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4jr6ty | why was nafta so supported in the beginning but ended up failing as a policy | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jr6ty/eli5_why_was_nafta_so_supported_in_the_beginning/ | {
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"What do you mean by \"failed\"? The goal was to increase trade among Mexico, the US and Canada and it has succeeded in those goals.",
"So, let's start out by explaining what NAFTA is. This is the so-called 'North American Free Trade Agreement', and was designed as a management of liberalizing trade relations between Canada, the US, and Mexico. Said agreement was designed to lower tariffs (import and export taxes) and work to eliminate or liberalize quotas regarding how much of various products can be traded between different countries.\n\nThis is generally regarded as a net positive, at least at the aggregate level. Trade works based on the Ricardian idea of comparative advantage - the global economy can maximize its production by having countries specialize in the products and services it is best at producing, and importing goods that it can't produce, or can only do so inefficiently. The idea is that if the world as a whole can produce more stuff, then people will be better off.\n\nThe problem, is that 'free' trade has winners and losers, and American manufacturing workers were big losers from a distributional perspective. When capital and goods are allowed to freely move between nations, labor prices (wages) tend to rise in areas that previously had a lot of labor relative to physical capital - machines, factories, equipment, etc., and fall in places where labor was relatively scarce compared with capital. The US is a prime example of the latter, and so manufacturing jobs were largely outsourced overseas. The global economy as a whole might be better off, but there were a lot of displaced workers left behind as a result, and these workers weren't given the resources and training to readjust to a changing economy. This in turn tends, at least within the US, to enrich capital at the expense of labor, and to exacerbate the widening income and wealth inequality gap.\n\nIn addition, these 'free' trade deals often aren't just about trade. A lot of these deals include provisions to coerce foreign nations to adopt strict copyright and patent provisions at the behest of American multinationals, which has its own share of potential issues. There are also issues about Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions, that empower international tribunals to allow investors to sue governments for alleged trade violations, which are then used by Phillip Morris to sue nations that implement plain-packaging laws on cigarettes, claiming lost profits due to damage to their brand.\n\nSo, to call NAFTA a 'failed policy' is a bit of a stretch. It did do a lot of what it set out to do, but there were flaws in the way the treaty and other trade treaties in this country have been implemented, and these deals don't lead to a universally-better outcome for everyone involved."
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54oui7 | if the goal of an experiment is to be unbiased, why even form a hypothesis in certain studies? | For example, correlational studies just look at the data and tell it like it is. I don't see the point in saying what "might be" from a purely scientific standpoint.
EDIT: SOLVED | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54oui7/eli5_if_the_goal_of_an_experiment_is_to_be/ | {
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"One of the points of good experimental design (not to mention good statistical methods) is to filter out those effects. It's one of the reasons why \"Double-blind\" studies are the gold standard as well. ",
"To construct an experiment, you have to ask a question that needs to be answered.\n\nAnd often that question takes the form of a hypothesis that needs to be either confirmed or refuted.\n\nThe hypothesis is the question you want to ask the universe. But the universe has a habit of being kind of secretive and not very obvious a lot of the time. Since you can't ask directly, you design an experiment to interrogate the universe and if you are clever, you can find gaps and clues from how the universe reacts.\n\nOf course it is also possible to ask questions without having a hypothesis, but those questions often tend to not have much predictive and explanatory power. That's questions like \"How far is the distance between A and B?\" But sometimes such question also yield highly unexpected results that then need to be explained. With a hypothesis. And then that hypothesis needs to be checked by asking the universe again in another experiment.",
"One of the main ideas behind Science is to be predictive, not investigative. By forming a hypothesis you formed a theory about how something might work, experiments will then tell you when your theory is wrong. Simply testing at random only generates data, which may be useful, but also you can draw incorrect conclusions finding patterns in the data that was only random in reality.",
"Forming a thesis helps you determine what to research and what factors to take into account.\n\nAdditional a thesis is required to get any kind of funding, especially for a big complicated trial. Few organizations are going to throw money at \"I just want to see what happens.\""
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cwtc6v | why can't we generate electricity by positioning magnets around turbines? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cwtc6v/eli5_why_cant_we_generate_electricity_by/ | {
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"That is how we generate electricity.\n\nUse something to spin a turbine, use the turbine output to spin some magnets.",
"Something has to drive the turbines though.\nWhat kind of turbine are you thinking about?\nYou don't get something for nothing.\nHydro dams will make energy from the potential weight of the water spinning turbines in huge spinners driven by the water.\nWhere do you get free spinning turbines that are not being driven by some force?"
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61yqd6 | how do zipline and cablecar wires get laid out long distances? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/61yqd6/eli5_how_do_zipline_and_cablecar_wires_get_laid/ | {
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"If you can get one line across the gap, you can use that to pull across larger and larger lines until you have the final cable in place. \n\nIn the case of cable cars, it's simpler because it has pylons with known distances between them, and there are different ways to do it e.g. use a crane or a helicopter to lift the end of the cable over each pylon bearing wheel. "
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68v8y4 | why can a company ship me a package from sweden to us for free, but if i try to ship it back to their address it costs me $100? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/68v8y4/eli5_why_can_a_company_ship_me_a_package_from/ | {
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"Nothing is \"free\". The cost is covered by you. You've paid shipping, it's simply buried in the cost of the goods you purchased.",
"So two things. The company pays for the shipping, they're just including it as part of the price of the item you're paying for. Large companies can get really good deal on shipping because they buy it in bulk. Individuals can't get those deals. \n\nLikewise, large companies often are able to save money on international shipping by loading up shipping containers with their products, which then get shipped locally. You can't get that sort of deal as an individual. "
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3snwge | why can't task manager instantly stop a process? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3snwge/eli5why_cant_task_manager_instantly_stop_a_process/ | {
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"It's always best if you can give tasks a chance to quit nicely. A task might be in the middle of writing data to disk, for example. If you can give a task a bit of warning that it's being killed, the task might have the chance to finish what it's doing and exit gracefully without losing data.\n\nSometimes that doesn't work, and tasks have to be forced to stop regardless of the consequences.",
"This gets asked often enough ...\n\nBasically you have two levels programs run at. Kernel level [ring 0 on x86] where device drivers/filesystems/etc are running and user level where applications like Firefox and what not run.\n\nWhen a user task needs to perform a function on data outside of their process (e.g. reading a file) they perform a \"system call\" (syscall) that is a means of calling into the kernel to do operations like open files, read/write, close, map memory, listen for events, etc...\n\nWhen a syscall occurs the user process halts [blocks] and waits for the syscall to return.\n\nSome syscalls are interruptible and others are non-interruptible. If a syscall is interruptible sending an interrupt (SIGINT like hitting CTRL+C) then the kernel will abort the syscall and return control to the user process. If it isn't then the syscall will run for as long as the routine in the kernel is waiting. This can happen if you're say reading from a networked filesystem that is disconnected and the timeout is long.\n\nWhen you try to kill a process the task manager is sending a SIGKILL (or equiv for windows) to the process but the process is blocked in a syscall and isn't interruptible. The result is you can't kill the process.\n\n"
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4oonx7 | how bedsores develop | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4oonx7/eli5_how_bedsores_develop/ | {
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"They typically occur on areas where soft tissue lie over bones. When the person is immobile, the prolonged pressure between the chair and the bone causes the blood flow in the soft tissue to be decreased which leads to tissue death (necrosis). Also if there is a pull/shearing force on the soft tissue, that can break the blood vessels in the tissue leading to further damage to blood flow and oxygenation. \n\nRisk factors for pressure ulcers are immobility but also diseases that already affect good blood flow like diabetes, hypotension, and other vascular diseases. Also malnutrition will make it generally harder for the body to repair itself from that damage. \n\nThe lack of blood flow and tissue death will ultimately be affected by infection as the white blood cells will not be able to access the site to fight infection. "
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4txeuc | elon musk's 'master plans' | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4txeuc/eli5_elon_musks_master_plans/ | {
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"As a company that have a goal to eliminate our demands for fossil fuel it opens them up for critique when they are doing things that seams contradictory to their primary goal. For instance Tesla started making race cars and then luxury sedans, neither are known for being eco-friendly, and thus providing a means to increase the energy consumption of personal transport and increase the power usage which is largely based on fossil fuel. Elon decided to counter these critiques early by making his master plan public at an early stage. This showed that the early cars were only stepping stones to a better future. As Tesla completed their first master plan he have now made the current plan public again. It includes several things that by itself can be considered unhealthy for the environment but makes sense in the bigger picture. He is also doing similar plans for SpaceX public."
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5g8sys | if you get a blood transfusion and your blood is found at the scene of a crime and tested, how does it effect the results? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5g8sys/eli5_if_you_get_a_blood_transfusion_and_your/ | {
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"As others have said, red blood cells have no DNA. Rather, it's other cells, such as white blood cells, that are present in blood and are the source of DNA evidence in \"blood\". \n\nWhat you may not know is that when you donate blood (or receive donated blood), that blood is filtered and separated into its constituent components. White cells, red cells, and platelets are all sold off as separate products for different purposes. The red cells you receive are essentially \"pure\" red cells and have no DNA. \n\nSo, short answer is that getting or giving blood doesn't result in a transfer of DNA. "
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1tuueh | what happens when you raise a number to the power of i (the imaginary number)? | so if i^2 = -1, what happens when you raise a number to that power, and why? for example: euler's identity e^i*pi + 1 = 0. e^pi + 1 makes sense but what does e^i really *do*. any number, n, real or imaginary, raised to the i returns a number on my calculator.
**2^i** = 0.7692389014 + 0.638961763i
3^i = 0.4548324228 + 0.8905770417i
i^i = 0.2078795764
nothing in my [post](_URL_0_) really made sense at a basic level. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tuueh/eli5_what_happens_when_you_raise_a_number_to_the/ | {
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"I thought this was explain it like I'm 5, not explain it like I'm in my fifth year of graduate school... "
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6k0hgb | why is it okay for actors to impersonate police officers when filming in public locations? are there special laws that govern filming? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6k0hgb/eli5_why_is_it_okay_for_actors_to_impersonate/ | {
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"It's not like there is just the one actor and a hidden camera. \n\nThere is generally a full crew sound/light/camera crews, the director and all that jazz. They aren't going to be mistaken for real police officers. Plus inn public areas the have too get permits to film and generally type off the area they are filming inn to keep random people out of the way.",
"They aren't doing it with the intent of deceiving the public. Even when filming in public locations the filming area is often closed off to public foot and vehicle traffic. No one is going to reasonably confuse them for a real officer. And if they did, the actors and other film crew would correct them.",
"Laws vary by jurisdiction. However, laws against impersonating a public official will usually have language like the following, which prohibits impersonating a public official:\n\n > ...with purpose to induce another to submit to such pretended official authority or otherwise to act in reliance upon that pretense.\n\nIn other words, the law that I borrowed that language from says that it's only a crime to impersonate a police officer if your purpose is to make other people believe that you're a police officer, and act accordingly. So if your state uses that same language, it's not illegal to impersonate a police officer as an actor, or a stripper, or at a Halloween party. It's only illegal if you're trying to trick people. \n\nMost or all states in the US use very similar language in their laws. \n\nOn the other hand, the use of an official police *badge* may be a crime, even in a theatrical setting, unless the use of that badge is approved by the relevant law enforcement authority. Again, this will depend on state and local law. \n\nEdit: clarity",
"The crime of impersonating a public official, police officer, or anyone else requires more than just dressing up and pretending. Each state's laws are different, but they hinge on the intent to cause others to believe you are an officer, or intent to use your purported authority to deprive someone of something. \n\nFor example, Arizona's statute says:\n\n[13-2411](_URL_0_). **Impersonating a peace officer; classification; definition**\n\nA. A person commits impersonating a peace officer if the person, without lawful authority, pretends to be a peace officer and engages in any conduct with the intent to induce another to submit to the person's pretended authority or to rely on the person's pretended acts. \n\nActors, people dressed in costumes, and others who wear the uniform of an official don't use that costue as a tool to convince others that they really are those people, nor do they use it to deprive others of something of value. ",
"Just dressing like a police officer isn't what's illegal... it's doing so in order to convince somebody that you are one for the purpose of deceiving them into doing something or otherwise benefiting from the deception.\n\nSo dressing like a cop for a film is OK. Dressing like one for Halloween is OK. Dressing as one and trying to get free doughnuts from the local doughnut shop, NOT OK. Dressing like one and stopping people pretending to be an officer is NOT OK."
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1jf6fp | the reason for supermarket membership card and coupon |
Supermarket such as Pathmark, Albertson, Shoprite, etc, have membership cards that is free to get, unlike Costco, BJ, and Sam’s Club.
With these membership cards, you can buy some of the products at a lower price, the sales are for members only. But if the membership card is free, everyone can get one at the cashier as they pay for their items. If a customer is lazy, he/she/they can even ask the cashier to use their membership card for them. So what is the point for having these membership cards?
Same thing with coupons, but I guess people are more lazy to cut out coupon just to shop.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jf6fp/eli5_the_reason_for_supermarket_membership_card/ | {
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"1. Loyalty. As in \"I have a card in this store, I might save some money, so lets go back there to get groceries\"\n\n2. Purchase tracking. The store can tell exactly what you bought in the last 6 months. They can deduce marketing campaigns and product stocking strategies depending on what sort of customers buy what at what time of the day etc.",
"The purpose of coupons is tiered pricing. Because coupons take work and planning not everyone uses them. This allows a store to charge two different prices for items.\n\n* A higher, normal price for people that are not overly concerned about prices enough to look for and use coupons\n* A lower price for those that are more price conscious so are willing to put the time in to using coupons\n\nIf they lowered the price for everyone they would make less money. If they got rid of coupons they would sell less product. \n\nCoupons also do a couple of other things\n\n* Bring people into the store. I have a coupon for $1 off at Safeway I'll go there instead of Fred Meyer next week.\n* Introduce new items. $2 off chicken fried broccoli finger?! I'll have to get some of those."
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9ze0ci | how does general anxiety disorder actually work, and why is it thought to occur? is it "all mental" or chemical? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ze0ci/eli5_how_does_general_anxiety_disorder_actually/ | {
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"there is no difference between mental and chemical. there is no difference between physical illness and mental illness, they all take place in this physical world made of chemicals.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nas to how it works: we don't exactly know. we don't understand the brain enough to explain most mental illnesses or their medications. we just know that some things help and some things don't. why? we have theories, but they are all big question-marks that can be completely outdated next year. we estimate that about 1/3 of it is genetical 'weakness' that gets activated by something you experience. what that something is depends wildly per person. "
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jaz1x | why do so many people think prostitution is bad? | Bonus: How would you explain prostitution to a five-year-old? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jaz1x/eli5_why_do_so_many_people_think_prostitution_is/ | {
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"Many of those against legal prostitution would believe that every prostitute was forced into it, including those that might appear to have entered voluntarily. \n\nMany psychologists also have shown how prostitution is damaging to the prostitute.\n\nEDIT: Also, I, until recently, believed the best way to help the workers would be to legalize and regulate it, but then I found out what Sweden and other European countries had started doing. Their laws have it so that the Johns (clients) are the only ones breaking the law, allowing the workers to feel safer seeking help. From what I've read it seems to be working quite well in favour of the women (and a few men). \n\n_URL_0_",
"STD's are also a big concern. ",
"Oh, the classic society sex is taboo bit. The selling your body bit. The fear of STDs and shady things. Honestly, it would be infinitely better if the government would legalize and regulate prostitution. They'd make tons of money, prevent the spread of STDs, and minimize the list of things people have to get pissed off about, or argue about.\n\n\nEDIT: to a five year old would go something like this. \"Let's say you want candy because it makes you happy, but don't want to work for it. Instead, you let others play with your teddy bear/blanky; and they give you candy for it. Now some kids wouldn't understand what you are doing, they don't get how you could let someone else play with your teddy. You get it, and you don't care because you have the candy. Prostitution is like that, but in an adult way.\"",
"It's basically not very high on most people's laundry-list of social changes desired and no politician is going to come within 1000 feet of any pro-prostitution legislation if they don't have to.\n",
"There are a couple reasons people think it is bad.\n\n* Sexual slavery is where adults and children are forced into prostitution. Often the slavers take advantage of people who are very poor and uneducated, or those who are trying to get out of their country. Little children are often \"groomed\" or taught to be prostitutes from a very young age. People in sexual slavery sometimes don't know any other kind of life, and are often afraid to ask anyone for help. Sometimes they don't even speak the language of the country they are in. So it is often difficult to tell the difference between someone who is a prostitute by choice and someone who is being forced into it. \n* There is a bigger risk of catching diseases from anyone who has sex with a lot of people, especially because some prostitutes don't go to see doctors for fear of being arrested.\n* A lot of people are very religious and think prostitution is immoral. They think that sex is special and should not be traded for money. ",
"Because honest discussions about prostitution are so hard to come by. Media portrayals of prostitutes tend to fall into one of three categories: trafficked women forced into prostitution against their will, drug addicts walking the streets, and the happy hooker with a phd earning $1000s a night.\n\nThe reality is that most prostitutes do not fall into any of these categories (especially in countries where prostitution is legal, like the UK) - they're just ordinary women doing what they do for their own individual reasons. But their stories are never told because their stories have no extreme angle that supports one person's or group's point of view.",
"Originally, prostitution led to illegitimate children. These children grew up poor and fatherless and were likely to become criminals. Making laws to prevent prostitution was a way to decrease the crime rate.\n\nSociety has advanced a lot since then. Our views on morality haven't.",
"Since a 5-year-old isn't going to know about prostitution, I'll explain as though to a 14-year-old (who may understand the idea more instinctively).\n\nCurrently most relationships between boyfriends and girlfriends or husbands and wives are based on the exchange of time, goods, and services, amongst them being particularly close. Like all barter exchanges, this is hard to negotiate.\n\nMoney exchanges, however, are very easy to negotiate. That's why we have money. Prostitution is simply making a money exchange for sex instead of a barter (time-for-time) exchange for sex.\n\nSociety doesn't like that. We view men that choose to use money as a replacement for the ability to attract a sexual partner as defective, and women that choose to accept money instead of time for sex as somehow evil and/or immoral, as they're short-circuiting the normal relationship development process by using money.\n\nThere's also the problem of human trafficking: a lot of the people working as prostitutes aren't doing so willingly. I don't have figures, but I've seen estimates ranging between 5% and 85% of the prostitutes out there are actually working as prostitutes because another person is using force and/or drugs to keep them working as such. Of course a prostitute can't go to the cops, as being a prostitute is illegal. \n\nSo why don't we legalize prostitution, which would make it possible for prostitutes to report abusive behavior by customers and those forcing them to work in the sex industry? Well, the fact is that not many places allow prostitution right now, so smuggling people to work as prostitutes in those areas where prostitution is legal is still lucrative. \n\nWhat has worked is criminalizing pimping, running brothels/parlors/whatever, and being a John, but not being a prostitute itself. This dries up the demand for prostitution, reducing the profits to be made for it, and increases the penalties if you get caught as a smuggler/pimp, while still making it possible for prostitutes to go to the authorities to report wrongdoing by Johns or pimps--as being either of those *is* illegal.",
"Many of those against legal prostitution would believe that every prostitute was forced into it, including those that might appear to have entered voluntarily. \n\nMany psychologists also have shown how prostitution is damaging to the prostitute.\n\nEDIT: Also, I, until recently, believed the best way to help the workers would be to legalize and regulate it, but then I found out what Sweden and other European countries had started doing. Their laws have it so that the Johns (clients) are the only ones breaking the law, allowing the workers to feel safer seeking help. From what I've read it seems to be working quite well in favour of the women (and a few men). \n\n_URL_0_",
"STD's are also a big concern. ",
"Oh, the classic society sex is taboo bit. The selling your body bit. The fear of STDs and shady things. Honestly, it would be infinitely better if the government would legalize and regulate prostitution. They'd make tons of money, prevent the spread of STDs, and minimize the list of things people have to get pissed off about, or argue about.\n\n\nEDIT: to a five year old would go something like this. \"Let's say you want candy because it makes you happy, but don't want to work for it. Instead, you let others play with your teddy bear/blanky; and they give you candy for it. Now some kids wouldn't understand what you are doing, they don't get how you could let someone else play with your teddy. You get it, and you don't care because you have the candy. Prostitution is like that, but in an adult way.\"",
"It's basically not very high on most people's laundry-list of social changes desired and no politician is going to come within 1000 feet of any pro-prostitution legislation if they don't have to.\n",
"There are a couple reasons people think it is bad.\n\n* Sexual slavery is where adults and children are forced into prostitution. Often the slavers take advantage of people who are very poor and uneducated, or those who are trying to get out of their country. Little children are often \"groomed\" or taught to be prostitutes from a very young age. People in sexual slavery sometimes don't know any other kind of life, and are often afraid to ask anyone for help. Sometimes they don't even speak the language of the country they are in. So it is often difficult to tell the difference between someone who is a prostitute by choice and someone who is being forced into it. \n* There is a bigger risk of catching diseases from anyone who has sex with a lot of people, especially because some prostitutes don't go to see doctors for fear of being arrested.\n* A lot of people are very religious and think prostitution is immoral. They think that sex is special and should not be traded for money. ",
"Because honest discussions about prostitution are so hard to come by. Media portrayals of prostitutes tend to fall into one of three categories: trafficked women forced into prostitution against their will, drug addicts walking the streets, and the happy hooker with a phd earning $1000s a night.\n\nThe reality is that most prostitutes do not fall into any of these categories (especially in countries where prostitution is legal, like the UK) - they're just ordinary women doing what they do for their own individual reasons. But their stories are never told because their stories have no extreme angle that supports one person's or group's point of view.",
"Originally, prostitution led to illegitimate children. These children grew up poor and fatherless and were likely to become criminals. Making laws to prevent prostitution was a way to decrease the crime rate.\n\nSociety has advanced a lot since then. Our views on morality haven't.",
"Since a 5-year-old isn't going to know about prostitution, I'll explain as though to a 14-year-old (who may understand the idea more instinctively).\n\nCurrently most relationships between boyfriends and girlfriends or husbands and wives are based on the exchange of time, goods, and services, amongst them being particularly close. Like all barter exchanges, this is hard to negotiate.\n\nMoney exchanges, however, are very easy to negotiate. That's why we have money. Prostitution is simply making a money exchange for sex instead of a barter (time-for-time) exchange for sex.\n\nSociety doesn't like that. We view men that choose to use money as a replacement for the ability to attract a sexual partner as defective, and women that choose to accept money instead of time for sex as somehow evil and/or immoral, as they're short-circuiting the normal relationship development process by using money.\n\nThere's also the problem of human trafficking: a lot of the people working as prostitutes aren't doing so willingly. I don't have figures, but I've seen estimates ranging between 5% and 85% of the prostitutes out there are actually working as prostitutes because another person is using force and/or drugs to keep them working as such. Of course a prostitute can't go to the cops, as being a prostitute is illegal. \n\nSo why don't we legalize prostitution, which would make it possible for prostitutes to report abusive behavior by customers and those forcing them to work in the sex industry? Well, the fact is that not many places allow prostitution right now, so smuggling people to work as prostitutes in those areas where prostitution is legal is still lucrative. \n\nWhat has worked is criminalizing pimping, running brothels/parlors/whatever, and being a John, but not being a prostitute itself. This dries up the demand for prostitution, reducing the profits to be made for it, and increases the penalties if you get caught as a smuggler/pimp, while still making it possible for prostitutes to go to the authorities to report wrongdoing by Johns or pimps--as being either of those *is* illegal."
