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iqymqd
|
How do they make horse fell when they are shot in movies?
|
Let's say like in Game of Thrones, when horses are shot with an arrow, how do they make them fall? Do horses also "act" or how it is done?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The horses used in movies and TV are \"actors\" in the sense that they've been trained to perform on cue. Since horses are both domesticated animals and quite intelligent, they can learn tricks like a dog would. There's a person off screen telling the animal what to do.",
"Back in the day, before they started protecting animals, they were tripped and it caused a lot of injuries. Now horses are actually trained how to fall safely, and if you watch closely, you can usually see the stunt person cue the horse by pulling back on one rein, turning the horses head back, and pushing their shoulder forward. And i wouldn't be surprised if there was cushioning on the ground to help horse and rider."
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7,
6
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iqyvdw
|
If someone wins a major academic prize for math for solving an equation that was thought to be impossible, how do we know they did it right?
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"They write down their step by step \"proof\" which includes every equation that they used to arrive at their answer. Other mathematicians then follow along their step by step guide and see if they reach the same answer and to verify that they did not make any math errors along the way.",
"Because mathematics largely works on deductive reasoning. They have premises to which we apply deductive reasoning to come to a conclusion. If the conclusion follows the premise then we know the conclusion is necessarily true provided the premise holds. Al this means is that we have se basic premises which everyone agrees upon, and all we are doing is building structures on that basis. Whenever mathematicians look at a formal proof, if all the steps in the proof are logically correct then the conclusion is considered true. This is a bit simplified but I hope you get what I mean. If someone can chime in to correct me where I am wrong and add to it that would be much appreciated.",
"A lot of those unsolved math questions are conjectures which you could express as \"there is no such thing as a number satisfying conditions xyz.\" It may be easy enough to check any specific number for xyz, but you can't check all of them. So sometimes, if you disprove this kind of conjecture, you do it by simply *naming a number* which satisfies those conditions. The Riemann zeta hypothesis is one of those \"just find a counterexample\" problems. So if a counterexample exists, you can just name it. But if no counterexample exists, proving *that* fact can be a lot trickier, since you can't just write down a list of every number and say \"I checked all of them.\" Proofs in these cases have to be constructed in a very careful way, where you start only from statements that you assume are true (these are called axioms) and follow only a few strict rules of inference that you know/assume are valid, to produce new statements. Usually a proof involves a long chain of these statements, each one being deduced from the last, by only a very small logical step. Just to make it a little more concrete, an example of an axiom might be: \"every whole number x, has a successor x+1\" An example of a rule of inference might be: \"If you know that either A or B must be true, and you know that B is false, then you may infer that A is true.\"",
"Because preforming their equation will result in the correct answer. Generally these unsolvable math problems are just one tiny part of a giant math question, solving the formula makes the entire theory work. The formula has to be mathematically sound, as in, it works in the confides of math as we understand it, you didn't have to make up stuff to solve it, And it has to be testable, meaning you can apply the created formula used to solve the problem on other math problems of the same type.",
"The very fact that the price is being awarded means that the underlying work has already been sufficiently reviewed and confirmed or at least not refuted by the academic community.",
"A sequence of mathematical steps taken to get to a final result is called a “proof”. When a mathematician finds an interesting result, the proof is published so that other mathematicians can check the steps in the reasoning. Although it can be very difficult to come up with an interesting result, if the steps in the proof are clearly described, it is relatively easy for other mathematicians (often in the same specialised area) to find any flaws in the proof. As an example of this process... in 1993, Andrew Wiles published a proof of “Fermat’s Last Theorem” (a famous long-standing problem in mathematics). Other mathematicians studied the proof and found a flaw in it. Andrew Wiles took a while to fix the proof, but the fixed version was published in 1995."
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iqyxjf
|
Why does breathing smoke make your chest hurt?
|
I get that this is your body telling you this air is not good to breathe, but what is the actual mechanism that causes the pain?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Your entire respiratory tract needs to stay moist, so it is covered in mucus. Smoke is very very dry, and dries out your respiratory tract. To compensate, you need to produce more mucus. You can also achieve this by coughing, which pushes mucus from deeper in the lungs (where the smoke may not have reached) up towards the affected area (e.g. the windpipe). Excessive coughing, like what happens when a non-smoker tries to smoke, can cause chest pain because you are overexerting your chest muscles by coughing."
],
"score": [
3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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iqz42s
|
Why do so many employers love people that work long hours and do almost nothing, but hate people that get all their work done and leave early?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"g4vakr2"
],
"text": [
"Cause they are dumb, and are using metrics left over when everyone had to be at their exact spot for 8 hours or the buggy whip assembly line halted.",
"Because the employer/manager sees the second type of person (does a lot and leaves early) as a missed opportunity. If you outdo yourself and perform at 110% for 8 hours, your employer starts to wonder \"What if this guy continued to work at 110% for an extra 2 hours? Why stop at 8?\" So your boss starts seeing you as missed potential because even though you got all the work done, you got it done *early* and so your boss feels like he's missing out on 2 more hours of performance that he could have gotten if you worked 10 hours.",
"Management probably assumes those who are staying for 12 hours are actually working for 12 hours so they think those who only stay for 8 are slackers.",
"It's the usual consequence of incompetently data driven management. Some qualities are difficult to accurately measure, and if you go for the easy to reach proxies instead, congratulations, you've set yourself up for failing faster than necessary."
],
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4
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iqzb2h
|
why are the most upvoted and awarded posts not explained like i’m five and are huge paragraphs?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4v62l2",
"g4v661w",
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],
"text": [
"Because the title of this subreddit is merely a brand and not supposed to be taken literally. Note the sidebar: > LI5 means friendly, simplified and layperson-accessible explanations - not responses aimed at literal five-year-olds.",
"Because big paragraphs cool and fun, big boys do big paragraphs, cool like dinosaurs rawr rawr",
"You can only dumb down a topic so much before you lose the ability to actually explain it. It's like asking why the sky is blue and wanting an answer an actual 5-year old can understand, when the answer is actually something a 15-year old would be able to understand. The 5-year old answer would be \"because that's the way it is,\" but the 15-year old answer might be \"because blue light scatters more, etc\" Which answer would you prefer to see?"
],
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3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
ir0a8t
|
Why does an oven not expel all of its heat rapidly when its door is opened?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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],
"text": [
"The hot air within the oven contains, by comparison, only small fraction of its stored thermal energy. A lot more is stored within the solid components of the device and (if applicable) the food inside the oven. Removing or exchanging its air content therefore doesn't really cool it down in any significant way.",
"It expels a lot of the contained hot air as the door is opened, but the heat remains in the metal. This is why ovens are either massively insulated between the inner and outer (which is why the inside is so much smaller) so the inner gets hot but the heat can't go anywhere,, or they are made of something like cast iron, where the whole unit gets hot and retains the heat."
],
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24,
4
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
ir16ww
|
Why do humans become cranky when they’re hungry, tired, or in pain?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4vjnaz",
"g4vkfbl"
],
"text": [
"When you're hungry your blood sugar gets low and this causes a lot of changes within the body such as hormones, most notable cortisol (a stress hormone) and adrenaline (fight or flight hormone). These are the two biggest factors in making someone aggravated as they are both used for survival as the quicker your response and the more harshly you respond to external stimuli the better your chances of survival.",
"The leading hypothesis for why we get cranky when we're hungry is that as our blood sugar levels drop, that means our brain has less fuel, which makes it operate less efficiently. That makes many things hard for it to do, like thinking clearly or controlling our emotions. In addition, being hungry is evolutionarily bad -- in the wild, it's usually a sign that we may starve to death -- so we're hardwired to react to hunger as a danger, causing anxiety and stress. The combination means you end up stressed *and* have less brain fuel to control your response to that stress: hangry. As for being cranky from being tired, it's similar, though it's more about debris than fuel. When you're awake, everything your brain does requires chemicals called neurotransmitters. These chemicals move between brain cells to let them talk to each other. After a neurotransmitter does its job, it's broken down, but not all of the leftover pieces are collected. The longer you're awake, the more of these pieces build up, blocking the spaces between brain cells (called synapses), which makes communication from nearby cells harder. That's why when you're really tired, you feel like you're thinking slower: because you are! (Literally: a study a few years ago found that the speed of brain cell communication physically slows down the longer you go without sleep.) When you sleep, other cells in your brain (which are not neurons) loosen up, letting a liquid called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) come in and wash away the debris, leaving you refreshed for the morning. Until then, the more debris builds up (i.e. the more tired you are), the harder it is for your brain to function, similar to when it's out of fuel. This leads to trouble controlling your emotions. And like being hungry, since sleep is necessary to survive, being too tired is felt as a threat, and you add stress to the equation once more. If you're in pain, that one is much simpler: pain is a direct sign that something is wrong and you're in danger, so your body reacts with stress and a \"fight, flight, or freeze\" response to the apparent danger. If you can't flee or freeze, you will feel like fighting for your life, which amounts to aggressive behavior / anger."
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6
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[
"url"
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[
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|
ir1p1r
|
Why is the default position for a 3-D model a T pose?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4vmr4i"
],
"text": [
"It tends to make things easier when animating. For example, if a model's default pose was just A Normal Person Standing With Their Arms At Their Sides, the animators would have trouble making that model lift their arms without the armpits looking janky and weird. Putting the model into a T-pose makes the shoulders, some of the most maneuverable joints on the human body, easier to animate no matter which direction the arms need to go. It's also part of why the legs tend to just Be There. Most of the time, the legs just need to walk. They don't go doing the splits for every day-to-day activity, so they don't need to get splayed out like the arms do."
],
"score": [
5
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
ir1sh4
|
I understand that Margherita pizza is a thing, but can come body please explain to me why professional chefs seem to always use the tiniest bit of cheese on pizza?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"g4vs0i1",
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"text": [
"Good pizza is lead by the bread, that is the crust should be the centerpiece. Neapolitan pizza in particular has the crust and a bit of sauce and often some olive oil that’s topped with a bit of cheese and some basil. It’s a different style of pizza than the “traditional” American/NY style of being covered in cheese",
"There are many different styles of pizza. It just happens that style is one you don't like. Personally I consider pizza with a lot of tomato sauce to be really gross, I like big soft puffy crust to form most of the experience, with a *very* light coating of sauce and just barely enough cheese to coat it over, then covered with lots of meat! If it's gonna be mostly tomato and cheese I might as well just have a salad, yuck. Point is, pizza is such a varied thing, it comes in many different forms and styles that go far beyond just different types of toppings.",
"It’s about balance - too much cheese and you don’t get as much flavor from the sauce, or herbs, or crust. American pizza typically has a ton of cheese because it’s one of the least expensive ingredients thanks to the government subsidies",
"Besides the \"it's always been done that way\" answer, there's a practical reason: margherita pizza is made with fresh mozzarella. If you're used to American-style cheese pizzas, they're made with a low-moisture cheese, meaning they dried out the cheese before putting it on the pizza. If you were to cover a pizza in fresh mozzarella like you do with the low moisture cheese, all the water in the cheese would make the crust soggy."
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5
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[
"url"
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[
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|
ir20fi
|
Why do lights seem so much brighter when the air is filled with smoke or fog?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4vykgi"
],
"text": [
"Same reason they seem brighter at night. Your eyes adjust to the ambient light, and you see other light sources in relation to that."
],
"score": [
3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
ir242b
|
Does water give camping food something that I don't get from it when eating it dry?
|
I've been wondering, can you eat camping food dry and get the same benefits as you would when you add water and prepare it according to the recipe?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4vp6fd",
"g4vp6ic"
],
"text": [
"Assuming you mean dehydrated camping food, the water is giving you texture, flavour, and...water. If you don't hydrate it before you eat it it will absorb that same volume of water from you, so you'd better drink the equivalent to avoid dehydration and/or plugging. But nutritionally, it's going to be about the same.",
"You could eat it, but... Why would you? It will taste terrible and then absorb a bunch of water in your stomach, so you'll have to drink more water anyway... Why not just make the food the way it's designed for?"
],
"score": [
7,
5
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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ir312q
|
- Why does shampoo create more foam second time you apply after rinsing than first?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4vvhw2",
"g4vx39x",
"g4vvlaa",
"g4vvo5a"
],
"text": [
"As the shampoo binds to the oil and dirt in your hair to wash it away the lather will diminish. It lathers more the second time because there is simply less dirt to bind to.",
"Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Was the best marketing gimmick to getting consumers to use twice as much product.",
"Because the first time snagged a lot of the dirt and oils from your hair already, thus freeing up more to sud the second time. Be careful though, it's easy to strip your hair of healthy oils. I only double-shampoo if I'm especially gross",
"Because the soap is used up binding to the oils and dirt in your hair the first time. Once it binds to the oil it's ability to create suds is greatly diminished. After you rinse off the soap the second time your hair is clean so the soap can create suds."
