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13foyf
|
why is lying so hard?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13foyf/why_is_lying_so_hard/
|
{
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"c73kzbl",
"c73ljy0",
"c73llft",
"c73lska",
"c73mpa5",
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],
"score": [
10,
4,
6,
2,
3,
19,
2
],
"text": [
"Whoa, whoa there. Save that act for the job interview.",
"My ex-girlfriend would disagree with your position. ",
"I beg to differ.",
"Because you are being deceptive and you have a high value for honesty; a clash of emotions you haven't learnt to control.\n\nI think it also has something to do with the old fight or flight adage.\n\nYou are trying to convince yourself/others you have a chance (the deception) in the confrontational (fight) aspect of a bad situation. You approach a situation that you would otherwise try and avoid (flight response) and need chemicals like adrenalin to help with that because you know the likely outcome of which is not going to be great for you (the truth).",
"Because lying requires more brainpower than honesty. You have to construct the lie as you go.",
"**Think of what you truthfully had for breakfast this morning and say it out loud.**\n\nTelling the truth is simply recalling a memory or stored knowledge and as a result uses relatively little thinking power. Your brain should have come up with the answer to the above question in a moment with very few steps of logical thinking and reasoning.\n\n**Now, invent something you had for breakfast this morning and say out loud what it was.**\n\nThe first thing you'll notice is that you had to construct the visualization of the meal in your head and that unlike the real breakfast, it took more time for you to create these images. Your brain is going through all the processes involved in designing an imaginary breakfast: *What's a typical breakfast type food? What would this come with? How would I describe each food item and how much quantity is there? etc.* All of these thinking processes hold you up and creates a noticeable delay in your response. You're essentially creating a fake story and teaching yourself this new information, because you can't communicate an idea that you don't know or understand.\n\n**Now, invent something you had for breakfast this morning at a restaurant near your work and say it out loud.**\n\nNow your brain is starting to struggle. You need to locate restaurants around your work, imagine yourself inside one of them and construct a breakfast in front of you (not necessarily in that order). If you don't believe that your brain is trying to invent the whole story when creating this kind of lie ask yourself: after coming up with an answer, did you also decide which table you sat at? If so why? This kind of information is irrelevant to the question and not needed to tell the lie but your brain constructed it anyway. There are so many more variables and steps of logical deduction required to tell this kind of lie and it should be noticeably harder for you to come up with an answer - especially in a timely fashion similar to simply telling the truth.\n\n*In a sense, thinking of the truth takes you to a point of reference and all information sprouts outwards from there: the memory of your real breakfast branches outwards into all the aspects of the breakfast that your brain has already made associations with - the colours, the textures, its surroundings etc. Conversely, inventing a lie is going backwards: inventing breakfast begins with bits and pieces that you need to create and fit together into a whole - essentially starting at each branch-tip and working your way backwards to the trunk (or the essence of the idea itself.)*\n\n**TL:DR Telling the truth is comparatively easy because all the information is already there and your just making associations. Lying on the other hand is hard because you have to invent so much information and ensure it all makes sense and associates together.**",
"actually lying is the easiest thing you do. You do it all the time without even thinking about it. You lie on the phone you lie at work you lie online in fact your probably lying about it being hard for you to lie. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
84g0jg
|
cold chills
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84g0jg/eli5_cold_chills/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dvpb5i8"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It's largely a reaction to a sudden spike in adrenaline. When that happens your body will spontaneously fire many small muscles and nerves, just due to the overdose of adrenaline and it's metabolites. That's the creeping on your skin that you feel, often involuntary twitches at the same time. \n\nThe \"chill\" you feel is that one side effect of the bodies response to what it perceives as immediate danger and high adrenaline is to divert blood flow from the extremities to the core functions of large muscles, the brain and the bodies core. So, while your body is realizing what is going on, blood flow to your outer skin is reduced, causing a brief chill, but the majority of the \"shiver\" effect you feel is actually due to the nerves getting overstimulated on adrenaline. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
7xgwz9
|
what was the possible cause of the dancing plague ,and considering the fact that this disease was referred to as a "mania", was it a physical or mental disorder?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7xgwz9/eli5_what_was_the_possible_cause_of_the_dancing/
|
{
"a_id": [
"du86say"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Modern theories include (1) group poisoning with a naturally occurring chemical that can grow in rotting grain, (2) mass hysteria caused by recent problems in the area that had people afraid of starvation, and (3) encouragement from the authorities who strangely thought that encouraging it would stop it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
2amhvb
|
when you turn on a faucet only slightly, why is the stream clear, but when you turn it on full blast it's suddenly all white?
|
When I wash the dishes I usually turn the faucet on a low sort of setting. The water that streams out looks clear. However, if I put the faucet handle all the way up it looks as if the water is white and foaming. Why is there a difference?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2amhvb/eli5_when_you_turn_on_a_faucet_only_slightly_why/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ciwn16d"
],
"score": [
21
],
"text": [
"Your faucet has an aerator that sucks in more air as the water moves faster. That extra air's making it foamy and white. Low speed, low air, no white and foamy. Fast speed, more air, white and foamy. Take that aerator out and no white and foamy water.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2ue6xr
|
why do i get silly or weird when i'm really tired or otherwise sleep deprived?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ue6xr/eli5_why_do_i_get_silly_or_weird_when_im_really/
|
{
"a_id": [
"co7lcnz"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"I've actually read that being sleep deprived is like being drunk. \"After 17-19 hours without sleep, performance on some tests was equivalent or worse than that at a blood alcohol content of 0.05%\"\n\nHere is the link _URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1739867/"
]
] |
||
4ama3x
|
how do ip addresses work in e-mails?
|
I'm trying to understand why there are multiple IP addresses when I look at E-Mail headers. I have a few questions. Sorry that this is multi-part, but I don't understand it.
There is the X-Originating-IP and then several Received: from IPs. Which one is the one that is from the actual computer that the E-Mail was sent from? Why are there multiple others instead of a direct from the sender's IP to the receiver's IP? When looking at multiple E-Mails from the same person, why is the IP address slightly different? In a sequence of _URL_0_, sometimes the next one from the same person is AA.BBB.CCE.FF or something like that with very slight differences. What does that mean?
Thank you!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ama3x/eli5_how_do_ip_addresses_work_in_emails/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d11mzvx",
"d11n1fc"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Let's say you send a message from GMail to HotMail. Google and Microsoft both have lots of computers that handle that transfer. The server your GMail account is served by doesn't directly connect to the server handling your friend's HotMail account. Both Google and Microsoft like to route mail through control points to have centralized checks for stuff like SPAM. So your message chugs between a couple of GMail nodes before it get's to the point-of-presence for Google. This it goes across the Internet to the point-of-presence for Microsoft. Then it has to go through a set of gatekeepers, to make sure that it's not malware or SPAM, and then it finally comes to rest in the server assigned to your friend's account.",
"When you're a large organisation (e.g., google/gmail), you're going to have many email relays. Many. Every time your email passes through a relay, it gets another Received header (or it should, anyway). Same thing will happen on the other end - the destination's network might have many relays until it eventually drops the email in your mailbox. \n\nThis is why you're seeing similar IP addresses. I don't know why you're not seeing actual hostnames, but you can easily look up the IP addresses and see that they'll resolve to, say, `_URL_0_` and `_URL_1_` and so on.\n\nThis also explains why you'd see different originating addresses - an organisation might be load-balancing it's mail relays. \n\nAs to the sender's actual IP address... well, that depends on whether the mail client and server want to include that header, and what happens to it along the way. `X-Originating-IP` is *supposed* to be that, but... this is the internet, you can never be 100% sure. You can look it up and see if it resolves to a host that *might* belong to the sender (for example, if your aunt from Phoenix sends you an email, you can see if the IP resolves to an ISP in Phoenix). "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"AA.BBB.CCC.DD"
] |
[
[],
[
"mail-ob0-f178.google.com",
"mail-ob0-f175.google.com"
]
] |
|
3i605i
|
what is happening when my rice makes soapy looking bubbles?
|
_URL_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3i605i/eli5_what_is_happening_when_my_rice_makes_soapy/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cudmaya"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Its a property of starch. Has to do with how starch absorbs liquid and eventually bursts. I wish I had a better answer for you, but i'm mostly writing this to let you know the cause off it. I think you'd get a better answer if you asked why starch makes bubbles. Which I do not know."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://imgur.com/8KTJffc"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
40gqp3
|
why does food taste different when you first wake up?
|
For example, a taco for breakfast won't taste as good as it normally would for lunch.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40gqp3/eli5_why_does_food_taste_different_when_you_first/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cyu041r"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"While you are asleep you segregate a lower amount of saliva, therefore, depending on your mouth bacteria your pH will change, most likely becoming a bit acid. There's even some bacteria that when freed from saliva washing them over and over again will pile some sulfur around.\nAlso, you are socially pushed to think tacos are not proper breakfast, making it feel unsettling."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1nyi2w
|
what happens to ashes in the air?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nyi2w/eli5_what_happens_to_ashes_in_the_air/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ccn8oe5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Well, matter never disappears, it just changes in nature. Ashes eventually fall and become dirt. They say everyone inhales a speck of Julius Caesar's ghost every day now that he's been dead so long. Cool to think about sometimes. Complex."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
8fq2hd
|
how were clocks in different areas synced up before the days of instant communication?
|
Before you were able to phone someone to ask them what time it was, how did people know what time their clocks should be at? Or if they weren't synced up then wouldn't that make them pretty much useless?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fq2hd/eli5_how_were_clocks_in_different_areas_synced_up/
|
{
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"dy5k33h",
"dy5kfuh",
"dy5kg9o",
"dy5kptw",
"dy5v8pv"
],
"score": [
9,
5,
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Without instant communication, there really isn't much need for synchronized clocks at a distance because people couldn't interact with one another at a distance.\n\nImagine you're living in New York in the 19th century. Why would you care if the time in London was 'off' by 15 minutes? It would take you weeks of travel to get there - by which time you'd never notice the clocks were 'wrong'.",
"Simple: they weren't.\n\nMost people would sync their clock to noon, but that's not fully accurate and varies depending on where you are. This was before there were formal time or time zones. \n\nWhat made everyone fix their clocks to a common time? Trains. Because if the train departs at 12.05 and your clock doesn't match the station, you're going to miss your train. Railway companies pushed for a legally agreed time that ignored local noon. ",
"Before the days of telegraphy and rail travel, it wasn't necessary to have everything synced up. Each town had its own local time, travel took a long time in any case, and nobody really cared about the exact time. If you arranged to meet at a certain time, it didn't matter if you had to wait five or ten minutes.\n\nOnly seafarers really cared, because knowing the exact time was essential to navigating by the stars. They had special very accurate timepieces called chronometers, and they regulated them from time to time at observatories such as the one at Greenwich, London: astronomers would use a telescope to measure when the sun passed a specific point, and then operated a lever to cause a ball on a pole to drop. This would be visible to ships moored nearby, and they could use that to calibrate their chronometers.\n\nIt was the advent of the railways that made accurate timekeeping important for the general population. With high-speed travel now available, drawing up timetables when each stop was effectively in a different time zone was a nightmare. But by this time long-distance communication in the form of the telephone and wireless telegraphy had been invented, allowing railway companies to coordinate their clocks -- and yes, this was pretty much in the form of phoning up to synchronize clocks. This gave rise to \"railway time\", and pretty soon everyone else was using \"railway time\" which then became the standard time for the whole country.",
"Not simply synced up, with the advent of electronic clocks they ran on the supply frequency to stay true. In guessing position of sun would have generally been quite acceptable? ",
"They weren't. The telegraph was invented before standardized time was adopted. The railroad was the first industry that needed synchronization, but being a few seconds off communicating via telegraph was not a major problem. Before that you would sync your clock to the local clock tower which was synced to the sun at noon. There was a lot of variation and every area was different. And this was if you had a clock, which only the rich did. For most people you just went by the position of the sun in the sky. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
66el80
|
what would happen if the head of state of one country punched the head of state of another country in the face?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/66el80/eli5_what_would_happen_if_the_head_of_state_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dghxuu9"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"There is no set course of action in such an event. It would rely entirely on who punched who, and possibly why. I think the end result could be anything from the apocalypse to a few laughs over some tea. \n\nThere's not much for precedent."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
5yom5n
|
why does google offer services such as google photos, how do they benefit from hosting my personal images online for free?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yom5n/eli5_why_does_google_offer_services_such_as/
|
{
"a_id": [
"derp4uh",
"derpl8t",
"derq32r"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Personally, I believe they are building a face database. A database of faces gathered using facial recognition algorithms/software. There could be hundreds of reasons why they would benefit from a database like this. ",
"It ties you into the google ecosystem. Google Photos works great with Android phones (you probably have an Android). Maybe you'll buy a ChromeCast to view photos on your TV. They can upsell Google Drive so that you can store them at full quality.",
"Have you noticed how Google Photos groups your photos by who is in them? Like /u/leonardo_pothead pointed out, this uses Google's facial recognition software, and when you go through and mark results there as being incorrect, Google takes that into account in order to improve the software.\n\nAnd this doesn't just go for photos. You can search for other objects like dogs, cats, birds, cars, trucks, and this all improves Google's recognition software. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
86qwaj
|
how do we know what is at the bottom of the ocean (e.g. anglerfish)?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86qwaj/eli5_how_do_we_know_what_is_at_the_bottom_of_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dw76nqt",
"dw76pmh"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Because people have been there in submarines/submersibles, as well as having sent remote-controlled vehicles down there with lights and cameras.",
"Deep sea probing using submarines that are able to withstand the pressure (typically remote controlled with a camera on them). Also sometimes miraculously corpses from deep sea creatures survive all the predatory and scavenger fish and floats to the surface where someone catches sight of it. \n\nThere's still a ton out there we don't know about. Based on the [US National Ocean Service](_URL_0_), humanity's only actually \"explored\" about 5% of the ocean floor, so there's still potentially quite a lot to discover. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html"
]
] |
||
77kffa
|
us television question
|
Hello!
So I do not live in the United States but was wondering how exactly does the television work there? As far as I know, there are four major networks: NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox with the CW being the fifth largest. Hoeever, I don't really understand what are "pay networks" like HBO or Showtime. Could someone please explain this to me?
Edit: thanks for the explanations everyone! I get it now
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/77kffa/eli5_us_television_question/
|
{
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"domkzez",
"doml8bh",
"doo5aqv"
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4,
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2
],
"text": [
"The major networks are broadcast \"over the air\" and for free. They don't require a cable box or subscription. Other channels require a monthly subscription and a \"box\" to view. Basically we pay for commercials on 999 channels. ",
"There are a few channels that are free to access, these are broadcast or \"over the air.\" They are publicly transmitted and can be received by anyone. You can subscrive to other content by signing up with a telecom. These involve the company selling you a package with multiple channels, and you connect a reciever to your TV to access them. The cost is something like $40 for a basic package, or $120 for one with tons of channels. Every company will have different packages.\n\n\nThere are a few subscription channels such as HBO or Showtime you can pay to access their content, regardless of your package. You get the programs they offer for something like $15 a month.\n\n\nThe packages I mentioned earlier may have one or more of these included. Most basic packages don't include sports channels, or the premium channels such as HBO. ",
"The US has the following types of channels:\n\n- Network - these are free channels like NBC, FOX, and ABC. They are broadcast from individual cities and anyone with an antenna can access them. They have both local content (such as the city's news broadcasts) and network content. Local channels generally choose their own schedule, except for major network programs. For example: one local FOX channel might show daily Simpsons reruns at 6:00 pm and a FOX in another city might show Simpsons reruns at 7:00 pm, but all the FOX channels will broadcast the new episode at 8:00 pm on Sunday night. \n\n- Cable - these are mostly national subscription channels broadcast by various companies delivered via a cable line. You pay for a package that includes a group of channels you can watch. For example, you might get the basic package with the most common cable channels, a sports package giving sports from all around the country, a movie package giving movie channels, Spanish channels, etc. These have national content: AMC will show the same shows in California as it does in New York.\n\n- Premium - these are cable channels not included in standard cable packages that require an individual subscription. These channels can show content otherwise not allowed on regular tv, such as foul language, nudity, excessive violence, and pornography, and generally have uncut movies as well. HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax are examples of these channels. \n\n- Pay-Per-View - these channels offer sales of individual movies and events for a one-time fee. This used to be a common way to watch movies and certain sporting events such as boxing matches. It has been pretty much replaced by On Demand, which is a digital library offered by a cable company that offers pay and free streaming content. \n\n- Streaming - these are not actually channels but internet apps that can be watched on a tv. Examples include Netflix, Hulu, and HBOGO/HBO Now. They are streaming services like On Demand, but are paid via subscription and include movies and original content, much like premium channels. They are gradually replacing premium channels, which is why some premium channels like HBO are converting to streaming. For many people, streaming is replacing cable altogether. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
e8mvuc
|
how chemical burns work
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e8mvuc/eli5_how_chemical_burns_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fad93o1",
"fad956q",
"fadafkr"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Chemical burns are a variety of different forms of damage caused by chemicals (as opposed to heat). Typically, it comes from damage to your cells caused by chemicals ranging from desiccants to acids.",
"We are organic matter. Certain chemicals destroy organic matter. Thus, when we come in contact with the chemical, it destroys our flesh.",
"Tldr: The chemicals either cause heat that burns you or react with your nerves to trick them into thinking it's hot.\n\n\nChemical burns are caused by very reactive (caustic) chemicals getting onto bare or under protected skin. Once on the skin they begin reacting with various different things on, in, or under your skin. Due the extremely vast range of potential chemicals and reactions that could and will take place it's almost impossible to narrow it down too much but generally it falls into three categories.\n\nCategory 1 \nA chemical reacts with something on or in your skin that produces heat (exothermic). This heat then gets detected by the nerve endings and the body then reacts similarly to a regular burn you might get from a hot pan etc.\n\nAn example of this might be waving your hand through a fire. This is technically a chemical burn but probably not what most people think of when they hear the term, but I'm tired and that's the only one I could think of right now.\n\nCategory 2\nA chemical that reacts with the material of your skin and/or the nerve endings themselves. Some of these reactions actually cool the skin (for example hydrogen peroxide {~36% not the typical drug store stuff that's ~3%}) but can still be very painful and produce notable discoloration etc. which we call a burn since that's the closest thing that we can use to describe it. As having had some minor chemical burns, I can testify that while it may not be hot it definitely feels similar to a burn and is not exactly fun.\n\nAnother example of one of these is sodium hydroxide (lye), while the reaction is technically exothermic it's not really enough to be noticeable, usually. The lye actually takes and starts turning the fat in and under your skin into soap which is both cool and horrifying but explains why it would hurt.\n\nCategory 3\nBasically a mixture of Categories 1 and 2. \n\nAn example of this would be some of the Lewis super acids along with super strong oxidizers (particularly oxidizers that have the potential to create a pure oxygen environment such as Potassium permanganate). Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) could actually react so violently that it could set your actual skin on fire. Side note it's also a very pretty purple color."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3y4w0a
|
why do people prefer "judeo-christian" over "abrahamic"?
|
The first one kind of excludes Muslims and if that's your intent I don't understand. All 3 religions believe in the same god and all of their differences are being effectively ignored for whatever purpose you're grouping them together for anyways. Also IMO after studying all 3 to some extent I see far more parallels between Islam and Christianity than either of the 2 with Judaism. Where's the stigma coming from?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y4w0a/eli5_why_do_people_prefer_judeochristian_over/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cyajwy2",
"cyajxt2",
"cyakcaw",
"cyakcs6",
"cyatsba"
],
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10,
2,
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"From a pseudo historical standpoint Jewish and Christians wouldn't accept Islam because its claim to the Abrahamic lineage is based on Ishmael (eldest son, but born to a slave). Whereas Jewish and Christians trace themselves thru Isaac. Islam and Jewish/Christians disagree which son was almost sacrificed (others disagree if this is even a significant point).",
"It is necessary to make a distinction, actually, between Judeo-Christian and Muslim. While they all have AN antecedent in Abraham, Islam rejects both Judaism and Christianity. Abrahamic would properly only refer to a state/history of religion before Jesus and Mohammed.\n\nIn fact, Abraham came before Moses, so Abrahamic would refer to the state of Judaism before the Ten Commandments. And if we decided to call it Mosaic, a whole bunch of people would think we were talking about pictures made out of little pieces of tile.",
"Because that's what's been used for a while now to describe American culture or values, which are based on Jewish and Christian ideas/beliefs. Muslim ideas/beliefs tend to be excluded from that, rightly or wrongly. But people are trying to get them included by using the term Abrahamic instead, rightly or wrongly.\n\n_URL_0_",
"There's a few things at work.\n\nA big one is that Jews & Christians actually share a holy book. The Old Testament is (roughly) the same as the Torah. The Quran is a completely different text.\n\nAnother big factor is that Jews have lived around Christians in Western civilization for centuries while Muslims are still an incredibly small minority that has only recently begun moving into western Europe & America.",
"In the context in which it is usually used, it is correct as Judeo-Christian. This is because it is usually used to refer to the \"Judeo-Christian\" values or tradition. They're referring to the European religious tradition, which is largely Christian, plus Jewish via Christianity's origins in Judaism. Islam's teachings and beliefs are much less well-known and historically had much less influence. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judeo-Christian"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
b36p2x
|
how do cars convert fuel to motion?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b36p2x/eli5_how_do_cars_convert_fuel_to_motion/
|
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"In short [fuel and air explode in the cylinder forcing the pistons down which turn the crankshaft](_URL_0_), then the rotation of the crankshaft is translated to the wheels via gears and axles. ",
"Pretty sure my explanation is oversimplified but here goes:\n\nFuel goes into the engine. The pistons (3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 or 12) with up and down motion cause combustion when put under pressure.\n\nThe moving pistons move through a transmission and then an axle, which leads the power to the wheels, forward or in reverse.\n\nWould be happy to hear feedback on my explanation, or corrections where needed.\n\n",
"It burn the fuel with air. This creates a lot of hot expanding gasses. As the gasses expand they push on a piston. The piston is connected to a crankshaft and will turn this crankshaft around as it gets pushed by the gasses."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crankshaft#/media/File:Cshaft.gif"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
90csgw
|
how our electric devices acurately tell us the percentage of battery life.
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/90csgw/eli5_how_our_electric_devices_acurately_tell_us/
|
{
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"text": [
"Batteries have known characteristics as they deplete, dependent on cell type, age, and quantity ( _URL_0_ ). Voltage in a battery will slowly decline at a predictable rate until it becomes too low to be useful (depleted).\n\nIn addition, devices are decent at self-measurement of current draw, and can extrapolate a decent estimate of battery life based off of current draw and the observed voltage of the battery, which tells the device roughly where the battery is on its discharge curve.",
"Usually they measure voltage. Voltage will drop as you discharge the battery: _URL_0_\n\nHowever, voltage will also (temporarily) drop the more current you draw and the colder it is. Of course you can measure current and temperature and correct for these effects, but it increases complexity.\n\nDuring charging the voltage will be a bit higher (~0.1V) than if it’s disconnected. That’s why you sometimes see a sudden jump in devices which don’t take this into account.\n\nI think some devices (e.g. Lenovo Thinkpads) measure the electric energy going in and out of the battery (i.e. measure battery voltage and current, multiply them and integrate the result over time), which allows them to provide more accurate readings. The downside is that they have to be “recalibrated” by discharging and then fully charging the battery from time to time.\n\nWikipedia article listing the different approaches: _URL_1_",
"Voltage is easy to measure, and will drop as battery charge drops. Your 3v battery isn't exaclty 3v, it starts higher & ends lower "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.mpoweruk.com/performance.htm"
],
[
"http://siliconlightworks.com/image/data/Info_Pages/Li-ion%20Discharge%20Voltage%20Curve%20Typical.jpg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_charge"
],
[]
] |
|
3anfxl
|
how do they get the crane down? (pic in description)
|
_URL_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3anfxl/eli5_how_do_they_get_the_crane_down_pic_in/
|
{
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"text": [
"[This](_URL_0_) post was from a year ago, so feel free to check it out. But here's the top comment from the post if you're feeling lazy.\n\n > When a tall building, the crane is quite literally dismantled... piece by piece. Most cranes are designed to be easily taken apart. Usually the large crane will hoist up a smaller crane that is connected to the top of the skyscraper. This allows workers to detach pieces of the primary crane and slowly lower them back down to the ground. The mast itself and the base of the crane are lowered down by the same hydraulic rams that lifted them up, with each level of the mast being taken apart before the base is lowered.\nTo remove the second crane, a third crane is often sent up, even smaller, to lower the pieces of the second crane down. This third crane is small enough to be taken apart by hand and removed through lift shafts or other inner passageways, leaving the skyscraper intact and all the crane pieces disassembled on the ground.\nSometimes cranes at the center of complicated tall buildings cannot be removed like this and in those cases the pieces are taken away by powerful helicopters, although this is a much rarer method."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://i.imgur.com/6MvPHeR.jpg"
] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24yw4e/eli5_how_do_engineers_remove_the_cranes_on/?sort=top"
]
] |
|
6c5qa2
|
what are the tiny black box-y outlines that look like pixels on every screen?
|
I don't mean I have a technical issue, I just can't correctly phrase it to google it. I'm talking about the mesh like filter on most older, or lower end screens for tv's and monitors that you can see when inspecting up close. I would assume they are what physically houses pixels, but I've seen things without them. does any of this make sense?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c5qa2/eli5_what_are_the_tiny_black_boxy_outlines_that/
|
{
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"text": [
"Those are the actual gaps between the diodes. Older televisions weren't able to make them quite as small as we can now, so you could physically see the spaces between them.\n\nNow televisions and monitors have pixel density as high as 110 per inch. They're real small.",
"I'm old enough to have started an answer on what they are on [CRT TVs.](_URL_0_)\n\nLinked in case you kids are young enough to have never seen one \n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube"
]
] |
|
8fb4ux
|
why does earth consistently stay in orbit in relation to the sun? or are we in a constant falling motion towards it that will consume us one day?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8fb4ux/eli5_why_does_earth_consistently_stay_in_orbit_in/
|
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"We are in a constant falling motion, yes. But we are also in a constant sideways motion as well. Both of these affect each other such that instead of falling *toward* the sun, we fall *around* it.\n\nIf our sideways motion were to slow down, we'd fall in. If our sideways motion were to speed up, we'd spiral away.\n\nAs far as we can tell, the Earth orbit is stable, neither collapsing or spiralling away. By contrast, the Moon is slowly moving away from us and, on a long enough timeline, will no longer orbit Earth.\n\nBased on what we know, the Earth will continue to orbit the sun until the sun evolves into the Red Giant stage where it will most likely consume the Earth.",
"technically the latter, but the earth is really big and there is almost nothing in space slowing us down. Timescale wise its like how your continent may one day collide with another one (only longer) so don't worry about it.\n\nbasically we are constantly falling towards the sun, but we are also twirling around it, if our twirling slows down then we will get closer, but we only slow down if we hit things, and we don't really hit things.\n\nnot to mention even if we did they are tiny things, Its like one of those old timey circus acts where they drove the motor cycle around the wall, bu the only thing that could slow us down was hitting flies on the way.",
"It’s called “orbit.” We are being pulled towards the sun. However, we are going so fast laterally that by the time we reach the point where we would have impacted it we have already escaped to the side. Essentially, we are constantly falling towards the sun but also constantly “missing” it. Eventually our orbit would decay to the point where we do collide with the sun, but this will take so long that the sun itself will die before that actually happens.",
" > Why does Earth consistently stay in orbit in relation to the sun?\n\nBecause, on anything other than ridiculously colossal time scales, there's really nothing to slow us down. An object in motion continues to stay in motion. For the Earth to move out of its orbit, some force would have to shove it.\n\n\n > Or are we in a constant falling motion \n\nAn orbit *is* a constant falling motion.\n\nWe are falling sideways so fast that we miss the sun constantly. Our 'down' changes such that we go in a continual circle around it. \n\nIf you could put up some sort of magical volleyball net and stop our 'forward' momentum, the Earth wouldn't just sit still in space. It would plummet into the sun. Just as a satellite would plummet into the Earth if you did the same thing here.\n\n\n",
"the answers here are all spot on. the only thing i'd like to add is, in the formation of the solar system, there were ALOT more bodies orbiting the sun... lots collided together, forming larger planets. the ones going too fast escaped and were never seen again. the ones going too slow had deteriorating orbits (like in your question) and \"crashed\" into the sun. \n\nthe only reason we see planets with stable orbits is the fact that unstable orbits don't last for long. after 4.5 billion years, all the unstable orbiting bodies are long gone, one way or the other.\n\nso, no, the earth's orbit will not degrade enough to fall into the sun, or it would have billions of years ago. since there isn't really anything to slow you down in space, a stable orbit can stay that way for an insane amount of time. ",
"To give a little more visual context as to how it works, imagine if you dropped a heavy ball (the Sun) in the center of a trampoline. The fabric (Spacetime Fabric) would push down in the centre tilting the sides of the trampoline.\n\nIf I took a tennis ball (planet) and put them on the edge of the trampoline and let go, the tennis ball will just fall towards the bowling ball.\n\nNow instead of just letting it go, if I give it a sideways push, the ball will spiral around the trampoline until it finally falls to the center. If you could push the ball hard enough and maintain its speed somehow, the tennis ball would never fall to the center.\n\nSo the Earth is constantly falling towards to the Sun because of the gravity well created by the Suns mass, but Earths angular velocity is great enough to prevent its orbit from degrading."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
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[],
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||
3mkykr
|
why are there such massive size varieties in other species, but humans are generally all the same size?
|
I saw the Kraken on the golf course video and it got me thinking. Cats range from domestic house cats to Tigers/Lion. Dogs vary from chihuahua to Great Dane. Octopi/squids can fit in the palm of your hand or can be up to eight times the size of the human. Primates can be anywhere from tiny Pygmy Marmoset to a male silverback.
