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n8gqe3 | How does it work when mothers get the strength to lift a car off their child? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's called hysterical strength and it's thought to be that the body pumps out adrenaline in extreme situations but there is not that much evidence or research behind it. It's kinda hard to simulate the circumstances of life-and-death in a proper, effective and ethical way. Most examples (like parents lifting cars) are anectodal.",
"Our good old friend adrenaline. Usually you can't use the full potential of your muscles; your brain stops you from exerting them to the point of serious damage. Adrenaline is a chemical your body can secrete in dire circumstances that can override that instinctive block. Your heart rate spikes, blood vessels open more, pain is muted, and you can exert your muscles to the point of damage and beyond. Thats the theory at least, its a hard one to test properly"
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n8gxnm | Why does wetting your lips help you whistle? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Slippery enough to make the correct form, accompanied by less friction for the air to Break up on."
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n8gxum | How do people come up with math formulas or equations by just observing the world around us? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"So, there's a bit of a mix of looking for patterns, knowing what certain relationships look like, and thinking about how stuff relates. Let's take a basic example. Suppose you have a bunch of square tables. Each table can fit four chairs round it, one on each side. But now you join two tables together. If they were separate, you'd get 2•4=8 chairs. But together, you can only get 6. You keep adding more tables in a row and seeing how many chairs you get. 3 gives 8 chairs, 4 gives 10, 5 gives 12, and so on. What about 100 tables? One way to look at it and just spot the pattern. It goes up by 2 chairs every time. You could keep counting up by 2 and see where you get. Another way is to think about what's going on. Each table basically gets two seats. Plus, we get an extra two seats, one at each end. So if t is the number of tables and c is the number of chairs, we get that c=2•t+2. Then for t=100, c=2•100+2=202. There are other ways to look at it. If you plot the first few numbers, you'll see it's a straight line. You can use something you maybe already know, the formula for a straight line (y=mx+c). Maths and physics are all about spotting this sort of pattern. Maybe you throw an object and realise the movement follows a parabola. You maybe also know different rules about parabolas, so you can apply them and see if the pattern fits.",
"A combination of repeated observations to build up trends, and developing theories to explain those trends and deriving new equations from them. For example Keppler derived his laws just by analyzing years of astronomical data and trying to determine what relationships matched the data, that ended up being planets moving in elliptical orbits. Newton was able to prove this should be the case using the laws he developed to explain motion. Once you have newtons 3 laws you can realize that a force which decays with the square of distance and proportional to mass would cause elliptical orbits exactly like those seen by Kepler, from this you get Newtons law of Gravitation."
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n8h81s | Why is nudity viewed differently in the USA than in Europe? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because America was founded by evangelical puritans, to put it in simplest terms. America is about 50 years behind most of Europe in terms of societal progress, and the gap is getting wider thanks to American conservative reactionism.",
"Religion plays a part. Sex is dirty, ergo nudity is something to be shameful of. Still find it bizarre that graphic violence in media is more acceptable than nudity/sex.",
"All the crazy religious people in Europe were the ones crazy enough to get on boats to cross the Atlantic",
"Way back in the 1600's and 1700's, the British people who were too prudish for the Church of England immigrated en mass to the American colonies and became the fore-fathers of the USA. The effects are still felt to this day.",
"Europe is pretty damn big and diverse. Scandinavia is very open, Italy is far more similar to the US. Even in Germany itself, Eastern Germany is far more lax than say, Munich. A better question would be, why is the US so frightened of nudity? I don't know what the reason is, but I suspect it is the same reason as anything that deals with \"think of the children!\" types.",
"Religion. There's a huge religious vein running through America from its inception. The settlers were religious and they felt Europe was too lax with their views so they came over here to worship freely. This didn't go away. Some cities are more secular than others but most of rural America has more steeples than anything else. Sometimes two to three churches for a town that has one road and one traffic light. South Carolina for example has a law that says no one building can be taller than the tallest church steeple. There's Utah that's mostly developed and inhabited by Mormons, there's the vast mega churches in the south that make up huge voting blocks, Catholics are sprinkled throughout everywhere and have lots of money and influence to play around with, protestants, baptists etc and that's not even touching the various other religious blocks that exist like Jedaism and Islam and everything else. The Christian religions have hard boiled guilt and shame related to their bodies and to sex built right into their scriptures. The religions are built on how you sin just by breathing and there's a few things you can do to get into heaven, every other path is sinful. Virginity is prized, exclusivity, humility, women are told to be ashamed of their bodily functions and men are taught to be selective and careful. Nudity is a temptation and rather than take responsibility for their bodily impulses, they blame being tempted and blame the imagery for tempting them. It's the producers fault for making them feel lusty for a moment. This also leads to a lack of sexual education because sex is bad in the first place. Parents are then loath to talk to their kids about sex and nudity prompts questions which prompts uncomfortable conversations which make them mad and someone has to answer for that. Anyways, Europe's relationship with religion is a lot different. They've seen how religion can get out of hand and they appreciate seperation of church and state. America encourages it and welcomes it. Europe's sexual revolution lasted and was embraced by many cultures as Christianity took a bit of a back seat. The Woodstock period in America was shunned and was marginalized and compartmentalized as something crazy kids were doing. It didn't last long and it seems that very same generation forgot about those times as a lot of them are now ironically conservative. Violence, however, is built into American culture and fetishized because of the wild wild west period we had. The frontier was a place that made men, men. You had to be tough and be no nonsense and you were the law. There was no government and no regulation so you had to defend your land and honor by any means necessary. If that meant a fist had to fly so be it. The military adapted this culture as well and cops embody this tough cowboy mentality to this day. This anti government mentality goes back to the American revolution where we spilled tea like mad lads and then to the Civil War where the south had the balls to stand up to the perceived tyranny of the north. Corn fed soldiers made up dough boys and soldiers in WW1 and 2 and that cowboy, rough around the edges mentality persisted. Boomers inherited that which is why they hate sensitivity and holding their punches and being PC because their fathers and mothers worked hard, talked hard, and fought hard. So yeah, guns and fights and violence are just how things are but a man must still be humble to God and his sexual business is a private shameful one. That's the undercurrent. Not everyone here agrees with that and the populous is low key horny as fuck and if they could get away with it, they'd put nudity in ads and shows and movies often, but the powers at be are religiously biased and control the organizations that display these shows and apply ratings."
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n8hdzn | Why do when rockets re-enters the atmosphere from space get burn up, but rockets that is going to space don't? | The title is pretty self-explanatory. | Earth Science | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Rockets leaving the Earth aren't actually travelling all that fast while they are still within the dense part of the atmosphere. In order to achieve orbit, a rocket is shot straight up initially in order to get through the densest air that is the source of a lot of drag, but then they are pitched over so that they are eventually travelling sideways, parallel to the Earth's surface. They continue to accelerate for a long part of that manouver, because objects in orbit are basically falling just like anything else would - it's just that they are travelling so far horizontally during their fall that the Earth's surface curves away from the object at the same rate that the object is falling toward the Earth, resulting in net zero altitude difference. An object in orbit is simply just travelling sideways really, really fast. In order to slow down a spacecraft from orbital velocity, theoretically you could turn to face the opposite direction and thrust for the same amount of time to get back to zero horizontal velocity, but this would be extremely expensive in terms of fuel consumption and the upstream effects on rocket design to carry all that fuel and get it up to orbit in the first place. Instead, rockets make use of the atmosphere to slow them down. A short initial burn in the direction opposite of travel is used initially to cause the spacecraft to fall out of orbit, but then aerodynamic braking in the atmospheric air is actually used to take off most of the speed. The thing is, a deorbiting spacecraft is travelling so fast that air simply can't move out of the way fast enough, so instead it compresses in front of the advancing spacecraft, forming a shockwave some distance in front of the physical hull surface. This adiabatic compression generates an immense amount of heat that the spacecraft must be protected from, which is what heat shielding tiles are for. The attitude of the reentering spacecraft is controlled, and the shielding oriented properly during the reentry to protect the vehicle until it slows down sufficiently to land or deploy a parachute. If the vehicle is not controlled or sufficiently protected from the reentry heat, it burns up."
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n8hjom | What causes aurora borealis? | All I can understand is the sun and magnetic poles are involved some how. 🙇♀️🤷♀️🤣 | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Charged particles follow magnetic field lines, like a magnetic lift train on its tracks. Magnetic fields and electrical fields are two sides of the same fundamental force. The Sun has an *immensely* strong magnetic field. It's also very chaotic. Sometimes it gets twisted up on itself and gets kind of \"stuck\" until it snaps like a rubber band. While it's stuck, charged particles like loose electrons and protons build up inside the little magnetic loop. When it \"snaps\" the Sun burps out a planet sized glob of those charged particles. The Earth also has a very strong magnetic field. Not as strong as the Sun's, but still very powerful. All magnetic fields have two *poles* - two places where the magnetic field \"comes from\" kind of. Our poles are at, you know, our poles - which should make sense, since our magnetic field comes from our rotating core. The magnetic field is kind of donut shaped. The charged particles from the Sun, if they got shot in our direction, collide with our magnetic field and shove against it like a spring. They also follow the field lines towards the poles. Our field extends well beyond our atmosphere, so the particles don't interact with our atmosphere until they get pulled into the poles and down. If shoved hard enough, Earth's magnetic field can also \"snap\" and release pent up charged particles. They all hit the atmosphere with s lot of speed and combined with particles there. All this energy being released creates light."
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n8inxa | How do food manufacturers/laboratories calculate exactly what amount of calories and nutrients a certain food has? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"they set a specific amount on fire and measure how long it takes to burn out. that's it. put it on fire."
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n8jp9j | Won’t competitive breeding result in a lot of inbreeding? How is it biologically a good thing? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Inbreeding is only bad when unhealthy genes are reinforced. Yes, the chances of the reinforcement is higher when the parents are genetically close. However, in the wild, the unhealthy genes are culled out by illness or predation. As long as that happens before that individual breeds, their death doesn't really matter (speaking in only reproductive/genetics terms). As long as the reproductive population is able to continue to breed, eventually the unhealthy genes will be culled out (assuming outside genetic contributors don't show up). Inbreeding and culling is how the various breeds of animals that we find beneficial were created."
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n8la9f | why do we hate the sound of our own voices when we hear it on a recording? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes it’s literally just that. The voice we hear in the confines of our own skulls is different than the voice that gets projected out of our mouths. So when it gets recorded, we pick up on things we normally never hear ourselves do. The most common difference is that your voice sounds higher pitched over recording, both for men and women it’s the most common distinction."
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n8mlkh | How and why do humans develop allergies? Also, does this only happen to humans or do other living beings also experience this? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Allergies happen when the immune system misinterprets something as an infection and kicks our immune response into high gear. I’m not sure of the specifics of the biology of it, but hopefully some other redditor can help with that. Other animals definitely do get allergies. A common one i used to see as a vet tech among dogs was to be allergic to grass. There are even veterinary allergists. I once heard a story about someone who had a pet that was allergic to humans, but I’m not sure if that’s true",
"If I can follow up on this, why weren't allergies like hay fever bred out of humans long before civilization began? How could you sneak up on a wabbit if you were coughing and sneezing all the time?"
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n8mrsg | Why can't we harvest and inject/transplant memory B cells to directly give people lasting immunity to a pathogen? | I'm trying to understand the basics of how our immune systems work. It seems that our bodies have a complex process, which takes significant time, for synthesizing antibodies (to kill a pathogen) and also hopefully synthesizing memory cells, which can stick around to quickly ramp up production of those antibodies if they're needed again. Good job immune system! (Please let me know if the above is already wrong :-) ) In vaccination, we try our best to exercise this process in a safe way to get the body to figure out how to make antibodies and also memory cells. Why can't we do "something more direct?" For example, just transplant memory cells into people. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Our immune systems are different. My body would destroy your well intentioned donated B cells post haste.",
"most of the reasons posted (cost, depleting the supply of donors) are not the reason at all. it’s because immune cells are covered in, and made up of, numerous markers. the body reacts swiftly and strongly against foreign markers on cells — the very same types of reaction the body would have to a virus, parasite, or bacterium (details differ in how each is managed), it would do to the memory cells you are injecting. it would notice they are not from your own body, destroy them, and create immune memory to ensure that if ever re-encountered, the body can handle them even more quickly. “but we inject other cells into people,” you might ask. the only cells that are transfused into people with a functioning immune system are red blood cells. we are lucky that these cells have few proteins on their surface, but even then the blood bank screens to make sure there aren’t specific markers. you may be familiar with A and B markers, and the Rh factor. these are examples. but most labs test for even more markers to ensure the blood will be compatible. platelets are also transfused. these are cell fragments, not cells, and are transfused less commonly, and are also not covered in as many markers. white blood cells, which the memory cells you speak of are a subtype, have too many complex markers. they aren’t transfused into someone with a functioning immune system, because whoever they’re infused into will destroy them. in very rare cases with people so sick their immune system is absent (thus unable to destroy the transfused WBCs anyway), or their body’s immune response will take a while and they desperately need the immediate function of WBCs, then WBC transfusions may be done."
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n8nf20 | Why did the price of finished lumber products skyrocket when it seems mills aren’t paying any more for the logs? | Economics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because it's not a lack of the raw materials that's the bottleneck. It's the lack of the processed material which is done at lumber mills.",
"Demand has outpaced supply. The mills can't produce a finished product any faster than they can - there are not extra mills to bring online, and the ones that are online are working at maximum capacity. The amount of raw wood available is not the problem. A baker with only 5 ovens can only bake so much bread, regardless of how many extra bags of flour he has on hand.",
"I am not familiar with this exact situation but this situation can also be due to issues with the processing of the product. Firstly there is always some market lag. If supply for finished lumber increases that will saturate the sawmills with requests but they can not take inn more raw lumber then they can process. You can not just build a new sawmill on short request, especially if the demand for lumber is only temporary meaning the new sawmill will be redundant in a few months. It is possible that some sawmills might try to run double or even triple shifts to have their mills run around the clock but there may be issues with this as well. You can not just triple the number of trained operators over night. And there may be issues with noise permissions, trucking curfews, maintenance requirement on equipment, etc. And this is of course assuming that the sawmills are the bottleneck as there are many other links in the supply lines. Without having looked at the current situation very well but just from rumors I have heard there is currently a higher demand for lumber then usual. People are redecorating, building new houses with better views and more room since they are spending more time at home. Commercial buildings also have to redecorate to comply with new standards regarding social distancing. At the same time there is currently a high demand for transportation as there is a lot more cargo being shipped as people are ordering things online at an increasing pace. There is even issues getting spare parts delivered which again hurts the transport industry as well as the sawmills because equipment have to stand around for longer before getting fixed. And all of this is contributing in the same way driving prices of finished lumber up but the price of raw lumber is still low, maybe even lower then before due to the transportation issues.",
"Very small industry in NA as in not many major players. Not exactly an easy business to get into in North America since you cant start clear cutting forests and selling 2x4s at a mom and pop shop. Forestry is one of the most heavily regulated industries.",
"Not enough mills. So it’s not in their best interest to crank up the volume. The mills are the bottle neck in the supply chain. Only 5 companies have mills in America. It’s not exactly a monopoly but there is collusion to fix the pricing."
