q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
sequence | selftext_urls
sequence | answers_urls
sequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2nlwir | why does the pink insulation in houses make you itchy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2nlwir/eli5_why_does_the_pink_insulation_in_houses_make/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmeqkir",
"cmeqyst"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Have you ever broken a glass and you get those tiny (almost microscopic) shards of glass under your skin? You can feel that they are there, and it is a mix of itchy and maybe some slight discomfort? Same thing for the insulation. It has tiny shards of glass in it. ",
"It contains fiberglass, plastic fibres reinforced with glass. The fibres pierce your skin just enough to make you itchy if you touch it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2k96ny | why is a divorce hard on children? | Hi,
first of all, I apologize if I sound ignorant. I grew up with a single parent without being in touch with my other parent. This has been normal for me all of my life.
I have never been able to understand why it is hard for children if their parents separate. I always tried to be understanding when my friends told me that this either was hard for them (if it happened) or that it was their biggest nightmare (if it was about to happen/they were afraid of it) but I was never able to *really* wrap my head around it.
Again, sorry for my ignorance. But why is it hard? The parents don't love the child less, they have problems between the two of them. I honestly just don't understand. Please help me with this.
Thank you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k96ny/eli5_why_is_a_divorce_hard_on_children/ | {
"a_id": [
"clj3ayv",
"clj3hkc",
"clj3l07",
"clj3t95",
"clj47fr"
],
"score": [
9,
2,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Children who grew up and then had the parents split up once they were aware of what was happening often feel that they were responsible.\n\nOther than that it's the constant shift between the two households that takes it's toll. Each one has relatively different rules meaning that the kids go from one lifestyle to another repeatedly, taking away the stability and structure a child needs.",
"Another thought is if one parent (or both) remarries and has kids, the kid has to watch his half-sibling(s) have their own full family, with mom and dad living together loving each other, while they're forced to bounce back and forth.",
"I'm 36. My parents separated when I was 6 (formally divorced early teens). They did not speak respectfully to each for another 20 years.\n\nIn retrospect I realize it was for the best. They are polar opposites. Completely different people. And as they got older, I think they both realized this. My dad took off and is kind of a douche, still kind of is, so, as an adult at least, I'm grateful this happened.\n\nBut when I was younger I had a really strong bond with my dad. He seemed to understand me better than my brother or mother did. He was my friend, so I thought.\n\nParents are supposed to be stationary, so the children can explore and return to them with questions. It's like a residual object permanence. What was familiar and comforting was no longer.\n\nAlthough I don't remember most of it my mom told me I took it really hard. I would stay by the window every evening, the time I was familiar with him returning, and he wouldn't. I lost my friend. I wouldn't realize it was for the best until much later.\n\nAs a child you are completely dependent on parents not just for basic life sustenance but for emotional guidance and socialization.",
"I think a lot of it has to do with timing and experiences. \n\nExample: my parents divorced when I was 12. My sister was 7 at the time. Now, granted- 12 year olds don't know everything. I did notice and realize that my parents were horrible together. They barely enjoyed each others company, we're not very affectionate and appeared to just go through the motions to me in the end. My sister however, was a bit naive and clueless to how this all works. \n\nFast forward almost a year. Parents are finally finishing up what I would call a messy divorce. My parents sold our family house and we were now staying with my dad only every other weekend. My mom had dropped us off and she and my dad went into the kitchen and closed the door to finalize some other discrepancies, they literally were screaming at each other the moment the door closed. My sister and I were in the living room watching tv. I look over to her, my parents screaming in the background, and I see tears streaming down her face. I'm a big brother. That shit isn't cool. So, I get up, swing open the kitchen door, and scream at my parents \"Sara can hear everything you are saying to each other! Find another fucking place to argue!\". I slam the door. Just as that happens, all of the hanging pictures fall to the ground and shatter. I knew I'd be in trouble for that. It didn't matter. They sat there in silence. I look over at my sister and she has the same tear stained face as before. She locked up. \n\nFast forward another year. My sister is hanging out with horrible punks. The scum of the earth. I cannot tolerate living with my mom and sister and my moms then \"friend\" who ended up becoming my step dad later. My sister and mom fight so much it's intolerable. I move in with my dad 40 miles away. My sister resented me for \"leaving her there\", so things got worse. She ran away and was found in the back of a pickup truck in the woods completely nude. She ran off with some guy, and they \"camped\" for a few weeks. She got into drugs, later in life started stripping, got knocked up by a man older than my dad when she was only 19, had 2 more kids from another guy, and basically lives in the projects with her on and off again partner. Neither can hold a job. My sister can't really interact with people. She has a hard time in relationships, and has a love-hate relationship with her mom, and can't stand her step-siblings. She rarely talks to me. She is a practicing Wiccan, which wouldn't really matter, but it's the way she forces it upon her family. I have my own relationship problems, but they pale in comparison.\n\nSo, I think a lot of it is 1. How old you are when this all happens, and 2. Parents \"collateral damage\" when doing the divorce. A clean cut, and love from both sides would be ideal. In my opinion you are lucky to not have that in your life. One parent dosing out all the love is better than two parents battling over money, custody, and one-upping their former spouse. ",
"Divorces often get really, really ugly. And people are petty. It's not always a mutually consensual divorce, bad things are said and done.\n\nThese are two of your favorite people who now each tell you the other is trash (or maybe just one does) and you should not love them any more. But you do, and it feels like a betrayal. You aren't allowed to enjoy your time with one parent, because now it means you're betraying the absent one. Or approving of their absence, at the very least. You become an object they fight over and you think it's your fault. You stop being you and become this symbol of family life to them and paradoxically, it becomes harder to get your voice heard while they're demanding you express an opinion. What they want is a preference. A choice. Affirmation that they are the \"good parent\" or the \"cool parent.\" Some do choose, somehow. \n\nAnd now there are new girlfriends and boyfriends of your parents and maybe you like them, but you probably don't because they're different. They don't know you, they get everything wrong. And every time you switch houses and accidentally bring up an inside joke or reference from the other house - the \"wrong\" house, you're reminded that your parents are becoming more different and separated by the day, and you'll never feel like a singular person ever again. You'll remember (or outright make up) occasions where all of you were together, and happy. And you'll miss those times. \n\nThat's a slice of it, anyway. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
kkyg2 | what ties a stock's price to a company's performance | Why does a stock cost more if the associated company is doing well or less if the company is doing poorly? I could understand if the stock paid dividends based on the company's profits, but if I understand correctly, most stocks today don't pay dividends. I asked some of my friends who study financial math at Stanford and they just told me non-explanations like "a stock price is meant to be an estimate of the total worth of a company." What incentive do traders have to actually buy or sell at a price related to the worth of the company? How is a share of Apple stock traded on the modern stock market any more valuable than a piece of paper with "Apple" scribbled on it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kkyg2/eli5_what_ties_a_stocks_price_to_a_companys/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2l3gwc",
"c2l8ii1",
"c2l3gwc",
"c2l8ii1"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Most all of the big companies do pay dividends.\n\nYour piece of paper doesn't actually represent fractional ownership of the company, with voting rights in some of their big decisions. A stock does.\n\nAnd companies like Apple that don't pay dividends are assumed to be doing so to save their money for growth, so they can pay bigger dividends in the future.\n\nSome companies pay huge dividends because investors assume that they won't be able to keep it up for much longer. So certain companies might pay 10%, but the market doesn't think it will last, and the dividend will likely decrease, as earnings fail.",
"Nothing directly ties company financials directly to its stock price. Stock prices are based on how traders feel about *what other traders would pay to hold those shares*. It helps if your company a big well-known brand because it's all based on perception of your brand and the industry you're in.\n\nThink about comic book collecting. Comic book collectors don't price collectible comics directly according to how well DC and Marvel operate their business. A comic book collectors only pricing consideration is *how much other collectors will pay* for Uncanny X-Men issue #1 and that's what sets the price for that comic. Comic collectors appreciate that Marvel keeps pushing the X-Men franchise so that X-Men issue #1 is worth even more, but it's not typlical for comic collectors to dig into the financial balance sheets of Marvel and DC to gain more insight than that. So too, stock traders follow the general direction each company is planning, and uses that information to buy or sell stock in that company based on the market perception of the decisions that company has made.\n",
"Most all of the big companies do pay dividends.\n\nYour piece of paper doesn't actually represent fractional ownership of the company, with voting rights in some of their big decisions. A stock does.\n\nAnd companies like Apple that don't pay dividends are assumed to be doing so to save their money for growth, so they can pay bigger dividends in the future.\n\nSome companies pay huge dividends because investors assume that they won't be able to keep it up for much longer. So certain companies might pay 10%, but the market doesn't think it will last, and the dividend will likely decrease, as earnings fail.",
"Nothing directly ties company financials directly to its stock price. Stock prices are based on how traders feel about *what other traders would pay to hold those shares*. It helps if your company a big well-known brand because it's all based on perception of your brand and the industry you're in.\n\nThink about comic book collecting. Comic book collectors don't price collectible comics directly according to how well DC and Marvel operate their business. A comic book collectors only pricing consideration is *how much other collectors will pay* for Uncanny X-Men issue #1 and that's what sets the price for that comic. Comic collectors appreciate that Marvel keeps pushing the X-Men franchise so that X-Men issue #1 is worth even more, but it's not typlical for comic collectors to dig into the financial balance sheets of Marvel and DC to gain more insight than that. So too, stock traders follow the general direction each company is planning, and uses that information to buy or sell stock in that company based on the market perception of the decisions that company has made.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
71mnmp | how can a fibreoptic cable carry millions of signals at once? | ...especially transatlantic cables? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/71mnmp/eli5_how_can_a_fibreoptic_cable_carry_millions_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"dnbv694"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"They send several different colors (wavelengths) of light at once, which helps, but the *main* technique is that each wavelength sends thousands or millions of tiny \"packets\" of data per second, each with an ID number at the start, so that many different streams (with different ID numbers) can be intermixed."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
bykfvc | why do modern homes have such high ceilings? | Why are so many modern homes built with high ceilings?
This seems like a waste of space and an unnecessary recurring cost for heating and cooling large spaces that are not being used ......
When many areas suffer from overburdened grids and have rolling blackouts during heat waves - why build homes that make the problem even worse?
I cannot even find a home in my area built after 2005 that does not have large spaces with 14’ to 16’ ceilings (or higher).
So, why are so many modern homes built this way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bykfvc/eli5_why_do_modern_homes_have_such_high_ceilings/ | {
"a_id": [
"eqiklkw",
"eqiopnx",
"eqiwq0w"
],
"score": [
20,
7,
4
],
"text": [
"Cooling a house is cheaper if the ceiling is high, as the hot air rises toward the ceiling, leaving comfortable cooler air down where the people are.\n\nBuyers like high ceilings for their appearance.",
"It’s a way to make a space feel larger without having a larger footprint. This is more common when you get to denser/previously developed areas where you can’t put down a house that needs 1/2 acre to feel big.\n\nIt also can convey a feeling of opulence since large spaces like that were historically only available to the wealthy.",
"They look more attractive, hot air rises so it’s cheaper to cool and running an A/C typically costs more than heating, HVAC are much more efficient now a days so costs are lower than in past plus you have things like radiant heating in floors, larger ceilings mean more windows for passive heating, more windows to open for passive cooling."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4rqb1f | why do so many web-based business programs seem to run exclusively on internet explorer? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4rqb1f/eli5_why_do_so_many_webbased_business_programs/ | {
"a_id": [
"d537dyu",
"d537v10",
"d537ybd"
],
"score": [
7,
4,
8
],
"text": [
"1. They were made when IE was *the* browser. (1999-2006)\n\nor\n\n2. They were made using < -2013 versions of Microsoft products",
"It used to be that Internet Explorer was *the* browser. Microsoft didn't care about web standards, so they made many improvements that no other browser would implement. Businesses loved these improvements, but it required their employees to *only* use IE. Many of these businesses spent a lot of money creating these applications and since they continue to work, they don't want to pay someone to make them work in new browsers now.\n\nTL;DR - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.",
"In the early days of the interweb, Microsoft sought to dominate it. Even though you had the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), which is a group of companies that operate on the web, pushing certain web standards, Microsoft decided that it was big enough to do its own thing much of the time and still maintain market share.\n\nAs /u/milosorri points out, a lot of enterprise web apps were developed during this time, and Microsoft pretty much DID own the web browser market (their browser came pre-installed on all Windows machines, and there wasn't any strong competition). In order to keep development costs down, companies that designed these apps would choose to be compatible with the browser that had the majority market share rather than everyone else.\n\nFast forward to now, where IE no longer enjoys a majority market share, and you've still got older web apps that were developed during that time, and continue to be maintained by a companies that don't want to put the development cost into making their apps compatible across multiple browsers (especially when they can just force their users to use IE)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
9t9udg | why do obviously guilty criminals plead not guilty (i.e. pittsburgh synagogue shooter)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9t9udg/eli5_why_do_obviously_guilty_criminals_plead_not/ | {
"a_id": [
"e8uluyp",
"e8um25n",
"e8um92i",
"e8umyjy",
"e8uncci",
"e8unqx7"
],
"score": [
3,
6,
19,
5,
7,
8
],
"text": [
"Plea bargain (_URL_0_)\n\nUsually, the guilty party can try to get some kind of reduced/lesser sentence if they plead guilty. This also why some innocent people will plead guilty, just to reduce the penalty in case they aren’t found innocent.\n\nSo for the Pittsburgh shooter pleading guilty might only get him life in prison in stead of the Death Penalty. ",
"Well it's the job of a lawyer to represent the interests of thier client. So in alot of these cases I would guess the defendant wants to plead not guilty.",
"There are a number of reasons. By pleading not guilty it gives the defense more time to seek evidence or circumstance that may reduce the possible sentence (or technicalities that could favor the defendant,) it incentivizes the prosecution to offer a deal that may be more favorable, and at the end of the day since everyone is innocent until proven guilty it is the right of the accused to have to prosecution prove their guilt.\n\nIn the case of the synagogue shooter I believe I read that they're seeking the death penalty. In such cases a full trial offers more opportunity to convince a jury to make it life. The prosecution may also offer life in a plea bargain. ",
"In the American legal system once a suspect pleads guilty the system moves directly to the punishment phase. In the event the suspect pleads not guilty then there was a trial.",
"Some really good answers, but put shortly it's because the defendant gains almost nothing by pleading guilty upfront. The prosecutor may offer a deal for any number of reasons, and pleading not guilty gives you the ability to negotiate",
"I used to do probono criminal defense - very small time stuff - nothing bigger than small time drug/weapons charges. \n\nThe first thing to consider is that weird things happen in jury trials. See OJ Simpson, George Zimmerman, etc. Our criminal defense system is *heavily* weighted towards the defense by design. As such, it can be very hard for a prosecutor to win a case that appears to be a slam dunk.\n\nA second thing to consider is that a jury trial is not a reflection of the 'truth' per se, its more of a theater act performed in a courtroom for the purpose of convincing a jury one way or the other. Juries only see some of the evidence, and personalities/impression make a *huge* difference when determining believability or witnesses and evidence. In my experience in NYC, the cops know who committed a murder +90% of the time bc people talk and cops are actually really good at knowing the inside 'gossip' going around the street - but rarely does any of that ever make it into a courtroom. \n\nIts *much* harder to get solid evidence into a courtroom, and even harder to get a jury to believe it. Oftentimes witnesses contradict themselves or come off poorly to the jury; evidence may be excluded; the prosecution may make a tactical error; the defendant's girlfriend may swear to god they were sitting on the couch all night, etc. Even if five people witnessed person A shoot person B, a good defense atty can poke holes in the witness statements (or knock down their credibility) to the point that a jury no longer believes them.\n\nThere are a ton of other things to consider, but the main point is that anything can happen at a jury trial. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargain"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
a9bx7s | how does an image or video get put onto a screen with so many pixels? whats the hardware involved. | This question isnt about how the actual screen works (which is all I seem to get) this asking how does the computer go from a bitmap (I think its called), or a recieved image over the internet or a youtube video thats obviously in binary to an actual image that you can see thats made up of hundreds of thousands to millions of tiny pixels? Is there a chip in a phone or a laptop with just as many connections going from it to each pixel? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9bx7s/eli5_how_does_an_image_or_video_get_put_onto_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"eci4blo"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"No. There aren't 1920×1080 connections from the processor to the screen.\n\nThere's the CPU (central processing unit) that interprets the information from the internet and decodes it into a bitmap. The bitmap is then passed into a GPU (graphics processing unit) either one by one bit (serial) or in chunks of bytes (parallel, several bits passed at once).\n\nThe GPU then makes the specialized work of storing, mixing and transforming the bitmaps. When the image is ready to be displayed, it is then sent to the screen, again either by serial or parallel connection but it doesn't address each individual pixel.\n\nThe job of sending each color to each pixel is destributed through dedicated chips on the screen. How this is done depends on the design of the screen. For example, one chip can control a whole line of the screen or a tiny subset of 8×8 pixels. These chips work like the train track selectors: they know the order of the bits which they are receiving and then select the correct pixel, allowing the bits to flow down the right track until the correct pixel.\n\nThis is done hundreds of times per second, in a parallel way, so fast, that we can't see it without super slow motion cameras. In modern screens, this can't even be seen trough slow motion because the dedicated chip only tells the line or subset of pixels to display the new colors when every pixel already received its bits - when everyone is ready, it signals the group of pixels to display the color stored in the tiny temporary memory of each pixel."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3rnlbi | why do big tech companies need so much time for simple software updates. | Classic situation. Major music app has bug in latest update. Everybody writes that into the review section. It takes two weeks for the company to upload that fix.