And then compare that to most species of the *Homo* genus, who all average generally 5-6' feet tall, and there aren't really any "outlying" species there unless you go ridiculously far back in time. Granted, yes, there are massively tall and short humans, but they are not at all common enough to throw off the average and aren't counted as a new species.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mkykr/eli5_why_are_there_such_massive_size_varieties_in/
|
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"Animals come (exist currently) in different breeds, humans don't (unless dead people count)\n\nTechnically humans do have different species, they are just all extinct.\n\nI think great apes are technically hominids also, they are our cousins\n\n",
"Dog breeds are selectively bred by humans to be very different. \n\nOtherwise your referring to other species is comparing *different species*. Domestic cats, lions and tigers are all *different species*, not the same species. They are comparable how humans, chimpanzees and gorillas are of different size. So if you compare cats to tigers and lions, you should compare humans to chimpanzees and gorillas. Or if you compare human size variation within human species, you should just look at the variation within lions. Not take tigers or domestic cats into comparison, as they are different species.\n\nJust like cats come in different sizes, so do great apes. Great apes like gorillas, humans, chimpanzees and orangutans are all very different.",
"You're counting all cat species against a single human species. If you consider humans in the class of primates, you have to include huge ones like the [eastern gorilla](_URL_1_) gorillas and the smallest ones like the [tarsier](_URL_0_). "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_tarsier",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_gorilla"
]
] |
|
1p6e5w
|
why can you inhale cigarette smoke, but not cigar smoke?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1p6e5w/eli5_why_can_you_inhale_cigarette_smoke_but_not/
|
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"You *can* inhale cigar smoke. If you are man enough.",
"I believe you can, it's just that cigar smoke tends to be rougher and thicker as there is no filter. Also, a cigar contains *a lot* more tobacco, therefore nicotine. If you do inhale a full cigar, you'll probably get slight nicotine poisoning, and you'll just feel nauseous and light headed if you are not used to smoking. There's no more danger in inhaling cigar smoke than cigarette smoke.\n\nAlso, cigars tend to have more enriched and fuller flavors for the reason that they are considered to be a delicacy to be tasted, not smoked for a nicotine fix.\n\nSource: myself, inhaled an entire cigar.",
"You're supposed to get a nice big hit off the cigar, roll it around in your mouth, and exhale. The thick cigar smoke mixes with your saliva, you get tasty tobacco. When you swallow your tobacco saliva, you get tasty nicotine belly. Inhaling is a really crude way to enjoy it by comparison.",
"Cigarettes are designed to be inhaled, where as cigars are not. That does not mean you could not miss-use a cigar and inhale it; it just means that you will probably not enjoy the experience of doing so.\n\nThis is also why cigarettes are much more addictive and dangerous than most other forms of tobacco use. Inhalation of tobacco smoke brings the nicotine to the bloodstream in a fast and intense manner, while also depositing all kinds of nasty extra stuff in your throat and lungs.\n\nEdit & Note: I used the term \"tobacco use\" to differentiate from \"miss-use\" (i.e. inhaling cigars). You guys posting about inhaling cigars should really reconsider your actions, you will not look manly with one lung missing and a ~~trachea~~ tracheotomy sticking out of your neck.\n\nEdit: Better?",
"You're not supposed to inhale them? Oh fuck me...",
"The greater harshness of inhaled cigar smoke compared to cigarettes is a product of their respective tobacco curing processes. Cigar tobacco is air-cured. Cigarette tobacco is generally flue-cured. This results in a significantly different product. A health psychology professor of mine described the discovery of the flue curing process as \"the worst advance in human knowledge\" because it is gentler and greatly increased uptake of smoking around the world.",
"Cigars as someone else mentioned are to be tasted, the smoke absorbs through your mouth. Your cheeks, gums, tongue. Its a gradual climb in nicotine delivery. Thats why real cigars last such a long time, they are meant to be enjoyed. Inhaling the smoke is quite unpleasant, it's a very harsh smoke. It can be especially bad if you get it in your eyes. \n\nThere's a ton more tobacco in cigars. But inhaling dreadful cigar smoke just to do it is going to wreak havoc on your lungs. Thats like an alcoholic drinking listerine without a second thought because they are used to alcohol. Doesn't mean it's good or should be done imo. If it absorbs through your mouth, that should be 'nuff said'. ",
"Generally cigarette smoke is acidic and does not absorb as well through the membranes in the mouth as it does in the lungs. Smoke from cigars, pipe tobacco and snuff/chewing tobacco is alkaline and absorbs well through the membrane in the mouth. I suppose it would still absorb well in the lungs also but that would be a waste of money... Like cigarettes. I really should quit smoking them.\n\nSource:\n_URL_0_",
"Because we are not Wolverine.",
"You can do what ever you want. Don't tell me how to live my life.",
"I dont smoke and i had no idea people didnf inhale cigars. ",
"It's not that can't inhale cigar smoke, you just don't really want to. There are people who do though. If you want to test the water a bit rip the filter off a non menthol cigarette and take a big ol' hit than imagine that X's 4 or 5. ",
"I was under the impression that cigar smoke is much more acidic than cigarette smoke- and therefore more damaging to your lungs/general insides. ",
"But I did not inhale\n\n",
"I inhale cigars when I smoke them. Not a deep drag like on a cigarette, though. I have never gotten ill from doing this, just a slight lightheadedness every now and then. I'm an infrequent enough smoker, and in comparison to what I do to my liver, inhaling cigars seems almost healthy",
"You can inhale both if you shake the sand out of your vagina.",
"It ruins the taste of the cigar if you inhale. What you want to do is savor the tobacco on your tastebuds. That's the point of it all. You can inhale but it most definitely would ruin the experience.",
"I was in a meeting at a state capitol where a tobacco industry lobbyist was defending 20-packs of little filtered cigars (like Remingtons or Santa Fes) as being totally different from 20-packs of filtered cigarettes. This is the gist of his explanation for filters on little cigars:\n\nSmoke is harsh. The hotter the smoke, the harsher it is. Cigarettes, filtered cigars, cigars with wood or plastic tips, and hookah all have a barrier or intermediary between combustion and the user's throat, cooling the smoke somewhat before it hits your throat and lungs. \"Premium\" cigars don't have something like that, so the smoke enters your body at a higher temperature.\n\nOf course the actual reason the tobacco industry wanted those little cigars on the shelf is because you just had to take a normal cigarette, mix a little tobacco leaf into the paper, and voila - it turns into a cigar under the definition the state used. This meant they would be taxed at the cigar rate, not the much higher cigarette rate. Cheaper tobacco = deeper addiction.",
"I didn't know that. So what exactly are you doing with the cigar if you're not inhaling it? Lighting one end and sucking on the other?",
"You can if you're not a pussy",
"I make cigars for a living.\nThe case is not that you CANT. \nTraditionally cigars are not inhaled (to the lungs) and that is the consensus. Even though some people regularly \"retro-hale\" meaning they blow smoke from the back of the mouth, up through the nasal passages and through the nose.\nI inhale every few puffs and am used to it and dont have any problems. Saying \"nicotine poisoning\" would not be accurate but it does feel that way to people who arent used to it. It feels very strong because its a lot more tobacco than a normal cigarette. \nI do believe its less \"dangerous\" than a cigarette because its an all natural process. No \"chemicals\" are used as it is normally done with cigarettes and flavoring.\n\nThis is my view on it as I make premium hand made cigars. Not flavored or machine made.\n\nHope this helps.",
"You *can* inhale cigar smoke but its not pleasant at all. This is because of the type of tobacco in each; not because there's more tobacco in a cigar (you still burn the same amount per drag.) or because the cigar isnt filtered (there are many unfiltered cigarettes that are easy to inhale.).\n\nthe cigar tobacco is especially hard to inhale because of the leaf used. on a tobacco plant each row of leaves as you go up the plant has different minerals and properties. cigarettes generally use the top leaves while cigars use the bottoms ones (called 4th or 5th prime and 1st prime, respectively). The 1st prime leaves in cigars tend to have a lot more minerals and nicotine, giving the tobacco better and, most importantly, **stronger** flavors. the higher prime leaves give less flavor and are much lower quality, therefore they are used for cigarettes and cheap cigarillos.",
"You can it's just that SPLARRRRRRFFFF! ",
"Do you know what really worked for me in quitting cigarettes? Weed. Lungfuls of that sweet smoke, pure, no tobqcco, sometimes an edible, it really helped with the cravings for nicotine.",
"I didn't know you're not supposed to inhale cigar smoke....\n\nI still don't get it though... how do you get the cigar vapors in your mouth without inhaling them into your lungs too?",
"The amount of misinformation in this thread is pretty frightening. All these smokers saying \"I quit cigarettes\" that may be true in the physical form, but you are still ADDICTED TO NICOTINE. Even with a vaporizer, it's still an addiction, you will always, always ride the lows and highs of nicotine withdrawal. I think a good portion of the commentors in this thread would be well over at /r/stopsmoking ",
"You can inhale cigar smoke. About 30% of the cigar smokers I know inhale. Why in the hell would you think that you CAN'T inhale cigar smoke? You're not getting the full effect or the full experience of a wonderfully hand crafted artisan cigar if you're not inhaling."
]
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[] |
[] |
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||
rdr32
|
cold reading and hot reading.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/rdr32/eli5_cold_reading_and_hot_reading/
|
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"After looking up to make sure I had an understanding of things I can say this: There are two types of Cold and Hot readings. Both mean the same thing at it basic bits. One is used in Theater and the other used in Communications. \n\nA Cold Reading is a \"reading\" (depends on the usage in theater or Communication readings.) done without prior knowledge. In Communication, it would be words used to draw usable info out. In Theater the person would read from the script and most likely not have read any of it prior. \n\nA Hot Reading occurs with prior knowledge. In Communication, this means the person knows key info to help them. In Theater the person knows the script and has no need to read from it during a rehearsal. \n\nAfter thinking about what I thought it was and googling it, I was taken to wikipedia. There is a division between the Communication and the Theater side. Communication portion us done live, such as psychic shows. Theater readings are done in rehearsal. \n\nHope this helped. I know I learned something. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
8e3g2h
|
why is listening to sad music when sad so comforting?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8e3g2h/eli5_why_is_listening_to_sad_music_when_sad_so/
|
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"Because it’s a relatable feeling. When you listen to sad music it’s like someone else is feeling the way you do. Your not alone. ",
"It helps you to realize that what you're going through is universal. You are not alone in this. We've all been there and it gets better ",
"Misery loves company.\n\nThis phrase has existed for a long time and I've always taken it to mean that when you're down a little sympathy helps.",
"It's cathartic, which basically means its relatable and comforting in that it helps your mind deal and release the emotions and feelings. Catharsis is the same reason stories are fun to hear and read or movies enjoyable to watch. They provide a safe excursion for the mind to relate.",
"Most sad songs aren't JUST sad. They give some meaning to the sadness--like, they are sad and beautiful, or sad and comforting, or sad and profound.\n\n",
"I guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain, and ironing out the rough spots is the hardest part when memories remain. It's times like these when we all need to hear the radio, because from the lips of some old singer we can share the troubles we already know.\n\nSo turn them on.",
"It's called \"The Paradox of Tragedy\", and a lot of smart people, including Hume, have thought quite a bit about this!\n\nThere is no clear solution to this yet, but it might be because listening to other people have a bad time makes us feel like our own problems are not so bad, and we're not the only ones with problems. \n\nThe fact that we can kind of experience another person's pain, but at the same time know that we're not in real pain or danger ourselves, might make us slightly happy too, because it's a great way to train and learn and prepare for when tragedy strikes ourselves.",
"It has the exact opposite effect on me. I do 'like' to listen to sad songs when I'm feeling down, but that's not the wisest thing to do because it tends to make me feel even more sad. It's weird.",
"Reminds you that you’re not the only one going through things. Also focuses your mind on the music, rather than the thing that made you sad in the first place. ",
"Much for the same reason listening to happy music while happy is a great feeling, and cranking the death metal when you're pissed off.\n\nBonus LPT: When you get into someone's car or they have music on at their place, the tone of the music playing is a great indicator to their own mood.",
"As well as the feeling of not being alone, it gives my current situation context, and it makes it mean more than the malaise I am feeling. I look at it as the soundtrack to what is going on. \n\nBasically, music is a vehicle for the soul. Much like a bus will take your physical body from point A to Point B, music accomplished the same for the spirit/heart/soul, whatever you choose to call the mixture of feelings and thoughts which accompany a mood.\n\nSad songs while feeling sad, is other passengers on the bus, a chorus of voices headed in the same direction. Also why listening to sad music can increase the misery.\n\nMusic can change a mood, provided I start from a neutral position. Angry music, peaceful music, sad or melancholy music. \n\nIt’s just a means to get from one “place” emotionally to “another” or a means to commiserate if i’m already there, to bring more folks in, as it were.",
"When my depression gets bad I listen to a lot of emo music. I like it? But apparently it makes it worse.",
"Humans are social creatures, not solitary in general. When we are feeling strong emotions especially. Sadness brings with it a feeling of solitude and vulnerability, so even if nothing can change the sadness, we are at least comforted by others’ also feeling sadness, because psychologically it at least relieves the solicitude.\n\nOne of my favorite sayings to display true friendship is:\n* A man was walking downtown and accidentally fell into a very deep hole. He cried for help. Lots of people saw him as they walked by, some just looked, some tried to help-they tried to reach out their hand, but they could not reach far enough, some gave advice but none of it solved the problem. One brought a ladder, but it was too short. The man grew very scared, tired, hungry, sad and hopeless. Finally an old friend walked by, saw that nothing was working, so he eventually crawled in the hole and sat along side the man. And the man was happy.*",
"It isn't for me. When i am sad I need to listen to metal. Getting pumped up makes me feel better about myself. ",
"Playing happy music when you're sad would make things worse, it's like being lonely at Christmas ",
"I also feel comforted by sad music when im sad, but I also like listening to I'm happy. I guess it makes me feel good because I'm like \"hey I'm thankful that I'm not feeling like this person.\" "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
7lvdsf
|
how do liquid crystal displays (lcds) work?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lvdsf/eli5_how_do_liquid_crystal_displays_lcds_work/
|
{
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"drpcu5v",
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"text": [
"Basically, there is a backlight behind everything. Infront of the backlight are 3 layers of 'pixels', red, green and blue. Each pixel in each layer allows light (from the backlight) through when a electrical current is passed through (or in some cases, not passed through). These colours 'mix' and through the help of a polarising filter you get what you see on your monitor.",
"Let's look at light. Light can be thought of as a series of waves. Normally, the waves are moving at all sorts of angles. You can pass light through a *polarizing filter* which straightens out the light waves in one plane. It does this by blocking the some of the light and letting only some through. Sort of like having messy hair and then combing it straight. If you take 2 polarizing filters, but turn the second one 90 degrees, you can effectively block *all* the light. Got it? Ok. Years ago, smart researchers figured out a way to make a material polarize light when electricity was run through it. This was \nliquid crystal\" . Power off= no polarize. Power on: polarize. So, combine that material with a normal polarizing filter (turned 90 degrees!) and you have created an electric light blocker! \n\nSo, now you have a way to block light. Take 3 very small versions of this (call them LCD pixels)... and put a red, green, and blue filter in front of them. When you put light behind it and turn off the power to the 3 pixels, the light from behind shines through and lights up all 3... producing red/green/blue light...which you see as white light. Now, power up the pixels. You can now block the light selectively. If you have enough of them (large LCD display) , and a way to control them (computer/electronics) you can create any image you want.\n\n",
"I'm going to talk about the plain gray/black LCD displays, like you'd see on an old-school digital watch or calculator.\n\nLiquid crystals only allow light to pass that is oriented in a particular direction, but that direction changes when electricity is applied to the crystals. On top of the crystals, there is a piece of glass that also only allows light with a particular orientation to pass through, but electricity doesn't change that direction.\n\nWhen the electricity is off, those two directions line up, so that light in that direction can pass through. But when the electricity is on, the two directions that can pass are far different from each other, so the light that can pass through the glass can't pass through the LCD, and vice versa, which means that the combination of the two of them is opaque.\n\nIn practice, the crystals are contained in a substrate that keeps them in particular locations, each of which can be electrified individually. They have tiny, nearly invisible wires running to each of those locations to provide the electricity.",
"Next time you’re at the store, take 2 pairs of polarized sun glasses and look through two while rotating. At one angle you’ll be able to see through, at another it will black out.\n\nThe backlight of an LCD is polarized and then each pixel is made up of red, green, and blue filters that also have little liquid crystal cells that rotate the angle of polarization when a current runs through them so the can let through the light, block some of the light, or block nearly all the light depending on the current.",
"Fun fact: the liquid crystal is derived from protein in carrots. Also, they have been around for a long time. I can't remember the exact date they were discovered, but they are quite old. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
202o8i
|
why do dictators pretend to run democracies? do they really fool anyone?
|
Kim Jong-un was elected with 100% of the vote. You're required by law to vote and if you vote for anyone other than him you have to explain your decision to some government officials. Then you likely disappear. Why do dictators pretend to be democratically elected? Do the citizens who live there really think this is a free election? What does the dictator gain by it? Couldn't he just abolish all elections and rule forever anyway?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/202o8i/eli5why_do_dictators_pretend_to_run_democracies/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cfz87es"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"You gain a sense of legitimacy when you are 'elected'; all leaders need legitimacy or their authority will immediately come into question. For example, the king (or queen) of ~~England~~ The United Kingdom gains his or her legitimacy from god. In other words, all their power is supposedly given to them by god, which theoretically justifies any laws or taxes they might pass. So If anyone questions the king's authority, the king simply says \"God gives me authority, who could possibly dispute god, so who could possibly dispute what I say.\"\n\n In other countries, the people wont tolerate something so arbitrary. For example, Obama theoretically gets power from the people. People vote, the electors are distributed based on the people who voted, and Obama is elected. That way, when he wants to do something, like pass a law or sign a bill, and someone disputes his authority, then he simply points out that the people elected him and that he won a fair election according to the constitution of the United States. Who could possibly dispute the will of the people?\n\nIts the same in North Korea. Except its not entirely necessary, because in actuality Kim Jong gets his power from Ak-47s and surplus soviet military equipment, but thats neither here nor there.\n\nTLDR: Kim Jong seems more legitimate if he can pretend the people accepted him as their leader.\n\nEdit: Fixed being an ignorant American."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2c8z1a
|
why does beef jerky have significantly lower cholesterol, fat, and calories as compared to steak, ground beef, and other beef products?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2c8z1a/eli5_why_does_beef_jerky_have_significantly_lower/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cjd3bvv"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"1. You generally \"jerky\" the leaner cuts and you certainly trim it before you dry it. The fatty bits make some nasty-ass jerky.\n\n2. It's caloric value is the same, other than the absence of the fat. A gram of fat has 9 calories. A gram of protein has 4.\n\n5. ground beef is typically 15% fat, lean ground beef is often 90%.\n\n6. Guess where the cholesterol is? :) FAT.\n\nYou _can_ eat steak that has the profile of jerky (and without the salt and often the MSG!) if you were to eat cuts like the filet/tenderloin. Plus...that cut make help you lose weight by removing all that heavy cash from your wallet. (there are lots of other lean cuts as well, but...they require more cooking to get them tender/edible/tasty)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
33qvqq
|
what happens to your car if you speed a speed bump?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33qvqq/eli5_what_happens_to_your_car_if_you_speed_a/
|
{
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"cqnk64i",
"cqnm9az",
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],
"score": [
4,
7,
4
],
"text": [
"They're badly named, if anything they slow you down.",
"If you hit it fast enough could blow out tires or damage your suspension.",
"If you hit speed bumps too fast too often the shock can damage your suspension or throw your steering out meaning you'd have to get your tires realigned. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
crigzw
|
why is the percentage of calcium in the whole human body really low?
|
I was watching Breaking bad and a flashback was breaking down the elements in a human body. It showed that calcium only comprised 0.25%. I looked it up and it's actually 2%. I'm really confused since we have a whole skeleton.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/crigzw/eli5_why_is_the_percentage_of_calcium_in_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ex5fe7p"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The short answer is - bone is not only or even mostly made of calcium! Calcium hardens the bone but it’s mostly made of ossein (collagen fibers). That ossein is itself mostly amino acids like glycine."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
lots0
|
why do i feel exhausted 30 mins after drinking a double-shot espresso?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lots0/eli5_why_do_i_feel_exhausted_30_mins_after/
|
{
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"score": [
2,
5,
2,
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2,
5,
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"text": [
"because you didn't buy a quad-shot espresso. Actually, I don't know. I feel energized after drinking 2 shots of espresso. For a short time I feel sleepy because my energy is spent processing the drink. Same effect that occurs after eating food.",
"I believe the tired feeling you get is from being dehydrated. Drink water.",
"reasons why this happens to me:\n\n* too exhausted for caffeine to hide it\n* i consume loads of caffeine every day (the more caffeine you consume on a regular basis, the more you have to ingest to feel an effect...you adapt to it)\n\nmake sure you get it without sugar too...you could just be crashing from a sugar high",
"I don't recall what actual parts of the brain are involved, but caffeine interferes with part of your brain that tells you that you are sleepy, which causes another part of your brain to assume an emergency. This causes an adrenaline dump, and subsequently a crash when you run out of it.",
"because you didn't buy a quad-shot espresso. Actually, I don't know. I feel energized after drinking 2 shots of espresso. For a short time I feel sleepy because my energy is spent processing the drink. Same effect that occurs after eating food.",
"I believe the tired feeling you get is from being dehydrated. Drink water.",
"reasons why this happens to me:\n\n* too exhausted for caffeine to hide it\n* i consume loads of caffeine every day (the more caffeine you consume on a regular basis, the more you have to ingest to feel an effect...you adapt to it)\n\nmake sure you get it without sugar too...you could just be crashing from a sugar high",
"I don't recall what actual parts of the brain are involved, but caffeine interferes with part of your brain that tells you that you are sleepy, which causes another part of your brain to assume an emergency. This causes an adrenaline dump, and subsequently a crash when you run out of it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
v2a3a
|
the mac vs. pc debate
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/v2a3a/eli5_the_mac_vs_pc_debate/
|
{
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"score": [
16,
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3,
2,
3,
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"text": [
" > Stop liking what I don't like",
"Pride and marketing.\n\nApple has done a fantastic job of marketing their products as the superior alternative. Not only are their products 'better,' but you are a 'better person' for owning them. 'Only a boring idiot in a suit would buy anything else.'\n\nPC users think they're smarter because they're not 'sheep' that buy into the marketing. They know that they can have a less pretty computer that performs just as well for less money. They look down the idiots who spent $2k for a fancy computer that 'can't even play Crysis.' Everyone needs 48GB of RAM and the highest end video card afterall!\n\nSo you get two groups of people who are way too proud to belong to their respective communities and they duke it out. They are both made to feel insecure about their computer decision by the other group and in turn try to talk down to them. (Even though they probably have different computing needs and bought their computers for different reasons.)\n\nEdited for clarity.",
"A lot of it comes down to UI. Yes, there are technical differences, but ultimately, it's about how the user experience feels. IMHO, Apple do well in UI design, they spend a hell of a lot of time trying to get it right. I do not like Apple at all, but have to say they do design their software and products well.\n\nForget the arguements about security differences, they are complete bullshit. Yes, Mac's do have very few viruses & malware, but it is only going to go up.\n\nSome also say the build quality of Mac's are much better.\n\nAlso the other arguement is Mac's are totally overpriced.\n\nYour mileage may vary though.\n\nMost businesses use Windows. It's a more established brand, businesses were running Windows for a long time before Apple started to get a reasonable reputation. It's only recently have some decided to switch to Mac's. Personally in our business, we have 1 Mac in our office, that's it, the rest (around 45 computers in total) are Windows 7.\n\nSupport wise - many many PC manufacturers, much more choice, much much diverse support out there, many more local IT support companies, again, since Windows has been around for much much longer and is more established. Mac? Only Apple can help you there, and very few local support companies. Definitely around my local area in the UK, no IT company will touch a Mac.\n\nAlthough I've heard great things about Apple's customer support.\n\nSoftware? Games still seem to lag behind. Some do not work on Mac's, but this is changing. As Mac's are getting more popular, game companies are putting more money behind game development. \n\nTL;DR: User choice, find what works for you, and stick with it. However, please, please, please **don't make a decision between the two based on security**.",
"Pc user here. I couldn't imagine paying more for a memory or ram upgrade simply because there is no other competition, ala apple. The initial cost is ridiculous as well for a \"cool\" product that does half the job for a product that would cost the same.",
"Just to make a point here, Macs *are* PCs. You mean either \"Mac vs. Customizable Computers\" or \"OSX vs Windows\".",
"Macs: Very, very, very expensive for what it provides. Very good hardware design, the hardware is actually nice. It looks nice. The outside of it, all of it. That's the appeal. There seems to be a misconceptions that Macs are better for creative people, musicians, video editors, animators etc In reality, there's little difference in software choice in those categories.\n\nThe gaming argument is becoming moot with each passing second. As the Mac OS X market share increases, so does the need for game companies to make games for Mac too. A lot of large mainstream games are both. All source engine based games (think Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2), all new blizzard games (World of warcraft, starcraft 2, diablo 3) are able to be played. A lot of indie games get created cross platform.\n\nPCs: Customisable, cheap, customisable and cheap. That's it. More games. The ability to run games better as you can get better hardware. Will never look as nice as Macs because \"PCs\" are an amalgamation of different manufacturers. There is no standard design like in Apple, Apple own their whole process.",
"Before those \"[Mac vs PC](_URL_0_)\" commercials with the little guy and bigger guy the rivalry had a lot more meaning and a lot less attention. Mac was genuinely different from Windows. They looked different, used different software, used different hardware, even the architecture of their hardware was different and completely incompatible. \n\nThen in 2005 Apple switched to X-86 processors and used a Unix variant for OS-X. Those changes and the mainstream popularity of Apple products turned a legitimate debate of software, hardware, and chip architecture into a \"my penis is bigger than yours\" argument. \n\nThe real heart of the debate, powerPC vs X-86, died with OS-X. With nothing substantial about their OS to argue with anymore, Apple zealots have had to move on to portable devices like the Ipod and Iphone. That's why now in 2012 it's not Windows Vs Mac anymore, it's Apple vs Android. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z0Ia5jDt4"
]
] |
||
269sqv
|
why are drug tests incorrect at times?
|
I don't quite understand how drug tests can
be incorrect, I see it often and it's happened
to myself and a close friend. I once tested positive for cocaine and I have never done cocaine in my life. My buddy, in an even stranger scenario, was told he was so drunk he should've been dead yet he drove there AND had an appointment afterwards.. How
are these errors possible. I mean it's not like it's slight, these are massive, career destroying mistakes...Shouldn't it be an exact science? And both of these instances were legitimate lab tests. What explanation is there? Mixed up samples? Just human error?
