Datasets:

NomaDamas

/

eli5-qa

like 0

1oy5tc

in football whats the point of wasting the first two plays with a rush - up the middle - not regular rush plays i get those

Keep the defense honest, get a feel for the pass rush, open up the passing game. An offense that's too one dimensional will fail. And those rushes up the middle can be busted wide open sometimes for big yardage.

5b957791-3c7b-4f29-a410-8d005a538855

2lojul

Why are different tiers (regular < mid < premium) of gas' prices almost always 10 cents different?

As someone who uses quality Premium, I wish this was true.

b9ad611a-e606-4e79-885a-7f8033f42512

8v5e3s

Stars and Visibility

It's a quirk of the human eye. At the center of the eye (the fovea) we mostly have colour-sensitive cone cells to see detail and colour of what we're focusing on. Around the fovea we mostly have rod cells that can't see colour but are more sensitive to variations in light intensity and movement. Looking slightly to the side of the thing you're examining sends more of the light to the rod cells and lets you see things more clearly in low-light conditions where cones don't work well.

2ec51121-3640-43d7-85db-1259cddaa4c9

1v3wij

How do we know all the money the government is getting from bank settlements is going back to the people?

I'm pretty confident most of it isn't going back to the people. That's how politics works.

191c54df-703a-477d-86b6-99183f254799

2jlp6f

What are good and bad sides of manual and automatic drive gear?

Automatics weigh more, so that alone makes gas mileage worse. They are also more complicated, so that means reliability is going to be lower. It is easier to operate, which may free up your attention for focus on what is *outside* the car. Some people derive satisfaction from shifting, and flexibility in using the power curve.

6f20af70-48b7-4171-a8d7-967ea583a595

2reick

the special and general theory of relativity

We know that light moves at the speed *c* (roughly 300000km/s). So here's a question for you (that Einstein asked himself): what would you see if you sat on a beam of light and looked into the mirror? Would your reflection disappear? Would it be normal? He then thought: what's the speed of light relative to anyway? Here's the thing: if I run 10m/s, and I'm on a train going at 100m/s, then when I run along the train I'm running 10m/s relative to the train, and 110m/s relative to the tracks. So what is the speed of light relative to? In his earlier career he did some experiments [EDIT: He didn't: it was Michelson and Morley, but Einstein knew about the results, and everything. Thanks /u/AramisAthosPorthos for pointing that out.]: can you tell which way the Earth is moving by looking at light inside a sealed box? If the speed of light is measured compared to something in the universe (which they called a luminiferous aether, IIRC) then you should be able to measure it, by seeing that the light hits one side of the box earlier, because the box is moving. But there was no change, so Einstein realised that the speed of light isn't relative to anything. No matter what speed you're going at, you must always get the same speed of light. This led to the special theory of relativity. He basically said "what if time is variable and the speed of light is constant?" and did all the maths to figure out what would happen. It's called "special relativity" because it only works in a special case: there is no mass (which causes forces) in it. General relativity involved a lot more complicated maths to take into account the affects of gravity, which he modelled as a warping of space-time, and took some really, really hard maths to figure out. It's called general relativity because it can be applied to generally any situation. (Actually, it breaks down at quantum-mechanics levels, but that's a different story.) I think that covers the difference and where they came from. If you want any more details on them, feel free to ask and I'll see what I can get for you.

dc5dc6d5-b53f-4a08-888d-2d6e5c85cf4b

6frazv

How do muscles grow?

I hope this answer qualifies as technical, yet simple enough (as I very rarely post here), but the basic idea that I understand is that your muscles rip and tear on a microscopic level when you are working out, and the harder you push those muscles, the more they rip. Hence where the idea comes from that more reps and less weight equal more tone, but more weight and less reps equal more muscle growth. What happens is that following those tiny rips and tears, your muscle heals over itself and essentially stacks on top of itself, healing bigger and stronger than before. The more those muscles are used, kept active and challenged, the more they will continue to build and grow over time. Other factors go into the growth of muscle as well, such as your nutrition. Protein, fats, etc. also play a factor, as they cause your body to "feed" your body and muscles in different ways of varying effectiveness - but I think that's an ELI5 for another day.

7bdb7de8-6352-43e5-a494-d23545439df0

2nud6o

What is the role of actual real-life actors in making animated characters? Like Liam Neeson playing Aslan in Narnia?

Could you elaborate your question? They are voice actors. They sit in a studio and record their lines. The animators then animate the characters to match the recordings. There are some cases (for example Andy Serkis as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings film series) where the voice actors also provides the motions of the character using motion capture technology.

bfa4c77a-3399-4b6a-9f87-723928519798

2901pg

Why does the water from my kitchen faucet taste different than the water from my bathroom faucet? Doesn't it come from the same place?

Yes, but the pipes going to one place could have a build up that's changing the taste or the composition of the pipes can be different, i.e. pvc pipes going to your kitchen, but copper pipes to your bathroom.

69a07e70-1767-468e-9eb1-010e8b0f61d0

35s621

Precipitation reactions

Why the hell would you need to learn about precipitation rxns in second grade??? I was taught that in the seventh grade IIRC... Please tell me 2nd was a typo??? The principles are pretty advanced for second graders... Have you talked about elements and compounds, solutions, solubility? You need to be able to talk about solubility before you can actually talk about precipitation reactions, since that is the basic principle. I am not sure that is something that can be taught to 2nd graders.... I just asked my mom who teaches 7th grade science... Her students have a hard time learning this in 7th grade, she laughed when I told her about your question. Good luck

db002019-53da-4968-a28f-10a5a7cfbf31

29dzii

If dark colours absorb more heat, why does light skin burn easier than dark skin?

Two things going on here. First, heat doesn't have anything to do with sunburn, it's all about UV rays. Encountering more UV rays = more sunburn. However, dark skin absorbs more UV rays than pale skin. And in fact that's exactly why it burns less. The pigmented layer absorbs more UV in the upper layers of the skin, shading the cells underneath from UV and preventing burns (because it's the lower, reproducing cells that matter, the upper ones are disposable protection). Just like sitting outside under an opaque black umbrella would shade you more than sitting outside under a translucent white one.

7ac32e56-b659-43f2-a18a-d138a0973e5f

3il3tz

How the fuck does Facebook know about people I know?!

Your email contacts, your academic/work institutions info you've put, and the friends of your friends.

8b8c0159-9eff-465c-893b-29385ff483f9

5qpbf2

Why is chickenpox worse as an adult?

It's mostly due to the difference in immune system between a child and an adult. A primary varicella zoster infection (chickenpox) in adulthood is indeed associated with increased risk of complications. Most of these complications are due to the intense response by the adult immune system that comes into contact with the virus for the first time. Children have less active immune systems, but usually active enough to clear the virus - making them immune to it thereafter, and are therefore less likely to develop complications with this particular infection. The same goes to hepatitis A: adults develop jaundice, while children are asymptomatic. Note: a secondary varicella zoster infection during adulthood is called "shingles" and is generally less dangerous than a primary varicella during adulthood, due to the immunity that is already present at the time of the second infection.

fbb8e444-b487-4ba7-9d0b-75b243fd666b

6rand9

How do movies not get uploaded online in HD from movie theater employees before their DVD release?

The theater will be fined a massive amount of money for allowing a leak, the person leaking it will be fined a massive amount of money for uploading it, and they automatically lose their job. This is a combination of copyright law violation and contracts that you sign when taking the job. So the risk are so extremely high that most will not risk it. They also have security features such as login codes to open, proprietary file types that need special programs to play, and the rooms operating the projector system requiring special key access at times.

2b0845e7-8216-48ba-a610-35c801fd5a58

5oqclk

Can defense attorneys 'throw' a case if they know their clients are guilty?