Why couldn't they update it right away? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rnlbi/eli5_why_do_big_tech_companies_need_so_much_time/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwpmeky",
"cwpmf39",
"cwpp0pr",
"cwpvtd7"
],
"score": [
11,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"a )[ Have you ever seen this image](_URL_0_) ? There is a reason for it existing. Often at times a bug can be hard to track down and fix and even harder to not affect anything else. Software is an incredibly complicated engine with a lot of parts that rely on each other. Sometimes, depending on how \"connected\" the thing is a small bug here might lead to some other part breaking. Fixing bugs most of the times is more work than \"Oh, damn, I forgot a semicolon here, let me just add that in real quick\".\n\nb ) They are doing other things; like updating other parts of the software, developing other products, spending time on more important issues that actually might be dangerous if not fixed right away and doing support to circumvent other problems. Most updates to software are a long list of things; not just one issue.",
"Software development is a complex effort. \n\nYour music application has to be written in a programming language, consisting of code that makes the software do what you want it to do. Sometimes, the simplest things you do in your program could be made up of hundreds or thousands of lines of code.\n\nCode is organized into functions and procedures.... groups of code that does a specific thing. Then other parts of your code can call those functions or procedures... you write something once, and then use it many times.\n\nChanging commonly used functions or procedures can affect your entire program, so you have to test the changes exhaustively to make sure that by fixing one bug, you don't introduce a new bug.\n\nAlso, with so much code ... thousands or even millions of lines of code in total ... it can be very hard to *find* the code that's causing your bug. It can take weeks to troubleshoot and correct your code, and then weeks more to properly test it and make sure everything's working.\n\nAdd as well that while you're doing that, you're also working on the next version of your code, so now you have to fix the bug, then apply the fix into the older versions and the current version of your code, and then go through whatever processes you have to go through to release your code and deliver it to your users.\n\nSoftware development is a complex effort. ",
"Speaking as a driver developer/whatever ... In many cases there are a dozen or so parallel branches going on at once and your fix is sitting in one that hasn't been rebased in 3 months and getting it conflict free to push to mainline will take effort....\n\n",
"Person working at a large tech company here.\n\n90% of it is inefficiencies. Especially in big tech companies, it takes a whole lot of push and a fair amount of time to \"turn the ship around\" as it were.\n\nWhether or not they disclose it, most software makers have bug list several hundred entries long. As soon as 1.0 ships, they're working on 1.1. User reported bugs from 1.0 might not make it into the product until 1.5 or later, if they're non-critical.\n\nThere's a constant battle back and forth between \"Program Management\" and the actual developers, and again, the bigger the company the more bureaucracy overhead is introduced. There's going to be delegation from possibly dozens of people trying to determine what bugs are 'most important' and which ones can wait.\n\nConversely, smaller dev shops can usually just take user feedback and decide between a room of people actually engineering the software that \"Okay, yeah, we can fix this tonight\"."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://i.imgur.com/HTisMpC.jpg"
],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
c02r1j | why does sound sound different when you move? | For example theres a loud ass wash machine in the background, when you lean over to puck something up or any other reason, why does the sound kinda chabge tone? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c02r1j/eli5_why_does_sound_sound_different_when_you_move/ | {
"a_id": [
"er06lv6",
"er06pk9"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Do you mean after moving to another position, or during the movement ? Because the explanation is different. \nIf you mean after you moved, it’s likely because you are catching the sound differently, maybe you moved from something that was in the way of the sound and was changing it, the further you are to a sound, the more different it will sound because it bounces on all kinds of things. \n\nIf you meant during the movement, then that’s the Doppler effect, just like when a police car with sirens passes near you, the sound changes as it gets closer or further from you. If you move towards the source of a sound, there will be less time between each sound wave reaching you than if you had stayed still. As the frequency gets higher, so does the pitch.",
"The Doppler Effect:\nUsually the idea is applied to objects making noise when they go past you, like fire trucks. The change in sound comes from the source of the noise getting closer to/further from your ear, which causes a change in the frequency of the sound waves. This frequency change is what effects the sound.\n\nIt's probably similar but to a much lesser extent in your example of your washing machine. Otherwise, it could be your surroundings changing the waves (sound waves bouncing off walls or getting absorbed by the couch)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
86h8ky | why do watermelons or any fruit for that matter blows up when a bullet passes throught it rather than just leaving an entry to exit hole? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86h8ky/eli5_why_do_watermelons_or_any_fruit_for_that/ | {
"a_id": [
"dw52ner",
"dw53hbt",
"dw54eum",
"dw57jdt",
"dw5m187",
"dw66gkq"
],
"score": [
4,
5,
27,
4,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"The bullet carries a weight. That weight carries a force. It takes force to break the fruit. When there is enough force to weight, no matter how small the object may be, it will cause significant damage. Think of space junk. An object flying around space at 10k+ mph will shoot through most things that it encounters. Look up space debris damage on shuttles. The bullet hitting the watermelon creates a shockwave that radiates around the watermelon as well. That shockwave adds to the obliteration process. Fruit usually is not dense and therefore expands easily under pressure. Tissue is not the same. ",
"Objects at rest will stay at rest until acted upon by an outside force.\n\nThe watermelon at rest is having a perfectly lovely day staying at rest. Once the bullet hits the watermelon it imparts a giant force. This causes the front part of the watermelon to begin moving suddenly. The rest of the watermelon is still at rest so it resists moving and causes the crushing effect you see. This in addition to the bullet moving through imparting energy into the insides of the watermelon sending matter scattering outwards from the impact.",
"Did you ever notice when someone jumps into a pool they don't leave a neat hole? They splash. Imagine all that energy trapped inside a piece of fruit.",
"When a projectile passes through a material it is slowed, and that energy has to go somewhere. \n\nHow projectiles behave on impact is called terminal ballistics. \n\nStandard modern projectiles have a lead core with a copper jacket. They are designed to impart as much of their energy as possible to the target, and do so in different ways. Hollow point and soft point bullets used by hunters, police, and for civilian self-defense have a copper jacket that does not cover the tip, and are designed to expand and flatten on impact so they create a larger wound channel and impart most of their energy to the target. Military projectiles are required to have a full copper jacket (FMJ- full metal jacket) by international law. That means the bullets retain their shape better, but in the case of very high energy cartridges like the 30-06 or the 7.62x51mm NATO the bullet is so big and fast that it doesn't matter if much of the energy is lost. With the 5.56x45mm NATO you have a much smaller, lighter projectile at high velocity; less energy, but it tends to break apart, tumble, or yaw on impact transferring a lot of its energy. ",
"Hydrostatic shock, as can been seen on the video below.\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"Cavitation: pressure wave that follows the bullet path causes a rapid expansion and then elastic contraction of the object. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQx2eHpDVnE"
],
[]
] |
||
22h1y2 | why does sucking on hard candy for too long make the inside of my cheek sore and wrinkly? | It doesn't happen if I switch cheeks every once in a while, only when I leave it in one place. The same thing happens with cough drops. What's happening in my mouth, and why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22h1y2/eli5_why_does_sucking_on_hard_candy_for_too_long/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgmspo7"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The sugar in the candies is causing the a change in the relative concentration of sugars (and other things) compared to the cells in your cheek. In an attempt to re-balance the concentrations, fluid from your cheek flows into your mouth. Leaving your cheek, dry (sore) and wrinkled. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
29q6ba | why is it that when i open a bottle of water for the first time, a bit of water vapor comes out? | I'm not sure if it's water vapor, maybe carbon dioxide, but it's not carbonated water so I don't know where it's coming from. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29q6ba/eli5why_is_it_that_when_i_open_a_bottle_of_water/ | {
"a_id": [
"cineyhl",
"cinf3zo"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"The bottles are pressurized to prevent bending or denting during transportation, it's a little bit of air-pressure that's escaping.",
"The bottles are given a hot rinse before being filled with roughly room temperature water and being capped. This causes some natural air compression, which increases even more during shipping and storage to provide this cushion air buffer and the hiss you experience. If the water bottle was cold when opening, you'd have the opposite occurring, with air rushing in to equalize the pressure (which sounds the same and can also cause some water droplets to spray out). "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
3enopk | why do airports take away your liquids and alcohol, when you can just buy the exact same thing in the airport stores, especially when alcohol is flammable? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3enopk/eli5_why_do_airports_take_away_your_liquids_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctgnfy9",
"ctgnmg8"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Once you've passed security, the goods you're buying from the stores are known to be what they claim to be. Although you know that your bottle definitely contains Coke, the authorities aren't quite as trusting.\n\nDepending on where you go, things like bottles of Vodka may also get sealed in a plastic bag. If you open the bag your bottle of booze gets confiscated.\n\nA huge amount of it is just security theatre though to be honest. With what they do let through, it should still be possible to do some damage, and the departure lounge is full of shops selling you things that could easily be used/abused once onboard. \n\nThat said, the stuff in the shops is definitely all standard house-hold items, so confiscating your stuff at security does at least (theoretically) stop you bringing anything specialist in.\n\n",
"In 2006, there was a plot to blow up planes using liquid explosives. As a reaction to that, security won't let passengers bring past security any liquids except in very small amounts.\n\nThe stuff that is sold in the airport shops had been cleared by security already."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
6obw88 | what would happen if you walked into somewhere with immense radiation? | I read in a news article about a robot they have sent into the water under fukushima this week.
It can tolerate 200 sieverts, which the article says "can kill a human instantly".
If you walked into this place, how would it kill you instantly? Would you just have a heart attack or something? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6obw88/eli5_what_would_happen_if_you_walked_into/ | {
"a_id": [
"dkg8463"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"Your heart won't be what goes first, and you may not even die that day, but you'll die soon\n\nNo one has been exposed to radiation of this magnitude so everything that follows is a guess based on the aftermath of criticality accidents, the only other things to produce sudden, high doses of radiation, primarily the Demon Core incidents of Daghlian and Slotin\n\nFor reference dosage of 4 sieverts is generally fatal and 8 is guaranteed to be fatal even with treatment\n\nThe first symptom of acute radiation poisoning is generally nausea and vomiting, this would likely commence within the hour. Louis Slotin is estimated to have been exposed to 21 sieverts of radiation during a criticality incident with the Demon Core. He is reported to have vomited as soon as he left the building.\n\nThere is a limit on how quickly this can happen. The inner lining of your GI tract will instantly die, but it will need to slough off to make you queasy and that will take time\n\nNext would be great pain as all of your organs begin to shut down. You would effectively be sunburned not just on the surface but on your insides too. Slotin was described as having a 3D sunburn, it continues down hill from here\n\n > Over the next nine days, Slotin suffered an \"agonizing sequence of radiation-induced traumas\", including severe diarrhea, reduced urine output, swollen hands, erythema, \"massive blisters on his hands and forearms\", intestinal paralysis, and gangrene. He had internal radiation burns throughout his body, which one medical expert described as a “three-dimensional sunburn.” By the seventh day, he was experiencing periods of “mental confusion.” His lips turned blue and he was put in an oxygen tent. He ultimately experienced \"a total disintegration of bodily functions\" and slipped into a coma\n\nComa is likely the highlight of all this. With a 200 sievert dose your body would likely go into shock quicker than Slotin's did so you'd hopefully be unconscious for a bit more of the 3-5 days it takes you to die(yayyyyy.....)\n\nDaghlian was unfortunate enough to only be exposed to 5.1 sieverts, he experienced most of these symptoms(to a lesser degree) over 25 days before finally slipping into a coma and dying\n\n\nOnce you get a 200 sievert dose you're guaranteed to either die int he next week or turn into a ghoul but neither process is going to be fun or pretty"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
afger6 | why do some types of metal spring back to their original shape when bent (like a spring) and some don’t (like tinfoil or a paper lip)? | *paperclip | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afger6/eli5_why_do_some_types_of_metal_spring_back_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"edyekpm"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Elasticity of metal.\n\nELI5: All materials have a certain amount they can be bent or stressed before it is beyond the ability to go back it's original shape. This \"Point of Elasticity\" is different for every material and once a material goes beyond it, some of the warping is permanent. Eventually if the material is bent further, it will contain to warp and eventually break. Some materials don't even have the ability to go beyond their point of elasticity and will break as soon as they are past that point."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1g04xx | the arguments for and against buying foreign automobiles. | I never understood the problem unless of course you work in the automotive industry.
Help me understand. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g04xx/eli5_the_arguments_for_and_against_buying_foreign/ | {
"a_id": [
"cafhgr9",
"cafkp68",
"cag0poj"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"At this point, I'm not even clear on what foreign vs domestic *means* when talking about cars. If its a Ford assembled in Canada from parts made in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and Germany, does the concept of a domestic car even mean anything?",
"I think this whole argument started with the rise of Japanese automakers, so US automakers pulled the \"it's more patriotic to by cars from us since we're 'murican\" card even though their cars aren't technically even completely American. Nowadays, I would say that both American and foreign cars are good options, and that. You should go test both types out to see which fits best for you. However, for some reason, there is still a slight bias towards foreign cars because they are oftentimes perceived to be more luxurious and to have better engines, but I think American cars have started catching up in those departments. ",
"Some of it is taste-- people prefer the aesthetics or performance of one car brand or another, and that is more car nerd than I can really follow.\n\nSome of it is pure blind patriotism, with people thinking that buying American is what True American do. Before you start asking about whether they are consistent in this, consider that cars are usually one of the larger purchases people make in their lives, so even if you can't get an American everything it might make sense from this view to at least make the effort with something as big and important as a car.\n\nThe rest of it (and some of the patriotism) stems from an economic theory called Mercantilism. Every country (every developed country, at least) has a department in the government whose job it is to count up all the goods and services a country produces every year. The number they get is called the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, or a country. In the minds of many, including the minds of Mercantilists, GDP is the \"score\" of your country, and the most important thing is for your nation to have the highest score.\n\nHere's the thing, then. If you, personally, build a car in America then sell it to someone in Canada, America gets one car's worth of GDP points. But not only that, Canada *loses* one car's worth of GDP points (the full formula is C+G+I+Ex-Im, or Personal Consumption plus Government Consumption plus Investment plus Exports minus Imports). In the mind of someone who wants a high GDP score for the country, when you import a car you are hurting everyone's score.\n\nFurthermore, when that Canadian imports the car from America they are, by definition, not buying that car from Canada. That means any Canadian car companies make less money, and if it happens too much could go out of business, while the American car companies make more money. Of course, it isn't just a matter of having a high score, having more or less money really matters in the real world. If all Canadians buy cars from Ford, an American company, instead of the Canadian Car Company (I don't think there are any, but just roll with me here), then the Canadian Car Company will go out of business. Every one of its employees will become unemployed, at least for a while. The unemployed typically cut back heavily on spending, so all the stores and restaurants located around the CCC plant will make less money, and some of those will go out of business. When those stores go out of business, there are fewer places for former CCC workers to get new jobs, so they stay unemployed, plus the new unemployed people mean fewer people are spending money and it gets even harder for the surviving stores to stay open. You can witness this spiral of decline in Detroit today, or many areas of what is called the \"rust belt\", which runs from about Southern Pennsylvania to Southern Wisconsin, though I should emphasize that the rust belt has had FAR more problems than just international trade.\n\nSo while we have an area of Canada that is starting to become an economic wasteland, we can look south the area around the Ford plants. All that economic activity that was happening in Canada is now happening down around the Ford plant. Ford is hiring new workers, which means there is more money in the local economy, which means the stores and restaurants are making more money, hiring more workers, and even more stores are opening up to take advantage of the new wealth. If you have spent any time in the Shale oil regions of the country, like North Dakota or the Barnett or Eagle Ford areas of Texas then you have seen the boomtowns that spring up almost overnight when the money is good.\n\nNow let's say you aren't in the automotive industry. Say you have run a restaurant in the town around the Canadian Car Company, you have run the restaurant for forty years and most of your business came from locals who knew that your restaurant was a good, community friendly place. Now, suddenly and through no fault of your own (except, of course, that F-150 in your driveway), the establishment that you have poured your life and love into is struggling under a mountain of debt, and you go whole days without a single customer. There you are reading the newspaper and you hear that the Ford company has sparked a boomtown down in America. And you say to yourself, \"what the hell? Those damned foreigners are living it up with my hard earned Canadian dollars. All that prosperity rightfully belongs up here, but they have it instead.\" You aren't a factory worker, you don't even think of yourself as a car guy, but because too many people bought foreign cars and not enough bought domestic, your domestic car company has shut down and your town has fallen into a permanent recession. You are not happy.\n\nNow, I was trained as an economist, so now that we know the easily visible effects, lets look at the effects that are harder to see.\n\n*oh, shit, too long*"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
28rzg0 | would a woman who has had her " tubes tied " still get her period? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28rzg0/elif_would_a_woman_who_has_had_her_tubes_tied/ | {
"a_id": [
"cidvn8m",
"cidyb6s"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"Yes. Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining which plumps up in readiness to receive a fertilized egg. If the tubes are tied the egg can no longer reach the uterus and gets absorbed by the body, but the uterine lining plumps up in readiness, and then later sheds just as usual.\n\nIt is no different that when an unfertilized egg passes through in a woman who has not been sterilized.",
"So to describe the human female anatomy, I will use the Whitehouse as an analogy. The vagina is the front door, the clitoris is the door bell (Keep pressing that shit until someone answers) the uterus is the great room and the tubes (fallopian tubes) are the east and west wings. If you block off the east and west wings, you still have access to the great room. And of course, the backdoor is where the asshole is and is full of shit. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
7ppeb0 | what makes different cords/blocks charge the same phone better or worse? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7ppeb0/eli5_what_makes_different_cordsblocks_charge_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dsiycj0",
"dsizp55"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"For outlet adapters, some adapters are designed to provide a larger current, but this typically increases cost/size. A few standards like USB Power Delivery and Qualcomm QuickCharge, increase the voltage with a compatible device, allowing more power (= current*voltage) to be transmitted. Apple also uses a unique method of communication with devices, while many other devices simply short the two data pins to indicate the source is a charger \n\nMany low-cost cables have a higher resistance (often by using thinner wires to save costs), which limits the current provided before the voltage drops to an unacceptable point, and some omit the data pins/wires to save costs.",
"Look on the \"block\", somewhere there should be an output listed. It's probably between 500mA and 2.5A. The higher the output, the faster it can charge.\n\nWhich cable you use should matter less unless you have a very cheap, or very long, cable."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
43i4bh | is it possible to predict future technological development? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43i4bh/eli5_is_it_possible_to_predict_future/ | {
"a_id": [
"czienvl",
"czietz5",
"czifhm3"
],
"score": [
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Technologically progresses exponentially, but not necessarily in the directions we expect. Everyone thought we'd all drive flying cars by now and have a colony on the moon, but that didn't work out. Nobody thought we'd be mining bitcoins to buy drugs online, but now that's a thing. \n\nThe closer the technology, the easier it is to predict. We can be very sure that next year's computers will be more powerful than last year's computers. We can't be sure at all that we'll be able to download our consciousness to hard drives in 50 years. ",
" > Can we expect this trend to continue exponentially or is it stagnating?\n\nUnless there's something like WWIII, it will continue exponentially.\n\n > Do we rely on war, luck or the next Einstein for future technological deveopment?\n\nNo, most technological development is not based on a rare insight from a single amazing individual like Einstein - it's small, incremental improvements to existing technology. Of course, there are occasional breakthroughs - but technology keeps improving either way.\n\n > Is it even possible to predict?\n\nIt's impossible to predict exactly what technology will develop in the future, but it is possible to forecast certain things. For example, 30 years ago people very accurately predicted how powerful computers would be today. We have a pretty good idea of how powerful computers will be 30 years from now even though we have no idea how we're going to get there, we just know their overall power will likely continue to improve at an exponential rate.\n\n > Are we 50 years from being able to download our consciousness to hard drives and filming/watching films in true 3D?\n\nThat's a total unknown. Some people believe this is possible, others believe it's impossible.\n\nIn general nobody has had any luck predicting the future of technological advancements where we currently have *no idea* how we'd ever build something like that, for example:\n\n* time travel (impossible based on our current understanding of physics)\n* faster-than-light travel (impossible based on our current understanding of physics)\n* immortality (unknown whether this is possible)\n* curing cancer (unknown whether this is possible, but likely that in the future we'll cure more cancer, more of the time)\n\nOn the other hand, there are lots of things we believe are possible but we're not there yet, like:\n\n* Sending humans to Mars and back again\n* Building a \"space elevator\"\n* 90% efficiency solar panels\n* self-driving cars that are safer than human drivers\n",
"No.\n\nRead \"Outliers.\" Read the Freakonomics books. Read The Black Swan (not the stupid thing they made a movie out of).\n\nTechnological development is not a straight line. It's what mathematicians call discontinuous. When an entirely new technology appears, there's a jump from what was, to what comes.\n\nFor instance, when the telegraph was invented, it did not make horses run faster carrying messages. Instead, it required the creation of an entire industry -- installation of wires on poles across countrysides -- and caused the manufacture of wire to grow and refine, and messages suddenly were available at huge distances almost instantly. There is absolutely nothing about the pre-telegraph world that would or could have predicted this change."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
1l1qds | how do animals adapt to their environment through evolution? | _URL_0_
Charles Darwin *predicted* that a moth with a 12 inch tongue would exist in a deep jungle based on evidence of a flower alone that had its nectar only accessible through an extraordinarily long narrow shaft.