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37,
25,
8,
3
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[
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[
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|
ir3wun
|
Are chimpanzees sentient enough to be aware of doing "evil"?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4w4ilx",
"g4w3umm"
],
"text": [
"Evil is a cultural concept that we shouldn't even expect all humans to share. But do chimps have a sense of morality? Do chimps have a sense of benefit or harm to others? Do they conceive of fairness, reciprocity, or even the good of the group? It seems likely that [they do]( URL_1 ). Even to the extent of [rewarding and punishing]( URL_0 ) each other for moral participation. They also have a social ladder even under different leadership styles (e.g., aggressive vs. nurturing). Put group benefit, reciprocity, and social roles together, and it seems they have a sense of social duty. Chimpanzees value freedom. I couldn't find a source for this, but I think it is pretty obvious to anyone capable of empathy. Chimps don't just run wild when freed; they *value* freedom. Along with fairness. And cooperation. Etc. Chimps have moral values. So, while they ~~probably~~ maybe aren't philosophizing, theorizing, or metacognizing *about* their senses of morality, that doesn't exclude them from having them.",
"Sentience is a largely arbitrary term with a lot of debate surrounding it, it's arguably more philosophical than biological, and has no relation to the ability to posses a moral compass. Most social animals have the capacity for a moral compass informed by empathy, not all of them typically act on or develop it, but most have it. IE a feral dog may attack any small animal it finds, even if it's not hungry, but a pet dog that's been raised carefully and has learned benefits to empathy may even take in the young of other animals, caring for kittens, chicks, and sometimes even lizards. It isn't that the act of caring is something that was rewarded and they expect praise for, but rather that through exposure to empathetic acts they realize the inherent benefits. Dolphins will banish members from their pods for \"crimes\", and crows (the animals most similar to humans in terms of behaviour and intelligence) even appear to teach a moral compass to their young. So yes, many animals, especially very smart ones, are capable of developing a concept of evil. For chimpanzees specifically though? They definitely seem to display acts of empathy, but they are also comparatively violent and prone to infighting so it's not typically expressed as much as in other highly intelligent social animals. Their *standards* of what would be considered \"evil\" are definitely different from ours, this is an animal with a warranted reputation for face-eating after all, but they display concepts we would consider evidence of a moral compass."
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13,
5
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"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/like-humans-chimps-reward-cooperation-and-punish-freeloaders/",
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174343/"
],
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
ir47ai
|
Why do people fall asleep better when their eyes are closed? Or all animals in general?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4w7659"
],
"text": [
"Keeping the eyes closed in sleep protects them and maintains the lubrication needed for eyelids to work effectively. Sleeping with them open leads to problems in humans, and other animals that sleep with them closed."
],
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4
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[
"url"
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|
ir4oww
|
How do Magic eye images work?
|
For the longest time I could not see them now I can. Who figured out how to make them. 20 years ago I worked in a mall that had a kiosk that sold them. Never figured out how they worked then now it’s easy.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4w8m2e"
],
"text": [
"you can see the effect in a more obvious way by bringing both hands up to your face with index fingers apart. As you move them closer together a third 'finger' made up of the image of the two real fingers will form. That's what you're doing when seeing a magic eye image. It presents two images which are almost identical, but not quite. When focusing your eyes like I mentioned, you will cause these two images to overlap. the differences were carefully designed to create the image."
],
"score": [
3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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ir51i2
|
Why do ants seem to “touch” each other when they encounter each other?
|
A bit of background, I was outside at work watching a trail of ants. At first I was curious what they were after, but quickly noticed that they seemed to stop for a split second when coming across another ant headed back to where they came from. Some would run head-on into each other, while others just brushed up against each other while passing by. No matter what kind of contact it was, they seemed to always stop for a moment, and continue on. Is this a way they spread information? If it is, what kind of information do they communicate to each other?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wtc3j"
],
"text": [
"As you may know, there are different types of ants within a colony. There are worker ants who dig tunnels, gatherers who find food, soldiers who hunt and caretakers who raise the young. There are more sometimes, but most colonies will have these four types. When ants are out and about doing their job, they will encounter other ants constantly. Each ant will give off a certain pheromone depending on what it’s job currently is. When ants rub against each other as they pass, they’re actually counting how many of each type of worker they pass. If they notice that there is a lack of one kind of ant, eventually an ant will change its job to cover the difference. Think about it: say you’re watching an ant colony, and you can tell the different workers apart. This colony has a balance of all different kinds of the four workers, but a new colony in the area wipes out a large portion of the food gathering ants. Due to the lack of gatherers, the colony will begin to starve unless something is done. So, a worker goes about his day, counting less and less food gatherers as he does. After a while, this ant will pass too few gatherers, and he will automatically change his role, becoming a gatherer, and giving of a different pheromone to signify this change to his fellow workers. In this way, the colony can effectively rebuild the food gathering force, without any centralized intelligence or authority telling them to do so. So when an ant runs up on another ant, they’re communicating to each other what they’re currently doing. Each ant keeps a tally in its head of who is doing what, and if it sees that there is a significant lack of ants doing a particular job, it will *switch to that job*. Simple rules and interactions creating complex behaviors. Ants are cool. Kurtzgesagt on YouTube has a few videos on ant colonies, which is where I got all of this info from. I highly recommend watching their videos when you get the chance."
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5
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[
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[
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ir529g
|
please: Why do people say the US helped put Saddam Hussein in power?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4w9bey",
"g4wclzu"
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"text": [
"We gave him chemical weapons and fire power to fight Iran. At the time to the US Iran was the worse of two evils. We didn't necessarily get him to power but we did arm him.",
"Saddam Hussein wasn’t put in power by the US. In the early years of his party and his rise to power he was more closely aligned with the USSR, but by the time the Iraq-Iran war came about Iraq’s relationship with the Soviets had soured, and the US backed Iraq in a proxy war with the Soviet backed Iran starting a stretch of steadily improving alignment between the US and Iraq with the US trying to pull Iraq towards the Western sphere. Then the Iraq-Kuwait war happened. The Iraq-Kuwait war was... weird. Prior to it Saddam essentially, in diplomatic language, asked the US ambassador if the US was OK if Iraq invaded Kuwait. The US ambassador’s response was poorly worded and indicated to Saddam the US didn’t object. Saddam took that as a green light to roll in, particularly as before the Iraq-Kuwait war Kuwait was more closely aligned with the Soviets than most of the Arab world. So the Iraqi (US-aligned) tanks rolled into Kuwait (Soviet-aligned) and then the US and Soviets agreed at the UN to send a US led UN force consisting primarily of US-aligned countries against Iraq. After that US-Iraq relations soured some, and Iraq ended up very isolated for a bit over a decade with crippling sanctions and few allies. During this time Saddam turned into more of a shit in order to maintain control over Iraq in the face of a fairly dire situation for most of the country, culminating with the US invasion on questionable grounds about a decade after the Iraq-Kuwait war. TL;DR the Iraqi people ended up getting spit roasted for a few decades by Realpolitik between the US and USSR."
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11
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
ir53gg
|
Why do printers use Magenta, Cyan and Yellow instead of Red, Green and Blue to make other colors?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wa5ow",
"g4wdgaw",
"g4wm557"
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"text": [
"Because red green and blue are the additive primary colors, aka, the primary frequency of light that when combined forms all colors. You are actually shining light with these colors. While Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta are the subtractive primary colors, you get the full color spectrum from those three when you can reflect a white light off of them. This is why they are used in ink, where you don't have a screen emitting light, all you have is reflected ambient light. An example is that adding red and green ink in the proportions that give yellow on a screen just gives a dark brown. While adding yellow and magenta inks do give red, (yellow/cyan give green, and cyan/magenta gives blue)",
"The same about \"additive\" and \"subtractive\" colors the other guy said. Empty screens are black, so in order to get a color you need to \"add\" color. And the best \"additive\" color system is the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) system. Whereas, empty sheets of paper are already white. They are in \"full brightness\". So in order to get a color on a sheet, you need to remove color. And the best \"subtractive\" color system is the MCYK (Magenta, Cyan, Yellow and Black) system. It's also important to notice that the MCYK system can do more or less the same as the RGB system. Take this graph for example: [ URL_0 ]( URL_1 )",
"Subtractive colors, as others mention. Cyan, magenta, and yellow *pigments* are specifically used because they remove smaller bands of color than red, green, and blue pigments would. You can mix two of the CMY pigments to create a red, green, or blue color, but you can't do the opposite. To go a bit further, the average human eye is strongly sensitive to red, green, and blue *light*, with all three combined appearing as white. Each of the CMY pigments subtract only one of these primary colors from white light, while each of the RGB pigments subtract *two*. The CMY process pigments are designed to more thoroughly remove their opposing color than commonly-seen red, green, or blue paints. That is why red (removes green and blue light) and blue (removes red and green light) mix down to dark purple (some red and blue light remains) instead of black (no red, green, or blue light) for common paints like tempera or watercolor."
],
"score": [
161,
26,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK\\_color\\_model#/media/File:CMYK\\_subtractive\\_color\\_mixing.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model#/media/File:CMYK_subtractive_color_mixing.svg"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir5610
|
How do they take the bones out of chicken and other boneless meat?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4warcs",
"g4wjuo3"
],
"text": [
"They use knives, to make boneless chicken thighs or the like. When something is marketed as \"boneless\", they are marketing the work the butcher did, not the source product the butcher worked on.",
"Boneless chicken wings are just pre dipped chicken nuggets. The rest are achieved through knife work. Wings can be deboned but require a lot of skill. There is a chinese recipe where all but the bones in the tips are removed, and then stuffed with fried rice and deep fried."
],
"score": [
15,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir5h8j
|
Why is it that if I very briefly look directly at the sun, it appears green/pink before I look away?
|
I noticed this on my drive home from work, as the sun was setting. It reminded me of when I was a kid and looked directly at it.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wcwb8"
],
"text": [
"The visual receptors in your retina work by a sort of chemical reaction that occurs when light falls on them. Normally the chemicals in question regenerate themselves pretty rapidly, but when you look at the Sun the light is so intense that those chemicals don't get a chance to do that, so you get a spot on your retina where the visual receptors are temporarily not functioning correctly, causing odd effects. This is why you'll see an after-image of a bright light for a second or two after looking at it. Just a warning: do not ever look directly at the Sun. Even a brief exposure causes visual issues, as you've said--do it for long enough and you'll cause permanent damage to your retina."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir5rym
|
Why aren't more big buildings, like hospitals and shopping centres, square?
|
The hospital I work at is a hodge-podge of different shapes and it feels like a maze to navigate around sometimes. I know big buildings like these are often built in stages and so additions are put wherever they can be, but I've also noticed that where I live Shopping centres are also odd shapes, and so are many other public buildings. Is it an architectural thing, or for aesthetics? Or just poor planning?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wea5g",
"g4wehv3"
],
"text": [
"Because the bigger the \"square\" gets, the further and further the outside walls get from the center, and no one wants to be super duper deep inside a giant building with no outlet. So we would rather attach a bunch of smaller buildings and wings together at a hub, so that there is no super deep interior space without access to windows and exits.",
"Because being square limits exterior walls. Exterior walls are nice as they give windows for lighting and aesthetics and close access to entrances for convenience and safety. A giant square is terrible architecture design as the majority of the building is so far away from the edge. There's also structural consideration. While a giant, single story wide open building is possible (ie a large warehouse), it's much harder and expensive if you try to make it multistory. A longer skinny rectangle or a bunch of skinny rectangular wings in a H shape avoids this while optimizing in minimal footprint. Or even curved shapes, although that is more expensive and done for aesthetic reasons."
