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6yff51 | climate change and weather events (hurricanes) | So I get that climate change is happening naturally, and humans' carbons emissions are speeding up the process... but how does that impact individual events like hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts etc?? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6yff51/eli5_climate_change_and_weather_events_hurricanes/ | {
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"It's difficult to tie climate change specifically to an individual event. The circumstances for extreme weather events *are* possible, even without climate change.\n\nWhat climate change theories predict is that the increase in energy in the atmosphere will lead to a greater incidence of those extreme weather events. Basically, the circumstances that allow them to form are more easily obtained. ",
"Warmer waters in tropical regions help create hurricanes and strengthen the ones that do form. The warmer than usual waters are what are fueling Irma into a Category 5. Wilder swings in weather patterns caused by climate change cause draughts by causing rain to fall elsewhere and higher temps to further dry out lands, rapid variations in temps in weather systems colliding are what cause tornadoes.",
"I just spent a good deal of time researching hurricanes on this particular question. I'm an amateur, and I have an amateur's understanding. That being said, here goes: \n \nHurricanes would occur in the Atlantic even without climate change. There have been many bad ones before this modern age, including the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which was Category 4 when it made landfall - it killed between 6000 and 12,000 people. So hurricanes themselves are not caused by climate change. \n \nA basic explanation of hurricanes is that they are an area of low pressure which draws wind towards it. As that wind goes towards this center area, it picks up moisture from the ocean water. The warmer this ocean water is, the more moisture enters the air through evaporation. As I was reading about tropical cyclones, I learned about the concept of a [Carnot heat engine,](_URL_1_) which is the basic reason why hurricanes gather strength. Basically, the heat and moisture gained from the warm water via winds increases the magnitude and size of the storm and therefore creates a feedback loop in which the larger, stronger storm gathers more heat and energy when it is over warm water. \n \nSo, we've hit on a major point here - heat fuels the storm. It doesn't take a climate scientist (that's good!) to realize that climate change would have an impact on these storms. Hurricanes need water that is 80F and above to grow. See from [this chart](_URL_3_) the average temperatures of water in and around Florida's West Coast and understand why the hurricane season is from late spring to late fall. We can see from that chart above that this 80F mark is hit in May and held until October. Right now, the water in Key West is 86F, far above what a hurricane needs to fuel itself. \n \n\n \nClimate change mentions ocean temperatures a lot. If the ocean is warmer for longer, then hurricanes have better conditions in which to form, grow, and survive after hitting land. Both hurricanes [Katrina](_URL_0_) and [Wilma](_URL_2_) hit land and then regained strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For the United States, this will continue to be a problem as storms break through the Caribbean Islands with enough force to remain intact and continue gathering strength before inevitably hitting the mainland of the country. Obviously, warmer Atlantic waters will also fuel hurricanes earlier in their lives to where the storm hits the Caribbean Islands with greater strength and size. \n \nTL;DR - Heat fuels hurricanes, and warmer oceans have more heat. Stronger hurricanes survive for longer and have more potential to hit the US mainland.",
"Here is the very simple answer: heat is energy. As the Earth accelerates into a hotter climate more energy goes into making the weather. More energy into the weather means that the likelihood of more severe weather, which mostly means more energetic weather, increases.\n\nThere's more to it than that but that's the eli5."
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1ii0hi | how can people overpay their taxes? | Searched and didn't see an answer for this here. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ii0hi/eli5_how_can_people_overpay_their_taxes/ | {
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"Your employer takes money out of your paycheck throughout the year to pay your local, state, and federal taxes. The amount they take out, however, is just an estimate how much tax you will probably owe at the end of the year.\n\nThere's no way for the state, local, and federal governments to know what you actually do with your money. You might move, buy a house or a fuel efficient car, be paying off student loan debts, get a pay raise (or decrease) etc... all of these things affect how much tax you owe and pay.\n\nYou won't know how much money you make for a given year until Dec 31 of that year. So when you file your tax return, you basically tell the IRS all of the ways in which you made and spent your money from Jan 1 - Dec 31 of the previous year. It is based off *that* information, how much tax you owe. If it turns out you paid too much, you get a tax refund. If it turns out you didn't pay enough, you will owe the IRS.",
"I had a friend who would request more taxes taken out of his paycheque so the IRS would refund him more when tax responsibilities came around"
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4adikm | scientology's dislike of criticism | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4adikm/eli5scientologys_dislike_of_criticism/ | {
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"Much of Scientology's revenue stream is people taking introductory courses at their centers - initial auditing and whatnot. The idea is that you come in for free courses, you start to feel better about yourself and then you move on to very expensive courses to continue that process.\n\nIf the public thinks of them as a crazy cult, then no one is going to come in for those initial courses and a large revenue stream will dry up. The active fighting of the criticism it designed to stop that from happening.\n\nYou also have people who deeply, truly believe the principles of Scientology to be true. Humanity tends to be very reactionary when to challenge their core belief system.",
"First of all, most religions, faiths and systems of belief aren't super happy when people criticize them. \n\nThat's as far as I can answer that question without being biased, so take the next section with an appropriate serving of salt. \n\nThe \"church\" of Scientology has petty much been proven to use extremely underhanded tactics *towards their own members*, let alone anyone trying to find out the truth about them. They're basically a money-making cult, and they *could* completely unravel if people push hard enough. They have an \"Always attack, never defend\" policy which is basically self-preservation, because they don't have the grounds to defend/explain themselves. "
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32r63h | if a jury is supposed to be unbiased and such, what is the process like for selecting a jury for someone like hernandez, who was just found guilty for one murder and is about to be on trial for more? | I'm not saying EVERYONE will be bias against him now and forever, but going into another murder case wouldn't it be hard to find jurors who don't just think he's a murderer already? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32r63h/eli5if_a_jury_is_supposed_to_be_unbiased_and_such/ | {
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"Believe it or not there are people who haven't heard of/don't follow celebrities. During jury selection, they wouldn't say his name during the process but would ask questions to the effect of \"do you follow major sports?\" Stuff that alludes the people while keeping it under wraps. There's actually a lot of science to it and there are law firms that specialize in trial support in the form of jury selection."
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aoqpg0 | how does the physical film from cinema cameras get transferred to computers for editing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aoqpg0/eli5_how_does_the_physical_film_from_cinema/ | {
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"Very few movies these days are actually shot on film, they're mostly digital from the start. But for the few that are shot on traditional reel, the film is fed through a digital scanner which itself is a projector with a lens kit that focuses the image onto a CMOS or CCD sensor so that the film can be recorded digitally frame by frame."
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467sqh | is anarchocapitalism really anarchy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/467sqh/eli5_is_anarchocapitalism_really_anarchy/ | {
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"Nope. Capitalism relies on state power to exist and exploit. This power would not and could exist in anarchy. \n\n",
"Not by the original definition of anarchism. Anarchists seek to eliminate social hierarchies and power imbalances due to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, wealth, parentage, or any other reason one person might hold undue influence over the life of another.\n\nClass is the expression of those hierarchies, and would also be abolished in a traditionally anarchist society (if you could say \"traditionally anarchist\"). \n\nCapitalism is seen as antithetical to anarchy because capitalism necessarily creates two economic classes of people with a huge power imbalance: capital and labor.",
"As far as I can tell, the answer is not really. \n\nThere has never been an anarcho-capitalistic society to use as a comparison, but generally, the definition of anarcho-capitalism is fairly similar to ideal fascism where as many of the functions of government are privatized as possible. \n\nThe ideal state of anarcho-capitalism is one where all actors follow every agreement without outside interference, because game theory dictates that lying once will cause a negative return in the long run. If all humans were totally rational, this might be able to work, and it could be effectively anarchy, defined as a lack of a centralized government or need of one. Under this, all people would work as hard as they could for their own benefit, and as they know everything and are totally rational, every agreement would be upheld and the free market would run everything at maximum efficency. \n\nThis probably wouldn't work in reality, due to the same issues as currently exist in capitalism, only exasperated. There would need to be a centralized government to prevent excessive air pollution, for example, as air belongs to everyone and therefore is almost impossible to protect by anyone. There would be unscrupulous businessmen willing to lie and cheat for a short term profit, which the free market wouldn't be able to affect, which could have a cascade effect of increased crime in a positive feedback loop. And if there is imperfect information, workers will likely be exploited without recourse. \n\nSo, if humans were perfect, anarcho-capitalism would effectively be the same as anarchy, as governance itself would be unnecessary. In an non-ideal world, it would probably not work for an extended length of time, similar to most other theorized forms of governance. ",
"since no one seems to have mentioned it yet, hey op, i suggest you check out the [relevant anarchist faq post](_URL_0_) for this question. the faq is a long-running project that is exhaustive in it's explanations and well-sourced. it'll demonstrate (at length) why ancaps are not anarchist in any way shape or form."
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1luzwz | what's the point of the un if the us can conduct strikes without the un's support | I understand the UN does a lot more than just decide if military action is required, but why does the US ask the UN first? Also, does going against the UN have any negative impact on the US? Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1luzwz/eli5_whats_the_point_of_the_un_if_the_us_can/ | {
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"the UN is seen by many as some kind of \"government of the world\", even though it doesn't have real jurisdiction. If something is approves, it (very simply put) more or less says \"the world agrees with this.\" If the US conducts as strike under the UN flag, they are obviously doing it for the UN, so for the world-peace. If they conduct it under their own flag, they are just making war with some other country, no matter what their intentions are.\n\nDoes that make it a bit clearer?",
"The UN is not a government, it has no jurisdiction, and sovereignty rests with the various nation-states of the world. So the US (or any other nation-state) has full sovereign authority to act as it sees fit with regards to foreign and domestic policy. The UN is more like an open forum for Nation-States to speak.\n\nSo how does international law work, if the UN cannot enforce its will?\n\nInternational law works by the power of treaty. Nation-states will sign onto treaties such as Nuclear non-proliferation, and can be expected to follow them most of the time. Of course any nation-state can simply remove its signature from the treaty, though it may face international condemnation, or action (including sanctions) if it does so. \n\n",
"Think of the UN like a marriage counsellor, except instead of 2 married people trying to make their relationship work, it's a whole bunch of nations. In theory, everyone wants the relationship to work, but everyone has different needs and wants. The counsellor (UN) can suggest that the married couple (the sovereign nations) try different things to make their relationship run smoother, but can't force anyone to do anything. It also gives the married couple (nations) the ability to freely discuss their issues with one another, like their children (smaller allied nations), money (economic policies), and mistrust due to infidelity (sanctions, embargoes, etc.). ",
" > Why does the US ask the UN first?\n\nBecause Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, an international treaty to which the US is a Party, prohibits \"the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.\"\n\nThis creates a default rule against military action. However, that default can be overridden with the approval of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Article 24(1) gives the UNSC \"primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.\" The entirety of Chapter VII of the UN Charter allows the UNSC to determine when a situation would threaten \"international peace and security\" and then authorize military action to end that situation. There is an exception for self-defense, but the term is very narrowly construed, and pretty much only involves hostile troops firing on the defending State.\n\nThe upshot of the aforementioned parts of the UN Charter is that no State can (legally) take military action against another State, unless in self defense, without the approval of the UNSC. So if the US wants to take military action in Syria and not violate international law, it needs the approval of the UNSC.\n\nBut why should the US care about acting legally? The US, as a permanent member of the UNSC, could veto any retaliatory action against the US, and as a practical concern, the US military could crush any response, and the US economy would likely weather economic sanctions, as unlikely as it would be for those to be imposed. So why should the US care?\n\nThe realist position is that it shouldn't and doesn't care. The US has enough military power to do what it wants, in general. And the US economy is strong enough, even in recession, that it is to the benefit of other countries to maintain good economic relations with the US. On this narrative, power - broadly construed - is all that matter.\n\nBut even if you accept the realist position, military power is not all that matters. Acting in Syria without the approval of the UNSC will piss off at least a few other States, with whom the US will then have worse relations, at least for a little bit of time. As /u/brielem mentions, acting with UN approval confers a lot of legitimacy, making it seem like the world approves of the sanctioned action. Having UN approval makes the US more unambiguously the \"good guys.\"\n\nAlso, the US is invested in the smooth functioning of the UN. If the US defies the UN in this issue, it will be easier for States that are adversely affected by future UN decisions to disobey, citing the US as precedent. The US is on the top of the world right now due to the massive amount of economic and military power it possesses, but it likely will not be there forever. A forward-thinking Head of State could very well recognize that a UN that commands respect is in the best interests of a future US that cannot just do whatever it wants.\n\nThat's not the full story, but that's the best I can do for now. International relations are hopelessly complex.",
"The simplest answer I have seen to this question, given by Gwynne Dyer, is that the real purpose of the UN is to prevent another world war. If you buy that premise, the US is playing the same game that Germany was playing early last century, which is basically testing the bounds of tolerance with the (possibly vain) hope that nobody will want to stop them with direct action. It's a risky game, and with Russia on the other side it becomes really bloody dangerous",
"The UN is primarily concerned with preventing wars between the major powers. We often take it for granted that all the world's great nations are more or less allied with each other. That's a development that's only come about in the last 70 years (or 20 years depending on how you treat the Cold War).",
"If you're going to spit on someone, it's polite to ask them before you do it, even if you were going to do it anyways and the person you're spitting on can't stop you from spitting on them. ",
"The only thing that determines whether you \"can\" or \"can't\" do something is whether or not there is something more powerful than you that will stop you from doing said thing. There is nothing more powerful than the US military, ergo it can do what it wants, including conducting strikes without UN support. \n\nSo your question is misconceived. The \"point\" of the UN is to preserve the international order in favor of the most powerful states. We can see this by observing that powerful states are allowed to attack weak states uinilaterally with impunity, while weak states are harshly punished for doing so. The perceived point of the UN (e.g. to promote justice/equality among nations) is mostly rhetoric.\n\n[TL;DR: \"International Law\" is theoretically impartial, but in reality is used to uphold the power of the powerful nations. It is used to \"hide\" the true face of the international order, which is maintained through violence.](_URL_0_)",
"It is important to remember that the UN is not a world government. It is mostly a forum and a tool for the member states. It does not exist to pass international laws and it does not have the power to take any military action unless all 5 of the permanent members of the Security Council agree to. (Those members being the US, Russia, France, England, and China)\n\nThe issue the US is having at the UN with this whole Syria thing is that as a member of the UN the US has agreed not to take military action against another member state without first going through the Security Council, and Russia and China are both currently vetoing the the US attempts to take military action. So the US has a choice; flip the bird to the UN and strike Syria without approval from the Security Council and violate its obligations as a member of the UN, or comply with UN rules and back down from all the threats and promises the US has made about red lines and punishing Assad. Both make the US look bad in different ways. \n\nSo the US would really love UN approval for a strike on Syria because then it could prove that the US keeps its word when it draws red lines, and it would shield the US from criticism from both international and domestic leaders who think the US is reverting back to the way things were done under Bush. That is why the US cares about the UN. ",
"Because the world doesn't revolve around America, there are other countries too ",
"The UN was made to prevent another catastrophic world war, but even the founders admitted its weakness and only saw it as a first step.",
"The UN is like the Registry of Motor Vehicles for the world. It handles all sorts of boring trade and treaty crap. It will never solve the world's problems, but it helps the world function a little better. "
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84s3pt | how do music producers use samples from other songs without having to pay that artist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84s3pt/eli5_how_do_music_producers_use_samples_from/ | {
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"You can ask and get permission to use it from the owner. Either for free or for a fee, its up to the owner. They may even say no. It's their choice.\n\nOtherwise, you can just use them and hope you don't get your ass sued to the ground. But unless you're having a really big hit, the chance of getting sued and having to deal with it is pretty low. Its quite common for no-name artists to just use clips and samples and not give a shit.\n\nAs an interesting example to no-name artists. A lot of 90s industrial bands would have entire songs that were full of movie clips, samples, and all sorts of that stuff. But they were so small bands and songs, that no one ever bothered to care they were using someone else's stuff.\n",
"There is a concept of compulsory licensing, but that requires both informing the original artist and paying royalties.\n\nAside from that, copyright doesn't protect you from all possible copying of your work. If I make a work that includes part of yours, a court will have to look at several factors to see if it's okay:\n\n* What portion of the original work is in your derivative work?\n* Is your work a critique or parody?\n* Is your work sufficiently different from the original one?\n\nDepending on how the court is feeling, a half second of audio taken from a movie incorporated into a 3-minute song might not be enough of the original work to matter."
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1r5q68 | filibuster(ing) | Not American, have no idea what it means in an American context. Please explain! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r5q68/eli5_filibustering/ | {
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"If lawmakers are trying to pass a law that you don't like, when it's your turn to speak, you can stand up and start talking about anything you want. And you can keep talking for ever and ever and they aren't allowed to interrupt you. So as long as you talk, they cannot move forward with what they want to do. You can delay it or block it.\n\nImagine if your Dad said that after dinner you have to do your homework, so you just kept on pretending to eat. You don't really have to put any food in your mouth, just pretend. And you'd never have to do your homework. That's how the United States Senate works.",
"In the US Senate representatives have the privilege of unlimited debate. This means they can talk & talk about an issue until they feel they have exhausted everything they have to say. \n\nFilibustering is when Representatives use their unlimited debate time to uphold legislation from passing. Because a vote can not occur until a Senator finishes speaking this effectively stops a bill dead. However, if the rest of the Senate wants to vote on the legislation they can invoke something called cloture, which is essentially a vote by all 100 members over if they want to take away the filibustering Senators ability to continue talking about the subject. \n\nNote: The classic view of a filibuster is a Senator on the floor of Congress literally speaking for hours on end. While they are still done that way occasionally, a filibuster can also be done without actually being present on the floor of the Senate which is what is most popular to do these days. ",
"Back when the constitution was written, it used to take a 51-49 vote to pass a bill through the senate, but now, it takes a 60-40 vote.\n\nHere's how it changed: at some point, they made a rule that said a senator could put a \"hold\" on a bill by just saying so. This \"hold\" is also called a \"filibuster.\" It takes a 60-40 vote to \"break\" the hold. Since it only takes one senator to put a hold on a bill, pretty much all controversial bills get holds placed on them.\n\nSo that's why it now takes 60-40 instead of 51-49 to pass a bill through the senate.\n\nSenators have always had the right to approve presidential appointments. Back in constitutional days, that used to take a 51-49 vote. But then, with holds, it became 60-40. The rules change today makes it so that most presidential appointments cannot be placed on hold. So it's back to 51-49 for presidential appointments, but it's still 60-40 for everything else.\n\nNote: some of the posters here are discussing old-fashioned talking filibusters. Those don't really exist any more.\n",
"Daily business on the Senate floor is a series of votes: Should we pass this bill? Should we accept this amendment? Should we confirm this nominee? etc.\n\nEvery one of these votes is debatable. Any Senator can get up and talk about it if he/she wants to.\n\nHere's the kicker: There are no rules in the Senate limiting how long you can talk. Once you're recognized, you can talk for as long as you want. As long as you don't leave the floor, you can stall ALL action on the floor of the Senate. Basically, one person (or small group) can make sure that NOTHING gets done. That's a filibuster.\n\nIn reality though--this doesn't need to happen to keep a bill from passing. A Senator can threaten a filibuster, which is usually enough. This is because the majority generally wants to get things done--and is willing to pull the bill for the time being in order to sort things out. In that way, the mere threat has become a very effective tool.\n\nIn the case of an actual filibuster, the Senators who want to end the filibuster file a \"cloture motion\". This is a vote on whether or not to shut down debate and move to a vote. The rules of the Senate state that it takes 60 votes (not the usual 51) to end debate...\n\n...until today. The Senate decided today that for all nominees (except to the Supreme Court), a cloture motion can be passed with 51 votes. \n\ntl;dr A filibuster is when a Senator talks for as long as they can (or threatens to do so) to stop a bill from passing\n"
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2jco79 | why do we put so much importance on attractive physical traits if in practice they seem to not be very good health indicators? | In today's society we put so much importance on good looks.
Evolutionary speaking, they are indicators of a good health. But we often consider someone unattractive just because: "his nose is too big", "she has protruding ears", "ew...gummy smile!".
I have to be honest, these do not seem like very good health indicators in practice. I too am guilty of dismissing people based on these traits. People, who may have been very healthy and a good match for my genes.
At the same time, my girlfriend is very attractive by society's standards, but gets sick often and has had many health problems as an infant/child, icterus and a serious bacterial infection among them. And still, with knowledge of these health prolems, I still find her more attractive than a random girl with a big nose, which clearly shouldn't be as much big of a deal.
It seems the whole thing doesn't really work that good. Why do we humans still value these traits so much to the extent of picking an unhealthy mate over someone who just doesn't live up to society's standards of beauty?
EDIT: Obviously, I don't mean traits like being obese or skin complexion, they're good indicators. I mean stuff I mentioned in my examples. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jco79/eli5_why_do_we_put_so_much_importance_on/ | {
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"You're using anecdotal evidence to dismiss the health benefits that come from being skinny and tanned (women) or muscular and tanned (men). ",
"This is a problem with how people tend to understand evolution. Evolution has no purpose and is not operating according to any plan. To say what the purpose of any evolved trait might be is going to be speculation at best. The most general advice here is always be wary of any claim that a trait evolved to serve a specific purpose.\n\nIn this specific case, there are studies which show that, on average, more 'attractive' people tend to be healthier than less 'attractive' ones. This has been most studied regarding studies of face symmetry. The thinking is that there are a whole host of inherited traits associated with ill health, which result in greater asymmetry of the face. People then speculate that this would seem to be advantageous for offspring and thus would be reinforced via natural selection. This is all averaged data, however, meaning that there are plenty of very healthy people with asymmetric faces and plenty of ill people with symmetric ones.\n\nHowever, any behavior as complex as this is going to be controlled by a great many genetic and social factors. We know that outside of a few traits such as facial symmetry, the elements of attractiveness vary greatly across cultures and time. There is a tremendous amount of diversity within cultures about what makes a person attractive and what doesn't. A great many people end up choosing partners which they say are less 'attractive' than other partners than they could likely have.\n\nFinally, it is very likely that many traits were selected for in the past for conditions which are much less important or even absent today, but the traits remain. There could have once been a terrible affliction which mutilated the face and affected a large portion of the population and this 'attractiveness' trait was selected for very strongly for many generations until this affliction all but died out. However, the trait lived on and it had other self-reinforcing characteristics where people were treated better by others for being 'attractive' and those who didn't treat 'attractive' people better were shunned. This would improve the reproductive fitness of people who had the behavior even if the original evolutionary pressure was no longer present.",
"Here are a few points:\n\n1. Evolution works entirely on chance. \n\n2. A trait will tend to die off, if all people with that trait do not reproduce.\n\n3. Physical traits such as nose shape do not affect physical health. \n\n4. Chances are a person with a nice nose will not die (at least because of his or her nose) before having a child.\n\n5. It is thus that such physically attractive traits still get passed on.\n\n6. There is thus no evolutionary incentive to find such traits unattractive.\n\n**(TL;DR:)** The physical features that we find attractive and are not indicators of good health nor bad health (e.g. nose shape, eye colour) will get passed on because chances are you will have offspring before you die. Therefore people who find such features attractive will not die out.\n",
" > I have to be honest, these do not seem like very good health indicators in practice\n\nIn a modern society, when everyone is relatively healthy and the differences are subtle, maybe not. Especially when sick people can get treatments, instead of letting a disease run its course and inflict damage.\n\nBut in a primitive society, the differences would be more profound and most indicative of health problems. That is where these cues evolved, and what humans are tuned to."
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6snzsd | what do astronomers mean when they say looking at the sky is looking in the past? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6snzsd/eli5_what_do_astronomers_mean_when_they_say/ | {
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"Light go very fast, but it's not instantaneous. There is a difference between the moment an object emit light and the moment that light reach your eye.\n\nThe speed of light is too fast for us to notice at the human scale. But in the vast distance between stars, the time difference can be huge. So when you look at a star 3 light year away, we see the light that this star emitted 3 years in the past. This star could explode and we wouldn't see until 3 more years.\n\nThe further we look, the older what we see actually is."
