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6b8vto | How did Einstein become so popular? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"For one, he really was extraordinary. In his \"miracle year\" he published three articles in widely different areas of physics, all of which were utterly groundbreaking and would be the crown achievement for any physicist. Second, his work on relativity is understandable for the interested layman. It's by no means easy, but if you're willing to read up and study a bit, you can grasp the core of his work without being a physics major. Third, he was still alive and active during a very science-minded time. In the middle of last century, scientists in general and physicists in particular were widely admired and highly respected by the general public.",
"Right place right time. He was one of the greatest minds the world had to offer at that time. He is also extremely marketable. The messy hair, easy to relate too, and generally a good person."
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6b979k | - why is English the chosen worldwide language? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Essentially, colonialism. The British empire was the largest empire in the world for a very long time, Britain was Europe's superpower, so their culture, and language, spread."
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6bag6w | why competition like Chess, which does not include physical disadvantages to women still needs to seperate men and women in different competitions? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are not different sections for men and women. There is a Women's sections and an Open, women are free to play in both. The idea is not that male players are somehow superior to women players, but that the women's only section will encourage more women to play through prize pools and titles, as the ratio of men to women is heavily in the men's favour. For example in my country there are only a dozen active women players.",
"It doesn't. Women can join any chess competition. In addition, there are also women leagues.",
"The all-women tournaments and rankings are meant as marketing. The idea is that there are many fewer women who play chess, and so having women's only tournaments is meant to encourage women to play. Women participate in regular chess tournaments as well. It's hard to find a parallel with men's sports/competition, since there are so few fields that are female dominated in the way that things like chess have traditionally been male dominated, particularly ones that lack a physical component.",
"The answer no one wants to accept is iq differences. Men are more towards extremes in the curve. Women are more towards the median. This is why men are statistically overwhelmingly more failures and successes. (IQ based jobs and lack of iq based imprisonment, homelessness, etc) Overall I don't really care, but to deny the stats is kinda silly. *Hey, it's cool to downvote this I expect it and I'm actually feminist! But if you look at the stats across the board it simply just is. Men make more iq based extremes. Deal with it or don't. That's okay!*",
"The same thing happens in esports, any female can join any league or tournement, but there are also women only leagues and tournements. Alot of people think just because there are no top tier players, they are being ostrisized, but its just that there arnt as many women playing than men",
"As an aside the top ranked female player ever who reached 6th overall refused to compete in woman's competitions for the reason you stated.",
"This started out as an interesting question. Policies and incentives like this should be reviewed regularly to ensure that they are still relevant and necessary or else the very thing brought in to help equality can actually create inequality. Many people have very helpfully explained that this is an area where the extra incentives are still very much needed and relevant. You have responded by going to a very negative place that smacks of bigotry. As a result, your very good question now seems totally biased and trolling.",
"In case no one has mentioned it, the [bell curve of IQ]( URL_0 ) shows that males have more male geniuses and ignoramuses than females do. Males have a larger pool for potential chess masters than females."
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6bau5p | why do hairs on your head and some parts of your body continuously grow, but not other hairs, like ones on your arms? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"the hair on your head doesn't continuously grow forever. all your hairs are programmed to grow to a max length, and then they fall out and are replaced by a new hair. if you never cut your hair again, it wouldn't grow to an infinite length."
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6bcpm4 | How come when something really hurts our feelings we can feel it in the pit of our stomach and chest? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Your body and brain and part of the same system. Your emotions impact your body, just like your body impact your emotions. A section of your nervous system lines your digestive tract: the enteric nervous system. It is full of motor neurons that contract and relax muscles all the way from the esophagus to the anus to get your food into your stomach, digested, and eliminated (among other functions). Normally you wouldn't notice it working away, but if things go into overdrive, your stomach can feel weird. [There is quite a bit of overlap between nervous system and the gastrointestinal system. Neurogastroenterology is the focus of a lot of research right now because there is a lot we simply don't know.] Anxiety or stress causes muscle tightness all over the body--it readies the body for fight, flight, or freezing. There are muscles all over your chest, so you feel it as tension or tightness. This response also increases blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and other functions. The result is that you can feel like your chest is heavy, feel your heart racing, feel your heart pounding, feel shortness of breath, etc.",
"There was a study published in 1942, where a man with a fistula (hole in the body) had a clearly observably stomach and colon. The stomach and colon would be white when the man was depressed, and turn red when angry. There are a lot of things going on down there, butterflies, stomach churning. In cases of extreme stress, the body needs to be ready to lighten the load (poop your pants with fear) and divert blood from the tummy to the limbs for running away. the study URL_0",
"This happens because our brains and guts are connected through the Enteric Nervous System. This system has over 100 million nerves connecting them, so, when you feel emotional distress it sends signals to your stomach and vice versa. Source - URL_0",
"Neurotransmitters in the Brain, like Serotonin (think the chemical that medications like Prozac or Zoloft affect) have receptors all throughout out gut. There is a small medical saying, \"Half your brain is in your gut\". So, when you're excited when that first special someone touches your hand.. you feel you could almost throw-up. And then later that year (or night) when that person dumps you.. you feel like you could throw-up, it's all \"spiked\" and \"depleted\" neurotransmitters affecting not just your brain/emotions, but how your gut physically feels. This is also where tropes like \"nervous people get ulcers\" or \"stressed people poop a lot\" are *sort of* accurate. But not really. Also.. it's why some many people \"eat their emotions\". Eating relieves stress (through a complex mechanism mind-you).. but it's in the same world, stimulation or depletion of these neurotransmitters. P.S.- also, it ties into a lot of what some of the other responses are saying.",
"As a follow-up question, I've always wondered if a person who's had a vagotomy no longer gets that \"pit in the stomach\" feeling. Anyone know? (A vagotomy is a procedure to sever the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic fibers it contains to a specific organ or portion of the GI tract. It used to be done as a treatment for intractable stomach ulcers before meds like Zantac and Prilosec came out.)",
"Our feelings and our emotions are physical processes in our body and brain. Maybe a more interesting question to ask is how do we get thoughts and feelings from physical processes in our body and brain. There is lot's of interesting science looking into how things like genetics and bacteria in our gut may be correlated with mood and behaviours. Robert Sapolsky is a great place to look into it. URL_0",
"When it gets really severe, it's called Somatic System Disorder and your brain's emotions are basically hot wired to your ability to function and if you get too stressed your body starts to shut down. It's finals week for me and the stress has caused me to be nauseous, unable to sleep, unable to eat, and even lightheaded to the point of seeing spots. Practice self care so when you feel those emotions you process them and it doesn't develop into SSD!",
"Because evolution takes shortcuts. Emotional feelings are carried on the same network of nerves as physical pain because...well...why develop a second system for emotions when the existing system for pain is usable for both? There is a lot more complexity going on behind it, but this is ELI5. So yes, when you have 'feelings' you are actually 'feeling' them because humans evolved to live in groups and be social. Which kinda sucks sometimes.",
"I'm fairly sure it's to do with stress response of the body, and because the receptors that bind cortisol which is your stress hormone, are located in both your brain and gut, that adds to the gut feeling.",
"A lot of answers here are close but miss a crucial point. The feeling in your stomach and chest is not a response to the emotion which originates in the brain; it IS the emotion itself in large part. Without the chest/stomach pain, your feelings would not in fact be hurt/there would be no emotion.",
"I happened to google something similar a while back, and came across explanations on rejection in particular. I think a lot of hurt feeling-scenarios can be connected to the feeling of rejection - whether it is direct rejection, or by feeling let down/not seen/disappointed on some level. Seems that MRI-studies suggest that rejection/feelings of being hurt piggy-back on physical pain pathways in the brain. One theory is that for survival it has been critical to have good social relations and belong to a group, so it is a real signal of danger when that is threatened/destabilized in some way. Also - it seems that we remember this type of pain more vividly as time goes by: At least I feel that it is harder to conjure up memories about physical pain from a physical injury/illness, than an emotionally painful situation. It is all quite interesting. Also, pain-relief seem to have an effect on this type of pain as well, maybe not surprisingly depending on the way the pain reliever is meant to work. One list of facts (I would check other sources but food for thought) URL_2 Here is a TED-link with a reference or two URL_1 And this article seems to have more references to studies, maybe check this one out: URL_0",
"Does anyone else feel this in the hands too?",
"Having your feelings hurt causes stress. When stressed, your body releases cortisol. Cortisol is inflammatory and causes a number of bad reactions in the body which can be experienced as you describe.",
"I read that your guts have as many neurons as a dogs brain, so a \"gut feeling\" is as much a thought as a physical reaction.",
"I see this posted at least once a month but I have never experienced this. I have been super sad before but it all feels mental. Anyone else?",
"Also this is just anecdotal from personal experience but i feel like fatty foods like avocados and walnuts decrease anxiety",
"It's even possible for your heart to break. Tendons in the heart (heartstrings) can be torn if the heart is drastically overworked like during the panic which can accompany losing a loved one or relationship. 'Died of a broken heart' is a thing",
"I feel this all the time from anxiety. It is usually followed by heavy sweats. Worst part is I can never identify why it happens. I'm Disney world right now. Literally the happiest place on earth and it's been coming and going sense we arrived. It's a terrible feeling."
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6bda1l | why is it impossible to travel faster than the speed of light? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The main issue is that the speed of light is fixed. It's always c, or roughly 300,000,000 m/s. No matter what. That sounds obvious but it really isn't. Speed is almost always relative. If you're sitting in a car going 50 mph and you toss a ball at 1mph from the back seat to the front seat how fast is that ball going? From the perspective of the passengers in the car, that ball went 1mph, but from the perspective of a person outside the car it went 51 mph. From the perspective of another planet, it's going thousands of miles per hour as the earth spins on its axis and orbits the sun. But no matter how fast you're going, if you turn the headlights on that car on, light leaves the bulbs at 300,000,000 m/s. How can that be? what if I was going super duper fast? say 150,000,000 m/s. If I turned on the lights wouldn't the light leave at 150,000,000 m/s relative to me? The answer is no. That light will STILL go 300,000,000 m/s. both to you in the super fast car **and** to a person watching you go past, and an observer on another planet. so if the speed of light isn't changing, what does? Time. Time starts to change for you compared to the other observer. As you go faster and faster, time starts to go slower for you relative to the other person. for 300,000,000 m/s to be constant, when your m changes, the s must also change to keep it steady. As you approach that speed, what happens is your time effectively *stops*. S reaches 0. So the answer is \"You can't because at that point time itself stops for you.\" Now, I'd like to quickly stay that this question gets asked a lot. Without fail someone responds with \"Well, that's not EXACTLY right\" I know it's not exactly right. This is ELI5. I am oversimplifying to get the point across. It's more than right enough for an ELI5 answer."
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6bdi3j | How do balloons lose air over time even though they are completely sealed? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"There are gaps in the balloon material on a molecular level that are large enough for the molecules of pressurized air inside to slowly leak out."
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6bemjw | What makes someone allergic to something, and how do those allergies cause reactions? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Allergies is a response to foreign proteins known as antigens and the body recognizes them and the immune system develops very specific molecules called antibodies to combat the antigens. So if there is not enough antibodies present, it causes the allergic reaction. The reaction is caused by disruption of mast cells which release histamine, which causes the dilation of vessels, resulting in faster and more blood flow in the area (gives the skin red color and increase in temp). Histamine also constricts bronchioles which causes difficulty breathing."
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6bgtrn | Why does hunger striking actually work? | If, for example a person hunger strikes as a protest against a government, why not simply ignore hunger strikers and let them starve themselves until they either die or give up? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because it paints the people letting the starving take place in a bad light. It makes them look callous and unforgiving, and some groups do not want to be viewed like that. Sure, no one would hunger strike if authorities just laughed and goaded you, but you would NOT want to be under an authority like that.",
"A, Its generally part of an attention grab, the news will often report on hunger strikes, bringing attention to the issue. Which will have lots of people asking \"What about this issue is so serious that someone is willing to risk his health for it\" B, despite how amoral we like to paint the government, the government is still composed of people, most people aren't fond of being the cause of someone dying, even if they are dying for a weird/stupid/wrong reason."
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6bjtxm | Targeted Ads... starting to creep me out | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I know what you mean... They definitely \"listen\" Idk if it works everywhere but here in texas if you leave your phone in a room with a spanish station for a few hours you start getting ads in spanish"
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6bjxo9 | Why does time seem to go slower as a kid and faster as you age? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You experience time as a fraction of your overall existence. The more time passes, the smaller each unit of time is in comparison to your overall lifespan and the faster it seems to move. For example: if you are 3 years old, 1 year is 1/3rd of your life. Thats much larger than 1/30th at 30 years old",
"Perspective. 1 year when you are 4 is 25% of your life. When you are 30, its 3%. Also, you have fewer new experiences as you grow older with less memorable events / milestones",
"Perception and actual time experienced seem to go hand in hand. As a kid, you have not experienced as much time, so there is really no base to go off, as you gain years on your belt, there is a reference point of what 5, 10, 15 years felt like before. It also seems to correlate with amount of free time vs duty time. -Not an Expert, just my perspective on the question",
"As each year passes, it represents another fraction of your lifetime. thus seems like its speeding up. 1 year old - 1 year is you whole lifetime. 10 years old - 1 year is a 10th of your life. 40 years old - 1 years is a 40th of you life. And so forth... As you get older a year becomes a smaller fraction in your total lifetime, making each year seem faster than that of when you were younger."
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6bof6f | how come birds don't get electrocuted to Oblivion when they land on a power line? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Electricity always travels from high voltage to a ground. The ground is always 0 volts. When the bird lands on a line they are not grounded. Additionally the resistance through the birds body from one foot to another is greater than the resistance of the copper wire between the birds feet. The electricity follows the path of least resistance and goes from highest energy to lowest energy at the grounding point, avoiding going through the bird. (Using a water analogy, voltage is electron potential I.e. Potential energy, like water in a dam before it flows through)"
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6bsdzr | Why do scars and previously broken bones ache when there is a change in weather? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Orthopaedic surgeon here... The real answer is that we have no idea. Some people will say that it has to do with pressure changes in the atmosphere and how that effects scar tissue or healing fractures. However, this doesn't pan out when you actually try to look at it. Not everyone gets this sort of pain, and even people who do get this pain don't always get it with pressure changes. Such as airplanes, traveling to the mountains, etc. It's completely unpredictable. However, it is totally a thing. It is absolutely a real phenomenon that people experience. We just have absolutely no idea as to exactly why.",
"Strip club DJ here.....I think that your body remembers the weather conditions last time you did some stupid shit,and automatically warns you of the danger when weather conditions are recreated.",
"I've never really noticed my scars aching with a weather change, but why do scars turn so obviously purple or white in the cold?"
