life that is making you anxious, what it is, is your mind trying to figure out the best way to go about that situation in the future, or how to straight out avoid that situation. With most other social settings you don’t think about, you’re used to it. Your mind “practiced” social and life skills for nearly your entire life, so it’s no point in paying attention to random stuff like a conversation about the weather at work. Because it’s no need to alter that situation. But, if you made a typo for your work presentation and accidentally wrote something embarrassing and didn’t notice until the CEO called you out, you’d keep going over it in your mind because you’ve never experienced that exact feeling before. You’ve never “practiced” how to react to that situation. It’s also why a lot of people have fake arguments or tough convos in the shower for hypothetical situations that will never happen. It’s your mind preparing you for the future. This was especially useful for when communication and language was not nearly developed. It’s part of the human experience of being self aware. I hope that made sense."
],
"score": [
29
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iol4ua
|
Where does the amputated body parts go?
|
I mean, you can't put them in a garbage bag and throw away right?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4eig5i",
"g4eiuap",
"g4eoe37",
"g4eqjq5"
],
"text": [
"They are considered biomedical waste. A hospital might have on-site facilities to deal with them, or contract with a third party to take them off-site. Usually they're incinerated, in the end.",
"Hospitals typically have an incinerator to get rid of biowaste. Either onsite, or contracted external party. Amputations and anything removed during surgery are typically cremated in the incinerator. Sometimes cadavers and body parts are donated to science, usually meaning they get dissected by medical students. Sometimes the patient will ask for the body part to be returned. This isn't always possible, but sometimes it happens. People get very attached to their own body parts (no pun intended), but as for what they choose to do with them your guess is as good as mine. Personally I wouldn't want to keep my old arm in the deep freeze for decades just so it could be buried with me.",
"My mother's mate lived near a hospital that hired a yakuza gang to dispose of the medical waste. They took it out to the forest and dumped it into huge holes they dug. Locals were too scared to say anything but it pissed him right of. He kicked up a stink, hired investigators and lawyers etc. They dug up holes the size of small houses full of old medicine, needles, blood, body parts etc. Eventually the operation was shut down and the gang started sending him death threats. At least the forest was safe though.",
"Amputated limbs are first sent to pathologists. They examine the limb macroscopically (called a gross examination) to make sure the amputation was successful and removed all the diseased tissue. The pathologists then takes tissue samples to the examine the tissue microscopically to confirm the conclusions of the gross exam. The limbs are then placed in formalin for storage. This is done so the pathologist can go back and take more samples or do a more through examination if needed for medical or legal purposes. Those limbs, along with all body parts that are removed during any sugery (appendix, tumor, etc) are stored either by the pathologist's office or the hospital as long as local regulations require them to be stored. Once they can be destroyed, they are incinerated as other posters have noted."
],
"score": [
19,
13,
8,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iolbs3
|
How does strafe jumping in video games work?
|
So I know that originally strafe jumping came from a bug in the Quake Engine, and it's why so many older games (CS, Quake 3, etc) have it. I also know the bug comes from the accelerate function, but I don't quite understand *how* it ends up building speed. Something with the wish direction getting combined with speed maybe? How does that happen? I'm not sure, any help explaining would be greatly appreciated!!
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4el0kx"
],
"text": [
"There's a tendency in games to break a little bit from real life, and the two biggest things are counting the speed of things along different axis' separately and acceleration quirks. In that old strafe jump technique, you end up combining the acceleration of the strafe, the forward movement and the spin of your mouse all together, then jump to maintain it. If you think of it move simply though, a game where simple strafing is faster...it's Pythagorean theory basically. If I Hold forward I move at speed A, if I strafe sideways I strafe at speed B as well... then if I angle myself diagonally, the game happily lets me move at speed C... A\\^2+B\\^2=C\\^2 I move my 4 mph forward, my 3 mph sideways and end up at 5mph diagonally in the direction I really wanted to go. Then add acceleration and jumping to that too, it ends up with weird shit on top of that."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioljk8
|
Why are they called 'semi-trucks' even though they're obviously much larger than a pickup?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ekyoy"
],
"text": [
"The term \"semi\" actually refers to the trailer, not the truck. It's a \"semi-trailer\" because it doesn't have a front axle, and instead the front-end of the trailer dumps it's weight onto the truck (technically called a tractor in this situation) which offers much better balance and stability."