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n8ngta | How does placebo effect really work? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You’re told what a medicine will do and your brain basically prepares itself for said effect and in doing so might fix the problem."
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n8nxam | Why do the extreme ends of the light spectrum have an adverse effect on the body | For example, UV light from the sun is known to cause skin cancer, so what makes it different from the visible spectrum (other than that we can’t see it)? Furthermore, does the spectrum gradually become more harmful, or is it a sudden jump to being harmful? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's not both ends of the EM spectrum, only one end. The lowest energy side of the spectrum is radio waves which have no effects on the body. Anyway, the reason is energy. As you move up the spectrum from radio waves, energies increase. By the time you get to hard ultraviolet, the light has enough energy to ionize atoms. We call this ionizing radiation. This damages your DNA and can lead to cancer or, in larger amounts, cause so much damage that your cells are basically shredded and you die within days or weeks.",
"They don't - radio waves have no adverse effect. No more than visible light, anyways. It's UV and up. These are ionizing radiation. See, for the most part, atoms can only interact with one photon at a time. So, no matter how many photons you have, they only really interact one at a time with atoms. So, if one photon does not carry enough energy to break molecules apart, then it will not cause harm (except through heating, like in a microwave). However, higher-energy radiation has enough energy to break molecules apart in each individual photon, and so it causes damage on the cellular level, shredding DNA and other important parts of your cells.",
"As you move up the light spectrum the wavelength becomes shorter and the individual photons begin to contain more energy, to the point where they start to become \"ionizing\". This means they have the ability to knock an electron loose from an atom, changing that atom's charge and forming an ion. Chemical bonds are heavily dependent on the charge of the atoms involved, so if you are creating ions in existing molecules then you are likely to be breaking and forming chemical bonds along the way. For living creatures that have the complex code that defines their structure and function stored in the form of a long molecule, randomly changing that molecule is bad news. The visible spectrum isn't generally ionizing. There is a sort of vague area of transition into ionizing behavior between 400 nanometers and 125 nanometers, but 125 and lower is what is usually considered ionizing. Now towards the other end of the spectrum with long wavelengths I don't think they are generally considered dangerous. Infrared radiation is basically just heat, and everything around us is emitting that to some extent. Barring there being enough to actually cook you it is harmless. Similarly radio waves pass through us without incident.",
"As you move from one end of the spectrum to another, there is a gradual energy increase. Basically, red light (low end) has a longer wavelength than blue light (high end), so to make the wave oscillate faster in blue light, you need more energy. The shorter the wavelength is, the more energy is packed in it. This, coupled with intensity, can eventually cause burns or ionizing radiation. Notably, you *could* do that with visible light. The difference is that it often just bounces off our skin or gets dissipated as heat, instead of penetrating our cells. UV light has just enough energy to burn us, and to alter our DNA and cause cancer. The higher you go, the more energy there is. For example, if you keep going high above UV rays, you eventually find X-rays and gamma rays, both of which can cause serious harm if you're exposed to them for a long time unprotected. The atmosphere and Earth's magnetic field both shield us from gamma rays and stuff in that range that is floating about in space. On Earth, this same radiation damage is the reason X-ray technicians (who are working with X-ray machines all day every day) need to go in a separate room while you, only there to get your one X-ray, don't have to because you're only exposed for a few seconds. The damage comes from: frequency/wavelength, duration of exposure, intensity of the electromagnetic radiation."
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n8o4p6 | Do female animals menstruate? | Earth Science | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I know dogs do. My neighbor breeds dogs and they have to wear a special diaper Around the house",
"Primates menstruate regularly. Other animals do not start to form the placenta unless they are pregnant. It is possible for this to happen in other animals but usually in the case of very early abortions or in the case of mixed hormones causing phantom pregnancies. We do not know exactly why this is different in primates but it appears that the usual reset of the ovulation cycle does not happen even if there are no signs of pregnancy and you get a phantom pregnancy every time which gets aborted very quickly. This behavior is also observed in a few other species such as some mice and elephants as well as bats. There are also other forms of vaginal bleeding seen in other species. For example in certain domestic dogs. But this is not the same as menstruation.",
"Yes. But it is much less involved. Human females spend a lot of resources to get ready for a short pregnancy, which requires developing the brain very fast. So they have much more blood by comparison.",
"All mammals go through some type of reproductive cycling, but in most species this is *not* a menstrual cycle. Menstruation means shedding the inner lining of the uterus after the female fails to get pregnant. This occurs in monkeys and apes, as well as a few other species ([according to wikipedia]( URL_0 bats, elephant shrews, and the spiny mouse). Other species (such as dogs) may have some mild bleeding associated with estrus, but they do not shed their uterine lining and this is not menstruation. Lots of animals are able to reproduce asexually, so they don't need to have intercourse. Lots more animals have external fertilization, meaning the female leaves her eggs somewhere and the male comes by and fertilizes them later. Mammals, birds, and reptiles all need to have intercourse (with rare exceptions)."
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n8os7l | is flying to birds like running is to us? like, do they get tired?.. | Saw a similar bird question earlier about birds sleeping but this felt different enough to new post.. think about one type of bird like a pigeon or a dove or a blue jay (I don’t know many birds but) are there some birds that will prefer to sit more than fly? do some birds exercise/ train and are better at flying or are they all the same level of flying? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Most flying is more like walking is to us. You do not need that much training to be able to walk for an entire day without getting too tired. And some people are even in the habit of sleepwalking. Of course birds are able to fly fast and do tight maneuvers and this would be more like humans running as the birds to get tired after a short while.",
"If you are asking does flying uses energy so birds tend to not do it unless they have a reason to, then yes, yes it is. Flying is actually extremely energy-intensive, and even if the bird doesn't feel tired they still need to eat a lot to get those calories back. That's just basic physics. If you are asking if flying like running is to a healthy pre-agrarian hunter-gatherer where one of their most common hunting tactics was to run after an animal until the animal died of exhaustion (and no I'm not joking exaggerating. Humans are such good runners we can run so much farther and faster than almost any other animal that we can chase them to death). Then also yes. If you are asking is flying for a bird like running is for a morbidly obese out of shape modern human. Then no, no it is not. The morbidly obese birds are all dead.",
"Some long-range migratory birds like Canada Goose don't build up lactic acid in their muscles; that's what makes your muscles burn like hell while you're using them. They also fly in formations with other geese that take advantage of aerodynamic draft. The goose at the point of the V has to work the hardest since they're punching the hole in the air. The geese behind that one take advantage of the fact that the first one punched a hole so they don't have to work as hard and the further back they are in the formation, the less they have to work. The lead goose will go to the back of the V after a while to rest and will eventually be the leader again once enough geese have rotated out."
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n8p0xo | Why do SD cards have higher storage capacity than thumb drives | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You may need to take a look at the catalogs again. You do get thumb drives up to 2TB at quite reasonable prices today. And these may be small enough to fit entirely within the USB port without anything sticking out. In fact most thumb drives on the market is a tiny chip inside a big case.",
"The physical side of a thumb drive is scaled to make them easy and convenient to handle. SD cards typically get inserted and left in place. Personally, I worry more about losing a thumb drive more than a SD card. I have a few very large thumb drives. Like 1/2 terabyte. I suspect that the is just not the market demand for larger thumb drives but the limit in available products is not a technology limit."
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n8p9wh | What makes an apple crack when you bite it? | The fruit, not the devices. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Apple fibers are bound together, similar to wood. When you try to rip them apart, the bonds are broken forcefully and the apple cracks. The same thing will happen with any sturdy fruit or vegetable, such as pears or carrots."
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n8pdfq | How are prescription instructions (frequency, with food/water, time of day, etc.) determined? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well.. Both. The main parameter for dosing is the desired blood concentration, so if the patient requires a specific blood concentration, the doctor may prescribe higher frequency of a lower dose or a lower frequency of a higher dose. When a drug is developed, its half life is measured, meaning, how much time elapses before the body (mainly liver and/or kidneys) metabolize the drug such that half of its concentration is left. Based on this data, and the desired blood concentration for a particular disease and demographic, the doctor adjusts the dose and/or frequency. This is particularly important for drugs that can be toxic above a certain low dose, or those that have a very long half life and require stability in dosing, like some SSRIs. Regarding food/water, that depends on the drug's absorption and nature of the drug and pill coating. Some drugs are really harsh on the stomach, so it is recommended food be present in the stomach at the time of taking it. Some drugs are hydrophobic (not soluble in water but rather fat), and so it is recommended to take them with a meal that contains some fat (an example is vitamin D, and also A, E and K). Water is always recommended when taking medication, because pills and capsules can often stick to the esophagus and cause issues. Regarding time of day, it mainly depends on the function of the drug. Some antidepressants for example are also stimulants, which may interfere with sleeping and are recommended in the morning. Other drugs may cause drowsiness and are so indicated in the evening before sleep. Others, like vitamin B complex, are more effective when the brain is undergoing rest, consolidation and clearance of metabolites, so they're recommended before sleep."
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n8pguh | Audio is perceived as out of tune the further away it is. What is this and why is it happening? | Forgive me if this has been asked before but I couldn't find an answer. I was taking a walk and a car drove by and they were listening to a very familiar common pop song from the 2000's. As it approached it was in tune, but as it drove past me, the further away it got, the more out of tune the song became to me. I have also noticed this driving past live music stadiums. What is this called and why is it happening? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It’s called the Doppler effect. Sound travels in waves, basically speaking when the source of the sound is travelling away from you the wave elongate giving the sensation that the sound lowered in pitch"
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n8pyiy | We have devices that can add heat very quickly but we don’t have anything that freezes really quickly. Why is adding heat so much easier than removing it? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"All energy more or less wants to become heat. So, you wanna heat something? Dump energy of some kind into it and boom - heat. The only way to cool something is to carry its heat away *as heat*. You need something cold nearby. This limits cooling based on how cold you're willing to make the surface and how much surface there is.",
"The short answer is that we do have methods to freeze things very quickly - the technique is called flash freezing and it's used commonly in the food industry: URL_1 The methods are relatively straightforward (mostly exposing something to a super low temperature for a short period of time). The tech is currently pretty expensive, largely because the demand for getting things cold quickly is a lot lower than the demand for cooking things quickly. Keeping things that were already frozen at the same temperatures is \"good enough\" for most people. Note that there are companies that working on flash freezing appliances for home use: URL_0",
"Heat transfer is essentially the same whether you are trying to make something hot, or cold. Whether it is by convection, conduction, or radiation, the laws are the same. The main difference in heating things and cooling things is the difference in temperature (delta) of heat sources. When we heat a slice of pizza in the oven, it is going from around 40 deg.F if it was refrigerated, to about 180 deg F internal temp, by means of the air in the oven at about 350Deg. F. The delta here is about 310 deg. F, so the pizza absorbs heat at a pretty good clip. When cooling things on the other hand, the heat ransfer is slower because the delta is not as great. If we put a room temperature soda (70 deg F) into a cold refrigerator (34 deg. F); the delta is only about 36 degrees, so it takes a lot longer for the heat in the can of soda to be transferred to the air in the fridge. If we were to have a fridge that was about negative 240 degrees, it would cool that soda down to 34 degrees in no time."
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n8q06l | How can hot water feel cold for a split second then you feel how hot it actually is | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I answered a similar question over a year ago, so I will paste my comment below. So this is called paradoxical cold sensation. It's a well known phenomenon but the underlying mechanism remains debated. So we have nerve endings all over our body underneath the skin. These nerve endings have all sorts of receptors attached to them or to a cell that activates them. These receptors function as sensors. We have voltage, temperature (hot and cold), mechanical (stroke, vibration, pressure, tension, etc), osmolarity (osmoreceptors), etc etc sensors all over our body. The temperature receptors called thermoreceptors are found on these nerve endings, once temperature around them crosses a threshold, it activates the receptor which is followed by a signal to your brain. Some receptors make you feel hot, some cold and some pain. Pain or nociception comes from extreme temperatures, above a very particular threshold. This effect youre seeing shows that under scalding heat, your cold sensation is active. Hence the paradox. There is still heavy debate on why this happens but there are some hypotheses emerging based on the evidence. Some think this is a malfunction, because extreme cold and extreme heat receptors activate the same neurons, so your brain gets an electrical signal and it doesn't know if this means this is too hot or too cold, it just knows it's painful. This doesn't explain why we feel cold though. Another says that cold receptors function as dual sensors, they sense cold, and they sense extreme heat. And this is the receptor itself, the protein. This is supported by the fact a LOT more cold receptors exist under our skin than hot. And then this hypothesis goes on to claim your brain uses information from both to interpret pain, so you get hot but not extremely hot, you feel hot. You get extremely hot, you activate cold and hot, and so you get a transient signal of cold followed by heat pain, the cold signal actual travels much faster to your brain, so that can explain why it's transient and precedes the heat pain. The other thing is, we know that paradoxical cold sensation only occurs due to some cold receptors. We also know, whether you experience it or not, depends on your body temperature. So if you're body temp is hot, say 38, then a less cold signal than usual will feel just as cold (20 degrees Celsius may have felt normal before but with high body temp it feels cold). Bottom line is, it's either a crosstalk between hot and cold sensation or it's a phenomenon caused by cold receptors also sensing extreme heat and sending a cold sensation signal just before the scalding heat signal reaches. We don't know and we want to know. Fun fact: paradoxical heat sensation also exists. Which in my opinion favors the hypothesis with crosstalk. Both hypotheses have merit, we really need more studies.",
"Because our nerves and the way we feel (and experience) things is mostly relative. With the extreme hot feeling cold v/v, the first flash of sensation overloads the receptors. So you can accurately surmise that you felt \"cold\", but it's like a false-positive based on our nerves/brain/our etc limitations of interpreting signals."