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6bsrm2 | Why do schools in the US invest so much money in sports when education appears to be falling behind? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"College sports are billion dollar industries because the nation as a whole is invested in alma maters, student athletes, sports in its \"purest form,\" and the idea that \"I followed this player before he made it big.\" That's why people like Coach K have multimillion dollar salaries. It's economics, supply-and-demand.",
"There are a few justifications. For starters, *physical education* is still education. Schools should also teach their students about their bodies and the best practices to stay healthy. Like or not, sports are an important part of our culture and schools *should* be teaching them. So even if we don't want schools to be spending [literally tens of millions of dollars]( URL_0 ) on a stadium, we *do* still want schools to spend *some* amount of money on physical education. It also just helps kids stay healthy. Even high school kids are still *kids*, they need time to be active and do something they find *fun*. Sports are a fantastic way to do that, and many will justify the cost of sports activities for school by saying it keeps kids healthy and keeps them out of trouble. If you care about your place on the football team, you'll be too busy practicing to be out doing drugs or drinking. You will probably also avoid a lot of drugs even when you have the time because you know it will hurt your performance. Those are fine arguments for sports, but not really a good argument for spending *millions* of dollars. A side-note: it's important to understand how the education budget works. People can donate money to a school or school system with stipulations on how it can be used. If someone donates $10 million for a stadium, the school can't say, \"Sorry, we decided to use your money for books instead\" no matter how good if an idea it might be. Likewise, if the state legislature approves a budget of such-and-such dollar amount for a stadium, that money has to be spent on the stadium. Why would the legislature approve that budget? Because the voters want it. The point is, often it's outside of the control of educators and even the administration over the educators. Usually at the chagrin of the educators that would very much like that money to be spent elsewhere. The usual justification for spending *millions* on sports is that it will supposedly produce millions in revenue for the school. If you know that 4000 parents want to see a high school football game, and you know they'll pay for tickets, then building a huge stadium that can seat that many people and create a spectacle that will encourage more people to come is actually an *investment*. **Personal opinion time**: This is bullshit. Schools aren't about making money, they're not about profit, and if I actually believed that revenue was being funneled back into giving the students a better education away from the stadium, I might be in favor of it. But it never is, it always gets recycled back into the sports activities to make more money for more sports for more money...etc. But as I said, it's usually not up to the educators (which is one of many reasons I did not finish my teaching Master's degree and go into education). For the voters' part: they get just as caught up in celebrity worship as they do for college or pro level sports. Parents want their kids to succeed at sports, they vote for better sports stuff because they believe it will help their kids get to the pros. Or they just want a bigger stadium so they can watch the game.",
"With high schools, we don't necessarily invest a lot into it. To play sports costs money. Football players had to pay $1,000 per season! When I was in high school, the budget was always getting cut, and sports (especially JV) were the first ones to be cut. Many sports had booster clubs to help raise money to hire coaches and pay for equipment.",
"Because there's no billion-dollar March Madness for academics. Even if there were, no one would watch it.",
"Because sports makes more money and that means fatter paychecks for the top people at universities who don't give one flying fuck about the students or education, they are only there to pad their pockets. Universities are the biggest scam in the world."
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6bvbmd | Why do streaming videos and Youtube take up so much data, but playing online games don't? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"With most games it is your computer that is generating the images you see. It's not just receiving video from a server. The data a multiplayer game needs is small compared to video. It's things like the positions of other players, who's shooting who, positions/velocities of objects and so on. The game uses this information to generate the image you see. Your computer already has the data relating to things like textures, models, sound effects, etc because that's typical in the game data you have installed.",
"Game data includes things such as sounds, 3d models and textures. These assets are already available on your hard drive when you install the game. The graphics engine uses the models and textures to create the video on the fly. When you play an online game, the data that gets sent between your computer and the server is only things such as the locations of each player, which models and textures they use (not the complete models and textures, just their identifiers), what actions they do and so on. All of this takes up very little space."
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6bwlak | What was the Watergate scandal? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Nixon ran the White House kind of like a criminal enterprise. In his mind, you could get what you wanted either the clean way or the dirty way, and he had people devoted to both approaches. During his 1972 reelection campaign, a \"dirty work\" team called the Plumbers (because they were created to \"plug the leaks\" that had been happening about the Vietnam War) broke into the Democratic Party HQ in the Watergate hotel complex in Washington DC. They took photos of documents and planted bugs, but a couple of them were caught by security. Over the next couple years the diligent work of investigative journalists at the Washington Post uncovered that this break-in was not a simple burglary or even a political job by some Republican zealots, but instead part of a whole campaign of \"dirty work\" that originated in the White House. As the investigation progressed, Nixon made increasingly desperate attempts to make it go away, but was ultimately impeached and resigned in 1974 before his trial before the Senate, which could have removed him from office. The irony of the whole thing is that the 1972 Democratic presidential campaign was a mess and lost in a huge landslide, so the break-in was completely unnecessary to get Nixon elected. Also, Nixon did not directly order the break-in, one of his subordinates did. So while it would have been a big national scandal regardless, if it weren't for his efforts to cover it up, it likely wouldn't have ended with his personal implication and resignation."
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6bx014 | If I took Advil and had a bad headache, a sore foot, and a sore throat, would it "prioritize" those issues? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dhq4x0c",
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"No. The drug has to disperse through your entire system. The anti-inflammatory effect acts on your whole body, injured/painful parts and parts that don't need the Advil. Any difference in the time those things you mention respond to Advil is due to how quickly their swelling can go down, and the drug's ability to help them in the first place.",
"No, advil doesn't know anything about how you feel. It simply inhibits the ability of your body to utilize enzymes that are involved in inflammation responses."
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6bx525 | Why are Windows computers more prone to viruses than Macs? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"simply because of market share. if there were more macs than windows PCs then it would be the macs getting the most viruses. the people writing the viruses these days are usually out for monetary gain so they write them to target the largest group they can, and thats windows PCs."
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6bxwxj | Why is there no cost difference between hard media and digital media? (cost of discs and cases etc.) | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dhqdas1",
"dhqebyb"
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"text": [
"If you buy a digital game on a console, you only can buy it from the console-maker's digital store. Therefore, the console-makers control the digital prices for their media. They tie the digital prices to physical prices in order to not upset physical retailers (Gamestop, etc.). Physical retailers can choose to boycott a game or even a console if digital prices are set lower than physical prices (they only make money through physical sales). A large portion of console games are still sold physically rather than digitally so console-makers would only lose if they make the physical retailers mad. This is in contrast to the PC market where most games are in digital format and physical media is very hard to find nowadays. Because there is no controlled marketplace for digital media (a developer could just send you the game key through email and you can run it without any issues), digital prices can be set without considering the price of physical media.",
"Because, at least for books, the cost of manufacturing goods is pennies. The big publishers own their own equipment, have big distribution networks, and removing physical production from the equation doesn't really do much to the final cost when the majority of the money needed to be recouped comes from \"first-run\" costs like paying an advance, editing, typesetting, marketing, etc. Video games and CDs are likely not that much different in that regard."
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6bxxqk | How does a scientist (or nutritionist) look at a piece of food and determine how many calories, or how much protein/fat is in it? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhqdo5j"
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"text": [
"The easiest way calorie content is determined by burning the food and measuring how much heat it creates. You can also measure the contents of the food and calculate. Protein content is measured by measuring the total amount of nitrogen in the food, and using that to calculate the amount of protein in the food. This is generally accomplished using the \"Kjeldahl Method\" which involves mixing the food with sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid attacks the protein in the food, creating ammonia (which contains nitrogen). The ammonia can then be captured and measured. A conversion factor is then used to figure out how much protein went into creating the measured amount of ammonia. Fat are probably the easiest thing to measure. Fats are soluable in a number of solvents. So you arrive at total fact content you wash your food in ether, the ether dissolves out the fat. You can then either simply measure how much mass the food lost, or you can perform a more detailed analysis of your fat/ether solution to determine things like saturated vs unsaturated fat content. Sugars (carbohydrates) are measured in a similar way to fats, except instead of using solvents, you use water with a bunch of different 'helpers' added to it that make it easier for the sugars to dissolve. There is also sometimes a \"well, it isn't anything else, it must be carbs\" approach that gets used. Measure everything else in the food (fats, proteins, ash, etc.) and what's left is carbs."
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6bylzt | Why is it that when you're woken up from a few hour nap, you feel very groggy and still considerably tired, almost more tired than you were before the nap? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"My knowledge of this is actually from the area of researching decision making, because this is something done to manipulate the quality of decisions. Right after you wake up, you're experiencing sleep inertia. Even though you're conscious, your body is actually still waking up as part of it is still shaking off sleep. Your brain isn't fully going yet, so your cognition is slowed, as are some of your sensory perceptions. For some people this lasts a few minutes, for others it can drag on for a few hours. There is some evidence that indicates that where you are in your sleep cycle will influence how long it takes. When you're in your deep sleep cycles, it will be a little harder; when you're in REM or other shorter sleep cycles, you can wake up faster. Also, you might feel more sleep inertia if you're already sleep deprived, because that alters your sleep cycle as well. It was suggested to me that if you're going to power nap, do it around your sleep cycles to avoid sleep inertia as much as you can. For me, that means I don't exceed 20 minute naps, or I set aside enough time to make sure I get through an entire sleep cycle. One of the best hacks I know is to drink a cup of coffee, then nap for 20 minutes. It takes about that long for caffeine to kick in, so you wake up with a little extra oomph and avoid the sleep inertia. Edit: Clarification - I research decision making, so my primary knowledge is in what happens during sleep inertia, and how to improve/avoid it.",
"They call it sleep inertia. Basically if you take a nap much longer than 20-30 minutes or so, your body gears down for deep sleep cycles. A few hours into a normal night of sleep, you're in some of the deepest cycles, and the feeling you describe is the feeling of being woken from that suddenly. During a short nap you don't get into this state quick enough, and after a full night's sleep your body has time to naturally complete the cycle and wake."
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6bytuo | How does a computer work | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhqmqkr"
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"text": [
"When you build a PC, here are the main parts you need: * A case. This is optional if you want to be artistic, the case is just a good place to keep your parts and it has places to put your cooling system. [Here's an example of someone who didn't use a case.]( URL_0 ), but it has a cooling system attached. * Motherboard - This is the main circuitboard that holds several components like the CPU, memory, and the cables that go to your drives. You usually attach this to your case. * CPU - aka Central Processing Unit. This is the brain of your computer. Usually people use the analogy of a person working at a desk to describe a computer. In that analogy, the CPU would be the person (I'll continue the analogy below). * Memory - called RAM (Random Access Memory). In the analogy, RAM is your desk. This is where everything runs while you're using the computer. The more RAM you have, the more things you can run at a time. So more RAM means a larger desk, so you can have more work out on the table to work on. RAM is only active when the computer is powered up. * Hard Drive or Storage - These were called hard drives back in the day to differentiate them from floppy drives, but now Hard Drive refers to a specific kind of storage device (more people are now using Solid State drives for their speed). It holds all of the permanent data for your computer. In the analogy, this is your filing cabinet. It can hold your data when the computer is off. It is also used to help out your RAM if you need more of it. * GPU/Graphics Card/Video Card - GPU is the more preferred term these days to equate it to CPU, but specifically for graphics. This is the piece that your monitor attaches to. If you play games that are very graphics-heavy, you need a separate GPU, otherwise your CPU cannot keep up. In the analogy, this would be your assistant for specific graphics-related projects, because she's a great artist, but you (the CPU) still run the show. * Power Supply - This is a bit self-explanatory. It powers your computer. In the analogy, it would be your lights (in a world where you cannot work at all without light). That is what a computer needs. If you'll go back to the image I linked for the Case... On the top-left is the Power supply. Moving to the right is the motherboard. Those 3 rows of red things on the motherboard are the RAM. To the left of the RAM (the thing with those 2 thick red tubes running to it) is the CPU. The barber poles to the right of the motherboard is the cooling system (this is using liquid cooling as opposed to fans). To the right of the cooling system is the storage. The big rectangles on the top are Hard Disk Drives (HDD). The 4 orange rectangles below them are Solid State Drives. Storage is kind of like real estate. The Hard Disk Drives on top are slower, but can hold more data for less cost (and in fact, the 2 with black labels are faster than the 2 with green labels. The green label drives are more energy efficient), so there are 3 tiers of storage. Stuff like photos doesn't need to be on the fastest drives. Stuff like games probably need to be on the fastest drives. On the bottom-left is the sound card. I didn't mention it above because most people use the sound hardware that is built into their motherboard. But if you are using a system that is built for impressive media, a sound card is the audio equivalent of the GPU/Video card. It's just taking strain off the CPU, and doing a better job. Also, I'm kind of guessing it's a sound card based on those green/orange cables coming out of the left side. Those are fairly standard colors for Sound Out and Sound In ports. To the right of the sound card is the GPU. The GPU produces a lot of heat, so you'll notice the cooling system has tubes that sit on top of it to dissipate heat. The thingies on the bottom right I don't know what they are, but they're probably temperature gauges (?)"
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6c0cro | How do boomerangs work? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dhqyrgg"
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"text": [
"A boomerang is essentially a spinning wing. Because it's spinning , one half of the wing is moving through the air faster than the other half. Think of how the part of a bike tire touching the ground is momentarily stationary, while the part furthest from the ground is technically moving twice as fast forward as the rest of the bicycle. Because one half has more lift and because it is spinning, it cannot travel in a straight line. The thrower has to predict the curve if they want it to return. Helicopters would have this same inability to fly straight if it wasn't for the fact that they can change the pitch of their blades, compensating for the difference in lift on each side of the spinning wing."
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6c2s2e | How does Facebook know what I've Googled? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhrgk2e"
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"text": [
"Facebook also allows advertisers to place a \"pixel\" on their website to track you and retarget you with ads. So, if you went to the airbnb website, you got retargeted by a pixel."
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6c4qgj | Why are rhymes so satisfying to hear in things like songs and poems? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhruwho"
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"text": [
"Humans have a very strong ability to recognize patterns (due to our large brain compared to body size). It is what made our species so successful as humans can build upon the patterns of our predecessors in science and the arts. That is why most of the posts on /r/oddlysatisfying can be distilled into patterns (things fitting the way they should, objects moving in very patterned motions, etc.). Rhymes themselves are a pattern of word and sound and it satisfies us when they are properly used in songs and poems. Puns are satisfying in a similar way."