How the hell did this happen?
addition: It seems environments or entire ecoystems may evolve too for mutual beneficence in the case of bees and pollen, etc. i.e., how do flowers know to be vibrant and colorful (of a specific light wave length) to attract a *specific* insect; almost *knowing* that the bee's presence will take their pollen soon-to-be offspring to other flowers for offspring generation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l1qds/eli5_how_do_animals_adapt_to_their_environment/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbuwvgv",
"cbuy6i7"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"To answer your addition, flowers don't 'know' anything. Evolution is not a conscious process. Bees see into the UV end of the spectrum. If a flower happens to have a mutation that gives it UV spots, it may attract more bees and thus spread its genetic material more successfully. Thus the UV spot mutation becomes more prevalent in the population.\n\nAs for for something like this suiting, say, bees specifically: it is equally likely that the UV spot mutation might occur in a flower living in a place that has no bees, in which case it isn't beneficial, and might in fact be detrimental as it costs resources to make UV spots. So it may seem amazing that a flower evolved a feature to suit a particular insect, but it's actually a case of right place, right time.\n\nThese are obviously generalisations, but the principle holds.",
"Heres a nice info graphic video that explains it well. \nIts made by a German education company.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/darwins-xanthopa/"
] | [
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOfRN0KihOU"
]
] |
|
2ow18a | what happens when aluminum foil hits a filling? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ow18a/eli5_what_happens_when_aluminum_foil_hits_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmr0ry0"
],
"score": [
9
],
"text": [
"[Galvanic shock](_URL_0_). Two different types of metals plus saliva to conduct electricity is essentially creating a battery. The battery delivery its current straight to the nerves in your teeth, which are obviously pretty sensitive to stuff."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_pain"
]
] |
||
4gv02g | what's the difference between explaining and answering? | I asked a question yesterday if the US president is the US Head of State and the post was removed because I was looking for an answer, rather than an explanation. Could someone explain what's the difference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4gv02g/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_explaining_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2kx81t",
"d2kx9d6",
"d2kxdw1",
"d2kxffh"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You come home at 2 a.m. Your mom says \"Do you know what time it is?\"\n\nExplaining is you responting with \"Yes, but as I was dropping Jerry off at his house, his dad had severe shortness of breath. So we used my car to drive him to the hospital. He was having a heart attack. It looks like he's gonna be OK, but I was sitting with Jerry who was freaking out. He's calmer now.\"\n\nAnswering is you responding with \"Yes.\"",
"Basically, if it can be answered with a yes or a no or a similar one word explanation, that's an answer as far as ELI5 is concerned.\n\nExplanations are more thorough descriptions of how a concept works.\n\n\"Is the president the head of the state in the US\" is a yes or no question whereas \"what is the role of a head of state\" is a request for an explanation.",
"I had a good example last night in class. In one of the case studies we read, one of the discussion questions was something to the effect of \"Were you able to find any instances of blah, blah, or blah?\"\n\nThe answer was yes. We had been able to find some examples.\n\nThe explanation was to describe some of the examples we found in the case and explain how they were cases of blah, blah, or blah.\n\nYour question has an answer, but not really an explanation. Either the President is the head of state, or he isn't. If your question can be answered with a single word or a short sentence, that's probably an answer.\n\nA question that requires a paragraph or two at minimum to address is looking for an explanation.",
"A simple answer doesn't need to be accompanied by an explanation to fully understand it. \n\nTo explain is to provide an answer with additional background information so that the person can understand the answer as a whole.\n\nTo answer your question, it would just be a simple yes/no or true/false and your question would be considered 'answered'. Your question did not request for any sort of elaboration on the subject which is why it got removed. \n\nSee the E in ELI5 explained:\n\nE is for explain.\n\nThis is for concepts you'd like to understand better; not for simple one word answers, walkthroughs, or personal problems."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3lhcza | there shouldn't be a limit with the satellites around earth? | In the front page there is this [thread](_URL_0_) where Elon Mush is planning to launch 4,000 more satellites around Earth.
There isn't a downside with all these satellites out there?
We don't have enough already? Earth isn't affected by them somehow?
Thanks. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lhcza/eli5_there_shouldnt_be_a_limit_with_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv6b7es",
"cv6b7qq"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"So a satellite can be about the size of a car. Now think about how a big a car looks on the ground and compare it to how big a plane looks in the sky. A plane is huge on the ground, but if you see a plane flying overhead it doesnt look all that big. You could imagine other planes flying next to it without any problems. Now imagine the cars was flying next to the plane. The car looks really small now and it has a ton of space to move in. Also you could have other cars flying above and below that car. My point is that there is a ridiculous amount of space around the earth. The farther up you go, the more space there is. Not to mention that satellites fly a light higher up than planes.",
"Hi. ex-military satcom here. and no. there is no limit to how many satellites we can have. I guess if it's so thick it blocks out the sun, that's a bit much. no we dont have enough already if what he is trying to accomplish cant be done with the current number. also, it's not like they are all in the same place. there are different orbits and different orbit heights. it may get to the point where some satellites interfere with others, but as it stands, there's A LOT of space. plenty of room for all. "
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3lf3g5/elon_musk_is_planning_to_launch_4000_satellites/"
] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
b8wqd0 | p(event a) happening to be 0.5%, if i attempt 100 tries, the probability of it happening at least once would be (1-0.995^100)= ~0.6. however, say if i attempt 100 tries, and i stop half way through at 60 tries, with none of the previous 60 attempts successful, will it affect my probability? | Assuming the probability of Event A happening to be 0.5%, if I attempt 100 tries, the probability of it happening at least once would be (1-0.995\^100)= \~0.4. However, say if I attempt 100 tries, and I stop half way through at 60 tries, with none of the previous 60 attempts successful, does it affect the probability of Event A in the remaining attempts (Whether it should be the same probability as before of having it happen at least once at around 0.6, or should I recalculate the P(Event A) to be (1-0.995\^40), which is closer to 0.2?) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b8wqd0/eli5_pevent_a_happening_to_be_05_if_i_attempt_100/ | {
"a_id": [
"ek0kdk1",
"ek0klx6"
],
"score": [
11,
5
],
"text": [
"Randomness has no memory. Each coin toss has 50% chance of landing toss. Doesn't matter how often you threw it and how often you got a certain result.\n\nThe result is independant from previous AND future results - otherwise it's not truly randomness.\n\nWhat you're calculating is the probabilty of one success within 100 tries. Those tries don't need to be consecutive. If you try 1000 times then randomly pick 100 tries the probabilty that one of those is a success will be those 60 percent.",
"Lets make it more obvious: You do 99 attempts without success. Would that mean that the probability of succes for attempt #100 is 40%? Of course not, you stated at the beginning that it is 0.5%.\n\nAs long as each attempt is independent from the previous ones (and I assume thats the case in your example), the past is irrelevant, so the 60 attempts you already did do not mean anything for the future. The probability of at least one success in the next 40 attempts is the same as if it were the first 40 attempts, or \\~0.2."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
8mjjkf | how do flies avoid hitting each other in a swarm but will constantly slam into their own reflection in a mirror? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8mjjkf/eli5_how_do_flies_avoid_hitting_each_other_in_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dzo31up"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"A fly on a collision course with another fly only needs to adjust its course slightly to pass harmlessly by the other fly. In contrast a fly approaching its own reflection would need to completely reverse its course as passing its reflection is impossible, something the fly probably cannot even comprehend. Instead the fly is confronted with an apparent oncoming fly which somehow perfectly predicts and matches its evasive maneuvers as it attempts to reach a place that simply doesn't exist. Of course it is going to fail, any attempt to pass through a mirror will result in striking its own reflection."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
86xy7p | how does a satellite dish work, and why did they become obsolete so quickly? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86xy7p/eli5_how_does_a_satellite_dish_work_and_why_did/ | {
"a_id": [
"dw8p2ls",
"dw8pzwh",
"dw8r90d"
],
"score": [
5,
9,
3
],
"text": [
"They reflect the radio wave from the whole dish to a single receiver to amplify the signal, it it called a parabolic antenna. If you have a similar receptive shape you can focus light to a point.\n\nmost telescopes work the same way with curved mirrors instead of a lens.\n\nWhy would you say that they become obsolet quickly?",
"Well, first, satellite dishes are not obsolete. Not even close. They are absolutely *everywhere*. There are literally billions of satellite dishes in use worldwide. There are over a billion satellite tv subscribers in the word, and satellite tv is just a fraction of the uses for satellite dishes.\n\nAs for how they work, the dish collects incoming signals and focuses and amplifies them to the receiver. To send a signal, it's more-or-less the same process in reverse.",
"I think OP is referring to those huge, room shaped home satellite dishes that I have not seen since the early 90's and/or the advent of small dishTV style setups."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
2uww4f | how can reddit have such severe and constant server issues over a long period of time when all content hosted on the site is text-based? | Reddit doesn't have to do any work to show us imgur pictures, gfy gifs, youtube videos...but the site goes down every few minutes *every single day*. What's taking up so much server power? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uww4f/eli5_how_can_reddit_have_such_severe_and_constant/ | {
"a_id": [
"coceubd"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"A metric assload of traffic that surges every now and then. A metric assload of people upvoting and downvoting and commenting, resulting in constantly changing pages that makes caching comment pages pretty much impossible. Every user not only seeing the default subreddits has a customized front page.\n\nThe site gets billions of page views a month. It's a lot to keep up with."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3et4tr | if adam sandler movies are so bad and people hate them, how does he get money to make new ones? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3et4tr/eli5if_adam_sandler_movies_are_so_bad_and_people/ | {
"a_id": [
"cti4bmy",
"cti4o3f",
"cti4oxa",
"cti4pf7",
"cti4va2",
"cti4vle",
"cti6fq6"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
7,
3,
2,
11,
3
],
"text": [
"There are a lot of investors who give Adam Sandler to make movies. Either using his previous credentials or just gambling on the fact that he may make the next big one. Lots of movie investors run on small margins of profits; that one success pays for 3 failures. \n\nThere are other incentives like tax credits and etc. ",
"Adam Sandler's movies have tons and tons of product placement (Paul Blart 2 was basically a commercial for the Wynn resort in Las Vegas) and he gets tons of money from companies for all the free advertising. Additionally, when you're a hack who doesn't care about how good your movie is you can make it for dirt cheap. In fact, with the exception of generous salaries paid to Sandler and his friends, these movies generally cost next to nothing. From a studio's perspective, this is a perfect production, since its low cost, low risk, and Sandler's name alone can draw enough of a crowd to pay for it, no matter how crappy it is.",
"Happy Madison (Sandler's production company) films make their money back at the box office plus they are often filled to the brim with product placements which bring in the rest of the profits. Jack and Jill has a RT score of 3%, but it was cheap to make, made its money back selling tickets and made a profit on the advertisements in it. He keeps making films because they keep being profitable.",
"Comedy is a very personal experience. What makes one person laugh will just seem dumb or offensive to someone else. The response to comedy or humor seems to be more idiosyncratic than most other forms of entertainment. \n\nMost people seem to think that the comedy of Adam Sandler is juvenile and dumb (The [Hanukkah Song](_URL_0_) is the exception) but he has a loyal following of people who have always thought he was funny. Large enough, apparently, for his movies to be profitable.\n\nHis fans probably wouldn't like the comedy that I find funny.",
"Until recently, they usually made a lot of money. As much as people hate Sandler's movies, quite a few of them are big successes. He's had a couple big failures recently, and that may make investors skittish. But at the same time, people can have a few failure and then a big success, and Sandler's films have usually been cheap to make. I'd expect Sandler will still get a couple more opportunities, but if they fail as well he will have trouble getting the ones after that made.",
"Jack and Jill - Production Budget - $79 million, Worldwide Box office - $149 million (3% rotten tomatoes)\n\nBlended - Production Budget $40 million, Worldwide Box office - $126 million (14% rotten tomatoes)\n\nGrown Ups 2 - Production Budget $80 million, Worldwide Box Office - $246 million (7% rotten tomatoes)\n\nGrown Ups 1 - Production Budget $80 million, Worldwide Box Office - $271 million (10% rotten tomatoes)\n\nPretty much the only movie he's put out in the last 10 years that didn't make its budget back (plus a lot more) was the Andy Samberg \"That's My Boy.\" He's a money factory and almost a sure bet by studio standards.",
"I genuinely enjoy Adam Sandler's movies usually (HELLO DOWNVOTES!) \n\nThey're pretty easy to watch- funny in a juvenile way- often have some sort of heart warming message. And the consistent casts are comforting, like an old pair of pants. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/Rd1Pyu9_rxo"
],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
22rmg5 | who pays the damages incurred during a car chase? | During car chases,when cops rip through towns and wreck other cars, buildings, etc... who pays for the damages? When we see the exaggerated car-chase destruction in movies, whom do we assume get s the bill for all of this, if it were real life? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22rmg5/eli5_who_pays_the_damages_incurred_during_a_car/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgppz1q",
"cgpr1lo"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"in theory the person who was caught. since there's no way they have that money, mostly insurance companies. ",
"Depends on where you live. _URL_0_\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://people.howstuffworks.com/police-chase3.htm"
]
] |
|
ehc5k4 | how did nyc come to depend on steam so much? | What are the origins of New York City and their usage of steam power? Are there other examples of cities that rely on steam as heavily as NYC? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ehc5k4/eli5_how_did_nyc_come_to_depend_on_steam_so_much/ | {
"a_id": [
"fci641n",
"fcig9fn",
"fcil5kt",
"fckz1xu"
],
"score": [
3,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Steam was thee power-that-be during the late 1800's. And so was when the beginnings of both heating of building space and for domestic hot water of a large areas like in N.Y.\n\nLater on, the heat from steam could also be used for absorption type systems for air conditioning & refrigeration.",
"Municipal steam systems were developed when domestic steam heated really started taking off and every building and house had their own steam boilers. In denser more built up areas some people figured it would be easier to have one big boiler plant and pipe the steam to the indavidual buildings, and many people with boilers prone to violently exploding in their homes agreed and got rid of their boilers in favor for the municipal systems. \n\nDenver currently has the older operational district steam heating system in north America, though the city doesn't rely on it anywhere near as much as NYC, as only the government buildings and large structures near the central business district are still tied into it with most of the single family homes or townhomes cutting themselves from the system in the 40's for more efficient heating systems. \n\n\nMany cities in Europe rely on steam and district heating as much as New York, but many of those systems are built off of waste heat from factories and power plants near the cities they serve, and are also nowhere near as large as New York's system.",
"It was originally used as a source of heat, and still largely is in buildings where it's still in use. \n\nIt's much more efficient to have a large centralized boiler supplying hot steam to several buildings with hundreds of rooms, than it is to have several hundred individual stoves with their own flues and needing their own stock of fuel. That way you can just pay someone to tend the boiler full time, add coal as needed and arrange for delivery of fuel to a large central bunker. Only one chimney needs to be built. \n\nThis is also much safer, as there's no risk of somebody's individual stove catching on fire. \n\nTo be fair, individual residences tended to have stoves used for cooking before the adoption of natural gas and electricity, but this didn't need to be tended all night to provide heat.\n\nThis saved people a great amount of time, effort, and money, for buying fuel and tending a heating fire. In turn this allowed people in cities to be more productive and to have a bit more money to spend on leisure activities. \n\nPressurized steam can also be used to drive machinery. Note that steam power was one of the biggest drivers of the industrial revolution in Europe. It was widespread for 120 years before the adoption of electrical power.\n\nSomething like a clothing mill could have had hundreds of machines, each run on a steam engine on every floor. The low pressure steam exhaust could then be sent to other buildings for use as heat. So, consider a factory with a large central boiler for producing steam power. The hot steam could then be sold to other buildings for a tidy profit.\n\nSo, overall steam allowed for big improvements and savings in time and cost. By the late 1800's most buildings in large industrialized cities like NYC or London, were heated by steam.",
"One of the advantages of steam is that it can operate entirely under pressure and gravity. Which means you don't need pumps or motors to deliver heat up high rise buildings. Central plants are also more efficient than individual building boilers, especially in densely populated areas. It also allowed cities to locate pollution away from populated areas. Which was a big deal back when the most common urban fuel source was coal. Central steam plants could also be used to generate electricity or run steam engines for nearby factories. \n\nMost large cities use district heating and cooling to some extent. As do large facilities like airports and university campuses. It's much less common in suburban areas probably due to longer runs required. Even insulated pipes do lose heat. So on-site HVAC is more reliable. \n\nThere are newer technologies now, but Manhattan probably still uses it primarily because so many old buildings are hooked up to it. Same reason why they still had DC power plants up until surprisingly recently. Building owners would freak if they had to retrofit everything (that costs a ton of money), so it's probably cheaper to keep it operational. Problem is sometimes the pipes go boom."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
5nx8m5 | why do car stereo remotes exist? | This has had me wondering for a long time. The thing is right in front of me or a passenger. I don't see any situation I'd want someone in the back seat controlling the radio. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5nx8m5/eli5_why_do_car_stereo_remotes_exist/ | {
"a_id": [
"dceynnh"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Generally for when you're showing off your custom sound (doors and trunk open) you can control everything without actually having to be in the car.\n\nThis can be great for subwoofer competitions, where the noise level in and around the car can be harmful to your hearing.\n\nIt also can add a level of \"cool\" or enchance the flow of the showing of your car, as you could have various underglow systems hooked into the remote depending on just how tech savvy you are.. Or how much you paid someone to do it for you."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1jokbf | what makes rice crispies "snap crackle and pop"? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jokbf/eli5_what_makes_rice_crispies_snap_crackle_and_pop/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbgpzgd"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Rice Krispies contain lots of sugar which are cooked at high temperature, making the sugar form crystals and creates air-filled cavities. When a Krispie absorbs milk, the capillary forces push the air to shatter the cavities' walls, making a noise. The same as pop rocks candy too!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
am0n1r | why do lemons last so long while most fruit rots within a week? | a little story to go along with this, i had a lemon sitting in my fruitbowl which had been there for nearly 2 months, it was hard as a rock, you could have literally beat someone to death with this lemon, thats how hard it was it was also nearly black. and eventually out of pure curiosity i cut it up, and lo and behold it was 100% fresh no visible rot whatsoever and it tasted and smelled great. What in lemons make them last so incredibly long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am0n1r/eli5_why_do_lemons_last_so_long_while_most_fruit/ | {
"a_id": [
"eficj9e",
"efil1rs"
],
"score": [
12,
2
],
"text": [
"Because they are full of citric acid, which is a preserving agent.",
"Sometimes they coat fruit and veggies with a thin layer of wax to keep the products fresh looking.."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
2pudb8 | how does a loaded freight train ever get started? | I know, engines and all that. But with millions of pounds of train, wouldn't the wheels just spin and spin? How is there enough friction between the engine's wheels and the rails to get the thing moving? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pudb8/eli5_how_does_a_loaded_freight_train_ever_get/ | {
"a_id": [
"cn03ukm",
"cn03xl0",
"cn04zu1"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
8
],
"text": [
"Friction is dependent on the friction coefficient as well as on the normal force pressing the two surfaces together. \n\nSo, the more load you put on a wheel, the more friction there will be between the wheel and the rail. So when the train is fully loaded, the friction is very large. \n\nThey also usually drive on several axles, spreading the force between multiple contact points (wheels).\n\nAnd lastly, they get started quite slowly. The lower you keep your acceleration, the lower is the force acting on the train.",
"There is some slack between the cars. So the engine really only has to pull itself, then the first car, then their momentum will pull the second car, then their momentum pulls the third car and so on. If a train stops, it has to back up and put slack in between all the cars or it won't ever get going.\n\n[Slack Action](_URL_0_)\n\n > Loose coupling is necessary to enable the train to bend around curves and is an aid in starting heavy trains, since the application of the locomotive power to the train operates on each car in the train successively, and the power is thus utilized to start only one car at a time.",
"It depends of the terrain. Starting a train on an ascending grade is a totally different beast than starting a train on flat ground. For simplicity's sake we'll say we're starting on flat ground. Keep in mind, there are two different air brake systems on a train, one is called the independent brake, and it only controls the brakes on the locomotive(s). The other one is called the automatic, it controls the brakes on the cars in the train. The throttle is controlled with nine notches: idle, and 1 through 8, 8 being full throttle. \n\nTo get a train started on level ground, you would have the independent brake fully set, and the train brakes fully released. Select direction of travel: forward. Release the independent brake. Move throttle from idle to 1, allow train to stretch itself out, then take 2nd notch, etc. If you need a little bit of extra traction there are sanders. They blow sand down on the rail right in front of the wheels of the locomotives. \n\nsource: engineer on a freight railroad. \n\n "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack_action"
],
[]
] |
|
3ldukv | gender in language. | Learning Latin and French was just a bear because I could never keep track of genders. Why did they do that, and was English always gender-neutral? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ldukv/eli5_gender_in_language/ | {
"a_id": [
"cv5gp12",
"cv5hd3n"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"It would appear that many languages had gender and some have dropped it. So, English is descended from German which has gender. All romance (Latin descended) languages (French, Spanish, Italian) have gender. But IIRC, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, even Vietnamese don't. I say \"even Vietnamese,\" since the written form was developed by French missionaries.\n\nOverall, I've heard that the further you go back, the more complex languages are. So, Middle English had second person singular (thou) and the corresponding verb forms (hast) but we've dropped that.\n\nI'd be interested in information about some recently \"written\" languages, such as Finnish. (IIRC)",
"Languages have all sorts of grammatical rules. 'Gender' is one of them. But keep in mind not all languages separate into just Masculine and Feminine. Notably Scandinavian languages like Norwegian and Swedish originally had three genders as German does, but merged M and F into what's called the 'Common' gender, while Neutral gender was preserved.\n\nThere's no clear reason why some language families like Germanic, or Latin, Greek, or Indo-Iranian (all descended from Proto-Indo-European) have genders and languages like Japanese and Chinese do not.\n\nThere is a language in Africa that has something like 20 genders (the name escapes me) have specific genders for things that are edible, things that are man made, and so on."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
e8wp66 | why does friction seem less impactful under higher speed? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e8wp66/eli5_why_does_friction_seem_less_impactful_under/ | {
"a_id": [
"faf1kra",
"faf1l4i",
"faf6ns1"
],
"score": [
2,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"It has to do with the length of time the surfaces are in contact with one another. It's the same reason the [tablecloth trick](_URL_0_) works -- you're pulling the surface so quickly that it doesn't have time to impart much force to the object it's touching.",
"Static friction (two surfaces not moving) is stronger than kinetic friction (two surfaces sliding past eachother)\n\nWhen you yank the Jenga block away you're making sure that there's no chance for static friction to occur, the harsh acceleration immediately puts you into the weaker kinetic friction that won't drag adjacent blocks.\n\nThis is also why you don't want your tires to skid under braking, they actually stop you faster when they roll and the contact surface is static.",
"The friction forces are constant no matter how hard you yank. The thing your changing is the time component.\n\n The 'impact' that you describe is the impulse delivered defined as force*time. Impulse is important because if the time is kept short than the object the force is being applied doesn't have time to accelerate and the 'impact' appears small. If you pull slowly the forces involved will remain mostly the same, but your applying these forces for a longer time allowing the other object to attain a higher velocity.\n\nMany other people mentioned static friction, it does play a role but once things are sliding it by definition doesn't. Static friction would come into play if your pulling gently enough that sliding doesn't occur between the two objects your measuring and that would add to the impact your describing."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://youtu.be/o94Pm-Cty3M"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
7dprqn | why can't the american people simply state that we don't believe the fcc has our best interest in mind and request a restructure, different accountability, or a complete disband? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7dprqn/eli5_why_cant_the_american_people_simply_state/ | {
"a_id": [
"dpzjt1k"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Because the USA is not a *direct democracy,* that is, the people have no right to vote on individual government policies. We have the right to elect Congress and the President, and they then set the policies."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
4k5lku | what are the risks of public dns servers such as google. | I have recently been having issues with internet packet loss and slow speeds and a popular fix I find online is to change to a different DNS. A quick search shows many public DNS servers that are practically begging to be used; I don't understand why (what is in it for them).