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2bm04p | why don't bugs splatter from falling proportionally equal distances as a human jumping off a building? | Any time a bug falls from a large distance (to them) or I smack a fly to the ground, they just shake it off and go about their business. What gives? Make with the splattering already. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2bm04p/eli5why_dont_bugs_splatter_from_falling/ | {
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"Because they hit the ground with significantly less force because they weigh less (and also because they probably have a very slow terminal velocity).\n\nIf the ground were to hit the bug with the same force that it hits you, the bug would die. If you were to drop just chuck one of your legs off the roof, it also might not break when it hit the ground (don't try this at home, I'm a trained professional). But..if you put the entire weight of your body into the picture, the forces change a lot.",
"It is because of air resistance. Air itself stand in the the way of something falling and reduces the speed at which it falls. For humans the maximum speed we can fall is about 120 (if we are speed out wide and not tucked in tight). Cats can only fall at about 60 MPH, and bugs are considerable less than that.\n\nSo slowing falling speed, less impact, bug lives. ",
"Gravity becomes more and more important the bigger animals get. A bug can fall many times its own height and be just fine, but an elephant would be injured by falling a fraction of its own height.\n\nThe [square-cube law](_URL_0_) can help explain why this happens, although its a bit more than ELI5.",
"Because the air is not proportionately thinner. If they fall through a proportionately equal distance, the drag on them is disproportionately higher -- the air \"feels\" soupier. This means that the terminal velocity of the bug is disproportionately lower, and so the impact is disproportionately lower."
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qbscp | german expressionism | I have seen many examples of German Expressionism, but I can't quite understand what it really is. I can see that there is something similar between the examples, but if you asked me do tell you what it is I wouldn't be able to tell you. So what is it exactly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qbscp/eli5_german_expressionism/ | {
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"German Expressionism is part of a larger movement, called Expressionism. It's a modernist art movement that started in Germany before World War I. \n\nExpressionism was a reaction or an evolution that came from Impressionism (Monet, Renior, etc.) Expressionism is about showing meanings or emotions rather than reality, drawing or painting how something *feels* rather than how something *is*. \n\nIt's difficult to define, because it does overlap other artistic movements of the time. The best characteristics that you can look for are that it rejects realism, and expresses emotion, often extreme emotion. "
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2a7sl9 | how/when to use gauss jordan elimination? | Hey I'm new to reddit, found this in my standard batch of subscribed subreddits. Thought I'd give it a go. I'm 20. I passed my Pre-Cal college class by the skin of my teeth. I'm assuming the professor graded on a curve because I was checking my grade and it was an F. And I got a B for my final grade. I knew others were struggling too. This is the only class in my entire educational career that made me cry and want to give up.
Anyway, the only thing that still flies right over my head is Gauss Jordan Elimination. I even stayed after class to have the professor explain it to me, and I still got most those questions wrong. Help me out? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2a7sl9/eli5_howwhen_to_use_gauss_jordan_elimination/ | {
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"It's the middle of the night and I have insomnia, so I apologize if my answer is terrible. Also, I don't know what they did or did not teach you about linear algebra (matrix math) and so I might explain some things that you already know.\n\nIn algebra, you probably had some experience with solving systems of equations (a.k.a. simultaneous equations). For example, you might have a system that looks like this:\n\n\n2x + y = 5\n\nx - y = 25\n\nAnd you have to find values for x and y that work in both equations. One method you can use to solve this is called substitution. For instance, from the second equation, you can reason that x = 25 + y. If you substitute this for the x in the first equation, you get 2(25 + y) + y = 50 + 2y + y = 50 + 3y = 5. From this you can reason that y = -15. You can then substitute this for y in the second equation to get x + 15 = 25, which tells you that x = 10.\n\nAnother method you can use to solve this is through what is called elimination. The goal is to eliminate one of the variables from one of the equations so that you can see what the other variable is. Let's eliminate x so that we can see what y is. If I add the two equations together, then I get 3x = 30. This tells me that x = 10. So, then I can use substitution by plugging 10 in for x in either of the equations to determine that y = -15.\n\nWhy does this work? Well, we know two things:\n\n* You can add something to each side of an equation, and as long as you added the same amount to each side, the equation will remain true.\n* From the first equation, we know that 2x + y = 5\n\nTherefore, we can add (2x + y) to the left side of the second equation, and then add 5 to the right side of the second equation, and we know that the resulting equation (3x = 30) will be true. \n\nWe could have eliminated x instead, but it's a little trickier because just adding the equations won't do the trick. But we also know from basic algebra that you can multiply both sides of an equation by the same number, and the resulting equation will remain true. So, if we multiply the second equation through by -2, we get -2x + 2y = -50. Now, we can add this new equation to the first to get 3y = -45, which we can easily solve to get y = -15.\n\nYou may think that the substitution strategy is easier than the elimination strategy, and for this simple set of equations, you'd probably be right. However, if you have a more complex set of equations with uglier coefficients and (say) four or more variables, then elimination starts to become way easier. \n\nGauss-Jordan elimination is a way of simplifying and streamlining the elimination process. First, you create an augmented matrix that contains the coefficients and the constants. For my example system of equations, the matrix would look something like this:\n\n[ 2 1 5 ]\n\n[ 1 -1 25 ]\n\nAnd you perform something called Elementary Row Operations in order to get this matrix into a certain form, called Reduced Row Echelon Form. The allowable elementary row operations are:\n\n1. Row switching. You can change the order of the rows, if you want. If you think back to the equations that the matrix came from, this is just the equivalent of changing the order of the equations, which you can totally do because that doesn't affect anything.\n\n2. Multiplying a row by a constant. For instance, we could multiply the second row by -2, and it would become [ -2 2 -50]. If you again think back to the equation that this row came from, this is totally identical to the multiplication step that we did in the strategy to eliminate x.\n\n3. Row addition. In this operation, you are replacing one row with the SUM of that row, plus another row. For instance, in our example, we could replace the first row with the SUM of rows 1 and 2. Then, the first row will become [ 3 0 30 ]. If you think back to the equations, this is totally identical to the elimination strategy that we used to eliminate y. Now, it's important to note that we can also add a MULTIPLE of one row to another. So, in one step, we could replace row 2 (aka R2) with -2*R1+R2 and the result would still be valid. This would change R2 to [ 0 3 -45 ], which hopefully you can see is totally equivalent to our elimination strategy to eliminate x.\n\nSo if we use these elementary row operations, we can get the matrix into the following form:\n\n[ 1 0 10 ]\n\n[ 0 1 -15 ]\n\nYou can do this by multiplying R2 by -2, then substituting R2 with (R1+R2), then multiplying R2 by 1/3, then replacing R1 with (R1-R2), then multiplying R1 by 1/2.\n\nAnd if you convert the resulting matrix back into equations, you'll see that it simply says that x=10 and y=-15. \n\nThe above matrix is in reduced row echelon form because it's leading coefficients are all 1 and the elements in the same columns add the leading coefficients are all zero. As you can see, solving the system is incredibly easy when the matrix is in this form.\n\nSolving systems of linear equations like this is very useful in almost all fields of science and engineering. For example, in physics, you often have a bunch of objects that are all exerting forces on one another. The forces can be approximated with linear equations. The number of variables in the equations depends on the total degrees of freedom for all of the objects. So often, you'll end up with these huge matrices that have to be solved and Guass-Jordan is an effective way to do that."
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2irw9i | how does kevlar work? | How does it protect so well whilst being so light?
Is there anything better suited to protection? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2irw9i/eli5_how_does_kevlar_work/ | {
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"It protects very well against small mass projectiles like frag from explosions etc, not bullets or knives. The body armor that protects against bullets have some form of hardened plate in them, some use one large ceramic plate while some like dragon skin use many smaller scales. The Kevlar itself is useful due to its structure, you can think of it as a shit ton of super strong nets woven into each other allowing the mass from incoming debris to be more effectively distributed therefore allowing less penetration.",
"Kevlar is a very strong filament, that is woven into fabric, very much like nylon. The filaments just happen to be stronger than nylon. When you weave those filaments into a nice tight fabric, you get a very strong cloth. Stack layers of it, and it can stop bullets. Because it's a fabric, something pointy will go right through it. Typically, an ice pick will go through a normal (non-plate) bulletproof vest, because it just pushes the filaments of fabric out of the way, instead of trying to break them."
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1e1h9w | jazz | I obtained Kind of Blue a while back and listened to it a couple of times. I enjoyed it but I felt like I was missing something. I felt like, while it sounded nice to me, there was a deeper element to the album and Jazz in general that I just wasn't appreciating.
The other day I put it on again, didn't do anything else, and just listened to each track with all my focus. I had this kind of epiphany and I felt like I 'got' Jazz.
I feel like it's music straight from the soul. It's explosive and improvised. The musicians talk to one another with their instruments and with the music they make and they all come together to form a song.
But I still feel as though I don't know enough about jazz or music theory to know what's going on exactly. Are Jazz musicians improvising? Or have they written these tracks before hand?
What can you add to my understanding?
Cheers! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1e1h9w/eli5_jazz/ | {
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"Okay, so check this out. \n\nJazz is \"musician's music\". While you and I listen to rock, or hip-hop, or soul, or whatever, Jazz musicians are listening to each other. They feel each other's tracks, and take parts of them that they like and improvise over them to make their own solos. \n\nSo let's say that you have a song that's considered a \"jazz standard.\" This means that there is no legal copyright on the original melody, and musicians are free to do what they like on it. \n\nLet's say that Buddy Bolden writes a song called \"Funky butt\". Sidney Bechet may later play that song, and while he will stick to the original melody, he is free to improvise over it. Later, someone else will listen to Sidney Bechet's improvisations, and improvise over THAT...\n\nAnd that's kind of the problem with Jazz. \n\nI love jazz, but so many of the songs are improvisations of songs that USED to be hits. the solos are great, but only other musicians \"get it\". You and I listen to it and go \"Wow man, that was impressive\", but other Jazz musicians can pick up the styles of the previous artists that influenced the current player. The other musicians know when someone has taken a riff from another song, and whether that riff was used in jest, or whether that riff was played out of respect, or whether it simply sounded good at the time.\n\n(good) Jazz musicians know and feel their instruments and their music the way that you and I know how to walk, talk, and breathe. It's just so easy for them that it now comes without thinking. That's what makes them great. But full understanding of Jazz is like a walled garden, where only the BEST players, and the really studious students of music can enter the gates and understand everything that's going on.",
" > The musicians talk to one another with their instruments and with the music they make and they all come together to form a song.\n\nThat's a huge part of it. One part of learning to play jazz is learning how to communicate with other musicians through just your instrument, whether it's drums, string bass, saxophone, etc. \n\nNow, for your question about whether or not the musicians have written the tracks or are improvising, jazz contains segments of both. Take the song \"So What\" for example. The beginning of the track is the introduction. At about 0:33 the main melody begins (normally referred to as the \"head\" of the piece). The first section (referred to as the \"A\" section) of the head repeats at :50, this time with trumpet and saxophones. At 1:04 the key changes slightly, and we call this the \"B\" section. The \"A\" section returns at 1:18. Now, this progression forms one of the main musical forms that is used in jazz, called the \"AABA\" form, simply because that is how each section of the head is most easily identified. The \"head\" of a tune usually spans one time through the entire form, and each time through is referred to as a \"chorus\". This about covers the basic parts of everything that is written out. \n\nNow, hopefully I haven't confused you too much. Miles's trumpet solo begins at about 1:30 in the piece, and notice the chords that are being played underneath his solo. They match up identically with the chords from the head, following the AABA form (First A section begins at 1:30, second A section at 1:46, B section at 2:00, and last A section at 2:14). His solo lasts for two choruses, and that means two times through the entire AABA chord progression. Throughout his whole solo, his is improvising, meaning that he is simultaneously composing and playing a melody that is based upon the chord structure of this piece of music. The rhythm section (drums, bass, and piano) are doing what is called \"comping\", which refers to using the given chords to create an atmosphere that will help communicate with the soloist(s) and each other. \n\nStill possibly with me? John Coltrane's solo begins at 3:26, and like Miles's solo, he improvises using the chord changes in a similar way, but in a style more characteristic to his instrument. At 5:17, Cannonball Adderley plays another saxophone solo. The same rules apply - AABA form, following the chord progression and the groove that the rhythm section plays. At 7:06, the piano solo begins, and the horns (trumpet and saxes) provide some rhythmic backgrounds. These are a composed element of the piece. That about wraps it up for the improvised, mainly non-composed section. \n\nAt 8:03 the head returns, and the rhythm section begins to resume the feel that they played the first time through, at the very beginning of the recording. The recording fades out after 1.5 times through the head, and the tune ends. \n\nSo, most jazz tunes follow the sequence \"(intro) head, solo section, head (outro).\" I have put two in parentheses because they are not always included. The heads and solo sections usually contain the same chord progression, and a solo is made up of improvising over a number of choruses - repetitions of the chord progression from the head. \n\nI know this is over a five-year-old's head, but I hope I helped you out with this!"
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1ts38r | if the "reddit hug of death" exists, how come it doesn't happen to reddit itself? | We're all familiar with the typical "reddit hug of death," when a website posted on a popular subreddit gets visited by hundreds of people and is essentially DDOS'd and goes down.
How come that same thing doesn't happen to reddit itself? It's still the same number of people visiting (both reddit and the popular website). Is it because reddit has superior bandwidth/servers/whatever it is the Internets run on? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ts38r/eli5_if_the_reddit_hug_of_death_exists_how_come/ | {
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"Reddit has servers that are designed to handle the large load of visitors but many of these sites aren't and the rush causes them to collapse. Its kinda like a bridge. Where some bridges can support more weight (site traffic) than others.",
"Reddit is a high traffic site with a huge number of servers that can handle all that traffic. Many times a relatively low traffic site will get linked, and that site just isn't set up for the kind of traffic that gets directed to it from reddit. Since they don't have enough servers to handle the load, the site goes down.",
"As others are saying, reddit is designed for it. The same concept applies to Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook, etc.",
"It does happen to Reddit occasionally. Sometimes you'll find a page with Snoo that says \"Sorry it took so long to load this page\" or something like that. It happened during the Obama AMA.",
"Think of Reddit as a 13 lane high way. Think of a smaller site as a one lane slip stream. If half of Reddit's traffic tries to turn of into the one lane, you'll experience some problems.",
"this is actually a pretty big problem for *any* website with a ton of users. At some point a server will just fail. So generally these websites mirror themselves onto many servers and rotate the IP's in the dns tables so that there isn't a single IP serving the entire internet. A small website wouldn't do this because of the cost is too high, also crappy websites send to have crappy service plans that have artificial bottlebecks on them.",
"TIL that the Slashdot Effect is being referred to by young whippersnappers as the \"reddit hug of death\".\n\nGit off my fuckin' lawn.",
"Imagine it like a small door capable of letting 15 people through it at once. When 5000 people try to pass through it, it gets destroyed and will not be able to function anymore, unless repaired. That's what happens to small websites that get the Reddit DDOS of love. \n\nReddit on the other hand, has a giant door capable of handling a huge number of people that it can let pass at a time. \n\nHope this answers your question to an extent."
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1wkqp6 | why is neo-nazism so much more common in europe compared to north america? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wkqp6/eli5_why_is_neonazism_so_much_more_common_in/ | {
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"Europeans are more rooted to their home grounds compared to americans, who came from all over the old world just centuries ago, so intolerance and racism gets in a little too easily. I think.",
"Is it really? Maybe it is, but I don't know for a fact. I am European, but all too familiar with white supremacist movements in the US.\n \nWhat defines neo-nazism? It is a label without much inherit value. Maybe one groups like to identify with nazism but the next group rejects the label. That fact does not make one group more extremist than the other.\n \nIt you are referring to (extreme) xenophobism, I think it is more prevalent in parts of Europe but the causes can differ. Maybe there was a recent war (such as in the Balkans). Maybe two groups have a long standing conflict. Maybe it is labor immigration gone wrong. Maybe a culture feels threatened by sheer numbers. All these can (but should not!) give rise to xenophobism.\n \nThe reasons above apply in a lesser degree to the US. Maybe save for the Mexicans moving into the US. And that does not happen without tensions and extremism.\n \nAnyway, the causes and the situations within Europe differ in such a degree that you cannot speak of Europe as a whole.",
"Europeans are gifted racists.",
"Most North Americans are mudbloods. It's like saying all Canadians are ~~mooses~~ ~~meeses~~ ~~mooseses~~ moose. So chances are other people are laughing at you for acting like a Neo-Nazi and we know you don't pose a real threat."
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4pchxe | how can people "feel" things through objects? ex: if you are holding a fork you can feel the texture of your food through it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4pchxe/eli5_how_can_people_feel_things_through_objects/ | {
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"It's because your brain has created a map of how things feel and look like and matched them together by 100s of trials ",
"Specific to the fork, it's a mix of sound and pressure. When pressing into a carrot, you have to press pretty hard, compared to, lets say, mashed potatoes. As you press, you hear the fork sliding in, with that scraping sound. When you lift it, it's solid, and the mass isn't trying to pull down around the sides and through the slit as something loose would. That's how you know without touching it that it's raw and uncooked, and you just know how it'll feel in your mind."
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5m7fh5 | why can the human eye not see infrared light? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5m7fh5/eli5_why_can_the_human_eye_not_see_infrared_light/ | {
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"Your eye has photoreceptive cells that respond to certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation striking them. This occurs because those photons are absorbed by proteins in the cell, which trigger a change, that generates a signal sent to the brain. \n\nThose cells do not absorb other wavelengths, including those of infrared light. Because that light does not get absorbed, it does not trigger the change which generates the signal. No signal is sent to the brain, and so the brain does not know to generate any image. \n\nAdditionally, the eye is not equally transparent to all wavelengths of light. For instance, near UV light might be visible, but your eye is opaque to it, so those photons would not reach your cells regardless. ",
"/u/stuthulhu mentions good points about our light sensitive cells not responding to infrared light.\n\nOne of the main reasons they never evolved to respond is that not much infrared light manages go through our eyes. \n\nThe vitreous humor, the clear liquid that makes up the inside of our eye is mostly made of water. Water highly absorbs infrared light. Most of the infrared light is absorbed by the ~1 inch of vitreous humor so not much remains to be detected when it hits the light sensitive cells lined on the back of our eye."
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28yqfo | if you fell into a giant pot of boiling water (or a river of magma in a volcano), what would the process of death entail? | how fast would death be - immediate?
would your skin actually melt? how quickly would your insides cook? what happens to your eyes when exposed to heat that extreme?
would your brain be cooked before the body actually died, or vice versa? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28yqfo/eli5_if_you_fell_into_a_giant_pot_of_boiling/ | {
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"Ok, we're talking about two different things here. A pot of water is a much slower death than melted rock. \n\nFor the boiling water, death would be slow and rather unpleasant. Your skin wouldn't melt, but it would scald very quickly and potentially start to cook off as the fat and connective tissues dissolved. Provided that you didn't drown, your organs would start to cook after a few minutes, which would cause death by massive organ failure. Your eyes would boil, as they are mostly liquid and collagen. \n\nI imagine you'd have bled out before your organs cooked enough to kill you, but if they hadn't, you'd be subject to some intense hallucinations as your brain started to cook. Much like the hallucinations and brain damage that is associated with high fevers. \n\nWith a lava flow, death is pretty much instant. As soon as you inhale the heated air around the lava, your lungs would shrivel up and you'd begin to asphyxiate. The rest of the process is similar to the water, only much quicker and much more aggressive and there would be actual fire involved in burning you alive. \n\nIt is decidedly less enjoyable. "
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3ik5as | how do miracle berries work? | For those of you who don't know, miracle berries are like a type of pill. When you consume a miracle berry, it ends up making any sour thing you eat sweet. For example, a raw lemon would taste like sweet lemonade. Can anyone explain to me how this works? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ik5as/eli5_how_do_miracle_berries_work/ | {
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"Miracle Berries or Miracle Fruit are red berries from west Africa. The active ingredient in them is a protein called Miraculin. How Miraculin works is, it binds to your taste buds and rewires your sour taste receptors to perceive acids (which make things sour) as sugars (which makes things taste sweet).\n\nSource: _URL_0_"
]
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23t5bq | venus fly trap | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23t5bq/eli5venus_fly_trap/ | {
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"_URL_0_\n\nplanst that evolved to live in sawmps. swamps dont have all of the nutrients in the soil required for plants to grow, so meat eating plants evolved to get these nutrients from meat"
]
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1wnma3 | left-handed molecules | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wnma3/lefthanded_molecules/ | {
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"the scientific word for this is \"chirality\"\n\nif a molecule is achiral ,which means not chiral, and you were to\nhold the molecule up to a mirror, the image in the mirror would look the same as the original molecule, and in fact be exactly the same molecule no matter how you orient it in space\n\nif a molecule is chiral, if you held it up to a mirror the image in the mirror would look the same but not actually be the same structurally as the original molecule\n\nthe concept is a lot easier to understand with an organic chem model kit, I remember doing o chem homework in college and seeing it on paper and being like \"they look exactly the same\" but then you build the model of the two molecules and you're like \"oh shit! they are different!\" sometimes you are allowed to use your model kits for exams and it just looks like everyone is playing with knex or Legos, we were doing science I swear\n\nmy o chem professor explained the concept to our class using our hands as an example\n\nlook at your hands with the palms facing toward you, your hands are mirror images of each other, your hands would also be chiral if they were molecules. your hands look exactly the same but they are not, no mater which way your orient your hands, they will never be exactly the same, thus making then chiral\n\nwhen a molecule is chiral, the mirror images are defined as enantiomers. a pair of enantiomers could be referred to with one of them being the \"right handed\" molecule and the other being the \"left handed\" molecule\n\nedit: fun fact, enantiomers can be really important in biochemistry. some drug molecules have left/right handed counterparts with one of them being the life saving drug and the other being toxic to the point of killing you, cool stuff!"
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1thkyz | why can apple just update their iphones but on android each update has to be approved by the manufacture and carrier. | Apple can just push updates to all it's iPhones e.g. iOS 6 to iOS 7, but google can't do that for it's android phones e.g. the s4 hasn't been updated to android 4.4 yet. Why is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1thkyz/eli5_why_can_apple_just_update_their_iphones_but/ | {
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"text": [
"Because Android runs on lots of different phones, all made by different manufacturers. And each manufacturer modifies or enhances Android before putting it on their phone. A new version of Android won't have all the modifications that each manufacturer made built in to it.\n\nApple, on the other hand, put their own software on their own devices, so they have total control over the process from beginning to end.",
"Apple owns both the phone and operating system. Android is just owned by Google. And can't make unauthorized changes to a Samsung phone for example. It isnt their product."
]
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32e4xg | why does the internet community seem to hate hilary clinton so much? | I've seen almost nothing but bad things about her since she announced that she's running for president. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32e4xg/eli5_why_does_the_internet_community_seem_to_hate/ | {
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"text": [
"People love and hate every politician. That's politics.",
"Because she's the embodiment of everything wrong with our politics. She's a Wall-Street friendly, pro-war, bought-and-paid-for, moderate-to-the-point-of-absurdity career politician. ",
"She's in bed with the banks, mainly Goldman Sachs and pushes their agenda instead of pushing an agenda that would benefit the american people"
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1dq6ci | the working hours of the us president/uk prime minister | I really have absolutely no idea and I'd love to know some of the details into how often they are actually working and if they have general set hours. I am assuming it's a 24 hour job, but specific information would be really cool. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dq6ci/eli5_the_working_hours_of_the_us_presidentuk/ | {
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"text": [
"I don't think they have any set hours -- after all who would be their boss to check they're at work when they're supposed to be?\n\nBut that's no different to the situation for anybody who runs a company -- whether you're a CEO of a multinational company or just a one-man-band trying to start your own business, nobody's ever checking up on what hours you put in. So you put in as much time as you're able to do so while still balancing the needs of family and leisure time."
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1kcrro | why does my brain function worse when i'm nervous or embarrassed? | Shouldn't there be hormones and yadda yadda that kick in and make me better? like it is with pain, running from danger, etc? why are my hormones playing against me? I thought we were friends (I'll see myself out). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kcrro/eli5_why_does_my_brain_function_worse_when_im/ | {
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"Some stress can help you operate better if you are able to recognize it and channel it. However prolonged stress suppresses higher brain function through the release of the hormone cortisol. The brain can't really distinguish between \"nervous because I have a test tomorrow\" and \"oh shit I'm about to get eaten by that bear\". It still triggers the \"fight or flight\" reaction which routes through the limbic brain structures. \n\nThe limbic brain is the more primitive part that is more concerned with saving your butt through fight or flight and doesn't handle collating that 50 page report for the boss as well. ",
"As I understand it, cortisol (the stress hormone produced by the ant. Pituitary gland) inhibits memory retrieval in humans and animal models (as seen with cognitive tests and stressors). What it does do is HELP memory formation at that time. Therefore, you can't remember shit, but you'll remember how stressed you were for a long time. \n\nSource: my professor told me once "
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g03hbp | how is current impacted by voltage? | In the UK an normal electric cooker can have up to a 32A fuse so assume it can draw up to 32A from a 230V supply and cook a nice chicken. I drive trains with a current readout and noticed under acceleration my train was drawing 30A from a approx 25,000V supply.