*sorry if the formatting sucks, the mobile app is abysmal.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/269sqv/eli5_why_are_drug_tests_incorrect_at_times/
|
{
"a_id": [
"chp1yfa"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The more you understand how the test actually work, the more you can see how there is no exact line to be drawn. There is no magical test that detects cocaine, what they test for is chemicals in your body that is the by product of cocaine use. One of which can be benzoylecgonine. The presence alone is not enough for a positive test but has to be concentrated enough to pass a certain threshold. The higher the threshold the more likely a positive result is accurate, but more false negatives are produced. The lower the threshold the more users are detected but with many more false positives. \n\nThere is also the chance that other medications that are being taken can affect and interfere with the test results, and there is always the possibility of human error. Everyone had to do the work for the first time at some point."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
x94p3
|
how does this airfoil work?
|
I think [this wing configuration](_URL_0_) is supposed to reduce drag, but the explanation does not make sense to me.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/x94p3/eli5_how_does_this_airfoil_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c5kadwp"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The rhomboidal wing used in the aircraft works as a very large wingtip, reducing harmful wingtip vortices that induce drag. "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.synergyaircraft.com/"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
3w8g82
|
why do you suddenly lose consciousness at high altitude, e.g. loss of cabin pressure
|
Less air - > Less Oxygen but wouldn't it be like holding your breath? Get maybe a minute or two (depending on your health)? From what I understand you have one, two or ten seconds before you pass out.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3w8g82/eli5_why_do_you_suddenly_lose_consciousness_at/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cxu61xj",
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],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Since outside is suddenly at a much lower pressure, it will draw the air out of your lungs. Any air you try to hold afterwards will be lower pressure, and thus contain less oxygen. (note: when you hold your breath, you're relying on the oxygen trapped in your lungs - you can't hold your breath without having oxygen in your lungs - you *can*, but it won't put any oxygen in your blood, so it's pointless)\n\nIf the pressure differential is high enough (ex. near-vaccum outside), then holding your breath *while* depressurization occurs will easily cause rupturing in your lungs. But to do that at all, you have to know the event is going to happen, you don't just randomly hold your breath.",
"In aviation, they speak of *time of useful consciousness*. You may been conscious for longer than that, but you will be too stressed or delirious to accomplish anything.\n\nAt 30K feet, you have 1-3 minutes of useful consciousness, and 35K, 30 seconds to a minute. You have to get to 50K before you are talking about seconds.\n\n > but wouldn't it be like holding your breath?\n\nIt is different from holding your breath because:\n\n* you aren't expecting it and aren't prepared\n* very low pressures can force the air out of your lungs\n* you are also experiencing very low temperatures"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
1iovw6
|
what powers the rfid tags in passport etc
|
A passport lasts like 10years and has RFID chips,how do such chips recharge?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1iovw6/what_powers_the_rfid_tags_in_passport_etc/
|
{
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"text": [
"The dont, the coil is a transformer powere by interaction with a magnetic field, electricity is generated and the chip is then powered up, no batteries, just a little electrickery",
"There is a localized electromagnetic field that \"powers\" the RFID chip that allows it to broadcast its unique data. ",
"The scanner itself powers the chip when it tries to read it. \n\nElectricity moves around a loop in the scanner, and that makes electricity move around a similar loop in the RFID card. It's called induction.",
"There are several kinds of RFIDs, but passports use a passive chip -- it has no internal power source.\n\nInstead, the chip is charged up for use each time you try to \"read\" it. all radio antennas work by generating electricity when hit by radio waves. With an RFID, the electricity from the receiving antenna is enough to power up the chip, which emits back a tiny signal from its own transmitter."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
8vf6ov
|
how do the light up wristbands at concerts and sporting events synchronize perfectly?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8vf6ov/eli5_how_do_the_light_up_wristbands_at_concerts/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e1mya1p"
],
"score": [
19
],
"text": [
"For a five year old: Generally, they use infrared (invisible) control signals. Just like a remote that controls a TV, there are similar devices high up above the event that send control signals to all of the wristbands.The lighting designer can decide which parts of the audience show up as what colors, whether they flash, fade, etc. Just like adjusting the volume of a TV, the lighting designer can adjust what happens on all of the bracelets. The designer usually can’t control each bracelet on its own, and instead controls them as big groups, based on seating area. \n\nLike you’re older than five: High up in the rigging of the show/stadium they have lots and lots of infrared emitters that “paint” invisible control patterns over the spectators. These emitters can even be built into small handheld devices that allow on-stage talent to wave a “magic wand” to make the audiences lights react. \n\nPixMob is one of several companies that does this, and they now have some pretty sophisticated ways to shape the infrared control signals. \n\nThere are also ways to control the bands via RF/NFC control, but it’s dramatically more complex and not very cost effective for massive deployments. \n\nSource: Am a very happy multi-year customer of PixMob. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
4vqkuq
|
why can't most freshwater fish survive in saltwater and vice-versa?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4vqkuq/eli5why_cant_most_freshwater_fish_survive_in/
|
{
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"Both freshwater and saltwater fish have roughly the same concentration of sodium in their blood. This is accomplished by saltwater fish having a biology that rapidly expels salt, while freshwater fish don't have that adaptation.\n\nSo put a freshwater fish in salt water, and it gets *way* too much sodium in its blood and dies. Conversely, put a saltwater fish in fresh water, and it expels *too much* sodium, and dies because its sodium levels are too low.",
"Basically, it has to do with chemiosmosis:\n\nConcentration of salt is greater in fish than in fresh water. Fresh water fish drinks a lot of water to obtain enough salt, and pees a lot because she has enough water, but keep some salts in. \n\nConcentration of salt is greater in salt water than in fish. Salt water fish drinks a lot of water, pees a little because she needs water, and expels a lot of salt through the gills. (The reason she doesn't pee most of its salt is because her urine would be too concentrated and damage her viscera.)",
"To add to what's already been said here. The differences between freshwater and marine species can be explored through examining the changes salmonids (salmon and trout e.g.) go through when they leave the lakes or rivers they're born in, to go to the sea to grow further. This is a process called \"smoltification\" and is basically a list of changes which marks the differences in anatomy, behavior and bodily functions.\n\nApart from things like developing a more silvery color (camouflage), slender shape etc. it has to be able to rapidly tolerate a huge change in the amount of salt. \n\nIn freshwater the gills, as some other people here probably have already explained, has to pump salt (ions) into the body in order to keep up normal body functions. As the environment in freshwater contains very low numbers of these, this is a energy costing activity. The fish will also not ingest any water if it can avoid it, and its urine will be heavily diluted so it doesn't lose salt this way. \n\nNow the salmon feels like the river is too small, and the ocean too tempting, it starts thinking about leaving the place of its birth. It starts swimming with the river and not against it. Nearing the mouth of the river , the salmon finds itself in a state called \"Smolt window\", where it is perfectly adept at doing the earlier mentioned fast change. Right beneath the cells that pump salt into the gills (and thus into the bloodstream) there are cells with just the opposite role. As soon as the fish nears saltwater, these badboys pops out and start doing their job. This, along with a change of behaviour (starts drinking water) allows the fish to get rid of salt, along with gaining the necessary water it needs. This water is filtrated heavily before exiting the fish in a heavily concentrated form as to not lose too much water.\n\nWhy is it a battle to fight against concentrations you might wonder? Particles such as salt (ions) tend to prefer to stay evenly distributed as long as there is now perfect barrier between them and the next space. This means that the freshwater fish has to fight against loss, and the marine fish against getting too much. \n\nSource: fish biologist in last year of masters degree.\n\nAnd to finally answer the question; why can't most fish do this? Salmon can't usually do this very well either. What makes them able to survive this transition is the fact that they in the mentioned Smolt window are perfectly ready for change. A readiness they've spent some time developing for.",
"Fisheries scientist here. I am seeing a lot of incomplete or partially correct answers here. This might be more ELI15.\n\n**Freshwater fishes** tend to have much higher concentrations of ions (like sodium) in their blood compared with the concentrations in the water. Their bodies are designed to expel large volumes of very dilute urine frequently. This works to their advantage in a freshwater environment because they are surrounded by water with low salt concentrations. So, just pee a lot and hang onto what little salts you have. They also have specialized cells in their gills to allow them to directly take up sodium and chloride from the water to fine-tune the salt balance in their blood and cells. \n\n**Saltwater fishes** face the opposite problem. They need to maintain salt concentrations in their blood that are much lower than the surrounding environment. To do this, they actively drink water and form a highly-concentrated urine to expel the excess salts. They also actively expel salts at their gills.\n\nSo the basic freshwater strategy is to **pee like hell** and absorb salt. The basic saltwater strategy is to **drink and hold it** so they can absorb as much of the water (while leaving behind the salts) as possible. Put either of these fishes in the opposite environment, and these critical systems fail to function. The \"pee like hell\" strategy will quickly deplete cells of water in a saltwater environment, while the \"drink and hold it\" strategy will completely water-log them. These salt concentrations are critical to many bodily functions. Just think about what happens to people when they get dehydrated or, in some cases, drink TOO MUCH water. They are at real risk of death. Same for these fish.\n\nWhat about things like salmon? Or sharks?\n\nMany **salmon and their relatives** live in both fresh and saltwater at different points in their lives. Pacific salmon (e.g., Chinook salmon) are born in freshwater. They have nice, normal freshwater adaptations. However, when they reach a certain age and are ready to leave their rivers, they go through dramatic physical transformations during which they develop the necessary adaptations to live in a marine environment. When they are old enough, and are ready to breed in freshwater as adults, they undergo yet another transformation. This, and the energy required to to migrate and produce eggs/sperm, exacts such a toll on the fish that they almost always die immediately after spawning. Moving between fresh and saltwater is not easy.\n\nWhat about **sharks**, like bullsharks? How do they move between fresh and saltwater? Sharks are very different from what people normally call \"fish\". They also have a completely different strategy for surviving in saltwater, which will inform us about how some survive in freshwater. Rather than deal with the threat of constant water loss by drinking saltwater and excreting the extra salt, a shark's blood is filled with urea (a nitrogen-based compound that makes your pee stink [EDIT: the stink is actually from the urea decomposing into ammonia; urea is odorless on its own]). In fact, they store so much of it that their blood ion concentrations are actually close to that of sea water. Sharks that can spend time in freshwater are able to expel excess urea (which is just a metabolic waste product, hence why it's in your pee) rather than retain it in their blood. This allows them to adjust the levels of dissolved ions in their blood so that they can flexibly move between salt and freshwaters.\n\nNow, this doesn't cover everything (there are 25,000+ fish species), but hopefully it gives a more complete overview...\n\n**EDIT**: There has been some confusion regarding my use of the word \"fishes.\" My use of this word is completely intentional. \"Fishes\" has a particular use among ichthyologists and fisheries scientists. \"Fish\" can be singular or plural. We use it as a general plural, as in, \"there are 20 fish over there.\" \"Fishes\" is used when one is discussing multiple types (species, genera, whatever), as in, \"a red fish and a blue fish makes two fishes\". When I say \"fishes\", I am referring to more than one type. When I say \"fish\", I am referring to multiple fish of the same type. ",
"A fish is made up of a lot of cells. Cells are like little communists, everyone wants to have exactly the same amount of corn in their soup as the others. \n\nThe corn is taken from the water, which could be seen as a large kettle full of soup.\n\nIf the soup in the kettle in one place is really thick **(salt water)**, all the little communists take some water from their own soup and dump it in the kettle, so their soup get's a little thicker **(saltier)** as well.\n\nBut if the soup in the kettle is a little too thin **(fresh water)**, all of the communists take a little bit of water from the kettle to make their own soup a little thinner **(fresher)**, which, in return, makes the soup in the kettle a little bit thicker **(saltier)**.\n\nIf you put communists from a place that is used to very thick **(salty)** soup in the kettle on a train and dump them in a place that has very thin **(fresh)** soup, they all take a shitload of water from the kettle to put in their own soup, so much in fact, that they blow up.\n\nIf you do it the other way around (commies that are used to thin **(fresh)** soup are put on a train to a place where the soup in the kettle is really thick **(salty)** they dump all the water from their own soup in the kettle, resulting in them drying out.",
"Freshwater fishes get water pushed into them because their bodies are more salty than the water they swim in. Nature likes to make somethings equal.\nThis means freshwater fishes PEE A LOT to get rid of this water and DRINK VERY LITTLE because water is pushed into them..\n\nSaltwater fishes get water pulled out of them because their bodies are less salty than the water they swim in. Remember, nature likes to make somethings equal.\nThis means saltwater fishes PEE VERY LITTLE and DRINK A LOT to replace the water that is pulled from them.\n\nYou can see that these are opposite of each other and for most fishes it is too much and they will die in the wrong type of water.",
"As a saltwater aquarium hobbyist, I cannot give a proper ELI5 answer as some other top posts here, however I can say that it IS entirely possible to acclimate certain freshwater fish into saltwater (unsure about vice versa). If you take certain freshwater fish, say, a [black molly](_URL_0_), and slowly add a bit of salt into their water across a span of days (possibly a week or two), they will become accustomed to it and will have full potential to live in a saltwater system at the proper salinity levels needed for basic saltwater fish.\n\nThis is not to say that all freshwater fish are capable of this, however. \nBlack mollies are considered to be \"brackish\", meaning that they originate from areas where freshwater meets saltwater. So they are able to tolerate certain salinities (level of saltiness in the water).\n\nFrom personal experience, I had a buddy who was able to fully acclimate his black mollies into his saltwater aquarium, living amongst clownfish and the like. They proved to be great saltwater algae-eaters! \nNeat stuff.",
"Osmosis. Saltier water outside the fish than in, water rushes out. Fish shrivels and dies. Saltier water inside the fish than out, water rushes in. Fish bloats and dies. Salt and pepper sautéed in butter outside the fish, water escapes as steam. Fish dies and is delicious. ",
"It's about the movement of water (osmosis). If you put a fish that is accustomed to a salty environment in a low sodium environment the water will move into the fish and it will swell up and eventually burst. If you do the opposite and put a fish accustom to a low sodium environment and move it to a salty environment the water will move out of the fish and it will shrivel up and die from dehydration. Water will always move where there is a high concentration of molecules to regain equilibrium. \n\nSource: Bachelor degree in biology ",
"For freshwater fish the saltwater is too salty. For the saltwater fish the freshwater isn't salty enough."
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"http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/aquarium/images/7/73/Black_Molly.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120607044313"
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20mqa9
|
"the big bang did not occur at a single point in space as an 'explosion.' it is better thought of as the simultaneous appearance of space everywhere in the universe."
|
Source: _URL_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20mqa9/eli5_the_big_bang_did_not_occur_at_a_single_point/
|
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"Around the time of the big bang, the entire universe was \"smaller\". That is, everything was close to everything else, and the universe was much denser. \n\nThe big bang marks the beginning of cosmic inflation, where everything in the universe started moving away from everything else. But this wasn't a case of space being empty, and everything exploding from some point in space. Instead, space was denser, with everything packed tightly together all across the entire universe. Then all of space started getting bigger, causing the universe to become less dense as everything started moving away from everything else.",
"What we know as the \"big bang\" was not a vast void (space) in which at a certain time an explosion took place that scattered *everything* about. It is a point in time at which space and time began to exist. Only space was much smaller. So much smaller that the entire observable universe was incredibly small. When it expanded, it didn't expand into parts of space where previously, it wasn't. No, it was the space itself that expanded.\n\nA common picture used is that of a baloon being inflated. Everything is expanding but every bit of the baloon is where the expansion began.\n\nSince time and space are basically the same, time seems to have begun then, too. Therefore, it was never a universe with nothing and the next moment, it was a universe with a big bang happening. There was no time before the big bang and thus, there was no moment *before* it.\n\nThis all sounds very strange and indeed it is. But in order for the less staggering observations we make to make any sense, the extreme past of the universe must have been like this.\n\n**I have to add this:** Space initially expanded *very* fast. It expanded so fast that the distance between parts of it grew so fast, that not even light could keep up. Imagine an ant running over the surface of a balloon while you inflate it. If you inflate it fast enough, the distance between the ant and whetever it's running towards will still grow. During a period called *inflation*, the universe expanded so fast that light couldn't keep up in just the way that ant couldn't keep up.\n\nBut how can that be, you ask. Science told you *nothing* can be faster than light. Well, the things in those parts of the universe didn't move away from each other through space. The space between them grew at a staggering rate. And while nothing can indeed move through space at speeds greater than the speed of light, there is no such upper limit to the speed at which space itself can expand.\n\nAnd it gets even weirder.\n\nWe recently found that space has hit the accellerator again. After the pase called inflation, the expansion slowed down *considerably.* However, our latest measurments show that it's slowly and steadily accelerating again and we currently have to think that one day, space will grow at a rate again that will be \"faster than light\". Once this happens, we will eventually be unable to see anything outside our galaxy, since the light from other galaxies cannot cross the space between them and us fast enough to reach us before the space in between has expanded too much. Once we cannot see other galaxies anymore, we will be unable to gather any information to help us to get to know that the universe is expanding at all. Any by \"we\" I mean some other intelligent civilisation on some planet, many, many billions of years in the future.\n\nSo, we now know that there will be a time when the expansion of the universe (as by the way, the origin of the universe) cannot be understood or learned though observation anymore. It will be physically impossible. Yes, we know that we know stuff that will virtually \"disappear\" in the far future. So far, so good. But doesn't that also mean that there might by physical phenomena that we cannot detect, can't ever hope to detect and never will be able to understand because a byproduct of the evolution of the cosmos means that all traces have forever become undetectable?\n\nSpace and science are *fascinating!*"
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"http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_concepts.html"
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1a463c
|
how people live on a minimum wage in high-cost cities like new york or l.a.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1a463c/eli5_how_people_live_on_a_minimum_wage_in/
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"Most high cost cities have a local minimum wage that is higher than the state or national minimum wage. And even when they don't, employers often have to pay more to attract workers. \n\nAnd not everyone who makes minimum wage is living off of it. A significant portion are teens and young adults living with their parents, or people taking second jobs. Less than 2% of workers make minimum wage, and about half of those are 25 or younger.\n\nPeople who do support themselves on minimum wage usually need 2 or 3 jobs to do so.\n\n",
"Government assistance: food stamps, rent control, lower fees on utilities, etc.\n\nSome families bought housing more than a decade ago when it was relatively cheap compared to now. So for them housing is extremely cheap which is where most people spend their money.",
"I know this is something that you hear less and less of these days, but the simple fact is you're not supposed to live on minimum wage. \n\nI'm going to get hell for this I'm sure, but here it is...\n\nMinimum wage is for kids, recent immigrants, or the most unskilled workers in the workforce. Only recently did it start becoming regarded as something that someone is supposed to raise a family on, or even live on. This is why, at least most of the time, it's reserved for fast food, grocery baggers, and similar jobs. It's a starting point, or a stepping stone, if you will. It's meant for saving money while you are living with parents and going to school so you can move out of your parents house and get a real career. Anyone with any decent skills might start there, but they should quickly rise up through the ranks to a position at least a little higher.\n\nThere was a time when people worked during summers, or after school, then went to college or learned a skill. After that, they got an entry level job and worked their way up. Only then, after years of work, did one start being able to afford luxuries in their life.\n\nNowadays high school kids think they need iPhones and Jordans. College and early-twenties folks think they need expensive cars and high-society nightlife. That's what makes minimum wage seem absurd, but you have to keep in mind it was never meant to give you the life you always dreamed of; it's meant to be an option when you can't find work elsewhere or you can't afford to eat... that's it.",
"They get lots of roommates.",
"I often wonder the same about friends in London.",
"Live with roommates into your 40s and 50s. I live in an expensive, dense city... people will live in makeshift rooms like converted living rooms, laundry rooms that barely fit a mattress, etc. Also, splitting a single room college style.\n\nNow, to lots of people they might cringe and say \"geez, *so* not worth it\", but plenty of people do think it is. To each his own.",
"Short answer is work a couple jobs and/or have roommates.",
"Hi, I live in NYC. Minimum wage jobs in NYC are a waste of time. You simply cannot pay for an apartment, food, gas and electric, and have money left over. Minimum wage jobs are for teens bored in the summer and college kids.\n\nHowever, a very large portion of people in NYC (I think it was the majority, actually) spend over 50% of their income on housing alone.\n\nThey spend the rest on what they need and what they want, and end up saving very little.\n\nHouseholds often have multiple people working as well. It's a hand-to-mouth affair.\n\nAlso, low income families live in less expensive neighborhoods. Bronx apartments may cost 1/5th of Manhattan apartments.",
"Poor LA guy here. Typically people on minimum wage will spend a much higher percentage of their paychecks on rent in a city like LA than they would in a place with more modest cost of living. On top of this, they mitigate the expense by not having their own place. Most people will have roommates and split an apartment or house, to keep their rent down. On top of that, there are areas in Los Angeles where rent is naturally cheaper, so they will typically shack up in the poorer areas.\n\nThere are also of course the general methods of being much more frugal, and working 2nd and even 3rd jobs. That being said, I can say that it is very easy and probably very common for younger people with low paying jobs who are in LA to simply live outside of their own means for a while, then end up going back to live with their families (or have some other serious change in their living situation) when they hit the critical point.",
"Roomates. Lots and lots of roomates. Lived in San Francisco for two years, lived with eight other people in a two-bedroom appartment.",
"as someone who lives in Los Angeles (which is a far cheaper city to live in than NY, SF or even Boston), something that a lot of people who don't work in the television and film industry understand is that many entry-level positions are minimum wage, or unpaid. The trade-off is that work days are usually around 13 hours, minimum. When you get here, if you're fortunate to get hired for a job, you're making like $120 a day on 13 or 14 hour work day. You might only get to day-play, picking up days here and there. When I first started out, I'd go weeks without picking up any paid days, and volunteering for any and all unpaid ones.\n\nHow does someone survive making so little money? Well, for starters you probably live in a crappy apartment in a crappy part of town with a bunch of other people. The worst place I've had out here was $470 a month for my room with 3 other roommates (compared to a terrible apartment in brooklyn for $600 a month a few years ago, or a total hole-in-the-wall for $430 in Boston 10 years [!] ago). Disposable income is pretty much non-existent, and you learn to prepare cheap meals. There is unemployment insurance, but that comes from taxes that you pay into, so you're only really getting money back that you agreed to have set aside. Factoring the costs of getting to and from work (when it's there), eating (when you can) and paying for an apartment that you hate, you can *survive* in LA for like $600 a month or less. That's also if you don't have student loans, or car payments, and before essentials like a functioning cell phone and internet connection.\n\nHopefully this hasn't scared you off from the big-city experience. Once you break into the second tier of paid work, it feels like you've been training with weights on. Suddenly, you can buy new clothes, and eat decent meals and go to bars like a civilized adult. The truth is that living on the skint is difficult, but tough and smart people can make it through with perseverance, good fiscal planning and the help of family and friends. And luck. And not having to pay for child support, or some other massive financial burden.\n\n**TLDR - you stay broke and work hard until you're not earning minimum wage anymore** \n\nedit: typo",
"Live in less desirable areas/apartments, carefully budget for food, use public transit with any possible discounts, no cable, pay-for-use cell phones, use free wifi, don't waste heat/electricity, don't blow it all on crack and whores. It's hard, but if you have a steady minimum wage job and are very careful, it's not the worst thing ever and you can even save some money.",
"Roommates is the big go to on this thread. \n\nAlso cooking your own food, so pasta and rice can take you a long way if your willing to eat just that. Also not feeling shame for needing help, if you can only afford rent and to eat 5 days a week, then go to a soup kitchen. I used to volunteer at one back in the day, most of the people were not homeless, they were the working poor.\n\nNot living too far from your job. So every city has a studio somewhere or a small one bedroom that is inhabitable. But the trick is to live near your job. This frees up the need for a car. Riding a bike to work everyday will save you insurance, car payments and gas. It really saves you a lot of money.\n\nDon't have kids.",
"No one is sitting in their shitty twin-bed from IKEA whilst munching on a crappy bowl of \"hacked\" Ramen with dreams of grand riches in their eyes. \n\nPeople arent dreaming of \"get ahead jobs\" while they have 5 roommates leaving their dirty laundry on the floor..or your bed..or your face.\n\nThere is this romantic notion of the geeky coder or ill-show-them-do-gooder who eats Ramen all of the time and powers their Yugo with salt water that some people on Reddit just loveeeeeee to embrace.\n\nThat person doesnt exist and if he did..he or she is a loser with almost fantasy-level expectations of what the real world is.",
"I'm 30, live in a studio, sleep on an air mattress, and have a 6 year degree. Fuck being a grownup.",
"I make over minimum wage in a fairly cheap area to live and it's still barely a livable wage.",
"I live in NYC, make significantly more than the minimum wage, and... live with my parents.\n\nNow granted, this is a choice I made. I earn enough that I could *just barely* afford to live in a crappier neighborhood. Not one of the formerly cheap neighborhoods that my fellow young, recent-college-grads are attracted to. More like a neighborhood that is completely unappealing and undesirable for several legitimate reasons, like high crime rates and poor access to public transportation.\n\nI've been living at home for close to 2 years because I've been choosing to save my paychecks, because I'm going to grad school next year. But the nature of my job brings me in contact with a very high volume of low-SES people from a variety of backgrounds. By far the most common thing I see is that they, too, live with their parents, but out of necessity. In some cases, adult siblings with kids of their own even have to co-habitate because they just don't earn enough to support 2 families separately and pay NYC rent.\n\nBottom line, based on my anecdotal experience, I'd say the \"roommate\" explanation applies to a lot of young college grads who are working minimum wage jobs because their particular degrees won't get them anything better in the current economy. These people, even if they do fully support themselves, are generally childless, and at least have a safety net in the form of financially stable parents who could take them in in a pinch.\n\nFor people who are currently making minimum wage because that's the best job their education would allow in *any* economy... most of them still live at home, especially those that have children of their own at a young age. My highly scientific (read: blatantly speculative) guess would be that upwards of 99% of NYC single-parents without a college degree still live with their parents. ",