Yes, they could 'throw' a case. However, that's a serious ethics violation which would almost certainly cause disbarment if found out, and not only that, the conviction could then be appealed based on ineffective assistance of counsel (embodied in the 6th amendment). If it makes it easier to wrap your head around, think of defense lawyers defending the integrity of the judicial system, not just their client. The idea being, the system must obey all of its own rules in proving that someone is guilty, or else it's a dishonest system and could easily "prove" that an innocent person is guilty next time. Defense lawyers are there to help ensure the system stays honest.

4a3a3d6f-3ad2-4974-90f9-b9daae742823

3q3tlo

why, when intoxicated, does it feel like everything is spinning when you close your eyes but stops spinning when you open them?

the fluid in your inner ear keeps you orientated and standing upwards, although when your drunk certain functions in your brain don't work as well or as they are meant to. So if you've had a bit too much to drink, your brain might not be able to tell which way is up and which way is down if your inner ears are miscommunicating with your brain. So that's why when you close your eyes it feels like you're falling off the face of the world.

aba8293d-2eb9-4a35-8bda-e6c87794c28d

5z4197

Why are some fish bones edible, and others are not?

They are small and soft so it does not matter if you swallow them, bigger and harder bones might get stuck in your throat and couse pain

85b7dc56-c5bc-421b-bdd6-c92f7399af71

4ykwmb

What's the meaning of the phrase "I've got a bone to pick with you."

If you have a bone to pick with someone, it means they've annoyed or insulted you and you need to talk to them about it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (via a thread in /r/etymology) "a bone to pick" originally meant something that occupies or distracts you (as a dog is occupied by picking at a bone) and somehow morphed into its modern meaning.

3ee18764-90e2-4ed7-87e5-76e9f91764ee

2gzadi

What is different in the brain chemistry that distinguishes thinking about moving my arm and actually moving it?

Thought and motor cortex are separate. So you can think without acting.

32207872-dee5-4613-887e-b74fb5c36457

6nu1zv

Why can't we just taste candy or Sweets and then spit it out to avoid its unhealthy attributes? What makes us swallow it to get satisfaction?

You absolutely could. But the fact is that evolution shaped our tastes. That's why fatty foods and sweet foods are so appealing to out taste buds. It is our bodies way of saying "That has lots of calories and will help us avoid starving." The 'satisfaction' you feel on swallowing it is simply the body saying "Good job. Remember that tastes good so we will eat it again if we find it again." Rewarding you for fueling it. You can see why this system that evolved when we were hunter gatherers to keep us from starving and helping us learn whats best to eat leads to obesity now that we have food options everywhere anytime we want. Fun fact: Most people mistake the bodies thirst craving for being hungry. More often than not if you drink a glass of water when you feel the urge to snack it will go away. Thus helping you lose weight by reducing total calorie intake.

b1fec084-1445-4864-b649-26b4d1aa3f6e

65xeid

Why are the things that taste the best bad for us?

Let's think about this from an evolutionary perspective. Way back in the day, (like way way way back) humans struggled for food just like every other animal. It was to our species evolutionary advantage to pursue food that would keep us full longer, or provide more energy than other food options. Fats, are 9 calories per gram compared to proteins and carbs that are 4 calories. Humans that preferred fats and craved them, had a higher chance of survival and passing on the fat craving trait. Fast forward to present day where food is plentiful. We are still programmed to eat high calorie foods just in case we won't find food for a week!

5efb3ac8-04f6-4184-94b3-61cbce080e86

47ywv8

Why do you see weird colors when you press your eyes?

If I had to take a guess, no expert, just had anatomy and physiology through college, I'd imagine it'd have something to do with the rods and cones in your eyes and the optic nerve. When you push on your eyes, you probably disrupt the innervation action of the rods and cones and it's just trying to adjust back. Just my guess!

b328bbae-a26f-4f2c-980a-5e54f32b7575

2xk0do

If a movie production has $5,000,000 (estimated) Budget, must some of that money go to the actors? or only movie's production quality?

It has to include equipment, pay for employees (all cast, crew, and extras), fees, *food* on larger productions, constryucting sets, making costume,s all of the makeup artists, set design, sound guy, camera guy, lighting guy, dozens of other specific jobs, and yes, the actors.

90dbd651-f16c-4895-8a3d-b6d7215e0ece

1pxypg

What classifies an island as an island? Aren't all continents etc essentially large islands?

While not universally true (especially in the case of Europe who gets to be called its own continent for purely cultural/political reasons) A continent is considered to be the primary landmass on its tectonic plate. If you look at a map of tectonic plates: _URL_0_ You can clearly see that with a few notable exceptions such as Europe and India. In general continents occupy their own tectonic plate. So then if you are a landmass that is part of a continent's tectonic plate but is not connected by land to that continent, than you would be an island. Although even this is a fairly tenuous definition.

2d944b95-79c3-4bbb-a603-0e24a27ddda5

7bf09r

why does wikipedia ask for donations almost every month? do they really need it to not disappear?

Wikipedia's biggest issue is that their amazing service requires constant overhead. So donations keep it running. Have you ever been inside a server location. That shit is cold, and cold is expensive.

ba7032bf-fe9e-40aa-a207-7a211d817309

5d9rv5

How does a water purifier jug work and could you put 3rd world ditch water through one and drink safely?

The passive type of jug won't filter out bacteria and other things that can make you sick. There is a thing called [LifeStraw](_URL_0_) that can do this, but it forces water through a filter as you use it. Something like a reverse osmosis system can make water safe, but that also involves forcing water through a membrane. These things can't be done with just gravity.

503e25fe-fd09-46fe-9188-f065c406628e

nq5gj

Why people like getting drunk/sloshed/hammered/shit-faced ?

Because only when you're passed out in a puddle of your own vomit can you silence the ennui and existential hum. Source: I'm Irish.

eef9f17a-a852-4600-9ab5-4bfbca17c728

4wj33n

What happens when a "too-big-to-fail" bank goes bankrupt.

> These assets wouldn't simply evaporate into the air That's exactly what they'd do. That's what it means for a bank to fail—it means that they simply do not have the assets to cover all their liabilities. You can have a million dollars in your account according to a ledger book or a computer screen. But if the bank doesn't have that money, they just don't have that money. Say you deposit your money in Bank X. Bank X loans that money out to people who want to buy Beanie Babies. It's 1998, and Bank X knows that Beanie Babies are worth a lot of money. So even though they've given out a lot of money, they get to take the Beanie Babies back if the people don't make their monthly payments. So whether it's cash or Beanie Babies, the bank is gonna get something that's worth a lot of money. But wait. It's 2000 now. Nobody gives a shit about Beanie Babies anymore. Everyone wakes up and realizes they were way, way overpriced. Now they're worthless. And so are those loans Bank X gave out. The people who bought the Beanie Babies aren't going to keep paying every month for something they don't give a shit about. And the bank is more than welcome to take those Beanie Babies back, but what's that even going to get them? They're not worth anything. So, now you go into Bank X to try to withdraw your money. But the problem is they already gave all that money to the people who wanted to buy Beanie Babies. They were hoping to make back that money and then some. But as we just discussed, that didn't happen. So now the money is just gone. Maybe the government will step in and try to save you because it was "unfair." But that's another matter. The money is just gone, and if you want it back, you're gonna have to get it from somewhere else.

5686b4b7-1870-4471-b7fb-fdbf31f3af74

4ihyj9

Why is the recent Apple vs. FBI encryption debate relevant years after the Snowden leaks (2013), passage of the PATRIOT Act (2001), and the ECHELON revelations (1988)?

