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lf0xrx
|
Why is the sound mixing always so bad during the Super Bowl halftime show?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"Seems like one guy in the comments really wants everyone to believe that ALL halftime shows are recorded. Doing a simple fact-checking shows that some are pre-recorded and some are done live. In last year's show, you could hear Shakira and J Lo starting to get winded. If the show was pre-recorded all the audio technicians would have to do is boost the track over the broadcast. However, a live performance includes so many more variables that it's hard to get the mix just right.",
"It's not always this bad. I'd WAG, bad acoustics in a wide open area combined with mixing on the fly, loudspeakers that really aren't designed for concerts (sending a lot of the audio back down to the field that they need to make sure the mics don't pick back up?) and everything being so rushed that maybe they don't have time to do a proper sound check. As someone that knows nothing about concert audio, I'll agree though, a lot of times, tonight specifically, it seems like they just need to bump up the level of his microphone, at least for the part of the audio that gets broadcast.",
"Live sound music shows that includes crowds in the overall mix is challenging and inherently sloppy. Large venues and coordinating a lot of live and pre-recorded tracks is gonna have some slop compared to better venues with controlled acoustics, etc.",
"Concerts are the acoustic opposite of a recorded taping. We want to hear it live but honestly unless you are live, you don't. Live concerts are tuned to the human ear. They are loud and bassy and overwhelming and assume.the brain will mix the lyrics in real time. Recordings are fine tuned to microphones pointed at their source with electronics to figure it out. They are carefully dissecting and then back together. One is a tossed salad and the other is sushi and sashimi. Everything else is in between.",
"What we hear on the broadcast isn’t exactly how it is heard in the stadium. My wife said I complained about the audio last year…this year I felt the next being broadcast was heavy on the music/instrumental and it was over powering and washing out the lyrics. Don’t know what it sounded like at the stadium though just know what the broadcast sounded like."
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lf1nfk
|
How do overlays in NFL look so real? Like paint? How are they so accurate?
|
Players can walk over them and stuff and nothing happens, almost like they are real paint in the grass.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"Lots and lots of money thrown at it. Essentially it's the same concept as a green screen, where a computer will recognize certain colors and only overlay where it is supposed to. But to make it work using the field which isn't a nice bright uniform green they have to recalibrate the colors a number of times before the game and during the game. Selecting players uniform colors as stuff not to overlay, selecting the field colors which change depending on lighting, etc. It does help that they also have position encoders in all the cameras so they can calculate what parts of the field are where based on where the camera is, where its pointing, and how far it's zoomed in.",
"They're essentially green-screen— almost literally. The software only applies the overlay to things on camera that don't move: grass yes, players, refs, and ball no."
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14,
4
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[
"url"
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lf2nhj
|
What are eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and how are they used in Principal Component Analysis?
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"If I remember right, an eigenvector is a vector that is immune to a matrix. First, you have to think of a matrix as instructions for a transformation. A matrix can tell you to take your space (be it a number line, a cartesian plane, or any other n-dimensional space) and rotate it, squish it, make it wobbly, etc. When you apply this transformation, any point in your original space will become a different point in your new space. Any vector that looks the same in the new space as it did in the original space, as in any vector that is not affected by the transformation of a matrix, is an eigenvector of that matrix. For example if a matrix tells you to stretch a cartesian plane horizontally, such that the horizontal unit vector becomes twice as long, then any vertical vector is an eigenvector of that matrix, because it has no horizontal component and thus is not changed by the transformation. I'm afraid I don't know much about the inner workings of PCA.",
"You might be better off reposting to r/askscience. I don't think theres any way to explain this like you're 5.",
"PCA is a way of simplifying information without losing too much. Let's say you're trying to buy a house. Each property has a ton of factors at play - a price, a location, a size, number of bathrooms, etc. How should you think about all of these numbers? Well maybe a lot of them are just capturing a few underlying things. The cost and size and bathrooms are all basically about value. Maybe you can get a 'value score' for each house by adding up 1% of the price, the number of bathrooms and 10% of the square footage. Now instead of three numbers, you just have one combined value metric. This is what PCA does. It helps you find the most interesting 'scores' you can give that will capture the ways that your properties vary. An eigenvector in PCA is just the way a score is calculated. In my example it would be .01*price, 1*baths, .1*size. The eigenvalue is the score itself. Maybe a house gets a 1600 - that's the eigenvalue. If you're a visual thinker this all shakes out nicely in spatial terms. Imagine plotting price, size and baths in 3D. If they're very correlated, most of your properties will lie along a rough line diagonal to all of those axes (they all go up and down together). The diagonal axis they're spread along is the eigenvector. PCA just rotates your axes so that you can read the distance along this compound direction more easily."
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"url"
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|
lf33eb
|
what are the reasons humans eye sight have the color range that we have?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"The colors we see are most of the colors that make it to the Earth's surface. If you go very far outside the human visual range, you find ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths in which the atmosphere is mostly opaque. Put another way, the sky is \"cloudy\" in those wavelengths all the time, so it's dark with respect to those colors even during the day.",
"Because evolution favoured it. Humans with a broader range can better identify food and danger. Why can we not see an even broader range? Evolution only favour traits that allow for better survival, no more. Seeing infrared or UV doesn’t really put us at an advantage (at least not significant enough) Interesting side note: humans have a better ability to distinguish between greens than other colours. Why? Because we evolved in an environment surrounded by green things."
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"score": [
5,
3
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lf34u9
|
How do secret banks accounts work?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"The secret element is that the banks can't be forced to reveal who holds the bank account to foreign governments, so criminals and others can \"hide\" money in them.",
"There are countries (like The Cayman Islands, The Maldives, and Macau) where bank accounts are identified by number and not by the owner. There are also law firms that specialize in starting companies and bank accounts for said companies in order to shelter the money in those bank accounts from government investigation and taxation. I recommend that you watch The Laundromat on Netflix for an entertaining explanation of those law firms.",
"I do know super rich people keep back accounts in places like the cayman Islands because it's apparently easy easier to get around us tax laws there. I'm not sure exactly how though.",
"It used to be that a lot of banks would allow you to open accounts and make deposits without providing any sort of identity. They would give you an account number and you’d pick some sort of password to gain access. If those were lost then the account was lost. The banks wouldn’t report on who held those accounts to the local governments. This allowed a LOT of money to be hidden. But the world has been going through changes. Know Your Customer laws have been passed in the US, Europe, and many other places. These laws demand that those banks know exactly who they are doing business with *and* to share that information with governmental authorities. This means it is becoming far more difficulty for people to hide money. The next wave of this is going to squeeze businesses who have traditionally done the same things."
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3
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[
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|
lf432m
|
Why is the day trading success rate so low?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Stocks are generally looked at long term. Day traders don't do this. On a day-to-day basis, during the day, each stock is generally highly volatile. Its near impossible to predict the ups and downs of an individual stock during a single day. We can look long term, and generally the market goes up 8%-10% per year on average... but each day can be anything, and we don't know what it is, so day trading simply has higher risk. Now, there is a version of day trading that is successful, its called high frequency trading, which is a specialized method of investing thats better for its own question."
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4
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lf4g0a
|
in older times how did we get metal ores?
|
Like i know you just melt it down and voila metal but like how did they know what rocks? What was the process surely you can't just melt rocks and get iron, right? How did they know this rock has iron and that one has copper? I understand gold and gold panning did they just pan for copper or whatever metal they wanted that seems to inefficient?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Metal ores are minerals that typically have a specific color. You can learn to recognize various ores with some practice. For instance, iron ore often has that distinct red rust color. They learned what rocks were like this through trial and error. Then, you smelt it. I can't do the smelting process justice, but the gist is that you roast the fuck out of it.",
"Watch how to make everything it's an amazing yt and he's doing a series where he starts from what's the earliest known of technology and \"advances\" each episode and explains it very well whilst demonstrating. From memory with things like iron it's litteraly sprinkled all over earth in the dirt",
"It's difficult to fathom just how long humans have existed. There has been more than enough time for humans to find some funny looking rocks, heat those rocks up whilst trying to do something else (perhaps a pottery kiln was made from the rocks), notice that the thing they melt into is pretty interesting, and then go out looking for more of that type of rock. Eventually, over quite a lot of trial and error, these civilisations figure out what they need to be looking for that indicates metal ore. When they find a good deposit of it, they set up a settlement there so it's easy to access. Metal ores tend to be found next to other instances of the same ore due to the way geology works, so once you've found one coppery rock you aren't going to have that much difficulty finding more of it. Also, yes, getting metal ore was a very inefficient process. Then once you've got your copper, you've got to find some tin to mix it with, and tin is pretty rare. The first bronze-age civilisations in the Mediterranean (The Egyptians, Greeks and Hittites) collapsed into a dark age when migrations disrupted the fragile trade routes they used for tin. It took hundreds of years to recover. Making bronze was difficult and expensive. The key benefit of the discovery of iron was just that it was a hell of a lot easier to produce. Finally you could equip a decent-sized army with weapons and kill even more people."
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lf5nbj
|
Why are certain allergies more fatal than others?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Depends which part of your body is mainly affected. If you have an allergic skin reaction then it'll be painful, but isn't likely to be fatal. An allergic throat reaction, on the other hand, has the potential to cause the tissues to swell up so much that they block your windpipe and cause you severe difficulty in breathing, which is far more dangerous."
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4
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[
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[
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|
lf5wlk
|
why does severe anxiety develop tics sometimes?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmk428p"
],
"text": [
"Not an answer but to help mess with your mind even more it can also cause visual and auditory hallucinations"
],
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3
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[
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[
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lf6spn
|
When you shoot a cheap lazer toy in the air, where does the light go?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Eventually, yes. Simply put, light collide with particle in the air. Part of that light get redirected, part of it is absorbed. The redirected part goes in all direction, which is why you can see the light in the air. The absorbed part turn into heat. The denser the environment, the more it collide, the less goes through. The longer the distance, the more it collide, the less goes through. So most of the time, it can go pretty easily all the way to space, as air itself isn't too difficult to go through. Once it get in space, it sometime find a few particles to bounce off of, but you're unlikely to see the laser itself, as it doesn't have anything to bounce of to go back to your eye.",
"1) Some will be absorbed (turned into heat) by air. 2) Some will be reflected/scattered back to earth and will mostly be absorbed. 3) Some will reach space and keep going. Lasers are not a perfect straight beam, so the light will disperse over a larger area the further it goes. Eventually it might still hit dust/gasses/...."
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[
"url"
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lf6ve6
|
Why does scratching dry skin sound louder than scratching moisturized skin?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Sound is created by friction. But it is also absorbed by matter. Softer matter absorb sound while harder one reverb it. An example of it are church and theaters. Church are usually solid material and it produce a load of echo. Sound reverberate everywhere. Theaters often put sheets of cloth around the room (at least I know they do where I live) to avoid reverberation and stay true to the sound of the movie. Well, among other things, dry skin is harder. Sound reverberate on it. So part of the sound that would be absorbed by the skin is instead reverberated toward you. Another thing is that moisturized skin move alongside other things touching it. Meaning it produce minimal friction. lower friction lead to lower sound."
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lf6w4g
|
what is lift?
|
My best friend is a pilot and I have no idea what he’s talking about. I understand other aspects of physics but this really is hard for me to wrap my head around.
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Lift is just the name we give to the upward force that is generated by the wind moving across the wings of an airplane. An airplanes wings have a very particular shape, where they are slightly rounded at the top and flat on the bottom. This causes wind to move faster across the top of the wing than across the bottom when the airplane is moving forward. Because faster moving air has a lower pressure than slower moving air, the wings get pushed by the higher pressure and pulled by the lower pressure, so they experience an upward force we call lift.",
"When you're in a car driving fast, stick your arm out the window, and tilt your hand at various angles. (With someone else driving.) You'll feel the wind pressure on your hand, which can be thought of as a horizontal push backward and a vertical push up or down. The push backward is called \"drag\", and the vertical push is called \"lift\". The same thing happens on a much bigger scale with the wings of an airplane. In steady flight, the thrust of the engine is sufficient to balance the drag, and the lift is sufficient to balance the weight of the plane."
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lf7af5
|
how can scientist map an organisms’s genome when every individual of a species is slightly unique?
|
I’m not super well-versed in genetics so the premise of the question might be wrong, but how’s it possible to capture the genetic code of a species considering genetic variation? Do scientists pick an individual’s genetic code to treat as the default? Do they somehow mark that certain segments of genetic code are prone to change while others are more fundamentally stable? It’s always confused me a little. Again, sorry if the question doesn’t make much sense and thanks in advance for any answers.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"There is variation in alleles, which is where the genetic variation in humans comes from. The actual order of the genes is the same in all humans. Actually, the first mapped human genome was composed of several scientist’s samples that were working on the project at the time."
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5
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[
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[
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lf7alc
|
Why are fruit and vegetables mostly round?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmkdfh2"
],
"text": [
"Because it's the best form optimize content using as less surface as possible! A plant will try to put as much feeding material (either to feed the seed or hoping than an animal will eat it and transport the seed). That is also why teapot are usually round : more tea inside and less contact with exterior world leads to less heat loss!"
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9
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lf7bbp
|
Why is it that when you watch the news, they don't blur out the background people like Google maps do?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmkf7lc"
],
"text": [
"If you're in a public space you are in public. This means in the UK that your legal rights to privacy are limited. So there's never been any legal or cultural prohibition on catching people on camera when they're out in a public space. In the past, at least, a TV crew would be fairly visible. If you don't want to be on camera, don't walk into shot. Resolution would be low, limiting the ability to identify people. Since shots are chosen and reviewed by people. They *should* be careful if they're filming around any sensitive locations, and might spot anything problematic that's caught on camera. And something like a new report might be transmitted a couple of times and then be gone. So the potential privacy harms are limited. Or at least were - some of these things are open to question now. Google Street View has multiple differences. The key one is the scale of data collection. It's not just an occasional bit of location filming, it's photos of every single street, every single location. These pictures are permanently available (at least until they're updated) and much more accessible than a news report. It's also harder to avoid being caught by a Street View camera - indeed you might well not even know, unless you spot the car(/backpack/other vehicles used). It may also be worth noting that the relationship between filming in public and the public has grown up over time. Both sides have expectations over what's acceptable. Google just decided to start doing street view, without any public discussion, and had to be *forced* to blur people's faces."
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4
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|
lf8uuw
|
Why we get sick of songs we used to like?
|
You just found a song you listen for the whole day nonstop. The next morning you listen to the same song again and you just can’t stand it anymore. Why does it happen?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmkrl10"
],
"text": [
"A song is information. Our brains like new information, especially the sort which seems valuable. Music seems like valuable information because it taps into our social and linguistic brainy parts(why mysic even exists as a concept is a giant subject in itself), and gives it something \"to work with\". Once you have absorbed all that information, it's no longer useful, like reading a book for the 5th time. Sometimes we like watching a movie or reading a book a few times because we can find new details that we didn't see the first time, but once you know it all by heart and there's nothing more to discover it's rarely interesting to do it again."
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"score": [
5
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[
"url"
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lf9dzf
|
what does “neurodivergent” mean?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmkkz9p",
"gmli307"
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"text": [
"It means to be divergent of normal neurological standards. Most people are neurotypical. Someone like myself who is ASD is neurodivergent as my brain is wired differently so to speak",
"There are two (imaginary) groups of people. Neurotypical, and neurodivergent. Neurotypical people fit a cultural idea of normal (this is decided by expectations), anyone else is neurodivergent, which, while more polite, is synonymous for abnormal. I have ADHD, my executive function is different than most people's. It makes it hard for me to function in a \"normal\" job and it made \"normal school\" difficult. Therefore, I'm abnormal, or *neurodivergent*."
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4
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[
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[
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|
lf9xjo
|
Why is radiation harmful to us?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"gmklpf2"
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"text": [
"Radiation takes three main forms. Alpha, beta, and light (uv up to gamma). These are helium nucleus, electrons, and photons respectively. Effectively a radio active isotope or fusion reaction will emit these and then as they fly through space they can kick electrons off molecules or even make whole atoms unstable. If this happens to DNA it will cause damage. Your body can’t repair all of it so it will accumulate and cause cancer. Your body mostly fixes it by killing all the damaged cells. This is why you get sun burns. Sun burns are mild radiation damage. If you get too much as a time you get organ failure as the cells of your organs die off to the point of them no longer being able to work. This is radiation poisoning.",
"Radiation of higher energy levels (so ultraviolet or higher) are able to ionize atoms. That means it can break apart molecules, including our DNA or just essential parts of cells, killing them or turning them to cancer. Lower energy levels (per photon) but large amounts of radioation can harm us too by heating up water. For example a microwave uses radiation to cook food."