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9isfne | why is there so many different kinds of pain medication? they all seem to do the same thing (according to their descriptions), but why does tylenol work for some headaches and ibuprofen (naproxen, aspirin, etc.) work for other headaches? | Same with prescription medications, How does a doctor know which pain medication you need? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9isfne/eli5_why_is_there_so_many_different_kinds_of_pain/ | {
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"Some reduce inflammation which helps relieve pain, and some block pain receptors in your cells, so you don’t feel the pain. Different drugs perform different chemical actions that help with pain in different ways. ",
"This gets asked a lot... \" Differences between Pain Relievers\"\n\n* [2018 - June 26th](_URL_1_)\n* [2017 - March 11th](_URL_2_)\n* [2015 - April 19th](_URL_0_)\n* [2014 - January 13th](_URL_3_)\n* [2013 - November 26th](_URL_4_)\n* [2012 - March 23](_URL_5_)\n* [2011 - December 31st](_URL_6_)\n\nThe simple answer is different compounds affect the body in different ways. Every person also responds a little differently, and you should use what works for you. Just don't over do it.\n\nThe doctor might have some more details about your bodies chemistry, blood pressure, heart rate, and the kind of headache. This can help properly assess if the headache is driven by something being out of sync or unbalanced, or if it just needs to be relieved on a chemical level. After considering the side affects and how well a treatment plan fits your condition. It's really a judgement call, combined with experience and research on the problem.",
"There are differences in how they treat pain, as well as other differences. Some types of pain-medications are very effective at blocking pain, but come with high risk of addiction, can make you very drowsy and unable to work/drive/etc - Obviously you won't be getting a shot of morphine for a minor headache, but if you just came out of an operation then morphine (or some potent opiate) might be the only thing strong enough to really provide relief from the pain you're in (and since you're stuck in a hospital bed, it is okay to be drowsy)\n\nThere are also other considerations, like what other medication a person is on, or if they have conditions that disallow them to use certain medications. For example, aspirin and asthma don't mix very well, so it's better an asthmatic use something with paracetomol.\n\nAs someone has mentioned already there are different causes for pain which certain meds are better at treating. Ibuprofen is a good anti-inflammatory and would probably be best for someone with muscle pain / pinched nerve pain etc.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nEven though all the pain meds ultimately do the same thing (relieve pain) it's necessary to have a variety of options for the variety of patients and causes and severity of pain",
"It has to do with the [mechanism of action](_URL_1_), which \"refers to the specific biochemical [interaction](_URL_0_) through which a [drug](_URL_2_)substance produces its pharmacological effect.\"\n\n \n\n\nEssentially, there are different classes and sub-classes of drug. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is a COX-2 inhibitor which reduces the release of a fatty acid and an enzyme known to cause inflammation and pain.\n\n \n\n\nNaproxen (Aleve), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), are NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) which use a pathway in the body similar to acetaminophen, but are classified differently because of the way they interact with the body.\n\n \n\n\nSame goes for acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin). Aspirin is in yet a different class because eof it's added effect of being an anti-platelet (blood thinner).\n\n \n\n\nIn practice doctors, and other practitioners (myself) use a combination of practical experience with past patients and scholarly journals. It's all about understanding where the pain is and what caused it. For example, joint pain I'm giving Tylenol, muscle pain I'm giving Aleve, or headache I'm giving Excedrin which is Aspirin with Tylenol and caffeine.\n\n \n\n\nNarcotics are a different discussion.",
"Like another comment suggested, these medications act on the body in different ways. But! I will explain the differences. \n\n\n* Tylenol \\*acetaminophen\\* - helps to prevent your body from making making certain chemicals that promote fever and pain (but it works best for fevers)\n* Ibuprofen - Helps your body by reducing inflammation, which eases pain. \n* Naproxen - Imagine if Tylen and Ibuprofen had a baby. These drugs reduce both inflammation and fever.\n* Opioids - drugs that are made to bind to receptors on your cells (think of a lock and a key) and prevent other chemicals from binding there and causing you to feel pain. \n\nA doctor will prescribe the medication you need based on several factors; what is causing your pain (surgery, broken bone, sprain, infection, etc). If the cause will respond well to OTC meds then they will give you those. However, if your pain cannot be properly relieved by the mechanisms of the drugs mentioned above and you need to actually have those pain receptors blocked off he may prescribe something stronger."
]
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[],
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"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/335z5f/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_advil_tylenol/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8u54h1/eli5_what_do_pain_relieving_drugs_exactly_do_and/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ywn01/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_acetaminophen/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v5xwc/eli5_what_the_difference_between_tylenol_aspirin/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rjxrk/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_tylenol_advil/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ra7cs/eli5_the_difference_between_ibuprofen_advil_and/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nxhyh/eli5_the_difference_between_tylenol_and_advil_and/"
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[],
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"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_interaction",
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanism_of_action",
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medication"
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2iuugl | if the tongue is a muscle, and muscles grow after the fibers are torn, why doesn't your tongue grow after being bitten? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2iuugl/eli5if_the_tongue_is_a_muscle_and_muscles_grow/ | {
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"The tongue is actually controlled by eight different muscles. The part you bite is just the fleshy exterior.",
"Not the same type of tear. Otherwise, bodybuilders would go to the gym and cut themselves.",
"I thought I was reading /r/shittyaskscience for a second there.",
"More important question: Will my tongue get jacked from cunnilingus?",
"I think you might be confusing torn with removed. When you say bite your tongue do you mean bitten off? If your tongue is bitten off then, yes, that part will not grow back just like a leg that's cut off won't grow back. If you're talking about biting your tongue so it isn't removed but the muscles are just slightly torn then it will heal just like any slightly torn muscle."
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517n3a | kneeling during/sitting in national anthem disrespect to armed forces? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/517n3a/eli5_kneeling_duringsitting_in_national_anthem/ | {
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"It's only disrespecting the armed forces in a super roundabout way. In the US, we stand to pay respect to the flag, which represents the US. If you're in uniform (military) you also salute. Maybe other professions as well, like police and firefighters, but I don't know for sure. Our military fights for the US, and in some cases comes home covered by that same flag. I don't consider it as disrespecting our armed forces personally. I just think he's a dickhead. I don't think ANYONE is super proud of America right now, what with the candidates we've chosen for ourselves, but the courtesy is to stand and remove any headgear. \n\nPersonally speaking, there's lots of things I think are atrocious about America, but that's why we need to strive always to make America better. I still manage to stand on my feet when the anthem is played, because America is imperfect, but I work to make it more so. \n\nEssentially, the dude acted like a teenager getting punished, acting out because he didn't like a situation. ",
"Colin Kapernick decided he wanted to make a political point, and did it in kind of a dickish manner. He is now backtracking after realizing that being a dick might cost him a big 'ol pile of money.\n\nThat said, anyone who's dragging the military into this is an idiot. Not standing for the national anthem doesn't have anything specifically to do with the armed forces."
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6ab9nc | what happens in a free falling elevator? will you go to the ceiling or stay on the floor? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ab9nc/eli5_what_happens_in_a_free_falling_elevator_will/ | {
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"If the elevator is free falling then you too are free falling inside the elevator. So you would be neither in the ceiling or on the floor. However there are a few practical concerns. First of all you most likely start off standing on the floor. So when the elevator starts to fall you will be pushed slightly upwards by the elastic forces. So you will fall a bit slower then the elevator and likely go up to the ceiling. Then as the elevator picks up speed it is going to encounter air resistance from the bottom of the elevator shaft and slow down the acceleration. However as you are inside you do not get the air resistance and will still fall with the same acceleration and will therefore fall down to the ground. However the forces involved here that send you to the ceiling and then to the floor is very tiny compared to the forces of gravity you are used to so it is unlikely that you will get any injuries. Even if you land on your finger it is not enough to break it."
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5hwsor | why the depth matters with water resistant devices? | For example 5ft for 30 minutes. How does the depth affect the water resistance? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hwsor/eli5_why_the_depth_matters_with_water_resistant/ | {
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"The deeper you dive in water, the more pressure is applied across the entire exposed surface of an object. Gaskets (rubber components designed to keep water out) in a device can only stand so much pressure before they're breached and water begins to flood in.",
"1. Pressure of the water against the gaskets or seal used to \"waterproof\" or, make water resistant, the device.\n\n2. Condensation. Water molecules will get past glass and plastics pretty easily given enough time/temperature difference. \n",
"It matters because the deeper an item is, the more pressure is being pushed on it, causing water to go inside of it. The reason they are water proof to start with is because water cant get into it to mess up the electronics."
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d62rxx | if the single use plastic is already made, how is my refusal to buy these items helping the planet? they are already made and someone else will buy them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d62rxx/eli5_if_the_single_use_plastic_is_already_made/ | {
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"If not as many single use plastic items get bought, companies will cut back on how many more they make in the future. That's important too.",
"The idea is that gradually, consumption of the product will decline to the point that they will no longer be produced, in favor of more marketable products. If fewer people are apt to purchase an item because it is single-use plastic, then companies will reduce their production of single-use plastic because they want to sell more items, not less.",
"Decreasing demand will reduce the number produced next time. Yes the existing inventory will sell eventually, but if it takes forever and requires a deep discount there won't be much financial incentive to produce more.\n\nIt's not like suddenly nobody bought horses or typewriters one day, demand trickled away to nothing and producers decreased their future supply to match and eventually left the market entirely.",
"Ah, but by eliminating the demand for MORE single use plastics, we make sure that noone makes any more of them. \n\n_Well, but other countries will just buy them_. Yes, but after a bunch of the hip cool kids ban them, then say \"sorry Thailand we won't do business with you unless you get rid of the plastics too\", then economic peer pressure kicks in.",
"Businessmen normally will only produce items that customers are willing to buy; if there’s something that more and more customers refuse to buy, it will be produced in lower amounts. \n\nIt’s being said, demand creates supply, not the opposite.",
"These items are being mass produced daily. If that stopped, we would run out of them in a few weeks, or months. But the hope is that those companies producing them will see a loss in sales, thereby requiring that they reduce production. At the same time, the demand for compostable/biodegradable products rises dramatically, making the manufacturers see the market will support their shift to the new products. The effect is an eventual changeover to the eco-friendly products."
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2v2yqb | islands like hawaii seem to very quickly get diverse vegetation even though they pop up in the middle of the ocean, so where do the first seeds come from? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2v2yqb/eli5_islands_like_hawaii_seem_to_very_quickly_get/ | {
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"Seeds travel in many ways. Some get there by water, traveling on air currents (think dandelion) or by animals (bird eats seed, undigested seed from excrement finds new home), and by humans. \n\nIn Hawaii's case, many of their trees and plants were brought to the island by early settlers. \nEdit: removed inaccurate information about the quantity of native flora and fauna. Thanks for correct info!",
"Coconuts float all across the world. It's safe to say that a coconut landed on Hawaiian Shores before the migration of people from the south Pacific. That, and bird poop. ",
"I'd like to know how the hell did mosquitoes get there.",
"Coconut palms are amazing plants. The coconut can remain at sea for months. That is why on beaches, coconut palms seem to reach out, slanted over the ocean. My favorite plant (palms are not trees but rather freakishly large grasses).",
"So perhaps a swallow could carry a coconut's seeds, bypassing the simple issue of weight ratios. ",
"I was watching a nature documentary on hawaii once and they said that it took 2000 years for each new species to wind up in hawaii."
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6gexjc | what causes extreme heat on atmosphere re-entry and was this discovered prior to the first mission or a lesson learned later? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gexjc/eli5_what_causes_extreme_heat_on_atmosphere/ | {
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"Not exactly air friction. Friction would be the air rubbing against the body so much as to raise the temperature to extremes. But what happens is different. \n\nIn the upper atmosphere air is very thin - is not dense at all. As a body falls through that atmosphere at staggering speeds, the few air particles there are literally can't get out of the way fast enough. As the air density increases, that same issue causes the air to compress until, much like a diesel engine, it heats to the point of combustion. "
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2ze72u | why does my iphone say i have 4.4 gigs of memory used in pictures and yet i have no pictures on my phone | [Picture](_URL_0_)
On the last update I had to delete some apps off my phone to make room for the install. I went in the usage area and noticed I had over 4 gigs of pictures on my phone.
What I don't understand after backing up all of the pictures to my desktop and removing them off my iPhone it still shows I'm using over 4 gigs.
Anybody know what gives? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ze72u/eli5why_does_my_iphone_say_i_have_44_gigs_of/ | {
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"text": [
"It's photos saved in messages, possibly cached photos. Delete some conversations, or (I highly recommend) jailbreak your phone, install iCleaner and it will clear ALL that crap out."
]
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"http://i.imgur.com/FgrRv8A.jpg"
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[]
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|
5d2i7i | how do we know there are more colors than can be seen with the naked eye, if we can't... see them? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5d2i7i/eli5_how_do_we_know_there_are_more_colors_than/ | {
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"A color is just a particular wavelength of light that happens to trip some of the cells in our eyes to some degree.\n\nWe know for a fact that there are wavelengths of light that do *not* activate those cells in our eyes--but those are still wavelengths of light, which can be called a color.\n\nAdditionally, we know for a fact that there are other animals that those wavelengths *do* activate some of the cells in *their* eyes, which is reason enough to call those wavelengths \"additional colors that humans can't see.\"",
"A German scientist decided to see if some colors were warmer or cooler than other colors, so he put a prism in sunlight to create a rainbow and put thermometers in each color to see what happened. He also wanted to measure the temperature of \"normal\" sunlight to compare them, and he set thermometers outside the rainbow for that. \n\nHe found that all of the colors by themselves were warmer than just sunlight, starting from violet and getting warmer as you get closer to red. But the thermometer he set next to red, where there were no colors he could see, was the hottest. \n\nThat's how he discovered infrared, by accident.",
"Our brain interprets how much energy light has as color. Violet has more energy and red has less. If you increase the energy past violet or decrease it past red, our eyes can't detect the light* anymore. Past violet is called ultraviolet (known as UV light), and below red is called infrared.\n\nThere are many names for the \"colors\" that we can't see, but they all refer to the same phenomenon at different energies. These include, in order from least to most energetic:\n\n- Radio waves (for TV and radio transmission)\n- Microwaves (used in the ovens)\n- Infrared (detected by \"heat vision\")\n- Visible light (ROYGBV)\n- Ultraviolet (harmful sun rays)\n- X-Rays (used in the scans)\n- Gamma rays\n\nThese are all light*, but not all visible.\n\n*Some definitions of \"light\" restrict it to what's visible.",
"Well, there's \"color\" as a concept for which we can see, and \"color\" as a measurable frequency of light.\n\nWe can see because we have three types of sensors in our eye: when all three are activated by light, we interpret it as \"white\", none is \"black\" of course, but varying combinations of the three are interpreted as colors. This is why people say magenta doesn't exist: there's no wavelength for it, but it's what results when the blue and red sensors are triggered, which can't happen using a strict color spectrum of light. Those are the colors we can understand through direct observation -- however, we're stuck with three sensors and each with its own narrow sensitivity, and the combinations of those three.\n\nOutside of what our eye can detect, photons have a variety of other wavelengths that can be detected through other means -- they're *technically* colors, since the only thing distinguishing them from visible colors is wavelength, which is also how we distinguish visible colors from each other.\n\nNow: there's something called tetrachromacy, which [can happen in humans](_URL_0_), which means they can percieve different colors than us, or percieve colors in a different way than other humans with three types of eye sensors. Also, it's possible for those three sensors in human eyes to detect slightly different wavelengths than other humans -- which usually results in colorblindness, but can be percieved as humans seeing 'different colors' than other people because the wavelengths are detected by their eyes differently than other people."