"for the most part, they don't. or at least, not independently. People live on minimum wage when someone is providing significant financial support, like paying/sharing their rent or other bills. otherwise, you just can't.",
"San Francisco checking in. Minimum wage in the city is $10.55/hr. Across the bridge in Oakland the minimum wage is $8.00/hr. I can't imagine there are very many people that live right in San Francisco that make minimum wage, unless they have many many roommates (as in 2-3 people per room in a multi-room apartment). A lot of people take the subway from other parts of the Bay Area and go to work in San Francisco. Still, $10.55 isn't that much when you consider the cost of living out here.\n\nWhen we first moved here, we had a junior one bedroom apartment. The living room was so small that if you stretched your arms out, you could touch opposite walls. In the bedroom we had to get up on the bed in order to open the dresser drawers. We paid $1,650 per month. My good friend pays $2,600 for a two bedroom apartment that she shares with a roommate.\n\nEven people with decent jobs still need to have roommates here. I know many people in their 40's and above that live with other people. Basically if you're not married, you have roommates. I have yet to meet someone who lives alone.",
"The more you work, the less time you have to spend money.",
"While everyone is complaining here that how it's impossible to live on minimum wage, and I guess that's what the OP wanted to incite rather than asking a meaningful question on ELI5, here is my take. I do not condone low wage paying, but I do think if you are single you can survive on the minimum wage, without living in ghetto. While, I do make decent living my expenses are surprisingly close to the minimum wage. Here is how it works for me:\n\n1. Rent -$600 - biggest expense. If you're living in a big city, you could still find a two bedroom apartment, with one roommate close to that price in a decent neighborhood.\n\n2. $170 Utilities- $30 (electricity), $40 (heating), $40 (phone), $50 (internet + basic cable) $10 (netflix). You don't necessarily need to have an iphone, and all the cable channels. Use netflix and free hulu. All the utilities are average over one year, so don't start saying that your heating bill last month was $100.\n\n3. $250 Food- start cooking, its cheaper and so much more healthier, would save you further on gym expenses. Eat out once a week or twice. Cut on alcohol costs. Grocery - $150, Eating out and drinking - $100.\n\n4. Transportation - $100\n -------------\nTotal - $1120.\n\nFor one time expenses like vacation or major purchases like TV try to cut one outing every month or find temp weekend jobs, or overtime.\n\nUnless you have a mindset that you want to live a luxurious life, I think this should take you along fairly comfortably, and as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, these are (slightly more than) my typical expenses and I never feel like I'm controlling my expenses too much. Most of it beyond that is saving for me for now. \n\nOf course by the time you have a family, you'd hope to move to a much better paying job, but as a single or in a relationship where both partners are working, I think you can get by at the minimum wage.\n\nNot let the downvotes being.\n\nEdit: Some people pointed out that I ignored healthcare. It was unintentional mistake as in my case healthcare is covered by my employer, otherwise it comes out close to $140 including dental and vision. \n\nSome others pointed out how $600 is not enough for rent in SF, but the minimum wage there is $10.55. But I do agree it could be a pain with $7.25/hr in NYC. But in any case, at least 95% (?) of the minimum wage workers should be able to get by with the minimum wage, and therefore we shouldn't generalize the pains of minimum wage all over the country. Also try living slightly farther from the big cities and commute a little, or in some cases, try saving gas and live closer to your work place. There are tons of cheaper apartments within half an hour of train ride from SF, don't know about NYC, but can't see why not.\n\nSomeone else mentioned beer cost would kill you. Of course, it can kill someone making twice the minimum wage, but in life you have to have your priorities straight. A Hummer owner could make the same comment about gas prices.\n\nAgain, I'm not suggesting minimum wage is fair, I completely disagree with that, but you can live comfortably with that if you spend with some control.\n\nEdit 2: Another expense I forgot to mention, clothing. For me I do not need to buy top brand clothes, but dont' buy from thrift stores either. I tend to go to outlet malls, look for sales, and end up buying generally few pairs of clothes for under $200 a year (gap etc.).",
"It all depends on the mean you give to words, but in my opinion, they don't \"live,\" they \"get by.\"\n\nThey don't have emergency funds, yet alone 6 months income saved up just in case. They have more work hours than free hours. They have little to no long term plans. They go without insurance. The word vacation has little meaning to them. Bills are often times barely paid, if paid on time.",
"It blows my mind how much cheaper it is here in Minnesota. I live in an apartment with 4 other guys (5 bedrooms total), 2 full bathrooms, granite countertops, prime spot downtown, free heat (A/C too, but we have to pay for electricity to blow it), two skylights, and a goddamn jacuzzi bathtub. What do I pay in rent? 425$ a month. The actual best part of it? Living across the street from McDonalds. \n\n*P.S. we're so spoiled/lazy in Minnesota, that I drive to class every day that it's somewhat cold out ( < 32 degrees), or inclement weather. Most of my classes are about 5 blocks away.* It blows my mind knowing that people live in large cities for horrible costs, small living spaces, and long ass walks. ",
"There's this thing I hear about in Vancouver, where a giant family will immigrate from Asia - literally the grandparents of both sides of the family, the primary couple, all their children, maybe some aunts and uncles - sometimes 10-15 people, all of whom are very intelligent, hard working people. Sometimes they are even engineers or programmers or whatever else is hiring.\n\nThe thing is they all live in the same place, and they all work like crazy. They pool their money and wouldn't you know it they can afford to buy crazy awesome houses in VANCOUVER - the second most expensive city in Canada. This happens so often that the price of housing has been driven up even further. Then, because they have so much income from the pool, they pay off their mortgage, and the twenty something sons buy sick cars and drive around Richmond picking up all the ladies, and taking them out for dinners and be all ballin' and shit.\n\nIt's something white people can't fathom doing, even though it's so DAMN SMART. We're all programmed to leave the house at 18 because of all that Hollywood we've been ingesting. ",
"In Sydney, people typically live in the west, or other remote areas, which are much cheaper and travel in to the city to work",
"They live in LA's high-crime neighborhoods (where there is cheap housing) with lots of roommates, working 40-plus hours a week, and commuting by bus to the Westside for minimum wage jobs. You see them on the bus stuck in rush-hour traffic after their (sometimes) physically demanding days at work. \n\nThey may not have health insurance, and go to clinics or emergency rooms for health care. They eat the cheapest food they can find (usually fast food) and gain weight. Many times, they're just existing, not living. ",
"Step aside, I'm a GEOGRAPHER! \n\nI never get to say that.\n\nI forget the famous study, but if you Google \"the walking poor\" (not a 1% Walking Dead spinoff) you can find this great conceptual piece about the different zones of a city. There has to be room in a city for the poor who simply can't afford to commute. So even though the land their buildings are on is expensive, landlords make it up by building incredibly tiny apartments.\n\nIn terms of food, and this is coming from a New Yorker who takes very bad care of himself, you can find very cheap stuff if you look. I live a few doors down from a Deal$ (a chain owned by Dollar Tree I had never heard of. until I moved into my first apartment) that I've seen the [nearly] homeless shopping at.\n\nEDIT: I buy too many of their $1 rocket-crack energy drinks",
"I make $10.90/hr and have and split a 2 bedroom apartment In L.a.. I work 40hrs and I save nothing. Everything goes to bills and food with a little towards fun. Very little. ",
"I would call myself lucky to some degree, but here's how I managed:\n\nI was working at shitty minimum wage jobs for a few years following high school. When I was almost 22, I started working at an SEO company, which, at the time, did backlinks. (they also do web development, but we'll get to that later). Since the company kind of, sort of was in the field I wanted to go into, (computer programming), I was pretty excited.\n\nI started in the links department at $9/hr. Which is $2 > than minimum wage at the time. It was pretty nice. After a month, I convinced the manager of the SEO department (which was small) to allow me to transfer into that department. He agreed and the change was made. Up to $11/hr\n\nI worked in that department for about 6 months before a girl in that department had to leave on maternity leave. I was told that in addition to my normal work, I now had to optimize ecommerce website products and fix xml feeds. (Wtf is xml?) So over the course of another year, I taught myself little by little the tools I would need to succeed in the company. I ended up getting a $1 raise at every review, and currently I'm at $14/hr.\n\nIn March of 2012, I was approached by a the new manager of the web development department. He wanted me to start working on the dev support team, which handles customer and employee technical related questions about websites. When I entered the department, there were 4 people. 2 of them outranked me. The team leader quit for a job with more money, and the new team leader also quit (with some nudging from me.) This made me team leader of the dev support team. That was in June of 2012. Since then, I've managed to get the company to hire two programmers instead of just people who are technical. I, myself, have also picked up a lot of web programming experience since then, so now we basically have a group of programmers doing small tasks which are way under what we should be doing.\n\nLast week, we all get called into the manager meeting with the higher ups in the company. We're all considered \"programmers\" now, and not \"dev support\".\n\nSince this just happened, I'm not sure what the raise is going to be, but my review for the department is in March. I was told it will be \"sizable\".\n\nI did all this with 0 college experience. All self taught.\n\nIt also help's that I'm married to a woman who makes $30 an hour to scan pregnant lady's uteri.",
"They don't. The vast majority of minimum wage jobs are held by people that are not attempting to live on that income alone. Either it's a second job, someone else in the family has a higher paying job, or in most cases, it's a kid living at home, or a senior supplementing their retirement income.",
"along with other answers, there's also a lot of people who get a LOT of support (money!) from their parents and family... they don't have student loans and usually get help with rent costs\n\nsource: i grew up in a middle-upper class town in NJ right outside NYC and a lot of people i know are like this... silver spoon kids",
"I kinda got ripped apart pretty good for posting a similar question in one of the San Diego subreddits.\n\nI moved to SoCal naively thinking that the pay would be a little bit more to help offset the cost of living, I only came here from the midwest because it was the first job offer I had received in years. I'm finally about to get an apartment (ending 2 years of couch surfing at 35) but I only found one person to room with and even working 10 hours a day (I make less than min. wage) I don't make enough to afford it. I'm sorta just counting on hopefully being able to find a second income here eventually.\n\nIn the midwest, with my 9th grade education, as long as I could find some sort of full time job I could survive pretty well. Out here I feel like I'll have to go to college just to be able to sustain affording the basics. \n\nIts hard for me to feel this poor, but then to realize how many people in this country are so much poorer, it makes it hard to have a positive outlook on society, I have to stop myself from thinking about it."
]
}
|
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[],
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||
ds2au1
|
why does a drop in power supplied to an electrical grid cause a drop in frequency?
|
As the title says. I am currently doing a essay on the UK power network and I would like to know more about why this happens.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ds2au1/eli5_why_does_a_drop_in_power_supplied_to_an/
|
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"text": [
"The higher the load you have on a generator the more force is needed rotate it at the same speed.\n\nSo if the load is constant but the number of generator is reduced each the load on each is increased and when the same force is appealed to the the will spin slower.",
"The AC frequency is determined by how fast the generators at the power plants are spinning. If one power plant goes offline, the load on the remaining ones goes up, and that means the generators will be harder to spin.\n\nIf the remaining power plants don't take measures to drive their generators harder (such as producing more steam), the generators will slow down and the AC frequency drops.\n\nThis is how you can picture it:\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)\n\nHow much force you need to spin this magnet will depend on how much power is being drawn from the outputs.",
"The electrical grid has basically no storage: there are not (yet!) batteries big enough to store that much energy, and what's created by generators is used immediately.\n\nGenerators are very heavy spinning machines full of wires and magnetic fields. If the grid's users demand more power than the generators are producing, that power's got to come from somewhere: it comes from the rotational kinetic energy of the generators. \n\nSo if demand exceeds supply, the grid makes the generators slow down. Since their spin rate also sets the grid's AC frequency, the frequency drops too.\n\nPower plant operators must carefully monitor the frequency: if it drops, they know they're not producing enough electricity, so they \"step on the gas\", burning more coal or gas, or opening the hydropower dam a bit more, or whatever to bring the generators back up to speed.",
"Utility-scale power generation almost exclusively uses something called a synchronous generator, i.e. the frequency at which the generator is spinning is exactly a whole division of the grid frequency (so in the US with a 60 Hz grid, usually 3600 rpm, or 1800 rpm for very large ones). The grid also has, unlike a gas or water grid, no permanent storage (storage facilities exist for electricity, but they have to be actively dispatched to the grid), so that at any instance, the power supplied from the generators is exactly equal to the power demanded by the grid.\n\nNow, if the power demand suddenly spikes, the machines that drive the generators (usually steam or gas turbines) cannot follow it immediately, so briefly, there is less power supplied to the generators than there is power going from the generators to the grid. The difference is taken from the rotational kinetic energy of the generators, which causes them to slow down slightly, and thus, because they are always exactly synchronous to the grid, causes the grid frequency to dip slightly.\n\nIn fact, because total power demand is hard to measure, at least in the European grid, grid frequency is actually used as the measured variable for telling power stations how much power to produce - more power is dispatched if the frequency dips too low, and power is taken off if it rises too high."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://i.imgur.com/lIACOng.gif"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
5ixdbc
|
when driving in the snow and you start to spin out, why are you supposed to turn into the spin?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ixdbc/eli5_when_driving_in_the_snow_and_you_start_to/
|
{
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"dbbo4wn"
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"text": [
"Basically you're trying to get your wheels facing 1) in the direction you want to be going and 2) the opposite direction the car is spinning.\n\nIf you imagine you're driving straight forward, then you lose traction and your rear wheels begin sliding out to the right. This would be a counter-clockwise spin about to start. Thing is, you'll probably still be moving in the same direction but instead of being lined up with that direction you're at an angle to it with the front of your car facing left and the passenger side facing \"forward\".\n\nTo correct you want to steer back towards that \"forward\" just slightly, and doing that actually points your wheels back in the direction you're traveling so they're more likely to actually regain traction and when they do they'll pull your front wheels back in line with your back ones and hopefully prevent a full spin out."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
7a9s00
|
what is price to earning ratio
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7a9s00/eli5_what_is_price_to_earning_ratio/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dp8a4q0"
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4
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"text": [
"Exactly what it sounds like\"\n\nThe price of a companies stock, divided by their earnings per share.\n\nThe idea is it's supposed to let you compare how expensive a stock is.\n\n If i want to buy a stock for $200, is it cheap, or expensive? There's no way to know without more context. You could have a $200 stock that is raking in tons of earnings (or is expected to in the future), or a $200 stock that is doing pretty \"meh\".\n\nYou can think of it as \"how much does it cost to get $1 worth of the companies' earnings?\"\n\nThe average P/E is ~20-25."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1w909c
|
what does daft punk actually do in a 'performance' on stage? i'm wondering what more they do than simply hit play on their songs.
|
I watched Daft Punk's performance at the Grammy's with Pharrell Williams and Stevie Wonder and was curious as to what the two guys actually control on their computers on stage. Does anybody know what they do specifically, or have experience doing a DJ performance like that themselves?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w909c/eli5what_does_daft_punk_actually_do_in_a/
|
{
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"text": [
"Pressing buttons that set of certain loops, mixing, adjusting levels, EQing, etc. \n\nThey actually do a lot of live mixing, and creating percussive beats during their regular live shows. ",
"Some DJ's just press play, but other DJ's orchestrate, mix, cue and compose live - a feat that's no walk in the park. Nowadays, recent technological leaps mean that the degree to which a performance is pre-recorded really depends on the artist and what approach they've decided to take.\nI know in the past daft punk has done a lot of difficult, time-sensitive live work, but that may have changed with their recent ascension to super stardom. ",
"Ive booked for a lot of A-list EDM producers. The reality is most of them have a pre-recorded set because it needs to sync with their visuals and lighting, all of that needs to be done ahead of time. To do EDM live and have an amazing visual show, you will be spending a ton of money, like Deadmau5 money, for proprietary software which feeds your visual crew precursors on what you're going to play next so they can queue it up. And this is for maybe 1% of the scene. Some guys do add melodies sometimes, but its more about mixing and adding effects on stage. Most guys will usually have a set made up and then do it live. There's no real skill in mixing anymore unless you're a turntablist or something, people are going for the show and atmosphere",
"[This](_URL_0_) is a video of RJD2's Live at the Rave performance, and a good example of a DJ with a busy live show. Like others have said, lots of A-list DJs pre-record their sets because it's the only way to work with all of the visual effects to sync everything properly. ",
"If you look at Grammy's performance of Stronger with Kanye West, you will see that they actually remix the song live on stage."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xiyo72_rjd2-rjd2-live-at-the-rave_music"
],
[]
] |
|
2q785u
|
where do slang words originate? are they started by one person and then slowly adopted by everyone?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q785u/eli5_where_do_slang_words_originate_are_they/
|
{
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"cn3i4av",
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2,
3
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"text": [
"They come from a variety of sources. It could be someone famous saying something that a lot of people hear, it could be from a TV show (for example, Homer = DoH!) or it could be from a book.\n\nIt would be rare for a single \"random\" person to start a new slang word unless it was heard by lots and lots of people.",
"The most direct way I've seen slang word become popular is from large groups of friends that associates themselves with a semi popular subculture like, skateboarding, graffiti, DJ'ing, ext.. When you're really part of this smaller subcultures you began to meet people all over the country and local slang words transfer back and forth. Eventually, certain slang words become more popular than others and then become known by the general public. \nAnother much quicker way is through music like rap that can continually make up slang words and then people can pick their favorite."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
3ocj4u
|
why do we want to survive?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ocj4u/eli5_why_do_we_want_to_survive/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cvvxtnr"
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8
],
"text": [
"This question is sort of breaking into the realm of philosophy, but from the standpoint of natural selection, organisms with a natural impetus to survive are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass those traits onto their offspring.\n\nIt's just as true for humans as it is for any other living thing."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
2fqjjb
|
how do businesses that are open from 9 to 5 have customers when most people with a job are at work from 9 to 5 at their own job
|
Wouldn't it be hard for every business to be open from 9 to 5 when most people can't go there from 9 to 5 because they are at work too?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fqjjb/eli5_how_do_businesses_that_are_open_from_9_to_5/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ckbr922"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Businesses that are open from 9 to 5 often have other businesses as their primary customers, and not consumers."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
398ysf
|
how do mathematicians (statisticians?) reconcile infinite improbability of something that has to happen?
|
I was watching Watchmen the other day and remembered how much I enjoy the part where Dr. Manhattan makes that speech about miracles. If you aren't familiar with it, I'll use a different thought experiment instead. Let's say you have a box, and when you reach inside of it, you will pull out a piece of paper with a truly random number on it. There are infinite numbers, so the odds against pulling any particular number is infinity to one. Probability would dictate this impossible, yes? But if you reach in and pull out a paper, there has to be a number on it by the parameters already established. I know this example has problems such as the fact that it's impossible for such a box to exist for several reasons, one of which being a number large enough to contain more information than the entire universe wouldn't fit on a piece of paper.
I guess a less contrived example is the one Dr. Manhattan uses about how unlikely it is that any particular person exists. Your ancestors had to survive by avoiding illness or death, they had to court this particular suitor instead of this other suitor, then once they got together, this one sperm out of the billions had to make it to the egg. But a sperm WILL make it. And people ARE born.
I've also heard of the fact that you can be mathematically certain that the result of a truly random shuffle of a deck of cards is a configuration that has never been seen before and never will be seen again. But wouldn't that level of improbability have applied to that configuration existing as a result of that shuffle in the first place?
TL;DR, things with astronomically low probability have to happen, so how is being mathematically certain of something's impossibility reconciled with its existence?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/398ysf/eli5_how_do_mathematicians_statisticians/
|
{
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"cs1dlel",
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"text": [
"Actually, you can't rigorously pull a \"random integer\": more formally, there's no uniform distribution on the integers (or on any countably infinite set). It's not just a physical limitation, but a mathematical one.\n\nThat being said, there are situations where infinite sample spaces make perfect sense. When you're talking about an infinite space of possible outcomes, it's not really meaningful to talk about one exact outcome. Rather, you talk about outcomes \"within a certain area\" - and the probability of being in a certain area is, in fact, positive.\n\n > I've also heard of the fact that you can be mathematically certain that the result of a truly random shuffle of a deck of cards is a configuration that has never been seen before and never will be seen again.\n\nThat's practical certainty, not mathematical. The odds of the cards ending up in exactly the same configuration after a shuffle are 1 in 52!. But 52! = 52x51x50x49x...x3x2x1 is a gigantic number, about 10^(80). Here it is, exactly, to make the point: 138683118545689835737939019720389406345902876772687432540821294940160000000000000.\n\n > But wouldn't that level of improbability have applied to that configuration existing as a result of that shuffle in the first place?\n\nYep. It did - BEFORE you shuffled the cards. But after the cards are shuffled, the probability that they were shuffled the way they actually were is 100%: it's already happened and the outcome is certain.",
"The mathematical probability of any one *specific* event to happen is nearly zero. The mathematical probability of any event happening at all is the sum of all the possibilities that could happen, and is therefore certain.\n\nSo, in your sperm example any single sperm is extremely unlikely to be the one to get through. But the odds that one sperm will break through is decent, because there are all so many trying to get into the egg.\n\nBasically these sorts of numbers only seem miraculous if you assume a specific outcome. If you don't they become normal."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
ai4iio
|
why cant we learn in our sleep?
|
Why cant we learn in our sleep by leaving an educational program or a podcast running while sleeping for example?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ai4iio/eli5_why_cant_we_learn_in_our_sleep/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eel25ge",
"eel5myx"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"The part of your brain that processes language is... asleep. The part which stores memories is also mostly not working. The brain can't learn when it isn't doing those things.",
"It depends on what stage of sleep you are in. In the lighter stages of sleep, your auditory, language and memory centers are all still active. You are able to remember things in this stage of sleep, albeit it is unlikely. This is the stage of sleep someone will wake up, look around, maybe even talk and then instantly go back to sleep and they most of the time will have no memory of it, because they are effectively actually asleep. Or, you might talk to them and receive responses. Learning and memory retention is at least possible during this time.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThe deeper stages of sleep, all of the processing centers are almost completely shut down, and nothing is able to be processed at all outside of emergency cues that brain has."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
23gzn9
|
why do some subreddits ban posts that "promote piracy", but then subreddits like r/fulltvshowsonyoutube can exist?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23gzn9/eli5_why_do_some_subreddits_ban_posts_that/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgwvxaj"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"2 things: reddit's lean is more toward freedom of speech (so, allowing the piracy on fulltvshows...). Also, each subreddit is run by a different group of people. Those different groups can set whatever rules the members of that subreddit want. And if the rules are no good, then the community is small."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
52da31
|
why do some businesses say no photos?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/52da31/eli5_why_do_some_businesses_say_no_photos/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d7jbomf"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There could be many reasons. \n\n1) Taking photos is discrating to the people working. This is common for performance venues. \n\n2) Taking photos may capture information that the business is keeping secret. \n\n3) The business may make their money by having people come into it to see what they have. You get this a lot with art galleries and museums. \n\n4) Flash photography can degrade the objects. This is also common with museums and art galleries. \n\n5) The business owners simply do not like pictures. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
87zmb2
|
why does only my right eye becomes red and irritated with too much screen time, but not both?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/87zmb2/eli5_why_does_only_my_right_eye_becomes_red_and/
|
{
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2
],
"text": [
"That's not a normal thing. It could be a condition on the eye, or you rubbing it with a hand that has more bacteria than the other. It is probably worth a doctors visit, at least everywhere outside the US it is. If you can see a doctor without bankruptcy you probably should. ",
"My guess is that your tired eye isn't as good at seeing as your other one, and therefore experiences more strain in an attempt to compensate."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
2u27k6
|
electric cars and torque (as compared to normal cars)
|
I ask this because I recently saw the video of the new Tesla with "Insane launch mode".
But what is it about electric cars that allow them to generate that amount of torque that a normal car cannot?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2u27k6/eli5_electric_cars_and_torque_as_compared_to/
|
{
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"text": [
"well normal car has gears, electric car does not, there are no manual electric cars, or \"automatic\"\n\nelectric literally puts all the power on wheels all the time? i guess you need info on why normal one does not do that?\n\nnormal car has a gearbox to handle the ice putting out the power.",
"I'm quite certain it isn't really the amount of torque, but the fact that the Tesla doesn't need gear boxes and gear changing.\n\nThus, it can utilize it's maximum potential from the start, whereas the normal car needs to come up to speed first.",
"An electric motor provides the maximum torque at stall (0 rpms) This precludes the need for a torque multiplying transmission. Since the electric motor is stopped when you are it also doesn't need any clutch arrangement."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1i75bm
|
would twins (one living on earth, the other on mars) age differently?
|
If so, would such a difference be noticeable within a human lifetime? Does this affect the rovers and/or satellites?
I'm not talking about the differences between the solar day/solar year that must be accounted for. I mean time dilation.
I tried to search if this had already been discussed, but either I wasn't using the right keywords or I just failed to find it. I tried Google, too, but couldn't find a straight answer there either.