],
"score": [
27
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iolkzq
|
Why are racing watches called racing watches?
|
They always come with a timer and chronographs. Do racers really look at and use their watches when going at high speed?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4elwyy",
"g4ellet"
],
"text": [
"It's less about looking at it but it's the ability to be a stopwatch or do split times and stuff, where you don't have to look at the time, but you can check it after. Also remember that term is from like the late 1800s and it's just still called that. No one would use a non-digital device for timing something fast these days where the 0.01 second matters.",
"I think it harkens back to the early days of motor racing, think 1920's or earlier. Guys would take their cars out to the test track and tinker with them, run a few laps, and these watches helped them with timing the test run. Then they would tinker some more, test some more, and repeat that until they were happy. And if you were the driver of a race car, you weren't always the owner or mechanic, so it's possible that one of those guys was standing on the sideline, watching the car going around the track and timing it."
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iolmwd
|
Why is it that our sense of taste is extremely polarizing (i.e. we very often disagree on what foods we like to eat), yet we can usually agree on what smells good or bad?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4en240"
],
"text": [
"The senses are meant for different things. Think of senses as becoming more 'sensitive' the closer to you they are. Seeing something isn't a big deal, we can often see something pretty bad and not overreact to it, we can see things super far away and see stuff that has nothing to do with us. We can see a tiger but sometimes when we see the tiger we're not in danger. Hearing is a little closer, if i hear something really loud and scary it might be close, we respond the louder it is, good or bad, but we can also hear things far away and bad things we hear won't necessarily hurt us. Smell is a bit closer again, if we smell something bad, gross, foul...it's very often something very bad for us, it will make us sick, something is decaying, infected, something is excrement, stuff we shouldn't go too close to. Many things that naturally smell really bad are bad for us and we should be actively prevented from approaching that thing so it hits us harder. Touch is right at us, if it feels gross, its gross, if it hurts, or burns, it very bad, we'll react very badly to it and immediately, we usually won't even be able to override this instinct to intentionally harm ourselves if the touch of something is bad. Taste is right there too, now this is this thing on your tongue, in your mouth, you're about to eat this thing. Now my standards are going way up, i'm not seeing it, hearing it or even just smelling it, you're deciding to ingest this thing. If its slightly off, if its not quite what you want, you should spit that thing the fuck out. Again if its super gross or just foreign to you, you may not even be able to override your instinct and eat it. So basically the difference and your reactions are more acute because its a more important decision and this leads to being more sharply varied than a more passive sense."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iolxlu
|
is asexuality an accepted part of lgbtq? If so how and why?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4eow5n"
],
"text": [
"It’s really a matter of debate. Some people consider asexual people to be a part of the LGBTQ community because they are a community of people with a sexual orientation outside of the norm of the heterosexual orientation, additionally some asexuals are also romantically attracted to the same sex so they would fall under the umbrella of the LGBTQ community for that reason. However some people are not in favor of Asexual people being part of the community because some asexual people are romantically attracted to the opposite sex and are effectively straight but just don’t experience sexual attraction. Others may argue that they don’t belong in the community because they don’t view the absense of sexual attraction as a sexual orientation in the same way that other LGB orientations are. Still further complicating the issue is there are some people who take a more middle ground view of believing that asexual people who are homo-romantic, bi-romantic etc. (who have same sex attraction) belong in the community while asexual people who are heteroromantic don’t belong the the community. I’m sure there’s more discourse around the subject but tldr; it’s complicated and the opinions of the LGBTQ community are not a monolith. Asexuality has only fairly recently became a mainstream topic so there is a lot of discourse around it."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iom01x
|
Why do people get diarrhea or stomachache after eating something spicy?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4enu3h"
],
"text": [
"The capsaicin in chilli is an irritant so when you eat it , the capsaicin \" attacks and inflames \" your stomach lining and intestines. The reason why it is an irritant is due to the chilli plant evolving to prevent attackers from eating or destroying it and therefore producing a irritant."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iom92r
|
How do Smartbulbs work?