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[
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lfa5fv
|
How/why do we develop freckles on parts of our body that aren’t exposed to sunlight?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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],
"text": [
"Why do black and brown people have brown skin in regions not exposed to sunlight? Same thing. Freckling is just a particular skin types ‘strategy’ for distributing melanin. Freckling is more prominent in areas exposed to sun because exposure to UVB stimulates melanin production, but everyone has some baseline level of melanin production. Alternatively, what *you* may be seeing and calling freckles are in fact nevi or moles. Some families carry a trait that causes the expression of dozens of moles all over the skin with such a broad distribution they can look a bit like freckles, but upon closer inspection you’ll see that they’re raised instead of flat like freckles. Moles are melanocyte dysplasia or irregular growth. Melanocytes make melanin and dysplasia is called dysplasia because it happens whether exposed to stimulus (sunlight) or not. The melanin makes them dark, but they show up with or without sun because that’s just how those cells are programmed. They are not all cancerous or even mostly but people with this condition need to be screened yearly by a dermatologist because any of these moles can transform .",
"This isn’t a comprehensive answer, but maybe a piece of the answer. When you wear clothing outside on a sunny day, it dramatically reduces but does not completely eliminate exposure to UV on those parts of the body. Some light and UV does penetrate and hit your skin, dependent on the material, thickness, and color of the clothing.",
"Just going to earn people that moles in areas that have never seen the sun can still be cancerous. Just had one removed. The ones on my arms over the years were all fine but it was the one on my stomach that was pre-melanoma."
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lfabtz
|
What's the difference between the runny, liquid honey and the hard, grainy honey?
|
We buy honey from a local beekeeper, sometimes the honey is the classic, runny honey and other times it's hard, white and somewhat grainy (looks similiar to fat). What's the difference?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Honey is a super-saturated solution of two sugars: glucose and fructose. The proportions of these two sugars are characteristic of the plants the bees fed on to make their honey. It's the glucose that crystallizes, so some types of honey are more resistant to crystallization because they have low glucose. Since it's super-saturated, it's a natural chemical process that some of the sugars eventually come out of solution. Honey will even crystallize when it's still in the comb. Crystallized honey is actually a sign that the honey is high quality. It's fairly simple to turn your honey back into a smooth liquid again by heating it. The best way to do this is to put your honey in a bowl of warm water and slowly letting it warm up.",
"What you are seeing is likely crystalization. Honey is a form of highly concentrated syrup, a mixture of water and sugar. Sugar in high concentrations can start to form crystals. And when crystals stars to form they grow and become quite big. This is the form which you normally buy sugar in."
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3
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lfbfyd
|
why is it that if we look at special reverse color pictures 30 seconds, then look away and blink you see the picture in color
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"This is to do with something called neural suppression. When your brain receives the same signal constantly, it begins to forget about it because it sort of stops caring. It's the same reason you don't notice your nose all the time even though your eyes can *easily* see it. (Sorry if you're now noticing it!) White light in out brain gets picked up as a mix of red, blue, and green signals from the relevant cones in our eyes. Say you look at something red for a long time. Your brain gradually turns down the volume (sort of) of the red as nothing is changing so it doesn't care. This allows it to be more sensitive to small changes in other colours without being distracted by the red. Now, let's say you look at something white. Your eyes are picking up on all the red, green, and blue light. But your brain is still ignoring the red, at least partially. This means your brain picks up on more of the blue and green. Blue+green=cyan, which is opposite red on the colour wheel. This is the same reason looking at a spinning wheel for a while can make things morph and twist. Same goes for playing something like guitar hero. Your brain begins to ignore the feeling of constant motion in one direction. When that stops, you sort of perceive the opposite motion because you're ignoring a signal that isn't there anymore. Also, legs spinning after riding a bike, and feeling like you're still on a boat once you get off."
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6
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|
[
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[
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|
lfbt0s
|
Why do we get goosebumps when we hear a good song that means something to us?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gml3po4"
],
"text": [
"When we had hair covering our bodies it would stand on end when we sensed a change in our surroundings as a defense mechanism to make us appear larger (many animals have this ability). When we hear a really good song that moves us emotionally it triggers the feeling that something has changed in our surroundings. The goosebumps are our hair standing on end (if we still had hair) in reaction to the sudden change."
],
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3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfc17o
|
When there’s an economic bubble I’ve heard goods described as “overvalued”; how do economists determine if something is overvalued?
|
After all, isn’t pretty much everything just worth whatever people are willing to pay for it?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmkxvad",
"gmky7zh"
],
"text": [
"Overvalued means the value comes from \"artificial\" demand. People buying Not because they want the product, but because they speculate the price will increase further to sell for a profit. If something is a bubble or not If often hard to see before it bursts. Some things hype because there really is a chance that the value of the good will have that price without speculative buyers. (This is especially true for innovative stocks, like startups with a technology that might go through the roof). A bubble is defined as something that is priced in a way that it can't keep that price up without new speculative buyers.",
"An economic bubble is characterized by an increase a significant increase in price (possibly over a long period of time) that eventually reaches a point where there is a sudden collapse (which can be triggered by many things) and the price plummets. One theory is that bubbles happens is when too many people overvalue the intrinsic value of something to the extend you reach an unstable situation. For example, in the housing crisis in the mid 2000's, a number of factors drove up the demand of houses: lower interest rates easy-to-get mortgages. This increase in demand drove up house prices. Eventually when people couldn't pay their mortgages, the banks had to foreclose. Suddenly supply drives through the roof and demand sinks, and the bubble collapses. The problem is, you really can't know you're in a bubble when you're in one. It's more of a description of an economic phenomenon after it happens. That doesn't stop people from trying to predict whether we are in one, based on their own theories about an asset's intrinsic value and what they *think* it is worth."
],
"score": [
16,
3
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"text_urls": [
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lfc4hv
|
How do we know that atoms have certain amount of nucleons and electrons ?
|
How do we know that a certain atom has a certain amount of electrons, protons and neutrons ? Like we all know that normal hydrogen has 1 proton , 1 electron. But how do we know it ?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmkx3zk"
],
"text": [
"Well we knew about the chemical properties first and tried to come to a solution as why they behave a certain way. This allowed insight into the electrons in the outer shell. After ordering the elements into a table we found patterns. We discovered the period system of basically 8 classes of elements behaving chemically similar. But what made them different? One day we were able to measure the mass of individual Atoms. And it weirdly were all multiples of the mass of hydrogen, so we ended with a theory that they were built from the same elements in different numbers. And from this its pretty obvious to come to the conclusion that each element is defined by the number of Protons (to bind X Electrons) and the extra mass comes from some additional neutral parts."
],
"score": [
24
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfcnr6
|
How did hourglass happen? How did they even get the right amount/size of each sand particle/other physical aspects to be aligned with the time?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Traditional hour glasses are open at the end and capped by a wooden cap. So you can make an hour glass but leave one end open. Then you put it next to a sundial and fill it with sand exactly when the shadow on the sundial crosses a mark. Then at the next mark you stop the hourglass and poar out the excess before you cap the other end as well. That leaves you with an hourglass that have exactly enough sand to last an hour and no more.",
"They calibrated them against sundials which are pretty accurate and can be constructed anywhere. A sundial uses the movements of a shadow across the floor to measure time. An hourglass is more convenient in that it is portable. They also used various other portable devices, like candle clocks and water clocks etc., all ultimately calibrated and verified against a stationary sundial.",
"In ancient times water clocks were used. You would have a bowl that floated in water. Then punch a small hole in the bowl so that water would slowly leak in. It would take time for the bowl to fill up with water and sink. You would time things by the bowl. For instance you might pay for a massage that would last one bowl. When these were made, there was no precised short units of time and no way of measuring them. You did not make a bowl that lasted 5 minutes because there was no such thing as 5 minutes. You made a bowl that lasted a time that seemed right. Or you would measure how long a bowl took to fill compared to another bowl and slowly increase the size of the hole until they took the same amount of time. Hourglasses were the same. The amount of time they measured was the amount of time they measured. There was no precise minute to make an hourglass that time a minute. When mechanical clocks were invented and time got rigidly defined with precise hours, minutes, and seconds (in Roman times, the length of an hour varied by time of day and year), then hourglasses were calibrated to a particular time by adjusting the amount of sand inside them.",
"I've got a related question: do hourglasses run faster over time as the sand inside abrades itself? Edit: Since this seems unlikely to be answered here, I researched it and found it a bit outside of ELI5 territory. Anyway there is this thing called the Hagen-Beverloo law on the outflow of granular solids that seems to indicate that yes, provided the total mass of the particles and the size of the funnel aperturue remains constant, the hourglass will speed up if the diameter of the grains were assumed to decrease over time due to wear. Specifically given `d.I` and `d.F` representing initial and final grain diameter and `a` the funnel aperture size, the ratio of total time will change by `T(d.I)/T(d.F) = (a-d.I / a-d.F)^(2/5)` leading to the conclusion, that as seems to be intuitive, the hourglass will speed up if the sand was able to wear itself down and become smaller or alternatively to wear the aperture to become larger. Anyone with kids: this would be a solid science fair project.",
"I have owned several hourglasses (and similar timepieces) and I can tell you from my personal experience, they all vary. None are exactly the amount of time they claim to measure (hour, 5 minute, etc) and they all vary due to a lot of factors. Even an hourglass that actually runs 52 minutes one day might run 57 minutes tomorrow, or it might get a clog that needs to be cleared (I give it a little shake). So, they're NOT accurate or precise measurements of time AT ALL. They're more like \"in the ballpark of\" so getting worried about how they're made to exacting specifications doesn't really make sense. It's all just \"good enough\" engineering.",
"Some of the things humans invented and figured out in the past just blows my mind to this day. No bullshit it’s more impressive to me that they figured out astronomy and telescopes and shit than like the some dude inventing the internet idk. Some dude was just sitting around one day and somehow figured out astronomy cause he was curious. That shits crazy, from like NOTHING. I feel like humans used to be a different breed lmfao Edit: I am massively oversimplifying this example obviously but it still applies.",
"There’s a great HI101 podcast about timekeeping. Lots of time spent on sundials and water clocks.",
"They used ground up eggshells in the really early ones. Hence the german name \"Eieruhr\"-\"Eggclock\".",
"I think OP approached this thought from the angle of modern small hourglasses. In those, the sand is finer and the hole the sand pours through can have its width calculated to let x amount of sand through. But the size of the hourglass wasn't the variable that was changed back then. It was simply the amount of sand. All hour glasses were relatively large and could allow any size sand particle to move through it, and rather than trying to figure out how small they needed to make the neck, they just added more sand.",
"With trial and error, using different particles for a more or less constant volume. Simple as that.",
"People have gone over the concept of calibration pretty well. One thing worth noting is that hour glasses in the past probably weren't 100% always exact to an hour. Even modern ones might not always be. If you had one running continuously, flipping back and forth after the last grain fell, it would lose time just like a typical watch or clock does due to the pseudo-random nature of the particles in the system and differences in initial starting conditions."
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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|
lfen7k
|
Why does hearing loss occur during a fight or flight response?
|
[ URL_0 ]( URL_1 ) At the bottom of the link it shows 9 symptoms what is the point of losing your hearing during the fight or flight response?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmlkmn2"
],
"text": [
"It's not so much that you lose the ability to hear. Every one has been in scary situations and jumped at relatively innocuous stimuli - like the door bell ringing when we weren't expecting it It's more, as far as I can make out, that we lose the ability to process complex cognitive loads under stress. Here's a paper that explains in more detail. URL_0 Best wishes."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944410/"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lferc1
|
Machine Learning
|
I saw "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix and got very curious (and terrified) when they started to talk about machine learning and artificial intelligence but couldn't really understand it and how it works..
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"Machine learning is a field dealing with statistical models that automatically adjust themselves and improve given more data. It's really not any more than that. The actual math is somewhat (though not extremely) complicated and would be meaningless without a background in more basic statistics, though.",
"Summary of machine learning. Me: Hey, what's 2+2. Computer: 13. Me: Not it's 4. Computer: Yes it's 4. Repeat many many times. To be a bit more specific what machine learning does is to make estimates on many many different dimensions. As for what a dimension is. Imagine you want a computer to tell the difference between a duck and a bear. One dimension could be, does it have a break, or does it not have a beak. A second dimension could be does it have fur or feathers. A third does it have two legs or four. Though with machine learning the dimensions are very low level, and there are many more or them. Things like, are there two black pixels directly to the left of two white pixels, at position (2,2). Or is the third letter in a word \"o\". Because the training is automatic it lets you replace human time developing complex algorithms with computer time. You do however need a lot of well labeled data. With things like facebook facial recognition they can source their data from people just tagging their friends. Other projects may rely on just paying people to manually tag a lot of data.",
"What computer scientists call Artificial Intelligence and what movies call Artificial Intelligence is not the same thing. AI researchers call a computer that can think in ways analogous to a human an AGI, for Artificial General Intelligence. The widespread consensus is that we are nowhere close to achieving that, nobody serious is even trying, and it may not even be possible. The AI stuff they are working on are what used to be called expert systems - they're designed to do one task, and only that task. You generate a big database of example data that's been interpreted by humans, and you design a basic algorithm to try and interpret that data. Then, you generate a bunch of random variations on that algorithm, test them, and the discard all but the best couple. Then you generate a new generation of algorithms based on the winner, etc. Eventually, you end up with an algorithm which is much better at performing the task than what you could have written... and you have no idea how or why it works. You've probably heard a lot of people complain about the way Youtube's algorithm works, particularly in cases where, say, people get demonetized for sexual content for saying \"I'm a gay man\", or the requirement that they upload videos every week to get recommended, etc. Youtube has no idea how to get an algorithm to account for that. Because you need something testable to grade your algorithm on, and they chose \"length of time people spend watching videos\". And they don't even know how their algorithm works to tweak it manually. Anyway, these kind of systems are only good at one thing. Remember google deep dream? Remember how it makes everything look like an amorphous pile of dog faces? That's because it was trained to recognize animals, so when you show it a photo, it doesn't learn to recognize more stuff, it just sees the parts of the photo that kind of resemble animals.",
"With traditional algorithm you have someone telling the computer exactly what to do in order to answer a potential question. So for example if you want to find out the gender of someone based on their browser history you might have someone write a number of checks in order to find out their gender. You might hardcode lists of names and their genders, different websites that you know are male oriented or female oriented, etc. The computer can then follow these instructions and give you an answer. But with machine learning you are not telling the computer directly how to find the answer to the problem. Instead you give it a system for finding its own solution and then a set of data that gives examples of correct answers. The systems may be statistical analysis, neural networks, tensor flows, etc. So after applying the techniques on the example data the result would be an algorithm designed by the computer instead of by a human. The advantage to doing this is firstly that you can then reuse the same code to find solutions to other problems. So you can for example use the exact same system to instead figure out if people will vote Republican or Democrat instead of finding their genders. And the computer is often able to find more complex patterns then a human can as it will be able to look at far more parameters then humans. So the algorithms made by machine learning is more accurate and cheaper to make then those made by humans. These machine learning algorithms is used a lot to handle massive amount of personal data. The examples I gave with the categorization of people is a fairly common example. There are algorithms that claims to be accurate enough to determine when a women is going to be pregnant even before they are trying. But in addition to categorizing it into groups we might be familiar with it can also categorize people on things like which advertisement would be most efficient. You can make an algorithm which is able to say that people like you were more likely to buy a product after seeing advert roll A rather then advert roll B. And that gives advertisers a quite powerful tool that makes people do what they want. That is just a simple example as well. An advertiser might even base their entire advertisement campaign on what their models predict that people will respond to. So you end up with actors having to say lines that are written by a computer based on how people respond to different words."
],
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21,
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3
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|
[
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[
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lff22z
|
If heat makes things expand, why do clothes shrink in the dryer?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"gmldtsk",
"gmlkfgn"
],
"text": [
"Not all things expand when heated. Textiles made of many fibers tend to constrict when exposed to high temperatures. They soak up water in the washing machine which causes the fibers to swell. Ever notice your shirts get super baggy when wet? When they dry, the fibers shrink back up and as they keep drying the tend to curl just a bit, which pulls the whole fabric in tighter. It's more noticeable with organic materials like cotton and wool.",
"Natural fibers are typically not straight in their basic form. Wool and cotton in particular are quite curly. When you spin them into thread, they're forcibly straightened out. So when wash clothes, you get them wet first. This causes the threads to swell up, and also lubricates them. As you dry the fibers, they shrink back down, which gives them a little room to move that they didn't have before, and they still have a little lubrication allowing them to move easier. Combine that with the fibers being moved around by the tumble action of the dryer, and the fibers will kink up a little to get closer to their natural shape. This causes them to get shorter and shrinks the garment."