Are those amps the same? Is 1A at 230V the same amount of current as 1A at 25,000V? If so why use such a high voltage for running a train when it could draw the same current from 230V? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g03hbp/eli5_how_is_current_impacted_by_voltage/ | {
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"As an electrician, we were taught this to show us how they relate:\n\nPicture a garden hose. The water coming out has a speed and an amount coming out. The speed would be the current, and the amount would be the voltage. (The hose size would be resistance, but not what you asked)\n\nThere could be a ton of water coming out at barely any speed (high voltage, low current). There could also be very little water coming out but very fast (high current, low voltage). In the electrician sense, all three of these aspects related to each other, you need a bigger hose to allow more water through, and/or faster etc.",
"Think of it in terms of power instead. If your train draws 30 amps at 25000 volts, its using 750,000 W of power. (VxI=P) It's going to need that same amount of power to run at 230 V, which means it's going to now draw an insane amount of amperage from that source in an attempt to get that. Approximately 3,261 Amps. That's going to require an absolutely massive conductor to bring that power to your tracks, a massive source, etc. It would become exceedingly expensive. It makes sense to use a higher voltage in that scenario so you can bring it down to 30 amps and make it easier and cheaper to conduct that power to your train. This is the same reason power from the power station leaves and supplies a city at a massive voltage, and is then transformed down to service individual buildings.",
"Power: volts\\*amps (usually - let's not get into phase shift right now)\n\n230V and 1A: 230Watts.\n\n25000V at 1A: 25000Watts (33 horsepower)",
" > Are those amps the same? Is 1A at 230V the same amount of current as 1A at 25,000V? \n\nYES. An Ampere is an ampere. Irrespective the Voltage. \n\n\n > If so why use such a high voltage for running a train when it could draw the same current from 230V? \n\n**Because it's neither the current nor the voltage individually that drives a machine. But the power generated by it.** Since power is basically work done or energy expended per unit of time. \n\n\nPower (Watts) = Voltage (Volts) x Current (Amperes) \n\n\nA huge machine needs huge power. Now you have 2 ways of achieving this. High voltage, low current or low voltage high current. \n\n\nPower wasted as heat during any transmission is given by the formula **Wasted power = I\\*I\\*R** \n( Where I is current and R is resistance of the conductor, which here are the overhead cables) \n\n\nSince wasted energy is proportional to the ( square of ) current and not the voltage, it is better to have high voltage and low current as opposed to low voltage and high current to minimize loss due to heat."
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3x9nzf | i'm a coffee noob, what're the differences between these fancy coffee drinks? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3x9nzf/eli5_im_a_coffee_noob_whatre_the_differences/ | {
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"[Here is a diagram that shows the differences.]( _URL_0_)\n\nEdit: I was a barista for a few years so let me know if you have any other questions. ",
"Most of the fancy drinks that you see are variants of espresso:\n\nEspresso: a strong, concentrated \"shot\" of coffee. If you drink this straight, it's very strong and rich. Most people prefer it diluted with milk or water, which leads us to...\n\nAmericano: Espresso mixed with hot water. This gives it a consistency pretty similar to plain coffee, but with the richer espresso taste. Fun fact: it was supposedly named this because American GI's in Italy during WWII would dilute their espresso to make it taste more like regular coffee.\n\nLatte: This is espresso with a bunch of steamed milk, usually with a little bit of foam (frothy milk bubbles) on top.\n\nMacchiato: Traditionally, this is espresso with just a little bit of milk or foam. Nowadays, most places make it as sort of an upside-down latte - they make a cup of foamy steamed milk and pour the espresso over it. It's a little sweeter than a latte, and lots of places do the Starbucks-style caramel macchiato because they're delicious.\n\nMocha: This is usually a latte with chocolate syrup added. \n\nCapucchino: this is basically a latte with lots more foam, and less steamed milk. This is frothier than a latte, and when you pick it up, the cup usually feels about half-full or less. If it's heavier than that, they basically just made you a latte.\n\nTry everything, find what you like, and customize! I'm a big coffee fan, so welcome to the wide world of caffeinated drinks!",
"While there is a good deal of information here I have attached a pretty good Youtube video about Gourmet Coffee. _URL_0_",
"So what about long black and short black?",
"Heres a neat graphic that I saw in /r/food \n\n_URL_0_ \n\nCredit to /u/Snowstandards",
"Outside of the espresso comments already mentioned, there's also a few other things you should know. \n\n - Light roasts have more caffeine. \n\n - Dark roasts have a smokey taste to them. \n\n - It's easy to cover a stale bean with a dark roast, so you'll find a dark roast is pretty popular among corporate roasters.\n\n - Water, heat, light, and air are the things that quickly spoil a bean. \n\n - Don't store beans in the refrigerator or freezer unless you can't use them within a week or so. The constant in and out of a cold environment will ruin your coffee due to condensation. However, if you do plan on keeping the coffee longer than a couple weeks, the freezer will keep the beans for a while. \n\n - Whole beans of coffee will hold their flavor and be fresh a lot longer. Buying ground coffee from a grocery store, especially when you don't know how long the beans have been there, might reveal a bean that tastes like cardboard. \n\n - I'd recommend that you start with something very mainstream and light roast. A breakfast blend from a very popular roaster is usually a safe bet. Columbian beans are the most popular. \n\n - If you're in the market for coffee, buy in really small amounts to begin with. Grind it right there at the grocery store. \n\n - Please go easy on the sugar and cream. They'll ruin your teeth if you're a sipper. They'll put pounds on your ass if you're a sitter. Worst of all, they'll ruin your coffee. \n\n - Beware espresso drinks from the likes of Starbuck's. Their calorie counts *can be* somewhere between stupid and crazy. Yet, some are completely reasonable. Just educate yourself. It would take you an hour of walking to work that off. ",
"I made the change over to drinking black coffee about a year ago and if you are getting into drinking coffee i would recommend it strongly, def takes a little while to acquire the taste but i just kept telling myself this is what cowboys used to drink on the range and eventually you grow to love the bitter taste vs the sugary creamy alternative ",
"Enthusiastic coffee roaster here. There are lots of folks explaining the *technical* differences between those different drinks you've named. Here's the TLDR:\n\nYou can pay varying amounts extra to have the person behind the counter process the milk and put it into your coffee for you in different ways. \n\nIt's really cool from a marketing perspective, because it allows you to self-discriminate -- which in this context means you pay as much as you are willing to for essentially the same ingredients. This kind of self-discrimination is the holy grail of marketing nerds everywhere.",
"Overtime you should try drifting away from the sweeter drinks and more towards the stronger coffee ones. The taste definitely takes time to grow on you and I don't think anyone can just jump straight from not drinking coffee to regularly having espresso, but as you drink more you really begin to appreciate and know the taste of coffee. (If you get the chance, try a turkish coffee!)\n\n\nAlso, a french press trumps drip every time. ",
"People already posted some excellent summaries, I only have 2 things to add. \n\nEspresso flavor varies wildly from place to place depending on what kind of beans/roasts they use, machinery, water etc. Some (mostly upscale) places have a couple of bean origin choices.\n\nEvery once in awhile you'll find a cafe that will prepare a mocha with real chunks of chocolate frothed in milk instead of using syrup. For chocolate snobs this is a real treat. Before I drank coffee I discovered a place that made hot chocolate this way and I instantly became a junkie.",
"My suggestion for enjoying coffee? Drink it black. No sugar, no milk, nothing. Just straight coffee. The first 5-15 you have will be awful and bitter, but when it clicks, you'll start to appreciate all the different flavors and subtleties. \n\nAnd coffee will be so much cheaper. The milk and sugar bullshit really racks up the expenses. "
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2dm5wf | lot's of countries like cambodia use the us dollar - where do they get them? | Do they have permission? Does the Mint print extra for use in those countries? How do banks replace old notes? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dm5wf/eli5_lots_of_countries_like_cambodia_use_the_us/ | {
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"Before they switched to the US dollar, people brought them into the country over many years, as an alternative to the local unstable currency. Eventually the country gives up on its own currency and makes the switch official.\n\n > Do they have permission?\n\nNo, but the US doesn't mind. Greater international use of the US dollar strengthens it.\n\n > Does the Mint print extra for use in those countries?\n\nIndirectly, yes...dollars physically leave the US, and have to be replaced.\n\n > How do banks replace old notes?\n\nThis is actually a problem. Many of dollars are in bad condition, and can get progressively more difficult to spend. Some get deposited in banks, others are given to US tourists as change. Eventually someone has to find a way to swap them out for new dollars."
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40jcq1 | what exactly does "one week in arrears" mean? | I just got a new job and I start on the 19th and they said we get paid every two weeks, one week in arrears. So when would I get paid? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40jcq1/eli5_what_exactly_does_one_week_in_arrears_mean/ | {
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"It means when you receive your check, you've already worked another week that they haven't paid you.\n\nSo, you work January 1-15, on the 23rd, you'll get your check for your work on the 1-15th. Your work from the 16th to the 30th will come on February 6.",
"\"Arrears\" means behind, so it sounds like you work 2 full works and then 1 week later get your paycheck for the 2 weeks you paid.\n\nSay Monday is the 1st; you work the 1st through the 12th and then get paid for those days on the 19th.",
"Broadly speaking, if you've worked weeks 1 and 2, and get paid in one weeks arrears at the end of week 2, you'll get paid for the work you did in week 1. On week 4, you'll get paid for the work done in weeks 2 and 3.\nIf you leave after week 4, you'll get paid for it at the end of week 5.\n\nYour payday is likely to be on a fixed day of each week, so exactly how much of the week you'll be paid for on your first week will depend on which day you started. \n\nWithout knowing the pay dates of the company, I can't say for sure which day you'll get paid, but it's likely to be a smaller payment than that which you'll get on a regular basis thence forth. \n\n"
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wma2f | why can't we live off of stored fat? | Okay, a bit more detail. I'm wondering why it is that we cannot live off of stored fat (and water, obviously). I understand that you'd have extreme hunger pains because your body things you're starving and wants you to knock it off. I also understand that you'd have major issues with not getting needed nutrients long-term.
However, it seems to me like you should be able to live off of water and stored fat, most likely with some nutrient supplements (i.e. daily multivitamin) thrown in, for at least a period of several weeks (long-term protein deficiency would be bad, though). Why can't you?
Or can you?
Either way, ELI5. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/wma2f/eli5_why_cant_we_live_off_of_stored_fat/ | {
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"You can, it is called starvation and is generally not a fun or healthy thing. ",
"The longest [therapeutic fast](_URL_0_) was 382 days, and the guy lost 272 lbs.\n\nFor over a year, he had nothing but water, vitamins, yeast (for protein), and a drug to counter vitamin deficiencies.\n\nSo, in short, you *sorta* can.",
"When people go a very long time without food, they don't die of a lack of energy. They die from a lack of micronutrients. Most often, their bodies still have plenty of stored fat and protein to use for energy, but they've depleted their supply of vitamins and minerals, most commonly vitamin C, zinc, and magnesium. \n\nAlso, the belief that the human body requires dietary carbohydrates is patently false. The human body has many chemical pathways to generate usable energy outside of carbohydrate oxidation including: \n\n- Ketogenesis\n- Gluconeogenesis\n- Beta oxidation\n\nAll of these methods can fuel the human body fully, and they need only fat and protein to do so. Humanity has a long history of subsisting entirely on fat and protein; many past hunter-gatherer tribes subsisted entirely on meat and fibrous vegetables (which do not provide a meaningful amount of carbohydrates) and there are still Inuit eskimos whose entire diets consist of very fatty seal and whale meat. There are also African tribes of cattle farmers who literally eat nothing but grass-fed beef, eggs, milk, and chicken. In addition, before anti-seizure medication, the only way to control epilepsy was a lifelong, very low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet. \n\nNow whether or not a zero-carbohydrate diet is a workable diet for you is another question entirely. For those that care, here is my tl;dr on the topic of if you should adopt a low carb diet: there will be a 2-4 week adaptation period where you have less energy than usual. After that, you'll be fine. If you are a strength athlete, consider some targeted carbohydrate usage ala Shelby Starnes' carb cycling. Also, give yourself the occasional cheat day every week or two. You'll need/want a break now and then. "
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3lx2by | when it comes to healthcare, why does oral healthcare always seem to get set apart from everything else? | For example, very few insurance companies will cover dentistry or oral surgery. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lx2by/eli5_when_it_comes_to_healthcare_why_does_oral/ | {
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"as this was explained to me by my dentist: the majority of dental spending is \"cosmetic,\" and the insurance companies don't want to be involved in improving one's smile. there would be the likelihood for high levels of fraud, with a procedure being described in a slightly different way...just to enable calling it medically necessary, rather than optional and un-necessary.\n\na similar thing happened with the medical industry and insurance companies with nose jobs being described as medically necessary due to a partially deviated septum.\n\n"
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2blmo1 | why will my phone lose battery even when it's not in use? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2blmo1/eli5why_will_my_phone_lose_battery_even_when_its/ | {
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"Phones still communicate with the network while standing by",
"Because it's always listening for calls and such, and checking in with the tower. Even when you're not using it, it takes some power just to be ready to use.",
"Aside from what was already said, batteries naturally lose power even if they're sitting in your closet. That's why they have an expiration date.",
"If your phone will be put away for a while, or you are out of cell range, turn on airplane mode, and your batter will last much longer.",
"This depends.\n\nOlder Nokia phones didn't have your apps running in background, their operating system was fairly basic and, well, these phones couldn't do that much. So when you locked the phone, it just kept the modem up to keep you connected with the network, so that when someone calls/texts you, you'll get notified about it. These S40-based phones could be charged on Monday and could easily survive until *the next Monday* - good luck doing that with modern smartphones. (Turning them off doesn't count.)\n\nNowadays, you've got iOS and Android-based devices. These are actually fully-featured operating systems, loosely based on the ones you normally can use on your PC (iOS has a OS X-based infrastructure, where Android is Linux-based - on some Android devices, you can actually run your regular desktop and use it as just any other PC). These OSes are quite powerful - for example, they can multitask (have multiple apps running at the same time, like on regular PCs), and have something called *services*.\n\nServices are apps' modules designed to do something in background, like checking mail, updating your Twitter timeline or frequently spamming your notification center with \"You can now harvest your virtual, completely useless crops now! For free!\" or \"Next harvest in 8 weeks, spend 99€ to harvest NAO.\" They need to do their job from time to time, so they'll wake up your phone (without turning the screen on), do whatever they need to do, and stop. Unless they're badly designed, or they're supposed to do something all the time. Then they'll keep your phone awake all the time. This is called a wakelock, causing insanely fast battery drain and, usually, high temperature for seemingly no reason.\n\nOf course, apps themselves can be running in background all the time as well, not as lightweight services. These drain battery quickly too. And some OEMs love selling their phones preloaded with a metric shit ton of useless crap ([*cough*](_URL_1_) [*cough*](_URL_0_)), so if you don't get rid of that, they'll drain your battery as well, because their services, despite not being told to do anything interesting, will usually keep running in background, using up resources and waking up your phone to check if there's anything new.\n\nSo, older phones just needed to \"call home\" from time to time, so they survived for quite some time. First iPhones had a very limited iOS, which couldn't *multitask* (have multiple apps running at the same time), nor have services running, so the battery survived for quite a bit longer than newer ones. Symbian-based phones were slightly limited, too - but they actually could multitask, so if you started Navigation or something and left it running, it could easily drain your battery within hours.\n\nSo that's functionality - batteries, by themselves, degrade as well. But they degrade quite slowly, so you can't see that effect as immediately - rather after a couple of years with modern ones. It's a chemical effect, and I'm not an expert, so I'd prefer not to say something stupid about this.",
"It's still doing things even if you're not using it .. connecting to cell towers, searching for new towers if the current one is going out of range, searching for WiFi if you have it enabled, downloading updates, etc etc. It has a mind of it's own and does things even if it's just sitting in your pocket."
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"http://www.htc.com",
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5d9gi3 | why is it that sunlight looks and feels much better than lights produced from bulbs or otherwise? can we create a bulb that replicates sunlight's look and feel? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5d9gi3/eli5_why_is_it_that_sunlight_looks_and_feels_much/ | {
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"There actually are daylight lamps.\n\nIt's scientifically proven that having daylight at home instead of regular bulbs, can actually help preventing depression and anxiety. ",
"One idea it that your body really likes the blue colored light that you get more of from the sun than you get from regular light bulbs. We do actually have bulbs that can act like sunlight and we can even grow plants with them.\n\nAs /u/radioactiv_spinach said, you can get sad in the winter time just because the sun isn't out as long and you don't get as much of its blue light",
"Standard artificial lighting is designed to maximize/produce in the visual part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Byproducts of that can and do occur in the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum, but they are byproducts and not intentionally designed for that. Sunlight however is accompanied by a much larger component of the electromagnetic spectrum than your typical artificial lighting. Sunlight has a lot of ultraviolet (which gives you sunburn) and infrared that travel along. These other components are what you feel on your skin. The actual visual spectrum associated with sunlight is also pleasant visually because we are evolved to enjoy daylight. Sunlight is associated with good weather, and good health. Your lizard brain knows this. \n\nYour brain also is evolved to know that daylight (and sunlight) contain a good part of the blue light spectrum. Our unconscious minds are evolved to understand that blue light is only present during the daytime. Most commercial lighting contains far too much blue light for your brain to associate with real daylight, and it is widely believed that this keeps us awake at night. The idea is that our brain senses the blue component and assumes it must still be daytime. Evolutionarily, the only light we would have seen for 65 million years prior to modern day was from fire, which is largely devoid of much blue lighting. Today's PCs and smartphones have applications that can turn down the blue component of their lighting to help your brain get ready for sleep. TVs and computer monitors are also subject to this issue, thus the recommendations to turn them off at night.\n\nSunlight also is very, very bright. The lumens that touch your skin and reach your eyes from real sunlight is very difficult and expensive to reproduce artificially.\n\nWe _can_ create lightbulbs that produce the same spectrums as the sun, but they'd be very expensive to purchase, operate, and would accelerate things like aging of your skin, bleaching of clothes and carpets and furniture, etc... As it is you can buy different \"temperature\" bulbs, but none of them will ever feel like real sunlight.\n\nIn short, we can get close, but it would take a real sun to recreate the look and feel of sunlight."
]
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1adavp | when would i ever use the flip side of the strike plate on my stapler? | We've all flipped it around to see what it does, but does anyone actually use it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1adavp/eli5_when_would_i_ever_use_the_flip_side_of_the/ | {
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"text": [
"Is designed to make the staples easier to remove.\n\nI haven't ever used it. But [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) says it's commonly used in sewing, to hold cloth together temporarily.",
"If you're planning on stapling something only temporarily, that side of the plate makes for a staple that's easier to remove.",
"We use it regularly when we're stapling things to be undone later. \n\nFor example, we give all new staff a package to fill out. A uniform sheet, banking, general information, and various policies with sheets to sign off on them. \n\nWe keep these in a file folder. Originally, we used paper clips, but then they got tangled together and it became a mess. Stapling them is cleaner, and it's easier to take them apart to file the documents all over. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapler#Methods"
],
[],
[]
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|
1bs543 | current state of the us economy. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bs543/eli5_current_state_of_the_us_economy/ | {
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"c99j3xi",
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"text": [
"We have no money, son. Stop asking about fucking Pokemon cards. ",
"Currently, most of the Gross Domestic Product (the value of services and goods sold by a country) of the US is financial services; which are banks doing what banks do: making loans, investing in companies, charging their clients fees, and so on. For the past 30 years or so, banks have been allowed to do virtually whatever they want unchecked (sometimes break laws) in order to make more money. The economy is so shaky right now because US citizens have lost faith in the banking system as its run now."