As a side note I would like to note that I understand my current DNS from my ISP is not totally private/secure but that doesn't mean I would like to trade it for something more risky. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4k5lku/eli5_what_are_the_risks_of_public_dns_servers/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3cbxsw",
"d3cclvi",
"d3cd1m7"
],
"score": [
8,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"There's no risk with public ones like Google, they're safe and secure.\n\nDNS is like a phone book, it translates something easy to remember, like _URL_0_, to an IP address, something not easy to remember, which your computer needs to get to a website. When you change DNS servers, you're changing which phone book your computer uses.\n\nPublic ones, like Google and OpenDNS are safe. I would not use random ones, because they could have poisoned DNS entries - where something like _URL_1_ points to a fake BoA website designed to collect your login information. But you don't need to worry when using the popular ones like Google.",
"Changing DNS is like changing who you ask directions from. Large public ones (including your internet service provider) are reliable and 'safe', but if you go to a private one you better make sure you trust it. Using a large public DNS is like getting directions from a GPS where as using a private or obscure one is like asking a stranger for directions. You may still get to where you're going or you may end up lost in the woods.",
"Related: could Google leverage its public DNS servers to gain more information on what websites you visit?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"reddit.com",
"bankofamerica.com"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
25t0rj | how do deceased artist put out new music? | I just heard Michael Jackson's new song Love Never Felt So Good and it got me curious. Also, why was this song released so many years after his death? Whose decision is it to release a new song? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25t0rj/eli5how_do_deceased_artist_put_out_new_music/ | {
"a_id": [
"chkfrce",
"chkg9kv",
"chkgdfg",
"chkk80q"
],
"score": [
2,
12,
5,
7
],
"text": [
"unreleased tracks and remixes. The Record dealer and family of the deceased. ",
"To uh, fill in a little bit on the accepted answer...\n\nWhen you go in to the studio to record, you usually have lots of material. Every artist handles things differently of course, but in many cases you are buying studio time by the hour or the day and you want to make sure you get your moneys worth. So you'll have songs that are rehearsed and ready to go on an album, probably some stuff you're working on but want to get laid down, and maybe some expirimental or B-side tracks you'd like to fit in if you have time.\n\nTake all of those recordings that weren't used on an already-released album, process them until they sound like music, and blammo, instant Double Platinum for the dead guy.",
"The decision falls with the holder of the rights to the music. The length of time could have been due to behind the scenes legal battles.\n\nUsually artists record a bunch of work on \"master tapes\". Tupac Shakur had something like 300 unreleased tracks across a dozen master tapes when he was killed. There was a lot of legal crap between his former record label and his mother for their rights but the result was still 5 or 6 post-humous releases. ",
"Since Tupac comes and goes freely from the afterlife (he's Tupac), he takes mixtapes artists give to him and places them accordingly throughout America. Tupac is invaluable to the dead musicians industry. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4k6byo | how is compressed air made? | Found some in my cabinet, and was wondering how it was made. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4k6byo/eli5_how_is_compressed_air_made/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3cjs9z",
"d3cjsm3",
"d3cl8hp"
],
"score": [
3,
8,
2
],
"text": [
"If you're talking about duster cans, there is no actual air, just compressed chemicals. Air will not compress to liquid until it is almost -150°C, the fluorocarbon used in dusters compresses to liquid around -25°C. The can works with a one way valve (check valve), the liquid propellent is added to the can and then a spraying nozzle is installed on the check valve. When the nozzle is depressed, the propellent expands and is forced out the nozzle as cold chemical breeze.\n\nIf you mean an air compressor, basically it uses some sort of power source to drive a piston or screw type rotor blades to push air into a vessel. Once the vessel is pressurized to a predetermined level, the motor will stop or a clutch will disengage so the piston or rotors don't continue to add air to the vessel. ",
"Strangely enough by using an air compressor! There are basically two types; reciprocating and screw, a reciprocating compressor uses a piston whereby air is let into the cylinder and upward movement of the piston squashes the air into a smaller space, at which point a valve opens and feeds the compressed air into a reservoir (pressure vessel), it continues to do this until the pressure in the reservoir has reached a predetermined limit.\n\nA screw compressor has two interlocking screws which push the air into a gradually smaller diameter which, again, feeds the air into a reservoir.\n\nThere are turbine compressors as well but these are very large and normally used for driving large quantities of gas along pipelines at very high pressure.",
"By using an air compressor?\n\nAlthough what is in your can is actually a chemical mixture, as air won't compress to a liquid in the conditions imposed by a standard aluminum can. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3g4mea | what is emissions cap and trade, and how does it help/hurt the environment? | This subject is so polarizing, and I can't seem to get a clear answer from anyone. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g4mea/eli5_what_is_emissions_cap_and_trade_and_how_does/ | {
"a_id": [
"cturkku"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"A cap and trade system for emissions is one where the government hands out permits that allow a certain level of greenhouse gas emissions, and you're only allowed to do things that create greenhouse gases if you have a permit for it. Those permits are transferable, so they can be bought by companies that want to do more things that create greenhouse gases and sold by companies that have figured out ways to limit their emissions.\n\nIt helps the environment by putting a limit on the total amount of emissions at whatever the total amount of permits issued is. That could theoretically be reduced in the future as well, either by issuing permits that are only good for a certain amount of time or making each permit's value smaller over time.\n\nThose in favor like it because it lets the market operate to determine what the best use of emissions is. If your business can make a certain amount of money while generating a certain amount of greenhouse gases and another business can only make half that amount while generating the same amount, it makes fiscal sense for you to buy that business's permits and it makes sense for them to sell them to you, because they're worth more to you than they are to them. Thus, it doesn't require a centralized bureaucracy to decide how much each individual company can generate, they get to let the market sort it out.\n\nThe main downside is that it would be hard to administer. Most importantly, it's hard to determine who is responsible for greenhouse gases in a bunch of cases. For instance, if you have a car, who is responsible for having permits for the gases generated by driving the car? Is it the car company? That's problematic, the amount of emissions depend on how much you drive, how long you own the car, etc. Is it the gasoline company? That's problematic too, since different kinds of cars generate more or less emissions from the same amount of gas. Is it you as a car owner? Trying to account for the individual emissions of hundreds of millions of car owners would be a nightmare.\n\nAnother common objection is that it would be bad for business, in that businesses would have to pay for these permits or pay for emission-reduction technology that might be expensive. The same objection largely applies to any kind of emissions control regulations."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
2lxs27 | what exactly gets recharged/replenished when you sleep? | Just resting all day doesn't recharge me, so what is it about sleep that recharges that special something that I can't recharge without it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2lxs27/eli5_what_exactly_gets_rechargedreplenished_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"clz5hrb",
"clz5ime"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"During sleep, your brain is extremely active consolidating memory you formed during the day and the astrocyte cells (cells that assist proper neuronal function) hoover up the waste products produced by the neurons. It is the accumulation of these waste products that makes you sleepy (caffeine keeps you away by preventing your brain from noticing the accumulation).",
"Apparently, your brain cells shrink allowing fluid to pass through easier. This helps remove toxins from your brain. This is also why you can die if you go without sleep long enough."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
2tuhud | little italy, japantown, chinatown. why are these the main areas and no little germany, or little spain? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tuhud/eli5_little_italy_japantown_chinatown_why_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"co2ext3",
"co2f6fh",
"co2kq6r"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"They are less common, but do exist.\n\nBeing of European origin might make them seem less necessary, as the culture are (relatively) similar.",
"There are little Germany(s), but it's a bit complicated.\n\nGermans, when they immigrated to the U.S. in the mid to late 19th century, did not consider themselves as such so much. They were Bavarians, Prussians, Hanoverians and so on that eventually made up Germany. These groups were very nationalistic because before the 1870s, Germany didnt exist as a single nation, but as a vague concept made up of countries.\n\nNow \"Germans\" made up a huge minority population in America back then. Some parts of the midwest were entirely German as they didnt cluster in places like NYC or San Francisco, they went out into the wilderness in groups and congregated!\n\nSo when you see places like Bismark, N. Dakota, Frankenmuth, Michigan or the towns in Texas with German names, you will find the \"little Germany\" locations. Like I said at the beginning, they were not so much Germans but more these little Germanic peoples that stuck together in these settlements, so back then they might have actually refereed to their place as, for example, \"little Bavaria\" as Frankenmuth is actually called to this day.",
"* there are Germantowns in some areas\n* Germans, being white and largely Protestant, had an easier time assimilating that other immigrant groups, and had less need for ethnic neighborhoods\n* there were never large groups of Spaniards immigrating to the US, so they never got the critical mass to form neighborhoods"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3c7iym | why the l.a metro is not portrayed as much as other underground systems in movies? | The L.A metro appear scarcely in films considering the huge amount of movies that are filmed over there. The NYC Metro or the London underground appear much more. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3c7iym/eli5why_the_la_metro_is_not_portrayed_as_much_as/ | {
"a_id": [
"cssxy4x"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The L.A. Metro only has a handful of underground stations, the rest are above ground. New York and London each have *hundreds* of underground stations, while L.A. has maybe a dozen.\n\nAlso related to that, in New York and London you can get *anywhere* in town using their subway system. In L.A. it only serves a few neighborhoods - there are just too many places in L.A. people might want to go that you just can't go on the Metro.\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
ae8217 | why do people jitter their legs without thinking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ae8217/eli5_why_do_people_jitter_their_legs_without/ | {
"a_id": [
"edn4t23"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"I do it because I have ADHD and it helped me concentrate all throughout school. I think it takes the focus off of random things and let's me focus on the at hand."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
12xubf | brake horsepower | I don't get it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12xubf/brake_horsepower/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6zm476"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"In the early days of the steam engine, they made claims about the amount work an engine could do; \"this engine can haul as much as 30 horses\", thus the term horsepower was born. As time rolled on they needed a proper way to measure it. These days you put an engine on an engine dynomometer (dyno) or put a car on a chassis dyno. The engine dyno is attached to the engine as it spins through it's rev range. As it spins the dyno tries to slow it down or retard the engine with its **brake** mechanism. The end result is the Brake Horsepower of that engine. Early dynos used hydraulic brakes with water, later ones use magnetic brake mechanisms. A chassis dyno will do a similar thing with the wheels of the car sitting on rollers."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
qq5sv | the nhs bill and why are some activists opposed to it | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qq5sv/eli5_the_nhs_bill_and_why_are_some_activists/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3zkeiv"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"As someone in the insurance industry, I can tell you that health care insurance employees are terrified because they're looking to push health care to the public sector. That's a lot of potentially lost jobs. But, on a more general sense, the real issue is uncertainty. There have been conflicting reports coming out for the last three years estimating radically different things that will happen five to ten years after it passes. Some people say we need the change, and anything is better than what we have now-- others say that change will lead us down a path that is worse. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
e5gf8f | why do feral children not be able to pick up speech after being rescued when normal babies can learn to speak after a few years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e5gf8f/eli5_why_do_feral_children_not_be_able_to_pick_up/ | {
"a_id": [
"f9jiyv2",
"f9jjlms"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"The brain develops in distinct stages learning languages and communication are developed fairly early on, if the developing child isn't exposed to languages early on the brain doesn't see it as a priority and moves on to other things.",
"Certain parts of the brain need to be activated, for lack of a better term, at certain stages of development. If they're not, the ability to activate them and build working neural pathways over time is reduced or eliminated. So if the area responsible for language is never exposed to the types of stimulus that prompt the development of language when those language centers are primed and ready for input, they may forever lose the ability to develop. In a sense, it's as if those brain areas simply don't exist anymore."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
3mmmlj | does having a password with capitals and numbers actually help security? | seems like a computer program running through it wouldn't care. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mmmlj/eli5does_having_a_password_with_capitals_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvg9wkk",
"cvg9yes",
"cvg9ymz",
"cvgaspo"
],
"score": [
4,
3,
3,
18
],
"text": [
"Opens up the number of possible combinations quite a bit. The more possible combinations there are the more secure it is as it'll take longer to brute force it.",
"It does, the brute force has to run lowercase alphabet, uppercase alphabet, numbers and even special symbols for each symbol of the password. This way it only has to run lowercase alphabet and the time to hack the password is reduced a lot. ",
"Yes and no... \n\nAs a hacker, if I had unrestricted access to continuously guess a password until I got it right, yes. So, there are 26 letters, if I can capitalize them, I've effectively doubled my available options. So for each letter, I have 52 options. Add numbers and punctuation, and it increases more. The word \"capitalize\" can be written 1024 different ways, by capitalizing different letters. 2^10 . If I had 70 available characters, that is 70^n total possibilities for a password n characters long. Brute force will take that a very long time.\n\nBut, most login systems will not let you just continuously ping their server with the wrong password. After 5-10 tries incorrectly, you'll be prevented from signing on for 30 minutes or something. In this regard, no...\n\nEdit, remove pointless statement.",
"Relevant xkcd: _URL_0_ \nAnd not just because it's funny. This is one of his great \"explanatory\" xkcd strips. Your answer is here."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://xkcd.com/936/"
]
] |
|
3g2d6n | what happens to a condo that someone owns if a building becomes too old and collapses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g2d6n/eli5_what_happens_to_a_condo_that_someone_owns_if/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctu6ozr",
"ctu7bmh"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Presumably you'd sue the condo association for failure to keep up the building. Your insurance would also likely cover at least part of your damages if the building fell down.",
"It's a fascinating topic, but ... Removed as not ELI5 material. See [Rule 2.](_URL_0_)\n\nELI5 isn't for everything; this post may do better in a different subreddit. This probably belongs in /r/answers"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/rules"
]
] |
||
16hsct | what happened to me last night? (more details in post) | Me and my father were out for most of the day playing paintball (Which is a fairly intense physical activity). Normally the next couple days we get sore, but last night something very stange happened. I woke up at around midnight (about 8 hours after we finished playing) shaking uncontrollably, my teeth we chattering, all of my muscles were twitching, it was not something that has happened before. When I was making breakfast, my father commented that he had experienced the same thing at roughly the same time.