],
"score": [
25,
10
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir5v0y
|
When someone gets injured IRL or on a video, what is that feeling you get inside of you, like you got hurt as well?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wf9vu"
],
"text": [
"That's the most basic function of empathy. If you feel others' pain you quickly learn that you should prevent other people from hurting, and from there you need little to start constructing moral codes, societies, and laws which at least try to do that."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir616x
|
corn flour made out of wheat
|
I was making homemade pizza and I noticed the corn flour I had to put the dough on to stop it from sticking to the tray said “prepared from wheat” anyway eili5
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wgr4k"
],
"text": [
"Corn flour is a starch that can be taken refined from a part of the inside of a corn (maize) kernel or a wheat kernel. Corn historically was used as a kind of card all term for grains, so while corn flour can come from corn, like corn on the cob corn, it can also come from other grains, mainly wheat."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir6bqw
|
how does Yeast work? Does it have life cycles? What's happening in bread while it rises? Does more yeast mean a lighter loaf of bread?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4whvuo"
],
"text": [
"Tiny yeast monsters eat sugars and release gas that makes tiny caverns in the dough and helps it rise during proofing. They go to heaven when you bake it, if they eat their vegetables and clean their rooms. Most bakeries have a mother yeast culture that stays alive for a really really long time. And has lots of babies to make lots of dough."
],
"score": [
18
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir6de9
|
How do daylight headlight sections on freeways make roads safer?
|
Particularly, daylight headlight sections on relatively straight highways in good visibility conditions perplex me.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wksb7"
],
"text": [
"They are often done in places where visibility issues are common. Be it fog, mirage, dust, smog, whatever. It may not always have those issues, but it's easier and safer to just say \"turn your lights on here\" than to hope people use good judgement as to when they should turn them on."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir6dw5
|
How do computer bugs affect two people with the exact same set up differently?
|
My brother and I almost always have the same tech. Whenever we play games together there are times when one of our game HUDs would disappear or our character would stop moving all of a sudden.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wik4t"
],
"text": [
"Bugs can pop up as a result of specific actions you take in the game, and sometimes random things that happen outside your control. Even though you have the same tech, you aren't taking exactly the same actions at all times, so you can get different results."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir6hqw
|
What is the difference between a thought and an idea? Follow up question. Is there a difference between intrusive thoughts and intrusive ideas?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wl4ib"
],
"text": [
"An idea is a thought but a thought isn’t necessarily an idea. A thought can also be a memory, or a wish. I see an idea generally involving a plan. An idea is to walking, as a thought is to movement."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7396
|
Why is it that when you wake up well rested, you’re conscious of time having passed, but when you don’t get enough sleep, it feels like you had just fallen asleep?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wscmk"
],
"text": [
"When you sleep for a full 8 hours (or whatever a full cycle is for you, everyone is different) your body goes through three distinct stages of sleep. Stage one is mostly just dozing off, while stage 2 and 3 sleep is where your body gets its deepest rest, and repairs itself most effectively. Stage 3 specifically is known as REM sleep, or Rapid Eye Movement. This is the stage where you dream, and where you are physically and mentally disconnected from the rest of the world. As you sleep for the whole night, you fall in and out of stage 2 and 3 more quickly, until your body starts producing adenosine to kickstart your brain and wake you up. You slowly go back into stage 1 sleep, and then you’re awake. When you get awoken in the middle of your deep sleep, your body has to go from a deeply committed biological cycle that takes hours to complete, to alert and functioning, immediately. Depending on which stage you were in, your body may have induced sleep paralysis to prevent your dreams from making you wander around in your sleep, which it now has to undo *right now*. It’s like trying to drive a car in very cold weather without warming it up. The cold car (sleeping person) has all of its oil still stuff and viscous, and driving the car like that is going to be harder, whereas the car that was preheated and properly allowed to warm up is much easier to operate."
],
"score": [
16
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7drr
|
Why is it that women believe in astrology so much more often than men?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wqyfl",
"g4wr6g0"
],
"text": [
"The only women I've met who talk about astrology find it more like a fun game and laugh about it. It's like a pastime or a hobby to them. I've never met someone outside witchcraft communities that put genuine stock in it.",
"It's a masculinity = fast cars, action movies, and repressing emotion VS. femininity = love of shoes, romcoms, and desire for emotion and spirituality type of thing if I had to make a guess. Also since there are groups of women who believe in it they tend to collect more friends and share thier interest like an infection. I myself was infected with D & D and classic table top games by my friend group and now I am unlovable."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7efm
|
Why can't we stay stationary in a hot air baloon and just wait for the earth to rotate underneath us without moving the baloon ?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wo266",
"g4wop3i",
"g4worrw"
],
"text": [
"Because the balloon is in the air, and the air is being pulled along with the earth as it rotates. The planet does not rotate inside a static shell of atmosphere.",
"If you jump in an airplane while it's flying, you don't get slammed to the back. This is because you are moving at the same speed as the plane, in the same direction. It's the same principle with the hot air balloon. It is moving at the same speed as the Earth, in the same direction.",
"It's like when a fly gets trapped in your car. The fly moves with the air inside because the air inside belongs to the car. When your balloon is in the air it's kept in by the ozone layer (like car windows for earth). The balloon moves with the earth just like the fly in your car, because the air belongs to the earth and moves with it."
],
"score": [
8,
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7ey5
|
Can someone explain about COBALT element and how harmful it is? I was reading about a COBALT bomb which some says is a myth but if it is true then it is way deadlier than H-Bomb.
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wol1l",
"g4wv0ff"
],
"text": [
"A traditional nuclear bomb, like the H Bomb, has a core of nuclear material that as it goes thru fusion or fission, it produces a large explosion. The intent is to try to use up as much of that material as possible to produce the biggest explosion, but it doesn't work out that way. As a result, not an of the nuclear material gets used up and is then scattered in the debris of the explosion. This radioactive material becomes the nuclear fall out that becomes the next deadliest part of a nuclear weapon. It's not intentional, basically a side effect of the design. Cobalt bombs (not the tri-cobalt of science fiction) is designed to intentionally increase the amount of fallout by dispersing a radioactive form of cobalt over a much greater area. Not only does it produce more radioactive fallout, but the cobalt isotope lasts much longer, not only affecting humans but making any crops unusable and poisoning livestock and wildlife with radiation.",
"A normal nuclear bomb, or hydrogen bomb, is designed for maximum blast. Fallout is an important side effect, however. How you detonate it (high-altitude vs low-altitude) affects that, so you can get more localized blast or more widespread fallout distribution. But also, most of the fallout decays relatively quickly, so people could hypothetically stay in a fallout shelter until the worst of it died down and then get out of the radioactive zone relatively safely before getting too much radiation. The idea of a cobalt bomb is one where the fallout would be laced with cobalt to create isotopes that take much longer to decay. So you would have to be able to stay in a fallout shelter for *decades* before it was safe to even try to come out and exit the radioactive zone. In terms of instant effect, the blast is the same, so it wouldn't be way deadlier. But it would create a long-lasting dead zone that would be unsafe for a much longer period of time. Also called a 'salted bomb', it would essentially 'salt the earth' with radiation, making it inhospitable to life for a long time. It would be an area-denial weapon, since no one could even move through that region safely for decades or a century. As far as we know, none have actually been built and tested, so we don't know how effective it would actually be, but it's feasible. A related concept, possibly the myth that you might be thinking of, is that of a pure radiation bomb - one without a big destructive explosion or fallout, but which blasts out just a flash of instantaneous radiation killing the people, but leaving the infrastructure, factories, etc. all intact for an occupier to rush in and capture. That is a myth, so far."
],
"score": [
30,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7gr6
|
Why can’t blood be drawn from anywhere?
|
If you cut yourself anywhere on the body, it bleeds. So why is blood drawn from veins and not just from anywhere? i’m referring to medical blood tests.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wodzp"
],
"text": [
"Because it's a lot easier and quicker to 'tap' a large vein than to jab a needle into the flesh and try and suck blood out of a few tiny capillaries."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir7met
|
How does taste work?
|
I know that you have some tastebuds on your tongue which have the job to identify the taste of the thing in your mouth. But how do they know which taste is which? Where do they get eh information from? How do they get the information? It would be awesome if someone could explain that to me
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wp8bl"
],
"text": [
"Most of that information comes from the nose, actually. This is why holding your nose helps when eating things like medicine. The tongue can only taste the following 4 qualities: salty, bitter, sweet, and sour. All the other nuances come from the olfactory receptors in the nose"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ir7pm4
|
If nylon kitchen utensils are heat resistant to over 400F, why is it that they melt easily when they're used on a hot pan? Do pans routinely surpass that temperature?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wq9uz",
"g4wq4uv"
],
"text": [
"Most stove top eyes/burners heat your pan by conduction and some radiated heat. It is a very inefficient process so yes, the eye will typically get much hotter than 400F, more than 2x hotter in some instances. Also, a lot of the pans bottom surface area isn’t even in contact with the eye, this creates hot spots on the cooking surface. Cooking over a gas flame is much better and more efficient. You get even heating and better temperature control, that’s why professional kitchens use gas.",
"Yes, pans and hotplates can easily get above 400F (200C). Easily. It isn't good for them, especially non-stick ones, but yup, you'll have no problem getting a pan to that heat. You should never get a pan up to that while cooking with it, although maybe if flash frying or charring the outside of a foodstuff. It will cool down real fast with food in it."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7soc
|
Why is it that some meats are more tender when cooked to medium rare and more chewy when overcooked but get really tender after cooking for a long time?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wsf3u",
"g4wtwft"
],
"text": [
"Meat is protein fibers and stuff holding the protein fibers together. If you've ever looked real close at a cooked piece of meat, I think you'll understand what I mean by fibers. The glue holding the fibers together is not easy to pick out, but it is there. Protein fibers + heat = coagulated protein Coagulation = protein all hardened up. Coagulation is why raw beef is jelly but cooked chicken is pretty solid. So if the beef isn't cooked period (like in the middle of a med rare), it is soft, because no coagulation happened. Sooooo.... Meat is held together by other things, like collagen and ligaments (Some cuts of beef have less of this stuff). Not all of this stuff can be broken down by heat but like.... 2/3 of it, with enough time, can be broken down. This stuff was made to last for the animal, so it takes a lot of heat to break it down. Lots of heat really quick would burn the meat you eat so you gotta go low and slowwww Collagen + low heat + time = total breakdown!! Nothing holding the fibers together anymore! A lil fork action and you get pull apart soft meat! The fibers of protein are still long but nothing is holding them into a bundle so everything is nice and tender. You'll notice though, them pulled pork strands that gets stuck in your teeth as still stiff as heck. I could explain this more technically if you'd like, but it would not be ELI5",
"Boneless meats are composed of three things: muscles, fats, and connective tissues (mostly collagen). Connective tissues are tough. These tissues form around muscles as they are used. So, the toughest meats are from parts of the animal that gets used the most, like the shoulder or the legs. That's why cuts from the shoulder or leg areas wont be as tender as other cuts (like the strip loin or tenderloin) that have less connective tissues. Now, as the meat gets cooked, the heat causes muscle fibers to contract and stiffen. The meat becomes more chewy. When cooking for a long time, the connective tissues begin to break down. Above 160F (71C), the tough collagen basically turns into moist gelatin. This is why the meat can become really tender and moist after being cooked for a long period. To note, how the cut was prepared by the butcher / store can also affect toughness. Basically, after the animal is slaughtered, the muscle fibers will start contracting and will become very stiff after a couple of days. But over time, enzymes in the muscles will weaken the protein fiber, making the meat more tender. Hence some of the most tender cuts of meats are those that have been aged for a number of days."
],
"score": [
12,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir7v5f
|
how do pictures and stills from video have motion blur if it’s capturing one isolated moment in time?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wqlc5"
],
"text": [
"It’s not actually capturing a moment in time. It’s taking in light just long enough to see the image then closing the shutter again. For example the darker it is the more light it take to capture a picture and the easier it is to blur an image. The brighter it is the easier it is to avoid blur."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir82i1
|
Why does the moon appear so close in some areas in the world as opposed to a tiny region of the sky in another area?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wsibm",
"g4wse75"
],
"text": [
"It’s not so much as some parts of the world as it is some parts of the sky. When the moon is closer to the horizon, it’s closer to objects located on Earth (perceptively). Your brain uses these objects on earth as a sense of scale, almost on a subconscious level. So when the moon is near a building, your brain “tricks” the eye into perceiving bigger than it actually is. But, when it’s way up in the middle of the sky with nothing nearby to compare it to? It looks much smaller. However, and you can test this out for yourself, next time you see the moon close to the horizon, grab a standard #2 pencil and cover the moon with the eraser. Then, some hours later when the moon is much higher in the sky, do the same thing. You’ll find that the pencil covers the exact same amount of moon as it did previously. It’s also worth nothing that some scientists say that atmospheric lensing plays a part in this phenomenon, but I don’t know enough to cover this thoroughly.",
"It has mostly to do with how close the moon is to the horizon. The closer it is, the bigger it looks simply due to the fact that it’s visually closer to something to compare it to. If it’s up high in the sky, all you can compare it to is the vast amount of sky surrounding it, so it looks smaller."