The Apple debate has nothing to do with the government's right to get the information. They had a warrant from a judge, who has way more certainty than probable cause to believe that the phone was used by someone who committed a crime. They also had permission from the owner of the phone (the guy's employer) to access it. It's about as clear as it can be that the government has a right to that phone. What's also clear is that if Apple had a way to get into the phone, they would have to provide that to the FBI. Since Apple didn't have a way to get in, they didn't have anything to give to the FBI. They also did not want to make a tool to bypass their own security measures (reasonably in my opinion, since there's no way to restrict the use of that tool to law enforcement officials with a warrant). The FBI wanted to force them to make such a thing. And whether or not the FBI could force that was being debated. The most relevant law concerning this- the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) says that the FBI can't force Apple to do this. So the FBI tried to interpret a very old law, passed by the first Congress, as "we can force anyone to do anything as long as we get a judge to sign off on it". Apple, along with every other company in the country, was rather frightened of the idea that judges could make any one do any thing with just a signature and without a hearing. So they refused to comply.

99f0e6df-3f03-4bdb-ba24-8f387a783c55

2knjrl

Why has the Mars Rover Opportunity's Lithium Ion Battery Lasted 11+ Years and the one in My Cell Phone/Laptop/Tablet Dies in Less Than 2?

NASA requirements lean toward the 'overengineered' side (for good reason - if something goes wrong you can't replace it). The battery in your phone is more from the "make it cheaper, they can always buy another battery" school of engineering. (Just to clarify, I am not being cynical about phone/laptop batteries. Most people - me included - would rather not pay something like 100 times as much for a battery that is able to withstand operating on Mars and lasts several times longer.)

1950c5e6-ee53-4b0f-9b32-e01d91d6ce9c

3u0p7l

Why some bugs fly to lights.

Navigating at night is hard. You can't really see anything, especially not distant landmarks. Once upon a time, the most reliable "landmark" was the moon. Sure, the moon moves in the sky throughout the night, but if you just wanted to forage by covering a large area, following the moon (without moving higher up the atmosphere) is a good rule of thumb. But now we have artificial lights. Insects think they are the moon, and fly towards them.

0ecb9fed-578f-407f-bbaf-3b554419200b

2jcwki

Why is sales tax in the US excluded from the list price?

Because every state has a different tax rate on goods, so that would make putting tax into the price a little difficult

3d213524-224a-4346-a972-a4917e8a0436

1msr63

Why does a beer on tap almost always taste better than it does from a bottle?

Probably because the keg has been better handled than the cases of beer have, and because bottles are not actually the best packages for beer. Light passes through the glass and can cause skunking, and oxygen can sneak in through the plastic seal in the crown, causing staling. Kegs are generally stored cold, and of course are completely opaque and are much more resistant to oxygen ingress.

d8492647-84fa-4ca0-bf3d-aa399c78cc44

1vktvt

What is the significance of Jamaican Bobsled team qualifies for the Olympics?

Let me tell you about a man...a great man...a man who helped the underdogs...a man who traveled by many forms...a man who loved his nieces and nephew. A man who left this world too early. That mans name was John Candy.

9861b065-09b0-44e2-bb8e-613180dbe432

5dq0o5

Is it possible to build up an immunity to poisons both naturally occurring and man-made?

Sort of. It's called [Mithridatism](_URL_0_), after a Roman-era king of Pontus (northern modern Turkey). But you can only do it with certain poisons; others just build up in your body until they kill you.

349d7cb7-0e6c-42e9-bda2-10145b10a7ec

26gyvz

How do devices know the amount of charge left in a battery?

I think the best way to explain this is through an analogy. Imagine you have two tanks of water. One has a lot of water and the other is empty. If you were to connect a pipe running from the bottom of one tank to the bottom of the other, water would flow through the pipe until both tanks have the same level of water. If you were to put a water wheel in the path of the water flowing through the pipe, you could use the flow of the water to do work. Batteries work the same way. They create a "potential difference" between the terminals. This is a fancy way of saying one terminal has a lot more electrons than the other, just like the tank with more water. If you were to connect the terminals with a "pipe" (or in this case a wire) that would allow electrons to flow to the terminal with little electrons, they would. We can also use that flow of electrons to do work for us as they go from one terminal to another, such as power a screen. We can estimate how much energy is left in a battery the same way we can estimate how much more water is left in the full tank. As the amount of water-difference between the tanks decreases, so will the speed at which the water flows through the pipe and consequently the speed at which the water wheel spins. Similarly, as the amount of potential-difference between the terminals of a battery decreases, so does the current of electrons and consequently, the amount of work that current can do. Devices can measure that decrease in work and use that to estimate the amount of potential difference left in the battery

800c8dc0-b860-4e21-a525-edaf6064c1fa

7v0tw9

Why are my muscles sore after jumping in cold water?

From what I understand, our bodies defenses against hypothermia is to shiver. This involves involuntary muscle contractions to generate heat. These muscles contractions still can cause muscle soreness just like working out.

e5334144-6cb9-42d6-9d0c-64a504f50ff5

5f3fjp

why do we like watching the same TV show or movie over and over again?

Our brains like familiar things. Something we already have seen is easier to get into than something brand new because it requires less attention and effort from our brain. It's also sometimes good watching a TV show knowing the ending (eg Black Mirror, Lost) as we can pick up on foreshadowing or minor details.

54737527-470f-4fb2-88a1-2a6396d8ff83

67xdw2

why do the French have an abstain vote instead of people physically restraining from voting. [Other]

It's like a protest vote. I live in Nevada where we are allowed to vote "none of the above." If "none of the above" wins, the candidate with the most votes still wins. It doesn't affect anything here.

0227d3b4-bc7d-473f-8d54-60da7c69f42d

y0n1j

Why The Beatles broke up?

It wasn't that they were mad at each other, although if you spend enough time with someone they can start to bother you, right? But you can still love someone who bothers you, right? So it wasn't really about that at all... Remember that toy you used to have when you were three, and how you got bigger and smarter and didn't need it anymore, how it seems like a baby toy now, compared to the toys you have now? That's what's called "outgrowing." At some point, you get used to most of the things in life that were once fascinating to you. But it's not sad when it happens, because you grew, which is good, and you always think happy thoughts about those things later on, right? Even though you don't need them anymore? The beatles were four really good musicians that really brought out the best in each other. They all wanted to make really good music, and they realized that the best music they could possibly make was the music they made together. But then after a while, they didn't need each other so much anymore. They had all discovered new things on their own. Just like when you discover a new toy, you don't always NEED the old ones anymore. Even if you remember them as being the best toys ever, you wouldn't really want to play with them too much now, right? They're still there, you can go back and play with them if you want to, but right now there's new things to learn and explore. So just like you and your old toys, each of the beatles discovered new things they wanted to explore. So they all agreed to spend some time doing that, and then they discovered new things after that, and new things after that.

c5b63d29-40c5-4432-b521-01a863b462c8

8wjm3a

- Why do phones not require cooling vents but other small appliances do?

Phones lack a cooling system because there's no room for that. It takes up way too much space for a pocket-size device. If that wasn't an issue, phones would've had vents. Besides, phones don't work as hard as other computers do. They are weaker, so they produce less heat. Still, they can get hot sometimes, especially during charging, and there is nothing we can do about it. Phones cool by radiating heat away and through conduction - passing heat into the surrounding air/skin.

ad6f3f6f-a168-41d4-a9e1-d131591e551a

41dzv8

Why are oil prices so shockingly low?

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is the Middle East put out so much supply to try and put US companies out of business which if successful they would then jack prices up and get money to themselves.

687863d0-6feb-4c4b-9ed1-1c7346a73d3c

47j3rg

If the inside of my microwave is made of metal, why is it bad to put metallic objects in it?