Does anyone know why this happened? Or did I not give enough information? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16hsct/eli5_what_happened_to_me_last_night_more_details/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7w5p2h",
"c7w5qzp",
"c7w5rqj",
"c7w6kg1",
"c7w6mju",
"c7w70sf",
"c7w72o3",
"c7wa3f8"
],
"score": [
13,
9,
3,
5,
12,
9,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"This is a better question for askreddit...",
"Post in askreddit or health. No idea man",
"Hard to say, especially without knowing what you did different this time from other times, like what you ate, etc. It could be something as simple as it was really freaking cold in your house that night, but who knows?",
"Dehydration? Food poisoning? Fever?",
"...seriously, go to a doctor.",
"I've had something similar actually. I had been on holiday visiting friends in Toronto and had been walking pretty much non-stop for 12 or so hours. I had really tired muscles.\n\nWent to bed, woke up in the pitch black feeling like my muscles were just all spasming and jerking about at the same time. I actually tried to sit up and found my self falling off the bed a little.\nI felt like I was almost fluttering in and out of consciousness very quickly too. Everything seemed sort of broken up.\n\nIt ended up just stopping gradually and I was so tired I just fell asleep again, I think.",
"Paintballing can be a pretty big shock to your system. Was it hot out? How many times did you get shot? Probably exerted more energy because of adrenaline than you are use to. ",
"sounds like something you go see a medical professional for and not reddit.\n\nAs a non-retard i suggest you to visit your urgent care if your father and you keep having problems. If nothing else happens. Then suck it up and be a man."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
bjcx0b | the difference between a fetish and a sexual preference. | For example: if someone prefers to date/sleep with plus size/chubby/fat women, is it a fetish or preference? When does the line cross between the two? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bjcx0b/elif_the_difference_between_a_fetish_and_a_sexual/ | {
"a_id": [
"em76yhj",
"em770zo",
"em7741r",
"em7jvah",
"em868n4",
"em8agpr",
"em8pjrp"
],
"score": [
184,
19,
38,
30,
2,
2,
27
],
"text": [
"A kink is \"unusual\" sexual behavior that arouses you.\n\nA fetish is a behavior or object or something that arouses you to such a degree that it becomes a dependence. You can't typically get aroused without it.\n\nSo if you are **only** turned on by plus size women, that could be a fetish. But if you are turned on by most women and just find plus size women extra attractive that's a kink.",
"I believe a fetish by definition is something that is required in order to achieve sexual gratification, wheras preference is something that would \"help\" in terms of what could give you sexual gratification.",
"In the technical sense, a fetish is a desire for an object or body part that is not normally sexualized (e.g. feet) and a paraphilia is a broader category that refers to any abnormal sexual desires, including fetishism, but also including things like BDSM. Where the line is between normal and abnormal desires is is blurry at best, so this may or may not be considered a fetish. The biggest thing is that so long as everyone is consenting and safe, there is nothing wrong with it.",
"Preference: I want it for sex. But I can have an orgasm without it. \n\nFetish: I *need* it for sex. If my fetish is missing, I literally *cannot* have an orgasm.",
"Joke answer as old as time itself : \n\nA sexual preference or \"kink\" is using a feather during sex to help arouse each other. \n\nA fetish or \"perversion\" is using a live chicken. \n\n & #x200B;\n\nNon joke answer is a sexual preference just makes things hotter for you, a fetish is required for arousal so regular sex won't do anything for you. If you can only become aroused by your fetish non fetish sex won't even interest you at all. \n\nThe character in the TV show Billions who is into bondage and being dominated and abused is a good example of a fetish. When his wife suggested they skip the \"box\" containing the whips and handcuffs etc he insisted they still used the props. He couldn't even get an erection without them in all probability.",
"Sexual attraction has some basic rules that are more or less rigid (e.g. a certain hip-to-waist ratio is a universally desirable feature in women, you want your partner to be healthy, etc), but others are much looser. \"Sexual preference\" (in this sense) is mostly just about where you stand with regards to those looser criteria.\n\nBody type/weight as a preference is a _very_ interesting topic because it comes with a bunch of social markers attached. In centuries past \"chubby\" implied a certain amount of wealth and social status and was a desirable feature. Today, cheap plentiful calories are readily accessible and obesity is super common among poorer people. Instead, being super fit signals that you have the means to go to the gym and has become a signifier of wealth and social status. Similarly, fair skin used to be considered attractive (again as a sign that you were well off and didn't have to work under the sun) whereas today a tan is considered attractive (as a sign you have enough leisure time to hang out in the sun).\n\nSexual fetish is a term that has varied over time, and about which there still seems to be some disagreement, but it seems that people agree that the essential part is that you get sexually aroused from things that most people wouldn't consider related to sex. Different sources disagree on how important it is — The dictionary definition on [Merriam-Webster](_URL_2_) suggests that you absolutely need the fetish to be there to orgasm, the [ICD-10](_URL_1_) suggest it needs only enhance the enjoyment you get from sex. Sadly I couldn't find free access to the [DSM](_URL_3_) to see what they say. Again, it depends on who you ask, but sexual enjoyment from any of the following might or might not count as a fetish: body parts (E.g. a foot fetish), specific types of clothing (leather, latex, what have you) or other inanimate objects (like [trees](_URL_0_), BSDM, etc.",
"Explain it like you're 5? Ok.\n\n \n\"We'll talk about this when you're older.\""
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrophilia_(paraphilia%29)",
"https://icd.who.int/browse10/2016/en#/F65",
"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fetish",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5"
],
[]
] |
|
1gwk7s | how do three billion people survive on subsistence farming? | Half the world are poor farmers. How do they do it? What do they do?
So suppose you've got an acre. Maybe even half an acre. And you're dirt poor. Maybe have a few hundred dollars. Given to you by a loan shark of course, that comes every week to harass you and your fellow poor villagers. Your kids have smallpox, and the village Romeo's infected half the village girls with AIDS, and they're dropping like flies. (I watched a documentary on Netflix. It was sad. You'd think in a country infested with AIDS they'd get the message by now and at the very least wear a condom. So sad to see that girl die so quickly.) And so what do you do? What do you need? You've got a field of grass. Do you need a tiller? Do they hire someone to till the land, or use a cheaper tiller? Because they sure can't afford one of those fancy John Deere six figure tilling machines.
Then after that, what's next? Put some seeds in the ground and hope for the best? Or do they add things to the soil? Like manure? Where do they get that and how much do they need and how do they put it into the ground? I'm stupid. Could someone just list the steps in numbers/bullets? Step 1: | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gwk7s/eli5_how_do_three_billion_people_survive_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"caojpat",
"caojq93",
"caokk0j"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"subsistance farming just means you grow just enough food to feed yourself and your family. it's very likely a job that takes you all day since you have expensive machinery. ",
"You're basically asking how to farm without a million dollars in farm equipment, but the steps are the same regardless.\n\n1) Plow the field. This breaks up the surface and lets plants take root easily. This can be done by hand (slow) by animal (less slow) or by $600,000 tractor (fast, but unfeasible for small, poor farmers, one tire is more than they'll make in several years)\n\n2) Seed the field. Place the seeds in the plowed field and (if applicable) cover them with dirt. This is done by hand or from an animal drawn cart in areas without tractors. Seeds are either kept from last year or purchased.\n\n3) Water and fertilize. In a very poor nation fertilizer may be manure or it may be nothing at all. Water can be brought by irrigation systems or by rain. Rain dependent farms can \"burn up\" if there isn't enough rain that year.\n\n4) Harvest. Once the plants have grown, cut them down and collect the edible parts. This is done by hand or by a combine harvester (another six-figure expense)\n\n5) Collect and store seeds. Most plants will produce some seeds, keep these for next years planting.\n\nSubsistence farming tends to be largely a man-powered operation. The people grow just enough to keep themselves and their families alive and it takes them a very long time to perform all the steps for even a small field.",
"Farmer/gardener here. Lithium did a good job with the basics, but I'll add a few things:\n\nPrimitive plows are fairly easy to make. If you have some pieces of trees and leather you can make one. Here's one example: _URL_1_\n\nOf course, if you're that poor, you probably don't own your own oxen/horse/donkey/mule to pull the plow. In which case, you rent one from someone, or you use a smaller version and have a strong person pull it.\n\nAs for condoms... If you're a dirt-poor farmer in a dirt-poor country, chances are there ARE no pharmacies selling condoms nearby, and even if there were, you can't afford them. You don't have much cash, because you can hardly grow enough to feed your family AND have extra to sell. That's assuming there's even a marketplace nearby to sell stuff at. And \"nearby\" has to be pretty close-- since you don't have a vehicle, you will be carrying your crops on your back. If you are lucky, you might have a donkey. Finally, you may not even KNOW about condoms-- and probably haven't had any kind of education that teaches you about how AIDS is spread.\n\nMore on subsistence farming here: _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.countercurrents.org/goodchild090111.htm",
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Primitive_plow.jpg"
]
] |
|
aody5v | why is it, when you’ve gone to bed in pain, that when you first wake up you have a smidgen of time (like up to a minute) where you are 100% pain-free, before the pain reappears? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aody5v/eli5_why_is_it_when_youve_gone_to_bed_in_pain/ | {
"a_id": [
"eg069lf"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Your body repairs or heals itself in your rest period.When you wake up,your pain signals from your body reactivate.The only way I know to stop that is pain medication."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
a9mou1 | so plastic microbeads seem to be bad. why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9mou1/eli5_so_plastic_microbeads_seem_to_be_bad_why/ | {
"a_id": [
"eckopzx",
"eckq35f"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"They can't be filtered out and make it out into the environment where they not only contain their original chemicals that can have bad effects but they also absorb organic chemicals in the environment that can also be bad. They are eaten by animals and then by humans.",
"There's a YouTube video done by Seeker titled \"Are you seasoning your foods with microplastics? (You totally are)\". That video would give a good insight to how bad it is.\nLink: _URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/ZFgpudNSArI"
]
] |
||
3aya4q | how come some defendants during court proceedings and/or sentencing either are wearing prison/jail issued uniform or a suit? | I'm just wondering what allows one to wear or not to wear. I've seen both at different cases and scenarios. Why isn't there just a standard dress code? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3aya4q/eli5_how_come_some_defendants_during_court/ | {
"a_id": [
"csh1fo0",
"csh86pl"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It will depend on the state/county/jurisdiction but typically the people in suits will have been on bail, and the people in jumpsuits will have come straight from prison where they were held on remand.\n\nSome places allow remand prisoners to wear suits to trial as wearing prison clothes tends to make you look guilty to a jury, but others are too worried about the prisoner escaping during the trial and insist on the uniform",
"I've sat in a good number of trials (IT for a law enforcement agency) and I can't say that I've ever seen a defendant wearing a jail uniform during the actual trial. \n\nI see them all the time when the court is accepting pleas, bond hearings or they bring them over to sign paperwork, but during the actual trial the defendant, even those in custody as usually at least in business casual attire. \n\nThere are a lot of reasons for this, many of them having to do with the image the defense wants to present to the jury. You want your defendant to give the impression of a well dressed, well groomed, well mannered, member of society that the jury can sympathize with. \n\nThere is a lot of theater that goes on in court, the outcome can depend as much, if not more, on how things are presented to the jury rather than what was presented. \n\nA jail uniform and restraints reinforce the idea of guilt. As pro-law enforcement as I am, I don't think jail attire is right for court, it does look guilty and the defendant should be presumed not guilty during the trial.\n\nLong sleeves, collars and ties can cover up tattoos that may show gang affiliation or just offend the sensibilities of the jurors. Poor dress, like jeans and a t-shirt (if the judge even allows it, most do not) could give the impression you don't take the matter or your life seriously. All of this is really thought out by the defense.\n\nOn a side note, you'll often see the defendant taking notes, usually in pencil on a yellow legal pad. This is partially to aid in their defense, but it is also to provide the image to the jury of a literate person who takes clearing their name seriously and is actively participating in his defense. \n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
21h0ap | what is happening in a person's body when they are overdosing? | EDIT
What is happening in a person's body when they are overdosing on:
- Alcohol
- Cocaine
- Heroine | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21h0ap/eli5_what_is_happening_in_a_persons_body_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgcxx8c",
"cgcy4ou",
"cgd3rqg"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Overdosing on what? The best answer I can give you is that the concentration one or more chemicals is too high and it is interfering with the body's normal physiological functions. ",
"It depends entirely on the substance. An overdose on alcohol, for example, usually means liver failure.",
"It's a little complicated without going into pharmacology and neurochemistry. To try to keep it simple, your brain is made of billions of neurons, and these neurons transmit information to each other using chemical signals. Your brain works on this huge series of connections.\n\nThe drugs you mention alter how these chemical signals. Alcohol tends to enhance the chemicals that tell other neurons to stop. Cocaine prevents the breakdown of these chemicals, leading to overall higher levels of chemicals, so the neurons think they have to work very hard. Heroin itself looks like one of our natural chemicals that happens to tell neurons to stop working.\n\nSo when you take too much of any of these drugs, essentially your flooding your brain with these chemical modulating effects; overdosing on alcohol ends up with your brain working too slowly, sometimes ending up in your brain being unable to keep you breathing, or your brain basically \"shutting off\", leaving you in a coma.\n\n Cocaine can make everything work too fast, ending up with hallucinations and paranoia (your brain is working so fast it's making stuff up). It's also works directly on your heart, squeezing the blood vessels that supply it. Enough cocaine can cause the electrical system that keeps your heart firing to malfunction, ending up in sudden cardiac death.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1zygmf | why is complete silence soo loud? | Apologies if this has already been asked. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1zygmf/eli5_why_is_complete_silence_soo_loud/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfy4apl"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"I presume you are refering to the noise you sometimes hear in complete silence?\n\nIf so, that \"rushing\" noise is actually your blood going through your system. I cant find the source for this other than some blogs, so you will have to take my word for it. \n\nAs for the ringing noise you hear in silkence; it has been explained in the below link.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\nI am really really hungover, so if none of that makes sense, I am sorry\n\nEDIT: Fucking Grammerbot... I am leaving my post like that out of spite"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ixn1n/eli5_what_is_the_ringing_noise_we_hear_when/"
]
] |
|
1z7fb5 | leasing vs. buying | Ok so im 19 years old and wanna buy my first car but I don't understand the difference between buying a car or leasing, like do I still get to keep the car and why is leasing cheaper. Thanx in advance | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z7fb5/leasing_vs_buying/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfr6p1v",
"cfr6sjt",
"cfr6szp",
"cfrb5pg"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
3,
6
],
"text": [
"When you lease a car, you pay a lower monthly payment, but you have to give it back after 2 or 3 years, depending on the length of the lease, I believe there is also a buyout option at the end. When you buy a car, the car is yours after you are done making payments.\n\nEDIT: Leasing a car is cheaper because the dealership sells the car used after you return it. SO lets say you lease 20,000 car, you pay 10,000 to lease it for 3 years, then they sell it used for 15,000.",
"It's basically renting the car. At the end of the lease you do not keep it. Leases are generally designed to be short term, so are cheaper monthly payments than purchasing a car, but not ideal if you want to eventually own a car.",
"To add to /u/MontiBurns , your financial situation matters, but so do your driving habits.\n\nLeasing usually has yearly mileage limits. IF you drive a lot, or are commuting to school, a Lease may not serve you very well. \n\nIf you know that you are going to be moving around a lot over the years, and may not have the ability to keep/maintain a car, a lease might provide you some flexibility in ditching the car if necessary.\n\nBuying a car requires money - you either use cash up front, or you get a loan/financing. If you are worried about your ability to secure a loan/financing, you might need to consider a lease instead.",