],
"score": [
20,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir88kf
|
Why do we walk on our heels instead of our toes like other animals?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wt1iv"
],
"text": [
"In order to balance you need at more then two points of contact with the ground. Most animals have four legs and are therefore able to stand upright without too much effort. There are some animals that can stand on its hind legs for long by using their tail as a third point of contact. But humans need to touch the ground with both our toes and our heal to create four points of contact for balance. As for why we land on our heal when walking instead of on our toes this is a relatively recent development as we have gotten shoes with good dampening soles. If you try to run without shoes you naturally revert to landing with your toes as this provides you much more dampening but requires more energy."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir8jr4
|
Why does our brain go blank during exams or freeze in certain situations? What is the process behind this?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wuyp0",
"g4x02ue"
],
"text": [
"The brain is really good at producing memories in low-pressure situations. When you're studying or doing homework and you have your notes, you have little trouble recalling information. High-stress situations trigger the fight-flight-or-freeze response. The brain clears out all the clutter so you can think clearly about how to survive. Apparently it doesn't know survival means knowing how to solve for x. The same goes for why people act like cavemen in front of people they are attracted to. You can train your stress response though. Using flashcards or other competitive/high-pressure study methods can train your brain to associate stress with, say, physics formulas. Then on the test you will be that much more likely to recall the needed information even amid stress.",
"Theres a thing in psychology called the four stages of competence, which go like this: 1. Unconcious incompetence: You're just flailing around, and don't really understand enough to know why you're struggling. 2. Conscious incompetence: You're still not very good, but you're starting to understand where your deficiencies are and how to make real progress improving. 3. Conscious competence: You've learned everything you need to know to do really well, but you still need to focus to do it. 4. Unconscious competence: The skills have become reflexive, to the point that all you need to do is identify the task and your body will just go to work without the conscious part of your mind needing to get involved closely. The problem is that during high-stress situations like an exam or a performance, it can be hard to relax and let your subconscious get to work. It's almost like having a subordinate you can just tell to do something for your. This is a problem, because once you reach unconscious competence you can get out of practice at actually thinking through the process, which means if you do start consciously thinking about it you won't be able to do as well as your subconscious. If you want a way to see this without the stress of choking on a test, try walking across a room, but pay attention to every individual movement that your feet, legs, and toes have to do. You'll find that you're slower, clumsier, and have worse balance until you stop paying attention and just let yourself go back to walking normally. This is because walking is about as deep into unconscious competence as you can get, to the point that almost nobody more than a few years old thinks about it at all."
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ir8q3r
|
How do fish wounds clot and close over, especially for extreme large wounds?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4wzmqb",
"g4x5ezt",
"g4x6i4m"
],
"text": [
"Clotting doesn’t actually require drying out. There are cells in blood whose job is to gather at wounds and stop the blood from flowing out, from the inside. Even human wounds can close underwater, so you can be sure that fish are even better at it. The only complicating factor is if the water is flowing past the wound fast enough to physically wash it out.",
"Fish are unlikely to survive extreme or large wounds - few animals are (besides humans, and that's usually down to our own intelligent efforts). In nature, most significant injury problems become fatal problems quite quickly - evolution rarely ends up developing mechanisms to survive major traumas because the investment of energy is not 'worth it' - particularly for animals that rely on 'bulk' approaches to survival i.e. breed fast, frequently and in large numbers, and you can afford to lose a few. But they can and do survive small and medium wounds, with clotting agents that work underwater, as proteins can bind together in all sorts of conditions and don't need to dry out to do that.",
"Clotting doesn't involve moisture or air. At a breach some cells see that there's a opening so they start the making of a chemical. This chemical starts forming tiny noodly strands in the blood, which mesh together to form a net. The bigger blood cells can't go through this net so they get stuck and block up the breach. Sometimes the cells which start clotting just do it randomly, which is a problem. Sometimes they don't know when to start and blood keeps leaking out. Clots can also occur inside your body, if there's something which triggers those cells. If the wound is too big, the net can't do enough to hold all the blood in, so they try to close the wound with stitches to reduce the area from which blood goes out."
],
"score": [
229,
56,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ira3wm
|
When you type in an incorrect password, and you want to reset it, why does it say that your new password cannot be your old password?
|
Basiccaly, this scenario happens quite often. When I type in my password, it is incorrect. However, when I try to reset it, they say that my new password cannot be my old password. Does anyone know why this happens?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x1rjl"
],
"text": [
"It could be a few different things, 1)could be that you cant use any old password so your using an older password. 2) this is common one for me, your typing it incorrectly on the 1st screen. When your setting a new password you get to see the rules. 1 capital letter,1 symbol,no spaces and 2 numbers So when you can see the rules you know what password you would normally use to meet those requirements"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iraaml
|
Would an animal with six legs run/jump faster than the same one with just four?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xpgzi"
],
"text": [
"So I did my engineering dissertation on making robots with inspiration from nature. Firstly, you could argue the cheetah is the best ‘design’ for running fast as it’s had millions of years of micro trial and error. However evolution isn’t perfect, cheetahs had evolved from something which already had 4 legs and therefore assuming it would definitely have evolved an extra leg or two wouldn’t be correct. In short, the question is too broad and open ended. However to give you an answer, it comes down to is mechanical design, in theory a ‘well designed’ extra two legs would make the cheetah faster."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irakbp
|
WHy does it feel like the future doesn't exist when depressed?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x47r8"
],
"text": [
"People look forward to the future in anticipation of something good or bad. These are emotional attachments to what is to come. When you feel that low there is only emptiness and no emotion and you may believe it will never get better, and you don't want to consider that so you deny the possibility of a future."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irasjp
|
Difference between renaissance and humanism
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x6kbt"
],
"text": [
"Renaissance is a time period in history. We call art from this time period Renaissance Art. Humanism is just a human-centric philosophy that is a product of the renaissance era. Many works from the era pushed a humanist narrative"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irasxv
|
Why does stress cause grey hairs?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x5re1"
],
"text": [
"Hair colour is determined by a type of cells called melanocytes. These cell are produced by melanocyte stem cells in hair follicles (the places where hair grows out from). Stress has been shown to produce adverse effects on these stem cells, causing them to die and thus no longer produce melanocytes for the hair, turning them grey (or colourless to be precise) The exact molecule that causes this is noradrenaline, which is produced naturally by the adrenal glands during the fight or flight responses. Prolonged stress causes longer expression of these molecules, thus producing the hair greying effect URL_0"
],
"score": [
17
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-stress-causes-gray-hair"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iratyf
|
How exactly does electricity get converted to heat? How can a kettle or space heater last for so long doing this reaction without breaking?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x5r7p"
],
"text": [
"The heating element that the electricity goes through is a resistor. The electricity doesn't go through it very easily and uses more energy to get through, and since there is so much energy in the resistor, it releases some as heat. They do go bad eventually, but it's a much longer time than a typical user would see."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irazwp
|
What is diplomacy?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x7bwt"
],
"text": [
"States talking to each other to resolve issues that come up between different countries regarding trade, border disputes, terrorism or anything else."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irbf6z
|
How come animals can drink any water they find in the wild and be fine, but when a human drinks the same water (without boiling it first) they have diarrhea for days?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x8e72",
"g4xcyfi",
"g4x8x5f",
"g4xdfev"
],
"text": [
"They can't but they also don't really have any choice. Parasites and other waterborne diseases are very common in animals.",
"Part of it is that their gastrointestinal flora is adapted to the usual kinds of microorganisms and dissolved substances in the water they most often have access to. The same is true for humans, which is why it is often advised when traveling to another country not to drink the water, unless you are going to be there for months. The other part is that they aren't always fine, parasitic infections and diarrhea do occur in wild animals, but they don't really have any other choice. Those animals usually do their suffering in secret, though, so you don't actually see them having diarrhea.",
"My dog will drink out of anything and let me tell you, diarrhea for days isn’t just in humans.",
"Some animals are adapted to drinking those waters but they can also get sick from it. They’ve been doing it for generations so natural selection has probably already weeded out a lot of the traits that make them more susceptible from dying from water borne parasites/illness. I have also heard that some animals have a preference for drinking running water, which is more likely to be naturally filtered than stagnant water. That is anecdotal though I haven’t done any research on it. This can be seen in house cats that prefer to drink from faucets or fountains over bowls. This preference for running water could also be an evolutionary adaptation. Animals that preferred running water survived more easily than those that drank from whatever random standing water they came across."
],
"score": [
107,
104,
80,
11
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irbm6z
|
What does "a stitch in time saves 9" mean?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4x9f81",
"g4x98ve",
"g4x9azy"
],
"text": [
"Putting in one stitch to sew up a small tear will prevent the tear from getting worse and requiring more stitches (say, 9). Metaphorically, it means that putting in a little effort to fix things now will save you a lot of effort in the future.",
"When your garment is coming apart at the seams if you repair it when it first starts it takes less effort (a stitch) to repair than if you wait until it comes apart even more. I.e. address things the problem when it starts and don’t wait till it gets really bad, like Covid",
"This proverb is saying that fixing a problem right away while it is still small will be much easier than fixing a problem later on after it has gotten worse. The proverb literally refers to stitching a rip or tear in a piece of clothing. A single stitch with a needle and thread to sew shut a small hole will prevent the hole from tearing into a much larger hole that will take more effort sew shut. It is similar to another proverb: *”An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”*, which advises you to prevent problems from occurring in the first place. The first proverb implies a 9:1 benefit for fixing a small problem before it becomes a big problem, and the second proverb implies a 16:1 benefit for preventing a problem entirely."
],
"score": [
14,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irbn4h
|
What's the difference between a $350 DSLR camera with 24 megapixels and my $250 phone with 48 megapixels.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xbfqp",
"g4xd22i"
],
"text": [
"Megapixel is not a measure of quality, it just measures resolution, sure low resolution looks bad, but anything above 2 MP can look great, it just depends on the camera. Just adding more pixels doesn’t make the image look better, really anything above 12 MP or so doesn’t really matter for cell phone cameras, since the lens and sensor aren’t really large enough to capture enough detail, the pixels are smaller than the maximum resolution of the optics. A DSLR has a much larger sensor and higher quality optics that really make a large difference to image quality, and 24 MP is plenty enough resolution",
"There are three main physical factors affecting image quality. Lens size, sensor size and pixel count. Generally these should scale up together. A high megapixel count without a meaningful increase in the sensor size just means your pixels are smaller. Smaller pixels mean the sensor sensitivity suffers. Think how much light (photons) a square inch gets vs a quarter inch now divide that by the pixel count. Also at the very high resolutions you run into the limitations of the resolution of visible light itself."
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irbo5w
|
How do birds stand on power lines without getting electrocuted, but if humans touched it we would be??
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xa2dm",
"g4xafyb",
"g4xaanr"
],
"text": [
"Birds don't close the \"circuit\" since they are not touching the ground so electricity keeps flowing through the line since its still the easiest way to follow, you could in theory hang from a power line as far as you don't make ground or give the electricity a path to jump to ground and give the current somewhere to flow through, electricity is always looking for the easiest path to the ground so the main thing is not becoming that path",
"Actually, if you just touched a power line, you’d be fine. The problem comes when you’re also touching something else that could lead to the ground. Electricity is always looking for the shortest path to the ground, so when you touch the power line and the ground at the same time, you become that shortest path and the electricity will flow through you instead of the power line. When birds land on power lines, though, the only thing they’re touching is the power line. Since they don’t form a path to the ground, it would take more energy for the electricity to flow through them than to just keep going through the power line.",
"Electricity “wants” to follow the path of least resistance. When it moves down the line, it can either keep going down this nice easy metal wire or it can diverge and go into this mostly water, some random other stuff bird thing and come back to the same wire. Since the path of least resistance is through the wire, the bird remains unharmed. As long as the bird only touches one wire, they’ll be fine; some electricity goes into them but not enough to be dangerous. You would also be fine if you were to do something similar (say hang from one line with both hands). But most humans don’t do that; they grab the lines while touching the ground. And the electricity finds that path really appealing and decides to run through you to the ground. Then you are in trouble."