The metal interior of the oven is grounded. It does pick up a charge from the microwaves, but the charge is dissipated to ground, and so does not arc. Your fork, or the foil on your plate, are not grounded, and thus the charge can build up until it is strong enough to arc to a grounded panel.

4d23ac37-310e-4e5f-8ef6-cbd23698ee43

4wrd7t

Why do we lack the instincts our ancestors had, e.g. telling you which foods are poisonous

We still have them. Ever gone "EW" from spoiled food and decided not to eat it? Ever smelled something horrible and realized that it wasn't edible? The issue is that we've realized that there's a lot more items out there can that kill us, and notice it. Our ancestors would have just died from eating it, and then warned the surviving descendants to stay away from it.

fbafbfc7-7078-48b6-8b94-589b869eafbd

5nrxy3

Why do we wake up early when we don't have to but tend to wake up late when we need to be up?

The simple answer is stress causes this. By setting a schedule your body will fall into a rhythm. After a while you don't really need the alarm at all. However as we know our natural rythems get disturbed occasionally. When we must get up we are creating stress that is easiest to avoid by doing nothing and that is what we want to do (avoid stress). On the weekend you don't have stress to avoid and your body is doing its thing. A sign of depression (just one of the signs) is oversleeping. Your mind allowing your body to avoid the stress of life every chance you get. Feel good that you feel awake when you don't have to. Your life is manageable to you.

a2b7d204-e3d3-419a-9bed-bc8e689a823e

4ax430

Why do tech/software companies stay in the US when they are demanded to include backdoors by the US government? Can't tech companies just develop and release their products overseas, out of reach of the US government's influence?

The short answer is that it's not just the US government pushing to include "backdoors." Tech companies could move to a country without these laws, but places like the US could restrict or prohibit them from selling their products in the US. The better option is to follow Apple's example and refuse to build the backdoors.

400ec56d-903f-4f4f-be3e-93d25c05dd91

63tjg1

with such an important vote like appointing a supreme court nomine, why is the senate floor so empty?

Well, actually, that's not their one job. They also have to meet with people, work on legislation, and so on. Many of the Senators may be in their offices. When an important vote is called, they will come to the floor to vote. They can get from their offices to the floor in just a few minutes.

11dd7138-6521-4481-90c5-708fab35ec53

7c86w2

If you put tires on your car that are larger than the ones from the factory, would you actually be going slower than the reading on your speedometer?

No, you'll actually be going faster. The speed is calculated based on the OEM tire size, whereas if you put a larger tire on, there is more circumference so the hub will spin slower, yet will be traveling the same speed. You can have it recalibrated fairly cheaply.

1adca734-c967-4015-8839-521f40035b3b

v2y3v

How does bugspray kills bugs?

Bugspray is actually a chemical weapon. As in it shuts down biological functions bugs need to stay alive, like forgetting how to breathe for example. It can also cause military chemical weapons detection gear to register false positives.

827df3ee-c5f3-4201-9aeb-23da048d8fe3

y8enz

The FairTax plan

The fair tax is regressive but it offers up citizens a prebate to offset their costs. Benefits * You are taxing consumption instead of production so it's seen as a more just system. * The stress on working household would be lessened since exemptions can be made for food or necessities. Disadvantages * This tax would stack with other state taxes so in Washington state for example a 35 percent tax would be affixed to most goods. * The majority of our economy's activity is consumption so it would quickly stifle growth by discouraging consumption, especially on big ticket items like auto and home purchases. * Once the funds accorded to you are spend you are left in the uncomfortable position of having to pay a tax of between 1/4 and 1/3 of the purchase price. [Summary of the Idea](_URL_0_)

abd5394f-dd26-4651-bf74-5f33f88136d4

1ysrvv

What is slowing down our internet speeds?

ISP backbones tend to oversell their bandwidth, because not everyone is using their maximum allocation all the time, so there would be unused potential that isn't generating profits. This is how your neighbors can slow you down. Much of your connection is just you and your wire until you get to some shared trunk. Second, cheap home equipment can be a significant slowdown; I'd say even the equipment you're renting from your ISP can be crap that can't deliver. Buying something good will require research beyond the scope of this post. Third, there are slow downs caused by the routing protocols as well as a fundamental design flaw in our network infrastructure. I mean, it takes time to process a packet at each hop, but this shouldn't be terribly significant. But the fundamental flaw is buffer bloat. Look it up, it was identified just a couple years ago. Basically, our routing protocols control data rates and latency by responding to dropped packets; if you're sending more than the receiving end can handle, you slow down. Well, routing equipment these days have a lot of ram, so if they can't send as fast as they're receiving your data, they're just going to buffer your data packets at full speed until the buffer maxes out, then they drop packets. You respond by slowing down, the buffer clears out just a bit, and you start sending at full speed again, until the buffer maxes out. It's dip, after dip, after dip, after dip... And this KILLS performance. The current best way to fix it is to reduce the RAM in the equipment, but no manufacturer is going to sell their newest HyperFast Router, "Now with LESS RAM!!!" Our routing protocols were designed this way because the early internet didn't have massive buffers, hardware was expensive and so it was out of necessity. We now need new protocols that can take this buffering into account, and they're working on it.

22d44fcd-bf69-4b27-9d13-a31542dabad9

24rxv7

If a computer has a GPU, why would reducing GUI effects impact performance?

The program has to be written to take advantage of that hardware. The Windows GUI, for example, being your desktop - that rendering code was written before hardware acceleration was ubiquitous. All of your windows, button, and icons are all rendered "in software", aka on your CPU. And your CPU isn't designed specifically for rendering, so reducing effects improves performance. And some of the big costs in rendering has to do with blending. Transparency is expensive, as can be anti-aliasing. And Windows desktop rendering is done on a single thread, so no matter how many CPUs or cores you have, it won't have much of an impact. Further, rendering happens on the "main thread", which, I believe, is also responsible for IO if memory serves me... When you're busy rendering, there's an event queue of everything you've clicked or typed that's waiting to be processed; not until the screen is refreshed. Many desktop apps are written to be single threaded, so they only execute on one core, so everything the program does happens in sequence. If rendering the window is going to take a long time, everything else in the queue is waiting to get processed. A programmer using C or C++ as their programming language has to write multi threading code themselves to take advantage of it. Microsoft would have to rewrite that whole software layer to take advantage of a GPU, and they're not going to do that, because they're insane about backwards compatibility. Instead, they wrote a new GUI layer that developers can use going forward. Migration is always slow. Microsoft will probably keep support for their software rendered GUI for decades before they even mark it as deprecated, and then decades more before they remove its availability.

769caab9-9371-4cdb-8727-88ad7f671ff0

p3b4k

What happens if you don't pay your US Federal income tax?

I'm no expert on Constitutional Law, but where did you hear that the US income tax has no basis in law and is unconstitutional? The entire purpose of the [16th amendment](_URL_0_) was to make the income tax permanent. It was ratified almost a century ago. People aren't tricked into paying it for no reason, you can go to jail for tax evasion. Your income tax is not necessarily deducted from your paycheck, it depends on your withholding allowance.

1d1788cf-ee0e-4029-81f8-5b9914a05643

36zodt

Why does my employer require a voided personal check in order to setup direct deposit?

Your banks routing number and your account number as well as your name exactly as it is written on your account are all printed on the check. That is the information they need to set up direct deposit. With the check they can be sure there are no mistakes.

17f17498-7725-432c-b0d2-364fd4c07c0f

4wm2j9

Why are the insides of Ovens Dark and Not Metallic or Mirror Like?

How often do you polish the inside of your oven? I suspect a big reason would be just to keep the interior from quickly looking horrible.

f1288c5b-b5a4-4b08-bc6e-fbde8dfc00e2

69fnnb

Why does metal react so violently when microwaved?