"The fact that leasing \"looks\" cheaper is an illusion. Think of it this way... let's say you lease 2014 Honda Accord LX for $199/month for 36 months (one of their advertised deals). You pay $2499 up front, then you pay $199 a month for three years, which comes out to $7164 (36*199). So, total, you've paid $9,663.\n\nThen, at the end of your lease, you have three choices if you still want to be driving a car after three years:\n\n1. **Buy out the car.** First, they charge you a buyout fee (it's listed in the lease contract), which can be between $200-$400 depending on the car. Then, you will probably need to finance the rest. If the residual value is of the car is $14,000 and you get a 2.9%/3yr loan, then you pay $406 a month. Calculate that out, and the total you pay for the car (9663 + 406 x 36) is around $24,300 for a $21,000 car.\n\n2. **Lease another Honda.** This is what the dealership wants. You turn in the 2014 car, lease a 2017 car, and the cycle starts again. Your payment might go up a little (maybe you want one with more features next time), but even if it stays exactly the same, that's another $9,663 you have to pay for another three years. Then, you have the same thing happen again in 2020. Total over six years: $19,326, and you still don't have a permanent car.\n\n3. **Turn in the car and buy a different car.** The dealership will charge you a \"dispossession fee\" which can be $300-$400 depending on the car. They will also charge you \"excessive wear and tear\" and will charge you for any excess mileage (leases allow you between 30,000-36,000 miles driven over the lease, then charge $0.15 per extra mile, which adds up in a hurry if you drive a lot). Then, you still have to go and buy another car. \n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1rtoe6 | why does a alcohol make us feel the way you it does? | I'm really drunk right now and I feel really floaty and giddy- but why? Its just a drink that makes us dehydrated! And not then there's wine that is just rotten fruit...why's it male me feel like I'm awesome? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rtoe6/eli5_why_does_a_alcohol_make_us_feel_the_way_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdqtc5g"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"When you drink alcohol your body breaks it into a few different compounds, the main of which is what is known as acetaldehyde. An enzyme named aldehyde dehydrogenase breaks acetaldehyde down (which, many argue is the foremost reason we get dehydrated). \nThe physiological feelings you get from drinking are due partly from how our brain uses glutamate, a major neurotransmitter in our brain. Glutamate allows various neurons in the brain to \"talk\" to eachother through synapses, but when you drink alcohol, glutamate receptors become less responsive than normal, leading to a slower train of thought. Also, glutamate is a precursor for GABA, which inhibits, or slows down, the neural activity in your brain (drugs like Xanax and Klonopin use GABA as well in order to slow the brain down and reduce excitability and anxiety). Our inhibitions are lowered which leave many of us feeling more confident or more aggressive than we normally would.\n\nOne of my biopsychology professors put it this way - alcohol affects your brain from the outside in. As in, think of the brain as 3 distinct layers, with the most vital being the center. After a few drinks, you may lose this outer layer, leading to the loss of some inhibitions, but overall you're okay. A few more drinks, and your middle layer begins to slow down to the point where we have MAJOR loss of inhibition and emotional/physical control. If you have even more drinks (but no we're talking extreme numbers of drinks), alcohol interers with the \"core\" of your brain, which is responsible for basic life functions such as breathing and heart rate. Drink too much and these vital functions are inhibiting, leading to respiratory depression which can cause death. \n\nAnyways, to answer your distinct question of \"why does it make us feel the way it does?\" is due to a neural pathway that ends at the part of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens. Dopamine is released in vast quantities in the NA, thus making us feel pleasureable. It is this pathway that strengthens over time, eventually causing addiction - not just in alcohol, but in other drugs such as opiates and methamphetamine. Our bodies crave the Dopamine release from the NA that we are so used to. Think of it like a city with a major bridge connecting it. The city is happy because of people visiting it, however one day people stop coming over this bridge. The city is unhappy, and withdrawals start to happen. Hope I helped!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
223gn9 | what's the difference between a chromebook, netbook, notebook, laptop and a hybrid? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/223gn9/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_a_chromebook/ | {
"a_id": [
"cgiz41j"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"A Chromebook is a computer running ChromeOS, Google's chrome based OS.\n\nA Netbook is a class of laptop that was designed primarily just for net browsing and similarly undemanding computer tasks, they tend to be small and weak laptops, and were quite popular a couple of years ago.\n\nNotebook and Laptops are the same thing, they are mobile computers that you can carry from place to place.\n\nA hybrid is a laptop that is also a tablet, for example the [Lenovo Yoga 13](_URL_0_ ).\n\nIf you have more speficic questions about any of these groups of products then feel free to ask me"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/yoga/yoga-13/"
]
] |
||
5mb8or | why do farmers help animals give birth rather than having them give natural birth and how did animals have safe births without human help? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mb8or/eli5_why_do_farmers_help_animals_give_birth/ | {
"a_id": [
"dc28ukq",
"dc2a0bv"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Like any mammal, farm animals are totally capable of giving birth unaided. \n\nExcept when they can't, and the mother and infant both die. Sometimes quite horribly.\n\nSo, to maintain your investment, you try and make sure it all goes well.\n\nMuch the same way you would for your pregnant wife. \n\nDeath in childbirth is common and sad. It happens less when trained or experienced humans intervene.",
"(My farm animal experience is primarily with pigs, sheep and goats)\n\nFarm animals actually can and often have safe births without human help! If farm animals were completely dependent on farmers to give birth, there would be a lot more baby and mother death. \n\nIt would be super hard for a farmer to be present and available for every single birth. Take goats for example. Some breeds are seasonal kidders, meaning instead of having babies during the whole year, the entire herd will give birth during one season. That would mean that every day, all day, the farmer would have to be monitoring his herd, waiting for signs of labor. Some goats, no matter how habituated they are to their farmer, can still become fearful at the presence of humans and this could delay the entire process of labor. Goats (typically) don't want help. I had a doe trying to push out two kids at one time, meaning 4 legs were coming out at once. This was a situation I CLEARLY needed to intervene, as she was in distress and couldn't get two babies out. I entered the pen and she became even more distressed by my presence, even though she was a goat who will come when called by name and usually approaches us for head scratches. Additionally, goats in my experience prefer to kid at night, meaning a farmer would have to be hanging around the barn all night long, after working a long day. Not gonna happen. \n\nTypically farmers are only going to intervene if mom or baby are in distress and need the help. Intervening can actually lead to later complications, such as infections, so unless it's necessary, it's better to stand back and wait until everything is done naturally. Keeping farm animals is expensive and having one die, especially a breeding female, can be a financial blow. Additionally, many farmers become attached to their animals, so a loss can be an emotional hit as well. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
400o0m | why are two or more virus scanners on your computer bad? | I have heard that they "battle" each other, but why would they do that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/400o0m/eli5_why_are_two_or_more_virus_scanners_on_your/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyqhczl",
"cyqhgdo"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"The problem is if these two start to interact or even counteract with (each other). Maybe they use different algorithms. Maybe a situation may occur when both programms identify something as malware and try to migrate the data into quarantine simultaniously. Or if one program starts to identify the other program as an enemy to the system since it does a full analysis and starts to \"voluntarily\" move data.",
"Antivirus software runs at a highly privileged CPU execution level, the same as your OS kernel. Other applications run on a lower privilege, so they don't have access to other resources except by relying on the OS. This is a basic but very efficient security measure that's been around since a long time.\n\nIn fact, an antivirus is integrated with the OS kernel to some degree, it's the only way it can actively monitor applications that are being executed.\n\nSo, having two such systems integrated at the same time can easily cause very bad problems. In practice, antivirus programmers do think about this scenario and try to avoid issues as best as possible, but it's still bad practice to have multiple. There's no real benefit to it, you're definitely slowing down your system, and you also risk system bugs."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
705ymt | how is a nuclear missile flying over another sovereign nation's airspace not deemed an act of war? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/705ymt/eli5_how_is_a_nuclear_missile_flying_over_another/ | {
"a_id": [
"dn0o375",
"dn0o3al",
"dn0oiap",
"dn0o375",
"dn0o3al",
"dn0oiap",
"dn0rrgw",
"dn0vi2y",
"dn0vv0j",
"dn15gfd",
"dn15mu8",
"dn15oao",
"dn16j0s",
"dn17bjs",
"dn1fj9e",
"dn1il4j",
"dn0rrgw",
"dn0vi2y",
"dn15gfd",
"dn15mu8",
"dn15oao",
"dn16j0s",
"dn17bjs",
"dn1fj9e",
"dn1il4j"
],
"score": [
67,
104,
21,
67,
104,
21,
30,
40,
2,
10,
9,
6,
3,
6,
5,
3,
30,
40,
10,
9,
6,
3,
6,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Because the result of the act is what people will consider the most.\n\nIt's kind of like this:\n\nDo you see a difference between me swinging a bat in your general direction, in a threatening manner, and me swinging a bat to hit your body? Sure you do. And on average, the reaction to the first example is liable to be more measured and proportionate, compared to the second.\n\nDeclaring war is a very serious move, and one would hope world leaders would try to exhaust all avenues of remedy before taking that step.",
"It could certainly be provocation for a war that other states see as reasonable. What matters isn't the act itself, it is how others respond to it. If nobody wants to make war over it, then it doesn't matter what some legalistic definition might say.",
"It certainly is a provocation, but by analyzing the speed and trajectory of the missile, The U.S and Japan can rule out a serious threat from the missile very quickly (even if it is flying over Japan)\n.",
"Because the result of the act is what people will consider the most.\n\nIt's kind of like this:\n\nDo you see a difference between me swinging a bat in your general direction, in a threatening manner, and me swinging a bat to hit your body? Sure you do. And on average, the reaction to the first example is liable to be more measured and proportionate, compared to the second.\n\nDeclaring war is a very serious move, and one would hope world leaders would try to exhaust all avenues of remedy before taking that step.",
"It could certainly be provocation for a war that other states see as reasonable. What matters isn't the act itself, it is how others respond to it. If nobody wants to make war over it, then it doesn't matter what some legalistic definition might say.",
"It certainly is a provocation, but by analyzing the speed and trajectory of the missile, The U.S and Japan can rule out a serious threat from the missile very quickly (even if it is flying over Japan)\n.",
"There is an important distinction here. Nuclear-capable missile is not the same as nuclear missile.",
"It is.\n\nSince the Korean War never ended, North Korea is officially at war with the US, and is threatening Japan because it hosts US military bases.",
"No one seriously complains about satellites orbiting in space over other countries. The Soviet Union did not like U2 planes flying over its territory. Finally they got the technology and shot one down. That ended that.\n\nMissiles with long trajectories are flying above almost all the atmosphere at altitudes far above air traffic. Interception is currently impossible and probably will remain impossible.\n\nThese missiles are not nuclear missiles. Probably no nuclear missiles have ever been launched. Bot the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries have launched missiles with dummy loads equivalent in mass to their nuclear cargo. The only nuclear weapon launched from a missile silo came from an missile silo in Arkansas. It was a hydrogen bomb. The North Korean launches are probably not carrying any cargo of any kind except perhaps an explosive charge to destroy it. That gets the most distance. ",
"It is an act of war... but consider The Cold War. In this case, Japan, South Korea, the West, even Russia and China on the other side don't want this Cold War with North Korea to turn 'hot'.\n\nIf it turns hot, it's not going to end well. So everyone except North Korea is reluctant to hit back with more than economic sanctions. North Korea is taking the opportunity to see how far it can push the boundary.",
"Because technically it's not Japan's sovereign airspace. The height is well above the that in the definition of airspace. ",
"Given this post is motivated by NK's missile launch, let's explore the subject:\n\nFirst, look at NK on the map. Now, say you are in charge of testing a missile in NK. You need to launch somewhere from the country in order to test it. What is the best direction to launch it? Anywhere North or West is out of the picture, since it will land on another country. What about South, towards South Korea, and ending up near Taiwan or Philippines? Due east, and go over Tokyo? Or NorthEast, and avoid largely populated areas and land on the pacific?\n\nThe question about a country right to test arms is a different question. Are all countries on their right to develop and test their defense research? It's easy to say 'no' when you tested all your arms already.",
"Formally, it is (even though this missile wasn't armed).\n\nHowever, just because it is an act of war doesn't mean that the other nation has to declare war, they just have the option.\n\nIn this case, an unarmed test missile was launched over their air space. It's really a minor incident, as far as acts of war goes. It's not a Pearl Harbour. So, Japan has to ask themselves: \"Do we want to go to war with this batshit crazy dictator who has nuclear weapons which can reach us over a minor thing like this?\". The obvious answer is \"Hell no!\".",
"Unless I'm mistaken, Japan CAN'T declare war on another country, since they officially have no army. Every military move should be done by the USA.",
"Well, for one thing, \"Flying over\" is not what you think it is. It's not hundreds, or even thousands of feet in the air, it's literally in space. When the NK missile overflew Hokkaido, it was literally out of the atmosphere of the earth. It was in space. It was actually higher than the space station. \n\nSo while the action was threatening, it was not a territorial incursion. ",
"It is an act of war.\n\nHowever.....\n\nIt is relatively easy to figure out early on in a missiles flight where it will come down.\n\nThe difference between flying over and hitting is pretty profound. Also, it flies at an altitude that it isn't a threat to air traffic (basically low space).",
"There is an important distinction here. Nuclear-capable missile is not the same as nuclear missile.",
"It is.\n\nSince the Korean War never ended, North Korea is officially at war with the US, and is threatening Japan because it hosts US military bases.",
"It is an act of war... but consider The Cold War. In this case, Japan, South Korea, the West, even Russia and China on the other side don't want this Cold War with North Korea to turn 'hot'.\n\nIf it turns hot, it's not going to end well. So everyone except North Korea is reluctant to hit back with more than economic sanctions. North Korea is taking the opportunity to see how far it can push the boundary.",
"Because technically it's not Japan's sovereign airspace. The height is well above the that in the definition of airspace. ",
"Given this post is motivated by NK's missile launch, let's explore the subject:\n\nFirst, look at NK on the map. Now, say you are in charge of testing a missile in NK. You need to launch somewhere from the country in order to test it. What is the best direction to launch it? Anywhere North or West is out of the picture, since it will land on another country. What about South, towards South Korea, and ending up near Taiwan or Philippines? Due east, and go over Tokyo? Or NorthEast, and avoid largely populated areas and land on the pacific?\n\nThe question about a country right to test arms is a different question. Are all countries on their right to develop and test their defense research? It's easy to say 'no' when you tested all your arms already.",
"Formally, it is (even though this missile wasn't armed).\n\nHowever, just because it is an act of war doesn't mean that the other nation has to declare war, they just have the option.\n\nIn this case, an unarmed test missile was launched over their air space. It's really a minor incident, as far as acts of war goes. It's not a Pearl Harbour. So, Japan has to ask themselves: \"Do we want to go to war with this batshit crazy dictator who has nuclear weapons which can reach us over a minor thing like this?\". The obvious answer is \"Hell no!\".",
"Unless I'm mistaken, Japan CAN'T declare war on another country, since they officially have no army. Every military move should be done by the USA.",
"Well, for one thing, \"Flying over\" is not what you think it is. It's not hundreds, or even thousands of feet in the air, it's literally in space. When the NK missile overflew Hokkaido, it was literally out of the atmosphere of the earth. It was in space. It was actually higher than the space station. \n\nSo while the action was threatening, it was not a territorial incursion. ",
"It is an act of war.\n\nHowever.....\n\nIt is relatively easy to figure out early on in a missiles flight where it will come down.\n\nThe difference between flying over and hitting is pretty profound. Also, it flies at an altitude that it isn't a threat to air traffic (basically low space)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
43mgac | in a criminal trial, the prosecution is funded by the state, a public defender is funded by the state, why does the government spend 3x's as much on the prosecution as they do on the defense? | _URL_0_ | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43mgac/eli5_in_a_criminal_trial_the_prosecution_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"czjbvt7",
"czje0jo"
],
"score": [
9,
2
],
"text": [
"Lawyer here...\n\nThe most simple answer to your question is: prosecution has the burden of proof in criminal cases.\n\nA lot of the expense of going to trial is always going to be on the prosecution because it is the prosecution that has to build the case against the defendant. The state may have to pay to cover the cost of a defense attorney -- but those attorneys, in addition to juggling many cases per attorney, mostly exist as a way to keep the State in check and to prevent prosecutors from overreaching as they build their case.\n\nI like to describe it like this:\n\nImagine a mom and a child in a grocery store. The Mom is the defense attorney; the child is the prosecutor. The Child grabs stuff off the shelf that it wants and throws it in the basket, the Mom says, \"You can have that... but you'll have to put that back on the shelf... and maybe instead of a high-shelf cereal, you'll have to settle for a generic.\"\n\ntl;dr: To prosecute a case is to create something. To defend against a case is to poke holes in what was created.",
"Because the prosecution is legally obligated to disclose exculpatory evidence.\n\nThe reverse is not true"
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.nlada.org/Defender/Defender_Gideon/Defender_Gideon_5_Problems"
] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
6himty | why do we have to take small sips of water after severe dehydration? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6himty/eli5_why_do_we_have_to_take_small_sips_of_water/ | {
"a_id": [
"diymifb"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Water takes some time to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Dehydration reduces overall blood volume in the body, and the body compensates by constricting the blood vessels in order to maintain blood pressure. The constricted blood vessels slow down the rate at which newly ingested water can be reabsorbed. Excess water just accumulates in the stomach, which can lead to nausea and vomiting, which would only serve to dehydrate the body further.\n\nBetter than pure water for rehydration is normal saline introduced via IV, or for oral intake, a solution of oral rehydration salts in water."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6xkpj3 | what exactly is brain autopilot? what does it do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xkpj3/eli5_what_exactly_is_brain_autopilot_what_does_it/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmgwr6f"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Our brains only convert interesting memories from short term to long term. If you are doing something routine and boring, like driving, you can be fully aware the whole time, and have nothing interesting enough to remember happen.\n\nThis can sometimes give us an odd feeling of dislocation, where we can't precisely remember how we got somewhere. Since we did get there without apparent conscious effort, we attribute it to a sort of autopilot, when in fact we were fully conscious the whole time, and just don't remember."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
43bf5p | what makes a classic a classic? | There are things from movies, cars and books that each have a select few, chosen from time to time, from the list of many that are considered classics.