],
"score": [
5,
4
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
] |
|
lff6co
|
how did ancient greek and roman painters know the shape and look of human -specifically male- muscles in their paintings and sculptures?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"> it's not like there were men who said we have free time Um, they had aristocracy, heh, with plenty of free time. Also, training to fight with swords, spears, etc., is a lot of upper body and lower body training, you can very well end up with that physique. And finally, the diet, take the modern day sweets and sodas and junk food out of a diet, and you get a low-carb diet that basically burns fat and builds muscle.",
"You don't need to go to a gym to gain muscle, that's mostly a result of people working office jobs and needing to replicate the farm work of previous generations to stop form getting fat. Body building wasn't popular until the 1960/70s. People naturally build muscle.",
"The figures in Greek and Roman art are completely plausible for a man who spent his life doing farming or military labor and never had a whole lot extra to eat (primarily because it wasn't available - not because he was on a diet). Bodybuilding only became popular in the last century, but those statues don't look anything like body builders. They tend to have significantly (some would say offputtingly) larger muscles, particularly in the upper body.",
"> people were busy farming and working Farming and working is great exercise. You don't need to lift weights in a gym to get fit, it turns out that lifting weights in a field and exerting yourself elsewhere ends up building muscle as well. It turns out that if someone goes out every day and performs hard manual labor and then only eats what little they actually need without having an excess of food or leisure time, they end up building muscle and having relatively low body fat."
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3
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|
[
"url"
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[
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|
lff7qg
|
how does acre trader work?
|
Hi all, I’ve been looking into alternative ways to invest and saw an ad for this investment platform, acre trader. You invest in shares of vetted farms and I’m curious if anyone knows the internal mechanics of this type of platform and these types of investments? How are investment dollars used? How does it make a return for the investor? Anything I’m missing? I watched their instructional video but I think there’s more too it and I thought some of you might be able to break it down for me. Thanks
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"As I understand it, AcreTrader: 1. Forms an LLC, and funds it to purchase a farm 2. Rents the land to a farmer (presumably the farmer that's already on the land. The rent is distributed to the investors, minus a management fee for AcreTrader 3. At the end of a predetermined period, sells the land, and the proceeds are returned to the investors. The Cash Return value they list on the investments represents the income you'd expect to earn from rent. Apparently the rent varies within a range based on yield, so a good harvest would increase your profit. The Net Annual return is the Cash Return + how much they expect the land to increase in value. This would be realized at the end of the period, when they sell the land. AcreTrader takes their profit in a .75% management fee, plus the realtor's commission (typically half of 5%, the other half going to the other realtor) of the purchase and sale prices. I'll note that this means they will make a large profit on the real estate even if you lose money. And this means that if farmland grows in value by 50% over 10 years, you'll see about 37.5% due to the commissions You should also note that they have not completed any of these deals yet, so they have no track record as a company. And finally, they probably don't want your money. They are only taking money from \"Accredited Investors\", which means > Earn an annual income per individual of over $200,000 per year ($300,000 per couple) with the expectation of maintaining such level of income in the future. > Have a net worth of more than $1 million (individually or jointly), excluding the value of a primary residence."
],
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3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lffgsb
|
Why do manufacturers of products that use pump dispensers (lotion, soap, etc.) not make the tube reach the bottom?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmlggds"
],
"text": [
"Because if the tube actually touched the bottom it would work worse. It would just suction itself to the bottom instead of sucking up the liquid."
],
"score": [
5
],
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lffjqb
|
How does the card trading work?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmlgy4p",
"gmlh8c4"
],
"text": [
"1. The valuable cards are valuable because people choose to pay money for them. 2. The company can print more of the rare cards, but they usually don't, as that would make them not rare. 3. They're rare because not many people have them, and whoever is lucky enough to pull the rare card first. 4. We can verify them as authentic because not many fakers have access to the exact manufacturing processes as the real company, so you can look at the details. 5. Digital card trading is the same, people like it for the collection, and it's more convenient than physical cards.",
"Cards are usually valuable simply because they stopped producing them and there are collectors that still want them. In some cases a reprint is promised not to happen by the manufacturer, or the reprint would look different and have less value to collectors. The value simply comes from people wanting them, so it's hard to predict wich cards become valuable when you're not an insider. Authenticity verification is a service offered by some experts or websites, usually rather expensive unless you plan to order that for a whole bulk of cards. Prices can also harshly fluctuate based on similar reprints, or players having a sudden demand for certain cards. For digital mostly the players matter, and the platform they play with digital cards on. The collector aspect is a lot weaker, so prices are mostly about wich cards are in demand to play the game."
],
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6,
4
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lffx1s
|
Why aren’t there universal parameters for online passwords?
|
How is it 2021 and password parameters are completely site-dependent? Character limits, no special characters/special characters required/only certain special characters, etc. I feel like the various rules makes it more likely people will use bad habits like writing passwords down, or making less complex passwords more likely? Edit: Upon further discussion in the replies, with many good points being made, I realized my real question should have been: why do some sites set password parameter limitations? I should be able to input a 25-character complex passphrase with letters, numbers, special characters if i want whether it’s for my Netflix account or Bank account. What I don’t understand is my bank being like, “Nah, you can only use 12 characters, and you can’t use @“. That’s my frustration, and was more my questions because I figured there was a technical reason behind it likely.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"gmlyrho",
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"text": [
"Because that would require a singular, universal authority to come up with such a thing and no such thing exists. And it is unlikely to ever exist because there isn't universal agreement on what the parameters for passwords should be. In fact, just about the only thing that is agreed upon with regard to passwords is that they suck and should be replaced with something else. And even if there was a \"universal parameter\", people wouldn't be forced to learn it or use it.",
"On the other hand, if there \\*was\\* some sort of universal password system on all sites, hackers would know exactly what setup to target with any brute force hacking approach. Not to mention that people who are going to write down their passwords would probably otherwise have picked something really weak anyway, so it doesn't make much difference.",
"> Edit: Upon further discussion in the replies, with many good points being made, I realized my real question should have been: why do some sites set password parameter limitations? I should be able to input a 25-character complex passphrase with letters, numbers, special characters if i want whether it’s for my Netflix account or Bank account. What I don’t understand is my bank being like, “Nah, you can only use 12 characters, and you can’t use @“. That’s my frustration, and was more my questions because I figured there was a technical reason behind it likely. Sometimes there are technical reasons. For instance it's going into some sort of SQL query, and they want to make sure it won't screw it up somehow. I can expand on this if you like. Sometimes it's customer service. You don't want to deal with people who set up their password on a Russian system and now can't figure out how to type that on a Mac with a Spanish keyboard. The same goes for unusual characters. On some layouts it's very easy to get an € or a £. On others you'd have a hard time. So forbidding anything strange reduces the likelihood of somebody running into such issues. Sometimes it's some ancient system sitting in the middle that hasn't been updated in the last 3 decades, and so you have to play by its rules. And often times it's just some random standard or \"best practice\" that's been inherited from somewhere else and nobody bothered to think about much. The dev just had it burned in their brain that passwords top out at 8 characters on some earlier project, so 8 characters is what gets written into new code.",
"If there was a standard, it would be obsolete within a short period of time or be so complex no one would be able to remember their passwords. Passwords alone will never be that secure. This is why two factor authentication (2FA) is becoming quite popular.",
"How would this be implemented? There is no central service for managing passwords so every implementation is up to the service that is using the password. What if one database doesn't support a specific character but other databases do, do you just not support that database and *force* a service to switch databases or die (because they can't have passwords if they don't use this password requirement service), or do you let them determine their own requirements? There are many forms of guidance on what password requirements *should* be, but you can't enforce it if there is no central entity to do so. Besides, if a US company starts up and somehow gets authorization to *require* US-based websites to use them for password guidance, that doesn't mean other countries have to respect it."
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfg962
|
Once a opioid addict has stopped using, are the dopamine and serotonin receptors completely fried, or do they heal themselves and begin to release the chemical without the intoxicant
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"gmlpam2",
"gmm3fhk",
"gmlr76j",
"gmluorr",
"gmofyve",
"gmo6ydn"
],
"text": [
"It's not that the receptors are damaged, it's that there's less of them. Because the body becomes used to opioids circulating in the blood, those receptors are downregulated so they aren't being overstimulated- essentially, the system becomes recalibrated for a higher baseline level of opioids by reducing the number of receptors those opioids can hit, while also reducing its own endogenous opioid production. When usage stops, the body's own opioid production suddenly isn't enough to have the same effect on those receptors because there are less of them to stimulate. This dysfunction is what leads to withdrawal symptoms. Over time the body adapts, recalibrating those receptors once again for a new baseline, and bringing the system back to normal function.",
"They are not fried, their numbers decrease just temporarily. SSRI or SNRI (antidepressant or anxiety drugs) users also experience a similar change thanks to receptor down-regulation. If they suddenly stop using their medicine they suffer from some side effects that takes a few weeks before the body turns back to normal but in some cases it takes longer. I don't know how much it takes with opiods though and there can also be some long-term effects sometimes.",
"What many people dont know is that a large dose of gabapentin will alleviate almost all of the opiate withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, I'm all to familiar the the rollercoaster ride referred to as opiate addiction. In all actuality, you can get through the worst of the withdrawal symptoms with sone gabapentin and 1 1/2-2 8mg suboxone strips. Instead of making this information readily available, suboxone doctors have decided to mimic the methadone clinic approach by giving out way to high of a suboxone prescription for entirely too long in order to handcuff opiate addicts to the suboxone clinic amd bring in all that sweet sweet addict revenue.",
"A follow up question would be - when they come back, do they come back all the way or is there permanent downregulation?",
"Do a search for PAWS (post acute withdrawal syndrome) and you'll find a good deal of insight and information. I realize I didn't fulfill the request of explaining this like you're 5, but if you're genuinely curious about this topic, that search term will act as a doorway to a plethora of useful info...",
"Does this also happen with years long Kratom use?",
"Not a scientist, I only have personal anecdotes to offer. Was pretty heavy into opiates for 4-5 years and detoxed with my partner. He recovered faster than I did (I've always had some anxiety issues which made it harder), but about 5 years down the line everything seems back to normal. Personally haven't had any issues with relapsing, but maybe it has to do with the method of detox as well. We went with the implant, then immediately traveled to a place where drugs would be inaccessible. I recommend the implant for anyone that can afford it. Methadone, suboxone, etc. are just stopgaps and continue to perpetuate an addict mentality of having to constantly take something to feel \"normal.\""
],
"score": [
1442,
55,
34,
15,
7,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfhbr4
|
Why is it easier to darken white paint than it is to lighten dark paint?
|
I remember in elementary school that I was mixing paints and to make grey, and I found that a small quantity of black darkens white super easily whereas even a 50-50 split of black and white leaves an almost black color. Is black paint more potent? Is there some kind of complicated color theory?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmlsqv1",
"gmlygij"
],
"text": [
"Paint color works by removing light, adding just a small amount of black pigment can darken white pigment a lot because it goes from absorbing \\~0 light to more . But to lighten dark pigment you can only dilute the pigment.",
"Consider that a thin enough layer of paint is basically see-through. Since the material isn't 100% opaque, you can imagine paint molecules receiving light from two directions: light from the environment, and light reflected by neighboring paint. As a milky, matte substance, the paint reflects light more-or-less in random directions. So most of the light which returns back to the environment from this material has been reflected numerous times within the paint. So the light you see has basically gone through a chain, which is only as strong as its weakest link. Whenever one of these paths includes a pigment, the light is affected/absorbed. The only way to reflect whiteness/brightness is if every molecule in the random path has been reflective instead of pigmented."
],
"score": [
34,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfhe9f
|
virtue signaling
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmlrn9c"
],
"text": [
"Virtue signaling has two meanings in practice. The first is \"when a company or person does something because it makes them look good or gives them good publicity, not because they actually care or want to do the right thing.\" Such as when Walmart or Amazon donate money to food banks or homeless shelters. Yes, that makes them look good, but if they really cared, they'd just pay their employees better. The second is \"when someone whose politics I disagree with acts like they care about an issue that I don't.\" This is often done by people who genuinely don't get why someone else would care about an issue they personally wouldn't, and assume that they can't actually be caring about it, but are just doing it to look good. Many people accuse others who care about minority rights to be doing this, often because they feel that it can't be that someone who wasn't part of that minority group would genuinely care about them."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfhhyn
|
What is different between a conscious and unconscious thought? Why are some ideas and thoughts like a "conversation" with yourself that you have in the "front" of your mind, while others seem to happen "backstage" of the mind without being actively aware of them?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmm3326",
"gmm1u55"
],
"text": [
"Replace unconscious with out of awareness. For example you might be driving to a job interview and have anxious thoughts \"will I get the job, I need this job\", and the feelings associated with those thoughts. But at the moment your awareness is on navigating traffic. The anxious thoughts and feelings are still there affecting you, driving up your heart rate, perspiration, and adrenaline release, but you are not aware of it because your mind is occupied. with another task. That's a deliberate functional shift in awareness so you can drive safely. Other unpleasant thoughts like \"I hate my dad and never want to see him again because he's an alcoholic\" might be deliberately repressed because society values being a dutiful son. But the anger is still there, out of awareness but affecting you in unpredictable ways.",
"There will be better answers, but here's one way of looking at it. There are always thoughts buzzing around in your head. Most of them don't break through to consciousness. IIRC, the brain is made of bunches of processing nodules that communicate within themselves, and with each other. When enough nodules get coordinated with each other, that forms a large-scale pattern that can rise to consciousness. Imagine standing at a bus stop when you become aware that the person beside you is behaving suspiciously. Little things they do formed fleeting impressions in your head that you ignored, until there were enough of them that the collection of impressions formed into a cohesive thought: \"This person is creeping me out.\" There's a hypothesis that general anesthesia works by disrupting the communication links across the brain. Individual components in the brain are periodically active while you're under, but they can't get coordinated. Likewise, your brain is about as active in sleep as when you're awake, but the activity is disjointed. If you get a strong enough dream that forms active, coordinated thoughts, you stand a good chance of waking up."
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfi215
|
Why do we get tired when in some places then stop getting tired on our way to bed/when in bed?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmlvtqo"
],
"text": [
"A few reasons #1. Its perspective. You may feel tired compared to doing work but you're not tired compared to actually being in bed sleeping. #2. Boredom can disguise itself as being tired. If you're doing a task you really don't want to do like study, your mind will become distracted and think it's tired #3 the process of getting up, getting ready for bed, etc gets your blood pumping and gives you a small burst of energy so you're no longer tired"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfic61
|
why is how he used the n word bad.