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n8q1k7 | How tf do scientists know the "maps" of million years old continents? | How do scientists know that the pangea was shaped that way? And how can they tell how it shaped to today's continent's situation. I know that you could find the same fossils in opposite sides of the world, but I don't think that that is enough to tell with good precision the shape of the old world | Earth Science | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They take where the continents are today, see how they're moving, and basically play it in reverse.",
"Knowing exactly what the continents looked like millions of years ago is part science and part educated guess. But there's enough evidence of ancient mountain ranges, magnetic traces, and fossil records to figure out generally where continents were, which parts had mountains, and which parts were under water. For the most parts it's as easy as mashing the existing continents together and confirming which parts were at which latitudes at what time."
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n8qzbs | - how does the weight of the liquid in a hummingbird feeder not just push all the liquid out of the little holes? The openings of little holes are upturned, but still way below the water level. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There is less air above the water. When some water is drank from below, the water level in the dish gets lower and allows some air in. This air then increases the pressure above the water and allows it to drop a tiny bit. After dropping, the air has been once again lowered in pressure (as it has expanded) and so the water does not continue to move down."
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n8rpq6 | When you're sick and dry cough, it sometimes feels like something is being dislodged/cleared by the cough. What exactly is causing this feeling? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"When you have a non-productive cough (that's the fancy way of saying dry cough) it is often because your airways are inflamed (and as a result smaller). Obviously, having constricted airways is not ideal, so your body coughs to attempt to ease some of this narrowing. Unfortunately this doesn't work for very long, because there isn't anything in the way of your airways, except your airways themselves, but in the time it does work, you get the feeling of having cleared/dislodged something in your throat."
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n8s69w | please explain what Benford’s law is and how is used to detect fraud? | I was watching a tv show that was about Benford’s law but it completely lost me. Could someone please explain to me What it is? How it works? And how is used to detect fraud? Thanks! | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's a way to find human invented numbers. In a large set of numbers will multiple digits the number 1 has just over a 30% chance of being the first digit in that number. Number 2 has a 17% chance of being the first digit, and each number after that has an ever decreasing chance of being that first digit. Therefore, if you take a very large set of numbers that were generated naturally you should get 30% of all first digits being 1, 17% of all first digits being 2, and so on. A set of numbers invented by a human mind is likely not to follow this law. This is because as humans we have a hard time imagining true randomness. When we ask people to invent random sets of data, they tend to make it so that each number occurs fairly regularly. We feel that if each number has a random chance of occuring then each number will occur equally. When the truth is random sets of data will form clusters and not be so evenly distributed.",
"Imagine you have 100 dollars. I am an investor, and tell you that, if you give me your 100 dollars, I can invest them and give you a return of 10% every year. You agree. After a year, your 100 dollars would become 110. You earned 10 dollars. But the following year it wouldn't be 120 dollars but 121, because the 10% now applies to the 110. Year after year, the number grows every time a bit more: 133, 146, 161, 177 (I'm rounding). After seven years, you would have 195 dollars. You would reach 300 dollars five years later, and the 400 mark three years after that. If you analyze your data and check the first digit of your investment for each year, you would realize that the digit 1 was the leading digit for 8 years, then the 2 was for 4, the 3 for 3, etc. This is a normal behaviour for things that grow exponentially, for instance your investment (and many more). But why does it happen? Because, when dealing with this kind of growth, you have to understand things in doubles, halves, triples, or any other fraction. You have to think geometrically, not linearly. 200 is the double of 100, and 400 is the double of 200. But between 100 and 200, every number starts with one, while between 200 and 400 half of them starts with two and the other half with three. Frank Benford generalized it for any growth percentage.",
"A physicist named Frank Benford noticed that the leading digits of real life sets of numbers had a certain pattern. It was far more likely that the leading digit started with 1 and it slowly tapered down to 9 being the least common. e.g. If you listed all the rivers in the world's lengths intuitively you would assume that the number of rivers who's lengths had a leading digit of 1 would be just as common as rivers with a leading digit of 8 but it isn't. It follows a very predictable curve with 1 being the most common and tapers down to 9 being the least. If you're committing any type of fraud that can be detected using numbers and altering the sets of numbers those modified sets are unlikely to follow this pattern. URL_0",
"It's a rule that applies to data sets that follow a particular kind of distribution which happens to be quite common in a lot of fields. Specifically it applies to data whose logarithm is uniformly distributed over a large interval. That tends to be (at least roughly) the case for data that span many orders of magnitude, such as sizes of organisms, populations of political entities (countries, states, cities, etc.), various kinds of financial data, and so on. These data sets follow a pattern in which the first digit is substantially more likely to be a 1 than a 2, more likely to be a 2 than a 3, etc. Sometimes when people generate fake data they fail to make sure it fits this pattern, e.g. they might generate numbers that are equally likely to start with each digit. As far as I know, in practice this is not actually used to detect fraud very often, since often you're working with data sets where it's not clear if they are *supposed* to be distributed in such a way that Benford's law applies. For example, if you're looking at a company's financial transactions, there might be a good reason for the distribution to be skewed in a certain way, e.g. maybe they very frequently charge a standard fee of $500, in which case numbers starting with 5 will be especially common. Also, many kinds of fraud will not produce deviations from Benford's law. For example if you copy someone else's genuine data and pass it off as your own, or if you collect real data but inflate every number by 10%, you will not get any deviations from Benford's law (beyond any that were present in the genuine data). But it is one tool that has been used to detect fraud in a few cases, and a pretty interesting and counter-intuitive one.",
"As other have said, it describes how sets of 'natural' numbers have a certain distribution of starting digits. However this only works under certain conditions. The values you look at have to be evenly distributed over a range that covers several order of magnitude. If you for example looked at a list of people's height or weight or age it wouldn't follow that rule because humans tend to fall into a somewhat small range for these values. If you want to apply this test to check wether some numbers look real, you first have to think hard about where those numbers come from and what sort of range of values you would expect. Last year after the US election lost of people who had heard of stuff like Benford's law tried to use it to prove election fraud, without understanding what thy were doing or realizing that for example voting districts were not arbitrarily large in size."
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n8sjkt | How did memory in computers increase over time? | I'm having a hard time wording this one. We always see posts about how a super computer decades ago holds less capable memory than a hard drive today. How does that work? What changed? How are advancements even made? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Over time, due to technological advances, semiconductors have become smaller and smaller. As a result, microchips are able to perform more calculations in a smaller footprint. By the same token, memory chips are able to hold more data because more diodes, switches, and transistors are able to fit into a smaller area (on a solid-state drive). Not sure exactly how this tranlates to mechanical hard drives with magnetic platters and a stylus, but I imagine it's more or less the same concept.",
"There are these pieces in computers that are called capacitors. They’re either turned on or off. That’s where code gets the 1 and 0 for either on or off. Over time these capacitors have been made smaller and smaller which means there are more switches inside giving it more power!",
"The manufacturing process for semi conductors is constantly improving, meaning they can make circuits smaller and smaller and with increasing amount of complexity. This means that with each passing year they can put more and more memory onto the same chip while reducing the cost. A lot of what this comes down too is the ability to etch silicon wafers accurately down to smaller and smaller sizes."
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n8t250 | How can humans push cars and pull massive things with weeks but can’t lift more than a few hundred pounds? | *weels not weeks | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The force you are fighting against when pushing/pulling is friction. This isn't as much force as the direct downward force of gravity when you try to lift something. Additionally, you can use your weight to push and pull (e.g., leaning into the direction you're pushing). When lifting, you are relying entirely on your muscle capacity. And lastly, lifting an object really depends also on its geometry. Awkwardly sized objects are hard to lift. When pushing, it's not as big a deal because you are not personally trying to stabilize the object (which means actively fighting the force from torque). Ideally, an object is already stable on the ground."
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n8u8q6 | What are eye floaters and why do we get them? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There's a gel-fluid substance in your eye called the vitreous that is in front of your photoreceptors in the retina that actually react to light. As we get older, the vitreous changes a little, and this allows for tiny fibrous-like stuff in the vitreous to clump together. They cause a shadow on your retina. They're not usually a problem. If you suddenly notice a big increase in them, though, see a doctor."
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n8urmi | Why can potatoes and onions continue to grow sprouts while in dry storage? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You mean like why can they do that while most plants require soil, water, and light to sprout? It’s because the energy needed to launch a sprout was already captured and is stored in the potato/onion. Potatoes are a root vegetable and they are created as energy stores. Thus the energy needed to launch a sprout is already there."
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n8vveo | why does toothpaste make all food and drink taste absolutely terrible if you consume them soon after? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There is a chemical(sodium lauryl sulfate) in toothpaste that blocks all the taste receptors on your tongue, except the receptors that taste bitter flavors. So everything tastes super bitter after you brush your teeth."
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n8zofb | How does a pollen allergic reaction work? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Amongst the many way a body can protect themselves, expulsion is a solution. The thing you're allergic to is secured and then thrown out. Sneezing is one way to throw it out. Watering eyes is because the allergic thing can cause irritation. Eyes included. When your eyes get irritated, you produce extra tears to wash it. Chronic allergy is exhausting simply because everything you or your body do consume energy. Including fending off a disease or an allergy. Even if you're immobile, your body is working to keep you alive. The more it work, the more it consume. Allergy simply make you consume extra energy while going about your day. The others I don't know much, so I can't help you there."
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n8zqa5 | How are scientists able to tell how old a rock is? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You have probably heard of radiocarbon dating which is used to date organic elements based on how much carbon-14 have decayed. This is not usable on rocks because it does not contain carbon. However there are a number of similar radioisotope dating techniques for other elements besides carbon-14. For example potasium-argon dating. This works on any mineral that contains potasium. Some of this potasium is the isotope potasium-40 which with a half life of over a billion year turns into argon-40. You would not expect there to be any argon in molten or dissolved rock because argon is a gas that will just bubble up to the surface and escape into the atmpsohere. So all of the argon-40 must come from potasium-40. By measuring the ratio between these two isotopes you know how much have decayed and therefore how long it have taken. There are plenty of these types of dating techniques. Which ones work depend on the age and composition of the rock. You would usually try a few different techniques and then compare these results to each other for an accurate result."
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n90cp6 | Can soap be infected? Or contaminated? I mean, it’s supposed to fight bacteria and all but if it’s covered in grime is it still able to function right? (IDK if this is chemistry or biology related) | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Yes soap can get infected by bacteria. However, usually the bacteria that come into contact with it don't survive (for long), for a number of reasons: * The soap is generally kept dry, and dry porous surfaces tend to suck the water out of the majority of bacteria and kill them. * Liquid soap isn't dry, but is usually very viscous, and this will also \"suck\" the water out of bacteria through [osmosis]( URL_1 ). * Soap is generally made by boiling fats in sodium / potassium hydroxide (lye), and as a result it's very alkaline (pH of 9-10), and the majority of bacteria thrive in a \"neutral\" pH of 7.4 or so. Cells are quite sensitive to pH values (acidity, alkalinity), and will stop growing / multiplying with values far from the \"neutral\". * Sodium and potassium also play [crucial roles]( URL_0 ) in most cells, and high concentrations of either can disrupt the function of a cell. So all in all, several factors make it relatively \"toxic\" for bacteria to grow on/in soap, but of course there are always strains that are tougher and can survive, so ultimately it IS possible for soap to get infected. If it happens, I'd guess it would be a mold that gets in there; molds are resilient microorganisms.",
"Yes, soap can become infected. This is because regular soap is not sterilizing. It does not kill all types of germs. It can kill a few types which have a cell membrane consisting of oils which gets dissolved in the soap. But the main way that soap gets rid of germs is by breaking the surface tension on the water so it can get into tight spot and flush out everything. But regular hand soap does contain a lot of fat to help keep your skin moist and this can provide a good feeding ground for bacteria and fungi. And using infected soap can give you a nasty skin infection.",
"A lot of standard soap doesn’t actually kill bacteria, it merely displaces it from your hands. However, soap can’t really become contaminated. germs can sit on a bar of soap for example, but this bacteria is extremely unlikely to make you ill or cause any skin irritation. If for example you were talking about a bar of soap you found in muddy ditch, the chances are any harmful bacteria would come from the mud and not the soap, likewise if you were to shave the dirty layers off the soap you would likely find ‘clean’ soap intact underneath.",
"Yes the soap is covered in grime- but paired with water and scrubbing, the soap attracts the dirt and bacteria more than your skin does so it all washes down the drain with the water"
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n90uoo | How come that I'm social and talk a lot online in a voice call with friends, but shy, reserved and don't talk so much in real life with them? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Maybe you are less confident about your body, or have trouble with eye contact etc., and the dematerialized aspect of your interactions might act as a shield that hides some of your weaknesses and thus boosts your confidence? It reminds of a story where some very shy men couldn't speak face to face with women, but once they were invited to an event where participants had to wear fancy masks hiding their faces, they would spontaneously feel super confident."
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n91oci | What is abiogenesis? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Abiogenesis is a ~~Theory~~ Hypothesis that life can spontaneously erupt from nonliving matter. Basically it's the ~~theory~~ concept of how all biological life started with proteins and amino acids that decided to hang out one day and then became roommates. These roommates decided they were in love and got married. But every marriage needs a pre-nup. And that's where DNA comes into the picture. It's the contract that was decided during Abiogenesis and allows for the married couple to have kids, by divorcing and splitting everything they own down the middle, but only after they produce 2 of it all. Single celled life is born. Or at least that's our best guess as to how it happened."
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n91t6r | What is Plasma? | I can't grasp the concept of it. And why and how is harnessing it from our bodies help cure diseases? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Since you tagged the post as \"Physics\", i think the issue is you are mixing up *plasma*, as the state of matter, and *blood plasma*, as in blood which have been centrifuged to remove the blood cells. The latter is often abberviated to plasma, which causes much confusion.",
"Not the same kind of plasma. One type is a super heated gas where some kind of magic happens to the atoms (I think it has to do with electrons having enough energy to move around more freely but I really do not understand it that far). The other kind (the one inside of you) is basically the liquid that makes up your blood once you remove the solids. In your blood you have red blood cells (carry oxygen) platelets (construction workers that repairs damage and prevents you from bleeding out) and white blood cells (kills the bad guys in your body). If you take out all that junk you are left with a liquid thats salty and that contains a bunch of good stuff for you. This is plasma.",
"Plasma is ionized gas. It’s basically gas that has had so much energy added into (usually by heating) that electrons escaped the nucleus. So now you have a bunch of charged particles zooming around. Blood plasma is part of the liquid that compose your blood. It’s the liquid part that carries all your blood cells, etc. If you lose blood, getting an infusion of plasma helps"
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n920ah | Why do the body randomly twitch? | I have a random question, sometimes my body when it's still it randomly twitches, does anyone have an idea why the body randomly does this? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Muscle twitches are caused by our muscles tightening up involuntarily. When we're not actually controlling them. Muscle twitches can happen for lots of reasons, like stress, too much caffeine, a poor diet, exercise, or as a side effect of some medicines."