But how did that list come to be? What factors made humanity decide that something was considered a classic? What makes a classic a classic? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/43bf5p/eli5_what_makes_a_classic_a_classic/ | {
"a_id": [
"czgzu06",
"czh1viq"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"There is certainly no set rule anywhere, no classics committee that decides what things humanity will consider classic. It is a combination of factors, usually something would need to be popular, high quality, interesting, etc, and it also has to be relatively long lasting, as in not just a fad or a short term craze but something that people in the future continue to appreciate. ",
"The dictionary defines classic as: \"[something] judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.\"\n\nSo there are basically two conditions for something to be deemed classic: \n\n1. That the thing is judged over a period of time. Which means longevity. This usually implies at least 10-20 years, if not more. Most things we think of as classics today are from the 50s and 60s, maybe 70s, at least in terms of music and cars. \n\n2. That it be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind. Speaks for itself really, but measures of this can be success at the box office/hit lists or sales in general. Or it can be measured in prolonged actuality and relevance. \n\nI don't know, take Tupac for example, his lyrics about racism and african american struggles (I believe he also mentions cops killing black people in one of his songs), are as relevant today (if not more) as they were in the 90s, thus a lot of his work is considered \"classic\" in the rap/hiphop genre. \n\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
5q8hqz | why is lightning typically yellow in entertainment (the flash, he-man, etc) even though we perceive it as blue in real life? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5q8hqz/eli5why_is_lightning_typically_yellow_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"dcx6q7k",
"dcxc7wk"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"That's something I wonder as well. \nPersonally, I like blue lightning better. \n\nBut somehow electricity is always seen as \"yellow\". Maybe because the first light bulbs were growing yellowish and that was an early way to \"see\" electricity? ",
"Yellow lightning is/was used mainly in comics and their adaptions. The time most comic characters were created the good ones always had brigt colors, the bad ones dark colors. Blue is a dark color so the bad guy with electricity would have dark/blue/red lightning while the good guy would have yellow/white/bright lightning and such. \n\nThank god we recently went away from the overly bright colored costumes for super heroes bot some things you have to keep, like the flash's yellow lightning effects. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
360x5t | why do banks go bankrupt and get bailed out, but whole cities go bankrupt and get no immediate federal financial help? | Also, what implications does this have on where our taxes go and how much we pay? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/360x5t/eli5_why_do_banks_go_bankrupt_and_get_bailed_out/ | {
"a_id": [
"cr9pfdo",
"cr9qhis"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"Your statement isn't totally right. It's not accurate to just say\n\n > Banks go bankrupt and get bailed out\n\nPlenty of banks go bankrupt and don't get bailed out! Check out [this list](_URL_0_) of bank failures in the US since 2008. It's pretty long. Like, banks fail and not only are they allowed to fail, but the government takes them over before they actually \"fail\" fail. \n\nI'm guessing that you're talking about the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). There's a wiki link [here](_URL_1_) and a short [investopedia page](_URL_3_). \n\nBeing charitable and pretending that we live in a perfect world where everyone is well-intentioned and good-hearted: banks are unique. When a bank goes under then **tons** of people get screwed.\n\nWhen the financial system goes down then everyone gets screwed. Employees, employers, lenders, borrowers, retirees, people with retirement accounts, people who may want to retire, anyone involved in the stock market in any way, pretty much literally everyone gets screwed over. \n\nWhen that happens then it goes into a spiral. Here's an example:\n\n* Sarah hires Alice; Alice shops at Sarah's store\n* Sarah has to fire Alice; Alice can no longer shop at Sarah's store\n* Sarah has lost a customer and now has to fire Jane too\n* Jane and Alice cannot shop at Sarah's store\n* Sarah has lost two customers and now has to fire Becky too\n* Jane and Alice and Becky cannot shop at Sarah's store\n* Sarah has to close up shop because she no longer has any customers\n\nThat's a simplified way of how things can build on each other and spiral out of control and at the end of the day everyone is worse off. If only Sarah didn't have to fire Alice then we would have 4 employed people rather than 4 unemployed people. Your salary pays mine; my salary pays yours. If one of us loses our salary then we both lose. \n\nAll of which is to say: TARP was an effort to stop that before it got out of control. It was an effort to step in before Alice was fired and to save the whole system so that it didn't spiral out of control and result in everyone getting screwed. \n\nIt was and is a controversial program. And it would be naive to think that we actually lived in this \"everyone is well-intentioned\" world that we pretended for that exercise; big banks have ridiculous amounts of political power. \n\nBut that is the idea: the government can step in and stop the financial system from spiraling out of control, thereby saving millions of jobs and large parts of the US and world economy.\n\nYour local municipality is totally different. Yeah, it sucks when it goes bankrupt. But it's not going to crash the world economy because fucking Cincinnati can't afford all of its streetlamps. \n\nFinally, TARP earned US taxpayers [over $15 billion](_URL_2_). \n\nedit: Upon further looking, I'm not as sure about TARP turning a profit. I'm seeing a lot of articles saying different things, many of them 3 years old. So I'm no longer sure if my last statement about earning money is accurate or not.",
"You see Jimmy, banks and financial institutions pay large amounts of money to lobbist. These lobbyists were usually some form of legislative or executive member or aide. They have the private phone numbers to current members. They promise the current members \"campaign contributions\" and access to their wealth friends who the financial institutions provide sweet heart deals on loans and IPOd. The members then vote to prop up the bank with taxpayer funds so they can pay their executives huge bonuses. \n\nCity governments don't have those kind of funds or relationships to get bailouts. \n\nOr just follow the money ;)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bank_failures_in_the_United_States_%282008%E2%80%93present%29",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program",
"http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/19/news/companies/government-bailouts-end/",
"http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/troubled-asset-relief-program-tarp.asp"
],
[]
] |
|
4cbqw6 | what is the best position one should take before a car accident? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4cbqw6/eli5_what_is_the_best_position_one_should_take/ | {
"a_id": [
"d1gpuih"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Have your seat belt on snug and your bladder empty. The air bags will pop so do not be too close to them or have your thumb pointing at your eyes. Keep your arms at your sides or across your chest. Do not have your knees raised.\n\nAll a driver should do is drive. Volunteer to operate everything else for him. Hollering does not work but calmly addressing this at some time might actually work."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
7lf8qu | why do guitar strings go out of tune sharp, and not flat? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7lf8qu/eli5why_do_guitar_strings_go_out_of_tune_sharp/ | {
"a_id": [
"drlu9i1"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"\nYour strings have gained tension due to the change in temperature and humidity causing the wood of your guitar to expand and contract. Metal strings don't expand or contract enough to cause detectable tuning issues alone. The wood of your guitar, however, does. The truss rod does the best job it can for keeping your neck at the right angle relative to the body, but it's not perfect. A slight movement of the neck backwards (towards the z axis relative to the body of the guitar) will cause your strings to go sharp enough for your ear to discern. You can test further this by playing open strings and pushing on the headstock in different directions perpendicular to the body of the guitar--just don't push too hard. As relative humidity changes, the wood of the body and neck of a guitar will expand and contract in two ways: tangentially and radially. Tangential movement lies parallel to the growth rings of the wood while radial movement is perpendicular across the growth rings. Another thing to consider is that different species of wood are more hygroscopic than others. This simply means that one species, take Maple with a radial growth coefficient of 0.00353 for example, will absorb more water--and thus move more--than another species like Cherry that has a lower radial growth coefficient of 0.00248. So, while the neck of your guitar gains or looses moisture, the wood will expand and contract relative to one of the two directions I explained earlier. This movement in either direction can very well be enough to cause more tension on the strings, thus bending them sharp."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3carlh | using the google deep dream code | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3carlh/eli5_using_the_google_deep_dream_code/ | {
"a_id": [
"csts5mr",
"csts9ze"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"You can input images at _URL_0_ and get the trippy results you want. The people there used the Deep Dream code to make the web app. As for implementing it yourself, it would probably require a lot of Python knowledge. ",
"[There's instructions here](_URL_0_). You will need [SciPy](_URL_1_) installed, and you will need to know basic Python syntax, because that's what it's written in - it doesn't have a user interface as far as I can tell."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://deepdreams.zainshah.net/"
],
[
"https://github.com/google/deepdream/blob/master/dream.ipynb",
"http://www.scipy.org/install.html"
]
] |
||
7va2xd | how does earth maintain it's path around the sun while getting heavier and heavier? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7va2xd/eli5_how_does_earth_maintain_its_path_around_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtqmnrh"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The buildings and people aren't making the earth heavier, since we are made of materials that are already on earth. We're just moving them around, that's all.\n\nAlso, all the people and buildings are a tiny fraction of earth's mass. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
11ziof | how did the red lines on the left side of lined paper originate? why can't we go past it? | I've always been wondering this since I was little, and the thought of making an ELI5 post just came to me today. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11ziof/eli5_how_did_the_red_lines_on_the_left_side_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6qvg2h",
"c6rbctx"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"Its a margin, and you use it to line up your text on the left side, which makes it easier to read from left to right as English is read. ",
"For writing legal notes in the margin. In fact the stripe defines it as \"legal paper,\" though we usually say legal paper is 8.5\"x14\" now, describing it by size rather than the stripe. \n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4673512"
]
] |
|
3w17i4 | if viruses are just small pieces of rna, couldn't a "cure" be made that locks into that rna keeping it occupied from important stuff? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3w17i4/eli5_if_viruses_are_just_small_pieces_of_rna/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxshn9f"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Yes, but it's hard to make a cure that would lock onto the virus without harming your body's normal protein creation process. To paraphrase [Randall Munroe](_URL_0_), a handgun would also pretty effectively stop the virus from spreading."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://xkcd.com/1217/"
]
] |
||
3779k3 | how come a small pond of water in time becomes dead and stagnant, but a lake (even without a river) doesn't? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3779k3/eli5_how_come_a_small_pond_of_water_in_time/ | {
"a_id": [
"crk93qg"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Firstly, very few lakes do not have an outlet. They are called \"closed lakes\" or \"Endorheic basins\". The great salt lake in the U.S. is an example of such a lake. You'll not that it doesn't support life very well at all.\n\nIf there is not drainage the lakes salinity level will rise and it will not support life. What level of balance they achieve is achieved through either drainage through rock, or through evaporation."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
bitpx8 | how does the national grid work? how can my energy supplier say that all my power comes from renewable sources? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bitpx8/eli5_how_does_the_national_grid_work_how_can_my/ | {
"a_id": [
"em2z25y",
"em2z6zu",
"em2zv52",
"em30hxs",
"em31gzi",
"em3akm0",
"em3tyog"
],
"score": [
2,
2,
3,
2,
2,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Chances are you live near a hydro-power dam, which counts as renewable energy.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nAt a national level, the U.S. doesn't really have the ability to shift large amounts of energy across the country to where it's needed. There are attempts to build those kind of transfer systems, but the legal and logistics problem has made it difficult.",
"They can't as a complete rule, however what it normally means is that say they generate say 100 units of electricity from renewable sources and sell 50 units of electricity to domestic customers and sell 50 units to other electricity suppliers.",
"There is not a single national grid in the US. There are local grids maintained by local suppliers that are connected to each other to form 3 major regional grids in the lower 48, Western US, Eastern US, and Texas (Hawaii and Alaska are also independent but considered to only be local grids as the islands and cities rarely connect to each other). Each supplier knows what sources they use to produce their energy and if they only use renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, or hydro-electric then they will tell you such. Local grids can share with neighbors, and to some extent across the whole regional network, but the regions do not share with each other.",
"There really isn't a \"national\" grid as much as there is a network of power generating stations that connect across your state.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nWhen your power company says they are selling you 100% renewable power, they have to be selling you power that was generated from renewable sources obviously. Renewable includes Nuclear though btw which is cleaner and safer than any other renewable source. If the power company is in fact using 100% renewable energy then it's perfectly legal for them to say that but I think even most smaller companies still have to \"buy\" energy from other power companies.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nsource: I'm an industrial electrician.",
"See here's the thing, It's not a National grid. It's a patchwork of regional grids, sometimes a state or 2 but usually just an area near the power plant. For example A lot of Arizona is serviced by Palo Verde Nuclear plant but there's also the Solana solar boiler in Gila bend and Natural gas plants to handle additional load from summertime temps. But what about Hoover Dam? Most of that goes to LA and Las Vegas. And that's out west where things are a bit more spread out. In the North East it's a bit more tied together but the basics are the same, this plant supplies so much to the area near it and so on until thees's total coverage. Like u/Random_user1914 said you probably live close enough to a wind farm or hydro dam that all your power had to come from there even if there is other power sources in the regional mix. Back to My example If you live in Gila Bend all of your daytime power is from that solar plant, at night it's probably from the nuclear plant.",
"So let's say you and other users who want renewable energy consume X units of energy. The grid may have both renewable and non-renewable sources, but as long as they buy/produce X units from renewable sources then they can say that your power was renewable.",
"Everyone assuming op lives in the US :)\n\nThe exact answer will depend on which country you live on, but typically they cannot guarantee that all your energy actually comes from renewable sources, because the grid is shared between all operators and you can’t separate each operator’s energy. What they do can guarantee is that all the energy they buy comes from renewable sources."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
7qbw2u | gender of words | What does it mean for a word to be feminine or masculine or neutral? Why is it important? How did it come about? In fact, what does a word's gender even mean/represent? I know for people It's a physical quality, but how does that apply to words? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7qbw2u/eli5_gender_of_words/ | {
"a_id": [
"dso7gs2"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"***TLDR: Genders are just word classes. Words that follow similar rules and demand a certain declenation or grammatical use are grouped together. Sometimes this grouping is meaningful to the definition of the word, most of the time it's arbitrary and based on what is natural and sounds good, and how the word fits into the language*** \n\n\"Gendered languages\" are languages where some subclass of words (most commonly nouns) are assigned a gender. \n\nGender is a bit of a misleading term, because it's completely unrelated to gender as people perceive it, i.e a key being a male word in a language isn't supposed to imply that keys are somehow manly or better represented by men instead of women. Grammatical genders are instead just *classes* words fit into.\n\nThese classes mean that the words decline or behave similar to other words in the same class, and adjectives, verbs or other word-types behave in some similar sense when paired with the gendered object. It's not all that different to saying some words are nouns, and some are verbs. Some words are in the past tense, and the language changes accordingly, and some words are present tense. You know that if you have a past tense word you probably cannot use \"I am < word > \", because 'Am' implies present. in a similar way a male word might not fit where a female word would without changing the grammar of the sentence (changing 'am' into 'was' in our tense-\nexample). \n\nFor instance, Icelandic is gendered. \n\nbarring exceptions:\n\n* all definite male nouns end with the suffix \"inn\".\n\n* All definite female nouns end with \"in\"\n\n* All definite neuter nouns end with \"ið\". \n\n\nSimilarly adjectives decline according to gender, so all blue, indefinite male nouns are \"blár\", blue female nouns are \"blá\", and neuter things are \"blátt\". \"Blái lykilinn\" means \"the blue key\", while \"bláa tölvan\" is \"the blue computer\". \"Blár hestur\" mean \"a blue horse\". \n\n\nMost of the time the meaning of the word doesn't affect the gender of the word. How the word sounds, inflects, declines, and naturally fits into a language is usually the determining factors in what gender it has. \n\nGendered languages usually use gender to clear up ambiguity, distinguish homophones should their gender differ, often correlate with the natural gender of the living thing they are describing, and give a regular order to nouns that act similarly. In culture gendered languages usually use the grammatical gender as a jump-off point when personifying things but with the unexpected side effect that when people describe the noun they tend to use words often associated with the stereotype of the natural gender (ie. spanish speakers might describe a key as beautiful, small, golden; while Icelandic speakers might mention rough, strong, metallic). "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1z8z29 | how can american high schools and even colleges justify paying millions of dollars for gigantic football stadiums? | So I was watching [this](_URL_0_) story and it got me thinking. How on earth do high schools justify paying millions of tax payers money on sports stadiums?
Like as an Australian this concept sounds insane to me, my high school was lucky to get a new vollyball hall, and yet high schools in America have stadiums that can seat tens of thousands of people? Colleges I can sort of understand but its still crazy, for a place of education to spend so much on mega structures. Hell, most of these stadiums are bigger than the huge stadiums in my city for professional level sports.
So where does this come from? Culturally how is it okay for public high schools to spend this much? Especially when many inner city school struggles to give their children basic educations and buy supplies. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1z8z29/eli5_how_can_american_high_schools_and_even/ | {
"a_id": [
"cfrli8h"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"They get many times what they spend on the sports from the tickets, food, and merchandise sales. \n\nThe Highschool in the town I attended had a stadium that seated 3 thousand and was over capacity near every football game. With tickets $5 a head for Students/children and $10 a head for adults you make back the investments fairly quickly. It goes even faster when you calculate the concessions sales. \n\nEdit: And you do not generally see this with the inner city school districts. It is rural schools, and rich city schools that do this. Inner city schools will often share a stadium with 2-3 sometimes even 5 or 6 other schools. "
]
} | [] | [
"http://espn.go.com/dallas/story/_/id/10528972/cracks-force-closure-60m-stadium-allen-texas"
] | [
[]
] |
|
9336t7 | why does rice taste entirely bland to us, when it is quite calorific? isn't it the general rule that more nutrients = better taste? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9336t7/eli5_why_does_rice_taste_entirely_bland_to_us/ | {
"a_id": [
"e3a93wn",
"e3a9grm"
],
"score": [
27,
8
],
"text": [
"Firstly, it is a \"general\" rule.\n\nSecondly, eating raw wild rice *isn't* very caloric for us because we can't digest it. That is why we cook it and otherwise process it.\n\nIn addition, even though rice has been a staple food for a huge portion of humankind's existence, it is still relatively recent, evolutionarily speaking.\n\nThe high caloric value of sugars and fats have been much more accessible over the course of history and prehistory, so there has been lots of time for species to adapt for preferences for such foods.",
"Only some chemicals can be tasted (and much of flavour is actually smell). Some of these have high energy content, such as sugar, but others, such as salt contain no energy. It also works the other way, as in the case of rice: its energy comes from carbohydrates that don't have strong flavours."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
11vo23 | why and how is it possible to time travel into the future by orbiting a supermassive black hole? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/11vo23/eli5_why_and_how_is_it_possible_to_time_travel/ | {
"a_id": [
"c6pzn9a"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Time moves slower when you're close to a source of gravity. So by being really close to a really big source of gravity, you can make time move *really* slowly for you; when you come back out, a lot more time will have passed for everyone else."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
1owah6 | why are video game qa jobs so terrible? | I'm reading the stories in [The Trenches](_URL_0_) and I honestly can't figure out why QA tested are treated so poorly.
I get that testing video games isn't as glorious as it sounds but I've read stories of people overworked, tricked, denied pay, fired for little or no reason and even lied to by their company. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1owah6/eli5_why_are_video_game_qa_jobs_so_terrible/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccw9vjs"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"To be fair, you can find those types of poor business practices in just about any industry.\n\nWhen it comes to QA testing games, though, it's likely because management knows there's a line out the door of sweaty nerds who would love to have that job just to see the games earlier, who will likely take less pay or put up with bullshit just to have the job, and because QA testing games is really the only way to get your foot in the door in the game industry if you don't have any contacts that could get you a better job.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [
"http://trenchescomic.com/comic/"
] | [
[]
] |
|
7jbdyj | what keeps successive congresses from overturning previous laws and potentially creating policy uncertainty? | Let's say Congress passes a controversial law. Are there any mechanisms that keep the next Congress from overturning it? Couldn't this create uncertainty when it comes to policy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7jbdyj/eli5_what_keeps_successive_congresses_from/ | {
"a_id": [
"dr501yl",
"dr50ig8",
"dr50nfz",
"dr62ohu",
"dr6816r"
],
"score": [
23,
13,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Nothing, that's how it's supposed to work.\n\nYou can make your law a Constitutional Amendment, to make it harder to overturn. This was done with the Prohibition of alcohol. That turned out to be super stupid, so that's not going to happen again.",
"We have a perfect example of this in the form of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which is very often dismissively called \"Obamacare\" as if Barack Obama devised it as a monument to his own ego, rather than as an effort to improve health care in America. It is immensely controversial and the Republican Party has been trying to get rid of it for years. Furthermore it was actually a campaign promise by Donald Trump that he would immediately get rid of it. So now, with Trump in office for almost a year, and a Republican majority Congress, the ADA has still not been repealed, despite several attempts.\n\nThat is not because it is a political impossibility to repeal it, not at all. All you would have to do is to compose a better alternative with which to replace it. What if you just repealed it with no replacement, returning America to the largely unregulated health care system that existed prior to the ACA? Then you have a politically explosive situation. Then you will have millions of voters who will be very angry at the Republican Party for taking away their health coverage.\n\nSo as it turns out, the Republican Party has failed to come up with any better alternative to the ACA and therefore, they have simply left the legislation as it is. They don't know what else to do.\n\nThings often work out that way, when it comes to controversial legislation. When Income Tax was first introduced, that too was controversial. However the government needs the money, and that was simply the best method of raising it that they could devise. There are people who still dislike the Civil Rights Act that was passed a long time ago under the Lyndon Johnson administration, but if you actually tried to repeal it you would have mass rioting in the streets. It is now a sacrosanct part of American politics.\n\nThis is not to say that nothing ever gets reversed. Obama chose to normalize relations with Cuba, but Trump moved immediately to put a stop to that. Most Americans don't really care that much whether America has normal relations with Cuba or not, so it is not a hot-button item. Too bad for Cuba. They may be stuck in the Cold War forever, like it or not.",
"One of the rules of Congress is that it can impose no legislative obligations on future Congresses. In other words they can't pass a law obligating Congress to pass or not to pass any law in the future. They can set rules only for themselves.",
"Nothing. And everything. \n\nIn practice it’s a lot more difficult than simply overturning a law. Most laws take years and years to actually go from a bill to a law (necessary schoolhouse rock reference). And through many changes, amendments, and tacking on other bills, usually the finished bill looks nothing like the original bill. \n\nKeep in mind - you need both the House and the Senate to pass a majority vote to overturn a law. Two things to consider is that incumbents almost always win - if a representative goes up for re-election, most likely outside of some scandal they will win. Secondly, the senate only has 1/3 of their members up for re-election every 2 years. So the population actually voting doesn’t change too much year-to-year.\n\nThen there are tactics to kill a bill, such as giving it to a subcommittee ran by someone who doesn’t want to see it succeed, filibuster, and quorum busting (not having enough members present to vote).\n\nWhat does this mean? Congress doesn’t really change that drastically. So no - there is nothing ‘extra’ preventing a Congress from overturning all the laws the previous Congress enacted, but the regular methods of getting something through Congress takes so damn long with so much opposition that it’s usually not a problem. ",