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10e9ny | apple vs. samsung lawsuits | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10e9ny/apple_vs_samsung_lawsuits/ | {
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"Samsung created a lot of mobile devices that do things that Apple says they thought of first. Some examples are:\n\n\"Making things on the screen bigger when you tap on it twice\" \n\"Making the phone shaped like a rectangle\" \n\"Making icons have rounded edges\"\n\nApple was able to sue Samsung for \"copying\" them because Apple has \"patents\" for those things. [According to Wikipedia](_URL_0_), a patent gives an inventor an exclusive set of rights to produce his invention for a limited period of time. This means that if you think of a clever invention and get a patent for it, you can take the time to build and sell that invention without having to worry about a big company stealing your idea.\n\nRemember, though, your invention must be \"novel\" and \"non-obvious\", or you won't be able to get a patent for it. (If you're wondering how in the H-E-doublehockeysticks Apple managed to patent rectangles and successfully sue Samsung over them, congratulations! You're a lot smarter than all the grownups who were involved in the fiasco! Maybe you will grow up to be a patent attorney and save us all from this absurdity). =)\n\n**EDIT:** I know there are a lot of iPhone users out there, and that's fine (I'm a Mac user myself), but it's surprising to see how many people don't think this lawsuit is utter crap and an affront to innovation.",
"\"Grog make fire! You copy Grog! If use fire you pay Grog beads! Grog share beads with Chief. Chief made sure Grog get paid. I get beads too. Everyone win!\" - The World's First Lawyer.",
"Basically, the evidence shows the Head Design Team from Samsung went through the iPhone point by point and compared it to their own TouchWiz OS and phone. They made suggestions that Samsung adopt hundreds of little features and design cues from the iPhone. You can look at the final OS changes on a phone and see they followed most of the advice released in [THESE INTERNAL DOCUMENTS.](_URL_0_)",
"4 hours in and no good, unbiased explanation...",
"Question - why isn't apple suing google? don't these software patents pertain to android? Or is it because android is open source, so samsung actually gets the blame?",
"Samsung saw it's schoolyard friend Apple made an awesome Lego castle. It was awesome and many other students were wondering why they never thought to make a Lego Castle before!\n\nSamsung saw the Lego castle, and said \"That's nothing, i can make a better Lego castle just watch!\" So they went and started making a Lego castle. During the construction Samsung would run to the other room and look at Apple's Castle to make sure that the one he was making really was actually better.\n\nFinally, when Samsung finished his castle and showed it to the class \"Here is my Castle, it's much better than Apple's castle, see how his castle only has FOUR towers and made out of green blocks? Mine has FIVE towers and is made out of blue blocks! his has a two block wide moat? well mine has a SEVEN block wide moat!\"\n\nMany students were impressed with Samsungs Lego Castle. But Apple was not happy, he went to the teacher and said \"Samsung copied my castle and everyone thinks he's better at making castles than me!\"\n\n\"See how the flags on the towers are in similar patterns? See how he put the throne room in the same spot? See how he has two drawbridges in the same spots? HE COPIED ME DESTROY HIS CASTLE TEACHER!\"\n\n**The Court Case**\n\nThe teacher wasn't sure how to handle this, she went to the class one grade higher and asked some of the students to come and help evaluate the castles for her. She did a brief interview with the students she picked and told them that they cant be mean or nice to either student, they are only there to compare the castles.\n\nShe picked 12 students and showed them the castles.\n\nAlmost immediately the 12 students sided with Apple, \"The Samsung Castle should be destroyed! It is way too close to Apple's Castle, If Samsung wants to make castles they have to do it without drawbridges, moats, throne rooms, towers, or green blocks!\"\n\n\"That's not fair\" Samsung cried \"How can i make a castle without those things? Why can Apple use those things and i cant?\"\n\n**The Samsung Appeal**\n\nSamsung was angry, the teacher said he had to take apart his castle and give all of his Lego's to Apple. On his way home from school though he stopped in the next grade up's room to see that two of the people who said he ripped off Apple bragging about something.\n\n\"Yeah I know all about people copying, i own the designs for Lego Trucks and Cars! If anyone wants to make a Lego Truck or Car i just get Teacher to make them take them apart and give me their legos just like what happened to Samsung! I convinced the other kids that I knew all about this and that Samsung had copied Apple!\"\n\nSamsung got furious, this was the loudest kid of the bunch and if he hadn't of been there and lied to teacher about not taking favorites he might not have lost!\n\nAnd that's where we are today, Make it as ELI5 as i could."
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1pzgq4 | eili5 how does file encryption work? | How does file encryption work with a key?
What does it change in the file structure?
Also, when adding a password to a file - how does that little phrase obfuscate the rest of the contents? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pzgq4/eili5_how_does_file_encryption_work/ | {
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"Encryption takes a key, and combines it with the message mathematically to scramble it.\n\nA simple encryption scheme might move the letters of the message forward in the alpha. If my key was 1 2 3, and my message was REDDIT, it would encrypt it like this:\n\n R, 1 - > S\n E, 2 - > G\n D, 3 - > G\n D, 1 - > E\n I, 2 - > K\n T, 3 - > W\n\nSo the encrypted message is now SGGEKW. And even if you knew what the encryption was, you'd have a hard time finding the message without a key.\n\nIn practice, the actually scrambling method is more complicated, but the principle is the same. "
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bzld7h | why are wall outlets 110v or 220v? those seem like such arbitrary values; why not 100v? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bzld7h/eli5_why_are_wall_outlets_110v_or_220v_those_seem/ | {
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"In many parts of the world, electric companies sprung up, each making their own flavor of power (certain voltage, amperage, cycles per second, etc.). This caused one really big problem: you buy a lamp and it works in your house, then you move to another part of town, and it won't work because the power is different.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nAt some point, it was necessary to standardize the way power works so that there was interchangeability, technicians didn't require retraining, etc. In the end, 110/220 were completely arbitrary. It could have been 150 or 200 for all that matters, as long as everyone used the same one in the same country.",
"It was tough in the early days of electricity to figure out what was the best voltage. Edison liked DC, it worked well but required heavy wires and could only be sent short distances from the generating station. \nWestinghouse and Tesla liked AC which didn't require heavy wiring, but was more dangerous to work with and required heavy transformers, but it could be sent long distances with ease. \n\nSo many different schemes were tried, and they settled on 110v as a good balance between wire thickness and distance and dangerousness. \n\nPlus it probably just fit well with the generators they had built. That's why a lot of things end up like that. Some guy built something and arbitrarily picked a figure because it made it easier to build and therefore cheaper than all the competitors.",
"you may be surprised to find out that the power coming out of your outlets isn't actually 110/220/whatever the standard is in your area.\n\ndon't recommend this to people without some background in working with electricity, but you can check an outlet with a multimeter designed for the job - has to be one designed to handle wall socket currents, cheap shit will explode in your hands, don't do it.\n\nI can see anything from 100V to 116V in Toronto in the same house on the same day.\n\nTokyo had clean power, never budged from 100v.",
"This might not be a simple ELI5, but the history is based off of common 1.5V battery cells and 6V DC power supplies before AC was widely implemented. Any combination of power could then be made with multiples of 6V (6V, 12V, 48V, etc) and they were sometimes rounded for simplicity. Thus 6V x 40 DC batteries = 240V. \n\nBut through the AC and DC \"War of Currents\" between Edison and Tesla, Tesla won with an implementation of AC and originally planned 240V but decided 120V (half of 240) was safer in the household and more efficient at 60Hz. 240V was originally chosen technically because of phases and less line loss during transmission, but probably more detail than needed for ELI5. \n\n120V was also thought to be enough to power most household appliances and probably more importantly the original filament light bulb was designed to be used between 100V and 130V. This alone might be the easiest ELI5 reason - everyone in that day and age wanted lights like today's cellphone. \n\nAdditionally, all US homes are still fed with 240V at the main panel (2 hot legs) but most outlets except for dryers, ovens, etc only get one hot leg and therefore 120V power. \n\nThe US then standardized on 120V and AC beat out DC. \n\nMost of the rest of the world just chose 240V, which is arguably more efficient and accomplishes the same thing. In cases like when England rebuilt after WW2 it was that 240V was more efficient for transmission and therefore required less copper wiring so economics played a big part of that decision. \n \nYou can find out more technical detail, but this is probably enough for ELI5.",
"They are not quite arbitrary, but their origins are a bit involved.\n\nYou see before AC became the way to distribute power DC power was common for this purpose in the very early days. Actually some of the last remnants of that old way managed to last up until a few years ago when the last remaining parts of Thomas Edison's DC grid in New York were taken offline.\n\nDC isn't really as good for distributing power as AC, so when Tesla introduced DC current it caught on.\n\nThe original voltages for the AC grid were based on the voltages of the DC grid. It started out as 240V and was later reduced to 120V for safety reasons and eventually ended up as 110V in North America.\n\nOther places use different voltages and frequencies but they are all based on the early grid and usually end up being 110V to 120V or 220V to 240V with 50Hz or 60Hz.\n\nThe question is then why did early AC grid use a number like 120V instead of 100V.\n\nApparently this is because they wanted to remain compatible with earlier battery based systems. Those batteries even in those days came in multiples of 1.5V you get larger batteries by connecting smaller ones together. The term \"battery\" in fact implies having a battery of cells providing electricity. 6V was a common combination of four 1.5V cells and connecting a round number like twenty of those 6V batteries together ends you up with 120V.\n\nthe 1.5 volt battery came from the first commercially successful dry cell sold in larger numbers. It was the first thing close to a standard for voltages anyone had ever had and its descendants still provide standards for us today."
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45e4ue | why are doctors england on strike? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45e4ue/eli5_why_are_doctors_england_on_strike/ | {
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"The UK government wants to introduce a new contract for doctors. The changes would include modification of standard working hours which will result in unsafe working practices and reduced pay, as well as potentially causing issues with staffing and recruitment.\nThe contract aims to \"introduce\" the idea of a 7-day NHS, as though care is currently withdrawn at 5pm every evening and is non-existent at weekends. One way of providing this is by classing Saturday, Sunday and evenings as normal working hours, as opposed to overtime or unsociable hours. Proposals have also included calls for only a 30 minute break during 10 hour on call shifts. These longer hours have the potential to result in doctors working while tired which can impact on their and patients' safety.\nThe other outcome of these changes in hours is one of pay. By changing unsociable hours to normal working hours, a lot of doctors will essentially be taking a paycut as they will no longer receive the same bonuses and incentive payments for working overtime or unsociable hours.\nUnderstandably, junior doctors are not happy and, after many attempts at negotiation with the health secretary, have concluded that industrial action is the best way of getting their voices heard",
"The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt (he of the easily mispronounced surname) has decided to impose a new contract on junior doctors (junior doctors referring to all doctors under consultant-grade). This new contract says that weekends and nights no longer count as 'unsociable hours', so doctors will now be paid on basic rate, as well as increasing the upper amount of hours that doctors must work, and reducing the amount of rest time they're entitled to during long shifts. His stated reason for doing so is to ensure that the same level of care is available every day of the week (e.g. scheduled surgeries, appointments etc). The British Medical Association have stated that this will effectively cut doctors pay by 30%, and result in worse care for patients, as there is no extra money being budgeted for the increase in 5 days to 7 - so, doctors will just be spread more thinly, and receive lower wages whilst being asked to work longer hours with less rest. The BMA have stated that this will have adverse effects on patient healthcare, because exhausted and stressed doctors are more likely to make mistakes. Jeremy Hunt says it will be fine, but Jeremy Hunt also says that homeopathy should be available on the NHS and thinks that parents should check Dr Google for their child's symptoms rather than go to the actual doctor. He has not so far provided evidence for his positions.\n\nDoctors took a ballot on whether to strike; 98% of doctors voted to strike on the basis that their concerns about patient safety and doctors wellbeing were being ignored. The majority of the public when polled, support the doctors. During the strikes, non-essential and elective procedures were cancelled/postponed, and doctors worked to ensure that patient safety was not compromised, often looking after patients before going out on the picket line.\n\nJeremy Hunt has now decided to impose the contract anyway after strikes. Many people suspect that the current government want to abolish free healthcare in the UK, and in order to do so, are running it into the ground by cutting funding and making it harder for doctors to do their jobs safely and effectively, thereby reducing public support for the NHS. Jeremy Hunt has previously co-written a book advocating a move towards US style insurance-based healthcare, and owns \n\nMany doctors have stated their reasons clearly: here is one example (chosen for clarity and brevity) from Dr Mei Nortley: \n\n\"This is NOT about pay. It is wholly about patient safety. We are so thinly spread already and all we are trying to resist is being spread even thinner and putting patient safety at risk. If more doctors really are needed at the weekend, we need MORE doctors.\n\nEven then, doctors cannot work alone. We need our porters to take you to X-ray, we need a radiographer to do your X-ray, we need physiotherapists to help you rehabilitate. Lastly, without our nurses along side us, we are nothing. Moving doctors from the midweek to the weekend will cripple services we already struggle to provide during weekdays. Without also funding our allied colleagues to work weekends alongside us, we will be standing alone, telling you what you need but unable to provide it.\"",
"I'm going to try and offer a different viewpoint from some of those others here. Please accept, I fully accept the doctor's right to strike to prevent unsafe working practises and I am not advocating that they should roll over.\n\nThe main problem is that too many Britons are living longer and too many new treatments are expensive. Healthcare is the second biggest line item in the UK budget and planned to be around £137 Billion (~$200 Billion) in 2016.\n\nBecause of a rising population, longer life expectancy, more treatment options and higher tech medicine the demand on the NHS has, for many years, been rising faster than the UK GDP and therefore (approximately) the ability of the UK to pay for it.\n\nNow the UK could borrow money internationally to fund new doctor's surgeries, new hospitals, MRI machines etc but the UK already owes the world £1.5 Trillion, somewhere near £26,000 for every person in the UK, plus paying the interest on that debt. The 2016 budget as-is plans to add £45 Billion of new borrowing to add to that £1.5T.\nThe government has been elected on a manifesto of \"living within our means\" so cannot borrow significantly to grow the NHS.\n\nNHS service availability is constrained by both the lack of staff and the lack of equipment/beds/facilities. Hospitals seem to operate an \"emergencies only\" policy for Saturday and Sunday work and only treat routine appointments Mon-Fri. This leads to the thought that there are resources (beds) being blocked over the weekend without treatment taking place and free time available in expensive operating theatres and on scanners and such that is not being used optimally.\n\nThe governments approach is to say that 50 years ago, for society as a whole the work week was way more rigid than today. Work Mon-Fri, home time Saturday, church Sunday. As a result Saturday work tended to be paid at time and a half (150%) and Sundays at double time (200%). In this new millennium flexible working is far more common, weekends are less special and the NHS should adapt by both downrating the weekend bonuses and increasing the efficient use of equipment and facilities and improve citizen health care by also offering routine medical treatment at weekends. There is no new money to pay for this so weekend bonuses will be reduced.\n\nThe BMA is understandably angry on behalf of its members, society wants more access to healthcare more often and the government has a little extra money to send to the NHS but not enough to make these sort of changes. There is no easy answer here. Hope this helps and I gratefully accept changes and challenges to this ELI5 view."
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25z7sy | tuition is increasing faster than inflation. cable prices are increasing faster than inflation. healthcare costs too. isn't that the definition of inflation? | I see a lot of posts about various industries and the exorbitant price increases they are experiencing - healthcare in the last 10 years, cable prices, cell service, the tuition bubble, etc. Home prices are back to 2007 levels and the Zillow AMA indicated that this is still 15% undervalued. Where I live in Los Angeles, gas is up to $4.25 a gallon. These industries are supposedly rising "faster than inflation", but every increase seems to have its own excuse for why. Given that all of the aforementioned sectors produce fairly basic necessities, what ISN'T increasing in price that is balancing this out?
I've read a bit about the Argentinian hyperinflation of years past and it mentions that the Argentine government did/does a lot to fudge the 'official' reported inflation. Right now it certainly feels like that could be going on here too. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, so tell me what makes the situation in the USA not a duck? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25z7sy/eli5_tuition_is_increasing_faster_than_inflation/ | {
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"First, you need to understand how Inflation is measured. Its simply not practical to have the primary inflation number we talk about include every possible product that you could by or spend money on, not to mention the problems of deciding how to weight different items. Instead, a \"basket\" of goods is selected that is designed to represent common consumer items, and their prices are tracked and used to produce an inflation number. The problem is that what is included in that basket is a political question. The basket used to consider fuel prices, now it doesn't, etc...",
"In 2013:\n\nThe price of TVs fell by 13.9 percent.\nGas prices fell by 1 percent.\nPrices of New vehicles fell by .3 percent."
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2hyalj | why does radiation in a disaster stay for so long? (like in chernobyl) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hyalj/eli5_why_does_radiation_in_a_disaster_stay_for_so/ | {
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"All radioactive materials have a half-life. The half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of the material to decay into something else.\n\nIf the material from Chernobyl has a half-life of 1000 years then after 1000 years only 1/2 of it will be gone. After 2000 years, 3/4 of it will be gone. Etc.\n\nSome radioactive materials actually decay into other radioactive materials. Then those materials need to decay, too.\n\nObviously, this is a problem. Modern nuclear reactors have been designed with safety in mind because nobody wants to deal with the consequences of a meltdown."
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5c9248 | serious question - is there science behind a face that appears more desirable to punch? aka: "punchable face" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5c9248/eli5serious_question_is_there_science_behind_a/ | {
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"There is no definitive single answer, but there are some answers. It probably shouldn't be a surprise that given how sensitive to facial expressions humans are, that we'd have the capacity for a strong reaction. By the way, there is a German word for the phenomenon you're describing, called \"Backpfeifengesicht\"... or roughly, \"A face that should be struck.\"\n\nThe answer seems to be that people who's faces, for any number of reasons, don't express a comfortable and familiar range of expressions. A great example, and a good discussion of this can be found here: _URL_0_"
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4lp2t2 | what is a senator and what is a congressman? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lp2t2/eli5_what_is_a_senator_and_what_is_a_congressman/ | {
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"Congress is more or less the US equivalent of the UK's Parliament. Like the UK Parliament, it has two houses.\n\nThe lower house is the House of Representatives. The people who sit in that are called Congressmen/women. It's very much like the UK's House of Commons. The entire country is split into districts (same concept as UK constituencies) which each elect a single representative via the First Past The Post system. They have fewer Congressmen than the UK has MPs and a much larger population, so the districts are much bigger than in the UK. There are fresh elections every 2 years.\n\nThe Senate is the upper house of Congress. However it's very different to the UK's upper house, the House of Lords. Each state elects 2 senators, regardless of its population. Senators have 6 year terms, but they are not elected all at once. They are staggered so 1/3 of them are elected every 2 years.\n\nAnother difference is that the Senate is much more powerful than the House of Lords. Most bills have to be agreed by both houses before a bill can become law. Where as in the UK, the House of Commons can ultimately pass legislation through even if the Lords doesn't agree.\n\nSo I'd say Congressmen are the closest equivalent to UK MPs. But Senators are more senior in a sense because they serve longer terms, and there's fewer of them.\n\nedit - I suppose I should point out that technically Senators are also Congressmen, as they are part of Congress. The people in the House of Representatives are Representatives. But people commonly refer to them as Congressmen, and refer to Senators specifically as Senators."
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2rz0c1 | why do people become outraged and upset at other people's sexual preferences? | If nobody's getting hurt or coerced, why do people get so bent out of shape about what other folks do in the bedroom? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rz0c1/eli5_why_do_people_become_outraged_and_upset_at/ | {
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"Bisexual here. I've been called mentally handicapped, told that I should be institutionalized or put on medication, and told that I don't exist.\n\nHonestly I have no fucking clue. My thought is that with something as personal as sexuality, many people are not open-minded enough to accept others for who they are. People who get offended over sexuality often are bigoted in many other areas as well.",
"I've always held the belief that people who are overly concerned and or outraged at other people's sexuality are insecure about their own sexuality.",
"Some people get upset when their beliefs or values are not reinforced by others conforming. Especially when they perceive their values as superior. These are weak individuals with sub-par intelligence. ",
"My theory is this: we humans have found the need to become self-controlled and disciplined for the good of our society. We keep our basic instincts in check so that we can focus on working together to build things and to make our lives better and free of danger.\n\nObviously most of us like sex... but we also don't have sex anywhere, anytime we want. Society expects us to deal with our basic instincts in privacy. Those who cannot do this are frowned upon because it shows a lack of self-control, a personality flaw that is seen as harmful to the well-being of our society. However, heterosexuality is more widely accepted (or tolerated) because it's essential to life - that's basically how you make babies. If you're alive right now, chances are that your biological parents did the nasty at least once before.\n\nHomosexuality on the other hand isn't as widespread as heterosexuality so many people have trouble relating to it. They don't understand its appeal. Because of that and because it doesn't follow \"the norm\", some people see homosexuality as a personality flaw, as the result of someone not being able to take control of their urges. It also doesn't help that some gay people are extremely vocal about their sexual preference and may be attracted to heterosexual people, something which isn't reciprocated and can be the source of discomfort.\n\nIn my opinion, the reason why some idiots are outraged about what gay people do in their own home is because they think their supposed \"lack of self-control\" is going to have a negative effect somewhere else in society.",
"I think there are multiple reasons, but the main one is this:\n\nWe have hard-wired preferences in our minds for people who are similar to us. Not just similar-looking, but similar-acting and similar-believing. It's a survival thing, and a rather unfortunate one at times.\n\nSo, when we encounter someone who either likes something we don't like, or doesn't like something we do like, it tends to make us uncomfortable.\n\nThe more deeply embedded in our minds the idea in question is, the more strongly we feel about the conflict.\n\nFor example:\n\n\"No big deal\" level:\nPerson A: \"I like crossword puzzles.\"\nPerson B: \"Yeah? I don't really.\"\n\n\"Small deal\" level:\nPerson A: \"I don't care for this musician.\"\nPerson B: \"What?? She rocks!\"\n\n\"Medium deal\" level (sadly):\nPerson A: \"I'm a huge fan of this sports team.\"\nPerson B: \"They suck! I like the rival team.\"\nPerson A: \"No, you suck!\"\nPerson B: [Spiils beer on person A]\n\n\"Big Deal\" level\nPerson A: \"I'm a male, and I prefer the company of males for romance.\"\nPerson B: \"Ooh, ick! That's gross! I'm gonna get with a bunch of other people who feel the same way I do about your \"aberration\" and make up all kinds of rules condemning that kind of behavior!\"\n\nSad, really.",
"Based on what my dad (with whom I've had many disagreements over gay marriage) has said, they generally see the traditional family as being a cornerstone of society. They tend to see homosexuality as eroding away at this, and thus see it as an attack on society."