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n92g75 | what is vRAN and how does it differ from RAN? (Whatever that is) | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"RAN is a configuration of hardware. vRAN is a virtual implementation of an RAN. the vRAN can be updated/modified by a software update, whereas to reconfigure an RAN, hardware needs to swapped."
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n92hm5 | Why is it necessary for refs to stand in the path of a javelin throw. Can’t they just stand on the sidelines and jog over after it lands? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The javelin doesn't always land point-first and stick in the ground. When it doesn't, it kind of slides along the ground, but the meet official needs to mark it where it first touched the ground. To complicate matters, if it lands flat they're supposed to measure from where the grip hits the ground. If it lands tail-first, they measure from the tail. All of that is difficult to do when you're far away. disclaimer: This hasn't always been the rule and may not be at some levels/in some regions.",
"They could stand further away, but they'd still need to pay close attention, both to be able to see that the javelin struck the ground in the right way, and because they still in front of the thrower and could still get hit. And if they are paying close attention, they can move out of the way easily, so there's no extra risk from standing in the middle of the field.",
"I use to actually judge javelin for my schools home meets and was the one out on the field. The main reason is that it is easier to see where it lands the closer you are. Also you will be doing a lot of jogging around over the course of the day so saving just that little distance can add up a lot. If I had a runner for the javelin I would also just throw it to the side to save on even more unneeded running. On a side note it is also fun watching the freshmen sweat when you are standing only 60 feet away or so. And over the course of watching literally thousands of throws I have never been hit once. I will even purposely wait to dodge till the last second to watch them sweat even more. 😈 You can also very easily tell a good javelin thrower from a newbie pretty easily. So it is easy while their doing their line up to just back step so that you aren't 60 feet out for a 150 feet thrower. Edit: used wrong unit.",
"I think javelin throw is special in the way that it always originates at the exact same point, travels in a perfectly straight line, and for quite some time. That makes the path incredibly predictable. All a ref needs to do is judge whether the javelin is coming straight at them or not. If it does, move out of the way.",
"Imagine you're playing a game of \"catch\" with a baseball and glove. Your partner is standing on home plate, you're in the outfield. Your partner throws the ball to you as high & far as they can. It will take several seconds for the ball to arrive to you, and you can track its trajectory on the way to you. At that point, it would be quite easy to just take two steps to the side and avoid the ball since it's taking a very simple and predictable path, unless it's extremely windy. And if it's windy and you want to avoid it, you know to move \\*into\\* the wind, since the object is going to be pushed by the wind in the other direction. Same for a huge javelin that is very easy to spot traveling through the air. As to \\*why\\* they stand so close to it, u/moktharn gave the perfect response.",
"They changed the rules after Lamar discovered a loophole with his distinctive throwing style. URL_0",
"Does that ref get paid more? Or is it like a senior ref job?",
"They can use Statcast to track all kinds of metrics like exit velocity and spin rate and stuff in baseball. Those balls move much faster than a javelin, why can't they use a similar solution for that?",
"It’s more fun this way, because the audience at least has the illusion that the ref is gonna get hit.",
"I used to coach track, we had some pretty good jav throwers and I've worked that event at meets. When you see it coming it's not that dangerous, our best thrower would catch them out of the air, actually. It's dangerous when they're being thrown at random.",
"i´m just wondering... nowadays it should be not a big problem to equipp the javelin with a tracker to measure it electronically? be it stationary or mobile a system especially for the games, or just some \"doodad\" which uses GPS..."
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n92zjz | Why did digital audio/cds allow for increased dynamic range and wider stereo separation compared to vinyl? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A record player needle can only vibrate so much. That accounts for the higher dynamic range of CDs, the difference between the lowest and highest dB sound it can produce is lower for vinyl. This also accounts for the higher level of stereo (channel) separation. There is a lower dynamic range to work with on vinyl, so the channels can't be as far apart.",
"Vinyl only allows a needle to lift or drop so much, limiting the range that it can produce. It is also limited in how fast it can go up or down, creating some limitations for how quickly you can change from a low note to a high note (or vice versa).",
"Vinyl records audio directly in a single groove. This means there are technical issues -- how thick is the needle, how fast the disc is spinning, how precise is the manufacturing, how small of a feature the plastic can have, what is the needle's inertia, etc. All of those things directly affect how precisely it can represent the signal. That's also why not just any record player will do. How good is the driving mechanism and the quality of the needle matters. In digital similar issues exist, but the important difference is that they don't change how precisely the data is represented, they just affect how many bits we can squeeze into a given amount of room. We can allocate the available bits in any way we want. So if you want to put 24 bit, 192 KHz audio on a CD, you can. You won't fit a whole lot of it, but that's the only issue. For stereo, since there's only one groove, stereo is encoded at an angle. The incorrect ELI5 explanation is that one channel is left/right and the other is up/down. The real explanation is that this is that both are at a 45 degree angle from the vertical. Meanwhile, in digital we can just interleave channels. Have a track that goes \"5ms of channel 1, 5ms of channel 2\". You can have as many as you like and the separation is perfect because they have nothing to do with each other."
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n93st8 | Why women's breasts trigger sexual arousal? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's a cultural thing. Women's breasts are seen as sexual in some cultures with many people only seeing them in sexual contexts, therefore those same people tend to be sexually triggered by seeing breasts. However, in other cultures where breasts are not seen as sexual (such as many tribes still around today that go topless), there is no sexual arousal just from seeing female breasts. The better question is \"why do some societies view female breasts as sexual?\"",
"The fact that woman have breasts that appear swollen even when not best feeding is do to an evolutionary process where human men selected for this trait, unlike any other animal on earth. So asking why Men are attracted to breasts kind of misses the reason that breasts exist at all."
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n96760 | How does liposuction prevent the body from redistributing the rest of the fat back to the affected area? | Let's say I do a liposuction on my stomach. I still have fat in my arms, legs, butt, chest, whatever. How does vacuuming it from my stomach prevent my body from putting fat back there? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Fat doesn't travel around the body. Fat in your arms will never be fat in your legs. Liposuction gets rid of existing fat deposits in a specific area. It doesn't prevent fat from ever being deposited there again."
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n96j75 | Why are space rockets shot straight up? Wouldn't it be easier to make a spacecraft that ascends like regular aircraft until it's out of the atmosphere? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They aren't shot straight up. They start pointing straight up, but very gradually turn so that by the time they have exited the atmosphere, they're more or less parallel with the ground. The reason is aerodynamics. The wind slows down the craft, so we have to make the rocket very pointy to cut through that. If we tried to slowly go up like a plane, it would need too much fuel, and fuel is heavy. The more weight you carry, the more fuel you need, so it goes in a big loop getting worse and worse. So the most efficient way we know of is to go straight up, then slowly level out. Even this is tricky with the amount of fuel needed, so there's lots of math and weight considerations.",
"They aren't shot straight up. They're shot in an arc. And to escape Earth's gravity you have to reach a certain speed. It's very difficult to reach that speed with an aircraft. Rockets provide much more thrust than aircraft engines. An aircraft engines push on air. The higher you go, the less air there is, and at some point aircraft engines won't work any more, and wings can't provide lift. Rockets carry their own propellant rather than pushing on the air.",
"Everyone posting earlier hit on various elements regarding escape velocity, regardless of actual trajectory, rockets provide the most efficient means to reach the escape velocity (25000 MPH). There have been a few engineering attempts with Virgin Galactic, but no one, as yet, has been able to engineer the amount of energy needed into a flyable form."
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n96rtx | Why do adults suffer from diabetes and other conditions more than children? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because children haven't had years of a bad diet and weight gain, but there are many children that have it",
"Type 2 Diabetes is a preventable disease unquestionably. Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder and non preventable to known data. No need for filler info. 😃",
"There are two types of diabetes, aptly name Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder, meaning that the body mistakenly recognizes the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas as foreign invaders and destroys them. This is why all Type 1 diabetics need to take insulin: they can't produce their own. Type 2 diabetes is different in its mechanism in that you still have the ability to produce your own insulin (for the most part). However, your body either doesn't produce enough insulin, or your body becomes desensitized to the effects of insulin (also known as \"insulin resistance\"). This occurs when there is always so much glucose (sugar) in the blood, that your body keeps trying to contain it by releasing insulin. However, the cells where the insulin does its work eventually stop paying attention to the insulin. It's kind of like the boy who cried wolf. The insulin keeps saying there is too much sugar in the body, but the cells say \"well, we can't have too much sugar ALL OF THE TIME, right? Insulin is exaggerating.\" So they stop listening, and don't take up the amount of sugar needed to keep the blood sugar level in the healthy range. This whole process takes a long time, so children usually won't have type 2 diabetes. It takes many years of poor diet and exercise habits before one will develop type 2 diabetes.",
"Out of all the diabetics in the world, up to 8-10% have Type 1. This is an autoimmune disease--the body attack the cells that make insulin. The body stops making insulin and the person dies if non diagnosed. There is no cure, not prevention. It used to be called Juvenile Diabetes but the name was changed to Type 1 because you can get it any age. It is not related to diet nor lifestyle. Only treatment is insulin because the body doesn't make it. Type 2 diabetes was generally acknowledged in the mid part of the 20th Century. Doctors didn't really know much about it other than some people had issued with blood sugar levels when they got older (seniors--pancreas not working well enough simply due to age) or were in middle age but overweight. So a differentiation was made between the two types. Today, type 2 is becoming an epidemic and over 90% of all diabetics have this type. It too can be developed at any age and unfortunately youth are being diagnosed with it as well. The body makes its own insulin, but the body doesn't know how to use it. So the blood glucose (sugar in your blood) sort of floats around causing damage. The other types include: * Gestational: occurs in pregnancy, the cause is due to a hormonal imbalance with the placenta. After birth the disease may resolve. Some women who are genetically prone to type 2 may develop type 2 after giving birth * Maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY): need a genetics test to be diagnosed properly. Many people with MODY are misdiagnosed as T1 or T2. * Neonatal diabetes * Wolfram Syndrome * Alström Syndrome * Latent Autoimmune diabetes in Adults (LADA): a slow-developing Type 1 * Type 3c diabetes: may include injury to pancreas, partial or full surgical removal * Steroid-induced diabetes * Type 4 (not yet in medical catalogues--being researched by the Salk Institute) & #x200B; & #x200B; TLDR: seen more in adults because most children that get it are type 1, and we are a small % of overall diabetics in the world."
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n96wio | Why do humans need to heat animal meat to a certain temp before it's safe to consume, but a lion can just go chow down on a gazelle carcass? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We _can_ just chow down on raw meat too, we have about the same odds as lions of getting infected by parasites and diseases if we did it. Preventing disease gets all the press, but actually humans get another benefit from cooking meat, and that's increased energy availability. Cooked meat delivers more energy than raw meat URL_0 Human brains use a _ton_ of energy, and cooking meat helps us get that energy.",
"Cooking meat makes it safer, but we still can't eat raw meat and most of the time when we do so nothing bad happens. And lions and other predators absolutely can and do get sick or infected with parasites from eating raw meat. It is just that they don't really have any option.",
"We *could* chow down on raw gazelle meat, but there's parasites, bacteria, and otherwise undesirable pieces in the raw meat. As well, we would do just that if we had to. We just have the ability to clean, cook, and store meat in a way that keeps the good meatiness, and gets rid of the parasites and such. A lion has no such recourse, so they don't really have the choice. They have to deal with the parasites and bacteria just as much as we would.",
"Fair enough about lions in the wild not having options, but, looking to hear from a zoologist/zookeeper. What are lions fed in a zoo environment, where you can control the food and cooking of the food?"
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n9703e | What is the difference between the word "retarded" and every other synonym such as "stupid, moron, idiot, imbecile, dumb, challenged, etc" that makes it so much more offensive to everyone? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"“Retarded” was (and may still be) the actual medical term for someone with cognitive impairment and disability. It’s generally considered rude to make fun of someone for a condition they have that they can’t help. Like making fun of someone who’s missing a limb or who has a bad skin condition. Whereas if someone has fully functional mental capacity and still does things that are poor choices, they are usually referred to as “dumb” or “idiot” since they have the ability to make different choices",
"Because these other words, despite once being official terms, are no longer associated with a specific condition. \"Retard\" on the other hand has only recently been cut from use and is still closely associated with and used to disparage those with Downs Syndrome and other related conditions.",
"It originally was a medical term. Then it became a derogatory term. So now it's in a weird spot where people remember that it refers to a specific group of people while remaining an insult. So effectively the insult comes across to many as the handicap being the insult, not that you're calling the person stupid. Words evolve and have different context in different times. Thats why it is treated differently now than say \"imbecile\", which also originated as a medical term",
"Retarded is a slur to describe people with developmental disabilities of various types and severity. It's meant to be insulting, and offensive to people. To someone who has such disabilities It's akin to calling a black person the n-word. To those that do not have such a disability It's the same as telling someone they have a mental disability. Also, calling someone challenged is just the \"nicer\" way of saying it, like referring to a black person as \"you people\" technically not as bad but everyone knows what you're getting at. It's generally considered a dick move to make fun of people with disabilities, and using someone's disability to make fun of someone else who doesn't have it is a class A dick move. Just because -you- see them as synonyms doesn't mean they -are- synonyms. If you look at the actual definitions: Stupid - having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. Idiot - a stupid person Moron - a stupid person Retarded - slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development : characterized by intellectual disability"
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n97esy | What is an Eigenvalue and an Eigenvector? | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Here's an actual ELI5. A matrix is a fancy way of describing the change in shape of something. Now, imagine you take some blob of Play-Doh, and you squish it with your flat hands. Most parts of the Play-Doh go into all kinds of weird directions, left, right, up, down, you name it. However, there will be one specific direction along which the Play-Doh particles along that line are simply pushed out further along that line. That special direction is the eigenvector, and the amount (i.e. the factor) by which the stretch happens along that direction is the eigenvalue. Both of them together uniquely describe the way you squished the Play-Doh, and that's why they're interesting to know."