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6c4si2 | Why is "XXX" associated with sex, nudity, and porn? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The movie ratings organizations used to have an \"X\" rating for movies that were above and beyond \"R\" rated. IIRC, this has since been changed to NC17. Because X rated was associated with explicit scenes (though this included violence, not just nudity), it became a positive marketing point for pornografic films, who were specifically targetting an audience *seeking* explicit content. XXX was to denote even more explicit content than just \"X\". URL_0",
"The way I heard it explained once was that: X meant melons and buns, XX meant hotdogs and clams XXX meant lemonade and brownies",
"Wait... Then why is it that in those older bugs bunny-esk cartoons, moonshine/liquor was labeled with XXX?",
"I read that they used to censor covers of porn mags with X over the nipples, butts, vaginas... So, boob only cover would have XX on the nipples, while full frontal nudity provides XXX censorship. Surely, pictures with full nudity are more desirable, so the XXX mark cought on.",
"I have always had the suspicsion that the city of Amsterdams crest had something to do with it. EDIT- sorry i should have elaborated a bit. The crest dates back a long a time and Amsterdams sex, drug and drink industry goes just as far. This explains the old bottles with it on and why its almost always been associated with forms of tabboo"
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6c5rra | Why is the human population almost 50/50 male/female? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"/u/Teekno has given an accurate description of how the mechanics work. However, that doesn't explain why the mechanics are the way they are. Theoretically, it's better to have 5 or 6 females for every male in an evolutionary sense because one male can impregnate several females, genetically satisfying both sex's need for procreation. So why then do most species tend towards 50/50 splits? Genetic competition. If we envisage our world with six women to every man, male children would be massively advantageous. One male child would guarantee you many more grandchildren than one female child. Thus, it's advantageous to have sons. Those that randomly do produce more sons due to an inheritable trait have many more children and outcompete potential genetic rivals. Because the strategy is so successful the \"male favoring\" gene spreads throughout the population, skewing the ratio towards men. Theoretically the same thing would happen in reverse with too many males. Daughters would become favorable because they'd guarantee grandchildren, so female producing genes would become favorable. Because of this competition, most species settle on 50/50 splits. How do we know this is true? By looking at the exception to the rule. There are species that do produce many more females than males. What do they have in common? They're incestuous. If you aren't competing with other families, genetic competition doesn't matter as much anymore because you all share similar genes. So it becomes more logical to maximize the number of females to increase the number of descendants, thus favoring the incestuous family.",
"So, you probably know that males have an XY chromosome pair and women have an XX pair. In the man's sperm factory, the DNA is split down the middle. Each half goes into its own sperm. One half has the X chromosome, and the other half has the Y. So, half of all the sperm carry X, and half carry Y. Of the millions of sperm, if one makes it to the egg, it matches up with the X chromosome all eggs have."
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6c7xqh | Why has technology progressed so much faster in the past few years? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhsn19i",
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"text": [
"The advancement of society has always been limited by the ability for people to communicate and collaborate. The easier and faster people can communicate the more effective collaboration is and therefore the faster we are able to advance. It use to be if two scientists across the ocean each had one of the necessary pieces for eradicating polio, polio would never be conquered. The only likelihood those two scientists would ever even know about eachother is if someone happened to cross both of their paths and relay the information...highly unlikely. With the advent of things like the telegram, transmitting these messages became viable but still a lot of coordination was required on both ends to facilitate the collaboration. With the proliferation of telephones, the communication became even easier and so did collaboration. Now with the internet the communication piece has been completely solved (except for language barriers which continue to be shattered daily) and now we are focusing heavily on how to improve collaboration through the use of repositories (for software dev) file sharing capabilities, video streaming, etc. As we continue to improve these tools, break language barriers, and better organize and centralize information, advancements will continue to accelerate at an exponential rate. We have also evolved to the point where we can have computers work on solving problems with no human interaction; all they need is training sets and computation power.",
"This is a common misconception. Today's society considers \"technology\" to be simply electronics and computers. These have advanced quickly in the last few years due to Moore's law and the profitability of computer sales. Lots of research is done in the area by many companies. As for the \"progression of technology,\" we must also consider many other items of human creation. Such as development of building material like concrete or refined metals. The development of transport such as trains/ships, or even the simple tools that humanity created to harvest their fields more efficiently. All these are also technology. Keeping in mind this larger scope of what \"technology\" entails, it's clear to see that at many points in history there were technological explosions that resulted in rapid development. Consider the renaissance or the development of military weapons in the early 1900's, both saw explosive changes in a short period. As for technological and scientific advancement today, it is likely due to a much greater number of educated scientists and intellectuals than existed in the past. built upon millennia of research, progress and technology we are currently undergoing another explosive period of development. But overall it's really not \"so much faster\" than usual."
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6c95yd | The Watergate scandal and why it happened | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"*Copypasting from one of my previous comments:* In 1971 (in response to the [Pentagon Papers]( URL_0 ) scandal) a group known as The Plumbers was formed under White House control with the task of performing various illegal activities. For example they burglarized the offices of the psychiatrist of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg - an act that would later lead to all charges being dropped against Ellsberg. In 1972 the Plumbers were tasked with breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C. and planting wiretapping devices there. They broke in undetected on May 28 but there were problems with the bugs they had planted, so they returned for a second break-in on June 17 to reinstall the bugs. This time a security guard noticed tape over some of the door locks and called the police and the Plumbers were caught red-handed by undercover cops. The White House tried to cover up the whole affair but gradually the facts came out through investigations by the FBI and congress and by a series of journalistic scoops (most famously by Woodward and Bernstein from The Washington Post). Nixon denied any foreknowledge of the break-in and any role in covering it up, but three key events would lead to his downfall: 1\\. One of the Watergate burglars, James McCord, had a crisis of conscience while in prison and revealed everything he knew, 2\\. John Dean, White House counsel, who knew all about the Plumbers and their activities, feared he would become the fall guy for the whole scandal, so he blabbed as well, 3\\. It was revealed that Nixon had a taping system set up in the White House to record most of his conversations. These provided undeniable proof of what Nixon knew and did. In Congress in July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee passed [Three Articles of Impeachment]( URL_1 ) against Nixon. You'll note that the Articles don't accuse Nixon of having foreknowledge of the break-in or of authorizing it. No hard evidence was found or has since been found for that. Nixon was a control freak with a strong attention to detail so many assume he must have known about it - but nothing certain has ever been found to prove that allegation. The Third Article accuses Nixon of ignoring subpeonas from Congress but the other two articles mainly focus on events during the aftermath of the Watergate break-in when Nixon tried to cover up the scandal by paying hush money to the Watergate burglars, trying to derail the FBI investigation through illegal means, lying and withholding evidence, telling witnesses to perjure themselves, and other abuses of power and obstructions of justice. Nixon ended up resigning on August 9, 1974 before the full House could vote on the Articles of Impeachment and before an Impeachment Trial in the Senate could take place. His vice-president Gerald Ford became President. **tl;dr** - a White House unit broke in and wiretapped the Democratic HQ at the Watergate complex.When they were caught Nixon used illegal means to try and cover up the scandal leading to impeachment proceedings against him and then his resignation.",
"Explained as quickly as possible, several individuals working on behalf of the Committed to Re-Elect the President (Nixon) broke in to the Democratic Party's headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex. They planted surveillance devices and took pictures of campaign documents. The FBI then turned up links between these individuals and the Administration. Even after the burglars themselves were convicted, several individuals involved admitted to having perjured themselves. These individuals believed that they could prevent Nixon from being impeached by telling the truth. However, this did not end the scandal, a Special prosecutor was appointed and the Senate established a committee to investigate further, and white house staff admitted there was a recording system in the white house. The Special prosecutor issued a subpoena for the tapes. President Nixon refused citing executive privilege and ordered that the prosecutor drop the subpoena, when he refused, he ordered the special prosecutor fired, firing both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General before finally the Solicitor General fired him, this however, only deepened the scandal. The White house did release edited versions of the tapes - notably removing expletives and redacting national security information. This, however, only further served to turn people against him. Eventually, the supreme court voided Nixon's claim of executive privilege and ordered the full, unedited tapes released. After going through the tapes, the investigators found the 'smoking gun' a tape in which Nixon and top aides discussed how to cover up the White House's involvement. With his impeachment by the house and conviction by the Senate certain, Nixon resigned rather than be removed from office."
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6cabi3 | Why didn't the indigenous populations of the Americas spread any disease to the Europeans? Why was the spread of disease so one-sided? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The rate of disease and rate of evolution of new diseases are related to the population and population density of a group. The more people there are the more closely they live together, the higher the chances of bacteria or viruses evolving to be harmful to that population. There is also a greater chance that the disease will both spread through the entire population and that some of the population will survive with their own adaptation that helped them survive the disease (immunity). In small disperse populations, diseases are less likely to evolve since there are simply fewer hosts and hence fewer bacteria and viruses to undergo mutation. Native Americans lived in small groups which were generally separate from each other in a large continent. Europeans had large cities of hundreds of thousands of people in high density with poor sanitation and often traded with each other. So it was far more likely that more diseases would evolve in densely populated Europe than in sparsely populated North America.",
"They did. Syphilis is a disease spread to Europe from the Americas. There are several factors that contribute to the disease exchange being so one sided. 1) Most deadly diseases that would spread to the Europeans would kill the sailors before they got back to Europe. So they would not carry them back. There were whole colonies lost to mysterious diseases so there is evidence that they did have some transfer to Europeans. 2) Most Native populations did not live in as dense of communities as Europeans did. This means that they spread fewer diseases and would have developed fewer. 3) The Americas did not have as many domesticated animals, which means that they had fewer diseases developed.",
"CGP GREY has an [awesome video on the subject]( URL_0 ) with some reference if you want to read more",
"Major plagues like Smallpox and Bubonic(Black Death) stem from close contact with domesticated animals like cows, chickens, pigs. These diseases are small time problems for the animals, but if they jumped to humans(it was very uncommon but the size of cities and huge amounts of people living there helped increase the odds ) they could destroy populations(and did so). Major cities like London, where livestock were commonly walked through city streets and remains left on the curb or accidentally tossed in the river meant people were almost always in close contact with animals. The new world had no big cities, no massive population, and no domesticated animals(besides llamas, I think) meaning a plague-like disease had no chance to form. Hope this helps. I'm no expert, a real scientist might better explain it.",
"I've heard Europeans had more diseases because they had more domesticated animals. Apparently diseases develop by being passed back and forth between humans and animals.",
"We'll probably never know for sure! One major difference is that Europeans were exposed to a much wider variety of livestock animals, over a much longer period of time, than the peoples in North America. Many diseases hop from livestock to humans. There was also a much greater deal of travel, trade, commerce, and warfare all across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. These two factors combined seems to have led to more germs from a variety of sources in peoples living in Europe compared to people living in the Americas before Europeans arrived. Syphilis may have originated in the Americas but we'll never know for sure."
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6cbma9 | if water is liquid at room temperature, why does it evaporate if left long enough? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Water is always evaporating and condensing at the same time, at any temperature. If the air around the water puddle is dry enough, the amount of water evaporating is more than the amount of water condensing, which is why puddles slowly evaporate."
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6cczn7 | How do women "synch" up during that time | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"It doesn't really happen. People *think* it happens because they'll notice when everyone is in sync. In reality, most women have a cycle that's pretty close, but not exactly, 28 days & runs for a week. This gives a lot of room for overlap. Also, since you've got a bunch of cyclical things with a similar period, eventually they'll line up, like the turn signals on a row of cars at a stop light or [a bunch of pendulums of nearly the same length]( URL_0 ) (seriously, watch this - it pretty much answers your question without any words at all).",
"It is really simple: It doesn't happen. There was an old study that claimed it took place which was discredited, but the legend mill never got the message."
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6cg0z3 | Why can we see through glass? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dhue04a",
"dhuefzd"
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"text": [
"We can see through glass because the molecular structure of glass is large enough to let the visible wavelengths of light through.",
"I'm no expert but... Objects have colour because when the exact correct amount of energy (which comes from light) hits an electron, it is excited into a higher energy state. However, it is unstable in the higher state, and so drops back down to the original state pretty quickly. As it drops it emits some energy as a wave (in the electromagnetic spectrum). So, objects with colour emit in visible light region. For glass and other transparent objects, the amount of energy needed to raise and emit electrons is not quite right, so glass only absorbs UV radiation or something, hence why toucan see through, but not tan through, glass."
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6cg5yw | Why does it physically hurt when your heart is broke? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhudnx0"
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"text": [
"Depression. Depression and anxiety have physical symptoms, some of which are chest pains/tightening in the chest and a lack of appetite. Basically, your body goes a bit haywire in response to the imbalance of hormones in your brain."
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6chvg2 | How do computers keep track of time? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhuqk46",
"dhutbyh"
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"text": [
"> Somehow, it knew the date and exact time without internet access. How is that possible? There is a battery on the motherboard attached to a digital clock, just like in a digital watch. That keeps track of the time even when the computer is not powered.",
"Besides the motherboard battery, all modern systems synchronize their time with a time server with a protocol called NTP. There's a list of NTP servers for public use, and some organizations like Microsoft run their own. An NTP server can be a primary source (getting the time from a highly precise source like GPS), or be a secondary that synchronizes with a primary and takes the load off it."
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6cjbnr | What is a Raspberry Pi and why is it so good at, whtever it does? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dhv28tl",
"dhv2bjs",
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"It's a small computer. The latest version has 1GB RAM, wifi, ethernet, sound output, USB ports and HDMI. It's tiny and costs about $40. It's good for whatever purposes benefit from a small, cheap computer. It won't really compete with a desktop or a laptop, but it you want to do something like hanging a screen somewhere for the only purpose of displaying the weather, then it's great at that sort of thing.",
"They are basically small, cheap, simplistic, modular computers. They aren't fantastic at doing anything, but if you need to set up a cheap computer network you could set one up for relatively cheap. They are also nice for programming because you can set up cheap testing environment and without worrying about corrupting OS or messing up your actual computer.",
"It's a small, cheap programmable computer. Hobbyists like them because they're cheap and simple. There's also a large fan community that publishes plans and designs. URL_0",
"I've used several for different things. I use one exclusively for retropi, which is an emulator. It lets me play games from pretty much any console from the original PlayStation and before. NES,SNES, N64, Genesis, PSX, plays Atari and other older consoles too. I've got another one I setup to be a settop box for streaming from my NAS to a tv. I use another one to learn coding. I'll probably use another one to setup a wall display like someone else mentioned. Set it up to scroll news headlines, weather, stock prices, calendar events, etc. they are very useful little computers."