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5nw6wr | why constant friction leads to orgasm? what makes the brain think "yeah... i wasn't sure you were having sex, but now that 20 minutes has passed i'm certain... take the reward now"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nw6wr/eli5_why_constant_friction_leads_to_orgasm_what/ | {
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"As far as I know (not a biologist) human males generally last so long because they train to, because they want to get human females off, which i'm guessing have a longer time to orgasm to encourage them to have more sex, to guarantee pregnancy. Since monogamy and marriage and stuff is a human cultural thing, from nature's perspective we should absolutely just be fucking any woman we see just about all the time if we're not out hunting or whatever.\n\nIf you take a human male who hasn't had sex or masturbated in a while, he will pop basically as soon as he enters the vagina, if he even lasts that long, which lines up with most animals natural abilities and is indeed, the 'optimal' speed from nature's perspective.\n\nThis is mostly conjecture and shouldn't be taken as fact. but it's what I can work out with the knowledge i've got."
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4s354f | what happened to the panama papers story? it was supposed to be this giant scandal, yet it seems to have disappeared. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4s354f/eli5_what_happened_to_the_panama_papers_story_it/ | {
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"1. It's still a thing, but given that there haven't been any new major revelations (e.g. The Pope) most news organizations have chosen to focus on more topical things (The Euro 16, Brexit, etc.)\n\n2. No prominent Americans were listed, hence why it's gotten little to no attention in the US. Most Americans don't give a shit if some Saudi Minister hid money off-shore. Now if some Mega Church Pastor was named you'd see the media explode on this.",
"As always, when a story happened months ago it is no longer \"news\" and no longer \"current events\". The news reports on stuff that recently happened or currently happening. There is a lot currently happening, so they report that stuff instead of a story from April.",
"The next big story came along.\n\nAsk your average person on the street (or redditor without google) about LIBOR - the biggest financial fraud in history, and one that the average person on the street *actually lost money over* - and see what they say. Most people aren't even effected by the panama papers. Scandals pass"
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5h3786 | what factors cause people from different countries to protest differently? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5h3786/eli5_what_factors_cause_people_from_different/ | {
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"Nothing's to say that can't happen in the US, but a part of it comes out of necessity. Many parts of Asia are heavily populated, and not just heavily, but densely. The need to be clean isn't just a good idea, it has roots in survival. And it's convention. People do it so you do it. People see you do it so they do it. It's just something done. Some cultures hold the door, others don't. However, picking up trash has more of an actual impact, so it *should* be done everywhere.\n\nBeyond that, many protests in the US happen this way. Right now in North Dakota the protests are *very* peaceful and clean, considering. It depends how it's portrayed. What protests are you talking about or comparing?\n\nKoreans are protesting their president, but many people as of late in the US are protesting the needless killing of its citizens by an armed force that almost always gets away with it. The idea that people should politely protest everything is also absurd.\n\n",
"Typically, cultural factors."
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2yc8mg | how on earth do batteries work? | I've researched it, and I don't understand it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2yc8mg/eli5_how_on_earth_do_batteries_work/ | {
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"They have a chemical inside that is capable of holding extra electrons. When you charge them, you use the energy from the power plant ( or solar panels/ wherever the hell it comes from) to pump the chemical to a higher energy state (lots of extra electrons). When you discharge a battery you complete a circuit from the negative to the positive terminal. The positive terminal is a different substance that wants more electrons. It pulls them from the negative terminal through the circuit (the device the battery is powering). \n\nIt's like a little pressurized container for electrons. You pump it up with energy and it holds it to high pressure, the pressure is released and utilized when you connect the negative to positive terminal. ",
"You start with a container that has metal at both ends. Then you dump some chemicals called an 'electrolyte' in. Electrolytes are just compounds that ionize (become negatively charged) when dunked in some solution (normally water).\n\nAs those ions are generated, they want to spread away from one another because... electromagnetism (for further research, see Messrs Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope). The only way they can spread is out one of those metal plates - and out any escape path (conductor) you provide from there.",
"Just FYI batteries work in space as well or any other planets for that matter. "
]
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66zmb2 | if things with different mass fall at the same velocity, why do heavier things cause more 'damage' when they land? | For example: a 1kg plastic ball falling on you would slightly hurt as opposed to a 1 ton one falling on you would crush you. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66zmb2/eli5_if_things_with_different_mass_fall_at_the/ | {
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"Force = mass x acceleration\n\nAs you point out, objects fall at the same rate, i.e. acceleration is constant. So, for falling objects, force is proportional to mass. Using your example, a 1 ton (1,000 kg) ball will hit with exactly 1,000 times more force than the 1kg ball."
]
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[]
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|
b6cj5m | how does a charger charge your phone for a split second after it was removed from the socket? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6cj5m/eli5_how_does_a_charger_charge_your_phone_for_a/ | {
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"The charger has electrical storage components inside of it called capacitors, and these components can store electricity for a very short time after being disconnected from the power supply.\n\nFor the same reason, you should not go poking around inside an old television with a screwdriver, unless it has been unplugged for a very long time.",
"It contains a *capacitor,* a little power holding device, which is loaded up with power from the outlet. It takes a moment to finish unloading into your phone.",
"Do you think because the icon shows charging that it is actually charging?\n\nOr the software just hasn't updated the screen yet?",
"While folks have mentioned capacitors, on a phone charger they are pretty small, they are used as filters to smooth out the AC or switching noise from the rectification or buck stage. More energy comes from the magnetic fields in the transformer as they collapse after removing mains power. Even so, this will all happen in milliseconds. \n\nThe most likely reason is that it takes the charging function of the phone some time to measure the incoming power, debounce it in case it was just a glitch, time out and update the UI. "
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1h2l1l | the senate bill 5 being discussed in today's filibuster in the texas senate. | As mentioned in a few of the top threads today in /r/politics.
_URL_1_
[Here's the live feed.](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1h2l1l/eli5_the_senate_bill_5_being_discussed_in_todays/ | {
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"Might be a little over EIL5, but meh...\n\nThe bill does a few things. From [_URL_1_](_URL_4_):\n\n* The bill would restrict abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy \n* Require all clinics to be certified as ambulatory surgical centers\n* Require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.\n\nProblems with these are: \n\n1) the Supreme Court and many doctors agree, kinda sorta, that \"life\" (more like viability) starts at about the 24th(?) week of the term. [Radiolab story about it is really heartbreaking](_URL_7_). This would hamper and go counter to what's been established as a litmus test. Thus, it limits the woman's right to choose.\n\n2) The ambulatory surgical clinic provision seems like a good idea, till you actually look into what's needed to run one of these. \n\n > \"There's a whole bunch of requirements that have to do with airflow, temperature, humidity, size of the room, that kind of thing for operations that may take three or four hours. But for an abortion that takes five or ten minutes, it's sort of mismatched.\"\n\nFrom a [KXAN article](_URL_0_). While [this](_URL_3_) article can be argued to be slightly biased, the oldest citation is from 1990. 97% of all women in the US suffer no complications, 2% suffer minor complications that can be handled in clinic or outpatient, and about .5% suffer serious complications. \n\nOutpatient knee surgery has nearly the same, if not slightly worse numbers according to [this](_URL_8_) with 94% meeting discharge criteria, with 3.6% readmission. Granted, the numbers for the knee surgery study are smaller than the abortion study, but there's more care needed.\n\nAlso, who is to say that once the majority of abortion clinics in Texas get up to the standard, that they will be licensed to practice? [Here's the requirement](_URL_5_) for clinics in Texas. And according to this [Washington Post article](_URL_6_), \"the majority of abortions are not surgical procedures, and 37 of the state’s 42 abortion clinics don’t meet that new standard, so many would need to relocate and spend millions of dollars to reach it.\" Which means that these clinics would have to change how they operate completely.\n\n3) Admitting privilege sounds like a great idea. I personally agree with it in principle, but in real life, things aren't as simple. For starters [this shows how doctors are \"employed'](_URL_2_). Then, each hospital seems to have it's own rules and standards for who and what can get admitting privileges as well as limited number of slots. I could be wrong on this, but I believe that general practitioners in Texas do not need admitting privileges to operate. There's also the fact that many communities in Texas do not have a \"local\" (however it's defined legally) hospital.\n\nSo, let's look at it simply: the 20 week limit is shorter than what the Supreme Court of the USA, medical ethicist, and others agree upon viability (to live outside of the womb) of the embryo, the regulations then put on an abortion clinic could mean that no abortion clinics could be licensed to practice, and there's nothing to say that doctors who provide abortions will be able to get admitting privileges. This bill can deny a woman's constitutional right to seek a legal abortion."
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2Q8Hr0O20LY",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1h1lfy/today_wendy_davis_a_texas_state_senator_from_ft/"
] | [
[
"http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas_lege/bill-requires-surgical-center-at-abortion-clinic",
"kut.org",
"http://medical-malpractice.lawyers.com/The-Doctor-is-In-How-Doctors-Work-with-Hospitals.html",
"http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/safety_of_abortion.html",
"http://kutnews.org/post/whats-next-sb-5-abortion-bill-texas-legislature",
"http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/hfp/asc.shtm",
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/hundreds-protest-proposed-abortion-restrictions-as-texas-lawmakers-take-key-vote/2013/06/23/75d538aa-dc75-11e2-a484-7b7f79cd66a1_story.html",
"http://www.radiolab.org/2013/apr/30/",
"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2674174/"
]
] |
|
9njare | why does a magnetic field do no work on a stationary particle but yet electric field does work on it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9njare/eli5_why_does_a_magnetic_field_do_no_work_on_a/ | {
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"The electric field (ac) is moving so the stationary particle has motion with respect to the electric field creating work. The magnetic field is stationary and thus is stationary with respect to the stationary particle so no work is done.",
"A magnetic field does no work on a point charge under any circumstances. The magnetic force on a stationary charge is zero. If the charge is moving, then there is a magnetic force of q**v**x**B**, which is always perpendicular to **v**, so it doesn't do any work."
]
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[],
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||
70sqhz | why do we sometimes twitch or spaz when we get a random chill? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70sqhz/eli5why_do_we_sometimes_twitch_or_spaz_when_we/ | {
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"text": [
"Those are transient myoclonic jerks . These are just short burst of muscle contractions that you see especially when you are falling sleep. These are similarly seen in many physiological and pathological conditions. \nIf excessive they are called myoclonic seizures."
]
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[]
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||
b5uxhv | why does your arm shake when you flex really hard? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b5uxhv/eli5_why_does_your_arm_shake_when_you_flex_really/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"When you stretch or flex your muscles, they can affect the body’s nervous system, which in effect controls the body’s muscle movements. When the body becomes overly stressed, it can cause involuntary muscle spasms.\n\n"
]
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[]
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||
7mwr6r | plasma, in the electrical sense. why is it its own state/phase? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7mwr6r/eli5_plasma_in_the_electrical_sense_why_is_it_its/ | {
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"text": [
"Plasma forms when you heat up a gas to really high temperatures. The electrons get ripped away from the atoms due to their high energy. This is called ionization. This makes plasma highly electrically conductive. Plasma is its own state of matter because its properties are so fundamentally different from a gas, in the same way that a liquid's properties are fundamentally different than a solid's.",
"The biggest reason is because atoms no longer retain their electrons, which makes it respond to electrical and magnetic forces much more strongly than other matter. The biggest results of this are that it is highly conductive to electricity (practically no resistance whatsoever), and it tends to flow in ways far different from gasses. ",
"Plasma is different from solids, liquids, and gasses.\n\nIn a solid the atoms or molecules are fixed in a static structure, and while for instance a conductor might be able to trade electrons between atoms, the nuclei do not move.\n\nIn a liquid the nuclei are moving around but the atoms or molecules generally are staying stuck together. They are in contact but not fixed in place, and so able to conform to the shape of their container.\n\nA gas has mobile nuclei but the atoms or molecules aren't stuck together, instead just bouncing around their container frantically.\n\nIn the case of a plasma the material has been given so much energy that the electrons are no longer bound to their nuclei. Instead you just have a sort of soup of nuclei and electrons all whizzing about. Molecules are of course no longer possible and there are just elemental nuclei without any exclusive claim to specific electrons.",
"Is fire a plasma or gas?"
]
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||
bv4e9k | why are vehicles insured, instead of people/drivers? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bv4e9k/eli5_why_are_vehicles_insured_instead_of/ | {
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"text": [
"I some countries it's actually both. The vehicle is insured, but the insurance won't cover driver liability, so the driver needs their own insurance too.",
"The biggest variable in insurance is the performance and value of a vehicle.\n\nIf the person was insured irrelevant of what vehicle they drove they would have to pay for insurance to cover the highest spec car available in case that was what they were driving at the time.",
"- Some cars are more valuable than others\n\n- will cost more to repair \n\n- have a higher risk of theft. More desirable \n\n- easier to steal. Weak security features\n\n- some cars are faster. Higher risk of crashing"
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3qu54d | what's the point of the russians visiting the moon in 2029 when we're planning on visiting mars in the 2030's? | The moon has already been visited and I'm sure that there are still some things to learn from a another visit there, but it seems that if there was anything of extreme importance there, NASA would already have planned another visit. The Mars trip will take place so shortly after Russia's moon trip that I just don't see the point...
EDIT: Not sure why this would get downvoted. It was a general curiosity that I'm certain other people than myself were wondering but perhaps were too afraid to ask. Thank you very much for the eloquent responses from those of you that did. They were all enlightening and answered my question thoroughly with facts that I'd never considered. THREAD = EXPLAINED. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qu54d/eli5_whats_the_point_of_the_russians_visiting_the/ | {
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"There hasn't been a person on the moon since the 70s and we've not sent a person beyond orbit since then either.\n\nNot to mention no other country besides the US has actually sent anyone to the moon so this would be a first step for the Russian space program.\n\nIn addition, there is probably still value in analyzing the moon, especially with newer technology that can likely find things that would have been impossible 40 years ago. And we only explored a small fraction of the moons surface.\n\nAs for NASA, the reason they haven't planned another visit has nothing to do with the value of the moon and everything to do with NASA funding being extremely reliant on political trends, which in turn are reliant on the public interest. The reason NASA hasn't gone back to the moon is because the American population are essentially \"bored\" with the idea and so any plan they propose would likely loose funding for essentially being \"not cool\".\n\nThey choose the mars because it was something they could get the public excited about and thereby ensuring their funding.",
"It doesn't have to be about importance.\n\nBut in addition to the other answers, the moon is much much easier to colonize than Mars due to its proximity. Just bury a vault under some regolith, and BOOM, moonbase. \n\nCompared to a Mars manned visit, that's a snap! We still haven't figured out how to keep people healthy and safe over the many-months-journey required to actually reach the Red Planet; the Moon's only a couple days away using conventional rocket engines. \n",
"Why go on holiday to the caravan park this year when you know you're going to go on holiday to DISNEYLAND next year?\n\nThere's still things for us to Do on the Moon - places yet unmapped, below surface exploration, samples to collect. Sure we're going to Mars, but that doesn't mean we should Not go to the Moon as well, or explore the Mariana Trench, or have some tasty ice cream at Disneyland.",
"From what I've read, the Russians plan more than just another moon landing. They expect to explore the viability of an inhabitable moon base.\n_URL_0_"
]
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684rxj | after the initial sleepiness feeling, why do we suddenly feel more alert after a few hours pass your normal sleeping time before you suddenly feel lethargic and sleepy again? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/684rxj/eli5after_the_initial_sleepiness_feeling_why_do/ | {
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"A certain sleep writer suggests it's because there is a metabolitic release timed to coincide with the early part of sleep intended to for the heavy lifting your lymphatic and endocrine systems will do in the early part of sleep. Apparently this is the \"second wind\" we feel at approximately 10pm, and being asleep at this point results in higher quality sleep.\n\nThis is the only thing I've come up with on the topic so far. It seams reasonable that one's body would benefit from a release of energy for homonal/repair/immune function that does happen during sleep; however, I traced the reference chain back finally back to an Ayurvedic medicine writer, and haven't found any peer-reviewed empirical research on the topic (yet), so I think the jury is still out on this one."