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n97t8h | Why some games need to be restarted when we change the resolution or graphics settings while others manage do it on the go? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Let’s pretend all the code segments are little miners in in the gamebox gold mine who do all the little things that make the game work and the foreman is the main game application. At the start of the day the foreman issues them all instructions for the day saying they can mine up to 3 feet without a collapse. After mining the foreman realizes there has been a change to the instructions and now they can only safely mine 2 feet for the day. Instead of slowing down work by shutting down the mine and recalling and the miners the little foreman instead goes to find each miner and give them updated information himself. The foreman thinks he found everyone and gave them all updated instructions. But he forgot Frank in the lowest portion of the mine. Frank has already dug 2.5 feet when he feels the mines walls shifting. Frank quickly drops his tools and starts running but he’s too late, the collapsing mine swallows him. The ensuing collapse starts a chain reaction, the rest of the miners in the levels above him feel the floor fall out from beneath their feet. They too are trapped in the rubble slowly waiting for oxygen to run out in the all consuming darkness. Let’s say instead the foreman decided to recall every worker to the top on the PA system stopping work, took a head count to make sure everyone was there THEN issued instructions. None of the workers would be dead in a collapsed mine. TL;DR It’s to prevent crashing due to missing dependencies or missing/conflicting parameters",
"When changing some settings, it's just easier to reset all the variables to their starting values rather than trying to account for all the changes that would need to be made to allow the setting to be changed on the fly. For instance, maybe the game calculates physics based on screen resolution. Changing the resolution means lots of variables that were previously set need to be recalculated. This can become a nightmare for testing, and lead to very subtle bugs. So the easy way out is to just apply the setting after the game is restarted."
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n9938v | What is glycogenesis, gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis? | I just want to understand these processes by the fitness point of view. I've searched videos on youtube but i found them to be either too lengthy or a little complicated to understand. It would be of great help if I'll get an overview of how things work. Have a good day :) | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Glucose is broken down for energy. Glycogen is a form of stored glucose, think of it like our body's built-in starch, with big branching chains. If you need glucose and haven't eaten, glycogen is the first thing to be broken down. Ketoacids are also broken down for energy. The pathway is complex, but essentially, in this particular pathway, fat is broken down into ketones, the major one of which is fed into the same pathway that glucose was broken down in, resulting in energy with acetone as a byproduct. After you eat, glycogenesis is the process of taking the sugars you just ate and storing them for short-term use later: the genesis of glycogen. If you haven't eaten and your body needs to break down glycogen you undergo gluconeogenesis: the genesis of new glucose. If your glycogen stores are low and your body still needs glucose, you undergo ketogenesis: the genesis of ketoacids."
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n999pm | What's the difference between LED, OLED and Mini LED | I'm looking to get the newest iPad pro, and I was wondering what the difference was between the mini LEDs for the latest generation, the LEDs of the previous generation, and the OLEDs of the iPhone, since it's become such a huge selling point. | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"OLED is a way to make tiny LEDs smaller than a pixel, so each pixel is its own LED and you get the best possible contrast and real deep black The problem is that these LEDs are made from organic materials that decompose and deteriorate if they are used too much and they can’t be calibrated as well as LCD LCD screens traditionally were just lit by regular fluorescent lights, but once we figured out LEDs well enough, we started using those instead for better efficiency and since they are easily dimmable we can now selectively dim dark areas of the screen to increase contrast, it’s not as good as OLED, but still pretty good Now we have mini LED which is just an LCD panel again, but the backlight has a lot more small LEDs so that you can have even more local dimming zones and even better contrast, again not as good as OLED, but still better"
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n99tpx | On long drives when you realize you were completely zoned out from point A to B, are we aware of what's going even though you're zone out ? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This is known as [highway hypnosis]( URL_0 ). Let's say you have a journal where you write down important events. One of the days, you didn't write down anything for a lunch period because nothing major happened. Without that entry, you can't remember what you ate but you don't feel hungry. You obviously didn't choke on your food or forgot how to breathe so you were functioning normally. The same thing happens when driving sometimes. Your body is alert during those driving times but because there were no notable events, it doesn't record that time period into memory. When you try thinking back to it, you can't recall it since the information was not saved.",
"You are still somewhat aware of what is going on, even if you haven't put your full attention on it. A lot of the processes are being done unconsciously as your eyes tell your brain what is going on and your arms and feet adjust the wheel and pedals accordingly. And the sensory information is quickly use and discarded, so you don't retain much memory of the uneventful drive. Now, if something unusual came up, your consciousness would be drawn back. However, your reaction time might be slower than if you had your full attention from the start.",
"Ah the famous \"white line fever\" - when you \"zone out\" while driving, you conscious mind is no longer focusing on driving. Your subconscious mind - your cerebellum is doing the driving. Also know as \"in the zone\" among athletes, when you are doing some repetitive movement or something you've trained yourself to do. Your conscious mind is now free to \"zone out\". When something changes - e.g. Karen is on her cellphone and weaves into your lane - then the cerebellum tells your conscious mind that it needs attention. In this example you scream \"Oh \\^%$#\", swerve and shake your fist at the Karen.",
"You are fully conscious and aware just like normal. Only the brain deletes most of the trip because it's completely useless information. Scientists call it [Highway Hypnosis]( URL_0 )"
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n9cgiq | how is space navigated after we leave earth? | Im assuming we dont use conventional methods (north, east, south, west or left and right), so how is it used on current space or will be used on future spacecraft? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"By knowledge of [**ephemeris**]( URL_1 ), a standard we agreed upon that JPL maintains. All objects in our system are constantly orbiting something. To plan a successful trip, you need to simulate trajectories of your spacecraft in relation to other moving objects, and that means knowing many **orbital parameters** in a commonly accepted reference frame, especially your starting point and destination. That reference frame is currently **ICRF** (international celestial reference frame, now on its third version) and it basically uses 1 - center mass of our solar system (as observed), 2 - calibrated by observed positions of quasars (radio signals), and 3 - an agreed-upon way of defining time. There are computed ephemerides tables available to you for this planning, actively maintained and computed from astronomical observations. The database contains over 1 million asteroids, nearly 4 thousand comets, 200 moons, 8 planets, our sun, lagrange points, and centers of mass regions, and it even accounts for galactic drift. You can access this database with telnet on any computer to plan a journey. For example: telnet URL_0 6775 phobos Enter some query dates and options and you will get reliable projections of where Mars' moon Phobos will be located tomorrow. Parameters are right ascension, declination of an orbiting body, in that ICRF (reference plane). Date__(UT)__HR:MN R.A._____(ICRF)_____DEC 2021-May-11 00:00 06 45 33.51 +24 27 07.6 2021-May-11 01:00 06 45 40.02 +24 26 58.6 2021-May-11 02:00 06 45 46.37 +24 26 49.0 2021-May-11 03:00 06 45 52.77 +24 26 40.4 2021-May-11 04:00 06 45 59.40 +24 26 33.1 2021-May-11 05:00 06 46 06.28 +24 26 27.1 2021-May-11 06:00 06 46 13.29 +24 26 21.2 2021-May-11 07:00 06 46 20.22 +24 26 14.5 It takes a lot more math and physics than just this, but all the centuries of knowledge humanity has distilled for astro navigation is available at your fingertips and it can be understood with great patience. Sci-fi authors have for a long time used or made romantic relative navigation terms such as \"starboard\" as a relative direction on the solar plane, meaning toward-the-star. But in practicality, that means nothing useful. Stellar navigation takes immense planning and computations, so it'd never be a directional estimate.",
"One way I know of are star trackers. Basically a camera which continuously takes pictures of the stars. The movement of the stars between pictures tells the spacecraft what orientation it is in.",
"Using points of reference. Leave the earth orbit and you still have the sun as point of reference. The directions in orbit are: 1) prograde, retrograde, that's in direction of your movement and against direction of your movement, 2) radial and anti radial, meaning directed towards the object you're orbiting and away from. 3) normal and anti normal, right angle to the plane of your orbit. \"Up\". This one is sort of arbitrary as there is no true up. You just come up with a convention. Earth \"up\" is north pole.",
"When we pass an Australian spaceship will the be upside down?",
"The ecliptic plane is the “surface” along which earth travels in its orbit around the sun. Another orbit can be inclined from that plane. The ecliptic plane intersects with [insert bunch of stargazing jargon here] at the ascending node. This defines a constant direction pointing out of the ecliptic plane, a bit like north being well defined on earth. These two are used to describe where an orbit is oriented/placed around the Sun. The orbit itself might also have a unique shape described by argument of perigee (rotation around its own axis), eccentricity, radii etc. Within the orbit you can usually define where you are within it using the eccentric anomaly which is analogous to hours positions on a clock but for an ellipsis and not a circle. You can also make a coordinate system with the nadir/zenith (in/out of the object you are orbiting aka up or down), north and east. This is used for things going out of or into earth from space. There’s a lot of different ways to measure your position and orientation as long as you have the correct measurement devices. These include sun sensors, star cameras, horizon sensors, magnetometers and gyroscopes. And of course good old gps and radio. If you have plenty of data you can switch between coordinate systems with ease, so you can take all these funky circle directions i described and turn it in to X,Y,Z if you wish."
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n9cn3j | the difference between the MDMA people take to party and the MDMA used to help treat PTSD. | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Quality control. Stuff on the black market is ofc uncontrolled and therefore often cut with cheaper drugs (amphetamine, meth, caffeine...) or filler material. Also, harmful contamination is more likely. Same with any other drug that's used both in healthcare and as a recreational black-market drug. It's basically moonshine vs. store-bought booze. The same if made properly, but one has more risk to not be up to standard.",
"The legal difference is whether a doctor prescribed it. The real difference is that due to its general illegality, street MDMA will be of an unknown purity with random unknown adulterants added. Quality control for pharmaceutical MDMA is same as for any other legal drug, so you know exactly what you're getting. The purity issue is one reason I want drugs legalized."
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n9coyq | why is it safer to let food cool down before putting it in fridge, instead of putting it in hot? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's actually less safe for the food you're letting cool. However, it can temporarily raise the temperature of the fridge enough that other food may be at risk of spoiling. Extra steak you cooked that you aren't going to finish? Safer to put straight into the fridge because it doesn't have a whole lot of heat. Large pot of stew that's still piping hot? That has a *ton* of heat that will work your fridge harder and has higher potential to heat up other foods. Most modern fridges are fairly safe unless you're putting a lot of hot food in them. Industrial fridges are even safer because they have such a large amount of cold air within.",
"The hot food will continue to put off heat as the fridge cools it, this heat will raise the temperature of the other food items in the fridge and possibly lead to the other food going bad.",
"It’s not. Not at all. If it has a space in your freezer, the fastest you will put in in the fridge the longer it will last, and will be more sanitary. In room temp, germs multiple on your food in a rate of doubling every 20 min (exponential growth) In fridge its at least 8 hours I believe, for every doubling themselves, and freezer its a day and a half"
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n9d5jm | Why the headphone jack hasn't been improved or replaced by any other type of connector since the 50's? Is that as best as it can get and there's no need for anything else? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because it’s not needed, it works fine now it is now, all you need is 3 (or 4 if you need a microphone) wires, and the 3.5 mm jack does that absolutely fine, why get a new standard? You’ll just make new problems for nothing Unlike other digital connectors like USB there is really nothing to be gained by improving it, you can’t “make it faster” because it’s analog, all the quality comes from the devices and not the connector",
"Simplicity and practicality. There are better cables and connectors for audio (see studio grade audio equipment), but the investment in said improvements makes things bulkier and costlier. The added benefit is imperceptible to 99%+ of listeners. The fact is, propagating audio signals is not that complicated from an engineering standpoint and the headphone jack as is does a fine job, even in the studio.",
"Because there's no reason to \"improve\" on it. It is cheap, works with any quality headphone set, and is extremely effective. And it also works for microphones as well. Think of it like the door frame of a house. The door itself and the house are changed constantly as time goes on, but the frame remains the same because it serves its function. The only thing that changes with a jack is the headset itself which can enhance quality profoundly while still using the same jack your $1 low quality headphones do. However, there has been improvements in the tech. It's called bluetooth. Bluetooth negates the need for the jack altogether. But if you don't want to charge wireless stuff constantly, the standard headphone jack invented in the 50s works even with the highest quality surround sound headset in 2021. There's just nothing about the jack itself that needs to change.",
"Look at it this way... What's 'wrong' with it? What do you need that it doesn't do? What different idea do you have that you think someone might need? There needs to be either a new supply or a new demand for something to change."
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n9db8u | How did a 70 year old computer (Lyons electronic office I) use Mercury as memory? [2K (2048) 35-bit words (ultrasonic delay line memory based on tanks of mercury)]? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Delay line memory works by sending a current through a loop where it is slowed down. If you want to write, you wait until the loop comes to you and inject a bit value. If you want to read, you wait until the loop comes around and read what's on it. Mercury was one method used to delay the signal by having it turn into an ultrasonic pulse through a column of mercury, and then back into electric. One column could hold several pulses in flight at the same time."
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n9eh5g | Are humans a vital part of any ecosystem? | Earth Science | explainlikeimfive | {
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"All the farm animals would die without humans, and so would plants like corn, bananas, pretty much all cultivated hybrids of apples, pears, plums, citrus and such.",
"There are two frameworks: 1.) All things that exist are natural. 2.) All things that exist apart from humans are natural. I subscribe to the former. I think ourselves and our artificial creations are natural. That said, I don’t think we’re good for the broader ecosystem in the long term. Our lifestyle is non sustainable and we’re causing mass extinction events left and right. If half the humans disappeared from the earth, barring some strange possibilities regarding uninhabited cities being taken over by wildlife and getting them sick from toxic materials, most of the benefits would be positive, *I suspect*. Some factories and facilities need maintenance lest they impact the surrounding environment. Some elements of our infrastructure aren’t self contained. What if our lack of maintenance causes more spillage into ocean, or spreading into the forests? What impact would this have?",
"> I've always heard that humanity is a parasitic member of the planet That's a metaphor. Humans are a vital part of every ecosystem that humans live in.",
"Humans more consistently occupy the role of apex predator than of parasite, and we consistently displace other predators when we move in. Animals like lions, tigers and wolves tend to keep other populations in check by eating them. Humans keep the predators in check and eat (or consume, at least) the cows, chickens and goats. Then we provide food and places in the ecosystem for raccoons, pigeons and rats. If humanity was made to vanish one day - most likely because some nation got a little too enthusiastic about some war and used a weapon they shouldn't have used - in the short term there'd be a huge disruption in the farm and city ecosystems we've created. But in the long term, those regions would be reclaimed by their original ecosystems, or something like them. Like all the other species that humanity has made extinct, if we ourselves vanished, ultimately, the world is very resilient and would make do.",
"Some species benefit from humanity, many of them plagues such as such as rats, seagulls, pidgeons, cockroaches and similar. Animals which thrive in a wasteful human society filled with leftover foods. The same goes for domesticated animals such as dogs and housecats. Animals which thrive based on human generosity and companionship. But animals such as bears, lions, whales, moose, eagles, penguins, seals, fish, bees and generally all other insects would greatly benefit from human influence being reduced. But that's really besides the point, humanity isn't bad in itself, but the problem is that there's too many of us and we have too many wasteful habits. If there were say 1 billion humans on this planet instead of 7,8 billion humans, our species environmental impact would be far lower, there would be room for other species to live and thrive and we wouldn't out-compete them for resources to the point where they go extinct. It's not about whether humanity is good, or bad, it's about having a sustainable population size as well as sustainable habits."