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmly1wi"
],
"text": [
"FYI, Black people are far more upset about how the banker, realtor, police officer, etc. referring to us as “sir”, than the professor, wide receiver, or country singer using “Ni & & er” in a sentence."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfisx8
|
When companies talk about "self healing" plastics like, in the case of, screen protectors for phones, what are they talking about and how does that work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmm11ok"
],
"text": [
"A self-healing material is one that has some way to repair itself without any sort of human intervention. That can take a variety of shapes, from including a repairing agent mixed into the material that takes some form of action in response to damage, to having the material re-form completely by itself. In the case of plastics: pretty much all plastics are some sort of polymer. That means they're made up of many repeated small units (monomers), each connected to the next in some way. Self-healing plastics have the ability to re-form certain bonds under normal operating circumstances (as opposed to \"normal\" plastics where you'd create and shape the material under high temperatures, pressures etc in a specific factory environment). It's complex material science and I can't give exact specifics, but that's the gist of it."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfjso6
|
How do the lungs get rid of the particles in the air that are trapped in the lungs?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmm5jkn"
],
"text": [
"You have mucus that traps the particles and hairlike projections called cilia that beat in a way to force the particles upwards so that they can be cleared or swallowed. Note the not everything can be cleared and some things will stay forever and possibly form scar tissue."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lflc6t
|
How does Nature balance both genders so well? They are almost 50/50
|
Basically the Title. How are our body's so good at regulating how much males and females are born, if they aren't aware of the Balance at all?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmmw94q",
"gmmermi",
"gmme6z4"
],
"text": [
"So a lot of people have answered this question citing the mechanism as to how this occurs but have not actually answered the question as to why this mechanism exists in the first place, or as to why there is no bias in fertilization rates, or miscarriage rates. The answer is because a 50/50 split is the most evolutionary stable ratio. Imagine a mutation occurs that slightly favours male births over females such that the ratio is 51/49. At first this mutation is completely benign, so it spreads through the population as it is not selected for or against via evolution. Fast forward a few generations and the population starts to have more males than females. Under these conditions, females are more likely to be reproductively successful due to the abundance of males, and males find reproduction harder. Thus the male bias mutation will be selected against, and an opposite female bias mutation will be selected for, thus the birth rates move towards to the 50/50 ratio again. Ergo, the population will inevitably end up at 50/50 regardless of any deviation from this balance. A phenomenon like this is evolutionary stable. A mutation can't thrive under these circumstances because it's own success creates the seeds of it's failure. HOWEVER what if a species has a higher infant/juvenile mortality rate for one sex? We would expect the birth rates to be skewed towards that sex such that the species would be balanced 50/50 upon reaching sexual maturity. And lo' and behold, this is exactly what we see in humans. There are on average 105 males for every 100 females born. So our ratio is NOT actually 50/50.",
"Every normal body cell in a male mammal's body has an X chromosome and a Y chromosome in it. Meiosis, the process that is used to create both eggs and sperm, first causes a cell to copy all its chromosomes (so it now has XXYY), and then divide twice. That results in two X sperm and two Y sperm. After sex, there's a roughly 50/50 chance that an X-sperm gets to the egg first, rather than a Y-sperm.",
"Because the options are only 2, xx and xy, it's like a coin flip, do it enough times and it averages out."
],
"score": [
8,
6,
5
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lflcr7
|
How do calculators work?
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmmmblx"
],
"text": [
"Here is a kind of simplified introduction. You may know that any number can be represented as a binary number, e.g. 5 is 101, 3 is 011 and so on... So when adding 3 and 5 it can just as well be done on the binary numbers so 101 + 011. This is actually not different from adding numbers in base 10 like we're used to. But here when you \"exceed\" 1, you have to \"carry over\", whereas in base 10, it's when you exceed 9. The reason this is convenient is that binary is something we can represent in circuits, because 0/1 can be represented as power on/off (in practice it's probably more like low/high power. but you get the point). So we can create circuits that can do this operation of adding two binary numbers like i just mentioned by adding every bit in the two numbers, and carrying over if needed. Now this was just addition. But the point is we have a lot of neat ways to handle binary numbers, that mean we can create circuits that makes calculators do what they do. EDIT: writing this reminded me of a video i saw i couple months ago, that actually describes how these circuits are created in an ELI5/interesting fashion, it even goes into depth about how a circuit that adds numbers is created. URL_0"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZwneRb-zqA&t"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfm94r
|
Why does the body get so groggy after a nap, but not when waking up in the morning?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmmknpu",
"gmmlm0o"
],
"text": [
"Sleep moves in cycles, it goes between light sleep, deep sleep, and REM or \"Rapid Eye Movement\" sleep. You flow between these as you sleep, starting with light, then flowing to deep, and finally REM, then out in the opposite direction. If you're woken up during deep or REM sleep, you may experience some \"grogginess\", as your body was in deep sleep and needs to acclimate to being awake. People with regular sleep schedules (most people hopefully) go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time, so their bodies acclimate to the schedule and will be in light sleep when they usually wake up, so little to no grogginess. A nap however breaks the standard schedule so there is a greater chance that you will wake up in deep or REM, causing a short groggy period.",
"Wait so you don't feel tired in the morning ?"
],
"score": [
5,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfn2tv
|
. How the neutron star produce such magnetic power if is built up with neutrons only and little amounts of electrons?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmmtdbp",
"gmmtbs3"
],
"text": [
"The dominant theory of the strong fields is that it results from a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo process in the turbulent, extremely dense conducting fluid that exists just *before* the neutron star settles into its equilibrium configuration. These fields then persist due to persistent currents in a proton-superconductor phase of matter that exists at an intermediate depth within the neutron star (where the neutrons you mentioned predominate mass). A similar magnetohydrodynamic dynamo process produces even more intense transient fields during coalescence of pairs of neutron stars. Another, simpler theory is that they just result from the collapse of stars with unusually high magnetic fields. Fun fact: the magnetic field would kill you from a thousand kilometers away by ripping electrons from every atom in your body away.",
"It's not only neutrons. The outer layers are still made up of elements. Only in the core does Gravity overcome electron-degeneracy pressure. This allows a lot of electro-magnetic activity in the star, especially since it is so dense."
],
"score": [
7,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfndko
|
If the earth stopped spinning on its axis, would gravity feel stronger due to the lack of centrifugal force?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmmq887"
],
"text": [
"Yes, very slightly. People standing on the equator actually do weigh a bit less (around 1%) than they do at the poles. If the Earth weren't spinning, then people everywhere on the surface would weigh what they do at the poles."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfnncl
|
why does lightning move so fast?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmms6uz"
],
"text": [
"Electric currents and discharges happen very fast, much faster than humans can perceive, because electrons are so light, basically. Newton's second law F=MA says that the acceleration experienced by an object under force, is directly proportional to the magnitude of the force and inversely proportional to its mass. An electron's mass is so tiny, relative to the forces it experiences when moving through an electromagnetic field, that it can very rapidly be accelerated up to a significant fraction of the speed of light."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfocqt
|
How does a banana, which doesn't have any seeds, spread and make more bananas?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmmvz90",
"gmn3x9c"
],
"text": [
"They don't. The bananas you eat are a seedless cultivar (=variation of a plant species) bred for food. Wild bananas [look like this]( URL_0 ). Like many plants, banana plants can reproduce through small pieces of themselves. If you take a new banana shoot off an existing plant, cut it off, and plant it separately, you'll get a new independent banana tree identical to the original. Nearly all bananas trees grown today are clones or near-clones of a few closely-related trees. But they wouldn't reproduce on their own, really; they need human intervention to do so.",
"Random fact along those lines since all bananas are clones of each other they can all be killed by a single disease. The bananas we eat today are different than the bananas that were around in the 60s. Not by much but by enough that our current bananas didn't die from a disease that cam through and wiped the old banana strain out. This is one of the big complaints against factory farming and mono culture crops."
],
"score": [
27,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana#/media/File:Inside_a_wild-type_banana.jpg"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfoooh
|
Birthmarks
|
I’ve always been told a birthmark is the scar where we died from an injury in previous life, I believe to be an old wives tail. But what is the reasoning for having a birth mark?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmn4ezg"
],
"text": [
"It's just a genetic mutation that doesn't hurt reproduction. Birth marks often run in families. There is no \"reason\" to have it. Think of it like hair or eye color. The reason these can vary from person to person is millenia of genetic mutation."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfp7lr
|
Why can a cactus in the desert live without water for 2+ years, but the cactus on my desk needs to be watered regularly?
|
I've heard it has something to do with conditions, but this seems counterintuitive since the desert conditions are much harsher (hotter, drier) than those in my house, so if anything you'd think it would require less water.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmn6lbf",
"gmn7won"
],
"text": [
"Saguaro cactus are the only species of cactus that can go for more than a few months without water. Very old, very large saguaro *can* live for years without water. That doesn't mean that all old saguaro will survive - just that some will. It also doesn't mean that younger, smaller saguaro will survive those conditions. Most indoor cactus are not desert species - they come from the western regions of the US and Mexico that have a fairly unique climate. Those regions get tremendous amounts of rain between October and April and 0 rain for the rest of the year. But just because there is 0 rain doesn't mean there is 0 water in the soil. The soil only totally dries out for a few weeks in August and September and those cacti store water all year in preparation for that. Prior to August there is still *some* amount of moisture in the soil and one of the ways that cacti have evolved to deal with that climate is that they will develop root systems that are dozens of times the size of the cactus itself. Those gigantic root systems allow the cactus to extract enough water from the soil to survive as long as there is some moisture in it. When people grow cacti they typically give them the exact same amount of space as they would any other plant. This prevents the cactus from growing its root system enough to survive on soil with a minimal moisture level like it could in the wild. If you planted a cactus in an area where it had 200 square feet of soil all to itself then you would be able to just dump few feet of water on that area once a year and forget about it. If, however, you treat a cactus like you would any other plant - IE, you plant it in a small area and give it small amounts of water at a time - then its going to have needs that are similar to other plants.",
"Part of it has to do with how humidity and heat work when the sand/soil is in a huge mass. Deserts get very hot and dry, but it's only the top layer which really catches the worst of the heat. A few meters below the surface, temperatures stay much more moderate through the day and night cycle, and the dryness is not so extreme. Residual water from rainfalls is retained down here a lot longer, and there may also be some groundwater reserves that it seeps up from. Most of the time even in a desert, there is always a *little bit* of moisture working its way up from a more humid layer towards the surface thanks to capillary action and evaporative cycles. It's not *very* moist, but there's a whole ton of it by mass, so it takes a long time to exhaust. Your potted plant is just in a little isolated clump of soil, surrounded on all sides by air. [And the smaller the pot is, then the greater its surface area is, relative to its volume.]( URL_0 ) When the water in that clump of soil is exhausted, that's it, it's gone, it doesn't have any deeper, moister neighbouring soil to sponge from. But if you tripled the size of the pot your plant was in, you would have to water it 3 times as heavily to reach the same soil moisture level, but thanks to the squared-cubed law linked above, it would take a lot longer to dry out."
],
"score": [
46,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law"
]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfpj5a
|
So I know that for water to boil the vapor pressure has to be equal to atmospheric pressure. Does this mean that as the pressure increases, a substance becomes more gaseous? Then why is CO2 liquid at high pressures?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmn3of9",
"gmn39g6"
],
"text": [
"> Does that mean that as the pressure increases, a substance becomes more gaseous? No. The opposite. The higher the pressure, the more likely the fluid will become liquid or even solid. For the water example, you're trying to get the vapor pressure of the water to match the ambient pressure. If you're increasing the pressure, you're not increasing the vapor pressure, but the ambient pressure. You can only increase the vapor pressure of the water by heat. So if you increase the pressure in the container, like a pressure cooker, water must heat up further before it can boil; the vapor pressure has to go even higher than usual in order for it to meet the ambient (within the pressure cooker) pressure. The same thing happens in the other direction for carbon dioxide. When the ambient pressure increases, the vapor pressure of the carbon dioxide is staying the same. Once the ambient pressure is higher than the vapor pressure, the carbon dioxide begins to condense into liquid; it is now below its boiling point.",
"No, you have it backward. Higher pressure = you need more vapor pressure to boil = things tend to stay liquid at higher temps."
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfplww
|
I work in a building that struggles to get 5G or LTE service. Will a mobile hotspot work/help? How does it work? Do I have to connect it to the same service provider I have or can it be a free-standing provider?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmn3ak3"
],
"text": [
"It connects to your mobile phones internet so it's with whoever you have your phone contract with. It uses your phone's data, it can't be free-standing. If you don't get 5G on your phone, a hotspot won't help you."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfqhmy
|
What is an embassy and what goes on there on a regular day?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnblnh",
"gmnt6rl"
],
"text": [
"Embassies most often provide a full range of consular services. This includes support for their citizens living or traveling in the host country, for instance replacing a passport, legal assistance, voting in upcoming elections, emergency assistance, etc. They also can handle visa applications for people wishing to travel to their home country. Politically, they also work to try to avoid those aforementioned problems. They may hold meetings with leaders of the host country if they feel a situation warrants it (for example, a proposed law that might negatively affect their country's interests). And some may be involved in intelligence gathering (which certainly can create some of those aforementioned problems).",
"Lots of things for regular people. For people wanting to go to a particular country, they can get all the documents they need to travel at the embassy. They do stuff like making the documents taking the photos, doing the back ground checks. The citizens of that country also find use if they get into trouble, be it minor or major. Like if they lost their passport, they’d go to their country’s embassy for help. Or if they got accused of a crime their embassy might help them with the legal stuff. For diplomatic people, the embassy handles how countries deal with each other. For every big trade agreement and/or military alliance, there’s often months of embassy people talking it out. Someone has to figure out who exactly pays for this specific thing, what time everything happens and where, if cereal counts as a soup for import tax purposes and a bajillion other really mundane and trivial things."
],
"score": [
10,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfqmxo
|
If Homo sapiens and Neanderthals are different species, how did they interbreed and produce the fertile offspring needed for modern humans to have some Neanderthal DNA?
|
I was told that two seperate species couldn’t interbreed and produce fertile offspring, so I don’t understand how we ended up with some Neanderthal DNA.
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"The Neanderthal are sometimes classified as *Homo neanderthalensis*, and as *Homo sapiens neanderthalensis* by others. Fun fact:. 'th' in German is pronounced as a 't', and the Neander valley changed it's spelling to 'Neandertal' when the Germans changed all the 'th's to 't's around 1900, but the hominids retained the old spelling. It's still properly pronounced Neandertal, but mostly by anthropologists. Anyway, species definition isn't so cut and dried. It sometimes has more to do with whether two species *do* interbreed, more than whether they *can*. Some bird species can, but have different birdsongs, so they don't. Sometimes it's physical distance or population isolation. Sometimes by DNA. There's no general agreement and no one definition fits all cases. Particularly for extinct species.",
"Two different separate species cannot. But similar animals can. For example, you can mate some wild felines with domestic felines. So the theory is that the early proto humans were close enough in DNA that they could mate. Its very possible that mating wasn't successful all the time, but enough of the time for the genes to mix. And as they mixed, it would make sense that more and more compatibility would develop. Would be more like breeding different dog breeds than completely separate species.",
"It's quite common for separate species to be able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring, what you were told was just the very oversimplified school version. Cats can crossbreed with a number of related species, wolves can cross with dogs and coyotes, Bison can cross with cattle (despite being in different genera!) and dolphins can cross with false killer whales. There are many more examples."
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lfqv3e
|
- Earwax: Where’s it coming from and what’s it doing?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmne67g",
"gmnmbwq",
"gmoaev9"
],
"text": [
"Have you ever wondered what would happen if a roach or a fly crawled into your ear and got stuck there? The answer is earwax. It's made by the skin in the ear canal specifically to protect and clean the inner bits of the ear, while also allowing the ear canal to be a small enough hole to keep things like errant fingers and sticks from getting into it. If you leave your ears alone, they become self-cleaning under normal circumstances. The ear wax is continuously produced and slowly works its way out of the ear canal, carrying the little bits that get into your ear canal out with it.",
"The Stuff You Should Know podcast did an episode on this fairly recently if you want to give it a listen.",
"There are special glands in your ear canal that make the wax. This natural wax substance is there to moisturize and also capture dust, dirt and debris."
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|
lfr47i
|
What decides how “big” or how many gigabytes a video game is going to be to download?
|
i never understood this sole question: what is being downloaded when you download a game, and what makes each game however many gigabytes? Is it the 3d modeling of maps? The coding and game mechanics?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnd1pv",
"gmnehts"
],
"text": [
"Audio is huge. The whole script is often in several languages. Textures can be huge as well. Prerendered video. I think these 3 things are a large part.",
"While u/Vixxay is right in that most things grew, they did so at extremely different rates. The actual size of compiled code for example is still below 200 MB for almost every game there is. For most games more like 50MB. There are specific assest types responsible for the growth of game sizes, and that's first and foremost textures and prerendered videos. They have doubled in resolution multiple times in the last thirty years. And every doubling in resolution means four times as much disk space. Textures in AAA games now take up at least 16 to 32 times the space than thirty years ago. To a lesser degree the rest grew too, albeit a lot less drastically. Models have more polygons. Audio is maybe double the size than a decade ago. But the *absolute* brunt of it is textures."
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14,
5
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[
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lfrfoz
|
Why does a slice of bread keep cookies fresh?
|
We always out a slice of bread in with fresh baked cookies. It gets hard while the cookies stay fresh. My son asked why and honestly, I havent thr slightest. Just know it works. Also, if the bread touches the cookie it will make it soft where it touches.
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmngyr7"
],
"text": [
"The bread is relatively high moisture and as it dries out, the cookies absorb the moisture which makes them stay moist and fresh. If you put the cookies in a bag with uncooked rice for instance, the opposite would happen and the cookies would dry out and become hard."