]
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[],
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47audv | why does the last little bit on a download progress bar take so long, even when there is a separate installation progress bar? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47audv/eli5_why_does_the_last_little_bit_on_a_download/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0blrsv"
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"text": [
"Because both of those bars are estimates and not 100% accurate. They are more there to give the user something to look at to know things are working instead of actually giving accurate instillation progress. "
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
atqyni | taxes, irs, income tax refund | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/atqyni/eli5_taxes_irs_income_tax_refund/ | {
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"text": [
"You are single, so you should file as single. You would only file as Head of Household if you are unmarried and have a dependent that lives with you. \n\nDid you gross about $39K in 2018? If so, your employer may be doing something shady, or have a legitimate reason for the two W2s, but it probably doesn't affect you. If you actually earned $24K, you need to talk to payroll about the other W2.\n\nAssuming the two W2s are legit, just combine the values when estimating your taxes. Or, better yet, use Credit Karma to do your taxes. Enter both W2s and any other tax documents you received (you probably didn't, but maybe you earned some interest income). A W2 lists all the relevant taxes you paid, but they don't really matter, since Social Security and Medicare are essentially flat taxes that don't need to be reconciled, like income tax does.\n\nDon't confuse paycheck deductions with tax return deductions. The former is just a way to automatically pay for certain things, sometimes without paying taxes first. The latter is the primary way most people reduce their tax liability, but since you don't have a mortgage and your state taxes are probably under $12K, you would just take the standard deduction.\n\nIf you made $39K and paid $3.6K, and have no other tax issues going on, you'll probably get about $550 back from the IRS. Remember, that's not free money, that's just money you overpaid that they've been holding on to. \n\nPersonally, I try to make sure that, throughout the year, my wife and I only pay what we will end up owing, so our refund is very small. It was only $185 this year, which I'm pretty proud of. For you, however, it's probably impossible to pay less, without paying *too* little, at which point you might get penalized.\n\nI find it comforting to know what my taxes are going to look like each year, so I maintain my own spreadsheet that basically does my taxes for me. After we get our January checks, I have a good idea of what my return will look like and refund will be.\n\nIf you want to estimate and track your taxes, I recommend using these spreadsheets:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.taxvisor.com/taxes/"
]
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|
||
3kmeil | the alleged (?) connection between saudi arabia and 9/11 | What's the deal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3kmeil/eli5_the_alleged_connection_between_saudi_arabia/ | {
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"text": [
"Usama bin Laden was from Saudi Arabia, many of al-Qa'ida's main donors are from Saudi Arabia, and 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.",
"15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi citizens. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, was also Saudi.\n\nAdditionally much of the revenue towards al-Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups comes from donations from within Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.\n\nIt's important, of course, to distinguish the difference between the actions of private Saudi Arabian citizens and the Saudi government. The government of Saudi Arabia was not complicit in the WTC attack and does not (officially) support al-Qaeda, but it's been alleged that the Saudi regime hasn't done enough to stop the flow of money from Saudi Arabia to terror groups.",
"Bin Laden was part of the Saudi Royal family. Most of the hijackers were Saudi. Theres a fair bit of Saudi money going to islamic terrorist groups _URL_0_. ",
"The Saudi/US thing puzzles me very much, and I read a lot about this topic.\n\nIn the early days after 9/11, we killed a top al Qaeda guy, and on him, we found a commercial-level bank card from a top Saudi bank.\n\nThis was a *huge* deal, no AQ person before or since has been caught with such a thing. The CIA peed itself like an excited puppy. They realized that if they followed this card back upstream, it could lead them to the TOP funding sources of AQ, not just chump change donations from radical mosques.\n\nSo they stuck it in a folder and forgot about it for several years.\n\nWhen they pulled it out later, they sent an agent with ties to Saudi banking in to snoop around. He found that soon after the card was captured, officials from the Saudi security service walked into the bank and made every last detail of the card and its accounts disappear.\n\nUS intelligence officials visiting their Saudi counterparts in the first years after 9/11 were astonished to find a number of them had Osama bin Laden screensavers on their computers.\n\nThere has long been strong suspicion that top officials in the Saudi government--perhaps even the government itself--are DIRECTLY engaged in funding and supporting al Qaeda and other radical groups. But the official policy of the US is to stick its fingers in its ears and go, \"LA LA LA I can't heeeeaaarrrrr youuuuu....\"\n\n"
]
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism#Saudi_Arabia"
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3hvtip | how do they shoot those long panning but frozen in time shots (not matrix bullet time shots) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hvtip/eli5how_do_they_shoot_those_long_panning_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"cub0o17"
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"text": [
"The technique pioneered in the matrix used a bunch of still cameras arranged in a sequence of a camera pan and then triggered either simultaneously (for motion freezing) or triggered at slightly different times (to give slo-mo or bullet time). In post-production any visible cameras would then be matted out. \n\nThese days, CGI is much better (and in particular 3D scene and object capture technologies), and the whole scene tends to be composited in rendering software, and then rendered as required.\n\nBy doing all the rendering in software, it avoids the problem of needing to set up dozens or hundreds of high-end digital SLRs (as they used in the matrix) and avoids the limitation of 2-3 second pan times."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
3y88qq | why does playing a blackjack hand incorrectly negatively affect everyone else? | Isn't it still random chance what cards you get? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y88qq/eli5why_does_playing_a_blackjack_hand_incorrectly/ | {
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"text": [
"It doesn't really, but people will cry anyway. \n\nHere's an example. You have 14, the dealer has a 6. You take a 10 and bust with your 24. The dealer turns over a 10. if you didn't take that 10, the dealer would get 26 and everyone would win. now you \"made everyone lose.\"\n\nSometimes you will take a 10 that would have made everyone win, sometimes you take the 5 that would have made everyone lose. Everyone has a right to do whatever they want with their chips at the casino. If you can't handle grumpy people at the blackjack table find a new game to play, start to tell people to fuck off, or play with enough people that you won't have to deal with assholes.",
"It works both ways. Taking a card when you shouldn't could benefit or put the table at a disadvantage. Unless you are running a system each hand is independent of every one else's. The game has been solved however so if you aren't playing basic strategy your increasing your odds of losing.\n\nSource: I count cards and have a decent stats background ",
"Gamblers are strange, superstitious people. Old ladies rub the screens of slot machines for luck. Most of them don't understand the odds. You can show them a chart that says hit on a soft 18 vs. a dealer's 10, and they'll tell you your wrong. They go by \"gut instinct\", which is why even though the house edge of most blackjack variants is only .5%, typical pull is something closer to 3%. Those people yelling at you for \"ruining\" their own hand are the reason casinos do so well.",
"It doesn't, people are idiots. I've called many assholes out that were berating other players for playing \"wrong\". It's their money and nothing they do affects the odds for anyone else. ",
"The responses in this thread are mostly terrible. Someone playing incorrectly doesn't affect you at all (in the long run) -- besides having one fewer or one more card for the shoe -- which again, in the long run, shouldn't matter. \n\nThe problem is something called an illusory correlation. When someone makes a bad decision and it costs you the hand you will remember it and complain. When they make the wrong decision and you win because of it you don't remember it as much. \n\nLet's say the bad player has a 16 showing and the dealer has a 6 showing (with a 10 under). Let's say the player has perfect information and knows that 32/52 are 6 or higher (dealer breaks). \n\nWhether the player hits or not doesn't affect your EV (in the long-run). Just because they are more likely to take a card that would make the dealer break doesn't mean it affects the EV of the hand. Because there is still a 20/52 chance they would take a card that would make the dealer a hand. It's essentially like putting down two cards out of the deck and picking one of them at random. It doesn't really matter if you get the 1st or the 2nd it is still the same probability.\n\nTLDR: People like to blame others for their failures. Blackjack players are superstitious when they shouldn't be playing the game in the first place (unless they feel they have an edge through counting cards)\n\n",
"Blackjack players like to feel they have some control over the game. Technically, the odds in blackjack never favor the player, even with every hand played precisely as it should be. \n\nThe deck tends to feel like it's running a certain way at times, and players feel like if they keep playing it right, it will shift, or if a dealer is paying everyone, and you take a card you shouldn't, then it suddenly makes the deck change. \n\nThe other thing, is people feel more at home if it's a communal thing. No one likes the guy playing craps who is betting no pass etc. if it's moving fairly quickly, and everyone is playing the same way it feels like the table is playing better. \n\nI know that what other players do has no bearing on my chips, but I always enjoy playing with my friends who play it smart, and in my mind, we always clean up the table, but we probably break even at best, which means we were really lucky. "
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14nrw6 | how do i use a "one time pad" ciper? | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14nrw6/eli5_how_do_i_use_a_one_time_pad_ciper/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7erkdz",
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4,
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"text": [
"You know how a Caesar cipher works?\n\nA very simple Caesar Cipher would be if you took a message and then replaced each letter with the next letter in the alphabet: \"abc\" becomes \"bcd\". \"Banana\" becomes \"Cbobob\". So every letter is shifted over one. Julius Caesar himself would shift every letter over three, so 'A' would be 'D'.\n\nA one time pad cipher is kind of related. But instead of shifting ever letter by the same amount, you shift every single letter by a random number you get from a pad of random numbers. If both you and the person you're sending the message to have that same pad of random numbers (and nobody else has it) then the message is absolutely and totally secure, and will look random... (as long as you only use that pad *once*).\n\nMake sense? Here it is in an example:\n\nLets say you and I are friends, but I travel to a far away country. Before we part we both copy down some random numbers so that we can send each other one time pad ciphers.\n\nHere's the numbers:\n\n10 02 06 21\n\nNow lets say you want to send me this message:\n\n\"shin\"\n\nYou then shift the first letter by 10 (it will have to go past z, back through the start of the alphabet again). The second letter, \"H\", gets shifted forward by 2 so it's now \"J\". And so on.\n\nSo what you end up with should be this (probably, I just kind of winged this in my head. I should be using some paper):\n\n\"cjoi\"\n\nYou send that to me in the mail where someone else spying on us copies it down, and then they send it on to me. I look at my numbers, which are the same:\n\n10 02 06 21\n\nThis time I go backwards 10 letters from \"C\" and find \"S\". I go backwards two letters from \"J\" and find \"H\" and so on, until I find the word:\n\n\"shin\"\n\nBecause we're randomizing the whole message using random number that nobody else knows, there's no way the person spying on us who found the word \"cjoi\" can know what it means.",
"I am not a clever man. Went on there and couldn't understand the article and thought they were being clever and writing the article with a cipher. I then saw it was in German. Once again, I am not a clever man.",
"When you encrypt something using a one time pad you need two things to start: \nthe original \"plain\" text and a \"key\" used to jumble the content of the plain text \n\nThe original \"plain\" text might be something like \"We attack at dawn\". \n\nThe key for a one time pad is a string of random values thats the same length as the plain text. \n\nTo perform the encryption we perform a \"modular addition\" for each corresponding value in the plain text/key. So in our \"Attack at dawn\", 'A' would be added to the first value of the key... 't' with the second... and so on. (Note: Each symbol has a numerical representation e.g. ascii encoding). \n\nWhat we mean by \"modular addition\" is that we always stay within a certain range, call it 'clock arithmetic'. On a clock we have 12 possible values, but if we do 10+8 (two numbers within the range 1-12) this takes us out of the range (18). To keep ourself in range we 'loop back round'. So 18 mod 12 = 6. \n\nThe same logic applies to the english alphabet. We want to stay within the range of a...z (26 characters) so we 'loop back round' if any addition goes 'off the end of the alphabet' when creating our cipher text.\n\nOnce youve done all this addition you have your jumbled up cipher text.\n"
]
} | []
| [
"http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Time-Pad"
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| [
[],
[],
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|
|
1ju7ty | - how do i start a solo business? (uk) | I've just graduated and I want to start my own photography business.
I've got a website and previous jobs I've done so a good body of work but I have literally NO idea from now on.
- How do I register with Companies House?
- Do I need to fill out certain forms?
- What insurances do I need to get?
- Do I need an accountant?
I just need this all explaining and anything else you can suggest! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ju7ty/eli5_how_do_i_start_a_solo_business_uk/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbicg26"
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"text": [
" > How do I register with Companies House?\n\nIf you want to start a Ltd company (you probably don't) then read [this](_URL_3_). Ltd have special reporting, accounting and tax requirements.\n\nIf you want to setup as a sole proprietor then read [this](_URL_0_). SP income is accounted for as part of the individual tax return you will now have to file. Other then registering for taxes you do not have you register your business, simply search [here](_URL_2_) to make sure the name you want to use is not taken and then on your stationary you can use whatever business name you like, at the bottom of the stationary you simply have to put \"[Your Name] trading as [Business Name]\".\n\n > What insurances do I need to get?\n\n* Professional indemnity insurance - This protects you if someone doesn't like your work enough to sue you about it (such as if you take wedding photo's and they are all lost before development)\n* Public liability insurance - This protects you if you cause property damage or injury to the public in the course of your work\n* Equipment insurance - Insurance for your equipment\n\nSome carriers will combine these policies, its been a while since I worked in the UK insurance market but when I did there was specialty combination policies available for photographers.\n\n > Do I need an accountant?\n\nEdit: Most tax software can handle a sole proprietor setup with ease, I would suggest downloading some demos and having a play to decide if you are comfortable doing it yourself. \n\nEdit 2: 0845 600 9006 (Business Link, can answer any questions you have about incorporation etc) and [this](_URL_1_) are going to be useful resources in your venture. Also as a small word of advice HMRC are the most soulless cunts in the known universe and have been known to implement retrospective rule changes in the past (magically creating tax liability where none used to exist) so be careful in your dealings with them, I would advise you to call them and ask them tax questions you have directly rather then going through other government services or making assumptions. Its unlikely you will run in to problems but TMYK."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm",
"https://www.gov.uk/browse/business",
"http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk//wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo",
"http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/factsheet/limited-company.pdf"
]
]
|
|
29r3rd | why do i have to pee so quickly when bathing or swimming, even though i just peed before i went into the pool? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29r3rd/eli5_why_do_i_have_to_pee_so_quickly_when_bathing/ | {
"a_id": [
"cinogk1",
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"score": [
31,
2
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"text": [
"The water pressure on your legs pushes blood in your back up in your bloodstream, making your body think you have high bloodpressure. This kicks your kidneys in high gear and generate urine. ",
"I had always been told that sudden changes in body temperature cause the \"have to go\" sensation, such as when you go from a 70-something degree room into a hot shower, boom. Gotta pee."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
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|
||
b406mx | how does the automatic shutoff/ restart function on many newer cars work? does it provide any actual benefits? | For ex. When I stop at a traffic light my car "shuts off" and then "restarts" when I take my foot off the breaks. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b406mx/eli5_how_does_the_automatic_shutoff_restart/ | {
"a_id": [
"ej3eelh"
],
"score": [
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],
"text": [
"Fuel savings. The engine is designed to require minimal effort to start, thus shutting off the engine at stops can result in a small fuel savings."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
8hibqx | why is fat in humans stored differently between males and females? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8hibqx/eli5_why_is_fat_in_humans_stored_differently/ | {
"a_id": [
"dyjziin"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Differences between males and females of any species are mediated by hormones produced in large quantities by one sex, and low quantities in the other. \n\nAs for why males and females look different, this happens due to sexual selection. It's like natural selection, but instead of being selected by nature (by not dying before reproduction), an individual has more offspring because those of the opposite sex considered it to be more attractive. \n\nBroadly speaking, sexual selection leads to larger differences in appearance the less monogamous a species is. Humans really don't have that much sexual dimorphism, as animals go. In some species, such as walruses, the males may be more than twice the size of females. In many birds, the males and females look like totally different species, they are so different. The characteristics selected for in this manner are often arbitrary. [There was a study](_URL_0_) where researchers glued extra feathers to the heads of male birds, and then recorded what the female birds thought. The female birds thought the glued-on feathers were quite fetching. "
]
} | []
| []
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ag3lrz | why can you have a meat stuck in your teeth for a day and when you swallow it you're fine, but if you leave the same meat on the counter for a day and try and eat it, you get sick? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ag3lrz/eli5_why_can_you_have_a_meat_stuck_in_your_teeth/ | {
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"You wouldn’t get sick from a small sliver of said meat. There isn’t enough to get you sick. ",
"I don’t know for sure but the meat on the counter is exposed to bacteria within the air, but the meat in your mouth is more protected from bacteria making it safer to eat. ",
"Your mouth and saliva have all kinds of enzymes and bacteria that inhibit the growth of other ‘germs’.\n\nSo while the piece of meat will continue to decompose between your teeth, the amount of potentially harmful bacteria that grow on it will be significantly less than the amount of bacteria that can grow on a piece of meat that is left on the counter.",
"A good question. Why can you infect milk with bacteria and get yogurt instead of spoiled milk? Why does Italian dry salami keep without refrigeration even though it's inoculated with lactic bacteria for tartness? \n\nThe answer is \"competition\". Food on the countertop is up for grabs by any bacteria, insects, fungus, or animals that can get to it. It can become a battleground as single celled organisms battle it out for who gets the food. Because the war starts with everybody on equal footing. Nobody has an initial advantage. \n\nWhen you have food stuck between your teeth though, the bacteria in your mouth have a home field advantage, and can quickly coat the piece of food, similar to inoculating a petri dish with bacteria. Thus by the time other bacteria or fungus can finally make it into your mouth to find the food, there is already an entrenched army of mouth microbes dug in and ready to battle it out. You also have fungus growing in your mouth as well, but it's kept in check by the bacteria, which is kept in check by the fungus. Sometimes when someone takes antibiotics, it kills the bacteria, giving the fungus an advantage, and it reproduces so well you end up with a layer of thrush on your tongue. It's all about balance and playing one side off the other. \n\nThe same happens when you ferment beer or leaven bread. You introduce a preferred organism like yeast, and give it a good place to reproduce rapidly, and it in turn will defend the food from other microbes. \n\nDon't forget that penicillin is a drug derived from a strain of fungus that had developed it in order to fight off bacteria that competed for the same food and habitat. Microorganisms fight each other all of the time for food and shelter. ",
"Generally, you won't. Food safety rules are extraordinarily conservative, for good reason, but violating them rarely leads to bad outcomes. It's a population-level thing.",
"There could be a few reasons. \n\n\n**NUMBER OF BACTERIA**\n\nFirst let's keep in mind that the piece stuck in your teeth is tiny so probably doesn't have a lot of bacteria on it. Whereas the huge chunk of meat on the counter will probably have more bacteria that continue to grow and reproduce because they are sitting at a temperature that makes them happy.\n\nAlso keep in mind that bacteria reproduce fast and each bacteria divides meaning 2 bacteria can become 1024 bacteria after 10 rounds of dividing. \n\nThe number of bacteria that you actually end up eating can be a big deciding factor in whether you get sick or not most of the time. There are some exceptional cases like *Shigella* though where you can get sick from eating justa couple of bacteria.\n\n\n**NATURAL FLORA**\n\nYour natural flora is basically all the other living organisms that are in your body. Your mouth and teeth have a lot of flora (mostly bacteria). These bacteria will already dominate the space of the mouth so will gobble up most of the nutrients meaning the bacteria on the meat don't get a chance to eat.\n\nYour natural flora can also release certain things to kill other bacteria who are trying to invade the space. \n\n\n**IMMUNE SYSTEM**\n\nYour body is always preventing baddies from getting in and infecting you. Your skin (and the surfaces of your mouth) act as a barrier. Saliva has things in it that will help breakdown bacteria. \n\nIf the bacteria in your teeth meat tried to invade any cells\n\nThe bacteria on the meat on the counter however, get to happily divide with little risk so aren't kept in check.",
"The best ELI5 answer would likely be because your body can fight that little bit of germs. If you left a piece of cooked meat on the counter that was small enough to fit between your teeth, you could eat that too and be fine."
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2llkdw | if austerity is being implemented by government's across the world, why is government debt still rising globally? | A non-partisan, non-ideological explanation would be great. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2llkdw/eli5_if_austerity_is_being_implemented_by/ | {
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"In order for austerity to slow the growth of debt to zero, ie no new government debt being created, the total amount of cutbacks would have equal of exceed all government borrowing. To my knowledge, we're no where near that point.\n\nFor example, let's say Redditopia collects $10 billion every year in taxes. This year, Redditopia is budgeted to spend $12 billion on various things. The government of Redditopia implements $1 billion of austerity programs, reducing total expenditures to $11 billion. The remaining $1 billion deficit must be borrowed, raising the total debt amount, despite the austerity programs in place."
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9hlo2j | why are our lives so short compared to cosmic time scales? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9hlo2j/eli5_why_are_our_lives_so_short_compared_to/ | {
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"Because of biological senescence - in other words, you age because the DNA inside your cells becomes damaged (by cell division, breathing in O2, and basically just life) to the point where you can no longer make up for cell death with cell growth. Your organs begin to fail, gradually killing you. \n\nI can give a much more in depth explanation if you wish!",
"Because they are molecularity based - and none of the actions of the matter that makes up life as we known it occur on a \"cosmic\" time scale. Many of the actions are so fast you can't even see them.\n\nEvolution does not favor singular, unchanging organisms. \n\nEvolutionary, the life span of the individual only needs to be long enough non average to produce 1 or more replacements. \n\nOnce the DNA has been passed on, the lifespan remaining adult matters to the DNA only insofar as it benefits its progeny. \n\nFor animals that live a long time, is is usually so adults can feed, protect, and nurture an off spring. In our species, this is a really long time.\n\nIn others, right after the dirty deed the Mantis of Black Widow mommy looks at daddy and sees the best you of him, for her children, is as a big lunch.\n\nLifespan is also related tot he molecular conditions. In Colorado, I saw an alpine meadow where the grass grows about an inch a century. The Trails people made in the 1900s to go up and have a picnic there are still there.\n\nThis leads to the possible that there are cosmic scale life forms, but they would need to be somelace awesomely cold and boring. Like the ultra-cold environments of Europa or Pluto, life would be working with smaller energy gradients and go much slower. \n\nEven then, any life form that exists in \"deep time\" in a geological sense is unlikely. "
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8jjd9n | how come when im expecting something to happen (like a jump scare) i get spooked/jumped more than i would not expecting it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8jjd9n/eli5_how_come_when_im_expecting_something_to/ | {
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"If you're expecting it, your fight or flight response is already readied and your body and mind are focused and tense. However, in a situation where you're not expecting anything, there's a delay between when the stimulus is registered and the body reacts. There's less built up tension and prepared response with a random spook than if you're already expecting something to happen.",
"My guess is because when the act of focusing on anything is broken abruptly it’s the worst kind of jump scare. Like in a movie when you can feel it coming, and you’re focused, but you don’t know when it’s going to happen. Like a jack in the box, the music goes, and you wait for it. The mood is set when you expect it.",
"You're actively preparing for it so you are more aware of the emotions, feelings and physiology as you wait for it. Something is making your body feel a certain way and your ignorance to why it does makes it more intense. Subtle changes to you against your will and out of your power. Best to enjoy rather than analyse.\n\n"
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3mki4q | if i have a plant that has 100% the same dna as his ancestor, is it the same plant? | I mean the same as if he literally lives on in the next plant. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mki4q/eli5_if_i_have_a_plant_that_has_100_the_same_dna/ | {
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"No, they are different plants. Imagine if you clone yourself (not like in the SF movies, but like in vitro fertilization), your clone would have it's own brain, it's own way of thinking. Monozygotic twins are the examples of human clones, they have the same DNA, but they are different persons."
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48q2u1 | why is south korean president park geun hye hated by korea's citizens? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/48q2u1/eli5_why_is_south_korean_president_park_geun_hye/ | {
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"I believe it's not only because of her policies, but because of her father. Park Chung-hee was a South Korean president, and military general who led South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979. I'm sure some can elaborate on his role in history better than myself. ",
"There's a lot of things wrong with her but on the top of my head she NEVER takes responsibility for anything"
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4cb6x2 | how do we know what the world looks like to an animal other than a human? | For example, how do we know dogs are color blind? How do we know what the world looks like to a cat if we cant see the world through a cats eyes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cb6x2/eli5_how_do_we_know_what_the_world_looks_like_to/ | {
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"You can dissect their eyes, see what they are made of, and compare it to human eyes.\n\nYou can also design experiments to test them. For example, you can try train a dog to choose a red object over a blue object to get a treat. If they can consistently pick the right color, you know they can tell the difference between the two. ",
"Dogs specifically lack the cones that we know, in humans, are responsible for seeing color. We know this because humans born with a genetic mutation that prevents cones from growing correctly can't see color. We therefore conclude that it's likely dogs also can't see color, which can be reinforced by doing experiments to see if dogs can differentiate between colors.",
"It turns out that dogs aren't color blind, though they don't see as many colors as humans do, which doesn't bother them in the least because they rely more on smell and would consider us \"scent blind\" if they understood how poorly our noses work. Some animals can see much more than we can, or at least differently. Dogs and especially cats can see much better in low light conditions than we can, for example.\n\nAs for how we know, first there's examination of the structures of the eye, which we can compare to human eyes as at least humans can tell us which colors they can see when certain structures are different. Secondly, animals that are smart enough to figure out if they do tricks they get food are quite willing to let us know if they can tell the difference between a red and a blue ball, or we can watch their behavior and see that they stop at a certain distance from a new object to look it over, implying that their vision focuses best at that distance. Sneak up behind a cat and wave at it until it whips its head around to see what stupid thing you're doing now and you can figure out its field of vision. And so on.\n\nFinally, there are at least two different types of color blindness. There's the standard \"eyes lack the ability to see certain colors\" and then there's \"brain lacks the ability to differentiate between certain colors.\" Research suggests that people who grow up using a language that has no distinct words for say blue and green see both as shades of bleen (made up word). Even when they learn a new language with those words and are shown examples, they still see both as bleen. They react the same way anyone else would react to being shown red and a slightly darker red and being told that the slightly darker red is actually the color zlurp (another made up word) that everyone else has been seeing all their lives."
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fec66c | how is it decided how long a unit of measurement should be? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fec66c/eli5_how_is_it_decided_how_long_a_unit_of/ | {
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"It makes life easier to deal with and trade with other countries when everyone is talking to the same points of reference. \n\nSo a bunch of countries got together and signed a treaty known as the Metre Convention. This established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures who decide on various measurements. \n\nTechnically speaking a metre is quarter of a 10 millionth of the the distance around the planet but really it could be anything as long as well all agreed that's what it was.",
"Until fairly recently (several hundred years), there wasn't a single standard. An \"inch\" used in England wasn't the same as the \"inch\" used in France for example - even at the time of Napoleon.\n\nBut one pressure for a bit of standardization typically comes about because of trade. Merchants trading from place to place would have their own measures with the more popular ones gradually gaining ground. \n\nIn more modern times, governments agreed to standardize some units of measure (around what was already widely used). The major ones are the Imperial (UK based) and the SI (French/European and generally the world \"standard\" nowadays)\n\nIn recent times, the standards were revised and instead of using a reference measure (eg the weight of an object stored and declared as a \"kilogram\") these measures were calibrated to universal physical constants (eg the meter is now defined as the distance light travels in a specific period of time)\n\nSo these units of measurement have evolved over time, were not consistent and only fairly recently made less ambiguous. Nonetheless, these are mostly arbitrary and it is probably the expense and difficulty of changing them that they aren't further adapted.",
"Historically, many units of measurement originated from the human body. The meter, on the other hand, was originally defined because the French wanted an easy system of measurement where everything is related by powers of 10. To do this, you need a baseline, which they chose to be one ten-millionth of the distance between the north pole and the equator (this was actually measured incorrectly at first, but the definition stuck). Then, you can create a standard: an object which you define as exactly one meter, and base everything off of that. \n\nHowever, since physical objects change and are difficult to keep standardized, there has recently been a change in the definitions. Now, they are all based off of fundamental constants of nature. For example, the second can be determined by the amount of time it takes an electron to make a certain number of transitions in a cesium atom. Then, a meter can be determined as a small fraction of the distance light travels in a vacuum in one second. And so on. So now, all we need to do is measure the physical constants and we have our definition. Now, this does mean that the definitions could change based on the precision of our measurements, but the change would be so incredibly tiny (since we know the constants very well at this point) that it doesn't make any practical difference.",
"\nDon't ask me about inches. The modern system is SI and that's the one I'll be talking about.\n\nThe metre was originally was defined as one ten millionth the distance from the equator to the north pole. Everything else was defined using that as starting point. \n\nNow imagine you have a box that is 0.1m in each dimension. That volume is called a litre. Now fill it with water. 1l of water weighs 1kg (at standard temperature and pressure). \n\nMilli, micro, kilo are just prefixes telling you the order of magnitude. Milli means one thousandth. So a 1000mm is 1m. Micro is one millionth. Nano, pico, femto and atto and each a thousand times smaller than previous. Centi is less common. But it means one hundredth. On the other hand kilo is a thousand, mega is a million, and giga, terra, peta and exa are each a thousand times bigger than previous.\n\nNote the original definitions are imprecise for various reasons. A litre of water will not measure exactly 1kg unless you're carefully controlling the environment in a lab. But it's close enough that if you're not a scientist it makes absolutely no difference. Still scientists like precision. So they've come up with new ways to define them. But since you're not in a lab you don't really need to bother looking them up. The original definitions work fine."