],
"score": [
4,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irbvpj
|
How does toothpaste/mouthwash 'whiten' teeth? Is the effect purely cosmetic?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xat4o",
"g4xdg1x"
],
"text": [
"Toothpaste and mouthwash whiten your teeth by drying them out. There’s water behind your enamel, and that water contributes to the yellowish look that teeth naturally have. And when that water is gone, the pearly white calcium of your tooth is more visible, making it appear whiter.",
"Most toothpastes polishes are abrasive and can remove some stains like coffee, wine etc.., mouthwashes and some cheap bleaching treatments actually just irritate and redden the gums that give the illusion of whiter teeth.. always good to get a tooth colour guide to compare cleaning solution effects."
],
"score": [
8,
6
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irc9gj
|
How do airline pilots flying IFR know their live location in regards to airspace?
|
I know that there are aeronautical charts for VFR that show where airspace boundaries are, but how do airline pilots know where they are in relation to airspace boundaries?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xhjvp"
],
"text": [
"Inertial navigation system can use the aircraft speed, rotation, acceleration etc to calculate the current position. ( URL_2 ) There were Radio Beacons ( URL_0 ) that helped pilots know their heading as well. Due to errors using the INS, Korean Air Flight 007 ( URL_1 ) flew over Russia and was shot down, killing all aboard. After that, President Reagan declassified GPS and made it available for civilian use. Now pretty much all aircraft use GPS to know their position and the radio beacons are being shut down."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF_omnidirectional_range",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ircij1
|
when you get “chills down your spine” what is actually happening that causes that sensation in your body?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xfy5u",
"g4xkdos"
],
"text": [
"Activation of the nervous systems fight or flight response, but only to a small degree. A flash of spinal stiffening as it were.",
"It’s called a “Frisson” and is caused by visual, emotional or aural stimulation of one (or all) of three hedonic hotspots in the brain that causes transient pleasure cognition response throughout the Autonomic Nervous System. It is most frequently observed during strong, harmonic transitions in musical pieces."
],
"score": [
19,
14
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ircnjc
|
How does medication cause side-effects?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xg729"
],
"text": [
"If you take aspirin for example, it makes your blood less thick and makes it unable to coagulate to avoid the (small) thrombuses that can cause headaches. But the effect is not directed at what cause your headace but at all of your blood. So in that case, the side effect is hemophilia, but it's just because the medication works on your whole body. If you take emphetamine antidepressants (they used to be a thing, I don't know if it's the case today), then you should excpect to have the basic effects of emphetamines (addiction, energic, weight lose, euphoria,...). But since it's sold as a medication that will \"shut off\" your depression, any effects other than that will be considered as side-effects."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ircplm
|
Why does our (night) vision get worse when looking directly at an object instead of next to it?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xgwup"
],
"text": [
"Your eyes have two kinds of cells, rods and cones. Cones are good at sensing colour, rods are poor at colour but great at sensing light level. The cones are concentrated in the centre of your retina. The rods are concentrated around the edges of your retina. This means that light coming in from the side falls on the rods, and because they're more sensitive to light you see glowing things/light better with them. When you focus on the object, the light is falling on the less light sensitive cone cells, so it 'fades' a little."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ircsbj
|
What is the science behind catching someone else's yawn?
|
Recently read about Elephants too catching human yawn ? What is the reason behind this chain reaction?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xfrec"
],
"text": [
"Mythbusters did an episode about this and if memory serves, they came up empty handed. A lot of hypotheses exist, but the one that I support the most is that it can be a way for pack animals to signal to one another that they're tired. Essentially, I yawn, then the nearby humans in my tribe yawn, and on and on, and very quickly, everyone as a non verbal way of knowing \"it may be time to knock off for a few.\" Another hypothesis is that is has to do with temperature in the brain, as some birds have been observed yawning, and it having a noticeable effect on the temperature of the birds brain. And the last one that im aware of is oxygen intake. Basically the idea is that your brain senses it isnt getting enough of the good stuff, so it makes you take a huge, drawn out breath. Again, to my understanding, the jury is still out on this one."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ircvv6
|
How do electronic devices accurately keep track of how much time has passed while it is completely powered off, without access to an internet connection? When they power back on, the date/time is told accurately, as if the device was never turned off.
|
Especially things like smartphones that aren't connected to the internet when they power back on after being depleted for a long while
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xgfok",
"g4xgtfn"
],
"text": [
"It is because you never turn them off completely. Motherboards, for example, have small button-shape rechargeable battery, which holds time even if computer's power cord is disconnected.",
"So the way that devices in general keep track of time is using a \"clock\" within the device. This \"clock\" doesn't work the same way that a mechanical clock does, it keep tracks of time by counting the number of pulses out of a component known as a \"crystal oscillator\". The device knows exactly what frequency the crystal pulses at, so by counting the pulses out it is able to precisely tell the amount of time that has passed. When your phone or device dies, it doesn't *completely* die, it just reaches a predetermined setpoint that will shut down basic operation of the device. The remaining battery charge will be used (simplified) to keep track of time and volatile memory. This is also why there is an internal battery in game cartridges that allow you to save your progress."
],
"score": [
10,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irdcom
|
the math problem Martin Hairer solved to win the richest prize in academia
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xnok4",
"g4zf3r4"
],
"text": [
"It's work into solving chaotic systems. Systems like the weather, random strings, and this thing called the stochastic heat equation. The problems in this area are so incredibly hard to solve, that even making a single step towards solving them wins you this sort of Breakthrough Prize.",
"Not to split hairs but he didn't solve a problem. He was selected based on his body of work."
],
"score": [
8,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irdsme
|
why exactly is cow meat production so harmful for the environment?
|
If I understand it correctly, the methane gas from cows eating grass would be released in the atmosphere when the grass rots, if so, what other reasons makes it so harmful for the environment. If not, why does cow eating grass increase methane released in to the air?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xnjxq"
],
"text": [
"It's not so much the methane cows produce than it is the resources needed to raise/slaughter them. Beef is a multi-billion dollar industry and thus has mass production. Said production: abattoirs, farms etc, normally use fossil fuels to run day to day, thus the environmental impact."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irdtxv
|
If everyone on an airplane jumped at the same time, would it dip or just keep on flying level?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yrriv",
"g4xq0z9"
],
"text": [
"The centre of mass of the plane-passanger system would remain level. You can't pull your self up by your bootstraps afterall. Need to push or pull off something external to gain momentum. However, the plane would dip temporarily to an outside observer. If the passangers jump up inside of it, the body of the plane needs to go down. The centre of mass of both would remain unchanged, but the passanger mass moved up and the plan mass down. How much so would depend on the ratio of the mass of passengers to plane. The plane likely weighs a lot more, so it the passengers jump a metre, the plane doesn't need to go down a metre if it weighs vastly more. Which it does.",
"The weight of the plane remains unchanged as everyone aboard is inside the plane. The force of them jumping must be countered by the bottom of the plane pushing up against their legs. There'd be little change if anything. URL_0"
],
"score": [
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/what-happens-if-everyone-jumps-on-plane"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
ire7n7
|
Just what is the 4th dimension?
|
I've always been so confused with the concept of the 4th dimension which a lot of scifi movies reference but never manage to understand it. Like the idea of the tesseract in Interstellar or how Doc Brown always says to "think 4th dimensionally" in Back To The Future. Can someone explain the whole concept of it and what it means
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xpih8",
"g4xu40u"
],
"text": [
"So, we already have 4 dimensions, height, width, depth, and time. The first 3 are completely interchangable, just by shifting your perspective. Time is different because it is only 1-way. The \"4th dimension\" that movies and tv talk about is mostly nonsense jargon. (However there are some frameworks that show time losing its one-way property inside of black-holes, so at least Nolan put some extra thought into it)",
"In our reality, there are 3 dimensions of space. That's it. There is also time. Thinking about time as if it were the 4th dimension (albeit slightly different) makes it easier to calculate things. Therefore the physicists treat it as such. There are no experimental reasons to think there are more than 3 dimensions. Sure, there are theories that say there could be, but then, there are theories that say there could be tooth faeries. Nobody has ever seen neither the extra dimensions nor the faeries. Now, when we think in terms of mathematical abstracts, there is no limit on dimensions. We can easily write down mathematical formulas describing 4- or 50-dimensional spaces. Multi-dimensional matrixes are routinely used in computer programming. If you want to imagine the 4th spatial dimension, you can't. We just don't have the proper mental references to make it. The whole concept is physically very suspect. Imagine this: a normal 3d cube. It has some surface area. Now you slice it very thin. It has much more surface area. Slice it thinner and thinner, and the surface area tends to infinite. This is fine because \"surface\" is just our human artificial concept. Nothing material can \"fit\" inside 2d surface area, therefore it remains in the realm of the abstract. A 4d cube, however, can be sliced the same way and every slice is a 3d object. Slice it thinner and thinner and you get infinite 3d volume. Now that's a problem. In general, science fiction has NOTHING to do with science. All those multi-dimensional-hand-wavium-time-travelling-machines are pure fantasy. Besides, the real world is much more interesting than the best fiction."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
ire9xo
|
- Skill based matchmaking in video games.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xreb6"
],
"text": [
"Games tend to use some sort of modified version of a system like the Chess ELO scores. When you start playing a game will assume you're at some default rating, say 1200. Then as you play games, that rating will change rapidly based on your wins or losses and opponent quality. As you play more and more games, usually 30 or more, your rating will stabilize and become more and more accurate. Then as you're playing people, it will estimate your rating gain or loss compared to how tough your opponent was, more points for beating a tough opponent, less for a weak one, lose more to a weak one than a tough one. And as you get better, your rating will rise. Skill rating systems are usually only based on the end result, not individual compenents of the game. Meaning it cares if you won or lost, but it won't care if your KDA was good or bad or whatever. For Team games, it's just a more broad equation trying to determine your influence on the game's outcome to determine your solo rating, or your team's total rating if rated as a fixed team. For matchmaking itself, games will usually use an expanding window timer. When you choose to join a match, it will originally look for people very near your skill level, maybe for the first 30 seconds it will only match you to people within 50 points of yourself. But then if there's no players it'll slowly expand to 100, 150... In some games such as on [ URL_1 ]( URL_0 ) you can actually set a maximum and say do not under any circumstances match me anyone bigger than a 400 point difference for instance, just wait longer. In many games though of course this rating is hidden from the player, never expressed as an actual number. But somewhere behind the scenes your skill score is that number Games don't usually publish their actual equations, though some explain them a bit. Some use other features too like 'MMR Decay' where inactivity lowers your rating over time too. Some games will try and fit something like 'Leagues' or 'Ratings' to a percentage too, so the raw number may inflate or deflate, but the League will tell you you're in the top 10% or top 2% or whatever and they'll try and maintain the distribution they intended."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://Chess.com",
"Chess.com"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iregd4
|
why do popsicles freeze "soft" and chewable, but if you freeze juice or soda its hard as rock?
|
I need the secret of the perfect popsicle!
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xscz5",
"g4xsvly"
],
"text": [
"To get any frozen treat to be \"soft\" you need to break up the ice crystals as they form so that they don't become one huge crystal, but tons of smaller ones. For instance, ice cream, yeah, you're whipping the air into the cream as you churn it, but also keeping huge frozen chunks from forming. (notice when ice cream melts and refreezes you get the weird layer) High water content can also be an issue. When I've made grape juice popsicles before I reduce the volume of liquid by boiling first. This concentrates the juice so that it's got more goodie and less water. I pour the juice directly into the molds, but I want it a bit firmer so I don't do anything else. For something like soda, I'd both reduce and churn if possible. But in a pinch just go in and stir every half hour or hour or so. Scrape down the sides of the container, stir it in, break up chunks, and repeat.",
"It's the size of the ice crystals. If it freezes fast, the ice crystals are smaller. Freeze it slow, and you have a flavored ice cube. They also can use additives like xanathan gum to promote smaller crystals"
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irf02i
|
Why do we feel the weird static-like tingling in our feet when sitting on the toilet for too long? What happens in our body?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xv4ll",
"g4xv5qq"
],
"text": [
"Your feet are asleep. Sitting on the hard toilet seat for a long time compresses the nerves running to your legs, causing a loss of feeling and tingling. Less reddit, more poop.",
"It's just your circulation being stopped by the seat... stop looking at your phone while you're on the bog."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irfad0
|
How do ants build extremely complex societies while having such small brains?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4y3lis"
],
"text": [
"Same way we do...cooperation. An individual ant is really stupid but a bunch of them coordinating give you complex emergent behavior. An individual neuron (brain cell) is really stupid but a bunch of them coordinating give you our brain. Depending on how you want to count, an ant colony is \"smarter\" than an individual human. Each individual ant has no idea what's going on, the same way one of your cells has no idea what's going on. It's only at the higher level of mass coordination that you see behaviors that we call \"complex.\""
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irfd65
|
Why can't 911 operators increase the volume of an emergency call to hear the victim better?
|
I dip into true crime every now and then and it always made me wonder why 911 operators can't just boost the volume on their end instead of asking a victim to speak louder especially in situations where the suspect is beside or near them or they are hiding. The amount of time wasted on asking the victim to speak up or "hold on I can't hear you... can you repeat that"x4 as they are bleeding or whatever seems not insignificant. Is the technology not there yet?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xy6ff"
],
"text": [
"There is a difference between someone speaking too quietly, and someone speaking unclearly. In 99% of cases it's going to be the second one. Phones are notoriously unclear and fuzzy sounding, and when you speak quietly you are easily overpowered by ambient noise. Increasing the volume will not help in those cirumstances, you will just get a louder jumbled mess. When they say to speak louder they are asking you to overpower the ambient noise and poor quality of the line so they can understand you, not purely a volume problem."