],
"score": [
8
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lfrt2r
|
What is entropy and how does it helps to understand time in a scientific way?
|
I read that entropy is directly related with thermodynamics but is the concept of entropy different if I want to understand the perception of time? We know that the transformation of matter never regress. If you throw a cup of glass in the floor it will break into pieces but will never become a entire cup again on its own even if you gather the pieces together. If entropy did not existed and if we could see the broken cup rearrange into a full cup again could we perceive time going backwards? Do entropy make things easier to kill and destroy than create them? A house take months to be built but an explosion can destroy it in seconds for example. Another example things get dirty but cannot get clean and shiny by their own. Does that mean that things getting deteriorated and dirt with time is a sign of entropy as well? So time ( or the perception of time) exists because of entropy which makes us perceive it always going forward but never the other way around?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnn7tk",
"gmnh58s"
],
"text": [
"So one thing you should know about the universe is that it NATURALLY wants to minimize energy. I.e. the universe is lazy and wants to use as little energy as possible to do something. We don't know WHY it does this (this WHY question is beyond the scope of physics and enters the domain of philosophy) but we can see from observation that it does. For example, in the context of classical mechanics, a ball NATURALLY falls down. Why does a ball fall down? Because it wants to minimize its gravitational potential energy. When you raise a ball above your head, its potential energy goes like PE = m*g*h, where m = mass, g = acceleration due to gravity and h = height above the zero point (in this case the ground). So, the higher the h, the more PE the ball will have. When you let go of the ball, it will fall down, hence reducing h, hence reducing its PE. Another example is in the context of electrodynamics. It is well known that two like charges repel. Why? Because they want to minimize their electrical potential energy. The PE of an electric charge is: PE = k*Q1*Q2/r, where k is a constant, Q1 is one of the charges, Q2 is the other charge and r is the distance between them. If both Q1 and Q2 are the same kinds of charge (i.e. BOTH positive or BOTH negative), and you force them to stay together, you are making the r term very small (since you're decreasing the distance between the two charges). Now, if you let them go, they will NATURALLY repel each other, hence increasing r, hence causing PE to go down. Now, in the context of thermodynamics, the universe wants to minimize energy as well. But in the context of thermodynamics, the universe wants to minimize THERMAL energy (aka heat). This is why heat NATURALLY wants to go from where there's more of it (i.e. hot objects) to places where there's less of it (i.e. cold objects). Now how does entropy fit in? Entropy simply measures HOW WELL the system has minimized its heat energy. I.e. entropy measures how well the heat energy at any given point is minimized. If you have a lot of energy at one single point, then entropy is very low because that one point has a lot of energy, and other areas has very little energy. If you have small amounts of energy at a lot of different places, then entropy is very high because there's few energy at each location. E.g. say that you have a room. Say that you have allotted 5 units of energy to this room. Now, if all 5 units of energy is located at one single point (e.g. in one corner) of the room, then the entropy is very low because there's a localization of energy to only one single point. Hence, energy has not been minimized (i.e. distributed evenly). If instead, you have 1 unit of energy in each of the four corners of the room and 1 unit of energy in the center of the room, then entropy is high because now, that 5 units of energy has been minimized so that each point in the room has fewer energy. This is why entropy is sometimes said to measure how much energy can be extracted out of a system. Let's go back to our room example. It would be a lot easier for us to extract all 5 units of energy from one single location in the room using one single machine, than having to make five separate machines and going to those five separate locations to extract energy. In other words, a low entropy system (the room in which all 5 units of energy are in one spot) has more energy available for extraction PER POSITION/LOCATION -- I mean, in that one location in the room, there's 5 units of energy available for extraction! It's easier to extract more energy out of a low entropy system. On the other hand, a high entropy system (the room in which there's 1 unit of energy in five separate locations) has less energy available for extraction per position -- I mean, in any of those five locations, there's only 1 unit of energy available for extraction! It's harder to extract more energy out of a high entropy system. Now of course, if we input our own energy, then we can make five separate machines and go to those five separate locations so that we could still extract 5 units of energy. But in order to extract 5 units of energy from a high entropy system, we had to put in more effort from our side. Compare that to trying to extract energy from a low entropy system, in which we only use one machine and go to one location to extract 5 units of energy. As a side note, you might have noticed for each of the examples I gave (classical mechanics, electrodynamics and thermodynamics), I emphasize the word \"NATURALLY\". This is because the universe will not try to reduce its energy if YOU are putting in energy into the system. E.g. when you hold the ball over your head, you are expending energy in doing so. When you're holding the two charges together, you're expending energy in doing so. It's only when you are NOT inputting any energy into the system that the universe will minimize its energy. This is why the 2nd law of thermodynamics is only valid for an ISOLATED system -- a system in which no mass or energy can interact with the system. You holding a ball above your head means that you're inputting energy into the system; you forcing the two like charges together means you are inputting energy into the system and as a result of you inputting energy into the system, it won't minimize its energy (hence won't maximize its entropy).",
"Strictly speaking, you *would* eventually see the glass spontaneously reassemble itself. The laws of thermodynamics are probabilistic, not mechanical, and when you frame them the right way they basically just say \"if you pick a random state, you'll mostly find really common states\". But in practice, the probability of even slight violations of thermodynamics are so low as to be effectively zero for all practical purposes. For example, there is no physical law preventing you from flipping 100 heads in a row with a coin. But if you and every single other person on Earth did it once a second for your whole lives, it's still overwhelmingly likely none of you would ever get all 100 heads (the chance of even one success is one in a few hundred billion). And this system only has 100 degrees of freedom - real world thermodynamic systems have trillions of trillions. Part of why it appears to be fully one-way right now is that our Universe is very far from its \"most likely\" (i.e., high-entropy) state. Imagine that, say, you *started* with 70 coins on heads and 30 on tails, and flipped coins at random over time - you'd see a very steady and quick decline towards 50 heads and 50 tails, and would in all probability never return to 70 heads in any sane period of time."
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lfrt8w
|
How Time Is Relative?
|
I get that time can change depending on where you are in the world; however, I feel I have less of an understanding of time being relative after diving deeper into it.
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"gmnkw58",
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],
"text": [
"Time is relative because the speed of light is constant in all reference frames. Basically there is not a speed you can go that you will be able to observe the speed of light going any slower than 299,792,458 m / s (speed of light.) & #x200B; Lets say you are in a car going 30mph. Now lets say someone next to you is traveling 40 mph. Relative to YOU, they are only traveling 10 mph. In reality they are only traveling 40 mph relative to the earth. Even though that car in the first example is going 40 mph, it seems to get slower as you pull up to it. This is basic relativity. & #x200B; Like the speed of sound, or the speed of anything, everyone just assumed that the faster you go to catch up to an object, the slower that very same object appears to get. However, it was different for the speed of light because if you were to travel along a light beam, you would never be able to catch up to the speed of light! The speed of light travels 299,792,458 m / s. If I traveled at 299,792,45**7** m / s, 1 m/s slower than the speed of light, you would think that I would see light traveling at 1 m/s! But that doesn't work! light would still appear to be traveling 299,792,458 m / s. & #x200B; So if the speed of light is constant, then some other variable in the equation has to change. speed=distance/time Since distance and time relate to speed, they will always change the value of speed. So in order to keep the speed constant, you would have to warp both of those variables. & #x200B; That's where we get Time dilation and length contraction.",
"If time were absolute, time would always go at 1 second per second everywhere under all circumstances and everyone would agree it does that. This sounds reasonable, but science has shown this is not the case. Say you look at someone traveling fast relative to you, both of you have something that is supposed to repeat ever 1 second. You know you both have the same thing. Yet when you measure the the other’s guys thing, you find it’s repeating every 2 seconds. Physics says that every possible experiment you could throw at that would show it’s taking 2 seconds. Every possible interaction would prove that it’s happening once every 2 seconds. So from your perspective, that guy’s time is only going at 50% of the speed. But for the other guy, from his perspective the thing isn’t moving, for him it’s still repeating once every 1 second. Physics says that every possible experiment you could throw at that would show it’s taking 1 seconds. Every possible interaction would prove that it’s happening once every 1 seconds. You and all of science says the guy’s thing repeats 2 seconds, that guy and all of science says the guy’s thing repeats every 1 second. You are in disagreement because time isn’t an absolute, it’s relative. And none of this is purely theoretical either. GPS satellites have clocks accurate enough for time being relative to matter. They have to do math to compensate."
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lfs30x
|
How polygraphs exactly work and what makes them not admissible in court?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnicey",
"gmniofb"
],
"text": [
"1. They don't work. 2. #1 is why they aren't admissible in court. A polygraph measures certain physical responses like pulse, skin conductivity, blood pressure, and respiration. There is absolutely no solid scientific evidence to support the idea that any of these measures can reliably indicate lying, and in controlled studies polygraphs are no more accurate than random guessing.",
"Polygraphs read vital signs like blood pressure, pulse and perspiration while you're being interviewed. They're inadmissible because there's no science that says you're necessarily lying if any of these vital signs are abnormal during an interview. They're mostly used by police on dumber criminals to get them to confess to something the cops already think they did."
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[
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|
lfsb2l
|
Why the less sugar there are, the darker chocolate gets?
|
I like chocolate, especially milk chocolate, but I don’t like the overly sweet taste of it. I’ve been looking for less sweet varieties, but all I was able to find is sugar-reduced (or sugar-free) dark chocolates. Some claim to be sugar-free milk chocolates, but what it usually means is that they use some other sweetener, staying at least as sweet, essentially defeating the purpose of being sugar-free. Is sugar required to manufacture milk chocolate in some way? Or is just the market that limited that nobody is producing it?
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnjo2s",
"gmnroj4"
],
"text": [
"100% chocolate would be so bitter you would hate it. Chocolate needs sweetness to cut the bitterness and to taste good. Dark chocolate has less sugar in it but still a fair bit. Milk also had a natural sugar called lactose which makes it sweet.",
"I was a chocolatier for a decade so maybe I can help answer your question. You can find sweeter varieties of dark chocolate if you look into more “boutique” chocolate makers. You can tell by looking at the percentage of cocoa solids which should be labeled somewhere on the packaging. I’ve worked with dark chocolate getting into the 30% range which is in the same range as milk chocolate, it does exist. I’m pretty sure TCHO and almost certain Guittard (fun fact: the oldest family owned Chocolate producer in the US) carry varieties of “mild dark chocolate”. Bear in mind that there will still be some amount of bitterness, as milk works to blunt that. It helps to think of chocolate like a cup of coffee, a little milk and sugar goes further than sugar alone in changing the basic taste. It’s also the milk that primarily lightens chocolate in the process of chocolate making."
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[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lfsgeg
|
How does a computer know how long "1 second" is?
|
How does a computer know what length of time is one second long??
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnlhpc",
"gmnm67j",
"gmnkev4"
],
"text": [
"There's a tiny crystal made of quartz that shakes if you pump electricity into it. They found that it always shakes at more or less the same rate for the kind of circumstances most most humans can survive in. So they measure how often it shakes.",
"There's a little rock in there that jiggles at a consistent speed. They just count the jiggles. So like every 100,000 jiggles is one second (not actually this number).",
"Processors have an oscillator built into them that cycles with a known speed. The processor \"knows\" that this oscillator flips states X times a second, and it counts how many flips it's done."
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"url"
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lfsmyg
|
Is it safe to drink ethanol (medical alcohol) or add it to a drink?
|
Let's say I love Dr Pepper, and I want to make it "spicier" but not add any external flavor, can I add to it some ethanol, the same you use to clean infections and wounds? Of course, In small and calculated proportions ( for example a drink that would contain normally 30% vodka and 70% juice, make it in this case with 12% pure alcohol and 88% juice)? Because on the Internet I see people saying that yes, you can, and It's the same as drinking more pure vodka, and others say It's really harmful and you should never do it and that it contains cancerous substances
|
Chemistry
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
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"gmnm0y7"
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"text": [
"If its food grade alcohol then yes. Ethanol is ethanol. However, if you just got this from the drug store, it probably has other chemicals in it that will make you sick if you drink it. food grade ethanol that is used in chemical reactions or food processes is typically bought from a chemical supply company and they usually check your ID when buying.",
"No, as they mix in stuff to keep you from drinking it. I'd buy something like vodka or grain alcohol if you wanted this effect without danger or disgusting taste.",
"> can I add to it some ethanol, the same you use to clean infections and wounds? Isopropanol is used to clean wounds and infections. That won't do your kidneys any good and can render you blind. It is rubbing alcohol. Both wood alcohol (methanol) and rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) can blind and kill. Ethanol is the only alcohol you can drink. However, ethanol in commercial or industrial quantities may be denatured. If the quantity of ethanol consumed doesn't get you then the additives will.",
"Ethanol (or ethyl alcohol) isn’t medical alcohol, or typically isn’t. Ethanol is the drinking alcohol. Hypothetically ethanol could be used as a disinfectant, but that would just be a very high % alcohol solution. Typically medical alcohol is isopropyl alcohol. And drinking it can be very irritating to you stomach and digestive tract, possibly to the point of causing bleeding. Drinking it is probably going to cause you problems. Unless you’re just accidentally drinking a tiny little bit that’s diluted with something else, but you can’t really drink it like normal alcohol"
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lft0vi
|
Ants: from where do these tiny little ones come out when you drop food? Why are they not visible otherwise? Why are they always in packs and unending line?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnpqy0"
],
"text": [
"Most ants are underground in their nest (or some nest in trees). There are scouts who are looking for food. When they find food/water they lay down a scent and then walk back to the nest. All of the ants in the nest can then follow that scent all the way to the food. They're all following that scent on the ground in the same line the scout took to get home from the food."
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12
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[
"url"
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[
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|
lft1f9
|
What's the difference between the law of large numbers and the law of averages?
|
I tried reading more on them, but they sound the same. Edit: Answered
|
Mathematics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnpz5w"
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"text": [
"The law of large numbers is really deep, fundamental truth for statisticians and probability theorists. The law of large numbers says that, as the number of trials, or the population being considered, etc. grows large, the outcomes will converge toward reflecting the probabilities. If you toss a fair coin over and over again, the law of large numbers tells us that, as you rack up bigger and bigger numbers of tosses, the heads to tails ratio will more closely approach 50/50. So if you toss a coin 10 times, you should expect in nearly all cases to get a 50-50 split, give or take 20 or 30 percent. But if you toss a coin a hundred times, you should expect to get a 50-50 split, give or take only a few percent. If you toss a coin ten million times, it would be *very* unlikely for you to see even a 49%/51% spread between heads and tails. That's the law of large numbers. The \"law of averages\", is more of a popular misconception, where people think that, say, after a long run of heads, it becomes more likely for tails to come up, so as to bring the average *back* to 50%. This is sometimes also called the gambler's fallacy. The main difference is that the 'law of averages' imagines that the laws of probability have any memory of past events... like, as you get a bunch of heads in a row, the god of statistics has been keeping track of some kind of 'debt' which must be paid back. Nothing like that is happening. In the law of large numbers, nothing depends on past events in that way."
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lft6h4
|
Why are patents just "pending" all the time?
|
Why is it that we always see "patent pending"? I know it means a patent has been apolied for, but why does it take so long for patents to be processed that companies actually start manufacturing their products with "patent pending" written on it? Seriously, are any patents ever not pending?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnpk0v"
],
"text": [
"Often a company wants to bring their product to market before the long (25 month) patent process is complete. This doesn't mean that they aren't protected by their future patent, however. Since they still don't officially have the patent, they can't reference that patent number. Instead, they let any potential copy-cats know of legal protection by marking it as \"Patent-Pending\" & #x200B; Furthermore, once the product is ready to be patented, it is often almost ready to go to market. Waiting the extra time could mean not being the first to market for a new type of product, or becoming obsolete just waiting for the patent. No matter how you look at it, it's not worth waiting for the patent to be complete"
],
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11
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
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lftgtd
|
Why does squinting make it easier to see objects/text?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmo3q02",
"gmo8m17"
],
"text": [
"Basically only a small amount of focused central light rays are allowed into the eye. This prevents the unfocused light rays in the periphery from reaching the retina. The result is better vision.",
"Your eyes are automatically focusing (accommodating) to make sure the picture you can see is in focus. This is done by muscles that stretch and/or relax the lens in your eye to get the light to fall perfectly on the back of the eye. Your muscles relax to see things clearly in the distance, and tighten to see things clearly up close ie. reading. If you can see close things clearly, but far is blurry, you are short sighted and if you can see things clearly in the distance, but close is blurry, you are far sighted. This just means that for some distances, the eye is not able to focus the image on the back of the eye, which is why things appear blurry. The muscles that control the eye have limits though and some times you can \"assist\" the focusing process by scrunching your eye lids which changes the shape of the eye in such a way that the image falls perfectly on the back of the eye, which makes it look clearer."