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6cjpkz | What does IQ show us? | There is this famous quote being passed around on Reddit every time IQ gets mentioned. "The only thing IQ tests measure is how well you perform in IQ tests". Is this really the case or does IQ really show how likely you are to be successful in the future for example in the academical fields? Does it measure how well you can input information and then put it into use? I've always taught: Average IQ + Motivation > High IQ. But maybe I am wrong. | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhv7ewe"
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"text": [
"Imagine you're trying to start a fire. Your brain is a match and the outside world is the fuel. An IQ test can determine how good your match is, which is very important on the low end and not so important on the high end. If someone scores very low on an IQ test, it's kind of like they have a wet match. They're never going to be able to get a fire going, and it is in society's best interest to put these people in special education classes. This area is where IQ tests really shine, because low level intelligence is easy to measure. IQ tests are not very useful for determining high-level intelligence. Often times, people that score very high on IQ tests don't manifest more intelligent results. Again, to the match analogy, once the flame is struck it really doesn't make a big difference whether it's the best match in the world or some cheap safety match. The IQ score becomes less important and everything else becomes more important, the higher up the intelligence spectrum you go. All that being said, an IQ score can really show how likely you are to be successful in academic fields, by placebo effect alone. Telling someone they are smart has been measured to have a very powerful effect on their success potential. But even more powerful is telling everyone else that some individual is smart. Even lab rats perform much better on tests compared to other lab rats, if lab technicians are told some randomly selected rats are the smart rats. The lab technicians will subconsciously handle the \"smart\" rat with more care, which lowers its stress, which has a massive impact on test results in rats across the board. All research indicates that the same dynamics also apply in humans."
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6ck2li | why does water evaporate when its no where near 100Β°C? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhv8g5w",
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"text": [
"Molecules of any substance are bonded by different kind of forces. In ELI5 terms molecules are bonded by holding hands. This bond is weaker in liquids compared to solids. So a water molecule in room temperature only needs a tiny amount of energy to let the hands of his friends go and jump into air. When the temperature increases more and more molecules get kicked into the air.",
"Temperature is a measure of the *average* energy of the molecules in the system. Most molecules will be very close to the average, of course, but there will *always* be at least one molecule that is far above the average (and one far below). As the molecules are bouncing around and colliding, they're transferring energy between them, and occasionally several will collide in such a way that one ends up with a lot more. Think about three water molecules all colliding with another one at the same time, all transferring some of their energy into it. That one will gain enough energy to break the weak hydrogen bonds holding it to the rest of the water molecules and keeping it a part of the liquid. Most of the time that happens somewhere under the surface, and that one will smack into another molecules or three and that energy will go right back into the system. However, if that one molecule happens to be at the surface, it will fly off into the air. The warmer the water is, the more likely it is that one molecule will end up with enough energy to fly off. This happens even when the water is frozen - very sporadically, one molecule will jiggle hard enough to fly off the surface of the ice. When there's water in the air (and there pretty much always is) some of those molecules will also collide with the surface of the liquid and get stuck, transferring a little bit of that energy into the system. Eventually, the system will reach *equilibrium* - the rate at which water evaporates off is equal to the rate at which water condenses back into the liquid. Where that equilibrium is depends on the temperature of the water, the temperature of the air, and how much water you have in both. Incidentally, this is how sweat cools you off. When the water evaporates, it takes the energy with it, lowering the average temperature of the water very slightly. This is called *evaporative cooling*.",
"Liquid and vapor are in equilibrium at almost any temperature. The amount of vapor that can exist at a certain temperature above a container of liquid is called the [vapor pressure]( URL_0 ). At room temperature, the vapor pressure is only about 3% of the total atmospheric pressure. But whether or not something is close to 3% or close to 0% makes a big different with how humid or how dry the air feels. Anyhow, so what happens if you leave water out is that it will evaporate until the air above it is saturated (~3%) with water vapor. So, it's already humid, this will be slow. If its dry or windy (so that the newly evaporated vapor gets blown away from the liquid) then it will be faster."
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6cknst | Why do certain songs bring back so many memories from my past? | I always end up remembering both things I regret and good memories | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhvet63",
"dhvhcke"
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"text": [
"Think of trying to learn a new language. You're taking in a lot of new information - it's hard to remember it all. You make flash cards for the words you're learning - but it just isn't working. Finally, you draw a picture next to each new word that's going to help you remember - it's a hint for your brain. When you're in class and are tested on your new vocabulary, you are able to remember by connecting the word to a drawing which helps your brain to remember the definition. This \"cue\" triggers your brain to recall a memory - just like music does. That's why elementary aged school children learn \"songs\" to help memorize otherwise difficult things (alphabet, states, etc.). Music triggers such strong and specific memories and emotions because music activates parts of the brain that are responsible for things like creativity and emotions. Music is a sensory experience that provides the brain with a \"hint\" when retrieving a memory. The areas in the brain linked with memory sometimes need cues or alliterations to help retrieve memories - and music is just that, it provides the brain with a rhythmic cue.",
"The human brain has a very neat trick up its sleeve called \"associative memory\". When you feel a very powerful emotion (intense joy, pleasure, pain, fear etc), the stimuli you received at that moment will become attached to the specific feeling in your memory. So much that when the stimuli is represented to the brain, you will actually feel the same emotion. Of course there are degrees to this, on one side of the scale are things like PTSD triggers, on the other you have a song reminding you of a particular time in your personal experience. From an evolutionary standpoint it is very useful. Let's say a human stumble on a very rare but dangerous animal, the creature hisses and then attacks. That person would then on associate the sound, smell and other things perceived at that time with the feelings of fear and pain. If and when the human comes upon the same animal again, the brain will very quickly and strongly alert of the danger. Fun fact, this behavior of the brain was known empirically by the Romans. They took advantage of that when conducting business. When two men came upon an important agreement, they would bring a child in, tell him in detail the contents of the contract then proceed to beat the child halfway to death. The trauma induces would make the child remember very clearly what was said for the rest of his life. When grown up, the child could be called as a witness if need be."
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6cknzw | When something passes the sound barrier, a sonic boom is created. What would happen if, theoretically, someone broke the light barrier? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhvdv7y",
"dhvde7n"
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"text": [
"While nothing can go faster than the speed of light *in a vacuum* (such a speed doesn't really make sense), something can go faster than the speed of light in other things. Light slows down as it passes through things, which is why refraction works (e.g. for lenses). What you see is a sort of \"light boom\" which can be loosely understood to be like a sonic boom but with light. This is called \"Cherenkov Radiation\" and manifests itself as a bluish glow. It is sometimes seen around nuclear reactors. You can read the Wikipedia article and see pictures of this [here]( URL_0 ).",
"Theoretically, you'd feel the result of the action before you saw the action itself. This would pretty much break physics as we know it."
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|
6clsry | Is toothpaste protecting you for the next few hours or is it cleaning up the dirt from the past few hours? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"dhvm9rx",
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"text": [
"Depending on your toothpaste, it does both. The brushing itself - combined with the paste as a sort of \"soap\" - cleans the dirt off and the paste you massage into your teeth build a protecting layer that oughta keep your teeth healthy and keep dirt from sticking to them for some hours. But as I said, depends on the quality of your toothpaste :)",
"Both actually. The mechanical action of brushing combined with the toothpaste helps remove bacteria and their biofilms from your teeth. The fluoride found in most toothpastes helps to protect your teeth from future corrosion by oral bacteria."
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6cm8wu | How do hairs know when they've grown to a certain length? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhvq202",
"dhvpuk9",
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"text": [
"Hairs don't know. Your hair follicles go through a timed cycle - they grow for a period of time, then they rest, then they shed the old hair and grow a new one. The length of the growth cycle determines the maximum length of the hair.",
"When you find out, could you tell my nose hairs?",
"Pretty sure the hair on your head doesn't \"know.\" The ends just get progressively more dry and break off."
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6cp1zq | How come your breath stinks even after only a few hours of sleeping, but can last the majority of the day when you're awake? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhwb686",
"dhwb67i"
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"text": [
"TLDR - bacteria poop A human mouth gets relatively dry when you're sleeping compared to when you're awake. All that saliva in your mouth is good at keeping bacteria from growing in your mouth. But when your saliva production slows down when you sleep, bacteria has a chance to grow and the cause of the bad breath when you awaken is actually all that bacteria and bacteria waste.",
"During the night your brain stops or at least largely reduces the amount of saliva secreted. That results in you swallowing less, moving your mouth, tong less, etc. During the day you eat, drink, swallow alot. If i recall correctly, you produce about 2 litters of saliva per day. That's quite a lot to flush the microbes that are still in your mouth. In the end, bad breath is caused by microbes devouring the left over micro particles of food. Less particles ==less bad breath."
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6cpk5e | true north vs magnetic north? | What is the difference between true north and magnetic north?? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhwe83u",
"dhwe87v",
"dhwef36"
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"text": [
"The geographic poles represent the axis on which the Earth rotates. The magnetic poles are the rough axis of the Earth's magnetic field, where the magnetic field points downward into the Earth. They are roughly aligned (close enough that a magnetic compass is relatively accurate in most places) but the magnetic poles move and meander around. 100 years ago the magnetic north pole was in northern Canada but it's been moving north towards Siberia; right now it's over the Arctic ocean",
"true north is the north point of the axis the Earth rotates around. magnetic north is where your compass points. the 2 are not the same point. because the Magnetic pole is based off the movement of the earth's molten core.",
"True north is the direction pointing straight to the point on the globe that the Earth rotates around. Magnetic north is pointing in the direction of the magnetic field. If you were to follow the needle on a compass you would not go in a completely straight line due to local variations in the magnetic field and you would end up somewhere in North Canada. Also the magnetic north pole and the magnetic south pole is not quite opposite of each other. And they are both moving around and can change quite a lot in a century. Magnetic north is used because it is very easy to find it as you can just use a simple magnetic compass but true north is used when you need accurate measurements that can be used decades later."
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6cqxrh | What is the definition of "Natural Flavor" and "Natural Essence" ingredients in food/drink and why can they be vague? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhwp4w2"
],
"text": [
"They have no legal meaning. They're just there to trick you into thinking \"natural\" is like a magic healthy thing. Its just a marketing trick. You can stick it on anything you want."
],
"score": [
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6cr4e7 | Why are flat head and Phillips head screws both so common? Why is there not one go-to standard? | I understand the use of the other less common screws for various reasons - to avoid tampering or to avoid stripping, but why did no consensus ever form for the best "standard" screw to use. That way we'd need fewer screwdrivers! | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhwrouo",
"dhwtjgm",
"dhwtpn6",
"dhwqz7z",
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"text": [
"Because flat and phillips are both garbage. The Robertson screw is the one you want my friend. Stays on the end of your bit, provides great grip, and attractive to boot.",
"Flat head screws allow for more torque to be put on the screw head without stripping the screw but it is not self centering so it's harder to get the screwdriver centered on the screw and it is easier for the screwdriver to slip and fall off the screw. It is also possible to make a shallow screw head because a flat head slot isn't cut as deep. Phillips head or cross slotted screws are self centering meaning the screw driver is directed to the center of the screw making it easier to engage the screw. The phillips slots are not as wide though and the angle of the slots may not exactly match the angle of the screwdriver. These two factors make it easier to strip out a screw head under high torque. Because the screwdriver fits down into the cross slot the screw head must be deeper.",
"Because no one head pattern is best for all sizes and purposes. Flat head is cheap and simple, but mechanicaly inferior, Philips automatically cams out, JIS doesn't, Torx handles higher torque, but is uncommon, etc.",
"Flat heads were the standard for many years. (They were easy to make) Phillips came out later and are better. But there are many more out now. Torx, allen, star, etc....",
"Philips were invented to cam out at a certain torque to prevent stripping the screw hole. I have a bit set with 100 different screw tips but my preference is for Torx.",
"Everyone on Planet Earth already has screwdrivers for both. Any other new kind means you have to go out and buy another one for whatever wacky star/Robertson/Torq. Also, they are just fine for the vast majority of jobs. if is't not broken they don't fix it. The other's definitely aren't better enough to merit an overall change."
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6cru8p | How does a dark room (for developing photographs) work. | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhwxwwa"
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"text": [
"In the dark room there is an enlarger. A negative is put into it. A bright light is shone through the negative onto light sensitive paper. The image is kept in focus. After the light sensitive paper is exposed to the image it is put through a series of trays of chemicals which develop the image and then the development is stopped or fixed. The paper is dried and the image on the paper is permanent."
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|
6cu3ju | How do some people "throw their voice"? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhxfa50"
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"text": [
"Scooby Doo really confused me as a child when Shaggy \"threw his voice\" across the room to distract the monster. Humans cannot do this, it's impossible. A single directional speaker can, but we are like normal speakers and eminate sound waves in all directions from our mouths."
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6cuct7 | If mods can make video games look so much better, why are those not the graphics developers use at launch? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhxezpc",
"dhxept5"
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"text": [
"- For multi-platform games, the development has to be done at the level of the least powerful system. - Graphical features that are buggy for some systems are sometimes just disabled outright, but can be re-enabled by mods for supported systems. - Capabilities that would normally require a licensing fee for a commercial release can be added by modders via a non-commercial license for free (very grey area). - The state of technology at the start of game development won't be as powerful as it will be at the end.",
"Cost * time taken = profits If its not cost effective. Also they are selling to gamers with varying pc specs, if you release a game that runs well and looks fantastic on a high end system. But on a potato runs stuttery, then your reputation and the games reputation will be tarnished, and then harm future games by the studio."
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6cv8my | What is inflation and why/how does it increase the value of a currency in the later years. | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhxm8ur"
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"text": [
"An oversimplification of inflation is that, over time, the value/purchasing power of a currency decreases while the cost of actual goods increases. It doesn't actually increase the value of a currency in later years. In fact its the opposite, inflation leads to a decrease in value of currency. There is a lot of different causes for inflation. One thing that could cause inflation is an increase in the amount of money that is being printed/that is in circulation. If you think about it, this makes sense. The more common of a thing there is, the less valuable it is. This also explains why when there is more money in circulation, the higher the price of goods. With an increase in purchasing power by consumers, companies increase prices to make more profit."
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6cvf22 | Jupiter's core is said to be "Liquid Metallic Hydrogen/Helium". How can hydrogen and helium be metallic? | I think I might understand how at extreme pressures hydrogen and helium can't be gaseous despite the temperature, but what does being metallic mean? How is that possible? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhxnuhk",
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"text": [
"In this case \"metallic\" is in the physics sense of the word, in that they have high electron conductivity, high thermoconductivity and high density. It has to do with the EXTREME pressures involved, which causes hydrogen to break down from its normal molecular (H2) form and become atomic. Scientists were finally able to create it in the lab earlier this year. Previously it was theorized that it would take pressure of 25 gigapascals to make hydrogen metallic, in the end it actually took 495 gigapascals. You can read more about the discovery [Here] ( URL_0 )",
"so what does being metallic mean, well in it's simplest form it means all the atoms share their electrons, instead of a normal covalent bond, where atoms share a few electrons between them, electrons in a metal have a sea of electrons, electrons can easily move from one atom to another, it's why they make such good conductors, add in an electron and it makes a wave that ripples through the electron sea and pops out an electron at the other end. it's like two or more people agreeing on a time share vs a hippy commune where anyone can come and go as they please from any house.",
"Metallic hydrogen, what is it and how do they make it? - URL_0 Basically the pressure squeezes the hydrogen atoms into a different formation which is far denser than normal a bit like when Superman squeezes coal to form a diamond."