]
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[]
] |
||
8snsj8 | why do fermented foods turn into alcohol and cause intoxication? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8snsj8/eli5_why_do_fermented_foods_turn_into_alcohol_and/ | {
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"text": [
"Yeast. Yeast is a microscopic fungi that is intentionally added to the process of making alcoholic drinks. It consumes the sugars, and excrete alcohol. As the alcohol content rises, the yeast dies off. They also produce CO2, which is why beer is carbonated (at least traditionally, now its added)\n\nSo beer is essentially fungal shit",
"When yeast or other bacteria breakdown the sugars in the food, it produces ethanol and carbon dioxide.\n\nWhen there are still yeast and/or bacteria present in the finished product (kombucha, for example) the process is continuing, and depending on a number of factors (time, temperature, etc.) more alcohol will be produced. So if a product is not paturized, depending on shipping and storing conditions, the level of alcohol the food contains may vary. "
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k6izx | what makes elements perform ionic and covalent bonds?(x-post from askscience) | I've heard the whole lecture about how the atoms want to be "happy" by sharing electrons, but they never tell us why or how. If you just put these elements in a room by themselves, would they do it on their own, or do they need something else?
i.e. If I put one part oxygen and two parts hydrogen in a room completely by themselves, with no outside interference, would I magically have water? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k6izx/what_makes_elements_perform_ionic_and_covalent/ | {
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"Ionic bonds are a bit easier to visualize I think. You can sort think about it this way: Atoms are composed of a nucleus with protons and a bunch of electrons. Each proton carries a positive charge and each electron carries a negative charge. Like the poles on a magnet, the positively and negatively charged particles attract each other, and if an atom has the same number of protons and electrons, they balance out and the atom has no charge overall.\n\nIt turns out that atoms kind of store their electrons in a set of bags, where each bag holds a certain number of electrons. The first bag holds two, the next one holds eight, the next one holds 18, etc.\n\nThe atoms on the left hand side of the periodic table have juuusstt too many electrons to fit evenly in their bags. Take sodium, for instance, with 11 protons and electrons. The sodium atom puts its first two electrons in the first bag, the next eight into the second bag, but it only has one electron remaining for the last bag, which is designed to hold 18 electrons. Now sodium doesn't necessarily want to expel that last electron, but if someone else comes along that might want an extra electron, sodium wouldn't feel too bad about giving it away, because then it would only need 2 bags instead of carrying around a whole third bag with only a single electron in it.\n\nAlong comes chlorine with 17 protons and electrons. We can do the same kind of analysis and find that it has 2 electrons in its first bag, 8 in next, and 7 in its last bag. Even the though the last bag can hold a total of 18 electrons, it turns out that 8 is also a pretty even number that fits in the last bag, so if chlorine had one more electron, it would be happy. When sodium and chlorine meet, sodium gives its awkward electron to chlorine. After the exchange, sodium becomes positively charged because it lost its electron, and chlorine becomes negatively charged. The oppositely charged sodium and chlorine attract each other and form an ionic bond and become Sodium Chloride (NaCl), or common table salt.\n\nAlso, regarding your question about if you'd get water if you massaged oxygen and hydrogen together... Typically, if you have pure hydrogen or oxygen, they exist as hydrogen gas molecules composed of 2 hydrogen atoms, and oxygen gas molecules, also composed of 2 oxygen atoms. Say you mix the two gasses together in a room at room temperature. In this case, not much would happen. This is because the hydrogens are lazily happy on their own bonded to each other, and the oxygen as well. Sure, the hydrogen would _rather_ be bonded to the oxygen, but at such a low temperature, they're too lazy to do anything about it. If there should happen to be a spark though, the hydrogen and oxygen close to the spark might get just enough energy to change from hydrogen and oxygen gas into water vapor. When that happens, it turns out that energy is released by the atoms as they exchange in the form of heat and light. The released heat and light might cause other neighboring hydrogens and oxygens to bond, too, causing a very fast chain reaction throughout the room. The resulting heat and light from the gigantic chain reaction would cause a hindenburg explosion in your room, after which you'd have water vapor. Like this: _URL_0_ ",
"Ionic bonds are a bit easier to visualize I think. You can sort think about it this way: Atoms are composed of a nucleus with protons and a bunch of electrons. Each proton carries a positive charge and each electron carries a negative charge. Like the poles on a magnet, the positively and negatively charged particles attract each other, and if an atom has the same number of protons and electrons, they balance out and the atom has no charge overall.\n\nIt turns out that atoms kind of store their electrons in a set of bags, where each bag holds a certain number of electrons. The first bag holds two, the next one holds eight, the next one holds 18, etc.\n\nThe atoms on the left hand side of the periodic table have juuusstt too many electrons to fit evenly in their bags. Take sodium, for instance, with 11 protons and electrons. The sodium atom puts its first two electrons in the first bag, the next eight into the second bag, but it only has one electron remaining for the last bag, which is designed to hold 18 electrons. Now sodium doesn't necessarily want to expel that last electron, but if someone else comes along that might want an extra electron, sodium wouldn't feel too bad about giving it away, because then it would only need 2 bags instead of carrying around a whole third bag with only a single electron in it.\n\nAlong comes chlorine with 17 protons and electrons. We can do the same kind of analysis and find that it has 2 electrons in its first bag, 8 in next, and 7 in its last bag. Even the though the last bag can hold a total of 18 electrons, it turns out that 8 is also a pretty even number that fits in the last bag, so if chlorine had one more electron, it would be happy. When sodium and chlorine meet, sodium gives its awkward electron to chlorine. After the exchange, sodium becomes positively charged because it lost its electron, and chlorine becomes negatively charged. The oppositely charged sodium and chlorine attract each other and form an ionic bond and become Sodium Chloride (NaCl), or common table salt.\n\nAlso, regarding your question about if you'd get water if you massaged oxygen and hydrogen together... Typically, if you have pure hydrogen or oxygen, they exist as hydrogen gas molecules composed of 2 hydrogen atoms, and oxygen gas molecules, also composed of 2 oxygen atoms. Say you mix the two gasses together in a room at room temperature. In this case, not much would happen. This is because the hydrogens are lazily happy on their own bonded to each other, and the oxygen as well. Sure, the hydrogen would _rather_ be bonded to the oxygen, but at such a low temperature, they're too lazy to do anything about it. If there should happen to be a spark though, the hydrogen and oxygen close to the spark might get just enough energy to change from hydrogen and oxygen gas into water vapor. When that happens, it turns out that energy is released by the atoms as they exchange in the form of heat and light. The released heat and light might cause other neighboring hydrogens and oxygens to bond, too, causing a very fast chain reaction throughout the room. The resulting heat and light from the gigantic chain reaction would cause a hindenburg explosion in your room, after which you'd have water vapor. Like this: _URL_0_ "
]
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[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMB2VR0087w"
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5tyqq0 | why was black and white photography very high resolution at it's peak, but soon after when color photography was introduced, it was very bad quality? | Same with like video and stuff.
By "it was very bad quality", I'm talking about the bad quality of the color photography when it was introduced. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tyqq0/eli5_why_was_black_and_white_photography_very/ | {
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"Black and White film has one emulsion, color film has three emulsions (RGB). \n\nAccording to [Wikipedia](_URL_0_):\n\n > Photographic emulsion is a fine suspension of insoluble light-sensitive crystals in a colloid sol, usually consisting of gelatin. The light-sensitive component is one or a mixture of silver halides: silver bromide, chloride and iodide. The gelatin is used as a permeable binder, allowing processing agents (e.g., developer, fixer, toners, etc.) in aqueous solution to enter the colloid without dislodging the crystals. Other polymer macromolecules are often blended,[citation needed] but gelatin has not been entirely replaced. The light-exposed crystals are reduced by the developer to black metallic silver particles that form the image. Colour films and papers have multiple layers of emulsion, made sensitive to different parts of the visible spectrum by different colour sensitizers, and incorporating different dye couplers which produce superimposed yellow, magenta and cyan dye images during development. Panchromatic black-and-white film also includes colour sensitizers, but as part of a single emulsion layer.\n\n > Most modern emulsions are \"washed\" to remove some of the reaction byproducts (potassium nitrate and excess salts). The \"washing\" or desalting step can be performed by ultrafiltration, dialysis, coagulation (using acylated gelatin), or a classic noodle washing method. Emulsion making also incorporates steps to increase sensitivity by using chemical sensitizing agents and sensitizing dyes.\n\nThe number of emulsions affects the quality and the volume of byproducts that had to be removed."
]
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|
49yoj3 | law of conservation of mass | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/49yoj3/eli5_law_of_conservation_of_mass/ | {
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"It's like when you're playing with your legos, buddy. You can take your house apart, make it into a car, move the bricks closer together or further apart. But you can't break the bricks, they're indestructible. Now pretend everything in the world is made of legos which are so tiny that you can't see them, those are called atoms. Atoms work in almost the same way as legos, if you burn, cut or pull something apart then you only break that thing, but not the legos. The legos stay. Do you get it? ",
"All Laws of Physics are simply apparent habits of the Universe that we have observed by looking at an ever-so tiny fragment of the whole. We have then projected those observations outward to the whole cosmos and enshrined them in words we call a \"law\".\n\nThese laws are useful rules of thumb for any human living in our universe. Yet they may be neither ultimate nor eternally applicable. Previous laws such as the geocentric universe and newton's motions have since been overturned on appeal (so to speak).\n\nThus we can make no absolutist statements even if we do enshrine them in the language of law. The Universe is too subtle and vast for us to have yet reached any conclusive understandings of it."
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1xklp2 | just seen captain phillips, why are cargo ships sailing around the horn of africa so poorly defended? | The whole boarding scene really makes you think about how ridiculous the whole piracy thing has been over the past few years. Four guys on a wooden boat with rusty AKs and no shoes capture a gigantic cargo ship that has to defend itself with water cannons and *distress flares*. All they would need is one gun to shoot back at the pirates to scare them off. One. Single. Gun. Or just arm the crews to the teeth with grenade launchers and stick an M60 on the stern and pirates would soon learn to not attack shipping. It must be legal to defend yourself from pirates on the high seas? What's going on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xklp2/eli5_just_seen_captain_phillips_why_are_cargo/ | {
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"International maritime law forbids arming merchant ships.",
"Captain Phillips is actually being [sued](_URL_0_) by his crew for “willful, wanton and conscious disregard for their safety.” he is not the man the film makes him out to be."
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67yg1m | why can't robots move exactly like humans yet? what is holding engineers back? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/67yg1m/eli5_why_cant_robots_move_exactly_like_humans_yet/ | {
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"My uneducated (somewhat) guess would be rapid fine tuning of balance and equilibrium of a bipedal body.\n\nIf you really try and \"feel\" your muscles as you move, or even stay in place, you can quickly see that a LOT of stabilizing autonomous activity is going on. This is all going on very quickly in your body and automatically, programming that in a robot is likely extremely complex.",
"The trouble is software. We have the technology to build the physical machine itself. We could build an artificial skeleton with artificial tendons and muscles and the necessary sensors, but developing the software to control it all simultaneously in a way that duplicates human movement is a daunting task. ",
"Another problem is how movement produced,there is a limit to the speed of movement for each \"muscle\" of the robot,because it's based on an electric motor,and gears,which limits agility and character of movement.",
"In addition to all the control problems thre is motivation. You need to have an AI that will relate to its environment and decide to do something. Otherwise it's like. Yay! it can walk perfectly...but doesn't want to. Nope still standing there.\n\nOnce moving there are hundreds of tasks that need conquered. Waling through a crowd? catching a ball? Crossing the street? all radically different things your biology had learned to deal with.\n"
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1xg262 | why can't the cellular infrastructure that is in place to provide 3g and lte just be used to create a giant wifi network? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xg262/eli5_why_cant_the_cellular_infrastructure_that_is/ | {
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"Those networks use different standards to provide their signals. It's not like it's all using the same frequency for all of the various forms of wireless. [Source.](_URL_0_)",
"WiFi is not the same thing as a cellular network. This seems to be a common misconception, when I tell people that I have wireless broadband, because I can't get a landline, many people respond \"oh, so you got wifi\". \n\nWiFi use 2.4 GHz radio waves, cellular networks use many different frequencies, from ~700 MHz up to ~3.6 GHz. Also, cellular networks use completely different protocols, e.t.c. \n\n",
"I guess I was thinking along the lines of Wireless mesh networks that can be implemented with various wireless technology including 802.11, 802.15, 802.16, cellular technologies or combinations of more than one type.",
"They are vastly different technologies. Plus, can you imagine all of the interference? My 2.4 ghz is already 50% the speed if my 5 ghz network because of interference. "
]
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1q79y3 | why are "bologna" and "lasagna" pronounced so utterly differently? | Is it just an English thing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q79y3/eli5_why_are_bologna_and_lasagna_pronounced_so/ | {
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"text": [
"In Italian the \"gn\" combination sounds the same for both words.",
"We've Americanized the pronunciation of *bologna* a lot more than *lasagna*."
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3gxrgh | how can banks detect if someone else is using your credit/debit card when the amount is small and the location of purchase is near? | I've had a bank call me for a $16 purchase that was made in the city that 10 minutes away from where I live. I've been there and bought plenty of things before so how did they detect that I was not there at that time nor did i make that purchase? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gxrgh/eli5_how_can_banks_detect_if_someone_else_is/ | {
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"What was the store? What was the time? Had you made any other purchases recently?\n\nFraud detection systems work by finding patterns in your spending and flagging things that don't fit the pattern. If it's in a weird city when you're normally at work & not buying things at all, that's going to flag things. If you're a guy & suddenly you're buying lingerie, it might raise a flag. If a purchase 10 minutes away is made 5 minutes after a purchase you make, it might trigger an alert. If you always shop at Safeway & they see you shopping at Publix, it might raise a flag. If you filled up your gas tank yesterday & you're buying gas today, it might raise a flag. If you always use debit+PIN & they ran the charge as credit, it might raise a flag. If they entered your PIN wrong twice, it might raise a flag. There's probably hundreds of other things they look at - exactly what they look for is kept a secret.\n\nSometimes, no one thing is enough to trigger a warning - it takes a combination of things, possibly spread over multiple transactions, to really be sure that something might be fraud."
]
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dkn6ah | albinism seems like a very disadvantageous mutation. how has it continued in the animal kingdom? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dkn6ah/eli5_albinism_seems_like_a_very_disadvantageous/ | {
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"A mutation can appear more than once in time. Albino animals pretty much never have albino parents, it just appears randomly and likely subsides again as the chances of reproduction are lowered. The parents have instead carried an albino gene, without being albino themselves."
]
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||
27766e | what happens when my computer is connecting to/loading a website/? | From the moment I finish typing the URL to the moment I arrive at the webpage, whats happening? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27766e/eli5_what_happens_when_my_computer_is_connecting/ | {
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"There's many steps, but here is a simple explanation:\n\nYou send an \"HTTP request\" to the server. HTTP is the protocol commonly used to send/receive data on the internet. Let's just say it's like the format of when you write your address and destination address on an envelope. \n\nThis request will look something like this (They don't always look like this, but most contain these common \"headers\"):\n\n\n\tGET /r/explainlikeimfive/ HTTP/1.1\n\tHost\twww._URL_1_\n\tUser-Agent\tMozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:29.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/29.0\n\tAccept\ttext/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,/;q=0.8\n\tAccept-Language\ten-us,es;q=0.5\n\tAccept-Encoding\tgzip, deflate\n\tReferer\t_URL_0_\n\n\nThat's saying that I want to access \"/r/explainlikeimfive\" from the host \"www._URL_1_\". This is how the server know what page I want.\n\nThe \"user-agent\" tells the server I'm using \"windows NT 6.1\" which just means Windows 7. The \"Gecko\" and \"Firefox\" basically just mean I'm using Firefox. (Fun fact, see that \"Mozilla\" at the very start of the user agent string? All browsers include this, even IE, Chrome, Safari, etc. It's a neat bit of trivia that I won't go into, but you can look it up)\n\nThe \"Accept-Language\" header tells the server my browser preference. Right now it's set to US English, followed by Spanish. If I made Spanish first, and I visited Google, I'd get Google in spanish. That happens purely because Google's server sees my language preference, and changes the response. Most sites would probably ignore it.\n\nThe \"Referer\" tells the server what page I was on when I clicked that link. In this case, it was the Reddit homepage.\n\nSo, all these headers and their values get sent to the server whenever you try to access anything on the internet. They tell the server exactly what you're trying to access, and the server responds with it (assuming everything is OK). If everything is good, it'll respond with response code 200. If the file wasn't there, it would give a 404. If the server encountered an error trying to get it, it'll respond with 500. \n\nKeep in mind that this is what happens on the very top level. Networking workis via different protocols and layers, all stacked on each other. Before anything I explained even happens, for example, the TCP/IP protocol is used to get the IP address of _URL_1_, establish connection, etc. \n\n\nTL;DR: You send some headers that tells the server what content you want, and the server responds with it.\n"
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5i6hfk | in terms of microeconomics, how does piracy of digital goods affect supply, demand, sale, price, etc.? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5i6hfk/eli5_in_terms_of_microeconomics_how_does_piracy/ | {
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"Within a narrow context, piracy has two effects. It depresses or increases potential demand for a product at the rate at which the file spreads through a population. There's less than 1 to 1 correlation between the number of people with an illicit copy who drop out of the demand population. The number of people who will potentially purchase a file through sanctioned means can sometimes be greater with a moderate amount of piracy than with none at all, due to marketing and to pirates who pay their respects. In other cases, piracy allows a digital good to be sampled at no cost to the consumer, and the product fails due to lack of appeal or quality.",
"Not an economist, I work in IT, but this info may be interesting to you nonetheless.\n\nI see lots of money go into what we call \"revenue protection\" via licensing and the Product Activation Keys (PAKs) that you may be familiar with. The classic way to implement license protection is to build your software so that the software image alone won't do anything unless there's a license file issued from the manufacturer to bless your device to run the software. The information in the license file itself (eg. the device's Serial No. or MAC address, license generation date, owner) is encrypted using a private key into what looks like a nonsense string, eg. \"A34FKZX98...\", and decrypted by the software using a corresponding public key.\n\nThe technology and cryptography know-how behind it is a big burden for software companies, so they'll frequently buy a solution from a 3rd-party company like Flexera to generate their licenses.\n\nNet net, the work to prevent unauthorized use of software products is expensive, which drives up the product costs which effectively pushes your supply curve back, increasing price and decreasing quantity demanded."
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5shonw | why do emojis show up differently on ios vs android devices? | Why aren't there universal emojis? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5shonw/eli5_why_do_emojis_show_up_differently_on_ios_vs/ | {
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"Well consider it like a different font type. It still conveys the same information, but it is a separate style. ",
"When your phone sends text back and forth, it's encoded as numbers. These are standard, so 33 is !, 65 is A, and 128512 is 😀. All your phone gets are these numbers, and to show them, your phone has a list of little pictures for all these characters that it puts on the screen. The pictures should all be similar, but there's no reason why each company has to use exactly the same pictures. "
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1rl3rq | if someone were to dip a live electrical wire into the ocean, wouldn't everyone swimming in the ocean at that time be electrocuted? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rl3rq/eli5_if_someone_were_to_dip_a_live_electrical/ | {
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"No. Electricity moves from one place to another place, along the path of least resistance. It doesn't spread out and electrocute everything that happens to be in the same body of water.\n\nIn the case of an electrical wire in the ocean, it'd likely prove dangerous to things within a few feet of it (maybe even a few dozen feet), but that's about it.",
"I'm going to use [this thread](_URL_0_) from /r/AskScience to answer this:\n\nElectricity doesn't just go on forever - with water, some electrical charge is lost as it disperses over the surface of the water (as I understand it)\n\nSo if you dipped a live electrical wire in the ocean, there would be an area where the electricity would disperse and anyone in that area would get electrocuted.\n\nTo electrocute the entire ocean you would need a *massive* amount of electricity. If you could somehow create that electrical source where its dispersal range was pretty much the entire ocean surface, than technically you could electrocute every ocean swimmer in the world. But only those on the surface - divers would not be effected, nor anything else not very close to the surface."
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272cs2 | why did we domesticate chickens for the use of eggs and not other birds? | I was just curious why we have domesticated chickens and not some other species of bird for the use of eggs? I know people eat duck eggs, quail eggs, etc. as well, but why are chickens the main source? Do they lay more eggs than other birds? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/272cs2/eli5why_did_we_domesticate_chickens_for_the_use/ | {
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"We do. Duck eggs are very common in Chinese cuisine, for instance. The real stuff, though. Not the N American version. ",
"Most likely because they tend to be slow, their eggs full of protein and they can't fly. Chickens are probably a lot easier to domesticate over a pigeon, for example.",
"My guess is that chicken eggs are just the right size. Also, chickens are smaller than Turkeys and Guinea Hens so they take up less space. ",
"Chickes are cheap to maintain and produce the most amount of eggs/meat per dollar. ",
"Chickens are fairly convenient. They're stupid, but not too much trouble, and the eggs are a good size.\n\nWe also do quails (tiny eggs), which is a lot of work for the results; ducks, which need some maintenance, have smelly poo, and have kind've muddy-flavored eggs; geese, which are aggressive; ostriches, which definitely need some room...\n\nAnyway, chickens are relatively convenient, and we've bred some varieties specifically for egg-laying, so they're productive."
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3z1jth | why is being deaf or blind much more common than say having no taste, touch, or smell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3z1jth/eli5_why_is_being_deaf_or_blind_much_more_common/ | {
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"Because you only have two eyes and two ears whereas you have billions of touch taste and scent receptors, it would be impossible for them to all fail so the only way you can lose these senses is if the area of the brain that processes them is damaged.",
"Part of it is confirmation bias. Blind people are really obvious, deaf people are fairly obvious. You wouldn't know someone couldn't smell or taste just by looking at them.\n\nLocalized loss of touch is not uncommon. But you have so many touch receptors in so many places, there are few conditions that will systemically shut down all of them.",
"The ears and eyes are a lot more complex and inter-connected. Ears and eyes have a lot that can go wrong and you can be declared legally blind or deaf if your senses are reduced enough. Each of your nerves are pretty independent and connected to your motor system, so unless you have a rare genetic condition lack of feeling is likely to be partial, unless you are paralyzed. For smell/taste, you again have a number of separate sensors.\n\nAlso, having limited or damaged smell/taste is a lot less debilitating than being blind or deaf so you tend not to hear about it. You don't need much accommodation if you lack smell or taste. No braille books or sign language, etc.\n\nThere is a rare condition where one lacks touch. They have trouble figuring out when they're injured and can easily get cuts infected. It is pretty terrible.",
"fwiw, a lot of people have a poor sense of smell, especially as they grow older. But unlike blindness or deafness, it's not obvious and it doesn't really affect how someone lives their life. Blindness and deafness are things that affect safety, if nothing else; a bad sense of smell is pretty much just an inconvenience.",
"The real answer, according to me:\n\n{ELI5 Edit: Ears and Eyes have to change the light and sound into different sorts of stuff before they can understand them. The other stuff doesn't. It's hard to do and easy to mess up. \nAlso, they are the most important ways we communicate with each other, so small problems are actually big problems. }\n\nThe mechanism by which the stimulus is transferred into a signal by the nervous system is markedly more complex in the Eyes and Ears. \n\nTaste and smell are chemical senses. There are receptors which detect specific molecular motifs and tell the brain \"bitter!\" or whathaveyou. \n\nThe Eye and the Ear involve complex, low margin for error, physical transformations of the stimulus into a form that is detectable and able to be interpreted by the brain. "
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2js1tm | how can the un give sanctions for nuclear weapons to some countries and not to others? | It all seems so unjustifiable *on paper*. I mean... Is there a regulation stating "good countries" can handle uranium and stuff while "bad countries" can't? If there is such a regulation... what's the definition of "good country".