OK, my assumptions (possibly/probably incorrect or irrelevant):
At relativistic speeds (like those in the original 'twin paradox') a year of high acceleration/gravity equates to decades or centuries on Earth. But the difference between Earth and Mars isn't even close to that. Still, Mars only has about 10 percent of the mass of Earth, and it also travels around the Sun about 10000 mph slower than Earth does. I'm assuming that means time should pass more rapidly on the surface of Mars compared to the surface of Earth.
What would that work out to? An extra day every X many years?
Sorry for this post being so much longer than usual ELI5s. I wasn't sure if I should put it in r/space or r/NASA, but I figured I'd start here. I need this dumbed way down, please. I did some reading but there's no way I can learn that much math for a question that popped into my head during a bath.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1i75bm/eli5_would_twins_one_living_on_earth_the_other_on/
|
{
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"cb1mtba"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Yes, the person on Mars would age more slowly. But the difference over the course of a lifetime would not be noticeable for practical purposes.\n\nHere's the formula: [Wikipedia](_URL_0_)\n\nThe important part of that formula is in the denominator, where you divide the square of the relative velocity difference by the square of the speed of light. (EDIT: notice that if the velocity difference is zero, when you do the math the answer equals 1. Meaning that for each 1 time unit one person experiences, the other also experiences 1 time unit. Only when that velocity difference is nonzero do you get time dilation. But that velocity difference has to be really big for it to be material.)\n\n10,000 mph velocity difference = 2.8 miles per second. Squared = 7.84.\n\nThe speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. Squared = 34,596,000,000.\n\n7.84 / 34,596,000,000 = 0.00000000227. Or something like that. It's really small.\n\n1 minus the result above = 0.99999999977\n\nThe square root of that = 0.999999999885\n\nThat's the ratio of the time difference. \n\nSo if the twin on Earth experienced 80 years, the twin on Mars would experience 79.9999999908 years. Which is about 1/3 of a second difference.\n\nnote: my math might be a little off because of using web calculators and stuff, which is why I showed my math. But no matter how the calcs work, the Wikipedia article I linked says that for velocity differences below 10% of the speed if light, there is for practical purposes no time dilation.\n\n\n\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation#Time_dilation_due_to_relative_velocity"
]
] |
|
3p2ecf
|
with china's population why do they not give away the housing and property in their "ghost cities"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3p2ecf/eli5_with_chinas_population_why_do_they_not_give/
|
{
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"cw2k4xe",
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"cw2y90w"
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"score": [
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14,
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"I can't rule out the possibility that some similar policy might make sense in some way. \n\nBut the general issue with people who lack housing and property isn't that there aren't places to physically to live, it's that people want to live in a place where there are jobs/utilities/family/access/etc... The Ghost cities don't have these things (certainly not to the degree or at the same low cost as the cities that aren't ghost cities). That's why they're ghost cities in the first place.",
"China has a complicated political/economic system; the reason \"they\" don't give away the houses is that China *does* have the concept of ownership and the people who own the properties don't want to give them away.",
"No one read the articles closely about these ghost cities. The fact is none of them remain ghost for that long. Most are sold at a loss to companies for factories and factory housing.",
"I think the reason there are ghost cities in China is because everyone up and moved to Vancouver.",
"There aren't any jobs there. Why live there when you can't do anything to support yourself?",
"The ghost cities are investment schemes and usually empty concrete shells until people start moving in or renting. If you build it, they will come....eventually....and Asians LOVE apartments. \n\nInvesting in real estate is very popular so buying a few units that will be filled eventually beats sticking it under the mattress or the Chinese stock market.\n\nIt's not like these are fully furnished buildings and rooms....more like concrete shells in a cheap concrete high rise. \n\nIt's a bit like the USA proptery bubble except instead of people investing in one big McMansion they will live in, they'll buy other smaller units to rent out in the future.\n\nConsidering more factories moving in-land, those bets might start paying off very well. \n\nGranted, I've seen some honest to god epic fail investment city building schemes in korea. Songdo city comes to mind....not sure if Pangyo ever got filled out. In one case, the developers bought the land, but lost the money to build the units so miles of prime real estate have turned into desolate grassland. \n\n\nLook up Songdo city to see what happens when the housing units go up, but the big business and amusement parks bail.",
"To begin the Chinese government does social programs and is planning for this term to build 30 million units for the needy. Now mind you they are not for free but significantly cheaper then the market price.\n\nRegarding ghost villages you see, consider to begin China is huge so what is a ghost city today in a few months or years might be a different situation. China is still rather feudal so the urbanization rate is rather low, meaning that more people will still move to the cities (an estimated 250 million this decade) which will mean a huge demand for housing.\n\nCombine that with a strong top down government who control the market, or atleast try to. Situations that happen currently is that the governments forces weaker developers to consolidate. Expensive properties don't always get a permit so in order for developers to get it in the market sometimes developers need to lower the prices. Developers also get \"string\" projects, do one to get another, ie do a social project to get a prestigious project.\n\nThat doesn't mean the market isn't flawless mainly because Chinese have a hard time investing their money anywhere. The stockmarket is rigged as well the property market. That said anybody with some money will buy properties which drives up the price by speculation. Combine that with the greedy mind of one hand the speculators as well the realtors there is strong sense always that prices go up, yet nobody can support that claim. Far more likely prices actually go down like UBS claims but also other parties.\n\nThis brings us to another issue, while the government is strong, they cheat with numbers. Publicly they say the grow is 7% on average, but unofficial numbers from Beijing are 5.7/5.8% and these fake numbers go for a long of things.\n\nI tend to have more trust in someone like Li ka shing a Hong Kong (originally Chinese) property investor (I know he is in a lot more) and pulled out already 3 years ago out the commercial market and now is withdrawing from the residential projects.\n\nMind you what I write is what goes on in a nutshell and for residential projects. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5wc5jg
|
why does nail polish last the longest on the big toe versus the rest of your fingers/toes when applied at the same time?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5wc5jg/eli5_why_does_nail_polish_last_the_longest_on_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"de8yaja"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Not completely sure, just throwing an idea out there. Your big toe has the largest surface area compared to the rest of your toes, so the nail polish will last longer. The smaller toes have less nail polish, so the nail polish will last shorter. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
3da4pk
|
how come we can't send probes into planets and take pictures of their surfaces and such?
|
In light of the incredible Pluto pictures, how come we can't send probes into planets and take pictures of their surfaces and such? Not land, just fly over the surfaces from the sky and snap photos and then leave the atmosphere after. Or maybe fly them in and take a massive amount of pictures and dive bomb the probe into the surface after it sends the pictures. I can image the incredible landscape it could capture on Jupiter or Venus, or where ever.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3da4pk/eli5_how_come_we_cant_send_probes_into_planets/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ct36qc8"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
" > I can image the incredible landscape it could capture on Jupiter or Venus, or where ever.\n\nYes, I can too. It would look something like [this](_URL_0_)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://i.imgur.com/lh4a46c.jpg"
]
] |
|
p8a24
|
what bitrate signifies in audio
|
What exactly does a higher bitrate give you? I'm confused. What does a lower bitrate remove?
(this is mostly for audio/music, but explanations about video are helpful too.)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p8a24/eli5_what_bitrate_signifies_in_audio/
|
{
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"text": [
"bitrate is the rate at which bits are being provided or processed in a system. That system can be your ipod or your television, etc. Higher number of bits mean high quality and more processing. In music, bits can be used to represent tones. Having a high number of bits in a music system will allow greater quality because you are able to fit more tones into the music. It will more accurately represent the song.",
"Ok, sound is different air pressures hitting your ear, yes?\n\nAnd a speaker makes sound by creating these air pressures by vibrating a cone, yup?\n\nOk, good. The speaker is controlled by a voltage across an electromagnet inside the speaker unit. That means in analogue audio, we just use different voltage levels, recorded onto a tape or vinyl or whatever.\n\nIn digital audio, we have to turn these voltage levels into 0s and 1s, called bits. To do this, we take a record of the voltage at various points in the audio. On a CD, we do this 44100 times per second. This is a process called sampling - you've probably heard the term sample rate. It means we ‘sample’ the voltage at certain points. Why 44100 times per second? It's to do with human hearing. You can ask me this if you're interested but it's not relevant to this explanation.\n\nNow, because we're using 0s and 1s to represent voltage, (which you can roughly equate to volume if you're trying to imagine it in your head) we can never get the *exact* voltage at any one of these sampling points - voltage is continuous, and computers only work with discrete numbers. So, we have to do some rounding. Imagine if we decided to use 2-bit audio. It would sound horrible - we'd have to round every voltage to either 00, 01, 10, or 11 (and thus there would only be 4 possible volumes for our sound to be at).\n\nMost audio is 16 bit. That means we can now assign a voltage to 000000000000000, 000000000000001, 000000000000010, 000000000000011, 000000000000100 etc etc. Long story short, we now have 65,536 possible voltages. That's a hell of a lot more detail, and now we can create an *accurate* representation of the original analogue signal (though never *exactly*).\n\nNow remember we have 2 speakers, so we need data for both left and right channels. So we have 44100 samples, with 16 bits per sample, on 2 channels. 44100x16x2 = 1,411.2 kbit per second. This is the bit rate of CD quality audio.\n\nThe margin of error in this rounding process comes out sounding like noise called quantisation noise. The difference between the original signal and the quantisation noise is called the signal-to-quantisation-noise ratio. The more bits we have, the higher this ratio is, so the more the sound of the original signal overwhelms any noise (to the point of the noise being imperceptible, ideally). Generally, for every bit we use per sample, we add 6dB of difference. Therefore a 16-bit audio track has 96dB signal-to-noise, which is good enough for general listening. When producers are making music, they usually prefer higher signal-to-noise, so they use 24-bits per sample, which gives them 144dB signal-to-noise.",
"I'll do my best with this one.\n\nAudio/music files are sound files. Sound is made up of waves. These waves are inherently analog - they are continuous. When we want to store these waves on a computer, we need to convert the analog waves into a discrete format, so that we can digitize it and store it. \n\nIf I draw a line on a piece of paper, what's the difference between that line and a whole lot of points very close together in the same place? You won't be able to see a difference. When we digitize sound, we do the same thing. We look at a sound a whole lot of times a second and each time we look at it, we write down the value we saw. This value is called a sample.\n\nIn typical CD audio, the sample rate is 44100Hz. This means that every second, 44100 values are recorded. This is because this is about as often as we need to write down our values for people not to be able to detect a difference from the original sound.\n\nNow, how big can our values for our audio file be? We could just record sound, and no sound. That would require a bit depth of 1. That is, 1 for on, 0 for off. But that wouldn't sound very good, if all we could play was when a sound was playing and when it wasn't. There would be no subtle levels in the sound.\n\nIf we wanted to use a bit depth of 2, we would have 4 options to choose from and so when we are writing down our values we would only have 4 bins to stick them in. Off, weak, medium and powerful. \n\nCD audio tends to use a bit depth of 16, which gives us 65,536 bins to stick our values into. That's enough values to represent off, powerful and all the values in between. Obviously, using 16 bits takes more storage space than using just 1, or 4. Again, 16 bits is chosen because 65,536 is about as many values as people can distinguish between. We could use 32 bits if we wanted, which would give us 4,294,967,296 bins. However, people couldn't tell the difference between values that are very close together, such as 1500 and 1501.\n\nA bit*rate*, then, is the bit depth * sample rate. In our CD, it'd be 705600 bps. That is, for every second of audio, we need 705600 bits to play that sound. That's for a mono recording. If we want to do stereo, we need to double that.\n\nSo a lower bit rate means that we need less bits per second to store the sound.This can be because of a lower bitdepth (less possible values) or because of a lower sample rate (less values recorded per second).\n\nThe effect this will have on audio files is generally that subtler tones will not be heard. The more dominant parts of the sound will be the ones that stand out more. Perhaps [this picture](_URL_0_) will help. The audio with the lower bit rate is like the top part. It's unable to represent subtleties (high frequency parts and parts which are very similar in intensity), unlike the bottom part. \n\n",
"**Bitrate** is a fancy term for the process where we describe music/video/etc. **in numbers.**\n\n------------------------\n**Describing a picture in Crayons**\n\nLet's pretend that you've made this really awesome picture. [(Maybe it looks like this)](_URL_2_). You show your picture to all of your friends, and they all think that it's the coolest thing since sliced bread and the return of Saturday Morning Cartoons. They all think it's so cool that they beg and plead for you to give THEM copies of the same picture... and in color!\n\nProblem: you don't have a color copier.\n\nBut you know what everyone does have? You and all your friends have Crayons. So you (rather brilliantly) decide to recreate your kickass picture as a paint by numbers. You take your basic box of 8 crayons and assign each of them numbers. Maybe it looks something like this:\n\n* 0-White\n* 1-Red\n* 2-Orange\n* 3-Yellow\n* 4-Green\n* 5-Blue\n* 6-Purple\n* 7-Black\n\nSome sections will be Red, so you'll assign that Crayon 1 (Red). Some sections are blue, so you'll assign those sections Crayon 5 (Blue). You keep doing this until finally your awesome paint-by-numbers is complete! You hand out the colorless paint-by-numbers to your friends, tell what colors go to which sections, and then happily send everyone on their way!\n\nYour smart older brother mentions something to you about how \"this is a really great analogy for bitrates\" and blah-blah-blah, but you tune him out, because you are happy with the knowledge that your awesome pony picture is out there for everyone else to see.\n\n[Winning.](_URL_4_)\n\n------------------------------------------\n**Something goes wrong**\n\nYou go to school the next day feeling confident about your awesome pony picture, and you're ready to roll around in the praise. Except everyone comes to you complaining! Their pony pictures don't look nearly as awesome as yours. All the colors are wrong. It kinda looks like the original, but it's not nearly as cool as yours. You take a look at one guy's coloring job, and think, [\"Man. This is a mess.\"](_URL_0_) \n\nThe colors are all wrong! They're all too similar. So you go back to the drawing board, asking yourself, \"How can I make the colors look better?\"\n\nYou're pretty brilliant, so you come up with the solution quick: **add more crayons**.\n\nInfact, if you double the number of crayons from **8** to **16**, you think your pony picture will look pretty darn cool.\n\nSo that's what you do. You spend all night working away, and this time, after assigning all 16 crayons and putting numbers all over the page, you even test it yourself, coming up with this [glorious masterpiece](_URL_8_).\n\nPerfect.\n\nYou get these new paint-by-numbers out as quickly as you can. The next day, your friends all praise you for your awesome new crayon-by-number masterpiece.\n\n-----------------------------\n**It's still not good enough**\n\nThen there's Steve. Steve isn't happy with the new crayon-by-number. It still doesn't look quite like your original glorious masterpiece. He points out really subtle things, like how Twilight Sparkle's body is the same color as Fluttershy's hair, and those are _not_ supposed to be the same color.\n\nAnd what's worse is he's right. The colors aren't perfect. You go home and make Steve a special 100-crayon version of your picture, which ends up looking something like this: [100-piece perfection](_URL_3_).\n\nBut this still doesn't satisfy Steve. He demands you make him the perfect crayon-by-number. He even gives you his ginormous collection of thousands of different Crayon shades so that you can perfectly recreate the original awesome picture. It takes you a while, but you're awesome, so eventually you present Steve with exactly what he wants: [perfection](_URL_2_).\n\n\n\n---------------\n**So what's the deal with all these crayons?**\n\nEvery time you went to a higher number of crayons to describe your picture, you were actually **increasing the bitrate of the picture.**[1] Music, movies, or anything can be described with very high accuracy *if you have enough crayons*. Describing music in numbers gets really really difficult, especially for guys like Steve who want it to sound *exactly* the same. So for guys like Steve, we use a **higher bitrate** to increase the **fidelity** of the music.\n\nFrom there, the conversation dives off into 'more complicated territory', but if there's anything specifically that you had questions about, I'd be more than happy to try and answer.\n\n\n\n----------------\n**References and notes**\n\n* [1] Bitrate actually means number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. I don't get into that here, but it's easy enough to imagine something like a flipbook of crayon-by-number pony-pictures. Then we could describe the flipbook in **crayon-rate**.\n\n-----------------\n**Further Reading**\n\n* [The Wikipedia article on Bit rate](_URL_7_)\n* [The Wiki article on Digital Audio](_URL_6_)\n* [How Stuff Works on Bits and Bytes](_URL_5_)\n* [List of Crayola Crayon Colors](_URL_1_)\n",
"There's different ways to look at digital sound. The easiest is plain-old wave data. This is pretty much a straight copy of the grooves on a record or the electrical impulses that move a speaker in and out. Since this is a computer, everything has to be a number. The bitrate tells you how many times a second that samples are being taken and how accurate those samples are.\n\nFor example, a CD is 44.1kHz, 16-bit - this means that 44,100 times a second they're taking a number to represent how strong the sound wave is & it has 65,000 levels of accuracy between the lowest recorded level and the highest. This is pretty good for most people who want to listen to music. However, when you're actually recording music in a studio & you're going to work with it, they'll often use a 24-bit 96khz recording (that's twice as many samples per second at 256 times the accuracy).\n\nThe second place you want to talk about a bit-rate is with MP3s (which I see you mentioned elsewhere). MP3 is a \"lossy compression\" system - this means that it's willing to throw out data to get better rates, sort of like a JPEG. To understand how this works, we need to look at sound differently. The PCM model of sound describes the physical waves, but that single wave contains many different frequencies of sound. Doing some complex math, you can break up your giant wave to find the individual frequencies involved in it.\n\nYou've probably seen a [spectrum analyzer](_URL_1_) before - it show's how strong the sound is in different frequency ranges. Or you could look at a [spectrogram](_URL_0_) which shows the same thing but gives you a time component.\n\nHow does this relate to an MP3? When you encode a plain wave to an MP3, it figures out what frequencies are in the signal at every given point. Once it knows what frequencies are there, it figures out which ones are the most 'important' and worth saving & which ones can be ignored. The bitrate of an MP3 determines how much of this data can be stored - the higher, the more accurate. Keep in mind that almost all MP3s are still '44.1k/16-bit' audio, they're just not *all* of the audio."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~psyc351/Images/MachBandsVsGradient.gif"
],
[
"http://i.imgur.com/9PHGC.png",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Crayola_crayon_colors",
"http://i.imgur.com/d5CAg.jpg",
"http://i.imgur.com/hMNge.jpg",
"http://i.imgur.com/pSqxG.jpg",
"http://computer.howstuffworks.com/bytes.htm",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rate",
"http://i.imgur.com/BMdAs.png"
],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NbharaI-M",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b09vELFmeGQ&feature=related"
]
] |
|
cmvu1d
|
how do summarizing bots work ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cmvu1d/eli5_how_do_summarizing_bots_work/
|
{
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"text": [
"First they look through the article for important keywords. These are words that are more common in the article than they usually are. For example, the word \"man\" is very common, so it's not unusual for it to show up several times in an article. But if the word \"explosion\" shows up several times in an article, that's pretty unusual: we can guess that the word \"explosion\" is probably an important keyword for the article.\n\nThen they break up the article into sentences and give each sentence a score based on how many important keywords it has and also where it is in the article (sentences in the first paragraph of an article are more likely to be important). They take the sentences with the highest scores and put them together to form a summary.\n\nMore intelligent bots also use some form of AI or learning system to get better at summarizing with training. Because of how AI works, there aren't specific rules these bots follow, they just do whatever gives them the best results during training. But usually they use what I previously described as a base model to build on."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
5mgv2r
|
when you drink a few beers you piss like an elephant yet drinking the same amount of water does nothing.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mgv2r/eli5_when_you_drink_a_few_beers_you_piss_like_an/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dc3hlhm",
"dc3hozv"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Alcohol is an diuretic. It tells your body that it is full of water and to purge, your body does this via urination.",
"Beer is a diuretic. \"A diuretic is any substance that increases your body's urine production. Alcohol works as a diuretic in part by stimulating the bladder. Alcohol also suppresses a pituitary gland hormone that is responsible for inhibiting the diuretic effect.\"\n\nSo basically beer causes your body to not only produce more pee, but also stops your body from holding it in."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
1f0dfm
|
how do living things move at a molecular level?
|
Sorry if its too complicated to ELI5
Edit: I'm asking, how can I control the atoms of the muscles in say, my finger? What do my brainwaves do to the atoms?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1f0dfm/eli5_how_do_living_things_move_at_a_molecular/
|
{
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"ca5nz5h"
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"text": [
"At the molecular level, molecules move around by brownian motion. Brownian motion is essentially the random motion of molecules just bumping into each other. Every time a molecule bumps into another energy is exchanged. An easy way to think of it is to imagine tennis balls being flung around in a hurricane. When the balls bounce into each other they change direction.\n\nThe trouble is, is that this motion is completely random. Nature has found a few clever ways to turn this random motion into directional, generally by using \"molecular ratchets\". One example is kinesin motor protein. This protein looks like a pair of legs, and walks along long rope-like structures called microtubules. The neat thing about kinesin is that the front foot is always locked in place, and the back foot is allowed to freely move. The random brownian motion pushes this foot in every direction, until it finds a foothold in front of the other leg. The new front foot then locks in place, and the back foot gets released, so it can take another step. This is one way that random atomic movements get turned into directional molecular movements."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3092d3
|
why do people (and apes in general) have two breasts/nipples, given that they're most likely to have only one child at a time?
|
I guess if you have two children in a row, it might be helpful but still... What is the evolutionary reason?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3092d3/eli5why_do_people_and_apes_in_general_have_two/
|
{
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"text": [
"We have bilateral symmetry. Every mammal has an even number. ",
"To give one a rest while the devil spawn kid starts chewing on the other? ",
"When women breastfeed they switch from one side to the other. This allows each side to produce enough milk (since each breast is only used every other feeding) to keep up with the baby's demands.",
"I'm not positive, but I have heard that mammals have twice the number of nipples as their typical litter size. That way, if you have *more* than you expected, twins for example, you're still okay.",
"Because sometimes one breast isn't filled back up enough by the time the baby wants to eat again.",
"I am not sure if I like these kinds of questions because in the end, there is not a real answer anyone can give. We can speculate all day as to why, but if the question is asked to understand why we were made this way, that implies intelligent design in our making and one trying to understand divine reasoning, which is usually a no no. If you're asking scientifically, then all we can do is speculate as to why we evolved a certain way. In the end, we'll all just be talking in circles because no real answer can come of this.",
"You're assuming evolution is happening for a 'reason'. It doesn't. We have 2 nipples because a long time ago, when human-like things started to exist- humans that were the same on both sides were more likely to survive and make babies. \n\nEvolution doesn't have a goal- it just goes with whatever is working. \n\nIt is easy to look back and be like- 'oh, its helpful for twins or if one stops working you have a backup'. And while this may be true in a practical sense. There is no evolution God that is making those decisions or setting up a body in that particular way. Its just what survives the best. (most of the time)",
"Biological Raid. Fault tolerance, and you can hot-swap. ",
"You tend to want even numbers and enough nipples to feed twice the average litter. Humans generally have 1 kid at a time, 2 or more if particularly fertile, so we only prep for 2.",
"In a pre-agricultural hominid society, you're also going to tend to have children more often and breastfeed them longer. So while you might have one baby per pregnancy, you might also have 1 pregnancy every one-two years or so, lose some of your kids to disease etc, breastfeed til they're 4-6 years old... sometimes you'll need two nipplies.",
"A general trend in mammals is to have twice as many nipples as their average number of offspring. The reason for this is to not have one over used by nursing, and to allow for a \"back-up\" in case one is damaged by disease or wounds. "
]
}
|
[] |
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[],
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|
2b7gbb
|
how come i can easily sink hours into reddit but 5 minutes at work takes forever?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2b7gbb/eli5_how_come_i_can_easily_sink_hours_into_reddit/
|
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"text": [
"time passes fast when you're having fun",
"Time seems to dialate or contract based on the amount of information you have to process. ",
"For me I think it's because Reddit is full of different, interesting things that I can choose to view or skip. However at work I am often doing the same process over and over again and I can't skip those I don't like",
"Get a job where you aren't doing mundane and/or repetitive tasks and your workday will fly by.",
"Work is monotonous while reddit is like having bacon and eating sex at the same time.",
"Man, the content on reddit becomes seriously horrible after so many pages. Why do I like food that tastes good but not like food that tastes bad??? Oooopppss I answered my own question!!!!! "
]
}
|
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[
[],
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||
eseybt
|
why does it take so much water to produce meat products?