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6cxuu4 | Whats the point of having both flathead and phillips head screws? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhy7nr3"
],
"text": [
"Phillips head are designed for the screwdriver to pop out of the screw if the torque is too great. This prevents screws from being over-tightened and damaging either the screw or the underlying material. Flatheads are simpler to make, and can be used when over-tightening isn't an issue. However, they suck for power tools, which tend to slip sideways out of the slot."
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6cz0my | How do video game designers spend years making a video game without the game being technologically outdated by the time it's released? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"dhykrs7",
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"text": [
"Most games (though for this discussion let's limit ourselves to what would traditionally be considered 'AAA' titles) really are technologically outdated at the time they are released. The reason why you don't notice is because you're comparing them against other games that were developed at more or less the same time. Obviously it's not as cut and dry as that though. Another commenter mentioned how developers will have targets for \"future mainstream technology\" that they go for and then ease back on if they overestimated the amount of improvement. This is also very true, and when you look at PC games it is more obvious how they can adjust quality in various aspects to suit more or less powerful hardware. Usually these are presented as graphical options that a player can adjust to suit their preferences/desired performance. Techniques also improve over time, but there are also well-known techniques that are extremely impressive but are expensive to use on current technology. For example, it is possible to implement \"perfect\" reflections and light scattering (for all intentsβ and purposes), but the technological requirements for this are absurd when compared to what is currently common. Developers compromise by using imperfect approximations to gain performance. Incidentally, you will often see tech demos that bring into stark contrast the difference between recently released games and what is actually possible on similarly recent technology. This can be achieved by the smaller scope of what a tech demo requires, but it also comes out of the shorter development time and availability of more sophisticated techniques at the time development started.",
"The state of the art at the time of release is other companies who have spent he same amount of time developing.",
"They develop for where they think technology will be and then tweak it to fit the current tech when released. Notice how the early versions of games usually look better than the final release? They develop with top of the line equipment and then reduce for the common denominator."
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6d0t7k | Why is water so important for the search for life in the universe? Couldn't that just be how life on earth works? Similarly, why do we assume a planet can only be this "goldilocks" distance from a sun in order to support life? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You have a good point. You can also ask what can be considered living. We only understand life as it is on earth. Thus we know wat we are looking for on these goldilocks planets. That being said, there may be an object in the middle of a planet that could be classified under our definition of living organisms. Those 7 characteristics of life. But we have no idea how other live an arise from something other that C, N, O and H molecules, and these molecules can only be used generally as animals on earth use it. Because of that we also know a certain temperature for these are needed with certain conditions. Thus we believe there is a bigger chance of finding life on planets with similar conditions. Hope this helps:)",
"water is so important because its physical and chemical properties (acid-base buffer, high specific heat and many many others) making it as a perfect solution for complex organic compounds and maybe 'smart living organisms'. So, searching for water means you are searching for environments where simple structures can react in a friendly solution (ph ~7) and start forming more and more complex combinations, finally getting a way to store and releasing information (ARN like) or energy (citric acid cycle). I think, the key concept is \"searching for possible smart life\"... we already know \"tardigrades\" are living organisms than can live in outer space and really hostile environments (so this universe is full of life).",
"Many good answers, but to add to the chemical/physical properties of water, another factor is that it reaches its highest density at 4Β°C as opposed to virtually everything else (correct me if I'm wrong) which has higher density in solid form (frozen). This allows solid water to float on comparatively warmer water and act as a buffer to the outside cold and allows life unter the ice to continue relatively unabated. It also means that eg. a lake freezes from top to bottom, so life can migrate towards the bottom during winter and stay safe. And as others have said, we look for a planet with our conditions because we know it works for life, we have basically no information on other conditions and life. With the billions of planets out there, we'd rather look for something we KNOW has the chance of life."
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6d16i4 | What info can cookies access about me or my browsing history? (Other than the cookie's originating site login info) | Say, can it know who I am based on my login at FB or Twitter? Or say, know what other sites I browse or what news articles I read? Or who I am logged in as in other websites? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Cookies are just a storage form that certain websites use. As such it can contain any information that the website thinks is necessary to record on them, including \"who\" you are so if you return they know you are the same computer as before and they can internally combine the information from before with the new one and as such build their knowledge of you. Other things they might record are for example your preferred settings to make it easier to browse their website.",
"Cookies do not access info but rather hold info the website would like to access later. Most cookies cannot be read by other websites, only the site that created it. There are ads on sites that come from third party sites. Those can keep track of every site you visit."
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6d1wa9 | How do some music artists, like Five Finger Death Punch, become huge hits with their first album? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"First and foremost you have to understand how the music industry works. If the label has a label-beneficial contract, which is common with a newly signed artist, and the musical style fits current trends, they will market the band as much as possible. Marketing includes grassroots, pushing rotations on radio, Spotify and Pandora as well as teaming a new artist with an established group for tours. Additionally, tv placements can be purchased. Building hype is easy with an unlimited budget, and most bands have a short popularity cycle so the record label will push hard to creat a buzz for them."
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6d27km | what is meant by "the notes you don't play" when talking about jazz music? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"In jazz there's allot of timing and there are often Many instruments playing complex progressions at once. This said, when you listen to jazz there's allot going on for your ear to focus on so a musician can decide to pause, or play fewer notes. This would focus your ear to another set of instruments making the notes you don't play as powerful as the notes you play. (u/Nosvind opinion?)"
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6d49ta | Why do we interpret spicy foods as 'hot' even though they are not hot in terms of temperature? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Capsaicin is the name of the chemical in spicy food that makes it taste spicy - the more capsaicin, the spicier the food. The way that capsaicin works on us is that it binds to a specific taste receptor on our tongue, which sends a signal to our brain. By a neat coincidence, those receptors are actually meant to tell our brain how hot (temperature) our food is - it's a coincidence that it's also activated by capsaicin. So our brain recognizes the same sensation from \"hot\" peppers as it does from \"hot\" burning food, because our taste receptors don't know the difference. Fun fact: birds don't have those sorts of receptors, so they can't taste spiciness in foods. Peppers evolved to take advantage of that. Land animals would avoid the spicy peppers, and only birds would eat them. The birds would fly away and poop out the seeds somewhere far off, so that the pepper plants could spread over a wider area than if land animals ate their fruits and dropped seeds nearby."
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6d4u96 | If you are traveling in a plane against earths rotation, do you arrive at your destination sooner? | As the titles states, if you are traveling against earths rotation in a plane/jet do you get to your destination any quicker? My mind says yes but their is a little voice telling me no. What's the answer and the logic behind it? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The speed of the airplane is limited by the air resistance and speed of sound. When you specify the speed of an airplane it makes more sense to use the airspeed and not the ground speed. The air is influenced by the surrounding air, pressure differences due to weather patterns and the ground. And since the ground is moving with the earth rotation the air is also moving with the earth rotation. So an airplane going against the earth rotation will still go \"backwards\". However due to weather patterns and less influence from the ground on high altitude wind there is a series of \"jet currents\" which are fast high altitude winds traveling around the world. The airplanes can chose to fly with these winds to get more speed. Most air travel in the world in the 60 degree latitude which usually have a jet current going west to east. So a flight from New York to Paris tends to be faster then a flight from Paris to New York. However this does depend on the conditions and route on the day of the flight.",
"You do get to your destination more quickly in one direction than the other, but as the other comment here stated, it's due to prevailing winds, not the Earth's rotation. The airplane is pushing itself through the air, and the atmosphere is moving with the Earth. So regardless of how the whole planet is moving, the airplane won't get from point A to B on the planet faster because of the rotation alone. Another way of thinking about this, is that one timezone is very roughly one hour's worth of Earth's rotation. If you were able to fly at that speed + the speed of the airplane, eastbound cross-USA travel would only take a couple hours, and that's definitely not the case. Another ANOTHER way of thinking about this, is that you can't travel from the east coast to the west coast by simply taking a hot air balloon straight up in the air and waiting 3-4 hours for the Earth to turn underneath you."
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6d6j6p | Why is Citizen Kane considered such a masterpiece? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The cinematography was innovative. There were some average sized sets that look huge on camera. There were camera angles that were novel at the time. In the opening sequence, the lit window stays in the same place on the screen as the shot zoomed in with different pictures. These things might be trivial to do today, but it was groundbreaking at the time.",
"One could call it the precursor of modern movies. Before citizen Kane, movies would only use 1 maybe two camera angles per scene. They where less like movies and more like recorded plays. Citizens Kane usage of multiple camera angles with many sets instantly set it apart from its predecessor. It's the same reason the model-T is amazing. Sure by today standards it's a relic, but it set the standard."
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6d6rs5 | If I picked up a young child, who weighs 50 pounds, why does it feel lighter than picking up a dumbbell of the same weight? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Similar question: URL_0 My answer from that thread: > Because the kid wants to be comfortable, and the water doesn't. > Deadweight, like the water, is harder to carry because it doesn't do anything like, say, maintain it's own center of gravity---or, in the case of an older kid, actually hold on to you, thus distributing the weight across more of your muscles. > As a result, you need to use your own power to do all the little things necessary to keep the weight oriented they way you want it to be oriented. That makes it seem heavier. The water might slosh around or get slightly off center from how you are carrying it some other way, and you then have to consciously or sub-consciously correct it. The kid, on the other hand, probably wants to stay generally upright and generally in the same place/orientation as after you lifted them, taking that pressure off.* > *assuming not a toddler. Their weight is effectively quintupled from sheer madness.",
"I believe it's because children have a natural ability to distribute their weight in such a way that's optimal for the person picking them up and that's why it's equally difficult to handle them if they go deadweight on you.",
"Your brain considers both weight and size. Try this experiment. Find something small that is super heavy for its size. Pick it up. Then put that weight in a big box, and pick that up. It will feel much lighter. Your brain is saying to itself, \"Wow that's not so heavy for something of this size,\" even though it's the same weight you just lifted. By the way, I agree with the stuff about live weight versus dead weight as well",
"Because of the weight distribution, when you're holding a child your bringing it closer to your center of gravity, and making your body more stable this stability allows for less work to be done in muscles of your body . If you were to hold the child like you hold a dumbbell you would find that they feel about the same. This is the same reason why grocery bags feel insanely heavy, because often times you're holding them at an awkward angle away from your center of gravity. Read more here Source: URL_0",
"Are you truly concerned with picking up the weight as much as holding the weight because there is a difference? And the method of picking up the weight will make a big difference. * If you pick the up either the child or dumbbell with extended arms and hands it will seem to weight more than if you picked it up by hugging it. Hugging it has less impact on your arms and hands. * If you pick the up either the child or dumbbell with either extended arms and hands or by hugging it will seem lighter if you stoop down with bended knees than if you were bent over at the waist. Thus more parts of your body help to lift the weight. * As a tall slender mass, the child's weight is unevenly distributed, with the bulk of it in the torso, and can help support and balance his/her own weight, unlike a dumbbell of equal weight that is compact and is unable to help support its own weight. * The child is a tall slender object that can be held snug to your body with your arms wrapped around the child, which makes supporting the weight easier than holding in equal weight in a different shaped mass in your extended hands. And the child can hug you to help support the weight. * If you carried the child on your shoulder or back he or she would seem even lighter because doing so makes the child's weight part of your own weight and balance system.",
"Lots of good answers, but none seem to have mentioned an important factor: isolation. When you do a bicep curl with a dumbbell, good form helps you use only your bicep, so you can specifically challenge that muscle. You intentionally minimize involvement of your triceps, pecs, delts, etc. Similarly for most other simple free weight motions. When you reach down to pick up a child, you're making a complex movement and aren't intentionally isolating any one muscle. You recruit a bunch of muscle groups to share the load, and it feels easier. Unless it's an angry toddler - then their bones just turn to jelly and suddenly all their squirmy uneven weight is focused on a muscle you didn't know you needed!",
"Because when you pick up a child who weighs that much, they usually have the motor skills to distribute their weight and \"participate\" in the lift. Think of ballerinas who get lifted up by their partners; they're moving with the person lifting them, which reduces the amount of effort the lifter needs to exert to get them off the ground. A child you're picking up will move with you and push off as you lift, so you're not using just your own strength to lift them up. A dumbbell can't do that."
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6d7ttx | How iPhone home button recognizes my fingerprint when it does not have infrared or sensor or camera | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The button *is* the sensor. See this paragraph from Wikipedia: > Touch ID is built into the home button, which is built of laser-cut[9] sapphire crystal, which does not scratch easily (scratching would prevent Touch ID from working).[10] It features a stainless steel detection ring to detect the user's finger without pressing it. The feature does not work without contact with this ring. There is no longer a rounded square icon in the home button, nor is it concave. The sensor uses capacitive touch to detect the user's fingerprint.[10] The sensor has a thickness of 170 Β΅m, with 500 pixels per inch resolution. The user's finger can be oriented in any direction and it will still be read.[2] Apple says it can read sub-epidermal skin layers,[11] and it will be easy to set up and will improve with every use.[9] The sensor passes a small current through one's finger to create a \"fingerprint map\" of the user's dermis. Up to 5 fingerprint maps can be stored in the Secure Enclave. URL_0"
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6d943m | How do ISPs work? | Something I've pondered for awhile. How do ISPs work? I know the internet basically works by sending a signal from my PC to another PC (Read: A server), but where do ISPs factor into all this? How and why do our signals have to go through them? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I explained this to my 6 year old like two days ago, that seems close enough: Every device that connects to the internet is part of a network, the computer in your house is part of the local network in your house, the website you're trying to reach is on a computer that's on another network in someone elses house (or business premises). But for those two computers to talk to each other and show you their website, the two networks need to talk to each other. So, your ISP has their own network. You connect your network to theirs, then they connect their network to someone elses, then they'll connect on to someone else. This keeps going, all of the different networks come together making paths that let you get from your computer at home to the one that has your website somewhere else. ISPs provide the door out to the bigger networks from your house. The internet is just lots of networks coming together and ISPs let you join that network. Obviously it's not as straightforward as that. But that kept the 6 year old happy, covered the basics and makes a good starting point I think. My younger brother never quite understood it that way though. So when I explained it to him I went with this: You want to send a parcel to someone in another city. But it's huge, needs a truck and has to be collected from your door and delivered to their door. It'll go down the road outside your house, then it'll join the bigger road at the end of the street, then it'll get on a highway and head to whatever city it needs to go to, come off the highway on to the mail road, then back onto their street and finally down the road to their door. The only problem is, you don't have a road to your door. So you call up your ISP, they come out and build a road that lets you get from your door to the bigger network of roads that'll let the parcel go to where you're sending it.",
"So first off, ISPs exist to provide you access to the Internet. The Internet is a huge network, or even better a network of networks, which interconnects all kind of networks, from home networks (computer+smartphone, for example) to corporate networks and so on. Now, there are literally billions of devices connected to the Internet, and you'd like to be able to send signals (data) to any of them, from a smartphone in Texas to a huge server in < random country > . Without ISPs, you'd had to establish physical connections with literally every such device, either by laying cables or by installing huge antennas, repeaters, etc. in the entire world. Then anybody else would have to do the same. What's more, when a new device appears (in any part of the world), you'd have to go there and connect your cables or repeaters to that device. **It would be a huge, unfeasible mess**, not to mention extremely expensive. This is where ISPs step in. ISPs literally provide you access to the Internet. Take for example a local ISP, which only serves one city. This ISP connects all the devices in your city, which you couldn't really do yourself in a simple way for the reasons I mentioned above. Now assume that lots of cities had their own local ISP( or ISPs), but they weren't interconnected. If you were in LA, you could talk to your friend in LA (basically by sending your signals to some routers of the ISP which forward them to your friend), but not to another friend in San Francisco, not mention Anchorage, Tokyo and so on. That's bad =( So you need to interconnect local ISPs worldwide. How do you do that? Again, there are millions of cities in the world and each of these ISPs would have to connect to millions of other ISPs in the whole world. Just think about a small ISP in Oregon laying underwater cables to reach an ISP in Shanghai. It would still be crazy. This kind of reasoning eventually leads to the modern structure of the Internet, which includes: - very few Tier 1 ISPs, acting globally and interconected; - some (thousands of) regional ISPs, acting more or less at a state/country level, which are interconnected to their own Tier 1 ISPs and to *some* other regional ISPs (e.g. California ISP may be directly connected to Nevada ISP but not to Germany); - some (hundreds of thousands/millions of) local ISPs, acting more or less at a district/city level, which are connected to their regional ISPs; - some billions of devices, connected only to their local ISPs. Now, local/regional/global ISPs don't have to be different companies. In fact, lots of local ISPs are actually branches of the huge network of a regional ISP, which in some cases may be \"simply\" a branch of the network of a global ISP (like AT & T).",
"ISPs provide connections from your house to the grid. They charge for the usage of this grid. The grid is maintained partially at their expense."