I guess that we're far better off with the UK or France having nuclear weapons than with Sudan having one. But... Is there any kind of law that makes this distinction explicitly? If so... How comes Russia, India etc... don't have sanctions while North Korea and Iran, that doesn't even have a bomb, do?? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2js1tm/eli5_how_can_the_un_give_sanctions_for_nuclear/ | {
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"The nuclear nonproliferation treaty recognized the then-nuclear states as legit, and called on them to disarm to some degree (which they haven't) and tried to prevent nuclear capability from further spreading. It's called, creatively, The Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) of 1970. \n\nEdit: India is not a signatory to the treaty, North Korea un-signed it, I believe. It permits Russia to have their weapons. Russia, France, the U.K., the U.S., and China are all permanent security council members with vetoes - that means that any of them can unconditionally strike down any legislation from the U.N. that they don't like. ",
"A treaty (the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) was made in 1968 that says, basically, \"the only states that can have nuclear weapons are those that already publicly have them\" (USA, USSR/Russia, UK, France, China), \"and anyone else who signs this treaty agrees that they won't get them, and the IAEA has the authority to investigate these things.\" \n\nSo what's the benefit for those who sign but don't have them? The treaty says, as well, that anyone who signs the treaty is entitled to peaceful nuclear technology (e.g. nuclear reactors).\n\nNot all states have signed the treaty. In the beginning, even France and China declined to sign it! But eventually it has become the \"norm,\" whereby lots of countries have said that it is better to try and \"fix\" the number of nuclear states and the treaty is a means of trying to do that. \n\nCountries can pull out of the treaty if they want to. North Korea pulled out of it before making a nuke. Iran is a signatory and insists its activities are peaceful and allowed under the treaty. "
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2cxylb | how did my plane yesterday depart late but it was able to reach the destination before it's original scheduled arrival time? | My plane the other other day left it's origin about an hour after it was originally meant to. How then did it arrive to my destination before it's original scheduled arrival? Did the pilot just put his foot down? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cxylb/eli5how_did_my_plane_yesterday_depart_late_but_it/ | {
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" > Did the pilot just put his foot down?\n\nYes, plus you may have encountered better than average conditions. The average flight time is calculated using the average conditions. By the definition of \"average\" half the time, conditions are better, meaning that they may not have experienced cloud coverage or storms as they had thought they might, or may have gotten a tail wind.",
"We generally do not fly \"as fast as we can go\". We fly at a speed that is calculated by our airline to be a nice balance of speed and fuel economy. However, if a flight is behind schedule and could potentially impact the departure times of flights further down the line, then we can be authorized to kick it up a notch, so to speak, and try to make up some time in the air. We can also pester air traffic control for a few extra \"shortcuts\" along the way if we really feel that we need to catch up a bit with our schedule.",
"And sometimes things go *very right*. I've had two flights in my life where the plane arrived earlier than planned and had to wait for the gate to clear the preceding plane. Both were on-time departures.",
"Pilot found a shortcut.",
"Couple of things could have been to the pilots favour. The jet stream, Air traffic control may have allowed the aircraft to take a different route. Weather conditions may have affected other flights allowing the pilot to keep his original landing slot. ",
"Airlines also plan for these delays. The want to increase their on-time performance so that will add an extra 15-20 minutes to the arrival time. \n",
"In addition to the other answers, scheduled arrival times are padded a little, so an airline can claim a 95%+ record of arriving on-time, and so passengers plans around arriving a little later than they actually will, and miss less connections."
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22uwym | moving matter from a neutron star | I've seen on various places that a thimbleful of matter from a neutron star would weigh something ridiculous. But I always wondered does it only stay that compressed due to the gravity of the star? What would happen to that thimbleful once it was say brought to Earth? Would it still occupy the same amount of space?
I searched about for this but only got explanations of what neutron stars are, thanks all. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22uwym/eli5_moving_matter_from_a_neutron_star/ | {
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"If you were to bring a chunk of neutron star matter to the Earth, it would expand. Before I can explain this I have to explain what's actually going on in a neutron star. \nWhen a star 'dies' it collapses in on itself and blows off its outer layers of gas. The core that's left is called a stellar remnant. This remnant can become 1 of 3 things, depending on it's mass. If its mass is below 1.44 solar masses (the Chandrasekhar limit) it becomes a white dwarf. If it's above that limit and below 3-4 solar masses(Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit,) it becomes a neutron star. If it's above that limit it becomes a black hole. In normal matter, you have electron degeneracy pressure. Under normal conditions, the electrons of a material prevent you from compressing it too much. However, in a neutron star, the energy and pressure is so great that the electrons and protons of the material actually combine to form neutrons. What causes neutron stars from collapsing into a black hole is now neutron degeneracy pressure. \nSo, if you were to take away some of that material and bring it to Earth, you would no longer have the immense energy compressing it. You'd end up with a large ball of neutrons.\nNow free neutrons are quite radioactive so if you were to do this then they'd start decaying and releasing a whole bunch of harmful ionizing radiation. So don't do it :P"
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ddjj4o | we see ordinary city pigeons in most major cities, but never in between (e.g., chicago and denver but not in north dakota). how do they get there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ddjj4o/elif_we_see_ordinary_city_pigeons_in_most_major/ | {
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"1. Pigeons and doves are the same thing. People tend to call them pigeons in cities and doves in the country. They are common in cities and in rural areas. North Dakota has seven types of pigeons/doves.\n\n2. City pigeons are often domesticated pigeons that were released back into the wild (in this case, cities). So humans brought them there.\n\n3. Feral pigeons in cities were domesticated from rock doves that were used to living on cliffs. So hanging out on buildings wasn't that hard of an adjustment.\n\n4. Most birds have to feed their young worms, nuts, seeds, etc. They need access to that type of food. Pigeons can eat pretty much anything, and they can create a special paste that they feed their young. That means they can better survive on the food in cities than other birds, which makes it seem like there are more of them. There is a lot food in cities, and there are fewer birds that can live off of it besides pigeons.\n\n6. There are fewer predators. There are animals like peregrine falcons that eat pigeons in Chicago, but for the most part, there are are more pigeons than animals that eat pigeons."
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54zjxf | it is said that there are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the observable universe. how is something like this calculated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54zjxf/eli5_it_is_said_that_there_are_more_possible/ | {
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"I don't think there is an easy way to calculate the exact number of games. One can estimate though and get a ballpark figure. Claude Shannon, father of information theory, was the first one to publish his ballpark estimate. It is based on the assumption that, on average the number of moves available to white, and then black (together) is about a thousand possibilities. Since a chess game lasts about 40 moves or so, the answer is about 1000 to the power 40. That is a one followed by 120 zeros. \n\nThe relevant question is not really how many chess games there are, since most of those games are not \"good\" games. One might wonder how many chess games there are that have good moves in them. This question can be posed more rigorously. Let's define a \"good\" move as one that does not change the best possible outcome for the side that makes the move. Then one can pose the question, how many chess games are there with only good moves in them. Now, the number is much smaller. But I have no idea how many."
]
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[]
] |
||
2gtxy8 | since a country can print its own currency indefinitely, why can't the us for example just arbitrarily pay off all its debt that way? | Even if it's adding a ton of money into the international economy, as long as the money doesn't influence the United States' own economy, does that still devalue the dollar?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gtxy8/eli5_since_a_country_can_print_its_own_currency/ | {
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"text": [
"Yes. The more money in circulation, the less it's really worth, period.",
"Printing more money makes the money worth less, i.e. inflation.",
"Let's imagine \"Purchasing Power\" as a cake. Lets imagine \"Dollars\" as tickets. The tickets serve as coupons to get a cake. \n > 1 Cake = 1 Ticket. \n\nIf I simply print more tickets, but don't produce more cakes, the value of the tickets decreases. For example, if I print 10 tickets, than, \n > 1 Cake = 10 Tickets. \n\n\nPrinting more tickets didn't increase the amount of cakes I had, it simply devalued the individual tickets. \n\nIn relation to money, if you simply \"print more money,\" you aren't actually adding to the purchasing power you have. Your just devaluing the individual dollar. "
]
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[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3l32wn | terryology. | Can someone explain what Terrance Howard means in his explanation of terryology? Does he have any basis for his hypothesis or is it all just randomness?
Link of Rolling Stones article: [link](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3l32wn/eli5_terryology/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv3yiul"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"He's just mixing up multiplication and addition. He thinks 1 X 1 is the equivalent of holding up one index finger for each hand and seeing 2 fingers. He also said everyone thinks √4 is 2, so √2 must be 1, but it's not *because we're told it's 2,* which proves that he knows nothing about simple arithmetics."
]
} | [] | [
"http://mashable.com/2015/09/14/terrence-howard-one-times-one/#uDkUOjBnvZk_"
] | [
[]
] |
|
1h9pxq | what is the difference between a bison and a buffalo? | i always throught it was one animal. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1h9pxq/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_bison_and_a/ | {
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"Basically \n1. The bison are native to North America and Europe.\n2. The buffalo is native to Africa and Asia. African buffaloes are wild animals while Asian buffaloes are mostly domesticated.\n3. Bison have thick shaggy coats, though they shed these during summer, while the buffalo has short and smooth coats. Bison have shorter horns compared to the buffaloes as they prefer butting heads to locking horns. Both are nomadic grazers and they travel in herds.\n_URL_0_",
"You can find pictures on the internet easily so let me explain why the words got mixed up. We keep them separate because they aren't that closely related. \n\n * ~~In Europe, Asia, and Africa there are only Buffalo. There used to be Bison in Europe but they went extinct thousands of years ago.~~ I read a little more about it and there are Bison in Europe but there weren't very many. They only lived in a small part of Europe because they were hunted a lot, just like the American Bison. \n\n * In The Americas there are only Bison. \n\nWhen Europeans came to America they saw Bison. They look kind of similar to the buffalo they were knew of so they called them buffalo. They weren't actually Buffalo so we gave them the name Bison, the same name we give to the extinct Bison from Europe. \n\nIt's not terrible to call bison buffalo, but it isn't correct. Don't worry about it too much but they are definitely different. ",
"Funny story. I was at Yellowstone National Park and asked the park ranger this very same question in front a huge group of people. She didn't know and was really embarassed. I felt so bad. What's funny is that I knew the answer already and I wanted to inform the people but my plan backfired and I made the park ranger look like a incompetent loser. I wish I could say I was sorry. "
]
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[
"http://imgur.com/tATgXoA"
],
[],
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] |
|
a0f116 | how to best describe/explain ionization energy and electron affinity? | I have a science test tomorrow about ionization energy and electron affinity (more specifically surrounding Sodium Chloride) and I have absolutely no clue how to explain these concepts. I understand them broadly speaking, but I feel like my science teacher won't take vague explanations as an answer on a unit final. Can anyone help me out a bit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a0f116/eli5_how_to_best_describeexplain_ionization/ | {
"a_id": [
"eah8jf5"
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"text": [
"Ionization energy is the amount of energy that must go into an atom to remove an electron. As you remove more electrons, the amount of energy required becomes larger and larger because of the effective nuclear charge. This pulls the electrons closer and closer to the nucleus, which results in higher energy to pull it off. Once all the valence electrons are removed, the ionization energy increases substantially.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nElectron affinity is basically the opposite. It's the energy that's released when an electron is added to an atom.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIn the context of NaCl, not much energy is required to remove an electron from a sodium atom, and a lot of energy is released when an electron is added to a chlorine atom (in fact, it has the highest electron affinity in the periodic table). "
]
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[]
] |
|
9okjl4 | what would happen if a massive planet came very close to earth, as in, would our gravity change? | Also, if we jumped, while on earth, would we be in the air longer because the other planet also had gravity pulling us up? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9okjl4/eli5_what_would_happen_if_a_massive_planet_came/ | {
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"The planets would disrupt each others orbit, draw each other closer together and then shoot apart again, over and over and over like this for years as gravity ripped chunks off of each with every pass, each time getting closer together. \n\nThose chunks would hit both planets turning them into lifeless balls of molten rock before finally slamming together completely, most of which would eventually cool down forming a solid mass, a new planet. The remainder of the materials would orbit around the new planet for a while, most of it raining down in the form of giant meteors, until they too eventually merge together and form a moon.\n\nThat's actually how Earth and the Moon were formed.",
"Gravity is very distance dependent, and decreases by the square of distance. The Sun is obviously influencing the Earth, but doesn't do anything to us personally, because we're so close to Earth. \n\nSo if some rouge planet zipped by us at the distance of, say, the moon, we wouldn't notice it at the individual level - we'd still be way closer to earth. \n\nHowever, the Earth is really big. So it notices gravity differently. It would likely cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and super crazy tides that would result in basically worldwide Tsunami like effects (tides that are double or triple their typical height). \n\nAnd that would be just if a planet zipped by once. If it got too close and stayed close, it would destroy everything. ",
"I started to say \"No\", but then I realised the answer could be Yes.\n\nAt first I thought that the earth would be ripped apart long before the rogue planet could get close enough to have any measurable effect on our weight, but it turns out that's not the case!\n\nImagine a giant planet the mass of Jupiter, but denser. If it were as close to the earth as the moon is, the gravitational attraction between [the planet and a 100kg person](_URL_1_) would be about 78N, roughly equivalent to an 8% difference. So when the rogue was directly overhead, our 100kg person would weigh only 92kg, and when it was directly beneath them, they would weigh 108kg.\n\nWe'd definitely notice that.\n\nThe distance to the moon is about 400,000 kilometres, [well beyond the Roche limit for fluids](_URL_0_) (the atmosphere and oceans). The solid earth wouldn't start to pull apart until this Jupiter-like rogue was roughly 150.000 kilometres away. (About 80,000 km from the top of its atmosphere, 150,000km to its centre.) So in principle, we could live long enough to notice the gravitational attraction.\n\nBut in reality, if such a planet entered the solar system, we'd probably be wiped out by incoming comets and asteroids long before it got to us.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.quora.com/If-Earth-passed-within-Jupiters-Roche-limit-could-we-expect-to-find-recognizable-objects-like-cars-floating-in-the-new-rings",
"https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=gravitational+force+between+1.9e27kg+and+100kg+at+403000+km"
]
] |
|
5babn8 | which one is more environmental friendly - eating with a disposable plate and cutlery to save water; or eating with normal plate and wash them with water and soap? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5babn8/eli5_which_one_is_more_environmental_friendly/ | {
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"Trick question. Eating with compostable dinnerware and silver ware is best.\n\nPlastic plates and utensils are worst. Hand washing is better. Using a dishwasher when full is better. ",
"Washing your dishes is more environmentally friendly. The water is not destroyed in the washing process.",
"I agree this is a trick question, just because of how complicated the question is. This is basically called an LCA (life cycle assessment) where you look at the environmental impact of a products entire life.\nIt goes from resource extraction to production to shipping to use to end of life, the whole life. So, just because you're using compostable cutlery doesn't mean shit If it took a lot of materials to make that and then ship it to you.. And if you keep disposing them and needing new ones that makes the environmental impact higher.\nWhereas lets say you get a nice ceramic plate and use it for 20 years, over and over hand washing. I personally would argue that the amount of water spent washing 1 plate over a lifetime is so negligable it would maybe not even make it on an LCA. But idk,\nBasically, we would need to look at some really extensive piece of research telling us about a products whole life (not just the time we use it!) and go from there.\nTl;dr environmentalism is confusing, producing less waste is generally the more environmentally friendly thing tho (even if its compostable)",
"The most environmentally friendly option is to only eat things that require neither dishes nor cutlery ie Pizza, Bananas, Ice Cream cones, Hot Dogs, etc.",
"I suppose you can go around and around on this one, as some resources get used either way, but you don't \"use\" water. You temporarily borrow the water. The small amounts of detergent and detritus you wind up with in the water will partly get taken out by a water treatment plant and in some cases are not really hazardous to nature to begin with. \n\nBuilding disposable cutlery - especially if you do it out of plastic - is a whole different ball of wax. Or plastic, as the case may be.",
"Several people have mentioned compostable items. We've discussed the extraction, manufacturing, and shipping impacts, but end of life is important too.\n\nThe standard for compostable cups, plates, utensils state that they must biodegrade in certain conditions and within a certain timeframe. I don't have the exact language in front of me, but it's something like, in 90 days break down to certain size pieces. However, those standards are typical of industrial** compost facilities. They certainly don't compost in a landfill, nor will such items break down in your home compost pile. In fact, for municipalities that offer curbside composting, there's nothing requiring them to set the conditions such that these items will break down. To meet the standards, typically you need 90 days, conditions over a certain temp, and the material needs to be ground up early on. Your home pile won't reach the necessary temps and a commercial facility can't afford to let product sit for 90 days when most food and yard debris breaks down sufficiently in 30-60 days. (selling finished compost is revenue opportunity).\n\nTL:DR Compostable dishes rarely are actually composted.",
"A shit ton of water is used to make paper.\n\n_URL_0_",
"Definitely washing your plates is better for the environment. Even more so if you wait until you have a dishwasher full of plates/ other items. (New) Dish washers are exceptionally efficient and conserve a ton of water over washing in the sink. \n\nWater that's used for washing can be recycled and reconditioned to be safe for release or reuse. Disposable goes into landfills. "
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7L9-0XdVw"
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||
73hcgu | why do animals in a particular ecological niche often look so similar even if they are completely unrelated? | For example why do birds and the now extinct flying reptiles share such strong similarities as far as appearances go? Why did marine reptiles look like either fish or whales? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73hcgu/eli5_why_do_animals_in_a_particular_ecological/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"This is a concept called \"convergent evolution.\" Basically, if the pressures on one creature were such that flight was advantageous to survival in a particular environment, those same pressures could easily select for similar variations should they happen to randomly arise in another species. \n\nThis is particularly true for those filing the same niche, as the pressures will be particularly similar. ",
"Convergent evolution happens because optimal solutions exist.\n\nIe. if you want to move through the water efficiently it's effective to have a hydrodynamic shape, a propulsion method and a steering method.\n\nThere are many different ways of achieving this. That's why there are some pretty exotic solutions, like the way a squid will take in water and then squirt it out to propel itself forward or a flat eel with a body shaped like one big paddle.\n\nBut one of the simplest and most effective solutions is having a torpedo shaped body, with a big paddle for propulsion at the rear end and a number of fins to use as control surfaces.\n\nWhich is why the archetypical shark, whale, seal and ichthyosaur all more or less look the same. For entirely different species, evolution keeps resulting in a fairly optimal solution.\n\nAlong the same lines, specific needs create specific shapes. So while a torpedo with paddles might be an ideal shape for animals that swim in open waters, specific needs will just as easily see them evolve away from that basic shape. For instance flatfish. "
]
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[],
[]
] |
|
fgkgaf | non-native speaker here, why is "biannually" considered to be twice a year, but "biweekly" only once every two weeks instead of two times per week? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fgkgaf/eli5_nonnative_speaker_here_why_is_biannually/ | {
"a_id": [
"fk53ekr"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"\"Biweekly\" can refer to either twice a week or two times a week. The same for \"bimonthly\" (i.e. once a month or two times a month).\n\nThe issue stems from the prefix *\"bi-\"*, which is inherently ambiguous in that it can mean either **occuring twice** or **occuring every two**.\n\nEnglish offers us an alternative with 'annual', as things can either be *\"biannual\"* (twice a year) or *\"biennial\"* (every two years). However, using the word \"biannual\" to mean every two years is also technically correct, and is more often used over \"biennial\".\n\n*\"Bi-\"* is one of English's many ambiguities and requires experience with understanding context to decipher its true meaning in a given situation."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
4ntosg | why are people/businesses moving to the south and not detroit? | As we all know the the city of Detroit has gone through a lot of problems in the last few decades, but now the city is on a big upswing and things are looking bright. My question however is, why are movie studios, large corporations and people in general moving to southern states? The land is super cheap down south, I know, but land is cheap in Detroit too. Plus Detroit has so much room for expansion and the Detroit Metro is still one of the most heavily populated areas in the US so there's no shortage of people around.