],
"score": [
10
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irff54
|
How do scientists know the composition of a planet?
|
I have always read that the core of the earth is white-hot magma, but at the same time nobody has reached a fraction of that distance.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4xz3d5",
"g4yb0fz"
],
"text": [
"Radiowaves and other kinds of detective System that go through solid objects. Each object has a different pattern and waves go through them differently. So knowing how a wave acts on each type of solid or liquid, they know what the wave went throu and now they know whats under the earth's crust.",
"You know Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon cover? It's a prism that breaks up the light that passes through it. If you use a more precise instrument to break up sunlight you will notice the light spectrum is in fact not complete, there's an absence of certain wavelengths (-colors). This is caused by gaseous elements in the sun's atmosphere that absorb those wavelengths (thus those wavelengths will not be included in the light that is emitted by the sun). Every element will absorb unique wavelengths so by breaking up the emitted light and looking at the missing wavelengths it is possible to determine the composition of the light source. Edit: The core of the earth is a different story of course"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irfvcz
|
How did we go from wolves to chihuahuas?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4y1ixl"
],
"text": [
"By selecting the animals with the most chihuahua-like characteristics and breeding them together, and repeating until you have a chihuahua."
],
"score": [
12
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irfwvf
|
Sometimes your body makes you crave food that contain nutrition your body needs, so why do children (and me) hate the taste of healthy veggies?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4y296h",
"g4ympaf",
"g4y2au4"
],
"text": [
"Veggies are not hard to find in the wilderness, and so our body does not reward us for finding them. Fats, sugars, and other high calorie items ARE harder to find, and are the most rewarding energy wise, so our brain drives us to find those things first and foremost. You have to look at this from an evolutionary perspective. Plants are not energy dense. Meat and sugars are. As an animal who may starve to death at any time it's important to find those calorie rich items, because they are more valuable in terms of survival. You don't need rewards for finding leaves and vegetables. Those are not a problem to get, in most cases.",
"So there's actually a super fascinating answer to your question. Children typically dislike the taste of vegetables, especially uncooked ones, because their taste buds are very sensitive to a wide range of phytochemicals in plants. Phytochemicals are a broad range of compounds found in plants that do everything from giving them coloration to helping them deter predation. There is a theory that hypersensitivity to the taste of many varieties of phytochemicals that children have is an evolutionary adaptation because a smaller dose of a phytotoxin (a sub-variety of phytochemicals that are harmful or deadly to humans) has a greater effect on a child because of their smaller body. This sensitivity to phytochemicals typically fades with age and is the reason so many adults find themselves enjoying certain vegetables they hated as children.",
"When you had these vegetables, how were they prepared? This will give you your answer. I always loved vegetables bc I was fortunate enough to have parents that knew the value of seasoning and things like roasting/glazing etc"
],
"score": [
16,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irg6qy
|
When homes are destroyed by forest fires, hurricanes, tornados, etc., how do those people get their homes rebuilt, how is it payed for, and what is the process to get everyone bck into a new home?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4y454h",
"g4y45ji",
"g4y45un"
],
"text": [
"Optimally those people have insurance that covers their home, in which case it is the insurance company that pays out for them to purchase a new home.",
"Most homeowners/renters have insurance policies for natural disasters such as floods and tornados. These are usually extra policies on top of regular homeowners/renters insurance.",
"It usually depends on the type of insurance a person has taken out in their home. If you have cover for disasters then the insurance company will pay for it*. Otherwise you're likely on your own. Also insurance premiums will go up in higher risk areas. (Addition: charities and the like exist for people who don't have the normal cover for whatever reason, they will help as best they can.) *this is providing the insurer doesnt try to skirt responsibility, which has happened in the past, using loop holes to avoid paying out on policies."
],
"score": [
7,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irg8vt
|
Why can we tell wether the music we’re hearing is happy or sad?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ydczw"
],
"text": [
"This is actually partly a music theory thing, partly a cultural thing. In the West we use major scales for happy music and minor for sad music. Major scales fit nicely into multiples of 440 Hz and our brains like that. It's balanced and in harmony and in the West we consider this happy. Minor scales don't fit into that nice pattern. They sound a tiny bit off, like something isn't exactly how it should be. In the West we consider this sad. Of course that is in the West and only one way for a culture to interpret music. In South East Asia there's some cultures that have the feelings from major and minor scales reversed. Where a funeral in the West would have minor scale music playing, major scale music would play somewhere like Cambodia"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irgpa2
|
Why do some devices need batteries to be placed facing the opposite way but others have batteries both facing the same way
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4y9cy3"
],
"text": [
"Generally it's a matter of wiring. If you wire two batteries in series (+ of one battery connects to the - of the next) then the voltage that is provided across the ends of that chain is the sum of the voltages of the individual batteries. Normally that's the batteries placed the opposite way, or multiple batteries the same way in a line (like a flashlight that takes 4 \"D\" batteries. Batteries facing the same way is usually an indication of them being wired in parallel (all of the + are connected together, as are all of the negatives). That provides the same voltage as one battery, but for a much longer time. Of course, you can combine the two in all sorts of ways to get the specific voltage and battery life that's needed for a given situation."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irgwoa
|
Why does anxiety still cause a physiogical reaction even when I'm able to logically reason with most of my fears?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ybfep"
],
"text": [
"It’s a prehistoric reaction, which doesn’t use logic, because that would take too much time. If you were a caveman wondering through a forest and you saw what looked like a sabre tooth tiger through the trees, your body would react with adrenaline and the fight or flight response immediately. It wouldn’t be as effective if it allowed for reasoning/logic etc. So it might turn out that the tiger was only a shadow, but the response happens before you have a second to think anything but ‘tiger’, because in the time you could think ‘hmmm maybe it isn’t a tiger’ you could be lunch. Now in modern day we may feel some fear, some worry, and that response can kick in again immediately. This is what has been referred to as the ‘first fear’. Don’t worry about that- it’s a normal response because your amygdala in your brain doesn’t know the difference between a busy train and a tiger. It’s just a ‘life endangering’ situation. Focus on the ‘second fear’- the fear we add when we become scared of the anxious feelings themselves. It’s this adding of fear on fear that causes anxiety problems to develop x"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irh3c8
|
folks that get rich from tiny percentages in startups
|
So we’re all familiar with the process - take less money now and a tiny fraction of the company (tiny tiny) , and all will be well! How does this wind up carrying through funding rounds, and eventually turn into cash? I thought shares get wicked diluted through funding processes - so I never understood how getting small amounts of stock early on is such a benefit? Thanks!
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ycwaa",
"g4ydpy0"
],
"text": [
"A very small percentage of a very large number is still a large number. Suppose you were employee 100 at Google and Google gave you, say 0.5% in stock. Let's assume some VC rounds along the way and maybe a second round of stock issuance that dilutes you down to 0.1%. Congratulations, you are a billionaire (as of this morning's market cap, anyway). If you joined a company ahead of the VC rounds, where most of the dilution happens, it was probably a much smaller company at that time and you might have got much more % than that. If you join after the funding process you're going to get a smaller % but it won't get diluted nearly as much. In theory, it should all net out to about the same value, once you adjust for risk.",
"The media plays this up somewhat and some of these stories are decades old. In those days, companies could be a bit more generous about stocks/options - because ridiculous valuations were not a thing. For the more recent startups, it is really the founder(s) that make it big IF the company is bought up or goes through IPO. One advantage is that startups (early stages) tend to be small so the holdings are somewhat concentrated. There is a lot of dilution through funding rounds. A lower level employee who gets in early might make a few tens to a few hundred thousand in a very successful startup. If they stay on and accumulate options or RSUs and the company continues to be successful (also not common) then over 10-15 years, then they might make it big - but then you're talking employees who would have been there for something like half their entire working careers. This is very very rare. The impression that a receptionist ends up with millions of dollars in stocks is (nowadays) quite mythical."
],
"score": [
7,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irhfvw
|
how come when you stay up super late you laugh about anything and everything?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yscu0"
],
"text": [
"When you get really tired your body produces adrenaline to fight off the fatigue, and endorphins to fight off pain. Those neurotransmitters are essentially making you high, literally."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irhwjc
|
What actually is depression and how do anti-depressants work?
|
The term depression has become a common phrase used by people mostly noting dissatisfaction some sort of. But earlier I believe it was a serious medical term. I want to understand what exactly is depression, how it works and how to cure it? To what extent do anti-depressants work and how?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ylkbr",
"g4yknfc",
"g4yuvq6",
"g4yu48i"
],
"text": [
"Depression is still a medical term for a psychiatric condition. Depression is more than feeling sad or fed up; it's very debilitating. Sometimes it develops as an extreme and pathological response to life events, sometimes brain chemistry goes wonky for no obvious reason. Antidepressants work by correcting the brain chemistry.",
"Depression can be a chemical imbalance in the brain, but it is hard to describe a definite cause. To diagnose clinical depression certain checklists exist, but I don't know the details either. Anti-depressants work in different ways. In some way most of them inhibit the uptake of \"happy\" or energizing hormones from the space between neurons, therefore prolonging and strengthening the effect.",
"My experience has been that depression is when I can’t think of normal solutions to things because my brain is so overwhelmed with negativity about the situation, I become my own self fulfilling prophecy. Especially around relational or social situations. Also, depression comes in when my subjective opinion about myself or my situation doesn’t logically line up with the reality or facts of the situation.",
"Everybody has moments when they feel *depressed* — sad, joyless, tearful, etc. — but even though we may feel really bad in those moments we know that things will get better. But with *Depression* there is *no hope* that anything will improve, instead there is a strong belief that *nothing will ever get better.” It’s complicated and difficult to explain, but *hopelessness* is one of the core symptoms of depression."
],
"score": [
5,
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irhzes
|
Why is exploring the space important?
|
What about space exploration is intrinsically necessary? Is it just curiosity or is there something more meaningful about the question of what’s out there?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ylqea",
"g4yji30",
"g4yja52",
"g4yosr9",
"g4zdii0"
],
"text": [
"Thinking long-term, Earth is temporary. Right now we're putting all of our eggs in one basket, and eventually Earth will become uninhabitable as the Sun starts to die (conceivably there are also ways we can destroy it ourselves as technology grows). If something happens to Earth and all humans are on Earth, then all humans die. If humans spread to other planets, then we can \"afford\" to lose Earth and keep our species afloat. Thinking medium-term, humans are getting better and better at staying alive, which means there's going to be more and more of us. That puts a strain on the resources we have on this planet. By spreading to other planets, we have more breathing room. Thinking short-term, space is full of really interesting and valuable things. There are minerals and ores and other materials that we can make use of, and scientific discoveries that can translate to benefits in our quality of life.",
"Scientific discoveries is one reason but humanity thrives on change and conquest. The fact is earth can only sustain so much. We need to find new frontiers.",
"Curiosity about what/who else is out there, and because we’re destroying our own planet and are seeking a new planet we can inhabit and/or strip of its resources.",
"It is a known fact that the Sun will eventually expand and kill all life on Earth, so unless we find a way off this rock the human race is doomed. However the curiosity of the human mind wants to know what is out there and each discovery takes humanity forward.",
"> What about space exploration is intrinsically necessary? Nothing is intrinsically necessary. Even eating isn't intrinsically necessary as eating is only of value if you wish to stay alive. Wanting to stay alive is just an opinion that isn't universal (look at Suicide_Watch for proof). Call me nitpicky or pedantic, but the nihilist in me wanted to point that out. So if I were to rephrase your question I would write it as \"What value is there in Space Exploration\", in which case I would answer: The Universe is a giant shooting range. Asteroids, Gamma Ray Bursts, Rogue Stars, Wandering Black Holes. Not to mention Humanity's suicidal, solipsistic, tendencies. The only way to safeguard the future of the human race is for the human race to be on multiple worlds."