|
I've tried to Google it but theres just reviews about smartbulbs and I want to know the science behind them. How does the LED generate different colours, does it take up less power if the light is dim? What is inside a smartbulb etc TIA
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4es6jn",
"g4eqk96"
],
"text": [
"There's essentially just an LED element, some kind of microcontroller, a wifi adapter (or bluetooth adapter), and a power supply (LED's don't run off 120V AC). Some bulbs (like the phillips hue) require a \"bridge.\" These bridges are what connects to your wifi/router, and then the bulbs just connect to the bridge. Either way its just to enable you to be able to communicate with the lights. The microcontroller has code on it to use the WiFi card to connect to your network, and then you use an app to confirm the lights are on the correct network and sign them in. There are usually 4 different LED elements - red, green, blue, and white. Any of the colors can be achieved by blending these three colors, and the amount of saturation can be controlled by adjusting the brightness of that color mix in tandem with the white. Because the power supply is stepping down the power from 120V to probably either 5V or 3.3V, and microcontrollers and LEDs don't use a ton of power, they will use way less power than a regular bulb. When you dim the LED's it will use slightly less power but with a micro and a wifi adapter it's likely not noticeable looking at power used by the bulb as a whole.",
"Circuitry allows the bulb to send power through different LED’s inside for different colors. They do use less power if dimmed but they already use so little that the difference is negligible."
],
"score": [
8,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iomctd
|
How exactly is type 1 diabetes different from type 2 diabetes?
|
I was diagnosed with type 1 a few weeks ago, and my specialist tried explaining it to me but I still don't really understand the difference.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4eqbql",
"g4eq374",
"g4fdeg1",
"g4er7p2"
],
"text": [
"With Type-1, your pancreas doesn't produce any insulin. Frequently this occurs when your immune system overreacts to an illness & attacks your pancreas. With Type-2, your pancreas produces an insufficient amount of insulin and/or the insulin it produces is ineffective. Frequently caused by diet and/or a sedentary lifestyle.",
"Type 1: your body can't produce an adequate amount of insulin. If I recall, this is often the result of an autoimmune reaction destroying parts of the pancreas. Type 2: your body can produce insulin, but you have developed resistance to it.",
"I'm glad you've recieved answers here, but please don't feel that you have to leave your doctor without an understanding you feel is sufficient. In many cases, information is available online, but as you continue in this process, please feel like you can use your doctors time, and ask what questions you need to.",
"1: body doesn't make insulin. treated with insulin shots 2: body makes insulin but can't use it. Can be treated with medication like metphormin"
],
"score": [
60,
10,
8,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ion9yd
|
If HTML5 is a markup language, how can it replace Flash?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4evovg"
],
"text": [
"The markup includes scripts, and those active scripts can do things that some websites have historically use Flash to do. There are so many security concerns with Flash that many are unwilling to use it."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ionfm7
|
Why is it that when we are in moderate to extreme pain we get shortness of breath?
|
Like when I have canker sores and I ate something with vinegar it was painful and I started breathing heavily.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ezwtr"
],
"text": [
"When our body is under some kind of stress, like pain, the brain activates several alarms. one of these \"alarms\" is Hyperventilation to reduce the level of carbon dioxide of the blood and to obtain more oxygen."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ionqux
|
Why do towels/linens get stiff when left to air dry but are fluffy when put in a laundry dryer?
|
I noticed that my wash cloth in the shower will get stiff when it air dries and realized other things seem to do the same. I’m guessing it has to do with the heat and/or motion?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ezhiq"
],
"text": [
"Motion. It's more noticeable in hard water areas. If you air dry, a small quantity of dissolved minerals will be left coat the fibers. Like a water stain. It makes the fibers stiff until it breaks off. In a drier, because the fabric is always in motion, the mineral deposits dont get a chance to build up."