So what gives? Why Knoxville and not Detroit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ntosg/eli5_why_are_peoplebusinesses_moving_to_the_south/ | {
"a_id": [
"d46va6o",
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],
"score": [
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"text": [
"A lot fewer unions in the south is a big part. Also rules and regulations setup over decades that are unfriendly to new business in Detroit.",
"Another thing that hasn't been said is weather: people don't like winter and the ice and snow it brings to your commute and ability to get out of the house. The South can get oppressively hot, but being in proximity to water and air conditioning have helped a lot, and make it very liveable."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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] |
|
bidy74 | how do glute muscles become weak? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bidy74/eli5_how_do_glute_muscles_become_weak/ | {
"a_id": [
"elzx9bb"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"The same way any other muscle gets weaker. Over time and extended periods of low use, they deteriorate and lose mass."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
216qhy | why is fertilizer the primary ingredient in many homemade bombs? | How does it work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/216qhy/eli5_why_is_fertilizer_the_primary_ingredient_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"cga4uhi"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It's the nitrogen//nitrogen-based chemicals in the fertilizer. The nitrogen stuff is great for growing crops... but it's also good for explosives.\n\nYou can search for \"nitrogen explosive compounds\", but read here this one example of why:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://ask.metafilter.com/6301/Why-is-nitrogen-part-of-so-many-explosives"
]
] |
|
c91rpz | how is it that someone (like myself) is allergic to almost every antibiotic? what makes the body hate them so much? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c91rpz/eli5_how_is_it_that_someone_like_myself_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"ess22j4"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Essentially an allergy is an immune response to a foreign substance. \n\nFor you, the antibiotics has 'proteins' antigens which trigger the white cells of you immune system to attack them. This appears as massive inflammation due to degranulation of mast cells releasing imflammatory proteins etc. Typically presenting as Rashes to full blown anaphylaxis (air way compromise) \n\n & #x200B;\n\nWhen patients come with multiple drug 'allergies' it important to differentiate what is a true allergy vs what is a side effect of antibiotic such as nausea/diarrhoea."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
43xvog | why can you only know an electron's position if you give up on knowing its momentum and vice versa? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43xvog/eli5_why_can_you_only_know_an_electrons_position/ | {
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"czlvlww",
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"text": [
"Imagine you wanted to take a detailed and clear photo of a mosquito buzzing around your room. You'd have to zoom in really close to get such a picture. Imagine then that you've zoomed in far enough so as to be able to clearly see the mosquitoes features and decide to snap a photo. What do you see? A mosquito stuck in time. How can you possibly tell from that still picture where the mosquito will fly to next or even at what speed its flying at. The same is true for the opposite. To be able to see the mosquitoes movements and speed you'd have to zoom out, but then the mosquito becomes a small insect buzzing around the room and you've lost any sense of detail and picture quality.\n",
"It's not that you don't *know* the electron's momentum and position at the same time. Electrons don't **have** well-defined momentum and a well-defined position at the same time.\n\nElectrons operate under the rules of quantum mechanics, where they actually exists as a probability wave. And the position and momentum of a subatomic particle share the same relation as position and wavelength for a normal wave: If you drop a stone in a pond, the wave radiates outward, dissipating as it goes. So you can *kind* of define its position, in a fuzzy sort of way (its position is spread out across part of the surface of the pond), and you can *kind* of give an average wavelength (but since the wave dies out as it travels, it's not super accurate either), but you don't have either very accurately.\n\nThe more confined you make the position of a ripple like that, the less-defined its wavelength becomes, to the point that a ripple that exists in a single, well-defined spot has no wavelength at all. And if you want a proper wavelength, you have to spread the wave across the entire pond, in which case the wave has no position.\n\nThat's the same relation as the one between position and momentum in a subatomic particle.",
"Imagine taking a photo of a ball in the air.\n\n[In this photo](_URL_1_), you can see exactly where the ball is. Its position is totally clear. But you have no idea of its movement. Is it falling down? Moving rightwards? No way to tell.\n\n[Now look at this photo.](_URL_0_) You can tell by the blur that it's moving vertically, so now you know its momentum. But it's so blurry that you can't tell its position. Is it at the top of that blur at that instant? At the bottom? You can't tell.\n\nTaking a photo of a ball, you can't know its *exact* position or its momentum at the same time. Same thing."
]
} | [] | [] | [
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[],
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"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2UEe1TisJCU/TO0w2l0YGSI/AAAAAAAAAEY/DYeTh8Ap3wQ/s1600/Tennis%2BBall%2BFalling.jpg",
"http://www.wallcoo.net/sport/ball/images/%5Bwallcoo.com%5D_EL128.jpg"
]
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||
3fzshs | why on mobile devices can i find nothing except live and cover songs on youtube? | Gunna throw my fuckin phone shortly. Even went to desktop version, found the song, switched back to mobile, video not available. Losing it here. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fzshs/eli5_why_on_mobile_devices_can_i_find_nothing/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctthnmc"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Youtube checks the user-agent header and blocks certain videos from appearing on mobile. Music videos seem to be a popular choice for such filtering. I don't know why it's done, but you can get around it.\n\nYou need to change your user agent header so you appear to be coming from a desktop browser. (or strip it altogether - I don't know how YouTube reacts to this but it should work). If your phone/browser is locked down and doesn't allow you to do this, and you don't want to root it, you could set up a proxy server on a Raspberry Pi or similar low-cost device, and have that spoof the user-agent for you."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
et2i2j | when smoking, why does your throat hurt only when you breathe in air? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/et2i2j/eli5_when_smoking_why_does_your_throat_hurt_only/ | {
"a_id": [
"ffdqrt5"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"You're breathing in hot air and chemicals that get absorbed by your lungs and cooled down by the time they're breathed out.\n\nYou should probably look into quitting it's super unhealthy :)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3qwcl2 | how wind can push my car sideways when my wheels are pointed straight forward? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qwcl2/eli5_how_wind_can_push_my_car_sideways_when_my/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwiw3n0"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Eh? When does your car move sideways?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
avy48o | why is it that there are plenty of tropical small islands throughout the pacific (guam, us virgin islands, etc) but there are hardly such islands in the atlantic ocean? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/avy48o/eli5_why_is_it_that_there_are_plenty_of_tropical/ | {
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"text": [
"The pacific ocean is a hotbed for volcanic activity. Under water volcano explodes, creates an island, plants and animals move in. Pretty neat",
"There are a few volcanic hotspots that just happen to mostly all be in the Pacific. As the tectonic plates move, the islands shift with them, but the hotspot stays in place, resulting in island chains, like the Hawaiian Archipelago.\n\n\nThere are still some hotspots in the Atlantic Ocean, such as the Caribbean islands (not including Cuba).",
"Going down the middle of the Atlantic ocean is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the longest continuous mountain range in the world. It's the separating point between two tectonic plates, basically one long hot spot where molten rock is constantly bubbling up from below. However, the tectonic plates are diverging, meaning they are moving away from each other. The rate of movement means the rising rock is never in place over the hot spot long enough to allow islands to form.\n\nIn the Pacific ocean there are lots of plates moving in different directions. When they push against each other it keeps rock in place long enough for it to build up out of the water to produce an island.",
"The entire Hawaiian chain and another chain of eroded islands are due to the hotspot under the Big Island of Hawaii having made islands for millions and millions of years as it drifted and the plates moved.\n\nThere are more plate tectonics going on in the Pacific than the Atlantic so more uplift and volcanic islands going on"
]
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[],
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||
5wx6g9 | how do night contacts work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5wx6g9/eli5_how_do_night_contacts_work/ | {
"a_id": [
"dedhpxe"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"My understanding is they reshape the eye. The degree of how concave or convex the lens of the eye causes near sightedness or far sightedness. Sleep contacts temporarily shape your eyes back to neutral. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
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21qt5m | why do we still take test and learn the same as how people did in the whole of history when technology has advanced so far? | Technology has advanced to the point memorizing some things has become redundant. Is there no better way? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21qt5m/eli5_why_do_we_still_take_test_and_learn_the_same/ | {
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"Learning has advanced a great deal since formal education began. There are some things that have become redundant, and some things may seem useless. For instance, why bother learning that there are 4 quarts in a gallon when I can just look it up? But many people, myself included, would argue that a fundamental understanding of the simple elements is necessary for an understanding of the complex. Albert Einstein wouldn't have been able to come up with the things he had if he hadn't been good at math (he didn't actually fail math, that's an urban legend). Facts tend to rest on other facts in our minds, and rote memorization doesn't lead to understanding; a book can contain all the facts in the world, but it doesn't come up with new ideas."
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3hv6j3 | why is norway so horrendously expensive? | I just don't understand why everything in this country is so expensive - more than any place I have ever visited and I have done some international traveling. It's not like the country is in the middle of nowhere and has to import everything, they have oil reserves and great income from tourism. I was just riding the train with a nice lady from Tokyo and she said that it is 3 times more expensive than Tokyo, which I previously thought was the most expensive place in the world. Would someone explain what drives the high cost in this gorgeous, awesome country that I am thrilled to be visiting? Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hv6j3/eli5_why_is_norway_so_horrendously_expensive/ | {
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"It is difficult to transport anything to Norway because the land is very difficult to traverse and the sea can be incredibly rough. However though it does have large income from oil it also has an extremely generous social welfare system and that means high taxes and that means expensive goods and services.",
"I think it has something to do with their ridiculously high taxes which support some really expansive government programs like their national health care and national child care systems."
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7m9evl | if trees initially were non-biodegradable, and a fungus adapted to degrade them could the same be done for plastic? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7m9evl/eli5_if_trees_initially_were_nonbiodegradable_and/ | {
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"Sure and we are working on it. But its a slow process and we are producing literally thousands of tonnes of plastic every day. \n\nRecycle.",
"Yes! Exactly this is being done, and micro-organisms have already been bred that (for example) love to eat spilled petroleum. ",
"_URL_0_\n\nThis was recently covered in today I learned and a few times in r/askscience"
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1g9n08 | what is software and how does it all work? | Ashamed to say this - but totally clueless - how does software work? For that matter hardware too. So guess my question is all about computing? I hear these terms - application, server, middleware. How do they all work together? When I read something like - "x application was built on top of y server" - what does that mean? I know the majority of the Reddit community is tech savvy - so please explain this to a dummy like me. I want as much detail as possible, in an understandable way, with any helpful links or illustrations. So something like - first there was __, then there came___ - like that simple. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g9n08/eli5what_is_software_and_how_does_it_all_work/ | {
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"That's a **very** broad question, so rather than go into detail, I'll just give some very high-level answers, and you can ask for clarification as needed.\n\n > how does software work?\n\nSoftware is simply a set of instructions for a computer to follow. The \"how\" is fairly complex, but it boils down to setting voltages on billions of tiny circuits inside the computer in a very specific way.\n\n > For that matter hardware too\n\nHardware is generally composed of billions of transistors, which are like tiny electrical \"switches\". A signal to one part can switch the transistor on or off, allowing other signals to either be blocked or allowed through.\n\nUsing transistors, you can build logic gates: circuits that perform operations like AND (give a high-voltage output only if both of the inputs are high-voltage), OR (give a high-voltage output if *either* of the inputs are high-voltage), NOT (give a high-voltage output for a low-voltage input, and vice versa), etc.\n\nUsing logic gates, you can build slightly more complex things, like adder circuits that can add binary numbers.\n\nUsing those more complex circuits, you can build even more complex things, like a CPU that can act on certain pre-defined instructions.\n\n > I hear these terms - application, server, middleware.\n\nAn application is just a piece of software, and is generally used to describe something that needs an operating system to run (the Operating system itself is just a very complex bit of software, but is generally not referred to as an \"application\"). Internet Explorer is an application, for instance. So is iTunes. And Steam. And anything else that your computer can run.\n\nA server is a computer that is set up to listen for network requests and respond to them (usually \"serving up\" webpages, hence the \"server\" name).\n\nMiddleware is a bit abstract. It's specialized software that exists to make it easier for other types of software to communicate with each other.\n\n > When I read something like - \"x application was built on top of y server\" - what does that mean?\n\nIt's hard for me to say without knowing what X and Y are. My guess is that they're using the other definition of \"server\" that I haven't mentioned. Software that takes requests and sends responses is also referred to as a \"server\". For instance, when you check your email, your computer contacts the \"mail server\". In one sense, this describes the computer that is responding with your email. But in the other sense, the \"mail server\" is the specific application/software running on that computer that does all the mail-related stuff. The same computer might also serve up web pages, and the application that does that would be a \"web server\". The computer itself can be referred to as either a \"mail server\" or a \"web server\" depending on context (though it's pretty standard just to call it \"the server\").\n\nAlso, the opposite of a \"server\" is a \"client\". Whatever application/computer consumes messages sent by a server is referred to as a client. So Internet Explorer is a \"web client\", for instance. If you play online games, the game software itself is a client.\n\nSo \"x application was built on top of y server\" probably means that \"x application\" is some type of middleware that acts as both a server and a client, taking requests from other programs, modifying them somehow, and passing them on to \"y server\".\n\nBut again, without specifics, it's hard to say for certain.",
"Thanks to all who replied - for your time and answers. And for not putting me down for my lack of knowledge."
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1u2p2s | why do different regions of usa sell varying octanes of gas? i can buy 85 octane in idaho, but can't find anything less than 87 in arizona. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u2p2s/eli5_why_do_different_regions_of_usa_sell_varying/ | {
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"Elevation.\n\n\"Octane\" is a description of how much compression the fuel can be put under before it spontaneously ignites. The higher the octane number, the more pressure the fuel can take before it just ignites. An engine wants to take the fuel/air mixture as close to this point as possible (but not past it) before the spark plug sparks and lights the fuel. This (I think) ensures the most power for a given amount of fuel.\n\nWhen you go to a higher elevation (like the mountains in Idaho), the air is thinner. This means the pistons in the engine can't compress the air as much. Since the pressure in the engine can't go as high, you need to use a fuel designed to ignite at a lower level of compression, a.k.a. a lower octane number."
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tat36 | what causes laziness? is it a physical condition? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tat36/eli5_what_causes_laziness_is_it_a_physical/ | {
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"Recent studies show a link to [dopamine](_URL_0_) which is a brain chemical. ",
"A lack of feeling of self-efficacy or not feeling that your actions are effective in producing the results you want. ",
"I guess everyone is too lazy to reply, OP. There are some good explanations for this, but my vague, non-scientific understanding is, it is indeed a physical condition, one that we inherited from our ancestors. I'm sure you can find a more technical/accurate/correct explanation of this, but here's the gist of it.\n\nOur brains have a vulnerability that makes it extremely easy to get addicted to things. Watching TV can stimulate you (you are rewarded with dopamine). The more TV you watch, the more you want to watch it. The brain is rewiring itself to crave TV, because it was a source of dopamine release. Why does the brain do this? Because it worked to our ancestors favour. Their brain would be wired to be 'addicted' to gathering food, because it was necessary for survival and even the act of simply gathering the food would be rewarding to them, giving them a higher chance of surviving the next drought. This routine of gathering now becomes ingrained.\n\nSo after a while, any moment you are not watching TV, your brain will be agitated, because your primitive brain isn't doing something it thinks is useful (because you're not getting dopamine) so you will crave TV. So basically, you are addicted to a low energy, highly stimulated state, it's as simple as that. Ever notice that you browse reddit for hours, even when you've seen everything, and there's nothing even remotely enjoyable about it? It's your brain telling you \"keep looking, you'll find it! (dopamine)\". As your brain continues to rewire itself, it also starts to cull the circuits in the brain that it deems 'un-useful', such as the ability to learn. Soon, TV will be the only thing that gives you a dopamine fix, which means everything else in the world will seem boring, and this is the root of laziness.\n\nOur brains are still plastic, however. Abstain from TV for a long enough time and you will no longer be addicted to it. Don't game for a few years, you will never be compelled to game again. \n\nHere's a study that examines the physical changes in the brain when addicted to internet use, and the similarities to drug addiction: _URL_0_\n",
"If you describe laziness as \"not wanting to do things that you dislike\", then I think that answers the question in itself. I dislike an action, therefore I choose not to do it. Some people are able to recognize that they should do things they dislike but do them anyway, like exercise or study for school. But others don't care/want/think that the outcome is worth the cost of action. So they just don't.\n\nIMO it comes down to a matter of perception. The way you *think* causes you to be lazy or not, but even the word itself is subjective. ",
"Depression, Stress, Dopamine Addiction are one of many top valid reasons to why a person is lazy. ",
"I don't know if laziness itself is a physical condition exactly, we don't seem to have too much real information on it. Many animals are fairly sedentary when their resource needs are already met, though. Perhaps it has something to do with conserving energy. Fatigue, on the other hand, which is sometimes mistaken for laziness, most certainly is a physical condition. Fatigue is an inability to make use of muscle strength to the degree that wouldn't be expected considering the person's physique. It can make it hard to lift things, to walk around, or even just to get out of bed. It can be temporary, due to a minor illness, or it can be chronic due to something more serious, ranging from autoimmune diseases to cancer to mood disorders.",
"Humans have evolved to be lazy about anything but survival. This was for good reason - getting carried away wasting energy on non-survival tasks was a luxury you couldn't afford when food was scarce.\n\nNowadays, we can trivially meet all our survival needs. It takes no effort at all. Our bodies thus don't want us to do anything - they want us to sit on the couch doing nothing just in case there's an emergency and we need that saved energy.\n\nThe biggest first-world problem is that our bodies don't like living in first world countries.",
"It's natural to try to find the least energy-consuming route which fills all of your needs, it makes sense evolutionarily to live while requiring as little food as possible by not wasting calories unnecessarily.\n\nThere's a study floating around the internet somewhere about chimps who were taught to paint for money (which could be spent on food etc). The chimps originally enjoyed painting, but eventually they realised that they would get paid no matter how little effort they put into it, and so they started to try to do the absolute minimum required to get the money, and stopped enjoying it. I think humans are the same, with all things we perceive to have rewards (that use up energy). Low energy pursuits like watching TV and surfing online are easier to persuade our body to do because it knows we'll waste less calories doing it than other activities, while still getting a reward.",
"Despite better responses than my own, I wanna post. So there.\n\nI heard about this on a Nat Geo program about huma nevolution. Basically laziness is the evolutionary way to conserve energy. Do as little amount of physical activity, and you need less energy = less food = less time hunting/scrounging for food = less danger.",
"It's often a question of what people are motivated by. For example, in a classroom, some people are motivated by getting an A. These people will study hard and do all the homework so that they get the A, even if they don't fully understand what they are doing.\n\nOther people are motivated by understanding the subject instead. They will study hard to understand the basics, but not worry about details, and then they happily get a B, but end up having a much better understanding than the A students. \n\nSo each of these groups might consider the others lazy...",
"This is definitely an /r/askscience question.",
"Low blood methylphenidate levels. ",
"This is indirectly why I take Adderall. For a free dopamine spike. Try to avoid judging me too quickly, because I know that sounds like I abuse it, but I only have a small Rx and it is legitimately for ADD. But if you think about it, the extra dopamine and therefore \"reward\" the brain is getting, helps one focus on mundane tasks, which is why it works.\n\nThe brain is \"rewarded\" or at least feels like it is rewarded, no matter what task you undertake, because the Adderall is providing the dopamine the brain so desperately wants. Even if I am reading a boring article on a topic I have no interest in, or painting the walls in my house, my brains still says \"this is cool, I like this\" since I have that extra dopamine.\n\nDopamine spike = motivation basically. The motivation you need to mow the lawn, clean the house, do your homework, whatever else you normally put off or never do otherwise."