],
"score": [
18,
5,
3,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iri02h
|
Stealth technology on planes (or any other vehicle)
|
How does stealth on planes work? I assume it's some sort of design that doesn't reflect radio waves, defeating radar? Are there submarines that can stealth past sonar?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yjwi1"
],
"text": [
"A radar functions by emitting radar waves and then detecting those waves as they are returned by objects reflecting them back. You can design an object in a manner that minimizes the amount of radar waves that are reflected back toward the radar, making the object difficult to detect. There are certain shapes and certain objects that are particularly good at reflecting waves back to the radar, like spheres, curves, and spinning engine blades, and so by hiding or eliminating objects like those you can drastically cut down on the waves reflected back toward the emitter. You can defend against sonar in a similar way, yes, but nothing is perfect and simply minimizes your reflection, it doesn't eliminate it."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
iri6ca
|
Why does a small bit of tissue paper help stop bleeding from a razor nick?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yodpq"
],
"text": [
"Basically it creates a bridge over the gap of the cut so the clot can form - URL_0"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://youtu.be/6taZMcj8co0"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iriot6
|
Why does your throat tingle when you clean your ears with Q-tips?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4z176c"
],
"text": [
"Your ears are connected to your throat via the Eustachian tubes, which allows your ears to pop in pressure changes. Because of this, your ear and your throat share nerves. If you have tonsillitis, you can get an earache, or if you have an ear infection, you can get a sore throat."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iriqrd
|
Why isn’t weather modification, like Cloud Seeding, used to make rain in areas that are now burning?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yqk3y",
"g4yx4wb",
"g4yx7d6"
],
"text": [
"Because there needs to be a high level of moisture in the air so you can seed them, there aren’t any clouds to seed at the moment",
"[It is unclear whether cloud seeding works at all.]( URL_0 )",
"As u/Sascot said, it's because cloud seeding is not actually very useful. It can help prompt clouds to rain a little more or a little sooner than they already would have, but it's pretty rare to have a drought and a sky full of plump clouds at the same time."
],
"score": [
19,
8,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding#Effectiveness"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
iriy79
|
Why it is important to protect the whales? And why does Japan kills so many of them every year?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ys2fw",
"g4ytti5",
"g4ywksd",
"g50msgj",
"g50mysb"
],
"text": [
"Because they are amazing animals that are quickly becoming fewer and fewer, and because they are considered to be delicious.",
"In addition to what the other commenter says, it's important to try to preserve species going extinct because, more often than not, human action is the cause (usually habitat disruption). So some believe that it's our responsibility as a species. But there are more practical reasons. More diverse ecosystems are more stable. It's good to have stable ecosystems because a lot of human society just implicitly depends on them to do stuff like soak up extra rainwater, hold the dirt in place to combat erosion, or in the case of oceans, have a bunch of fish ready whenever we want to go fishing. Despite literal decades of talk about recreating extinct species through cloning, no one has yet done this, and it would be quite an expensive venture that wouldn't necessarily succeed anyway since for whales, we'd need *living* whales to gestate the clones. So the two choices are to just let species die out and if they turned out to be important, try to fix it after the fact, or err on the side caution and try to keep them from dying in the first place.",
"Whales are extremely important for not only maintaining krill population on the surface, but also deep sea life. No surface animal can kill an adult whale, so they die naturally. They then sink to the bottom of the ocean where they provide a huge feast to deep sea animals for weeks.",
"As large mammals, whales have very slow reproductive rates. So even a small amount of hunting can have a devastating effect on their total population.",
"Whales play an important part in maintaining ecological balance, especially since in many ecosystems they serve as one of the end links. When you remove the bottom of the food chain, everything collapses. When you remove the top of a food chain, you have explosive growth at whatever level was frequently being eaten by the top level that frequently causes the bottom of the food chain to eventually be consumed out of existence. If you have no wolves to eat the deer, the deer keep multiplying and eventually eat all the vegetation until they have a famine. Different types of whales serve different roles in their ecosystems depending on what they eat, but all of them play important roles in ensuring balance and abundance. Now as to why Japan kills so many of them. The best analogy would be that Japan’s whaling industry is like a mix between America’s coal industry and military lobbying system- it survives largely because a cycle of government policies and industry rewards to government officials upon retirement has persisted. Whale meat is not particularly popular in Japan these days, as the government has frequently resorted to giving the non-premium cuts to prisoners, school children, and military personnel. These days the Japanese public simply doesn’t eat as much whale meat is it used to when the country was poorer and options for red meat were more limited. What keeps the industry alive is that there are politicians who expect to retire from public service and be rewarded by the companies with high paying positions for their faithful service while in government. The relatively limited viability of whaling means that most companies not involved in the Whaling trade aren’t going to get involved, which means that low level corruption isn’t likely to have any opposition from Japan’s more influential corporations. In a more competitive sector, corruption like this would inevitably get leaked to the public and used as political ammunition as one company sought to gain an advantage over a rival. With Whaling, everyone still there is dependent on government sweetheart deals that they all more or less cooperate to get through another season and maintain their living standards."
],
"score": [
9,
8,
7,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irj5ze
|
how are people able to withstand scorching heat in the shower but not able to when out and about?
|
100 degrees f in the shower is definitely not the same as 100 degrees f outside
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yum1b",
"g4z4xyd"
],
"text": [
"Standing there in the shower, warm water is soothing and relaxes your muscles, plus you’re not straining yourself. It’s different than trying to walk around, under the sun/sweating, having to concentrate and, well, clothed.",
"It has to do with how the molecules interact with your body. Gases are normally hotter than water yes, but your body will interact with relatively miniscule amounts of gas particles simply because air is less dense than water. This will cause air molecules to simply bounce off and while you feel hot, it's not as bad as being submerged in hot water where not only are you surrounding yourself with a LOT more particles that are warm, they also are in contact with your body for a longer time and conduct their heat to you for longer. Now obviously it's not just the air outside that's hot but the sun rays. These are also going to have a burning sensation though so they're worse than liquids."
],
"score": [
14,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irj8vd
|
What are the huge, encyclopedia-like books often seen in lawyers' offices? How are they actually used now that we have the internet?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yvjs3",
"g4yxd02",
"g4yvf6w"
],
"text": [
"Part 1: They are law journals - collections of cases and outcomes that can be used a precedents in legal arguments. Part 2: not everything is \"on the internet\" - there is an estimated 80% of digital material that is not indexed (aka \"not found by Google\") or only available through paid databases.",
"They are generally code of law books, state and federal. They are also books containing court decisions from state and federal courts - these are generally grouped by hierarchy - district courts, appellate courts, and supreme courts. They may also be books of state and federal regulations. Before the internet, these were the primary means of researching laws, legal decisions, and regulations. Law offices bought not just the books, but also a subscription to a service that sent out updates as laws, regulations, and court decisions were updated, changed, or modified. These updates would be indexed and added to the appropriate book in a pocket at the back of the book. It was a very labor intensive process, and it made research a tedious labor that was as much an art as a science. Every few years, new books would be printed that incorporated all the updates, and the law office would buy the new books and another subscription to have the new books updated as the laws changed in the future. With the advent of the internet, updating, cross referencing, and indexing laws, regulations, and court decisions has become much easier. There are still companies that provide these services, and it is pretty much mandatory to subscribe to such a service, but the physical books are no longer needed, and all the information is cross-referenced, and easily searchable by computer. Now the books are mostly for looks, although some firms still use them and the update services.",
"Those are \"reporters.\" They are collections of cases, organized geographically and chronologically. Their primary purpose in the Internet age is to serve as a nice backdrop. There might be some lawyers in their 70s who still look up cases in reporters, but that's about it."
],
"score": [
14,
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irjbat
|
A golfbal has dimples to produce turbulence to travel further while a car has to be as smooth as possible to reduce it, is anything other than upwards force at work here and would there be a theoretical use for dimpled cars?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4yvve7",
"g4ywetj",
"g4z5o80"
],
"text": [
"A dimpled car has been created before and it does improve the speed capability of the car however it was negligible compared to the work required to create it.",
"A golfball have dimples all over because it can go through the air in any orientation. Most of the dimples are in the wrong spot and even the ones in the right spot are the wrong shape to be fully efficient. But a car on the other hand is designed to only ever going to go through the air in one orientation. Car designers are therefore able to place these \"dimples\" in exactly the right spot and make them the exactly right shape. The most common shape they make is a spoiler which is essentially just a long thin dimple located in exactly the right spot.",
"Cars have the wrong shape and Reynolds number for dimples to work well. Reynolds number is a fluid mechanics thing that basically measures the ratio between how much mass is flowing around compared to how thick the fluid is. It's used for lots of things but, for our purposes, it matters because it measure whether you'll have turbulent (swirly) or laminar (smooth) flow. Golf balls are small enough to be mostly laminar flow in flight. That's usually good for drag \\*but\\* there's another problem...spheres are horribly un-aerodynamic. Laminar flow can't nicely follow the curve on the back side and you get flow separation and a great big eddy behind the ball, which is really draggy. The dimples help \"trip\" the flow to being turbulent. This causes more drag due to turbulence but helps a lot with the flow following the curve of the ball and reduces the size of the big eddy in the back. Net, you come out a head at golf ball speeds. Golf balls are just the right combination of size and speed to take advantage of this. Cars aren't typically as fast, are much bigger, and much more aerodynamic. They don't have the whole \"eddy at the back\" issue nearly as badly as golf balls, so they get a lot more advantage from their shape and have so many seams on them that they \"trip\" to turbulent flow anyway just fine without dimples. If you wanted to get car drag down with this style of trick, you'd try to maintain laminar flow for longer, like airplanes do, not put in dimples to trip it to turbulent."
],
"score": [
8,
7,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irjcyl
|
Why do we pay taxes on items that are being resold?
|
For example, say someone buys a pair of Yeezy's, and they pay tax on that. Then they use a market like Grailed or StockX to resell the sneakers, now the buyer is paying tax as well. The government just got even more money from the sale of the same item. Why do we do this? And does it ever get taken into consideration how much tax a company generates based on how much their items get resold?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4ywiaw",
"g4zle4r",
"g4zmymt"
],
"text": [
"You only pay taxes if you sell it for a profit and at business scale. If I use it for a bit and then sell it at a garage sale no one is paying taxes for it. In the case of something like eBay, it's the company coordinating the sale that gets taxed. And no, it doesn't get \"credited\" to the company that originally manufactured the product when people talk about how much they pay in tax.",
"Assuming you mean sales tax in the US, businesses don’t. If you have a retail business, you’ll get a sales tax certificate from the state. This accomplishes two things. First, it sets up the account so that you can collect sales tax from your customers. Second, it makes you exempt from sales tax on inventory you buy for resale. When it comes to individuals doing occasional sales, most states exempt that. However, the internet sales exchanges have broken that model. In theory, sales tax applies to all commercial transactions involving goods subject to the tax. The exemption for occasional sales is done out of practicality, because it’s unreasonable to expect people to register just to list a single item in the newspaper classifieds or to have a garage sale. Online exchanges such as the one you mention break that practicality argument, since it’s not at all impractical for the exchange to collect sales tax. Still, anyone using such an exchange as part of their business model should still be eligible for their own sales tax exemption.",
"I worked in retail and actually you don't have to pay taxes twice for resold items, if your original plan was the resell the items. You can get some sort of seller's permit that lets you buy items from retail stores tax free as long as you sell them at a later date and charge and pay a tax at the time you sell them. We had a guy that came in every once in a while and bought like a whole rack of clothes for the purpose of reselling them. We had to do some paperwork and manually edit the tax to 0 on the register every time he came in. Not really sure how he made money given that whoever he sold them to could just as easily have bought them from our store. Taxes are applied at the point of sale because the manufacturer doesn't know how much the item will be sold for and therefore how much it's worth. Also because companies would lose a ton of money on items that they never sold if they already paid a tax for it."