|
I saw somewhere that it takes over 1500 gallons to produce 1 pound of beef why?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eseybt/eli5_why_does_it_take_so_much_water_to_produce/
|
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"text": [
"Because over their entire lifetime, before the animal can become food, they eat a lot of plants which we have to grow for them.",
"Cows eat grass/feed. In the US, it is also supplemented by corn. It takes water to grow the crops and the conversion ratio of feed to meat is low - cows eat a lot.",
"Because cows are alive. Much of the water that goes into them comes out of them as their bodies eliminate waste products. To get to 1500g, they are also considering the water that grows the food that goes into the cow. Clearly you could be much more efficient if you just ate the corn that was being fed to cows yourself.",
"People forget that Water recycles itself. \n\nSo it's not like that 1500 gallons is a limited resource.",
"Cows are thirsty.\n\nCows eat plants.\n\nPlants are thirsty.\n\nFor some perspective, it can take 250 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3nmeip
|
halo universe/story
|
Halo 5 is coming in hot. And I barely know something about its story. Links and videos may help.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nmeip/eli5_halo_universestory/
|
{
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"text": [
"Quick Summary;\n\n & nbsp;\n\n\nTheres a collection of alien races called the covenant who are trying to access ancient technology to go on a spiritual journey. These ancient dudes are called forerunners. Meanwhile humanity is colonizing planets and happens upon the aliens.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nAliens wage a holy war on humanity. Humanity's only hope are super soldiers called spartans. The lead spartan is The Master Chief. In the first game he is aboard a ship that blindly jumps in space to avoid destruction. The ship ends up at a Halo.\n\n\n & nbsp;\n\nThe covenant think Halo is a holy relic. You, as the master chief, learn that its a weapon to kill all life in the galaxy in order to stop a parasite called The Flood. So you blow up Halo.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nHalo 2: As a new alien character you play as the Arbiter to redeem your failure at Halo and kill anyone who gets in the way of the covenant. You learn about the true purpose of Halo and stop the covenant from activating another Halo. As the chief you chase a covenant leader who travels to earth and jumps to the new halo.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nIn halo 3, the chief and the arbiter chase down the last covenant leader and learn that earth is a portal to a central control station to all halos. At the end of halo 3 the chief is left drifting in space.\n\n\n & nbsp;\n\nIn halo 4 you drift into a metallic planet. You are tricked into releasing an ancient forerunner douchebag. The spaceship Infinity comes to help rescue you and eliminate the new threat. Humanity has now gone on the offensive against the aliens btw. And the end of Halo 4 sees the chief parting ways with Cortana, his AI and best friend. Sad face.\n\n & nbsp;\n\nWell thats a super brief summary. There is a lot that i didnt mention. A lot more characters and back story. But thats the gist. Halo 5 appears to follow the chief as he reunites with his old team. And a new guy that is hunting the chief. There are several alien races in the covenant and a whole backstory on each one. Some have actually sided with the humans by now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3mll71
|
what makes a study scientific?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mll71/eli5what_makes_a_study_scientific/
|
{
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"text": [
"(1) It is recognised by the larger scientific community as being scientific, because\n\n(2) It demonstrates efforts to make it *objective* and *reproducible.* In medicine, this often means blinding the subjects and the researches (meaning that neither know who gets a \"real\" treatment versus a placebo) and randomly selecting people to study. The goal of these and other methods is to limit the ability of researchers to sway their results as much as possible.\n\n1 is often assured by having your paper \"peer reviewed\"--other scientists read it and critique it before a journal will publish it. This has flaws, of course, like Andrew Wakefield's study on the MMR vaccine and autism."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
6gagih
|
how do police enforce speed limits with aircraft?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gagih/eli5_how_do_police_enforce_speed_limits_with/
|
{
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"text": [
"There are lines painted on the highway at known intervals i.e. 1 mile apart. Use a stopwatch and bingo, you're busted."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
esi9rv
|
why does all the small led lights found on laptop charger keep glowing even after unplugging?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/esi9rv/eli5_why_does_all_the_small_led_lights_found_on/
|
{
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"text": [
"Many electronics store or hold electricity without being plugged in. That's why things like TV'S have warnings about self servicing. \n\nI'm not an expert by any means but have been told this. So whether its accurate or not I don't know.",
"Not all chargers show this phenomenon. But when they, it is caused by the electrical energy still stored in the capacitors inside. The capacitors in chargers are used to \"filter\" unwanted ripples when converting from AC to DC. They help smooth the electrical output curve by storing energy and work a kind like a overhead water tank e. g. in a water tower. In normal condition, this tank is drained by the device plugged into AND to a tiny amount by the control led. When unplugged, the stored electrical energy is only drained by the tiny led. And this led uses only a fraction of the energy that the capacitors still hold. Depending on the electrical characteristics of both the led and the capacitor, the glowing effect will last shorter or longer. A small mobile charger led will go dark sooner than the one on a laptop charger.\nStill some chargers led will NOT glow, when unplugged. It depends a lot from the circuits construction.\n\nHope that brings a little glowing to this question."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
2z41cu
|
process of figuring out if genes are 'foreign'
|
I read an article from ScienceDaily called, "Some genes 'foreign' in origin and not from our ancestors," and it said,"The researchers studied the genomes of 12 species of Drosophila or fruit fly, four species of nematode worm, and 10 species of primate, including humans. They calculated how well each of their genes aligns to similar genes in other species to estimate how likely they were to be foreign in origin. By comparing with other groups of species, they were able to estimate how long ago the genes were likely to have been acquired." I want to know more about that. You can find it on Genome Biology ("Expression of multiple horizontally acquired genes is a hallmark of both vertebrate and invertebrate genomes"). Thanks!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z41cu/eli5_process_of_figuring_out_if_genes_are_foreign/
|
{
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"text": [
"It is a guess. But it is a good guess.\n\nA gene is the DNA coding for a protein. This DNA strand is long. But it can be read. The sequence of amino acids it calls for can be determined. Errors can exist in the DNA strand but still call for the same amino acid to be inserted. Errors can exist in the DNA strand which call for different amino acids in the sequence. but are similar enough to be substituted in the protein strand with no change.\n\nThe DNA strand can be read precisely. The amino acid sequence can be determined precisely. Errors in the DNA sequence can be interpreted to be a measure of time since the mutation.\n\n\nErrors in the amino acid sequence can be interpreted similarly. The DNA can be read to determine almost identical regions which are genes. The errors can be used to measure the time,\n\nA species will have its own genes. The genes of different species can be recognized. If the genes from a \"foreign\" species becomes inserted into the genome of a species this can be recognized.\n\nAcquisition of foreign genes is a very rare event. But it can be recognized to have occurred. \n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
6l3peq
|
if singularity can potentially destroy mankind, why do scientists continue to develop ai?
|
Like, why not just focus our scientific pursuits on other areas that don't lead to a Terminator-esque dystopia? Are scientists just uber confident in our ability to contain the potentially negative consequences of a self-improving artificial intelligence?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6l3peq/eli5_if_singularity_can_potentially_destroy/
|
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"This is a fundamental problem with technology: if one person decides to stop developing it, another may continue to do so anyway. It would take a global decision, with no exceptions, to prevent its development, and that's very hard to enforce. Anyone who broke the rule would end up with huge power and wealth if they managed to do it.\n\nThere's another reason, though. The kind of AI you're describing is fairly far away. There's not much reason to avoid developing *some* amount of AI, which would be very useful for medical diagnosis, efficient management of industry, and many other uses.",
"Because we don't know for sure. Lots of research can have harmful consequences, but we go forward anyway because the benefits outweigh the risks. We're pretty far away from a singularity--AI is very good at specific tasks, like playing Go or navigating terrain, but they can't generalize. Meanwhile, work in AI is opening up all kinds of doors in terms of what we can do with large data sets, theoretical math, and many other areas. It's even blowing apart our understanding of learning and the mind. Until we figure that the risks outweigh the benefits, it's crucial for computer scientists to push on and try to find new insights and applications. \n\nA good analogy is CRISPR/Cas9, which can modify a living creature's genome. Clearly there are a lot of Bad Applications for this, which is why we regulate it, and test it in controlled settings. But, it's been used in all kinds of vital medical research as well. \n\nThere's another reason. We are genre-savvy enough to be careful of a general AI with that kind of power. If we approach it, the scientists will have many failsafes surrounding it. If you're mucking around in the source code of a program, it's scary easy to break it. There's also the fact that no computer can cross over physical barriers. The AI would probably be in a sealed-off compound without networking capability. \n",
"Because we're nowhere *close* to developing genuine AI. Not even remotely. As in, even though your smart phone is already more advanced than any computer in any of the televised Star Trek shows, we are only marginally closer to having AI like that. "
]
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[] |
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[],
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fhujls
|
how does a wheel and axle make work easier?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fhujls/eli5_how_does_a_wheel_and_axle_make_work_easier/
|
{
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"Wheels reduce friction but an axle and wheel works like a lever and fulcrum: either you can apply a great amount of force over a short distance and receive a great amount of distance or you can apply a small amount of force over a great distance and receive a great amount of force. Think of a lever as a wheel and a fulcrum as an axle. Basically, it uses the mechanical advantage of distance to reduce the amount of force needed to move things. \n \nEdit: maybe think of it like an axle, a fulcrum, a pulley, and a wedge all allow you to divide or spread out force over a distance and that allows you to apply more force over time (and the reverse is true as well: you can increase force applied at a smaller distance/time and have it be dispersed over a greater distance/amount of time, depending on where your fulcrum is and where you apply force)."
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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3zalyf
|
can you or cant you rebuild and/or strengthen tooth enamel? 10 years ago this was impossible now every oral health company claims it with use of their products.
|
I just want to know if their is any scientific proof or backing when a toothpaste or mouthwash company claim that by using their products it can rebuild and strengthen enamel.
Edit: Thank you everyone for your posts, I do believe if you spend a few minutes reading a few of these comments my question is answered pretty well. Thank you again for all the input.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zalyf/eli5_can_you_or_cant_you_rebuild_andor_strengthen/
|
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"You can strengthen what's there, yes. And some people call that \"rebuilding\". But once it's gone, it's gone. It can be replaced by artificial means (that's kind of what a filling is) but your teeth won't naturally re-grow it.\n\n",
"Fluoride binds into your enamel, rebuilding very mild wear and tear and making it stronger. That's why we have fluoride in our tap water.\n\n[SciShow](_URL_3_) has the answers you seek.\n\nTL;DR for the video: as bacteria eat sugar, they produce acid that dissolves your enamel. Fluoride binds to the byproducts of that reaction, creating a new compound that's reincorperated chemically into the enamel. But that only works as the enamel is being dissolved, so once it's gone, if you didn't fix it then, it can't be fixed. So it does rebuild enamel, slowly, and it's limited, and it does make your teeth stronger. The vast majority of toothpaste in western nations is going to have fluoride in it.\n\nFor those of you just joining us:\n\n* The Nazis did not invent fluoridation, that's a [myth](_URL_5_). The first deliberate fluoridation began in Grand Rapids, MI.\n\n* There *was* a Harvard study on naturally fluoridated water in China that suggested high concentrations may cause a drop in IQ over time in children, but it was inconclusive. Their conclusion was that more studies were needed, and in any case the concentrations they were looking at were significantly higher than what you would find in deliberately fluoridated water. That study can be found [here](_URL_7_).\n\n* Contrary to what my post implied, fluoridated water is apparently much less effective at treating tooth decay in adults than in children. /u/carlsab has more information [here](_URL_8_). I offer that not as a rebuttal - water *is* still fluoridated to fight tooth decay. But it's certainly a complicated process involving different kinds of applications.\n\n* Bottled water [probably still has fluoride in it](_URL_6_). As do [wells](_URL_1_). Fluoride occurs in water naturally. In fact, tap water is likely to have significantly *less* fluoride in it than natural sources, depending on where you live.\n\n* /u/Czaer has a [very thorough](_URL_0_) and more technical explanation. You can find an even more technical explanation - complete with all the chemistry involved - [here](_URL_2_).\n\n* So yes or no? The answer is yes, in a very limited, technically correct way. It's a legal grey area where the product does what it says it does, but not what you are led to believe it says it does.\n\n* Topical vs ingested: During development, before the teeth erupt from the gums, fluoride is incorporated into the enamel. However, ingesting fluoride after eruption still helps fight tooth decay. Systemic fluoride is the fluoride ingested, usually via fluoridated water. That water gets used throughout the body, including your saliva, where it becomes a constant topical source. Information [here](_URL_4_). So, yes, fluoridated water is still effective well into adulthood according to the research I've found.\n\n* I am not a dentist, just a smart guy who knows things. I'm getting a lot of technical questions, and I really wish I could answer them but I just don't know all the things! There are a few dentists (and dental students) like /u/Lowstradamus leaving comments, hopefully they'll have better answers than me!\n\n* NovaMin is complicated, but the short version is that it does the same remineralization that happens naturally with calcium to reform the same hydroxylapatite normally found in your enamel. That means it's not as good as fluoride *per se*. However, the way it works delivers the reactants more efficiently, so you get more hydroxylapatite bang for your buck. Why isn't it available in the US? Marketing decision by the company, not a grand conspiracy by dentists. It's really not that impressive.\n\nHoly shit, guys, 1000+ upvotes! Thanks!\n\nHOLY SHIT GUYS! Reddit gold and 2k+ upvotes! You guys are awesome.\n\nWow, I wake up to 3k!",
"There is no such thing. Source: in dent school and I learn about all the old, current, and emerging technology. We SAF would have heard about something as game changing as that",
"Yeah, it happens naturally. Like one time I had a couple of cavities but I put off getting them filled until next year for insurance reasons.\n\nThen when I came back the dentist told me I didn't have to anymore because they had \"remineralized\"? Wha?\n\nThere must be some way to encourage this \"remineralization\" process. Dentists probably don't want to put themselves out of business with it though.",
"NovaMin also known as calcium sodium phosphosilicate is actually able to 'rebuild' tooth enamel. \n\nTechnical: NovaMin particles bind to the tooth surface and, when the particle comes in contact with saliva and water, reacts with the water to release calcium and phosphate ions. These ions are protected by glass particles so that they can be delivered to specific locations rather than as a liquid solution. Sodium ions in the particles exchange with hydrogen cations, which allows the calcium and phosphate ions to be released. A calcium phosphate layer then forms and crystallizes as hydroxylapatite, a form of hard and strong mineral in teeth. The physical occlusion of dentinal tubules results from both the hydroxylapatite layer and the residual NovaMin particles.[1][3]",
"There's some ridiculous videos on youtube with vacuous vampish charlatans claiming you can rebuild tooth enamel \"holistically\" It's total and utter rubbish.\n\nFluoride has been clinically proven to mineralize enamel (which in-turn hardens it) and prevent cavities, however excess ingestion of fluoride does carry its own set of health implications (when swallowed)\n\nAs an aside, never follow \"home natural whitening\" techniques which recommend using any citrus fruits such as lemons and strawberries. Citric acid is one of, if not the biggest contributor to tooth decay, it's dangerous to brush your teeth with citric acid it will certainly weaken your enamel and can lead to severe cavities.",
"Bio ceramics is about to happen.....\n\nThe use of enzymes to make body temp bone/enamel should be researched as we speak...",
"Hello GalaxyDelta9\nThe world of advertising can be quite confusing with health products because advertisements have to explain the science behind it so concisely that they may end up with something that sounds a bit skeptical. The words 'rebuilding' and 'strengthening' are words most of us can understand so advertisements use them, even if they aren't 100%.\n\nI'll explain the science first. I am studying dentistry currently. Take heed in that; I am not a dentist yet, nor a scientist in the front-lines but part of my education involves understanding this basic concept of tooth maintenance.\n\nEnamel is mostly inorganic. Nearly all of it is in a crystal form of calcium hydroxyapatite. Many many crystals make up the enamel. There is a tiny amount of protein and water but this is insignificant when we are talking about normal teeth and their maintenance. These crystals are very strong to deal with all the forces teeth have to handle when we bite and chew. Sadly the hydroxyapatite is liable to dissolving away with a sufficient acid exposure. When the hydroxyapatite dissolves with the acid the calcium is removed from the structure of the tooth. Hence we say acid exposure demineralises the tooth. This acid can be from your diet, from bacteria in your mouth, from stomach contents in the mouth (i.e. vomiting), and from the environment. Scientists have found that enamel will start demineralising when the pH is below 5.5. The pH of your mouth will drop below this value after you eat but only temporarily.\n\nWhy? because there are a number of processes in the body that reduce the rate of demineralisation. But in the modern age with its modern diet there is a need for us to help these processes to keep our teeth in good form.\n\nToothpaste has fluoride in it. Well most do (there is much heated debate over fluoride use and there are people that will not accept its advantages to health; and hence there is still a market for non-fluoride toothpaste). Fluoride does three things that protect the teeth; one is relevant to the 'rebuilding' or 'strengthening' claims. As I said before there are processes that defend the teeth. There are processes that reduce the amount of demineralising that occurs but there are also processes that remineralise what was lost. Simply speaking the building blocks for calcium hydroyapatite is present in saliva. When you are not demineralising you are remineralising at a small scale (sadly not enough to fend off tooth decay). When fluoride is present in the saliva and tooth surfaces then calcium hydroxyapatite is not made on the surface of the teeth - calcium fluoroapatite is made. The fluoride replaces a component of the hydroxapatite to make an altered crystal that is less liable to dissolving. What we find is that calcium fluoroapatite dissolves at a lower pH (3.5 I believe). This makes it more resistant to demineralising. In effect: the mouth has to be more acidic to lose the same amount of enamel as before.This is the reason why water fluoridation has its advantages. If the water you drink contains a little bit of fluoride you are increasing the exposure of fluoride on the teeth and promoting more calcium fluoroapatite being made. \n\nThis is where 'rebuilding' and 'strengthening' comes from. The toothpaste is providing the fluoride so I suppose it has claim to be rebuilding the tooth. And this 'rebuilding' makes the tooth more acid resistant or 'stronger'. Rebuilding and strengthening aren't necessarily the accurate words to use; but they are good words to use in a market where few know the science behind it.\n\nAs to why these claims are appearing these days but not years ago? It is hard to say but I would suggest it has something to do with the changing attitudes to oral health. Decades ago, going to the dentist meant getting fillings and having some teeth taken out. The elderly had full dentures and no teeth. Tooth decay was accepted as being something that happens as you age. These days people are taking better care of their teeth. Tooth loss is getting less accepted and more stigmatised (especially for the young and middle aged) and people are realising that keeping your teeth is expensive if you do not look after them. \n\nTLDR: The rebuild and strengthening claims are true in toothpastes if you understand that companies take all the science mumbo jumbo and simplify it to concise claims words longs. These claims are also trying to sell the product rather than explain the science. This simplification reduces accuracy but sends the message across to the masses. We are seeing people more conscientious on their oral health these days which is giving companies more of an incentive to include these claims with their adverts. ",
"Here is a page that describes an ongoing bodily process of rebuilding tooth enamel. _URL_0_",
"MI Paste and Remin Pro are two products that you can apply that may help to rebuild or strengthen tooth enamel.",
"Dental student here! \n\nTooth enamel is formed by little guys called ameloblasts, and after the tooth is fully formed, they quit their job and no longer produce enamel. Our enamel begins to decay when it has prolonged exposure with bacteria, but it can be \"rebuilt\" with the use of fluoride through a process called *remineralization* if the decay isn't too extensive. Fluoride binds to the enamel to create a new compound that is actually stronger than the original enamel, so it will be less prone to future cavities. The compound itself is technically not the enamel you were born with (made by our little ameloblasts), but it's darn close. You might notice that in a remineralized tooth, this area is a little darker than the surrounding tooth structure. But anyways, the companies are indeed advertising correctly, but they're putting it in layman's terms since they don't have the whole commercial to explain the difference between regular tooth enamel and remineralized tooth enamel. ",
"Got the short end of 'flouride is bad for you!'... so my teeth are soft & worn down to the point where the tops are nearly too close to the gum line, and that every surface is a sharp tooth (molars have a deep ravine + 2 sharp inside & outside edges). \n\nSo I'm trying everything (good to know about NovaMin in Canada + sensodyne) + extra strength flouride toothpaste + xylitole... Just for the sake of delaying how soon I have to fill my mouth with gold / implants.",
"It really comes down to quality vs quantity. You can repair quality, ie lost mineral due to acid dissolution, in a process of 'remineralisation'. The fluoride in toothpaste makes the resulting mineral stronger in response to acid/sugar. \n\nYou cannot repair quantity. One there is a hole (eg the enamel collapses due to loss of mineral, which is essentially what happens in tooth decay vanities), there is no repair. We can only fill it up with a filling. \n\nThe recent ads are mostly just ads. Some extra elements in toothpaste may help, like CPP-ACP (which delivers more minerals to help), but ultimately the different formulations of fluoride are similar in terms of remineralising. ",
"Thank you everybody for your comments. I've pretty much got the answer I'm looking for. Through piecing together multiple comments I have a greater understanding now.",
"Another relevant question: is there an effective way to brush your teeth in less than a minute? Why do we have to brush for 2 minutes?",
"The process these products claim to assist is one called remineralization.\n\nThis is a natural process that keeps enamel loss to a minimum so long as the surface of the tooth is allowed to return to an alkaline pH and mineral ions are present to redeposit on the enamel lattice.\n\nIf too much of the enamel lattice is damaged or destroyed, that damage is then permanent, and becomes the beginning of a cavity.",
"Imagine a tooth demineralizing like a mop sponge. The shape and strucuture are still there. If that's the case the mouth and toothpaste can re-mineralize the tooth...like a sponge filling with water.\n\nOnce the 'sponge' gets a tear or hole in it...all bets are off. That part is not repairable. ",
"What about Recaldent? I went to a new dentist recently (insurance reasons) and they were pushing me to buy MI Paste because I have some white decalcified spots along the base of a few teeth. ",
"I thought I'd read somewhere that a new procedure can re enamel teeth? Not true or too expensive to roll out yet?",
"Novamin can rebuild enamel, and it just so happens you can't buy it in the USA.\n\nTotally unrelated to the billions of dollars Americans spend on dental care, I swear.",
"sensitivity comes from the root surface ( unless your talking basic cavity) Root made up of dentin, looks like little tubes under magnification. By burnishing in the toothpaste for sens teeth, you are filling up the open tubes in the dentin. Acids erode this layer away so you are replacing it, kind of like spackle, to stay ahead of the erosion. Acid produced from bacterial waste, basically the bacteria eat what you eat, they metabolize it ( they are going to the bathroom in your mouth) its acidic and causes mineral breakdown of the hard tissues, and cause erosive damage to the soft tissues if left in place. Soft tissue damage can be repaired, in early stages, by improved homecare. Nothing will rebuild a damaged tooth surface, besides the spackle method I described. They are doing amazing things with lasers now, so who know what the future in dentistry will be like!",
"So, if you have a cavity and your benefits haven't kicked in yet, is there anything you can do to help mitigate the damage, and, more importantly, the pain? ",
"Recent claims are for advertising purposes. Nothing in \"toothpaste technology\" has changed in recent history.\n\n-dentist",
"Aren't there also some artificial sweeteners that are really good for strengthening teeth, like the ones found in sugar free gum? ",
"After one dentist gave me a clean bill of health and another told me I had five cavities six months later, I did some research. \n\nYour teeth are actually caught in a constant cycle of remineralization and demineralization. Acids demineralize the teeth. Namely, they dissolve calcium and phosphate ions. As other posters have said, sugars (and simple starches) are not inherently damaging to the teeth. However, they break down in the mouth almost immediately. Bacteria feed on these sugars and starches and produce lactic acid as a byproduct. This does result in demineralization.\n\nFortunately, our saliva contains calcium and phosphate ions. These ions remineralize our teeth. This is a major reason why people who have medical conditions that cause dry mouth are at a greater risk for tooth decay.Unfortunately, even in someone without dry mouth, demineralization can outpace remineralization, causing cavities.\n\nFluoride actually does not directly remineralize the tooth. It is helpful for a few other reasons: \n\n1. It causes fluorapatite to be formed during remineralization of the teeth, as opposed to hydroxyapatite. Fluorapatite is less soluble than hydroxyapatite. Thus, the teeth are more resistant to future demineralization.\n\n2. Fluoride enhances the ability of calcium and phosphate ions to come together and form calcium phosphate. This speeds up the remineralization process.\n\nSo, if you take #1 and #2 combined, this is strengthening and rebuilding the enamel. This is probably what the toothpaste companies are referring to.\n\nInterestingly, it has long been a goal of some to produce a calcium phosphate solution that the teeth would instantly take in, resulting in rapid remineralization. Of course, if dentists didn't make money from dental work, we would probably have something amazing by now. However, there is one product I know of that has been shown to remineralize teeth. It is called Novamin. It can work with fluoride to produce better results than either alone. \n\nIt is extremely difficult to find Novamin toothpaste in the U.S., but Sensodyne Repair and Protect from England does contain it, as well as fluoride. This is why I buy my toothpaste from England. \n\nI also am very skeptical of dentists. Three out of four have told me teeth don't remineralize. Others have tried to sell me unnecessary oral cancer tests. Some dentists are more crooked than my teeth pre-braces.",
"You can't really re-grown enamel. You basically get what you get when your adult teeth come in and it degrades over time. How quickly it degrades depends on genetics and diet. You can slow the process by reducing exposure to the things that are bad for your teeth like sugar and soda. Any product that claims it can remineralize your teeth is largely BS. Remineralizing, if it were possible, would come from an internal process. ",
"Novamin will help reverse decay. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nACP also. \n\n_URL_1_\n\nHowever I think those are for minor decayed points, you can't rebuild an entire part of the tooth that is decayed. For that you'd need a bonding, a crown, or something like that. ",
"Once your enamel is gone it is gone for good and it really sucks if you get to that point. No toothpaste is going to bring it back once it's gone. It may help strengthen the enamel you have but it won't just magically bring it all back.",
"After reading through this thread, the general agreement seems to be that:\n\nA) The enamel can *technically* be repaired/strengthened, but only to a certain degree.\n\nB) Certain amounts of damage *can't* be repaired, specifically it seems that there is no available product that can restore enamel to areas worn through to the dentin. Many cavities once very noticeably symptomatic seem to be past the point of repair through remineralization and require filling. Cavities that are only visible on x-rays or by surface inspection may be halted by better cleaning habits and fluoride treatment.\n\nC) Some cavities do not fully penetrate the enamel to the dentin, but are painful because they make the dentin more vulnerable to changes in temperature within your mouth, caused by say cold winter air, a cold beer, hot tea, etc. These cavities can be \"repaired\" through treatment with fluoridated toothpaste and/or mouthwash, as well as other products (i.e Novamin, which works like fluoride, but in theory is superior due to providing calcium in a specific form ideal for bonding to to the surface of enamel). However even still there is no guarantee they can be repaired; especially if there is a ton of biofilm (produced by bacteria) present in an area that can't be scrubbed by your toothbrush.",
"Damn, and you see why us dentists are just like, \"brush please\" but don't elaborate about every ingredient or new therapy. The dental students that have responded did an excellent job summarizing current understanding and answering the ops question. Yes fluoride can help repair incipient cavities. No, it can't repair lesions that have penetrated through the enamel and damaged the dentin underneath. No there are no magical products that are being denied to the general population so that we can make money. No, we don't collude to somehow control various markets to keep people developing cavities, the idea is insane. I don't even hang out with other dentists, much less meet up to devise business strategies. No, I don't have a bmw, but I do have a nice Mini Cooper with some nice upgrades. Whatever. 98% of dentists have zero influence on community policies towards fluoridation, etc. \n\nXylitol may be of some benefit but it is no magic bullet. In the studies that was used to show its effectiveness, the people consumed so much of this indigestible sugar that they had diarrhea. But consumer product companies will grab any hot buzzword to slap on their products to try and increase sales. \n\nSo at the end of the day, you need to eat healthy in the traditional sense, not some new fad diet. Minimal acidic sugary beverages. Balanced meals three times a day, minimal snacking. Mechanical debridement of your teeth twice a day using an effective brushing technique preferably with a fluoridated dentifrice. People with periodontal issues, that is a bit more complicated and time intensive (also can be expensive). \n\nCost of dentistry is mostly staff. I need to take time to do my job correctly while usually doing a lot of hand holding for a nervous patient, explaining multiple times to put the patient at ease. Also I'm an employer. Of women. They get paid anywhere from $39 - 18 / hour. Beside the hygienist, the rest are all just high school grads. I'm happy to be able to pay them a decent wage. It makes a huge difference to their families. They also work very hard.\n\nSorry if I seem butt hurt but seriously you can't even have a basic conversation about dentistry without conspiracy theorists coming out of the woodwork. ",