],
"score": [
26
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioo05n
|
Why Is nuclear fission for power so frowned upon?
|
I understand that you have to bury the radioactive waste somewhere, but other than that what else is wrong with it? Like it is much less destructive than fossil fuel plants and much more cost effective than solar and wind, so if the only issue is the waste, couldn't we put it in leaded containment things and put it somewhere uninhabitable like Antarctica or the mariana trench? Or if it eventually gets cheap enough, out of solar orbit?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f10r9",
"g4f1t19",
"g4f09ir",
"g4f1tdr"
],
"text": [
"The waste is easy to keep on earth under safeguards for today, or this week or this year, but we don't have very good ideas about how we're going to go about keeping those safeguards in place on timescales in the millennia. We might go extinct in that time, or records of the dump sites could be lost or forgotten or destroyed. There are linguists and semioticians who have written at great length about [how we might go about crafting a \"warning sign\" for our toxic waste sites]( URL_0 ) which could be seen and understood by any conceivable observer - keeping in mind that that observer might not know any of our written languages and might not even belong to our species! Launching it out of orbit, into deep space or into the Sun, would work great if we could do it reliably. And our track record at putting payloads into space is getting *pretty* good, but the catastrophes that could result from a botched launch are just unthinkable.",
"There are three problems with nuclear plants, all related to cost: 1) Nuclear plants require highly skilled labor to construct. You can't just put a job opening on linkedin and hire all of the construction workers that show up. There are only a handful of people in the world with the expertise necessary to physically build a nuclear reactor. These people are concentrated in 4 countries: the US, China, Russia, and India. Of those, the largest concentrations are in the US and China. In the US these people mostly work for companies that build reactors for the US Navy and are highly paid. Luring them away to build a civilian reactor costs a huge amount of money and there just aren't enough of them to build both civilian and military reactors in a reasonable amount of time. 2) You can't just pull uranium out of the ground and stick it into a reactor. The uranium to be processed and enriched. Doing this is expensive. 3) Nuclear plants have a finite lifespan. Running a nuclear reactor damages the physical components of that reactor. After a certain amount of time the reactor has sustained so much damage that it has to be decommissioned. Decommissioning a reactor is expensive for the same reason that building one is - there aren't many of the highly skilled laborers necessary to do it. Historically these points weren't really issues because the US government was building large numbers of nuclear bombs. This ensured that there was a large labor pool of skilled laborers who could work on nuclear reactors. But the US hasn't built new bombs in decades. All of those old workers have retired and the amount of new projects that get built is so low that the labor pool of qualified people has shrunk to fairly small levels. The cost of nuclear fuel has a similar issue - the US government used to provide free enriched uranium to US power plants as part of its nuclear program. But since the US government no longer builds new bombs it no longer has a need to enrich uranium. It shut down its enrichment plant in the 1990s which means that civilian power plants now need to buy enriched uranium from one of a handful of sources. These issues are less important in China - which is where you see most new plants being built. China has a large government nuclear program that is actively building new nuclear bombs. In the same way that a large bomb building program significantly reduced the costs involved in building nuclear plants in the US, nuclear bomb building in China means that it has access to a large pool of skilled laborers as well as \"cheap\" government subsidized nuclear fuel. That doesn't mean that nuclear fuel is cheap for China overall, just that the costs get baked into the costs of building new bombs - which is expensive. The costs of building and running a nuclear plant in the US are actually fairly high. The US also has cheap domestic sources of natural gas, so it doesn't make any economic sense for companies to build nuclear plants when they can build natural gas plants instead. The nuclear enrichment issue is somewhat less severe in the EU, since France and several Eastern European countries enrich uranium and provide it to domestic power plants for cheap. (Again, these costs still get paid by taxes in those countries, and overall the cost of enriching uranium is quite high. Its just that from the perspective of an EU nuclear plant, the fact that the French government is paying for your nuclear fuel makes it cheap for you). However, the skilled labor issue is significantly more severe in the EU than it is in the US. The EU doesn't have a meaningful number of domestic nuclear laborers, so building or decommissioning plants typically requires them to try to pull from the limited US pool of workers.",
"Nuclear waste is bad for people. There are methods to store the bad nuclear waste, but transport to those systems remain a problem. Many countries use it, but lots of people think it would be delivered by going through poor neighborhoods. Personally I like it, I think that safe transport is possible, but the radiation from the waste can lead to harmful health consequences.",
"lets break down that statement on other solutions for nuclear waste. 1: leaded containers somewhere away from civilization: This stuff is still radioactive and should still be treated as a controlled substance, if you just leave it out there you are risking either it getting discovered by people you dont want to have that, plus you gotta consider that evne the best containment needs maintenance or it eventually degrades, in this case if that happens you contaminate entire ecosystems and can do long term damage that might not be reversible. 2: send it out out space: not gonna happen for a simple reason; even if the tech get easier and cheaper, we actually have a horrible track record in sending rockets to space; not only is this stuff heavy(and rockets scale really badly financially with weight), but in the event of catastrophic failure during launch or transit you basically just detonated a dirty bomb over a potentially massive area. back to the reason why ppl frown, technically they dont, its the lobbyists that do, the only issue with nuclear power is that the initial investment is very high and it takes a few years to get a Return, most terms dont last long enough ot claim these returns meaning starting this project actuallly loses the money short term."