],
"score": [
4,
4,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irlgr2
|
How can some particles have no mass?
|
I know photons are one such particle. How is this even possible?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4zkxfm",
"g4zhvli"
],
"text": [
"another way of looking at it is why does anything have mass at all? You're assuming having mass is the natural state of any particle. Turns out, mass seems to be \"given\" to particles that interact with the higgs field. Photons don't really interact with the higgs field the way an electron does. So it has no mass.",
"They still have mass, they just don't have *rest* mass, which is the kind of mass we think about when we hear the word. They still have *relativistic* mass due to their energy, though."
],
"score": [
16,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irmbu8
|
How does your GPU turn binary into visual output?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4zxq30",
"g50o5jc"
],
"text": [
"It's the screen, actually. The computer screen has a memory array that matches the dimensions of the pixels of color, and matches the \"brightness\" of each pixel based on the value in the memory location for that pixel. 60 or 90 times per second. The video card just does [matrix]( URL_0 ) math to calculate and upload to the screen the (red, green, blue) brigthness levels that each pixel should have.",
"I’m sure you’ve also heard of RGB. And I’m sure you also know that that stands for Red, Green, and Blue, because screens can mix those colors in varying ratios to look like other colors. Your GPU isn’t generating any visual output. What it’s doing is telling your screen how much red, green, and blue each pixel should have at a particular moment. Now let’s talk about binary. Binary is just a number system. While we typically work with numbers in what’s called “base 10”, binary is in “base 2.” In base 10, we have 10 numerical digits (0-9). In base 2, there are only 2 numerical digits (1 and 0). So the binary that your GPU sends to your screen is a set of numbers, and those numbers indicate exactly how much red, green, and blue a particular pixel needs at a particular point in time."
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Matris.png"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irmpvy
|
Why does the uncanny valley apply to humans but not to animals? Why are we wired as such?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4zxt8u",
"g4zwza5"
],
"text": [
"I'm not sure whether you mean to say that animals don't experience it, or that we don't experience it regarding animals, but [neither]( URL_0 ) of those cases [are]( URL_1 ) true.",
"Humans aren’t “trained” to notice subtle differences in animal faces. So an animal that is close but not quite real just seems like an animal. Ultimately, there’s no evolutionary advantage to having ability so very few have it."
],
"score": [
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.princeton.edu/news/2009/10/13/humans-monkeys-fall-uncanny-valley?section=newsreleases",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1071581917301593?via%3Dihub"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irn4fa
|
Why do we use oil to cook almost everything?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g4zzsr2",
"g4zzonx",
"g4zzp5f",
"g502r1d"
],
"text": [
"Oil conducts heat and reaches a very high temperature before it burns or boils. This means that all of what you are cooking is cooked not just the little bit in contact with the pan and might stick to the pan.",
"Yes you can use just the heated pan, oil is not required to cook. Oil is commonly used because it holds heat so food cooks faster, and it also adds flavor and texture to our food.",
"Oil coats the pan and food to keep them from sticking as well as adding flavor. If you can cook without oil then you can.",
"There is a higher risk of sticking without oil. The hot surface only touches part of the food. With a little oil, you can touch more of the food surface."
],
"score": [
8,
6,
5,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irnkbl
|
Student loans
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g506vhq",
"g50a7gl"
],
"text": [
"Many people in the US bought into the idea that getting a college degree - any college degree - would mean they would have a good career, and that was simply never true. There are many degrees that simply are not very employable - a BA in History for example sounds very interesting, but what job can it help me get? It’s not enough to teach high school history without some additional certifications, all for a low paying job. This pattern repeats for many, many bachelor programs and even some at the Masters level. Combine this with easy to get student loans that now have 5% interest rates and people can’t dig themselves out.",
"I don't believe that anybody has mentioned that the ratio of people going vs not going to college has skewed as well. This means that the number of \"good paying jobs requiring degrees\" have more applicants and average pay is thus decreased. This is just a small part, but is worth noting."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irnvix
|
How does tape stick?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g51dkhy",
"g50rygl",
"g51hw39"
],
"text": [
"Ok since the existing posts are a little over 5yo level here's my attempt. Most surfaces (even extremely smooth ones) are actually very complex / textured at a microscopic level. Tape uses pressure adhesives that are normally solid, but temporarily become a very thick liquid when pressure is applied. So when you press tape against a surface the adhesive becomes this thick liquid goo, which is able to make its way into the nooks and crannies of the surface. When the pressure is removed, it becomes solid again and it's physically locked into place. The fascinating thing here is that you would think it's a chemical / molecular bond but in reality it's physical. That's also why you can use tape over and over again. There's no chemical reaction that is 'spent' when it's adhered. The only thing limiting its stickiness over time is when the surface gets dirty.",
"Tape was only invented about one hundred years ago. The \"sticky\" on the tape makes it adhere to another surface with pressure. The sticky is made out of long chain polymers plus resin. Essentially, the polymers act like they are wet. They're almost liquid, with weak bonds that interact with what you stick it to via wetting. Some adhesives get stuck harder over time; they dry out. Adhesive also doesn't stick well on already wet surfaces and stick very poorly with oils. The molecules in the polymers also have and make a weak electrical bond with what it sticks to, though Van der Waal's forces. Electrons help largely with cohesiveness of the tape - stuff sticking to itself. Different adhesives have different properties, some stick hard and some stick less, some stay sticky and some can bond permanently. This comes down to what polymers and resins are used.",
"It depends on the kind of tape, but AFAIK the adhesives used in tape - like most other adhesives such as glue or even just sticky things like paint - have to do two main things. The first thing they have to do is “wet” (or spread out all over) the substrate to which you’re trying to adhere, sort of like water, but more like a thin layer of play-doh or silly putty. It needs to get into all the nooks and crannies, and almost every material (even smooth glass!) has these at both macroscopic and microscopic levels. The second thing adhesive has to do is resist getting pulled back out (water is only just OK at that), and the third thing it to do is resist getting broken apart from itself or separating from the tape strip. These two jobs are what make tape “stick,” and are sort of at odds with each other. There are different ways to make adhesive not want to separate from the substrate, including some crazy molecular-level interactions that are kind of like static electricity or magnets. That is a question for your next ELI5 though."
],
"score": [
522,
42,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irpaoj
|
What happens if all the names in a single hurricane season are used up?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g50okco"
],
"text": [
"If they use up all 21 letters (because they skip Q, U, X, Y, and Z), then they go Alpha, Beta, etc., out of the Greek alphabet."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irpfly
|
How does Spotify codes work if the design is so simple?
|
If you don’t know what I’m talking about it’s this [here]( URL_0 ) People can draw them on paper and they still work. They seem to work well and are very simplistic. And there are over 50 millions songs on Spotify, and infinite playlists. How does this work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g50vjhm",
"g516td4"
],
"text": [
"There are over 20 lines of varying sizes in one of those. You can arrange 20 things in over 2 quintillion ways (2 followed by 18 zeroes). Spotify has a long way to go before they run out of codes. If they do, they can just add another line in the code, and now they have 3 more quintillion codes. Edit: yes I was too lazy to count the actual number of lines.",
"There are 23 bars, that can have 8 different sizes. The first and last bar are always the smallest size, and the middle bar is always the largest size (this is done for calibration). That leaves 20 'information' bars with 8 possibilities each, which can have 8\\^20 unique combinations."
],
"score": [
56,
13
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irpu16
|
Why is physical touch so calming?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g51febb",
"g522big"
],
"text": [
"For a lot of people, they've been conditioned from birth through childhood to associate comfort from parental attention and touch. It's been a while, but this question reminds me of old research from my college psych classes. URL_0",
"For the vast majority of people, skin to skin contact releases oxytocin in their brain, giving them chemical comfort. A certain amount of physical contact is recommended every day to maintain good mental health, and honestly, a lot of people (Americans especially) are super fucking touch starved. Kind of like how everything tastes amazing when you haven’t eaten all day, a basic kind touch feels like heaven when you haven’t had positive physical contact in a while."
],
"score": [
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow#Monkey_studies"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irpv9o
|
why does ice float?
|
If things get denser when they go from liquid to solid, then why does ice float in water?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g50xtvy",
"g50wec0",
"g51bdbw"
],
"text": [
"Water expands when it freezes. Typically, matter contracts when it freezes because the atoms and molecules slow down and get closer together. Water is a very unusual molecule that does the opposite. From what I've read, that is because of the shape of a water molecule, but I am afraid that I cannot give a more detailed explanation. Since water expands, ice occupies a larger volume at the same weight—it is less dense. When an object less dense that water enters water, it floats.",
"Because things don't necessarily get denser as they go from liquid you solid - they just contain less energy. Think about ice: it *expands* as it freezes. Same amount of water in more space = less dense.",
"When water is liquid, the intermolecular space is less. When it becomes ice, the molecules form into a crystal, the distance between the molecules increases and it occupies more volume for the samme mass. Hence, ice's density is lesser than water"
],
"score": [
11,
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
irq00z
|
How do the CEO and Board of Directors interact? Who is in charge of who and how is the CEO picked/fired. Is there a difference between public and private?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g511v64"
],
"text": [
"A private company is owned by the owner, and the owner is in charge of everything, end of story. A public company is owned by the shareholders, and the shareholders elect a board of directors to make decisions about the company as the representatives of the shareholders. This board hires the CEO of their choice to run the company on a day to day basis. The CEO is beholden to the board of directors, and the shareholders by extension. If the shareholders or board of directors loses confidence in the CEO then he can be fired and replaced with another CEO. In this way a CEO is an employee just like anyone else, and needs to perform his job to the satisfaction of the board and shareholders, unlike a private owner who has no one to oversee him and can run the company entirely to his own liking."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irq6sy
|
how do banks make money from loans?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g510yju",
"g511apg"
],
"text": [
"Risk. Mortgages and other property loans are pretty safe, since most of the principal can be recovered by seizing the asset behind the loan in the event the borrower defaults. So as long as you can charge an interest rate high enough to cover your costs and beat inflation without being beat by other banks, it's a pretty safe place to put money into. Also with savings account rates and the FRB federal funds rate both at just about zero, borrowing money to make mortgages costs close to nothing. The federal reserve probably won't let banks borrow money to buy stocks with, but the banks can write mortgages with the FRB's money. Even a broad ETF can't match that level of risk.",
"Banks make their money up front with a mortgage. In the beginning of the loan, 80% of your payment goes towards interest. It’s not just 3% That’s why banks like you to refinance as it resets the clock on interest payments Plus, they are charging fees for accounts and are lending trillions of dollars and are paying less interest than they are charging It’s more complex than that with fractal lending but this is the easy answer"
],
"score": [
15,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
irq9wv
|
Why is it that baked good containing eggs like cookies don’t have to be refrigerated when eggs themselves or hard boiled eggs do?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"g5163ie",
"g51xn72",
"g52d19f",
"g514wu9"
],
"text": [
"Bacteria needs a specific environment to grow the following 6 things contribute to its growth 1. Food 2. Acid 3. Time 4. Temperature 5. Oxygen 6. Moisture Take away any of these factors (or add to much in the case of acid and temperature) and bacteria cannot grow. So a fresh egg has food (the egg itself), low ph level, moisture (whether from humidity in the air or the egg itself) , and if sitting out oxygen and temperature also acting against it to help create a perfect environment for bacteria to grow. Add that egg to a dough and bake it. For a cookie to rise you either use baking soda or baking powder, baking powder has a leavening agent as well as an acid to make it rise, baking soda needs to react with an acid to cause it to rise (usually cocoa powder in cookies but can also be numerous other ingredients) acid will help kill the bacteria although these small amounts aren't enough to make it safe. Baking does something else to that cookie it heats it up. Most bacteria die around 160 degrees feirnheight you bake your cookies at 350 feirnheight this kills any bacteria that may have been present in that egg/dough mixture. The baking process also takes away moisture and dry out the dough significantly. So we have added acid, added temperature and removed moisture. These 3 things inhibate the growth of that bacteria and allow you to keep your baked goods sitting on your counter.",
"Uhhh you just be American. Eggs don’t live in the fridge here in NZ. Eggs in the US are usually washed, taking away some of the protective surface.",
"Hard boiled eggs actually don't need to be refrigerated. They will keep for weeks at room temperature.",
"I’m not totally sure why but some countries don’t refrigerate them. I thought it was odd seeing them sitting on a shelf without being refrigerated when I visited Japan. But here in the us it’s best to keep them in the fridge. Edit because I did a quick google search and it said Europe and places vaccinate the chickens from salmonella and don’t was the eggs and leave the cuticle intact. Also when we use them to bake the heat is killing any bacteria present"
],
"score": [
60,
10,
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
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