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1ix4d7 | how do video game bots actually work? | How are they created? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ix4d7/eli5_how_do_video_game_bots_actually_work/ | {
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"There are several techniques to create bots, but they all can be boiled down to the notions of: input and output. Ask yourself, \"In each situation, what is the next action I should take\", that is the process that drives creating most AI. The AI is the interesting bit in between input and output and could take the form of a Finite State Machine, Case Based Reasoning, Decision Trees, or Behavior Trees. While there are more complicated and stronger forms of AI, they don't get used in games due to the variability of their actions and difficulty of training and testing. For example, Neural Nets or Genetic Algorithms, but those take massive amounts of information and time to train and can produce wildly varying results. A common technique to support AI is called influence maps, where game developers create an overlay of the world for the AI and mark it with strategic points, like cover, ammo, or waypoints for navigation. FEAR did any awesome job of using influence maps to support their AI. Halo used decision trees in the beginning, but moved on to behavior trees in later games. I'm not going to go into detail about any of the techniques specifically because wikipedia/internet has a wealth of information of each topic. Any more detailed questions?\n\nEdit: Bots and NPC AI work on the same principles. Player created bots are usually written in a scripting language, like LUA that interfaces with the game directly or artificially recreate clicks/keystrokes through some wholly external macro editor. Whereas NPCs are internal to the game, and can usually get any information they want, including cheating by looking at the player's input in real time!"
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yp8qy | what is the "singularity" in technological singularity? how does the notion of it apply to culture? | Two parts to my question:
First, technological singularity.
I get the general idea of it - that superhuman intelligence in machines will one day be so far superior to mortals they'll one day create works beyond our comprehension, beyond predictability.
Where.. does singularity come in?
Second, cultural singularity
If it means in general a merging of boundaries in culture, how is this analogous to the notion of technological singularity? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yp8qy/eli5_what_is_the_singularity_in_technological/ | {
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"Incidentally, PBS just released a pretty good explanation of the whole thing: _URL_0_",
"Thanks swested - saw that video which got me googling this concept. I suppose. I get the idea of cultural singularity, just not how it's similar to technological singularity. Guess I need to look for a fuller reference of what TI is. ",
"In mathematics, a \"singularity\" is a point where a function is not well defined, eg 1/x at x=0, ie. we simply can't wrap our heads around what it means to divide by 0.\n\nThe idea behind technological singularity is that because technology grows exponentially rate, we'll eventually reach a point where technology becomes more advanced than what we are capable of comprehending. It's not quite the same as the math version but it's not a bad analogy. \n\nI had never heard of \"cultural singularity\" before so I had to look it up and from what I understand, it's more of a buzzword than a good description. The idea is that there are certain advances which cause a huge cultural shift that would be impossible to predict before hand. Looking at music, I would say that the electric guitar, or the 808 drum machine are good examples of that; they dramatically changed music in a way that would be hard for people 100 years ago to understand. It's not nearly as solid an idea as technological singularity, but not completely without merit. ",
"The technological singularity does not have to be A.I. It just means that technology reaches a point where it's beyond our current comprehension. This could also become the case through, for example, intelligence-enhancing drugs, gene-engineered supergeniuses, neurally linked gestalt-brains etc.\n\nA.I. is just a common scenario which has the advantage of seeming pretty plausible. As far as we know there is no fundamental barrier to creating intelligences superior to ourselves and it seems pretty obvious that we would not be able to predict what they'll come up with.\n\nThe idea of the technological singularity is based on the observation that technology has increased exponentially (which is arguable-- technological advancedness is not as easily measured as something like life expectancy) and the assumption that it will keep doing so.\n\nWhile it is not part of the idea as such, people who go on about the singularity will often assume that it'll happen fairly soon (it's often cynically said that the projected date will often be rather conveniently within the expected lifetime of the one making the prediction).\n\nThe argument in favor of that is that people usually strongly underestimate exponential progression, and that people are surprised by the speed of technological advancement all the time. The argument against is that most of the time seemingly exponential developments will not actually just go on like that forever. For all we know it might slow down, reach a fundamental limit of some kind or encounter bottlenecks.\n\nThere are also a number of positive expectations associated with the idea. Personal immortality is a big one, as far as specific expectations go, but there are also many people who like to assume that it's just generally going to be awesome and solve most of the problems of the human condition.\n\nHow that works together with the theoretical impossibility to predict what the technological singularity will be like, I don't know.\n\nPoint being, the technological singularity is a theoretical concept first, but over time all kinds of expectations, philosophical musings, political views etc. have accumulated around it."
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6dxta6 | if counterfeit money is illegal, what do movie studios use in scenes such as bank heists, etc. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dxta6/eli5_if_counterfeit_money_is_illegal_what_do/ | {
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"Fake money.\n\nCounterfeit money is illegal. Fake money that is obviously fake is not illegal.\n\nIn a heist scene you won't see the money close up and so you won't see how it lacks all security features and has \"not real\" written all over it.",
"They use fake money. Fake money and counterfeit money are not the same thing. Counterfeit money is money that is specifically made to be an exact duplicate of real currency with the intent to defraud others by spending it. \n\nProp money is made to look like real money from specific angles but will often have blank backs, writing on it that signals that it is not legal tender, be the wrong size, and other alterations that clearly mark it as not being real. ",
"[The money used is clearly marked \"for motion picture use only\"](_URL_0_) This is why it is legal for them to use. It is not a counterfeit its prop money. "
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2s4cvk | why do all of the "bad" movies come out in the winter and why do studios make them if they know they are going to be bad? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2s4cvk/eli5_why_do_all_of_the_bad_movies_come_out_in_the/ | {
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"The only bad movie for a studio is one that doesn't make money. And all movies that don't come out are a 100% loss. \n\nIt's actually pretty hard to know that a move will suck until it's finally edited. ",
"A movie critic told me that \"January is where bad movies go to die.\"\n\nIn the summer there are a lot of activities you could go and enjoy, so they put out the blockbuster movies to bring audiences into the theaters. In January you just want to go out and see a movie even if it is lame, so that's where the lame ones go.\n\nYou will notice that the Academy Award type films come out in December, so they will be fresh on people's minds when they start voting for Oscars. The other advantage is that some of the movies will still be playing when the Oscar nominations come out, which helps get more people into theaters. The combination of Oscar contenders vs. lame movies that are both out in January drives more people to see the Oscar contenders.\n\nThere is an argument that says that fewer people go to the movies in winter, so that's where they send the bad movies. I don't necessarily believe that.\n\nSometimes the studios have a stinker that should go right to Netflix/DVD, but they have to release it in theaters to fulfill some contracts. So release the films where they will do the least damage and hope no one writes any scathing reviews."
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f0eq8c | what do companies do with your data? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f0eq8c/eli5_what_do_companies_do_with_your_data/ | {
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"They sell it. If I know your age gender and your hobbies i know how to sell you my products.",
"1. Goes to research \n2. Goes to private companies to help with their selling policies\n3. Goes to insurance companies to decide their rates",
"They sell it companies who can use it for targeted advertising and information. There's a reason sidebar and feed ads apply specifically to you, things you like to do or express an interest in. Even if it's not an ad, per se, but a link to an article or website akin to your interests, that article likely receives revenue based on clicks."
]
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aivdtk | how is youtube who can demand more money from advertisers not profitable, but pornhub is? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aivdtk/eli5how_is_youtube_who_can_demand_more_money_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"eeqrwqb"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Who said YT is not profitable? \n\nMost analysts suggest it is profitable, however Google has not released any specifics on YT profitability in their official financial statements for many years. The last statement they released YT was not profitable, but nearly everyone thinks they are quite profitable now and pulling in > $10B-$14B in revenue per year (basically all on advertising) and the cost of supporting the platform is nowhere near that"
]
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2rnjex | a single can of coke contains 7-8 teaspoons of sugar. is it really as bad as it sounds? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rnjex/eli5_a_single_can_of_coke_contains_78_teaspoons/ | {
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"text": [
"Yes, it is. We become desensitized to sugar since we basically eat it from birth, but in reality eating that much sugar raw would make you throw up. Its not something our bodies cant handle but it does put stress on your digestive system and pancreas to break all that sugar down into glucose. This is also another reason soft drinks have a sour taste, as otherwise it would be too sweet to drink.",
"Your blood is not very sweet. That is to say that an average person with a healthy blood glucose level has the equivalent of approximately one teaspoon of sugar in their blood. If you have not depleted your energy stores through exercise and do not burn the calories through physical activity in a short period of time, your body will release insulin to convert the excess sugar into triglycerides (fat).\n\nExcess carbohydrates, especially fast burning carbs like sugar, combined with consuming more calories that you burn will lead to obesity and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is where the cells are essentially full or satiated yet because there is excess blood sugar more and more insulin is required to force the sugar into storage. This can lead to a condition where the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to keep the blood glucose at healthy levels. A person is then considered diabetic.\n\nUntreated high blood sugar can lead to blindness, kidney failure, peripheral neuropathy, wounds that will not heal and amputations. I have a sister in law that is legally blind because she refused to treat her diabetes and modify her lifestyle.\n\nEven if you do take medications and insulin to treat your diabetes but continue to consume excess sugar and not exercise, your blood glucose will be lowered but the excess sugar will be stored as triglycerides which can lead to fatty liver disease, arterial plaque, heart disease and stroke.\n\nAnd here we are talking about 1 can of coke. What about the person with a desk job that doesn't exercise and drinks two twenty ounce cokes on break at work and sweet tea, coffee with sugar and soft drinks at meals? It is a recipe for disaster.\n\nIf you're young and active the damage from one can of coke is minimal. As you get older and less active you have to be more careful what you eat or it will catch up to you.\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_",
"Yes and no. Sugar isn't awful unless you're on a no-carb diet for fitness or health reasons.\n\nThe problem is that people don't just consume 7-8 tsp of sugar and call it quits. They drink multiple cans per day or week, they buy it on sale by the case, they order it at fast food joints and restaurants in big ol' 32oz cups (a regular can is only 12oz) with free refills. They sit at a desk all day never burning off all of that extra sugar and it gets converted to body fat which is obviously no bueno.\n\nAll that sugar and we're just talking about soda. We haven't even looked at nutritional value of junk food yet. Put it together and you have too much sugar in the average American diet. So, one individual item, like a can of soda, is not responsible for obesity or health problems -- it's a lack of self-control combined with a lack of affordable healthy options.",
"Sugar is not bad provided that you do not consume too much. A teaspoon of sugar equals 4 grams. Four grams times 7 equals 28 grams. It is bad because it is added sugar. Sugar from fruit and small amounts of added sugar are okay. This amount of added sugar is not.",
"A can of coke has 39g of sugar, which is about the same as in two Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or a Snickers bar, and maybe 20 times the amount that's in a slice of bread.\n\nDo you drink Coke all day? Now imagine eating candy bars all day. Now you know why you're fat.\n\nThat said, there is mounting evidence that artificial (zero calorie) sweeteners also cause glucose intolerance and ultimately maybe diabetes. So you might stay thinner drinking Diet Coke, but it'll still maybe kill you.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\nLearn to like water.\n\n\n"
]
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM",
"http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"
],
[],
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"http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/GeneralEndocrinology/47777"
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3vdd6t | if you admit to your defense attorney in private that you were guilty of the crime, are they then legally obligated to not pursue an innocent verdict? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vdd6t/eli5_if_you_admit_to_your_defense_attorney_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxmj1xx"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Quite the contrary, the defense attorney has a duty to defend his client to the best of ability, which means getting a verdict of not guilty if possible or the lowest possible sentence otherwise. Whether he knows the defendant is guilty or not does not change this (though it's awfully useful for your attorney to know!).\n\nHowever, the attorney must not instruct the defendant to make any false statements. Typically the defendant does not testify at all (the \"right to remain silent\" you hear about so much), which helps avoid this problem."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
5xe0im | how do sea turtles eat jellyfish without getting stung? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xe0im/eli5_how_do_sea_turtles_eat_jellyfish_without/ | {
"a_id": [
"dehdghz"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"They have thick, heavily scaled skin. The cnidocytes are either not triggered by contact with turtle skin, or the turtle skin is thick enough that being stung does not bother them. As far as I know it's mostly the first one, although in odd cases of being stung anyway the second definitely helps them."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
99h3a4 | how does flying standby work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/99h3a4/eli5_how_does_flying_standby_work/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"In general, standby airline tickets only grant you a seat on a flight if there is extra space after all other ticketed passengers board (such as passengers who missed their flight or an airline couldn't fill the plane otherwise).\n\nThey are often given out as a privilege to loyalty program members and employees (to take an earlier flight than booked, or to fly strictly conditionally on free space) and sometimes as compensation for overbooked flights (say if the immediate next flight was also fully booked, but the airline gives the option of taking it standby if a passenger no-shows.)",
"It used to be that you could show up at the airport and get a \"standby\" ticket where it would get you a seat from city A to city B *at some undetermined point* when there was an empty seat on that flight. Due to both 9/11 security concerns and more efficient ticket selling/plane packing algorithms, this isn't actually a cheap/viable option anymore (you're better off buying a ticket earlier in advance, since most people who need last-minute flights are business-people whose companies are shelling out for them to fly, so they don't care that the prices are ridiculously high.)\n\nNowadays, standby is more of a thing that happens if a plane gets overbooked and you have to get moved to another flight."
]
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[],
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bw480b | why does drinking juice hurt when you have a sore throat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bw480b/eli5_why_does_drinking_juice_hurt_when_you_have_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"epv3inw"
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"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Juice is acidic and causes a stinging on abbrased or inflamed tissue such as when your throat is sore\n\nExample: poor lemon juice on a cut, same effect"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
||
4rpkyl | why are there bollards at the drive thru? their purpose seems to only be to wreck vehicles not capable of making narrow turns -_- | In the past week I have seen 3 people sideswipe their vehicles on bollards in the drive thru line... Several years ago they were non existent in the line. Now they seem to only cause frustration. So what's the real reason why they have them installed? For aggravation purposes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rpkyl/eli5_why_are_there_bollards_at_the_drive_thru/ | {
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"text": [
"To protect the building from careless drivers. If a shitty driver is in the drive-thru, it's far better that they hit the bollard, because there's likely no damage to the bollard other than paint. If the driver were to hit the building, it could be a more expensive issue.\n\nIf you've seen three people hit bollards in the past week, I suggest that maybe you live in an area with really, really bad drivers.",
"If the bollards weren't there in the drivethru, then people that screw up the turn would crash into the building itself, and possibly cause structural damage.\n\nI guess for the company that has those installed, it's a lot cheaper to say \"well, that kinda sucks that you ran into that bollard there\" than shell out money to repair part of the building ",
"Bollards are sometimes placed around gas line / gas equipment or electrical equipment.\n\nBetter that the bollard gets hit that the equipment itself."
]
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dy90d6 | what makes a person "dumb" or "smart"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dy90d6/eli5_what_makes_a_person_dumb_or_smart/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"It does not matter. You can be smart in one subject but dumb in another. If we are talking about the subject you know then you are smart. If not, then you are dumb. Everyone is both, dumb and smart, at the same time depending on the subject. Nobody knows everything.",
"This depends a lot about what you're referring to.\n\nIf you're referring to how much someone knows, this is based on how much research the person has done, and of that research how much they've commit to memory.\n\nIf you're talking about IQ, that's a measurement of what psychologists call our \"fluid and crystalized intelligence\". Put simply, an IQ test measures your reasoning and problem-solving abilities.\n\nA high IQ, in theory, means the person has the ability to manipulate, process, and interpret information at a deeper level and higher speed than the average person.\n\nBut IQ doesn't tell us anything about practical intelligence (knowing how to make things work), creativity, or curiosity. It doesn't tell us anything about emotional readiness.\n\nIn any case, what you're probably asking is \"what's physically different in the brain of someone who has a high IQ, or is generally considered as a smart or intelligent person\".\n\nIn short: \"Smart\" people have better connected brains.\n\nIn intelligent people, some brain regions interact more closely, while others de-couple themselves. (at least according to some research). In intelligent people, certain brain regions are more strongly involved in the flow of information between brain regions, while other brain regions are less engaged."
]
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2evot1 | shouldn't vaccines weaken our immune system? | First of all, I'm not anti-vaccine. But in the event that someone couldn't get vaccinated, but had vaccines in the past, shouldn't he be more vulnerable to whatever disease he was protected against?
Are vaccines only for life threatening diseases, so we can't take the risk? If that's the case that would make it a little clearer. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2evot1/eli5_shouldnt_vaccines_weaken_our_immune_system/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck3dubn",
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"text": [
"Vaccines are a way of tricking your body into developing its own defenses against a disease before you are infected with the disease itself. In the long run, they don't weaken your immune system's ability to respond to a disease; they strengthen it.\n\nI like to think of it like two armies fighting each other: the disease vs your immune system. A vaccine is like a bunch of captured \"soldiers\" from the disease. They provide information to your immune system, which allows you to build up defenses that will respond to the exact threat posed by the disease itself.",
"In your body you have 2 kinds of blood cells, red cells and white cells. The white cells are what fight diseases and viruses and heal and shit. The white cells also store a massive database of all the different diseases they've fought off. So once you fight off a disease or virus the white blood cells have a record of it and know exactly how to fight it, rendering it nearly impossible for you to have that exact same sickness again. This is called your immune system (not trying to sound pretentious)\n\nNow, when you get a vaccine you are given either a weakened version or a dead version of the disease or virus so that your white blood cells can register it to their database. That way if you catch it for real, your body can fight it a whole hell of a lot better than if you didn't have a vaccine. Now you might bring up colds or the flu that you get every year. Those kinds of viruses mutate so damn fast that it is impossible for you to ever be truly immune to them.\n\n-source: What I remember from Bio 2, so correct me where I'm wrong"
]
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zwsdl | how come milk goes bad when it gets hot in the car but i can boil it and that's healthy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/zwsdl/eli5_how_come_milk_goes_bad_when_it_gets_hot_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"c68dyog"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"The heat of the car is just hot enough to create a perfect environment for bacteria to multiply like crazy. Boiling the milk kills all the bacteria."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
8tyek5 | why does the addition of even a small amount of milk cause hot drinks such as coffee to turn opaque? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tyek5/eli5_why_does_the_addition_of_even_a_small_amount/ | {
"a_id": [
"e1b6pur"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"You can imagine the white color of milk to be like extremely dense fog or smoke: It's caused by small droplets of fat, which scatter light passing through them. In milk, there are so many of these droplets that even a very thin layer of it is able to scatter light backwards almost completely. That's plenty to make a cup of coffee opaque with just a few drops of milk."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
1qu5d0 | why are cars built to be so delicate for scratches or small nudges (i.e. while parking)? why aren't they built like go-karts with a rubber crush zone? | This has puzzled me ever since I first had a small accident while parking. I backed out and someone was behind me so i crushed his side. It was only cosmetic damage though. Still quite expensive. I wonder:
Why are cars built with this delicate clothing that breaks even with the slightest impact? Wouldn't it be more practical if we had cars that are more stable and can take a small impact on parking?
Wouldn't parking be way easier if you could crash into other cars without causing hundreds of dollars of damage? I mean, Go-Karts crash into each other all the time and don't need fixing every time they do? Why not cars too? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qu5d0/eli5_why_are_cars_built_to_be_so_delicate_for/ | {
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"text": [
"you want the crumple effect to keep from serious injury, if you were in a collision at high speeds with rubber bumpers there is not much chance of survival",
"The actual reason for this is to protect pedestrians, not the car or it's passengers.\n\nThe major crumple zones extend back to the passenger compartment and those are meant to protect passengers, but the bumpers are not.",
"I have seen a car with prominent bumpers like this (one version of Toyota Echo). It's so ugly though, I guess that is why it's not popular. People don't want to broadcast that they are gumby drivers who need child-like barriers, even if they are.\n\nPlus, insurance pays for any paintwork repair that isn't the driver's fault and isn't normal wear-and-tear.\n",
"Basically a car the crumbles takes the hit instead of you. Cars are easier to fix.\n\nImagine someone punching you in the gut. Ow, right?\nNow imagine you have a pillow in front of you. The pillow takes some of the hit for you, so you feel better.\nImagine a metal sheet. It just pushes into you. Ow.",
"Honestly, if you mandated all cars had to be able to survive 5mph crashes with no cosmetic damage, the roads would be a fucking nightmare.\n\nIt's only the fear of dinging dad's car that stopped me driving like Mad Max when I was learning to drive.\n\nSome friends had cars their parents had fitted bullbars to, and every single one of them was ruined by regular accidents."
]
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1lqi3q | the difference between irish, celtic and gaelic | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lqi3q/eli5_the_difference_between_irish_celtic_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cc1skmw"
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"text": [
"Irish is a language and a nation of people, from Ireland.\nCelts are a whole group of peoples such as the Welsh, Bretons, Scots, and Irish peoples that speak languages in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family.\nAnd finally Gaelic is a name for a languages such as Irish (Ireland), Manx (Isle of Man), and Scots Gaelic (Scotland).\nHope this answered your question."
]
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[]
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||
746qfy | why is bill gates worth so much as opposed to warren buffet or jeff bezos, even when accounting for his philanthropy and donations? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/746qfy/eli5_why_is_bill_gates_worth_so_much_as_opposed/ | {
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"text": [
"Amazon is mostly US based and Warren Buffet sold most of his partnership. \n\nWindows is most used world over ",
"Your premise is incorrect.\n\nAccording to Wikipedia, Bill Gates is worth $89.2 billion, Warren Buffet is worth $76.7 billion and Jeff Bezos is worth $82.6 billion, all around pretty similar numbers.",
"Note that Warren Buffet is explicitly giving away his money, and has already [given nearly $20 billion] (_URL_0_) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. That's about half of the Trust's assets of $40 billion, meaning that $20 billion came from Bill - but that $20 billion is still counted as as asset on Bill's books, since it's held in trust and wasn't a donation. So that explains why Warren Buffett isn't $20 billion richer."
]
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[],
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"https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Foundation-Factsheet"
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4i2o6o | why is java so important to so many computers | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4i2o6o/eli5_why_is_java_so_important_to_so_many_computers/ | {
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"text": [
"For any program to work, it follows a set of codes (i.e. instructions) that tell the computer what to do. The problem is, different versions of computers have different sets of instructions. What Java does, is it translates them to work on the version of the computer its installed on. So instead of rewriting the code for every possible computer version, you just write it in Java, and then Java handles the rest.",
"Java's claim to fame is that it can be run on many different computers regardless of their operating system. Coders call it write once, run anywhere - to indicate that they can write their code once and have it run on different platforms without having the rewrite the code."
]
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32cys1 | what are the actual consecuences of being without an astronaut suit in the space? | In movies I see exploding heads, freezing heads and deformations, but what would happen if somebody actually lost his helmet in space? I actually know about cold and radiation in space, but what repercutions will be if somebody is exposed to them? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32cys1/eli5_what_are_the_actual_consecuences_of_being/ | {
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"text": [
"Below- a video of an accident at nasa where someone was exposed to a low-pressure environment\n\n_URL_0_",
"The two biggest issues are lack of oxygen and lack of pressure. Without a suit, you have no oxygen to breathe, so you'll die after about 60 seconds. \n\nThe lack of pressure is also dangerous, but you won't pop like a balloon. Your blood vessels will begin to pop, especially those is soft tissue like the eyes.\n\nThe cold isn't a big concern. Without air around you, your body won't lose heat very quickly at all. In fact, if you're in sunlight, you might heat up faster than you cool down.\n\nThe radiation isn't going to kill you in a short time frame. Even massive doses of radiation take hours if not days to kill you.",
"You won't explode. That's just a poor interpretation of science. You will get rapidly vacuum desiccated as water evaporates from the surface of your skin. In addition, gasses will come out of solution in your bloodstream, causing a wicked case of the bends, and all of the air will be pulled out of your lungs.",
"One of the misconceptions of people exploding is due to the misinterpretation of Henry's law.\n\nYou know how there is gas inside of soda? Well there is a certain amount of pressure in the bottle or can keeping that gas dissolved into the liquid. When you open the can/bottle, you release the pressure and the gas escapes through the liquid and zooms off into the rest of the air.\n\nWhat is happening here is as you increase the pressure of a gas ontop of a liquid, the gas gets forced into the liquid. Like pictured here: _URL_0_\n\nThis is in a sense how we breath. We bring air into our lungs and then it passes through thin cells and is absorbed into our blood. The blood runs around the body and when it rushes past a cell with not so much oxygen, the oxygen diffuses out of the blood and into the cell. Just like the gas in cola diffuses out slowly when you leave it sit out in a cup.\n\nNow in space, there is almost no pressure keeping the oxygen in your blood, so it all diffuses out of you really fast and does not get to cells where it is needed to keep you alive. Your brain cells require a lot of oxygen all the time, so when this happens, you will basically lose consciousness right away as you can no longer keep up with oxygen demands at all.\n\nYou don't explode, just like cola sitting out in the open doesn't explode. However you do lose gas at a rate so fast you don't have the gasses you need to stay alive."