"Notice how they don't have dentists promoting their products? They may be ADA approved but the majority of dentists view the ADA as nothing but a joke. Toothpastes etc. are all marketing.\n Can enamel be remineralized? Yes. Dentin cannot remineralize predictably in a real life setting. The cavities that need treated with fillings are the ones that have passed through the enamel into the dentin. So there isn't a toothpaste that is OTC that is going to be any more beneficial than another, but the 'new and improved!' box and labeling suggests otherwise.\nA prescription toothpaste called MI paste has a lot of merit in individuals with xerostomic conditions, but again it is only a variable preventative measure. \nThere are many conspiracies regarding fluoride and more than enough on the internet to support whatever bias an individual carries. I avoid taking any judgemental position on it, offer my best services, and if they are declined for fear of a tiny F ion, they end up back in my office wondering why they have tooth decay. I'm not here to change the world and in the end, it's just teeth. How important they are is also subjective to the individual.",
"If someone tries to sell you something (eg: toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.) claiming it can rebuild tooth enamel, don't bother. Once tooth enamel is gone, it is gone forever. There is no \"rebuilding\" of enamel, period. It does not grow back - ever. Getting fluoride can help reduce damage to enamel, but that's it. I'm surprised the FDA (or whoever is responsible for this) hasn't cracked down on these companies saying \"restore\" your enamel by using our product. \n\nAll 28 of my adult teeth are crowned (precisely from loss of tooth enamel), I've spent a fair bit of time sitting in a dentist chair and learning about the matter. My dentist described tooth enamel as being a cluster of little drinking straw-like structures filled with a cement type of material. If the cement type material erodes away, the next time you chew it will break off the (now empty) straw-like structures. I now get to have the (dis?)pleasure of using prescription toothpaste - $12 per tube, 15-20x fluoride concentration of standard fluoride toothpaste, and it feels really weird because it doesn't foam up like standard toothpaste.",
"Products that build up tooth enamel.\n\nWell, actually the company that originally produced the toothpaste that could do it was attacked RELENTLESSLY by several companies who claimed to have studies that proved it couldn't... one of which owns more products that can *now* than any other company on earth.\n\nBasically the fluorine ion will bind ANYTHING too your teeth. Snot, mineralized food, titanium oxide from powdered donuts: anything.\n\nSo when you brush your teeth the first thing you do is you put the paste on the brush, right? Then you smear it around in your mouth in all the dead food and mung and hardened plaque and coffee particles and tobacco soot. Then you gotta get whiteners, treatments, go to the dentist and get your tartar build-up ground off.\n\n**CLUE**\n\nHow does tartar build-up occur? It occurs because of ineffective or insufficient brushing and rinsing of the surface of your teeth. It occurs because the fluoride ions in the paste bind the shells of the bacteria and all the gunk between them into your enamel. \n\nWhy does tartar build-up occur? Because you're a moron and you're putting what amounts to molecular superglue in your mouth before it is clean.\n\nThat's right. You're doing it wrong *as per instructions on the label* and ruining your teeth.\n\nSo how does the \"rebuild\" work? Simple.\n\nRebuilding agents not only contain fluoride but also contain other mineral components (pseudo-ceramics) that have a higher probability of binding with the fluoride and your tooth enamel/bone than the foodstuffs you eat. This STILL doesn't mean you should use toothpaste directly on a dirty mouth. \n\n**How To Brush Your Teeth** A guide for people gullible enough to think things are easy.\n\n1. Buy a large soft toothbrush and a hard tipped small head brush as well as floss, you will also want to get some kind of pick for clearing your gums and tooth crannies.\n\n2. Brush teeth with chlorinated water or salted water with stiff brush careful to use it to *sweep* the plaque away and not scrub. Let the water sit in your mouth and swish it around while brushing.\n\n3. Brush with just water on the soft brush to clear the little remaining bits then hunt with your tongue for missed spots and get em with the stiff brush then floss and clear it all out with the soft again.\n\n4. Rinse mouth with water, use the dental pick (or special tool like waterpick) to clear gaps and crannies and anyplace... this is where the waterpick is excellent - it doesn't replace floss but works well with it.\n\n5. Sterilize your mouth thoroughly with soft brush and non-fluoride mouthwash: you can get dental rinsing mouthwash in gallon containers - AVOID COLORS. Or just get classic yellow Listerine if you can find it.\n\n6. Rinse mouth to remove chemical activity from it, distilled water is best. (ignore internet, the acidic power of distilled water is 0 even tho it's pH is 5.2ish)\n\n7. Apply either your favorite toothpaste with rinsed soft brush or use an actual fluoride rinse with rinsed soft brush. Get it around quickly then let it *rest in place in your mouth* and halfway through the \"wait time\" move the soft brush around for paste or swish the fluoride rinse vigorously a couple times. You want the fluoride material to harden your teeth below the gum-line.\n\n8. This one is important: NEVER SCRUB YOUR TEETH WITH AN ABRASIVE MINERALIZED FORM OF THE MOST POWERFUL ACID KNOWN TO MANKIND.",
"Apparently using electricity and a mineral paste can rebuild enamel. Currently in the process of being patented/perfected \n\nSource: The article, I don't actually know anything about teeth. \n\n_URL_0_",
"Dental student here! \nWhile rhynoD did explain what flouride does, the reason why enamel can't rebuild is that the cells that create enamel, ameloblasts move away from the dental pulp during the creation of enamel and eventually become part of the oral epithelium. Hence there are no cells that can actually recreate the enamel or repair it, and the lack of organic materials (96 % Calcium and phosphor rest is water and proteins). This differs from dentin, which is created by odontoblasts, and while they move in the opposite direction they retain their outgrowths, and that creates canals that can be used to repair dentin. Dentin is also quite a bit less mineralized as a result, which makes it weaker but more flexible. \nThe tricky thing is that the enamel surface is constantly being demineralized and remineralized, partly because of that calcium and to some extent phosphor is \"leaked\" from the enamel and remineralized by flouride, and because of bacteria (some of which are a vital part of the oral ecosystem, or minerals from the saliva.\n\nTo elaborate on the flouride, it strenghtens the bonds between the calcium and phosphor, which makes it stronger.\n",
"(Not a dentist)\nThis product does work, especially if you have sensitive teeth. Tooth enamel literally has microscopic pores in it (see picture below). When we put something hot or cold in our mouth, the pores transfer the heat/cold to the nerve of the tooth. Novamin does NOT repair enamel...nothing can. What it does do however, is slowly plug the holes and over time, you will have a nice coating built up on the tooth. The coating will wear away as we eat and drink acidic liquids like coffee and OJ, so long term use is recommended. Fluoride does the same thing, but I think Noavamin is more effective.\n\nSee this pic of what several days use of Novamin does to the pores in enamel:\n_URL_0_",
"**Everyone should know** that there is a toothpaste out there containing theobromine, a compound in chocolate, which outperforms fluoride in tooth repair and is safe to swallow. [This](_URL_0_) is an article from Nature that aptly explains it. \n\n**This is a PSA!**\n\n\nThis is an aside: I saw a talk at our Geo dept. (LSU) by one of the geologists on microerosion and deposition before I heard of the toothpaste."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zalyf/eli5_can_you_or_cant_you_rebuild_andor_strengthen/cykqzwk",
"http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faqs/wellwater.htm#q3",
"http://www.dentalcare.com/en-US/dental-education/continuing-education/ce410/ce410.aspx?ModuleName=coursecontent&PartID=2&SectionID=1",
"http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TyVV0UDQ_f4",
"http://www.allianceforacavityfreefuture.org/en/us/technologies/systemic-fluorides#.VontWlK8Hao",
"http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/oct/06/critics-water-fluoridation/truth-about-fluoride-doesnt-include-nazi-myth/",
"http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faqs/bottled_water.htm",
"http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1104912/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zalyf/eli5_can_you_or_cant_you_rebuild_andor_strengthen/cykwcby"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.oralhealthgroup.com/features/dental-remineralization-simplified/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3422065/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphous_calcium_phosphate"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newsrecords/2014/June/Kings-spin-out-will-put-tooth-decay-in-a-time-warp.aspx"
],
[],
[
"http://s718.photobucket.com/user/pupesosweet3/media/Deep%20review/Sensodyne/NovaMin.png.html"
],
[
"http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v214/n10/full/sj.bdj.2013.499.html"
]
] |
|
70yda6
|
why is it so difficult to predict the weather but stuff in space such as the path of asteroids can be forseen years before it happens?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/70yda6/eli5_why_is_it_so_difficult_to_predict_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dn6rkbu"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"There are fewer things affecting asteroid trajectory, and fewer things to take into account. No air resistance, no wind, no random debris, no pollution, less moving parts, etc."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
fslbpt
|
how do baseball bats not break more often when 100 mph baseballs are being thrown at them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fslbpt/eli5_how_do_baseball_bats_not_break_more_often/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fm21n9v"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Not a physics guy, but I am a woodworker. Most wood bats are made from ash - super durable wood! That leather wrapped ball has no chance."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
bkw2w5
|
why does japan pixelate genitals in pornography?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bkw2w5/eli5_why_does_japan_pixelate_genitals_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"emjvdkd",
"emk23pm"
],
"score": [
44,
10
],
"text": [
"They have a decency law that has changed interpretation the in the last decade or so. The US made Japan adopt a freedom of speech set of laws after WW 2 but one of the laws to keep censorship was the decency law. It wasn't really enforced until someone got butthurt and sued a guy that made a doushinji (porn manga) for not censoring the naughty bits. The author was fined a huge amount and was given minimal jail time. Guy repealed it, lost, and his fine was quadrupled (if I remember right) and he spent 6 months in jail. Since then, all adult production companies, from hentai to regular porn, started censoring their stuff. That's also why they use tentacles in a lot of their stuff. Its phallic enough to be used sexually but not so much that it needs to be censored",
"Very strict decenly laws that prohibit showing genitalia. Somehow showing the anus is allowed in some situations. There are uncensored scenes, but these usually are not for domestic viewing.\n\nThe country itself is not what people make it be. People are very conservative and somewhat sexually repressed. There is a huge percentage of young adults that are virgin and some have no interest in sex whatsoever.\n\nIt will probably have its population reduced by 50% in the next 100 years if something is not done."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
ypba6
|
what is the best way to secure my anonymity on the internet, but still use the internet to its full potential? [see comments for clarity]
|
thanks for taking the time to read.
i am familiar with computers, but when i gets into all this darknet stuff or DNS or proxy's i get confused, so hopefully one of you can explain this to me.
- i like using the internet, but dont like how much tracking is going on.
- i fear that one day the govt will command control if the internet [such as sopa] and it will suck
- i would prefer to use the internet as a anonymous user, but dont want to be limited from posting on sites [such as with using a tor]
what can i do myself and/or what can we do to help our grandkids?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ypba6/eli5_what_is_the_best_way_to_secure_my_anonymity/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c5xm48z"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You can make usernames and passwords very different (which will also help with security) Your ip can still be tracked (if you use your home internet or cell phone) so the best thing to do would be to use free wifi whenever possible. Use free wifi offered from businesses/schools not stealing wifi from neighbors.\n\nYou may also look into MAC spoofing when you are on these different networks since that may allow you to keep the hardwired number of you network card from identifying you.\n\nDon't use social websites or post lots of information about yourself anywhere.\n\nI think using the internet is in someway exposing yourself. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2zlx8h
|
how did the us tax code become this complicated?
|
Thinking about April 15 coming up, and the entire multi-billion dollar industry that's sprung up around tax preparation, tax evasion, paying as little as possible, etc. I think back to 100 years ago, and I can't imagine life in 1915 re: taxes being this complicated. Even less so 100 years before that, when we probably just dropped some coins off at the post office or something (who knows). Is there an ELI5 answer to the evolution of the tax code, and how/why it became necessary for the IRS to be so complex?
**edit** April 15 is tax day, April 4 is my parents' anniversary.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zlx8h/eli5_how_did_the_us_tax_code_become_this/
|
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"What started as a simple system had extra rules grafted onto it over the years to help out various special interest groups, government program and to influence people's behavior without passing overbearing laws. Add 50 new rules a year for 100 years and pretty soon you got yourself a whole mess of rules.",
" > State and federal inheritance taxes began after 1900, while the states (but not the federal government) began collecting sales taxes in the 1930s. The United States imposed income taxes briefly during the Civil War and the 1890s, and on a permanent basis from 1913.\n\nThe US tax code is complicated because it has to do a lot of things.\n\nLet's start with income. We are taxed on the basis of income, so every single source of income, paycheck, contracts, investments, gifts, prizes, etc must all be specifically enumerated.\n\nThen we get to credits and the like. Over the last 100 years, we've implemented hundreds of tax credits for things like going to school, saving for retirement, buy a house, etc.... Because of this, the tax code has to set out exact specifications for each of these credits.\n\nThen you get into special circumstances like loopholes and the like. Yes, many loopholes are in the tax code on purpose, but others aren't. Those have to be fixed every year, leading to more rules.",
"So, there was an interesting study done (about Australia, not the US, but still interesting). I don't have a link, if someone else could back me up on this that would be awesome.\n\nSomeone looked at the amount of money spent on tax *preparation* (not taxes themselves) over the course of 100 years. They found that it was pretty much constant, about 1.5% of GDP. \n\nNow keep in mind, this 100 years was the 20th century. At the beginning, people farmed dirt and did their taxes on abaci (I think). Fifty years later there were machines that could do a whole page of sums in a minute. Fifty years after that, your average pocketwatch can do a few million arithemetic operations per second. The increase of computing power should let us do taxes in a fraction of the time, right?\n\nSo it turns out, as computation becomes cheaper and more accessible, the tax code got more complicated in order to catch up. And 100 years later, Australia still spent 1.5% of GDP on tax preparation, which means that taxes must have gotten more complicated to compensate.\n\nSo, why does this happen? If I were to guess, it comes down to two things.\n\nOne of them is very simple: Tax Preparation companies lobbying Congress. Tax preparers *want* your tax forms to be more complicated because that gives them work. Fun fact: The state of California will actually *do your taxes for you*. You don't have to prepare shit, you just ask for the forms pre-filled out and unless you want to itemize deductions, you just send them back a check. No one's ever heard of this program, because TurboTax lobbied to keep its marketing budget down to like two bucks.\n\nThe second thing is that now that we can calculate things, we will. Congress really likes shaping public policy by using the carrot of tax breaks rather than the stick of laws. If something becomes feasible to compute this decade that wasn't last decade, then Congress will probably try to shove that into the tax code. So, a lot of new tax policy is the cutting-edge of what is just-barely feasible to gather data and calculate. \n\nIt's also worth pointing out, the Sixteenth Amendment was passed in 1913, so income tax was a totally new thing at that point.\n\n[e] As /u/catawba1 pointed out, I was conflating the Accounting and Tax Preparation industries.",
"Because the US tax code is used as a policy administration route for all kinds of incentives and disincentives, from encouraging energy-efficient appliances to home ownership, subsidizing child care, encouraging rich people to not worry about capital gains, and discouraging going without health insurance. Doing all this social engineering makes things complex.",
"Money. People with it keep getting special rules.",
"CPA here who has been doing taxes since the very late 80's. I have a copy of the 1913 Form 1040 hanging on my wall. It is four pages long, including one page of instructions. We've come a long way.\n\nConsider that from 1913-1917 and between our involvement in WWI and WWII the US was very much an isolationist country. We were not the world's policeman nor did we have the social policies in place that we have today and therefore had no need for the huge amounts of tax revenues that we need today.\n\nThat started to change in WWII and in the post-war years. Prior to WWII income taxes were a thing that only the rich had to concern themselves with, but with the advent of the war and our starting to run the world afterward, income tax burdens would have to be pushed down to the everyday working man. On top of that, we came out with social programs such as, well, Social Security, Medicare, Welfare and Unemployment. Those don't come for free, so additional taxes had to be imposed, generally on workers.\n\nAlso consider that Congress loves to run social and economic policies through the tax code. To wit:\n\n* Want people to go out and buy health insurance? Impose a tax/penalty on them if they don't.\n* Want businesses go out and buy new equipment from manufacturers? Let them write-off more than half of the cost in the year they buy it via generous depreciation deductions.\n* Want to encourage the development and design of new products? Provide Research & Development credits against income tax liabilities.\n* Want to encourage oil companies to go out and explore and drill for oil? Make their investors immune from \"passive activity\" rules. \n* Want to encourage two-earner households? Give parents a tax break for child-care costs.\n\nI could go on and on.\n\n**TL/DR** The federal government we have today is not the same one we had in 1913. Policing the world and running social programs costs money, and that money comes from taxes. Also, Congress loves to encourage or discourage certain actions/behaviors by providing incentives or penalties via the tax code."
]
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2nei30
|
before the internet what did the average person use a computer in their home for?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nei30/eli5_before_the_internet_what_did_the_average/
|
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"I used mine for single player games mostly. But also some bookkeeping......who am I kidding? That is bullshit and you know it. It was single player games.",
"I was younger, so single player games and word processing for school reports.",
"Games. Word processing for school. The university's library database was available by modem. BBSes for chatting and warez. ",
"Commander Keen, Magic Pockets, Hugo's House of Horrors, and the spray paint tool in MS Paint. Fuck minesweeper and fuck solitaire. ",
"Games. Word processing. Keeping records. Spreadsheets. Complicated calculations. Designing posters and charts. All very rudimentary by today's standards, of course, but revolutionary in its day.\n\nThe very early computers could be programmed quite easily, with simple programming languages like BASIC. Even Windows has a language called QBasic which can be used to create your own simple applications.",
"I got online pretty early, so I was doing Compuserv and Prodigy even in the mid to late 80s. When I wasn't online, I was mostly playing Spy Hunter on my Commodore 128. That and typing in programs published in COMPUTE'S Gazette.",
"Before the Internet took off in the late 90s, very few people had home computers. The Internet really drove the explosive growth of PCs. Those that did, tended to use the for things like:\n\nGames and educational games were one big market, as were early online systems like Compuserve, AOL, Prodigy and local BBSes.\n\nFor a brief period, multimedia encyclopedias (like [Encarta](_URL_0_)) on CD-ROM were a big thing.\n\nBeyond that, you had business/productivity apps - word processors, spreadsheets & desktop publishing.\n\nWhile digital recording was not yet a thing, a number of people used them as MIDI controllers for making music.\n\nThen, of course, there's always the hackers & tinkers that just like to use computers to build stuff & program things.",
"Personally, I used it for Cubase V2. Midi was the shit.\n\nAlso Photoshop. That wasn't so great then.",
"Games, bookkeeping, word processing, programming/tinkering, art.\n\nAlso, don't forget that before access to the World Wide Web became common in the mid-90's, there were smaller scale internet services (FTPs, Gophers, Usenet), and often local freenets and BBSes. Also, commercial BBSes were a thing - Prodigy, Quantum Link, etc.\n\nProgramming was more accessible. The Commodore 64, for example, used BASIC as its GUI, and magazines like RUN! would have free software in the back pages that you had to code yourself. Mess up a PEEK or POKE and you'd spend hours checking lines and debugging! Learning how to write basic programs in BASIC and LOGO was just part of computer ownership.\n\nOur public library had public domain software (freeware) on floppies that you could check out and copy. Games and software would make the rounds as people copied floppies.\n\nAnd then there was Fast Hack'em!",
"My first computer was a TI-99/4A. I was probably about 12 or 13 at the time. I used it for games, but also learned programming. An average person might have used that for word processing letters, keeping track of your household budget and finances. \n\nI know that it had \"Terminal Emulator\" software which enabled communication over networks and phone lines. That enabled you to log on to Compuserve - I remember that you could use that to access data, particularly stock market data.\n\nMy second machine was an Apple II+, which I still have today. Got it at age 15. There was great game availability, but it was great for word processing. The first 'Office' software I used was in 1986 (Appleworks) which combined a database with word processing, and a spreadsheet. Everything was bare bones compared to today - but looking back it was amazing that all that stuff ran on 48 KILObytes of RAM. \n\nAs an aside, my grandfather had me program (from a magazine) a ballistics program which would apparently calculate the properties of a bullet in flight, given air temperature and a host of other variables. But this story is relevant - note that software was transferred by printing the program IN A MAGAZINE. \n\nEducational software was big, in part because computers were supposed to be 'part of the future' and kids learned on them without not knowing why. And while thousands of schoolkids were learning on those computers (and quietly passing along their bootleg copies of Karateka for afterschool use), Visicalc was becoming a true killer app among businesses. Visicalc was the first real spreadsheet program - 16 columns by 256 lines, and a small but fun array of functions for some math, stats, and financial analysis. It was incredible. I also had a 'finance pack' - a folio of disks full of template - each a spreadsheet capable of one (and only one) finance problem: calculate mortgage payments, Rent vs. Buying a house, that kind of stuff.\n\nMy university signed a big deal with Apple, including a room full of Mac 512's, and SE's (One Megabyte of RAM! Oh boy!) Those machines were almost exclusively used for typing papers.",
"Physicist here. I still have the email archived from Tim Berners-Lee announcing the availability of the WWW from CERN in 1991. I didn't do anything with it until 1993. Until that time, I had a terminal in my office, which I used to connect to a VAX computer, and I used Telnet and ftp and various email clients to access other computers on the Internet. I also used LaTeX to prepare papers, as there wasn't any such thing as a WYSIWYG word processor in those days. In 1986, I got frustrated trying to write up papers and decide to try a colleague's MacPlus and was immediately swayed. My first computer at home was a MacPlus in 1987, which I would use for:\n\n* Word processing\n* Making drawings\n* Using Telnet, FTP, and the VAX email client for the internet.\n\nIt stayed that way until Mosaic came out and I downloaded it in 1993, six years later. By the way, that web browser also did a fine job as an email client, ftp client, archie and gopher client, telnet client, as well as a web browser. Try that these days.",
"Doom sold more copies than Windows 95 on release. So I think that answers the question."
]
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3u2tne
|
how is advertising for things like a big mac legal when there's so much disparity between the advertised and real product?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u2tne/eli5_how_is_advertising_for_things_like_a_big_mac/
|
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"You mean because the appearance doesn't match? I guess McDonalds would argue that it's the taste that matters, not the look... But anyway, I don't think there's a legal requirement for an advertisement to accurately depict the advertised product. Many advertisements don't even feature any visuals of a product itself, at all.",
"If I recall correctly from an advertising class I had at university, the Big Mac that gets shown in those advertisements *is* ingredient for ingredient exactly the same as the ones you get when you order it at your local restaurant. HOWEVER, for the advertisement, they spend hours meticulously preparing it as one would art even down to precise placement of onions and condiments to make it look as aesthetically pleasing as possible, particularly by stacking everything to one side of the burger for maximum display. And of course they use different camera angles to make it look bigger than it actually is.\n\nMcDonalds basically does the same as people do with instagram photos. The content is the same. Its all how it is framed.",
"Because they are not lying about what the product is. They are just presenting their product in its most attractive form, as anyone would..."
]
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[],
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nzuga
|
what is r/spacedicks?
|
I keep hearing about it but I'm too scared to go to it.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nzuga/what_is_rspacedicks/
|
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"text": [
"Where all your dreams come true....if your dreams come in the form of mutilated genitalia.",
"Take some of the more graphic and gruesome images you have ever seen, and place them into one subreddit, with the occasional [\"HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!\"](_URL_0_)\n\n*Edit - I'm sorry that the rest of these replies are from people that frequent spacedicks, they're into that sort of thing.",
"It's a lighter version of r/enoughinternet\n",
"A hive of scum and villainy.",
"I went there once... And now when i go on r/WTF... I FEEL NOTHING.\n\nplease, don't do it. Save your eyes!!",
"It's like /b/ for the casual audience.",
"To understand r/spacedicks you have to understand abstract satire, which isn't used a lot unless you're really into art. But you really have two types of satire on reddit, direct (r/circlejerk) and abstract (r/spacdicks-type subreddits)\n\nDirect satire uses phrases or ideas presented and makes fun of them, like making fun of the hype over Ron Paul, or the over used expression of litterally. (This is the type you (usually) see in political cartoons, or in the daily show.)\n\nAbstract satire usually makes fun of something as a whole. One good example I can think of was a sculpture that didn't really look like anything but a giant turd making fun of the other abstract sculptors. The purpose of r/spacedicks is to make fun of the rest of reddit by posting vomit worthy images and videos to poke at the quasi-intellectualism of the rest of reddit.",
"Poor alienated nerds lashing out at the world in the only way they can. In the only way they know how...\n\nVia inappropriate shock submissions."
]
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|
cr7jx6
|
how are mobile devices powerful enough to send data?
|
How does a mobile device (eg: Smart phones) send and upload information and data to the internet? I’m aware that mobile data received comes from the transmission from local masts and aerial transmitters, and that the cellular device will have som kind of receiver within, but how on earth is the phone powerful enough to send requests for information to whatever local receiver is required to connect to the internet?
Unless the whole process is being misunderstood by me.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cr7jx6/eli5_how_are_mobile_devices_powerful_enough_to/
|
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"First, the cell towers have a pretty big receiving antenna themselves. Even if your cell phone sends out a relatively weak signal, the cell tower can collect a lot of that signal.\n\nSecond, your cell phone sends that information on a very narrow frequency band. Cell towers have electronic devices called filters that take all of the incoming electromagnetic noise, and only looks at a particular frequency. Your cell phone might not use a lot of power, but that power is very concentrated in that particular frequency",
"The current QRP (from telegraph Q codes meaning \"What is your power output in watts?\") world record (so we're talking about Morse code communication) is 1650 miles on the 10-meter band (28-29.7 MHz), from Oregon to Alaska, on 1 micro-watt of power.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThere are lots of impressive records and examples of just how far you can transmit a loud, clear signal with next to nothing, but I won't bury you in them.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThere are 3 major factors you can contemplate in what is called \"signal propagation\". First is frequency. Low frequencies travel further without being absorbed into the environment as heat. Your WiFi signals from your home network and devices were chosen at 2.4 GHz because water absorbs that energy, so do wall panels, trees, etc. That way, the whole world and outer space doesn't need to receive your Reddit browsing radio traffic. The second factor is power output, which increases the amplitude aka volume of the signal. Your devices could simply shout, you could be heard further away as you overcome your signal being absorbed into the background. The third thing you can do is get a bigger antenna to listen to really weak, really faint signals. There are some antenna that cleverly span the whole planet so we can perform some radio astronomy shit. Satellite dishes have a geometry to catch a faint signal across it's surface, and then reflect that toward a single point, where the receiver is, which is where the actual antenna is. Concentrating a signal like that is effectively boosting it's amplitude out of what little there still is.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo it's a combination of the frequency chosen, the power out, and the antenna listening. Towers have lots of power and can shout from high places, but have big receivers to hear the cellphones responses."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
5lr3kp
|
how do they build things in water?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5lr3kp/eli5_how_do_they_build_things_in_water/
|
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"There are numerous and various combinations of different construction methods depending on the structure required. Sometimes a coffer dam is built enable nearly dry construction, other times piles are drilled to reach bedrock, sometimes structures are built on land and moved to the water area for placement and sometimes boring machines are used to tunnel under the water. \nLike all engineering one solution never fits all. ",
"Things have changed a lot since the invention of [underwater concrete](_URL_0_)."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs9qf1Dlqsg"
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||
bm9vrm
|
- what drives cell phone internet provider inventory costs?
|
Are cell phone internet providers charging huge margins for each additional gig of data that we use, or is there a lot of cost on their side for providing that extra data? If there are costs other than satellites, what are they?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bm9vrm/eli5_what_drives_cell_phone_internet_provider/
|
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"text": [
"Cell providers have to buy the spectrum frequency from the gov as a license to broadcast. They have to properly setup and provision and manage the antennas on the cell tower. And they have to buy appropriate software licensing for the tower software.\n\nIt doesn't cost them $x/gig. It costs them $$$$ when the capacity fills up and they have to purchase and install a new hardware and personnel to support that.\n\nBut yes, there is alot of margin for data."