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lftsw7
|
Why do pimples that grow in some places (like on the nose) hurt so much more than others places?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmops9c"
],
"text": [
"It's a combination of small things. To begin with, some parts of your body are just more sensitive to pain. Places like your eyelids, nose and lips just have more nerve endings than, say, your cheek or forehead. Your skin also varies in thickness, which can contribute to how much pain you feel. Thin, taut skin is more sensitive to swelling and pressure, versus looser, thicker skin. Another aspect is mobility. Skin which is constantly moving - flexing, bending, going taut and slack as you move - will \"feel\" the pressure of a pimple more. Your face - even your nose -moves more than you think it does. The pimple itself matters, too. A pimple happens when one of your pores gets blocked, and the sebaceous gland inside continues to produce oil regardless, leaving the oil no-where to go. Bacteria accumulate in the blockage, becoming an infection, and that's how you get a red, swollen lump. How severe the infection is, and how well your body is fighting it impacts how bad the swelling will get and how much it hurts. So remember; it's important to wash your face occasionally. It doesn't even need to be every day, just a couple times a week, with a face wash that will keep your pores clear and stop any blockages from happening. If you already have a pimple, resist trying to pop it - it'll heal much slower if you damage your skin by forcing it, and you risk mild scarring. Keep washing your face and cleansing it, and eventually your body will kill the infection and the swelling will go down."
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lfu7pi
|
What is it thats stopping my germs spray from killing 100% of the germs????
|
Does it need steroids?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnvsk5"
],
"text": [
"Most of the time, lawyers. If someone advertises that spray kills 100% of bacteria and can demonstrate somehow that some bacterium survived the washing, then they can be sued for false advertising. Leaving 0.01% just makes sure they cant be sued."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfubaq
|
Why do we feel like there are butterflies in our stomach when we're in love?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmnzshk"
],
"text": [
"It has to do with the blood in your stomach being absent. Same feeling as a roller coaster, it’s a reverse head rush for your stomach. The blood “rushes” away."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfv3pd
|
How does computer compression and decompression work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmo0oi3"
],
"text": [
"\"The car is the best car in the world\" X=the Y=car \"X y is x best y in x world\" Now imagine that in binary."
],
"score": [
7
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfvq98
|
What classifies a work of fiction as literature? How are genres determined and who makes those distinctions?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmog3en",
"gmo92ps"
],
"text": [
"Literature is any written documents or communication (including everything from personal letters to operations manuals to the Sherlock Holmes books): hence the phrase “instructional literature” that comes with everything from ikea furniture to mass spectrometers. If you’re asking about “great literature”, it’s defined by the public, the writer’s peers, and history. For instance, The lord of the rings is considered great literature because it has impacted a great number of fantasy writers since it was published. It has inspired the imagination of millions. It’s also extremely well written. All of these factor into the making of great literature. Webster states that a genre is: a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content. They are the groupings we use to define what type of literature a piece is. Pieces often fit into multiple genres. The distinctions between genres are generally made by consensus and the established by “record keepers” (librarians, professors, teachers, publishers, bloggers, etc.) The genre(s) a book fits into is determined by the publisher, author, librarians, fans, and whoever else feels qualified to speak on the subject. Yet again, it’s consensus. Also, it’s not written in stone. For instance, to an atheist, the Bible is, at best, a group of morality myths and deeply dubious historical record. To a Christian, it’s a divinely give text containing eternal truths and the history of his people and religion.",
"It is all literature, even news and non fiction. Literature is just the broad term for a work written with letters, then you have the subsections where it splits apart."
],
"score": [
6,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfxkcv
|
When a processor says it can perform 1 million operations per second, where is it getting so many instructions from and how is it able to handle them so quick?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmoqua3",
"gmodo79",
"gmp8i6s"
],
"text": [
"\"Instructions\" at the processor level, are basic operations on basic bits of data stored in memory. The most basic would be literally something like `Take the number stored $HERE and add $X to it.` $HERE represents an address in memory, and $X is maybe something the user typed. At the end of the day, computers just move numbers around, or compare them and make decisions. Nearly every complex thing your computer does comes down to a LOT of very, very simple instructions that basically look like `If $X is less than $Y then set $Z to \"true\"` (and on many CPUs, even that \"instruction\" would be broken up into lots of even simpler instructions.) It takes literally millions of these VERY basic instructions to do even the most simple (from a human perspective) stuff. Clicking a button on a website has millions and millions of instructions just to create the image of the button your screen, and millions more to animate the push of that button. It seems impossible at times, but when broken down to the absolute basics, everything a computer does could be done using nothing but LOTS (millions) of the simplest calculators... and a lot of scratch paper (that would be the RAM or memory) as well as other paper for long term storage (hard drives.) As for how it does them so fast, there ARE literally millions of \"calculators\" on a CPU, just shrunk down really, really, really small. Many of these literally do the job only of feeding instructions to the others. And when every one of these calculators operates (executes one instruction) at the \"clock speed\" of the CPU... Well, when you hear about a \"3ghz CPU\" that means 3 BILLION times per second every calculator on the chip could (potentially) being doing something. In reality, it usually takes a few clock cycles to execute most instructions, but it adds up quickly anyway.",
"In RAM, a processor can only read instructions from memory (although it can seem confusing, memory is not the same as storage, it’s different form hard disk or SSD), which can be RAM, or internal cache, both of which are incredibly fast, especially cache This is also why games need ~~losing~~ *loading*, the computer has to copy everything into RAM so it’s able to run the program",
"> where is it getting so many instructions from * It gets them from system memory. > how is it able to handle them so quick? * Computer processors are made by stacking a huge number (billions) of circuits together called transistors. * These transistors are tiny electrical gates. * When electricity walks up to the side of the gate, the gate lets other electricity through. * When the electricity walks away, the gate closes and the other electricity stops. * That very simple concept is the basis for every single complex things computers do. * And because we've figured out how to make the transistors very very small and use only the tiniest amount of electricity to do it's thing, we can operate then extremely fast."
],
"score": [
17,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfxksd
|
What happens to your brain when you’re tired and suddenly can’t sleep because you’ve passed the stage of sleepiness despite still being tired?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmoefh5",
"gmolqk4",
"gmoodub"
],
"text": [
"At \"bed time\" (based on your circadian rhythm) your body produces a hormone called melatonin that causes you to feel sleepy. If you stay awake long enough your body stops producing the melatonin and the sleepy feeling begins to go away.",
"Could also be due to stress hormones like cortisol. They're supposed to be highest in the morning, taper off throughout the day, and be lowest when it's time to sleep. But your adrenal glands may increase production at the wrong time of day and give you a \"second wind\" if you're too stressed out or preoccupied to rest.",
"Feeling sleepy is basically power saver mode for your body at 20%. It's done on purpose by the brain to remind you to sleep and recharge, by making you feel drowsy through pumping melatonin. After a while of pumping this hormone but you still aren't asleep, the body runs out of melatonin to pump, and you feel awake."
],
"score": [
115,
27,
9
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfxtdm
|
How do we know how old the planets are?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmoflyx"
],
"text": [
"We know that in the universe a lot of reactions take place similar to nuclear fission and fusion. There a lot of elements are created and we have a generic idea how long it takes for these elements to turn to their stable end states. Eg; radioactive metals take several million years to stabilize into lead. This is known as a concept of half life When we find a planet with lead in its composition then we assume it was a radioactive metal once and can reverse calculate it, combining it with other materials that we find or assume to be on the planet as they have different half life values . Some planets have Helium or hydrogen composition that are generated by fission as well and we can trace that back and tie it into other events as well."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lfyipj
|
How is our info based on our internet activity sold?
|
I know that our info is being sold in some way but not sure what kind and how.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmoizfc"
],
"text": [
"Your browsing habits (types of websites, topics you are interested...) are what are sold, along with personal info such as your name, address, phone number, etc. Basically if someone sees you going into a sporting goods store a lot, they’ll assume you like sports/sporting goods and start sending you advertisements for those types of things in the hopes that you’ll buy *their* products instead. Same thing for websites you visit."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfyor1
|
Ethereum and it's proof of stake.
|
I don't really understand what proof of stake is... I want to get into mining ETH and I don't know how this relates and no one seems to explain in simple terms.
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpk5r5"
],
"text": [
"There are two common ways of validating/accepting new blocks. One is proof of work, which is what f.i Bitcoin uses, and involves in a sentence \"Spending a lot of electricity finding a number that can be used to prove the block is valid\". This is fine and all, but many consider it wasteful and favoring those with large computing resources. Proof of stake is simply summed up as so: > When the network needs to validate a block it will pick a random validator on the network and ask it to validate it. Nodes with more coins or older coins associated with them are more likely to be picked than people with fewer, because they have a higher stake in the network. Essentially if I have 10 ETH \"locked\" in my validator node, and you have 50ETH locked in, you are five times likelier to be asked to validate it than I am. Now, there are some limits and safeguards to prevent the extremely rich from validating every time, but that's the jist of it. How can we trust the validators? Because they have stake in the network and need it to work. If they sign off on a faulty or manipulated block people will stop trusting the chain, and the coins they have will drop in value. You, as the validator, have stake in the system and want it to succeed so that you can sell your coins later for a profit (or use them as a currency, your choice). If playing dirty means you'll lose more than you gain then you have no incentive to not play fair. There are no \"miners\" in ETH, only validators; and Validators need to essentially put up collateral to have any real shot of being picked as a validator for a block. If you play fair you get rewarded and can cash out your rewards and the collateral you put as stake."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfyr1g
|
What is asthma, what does it do to our lungs, and what do inhalers do to help?
|
I'm also kinda looking for a succinct explanation that still covers a simple yet clear idea of what goes on with asthma and inhalers
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmosmop",
"gmonhl9"
],
"text": [
"Your lungs are made up of a \"web\" or tree of tubes, called bronchi. These branch out into thinner and thinner tubes, eventually becoming teeny tiny cul-de-sacs, called bronchiols. When you breathe in, the brochi and bronchiols inflate. The walls of the tubes are very, very thin. So thin, that oxygen you've breathed in passes right through the walls and into your blood, oxygenating it and letting you keep living. Oxygen passes especially easily through the brochiols, as they're so tiny and delicate. Asthma is a general term for illness which causes your bronchi to be inflamed and swollen, [like this]( URL_0 ). The actual root causes of asthma are myriad and often hard to determine - it's usually a combination of some external irritant and some genetic predisposition to it. Some people have chronic asthma constantly. Some people only get it occasionally or mildly. It varies. That swelling hugely reduces the surface area of the bronchi, and less oxygen can pass through with each breath you take. Often, the bronchiols - the tiniest tubes - close up entirely and become unusable. This makes you feel breathless. No matter how hard you try to breathe in, you'll never be able to get a full lungful of air, which leaves you feeling constantly short of breath. Inhalers are aerobic sprays containing medicines which force the tubes to open up more, to try and reverse this. The most common medicine in asthma inhalers is salbutamol - usually sold as Ventolin, the \"iconic\" light blue inhaler. It's a muscle relaxant that gives moderate, short-term relief. It can be used multiple times a day to give a \"quick fix\". For longer-term relief, asthma sufferers often also have a steroid inhaler (usually in a red inhaler case) - this helps the bronchi to grow stronger, and be less at risk of swelling. It can give medium to long term improvement, but comes with all the usual side-effects that long-term steroid use does. People with severe enough asthma will often have a medium-term muscle relaxant inhaler, which will be a mix of chemicals decided by their doctor. I believe the most common one is Serotide, in a purple case. This works with the steroid to try and maintain normal lung function.",
"Asthma is a general term for chronic inflammation or long term irritation of the airways to and in your lungs, making it difficult to breathe air in. Inhalers are for medicines that are delivered to your lungs in aerosol form, and are often bronchodilators which essentially relax the airways to help increase the amount of air flowing through your lungs."
],
"score": [
9,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://lungdiseasenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/shutterstock_312846968-1200x480.jpg"
],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lfzpmm
|
Why is matter referred to as 'information' when related to black holes?
|
Whenever I read an article about black holes or other enormous gravity wells, I always see something like "...and since information can't escape the event horizon...". A good article will go on to say something about matter being called information, but this confuses me. It seems to confuse some authors as well, as I occasionally see the term conflated with 'data'. If it's as simple as two similar terms, wouldn't it be good for science communication's sake to just keep calling it 'matter', at least outside of academia? If not, why do we call it 'information'?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmorhd5",
"gmongz1",
"gmotkgo",
"gmooj47",
"gmp97i5",
"gmp1lyk"
],
"text": [
"usually when matter does things in the universe, we know about it because we can see it--either through visible light or other types of radiation a black hole absorbs not only the matter itself, but _all_ of the things that might let us know stuff about that matter so 'information' in the black hole context doesn't refer to just matter, but matter PLUS everything that might tell us stuff about that matter. we say information to broadly assert that no clues of any kind may be found about matter after it enters",
"Information is even more general than matter. It also includes radiation and so on. Information is important because black holes seem to be the only exception to conservation of information (if they are, we aren't sure) Information in the physical sense is all the things you can know about something. All it's physical variables, size, shape, temperature, current velocity of each individual atom. Nothing of that can be recovered after something goes into a black hole, and causality as we understand it means we should be able to reconstuct the past from our current information (in theory, for practise we'd need everything completely exact wich is impossible). Black holes maybe contradict this assumptions because after it swallowed something you have no way to find out what it was.",
"Cool, a topic I can actually give some insight on. Information, when viewed in the perspective of matter and black holes, is more of a concept surrounding the intangible properties of matter, than matter itself. Think of it like this: Imagine you could create a computer simulation of the universe. In order to do so, you would have to simulate quarks, to simulate protons, neutrons, and electrons. This in turn means you can then simulate atoms etc etc. Everything you simulate, requires data. Quarks have spin, Elementary particles have charges that are based on the spin arrangements of the quarks they are composed of. Atoms have electron and proton arrangements that dictate their properties. With the correct data, you can make accurate simulations of the universe now. Given enough data and computer processing power, you can simulate the big bang, calculate and simulate every elementary interaction, and build the universe from scratch. You could tell which way what atom traveled, how it bounced off another atom, bonded with another atom, got ripped apart, and kept traveling. All those things that are happening to the \"atom\" I described, that is information. All that info, is basically the history of that particle that expresses itself in some form of physical sense. The direction it is traveling, can tell you where it came from. The isotope can tell you if it came from a specific reaction.nNow, in a realistic world, we don't have a super computer to simulate everything down to such degree, but we get a lot of information through other means. The thing with black holes is, once something goes in, it don't come out. So studying the information by studying the physical surface of the black hole is impossible. Black holes radiate hawking radiation, which is a by product of it's overall mass collapsing. Basically, black holes shrink over time until they radiate their entire mass away. Radiation doesn't really carry a lot of information from a black hole, besides where it came from. So that's what they mean with \"loss of information\": the loss of conceptual \"data\" from physical objects in the universe.",
"I don't think that in this case 'information' is meant as a synonym for matter at all. When matter falls into a black hole, it is still sort of there. We know at least how much matter there was because the black hole grew by that amount of mass. Matter/Energy can also sort of escape a black hole in the form of hawking radiation. However it is only the how much much of it that stays. everything else about the matter like the exact shape it took and how it was configured and everything like that, that we would consider information, gets seemingly lost forever. Stuff goes in all different and comes out. if it comes out at all. all the same. It is like writing a letter with ink. If you take all that ink from the letter, the ink is still there but the information it encoded on the paper is gone. This is not how we expect the universe to work. There a bunch of attempts to explain this seeming paradox, but nobody yet knows for sure what might really be going on.",
"Information is more than just the matter. If I throw a rock into the pond, I might not be able to see the rock anymore, but I can guess the size of the rock by the size of the waves, the position the rock fell in by the center of the ripples, and how long ago the rock fell in based on how far out the ripples have spread. A black hole erases not just the rock, but the ripples as well. In real life if something crashes into a planet or something, it will emit heat as well as other signs of what happened. Even after the heat signature can't be detected anymore by our equipment, it's *still there* just very faint and spread out. The heat signature will always be there, therefore leaving behind information, but a black hole sucks in the heat and everything else, effectively erasing this information.",
"Every bit of matter has data associated with it -- its mass, its position, its momentum, its electric charge, its relationship with other bits of matter, and so on. A molecule of fructose (a simple sugar) has the same mass and charge as a molecule of glucose (a different simple sugar), but we can tell the difference between them. This data is transformed by physical processes, but isn't fundamentally lost. Momentum is conserved, mass/energy is conserved, lepton numbers are conserved, angular momentum is conserved, etc. I can look at a pair of sugar molecules after a collision, see how they are spinning, how fast they are moving and along what paths, etc and calculate how they had been moving before the collision. I can look at the information inherent in a bunch of water and carbon dioxide molecules and trace back to determine if I got them from burning glucose or fructose. It is exceedingly hard to do so, impossible in practice, but the physical laws governing those interactions would allow it in theory. *In theory*, I could take a mix of fructose and glucose, put it in the same box that I recently removed Schrodinger's Cat from with a bunch of oxygen and a large brick of ice, but up the sugars completely, let the whole thing come to thermal equilibrium, and then carefully examine the resulting box of lightly carbonated water. I could determine how much glucose and fructose I started with -- not the total of both, but the individual amounts of each. I could tell you the size of the glucose crystals and the orientation of the fructose crystals. In theory, that is. In practice, there is no way to actually examine the resultant products carefully enough to actually do that, but in theory, I could. Even taking into account quantum mechanics, with the uncertainty principle, wave function collapse, and so on, I could in theory trace back the reactions and recover the information from when I put the stuff in the box. It changes when I add a black hole to the mix. There's a famous theorem which says that a black hole has limited information available from the outside: its mass, its electric charge, and its angular momentum. Other things, like its position and linear momentum, are observer-dependent and not fundamental to the black hole itself. There is no way to tell if 10 grams of glucose or 10 grams of fructose have fallen into the black hole once it has done so. In both cases, the mass has changed by 10 grams, the charge has remained neutral, and the angular momentum hasn't changed in different ways. So if I put a black hole in the box with the oxygen, brick of ice, and the mix of glucose and fructose, I can no longer tell, by examining the resulting products at the end, what the mix of sugars I started with was. I have lost information about the system. The matter isn't lost, but the information about the matter is not accessible. This isn't, itself, a problem. We can't see into a black hole to see the information in it. But there is no reason to assume it isn't still somewhere *inside* the black hole. I can't measure the position, momentum, etc of particles inside the black hole, but that doesn't mean that somehow that information isn't still around. It's there, but not accessible. Everything goes in, but nothing comes out, so we can't get any info about what's in. But there's a problem with this.... Black holes, according to the work of Hawking and others, radiate. Stuff *does* come out. That stuff is random, however, and doesn't contain any information about what is inside -- it's solely determined by the mass, angular momentum, and charge of the black hole. I dump 10 grams of mixed sugars into a black hole, and (eventually) I get back 10 grams of photons and other assorted small particles back. There's no information in the radiated particles about the sugar mix I started with, except its mass, charge, and spin. I lost the information needed to determine how much of each. Worse, since the black hole will eventually evaporate completely, I can't even say \"well, the information is still there, but it is even more tightly concentrated in the black hole, with extraneous information radiated away\". The black hole is gone. There's no place to hide that information. That's the \"information paradox\". The laws of physics are time-reversible. If you had perfect knowledge of now, you could predict the future *and* the past (although with quantum mechanics, those predictions may be probabilistic, not deterministic). With a black hole in the picture, some of that knowledge may be inaccessible, stuck in the black hole, so your predictions would be limited. But black holes radiate stuff which has information, information which is not believed to be correlated with the contents of the black hole. You can't tell much about the contents of the black hole from its radiation. Black holes eventually completely radiate away. With a black hole, you will eventually get to a state where even if you had perfect knowledge, and perfectly time-reversible laws of physics *and no black holes around anymore*, you will have lost the ability to calculate the past. You will have lost information."