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n9eodq | Why does some cheese melt smoothly but others get crunchy? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are a lot of variables but the two biggest are that there are 2 ways that cheese is made. 1. Enzyme (rennet is used to make the curds) made cheese (i.e. mozzarella, swiss, etc), which will melt gooey. 2. Acid based (some type of acid is made to change the PH of the milk or whey and denatures the proteins which wrap around the fat molecules to make the curds) cheeses (i.e. feta, cottage cheese, ricotta, queso blanco, etc) which will soften with heat, but not melt. So the acid based cheeses will never get melty and gooey, but the rennet based ones will, though the additional variables which will contribute to how the rennet based cheeses will soften and pull are how much moisture content they have, fat %, how they are aged, and few other ones."
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n9fbbj | How do jewelers cut gems evenly and precisely? | How are there always the right amount of sides, of the perfect size, and all these different little faces and stuff? I know they basically use a big sanding wheel but how do they not have one side bigger or smaller than the others? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I’m in Diamond manufacturing. We use lasers that scan diamond rough and tell us precisely what to do.",
"From what I’ve seen my brother do, a lot of math and a lot of practice. He does more cabochons than gem cuts but as far as I know they just map it out (marking on the stone) and then cut accordingly. Often, especially on the smaller ones (most of the ones you’d find on rings) they use lasers, but I haven’t actually ever seen that so I have even less an idea how that works.",
"Yes they use a big sanding wheel like you said. They end up with the sizes exactly right because... they're very good. I don't know what to say. Your question is like asking how builders make buildings that aren't crooked or how watch makers assemble tiny mechanisms that keep time for years. They have the right tools, training, and have practiced a very specific skill for hundreds or thousands of hours. Someone in the gem cutting profession is called a [lapidary]( URL_0 ), and the good ones are master craftsmen. If you were looking for some secret info, sorry. They're \"just\" tradespeople good at their trade. In a way, I think that makes it even more impressive."
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n9gau6 | Why does meat continue to increase in temperature after being removed from the oven? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The core temperature might increase but the average temperature does not. When you heat up a piece of meat you are just heating the outside. It can take some time for the heat to equalize throughout the meat. So the inside temperature can still be quite cold even if the outside is done. This is why you measure the core temperature of the meat and not the outside temperature. To prevent overcooking the outside of the meat you have to take it out of the oven. The outside is still hot and will cool down but some of the heat from the outside will continue to heat up the inside. So after letting the meat rest the inside will be done cooking and you can serve the meat.",
"Does it? I've always known it continues to *cook* after you pull it out, and the temperature will continue to even put through the meat. Perhaps it's the temperature at the center of the meat that will increase a bit after taking the cut off heat, as the external parts of the meat transmit their heat into the center."
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n9i5q0 | If I take oxygen and hydrogen and jam them together they don’t make water. how does water happen? | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You have to add energy. If you put a balloon of hydrogen in an oxygen environment, then pop the balloon with a flame, you get an explosion, and a small amount of water.",
"Let's say you put a ball at a certain point which is at a certain height. There is another point which is lower, so the ball could go there, right? However, the way from one point to the other isn't just down, there's a peak in the middle, a small mountain. This is what happens with a lot of chemical reactions. The reactants have a higher energy than the products, so the formation of the products is favourable because they are more stable, however, the way from one to the other isn't straight down, they must pass through a higher energy intermediate to arrive to the final point. They need a kickstarter, a little bit of energy to then cascade directly to the other point. This is called activation energy. Edit: I just didn't think straight for a second there.",
"Some energy input is required for the two to react. For a stoichiometric mixture (2 molecules if H2 for every O2 molecule), this could be achieved at a temperature of around 570°C or a spark or other ignition source. Without that, the two compounds won't react.",
"Take two Hydrogen atoms, one Oxygen, and add some temperature. Water does happen, you\\`ve got the recipe right. I suspect that you\\`re hoping to see drops, clouds, or somesuch. It takes a LOT of H and O to make a raindrop. I may have worked this out wrong, but I think that if you completely fill three big hot air balloons (2800 M3 each), one with Oxygen and two with Hydrogen, that would result in only 13.5 Kg of water (or 3.5 gallon - a mid-size bucket). Happy to be corrected on the math!"
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n9ij5d | Why do tiny animals chew so fast and twitch so much? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Tiny animals are easy for bigger animals to eat. If they stay still eating for ages, they're more likely to get eaten. They eat fast and are always ready to run away if they need to."
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n9jkhr | what gives the US authority to detain, search, and confiscate from ships in international water. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defines specific military actions that can be made in international waters. One of those actions is to \"approach and visit\" ships suspected of piracy and other maritime violations. While it gives the US Navy and the Lichtenstein^† Navy equal rights to conduct these sorts of operations, it seems that the US is more willing to fund a navy large and powerful enough to do this sort of thing on a regular basis. † No insult intended to the navy (existent or not) of Lichtenstein. You were simply a substitute for \"generic small country\".",
"The United Nations Convention of the Maritime law and other treaties, give every operating Navy the right to seize illegal contraban and stop illegal actions on the seas. Since the Bretton Words agreement in WW2 patrolling the high seas has been one of the US Navy's biggest jobs. These treaties and actions allowed for international trade to blossom all over the world. Because Navy's generally went from just protecting there own nations ships to protecting any ship thst was in distress.",
"We have ships with guns, and there’s no other navy that can put pressure on us to stop. But in more general terms, I presume it’s on an anti-piracy mission so there’s international support behind it."
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n9jll5 | Why is it okay to drink alcohol from the liquor store, but not Listerine/mouth wash? | What’s the difference | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The alchol that they use in mouthwash is generally not the same type of alchol that is safe for human consumption. Thymol, Eucalyptol Menthol are some of the types of alchol they use as substitute. Other things in mouthwash, like the large amounts of fluoride can cause gastric distress, nausea and other issues when consumed. The few people that do drink mouthwash as a substitute are usually recovering alcoholics trying to get a buzz. Edit. Most mouthwashes still contain ethanol and thus can still have the alcholic effect. The Thymol, Eucalyptol, and menthol are also added."
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n9jlmw | How do "sensation" candies work? Like a candy that makes your tongue feel cold, for example. | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"They have chemicals that trigger various receptor cells that aren't your tongue's taste buds. That's why you \"feel\" the sensations more than \"taste\" them. Cooling candies/gum/mouthwash is usually from menthol, which activates temp receptors that usually indicate cold. Spicy food has capsaicin, which activates hot-temp receptors and pain receptors. That's why spice feels \"hot\" - to your brain it's literally the same thing. The doorbell is being pressed by a different chemical, but inside the house it sounds the same. That's also why hot temp \"stacks\" with spice. It's why spicy food \"burns\" on skin outside your mouth too. Szechuan peppercorns have Hydroxy alpha sanshool, a chemical that activates *touch* receptors, causing a peculiar \"buzzing\" feeling that goes along with other hot spices in traditional Chinese cuisine.",
"It is usually menthol in it which has a natural cooling sensation in its flavoring. This is why you see it in so many products from mouthwash to cigarettes to candy."
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n9k6qo | Why are sperm cells different if they are all cells from the same parent? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because we have a HUGE amount of genes in our body, only half of which (less actually in some sperm cells or eggs) are put into each cell. Long ago, evolution decided that a wide genetic difference in a species creates a higher chance of survival. So, by mixing up genes, it ensures that SOME offspring will be better adapted in a changing environment, and some offspring won't,allowing only genes needed for survival in the current situation are passed, but also allowing genes that aren't currently useful, but may become useful someday, to also hang around. Its like investing In a bunch of different stocks to ensure you don't lose everything because of one problem"
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n9kmxt | why do fluids do that spirally thing after leaving a hole? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"If you're talking about \"after\" leaving a hole and not when fluids spiral down a drain, then the answer is in surface tension, or the springeyness of the surface of a fluid. The fluid wants to spread out, but as it does it stretches the \"skin\" of the fluid and it bounces back to the center making the spiral-ish shape. There's a much better explanation [here]( URL_0 )"
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n9kqxa | What exactly happens in the moment from being awake to falling asleep? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The answer to this question lies in the pre frontal cortex. The pre frontal cortex controls a few different things. Controlling breathing & body temp, maintaining a circadian rhythm, and sending out pain singles through our IMS. The maintenance of our circadian rhythm controlled by the pre frontal cortex only happens if our pre frontal cortex recognizes it is time for sleep. When it is time for sleep the body sends neurological S.L.E.E.P (solproxeenep) signals through our IMS and the body slowly turns to auto pilot basically. You begin getting lost in your thoughts and suddenly your so deep into them you can’t move. From that stage you forget what your thinking about as you think it and by this point your in deep sleep and the only thing that can wake you up is a memory of you shooting a basketball and you violently jump sideways in your bed and get so mad that you just fell for it again the 5th night in a row. Goodnight"
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n9m38k | Why is there sometimes like a black sheen/shadow across the road that goes away as you drive closer? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It's a mirage. It's caused by the heat of the road heating up the air above it, which changes the air's refractive index and the layer of air above the road bounces the light from the sky at you. Sometimes it looks like water, which is why the common idea of a mirage is people seeing \"water\" in the desert. Same mechanism can create the same effect in a hot desert."
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n9ml4n | What happens to a car battery internally, that causes it to “go bad?” | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Car batteries are two thin sheets of lead alloy, separated by a solution. As the battery charges, lead is plated from one plate to the other. As the battery discharges, the process is reversed. In an ideal world, the lead ions would be perfectly uniformly distributed in the solution, and the plates would remain completely flat. So, that's not how it really works. One plate gets a little bump from random concentration imbalances. That makes the gap between the plates a little smaller. The smaller gap makes that point a more active part of the battery. Over time, a little stalagmite starts to grow toward the other plate. One day, it touches, and the battery has an internal short. Lots of heat in generated, and the plate might be damaged, or even crack and come loose. Not to worry, there are a couple dozen plates in each cell, and the other ones are working fine, for now. Over time, more plates are damaged. that's why it's bad to run a battery dead, this is the stage where the maximum plating effect occurs, shortening the overall life.",
"When the battery is initially built, it consists of a sheet of corrugated lead metal. The lead is treated with sulfuric acid in such a way that it reacts to form a thick layer of lead(+2) sulfate or PbSO4. Two sheets are then sandwiched between an absorbent glass mat with a gel of fairly dilute sulfuric acid. This forms the battery in it's discharged state. Charging the battery involves applying a positive voltage to one terminal and a negative to the other. At the positive plate, the layer of lead sulfate reacts with water to form lead oxide, additional sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and hydronium ions (H3O+) while at the negative plate the sulfate is converted into additional metallic lead, which \"plates out\" on the positive electrode, as well as bisulfate ions(HSO3-). This reacts with the hydronium ions producing more sulfuric acid. This consumes water in the glass mat while producing more acid. In the charged state, one electrode consists mostly of lead oxide with a modest amount of lead and the other of thick metallic lead, while the electrolyte consists of concentrated acid. The acid is more reactive towards lead oxide, producting a voltage difference between the two. Discharging consumes the lead oxide, the lead metal, and the acid in the electrolyte. Generally the battery is designed such that the lead oxide runs out first. The battery is fully discharged when either the lead oxide or the acid runs out. However, discharging deeply several times can cause bits of lead oxide or lead sulfate to flake off the electrodes, for several reasons. If these materials are not in direct electrical contact with the electrodes, they cannot contribute to the reaction, leading to a loss of capacity. As in most batteries, use leads to damage amd or degradation of the electrodes materials. When fully charged, some lead sulfate becomes dissolved in the electrolyte, this can be exacerbated by a lack of sufficient water in the cell. When the cell is discharged, this precipitates out as lead sulfate crystals that form in the bottom of the cell. Over time this leads to erosion of positive plate, while the lead sulfate crystals in the bottom grow in size. This is known as sulfation. Storing the battery in a discharged state for long periods exacerbates this and consumes the acid. Eventually not much acid is available as the sulfate crystals formed are not in contact with either electrode. This can be remedied somewhat by adding more acid and water. Certain conditions can also cause large, needle-like lead crystals to grow during charging, called dendrites. These can bridge between the two plates, causing a short circuit. This makes further charging and discharging impossible. You have a dead cell that needs to be recycled."
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n9nhq4 | When we bump a body part against a sharp object like our elbow, why do we rub it immediately out of instinct? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Very simply put, stimulating sensory nerves around an injury inhibits the pain signal to the brain and can make a painful stimulus hurt a little less."
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n9nyub | why do our hands shake when we are nervous? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It’s a component of the fight-or-flight response. Your muscles essentially get prepared to either help you get away from the stressor, or fight it off. This is caused by the release of adrenaline when you notice a stressor. Adrenaline speeds up how quickly your muscles contract, which can lead to twitching (especially around a particularly intense stressor)",
"Adrenaline as all excitants is increasing reaction time and strength somewhat (more like lessens the pain associated with muscle overload) but does poorly for muscle precision. So yeah fight or flight not the moment to play jenga."
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n9ob8p | If animal species are determined by animals not being able to have viable offspring, how are plant species determined? | Such as (made up example, idk if it’s real) you may be able to cross bread oranges and lemons, and get something you can plant and grow. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Actually the answer isn’t that simple on the animal side either! For instance, there’s what’s called a ring species: imagine a large area that forms a ring, say, around a mountain. There are (made up example) rodents that live around this geographical ring, and the north ones can interbreed with the east ones, who can interbreed with the south ones, who can interbreed with the west ones, who can interbreed with the north ones, but the north ones can’t interbreed with the south ones. Where do you draw the species line? Interbreeding is the basis for what’s known as the biological species concept, but there are other species concepts. And yeah, people tend to think the biological species concept doesn’t work so well for plants (though Ernst Mayr tried to prove it does). One good alternative is what’s called the phylogenetic species concept. This defines a species as a group of organisms that share a unique common ancestor."