The way microwaves work is through jiggling charged/polar particles in your food (the water primarily). This jiggling increases their temperature and that heats up the rest of your food. That's why you can't heat oil as easily as you can water. However, metals like iron are *great* conductors of electrons. What makes them good conductors is a little complicated but basically, the reason is that they have a soup of electrons moving from atom to atom with almost 0 energy needed to move an electron from one atom to another. Thus when the microwave jiggles these electrons, rather than giving energy to the atom, it gives it to the electron which zips around in the soup. The amount of energy given to the soup can get high enough to bypass the natural insulation of the air and cause electrons to jump from the metal and rip through the air. This is called a spark and is basically what happens during a lightning strike.

b92b574b-6b75-40cc-b61d-8fd7108952fd

2p86oi

Derivatives (in financial markets) and how people make money off of them

Derivatives are kind of what they sound like, products derived from the value of other things. A very common type of Derivative is the Future. A Wheat Farmer is growing 50 tons of wheat, but it won't be harvested until 3 months from now, but he wants to lock in the price he's going to get for it now. So he'll use a Future to agree to Sell 50 tons of wheat at $10,000 a ton in 3 months. A Speculator may take the other end of that agreement. Sally to Speculator will agree to buy that Wheat at $10k/ton in 3 months. Sally is predicting that Wheat prices will rise in the mean time, and that she'll be able to sell her end of that contract for more money before those 3 months are up. If the going rate of Wheat in 3 months is actually $12,000/ton, then Sally finds another person, either another speculator, or a person who actually needs wheat for something, and Sally transfers her contract to them. A person would be willing to pay almost $2,000 to get Sally's ability to pay $10,000 instead of $12,000. So Sally ends up making $2,000 per ton on that price increase. The part that makes Derivatives so good to potentially make money from, is the amount you have to put up as security is very small compared to hold much of the product you have control over. A contract on something like Crude Oil is usually 1,000 barrels of Oil, you might only have to put up about $3,000 to enter an Oil contract, controlling almost $70,000 worth of oil. In some more extreme cases, like currencies or T-bills, you can put up about $400 to control over $1 million worth of T-bills, or $1,000 to control $1 million of USD Currency. The most common place way to think of derivatives is like having a coupon. If you're at the store and have a $1 off coupon on Cereal, but you don't want cereal, and someone else does want Cereal, but doesn't have that coupon... that person should be willing to pay you almost $1 to use your coupon. Derivatives can be a very fast way to both gain and lose money, but they can also be used by businesses and people to hedge their bets and reduce risk on the prices of products they produce or consume. EDIT: I should say the actual transfer of money of a futures market is more complicated than I represented above, money is actually transferred daily, not a lump sum when someone 'buys' or 'sells' the contract, its just a little easier to think of that way than worry about daily mark-to-market.

84944e63-87d1-43df-9689-d6cff27634e8

1jynkj

How did the American accent come about?

It's not so much that Americans developed a distinct accent, but rather that speech on both sides of the Atlantic changed significantly, with both sides diverging quite a bit from what they had sounded like earlier on. This process is still happening, with accents on the Canadian and US sides of the great lakes undergoing vowel shifts at this very moment, and in opposite directions; Canadian and US accents are actually becoming less similar, even among people in the niagara region who live a few km apart. Why? We don't really understand this process at all well. The key thing relevant to your question though is that accents change a lot, that distance and separation make this process easier and more likely, and that neither English nor an American speakers sound much like their 16th century forebears.

85cc4ac4-b0cc-40d4-ab66-81ab2e671b72

2tq3in

Why do The Miranda Rights state that anything you say can "and will" be used against you. If something's not incriminating why would it be used against you? Why would cops be forced to admit this up front?

Its just to put emphasis on the fact that *they will* use any and all evidence against you that they can, including anything you say or do.

4dadc1fc-9b5b-4228-8a10-d69d9f89f41e

92q1xy

Why is it when you rewind VHS tapes they lose their quality over time?

Since rewinding needs to be done for each playback, what makes you think it is the rewinding which causes quality loss? Tapes lose quality over time whether you play them or not due to breakdown of the binder and dry lubricant. Rewinding is no more damaging than playback if the VCR is functioning correctly. There is a phenomenon called [print-through](_URL_0_) which transfers signal from one layer to the next. Professional audio engineers often store reel to reel tapes "tails out". That means without rewinding. It doesn't stop print-through, but it does make it happen later rather than earlier, so on playback it will be heard after a track rather than before. Source: 40 years experience in broadcast VTR/VCR maintenance.

ecb82430-462a-4b7e-9020-eebf0a45465b

1wenr0

When a new library is built, where do they get their books? I understand many can be bought brand new from publishers. But, what about the old books, or the vast volumes of dated encyclopedias, dated periodicals, etc...

Librarian here. A lot of that stuff comes from stores and reserves from other libraries in the system. My library authority has been around since 1890 and has accumulated decades of stuff that due to archiving policies /librarian OCD hoarding we never throw out, For example we have 23 libraries in our group with over 750,000 items. Around a 1/6 of that stock is reserves and then rotated to other libraries so it appears new to the customers of that branch. Encyclopaedias are really common actually, especially older ones we have around 10 full sets of the most common things like Britannica and Oxford. Any book dealer will most likely have a few sets kicking around if you are short. In the UK the British Library has virtually every book and periodical ever published, I assume the Library of Congress is the same in US and we can get copies of stuff from them. TL:DR a combination of stuff hidden in basements and storage supplemented by specialist periodical providers

6b0430b9-da1a-4036-b231-7b8e150884b0

3y16x0

What was the Beat Generation about? Were Beatniks a stereotype or a factual reflection of this philosophy?

Basically, in the 1950s things were very ... basic. Conservative values reigned, the biggest fashion was "normal". Some today still think of this as our golden age (unless you're a minority or a woman), but everything was very inside-the-box type thinking. Buy a house with a white picket fence, get a job at the local company, have 2.5 kids, etc. At the same time, the US was introduced to Eastern Philosophy and psychedelic drugs. These had existed before, but for various reasons they became more widely available. Beat Generation authors learned about and experienced these things and decided to reject the "normal" values. Specifically, they wrote books/poetry about explicitly sexual things, about raw human emotions, about abnormal things like homosexuality, drugs, leaving materialism in favor of a spiritual quest, etc. This obviously was not met with praise from the "normal" folk, though it was hugely popular with the youth. Eventually a clash happened in the form of a trial over whether Allen Ginsberg's famous poem Howl could be censored/banned because it was obscene. The beat poet won, and really liberalism won, as it was declared that the poem had redeeming social value (which is a pretty interesting thing, that the courts basically gave a stamp of legitimacy to a cultural trend). As far as stereotypes vs. real, it is hard to say. It was a huge struggle breaking out of the "normal", but it quickly gave way to the hippies and counterculture in the 60s and 70s. People who followed the Beat ideas were mostly authentic, but it would be hard to tease out a "philosophy" other than "we should rebel and form a new philosophy". Still, as far as being interesting, it definitely is. Ginsberg (Howl) and Jack Kerouac (On the Road) are definitely the two main authors to check out, and both works are relatively short. Also Naked Lunch is fairly famous, and similarly, themed. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that along with everything else these guys were purposely rejecting normal narrative style and story structure. So, if you try to read them like a "normal" story, you will think it is not good. But if you appreciate what they're trying to do, trying to have an authentic mental/spiritual experience in a very conservative and boring society, it is pretty interesting.

430d5cb0-7fdf-4271-87a8-bb4ecd5df0cd

1x06l7

If the ozone layer is made up of O3, why are we not producing some of it ourselves and pumping more of them into the atmosphere to fix the problem faster?

> Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent, far stronger than O2. It is also **unstable at high concentrations**, decaying to ordinary diatomic oxygen. [...] In a sealed chamber, with fan moving the gas, ozone has a **half-life of approximately a day at room temperature**. _URL_0_ TL;DR: It is very unstable. It will decay fairly quickly; half of the ozone you make today will be gone tomorrow, turned into regular oxygen gas.

d97e2345-3511-4a4c-a7ba-20577ddd23d8

3rbw8n

What is Gene therapy?

Say you have a recipe for a chocolate cake. Except instead of saying 1 cup of sugar, the recipe says 1 cup of salt. Every time someone makes a cake using that recipe, it's going to taste like crap. Modern medicine is like trying to fix the cake once it's already made. You can add sugar to the top of the cake after the fact, or try to cut out the saltiest parts of the cake. Sometimes, you can try to tell each baker not to add the salt individually. But the best way to fix the problem is the correct the recipe. That's what gene therapy tries to do. Genes are like recipes for your body. DNA is like the letters in the sentences. Proteins are like the cake. Gene therapy is about cutting out letters and adding new ones so that you get the proper proteins at the end of it. The possibilities are endless. There are a ton of diseases that are caused by genetic problems. Some like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia are directly caused by genetic problems. Others like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. are hugely influenced by genes. If you can rewrite disease causing genes, you can eliminate these illnesses at the source. The therapy doesn't exist yet. There are lots of experiments, but no one has quite figured it out yet. Once they do, they'll almost certainly cure some major diseases, and win some Nobel Prizes. The most promising idea is to use a virus to help us. Viruses already rewrite genes. Usually when they do, it hurts us. But if you can get a virus to "join our side" they can be used to rewrite genes in ways that help people. Gene therapy has a potential downside though. If you can rewrite genes to make people not get disease, what's to stop people from rewriting genes so their kids are 7-foot tall, blonde hair, blue eyed genius supermodels? What happens to people who can't afford the therapy? Genetics does everything possible to create diversity in a society, but gene therapy reduces it. If everyone decides they want to have blonde haired children, what happens when a disease comes along that only kills blonde haired people? There might not be enough non-blonde kids left to continue the human race. Overall, gene therapy is a remarkable idea that can help billions of people. It has ethical risks, but the benefits would likely far exceed the potential for harm.

baf7d921-06fd-4e17-b283-fdf619824d5a

1awvkx

Is it possible to be a 'man without a country'?

It is entirely possible to be such a person, it's called statelessness. At one point, Einstein was stateless. However, renouncing your citizenship means you have no protection by any state. This is very bad, as we are as a species very largely reliant on our respective corporate states of the world. I personally identify as a citizen of no country, if you wish to go stateless, I suggest you study the subject further and figure out how to survive without a state.

6b545e65-ae9a-4fe9-b0f0-c51a1c408015

5hysh7

How do the grooves on a record/LP actually recreate the sound of a full orchestra?

Think of every single instrument making their vibrations - some loud, some soft, some brash, some smooth, some at one pitch, others at another. Every one of those vibrations add up together and bounce against your eardrum in beautiful chaos. The specific way your eardrum vibrates as a result of all that is what your brain is able to process as all those sounds at once! Now, if you were able to draw the way your eardrum vibrates back and forth like a earthquake seismograph, now you have a line that makes the shape of the whole orchestra! Now just make a groove in that same exact shape, hook it up to a microphone, and now you have those sounds again, just like the instruments were there.

8627480b-1f1b-4286-a350-d40350d2f69e

8h79u2

In the English language, how are contractions prioritized when a word can belong to two different contractions?

It's a matter of emphasis. "We aren't going" could be simply spoken, or the "we" could be emphasized (an emphasis that is lost in simple text). Similarly "We're not going" could be used to emphasize the "not" part. Beyond that it's preference. The stylistic choices of language are everywhere, and it's one of the main reasons that most sentences of reasonable length have never been written before.

a0c35224-b815-4f0a-8bd7-53e4eccd1e92

qf3oi

Eating things from other planets or moons.

There is a big piece to this question which is not intuitive: chirality. Basically, the food we eat is useful to our bodies because the molecules can be used to build or repair our cells or can be turned into energy. Either way, our cells make use of chemicals called enzymes that are basically molecule sized tools. Enzymes literally fit around the molecules they are designed to attach to, so the shape is very important. Ok, you go to Europa (not proven to have life yet, btw), and find a fish that looks particularly tasty. On inspection, it seems like it is made of similar stuff to life on earth: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc. You eat the fish for a while... And starve to death. Turns out that because the fish evolved on a different planet, it's molecules, while similar to ours, are like mirror images of ours. They don't fit into our enzymes, and so our bodies can't digest them. Chirality appears on earth, too. The chemical that makes spearmint taste minty is a mirror image of the flavor of caraway seeds (found in rye bread and sausages). Interestingly, all life (I think) on earth shares the same chirality, evidence of a common tree of life.

f2fd387c-c27f-4b5a-a975-c6f76e6fde0a

3meq7k

The Cuban Missle Crisis and Americas enormous beef with Cuba, what happened there?

The beef wasn't with Cuba, the beef was with the USSR. The Soviets were trying to use their communist ally in The West as a beachhead for terror. (Not the modern definition of terror, the old-fashioned one). By placing ICBMs in Cuba (aimed at the United States) they wanted to cast a cloak of fear over the U.S. Cold War tactics at its finest.

96927b89-2a98-4de2-8491-0a5790095585

1ujf85

How do you build a Nanorobot..?

Weeeeellllllllllll... the title 'nanorobot' is a bit misleading in this case, they actually genetically engineered some salmonella bacteria (non harmful versions of it at least) to seek out cancer cells. They also filled the bacteria with cancer killing drugs and programmed it to explode on contact with a cancerous cell, providing targeted medication which means they can use more powerful drugs without causing the collateral damage normally associated with eg. chemotherapy (hair loss, nausea etc). While this is very cool and definitely the way forward for medicine, it falls more under the category of Genetic Modification than Nanorobotics. These do have a lot of overlap as a lot of nanorobot production is done using genetically modified cells because.. cells are good at that kind of thing, however there are a load of stigma and negative connotations attached to GM stuff, so most medical development uses Nanorobotics as a descriptor because it makes it more likely to receive positive press coverage and funding. And use, patient confidence is important, which sounds better "we would like to fill you full of genetically engineered super-bacteria-suicide-bombers blow up your cancer" or "we would like to introduce an army of nanorobots to annihilate the cancerous cells". Actually on second thought those both sound pretty cool to me.

033e53c3-2e4d-4efb-8021-9ab622d9c700

101kpd

Why doesn't it rain salt water?

When water evaporates, it gets heated to an extent that the water particles move faster and spread apart, which causes them to become "lighter" than the air around them, turning into water vapor, a gas. Due to this, they rise up into the atmosphere. Then, they start to cool down, and become liquid again. When they become cool enough that they're heavier than the air, it rains back down. This is the basic water cycle. The salt which makes it salt water requires a much higher temperature to turn into gas, one which doesn't normally happen during this cycle. Because of this, it does not follow the water, and thus, it doesn't rain salt water.

6ac7ca85-c186-4fe7-ba27-2b80d6f53e7a

u1sgi

Why can't we use a centrifuge to de-salinate ocean water?

A centrifuge is typically used to separate a heterogeneous mixture of solid and liquid by spinning it. Salt water is a solution, so if it is even possible, I am sure the energy, time and expense are enormous.

1f31bd92-918b-42a2-89ee-f4e319d51995

3b63ds

Why do most viral videos now have licensing info in the description box?