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6d9jhk | How did people in the Stone Age deal with diseases (viruses, bacteria, parasites)? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> How did people in the Stone Age deal with diseases and mental disorders? They either got over it, lived with it, or died. People died a lot back then. > Wouldn't they have died out at a certain time? Individuals did but overall they reproduced more. > Considering countries today are very developed and still thousands of people die out from a virus in developed countries how did people in the Stone Age cope? Wouldn't they all have died out? They didn't live nearly as close together back then. Even if an isolated tribe or family group caught some terrible sickness they would just all die and maybe never be found by other humans. This tended to weed out illnesses that were incredibly fatal and left those which were highly contagious but didn't actually kill their victims. Being too deadly would limit the survival potential of the illness itself."
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6db4qp | What makes cancer so difficult to cure? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Cancer is difficult to cure because it is a mutation of our *own cells*, not a foreign virus or bacteria that is infecting us. Anything that affects cancer cells will also affect our own healthy cells, which is why cancer treatments generally have very debilitating side affects, like hair loss, nausea, and much worse. It is difficult to strike a balance between how much treatment is needed to stop the growth of the cancer, and how much treatment the patient's body can even handle. Cancer can also be anywhere we have cells. It can be inside our organs. It can be floating around in our blood. Many cancer treatment methods require very precise targeting to limit damage to healthy cells. However, depending on the location of the cancer this may be extremely difficult or impossible."
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6dbiu8 | Why does time "fly" when we're having fun? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"\"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity.\" - Albert Einstein",
"Because you're not focused on what time it is. When you're in class and you're watching the clock every 5 minutes, you're constantly reminding yourself of the time. When you're having fun, your focus is not on a clock."
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6dg2go | We have a dominant hand, dominant foot and a dominate eye, but do we also have a dominant ear? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"I do. My left one can hear way better than the other because my brain chooses to listen to it more. And because I busted my eardrum when I was 12 and had ooze leak out of it",
"I'm not sure, but I once heard that our left ear is better at receiving sounds, while our right ear is better at picking words. Edit: second part had \"left\" by mistake. Changed to right",
"Because one ear will pick up sound and the other will pick up the reflection, it temporarily becomes dominant but they're built the exact same unless you have a small defect in one such as the hairs being damaged then the other one would become dominant slightly. Source: studying audio engineer"
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6dhba3 | What is money laundering exactly? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Money laundering is taking illegally obtained money (say from bribes, or from drug dealing) and funneling it through legitimate businesses to account for the extra income for tax/legal purposes, making it harder for law authorities to figure out that you're getting the money illegally. If on paper your job nets you $50,000 a year, but then you outright buy a million dollar house, that raises flags. However if you own, say, a restaurant then you can do some creative bookkeeping to overrepresent the amount of money the restaurant is pulling in and thus explain where your income stream is coming from.",
"So imagine you've done a bank heist. You've stolen a bunch of cash. Problem is, that cash is \"dirty\". It's linked to the bank you heisted, which means there is a potential that you could be connected to the heist by the law enforcement. So what you do is you send that money through a series of front businesses, each of which adds an extra layer of concealment as to the true origin of the monies. Traditionally, before the wiespread use of credit cards/electronic money transfers, the money you stole would have been hard cash. This meant your front companies had to be cash-based businesses. Launderettes fit this bill perfectly. This, combined with the idea of \"cleaning\" the monies, led to the term \"Money Laundering\" coming about. Nowadays, most money is \"stored\" electronically, so this requirement of a cash-based business is not so necessary. Fronts can now be, e.g., banks. There are many specific ways in which money can be laundered, but this is the basic principle."
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6di0ys | the similarities and differences between socialism and communism | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Communism is state ownership of the means of production while socialism is the social ownership of the means of production. The difference is in where the power, control and consent lay.",
"These names have been appropriated for different things. In Marxit doctrine, Socialism is the proletariat dictatorship meant to rebuild capitalist society. The end of that is the state being dissolved and society moving on without it, and that is Communism."
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6djebf | Why does the the human mind ignore the second βtheβ? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The human mind ignores many many things actually. If it didn't, your consciousness would be constantly awash in so much information you'd basically be catatonic or hallucinating constantly. Our brains have evolved to tune in on a certain spectrum of reality and ignore a lot of it in order to function in an extremely complicated and ever changing world.",
"Conditioning. I had to read that sentence three times before I noticed. You've been taught your whole life the correct structures of simple sentences, and your mind knows what that sentence is supposed to say. So when you read that, your mind ignores the second \"the\" because it knows it shouldn't be there and that it's unimportant to the sentence. Edit: easily the most popular comment I've ever made",
"Similar to scrambled words... Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.",
"It's all about how the the brain works. The mind is conditioned to ignore the the second one because it is irrelevant to the the content. Like someone below demonstrated, it also works with scrambled words, because the the mind is very powerful. Your mind likes to be efficient. It's also the the same reason why optical illusions work. It constantly adjusts how it processes its surroundings based on the the input of the the environment. This youtube video from one of my favorite channels shows a good demonstration of your brain doing similar processes: URL_0 As you see in the the video, you brain can do weird stuff. Also, I doubled the the word ------\"the\"----- 9 times during this post. Did you notice all of it? ;)",
"Learning. I learned to skim read when young so that i could pick out the important information from each paragraph. In this sentence the fact that there's a redundant 'the' is irrelevant to the sentence and so gets ignored when skim reading",
"You're brain operates by following patterns. When you're reading a word, your brain looks at the letters all at once, not sequentially, so it can identify the word very easily even if certain letters are switched. It works the same way for sentences. Your brain takes the entire sentence and analyzes as much as possible at once.",
"FYI - drunk me didn't ignore it. Read the first 4 words 5 times before the rest of it made sense. Also took ages to write this.",
"For many applications the brain can be assumed to be a Baysian decision making system. This means that Bayes law can be applied (from probability class). Essentially the important bit is that what you end up inferring is proportional to the distribution you expect to see and what you actually see taking into account errors in the eyes. The eyes and the part of the brain that process the input to the eyes actually have a lot more error than you'd expect but you don't notice because of this mechanism (you gather more evidence over time, you ignore a lot of what you see the first time and retroactively try to remember if you later need to know). what you are expecting is something you develop over your life and in the case of 'the the' there are very small error bounds. This means when forced to make a binary choice you tend to go with the one you expect but you might feel there is something wrong with the sentence - that you struggle to identify. This is because the disparity between what you see and expect leads to large error bounds in the final inferred interpretation.",
"This is a word by word repost. Here are the best 2 (IMHO) responses from the original [question]( URL_4 ): [Answer]( URL_2 ) by /u/TyrannicalDuck > Edit: For those of you requiring an extra \"the\" in my comment, you'll find it up here: \"the the\" > In addition to what others have said, the human brain, when reading, doesn't actually see every word, unless you're not fluent in a particular language. Your eyes actually take in multiple words at a time and parse the sentence based on the words you've taken in. This also means that unless a particular particle is deadly important to the sentence, your brain ignores it. It also partially explains why you sometimes go back over a sentence if it doesn't parse correctly. An extra \"the\" doesn't change the meaning of a sentence, so you continue as if you understood. > (Edit: some source for those interested in how reading works: URL_5 and of course this page has a nice, long reading list of sources at the bottom) > My question would be to those people who read languages such as Chinese or Korean or Japanese: does the same thing happen if you put two of the same particle in a row in a sentence? For example, would a Japanese person reading \"θ±θͺ γγ γγγγΎγγ\" spot the mistake or gloss over it in the same way native English speakers gloss over superfluous incidents of \"the\"? > Edit: it's curious and interesting as hell: about an equal number of native Japanese speakers gloss over the mistake as much as stands out for the others. If anyone has any research on reading and word cognition in non-roman alphabetic languages, I'd love to read it. > Edit2: As others have mentioned, the eye's saccadic movement system also has a lot to do with this. This wiki page has more information about it for those who are interested: URL_3 [Answer]( URL_1 ) by /u/tsuunga : > There's a phenomenon called [attentional blink]( URL_0 ) where, when you're rapidly presented with stimuli, your brain will perceive two identical stimuli in a row as a single stimulus. Basically, your brain sees \"the the\" and assumes there was only one. > In nature, identical stimuli in rapid succession are vanishingly rare - if you see two crouching tigers from the same angle and in the same position in a quarter of a second, it's much more likely there was only one tiger and you just blinked; so your brain edits your perceptions with that in mind."
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6djxxt | What did Descartes mean when he said "Cogito ergo sum" or "I think therefore I am"? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"He recognized that he couldn't know the real world, only his perception of it. All he could know for sure was that he could think, but thought alone proved his existence, as that did not rely on perception (which might be false)."
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6dl5v1 | It takes some countries many years to develop nuclear weapons and many of them still fail. With the science behind such things so readily available, why is it still hard for them to develop such weapons? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The physics is pretty well understood. The engineering is *fucking hard*. With a conventional weapon, you take a bunch of explody stuff and pack it into a casing with maybe some chunks of shrapnel or anthrax dust or pig fat or whatever around it if you really want to be a dick about killing people. With a nuclear weapon, you have to make a complex device that takes a little chunk of a really hard to make substance and implodes a bunch of another hard to make substance around it *just right* to get the atoms in the material to start splitting before the regular explody stuff finishes destroying it all. If *anything* goes wrong, it's just a bunch of radioactive dust and a bang you could have got for $500 in dynamite and the cost of an empty rain barrel and a trebuchet. Add to that the fact that most of the countries that *have* the technology don't want anyone else getting it, and take every possible measure to fuck up the entire day of anyone who even tries."
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6dlnsg | how does the sun keep burning. Don't fires die without oxygen and since there is no oxygen in space what keeps it alive? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The Sun does not \"burn\", like we think of logs in a fire or paper burning. The Sun glows because it is a very big ball of gas, and a process called nuclear fusion is taking place in its core. ... Hydrogen really doesn't burn, it fuses, into helium. So no oxygen is required. [source ]( URL_0 )",
"It's a misconception that the sun is a ball of fire. Basically, the core of the sun is full of hydrogen atoms. When two atoms collide, they fuse together, combining their protons and neutrons to make helium. This process is called fusion. ~~In chemistry, whenever two things combine to make one thing they (usually)~~ When two hydrogen atoms combine they release energy. This energy is the heat and radiation from the sun. So, there is no \"fire\", but rather raw nuclear power."
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6dmi6k | How is it that being able to pass a top secret security clearance test isn't part of the process of running for president? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"> I'm genuinely curious as to how this isn't part of the process. Is there any test at all? This is a simple necessity of a democratic style of governance. If you create a process by which an entity must approve of a candidate before they can be elected, then that entity actually is in charge of who gets the position, not the people. This is especially true if those criteria are opaque to public scrutiny or subject to judgment calls; we might easily say that requiring presidential candidates to be 35 or older because everyone can tell if that is true or not, but identifying a security risk isn't something that the public may even be allowed to know the reasons behind."
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6dmzek | Why do different months last a different number of days? Why aren't they all the same length? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"A year is 365.25 days long which is how long it takes to orbit the sun. 365 is not divisible by many things, just 73 and 5. Therefore if you must have equal months and for them to fit neatly into a year you either need 73 months of 5 days or 5 months of 73 days. Months are roughly based on moon cycles which are about 30 days long. (29.5 days, I think, based on the Chinese calendar)."
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6dn905 | If illegal content is so easy to find on the internet, how does it not get taken down by authorities? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"First, they have to find the physical address of the location that is hosting the site. Then, they have to determine if they have jurisdiction in that city/county/district/state/country. Many of these \"illegal\" sites operate of out countries that have very lax laws regarding content on the internet. Take The Pirate Bay, for example. It's moved from Denmark to Australia to Russia to Sweden, all over the place. No particular country has ever held on to them long enough to finish a lawsuit against them. And because they don't actually host the illegal material (they just provide links to illegal material), they can't really be prosecuted in many places. Using all these loopholes it's really easy to keep a site online. And even if a country does manage to get the site taken down by raiding the server's location with police, the sites generally all have dozens of mirrors (identical sites) that will continue to operate, so taking the primary site down doesn't even really matter. \"Black markets\" aren't illegal, they just sometimes deal in illegal goods or services. You can't take down Wal-Greens because someone likes to sell pot there, you can only take down the guy selling the pot. Some of these sites *have* been taken offline (even ones deeply hidden in onion servers), but only when the host of the site is profiting from the illegal material on his site."
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6dne4x | Why are ruins and ancient building always so far under ground? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because the ones that aren't buried underground were eroded away by wind and rain and plants and animals and people, so there would be nothing left to find. It isn't that ancient buildings always get buried. It is that the only ruins we can find are the ones that happened to get buried. Same thing with fossils. Not every single dinosaur turned into a fossil - it is a very rare event for any creature to become fossilized. It is simply that the dinosaurs that weren't fossilized are long gone, without any trace to be found."