],
"score": [
23,
14,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-time_nuclear_waste_warning_messages"
],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioo5oc
|
How does flood water leave a city?
|
When it floods and an entire city is filled with meters of water, where does all this water eventually go? How long does it take?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f0mz5"
],
"text": [
"It goes back to where it came from, usually the river (if it was a river flood) or the ocean (if it was a storm surge). Floods happen when the rate of water coming in exceeds the rate of water leaving...water is still leaving but it can't keep up so the water level rises. Eventually the water influx goes back to normal and the regular drainage paths catch up. It can take days or weeks depending on how long it takes for the water influx to go down and how good the drainage is. If it's water getting into somewhere it was being kept out of artificially, like New Orleans after Katrina, it could take months or years...the water will stay there until the barriers that were holding it back are restored and the water is pumped out."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioo95e
|
Did humans invent math or did we discover it
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f2b6h",
"g4f44ay",
"g4f7fnr"
],
"text": [
"It is an interesting question. Probably been debated through the ages. My thoughts. If a sculptor takes a piece of stone and chips away to form a sculpture of an eagle, was the eagle always embodied in that piece of stone or did the sculptor invent that form through their skill and effort? Similarly, the universe appears to work by some rules. But how those rules are interpreted seem deeply integral to how we perceive the universe. We can only describe it in terms of our language and culture. Could we say for certain that any (say) alien race would more or less arrive at the same interpretation? For certain things, for example the ratio of a circle's perimeter to diameter - this might seem likely. But it might be hard to say this for other mathematical ideas.",
"There's no consensus about this, and I don't really think one answer is any more true than the other, but thinking about this is a good way to question our intuitions about what we're even *doing* when we do math. One idea which is usually attributed to Plato and is often called mathematical platonism, or sometimes mathematical realism, states that mathematics is a kind of landscape, which we can explore through modelling and reasoning. On this landscape, numbers like pi and e, and laws like the triangle inequality, are prominent natural features, pre-existing, which mathematicians discover. The other idea has a few different names and formulations, sometimes constructivism, or nominalism, or positivism. These are all variations on the idea that mathematics is something that we build, that numbers and mathematical objects are something we *create* by assigning them definitions, and that things like pi do not exist as part of any external landscape, but they arise from our exploring the consequences of those definitions we made up. There are insights that come from both perspectives, and I don't think there's anything to be gained by committing entirely to one and rejecting the other.",
"From a linguistic point of view, math is a language which we use to describe what we see and what we deduce. Like any other language, it is invented."
],
"score": [
18,
10,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioo9l2
|
Why do we get nauseous when we’re anxious?