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n9ofvv | Why is there a difference between your heart beating fast and beating hard? | During exercise my heart will beat fast, but not very hard. However when I abruptly wake up from a nightmare or see a person I'd rather avoid, my heart will beat very hard but slow. Why is it necessary for our bodies to have two different methods and do they achieve different effects? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"When you exercise, your blood pressure is regulated by a combination of your arteries expanding, arterioles in the muscle expanding, and heart rate increasing. For any given increase in intensity, it takes 2-3 minutes for that change to fully occur. When you’re at rest and under stress, your muscles don’t put out the same dilation (known as functional sympatholysis) yet your heart rate may still increase. In that instance, the heart has to pump more forcefully to overcome the blood pressure shift and maintain the same ejection fraction (amount of blood pumped vs amount of blood left in left ventricle).",
"doesn't adrenaline also increase force of muscular contractions for the heart?"
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n9omn7 | Why does our mind go blank when recalling information that we know? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"This has always fascinated me, because I’m terrible at recalling stuff. From what I’ve learned, it is two sorts of reasons. A physical reason is due to neural connections not being there to connect the thoughts from one to another. The second is association. Our brains work mostly on associations and pattern recall. If we don’t think of the related information, or we’re trying to force a new connection, then it’s just not there. Recalling random info that has no connections to anything else is nearly impossible."
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n9oncg | How come we can't move our toes the way we move our fingers? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The joints and muscles are different as evolution has no need for feet to be able to have as complex articulation as your hands since the majority of use for your feet is for standing and walking. As well, the longer and more nimble your toes are like your fingers, the more likely they'd snap and break trying to hold up your weight as you walk. Thus why your toes are generally smaller and shorter and only used for grip and balance.",
"Why can't we move our toes the way we move our fingers? Because we don't practice doing that. If you did, you could. Ask anyone that has feet, but no hands."
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n9oq46 | How Do You Determine Which Direction You’re Traveling? | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The sun. Since it always follows the same arc, you can count on it. Looking at shadows can tell you, etc. Rises in the East, sets in the West. Everyday, everywhere. Oh, and often in TV shows, they are talking about streets, which have a set direction that is sort of part of the name. A freeway that goes North and South will have that direction as part of the name, “ ...headed North on HWY 101”, etc.",
"Generally people keep an ongoing vague sense of \"which way is north\". It doesn't need to be perfect, but at the very least most people know that north is \"that way, more or less\". In the northern hemisphere, at least, it's going to be the opposite side of where the sun is for most of the day. Once you've got that key direction down it's all pretty simple. If you tell me to enter on the west side of the building, I just remind myself of which way north is, and from there it's just simple hop skip and a jump to knowing which side would be the west side. If you don't even have a sense of which way is north at any particular time, then yeah you're not going to be able to make any sense of directions like that."
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n9p4ui | How does a swing work? | I mean why a set of specific moves makes it move without stoping. | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"to start, when you move your legs, it starts the momentum going that gets the front/back motion started... then every time you switch positions, you are actually moving yourself into a state of higher potential energy\\*. the swing just convers that into kinetic energy (movement). \\*well, technically, you aren't increasing potential energy, you are changing your rotational moment of inertia, thus able to harness gravity more.... so it's almost like increasing potential energy"
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n9pii4 | Why are there so many words to describe a group of animals? | eg: a murder of crows, a quiver of cobras, a pod of whales... | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The tradition of using \"terms of venery\" or \"nouns of assembly\", collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals, stems from an English hunting tradition of the Late Middle Ages.",
"Most of the odd-sounding collective nouns derive from a hunting tradition. However, many of them are much more recent inventions, and are meant to be whimsical. This is apparently a long-standing tradition, as the Book of St Albans (AD 1486) has some that are clearly not hunters' tradition."
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n9smnv | What Causes JPEG Compression? | I save, modify, and share a lot of images online, as most of us do, typically in the JPEG format. I often see JPEGs posted that are of very low quality, obviously having been saved and reposted many times, to the point that the lowest quality are considered "ancient." They get blocky, defined edges get blurred, yet it seems to follow a distinct pattern so that a JPEG corrupted in this way is still distinctly a JPEG. I know that saving an image and reuploading it will reduce the quality, but what are the actual mechanisms that turn a JPEG from crisp to a barely recognizable jumble of pixels? How fast does it happen, and what can or has been done to preserve image quality over time? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Basically, any lossy copression will introduce artifacts. JPEGs are intended to make those artifacts relatively difficult for humans to spot in natural scenes, and for the most part, they do — but they’re not good for artificially-created scenes. Let’s make those artifacts obvious by looking at an artificially-created 32x24 scene with a variety of JPEG quality levels (lower quality means more aggressive compression, hence a smaller file). The first way JPEGs introduce artifacts is by transforming colors from RGB (Red Green Blue) into a colorspace that separates color information from gray level and reducing the number of bits used to encode color. The 100% quality JPEG most obviously differs from the master image primarily because of this. However, you’ll notice that at lower quality levels things don’t get blurry, but get distorted by a organic-looking, but blocky, pattern. That’s coming from the use of an 8x8 pixel DCT (discrete cosine transform) that compresses by limiting the range of spatial frequencies within each 8x8 block. An arbitrary sharp edge within an 8x8 pixel block requires both high and low spatial frequencies, so limiting frequencies can shift features; solid-color regions can get a pattern introduced. It is this 8x8 DCT that creates the block-wise distortions that most bother people when JPEG compressing images that contain lots of sharp edges and evenly-shaded regions — such as simple diagrams or a photograph of a natural scene with sharp text overlaid on it. Basically, JPEG encoding looks great for most natural scenes, but isn’t very effective for artificial scenes with solid colors and sharp edges. For the types of images that are most problematic as JPEGs, PNG encoding usually can produce relatively small files despite using lossless encoding. By the way, MPEG video encoding is very similar to JPEG compression, so you’ll often see similar artifacts.",
"JPEG is a lossy image compression format. Basically to reduce the space used by the image it does not store the value of each pixel but instead looks for patterns in the image and stores these pattern instead. And since it is lossy it is allowed to loose some informaiton. If the JPEG algorithm finds a pattern that fits close enough for most people to not notice then it will use this pattern even though it does not produce the exact same output as the input it was given. Lossy formats are much more effective then lossless formats. There is however a few potential issues with this. Firstly it is possible to configure the threshold for what it consideres close enough. And if this is set too low then you get a very small JPEG file but with visible artifacts in the output. The patterns it found took up very little space but the output image is only vaugely similar to the input. Secondly if you uncompress an image and then compress it again with a slightly different algorithm or with different settings it might not find the exact same patterns. This means that while it may be hard to distinguish the original from the first compressed image and this image from the final image there may be some clear differences between the original and the final image.",
"Storing every pixel as a separate data point gets *really* expensive real fast when you're dealing with images consisting of millions of pixels. That's why compression formats exist. The two main types are lossless (which conserve all the data so a picture can be exactly reproduced) and lossy, which make sacrifices and remove some data in order to reduce the file size. For example, jpeg groups an area that's approximately the same color into one big square and writes the information of 50 pixels as only one or two large pixels. If you do this once it saves a ton of storage space and since our eyes don't actually perceive pixels the same way as a computer does, the image still looks nearly identical. If you do this many times however, you end up with multiple passes of an algorithm that compound the mistakes and approximations of the previous pass. Kind of like the telephone game that we played in kindergarten, each pass loses a bit more information. The best way to avoid it is to share the original image instead of compressing it again. Don't take a screenshot, but instead directly download the image for example. That way the compression is already written in the image and your phone doesn't need to do it again. Edit: jpeg does a lot more than just that obviously, but that's the most prominent feature that gives it that blocky look"
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n9tdi4 | Why do some 'Heavy Games' like Arkham Knight, GTA V, Watchdogs 2, etc run without any issue (with acceptable CPU, GPU usage & temperatures exceeding not more than 50% & 70°C) where as while playing 'Light games' such as My Little Nightmares, Stick it to the man, etc GPU usage is around 80-90 | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well, there are many reasons for this and I’m not enough of a computer expert nor do I know these games well enough to give you a concise explanation. But one of the reasons could be: - Optimization, sometimes, games just aren’t optimized, resulting in more unnecessary things being performed despite not being necessary to do the same thing. You’ll notice massive differences in things with huge lighting engines or generally just.. complex mechanics. To add on to that, My Little Nightmares isn’t exactly a light game (based completely off what I’ve seen of it) considering how many things are moving at once and all of the rendering that is done.",
"Developers on these games have often spent considerable time trying to get the most performance out of your system as possible by optimizing every single bit of code to give the same high quality performance with less resources. Smaller games are usually from smaller development teams who do not have the time to optimize the game and therefore end up doing a lot of things inefficiently taking up much more resouces then is required.",
"The more money and time you can throw at a game’s development, the more polished and efficient it’s code can potentially be. So if a game is one guy with no budget created, definitely won’t have 15 experts behind it all brainstorming the most optimized code for every single platform the game might be releasing on etc"
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n9te8y | How do skinny people eat a lot and still stay skinny. And not skinny people don’t? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Many skinny people think they eat alot. But actually they dont. As a skinny guy myself, the first week i counted calories was the first week i knew i didnt eat enough.",
"Skinny people don't eat as much as not-skinny people, or they exercise more. It can be very difficult to judge how much someone else eats or exercises because you're not watching them 24/7. Just because they're eating a lot or sitting on the couch when you're watching them, doesn't mean they keep doing that when you look away.",
"There are two answers to this story: 1. Metabolism. Some people just burn energy faster than others. 2. If you would really count the caloric intake you will see that skinny people who eat ‘a lot’ still have a very significant lower intake than heavy people. Their appetite seems to be smaller. And we still don’t know if that’s nature or nurture, however nurture seeems to have a great influence. “Eating everything and still not gaining weight” is a myth.",
"I know a girl who is 5'4 and 110lbs. She is quite petite. She eats non-stop all day. I am talking finishing whole boxes of cereal, multiple meals, etc. She never gains weight. I was wondering the same thing. I realized eventually that she never stops moving all day. She is always fidgeting, she doesn't ever nap. She always seems to be going full speed. So yes she is eating a whole bunch of calories...but she is constantly working it off. Her energy reserves seem limitless. If I moved like she did all day, I would need a nap by noon. I don't know if some hyper-activity disorder or some kind of high metabolism that keeps her going, but that's what I gleamed about the situation. Now this is only one case that I have directly observed, but I feel it's close to what happens. What other have said is true that some people who eat often, don't really consume many calories and that is how they are skinny. In this one case, I know she eats many more calories than I do, but doesn't gain weight easily."
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n9tvur | Why do we randomly remember the cringiest moments of our lives? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The reason you keep remembering them is because your brain thinks it was bad enough to make sure you don’t do it again, so it keeps reminding you of it as a precaution. The same as with any injury. The fact that this is not a physical injury makes little difference to the brain, this “injury” damaged your self esteem, possibly resulting in lower group status which could lower your chances of surviving, eating, reproducing; your primal drives. Social status is important in society, so anything that damages that is important to “survival” according to your primal instinct. If you want to stop remembering it, you need to convince your brain that it wasn’t important. A simple method is to visualise the event clearly in your mind, like a movie. Then, as you replay it, fade the colours to black and white, make any hurtful comments sound like squeaky Micky Mouse voices (or whatever is not serious, funny). Then making this “clip” smaller and less loud and visually further away from you every time you replay it in your head. Over time, repeating this exercise will lower the importance and eventually it will fade into insignificance. But be cautious, only do this if you feel there’s no lesson to be learned from that memory, if you feel you can safely ignore it without fear of reoccurring in the future. Don’t use this to arbitrarily diminish any memory you simply don’t like.",
"\"When you’re 20 you care what everyone thinks. When you're 40 you learn to stop caring what everyone thinks. When you’re 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place.\" I think is an apt quote.",
"Our brains evolved in tribal conditions where we depend on people around us to survive. If you become a social outcast in caveman times, you will die. We have since adopted modern lifestyles, but our brain still believe that other people's opinions of determines whether you live or die and generate social anxiety accordingly."
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n9tz8a | What are twitter bots and how do they work? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Bots are basically just automated systems. There's a *lot* of different types. I'll focus on the simplest one: a follower bot. Follower bots are automated accounts that... follow a specific account. Usually this is a paid service. The accounts are made to look authentic at a glance so that they seem like real people. How they work is as simple as it sounds. They make a new account (or hijack one) and follow the account they've been told to follow. That's usually it. There's also reply bots, share bots, like bots... they function very similarly to Reddit bots, coded to do one or two things. Like Automoderator posting a comment in every thread with a rules reminder, for example. You can go deeper and make specific rules like \"share tweets with these keywords\". As you can imagine this is great for influencing people, and that's generally what they're used for."
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n9uxmq | why do kids hate vegetables? | is it because their taste buds are still developing? I read awhile ago it was because their taste buds found vegetables like broccoli more bitter than adults, so the negative taste aspects were amplified. As the grew up their tastes changed and the no longer disliked the taste? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"My mom used to say that the reason I didn't like my Aunt's veggies was because she thought that little kids should have raw and untouched products with the \"nature\" intact. My mother then simply washed, blanched/flash steamed and lightly seasoned with a salt-red pepper-garlic-onion blend. It was absolutely amazing! I TOTALLY fucking love vegetables because I've learned how to cook them correctly, thanks to my mother.",
"You have part of it. But the question has many multifaceted answers, developing taste buds are a part of the puzzle. From a behavioural point of view, you can think of it as a display of power. Kids crave power and control, which sounds bad because our immediate thoughts are of adults that crave power and control. But remember kids are born completely dependant, and as they develop they naturally want to have some sort of influence on their environment. One of these things is what they eat. Because parents can't force you to eat, which is why it's common for kids as they get a little older to become picky eaters, they've realised that this is an outlet where they can have more control. It's one of the first things which them saying 'no' tends to have an impact. Vegetables tend to be a villain because they're healthy and parents want their kids to eat them. They get pushed more, and that pushiness makes kids want to flex what little autonomy they have. Then it becomes a game of stubbornness. They may very well like the food but they'll still 'not like it' because they want to be right. This can turn parents into forcing their child to eat vegtables against their wishes creating bad associations with the food. Again this is just another piece to the puzzle. They're a lot of factors at play here."