]
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[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8L9tKR4CY"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://apbrwww5.apsu.edu/thompsonj/Anatomy%20&%20Physiology/2020/2020%20Exam%20Reviews/Exam%203/henrys_law.gif"
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6a40ha | how does a government go about removing a bill or coin from its currency without it affecting the country's economy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6a40ha/eli5how_does_a_government_go_about_removing_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhbjrsl",
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"text": [
"just tell the public to deposit all the money of that denomination in banks before a certain deadline and exchange it for newer denomination or that money will be useless later",
"In the case of when one bill replaces another (the new 20s and 10s in US Money for example): they stop printing the old ones, banks stop giving out the old ones and will send old ones received to the Federal Reserve. The supply of old ones out in the public, while still legal, will naturally decrease through wear and tear. I still see old 10s and 5s now and again. \n\nIn the case of when one kind of money is replaced by another, such as when East Germany adopted the West German mark prior to re-unification: you have a window of time to go to a bank or government agency to exchange your old money for new money. If you don't do it before the window closes, your money has no value. In the case of the German example, the exchange rate was decided upon in order to stimulate the East German economy prior to re-unification."
]
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4eo985 | how does international recognition of a country differ (e.g. south sudan, kosovo)? | South Sudan for instance got independence and was basically created without any international 'recognition' involved. But states like Kosovo and Taiwan are partially-recognised when they declared independence. Why is this the case? Why could South Sudan get it straight whilst others needed 'recognition' from the world? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4eo985/eli5_how_does_international_recognition_of_a/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Like most things in politics, it kind of depends on who your friends are, and who your enemies are.\n\nSouth Sudan was recognized internationally pretty quickly because it was pretty much created by the United States. They encouraged the referendum to split from Sudan. They dropped the sanctions from South Sudan that were applied to the rest of Sudan. No one was terribly opposed to South Sudan splitting off of Sudan, so, there you have it.\n\nKosovo and Taiwan, someone opposes it. Russia doesn't recognize Kosovo's independence as legitimate, they think it was a unilateral move and that Kosovo is actually part of Serbia. China considers Taiwan to be part of China.",
"One big difference is that South Sudan's secession wasn't unilateral. Sudan agreed to it in order to help resolve a long running conflict. This means other countries could recognise South Sudan without upsetting Sudan or any other country.\n\nKosovo and Taiwan are different because in both cases there is another country that claims them. Officially recognising them will upset Serbia and China respectively.",
"* the gold standard of recognition is the UN...in order to get it, you need the agreement of the security council, US, Russia, China, UK, and France\n* typically when there is a civil war and both parties agree to independence, UN recognition will be pretty automatic\n* when the separation is disputed, the UN is loathe to recognize it, because member countries don't want it to happen to them\n* when on of the disputing countries has an ally on the security council, they can block UN recognition indefinitely, even if most of the rest of world recognizes the new country"
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x2ey9 | how are old video games "digitally remastered"? | Do they keep the same engine that the game runs on? Because the gameplay seems the same as what it used to be. Have they just done a graphics overhaul? But if so then why do the cutscenes (I'm using the example of the Devil May Cry HD collection) still look like they're from PS2 when interactive parts of the game look up to standard with modern ones. Any brief explanation of what it is they do to the old games would be appreciated, thanks. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/x2ey9/eli5_how_are_old_video_games_digitally_remastered/ | {
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"The graphics files are separate from the code that runs the game\n\nTake a background from a 2D game - its like a painting that you copy but now you can make improvements and add further detail to it so it looks even better then the original painting.\n\n",
"If you don't have original source code, then you won't be able to change much regarding mechanics. Once the game is done, the source code is turned into 1 & 0. Although you could fiddle with it, it's often too hard to do anything big. \n\nGraphics and audio on the other hand are often stored separately, so it's easier to just swap them. Sometimes they just lie around the directories as simple images and 3D models (you can check them yourself in minecraft for example) and sometimes they are packed into large files that game needs to later access. \n\nIngame cutscenes are similar. Animation and camera angles are already there, it's just a matter of swapping models and using HD textures. \n\nPrerendered cinematics however destroy that. There is no information left about models, textures, animation, camera angles, light properties ect. They also require much more detail and skill than ingame stuff. ",
"In some games, cutscenes are rendered as video, they cannot be edited that easily, because they are independent from the source code. \n\nGameplay in the other hand, works with real time graphics, processed by the power of the console or computer and with a source code available to edit assets in order to improve the game and meet today's standards. \n\nBasically, when a studio makes a game, they release it because they have to. But they could keep working on it forever as long as technology goes due to the nature of game making, every department can improve an asset or code and it will match perfectly because it just a remaster, they don't have to change any structure or design of the overall game.\n\nI hope this helps.",
"You have a treehouse. It’s getting a little old. You want to do something about it, but you still want it to be your treehouse.\n\nYou could put a new coat of paint on it (new textures), replace that old radio your dad gave you with an iPod (orchestrated music, dubbed dialogue), and add a balcony (new dungeon), and it would still be the same treehouse.\n\nIf your treehouse needed some serious work, though, you might just tear it all down and rebuild it to the same design. This would be a videogame “remake”.\n\nWhy can’t the videogame cutscenes be remastered? Well, it’s like if your friends had all gotten together to paint themselves on one wall of the treehouse. You want to repaint the wall, but some of your friends (the resources and artists that created the cutscene) have moved away. You could try to paint the missing friends yourself, but it would be a lot of work, and it just wouldn’t be the same, so you leave it be."
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3g9uhn | why do immigrants to america become assimilated to the culture so fast/well when the opposite seems to happen to immigrants in european countries? | ELI5: Why do Immigrants to America become assimilated to the culture so fast/well when the opposite seems to happen to immigrants in European countries? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g9uhn/eli5_why_do_immigrants_to_america_become/ | {
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"I think you're using too broad of strokes here. There are many towns in my state ( Minnesota) where the locals still speak German at the local taverns and retain their \"old ways\". Additionally I know of a few people that have went back and forth between the British Isles ( Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales) and have fully immersed in the culture from day one. ",
"In general, Americans and Canadians are more welcoming. \n\nAmerica has a 'melting pot' tradition where all cultures merge into one American culture. You can go out to night clubs and expect to talk to strangers, you can go to community events and expect to encounter friendly church groups, and everyone wants to smile at your cultural 'gimmick' and then show you how Americans do it.\n\nCanada has a 'cultural mosaic' tradition where they love people's differences. You see that the locals want to go tour the local Sikh temple, try the foreign food, learn a few words and take pride in having friends and neighbors who are very different from them.\n\nEuropeans don't have that. They have more isolated social structures and cultures, and they have traditions that you are expected to know. They're much harder to integrate into because there's no hobbyists who's traditions involve foreign cultures. Germany doesn't have random church groups looking to chat with strangers and talk about their church's comings and goings, nor people who value having a neighbor who is very un-German, so there are no natural avenues for immigrants to integrate.",
"I am not sure, but i'll give it a shot. It's likely because of 2 reasons. \n\n1: US Media is worldwide, My friend in austrailia talks about movies and shows made in the US all the time, same with friends in canada, so moving here they already know the norms and quite a bit of what to expect if they have just watched movies or tv shows. \n\n2: We have cultures from everywhere and people are moving here all the time, so I'd imagine we are a bit more welcoming (with exceptions of course.) ",
"I think Part of it may be that we (I'm Canadian but I think it's similar) don't have the History with other cultures that Europeans do. Most countries in Europe have invaded each other at one point or another or at the very least had land disputes, and they seem to hold over some issues with other cultures from these moments. We haven't really had that or been around long enough in NA to develop those really deep, long running issues with an entire culture. \nAlso, as others have stated our countries were created on the backs of different groups immigrating here so we are probably more use to it.",
"In addition to the stuff pointed out here, I'd point out that there's a bit of selective memory when it comes to how well immigrant populations in the past have integrated into US society. \nWhenever a new wave of immigration happens (you see this now with people from Mexico and Latin America), a lot of people will say \"Why can't these people speak English and assimilate like all the OTHER immigrants we've had!?\" Which, of course, is exactly what people said when those immigrants were new here, too. When you had German or Irish or Italian or Jewish or Chinese or Vietnamese immigrants coming to the US, there was always a period when \"natives\" (using that term loosely of course) complained that the immigrants du jour weren't assimilating like they should. Of course, over time, they did, and no one seems to remember this when the next wave of immigration happens.",
"Some do and some don't. I met lots of kids in college who were in the US for the first time and took to American culture very quickly. \n\nContrast that with neighbors I grew up with who never learned to speak English and wouldn't so much as smile or wave at us despite living next door for 20 years.\n\nYou can see why a college atmosphere is great for culture mixing. As for my neighbors? I really don't know what their deal was.",
"I don't think that's true at all. \nImmigrants assimilate in European countries. We don't have different names for them for a start - nobody is Indian British, or African British, they're just British, unlike African Americans or Irish Americans, whereyou have to qualify what sort of American they are"
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cz9l6a | in a nuclear weapon, why is there not smaller explosions before a critical mass is reached causing the chain reaction? | eg. How is it ensured that neutrons do not knock into any Uranium-235 before the critical mass is reached? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cz9l6a/eli5_in_a_nuclear_weapon_why_is_there_not_smaller/ | {
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"Well U-235 isn't usually what's used in nuclear bombs, unless they're very simple. If it is used, in something like a \"gun\" design, then there's a Uranium sphere and a Uranium \"cup\" separated by some distance in the physics package. An explosive charge, when the time is right, blows the sphere into the cup and only then is there a supercritical mass of U-235 in one place. \n\nMore modern designs use a hollow sphere of Plutonium, surrounded by very finely engineered explosive lenses. The sphere of Pu isn't critical, only when the explosive charges are properly detonated will implosion of the sphere occur, leading to criticality. \n\nIn the case of a Teller-Ulam device, this is used to initiate fusion in the secondary.",
"This is actually one of the issues they had to overcome when designing the Plutonium bombs. It's much easier to produce than Uranium, but much more reactive, leaving you with less time to create the critical mass. So to cause the chain reaction, you have to use explosives in a *very* precise configuration to compress the core into the critical mass. Otherwise, the Plutonium chunk will blow itself apart before much of it can fission. \n\nTesting this system was the purpose of the Trinity test.",
"As I understand it, this is basically the chief challenge of making an atomic bomb- how to get as much material as possible to fission before the thing blows itself apart. Even the tritium in a hydrogen bomb is largely just there to make additional neutrons to support a more complete fissioning of the surrounding material.",
"So there are two things here to clarify. \n\nOne is that you aren't going to have any explosion without it becoming \"critical.\" Why not? Because the critical state is sort of what defines its ability to have any explosion worth talking about. If it is subcritical, that means that there _are_ neutrons knocking about and some small reactions taking place, but the reaction rate is too low for it to start to rise exponentially, which is was makes it explosive. So by definition if it is subcritical, you won't be able to have an explosion: that's just what subcritical means in this context. For there to be any kind of explosion, even a small one, you need a _lot_ of reactions happening at once — like, a gram of TNT equivalent requires around 10^14 fission events. That's not going to happen spontaneously, you need the reaction rate to be exponential (critical) for it to get that high.\n\nBut you certainly can have a system that explodes the moment it becomes critical, or explodes too soon to have much of any explosion. This is call \"predetonation\" when it happens before there is any nuclear explosion; it is just \"inefficient\" the reaction stops while there is still a lot of fuel to react. \n\nThe goal of a nuclear weapon designer is to make a system that assembles enough material, fast enough, that you won't get predetonation. How fast does that need to be? Pretty fast. The uranium-235 gun design used on Hiroshima assembled the critical mass by shooting one piece into another at about 1,000 feet per second (it went about 4 feet). So that's pretty fast assembly. But because plutonium has higher background neutron activity, it wouldn't have worked in that design unless it was traveling more like 3,000 feet per second, at least. In the end they used a different method to assemble the plutonium (implosion) so that it was even faster than that. \n\nIt's not _instantaneous_ — the reactions still take time, and the neutrons need to travel a little. The whole bomb reaction takes about 1 millisecond, which is fast from a human standpoint but you can make systems that will be fully assembled within that time."
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42ijk4 | is politics in the us actually more gridlocked, extremist, and partisan now than it has been in the past? if so, when did it start, and why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42ijk4/eli5_is_politics_in_the_us_actually_more/ | {
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"It depends on when you mean \"in the past.\" Compared to 50 years ago, it is true that the parties are more polarized--there are far fewer (self-identified) conservative Democrats or liberal Republicans in Congress than there used to be, and this reflect (albeit to a lesser extent) among party members as well. Counties are also more likely to be solidly Republican or Democratic, rather than significantly mixed.\n\nAs for gridlock, our current Congress is not *the* least produce of the modern ones, measured by number of bills passed into law, but it doesn't score very highly. This in is quite recent: if you look at the '90s for example, a Democratic President Clinton was still able to work with a Republican Congress and get laws passed.\n\nOn the other hand, we've had much worse. In the decade leading up to the civil war, virtually no question could be discussed without leading to a debate about slavery and accordingly, a gridlock based on free/slave state lines in the Senate. This problem was the death sentence for such things as land purchases from Mexico, railroads, tariffs and homesteading bills. And we were certainly more partisan in the immediate aftermath of secession--with most Democrats (who were popular in the South) having resigned, the Republicans and especially radicals within the party would have basically been running a single-party state if not for opposition from Presidents Lincoln and especially Johnson. If you think politics is impolite today, at least legislators do not [beat each other on the Senate floor](_URL_0_).",
"The reason people complain about 'gridlock' is that for much of the 20th Century, the parties looked very different from what they look like now.\n\nFrom the time of FDR until the early 90s, the Democratic Party was a 'big tent' based largely on working class voters and regional allegiances. So while they were relatively unified on some fronts, they were all over the place on 'cultural' issues - and this allowed compromises where some Democrats and some Republicans would come together to pass legislation.\n\nOn the other hand, the Republican Party during that time was largely the party of blacks and coastal elites. If your family came over on the Mayflower or your family came over in chains, you were a Republican. Again, these were radically different groups that could agree on some core issues - but disagreed about enough that they could find common cause with Democrats.\n\nBetween the 70s and 90s, these patterns changed and the parties became much more ideologically focused. To a large extent, the modern Democrats are the party of expansive government and the modern Republicans are the party of limited government - and there's not a whole lot of wiggle room to compromise between those philosophies.",
"One thing that a lot of people leave out that my professor brought up was the rise of federal power. As the federal government increased in influence and began take over issues that were once given to the states brought gridlock to congress. Trying to force federal mandates across the nation leads to states coming into direct conflict and a mistrust of both sides. For every shitting gun control law that comes out of California Texas adds one more crap abortion law for every tax cut Florida proposes New York proposes a tax increase. Its easier to pass a law for one state with 10 million then it is to pass one law for 50 states and 350 million people.",
"The repeal of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened the door for partisan, hyper-polarizing \"news\" stations to pass off opinion and social agenda as fact and truth. The hyper-polarization became reflected in society and the culture, which then became reflected in the lawmakers and representatives. ",
"Yes. I'm 40, and it has definitely gotten progressively worse the older I get.\n\nI believe it began during the Clinton administration when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House. Clinton pursues a strategy he called \"triangulation,\" which effectively moved the Democrats into the solid middle and was very pro-business, and the Republicans use of social issues wasn't turning the tide of Democratic success, so Gingrich -- working with a political consultant named Frank Lutz -- developed a counter-strategy that relied on demonizing Democrats and turning liberal into a swear word.\n\nEssentially Gingrich decided that the right had lost the debate on the facts, but could still win by fanning the flames of partisanship and provoking political acrimony. The Clinton Impeachment Trial was a very huge part of this.\n\nThe right largely stopped arguing with the left, preferring to write off anyone to the left of them as _**evil**_. When Clinton left office and Bush won, the left repaid the right in spades, subjecting the right to withering mockery.\n\nThings continue to get worse. Neither side is willing to consider the other side as human beings with legitimate viewpoints, nor to make any attempt to understand the other side.",
"it's alwasy been thus. the 1790s were pretty partisan and marked by virulent attacks by both pro and anti-french partisans. ",
"Actually and surprisingly Democrats and Republicans aren't all that [partisan on issues of public policy](_URL_0_). Politicians don't radically disagree about things like guns, for example, as much as one might think. However, parties *really* [don't like each other anymore](_URL_2_). Simply put, if you don't trust someone, you probably aren't willing to compromise with them or even pay attention to what they have to say. In the past, the political parties didn't feel nearly as cold about each other as they do now.\n\nAnother issue is close party margins. Nearly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans in Congress means each party thinks the next election might put them in the majority and give them more power. This may leave the minority party less willing to comprise with the majority because one way to get elected in the next election cycle is to make the majority look bad. If Democrats compromise with Republics (or vice versa), Democrats may fear that Republicans will get credit for any success. FDR, for example, accomplished quite a bit during his presidency because of large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Any current president would struggle with overcoming bipartisanship caused by close party margins.\n\nIf you're interested in this topic, I suggest reading works by [a great political scientist and professor of mine, Marc Hetherington.](_URL_1_)",
"It depends *where* the gridlock is that you are referring to. As has been mentioned quite a bit here so far, gridlock happens where polarization takes place. But the framers of the Constitution did not intend the power of government to reside largely in national government. If you read the Federalist Papers, especially Madison's [Federalist No. 39](_URL_0_), you'll find a description of what we know today as [federalism](_URL_2_). Here, the majority of the governmental power was designed to reside in the states, not at the federal level. \n\nFor the larger part of our history, gridlock tended to take place much more commonly at the state level because that was where the polarization tended to take place. At the federal level where less would get done, there was less cause for polarization. It wasn't until the civil war when power began to shift to the federal government. And it shifted further still with the [17th Amendment](_URL_1_) in 1913. Until then, US Senators were elected by state legislatures and not by popular vote. \n\nSo, to answer your question, national politics in the US have gotten more partisan and gridlocked since the Civil War than they had been in the past. ",
"Computers and high-tech data analysis have made [gerrymandering](_URL_0_) much more effective than it was in the past. The more gerrymandered a district is, the more extreme the candidate. Today, so many congressmen come from gerrymandered districts, with extreme views, that they can no longer compromise with each other.",
"Yes, it is. There are ways of measuring this that are independent of ideological judgement or bias.\n\nAn XKCD strip -- _URL_0_ -- uses data from one such method. From that strip, you can see that the right-leaning members of the US House of Representatives have become majority-extreme, to the far right. The effect isn't as pronounced in the Senate, but is still major. (On the right side of the large version of the graphic is more information that you can use to start reading more about the methodology.)\n\nIt's easy and convenient to say that all politicians are similarly problematic -- that's called false equivalence. The reality is that, right now, right-leaning political views in the US are becoming measurably extremist.",
"(Democratic) politics is, by its very nature, gridlocked, extremist and partisan. That's probably a universal that has been experienced since the earliest societies in every culture. In order to get something you want, you need to compromise and support someone else in demanding what they want, which you might not particularly want, but it's better than what someone else is demanding. \n\nThe only solution to this persistent problem is to replace democracy with a benevolent global dictatorship ruled by me - as long as that's OK with you guys of course. ",
"I would add that the lack of a common enemy has allowed us to focus on each other. The current disagreements go back to even before the Revolutionary War. There was some (a lot) of gridlock after the revolution, in fact--the Bill of Rights is a product of that, as is the bicameral legislature.\n\nThere was a lot of distraction between the War of 1812, westward expansion (into the Ohio Territory and other midwest areas). Then there was a little incident with Texas, and a mild disagreement we call the Civil War (I'm being a but understated here, don't worry). In fact, the Civil War was the product of very similar--if not worse--gridlock to what we have now.\n\nThere was also the minor distraction adding the remaining territories to the Union (Arizona was in...1908???), but still a lot of gridlock--but keep in mind most of those in power then had grown up during the Civil War or in its aftermath. It wasn't a sterile period in history.\n\nIn the more 'modern' era, we had WWII and the Cold War, both of which required the full effort and focus of everyone. There was gridlock, but ultimately every itch to \"completely defeat\" was focused on the USSR. \n\nOnce it fell, then we got back to the original issues we'd had at the country's inception. Namely, the role of the federal vs. state governments and the role of the various parties.\n\nThat's a bit of a minimalist explanation, but basically the answer is no. Gridlock and infighting have not only been with us since the beginning (talking US history here, it goes back further in general terms), but is the reason the US came to exist in the way it did, with the Constitution it did, the reason Congress exists as it does, the electoral college...\n\nIt is more that we were distracted by world events for a few decades that reduced gridlock, and now that mutual extinction is no longer an immediate threat we are getting back to the original fight; sort of like how a bully and a nerd might find it in themselves to save the girl they both have a crush on: \"help me save her from this fire, we'll fight over who actually gets her later\".\n"
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p7ww8 | what exactly does the ndaa (national defense authorization act) do? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p7ww8/eli5_what_exactly_does_the_ndaa_national_defense/ | {
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"Did you [search](_URL_0_)?",
"The primary purpose of the bill is to authorize spending on the military. This is a very routine piece of legislation that needs to get signed off on every year. Think of it as the Department of Defense's allowance negotiations.\n\nThe big kerfuffle this year was because they slipped in some ambiguously worded stuff to 'help fight terrorism'. A lot of people were against the potential meanings of this, which some claimed would allow the government to secretly arrest people for no good reason & keep them forever without lawyers.\n\nNobody could *not* let the NDAA pass because, without it, the military would shut down. They also couldn't just pass everything but the bad parts, unless everyone agreed to take them out completely. There was a lot of arguing trying to keep the bad bits out but some people thought that they were good because we need to be safe from terrorists & the government would never actually use these laws against good people."
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31jh9n | how does the science of chewing gum "keeping its flavor" work, and why do some brands last longer than others? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31jh9n/eli5_how_does_the_science_of_chewing_gum_keeping/ | {
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"We need a chewing gum experts here guys. I'm also interested in this one.",
"Found This-\n\n\"Chewing gum contains sugar or a sugar substitute and artificial or natural flavors. The amount of flavoring contained in a stick of chewing gum is actually quite small. When you put chewing gum in your mouth, saliva production increases, softening the gum and releasing the flavoring and sugar. The sugar serves to enhance not only the sweetness of the gum, but it also boosts the flavor.\n\nThe longer you chew your gum, the more the sugar or the sugar substitute and flavoring dissolve. As the sugar dissolves, the boost it provides the flavor diminishes, causing the flavor of the gum to become more mild. The sweetener dissolves much faster than the flavor crystals, but as the sugar dissolves you won't be able to taste the flavoring as well. Putting a sugar cube on your tongue can help boost the flavor of your gum once again.\n\nMany popular gum brands produce sugar-free chewing gum. These types of gum utilize a sugar substitute to stimulate flavor distribution while the gum is being chewed. The most common types of sugar substitute used in chewing gum are xylitol and sorbitol. There sugar substitutes reduce the caloric content of the gum while preventing cavities and other dental problems. In addition, they do not dissolve as fast in saliva, so they help boost and distribute the gum's flavor longer than sugar. Additionally, these sugar substitutes cause a cooling sensation in the mouth, which can enhance the flavor of gum.\n\nThe recent introduction of flavor crystals to many popular brands of chewing gum creates a longer, more intense flavor sensation. Flavor crystals are small pockets of concentrated flavor and sugar or sugar substitute, which when chewed, produce a burst of flavor in the mouth. Flavor crystals produce flavor the same way that chewing regular gum does -- the saliva and sugar stimulate the release of the gum's flavor. However, these flavor crystals dissolve at different rates, which prolongs the intensity of the chewing gum's flavor.\"\n\n",
"Hi. I work for a company that makes chewing gum. We make both cheap stuff for discounters but also really pricy stuff for the more sophisticated clients. Gum without the dragee ( the crispy outside stuff ) comes down to 4 things: gumbase, sugar or a variation thereof, sirup to soften the gumbase and flavor. The amount of flavor you put in before the dragee is the most important factor when it comes to lasting flavor of the product.\n\nWant to try the difference? Go buy excitemint peppermint flavor blister pack in your local Aldi store and compare it to the chewing gum you buy at Starbucks. Those are examples of the products we do under private label.",
"I think it has to do with the flavor molecules' affinity for the structural framework of the gum. We can think of gum as a scaffolding with a bunch of flavor molecules attached to it. The chemical structure of the scaffolding and flavor dictates how strongly the two are attached (the functional groups that both structures possess and their affinity for one another). I would guess that longer lasting gums use flavor and scaffolding molecules that have a stronger attraction, which allows them to remain in the gum longer and, thereby, interact with your taste buds for a longer time.\n\nIt may also have to do with how effectively salivary amylase (you're mouth's sugar- degrading enzyme) breaks down the flavor molecules. Flavors with chemical structures that can't be degraded by salivary amylase will remain in the gum longer."