],
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428,
93,
23,
14,
7,
7
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[],
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lg0r92
|
what is a labor union? What are the pros and cons? Why are people in favor or against them?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmoqt85"
],
"text": [
"An employer-employee power balance is - by nature - heavily skewed towards the employer. This imbalance can be addressed by legislation (granting more special rights to employees) and by a unionized work force (meaning the employer now has to deal with a large influential entity instead individual and vulnerable employees). A rational employer does not want this, of course, since it'll only result in a loss of leverage and power."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg0xt8
|
If pocket pets would never "willingly" climb into a hamster ball, what makes it acceptable for them to hop right onto an excercise wheel?
|
I know hamster balls are very bad for obvious reasons (no accessible neccessities, risk of injury, etc.) and most execercise wheels are way too small and end up hurting the animal's back. In that case, why are man-made excercise wheels so encouraged as key to a healthy pet when the animal could just run track around it's cage given the adequate space?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmos5e8",
"gmosd2z",
"gmpc5kd"
],
"text": [
"Define enough space? A hamster will run a good five miles every night on those little legs. In a wheel they can just go and keep going until they've had enough. Circling their tank is more of a start/stop than a good run.",
"I’m actually a little confused by the question. How is a hamster *more* safe out of their cage when not in a hamster ball compared to when they’re *in* a hamster ball? As long as you don’t allow them to do things like roll down stairs like a responsible pet owner, then how could they possibly get injured in a hamster ball?",
"Much of the problem here is that you’ve loaded the question, haven’t used proper, consistent quantifications, and have flawed logic. It’s not strictly true that hamsters won’t willingly climb into hamster balls. It’s not clear whether they can ever learn that an open hamster ball with a treat inside will lead to confinement in the ball. It seems unlikely they recognize the risks. It’s not difficult to find YouTube videos of a hamster going into a hamster ball willingly. Hamster balls and exercise wheels aren’t the same. A conclusion about a hamster ball doesn’t necessarily also apply to exercise wheels. You went from “most exercise wheels” (quantified) to “man-made exercise wheels” (unquantified). Which is it? Most? All? Many? Some? A few? Finally, you’ve ignored the obvious data. Hamsters, and other rodents, freely use exercise wheels in preference to running around their enclosures (though they do wander through their enclosures), though IIRC, they’re much less likely to use a wheel if their enclosure is very large. They can’t naturally get the distance from a typical enclosure that they get from their wheels. The reality is that most people aren’t going to have enclosures with enough space so that hamsters won’t feel the need to use the wheel. So as long as the exercise wheel doesn’t have dangerous problems, why shouldn’t it be encouraged? The existence of bad choices in exercise wheels doesn’t mean there are no good choices."
],
"score": [
8,
6,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
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}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lg14s8
|
How does the brain know which area of our body hurts?
|
We have 5 fingers on one hand, each finger have thousands of nerve endings which I believe are the pain sensors. So how does the brain know which finger, and where on that finger, the pain is coming from? Do we have EVERY nerve going up our spine to the brain or do they all multiplex into larger nerves to save space?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmosroc",
"gmq68kr",
"gmpvtlu"
],
"text": [
"Both. We have TONS of nerve endings throughout the body that collect at the spinal collumn. Think of electrical power lines. Big fat cables made by twisting hundreds of small wires together. Each nerve sends a signal when stimulated, thats how the brain knows where somethings happening",
"When you're born you don't know which thing you're feeling and you have to learn it by touching stuff til you remember what feeling comes from where",
"Sometimes it doesn't. There is a thing called \"referred pain\". That is when the pain you feel in one part of your body is caused by pain or injury to another part of your body. A good example is when a heart attack causes pain in your jaw."
],
"score": [
6,
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[],
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lg1ipq
|
what happens when inflation gets so large that even for the strongest currency, a loaf of bread costs 100s of whatever?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmot8mg",
"gmotouw",
"gmou93z",
"gmowheg"
],
"text": [
"People start burning the cash or finding other practical uses for it because the paper it is made of is worth more than its face value. Also the economy typically collapses and you see a lot of barter.",
"It depends very much how quickly it happens and what happens to wages. Go back a couple of hundred years and a loaf of bread from an English baker might cost a couple of pennies. Now you might pay hundreds of pennies for a loaf. Is this a problem? Not really, because the change happened over a long time, and because wages also went up a lot. If it had happened over a much shorter period or if wages failed to keep up, then it's more of an issue. At the extreme you have hyperinflation, where prices could rise a hundredfold in a week, and if you get any cash you try to spend it as quickly as possible.",
"You might be confusing two different things. The denomination of the currency is not equivalent to inflation. Prices in Korean won or Japanese yen are typically in the 1000's and 100's respectively. These currencies have not encountered significant inflation. Inflation is the drop in purchasing power of the currency over time (typically measured year to year). So a currency that undergoes a large inflation ends up having lots of zeroes at the end if the inflation is unchecked. A bit of inflation is generally considered normal. But too much inflation risks the loss of confidence in the currency (local large and/or long term transactions will occur in a foreign currency) This also leads to difficulty for citizens who have saved money or fixed incomes like retirees. Hyperinflation which means really, really large inflation results in the local economy being destroyed. Not even small businesses can operate, no one can import goods - trade essentially halts. Without businesses, farmers cannot or will not sell their goods, no one makes basic necessities. Skilled workers leave the country, citizens transfer their assets where possible to other countries. Society and government breaks down. Without external rescue, there will almost certainly be internal strife, civil war or revolution.",
"Do what Mexico did about 30 years ago, slide the decimal 3 places to the left and print new currency. They had new pesos and old pesos. An old $1,000 peso was equal to a new $1.00 peso. To avoid confusion the new pesos were distinctly different."
],
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9,
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|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
] |
|
lg2b65
|
What's the reason behind asian people's eye shape?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmovxl8",
"gmpdiu9",
"gmq3f88"
],
"text": [
"There is no complete evolutionary explanation for the apparent slant of the eyes common to Asians. The configuration results from a fold of skin of the upper eyelid, the epicanthic fold, which tends to cover the inner corner of the eye. Dr. Frank Poirier, a physical anthropologist at Ohio State University, says the classical explanation of epicanthic fold depicts it as an adaptation to the tropical and arctic regions where many Asians live. The fold is described as a sun visor protecting the eyes from overexposure to ultraviolet radiation or as a blanket insulating them from the cold. According to Poirier, the problem with this theory is that a substantial portion of the Asian population evolved in areas outside of the tropical and arctic regions. In addition, he says epicanthic fold is not limited to Asians. ''John F. Kennedy had a variance of the fold and it is found among Europeans, especially the Irish,'' he said. ''It`s just less prevalent.'' The fold is also found among infants worldwide. Poirier attributes the fold to pleiotropic genes--single genes that control more than one characteristic or function--but he has no explanation for its origin.",
"There are many variations that cannot be explained as giving a specific advantage or being a specific adaptation to an environment. When a particular variation becomes common in a region it begins to be viewed as \"normal\" other variations are viewed as \"abnormal\". Over time this perception (normal vs. abnormal) drives who is considered attractive or ugly. Individuals with attractive features would tend to have more offspring, making the feature even more common over time. This is called sexual selection, because it is determined by how mates are chosen. In the case of the Asian eye fold, this may have been a feature of the people who originally settled in this location coming from Africa, probably just due to random chance. Genetically, everyone outside of Africa was descended from a small number of people who left, which would open the door for a feature that might be rare among all people, to become more common among those people who are genetically isolated.",
"So the theory is/was that Asian populations evolved on a high altitude steppe and that the fatty deposit under the eye protected from reflecting light from the ground. The issue is that many populations of humans (like, you know, Africans) lived under extreme sunlight and have the 'round-eye'. The more likely explanation, and plainly more boring one, is that a population of human-like species left Africa (the Denisovans, maybe?) that had a higher prevalence of the gene that causes the 'asian eye' and then selected mates with those eyes because they were more attractive to them for one reason or another. Since human-like species had comparatively small populations compared to other mammals, and modern humans, you wouldn't have needed a whole lot of selection to select for a trait."
],
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35,
6,
3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg2my2
|
Car thermometers, how do the get the correct temperature without interference from engine heat/wind drag etc?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmozece",
"gmoz42m"
],
"text": [
"Ok, i assume you mean the thermometers that tell you the outside temperature, and NOT those used to monitor interior/engine/... temps. Engine - just dont place it near the engine. The hood itself is full of conducting metals, but any other place should be fine. Wind - wind actually helps getting the correct reading. What wind does (for dry objects) is accelerate heat transfer, so the thermometer will adapt faster to the air temperature. A thermometer in 10° air without wind will show the same temperature as one in 10° air with wind - the one with wind will adjust to the correct temperature faster. What WILL falsify the reading is moisture, especially when its windy and hot (due to evaporative cooling) - this could be dealt with by placing the sensor in a place thats protected from water splashes and rain.",
"The wind is your friend if you like to measure temperature. So you put the sensor where air from the surrounding will blow over it before the car can heat it up, the simplest way would be in front of the engine. The wind chill is relevant you try to keep something warmer or colder than the air like a human but for a sensor that should be at the same temperature as the air wind simply make it faster to respond to a change in air temperature. You as a human-like to stay at a constant temperature. So you put on clothes to reduce the rate heat can leave your body. If the rate is the same as you can produce heat you will keep a constant temperature. If you replace air around you and from your clothes that you have heated up with new cold air you will cool down faster. The feal like temperature is help for you so you can determine the number of clothes you need. The value is calculated from a model of a human in a specific set of clothes and a bare face walking into the wind, it is not a general value for how the extra cooling effect of wind. That is why wind chill is important for you. The air is not cooler because of the wind it can just cool you down to its temperature faster. If the goal is to cool down an object to the same temperature as the air the wind will cool down faster. The wind will increase the speed at the temperature drop but not what temperature the object will be finally reached. The air can only cool down an object to its own temperature. The win will result in faster cooling but the final temperature is the same. & #x200B; The result is a temperature sensor it an object you like to have at the same temperature as what you measure. So the wind from the car moving will result in a quicker change in temperature. What you like to keep the sensor away from is direct sunlight because it can heat it up."
],
"score": [
9,
3
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg33qy
|
How do sperm know where to go? How do they know what to do when they get there?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmp45eb",
"gmp187k",
"gmp3l82"
],
"text": [
"They follow a chemoattractant gradient. Imagine you know that there is a large bag of candy that has broken open very violently somewhere near you. The candy is dispersed over a large area, but there will be more candy closer to the bag and less further away. As you walk around looking you find a pieces of candy but you always turn in the direction where you find the most pieces of candy closest together. Eventually you will get to the bag because that is where the highest concentration of candy is. Sperm are basically a sack of genetic material with a motor on the back and a bunch of receptors on the sack. Which ever side of the sack has the most receptors picking up the chemo attractants is the direction the sperm turns. In reading up on this it looks like last year a study came out showing that some eggs and some sperm are more attracted to each other than others. I didn't see anything about the mechanism of that or what it means overall but it's interesting.",
"Sperm have a protein that somehow directs them toward the egg, and the egg will only allow the protein from it’s species, and more specifically the egg chooses the best or perceived strongest sperm into the egg.",
"Cells are equipped with receivers (or keyholes)of thousands of different kinds. Sperm cells have a key that opens the door with the keyhole on the egg and the sperm provides the male's DNA while the egg has the DNA from the female to complete the brand new human. The sperm's journey is merely physics and luck. If a sperm cells happens to reach the egg, then congrats but there's bumps, crevices and fluids etc that could stop the sperm on the way there and it'll die off shortly after. Many couples have to try many times before she's successfully impregnated."
],
"score": [
20,
4,
3
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"text_urls": [
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg3487
|
Why cars can go like 200 km/h but the limit in most highways is like 120 km/h?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmp0ua2"
],
"text": [
"Two main reasons: 1) If the car could only just reach the maximum speed on the highway, it would probably slow down while going up hills, and it would be screaming along at very high revs as well. If it's designed to have a top speed much higher than the legal limit then it will be able to comfortably reach and cruise at the legal speed. 2) Not all countries have the same speed limits--for example, there are some roads in Germany with a speed limit of 155mph. There's no point in building your car to match the top legal speed limits in one of your markets, because then you have to re-engineer it for other markets where the limits are different."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg3imf
|
What happens in brains during the attack phase of migraine? Why some attacks are more severe than others, even with medication?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmp8b3y",
"gmp4bvd"
],
"text": [
"Generally, we don't know. We don't understand migraines yet. We're still researching them to learn more.",
"functionally it is blood vessels in the brain constricting. this causes that tension squeezing unpleasant sensation. there are hundreds of different causes for this. i suffer from them and its due to sensitivity to nitrates and MSG. chemical reactions trigger the squeeze. consider a muscle cramp. sometimes it just a little ouch, other times you cannot walk from it. there are tons of biological factors and such that influence this."