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n9uz4h | Obsession with dyed foods and beverages. Does actual research show that berry flavored things sell better being "blue", etc? Why would it even matter for things that would probably never be seen (ie energy drinks)? | I understand that most countries have since banned those unnatural numbered dyes, I'm just curious if there really is a consumer demand for this despite the lack of logical consumption reasoning. Considering natural dying still exists, when did this practice start? Thank you! | Other | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Kids love bright and colorful things. So, a lot of kid-oriented food and drinks will be brightly colored and package themselves in brightly colored packages. Cereals, ice cream, frozen popsicles, candies, and juices (including electrolyte drinks like Gatorade) are use coloring agents to make them look more appealing to kids. And when those kids grow up, they are ingrained with ideas associated with those patterns. Watermelon and strawberry are pink, apple and lime are green, lemon is yellow, grape is purple, cherry and \"fruit punch\" are red, but there aren't a lot of blue choices. Blueberry, obviously, but that doesn't get used a lot in drinks. So, they came up with Blue Raspberry. Raspberry is a lot more red than anything else, but cherry is the way more popular red color. They wanted something to fill the blue position. As for energy drinks, like Red Bull, those are often drank out of the can or bottle, and so they are far more often to be naturally colored, giving them a look not unlike gasoline. And that look is why they add colors when you're likely to poor the drinks. Even the brown/black color of soda is made with coloring agents, because we found it more appealing than \"cloudy water\""
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n9v01r | What does a magnet "lose" when it uses energy to move an object? | We all know that no energy is created, just transformed. I've read that even a planet attracting an object and accelerating it toward it will lose a tiny bit of momentum to do so. What does a magnet lose to perform the "work" of moving something closer or further apart? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Due to its position in a magnetic field, an object will have a magnetic potential energy. This is converted to kinetic energy as the object moves through the field. To re-separate the magnets, you need to apply energy in the form of pulling them apart, thus giving it potential again. This works in the same way as gravitational potential energy; when we lift an object up, we are working against gravity and therefore giving the object energy in the form of potential as when it is released it will travel back to a point where it no longer has this potential (the ground). & #x200B; edit: typo: changed electric to magnetic",
"To answer the question I need to correct some wording here. Magnets don't use energy. Magnets create a field and it's that field that gives objects potential energy, which then gets turned into kinetic energy. So where does this potential energy come from. Well, it was inside us all along < 3 A little tangent might not answer the question (I think it touches things that I'm not qualified to talk about) but will aid in thinking. With gravity, where does the potential energy come from? The conventional answer is when there is a field (like gravitational or electromagnetic) we can give something potential energy by pulling something into a higher energy state. We spend energy rolling a ball up a hill, when we let go that energy is spent making it roll down again. But something from space, that never touched the earth and thus was never pushed against the earth's gravitational field will still fall to the earth, where did that energy come from? I don't know. where did any energy come from? I don't know. But it has it, and as it comes crashing to earth it spends it. This is why it's sort of weird to think of potential energy as an absolute thing, it's sort of relative with respect to things. But you asked about magnets, why am I going on about gravity? Because I get distracted easy. But also it's a similar story, here we have a field. One which makes all the electrons spin in the same direction and create its own. This is the sort of potential energy that was inside it the entire time. Much like how a rock floating in space that's never touched earth has this \"gravitational potential energy\" this hunk of magnetic metal that never touched a magnet in its life has this \"electromagnetic potential energy \" and it spends it to make it move. To pull them apart we then need to spend energy to give that potential energy again. That probably didn't fully answer your question but it's quite a rabbit hole. And I probably made a few mistakes which I'm hoping someone smarter than me can correct. But I hope that it at least showed what sort of rabbit hole it could be.",
"The attraction of two magnets is a transformation from potential to kinetic energy. If you have two magnets which are attracted to one another, you must input energy to pull them apart. This is transforming kinetic energy into potential energy. The magnets returning to a state where they are near one another is the release of the energy which was put into the system by pulling them apart."
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n9vba0 | Why is plant-based diet "more sustainable" compared to other meat/sea food? Wouldn't it cause over-cultivation and ruin the land if everyone was vegan? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"It takes more land to grow crops to feed to animals to feed to humans, than it does to grow crops to feed to humans directly. The reason is because that intermediary step of feeding the crops to the animals is very inefficient. Animals burn a lot calories as they grow up, and those burnt calories are gone forever and can’t be used to feed to humans. So with the same amount of farm land, you could feed like five people on a vegetarian diet for every one person you could feed on a meat diet.",
"Animals eat plants. It requires far more than one pound of plants to grow one pound of meat. It basically comes down to that. It’s far more efficient to just eat the plants directly.",
"You have to factor in that whatever meat you're eating, it had to eat too. And since you're creating a lot of loss in that step the ampunt of water, plant based feed and ground usage is a multitude of a meat free meal. Let's (wrongly) assume that a cow produces 50% meat protein for every plant protein it eats, the it uses double the land the same amount of plant based food would. And it's nowhere near 50%. It's probably in the low single digits. And it uses an enormous amount of water as well. Cattle feed also doesn't care for variation, so monoculture for feed based agriculture are the norm, while plant based diets demand more variaty in what crops you plant.",
"Meat farming is only really sustainable in places where we can't grow crops but we can grow grass. For instance, it's hard to farm crops on a hill, but you may be able to graze sheep on there quite easily. Or you may have a very long & narrow strip of land that you cannot drive your farming machines through, but can easily turn into a paddock for grazing cattle. Or the combination of soil properties & climate may just not lend itself well to growing anything but grass. In those places, cows and other ruminants can effectively \"upcycle\" the land as far as food production is concerned, since humans cannot digest grass, but can obviously get lots of nutrients from meat. Mostly, though, animals are fed on things other than grass, such as soy or corn. These crops are grown on land that could also be used to grow food for direct human consumption. So instead of, say, growing some grain to feed humans, you have to grow a lot more grain, feed it to an animal, and then consume its meat. Obviously this process is a lot more wasteful than just eating plants directly, because the animal takes a big \"cut\" of the grain's nutrients for itself. Now, it may be sustainable to devote some little farm land to meat production, if overall we are farming the Earth in a sustainable way, which doesn't deplete the soil, doesn't lead to deforestation, and keeps water use and carbon emissions in check. But these goals are all easier to achieve if we reduce our meat consumption, so that each acre of land can feed a lot more people.",
"Cows need a lot of resources to grow, not only space but food, water and requires cold chain storage, then there’s the whole methane flatulence. When you compare that with a sustainable farming model that can layer multiple crops in the same plot you get more produce with less waste byproduct. But it would be still a problem if poor farming practices we see in most places are kept up such as land clearing, monoculture farming, over reliance of fertilisers etc."
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n9vr6w | Why does our heart ache when we experience sadness or grief? Why does an emotional experience lead to physical manifestations like pain? | Whenever we experience sadness or grief, we describe it as a tightening of the chest or a sunken feeling in the stomach. Some emotions like happiness also has physical manifestations like “butterflies in the stomach”. ELI5 the science behind it. | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I looked this up once when I was going through my divorce. When you have a close relationship with someone, let’s say a partner, your body releases two hormones when you interact: Oxytocin and Dopamine. Oxytocin is a chemical (hormone/neurotransmitter) that has been nicknamed “the love hormone” because it is responsible for bonding, relationship-building, trust, empathy and fidelity. Dopamine is a chemical (neurotransmitter) that is responsible for our reward-seeking, motivation, pleasure, attention, and social behavior. It also plays a role in our perception of pain. When we are in love, these two chemicals are increased. In the beginning there is a huge surge which can help to explain the love-drunk feeling of not being able to get enough of our partner. Eventually this tapers off and sustains a baseline, but will increase/decrease throughout the span of a typical relationship. When we are heartbroken, we are experiencing a withdrawal of those two chemicals (also a mechanism in addiction withdrawal and depression). On top of this depletion of two chemicals known for making us happy and motivated, our bodies produce a surge of cortisol (stress hormone) that tells our body that something is not right and it prepares us for fight/flight mode. This alone can increase mood swings, agitation, sleep patterns and promote an anxious state. The physical response from a broken heart can mostly be described as responses to these 3 chemicals adjusting abruptly and the psychological disruption from the happy, loved, motivated person you were. You may find it hard to concentrate, sleep, eat (or you eat to quell the emptiness you’re left with). You may have a short fuse as you withdrawal from your happy chemicals and easily agitate as your cortisol surges. Your body cannot reconcile the threat is grief and not a Saber-toothed tiger. Your heart beats hard in your chest in response to your increased alertness to stimuli (it’s looking for that tiger), and you may experience breathing changes. You may feel aches in your body and head in response to constant tensing of muscles as your body waits for threat. You may feel exhausted and an increased sensation of pain from dopamine depletion and the incessant adrenaline dumps. ***These are all physical responses to emotional experiences.*** Imo, grief is the most debilitating human experience because it infiltrates our mind *and* body simultaneously."
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n9vyez | When the color from paper (or other materials) fades due to the sun where does the color go? | We all know color can fade from materials due to the sun. When that happens where does the color actually go? If that’s what is even happening. | Chemistry | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Ultraviolet light from the sun is destroying the large molecules that make up the color, breaking them apart into smaller colorless pieces. On a large scale ripping something purple in half gives you two purple pieces, but on an atomic scale splitting a molecule that absorbs violet light in half creates two new molecules that *can’t* absorb violet light anymore.",
"The color isn't really going anywhere: it's being detroyed. The reason that we see colors is because the mocleules that make up the pigments absorb some wavelengths of light (colors) and reflect others. The ones they reflect is what we see. All that energy has to go somewhere and is usually dissipated in the form of heat, but over time the energy from the sun is enough to break up the pigments. When that happens, they reflect light differently since they're not the same molecule, and that makes things look faded. It's not that the color has \"gone\" anywhere, it's just that it's not reflecting light in the same way."
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n9vzzn | where does all the water come from when we have diarrhea? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"You secrete water into the stomach in order to make stomach acid. This is in addition to the water you drink and the water that is in the food you eat. Most of your intestines is filled with liquid that the food is dissolved into as it is slowly digested. It is only at the very end of the intestines in your colon where the water is extracted turning the remains into a solid. But when you have diarrhea it goes too fast through the colon for the water to be absorbed back into the body. This is why one of the biggest issues with diarrhea can be dehydration."
],
"score": [
25
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n9w60l | If I plug a usb-c power bank into my laptop, how does it know to charge the laptop off the power bank, and not the power bank off the laptop? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"USB is a 'smart' protocol. When you plug a device into another device, they exchange information with one another about their capabilities and then negotiate what each device will do/send to the other. If you plug the power bank into a wall charger, the charges says \"I'm a wall charger - I can give you power but that is about it.\" The power bank will then say, \"OK, i can receive power, so go ahead and send some.\" In contrast, when you plug it into your laptop, the laptop will say, \"I'm a laptop, I can do a whole bunch of stuff, including give and receive power.\" The power bank will reply, \"OK, I can send and receive power, so I'm going to send you power to charge.\" to which the laptop replies \"OK, send some.\" Now, the _actual_ conversation is technical (not colloquial) but the principle is the same."
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n9x0k1 | Why would anyone pay for a good or service with crypto? Isn't the possibility that it would go up or down in value a huge deterrent for both parties? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Yes and yes. This is why the volatility of cryptocurrencies acts against their use as a *currency*. Part of the idea of cryptocurrencies is that they're free from government control and thus more stable - particularly, protected against inflation (their value falling). However currently they're behaving more like investments - where the value might go up or down, but a smart investor can tell when to buy or sell - or simply like gambling - where the change is completely unpredictable. (Or possibly even *scams*, where certain people can control or predict the changes.) That means you only want to *have* crypto if you're ok with the risk. Some people will use crypto in transactions because they like it as an investment. Some are true believers in its other benefits. If you just want to use it for a transaction, then you should buy it then use it or receive it then sell it as quickly as possible. Some business might accept it, because they know a proportion of people will like using it to pay, and then sell it asap. In some cases there are technical benefits to using crypto over other payment methods. In many others - perhaps most - the purpose is to conceal the transaction because you're doing something illegal.",
"My thoughts have been exactly the same for the last 4 years. I finally started investing in crypto for a couple reasons, I think blockchain technology has a place in the world. I also think some of the projects out there solve a problem. I feel like stabilization will come eventually but there is growing to do before then, which includes this volatility. Definitely do some research!"
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n9x16u | Why does measurement collapse the wave function? | Physics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"The existence of superposition and the collapsing wave function is simply an explanation of how the standard model works based on math. There is no real explanation for how any of it works. The model is simply a mathematical model with no real world explanation for how it works. The same behavior can be explained with the pilot-wave model with no collapsing wave function, no special quantum physics, just regular physics."
],
"score": [
3
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n9xigb | :Why does "percussive maintenance" sometimes work on delicate electronics? | Technology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"gxq9ocp"
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"text": [
"It is not as common on modern devices, but on older electronics the heat generated would often cause small warps in the circut boards or other materials. These warps would unseat components over time and break their connections. Hitting the device would often cause those components to reseat themselves, restoring the connection and restoring functionality. This doesn't really happen anymore as most components are soldered in place and don't come loose. TLDR - On old electronics, hitting it would knock things back in place."
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n9xki2 | How does removing a bridge from a graph increase the number of connected components? Isn’t it the other way around? | How does cutting any edge increases the number of connected components really | Mathematics | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Think of connected components as isolated island. Once you connect two, there is suddenly one less isolated region. (And vece versa)"
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"score": [
3
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n9y13f | How much force in pounds can a human punch at and how many pounds of force is required for a KO? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Mike Tyson was measured at 1,180 foot-pounds of energy during his peak. It’s hard to quantify exactly what that means for an opponent and what it would take to KO somebody, since the angle of the blow, the follow through of the punch, the reaction of the opponent, and the specifics of the person’s anatomy are always variable. If you’ve ever watched combat sport, you’ve probably seen people eat some absolutely vicious hits and be ok *and* some people get KOed by a seemingly innocuous hit that happening to land in just the wrong way."
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16
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n9z25q | How do muscles contract? | I've heard that electrical impulses make muscles contract and expand but how exactly does it work? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Your brain sends a nerve impulse to the muscle, the nerve impulse tells the axon (end of nerve cell) to release chemicals into the small space between the signaling nerve and the receiving nerve head. Then some other chemicals are released that bind to specific points on the muscle fiber and cause certain fibers to twist. This twisting motion shortens, and therefore contracts, the muscle."
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n9zo48 | How do deep sea fish wash ashore? | It seems to me like they'd sink to the bottom - a lot of them do. Why and how do some of them manage to float all the way to the surface and wash ashore? | Biology | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"When biological matter dies it produces gas during decomposition (or I should say the bacteria causing the decomposition produce gas) Whilst the rate at which gas is produced is not always enough to make the dead animal buoyant it often is and the animal will surface at least briefly during the decomposition process."
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