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6dovtk | Why did we choose 360 degrees to represent a circle over other numbers? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We get this from the Babylonians, who used a base-60 counting system. In that system, 6x60 was a much more natural-sounding number, the same way today we think of dividing money into tenths and halves as a natural way to do it. 60 was their base, and 6 is because a lot of their early study of circles involved hexagons (which is 6 \"radiuses\" in circumference). We see the same 60 division in hour and minutes because of this origin, too. Part of why it stuck around, is, as others said, that 360 is also conveniently divisible by lots of numbers (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, etc...)."
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6dqgwo | How do places enforce bans on individuals? | People get banned from places for various reasons, but how can a place like Disneyland, Yankee Stadium, or even the local Walmart hope to keep banned individuals from getting back in? Is the ban purely out of principle letting that person know they are not welcome? Or are there actually methods to keeping those people out? Have you ever been banned from somewhere? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"So, someone misbehaves someplace. They are told they are banned, and then kicked out. So, what does banned mean? Well, the ban is actually a trespass warning. So, if the person comes back and misbehaves, they won't just be thrown out -- they'll be turned over to the police, who will arrest them for trespassing. And since the place can show they've told the person never to come back, it's pretty much slam dunk that the person will be convicted of the crime, and spend some time in jail. \"Hmm... I could go back to that Walmart. They probably won't notice me... but it's not worth a jail sentence.\"",
"There are technical problems with banning people as you may not recognize them when they enter again. If you do catch people trying to enter somewhere they are banned you might be able to charge them with trespassing but it would be hard on its own. So banning people are mostly out of principle. However the casino business have had issues with people who are able to play certain games so well that they are winning money. At that point the casinos will ban them and have systems in place that will recognize you as you enter the door. But there are few other places with similar issues."
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6dt4um | Why do different countries have different power outlets? Why isn't there one universal one? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You'd also have to agree on a universal voltage at the same time, since you can only imagine the problems it would cause if there were different voltages on the same socket type. I'm from the UK and am also familiar with the plugs used in Europe and South Africa, but when I visited the USA I was shocked by how flimsy the US plugs and sockets are by comparison, particularly since they have to carry double the current to deliver the same power (since the voltage is halfed).",
"A lot of different countries develop differently. Different plugs originate based on needs such as voltage, introduction of ground pins, etc. Plus it's not like at the very beginning that countries would talk to get this universal considering its mostly electric companies. In any case, different outlets and plugs were developed for different needs at different times whether it be to increase safety or modify voltage carried. Of course, it's difficult and timely to remove obsolete or older outlets and remove them completely especially when it's already so widespread so that explains why there are so many types. However as to why there isn't a universal one, it's difficult to implement. Countries and companies have to agree and the work needed is immense. Imagine taking all the outlets in a country where most chargers and plugs fit already and changing it to the universal standard. So many different companies will have to create new products or modify old ones and then customers have to buy them. It's not quick or easy. It's failed many times due to its negative impact on consumers and the economy. It's just too financially crippling and time consuming. I'm sure you know some people who own some electronics that are decades old and refuse to upgrade and if the outlet were to change, it'd force them to buy new ones since companies sure won't provide a new part for such an old technology. Even in your everyday life, imagine needing to buy a new cable or entirely new hardware for your stove, fridge, washer, dryer, dishwasher, laptop, phone, microwave, hair dryer, curler, straightener, razor, clock, etc. It already sounds terrible, right?"
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6dv2gw | Why does it feel colder when the air is moving? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"We always have some amount of moisture on our skin, whether or not we are noticeably sweating. This moisture evaporates and cools us down. We feel cool because the water, which requires energy to change from liquid to gas, takes energy from the surroundings when it evaporates. In this case, the surroundings include our skin. Moving air causes water to evaporate more quickly. Everybody has, at some time or another, blown on something to dry it off. Speeding up the process of evaporation means more energy is more quickly transferred from the skin to the water."
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6e2qc1 | Why the lowest temperature possible is 0 Kelvin (273 Celcius), but the highest temperature ever recorded 4 trillion degrees Celsius | why is (minus) 4 trillion degrees Celsius is not possible | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"In the words of a great scientist named Richard Feynman, temperature tells you how much the atoms around you are jiggling. Everything jiggles. Atoms that jiggle slow feel cold and aims that jiggle fast feel hot. So the coldest it can be is when all the jiggling stops. That is absolute zero. Then from there you can add more and more energy and get the atoms jiggling faster and faster, and call it whatever number you want based on our arbitrary scales. So why the temperature where water boils is called 100 in one scale and 212 on another is completely irrelevant, but absolute zero is a definite thing. The world on the atomic scale, however, is a mess of roiling energy. Any atoms really at absolute zero would actually get constant little nudges from tiny bits of energy moving all around, and they would jiggle some because of it."
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6e48jl | How would basic income work if everyone received a living income from the government, and no one wanted to work anymore? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"You'd have to work to buy things, cell phones, internet, other luxury items. I imagine it being issued like an ebt or food stamp card. Rent, food, transportation, medical, those would accept the card. Couldn't buy booze or weed with it, though.",
"That's not exactly how it would work, sure some people would try it, but the idea of a basic income is that it is just enough to cover necessities, housing, food, utilities, ect. Anything else, like transportation costs, property taxes, internet and phone service, probably child care, basically any other incurred expenses would come out of your own pocket. If you feel like you can live just a very basic life style, you wouldn't have to work, unless some kind of part time employment was a prerequisite for getting basic."
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6e54ri | Why does tickling cause laughter? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Tickling that causes laughter can be caused by touching several sensitive spots, such as armpits or the neck, which are \"hidden\" or otherwise vulnerable parts of us. The somatosensory cortex of the brain is responsible for picking up these touch signals, and sending them to the cingulate cortex, which makes sense of them. Laughter is genetically meant to be some sort of a defense mechanism; we're programmed to think that when someone touches these sensitive spots on our body, that it will cause some sort of harm to us. Keep in mind, our body systems still function in a primitive manner: to ensure survival. When the touch signal is basically harmless, signals are sent back to the sensory cortex, to evoke laughter, which is practically a \"false alarm\" sign that nothing was wrong, to decrease any form of stress. The old, primitive reason of laughter is to provide a relieving sense. Which is why comedy, involving unexpected jokes and one liners, makes people laugh.",
"I seem to remember reading somewhere about how being ticklish on certain parts of your body (belly, neck, armpits, etc) was actually an evolutionary thing that developed to teach children to learn how to protect their vulnerable spots on their bodies. I dont know if that's true or not, or if that explains the laughing part, but it makes sense to me. It's like, our bodies made it fun to learn basic self defense when we're young or something",
"If you tickle yourself, it doesn't tickle, as we all know. That is because you are prepared for where it will happen. The interesting thing is that if you guide someone else's hands over you to tickle you, it will also not tickle for the same reason."
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6e5ji2 | . Why when you sunburn your skin does it stay warm for a few days after? Surely bloodflow /sweat will cool it down quite quickly? Why does it keep burning? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The hot, red skin from a sunburn isn't from it getting hot and needing to be cooled down. Sunburn is caused when UV rays damage the DNA of your skin cells. This results in inflammation as your blood vessels swell to provide better access for your immune system to carry away the damaged cells. The extra blood to the region makes it warmer and redder than usual. And the swelling makes it extra sensitive to touch.",
"Physiologist here: Short answer: inflammation. When you sunburn your skin, you injure it, and kill some skin cells. Your body responds with an inflammatory response, and one result of inflammation is increased blood flow to the area of inflammation. This results in both the red color that is seen and the sensation of heat."
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6e6u1j | Why do we make cars that easily go way faster than the speed limit? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Well, all countries have different rules, the same goes for speed limits! The best example is Germany, they are known to have roads with NO speedlimit, meaning you can go as fast as your car (and your bravery) will take you!. That also explains why there are many sports cars in that country too. How about other countries with speed limits?, well to be honest. People who buy such cars just do it because....well they can! Think of it as a show of status rather than practicality. Its like why people buy virtual clothes or cosmetics. Theres no advantage to getting them, the only difference is that you are now seen as a richer person!",
"Besides all the reasons already posted, it's simply much more energy-efficient and economic. An internal combustion engine is most fuel-efficient at around 1,500-2,000 RPM, but is capable of safely hitting several thousand RPM higher as well. So you want your typical highway speed to be around those efficient RPMs which means the vehicle must also be capable of greater speed.",
"The energy from a car's engine goes three places-- making the car go faster, overcoming drag, and making the car go uphill. Drag is proportional to speed, so if you made a car with an engine that's only powerful enough to overcome drag at 70 mph, then at 60mph it will be using almost all of its energy overcome drag, and won't have much left over to make the car go faster. So it will won't be able to accelerate from 60 to 70 in a reasonable time. Then, if all of the energy is used to overcome drag at 70 mph, it won't have any energy available to overcome even the slightest incline, and will have to slow down considerably to go up a hill. tl;dr If a car only has enough power to go a normal speed limit, it doesn't have enough power to accelerate quickly or go uphill.",
"The market demands performance on demand. People want to accelerate quickly. In order to accommodate that, the industry fits cars with powerful engines. The market also demands fuel economy. To facilitate that, the industry fits cars with transmissions with tall gear ratios or overdrive. These ratios mean you can maintain speed at a low engine RPM. It also means at high RPM, the car could theoretically go very fast. The combination of the two mean cars can accelerate quickly and they have the power to actually physically achieve high RPM at tall gear ratios. Why don't they limit the speed? Because they don't have to! There's no law, like in Japan, that requires a speed limiter. That would be one more part, which costs that much more to make the car, that has to be maintained. There would also be a negative reaction to it in the market, people wouldn't want to buy the car but for their kids perhaps. It would be trivial to tamper with the device to disable it, which means it doesn't change the amount of traffic enforcement necessary. It also isn't illegal to drive at a high rate of speed on private property or private events."
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6e6ud9 | Why does an orchestra need a chief to perform? What is the man with a stick doing? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"The conductor (person with the stick) sets the pace for all the different areas of instruments, to keep the whole group playing at the same tempo/timing. He or she also directs each instrument section in how loud or quietly they should play their part. The conductor of an orchestra is similar to the director for a movie in that they have an idea in their head of how everything should go, and then they coordinate everyone in how to play their part so that it fits together seamlessly."
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6e78d0 | How does a bar of soap reduce germs, when germs are rubbed directly on it? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"Because soap bonds with both fats and water. Normally you can't just rinse off fats and oils since they are hydrophobic - they don't like water and won't stick to it or dissolve in it. So you just get water running over your oily skin, and all the bacteria living in the oil or just under the oil remain. Soap, however, has molecules with an interesting property. One side of the molecule bonds with oils and fats, but the other side is hydrophilic - it really *likes* water and tries to stick to water when it can. So if you lather up with soap, the soap will bond with the oils and the vigorous rubbing will dislodge the oils and soaps while the water pulls them away, leaving your skin free of most germs and other gunk! The germs that end up on the soap itself get washed away due to the water, or die after a time anyway since soap is not particularly well-suited for bacterial growth, at least compared to oily human skin."
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6e8ncs | What is happening when you "defrag" your computer? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
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"text": [
"Imagine a hard drive as a bookshelf. It starts out empty, but you quickly start shelving books (files) onto it. Some of these books are thick, some are thin. Every now and then you remove some of the books from the shelf (delete files). This leaves gaps between the remaining books. Afterwards, when you put a book on the shelf, the computer will try to fill one of those gaps. If the book is bigger than the gap available, the computer will cut it into two pieces: the first piece will fill the gap, and whatever is left will get stacked elsewhere. This file/book is now \"fragmented\". Now, if you ever try to go read that book, you will have to jump back and forth between the two pieces. Since this means that the hard drive has to physically move back and forth to read one file, this slows down reading the file slightly. After years of using a hard drive, and saving/deleting lots of files, many files become fragmented. This can slow your computer down significantly. De-fragmenting (\"defragging\") your hard drive is re-organizing your files, re-shelving the books, so that as many as possible are in one unified location rather than split apart.",
"A hard disk has a platter (or several) and a read/write head that gets positioned over the right place. If you were to open one up (but don't, hard disks need absolute cleanliness and opening it will kill it quickly), [it would look like this]( URL_0 ) It takes a lot of time to move the head from one place to another. So when information is spread among multiple places on the platter, most of the time is going on movement rather than anything useful. Defragmentation is just moving stuff around so that the head needs to move less. This doesn't apply to SSDs, and defragmentation is not only unnecessary, but harmful to them. **Edit:** [A more technical video]( URL_1 ) on how it works **Edit 2:** To illustrate the difference defragmentation can make, let's suppose an example hard disk that reads at 100MB/s, and has 5ms seek latency. This means that if you want to read 100MB and it's all stored together on a hard disk it'll take a second, and that every time the disk needs to move the head, it'll spend 5ms doing so. Modern hard disks have 4096 byte sectors. Supposing the absolute worst case of the file being so fragmented that the disk needs to seek for every of the 25600 sectors in a 100MB file, it would take 128 seconds to read. Meaning fragmentation made things 128 times slower. In a more realistic case it wouldn't be that bad of course. But you can see how being fragmented into 100 x 1MB sized chunks would already add half a second to the time needed to read the file, causing a slowdown of 50%."
],
"score": [
11,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eMWG3fwiEU#t=27s",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdmLvl1n82U"
]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6eak58 | Are viruses living things? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"di8v2aj"
],
"text": [
"Depends on what you mean by \"living things.\" Viruses make us realize that while we all sort of agree there's something called \"life,\" we're not totally agreed on the definition. Viruses have genetic material which is affected by natural selection, and multiply. Unlike us, they don't have cells, can't multiply without host cells, and don't break down other compounds."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6ebwlf | Why do we often sweat when sleeping even though the body is shut down and we wouldn't sweat if we didn't sleep? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"di961p6"
],
"text": [
"What makes you think the body is shut down? Your body does all kinds of stuff while you sleep. Repair, cleanup, mental processing, basically biological maintenance."