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1i628l | how to talk to children | Usually ages 5-12 | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1i628l/eli5_how_to_talk_to_children/ | {
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"Use simple words, but otherwise talk to them the same way you'd talk to a regular person. If they don't understand, they'll let you know - they're kids.\n\nAlso, some people tend to talk to children like they're stupid. They're (usually) not. They just don't have your experience or command of the English language. Most kids are reasonably perceptive; they pick up on context, draw inferences, and take visual cues in communication just like an adult.",
"Reading your username makes me question your intentions. ",
"First of all, don't tell them your name is ANAL_ANARCHY.",
"That's a pretty wide range. I was a counsellor at a day camp , and these are the differences I saw: \n\nAge 5-8ish: Explain things calmly, ask them what they like - like the things they like. Ask questions, answer questions. Be kind. Granted I was in a very specific circumstance, but generally all my interactions felt slightly \"parental\". \n\nAge 8 -12: Act like they're you. Growing up, I hated being talked down to. They'll ask if they don't understand something. ",
"No one here said to squat down and talk to them at eye level. It helps them take you more seriously without them feeling threatened by grownups they don't know."
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apsr8l | did thousands of people die trying 'food' that we now know is poisonous? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/apsr8l/eli5_did_thousands_of_people_die_trying_food_that/ | {
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"Probably. And more than a few avoided food that we know is fine. Many people in Europe in the 1400s thought fruit was slightly poisonous and shouldn't be given to young children. Many people used to think tomatoes were toxic.",
"Probably more like tens of millions, especially when it came to spoiled food. If someone ate cheese it means someone else ate rotten meat and fish."
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1f6i12 | 3g/4g. | Basically, how does 3G/4G work? Is there just a magical satellite? I don't understand and wikipedia hurts my brain so...Really, please actually explain it like you would to a 5 year old. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f6i12/eli5_3g4g/ | {
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"Awesome question!\n\nBasically, telecom companies install cell towers, which allow you to connect your phone with a wireless connection. Similar how you connect a laptop to a wifi access point, you connect your phone to a cell tower.\n\nIf you're close to the tower, and your phone is set up to connect to that particular type of tower, you get a connection. The tower is connected to the internet with wires, and everyone is happy.\n\nHope that helps :)",
"3rd generation and 4th generation. Some phones and cell phone carries still use 3rd generation speeds(3g) and technologies while others use 4th generation(4g) speeds and tech which is faster. It's like the internet then verses the internet now. Like Verizon DSL I think only offers 1.5M/s while the newer fast fiber services can offer much much more.",
"That's a pretty broad question. I think it's really 3 questions in one, so I'll try to tackle each one individually.\n\n\n**What's the difference between 2G, 3G, and 4G?**\n\nImagine there is a deliver service. At the beginning they have a very basic setup of just a few horses that run on small local roads. It can only deliver a small amount of packages a day because of constraints on the delivery center, the amount you can put on your horses, and the 1 lane roads you're stuck using. That's basically 2G or EDGE service.\n\n\nA few years later after government regulators agree that they're doing a good job and will help widen the roads and everyone thinks it's a good time to update the entire delivery centers and buy some trucks. Now everyone have a much larger facility for moving packages/data from point A to point B. There are also new larger trucks that can fit more per load, and the roads are now bigger for everyone to drive more load through. Great! You've got 3G! \n\n\n3G operates pretty fast but soon everyone and their mom want to send packages so the government says ok, we'll reserve some highway space, some 16-wheeler trucks, and automated systems in delivery centers to get packages moved as quickly as possible. Now you're at 4G speed, you can now move A LOT of data at once.\n\n\nIn this analogy the delivery centers are the switch centers at the major telecom companies. To move more data through with each new generation of service (2G, 3G, 4G) the equipment need to be updated. The roads in this are basically spectrum frequency. Which are regulated by the government/FCC. The feds have to sell or free up additional spectrum for telecom companies to operate more data on the higher frequency channels. Trucks are basically the underlying internet backbone that can accommodate for more and faster data transmission. Without all 3 upgrading almost at the same speed, it's impossible to move from from one generation to the next. Also, your cell phones have to upgrade to the latest generation of processors too because high data-speeds require faster chips to process it. \n\n----------------\n**So how does my cell phone communicate data wirelessly?** \n\nThink of your phone as a just like a mailbox that you leave a request letter in the morning for Youtube. The delivery guy picks up your letter requesting a large order of videos from Youtube and delivers it to them. In the letter you ask \"Please send me a video on XYZ to my address.\" When Youtube gets your request via the delivery service, it will package it all up and send you the video as many large packages. Depending on the speed of the delivery centers, size of the trucks, and width of the road the packages can arrive slowly one by one or really fast almost instantaneously. 2G, 3G, and 4G are just different agreed upon standards the service centers, trucks, and roads that are built. The newer generations are faster at delivering packages. \n\n\nThink of your phone as almost like a mailbox. With each new generation of technology, it has to be bigger, stronger, and more automated to support all the packages/data that you've ordered. If you have an old phone that's using 2G, it's pretty much like a tiny mailbox that the deliver service just says \"Nope, it won't be able to handle the load. If you want to use our 3G service, upgrade it so we can fit these larger boxes in.\"\n\n\n------------------\n**How does the data go from your phone to the receiving tower and then get moved to Youtube?**\n\nScatter around the entire world are cell phone towers, hundreds of thousands of them. They're like listening stations that can talk directly with your phone when it's near. When you turn your cell phone one or walk within range of a new tower, the phone will ask \"who's the closes cell tower?\" A lot of towers will reply by shouting back \"Tower XYZ, I'm here!\", \"Tower ABC, I'm here.\" Depending on how clear your phone hears the response, your phone will start a conversation with one that has the highest quality connection and sounds the clearest. Each cell phone tower is connected to a landline that's hookup to the internet. It acts as an intermediary that passes on your request from the phone, to the tower, from the tower through the landline, into the internet, and through to Youtube. Youtube then replies, passes the video right back. No magical satellite is needed unless you're somewhere super remote and it's cheaper for the cell tower to talk to the satellite than it is to lay down some land lines to the tower.\n\n\nIf you want to get a bit more technical, 3G and 4G differences are more than just more bandwidth but requires all new equipment by the cell phone carriers to handle all of the new extra load. It takes forever for some places to move to 4G from 3G because of the cost of setting up new infrastructure. Upgrading costs millions of dollars that require faster computers, more expensive connections, and new software to handle everything. None of it is cheap or easy. Which is why it's taking forever for 4G to move forward.\n\n\nIf I made any technical errors, please excuse me, I'm trying to remember as much as I can from college 11 years ago.",
"I expected to learn so much about the technological differences between the different data types, 2G, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, and 4G WIMAX. So disappointed.",
"There's a very, very good talk given by a Google performance (Make The Web Fast team) guy on the efforts required to get a page to display on a cellphone in under 1000ms (1 second). It isn't ELI5-type material, but it gives a LOT of technical specs on the different cell phone modes, different technologies and the way connection setup, data transmission and screen rendering happens on a mobile device. \n\n_URL_0_"
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4bbtwe | why are asians buying real estate all over the world, causing a housing crisis in various cities? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4bbtwe/eli5_why_are_asians_buying_real_estate_all_over/ | {
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"Because ownership of real property is, for the most part, a fundamental part of the country in which they are purchasing it in. \n\nThey do not have the ability - or confidence - to put their cash into a fixed asset that can reasonably be assured to keep its value in their own country, in particular, China.\n\nCash is fickle and does nothing in a bank (and can be seized). Ownership of property is as good as cash, especially if the market value increases over time, and if owned elsewhere is harder to seize.",
"The majority of Asia is getting more wealthy, in part (at least in China) de to a real estate bubble 10 times the size of the American one that popped last decade. The small percentage that are investing in foreign markets are preparing for the worst and rightly so. Brace yourself. ",
"It's not \"Asian\", it's only Chinese. China is about to implode and the people know it. The Chinese stock market is ludicrously overpriced because everyone in China buys stocks on margin, and when the price blips, everyone is leveraged to ridiculous levels and goes bankrupt overnight, so the blip becomes a catastrophe. People want to get their money out of China and into somewhere safe. If you have money to put somewhere, the options are real estate or offshore investment.\n\nChina is so paranoid that they will not allow people to move money out of the country, (the limit is something like $5000/day and only with a foreign passport), so that makes it impossible to *legally* invest in foreign stocks, leaving only real estate. (note that it's at the point now that Chinese companies are suing their own subsidiaries in America, so they have to pay themselves a settlement into their own American account, which *is* legal - sort of)\n\nChina is so paranoid that they will not allow people to buy land - if you buy an apartment, you don't own the land it's built on. And looking at Chinese real estate (remember those entire cities for 200,000 apartments, all of which are empty?), Chinese people are too smart to huff what the government is selling, so they need to buy real estate off shore. This is different to buying stocks off shore for legislative/tax reasons (I think the investment property is a business, but there are also people buying properties for their kids to stay in whilst studying as an excuse etc)\n\nAs for why it forms a bubble, that's because foreign governments are eyeing building industry bribes/donations/kickbacks along with wages for union members, stamp duties and other land taxes for treasuries and deciding that a bubble is a good thing.\n\nThis in turn means the people in Sydney, Auckland, Vancouver etc are buying real estate at greatly inflated prices on mortgages (i.e, buying on margin), so when housing prices here blip, everyone goes broke and the blip becomes a catastrophe. And the cycle repeats. Thanks China!!\n\n\n\nedit: For the $0.50 brigade who think China is too strong to fall: We saw exactly this happening in the 1990's with Japan. Everyone was worried that the Japanese were infinitely rich with foreign currency from their exports inflating their markets beyond reasonable levels; we said they were buying too much property, racists/nationalists were saying they were buying what they couldn't conquer in WWII. Reality kicked in, Japanese stocks fell to realistic levels, everyone went broke and the Japanese economy is, even 25 years later, in such a bad shape that interest rates are negative.",
"I'm chinese,I think I can answer this _URL_0_'s factor of culture.we think real estate is the real treasure.and home make us feel _URL_1_ the ancient china, we also kept gold, silver to keep safety.we don't trust cash,because it always devaluate.you also can hear some news of chinese collected gold all over the world.",
"Asians?\n\nThey're just the latest buyers in a real estate cycle managed by real estate agents who's made money over and over again on the same properties once sold to whites, jews, Japs etc etc. \n\nThe rich Chinese are actually paying the most for housing because they've got the most money to spend right now. Next will probably be arabs.",
"One more thing that other people haven't touched upon is that China in particularely, and most Asian countries in general, are quickly becomming much more integrated into the global trade and travel networks. Visa and integration requirements for Chinese migrants and visitors have been relaxed repeatedly over the past decade and flight connections have gotten a lot cheaper, quicker and more reliable. In fact, a retour ticket Amsterdam-Bejing is often cheaper than a retour ticket Amsterdam-New York; at roughly 500 - 700 euros for a retour ticket between Europe and China, it's very affordable even for middle class Chinese to travel between Europe and China regularly.",
"Why don't we only allow citizens to buy real estate? Many countries have this law and we have enough wealth here that it wouldn't impact local economies.",
"There's a lot of good explanations here, but I'm not sure any of it is really ELI5. I'll try. \n\nSo the Chinese economy is in a precarious position because everyone there is buying on margin. Let's say you take out a small business loan to open a sushi joint. The guy selling you fish also took out such a loan to sell fish. And the guy supplying your knives took out a loan to open a knife shop. And someone down the street has a sushi delivery business and you supply his sushi. Now imagine what happens if even one of those businesses goes away. Let's say the knife guy has a sudden financial problem (he needs knee surgery or whatever). He can't pay his loans and now he doesn't have a knife supply company. So you don't have knives. You can't make sushi without knives so you no longer supply to the guy delivering and he goes out of business, too. Also, the guy supplying your fish just lost his biggest customer, so he ALSO goes out of business, as do all the other sushi places he supplied for. That's basically the way a bubble like this bursts: one problem creates a ripple effect and before you know it it's everywhere. \n\nSeeing that this is going to happen (or fearing it) a lot of Chinese are nervous (because they saw how our own housing bubble went). But they're not allowed to invest in foreign markets and they are not allowed to own land in China, so they're putting their money someplace more stable: into real estate away from China. If china's stocks die, it won't hit real estate in other nations very hard. \n\nThis is tricky in other places because now the Chinese own a lot of land they're not using. They own houses they're not living in and buildings that they're not renting and warehouses they're not working in. So there's less housing available on the market. Because of supply and demand, this means that prices are rising despite the fact that there are not more people actually living in these places or using this property. That works a bit like this: \n\nyou and your friends go to a market to buy clothes. The guy at the stall says he can sell you shirts, which is cool, but when you get there half his stock is already spoken for and \"sold\". He's got money and he's got people who say they're coming for that sweater you want. So he has less he can sell you and he has no motivation to sell it to you for less, because he's not hurting for sales. That makes the market worse for you as a buyer, because you have less to choose from AND you have no leverage. ",
"Why does my mom own 12 houses? 3 in the same neighborhood?\n\nWhy do new land developments crop up when the old houses go unlived in?",
"Wealthy people in China taking their money out of the country. If you make obscene amounts of money you need to figure out ways to protect it so they don't really mind overpaying a bit. Plus they can send their kids overseas to live there and go to college, etc. There are so many of them that everyone notices. ",
"Because every other asset in China is a bubble or has a huge problem with it.\n\nSource: Was investment banker there for 3 years, every single deal that involved a Chinese company/asset went wrong in some way. Most of them were \"walk aways.\"",
"The housing crisis in my region is caused by 'ghost houses' people use for indoor marijuana grows. You get used to only half the homes on your street having people in them. It sucks most of all for kids, because it guarantees parents have to schedule and drive their kids to playdates because there's likely no other kids in your neighborhood. And if there are kids, and there's growing going on in the home, you'll never be invited inside, and you probably don't want your kids there anyway because a grow house is still a potential target for a home invasion or fire due to amateur electrical wiring. They really can't legalize and regulate the industry fast enough.",
"As someone from Vancouver, our provincial government is corrupt as fuck and is doing nothing to stop the foreign investments into real estate, meaning you can own a nice 1br condo in Vancouver for a cool 700k...\n\nNot to mention a lot of it is dirty money made in ways that wouldn't be legal if it wasn't made in China. A lot of people here own a nail salon, or a hair cutting place and drive a 80,000 car. Half of the new developments here sit empty and the developers are taking a huge advantage of it by building more and even going so far as to market these developments in China."
]
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"safety.in"
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||
1kt2rm | why can we tell an airplane is pitched up when looking straight down the aisle. | I know it probably has to do with our sense of balance, but its weird that you can tell even when you cant see out a window. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kt2rm/eli5_why_can_we_tell_an_airplane_is_pitched_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbsat1n",
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8,
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"text": [
"Cause of your ears. Your ears have, on the inside of your skull, structures in them that are filled with fluid. The insides of these structures are lined with little sensory nerves that \"tell you\" where the fluid is. Since gravity pulls the fluid downward, these organs tell you which way is down.",
"/u/captainarbitrary nailed it. However, you may also be able to tell by the slight change in g forces. Although a good pilot (or good autopilot) can handle the plane in such a way that you only ever feel lighter or heavier, as opposed to much side to side or front to back force.\n\nFun fact, the phrase \"flying by the seat of your pants\" refers to WWI pilots that flew planes without many instruments, and used the g forces they felt in their butt against the seat to help them know what the plane was doing."
]
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[],
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|
1xzib1 | how do scientists/anthropologists explain the seemingly quick ascent of the human species? | The wheel was created around 3500 BCE and within roughly 5000 years, humans have been to the moon. What is the explanation for such quick progress in a species? Dinosaurs were around for millions of years and never accomplished even a fraction of the technological progress as we have. I have heard that opposable thumbs is an explanation, but many other species have this feature without the same results. I have also heard our high protein diet allowed our brains to grow larger than other animals in proportion to body size, but other animals have similar (if smaller) brain to body ratios. Chimpanzees are often compared with humans and we do share many genetic traits, but why, after being around for as long as us, have they only learned to use sticks to catch ants, while we have started to transition into a type I civilization (on the [Kardashev Scale](_URL_0_)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xzib1/eli5_how_do_scientistsanthropologists_explain_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfg02ag",
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"score": [
5,
3
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"text": [
"[Punctuated Equilibrium, my man. Evolution of species or ideas shouldn't be be viewed as a gradual and constant change but as a series of leaps and bounds interspersed with periods of stability.](_URL_0_)",
"Am I the only one who thinks that in the grand scheme of things, 5,000 years is a really short span to have achieved so much? I mean language helps but other animals have been proven to communicate. I can see how written language would help our advance even more but is that the real explanation for going from the wheel to spaceships in 5,000 years, cause its hard to believe. "
]
} | [] | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale#Type_I"
] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium"
],
[]
] |
|
2u1fvs | why do boobs in classical artworks look so different from those sported by today's models? [nsfw] | I've always wondered about this. Did Titian, Rubens and the like have different ideas about how nice boobs were supposed to look? Were they going for some "classical ideal" of nice boobs, and if so, what was it? I've read that beauty comes from an evolutionary instinct towards healthy, child-bearing figures, so surely boobs should look the same down the ages. What gives?
Some examples:
[Venus of Urbino by Titian](_URL_2_)
[Maja desnuda by Goya](_URL_0_)
[Nell Gwyn by Simon Verelst](_URL_3_)
And purely for comparison purposes:
[Rhian Sugden](_URL_5_)
[Libby Smith](_URL_4_)
[Sammy Braddy](_URL_1_)
(none of these are surgically enhanced; maybe a bit of Photoshopping) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u1fvs/eli5_why_do_boobs_in_classical_artworks_look_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"co496k1",
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"co49fu3"
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"score": [
6,
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"text": [
"The models have all had surgery, or are naturally big-breasted. \n\nIn antiquity, it was considered more attractive to have smaller breasts, so the artists chose smaller-breasted women.",
"I'm sure there are models with similar breasts that attract less attention in today's society due to a difference in culture.",
"Small boobs were very much considered to be more attractive in those time periods.\n\nAlso size of the breast says nothing about the ability to produce milk for offspring. A small breasts woman might produce as much breastmilk as a bigger breasts woman. (and breasts generally grow a cupsize or two during pregnancy and breastfeeding anyway). So evolutionary speaking there is no basis for preferring big breasts over small breasts. "
]
} | [] | [
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Maja_desnuda_%28museo_del_Prado%29.jpg",
"http://imgur.com/r/Page3Glamour/EOAW9G1",
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Tiziano_-_Venere_di_Urbino_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg",
"http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/10/18/article-2050520-0E6D16CB00000578-335_634x864.jpg",
"http://imgur.com/r/Page3Glamour/16yLBFu",
"http://imgur.com/r/Page3Glamour/Oemsn7Q"
] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3jqs5y | why was the race to the moon more important than the race to the first man in space? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jqs5y/eli5_why_was_the_race_to_the_moon_more_important/ | {
"a_id": [
"curhokx",
"curhqwn",
"curm6ma"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"They know him in Russia. \n\nBecause the Soviets sent a man into space first, the achievement was downplayed in the West, and then the Moon Race was really hyped up to compensate. ",
" \"It reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets. Well, they will tremble again — at the sound of our silence.\"",
"Primarily because the US had the first man to the moon and Russia had the first man in space. Naturally, the US would want to emphasize the one that made them better. I imagine there were other reasons. For example, the first man on the moon was heavily publicized beforehand and broadcast live to the world. This would have gone badly had the mission ended in disaster, but the US put the extra effort in to make sure that most likely wouldn't happen. Russia didn't have the budget for that, so they had to perform the missions in secret until one of them succeeded."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
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