I'm not sure whether you mean licensing info for the video itself or for 3rd part content in the video, but if it's the former then people angling to create viral videos will want to exert their creative rights over it in case it really does take off, because viral things like Grumpy Cat and Nyan Cat can end up being worth a lot of money. And if it's licensing info for 3rd party content, some content is free to use so long as you attribute it under certain conditions, and one of those conditions is often linking to the license.

abb053d3-62e9-4004-bc85-7051b1521ddc

2o4lc4

What is a MAC Address?

It's a unique device address given to each piece of network connected hardware. It's different from an IP address because it's permanent: every device has one and only one MAC address, but it is given a new IP address every time it connects. Edit: You can think of the MAC address as a device's permanent name, and the IP address as an instruction for other devices to find it. Your device *is* MAC number X, and it *can be found at* IP address Y.

73809489-de18-4593-b36b-c2f79afdcdbb

73upll

How are adept music players able to just start playing along to anything that someone else plays and have it sound good?

i’m a drummer so i’m not speaking for guitarists/bassists here. in drums there’s basically three things to improvisation - the time signature, the tempo and confidence (in my experience). the time signature is pretty easy to find out - you only need to listen to one bar to figure it out really. time signature is stuff like 4/4, which means there’s 4 quarter notes in a bar basically. kind of easy if you know how to count time signatures. tempo could be more difficult depending on how much rhythm you have. tempo is literally just how fast or slow you go, at it’s simplest. i’m quite good at keeping time and getting tempo right so i don’t really worry about that but some are worse. if you’re an experienced drummer, you’ll most likely be good at this. confidence is key when playing as a whole. only a drummer can tell when a drummer goes wrong usually, you just gotta have the confidence to carry on and ignore your mishap. often it doesn’t matter what drum you hit, just how you hit it and what time you hit it (although obviously some combinations sound better than others!) another factor would be experience and knowledge of different beats. if you only know one simple rock rhythm then you’re probably not gonna be very good at improvisation cause you’ll be doing the same thing every time. i’ve only been drumming for a year in november and i can improvise very well along with guitar/piano so it’s not as difficult as it seems as long as you put practice into learning the instrument and also practice improvising. you’re never gonna be good the first time but you get better.

54a6bfe4-298b-4a80-81e2-0311b752d6f9

6drqpb

Why drill instructor in the army never stop screaming at recruit in the army?

> What's the point of screaming at people like that? It is intended to rattle the recruits mentally, making them feel like they are incapable and useless. The idea is to break their self-esteem and then the group will be given tasks where the support of the entire unit is necessary to succeed. To drive the point home they will often employ collective punishment so every recruit has an interest in making sure their peers succeed. All this has the goal of making the resulting soldiers psychologically dependent upon the military and their comrades. By creating this bond through surviving abuse it puts the soldiers in a better position to be confident in the support of their peers during combat, and for those peers to run into danger in the support of their comrades. Such a technique makes great soldiers. It also arguably seriously messes people up when they get out of the military because in essence they have been psychologically abused to foster a bond with the military culture. Ex-military basically have a version of battered woman syndrome and need to relearn individuality and self-confidence outside of the military.

ee9c0312-e2b2-4601-8d4c-667b91b5353c

1pvbc2

if i ground up a piece of pure iron and ate it, would my body abosorb it the same way as iron from food? if not, how do they make iron supplements absorb-able?

You eat shaved iron every time you have breakfast cereal. If you take total cereal, crush it up, add a little milk to make a broth consistancy, and stir it with a strong magnet, you will see actual iron shavings sticking to your magnet. _URL_0_

a811703f-7f2e-4a3f-8bcc-b6a81772a50b

2z0cjz

Whats is the actual cause of the common itch. and why is scratching it the cure?

1: dead skin 2: your body's reaction to get rid of it. Bonus: a lot of dust in your house is said dead skin.

93aef3b2-96e0-4492-af83-7b24dd9da3eb

1qxkbl

When popcorn is popping, what is actually happening to the kernel inside?

As the kernel is heated, the moisture and oils are being heated inside. Since the outer shell of popping corn is strong and mostly impenetrable, there is no place for the heat and pressure to go and the insides are superheated. The starches inside, which are normally hard, begin to soften in a process called gelatinization. Interior pressure continues to rise until the kernel's shell ruptures. Steam rapidly expands causing the innards to expand in a foamy substance, which afterwards quickly cools into a crispy puff.

464fcd20-a5f9-4804-adf3-c2407f5f2f2d

6ttn1g

What happens to your brain when you space out?

There are two kinds of spacing out. There is background processing - thinking about stuff that isn't apparent to you consciously, and basically resting your mind. For most of evolutionary history, energy was the limiting factor for most species. Sleeping is not only helpful for repairing your body, but also for reducing your calorie burden. Spacing out is a kind of low energy state that is more alert than sleeping but less energy consuming than active thinking.

cca58538-33b8-455e-9984-4b8f838f2585

54bt16

What is the point of a Kroger's Shopper card?

The general idea is that by offering a discount card, you will shop more frequently at that specific chain than others (although in reality, this isn't often the case). They may also collect your email to send you regular marketing ads, in hopes of bringing you in. If the extra profit generated from you buying items at that store vs another store exceeds the discounts given on that trip, then the store benefits.

9d344bf9-7d41-4867-ba1f-4d12792df08c

7rx576

What is a floating neutral and why is it damaging to appliances?

Coming into your house you have two phases which are both 120VAC *relative to neutral* but are of inverse phase so they're 240VAC relative to each other. A floating neutral is when your neutral connection opens for some reason, a wire might break. When this happens, it means that the electricity can't flow in its normal path. If an outlet was powered by a straight pull from the breaker box and has hot come from the breaker, go to the outlet, then neutral runs straight back, then losing neutral means that power stops flowing and nothing exciting happens If your outlet is wired so the top and bottom plugs are different circuits then one is going to be Phase A and the other Phase B. This means that when the shared neutral breaks, any devices plugged in will go from seeing 120VAC to seeing 240VAC which will destroy many devices quickly.

082177e7-f947-4620-95c3-81a5de5ca43f

8wz828

Why haven't our bodies changed to make childbirth less painful?

So the only way that the process of childbirth would change is through evolution of some kind. The only way evolution happens is if the genetically superior reproduce and those who aren’t die. Theoretically if there was a woman who could go through childbirth totally painlessly and she passed that trait on to her child, the child could pass the trait on and on until it made up the mass populous. This would take millions of years and to guarantee that all women experienced it, all who felt pain during childbirth would have to not reproduce. Think about it like this. Apples were high on the tree. All the long necked giraffes reached the apples, lived and eventually reproduced. All the shortnecked giraffes died and that’s why we only today see long necked giraffes.

8a56b24b-6d84-479a-9dc9-6394e6c066ce

2uawn1

American TV shows compared to The rest of the world.

The amount of American hate / bashing on Reddit is amazing.

bc1bdfdf-d3c1-4585-ba69-f9f73b5f60b1

1sv4gb

How do people add colour so accurately to black and white photos?

It's basically painting a transparent picture on top of the black-and-white, and the B/W image provides much of the shading. In the days before photoshop, you had actual transparent inks with limited tints to choose from, and that's why old hand-colorized photos often look more cartoony. Now, you can pick from a vast range of colors until it more or less matches what you would expect: a white person with fair hair will probably have skin in X color range, unpainted wood furniture is going to be a shade of brown, jeans are almost certainly blue, a military uniform from that era is going to be this particular color, etc. Plus if you have experience with B/W photography you might have a sense for how some colors will translate to film; they often have a particular range of grey due to the characteristics of a given film. So accurate colorizing mostly comes down to digital painting skill and having a sense for how things would look.