],
"score": [
6
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6edkc3 | Why do version numbers not increase by integer, but in an x.y.x format? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"di9hzic",
"di9hngt"
],
"text": [
"There's no single system for software versioning that's universally accepted. You're asking about one particular method that goes by the name of [Semantic Versioning]( URL_0 ) that breaks things up into *major*.*minor*.*patch* where incrementing a major version number is a sign that you've made a **major** change to the code like adding massive new features or rewriting large portions of the code. A minor version bump suggests that you've made less significant improvements & bug fixes while a patch version number increment tells you that *only* minor bugs were fixed. This is just one way to do it. Let's take a database system, like MySQL, that's used by big companies. You're on 5.5.12 and you make a **major** change to the software, giving you a 6.0.0 release. Since this is *very important* software, companies are still going to keep running the 5.5 branch until 6.x is stable and has all the bugs worked out of it. This means that you might get a 5.5.13 or even a 5.6.0 released **after** your 6.0.0 release. Simply going from version N to N+1 doesn't account for this. Another versioning system is the one the Linux kernel used. If you saw a 2.*even*.x you knew that was supposed to be a stable release intended for production use while 2.*odd*.x was meant for developers to work on the upcoming features for the next stable release (2.*even+2*.0) Then you get release numbers that are pretty simple & always increasing like Linux distributions. Fedora Linux, for example, just calls every major release \"X\" to be followed by \"X+1\" in a few months on a pretty fixed schedule, regardless of how much actually changes. If they make an update to X, you might see an updated X.1 if they build a new release out of it. Similarly, Ubuntu Linux releases ever April and October with *Year.04* and *Year.10* (eg - the last release was 17.04) and periodically updates those releases to with another minor point release (eg - 17.04.1)",
"This varies from company to company, with many different policies. For example, they could say version 1.x.0 introduces a big new feature, and the 1.x.x fix problems that arise from that big new feature. Often there are internal versions that never see the light of day. For example, a company's software division might send off 1.1.0 to their testers, but that doesn't work, so they make 1.1.1, repeat , until they get 1.1.8, and that's the one they finally release to the public. Once they release that one, they start working on 1.2.0, this time they get it right in two tries so they release 1.2.2, and now do 1.3.0. Or it could be they base it on time, 1.14.1 would be the 2nd patch they made on the 14th month of development, 1.14.2 is the 3rd patch they made in the 14th month of development."
],
"score": [
7,
4
],
"text_urls": [
[
"http://semver.org/"
],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6eeaiy | Why did the Soviet Union collapse ? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"di9lqhf"
],
"text": [
"> Perform a keyword search, you may find good explanations in past threads. Here are the first five results from the first page: URL_2 URL_0 URL_3 URL_4 URL_1"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ttipl/eli5_the_collapse_of_the_soviet_union/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3io38v/eli5_the_collapse_of_the_soviet_union/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j8sj7/li5_explain_to_me_the_collapse_of_the_soviet_union/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/580sdh/eli5what_caused_the_soviet_union_to_collapse/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4soodd/eli5_the_collapse_of_the_soviet_union/"
]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6efhpj | How have we decided on the colors and sounds of dinosaurs? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"di9vb71"
],
"text": [
"While some hints can be inferred from structures, like sound from hollows present in bones, and colors from rare preserved delicate tissues, a lot of it is simply entertainment or artistic license. Movies want dinosaurs that look cool and sound neat. If dinosaurs actually looked like lumpy 1970s special effects and mewled like kittens, they don't care, because their intent is to draw in and captivate an audience, not provide a meticulous realistic depiction. Likewise, even illustrations for more scholarly works can only infer so much from the evidence that exists at present. That's why now you see new illustrations with some dinosaurs covered in thick feathers as opposed to scales, when this didn't exist before. It's an assumption based on new evidence, but still, to some degree, a guess, as we don't luck out and find many complete dinosaur skins lying about sadly."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6eh7qb | Why does porn seem not appealing, and sometimes down right disgusting after you've already finished? [NSFW] | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"diaa7ka"
],
"text": [
"Disgust is how you brain gets you to avoid disease. Blood, faeces, decomposing things and other bodily fluids can be dangerous and carry diseases, so being disgusted by them makes an individual more likely to survive. Sex is required for reproduction, and sex involves disgusting bodily fluids. So in order to allow humans to reproduce, the brain disables disgust before sex. This allows you to fulfil your sexual urges without being repulsed by the fluids involved. After sex, all is done, you don't need to have sex again for a while, so your brain re-enables the ability to be disgusted, and you feel bad. Porn becomes disgusting after you finish, because it was disgusting the whole time, your brain just ignored that fact during the act."
],
"score": [
9
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6ehylq | How were the values of constants like "pi" found? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"diahkqi"
],
"text": [
"I will try to do this explanation in a fashion that somewhat follows the historical development of Ο (pi) computation, since that's the constant you mentioned specifically. Other constants would need explanations on their own. Because Ο is a Greek letter, I will use its symbol instead of spelling it in ordinary Latin script. Since the question is about Ο, it seems natural to sometimes use letters instead of numbers; I hope a little (as little as I can make myself use) algebra will be okay. Before I do anything else, let's define Ο, so that we all know what we are talking about. **Definition:** Ο is the quotient between the circumference of a circle and the diameter of the same circle. In other words, if you have a circle with circumference *C* and diameter *d*, Ο is defined by Ο=*C*/*d*. The definition makes sense since if you double the diameter of a circle, you also double the circumference. The similar statement holds if you resize the circle by any factor. (This is a property of how distances behave when you resize shapes, and is nothing that's special about circles.) **Experimental calculation of Ο** == An excellent method to at least get an estimated value of Ο is experimentally. Just draw a circle, and measure both its circumference and diameter! Measuring the diameter is easy to do very precisely, but measuring the circumference is actually fairly difficult. One way would be to lay a piece of string down along the edge of the circle, and to then straighten the string out and measure it. You can probably see why this isn't very precise. But anyway, experimental measurements can be done, and historically, this was the first way to determine Ο. I remember doing the string experiment in school when Ο was introduced, and the answers of the class ranged between about 2.8 and 3.4. Obviously we were only children, but if you try for yourself, you will see that you do not get the same results consistently. Babylonian documents with Ο estimated to be approximately 3.125 have been found. **Archimedes' calculation of Ο** == If you think about it, measuring Ο experimentally does not really provide you with any exact knowledge. How can you actually know for sure that you drew your circle precisely enough? And how do you determine the precision of your measurements? The Greek mathematician Archimedes devised a solution to this problem. To begin with, we can draw one square around and one square inside our circle, like [this]( URL_5 ). If the circle has diameter 1, the outer square will have circumference 4, and the inner square will have circumference 2β2 β 2.8. (The side of the inner square will be 1/β2 by the Pythagorean theorem.) Now, the inner square has smaller circumference than the circle, and the outer square has larger circumference than the circle, and therefore, we have arrived at the result 2β2 < Ο < 4. Therefore we have both an upper and a lower bound on Ο. Of course, our bounds are not very precise, but we need not limit ourselves to squares. We can continue with for example [octagons]( URL_7 \"The outer octagon is called circumscribed, and the inner is called inscribed.\") or other polygons with more sides. In this way, using 96-gons, Archimedes arrived at 223/71 < Ο < 22/7, or 3.1408... < Ο < 3.1428.... In the late sixteenth century, the Dutch mathematician Ludolph van Ceulen used almost this same method to calculate Ο to 35 digits, which is enough for almost anything you can imagine. **Calculation of Ο after the invention of calculus** == Modern methods of Ο-calculation come from calculus, a field of mathematics invented by Leibniz and Newton in the seventeenth century. By their very nature, these methods are difficult to motivate without using much more difficult mathematics than I have done so far. And since the formulas for Ο will become more difficult at this point, I will unfortunately have to resort to modern mathematical notation. So from this point on, both the arguments and the formulas will be more difficult to understand. However, since 35 digits of Ο were once obtained using the simpler methods above, you can consider this section to just be a bonus. In any case, one of these methods is [Leibniz' series for ]( URL_11 ) (\"series\" is math-speak for sum of infinitely many terms), which states that Ο/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + .... A proof of Leibniz' formula for Ο is found [here]( URL_3 ). The proof uses calculus, and trying to explain the proof to someone without using a lot of calculus would be a task for a better teacher than me, unfortunately. Observe that Leibniz' series is compactly written [like this]( URL_1 ). This probably looks very confusing, but perhaps [this example]( URL_14 ) will explain how the summation notation works, at least in the case of finite sums. (The big β is the Greek version of the letter s, and stands for sum. *i*=3 below β signifies that the sum starts with *i*=3, and the 6 above β signifies that the sum ends with *i*=6. The expression after β, in this case *i*^2, is the expression for generating the terms of the sum.) A much better formula for calculating Ο is [this one]( URL_12 ), due to John Machin (around year 1700). The function \"arctan\" used can be computed [like this]( URL_0 ). Combining these, we get [this expression]( URL_4 ) (without any fancy mathematical symbols) for Ο. John Machin computed the first 100 digits of Ο using this formula. **Modern Ο computation** == Finally, I'll mention something about the algorithms that are used for new records today. The current Ο calculation records were set using using Alexander Yee's [y-cruncher]( URL_6 ). It uses two algorithms: The [Chudnovsky algorithm]( URL_13 ) ([Wikipedia page]( URL_10 )) and [one of Ramanujan's formulae]( URL_2 ) ([Wikipedia page]( URL_8 )). The Chudnovsky algorithm is used for the actual computation, and then the Ramanujan algorithm is used to verify the computation. There's almost no explaining why these contemporary algorithms work. Ramanujan originally published them in 1914 without proof, and nobody paid much attention to them until 1985 when Bill Gosper used one of them to compute Ο to 17,526,200 digits. This meant that suddenly the mathematical community needed a proof for this formula (to be certain that Gosper's computations were valid). It took over a year for one to be produced. The history and some of the mathematics behind this formula are presented in [this paper]( URL_9 )."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/a/c/8/ac88e3ffdfbbac530b136f83211a87f7.png",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/4/b/3/4b325f4142cab62b1786d8be1ac3be60.png",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/math/3/c/c/3cca05380343cb6f78d776d5e40b3a9d.png",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz_formula_for_pi#Proof",
"http://i.imgur.com/S2kxbEc.png",
"http://www.mathteacherctk.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/SquareCircleSquare.jpg",
"http://www.numberworld.org/y-cruncher/",
"http://personal.bgsu.edu/~carother/pi/pigifs/inc-circ-8gonx.gif",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanujan%E2%80%93Sato_series",
"http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.158.2533&rep=rep1&type=pdf",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chudnovsky_algorithm",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/e/8/9e804b8a1a11e442be93fed1d52205a9.png",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/f/1/5/f15dc3d39c473c4bd718e3a98145da0d.png",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/7/e/97e0706f5d97298fd0f75e2b3022b776.png",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/1/a/6/1a693bfe9a392b08ed135a9e4117d3b9.png"
]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6ei39i | Why does your body temperature rise when you have a fever ? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"diagdgk"
],
"text": [
"The ultimate \"why\" is to provide a less favorable environment for bacteria to grow and divide. It's actually a surprisingly old evolutionary trick, as even some cold-blooded animals like iguanas will seek out heat when they get sick. The practical \"why\" involves an area in the brain called the hypothalamus. It has a sort of thermostat for the body, which can be turned up during infection. This is important for maintaining fever. Normally if you get hot, you feel uncomfortable and try to cool down. In fever, you're hotter than normal yet *feel* uncomfortably cold, and will do your best to stay as warm as possible."
],
"score": [
3
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6ei5wc | Why do regular citizens vote for the president, even though our vote doesn't elect the president? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"diahc9j"
],
"text": [
"The president isn't elected in a direct popular vote, but the popular vote in each state determines how many electoral votes each candidate gets. Originally this was designed so that the states would decide the president, but the states all decided to allocate their electors by popular vote. It's been that way since the 1830s."
],
"score": [
4
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6ej6vp | If race is a social construct, why do most Asians have epicanthal folds in their eyelids? Why are there more blondes in Scandinavian countries than in Africa? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"diaos4r",
"diapjtz"
],
"text": [
"Do those differences mean that the people have different capacities, or should be treated differently to any other peoples? The bit where we do that is the social construct.",
"The way people look changes continuously over generations, and populations blend into each other, forming new groups over time through the merging and division of past ones. What physical features people in any given time period choose to focus on is arbitrary. For instance, someone with red hair and very pale skin (a \"ginger\") would have been singled out as a race in Roman times - a feature of the Celtic gene pool. Their appearance distinguished them and led to discrimination for a long time. Likewise, blondes with blue eyes were considered a \"barbarian\" race, stereotyped as stupid, violent, drunken illiterates because they came from tribal lands North of Roman influence. Ginger and blonde are not considered races now, just subtypes of \"white\" people - a broader race that has come into social focus in modern centuries due to the extreme disparity in wealth and technology that Europe attained through the Industrial Revolution. Similarly, before large-scale contact with people outside of their broad genetic grouping, there was no internal group identity of \"black\" people in Africa, nor of \"Oriental\" people in Asia. These groupings result from contact with people who had greater differences than the nearer groupings - i.e., a *social construct* based on relative differences. Among very isolated peoples, the distinction between one \"race\" and another might be from one valley to another - slightly lighter hair, slightly taller stature, a slightly different shape of nose. People invent distinctions to fit their circumstances. The idea that Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. people would belong to a single \"race\" group would have been found ludicrous to all of them at most points in their history, and in fact at most points even those modern groups would have been considered extreme generalizations of the local subgroups that now comprise them. Those groups formed out of the fusion of many. In the future, the \"races\" defined in the present will probably lose focus and new ones will be defined by future demographics. This will be especially true when and if future political changes or catastrophes drive various groups of people together, creating both melding and politically-driven resistance."
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text_urls": [
[],
[]
]
} | [
"url"
] | [
"url"
] |
|
6ejzef | What causes the need for routers and modems to be reset every so often and why can't they design them to not have to be reset? | Repost | explainlikeimfive | {
"a_id": [
"diavpvz"
],
"text": [
"Think of your router as a computer just like any other PC. It has an operating system, usually linux in home routers, but possibly Cisco IOS in a enterprise class device. Like any other OS it has file storage, working memory, and services it runs. If the operating system isn't configured correctly for high uptime with periodic cronjobs to check for hung processes to restart them, it is possible over time for a service to hang or run out of memory much like a windows program that doesn't want to close. If you had SSH access to the routers command line you could simply restart the affected service rather than rebooting or power cycling. There is a lot of maintenance work involved in keeping a computer in service for long periods. Temp files must be cleaned, high memory usage must be monitored and processes triggered to restart to work around memory leaks. Log files must be tar'd up and old logs deleted to prevent it's file system from becoming full. With many routers for home use you get what you get and you're not able to change these things. Some of the better routers, and routers that run open source firmware often allow the user to schedule maintenance actions like periodically restart critical processes a few times a month, or keeping the file system tidied up. Some common failures are below 1. DHCP service hangs or stops responding. Previously connected devices work fine but newly added devices, or roaming devices like cellphones lose network connection when they renew their IP address. Since DHCP doesn't advertise, they default to a self assigned IP like 169.x.x.x which is not in the normal IP range so they go off network. 2. The apache or tomcat service which serves the GUI and webpage runs out of memory and stops responding. Network connections may work but if you try to log into the router it times out or disconnects. 3. A critical service like DNS or the routing tables become corrupted or stop responding causing network level failures. 4. The cable modem actually has the problem and when it is corrected the router doesn't re-establish connection. Rebooting it causes the cable modem to assign a new IP to the router and re-establishes the internet connection."
],
"score": [
5
],
"text_urls": [
[]
]
} | [
"url"
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