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4ei6ji | how does rabies make it's victims 'afraid' of water? | Curious as to how rabies is able to make those infected with it 'afraid' of water to the point where even holding a glass of it causes negatives effects? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ei6ji/eli5how_does_rabies_make_its_victims_afraid_of/ | {
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"because it hurts to swallow - there is not an actual fear of water itself but rather the pain that drinking causes.",
"The virus affects the entire body, and especially hits us neurologically. What happens when you're thirsty and you see water? You salivate in anticipation of relieving that thirst. Salivation leads to swallowing, lest we drool. Well for someone in the later stages of rabies, swallowing becomes a very painful act...and as with anything painful, the mind tends to not want to repeat the act that leads to the pain. The Rabies virus causes severe muscle spasms in the throat, and even the sight of water can set them off. If that were happening to you, wouldn't you be 'afraid' of water, too?",
"Rabies infection has 3 periods:\n\n(1) Incubation for 20-90 days (no symptoms)\n\n(2) Prodromal period for 2-10 days (fever, pain, itchiness, numbness, etc.)\n\n** Prodromal is an early symptom (or set of symptoms) that might indicate (show) the start of a disease before specific symptoms (for that disease) occur.\n\n(3) Acute neurological (brain related) period for 2-7 days \n\nAcute neurological period:\n\nSymptoms include muscle fasciculations (twitches), priapism (persistent painful erection), and focal or generalised convulsions (seizures of part or all of the body, respectively). Patients may die immediately or may progress to paralysis , which may be present only in the bitten limb at first but usually becomes diffuse (spreads to all the body).\n\nFurious rabies may develop during this period. Patients develop agitation, hyperactivity, restlessness, thrashing, biting, confusion, or hallucinations. < ----------------------- (((The confusion and hallucinations are what causes a person to fear water in addition to throat muscles being compromised making swallowing difficult.)))\n\nAfter several hours to days, these symptoms come and go with calm, cooperative times in between. Furious episodes last less than 5 minutes. Episodes may be triggered by visual, auditory, or tactile stimuli or may be spontaneous. Seizures may occur. This phase may end in cardiorespiratory arrest (heart and lung faliure) or may progress to paralysis.\n\n(Disclosure: Non of the above is medical advice, if you think you or someone you know has been bitten by an infected animal go to the closest ER).",
"There's a good video on youtube that discusses and has video footage of rabies in humans. Worth a viewing\n\n_URL_0_",
"One person is known to have survived rabies. It was a teenaged girl from Wisconsin. [Jeanna Giese Only Known Rabies Survivor](_URL_0_). ",
"Up to 60,000 people get this disease every year.\n\nEvery single person who developed rabies died prior to 2004 died because of it.\n\nSince 2004, ten people have survived a rabies infection once they showed symptoms.\n\nIn the last ten years, around 500,000 have died from rabies and less than ten people have survived.\n\nRabies survival rate... 0.00002% You have a 1 in 50,000 chance of surviving the disease.",
"\"Nearly always fatal\" I'd go a bit beyond that. Only 1 person has ever survived rabies. And they pretty much had to kill her and put her on life support so she could survive. She has many physical and neurological issues from the entire process.",
"I'd like to also add that not only does it hurt to swallow, but patients are forced to drink water after showing signs of rabies because rabies is partially spread in saliva. After a few sips of water it washes away the saliva contamination making it easier to treat patients. But in return making it difficult to swallow anything, it also causes vomiting, muscle contractions and convulsions, including the thought of seeing water as a threat neurologically. ",
"Can a fish get rabies?",
"I find that many of these ELI5's can be explained with a good dose of \"Stuff You Should Know\" podcasts. Here's the one on rabies: _URL_0_",
"Swallowing is a process where the muscles need to work with the right timing. Nerve damage from rabies screws this up so that the muscles can't coordinate properly. Rabid people are scared of swallowing water because they start losing the ability to swallow properly -- their throats clench up painfully instead.\n\nBasically, it hurts like hell and feels like they're choking.",
"To answer OP's question - the virus is transmitted primarily by saliva and biting. If you're able to swallow, the virus won't be transmitted to the next victim, as there's no medium for transmission. Somehow, someway, the virus has evolved the capability to affect the salivary glands and jaws and encourages biting and not swallowing, thus allowing the virus to be transmitted to the next victim. The virus in some ways creates a \"zombie effect\" in the victim to perpetuate itself. Nasty thing. ",
"No one has really explained the specifics of how rabies leads to the inability to swallow and the subsequent fear of water so I'll give it a go.\n\nRabies causes inflammation in the brain and the meninges (protective layer around the brain). There is a cranial nerve, located in the medulla, called the glossopharyngeal that is important for throat and tongue sensation and movement. When it becomes damaged we lose the ability to swallow. This is why people infected with rabies foam at the mouth, they literally cannot swallow their own saliva. \n\nThe fear of water, or hydrophobia, is caused by the pain of not being able to quench your thirst. Attempting to drink water would result in painful muscle spasms as your throat tried to swallow but ultimately lacks the ability to do so. You continue to produce saliva because biting is the most effective way for the virus to be transferred to another person. In fact if people/animals with rabies were able to swallow, the rate of transmission would be reduced drastically.\n\nSource: The Nature and Treatment of Rabies Or Hydrophobia: Being the Report of the Special Commission Appointed by the Medical Press and Circular, with Valuable Additions",
"It's not a fear of water, but the symptoms which come with trying to drink that we see in these videos. The patient initially tries to drink water, or some other fluid, and once the symptoms progress to hydrophobia, the patient is simply unwilling to undergo the side effects of attempting to swallow. \n\nThe gag reflex is constantly stimulated, and even saliva can cause a major reaction.\n\n",
"I read this quickly while scrolling past, and thought it said \"How does rabbits make its victims afraid of water?\". And for a fraction of a second I was so excited that rabbits had some defense mechanism to dehydrate their enemies. Nope- just rabies. ",
"In most animals (outside of vectors like bats) rabies is pretty efficient at killing them before they can bite you. Small animals, such as a squirrel, baby squirrel, kitten etc.. typically will die before being in a position to bite you/give you rabies. An animal that normally would be afraid of a human, acting indifferent, confused or even friendly are where a good percentage of rabies cases come from. Bats however, can live with the disease. Animals/people show fear of water, because a side effect of the disease makes it difficult/impossible to swallow. Instead they spit out their saliva.. this is the foaming at the mouth typically shown in rabies. Hope that helps..",
"Follow up question: does a human who contracts rabies have the urge to bite other people?",
"There was an excellent (and terrifying) Radio lab podcast on rabies. One of the theories mentioned was that it is in the virus' best interest that you do not swallow - that way, when/if you bite someone, there is a maximum concentration of the virus in the bite",
"Questions for the experts:\n\nSituation - on 4/9/16 my finger was 'nibbled' on by a ~2 month old racoon. It did not break the skin or leave any marks. I have been trying to determine if this is considered a 'bite'. I also can't find information about what constitutes a 'scratch' or 'abrasion', must blood have been drawn?\n\nI believe that rabies invades 'damaged' nerve cells, hence a puncture or other form of skin damage must be present. Is this true?\n\nWhat if saliva was simply on the outside layer of the skin near the tip of a normal finger with undamaged nail and cuticle, and no touching of any mucous membranes occurred before multiple washing of the hands?",
"Fun fact: Only one person has ever survived from rabies after showing symptoms and it's a mystery as to how.\n_URL_0_\n\nEdit: Without immediate treatment. Some have survived after being treated right away",
"Quite relevant...you have better odds winning lotto than dying of or contracting rabies _URL_0_",
"Is this why holy water is a thing?\n\nSome priest mistook the devil for rabies. ",
"Oh my gosh this is actually a thing? On the rabies marathon episode of the office Michael says something to the affect of \"rabies victims have an irrational fear of water\" and I always thought it was him being absurd. ",
"TL/DR: Victims fear water because the virus makes it painful to drink any fluids. They're avoiding water because it represents potential pain.",
"Another angle to answer this question from could be why did rabies evolve to have cause this specific phobia of water? The question is much harder if not impossible to prove scientifically but it lends to some interesting hypotheses. One hypothesis I discussed with a professor recently was that the virus evolved to prevent victims from drinking water to increase the chance of being spread. Similar to the some of the changes in behavior seen in animals, notably increased agression, that seem to increase the chance of the animal biting and transmitting the virus. Because it's primarily transmitted through saliva, stopping the infected animal from wanting water could decrease the chance that a recent drink flushed away most of the virus in the saliva, making a subsequent bite more likely to infect. Again, this is all hypothesis but fantastic to think about how a virus could evolve to change our behavior....mind control.... ",
"Rabies speeds more easily when the host has a dry mouth. This is because the virus is more prevalent in the saliva, when the host hasn't been drinking lots of fluid. Most of the mutations associated with the rabies virus, like violence and dry mouths, in some way, help the virus succeed in its genetic mission to reproduce it's DNA. \n\nRabies is also one of the most dangerous viruses on the plant. With a near 100 percent fatality rate, and symptoms like dementia, violence, paralysis, and the entire destruction of the central nervous system, rabies means you are royally fucked. The disease is curable by a vaccine that can be administered before the victim shows symptoms, but if the virus Reach's the brain, it is a very strong likelihood that you will die. You should always be weary of animal bites, and know the signs of rabies.",
"good thing they have \"Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For the Cure\"",
"I remember once years my dog got scratched by a fox, and he wasn't up to date on his shots, but he had them previously. The vet just gave him a booster shot and my entire family had to get the pre-exposure shot. He turned out fine but we never let him get out to date on his shots again. ",
"It's neurological due to the fact that it attacks acetylcholine receptor's which are for muscle conduction, and it travels through the nervous system (I'm not certain how, sorry), and make's it's way to the brain, and once it's in the brain, doom. This is the cause of pretty much everything, the nervous system goes haywire and causes an extreme amount of different symptoms, mainly leading to muscle spasms, and paralysis.",
"Story time! When I was a broke teenager in the early 90's I sold plasma to help pay my way through community college. Everyone in the clinic was poor but I was one of the few people who came in regularly who was not an obvious drug addict or homeless. After a few months of giving 2x a week they asked me if I'd like to go from $28 per donation to $40. Fuck yes I would sign me up!! So, I agreed to let them inject me with a modified rabies virus. They explained they needed plasma for rabies patients with rabies antibodies present. I had to get 3 or 4 injections in the arm over a couple of weeks. And yes, it was painful for days after each injection. But hey! $40 and a coupon for a whopper twice a week, woohoo!\n\nTo this day I wonder if I'm immune to rabies. The troll in me totally wants to go wrestle a racoon just to find out.\n\nTo this day, I'm amazed at how poor I was and how hard I worked to stay in community college.\n\nTo this day I have hella giant scars in the crook of my arms from the giant phlebotomy needles.",
"To those who are saying rabies vaccines last forever, this is untrue. It can last a long time, 21 years has been observed, but you would need a booster shot (similar to a tetanus shot) to keep the immunity. This is true of most illnesses. The white blood cells responsible for immunological memory have a long lifespan, but not an indefinite one. \n\nDue to the length of immunity and rarity of the disease in the US, boosters for rabies aren't recommended unless you have frequent contact with the disease (such laboratory workers).\n\nProof for claims are form WHO. Look to page 8\n_URL_0_",
"For anyone interested in being very afraid of rabies, check out this guys comment. \n_URL_0_",
"Relevant: _URL_0_\n\nBasically the virus wants to propagate. In the later stages of the disease saliva production is increased and this saliva has an abundance of the virus. The frothing infected wants to bite all that come near it. Water would dilute its effectiveness and send all that virus rich saliva through your gastrointestinal tract where its not going to have a chance to meet new and interesting people.",
"I think it attacks the area of the mammalian brain that reacts with water and swallowing, since swallowing will drive the infected saliva down the stomach. It's not just humans that it infects, other mammals too, so it has a lot of samples for it's trial and error evolution. Not only that, the virus has probably existed for millions of years, so it has time to fine tune to what area of the brain it would infect or how it would affect mammals. Luckily, it doesn't make mammals into zombie like creatures, like that fungus that infects snails. Oh wait.",
"TBH, no one knows for a certainty why the virus makes you hydrophobic. Lots of hypothesis around but I like the one that suggest consumption of water dilutes the viral load.",
"No wonder they shot Old Yeller!\n\nNow I have to write a few more lines or this will be removed again (due to the ELI5 thing). \n\nOld Yeller was a movie that made me cry unbelievably as a 5 year old. Inexplicably? After we saw that movie (at a theater no less), my dad took me to get my hair cut. I cried all the way through that hair cut -- the worst hair cut of my life -- because they shot Old Yeller (and I don't care if there's some new puppies, I want Yeller back)! ",
"The answer to your question is litterally in the first section of the rabies entry on Wikipedia: _URL_0_",
"This is one of the most interesting cases, as far as I'm concerned, of a virus \"engineering\" it's host in order to pass on it's genetic material. \n\nThe virus is most concentrated in the saliva and is spread when infected saliva passes a mucous membrane or gets into the bloodstream. And what does the virus do? \n\nIt causes either aggression (host is more likely to bite) or a sort of numbness and lack of fear (the host is more likely to be approached, or to approach, a new potential host) and then increases the production of saliva and makes it painful and difficult to swallow so that the mouth is literally full of this infectious goo, ready to go when the opportunity arises. \n\nIt is a terrifying but absolutely fascinating disease.\n\nEdit: typo",
"And keep in mind, it is in rabies's best interest to keep an animal from swallowing it's saliva. The virus is reproducing in the salivary glands in order to be transmitted via bite. Rabies would prefer you spit, not swallow."
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2qa7wr | why does deionized water differ in taste from purified water? aren't they virtually the same thing? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qa7wr/eli5_why_does_deionized_water_differ_in_taste/ | {
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"No not at all, purified water doesn't contain any extra minerals that may be in the water from contamination, deionized water removes H and O ions that naturally occur in large concentrations of water only leaving pure H2O"
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1secxi | why are some threads locked? | You may come across an ELI5 thread that has been locked by the moderators. It will have a red box next to it and there will be a message on the comments page that says new comments will be automatically deleted. Here's everything you need to know.
* We occasionally will lock threads on highly controversial topics that already have a number of responses but that are becoming difficult to moderate. Threads that receive abnormal quantities of offensive or spam replies are generally the ones that are likely to be locked.
* Automoderator will remove each new comment within one minute of its submission. You will still be able to comment, but there's no real reason to as it will be promptly removed.
* Disabling CSS or submitting from a mobile client will not allow posts to go through. They will still be automatically removed by automoderator.
* Comments can still be edited or deleted-- we are not (and are incapable of) archiving the thread as reddit does after ~6 months.
* Users who do comment and have their comments removed will get a PM notifying them of it.
* OP could still technically remove the flair we use to mark a thread as locked, but it won't stop the posts from being automatically removed. All it will do is cause confusion (and they won't be able to fix it), so we ask if the post is marked as locked that OP *please* not change the flair.
Feel free to [message the mods](_URL_0_) if you have any pressing questions, but *please* do not ask us why a thread was locked, *especially* if you are not the OP. We will always try to leave a distinguished comment explaining why we locked the thread, and it is always a careful and deliberate decision that we will not undo. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1secxi/eli5_why_are_some_threads_locked/ | {
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"You just locked an interesting debate, probably the most interesting that I have read here since I started reading reddit.\n\nI read many of the comments before the thread was locked, had my own comments removed...although they were an honest attempt to respectably shed light on the issue.\n\nThis is quite disappointing.",
"Why does it say \"20 new comments\" (since my last visit) on the locked thread? Yes, the thread was already locked last time I saw/clicked it. ",
" > We will always try to leave a distinguished comment explaining why we locked the thread, and it is always a careful and deliberate decision that we will not undo.\n\nThen why was [this thread](_URL_0_) locked with no explanation whatsoever, other than a note saying one should message the mods for an explanation when this post makes it clear that such explanation will not be granted?",
"What about when the real explanation was missed entirely? I just tried to post to one and found about this thread locking.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nCan we have a way to mark threads explained incorrectly as wrong? There are many subjects where 100% of the people who post are actually oblivious as to what the real answer is. Putting a correction up will fortify reddit's necessity in the world.",
"Way to kill the whole point of ELI5. If mods are going to start clamping down on debate about controversial questions because of assholes, we might as well just call this sub \"Ask Moderators Boring Questions and Hope They Don't Lock it Down\".",
"I don't like this, it stops communication between people having conversations. Maybe it should stop replies to the OP and not to other people? Each thread is not all about the ELI5, the comments can lead to different and interesting conversation.. ",
" > Comments can still be edited or deleted-- we are not (and are incapable of) archiving the thread as reddit does after ~6 months.\n\nSorry, I don't understand this, why is it?. Why can't the threads be saved for more than 6 months?. I mean, if there is a question which was already ELI5 answered, asked a year later, then if that person decides to look throughout the sub-reddit before posting his own, will he not find this > 6 month old thread?.",
"Why was \n\n_URL_0_\n\nLocked? The answers that i read were fair and professional.\n\nIt also said to search for \"new comments\" to see why it was locked.\n\nThe only new comments that it showed up were comments posted by a moderator that had been removed.\n\nI LOVE reddit, but this locked topic, and no explanation why leaves an unhappy taste in my mouth... ",
"I sent this to the mods:\n\n > I don't understand locking threads. Let reddit users report and downvote the bad comments rather than banning comments entirely. I can't understand the reasoning behind locking threads. It's incredibly annoying and means many comments go uncorrected. Interesting discussion is also a victim.\n\n > Please take advantage of reddit's spam filter (or create your own through a bot, I can do this easily) which can automatically learn what kinds of comments are bad and remove them (eg using the n-word and stuff like that.)\n\nA mod replied by saying \"Logistically, it's not quite as easy as you seem to indicate\" and linking me to this thread. I do believe a spam-filter of some kind (if not reddit's default one) could be very effective. Sure it will kill a lot of good comments as well, but it's better than indiscriminately killing everything.\n\nEDIT: I did mean this as a helpful suggestion, not an attack on the mods.",
"Would be nice if it could have prevented me from even typing out my comment and wasting my time..."
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d53cju | how electronic devices (like phones) maintain performance as the battery decreases? unlike some other (like rc cars) which get slower as the battery gets down. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d53cju/eli5_how_electronic_devices_like_phones_maintain/ | {
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"Your phone, or any other processing device, should never rely on your battery's voltage or current being high. Both of these would reduce the lifetime of the battery, and also run the risk of damaging the device. In RC cars and other power electronics, the battery is pushed to its limits in terms of output. In phones, this should never be the case.",
"Modern smartphones that have a battery life of 100% to 0% are actually really going from a battery life of 100 to 20%, the remaining battery is reserved to increase the life of the battery as well as prevent performance slowdown. Fun fact: Apple made the unfortunate mistake of trying to throttle phones when the internal battery was losing too much of its maximum capacity. Apple was actually trying to prolong the life of the phone at the cost of performance, but pretty much the entirety of the media and reddit thought this was some sort of attempt at forced obsolescence when it was literally meant to be the opposite.",
"Buck/boost converters keep the voltage stable for the electronics, even though the battery voltage falls. It basically uses coils and capacitors to 'bump' the voltage down/up. _URL_1_\n_URL_0_\nQuite often they are combined into a buck/boost converter: _URL_2_\n\nYour RC car's power requirements are very high and normally it means a buck/boost converter is not applicable. Also, once your car starts slowing down, it's time to stop playing or replace the battery.",
"A phone have power management chips that convert the voltage the battery give out to the voltage the chips used. A li-ion battery has voltage between 4.2 when it is full and it cut of at around 3V. It is bad for the batteries to have higher or lower voltage. As long as the battery can give out enough power (voltage\\*current) it can be converted to exactly what the chip need.\n\nIf it is to low the phone will turn is self off you will often observe that a phone out in the cold with a old battery will turn of long before the battery percentage reaches 0%. For a room temperatur battery they are selected so the phone can operate at fill power all the time.\n\nThe performance limitation on phone chips is primary how you can transport away heat from a small device and the time the can be used. RC cars are cooled by the air and people trade shorter time for higher performance in a way phone users would not do. You could put a desktop computer CPU in a phone and it would be faster but also very warm and the battery would not last very long so people would not like it.\n\nA RC car do not have that type of power management and the batteries drive the morot directly via a transistors that can be used to control the speed but quickly turning it on and off again. The power us a RC car or a power toll i many times higher then a cell phone, they hav a lot larger batteries but shorted usage time so the are closer to the max performance of the _URL_0_ to have constant performance all the time you would need to reduce the max performance of the car and to stop it earlier when the power they can deliver get to low. So you could make a RC car with constant performance but you could use for less time and speed than i you do not and they would be more expensive.\n\nVoltage regulation are not 100% efficient so if it is not a requirement it is not used, so a motor can operate at battery voltage but the chips in a phone can't. So it is used on one case but not the other.",
"Devices such as smartphones require a stable voltage in order to work. They use components to convert the batteries variable voltage into a stable voltage. This unfortunately uses more power, thus draining the battery faster, but is necessary. Things such as flash lights and RC cars do not convert the voltage, this is more efficient, but of course has the side effect of the device losing performance as the battery is drained."
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3zf5yp | the new periodic table, so what? | I searched through some old threads about the elements and didn't really find what I was looking for.
The big news is they've finally completed the periodic table with element 115.
I'm curious as to what the purpose of these man made elements is. What are they used for? Were they created simply to fill in gaps? Can the elements be used to create anything useful? In general, why is this a big deal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zf5yp/eli5_the_new_periodic_table_so_what/ | {
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"* The periodic table is not 'completed'. There are 118 spaces for elements in the most common layout of the periodic table, but that's just for convenience, because we haven't physically detected any atoms of any element above 118. There is no rule of the universe that says only 118 elements can exist; scientists are trying to prove the existence of element 119 (named 'ununennium' for now), but showing this is a lot more difficult than for previous elements, because it's really pushing the limit of our technology.\n* The use of each element depends on the properties of that element. Elements with numbers up to and including 92 are found naturally on Earth; anything above this was discovered in the laboratory. Transactinides (elements numbered 104 to 118) decay very quickly and are all radioactive, so we haven't found a lot of use for them yet.\n* Man-made elements can have some use, though. Plutonium (94) can be used in bombs. Californium (98) can help power nuclear reactors, and its properties make it very useful for discovering new elements.\n* Despite this, most elements above 92 are very expensive to produce in large quantities, so finding practical applications for them can be prohibitive even if the elements don't decay near-instantly. The discovery of element 118 was announced when scientists discovered three atoms of it.\n* And yes, sometimes discovering these comes down to scientific curiosity. Scientists want to find out how these new elements work, and any new element that's discovered could potentially lead to breakthroughs in other areas of science.",
"I think that /u/levigu gave an excellent and comprehensive answer, but I would like to expand upon one of his points, which is that the discovery of a new element can lead to breakthroughs in other areas of science.\n\nOne of the most successful ideas of science is that no matter how lovely your theory may be, you still need to have experimental (or at least observational) confirmation. Sometimes experiments turn out to have wildly different outcomes than what was expected, and when that happens, science learns something new about how the natural world works. In the case of these recently discovered elements, it was expected very confidently that they would have extremely short half-lives and therefore would exist very briefly, and that was indeed the case. But we only *really* know that because now we have seen it. Until we saw it happen there was some possibility that the elements might exist longer than expected, and if they did, that could have had very large consequences in terms of our scientific understanding, as well as in terms of the possible uses of those elements. And that is only one of the ways in which those experiments might have produced surprising results. You literally do not know what result an experiment will produce until you perform it, particularly if no one has ever performed that particular experiment before. But that is why experiments are done, to see what happens. And that is how science advances.\n\nIt is also true that science is not as strictly utilitarian as you suggest. A scientist does not have to ask what a new element will be used for. It is, of course, very interesting if it turns out that a newly discovered element does have some practical use. But even if it has no practical use, that does not mean that there is no point in creating it in the laboratory. Scientists want to understand the natural world as fully as possible, and therefore they investigate all kinds of things in the hope of gaining new information, or in some cases, in the hope of confirming some information that they already have. And this theoretical understanding often turns out to have unexpected uses. The structure of the atom was being investigated well before that information turned out to be applicable to such uses as the building of nuclear power plants or nuclear weapons. At first, scientists simply wanted to know what the fine structure of matter really is. It is an important question, whether it leads to practical applications or not. When electricity was first investigated, centuries ago, it was merely an odd phenomenon. A scientist discovered that you could use electricity to make a dead frog kick its legs. There was absolutely no practical need to make dead frogs kick their legs, but it was very interesting that this phenomenon could be created in a lab. Subsequently, of course, our knowledge of electricity has turned out to have endless applications, as you know. We could hardly even exist without it, at this point. Yet originally, scientists were just curious about it. They did not know whether it would have practical applications or not. And that is how science works. If a question seems interesting, scientists will try to discover the answer."