|
So I suffer from both emetaphobia (fear of nausea and vomiting) and extreme anxiety. Whenever I get anxious, I get nauseous. Then I get more anxious. And more nauseous. Etc, etc. Anyway, why is it the when we get scared or anxious, out stomach gets upset? And an even better question, is there a way to ease it? Thanks in advance
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f1di8",
"g4f20hh",
"g4f22fj",
"g4fwh84"
],
"text": [
"Anxiety can be related to an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain. There are many physical symptoms of anxiety but not everyone experiences them the same. Is there a way to ease it? Maybe. Some things work well for some but not for others. Ginger, peppermint, ice cold water, salt, are all things that help me personally with nausea. Peppermint essential oil is my favorite. But really, working through your anxiety will probably be the best thing long term. Have you spoken to a therapist about it or considered meds?",
"Fight for flight, simply put. When that response gets triggered in your brain, your stomach wants to push food out of it. Blood flow is decreased to organs of the digestive system and go to part you need most of you have to run or defend yourself.",
"That last part sounds like a really good question for a psychologist who specializes in anxiety. Basically, from my level of understanding: Anxiety is a form of \"fight or flight\" response. Unpleasant stimuli usually trigger some kind of automatic response. You mentioned fear is involved with your anxiety cycle. Fear definitely activates those autonomic pathways in the brain. They're quick, but dumb, and are largely related to extreme survival situations. Our survivalist reptilian brain systems think fear means we're going to have to deal with a predator and it's pulling juice out of other, less important processes (like digestion) in order to funnel energy into \"fight or flight\" mode. I believe that's one reason for experiencing nausea with anxiety.",
"I'm exactly the same!!! My anxiety caused me to feel sick, which made me anxious which made me sick, rinse and repeat. It got to the point where I couldn't eat, drink, or go out. The best course of action is to deal with the fear itself. I had CBT and it was brilliant. It took a year and a half of fortnightly meetings with my therapist to break the damaging thought processes. I'm still a bit anxious, but it's not limiting anymore. I had to drive someone with noro home on a 4 hour trip once and actually managed. I cried the whole way, but the fact I didn't leave him at a petrol station is a success. I took Prozac while in therapy to help me face up to the difficult tasks I was set, but once the thought processes were realigned, I was able to come off it. Whatever happens, I hope you are able to find some peace - it's awful to have a self feeding issue like this but it is fixable with some time and commitment."
],
"score": [
5,
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioob71
|
How can a black holes singularity be infinity small, but still have mass?
|
Doesn't somthing with mass have to have some kinda volume?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f2taz",
"g4f1xcv"
],
"text": [
"We're not sure. When we plug in the numbers involved in a black hole into our math for physics, we get absurd answers, and different branches of physics give you different absurd numbers. The idea for infinite density is: When you squeeze something hard what stops it from collapsing? At the start it's electromagnetic force, holding atoms and molecules apart. Squeeze it harder and it's Electron degeneracy pressure holding the neutrons apart. Squeeze it harder and... well we can't name a single thing that might hold it apart. So it goes smaller. What stops it from collapsing further? ... well we can't name a single thing that might hold it apart. So it goes smaller. What stops it from collapsing further? ... well we can't name a single thing that might hold it apart. So it goes smaller. What stops it from collapsing further? ... well we can't name a single thing that might hold it apart. And so on, the conclusion being that since nothing we know of in the universe can stop it from being smaller, it must keep going smaller until it's infinity small.",
"I'm no expert so this could be totally wrong. I think It's infinitely compacted as well. So it still has mass. But all of it is so compacted by gravity that it's literally all at one point."
],
"score": [
16,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioog8s
|
How is it that only Green and White teas need to be steeped at 160-185 degrees Fahrenheit (74-85 C) but black and ALL herbal teas should be steeped at above 203 F (95)?
|
I've been drinking a lot more tea recently and noticed that the packaging for green and white teas always states a pretty low steeping time, but with just about ANY herbal tea I get the instructions all state to steep at pretty much boiling. Is green/white tea somehow special in being the only type of tea that steeps at that temperature? I can't really find any satisfying answer online.
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f4zk2"
],
"text": [
"Green tea's sweet and complex flavours come from the sugars and amino acids that dissolve at 60C. It is also however high in so called tannins that dissolve at 80C and would contribute a bitter, astringent flavour. These flavours are more acceptable in a black tea and also due to the processing that those leaves go under, they have a lower tannin content."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ioomxf
|
Why do silent letters exist?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f5pkz",
"g4f60hi",
"g4f45l7"
],
"text": [
"Spelling in English is a mess, is why that happens. Not only was there a massive change in English pronunciation a few hundred years ago (the Great Vowel Shift) without a corresponding change in the spelling of words, but English has tended to pick up words from other languages and, rather than re-spelling them to match English norms, left the spelling the same and kept the original pronunciation. Note that the example you give is a bit of a weird one--the word \"island\" derives from Old English \"iland\" (note no S), but they added the S to make it look more similar to the word \"isle\" (which comes from a different root, hence the different spelling).",
"This is mostly due to historical reasons. For example, Island in Middle English is iland(compare German Eiland, Dutch eiland). The additional of s is due to another word, isle. Even though isle and island did not come from the same sources (French and Old English respectively), the similarity between the two led people to think that island is isle + land, leading to the addition of s in island. Isle also did not have an s in Middle English(ile), the addition of s later on in the 16th century was probably due to the influence of the Latin word Insula. There are many other words with silent letters that is due to old spelling conventions. Words starting with kn- (knight, knife, know, etc.) used to have the k pronounced up until the late 1500s, when was dropped to it's difficulty in pronunciation. Silent letters can also help determine pronunciation of other letters, such as words ending with -e. Examples like rid and ride, where the i is different in pronounciation. Loath and loathe, where the \"th\" is different in pronounciation.",
"Okay island might not be a good example for this, but sometimes the silent letter changes how another letter is pronounced."