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
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}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg3m01
|
How does the voice in your head that you hear when you read things work?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmp3pjp",
"gmp3zpr"
],
"text": [
"The internal voice (internal monologue, inner speech) isn't necessarily anyone's actual voice, but certainly can be. You can even train it to sound like just about anyone you want to, but it usually sounds like what we imagine our own voice to sound like because most of us have no idea what our voices actually sound like. It's not very well understood, even though psychologists have been studying it for hundreds of years. We know it activates the same regions of the brain as regular speech, just to a slightly lesser degree.",
"I recall reading somewhat recently that some people apparently have a link between their frontal lobe and their auditory processing centers of their brains, causing their thoughts to become hallucinations of sound. This isn't the case for everyone however. About 25% of people do not hear their thoughts or what they read. I do not at all."
],
"score": [
8,
7
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
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}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg3xx2
|
Is captcha really effective against bots? If yes, how is it effective?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmp5csc"
],
"text": [
"They are somewhat effective. It is fairly difficult for machines to understand the contents of an image as anything other than \"an image file\". We take for granted all the things out eyes and brain process for us automatically. Teaching a machine these things is an incredibly costly and time consuming endeavour. In fact, you help do it sometimes without realizing it. Google is a bug fan of those, \"click every picture that contains a car\" captchas... these actually help with machine learning. These days there is more AI and machine learning and they will gradually become less and less useful as those become more commonplace. For the time being however individuals have limited access to those kinds of resources making captchas a still somewhat effective tool at doing what they do. Their only real function is to slow down account creation and make it difficult for a machine to generate thousands of fake accounts."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg41tg
|
How do green screens work?
|
Technology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmp58v5",
"gmp68od",
"gmp6mdw"
],
"text": [
"Green is a colour that isn't very common in humans. At best some people have green eyes, but even then, not typically the same kind of green as the green screen. As such, we can aggressively remove the background automatically without having to manually define the edges of the foreground. In old days there would be a chemical process to remove the green from one layer of film and then it could be played back with a different background. In modern times, this is done completely via computer.",
"Strictly speaking it's not necessary. Even videoconference software now can use image processing algorithms to automatically determine which part of a video is the person vs the background. The results aren't perfect, but for cheap software working in real time, it's pretty good. A green screen just makes the software's job easier by creating a clearer contrast between the person and the background.",
"It doesn't *have* to be a green screen, it just has to be a color that isn't being used in the rest of the set and costuming design, which is often light green. In modern times, they use a computer to filter the color of the background out for the rest to be superimposed onto another video. In films like Hulk, where there might be a lot of green on the actors, they might switch to a blue screen or pink screen for their masking, or just make sure that the green they're using for the characters is substantially different from the green screen. Green is most commonly used because it is distinctly not similar to all shades of human flesh. The process began in the earliest methods of filmmaking, with black matte draping being used to superimpose actors into footage via double exposure."
],
"score": [
6,
4,
4
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg4vun
|
Does the immune system get weak or “rusty” having not had to fight off human spread infections for over a year while in quarantine?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpjuwt",
"gmpbu5r",
"gmqodpv",
"gmpftka"
],
"text": [
"It really depends upon the organism being bacteria or virus. Nobody knows how long Covid-19 vaccines will offer immunity, yet. Also different vaccines will vary. Chicken Pox vaccine (varicella) lasts \\~40-50 years, then immunity lessens, that's why there is a Shingles vaccine for elders. Measles last your lifetime. Tetanus should be re-vaccinated every 6-10 years. The yearly flu (influenza) lasts only about a year, but not because the immune system weakens, it's because the virus changes and the body no longer recognizes it. Vaccines or the natural infection itself (such as chicken pox) give the same immunity. With chicken pox whose immunity lasts about 40 years, it is the immune system getting weaker. With influenza, it's \"I don't recognize this enemy.\" With Tetanus it's \"I forgot how to fight this.\" Not all mutations are bad. Back around 2009 the \"swine flu\" hit the world, another pandemic, but the virus mutated so much that it pretty much was no longer a big issue. Unfortunately Covid-19 is not being so polite, but it also could mutate into a friendlier form, or as you've heard a \"worse\" one. In this case it's not more harmful, it simply spreads easier. Covid-19 vaccines are most likely going to become an annual thing, maybe even mixed with the flu shot. Remember though that vaccines can give \"partial immunity.\" This means that while you might become ill, you might not become seriously ill.",
"The immune system does not exactly work like a muscle that needs exercise in order to work. So your immune system is generally in the same condition now then it was a year ago. The exception to this is the parts of the immune system used for detecting foreign species, the antibodies and B-cells. But the reason these need regular exposure is to know what kind of foreign species they should be looking for. They are still able to detect any new pathogens without issues. However your ability to withstand previously encountered viruses and bacteria does slowly go down over the decades unless you encounter them again. On the other hand viruses mutate so fast that you are unlikely to face the same pathogens with a few years interval anyway. But I am certain that immunologists and virologists are working overtime trying to collect as much data as possible from this unique scenario we are in and are very exited to observe what will happen once we resume normal social protocols. It might be that the flu vaccine is more important now then it have ever been.",
"Short answer: No Long answer: Unless you live in a hermetically sealed environment, your body has been fighting bacteria, virus, fungi and every other type of microbe 24/7, every day, without fail, quarantine or not. Our immune system is \\*always\\* on just waiting for something to challenge it....it does not stop....ever. Kind of like the terminators.",
"The immune system doesn't get rusty from lack of use but clearly it is not as efficient as we age. A year or so out will probably be unnoticed. There is a germ theory that our clean environments can make our immune system over active which can cause allergies or autoimmune diseases. We are still not sure if this is why we are seeing more allergies and autoimmune diseases than we saw 50 years ago. So I wouldn't say that being away from pathologans for a year will cause more people to have allergies or autoimmune diseases, but it might be possible. Also realize even if you are not around other people you are still likely being exposed still from food. Even when you do your best to keep everything clean and free of pathogens it doesn't take long for bread or other food to get some foreign species on them even if it's not enough to see them!"
],
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72,
21,
8,
5
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg5jq2
|
What are the requirements for a scar to form instead of a full recovery?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpoiph",
"gmr3msm",
"gmqk05f",
"gmqss1l",
"gmr5ico",
"gmqpjkc",
"gmrzbjs",
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"gmrjyjj",
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"text": [
"Your skin can only regenerate from the bottom up (the deepest layer) so if the wound is deep enough that you lose the bottom layer it can’t regenerate. If that happens, the connective tissue that lives underneath the skin has to grow into that space to heal up the area. That tissue, what we call a scar, is made up of entirely different cells than your skin so it doesn’t look the same or function the same as the skin it’s replacing.",
"Most of this thread has focused on scars and skin. However, muscles can also scar. If you tear or badly strain a muscle, the damaged muscles will regrow, but muscle fibers may not regrow in the right pattern needed for movement and range of motion. Think of muscle fibers as self contracting ropes that can pull joints to rotate them. If you cut a bunch of the ropes then randomly attach ropes haphazardly in different directions, then the ropes won't pull as well overall and the added ropes may actually hinder the desired pulling motion. This muscular scar tissue is the correct cells but they are aligned badly for performing motion. Right type of replacement cells, bad alignment = muscular scar tissue. While common advice is to rest a strained muscle until it heals, most athletes have learned to start moving (with minimal resistance at first) a strained muscle as soon as sharp pain subsides. This seems to encourage muscle fibers to grow back in the right pattern needed for motion rather than growing back as scar tissue. So to directly answer your question: for muscles, moving the muscles relatively soon after injury seems to prevent muscular scar tissue from forming. (Of course this is not meant to be medical advice consult your own doctor (preferably a sports medicine doctor) if you suffer a muscle strain. Also research the \"Starr Protocol\" for advice from weightlifters on what to do with a muscle strain.)",
"Basically, if you damage your skin to the depth below hair follicles, it forms scars. If you damage it above the level of hair follicles, it regenerates fully. This is pretty much the requirement you are asking about. And as to the mechanism, it has to do with different cells being at different levels of the tissues, different connections, different structures. There are a lot of mechanisms and reasons at place, and while you'll see some comment that it's \"fibrous tissue being formed instead of cells\", that's like saying Sun transfers heat to Earth - it's not nearly enough of an explanation and doesn't at all show the reality of the mechanism. In fact, the exact process of scar tissue formation and the exact criteria that alter it are still not well researched, so, sorry in that regard.",
"Cuts heal by either the two sides rejoining together or in layers from the bottom up. The second way is more likely to create scars. Source: URL_0",
"Is this the same with acne scars? What happens with that?",
"There's a few factors. I am not sure why, but darker skin tones are more prone to developing keloid scars. From personal experience if a wound becomes infected, it is more likely to scar. Also, keeping a wound clean and hydrated will allow it to heal quicker and less likely to scar. A good example of this is tattoo aftercare.",
"What about stretch marks? Aren't they scars? Seems like it would be a different situation than the \"deep cut\" cause of most scars discussed so far.",
"In relation to the OPs question, how does this work with internal scarring of the lungs etc?",
"I kinda have a follow up question to this, what are keloid scar? I've got it, just always seen it as I scar slightly different, often more noticeable. Does keloid follow the same process in some ways but then last minute decide to scar outwards?",
"Fun fact: the major fiber component of scarring is collagen which is unable to form without vitamin c, so if you get scurvy (not enough vitamin c) your scars open up."
],
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"https://teachmesurgery.com/skills/wounds/wound-healing/"
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg5wr3
|
Where did the pre-WW1 war=adventure mentality come from?
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpidsn",
"gmpyxy7"
],
"text": [
"Many pre-WWI were imperialistic/colonial in nature. Soldiers would be sent to an exotic, foreign, uncivilized land, subjugate and \"civilize\" the natives, put a loyal government into place, and start collecting profits from trade/resources acquired from the new colony. For many people, this seemed like an adventure. Instead of working the \"9 to 5\" (depending on whether labor laws had started being implemented or not) at the local factory, they could travel the world on the government's pay and come back with trophies from far-flung places and stories of how they conquered the \"wilderness.\"",
"There are a few different reasons behind this. Part of it is the propaganda from the times, downplaying the horrors of war and trying to make it sound noble or engaging. In the times before freedom of press this tended to work pretty well for the various ruling monarchs. This is especially prevalent in the attitudes of war between European factions/nations. Another is the natural conflation of history over time. To us hundreds of years later the adventures of Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition, Darwin's journeys of discovery, and Columbus's discovery of the Americas can easily begin to bleed together. Especially when our education systems tend to downplay historical atrocities and wars of conquest such as those committed by Columbus. There is also an expansionist and imperialist history that, while not always involving direct conflict, was also often conflated with or likened to active war. The settlement of much of Africa and Australia by Europeans for example."
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
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[],
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg65fq
|
How does resting meat work?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpipac"
],
"text": [
"The fluids inside cooking meat aren't static. It flows inside the meat due to thermal dynamics (like magma inside ourplanet). Resting the meat allows those juices to more evenly disperse throughout the meat. Cutting the meat while it's unevenly distributed will lead to the juiciest portion just simply losing all that moisture on the plate, thus making the meat overall drier. Also compounding this is those juices are lower viscosity when hot, and more prone to flowing out. Due to the fat content, they thicken somewhat as they cool, making them stay in the meat better."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg7q48
|
Why on very hot days, inside a pool are there parts where the water is warmer and there are parts that it is cold, without having a pattern?
|
Physics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpwhy2"
],
"text": [
"There is always a pattern/current, but the currents from the pools filter might be imperceptibly small. Water warms faster the shallower it is, but that cold water lower down is also cooling the water above it at the same time. This means that the deep end of a pool will be colder than the shallow end even near the surface. If your pool seems to have random areas where it's warmer or colder, it's possible that this is caused by currents from the filter, or it could be that some areas were covered by shade earlier and haven't had as long to heat up."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg7vob
|
How does a country "give money" to another country with a different currency?
|
Economics
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpuar8"
],
"text": [
"Here in the USA, foreign aid isn't airplanes full of cash (that's done for different reasons) or wiring them a deposit. It's more like the country gets a USA gift certificate to buy stuff here and bring home. So if you read that the USA gave Tiny Country $50 million in aid, that really means Tiny Country can place orders with US companies for that much worth of construction machinery, farming equipment, machine tools, etc. and also pay for the US flagged ships it has to be delivered in."
],
"score": [
8
],
"text_urls": [
[]
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}
|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
|
lg8x05
|
Apart from keeping our eyeballs moist, does regular blinking serve any other purpose?
|
Probably a silly question but I understand the only reason we regularly blink is to keep our eyeballs moist. Does the movement of the eyelids themselves serve any other purpose? For e.g, what will happen if I don't blink for a whole day and use eye drops to keep my eyes moist instead? PS: I apologize for overusing the word "moist"
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmpytm5",
"gmpyzch"
],
"text": [
"They wipe away dust particles and other foreign objects that are constantly accumulating on the surface of your eyeball. Drops alone probably wouldn't do as good of a job, you'd likely end up with a film of junk.",
"It also squeegees particulates off your eyeballs. There’s a lot of dust and dirt and pollen in the air that does get into your eyes. Blinking helps mechanically remove it before it builds up and starts sanding your eyeballs."
],
"score": [
7,
4
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|
[
"url"
] |
[
"url"
] |
lg956m
|
How penguins drink water?
|
Biology
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
"a_id": [
"gmq0cxr"
],
"text": [
"Penguins have a special gland that separates salt from water, allowing them to drink seawater. Only emperor penguins while overwintering with chicks in inland Antarctica are ever in a position where they need to drink snow, as other Antarctic penguins live on the coasts and most penguins live further north along the southern coasts and islands of Africa and South America."
],
"score": [
10
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"text_urls": [
[]
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}
|
[
"url"
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[
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|
lg99r0
|
- Medical insurance deductible and how it works
|
Other
|
explainlikeimfive
|
{
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"text": [
"It's the amount you have to pay before insurance starts paying something. Different insurance plans have different rules for the deductible.",
"A deductible is what you owe before insurance kicks in. It's your \"skin in the game\". You \"deduct\" the deductible from the bill and that's what insurance pays. You pay the difference. Suppose you have a $1000 bill and a $100 deductible. You pay $100 and insurance pays $1000 - 100 = $900. A deductible is generally there to prevent the insurance company from handling really small claims (which is a waste of time/effort for everyone), and giving you some financial involvement at a meaningful-but-not-crippling level to encourage making smart(er) choices about what medical services to pursue. Many insurance plans have an \"out of pocket limit\"...a cap on the total amount you pay. Once you hit that, you don't have to pay any more. Suppose you have a $100 deductible and a $2500 out-of-pocket limit. After 25 claims (each one you paid $100), you've hit your $2500 out-of-pocket limit. On the 26th claim you don't have to pay the deductible anymore, the insurance company will pick up the whole bill. Out-of-pocket limits exist to make sure you don't get screwed (financially) by a huge number of individual claims if something really bad happens.",
"The deductible is the amount you have to pay for your insurance to start paying. Let's say you have a $500 deductible. A procedure costs $2000. You pay your $500 deductible and then your insurance pays the remaining $1500.",
"Assuming US here. Deducible is what you pay before health insurance kicks in. Co-insurance is what the insurance will pay. Maximum out of pocket is the limit of what you can be charged for claims within the allotted timeframe. So lets imagine you have the following health insurance planDeducible: $500Co-pay: 50%Maximum out of pocket (MOOP): $4000 And the following 3 bills come up during your health insurance term that qualifies for your insurance as explained in your explanation of benefits. Bill is what you are charged 1. Health CheckupBill: $100 2. X-rayBill: $1000 3. SurgeryBill: $10k The first bill comes up and you have nothing contributed towards your deducible so you have to pay 100% of the bill. What you spend on the bill is credited towards your deducible so now you have $400 remaining. Second one comes along and since you still have not met the deductible, you will have to finish contributing to it first. $400 goes towards your deducible and you have now met the requirements for it. The last $600 of the bill is split according to the co-pay so you pay another $300. Final bill comes along and you pay of your portion of the bill. Doing some math shows we only have $3200 left to pay for the policy. You pay that off and insurance takes care of the rest until the next insurance cycle where everything resets. Pic which shows it a bit better[Deducible, Co-pay, and moop]( URL_0 )"
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[
"https://ascensioncaremanagement.com/-/media/Images/ACM/Newsletter/July-Newsletter/Medical-Plan-101-image-2.png"
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}
|
[
"url"
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[
"url"
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