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
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|
26vmzs
|
what's actually inside the kaaba in mecca?
|
Are there any relics from ancient times?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26vmzs/eli5_whats_actually_inside_the_kaaba_in_mecca/
|
{
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"There are some fragments of black rock that might be a meteorite.",
"There's a black stone set into the wall, originally by Muhammed. It's thought to be a meteorite.\n\nIt's mostly empty now. It has a few lamps, three support pillars, and plaques dedicated to its renovators. \n\nOriginally, it was a gathering place for different pagan religions to worship their idols. These idols were in contradiction to the tenets of Islam, so they were removed.\n\nOne of the main points of the Kaaba is that it's now empty - that is to say, that there are no more idols, because Islam recognizes only one God (Allah: Al: *the*, lah: *god*). It's the earliest site of monotheistic Islamic worship in the world."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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|
7o3qrh
|
how does leaving things plugged in start an electrical fire sometimes?
|
And if it hasn’t caught fire by a certain time (eg 2 hours), will it continue to be a hazard?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7o3qrh/eli5_how_does_leaving_things_plugged_in_start_an/
|
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"There are a couple things that can start fires but the primary one is overloading something like an extension cord. \n\nElectrical wires are rated for a certain amount of electricity depending on the material, the size, and the construction. When you try to draw more current through the wires than they are designed for the wires will heat up. If it heats too much it can start a fire. \n\nThis is primarily caused by people buying cheaply made extension cords and then plugging in too many or too large of electric things into them. \n\nIf something hasn't started on fire in 2 hours it still could. Since the components plugged in aren't always drawing maximum electricity. Your best bet is to check the ratings of your components and your electric cords and system to make sure they are all withing specification. ",
"a lot of electric devices never truly turn off. there's always some electricity flowing and creating waste heat. a phone charger left plugged in will become warm, even when the cable is removed from the charger\n\nunder normal conditions this doesnt do anything beyond waste electricity and make your room a fraction of a degree warmer. but if the charger or the wiring in the socket is damaged, it can heat up to dangerous levels or start sparking"
]
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|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
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ckz35h
|
why people in movies and cops shoot their guns "sideways"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ckz35h/eli5_why_people_in_movies_and_cops_shoot_their/
|
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"text": [
"No, there is no purpose other than to make it look good. It’s actually shit technique to do it like that irl",
"Stupidity. It's a good way to get hit with a hot shell irl. But I guess they think it looks cool/gangster.",
"It's purely for dramatic effect and is generally a way of showing that they don't respect the weapon and how it works. It's a good way for things to go wrong. This is referenced brilliantly in many movies and TV shows including Kick-Ass 2 and Person of Interest (which has it in the first episode and then isn't referenced again for many seasons in a brilliant piece of callback humour).",
"Your first round *might* be on target. But it’ll take until next week to bring the weapon to bear again.\n\nOne of the more stupid ( and that’s saying something) ideas to float out of Hollywood",
"You might want to include pictures to clarify what you are talking about since there are 2 main ways of \"sideways\" shooting:\n\n- The 1st one is shooting gangsta style, popular in movies and games, and is stupid.\n\n- Then there is Center axis relock shooting, which is a legit technique. As demonstrated by John Wick: [Exhibit 1](_URL_1_). Since you mention rifle, this might be what you are talking about: [John Wick with rifle](_URL_0_)\n\nThere are also other circumstances (lying prone, shooting around shield/wall,...) where it's more practical to turn the gun sideway."
]
}
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||
6eil9q
|
why are expired forms of id not acceptable as proof of your dob?
|
Let's say you're trying to buy a pack of smokes and they want proof of your date of birth. So you pull out your drivers license and hand it over, but they won't accept that because it's expired. Why is that?
I also heard some mention once that it's technically illegal to do that, but not sure how true that is.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6eil9q/eli5_why_are_expired_forms_of_id_not_acceptable/
|
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"text": [
"First off, why make IDs expire in the first place? Why not just give someone an ID and say, \"Okay, you're good?\" Well...\n\n* Your appearance will change over the years. It won't work out too well if you're in your 30s and still using an ID with 16-year-old you. Some folks age gracefully, but not all of us do. \n\n* IDs will likely be updated at some point with a new design and new anti-counterfitting measures. Having licenses expire gives them a chance to swap out old designs for new, so they remove old IDs from circulation. \n\n* It may also serve as a way to keep folks accountable. You can give someone a driver's license that's good forever, but a person's ability to drive will NOT be good forever. What if you originally got your license with 20/20 vision, but your vision worsened as you got older? You would need an updated license that reflects your new need to corrective lenses. Having licenses expire lets them update things like that.\n\nSo now onto why we don't use expired forms of ID as DOB verification. Why is that?\n\nProbably because expired IDs could be passed off to someone else to pretend that they're older than they are. Say you have a younger sibling and the family resemblance is strong. If you license expires, you renew it, but you're still eligible to use it as ID, you can give it to your younger sibling for them to drive, drink, gamble, or whatever else they can do now without age restrictions. In essence, it sort of undermines the system that's in place, so they make sure that expired IDs cannot be used to avoid abuse like this. ",
"Identification cards expire because it reduces the risk of fraud: on the one hand, newer editions of the cards will tend to have more protections against forgery. On the other hand, if cards never expired, lost or stolen cards can permanently continue to circulate and the amount of such cards eventually becomes larger than the valid cards.\n\nThis is inconvenient when a validly issued and used card is no longer accepted. For the scheme to work, however, you can't assume the card was validly issued and is still being used correctly.\n\nWhether your identification is valid for a particular purpose usually depends on the law requiring you to show it. In some cases, such as voting, it's common for the document to be treated as valid beyond its stated expiration date. In other cases, the date is strictly observed. It's good to know before you need it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
56nmw2
|
why do bilingual people switch languages in the middle of a conversation with another bilingual person?
|
I've noticed, for example, that people who speak Spanish and English on the phone will speak in Spanish then switch to English for a little then back. Am I bonkers or is this a thing?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/56nmw2/eli5_why_do_bilingual_people_switch_languages_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d8ksfv8",
"d8kso6r",
"d8kt497",
"d8ktirw",
"d8kveax",
"d8l2ljf"
],
"score": [
8,
2,
2,
35,
4,
4
],
"text": [
"because we use some words more in one language. Sometimes one language works better for specific ideas.",
"Depending on who is around, there might be things that the speakers don't want their audience to understand. That doesn't always mean they are badmouthing those around them, but it could just be personal subjects, like \"girl-talk\" or the like",
"Some words do not translate well or at all from one language to another. If I'm upset or am in a hurry, I do not translate well from my primary language, so a few words slip in here and there.",
"It's called [Code-switching] (_URL_0_)\n\nGenerally it happens because some thoughts are more easily expressed in the other language. This can be due to familiarity or untranslatable sentiments. For example, I am Dutch, but I studied in English. If I am talking to someone, and suddenly the conversation turns to what I studied, 9 out of 10 times, my brain automatically switches over to English because that is the context in which I learned those things and most of the terms I know related to that field are in English. ",
"I speak Swedish and English. I switch between them with other Swedish-and-English speakers for a few reasons. A lot of conversations with my co-workers are in English because we're programmers and the programming industry is very English-based: we're all consulting English-language documentation, reference books, forums and so on throughout the day and we might want to include English-only speakers in our group chat sometimes. So talking about programming in English just becomes second nature.\n\nWe switch back to Swedish when joking around and casual talking, about personal stuff, humour feels more natural in your native language and English takes a small bit extra effort, at least for me.\n\nThis means that a conversation can start in casual friendly Swedish, but transition to English when we start talking about work stuff.\n\nWhen people move to other countries, they will often try to talk in that country's language as much as possible for the practice, but go back to their native language to say complex things they can't work out in their new language, or when emotional.",
"Just to add my experience, I'm learning Japanese and when I speak to my friend in Japan, who speaks English very well, we often switch between the two. There are some things that I understand better in English, and some things she understands better in Japanese. Also, there are terms/concepts that don't exist in either language- for example, if I wanted to say that someone was an otaku, or that I wanted to try okonomiyaki or an onsen, I couldn't say those things very succinctly in English. Conversely, if she wanted to talk about her trip to Disney World, it would be a lot more convenient to say it in English since there are no Japanese terms for the American food she ate, or the places around Orlando."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
ef1ahw
|
what is aleph null? i’ve heard somewhere that it is the smallest infinity, but that doesn’t make sense.
|
Edit: Didn’t think it would be this complicated. My brain is overheating ._.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ef1ahw/eli5_what_is_aleph_null_ive_heard_somewhere_that/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fbxp9md",
"fbxr06m",
"fbxstvc"
],
"score": [
17,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"There are objects in mathematics that called sets which are literally sets of something. It may be people in the room, apples on tree, coins in your pocket, numbers, vectors and pretty much anything. The amount of things in set is cardinality. It's pretty simple if you count people in the room - the cardinality of such set will be equal to the amount of people. It's a bit more complicated when you speak about infinite amount of something.\n\nAleph null is the amount of all natural numbers. There is infinite amount of those but still we can count them: 1,2,3 etc. Some other sets have the same cardinality because there is a theorem and we can count the elements in such sets. Eg we can count all whole numbes: 0, 1, -1, 2, -2, 3, -3 etc. It's a bit funny that it seems you take twice as much numbers but their amount is the same.\n\nBut you can't count all real numbers: between two any real numbers you can put as many other real numbers as you want: you can pit 0.5 between 0 and 1, you can't put 0.25 between 0 and 0.5 etc, so it appears that the amount of real number is also infinite but this infinity is greater than aleph-null.",
"Others have explained it as well as anything I could do, aleph null is a set that whilst infinite, is discretely countable without missing out any of the members of the set, the natural numbers, the primes and any infinite set that is a subset thereof, and in a mind-snapping twist, the rationals (ie all the fractions). Anyway, welcome to the rabbit hole that drove Cantor mad...",
"If a set of items has a size of aleph null, aka has aleph null items inside it, that means it is \"countable.\" Countable means that we can compare it to the set of \"counting numbers\" (1, 2, 3, etc.) by matching up each element of our set with a distinct one of the counting numbers. For example, the set of integers is countable because we can match it up like this\n\n\n1 - > 0, 2 - > 1, 3 - > -1, 4 - > 2, 5 - > -2 ...\n\nThe key here is that there is a pattern that convinces us that we always know which integer should come next -- for example, most people reading this would agree that 6 should match up with 3. This pattern means that although the numerical values of the elements on both sides diverge quickly, we can say that every element in the set of integers \"matches\" to exactly one element of the natural numbers. So the set of integers has a \"size\" of aleph null.\n\nAny size of infinity bigger than aleph null shares the property that it is impossible to devise a pattern like the one above. No matter how hard you try, there is no way to construct a relationship where every real number, for example, matches up with exactly one of the natural numbers. This means that the set of real numbers is larger than aleph null.\n\nThere is a famous unproven hypothesis called the \"Continuum Hypothesis\" which states that there is no size of infinity in between that of the natural numbers and the real numbers. It's a mind boggling question and one that will likely never be answered, but a very fun one to explore."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
fb7moz
|
what are securities and derivatives?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fb7moz/eli5_what_are_securities_and_derivatives/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fj34y6u",
"fj3lulv"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"There are various legal definitions for securities, but generally speaking they are claims to ownership that can be bought and sold. Typically they are claims either to ownership of a company, or of some debt to be repaid.\n\nDerivatives are tradable contracts that are more complicated than just simple ownership. Example derivative are the right to buy or sell something at a specified price (options), or an agreement to purchase something at a specified price in the future (futures.)",
"Security is pretty nebulous to define, mostly because it is a legal definition, not an economic one. Something is a security when its buying and selling is regulated by the securities and exchange commission (SEC). A big example of this is bitcoin, nobody is quite certain yet whether they are a security or not.\n\nDerivative is much easier to define. A derivative is a contract whose price depends on the price of another contract (its price is “derivative” from the price of the other one). The other contract is usually called the underlying. So for example a future (the purchase of a commodity at a future date) is a contract whose value depends on what the price of that commodity is today."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
1shjwx
|
why is picking one's nose social unacceptable?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1shjwx/eli5_why_is_picking_ones_nose_social_unacceptable/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdxpky2",
"cdxqyuv"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"It is considered unsanitary. Picking boogers essentially transmits cooties to your fingers. ",
"No. Sticking your finger in any other orifice in public is rude. \n\nIt is sometimes accepted to scratch an itch, which people will often mimic when picking at their ear/eye/nose. We all poop, but that doesn't mean we're allowed to do it wherever we please."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
1k0r7j
|
lavabit shutting down and why lavabit is unable to take the case to higher court (without nsa circlejerk)
|
Has SCOTUS ruled that e-mail and other forms of meta data is not protected under 5th amendment and is that why Lavabit won't take it to the higher court?
Does the "secret" court ruling prevent Lavabit from taking it to the higher court? How is that constitutional?
What happened to corporations are "people" (I know this is simplifying, but do corporations recieve same kind of protection from the government as private citizens?)
I understand that there is a law which protects companies from illegal contents hosted on their server, as long as the companies turn over the information related to the user who uploaded the said (illegal) contents.
How is this case any different?
Is there another side of the story that we aren't seeing because of the circlejerk? Or is this as bad as oppressive goverment bullying companies via unconstitutional methods?
Edit. Okay, explain like I'm 20 and not a literal 5 year old.
Also, no NSA circlejerk =! Don't mention NSA.
No NSA circlejerk == No "OMG NSA is literally Hitler" or no "USA is like the worst place to live if you want privacy, fuck NSA,
but rather have a rational argument and possibly playing devil's advocate to get balanced view on such matter (usually accompanied by source for the argument)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k0r7j/eli5_lavabit_shutting_down_and_why_lavabit_is/
|
{
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"cbk7agg",
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"cbk7y8d",
"cbkbzn9",
"cbkc6ks"
],
"score": [
2,
34,
15,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"The NSA got a ruling from the secret court that THE INTERNET is not inside the continental united states and that they do not need actual name listing warrants to access data.\n\nThis is COMMON wartime security, people. Reading incoming and out-going mail for security purposes. It was SO common in WW2 that the easiest way to get your CO in trouble was to report him to the censors who opened your mail to read it. They were removed from the formula and so would forward the letter DOWN the chain of command till it found a hole to plug.\n\nClandestine operatives of enemy forces pose as US citizens and act like civilians. They engage in what looks like regular e-mail transactions with their leadership overseas using code phrases and anecdotal instructions. It takes ZERO time to read the unencrypted messages and they can be cleared quickly. It takes lots of time to decrypt and read the encoded messages to be read for content but what I think the NSA was looking for at Lavabit wasn't just the extent of the information Snowden had, they're fairly certain Snowden was the face for a conspiracy. We use two men with keys for missile launching, same practice goes for sysadmins at the NSA. One person breaks rank, two people fry.\n\nSo what they're looking for is the nastiest of leak problems, the open pattern mathematically rotated encryption key. To do this they need ALL the e-mails and data, not just a name on a warrant.\n\nRemember kids. The NSA is NOT an enforcement agency and it must GIVE its evidence to an enforcement agency for any action to be taken upon it. It is not the NSA that arrests you, it is the FBI.",
"My take on it is that he probably got a national security letter (NSL) that ordered him to do something like turn over encryption keys or something to make it easier to spy on his users. Most of the time you aren't even allowed to say that you even received a NSL (because then terrorists and whatnot would just switch to another form of communication). I think the founder was strongly opposed to this, and chose to shut down rather than comply. This fits with his statement, as he views the spying as a crime against the American people. His statement was: \"I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. \"",
"1: Courts have ruled that lawsuits bringing this up do not have standing. Even with this leak, evidence needed to prove standing is still classified. It is unlikely courts will rule on any constitutionality.\n\n2: NSL's issued by the FBI require non-disclosure. To even challenge them in court violates the NSL order. \n\n3: Yes, but that's against copyright and other infringements. It does not apply to the patriot act or NSL gags.\n\n4: it is not possible to know what is secret. (edit - The government will not disclose, even if materials are publicly released through leaking, any \"secret\" or \"Classified\" information, so it is not possible to see what the other side's perspective is.)",
"1st Amendment issue: Lavabit cannot speak to the facts of the case\n\n4th Amendment issue: Government wants access to Lavabit computers, files, records\n\n5th Amendment issue: Lavabit being forced into court in secretive manner, accused of crimes against the American people.\n\n\nSo much of our legal system really is open to interpretation, and unfortunately that interpretation comes from the top. So much of what is being done really is the government bullying people into submission. \n\nLavabit is asking for legal aid, and are not just giving up. So obviously they have a chance to win. But the government is going to keep Lavabit tied up in courts as long as possible, and make the process very expensive.\n\nLavabit has in the past worked with government requests on users, such as a recent case regarding someone trafficking in child pornography.\n\nThe current situation is a request that goes beyond the what the owner of Lavabit feels comfortable with. Snowden was a user of Lavabit. They probably wanted access to Snowden's account, and Lavabit said no.\n\nThe US has been this weird state of quasi-emergency for 2 presidents, and because of they national security situation we are in, the government can use extra-ordinary measures - a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act which trumps the Constitution.\n\nLavabit has been accused of crimes against the American people, and that's all the owner can say.",
"All this talk of a secret court reminds me of a history lesson I had at school about the [Star Chamber](_URL_0_)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber"
]
] |
|
3704od
|
mute people.
|
Can they not talk? Do they choose to not talk? Is it a disease or can their brain simply not learn language?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3704od/eli5_mute_people/
|
{
"a_id": [
"crilo74"
],
"score": [
23
],
"text": [
"There are many different kinds of mutism. \n\nOne is called selective mutism. This is a person who *can* speak but chooses not to. He may speak in certain situations or to certain people, or he may not speak at all.\n\nSome people are mute because of damage to their vocal folds. This may have been due to injury or accident, such as swallowing a corrosive substance (ie lye), cancer, or external trauma. These people would be able to speak if not for the damage.\n\nOther people have neurological (nerve) damage that prevents their vocal folds from moving properly to form sound. This is generally present at birth, but could result from an event such as a stroke or traumatic brain injury.\n\nThe first three types of people can have normal intelligence and although they don't speak, can learn language and can learn to communicate in other ways.\n\nFinally, some people are cognitively impaired to the point that they cannot learn words or language. These people have the mental capacity of infants and usually have a very, very limited ability to communicate.\n\nSource: Speech Pathologist, 20 years."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
27mqwp
|
when we experience that tip of your tongue feeling, how do we know we know the answer when we cant name it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27mqwp/eli5_when_we_experience_that_tip_of_your_tongue/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ci2ar1l",
"ci2hjcp"
],
"score": [
15,
6
],
"text": [
"When we remember things we don't recall the original experience, rather we remember the last time we remembered it. This can mean that sometimes we remember the experience of remembering without getting to the actual data required. It also means that our memories of things drift out of shape with time, like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy.",
"The short answer is we don't exactly know. There are various cognitive models to account for the process of taking a concept and attaching a word to it.\n\nHere is a schema of a popular one: _URL_1_\n\nBasically, you see an object, it matches up with your mental representation (semantic processing), you identify the meaning to a language concept or ['lemma'](_URL_0_) (lexical processing). But a breakdown occurs between the lemma and 'lexeme' (or phonological encoding), and your brain can't quite string the sounds together. You might only get a sense of the letter it begins with, or the letter you *think* it begins with. Hence, the next step, of coordinating your tongue, mouth, and throat to work together cannot happen because of this \"dam\" upstream.\n\n\nThe truly ELI5 explanation might look like this:\n\n\n1. Semantic processing: **See a cat.** If everything is in working order, your brain starts making associations between nodes/concepts (AKA engrams): \"animal\" \"whiskers\" \"meow\" \"fur\" \"good to touch\" \"purr\"\n\n2. Lexical processing: **Collect those associations into one place/word to describe what you're seeing** This collection of associations is recognized as a singular concept. This is where your vocabulary comes in. If you know what you're looking at, you'll have a positive hit when your brain starts rifling around in its bag of known concepts.\n\n3. Phonological processing: **Your brain starts connecting speech sounds together to match the lexical concept. /k/ + /ae/ + /t/.** Or you get that tip of your tongue feeling and your brain goes: /k/.../k/...? /k/ +/i/? If you have the language disorder of aphasia, this may be what comes out: \"key\" when you see \"cat\". Or maybe it comes out \"rat\", because that has the same vowel sound. Or maybe \"dog\", because there was an error in step 2.\n\n4. Your tongue pops up in back and you tighten your vocal cords/throat and out comes: **\"cat!\"**\n\n\nI'm not an expert in this, but this recipe is roughly what most models seem to follow. We have found out about this cascade mostly through disorders/brain damage. Agnosia, for example, is a breakdown in step 1, where you see a cat and have no idea what you're looking at. This happens in Alzheimers sometimes when people see something like a pencil and have no idea what to do with it. They may try to eat it, that sort of thing."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemma_(psycholinguistics)",
"http://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/14253/fpsyg-02-00356-HTML/image_m/fpsyg-02-00356-g001.jpg"
]
] |
||
o95ed
|
sopa and canada.
|
So, I've been trying my best to keep up with this SOPA business. Being a Canadian it isn't on the news channels in my city very much. So, I'm honestly not sure if SOPA will effect ANY internet related activity in Canada.
Someone explain what will happen?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/o95ed/sopa_and_canada/
|
{
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"c3fdzmv",
"c3festq",
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],
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8,
8,
3
],
"text": [
"From what I understand it won't affect sites hosted in Canada whatsoever, but we (canadians) would have to deal with sites that are hosted in the USA closing or becoming shitty",
"[Read the /r/sopa FAQ](_URL_0_). Specifically, scroll down to \"How will this effect internet users outside of the US?\"",
"It's like covering America in 5' of shit, from coast to coast. \n\nAlthough we didn't shit in Canada, we're still going to have to deal some of the shit that runs over the border."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/help/faqs/sopa"
],
[]
] |
|
74j07o
|
how can fetus be steril/shielded from microbes/bacteria?
|
Kurzgesagt released a [new video](_URL_0_) that claimed two things that kinda contradict each other:
> Microbes are everywhere.
and
> Inside our mother's womb humans start out steril. When we are born and traveling through the birth canal billions of our mother's bacteria cover every single part of our bodies.
How can a mother's womb/uterus archive this? Does a womb contain the same chemicals that are in hospital steril soap? Why (if) only there?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/74j07o/eli5_how_can_fetus_be_sterilshielded_from/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dnyupky"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There are microbes inside of the woman's uterus, but the fetus is inside of a structure called the amniotic sac. This sac is created from the embryo, so the fetus is self-contained within its own set of membranes that have no hole or opening to the outside world. The fetus receives oxygen and nutrients from the mother's bloodstream via the placenta/umbilicus, which does not directly connect to the mother's circulatory system."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzPD009qTN4"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
9ynno8
|
why are my hands weak whenever i wake up?
|
Whenever I wake up, my hands feel weak like my grip strength isn’t fully there. What is this due to?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ynno8/eli5_why_are_my_hands_weak_whenever_i_wake_up/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ea2sm70",
"ea2yy02",
"ea32276"
],
"score": [
2,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"Most likely fluid distribution. When you’re awake and walking around, your extra cellular fluid kinda is more heavily distributed in your legs and abdomen. When you lie down for a long period of time, this fluid redistributes evenly. It can move into the areas around your joints, nerves, and ligaments and make them feel ‘tighter’ when you wake up. Drinking lots of water during the day can help this problem but allowing your body to flush these excess fluids properly. :)",
"You release a chemical while sleeping that partially paralyzes you. Your weak hands is the result of the chemical not being metabolized yet. I call it morning hands.\n\n & #x200B;",
"We are weak in the morning because we are still recovering from the self-induced paralysis that prevents us from all being sleepwalkers. This is true of everywhere, not just your hands, but your hands are among the most sensitive parts of your body, so you may be more apt to notice.\n\nAlso, if you're like me, you may sleep in a way that exacerbates the problem. I usually sleep either with my arms behind me (on my back) or under my pillow squashed by my head (on my front), in both cases, my arms are usually very weak or even painful when I wake up"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
6hc86u
|
why amtrak stations go to small cities.
|
I live in Louisville, Kentucky. My closest train station is near Cincinnati, Maysville. Kentucky.
I lived in Bloomington, Illinois which has an Amtrak station.
Louisville has a much bigger population than Bloomington, yet no train station. Why?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6hc86u/eli5_why_amtrak_stations_go_to_small_cities/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dix71wv",
"dix79n5"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"It mainly has to do with routing. A lot of rails are going to and from Chicago. Bloomington happens to be on the route already, so it was inexpensive to add a station. The demand does not need to be too high to justify the stop.\n\nMeanwhile Louisville isn't along any route. The tracks exist, but there are not any Amtrak trains going into and out of Louisville. The demand would have to be very high to get a whole new route added.\n\nIf there was the demand, I'm sure they could run a chicago - orlando line, and that would run through kentucky, and stop at Louisville or Lexignton, but I'm guessing demand isn't that high, so they just route those passengers through Washington DC.",
"Louisville had a station from the late 1800s until sometime in the mid 1970s. The station was beautiful, but it suffered a fire and then the Ohio flood of 1937 also damaged the structure. Repairs were made but it no doubt exponentially increased annual maintenance. \n\nThe increased cost, paired with a dying market as the United States fell in love with the automobile, led to the ultimate end of the Amtrak station. The station is still used as offices today and is open to the public. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
27449m
|
when does partly cloudy become partly sunny?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/27449m/eli5_when_does_partly_cloudy_become_partly_sunny/
|
{
"a_id": [
"chx9f2h"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"When the amount of clouds in the sky become less than the amount of visible sky in the sky."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
5vif8b
|
how does earth's orbit remain so stable?
|
How does the Earth not start slowly moving towards or away from the Sun? If it got a "nudge" directly towards or away from the Sun, would it slowly continue in that direction until it collided with the Sun or left the solar system, respectively? Or would it sort of "wobble" on its normal trajectory before straightening out again?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vif8b/eli5_how_does_earths_orbit_remain_so_stable/
|
{
"a_id": [
"de2ezco"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"That's not what happens with orbital mechanics. It's not like there's a linear distance scale, and a push inward or outward will produce a constant motion on that scale. You have to track a body through its generally roughly circular motion.\n\nIf you take a body in a circular orbit and nudge it inward, it will start moving closer at that instant. But it's also still moving to the 'side'. The effect is that as it falls inward, the turning radius around the central body shrinks and it's speeding up as well, so soon it starts ascending again. Eventually it will reach a higher point than it used to reach and return to the starting point. It's just another stable orbit, this time slightly elliptical. It's best to see it as a single movement, not a continuous motion.\n\nThere are other effects at play. Orbits tend to become more circular over time. Orbital resonance orchestrates the collective motion of multiple bodies. A little too much to get into here in ELI5.\n\nEdit: typo."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
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