],
"score": [
15,
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioou0c
|
Why does every plan seems so awkward, embarrasing and weird in the morning?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f5etw",
"g4fbayy"
],
"text": [
"I feel about a lot of things that way. Some may say its cold feet. I am not exactly sure what it is. I just wanna say that you're not alone and I would like to know about it too.",
"You likely have anxiety. It's pretty common, but that can be a symptom. Does your gut knot up? Does your heart race when you think about it?"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioov1y
|
Math questions often ask “what is the chance of x and y happening, with each being independent events” What about when they’re not independent?
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f5i16"
],
"text": [
"Then they are dependent (go figure) and each event influences the other. For example, imagine you draw a card from a deck and reveal it's a King of Spades. Since there are 52 cards in a deck, you could surmise there was a 1/52 chance of drawing that card. Two dependent events would be calculating the chance you receive a 2 of hearts from the same deck. Since you have already removed the King of Spades, there is a 1/51 chance. Two independent events would be calculating the same thing, but with a different deck. Since it's a new deck, the chance remains as 1/52."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ioox8o
|
What causes people to occasionally suddenly jolt awake when they are falling asleep?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f5iir",
"g4fa4vd"
],
"text": [
"[Hypnagogic jerk {wiki} ]( URL_0 .) There are many theories why we do and none are proven. A popular one is its a throwback to when we were primates and about to fall out of the tree, the jerk wakes us up and stops us falling. (not proven)",
"I heard somewhere it's because your heart rate drops too quickly and your brain gets scared and needs to wake you to keep from dying. No source on this."
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk#:~:text=A%20hypnic%20jerk%2C%20hypnagogic%20jerk,awaken%20suddenly%20for%20a%20moment"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iop3au
|
How does 'brute forcing' work?
|
I've seen a lot of graphics showing how long it would take a hacker to brute force their way through a password. However, at least on every password protected service I use, there is a limit on how many incorrect passwords one can enter before they get locked out.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4f5x8t",
"g4f96i0"
],
"text": [
"When you create a password for a service, the service needs to create a copy of that password so that it actually knows what it is for the next time you log in to the service. When they do this, they *generally* store what is known as a hashed copy of your password. Hashing is a sort of one-way encryption: you give it a particular input, it will ALWAYS give you the same (jumbled) output. This makes it great for authentication. You put the same password back into the authentication screen, they hash it the same way they originally did, and compare it with the stored hash. If they’re the same, they let you in. A hacker just needs to get access to this hash (which is ridiculously easy, given most companies security practices are actually terrible). The hash is just a piece of information stored in a database server somewhere. Once they have the hash, they can brute force to their heart’s content. The limit only applies when you’re trying to authenticate through the authentication service.",
"When you enter your username and password into a login box, the website or the application or whatever calculates a hash with that username & password pair, and checks it against an authentication database on a server somewhere. If that hash exists on the database, it lets you in. But, as you've noted yourself, you can't brute force that because you'll get locked out. What you *can* brute force is that authentication database itself directly, without going through the servers of the website/application/whatever. But for that you need to have a copy of that database, which is surprisingly easy because a lot of people don't understand security. Once you have that copy, you can unleash the full processing power of a modern computer on the database. A semi-decent PC can try millions of passwords a second. Computers dedicated for this purpose can push 100+ billion passwords per second easily. Which sounds like a lot, but fortunately it's still hopelessly inadequate if you've picked yourself a secure password."
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
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