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3cyat6 | why does uncertainty feel so much worse than rejection? | If you've ever interviewed for a job, then you might know the feeling of extreme anxiousness while waiting for a callback. But if you finally hear a "no." It's sort of whatever.
Same with asking someone out. That feeling of anxiousness they might say no is way more intense than the feeling of rejection. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cyat6/eli5_why_does_uncertainty_feel_so_much_worse_than/ | {
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"Humans like to categorize things and plan things. Not all of us are great at planning, but we all do it. \"I'm going to the store, then hitting the bar\". These categorizations, plans, and actions require knowledge. Not having knowledge is scary because we don't know how to categorize something, and thus can't form a plan. Humans became the dominant species, in part, because of our ability to plan. We could see a situation, like a bear, and through experience, know how to react. Without knowing what's coming, you don't know what to do, and that's scary. \n\nAnother piece which is more related to your example - closure. If we get the job, great, if we don't there's nothing we can do. If we just don't know, then we get stuck because we can't plan! Do we continue the job hunt? Do we settle in for a wait? Do we call them? What's the etiquette during the decision-making process? Do we call often? How often? What if we seem desperate? Etc.\n\nWhen we finally get closure - a decision, it's easy to move from there. Accepted? Well, take the job and work it or refuse it and move on. Rejected? Move on. It's pretty clear-cut.",
"RemindMe!\n\nThis I'm really interested in seeing the answer to - I can only assume it's something related to the fact that uncertainty is relating to playing out future scenarios that haven't happened yet, and rejection is focussing on the past reality, and focussing on \"What ifs?\" where you think how things could have been different."
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753l0o | how many times can you fold steel for a sword before folding it more has no further benefit? | I figure there has to be some upper limit for the number of times you can fold a piece of steel before it stops improving in quality/purity. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/753l0o/eli5_how_many_times_can_you_fold_steel_for_a/ | {
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"Zero times.\n\nJapanese smiths folded steel in order to compensate for the quality of metal available. The folding process combines forging with smelting, essentially: it removes impurities and makes the metal more uniform.\n\nIf you are starting with a modern, high quality steel appropriate to the product at hand, there is no practical benefit to folding it.\n\nIf you only have pig iron and a steel that's too hard, you can use the Japanese technique and weld them together in narrow sheets to come up with a metal that combines their properties somewhat. Starting with one layer of each, folding ten times gives you a thousand layers, which will be pretty uniform; folding twenty times gives you a million layers; folding thirty times gives you a bit under a billion, and at that point you may as well just smelt the ingredients together, since you're not getting any more layers.\n\nMoreover, you're losing carbon each time you fold the blade. That means the metal will be softer. After a couple dozen folds, your sword will bend when it hits something.\n\nEuropean blades in the medieval period were often pattern-welded, which involved working rods of varying types of steel into one piece."
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pc1np | watching the super bowl for the 1st time (in germany it starts at 12pm btw). what are the most important facts my friends and me need to know? | This one helped already: _URL_0_
Who is the favorite, etc.? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pc1np/eli5_watching_the_super_bowl_for_the_1st_time_in/ | {
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"* You must begin drinking beer at least 6 hours before kick off. \n* You must not piss until the halftime show starts. With your party's participation, we can finally get that world wide Super Bowl Flush. \n* No one in you house can speak when Tom Brady has the ball\n* No one in your house can speak when Eli Manning has the ball\n* Feel free to discuss anything when Archie Manning's name is mentioned.\n\nEdit: fixed coding ",
"The flowchart indicating what happens on each play is pretty good. Study that, or you won't understand what is happening.\n\nAfter looking at that guide, here are some things left out:\n\nPositions (look at the position chart in the bottom right) of the guide\n\nOffense:\n\nQuarterback (QB): receives the ball to start every play; can hand the ball to the running back (RB), throw the ball to a wide receiver (WR), or run the ball himself. He typically runs whatever play the coach tells him to run, but if he sees something (a defensive formation that will be particularly good at stopping the called play, or an exploitable weakness in the defense), he can call an \"audible\" and change the play. You'll see this happening a lot. This is what the QB is doing if he starts walking around yelling and pointing right before the play starts (don't confuse this with the snap count, which is where the QB calls out a code to start the play in such a way as to prevent the defense from anticipating the snap).\n\nRB: stands behind the QB to start the play. Can either take the ball from the QB and try to run it forward, or if it's a passing play he can block defenders rushing the QB\n\nFullback (FB): not used on every play. He can act as a blocker for the QB, can run the ball, or can run in front of the RB and try to open holes for him to run through.\n\nWR: runs forward, catches the ball if the QB throws it to him. Can also block down the field for running plays.\n\nOffensive line (those 5 guys in a row in front of the QB): These guys are the QB's bodyguards. They protect him from defenders who are trying to tackle him while he throws the ball. They can also open holes in the defensive line during running plays. Think of them as the defense of the offense. They defend against the defensive line, which is the offense of the defense. These guys are typically gigantic monsters.\n\nTight End (TE): big guys that are capable of blocking OR running out and catching the ball. Basically a versatile player that can play either offensive line or wide receiver, depending on what the play calls for.\n\nDefense:\n\nDefensive line: these guys are the attackers of the defense. They try to rush at the QB and tackle him before he throws the ball on passing plays (this is called a sack) or try to tackle the running back if it is a running play. They are typically very large and very fast.\n\nLinebackers (LB): they stay in the middle of the field, behind the defensive line. They are the leaders of the defense, helping to call defensive formations. They protect the middle of the field from receivers running across, and they help the defensive line to stop running plays.\n\nDefensive Backs (DB): these are small, fast defenders that usually defend against wide receivers. There are two types of DBs, safeties (S) that stay farther back and act as the last line of defense against long pass plays, and preventing break-away plays. Then there are cornerbacks (CBs). These guys line up directly across from receivers and try to prevent them from catching the ball, or tackling them after they catch it.\n\nNote that that most defensive players are pretty versatile, and can do a lot of things. Anyone of the defensive players can rush the quarterback (if there are more than 5 rushing at any time, it's called a Blitz. Blitzing is high-risk, high-yield; you have a greater chance of overwhelming the OL, but you leave holes in the defense).\n\n______\n\nThe game is between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. The same two teams played for the Super Bowl in 2008, and the Giants beat the Patriots. In that game the Patriots were very, very heavily favored; if they had won the game, they would be known as the greatest NFL team of all time. The loss was more painful because they allowed a miraculous play to happen (_URL_0_). This play is regarded by some as the best play in the history of football, because of the way it happened, the stakes (if this play had failed, the Giants would have lost the game), and because it caused the almost-best-ever to fall. So this is a chance for revenge for the Patriots against the Giants.\n\nThe Patriot's quarterback, Tom Brady, is widely regarded as one of the best to ever play. If he wins one or two more Super Bowls (he already has 3), he probably will be listed as THE best quarterback in history. The Giant's QB, Eli Manning, is in kind of an awkward situation. His older brother, Peyton Manning (who they'll show in his box many, many times in the game), is also one of the best QBs ever. Certainly in the top 5 currently playing (although he sat out this year due to injury), and maybe in the top 10 in history. Eli plays in his brother's shadow, and everyone doubts Eli because he has been inconsistent, but he shows flashes of brilliance. He is playing very well right now. This game is a big deal for him because if he wins, he will actually have one more Super Bowl victory than his hero of an older brother does, and he can tell all the doubters to go to hell.\n\nRight now the betting is pretty evenly split. Both teams' defenses are playing very well right now (The Giant's D is better), and the Giant's offense is peaking as well. The Patriot's D wasn't very good in the regular season, but is playing very well in the postseason. Also, the Patriot's offense (led by Tom Brady) is usually regarded as the most dangerous offense in modern football. So it could definitely go either way.\n\nEdit:\n\nWanted to mention a few other specific players. The Patriot's offense has two tight ends that have been called the best Tight End-Combo of all time: Gronkowski and Hernandez. You'll hear their names called often. Patriots also have this little guy named Wes Welker. Everyone who isn't a Patriots fan hates this guy, because on any other team he would be worthless. He's small and not very fast. However, he has great hands, and Tom Brady loves throwing to him. The Pats don't really have a good running back, but their passing offense is so good that defenses often forget to defend against the run, so they run every now and then to keep the defense honest.\n\nThe Giants have a more balanced offense. Ahmad Bradshaw, the Giants' running back, is pretty good. They also have three wide receivers (Victor Cruz, Mario Manningham, and Hakeem Nicks) who are very good.\n\nLast, the Giants' DL is excellent. It's the mainstay of their defense. Watch for these guys to attack Tom Brady very aggressively.",
"The guys in the black-and-white stripey shirts? Those are the referees. They all have problems with their vision.",
"Keep in mind, everyone is doing something for a specific reason. At times it may look like chaos with 22 grown ass men running around trying to get the ball.\n\nBut everyone has a specific duty on each action sequence (each play or down). The duties of each person can vary widely from play to play. It will depend on what the down number is (1, 2, 3, or 4) and how much further it is to get a new set of downs (everytime you move the ball 10 yds, you get four more downs), how far it is to the goal.\n\nSo when you are watching, one thing to try and do is figure out WHY did a certain player do a certain thing. Each play is a well orchestrated sequence of action. ",
"What a weird sport. How long does a game typically last?",
"...that yellow line on the field isn't really there. "
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fxznqf | why sometimes you feel the urge to scratch a place on your body ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fxznqf/eli5_why_sometimes_you_feel_the_urge_to_scratch_a/ | {
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"an itch can have a lot of causes. could be dead or dry skin buildup, could be a bug bite, could be a hair strand you mistake for a spider, could be a skin condition like eczema. there are also \"phantom itches\" where the place you feel the need to scratch may not be where an itch really is. \n\nthat's all well and good, but *why* do we actually itch and scratch?\n\nit was actually thought for a while that an itch was just a dialed down feeling of pain, but in reality the feeling of itching has a different circuitry in our nervous system to the pain nerves we believed they were, including its own cells, reactions, and chemicals! this explains why people have different pain thresholds, yet always have the same response to itching.\n\nso, it starts with a signal sent up your spinal cord to your brain by, let's call them \"itch nerves.\" these itch nerves pick up on a certain feeling against your skin, and tell your brain \"hey, there's something here!!\" your brain responds to that by creating an itch, as a way of alerting your hands to go deal with it. \n\nwhen you scratch an itch, the signals the itch nerves were giving to your brain are stopped and the pain nerves begin sending signals instead. it's basically like covering someone's mouth so they stop speaking - your scratching is causing the pain nerves to shut the itch nerves up. ever wondered why slapping or pinching an itch also gave you a sense of relief? the pain nerves are accomplishing the same task! \n\n**fun fact!** itching, like yawning, is unexplainably contagious!! i bet just reading the word \"itch\" throughout this comment has made you scratch yourself a few times."
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86s9d5 | is it possible for energy to be created, or does the universe have the same amount of energy now as it always has? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86s9d5/eli5_is_it_possible_for_energy_to_be_created_or/ | {
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"Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Google conservation of mass energy to learn more ein depth, but basically mass is energy and energy is mass, so if it seems like the total of one was reduced, the total of the other has increased, but the sum of the two remains the same (huge oversimplification, but this is ELI5) ",
"Same amount. According to the Big Bang theory, all of the energy that is and ever was, was originally a tiny sub atomic speck sometimes called the singularity. When the universe began, that speck rapidly expanded and to this day is *still* expanding. Matter and energy are interchangeable. Matter is energy, in another form. When the sun burns off its mass, or when an atomic bomb detonates, it converts that mass into energy."
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4r54f0 | why is sphere packing in higher dimensions more efficient than in 3 dimensions? | The sphere packing problem essentially asks, *what is the most efficient way to arrange congruent balls as densely as possible, without overlap.*
Recently, two papers were published on the sphere packing problem in higher dimensions, the first in [dimension eight](_URL_1_) and the second in [dimension 24](_URL_0_).
The maths is beyond me, however the conclusion drawn from these two proofs was that in these higher dimensions, sphere packing is more efficient/dense than in just 3 dimensions. Any help as to why would be much appreciated.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4r54f0/eli5_why_is_sphere_packing_in_higher_dimensions/ | {
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"Correct me if I'm wrong:\n\nCircles are the two dimensional shape that has the most area compared to its perimeter(circumference).\nSpheres are the shape that hold the most volume compared to its surface area. \nThis is true for for the dimensions proven if not all of them.\nA circle can hold let's say 10 other smaller circles inside. A sphere can hold more then ten spheres (of the same radius as the circles in the big circle) because it has another dimension in which to fit them (height). So it gets more efficient as the dimension in question goes up.",
"I'm no expert and I probably can't get this down to ELI5 level, but I think you have that backwards. Packing in higher dimensions is less efficient. According to the 8d paper, 1d packing (line segments lined up on a line) is 100% efficient, 2d packing (circles in a triangle/hexagon pattern) is 90% efficient, 3d packing (spheres) is 74% efficient, and 8d packing is 23% efficient. No idea what 24d is, but it looks like it's really small.\n\nWhy is this the case? Think of a sphere as reserving a certain shape of space around it based on how many other spheres it has to touch.\n\nIn 1d, there are 2 points of contact per \"sphere,\" the ends of the line segment. You can run line segments right up next to each other, so there's no wasted space.\n\nIn 2d, each circle touches 6 others. You need hexagons to completely fill up this space, so you can think of each circle reserving a hexagon of space. The extra space around the corners between each circle and its hexagon is wasted.\n\nIn 3d, each sphere touches 12 neighbors. (You can picture this as 3 layers: the main sphere circled by 6 in the middle and 3 each on top and bottom.) Ever see a 12 sided die (more specifically a [rhombic dodecahedron](_URL_0_), not the pentagonal one)? This is the space each sphere is reserving. Not only is the area around the corners wasted, like it was for 2d. The area around each edge is wasted too.\n\nBasically, this all boils down to: **Every time you go up a dimension, you're adding another level of cavity to each sphere's reserved space that the sphere is unable to \"reach into\" because of its curvature. Consequently, packing/filling efficiency goes down.**"
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4ezi2j | how to fix strict nat type. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ezi2j/eli5_how_to_fix_strict_nat_type/ | {
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"First course of action is to go into your router's settings and make your XBox a DMZ Host. Your router's settings webpage is usually at 192.168.1.1, type that into the URL bar, then enter the username/password (located on the router/modem if you never set it up before), find the IP address of the XBox, 192.168.1.X, find where the DMZ Host option is in the settings and enter that IP."
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2y1sxo | how do you get countries like russia to follow human rights laws when they've already broken so many of them? | Are countries doing anything about it? How do sanctions have any effect on the violations and are they actually helping? Is there anything we can actually do about the situation??
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2y1sxo/eli5_how_do_you_get_countries_like_russia_to/ | {
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"There are several different schools and methods on how to improve human rights.\n\nFirst we have to remember that the basic starting point of international relations is to respect the sovereignty of other countries. If countries stop respecting the sovereignty of other, others have no reason to respect that either. This means that the methods of influencing internal affairs of another country cannot really be intervening by force. Only the agreed basic rules of the United Nations warrant some intervening by force, and that requires quite radical things to happen, like genocide. So generally, countries cannot really use hard power to influence other countries (unless you are the US and want to spread democracy).\n\nAs due globalization, economic affairs with other countries are increasingly important for each nation. The purpose of sanctions is to more or less isolate the country partially or completely. Other countries might not have the legitimacy to intervene by force, but they are not required to trade with each other. Sanctions hurt nations as they hinder the local economy, and local governments do care about economy. This also works the other direction. If a liberal western country is dependent on trade with some horrible country, they won't sanction it, as the trade is important. This is why Saudi Arabia isn't isolated with sanctions, as it is an important oil producer, even though it's extremely oppressive towards women.\n\nSome think educating the local people will eventually lead to a change. But as in Russia the state has strong control of the media and is willing to use censorship so it is very difficult to educate local people to demand change.\n\n"
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7mq6s7 | how do electronic devices or circuits know how much current to draw from a power supply? what determines how much current it needs? | If a mini computer needed say 1a and I plugged it in, it would indeed take 1a and no more. What's happening that allows it to take just as much as it needs? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7mq6s7/eli5_how_do_electronic_devices_or_circuits_know/ | {
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"The circuit has a characteristic resistance. The source voltage divided by that defines the average current required. Of course, things are more complicated than that, because the actual current varies from time depending on what state the circuit is in, but that's not as ELI5 an explanation. Things are always more complex than they seem in ELI5.\n\nIn the case of your computer, if the power supply says 1A then under no circumstance does it need more than 1A. It probably only takes 0.5A most of the time, but the power supply has to allow for startup surges and special cases.",
"I = V/R\n\nAnytime you have a voltage difference the electrons want to flow as hard as possible to balance it out, what slows them down is the resistance. \n\nIf you have a circuit with low resistance (like a short) there is a lot of current flow; if there’s high resistance the current doesn’t flow as easily. ",
"Devices 'drawing' current means they allow some amount of electricity to flow through them and that amount is a consequence of what parts it's made of. A machine doesn't 'choose' how much current to use when you turn it on, the engineer who designed the machine already did when she specified how it should be built.\n\nIf you supply a higher voltage then more current will flow because it's being 'pushed' harder. (Of course that usually results in the machine not working right or even breaking!) If your device has a power setting, like a hair dryer, that switch connects more or more powerful electrical components which will let more current flow through, doing more work as it goes.\n\nSo how much current an appliance uses is not a decision, but a natural consequence.",
"Assuming you power your computer with a 12V DC source, your computer presents at least 12Ω of resistance to the power supply.\n\n > \"But what is this resistance of which you speak?\"\n\nI like to use water as a good analogy for electrical units:\n\nVoltage: is the water pressure within a pipe.\n\nCurrent: is the volume of water that passes through the pipe in a given amount of time.\n\nResistance: is the diameter of the pipe. A smaller diameter creates more resistance.\n\nIn a pipe of given diameter, as water pressure increases, more water will flow. For water at a given pressure, as the pipe diameter decreases (i.e. resistance increases), less water will flow. If the pipe is blocked, the water stops, no matter how high its pressure.\n\nImagine a factory with one hundred widget making machines, where each machine is powered by its own water wheel connected to a municipal water supply of constant pressure. \n\nWhen your sales team fails you and your widget production is low, you may have only one or two machines operating. So you open the valves to only one or two water wheels. When you hire a better sales team and you maximize production, you open the valves to all of your water wheels so you can run all of your machines. \n\nWhile each wheel presents the same resistance to the municipal water supply, opening up more valves increases the total amount of water flowing through your factory. The municipal water company is madly speeding and slowing down its water pumps to maintain pressure within the city's water supply, while your factory happily opens and closes valves to its widget machines as production rates change. The juggling is always on the supply end. If the water company can't supply enough water, eventually the pressure in the water supply decreases, and everything slows down.\n\nNow we can carry this analogy back over to your computer.\n\nThink of each of the millions of transistors inside your computer's CPU as a little machine in an information processing factory. Each machine has its own water wheel and valve. At idle, your computer probably presents much more than 12Ω to the power supply because all of the transistors are idle and their valves are closed. But when the CPU has to process a lot of information, its logic opens the valves to allow the transistors to function. This offers more paths for electricity to follow, which means less resistance across the whole chip, which increases the current flowing through it. What limits the amount of current flowing through your CPU is the number of transistors it contains, and how efficiently each of them can do their work.\n\nThe power supply always supplies 12 V, so as your CPU's resistance drops, the current increases, and it draws more *power*. Power is what determines how much heat your power supply must dissipate. Because electrical current excites the molecules in the conductor through which it flows, more current means more heat. Every power supply can only dissipate a finite amount of heat before it fails. So what the 1A limit on a 12V power supply really means is \"Don't plug me into anything that presents less than 12Ω of resistance, or I will melt!\"\n\nIf you want to process more information, you need more transistors, which means your computer will draw more current, and create more heat. Thus, you would need to upgrade your power supply to one that can safely handle the increased current your spiffy new computer demands.\n"
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54049b | when receiving an electric shock from a large current it "may make it impossible for a shock victim to let go of an energized object". why is this? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54049b/eli5_when_receiving_an_electric_shock_from_a/ | {
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"text": [
"Your muscles respond to electrical signals from your nerves, that's how your brain tells your muscles what to do. If you get shocked, it acts like a massive neural stimulus which tells your muscles to contract strongly. If you're grabbing something through which the electrical current is flowing, that means your fist can clench around it. Even if you consciously want to unclench your fist, your brain's tiny little neural impulses can't override the massive current from the wire.",
"Either the current, AC, is putting your muscles into spasms, or it is causing your muscles to clench, DC. Either way you no longer control your muscles. It does not take a large current to kill you. Just a few, 15, milliamp through the heart will do it.",
"Basically think of your muscles as little machines that have to be told what to do. When the brain asks them to open, they take a break and relax. When the brain asks them to close, they contract and help your body do whatever it was trying to do. And muscles really only have those two options, relax and contract.\n\nSo, your brain says to the hand muscles\n\n > close\n\nand your hand grabs an electrical wire.\n\nNow, one you are grabbing the electrical wire, it is yelling really really loud to your hand muscles\n\n > **CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE**\n\nand when you realize that you are being electrocuted, your brain says:\n\n > ^^^^^*relax*\n\nwhich your muscles obviously don't hear, because the wire is still yelling\n\n > **CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE**\n\nNow, like 2-4-decadienal6 said, this open and close is actually done with electricity. Your nerves carry a tiny tiny amount of current that causes your muscles to contract, and thus cause your hand to close. A power line has hundreds of times more electricity in it, so it continues to cause those muscles to contract, even after your brain has stopped sending the electrical pulse.\n\nAnd, the muscles that cause your hand to open fully are much weaker than the muscles that cause it to close, so as long as the electricity is causing them to close, your hand can't let go.",
"It depends on the type of current, the frequency, and the voltage. Our bodies use electrical conduction to control our muscles. Think of them like coiled springs which simply need a small amount of activation energy in order to release their energy. If you apply a high enough external voltage, and it alternates at the right frequency, it can trick the bodies muscles into flexing involuntarily. When the muscles in your forearm contract the motion this forms is your fingers pulling in towards your palm in a grasping motion.\n\nIf you are electrocuted then the electricity moving through your body may drown out the bodies own nerve impulses making you unable to control your muscles, which are now gripping whatever it is you touched very strongly. \n\nIn order to trigger a muscle the electricity must be high voltage and it must alternate or pulse. It's the rising and falling edges of the voltage change that triggers the muscle response. Low voltage won't trigger the muscles, even if the amperage is enough to cause burns, and direct current tends to just burn you rather than cause involuntary contractions. \n\nYou don't need much amperage to make a muscle move either, just high voltage. There is enough energy in a AA battery to make both your arms jump involuntarily if the voltage is stepped up. \n\nWhen I was a kid I took a clock radio apart and used the step down transformer that converted the 120vAC to 9vAC except I used it backwards by connecting a battery to the 9v side, which stepped the voltage up on the 120v side. Using a 1.5v AA battery this transformer had enough step up in voltage to allow 15 students to hold hands in a circle with the 2 at the ends holding each end of the 120v side an one tap of that battery made 15 peoples arms jump involuntarily. "
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