"The fact that both parties represent a very narrow spectrum of political views and cannot exist without each other exerting a moderating effect on their opposition. The fact that both parties are generally funded by the same massive corporations and the fact that 99% of laws that get passed are not the big button issues that are argued back in forth in the media but are incredibly obscure and complex laws that \"the people\" never could have asked for. These are the return payment for the 100s of millions of dollars."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
9o8ecu | what’s so special about the unreal engine? there are so many video games that seemingly are powered by unreal. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9o8ecu/eli5_whats_so_special_about_the_unreal_engine/ | {
"a_id": [
"e7s9zgl",
"e7sa2tu",
"e7sl6u8",
"e7sqq62"
],
"score": [
19,
11,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"It's an engine with a lot of features already built in, instead of having to make one of your own (which is very expensive). IIRC, the makers of the Unreal engine offer a deal where they just take a cut of your profits as payment for use of the engine. So, little to no upfront costs, no maintaining the engine (the Unreal team does that), you just build on it and in return fork over a percentage. Pretty win/win.",
"Designing and building an engine for a game takes lots of money, time and talent. Many developers opt to license the Unreal engine because it is already built, has people that can help solve problems, and is proven to work on all systems on many different genres. ",
"Software is a *lot* of work to write. The total amount of code that goes into a modern game as well as the tools used to develop the game is huge. In order to save time and effort, game programmers keep around various libraries of software that can be re-used in other games. As these libraries of software and tools build up, they're sometimes polished into an actual product in of themselves.\n\nWWise is a common audio middleware. Havok a common physics middleware. Blink a common video player middleware. Scaleform a common UI middleware.\n\nJust like Unreal, you'll find those names plastered on boxes too. All it means is that is cheaper and easier to license software and developer support from another company than to build all the software yourself.",
"The Unreal engine is very attractive to indie/small studios. When choosing an engine, studios have to weigh the pros and cons of each. Cryengine, for example, requires quite a bit of legal paperwork and usually a large cash payment up front. Indie studios who don't have a lot of capital to work with (and don't want to take financial risks yet) are fairly put off by this. Making their own engine is usually out of question as they have neither the experience nor the money to make an engine in-house. Unreal engine offers a special system in which the devs can use the engine without upfront costs. The deal is that they have to share a percentage of the profits with Unreal. This is attractive to new studios because there is far less inherent risk. If their product doesn't sell well, they don't have crippling debts from the engine purchase."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3y4m6z | how do radio waves cause vibrating electrons to follow elliptical paths? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3y4m6z/eli5how_do_radio_waves_cause_vibrating_electrons/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyahyyk",
"cyaiz33"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Where did you see/hear that electrons \"follow ellliptical paths\" ?? \n",
"That's not what happens at all. The elliptical waves you are thinking of are visual representations of voltage changes (it is voltage, right) when picking up the radio waves."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
8oji5s | how does an updater update itself? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8oji5s/eli5_how_does_an_updater_update_itself/ | {
"a_id": [
"e03sm16"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Anything that is currently running can't be updated immediately because files that are in-use are locked. An updater, when encountering files that are in-use (including the updater itself) will place the new files in a temporary location, along with an instruction for the OS to overwrite the now-running files the next time there is a reboot, or you bounce the program.\n\nSo if you've ever wondered why some updates require a reboot and some do not, it's because those files are in use and need a reboot to not be in-use."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2cf67f | why is it when we cook nuggets in oil, it's crispy but in water it gets soggy? i understand the different boiling point but i can still cook nuggets with low heat. | Can someone please explain it without making me look dumb :( I'm just tryna eat healthy bruh | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cf67f/eli5_why_is_it_when_we_cook_nuggets_in_oil_its/ | {
"a_id": [
"cjeufca",
"cjeuhgm",
"cjeuic4",
"cjex4sg",
"cjezqeg"
],
"score": [
3,
8,
6,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Water boils at 212°F, oil at that temperature wouldn't fry anything either. It would just soak in and make greasy, soggy nuggets. Frying is usually done at 350° or higher",
"When you fry foods it dehydrates the surface. This makes a kind of protective layer so that the oil can't soak further into the food and make it all gross. Its called browning. However it has to be hot enough, if you dont heat the oil up enough it will soak it as well.",
"The water in the breading boils off when cooking in oil, but cooking them in water, even boiling water, would only add more water to the breading. ",
"When the oil is at a high enough temperature the moisture in the food almost instantly turns to steam and steam wants to escape the liquid. This steam forms a protective barrier around the food that keeps the oil from penetrating the food. There will come a point when the food looses enough moisture so that it can not maintain the steam barrier and then the oil penetrates but this usually occurs after the food has been terribly burned and is gross. \n\nTldr : high temperature oil frying causes a protective steam blanket pushing oil away from the food. \n\nTake away: If you get soggy oil logged fried food at a restaurant then most likely the kitchen is cooking with the oil on a lower temperature to keep the oil from breaking down and helps it last longer. But it creates gross food. ",
"As for eating healthy, if done correctly frying foods generally doesn't add much fat to the food being cooked. If you fry incorrectly however, the oil can intrude into the food and make it a greasy, unhealthy mess.\n\nYou know how they say that oil and water don't mix? This is also true when you're frying something. Almost all food is made up partly of water. When you put this into frying oil (350^o) the water very rapidly turns to steam, which is what cooks the food, and keeps the frying oil out of the food.\n\nWhen you cook in water (boiling 212^o at sea level) the water molecules are bouncing around like mad, which transfers heat to the food, cooking it. However, you cannot get something \"crispy\" cooking it in water because the water that was originally in the food isn't expelled through steam, which was heated by the oil. Indeed, cooking in water adds water to food, not removes it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4htsne | non-compete | Current understanding in my brain: For example, I work at a sandwich restaurant, but I make a sandwich at home and sell it on ebay. Do I go to jail? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4htsne/eli5_noncompete/ | {
"a_id": [
"d2s92zl",
"d2sc3rs"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Jail, no. It's not a crime. But you could get fired from your job. And/or possibly sued by your employer.\n\nBy taking the job and signing the contract you have agreed not to compete with your employer's business. Often that agreement goes a certain time past your end of employment. E.g. if you leave your job you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can work for a competitor.\n\nI've heard non-compete clauses can be hard to enforce in some jurisdictions. They have to be somewhat reasonable. For example they are common in the video games industry, but the definition of a competitor has to be very specific. They can't just stop you working in the games industry for half a year if you want to leave your job. So a competitor will be defined as companies that make very similar games.",
"There are usually two types of Non-Compete.\n\nThe first is while you are employed you can't work for a competitor or be a competitor of your employer. This is pretty standard obvious thing.\n\nThe second is for specialized work your contract may say you can't go do the same thing for another company in the same region for a certain amount of time. This is to prevent people from getting hired, learning all the inside information about that company and/or expensive training and then quitting and taking that information to a competitor. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
bhgasy | how often are new species are being discovered? how are we still constantly discovering new ones? | I feel like humanity has reach a point where we are accustomized to every thing on earth pretty much.. It still baffles me how scientists are still discovering new specifies of animals and plants every year! How are we still doing this? We been on this planet for quite some time now... | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bhgasy/eli5_how_often_are_new_species_are_being/ | {
"a_id": [
"elsmffd",
"elsmkvs",
"elsn5mm"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
6
],
"text": [
"The vast majority of new species discovered now are better described as a new subspecies. For example you have a very wide fast flowing river. Small minnows live in the shallow banks. Because the center is too fast flowing and full of predators, the two sides never crossbreed.\n\nOver time this means you have two populations of separate gene pools. They aren't ready to be declared a separate species but maybe over time they will be. For now it's a new sub species.\n\nThere are occasionally new small critters getting discovered, but that's the rarity.",
"The answer lies in your assumptions being wrong. Humans have not been around that long and we have not reached a point where we know much about our planet. Something like 95% of our oceans are unexplored. Estimates of about 80% of animals are still undiscovered. Places like rainforests, jungles, caves are focused in study because we still are learning about our planet.",
"I answered a question on r/askscience a [few weeks ago](_URL_7_) that might help you a bit, though the focus was more on the process of how new species are identified than the rate of discovery. I'll copy it here too if it helps:\n\n > Going out into the field on big expeditions certainly used to be the main way that new species were identified; Linnaeus famously had a whole group of \"[apostles](_URL_6_)\" who travelled all over the world describing new species and collecting specimens (several of them [died in the process](_URL_10_)). However, in practice most species that are described in modern times are identified in labs and museums. \n > \n > Though this depends a lot on what groups of organisms you're focused on, it's fairly safe to say that, in the case of large terrestrial animals at least, we've discovered a very large percentage of existing biodiversity. However, dividing these organisms up into species is not an exact science, since there are a variety of [different definitions](_URL_1_) of what a species is that can be used. For example, though the biological species concept (i.e., species are groups of organisms that breed and produce fertile offspring) is perhaps the most common, it is flawed in several ways, not least of which being that it is obviously inapplicable to asexually reproducing organisms. The impracticality of actually carrying out breeding trials also often leads to other methods being used. Phylogenetic approaches to defining species have been fairly common in this century; a recent high-profile example being the splitting of giraffes into four species based on DNA analysis by [Fennessy et al](_URL_4_). As is almost always the case with charismatic animals though, this study is [not free from criticism](_URL_8_). And, though this is getting a bit off topic, such distinctions have important real-world consequences, like how we manage conservation of animals which are not endangered when regarded as a single species, but may have critically endangered sub-groups. \n > \n > Then, there's also a good number of species being described that have already been collected in the field previously, but never studied. Museums tend to accumulate humongous collections that often include many specimens which never see the light of day after being stored, and going back through these is an easy way for new species to be found. [Here's an article](_URL_9_) showing a few good examples of this. This kind of discovery is probably especially common for insects (which still make up around [half of new species being described](_URL_5_)), where collections often have specimens numbering in the [tens of millions](_URL_0_). Anecdotally, I have a friend who is currently working on publishing a new species he described which he found in a \"miscellaneous\" bin of specimens. \n > \n > So in summary, it varies a lot depending on what groups of organisms you're interested in. Some things, like fungi, microbes, [nematodes](_URL_11_), and other small and infrequently collected groups are [stupendously underrepresented](_URL_3_) in our current knowledge of global biodiversity, and should continue to be explored by collecting field specimens (many would argue that the numbers in that figure are significant underestimates too). Other groups, like vertebrates as previously mentioned, are already mostly \"discovered\", but the number of recognized species varies depending on how species are defined and in some cases conservation concerns. In general, we can use [species accumulation curves](_URL_2_), which compare number of described species over time (adjusted for amount of effort put into looking), to get an idea of how close we are to the asymptotic limit of identifying all species on Earth, but for most groups of life we are still well below this point. \n\nThe last section of this is probably most relevant for your question; in general, it is true that rates of species discovery for many groups are indeed slowing down (at least when corrected for amount of work put in). However, there are also many groups of organisms that have received very little attention historically, and for which thousands of new species are probably awaiting discovery if anyone bothers to go look for them!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/entomology",
"https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/side_0_0/otherspecies_01",
"http://potiphar.jongarvey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Fig4-BirdGroupCurves.png",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Species_Distribution_Biodiversity_after_Chapman_2009.png",
"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216307874",
"https://www.esf.edu/species/documents/sosretro.pdf",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles_of_Linnaeus",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/b7xyd8/how_do_scientists_discover_new_species/",
"https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/a-new-paper-confidently-claims-that-there-are-four-giraffe-species-rather-than-one-but-im-not-so-sure/",
"http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141230-the-new-species-hiding-in-museums",
"http://datatorch.com/life/Apostles_of_Linnaeus_Martyrs_for_Taxonomy",
"https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/parasitic-roundworms-own-this-place/"
]
] |
|
37fss0 | how is snowden in hiding yet constantly able to do ama's and such? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37fss0/eli5_how_is_snowden_in_hiding_yet_constantly_able/ | {
"a_id": [
"crmbr24",
"crmd1xc"
],
"score": [
7,
8
],
"text": [
"Snowden is in Russia. Now his exact position in or around Moscow may be unknown to most people, but we have a general idea of where he is. \n\nSo as long as he has access to an internet connection, he can access Reddit. He may also use a service such as Tor or a VPN to help further protect his location, even if he was still in full hiding.",
"Who says Snowden is in hiding?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
86od0n | how does wearing glasses with the wrong prescription damage your eyes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86od0n/eli5_how_does_wearing_glasses_with_the_wrong/ | {
"a_id": [
"dw6q1im"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"Wearing glasses with the wrong prescription or wearing glasses when you don't need them does NOT in any way damage your eyes or make your eyesight worse. At most you'll get a headache. This is just one of many medical myths that won't go away."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3v14z2 | why does it seem like businesses must generate a higher profit every year or they are a failure? why can't a business be happy generating the same amount of profit (or even slightly less) than previous years? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3v14z2/eli5why_does_it_seem_like_businesses_must/ | {
"a_id": [
"cxjeaxx",
"cxjecfu",
"cxjel3a"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"That very much depends on the type of business. A private business can do whatever the hell the owner wants. \n\nPublicly-traded companies are beholden to shareholders. Shareholders tend to invest in a company because they want it to make a profit, so that they can make a profit. And they tend to want as big a profit as possible. Shareholders can actually get together and *sue the company* if they think the leadership isn't doing enough to justify the investment. \n\n",
"A lot of this is directly due to inflation and an increase in various costs of doing business (employee pay raises, rent increase, utility increases). These require you to grow and make more money to cover your fixed costs.\n\nAlso, inherent in the personalities of many, if not most most entrepreneurs is that you should grow grow grow. There just aren't that many business owners who are comfortable plateauing. There's something to be said for the \"if you aren't growing, you're shrinking mindset\".\n\n",
"There is an accepted truth in business which is \"grow or die\". This can be seen as generally true, but it doesn't really apply to all businesses.\n\n1. a classic \"mom and pop\" that \"owns a corner\", or a real estate investment business and a whole shit-ton of other businesses can be run as \"cash flow businesses\". These do not fit the axiom you describe. However, even then...you can make an argument that the not-growing corner store exists in a very risky state due to growth-oriented competition like wal-mart. In this case the reason you might argue in favor of your axiom is that greater scale creates leverage on pricing, advertising and general market awareness and that can't be matched by the smaller business. So...you need to grow to stay competitive in a marketplace that will be filled by competition that IS growing and will ultimately be able to exert that leverage.\n\n2. businesses like utilities are run more on margin than on growth. At some point this conversation has to shift or include the needs of owners - in public companies these are \"investors\" (stockholders). Independent investors need to get more money out then they put in. In the case of utilities, this is typically done by having modest growth (their customer base is bound to a geography typically and only grows based on factors often outside of control of the utility) so the utility attempts to improve profitabiliy and return large dividends to investors.\n\n3. owners of public companies that _could potentially grow_ demand that their investment increases in value. Growth is the best way to achieve that. A company _must do_ what its owners want and the board of directors is mandated to protect the interests of shareholders. Shareholders want more and more money.\n\n4. It really all comes back though to the competetive landscape. Someone is going to try to grow and it's hard to compete against bigger, growing competitors who have increasingly large amounts of capital, access to said capital and therefore the ability to crush you."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
5r7bq7 | roles of the attorney general, and whether the attorney general is there to support the government or regulate it | Trying to wrap my head round this Sally Yates thing, and first I need to understand what the attorney general actually does. As far as I can see, the AG is there basically to defend the government no matter what, but obviously Sally didn't do that, so I don't know. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5r7bq7/eli5_roles_of_the_attorney_general_and_whether/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd50f3m"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"You are right. The attorney general is the governments lawyer. Just like any other lawyer the job is to advise and defend the client. Even if the client is guilty they have the right to a fair trial and that means that sometimes a defense attorney have to play the devils advocate (pun intended). What Sally Yates did was questionably out of line for her position. However it is something an attorney might say to his client as an advice. It is not uncommon to say to a client that his position is impossible to defend in a trial. That does not however mean that you should not attempt to defend it.\n\nThe criticism here is that Sally Yates is someone who is passionate about upholding the constitution and is not afraid to do the right thing and stand up to her boss. She is just what Trump needs to hold him back and make sure everything is done by the books. However the first time she does this she is fired and replaced by someone Trump likes more. There is no scolding or demands of public apology. Trump is straight out firing someone that disagrees with him so he does not have to work with them again. That sends a signal to the rest of the government.\n\nImagine that you are a general and you receive an order from Trump to attack ISIS with everything as soon as possible. Are you going to refuse that order and say that this will require months of planning and intelligence to have any chance of success? If that order came last Friday that might have been the case. However now you fear for your position. If you refuse the order Trump have shown he is not afraid of firing anyone who apposes him, even worse refusing an order means you can be court marshaled if Trump wants. However you can go through with the order and risk thousands of American lives and billions of dollars in an operation that only have a tiny chance of success. However that means that the worst Trump can do is to retire you for bad performance."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
32jw5u | if i find a phone/wallet/something valuable on the ground do i legally have to give it back? | If I keep it am I just a dick or a criminal? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32jw5u/eli5_if_i_find_a_phonewalletsomething_valuable_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqbw3fm"
],
"score": [
12
],
"text": [
"Yes, you have to return lost property to its owners. But practically, there's a sliding scale: how big a deal is it (basically, how much money did you find?) vs how easy is it to find and/or contact its owners.\n\nA loose $20 bill? Unless you saw someone drop it, there's no way to ever find its former owner. Keep it. A cell phone or wallet (especially with an ID)? Not only will someone likely come looking for it, but it'll be easy to make sure only the right person gets it back. Leave it with the customer service desk. Or call one of the phone's contacts, or use some of the cash to mail a wallet to the address on the driver's license."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
ap4v5o | why do balls have a seam down the middle? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ap4v5o/eli5_why_do_balls_have_a_seam_down_the_middle/ | {
"a_id": [
"eg5qmcd"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"We all start developing as females, so the ball seam is where a vulva would have split in two, but didn’t. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
62kp9w | why would there be an engine in the middle of a long train? | I was watching a train go by this morning and it was very long. About halfway through there was another engine car just like the one in front. Does this provide power or is it just being transported somewhere? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/62kp9w/eli5_why_would_there_be_an_engine_in_the_middle/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfn9r73",
"dfn9ybb"
],
"score": [
5,
5
],
"text": [
"If the train is really long, it means it's really heavy. And when the train is really heavy, it needs more power to make it move. Simple as that.",
"If a train is heavy enough, sometimes 2 engines are used.\n\nSometimes they will put the engine in the back, although on a steep grade and sharp turn a helper engine in the back may risk pushing the train cars off the track. The solution is to move them to the middle, so instead of just pulling they are pulling and pushing. \n\nSo its very likely it was there for power especially if it was a large train or it had a route with high grades."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
2wq45d | how do crabs breathe both on land and underwater? why didn't more species evolve this advantageous trait? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wq45d/eli5_how_do_crabs_breathe_both_on_land_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cot3n59"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Crabs have gills similar to fish. In order to get oxygen, gills need to be covered in water. That means that when a crab isn't submerged their gills *must* stay wet otherwise they will not be able to \"breathe\". \n\nAlthough this is an advantage for animals living at the water's edge, it's hardly efficient for environments that are prone to drying out."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
e1il95 | why is it that objects in midair, both natural and manmade, spin along with earth? | I'm having a hard time explaining to a friend. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e1il95/eli5_why_is_it_that_objects_in_midair_both/ | {
"a_id": [
"f8pela8",
"f8peltz",
"f8pem19",
"f8petc0",
"f8pewwh"
],
"score": [
12,
2,
9,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It's not just the ground of the Earth that's spinning, but the whole of the earth, including its atmosphere.\n\nSo as the earth turns, so is the air above the earth along with it, and if some object is suspended within that air, it would also be moving with it.\n\nIt's a similar situation to if you're in a car, and you toss a ball in the air, the ball doesn't fly back to the back of the car, but it moves forward with the rest of the cars contents. The car is moving, and as such so is everything inside the car: you, the seats, the air, the ball etc. That inertia keeps it moving forward even if you toss it up in the air and it's not touching any part of the car.\n\nIn your scenario, the earth is the car, the air is the air, and a plane is the ball.",
"Any object that has ever sat at \"rest\" on Earth has actually been rotating with the Earth as it spins, imparting angular momentum. You just don't see it from your frame of reference, it appears still to you. An alien stationary in space above the Earth would see you rotating away from its spacecraft at high speed (while on Earth's surface). This momentum carries over to say, a ball, when it is thrown into the air. It actually travels in an arc, but we see only the up and down portion because we are in the same rotational frame of reference.",
"When an object takes flight, whether by being thrown or like a helicopter/airplane, it retains the inertia it has from being on the ground. The same is true for the atmosphere, it has been dragged along by the earths rotation for eons, and so it (overall) travels at the same rate.",
"Newton's First Law of Motion: An object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside force.\n\nImagine you are riding in a car at 60mph and you throw a ball in the air. The ball goes straight up and straight down because, in addition to its vertical movement, it is also traveling forward at 60mph along with the car and everything inside it. Since no force is acting upon the ball to stop it from traveling forward, it continues to travel forward at the same speed.\n\nThe same is true for any object in midair on the Earth. It is traveling along with the Earth in a number of directions - rotation of the Earth on its axis, rotation around the Sun, rotation around the galaxy, etc. Nothing is acting to stop the object from traveling in those directions, so it keeps traveling in those directions per Newton's First Law.",
"The air is moving too. And when the object left the ground it was moving.\n\nWith no force to *stop* the motion, it will just spin along with the earth forever.\n\nThis is also why things don't rocket out the back of an airplane at 500mph when you accidentally drop them. The plane accelerated the air and everything else inside to cruising speed and there's no external force to stop it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.