4d0d4842-c2a7-44d7-9ec5-8ccd10ecb0f6

89j1ww

How do service animals help autistic children?

Multiple ways, and by the way it's not just autistic *children* who can benefit from service animals. Among other things: * service animals can detect the early signs of a meltdown or shutdown, which are things often (but not exclusively) triggered by sensory overstimulation, and can provide a prompt to leave the situation causing that overstim * they can provide active stimulation to aid with grounding * they can help reinforce ritual, which is frequently important for autistic people

acf34e27-568a-4b3e-8e0d-bdeb53bab0d9

4nykjt

Why do books downloaded from the library need to be "returned" after a given amount of time?

> This makes no sense because downloads are not limited like physical copies of books are. Downloads are limited in the sense that the library has to pay for every copy of a book that they own, including digital copies. So they pay the publisher $X for permission to lend some fixed number of digital copies. And the reader software is set up to that the borrower isn't able to retain possess of that copy forever. If that weren't the case, then book sales would drop essentially to nothing, since everyone could just get a free copy of any book whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted.

b94069b1-7665-4f3a-876a-a1dacfed2596

5k70m1

How does Stephen Hawking's speech computer work?

He has a small sensor in his mouth and uses his cheek muscle to type with it. His computer also has the ability to predict and correct words for him.

35669d5b-16b1-4650-b1d5-eccecb52b10c

4esq08

If a self-driving car detects multiple courses of action (all of which will likely result in human injury) how will it determine which course to take?

It will do whatever it is programed to do in that situation. Self driving cars are not true conscious A.I - they are just really, really complex "if...then" programs. If it gets into a situation where an accident is unavoidable, it will do what its programing tells it to do in that situation. As far as liability, we don't know yet. It's possible that the programer would be liable for the accident but we'll need a court case to set precedent before we really know.

b359c710-868e-46ca-964f-de0a579f560a

21352q

why does spicy food make me sweat?

"The answer hinges on the fact that spicy foods excite the receptors in the skin that normally respond to heat. Those receptors are pain fibers, technically known as polymodal nociceptors. They respond to temperature extremes and to intense mechanical stimulation, such as pinching and cutting; they also respond to certain chemical influences. The central nervous system can be confused or fooled when these pain fibers are stimulated by a chemical, like that in chile peppers, which triggers an ambiguous neural response." Source: _URL_0_

08a86632-09c6-4c7f-a99f-ecf00df4e105

24h6oh

If there are no size regulations regarding goalies in the NHL, why doesn't a team just throw some really obese person out there to block the whole net?

An NHL goal is 6 feet wide by 4 feet wide. I doubt there's many people actually large enough to block that entire area. And if there is someone that big, I doubt they'd be able to stand up and skate their way out to the net.

c9a2616f-35a7-4dd9-9909-c6974ce81f9a

4ekabd

If animals aren't aware that they are going to die, why would they try so hard to survive?

Because they are genetically programmed to. It's evolution. Individuals that do not try to survive are not able to live long enough to reproduce - or in some species' cases, to care for their young either (imagine a mother dying and leaving her babies helpless). Trying to survive doesn't mean you need any special awareness of what death means though. All you need is to be programmed to run at the sight of a particular predator. Your computer is programmed to run millions of things, even your programs literally try to survive without crashing, but it doesn't mean your computer needs to be self-aware to perform those tasks. Self-awareness is not required for a survival instinct. At its most basic level, it's programming that says "Bad thing detected. Flee from or kill bad thing." It's wrong to even say they have motivation (for most animals), it's simply just what they do. It's like asking why your car tries to survive. It's a false question. Motivation isn't a factor. For your more intelligent animals, survival is a motivator because survival means avoiding pain and suffering. They aren't really thinking "I want to survive" so much as they are thinking "I want to avoid horrible pain".

6065a33e-baf7-4599-a4fb-a1a60b94a916

1pdv5f

How can a computer come up with a "random" number?

Generally yes, anything generated by an algorithm can be reproduced if you know the "initial" settings. Numbers generated this way are referred to as "psuedorandom". There do, however, exist various dedicated hardware solutions that allow computers to pick truly random numbers. They work by basically installing in the computer some sort of sensor that can detect random properties of nature. An example might be some sort of detector that picks up low levels of radiation. While we can make statistical predictions of radioactive decay over time, the actual decay of individual particles is truly random, and cannot be predicted with perfect accuracy. A sensor designed to measure those tiny random variations and feed them to a computer could generate truly random numbers.

8f7b1f9a-f767-4488-91c1-0d61741fff35

3r3z8m

Why are scars near impossible to get rid of?

Scar tissue is different to normal skin. It contains more collagen than regular tissue, and doesn't structure the same as regular skin, which is why it looks so different. It's also less flexible. The benefits to having scar tissue is the body can recover from wounds exceptionally quickly - many animals can't create scar tissue, and so wounds can remain open longer and are more susceptible to infection and other problems. Conversely, other animals can regenerate entire limbs whereas we can't. Interestingly, the collagen in your scar tissue is constantly replaced. If your body stops producing collagen (due to certain illnesses), your scars' wounds can actually reopen. The scar is difficult to get rid of because the tissue has been created in a less structured/ordered form than your regular skin (because it was deployed quickly to help heal the wound), but some medical procedures exist to reduce that effect.

908f1d99-7342-439d-87ce-c7ecf3ee94f7

ys6ma

Why don't developed countries make their own clothing without child labour?

Because it's cheaper to have it made in other countries.

86850b9e-fbfe-4db5-9223-67f22c6fa0c1

ugj7x

Two spaceships are travelling towards each other at speed of light..

First thing's first, neither ship can travel at the speed of light. As long as they have mass, it just can't happen. This isn't some silly nitpicky thing, it's fundamental to the theories of relativity, and it really honestly doesn't make sense to talk about massive things travelling at the speed of light. But in any case, your question works just as well if they're both going at, say, 0.9c. Now, the reason that the speeds don't add up is that whoever told you they should was wrong. Speeds don't actually work like that. Weird, huh? What's actually the case is speeds really add in a slightly different way, given [here](_URL_0_). As long as the speeds are small compared to the speed of light, they add more or less in the inuitive way with one plus the other. But as they increase towards c, the rest of the mathematics is essential to the description and velocities turn out not to add linearly after all. Edit: Just to be clear, this all depends on what frame of reference you ask the question from. Are you on a spaceship, or directly between the two ships, or standing to the side, or what? If you're on a spaceship and they're both going at 0.9c relative to the stationary frame watching them, you'll see the other one approaching at about 0.994c. But if you're standing 'stationary' in between them, you can calculate their relative velocity to be 1.8c, even though neither ship will measure the other to be travelling that fast.

11648392-932d-47d5-8ad2-87723f7047d6

17qju8

Why can we eat sushi raw but not other meats?

The short answer is: If it's clean, you can. Weather we can eat a food raw or not depends on if it carries things that might make us sick, or might have picked up something that would make us sick. In particular, with Sushi, fish is processed in methods that separate the "dirty" bits quickly, and completely. (gutting a fish) That leave you with clean, safe, slabs of fish to work with. Also, things that make fish sick, don't necessarily make people sick. Importantly, care is taken so the surfaces of the deceased fish are kept clean. Something such as beef, isn't processed as cleanly, or quickly. And cleaning and speerating the cuts isn't as clean. They also can be made sick by the same things that make us sick. If you treat "meat" right, raw meat is just fine for you. Steak Tartare, and Carpaccio are both rare preparations of beef. If you take the same sort of care that you do with fish, you "can" eat meat raw. Rare steak, is essentially raw in the middle. The advantage there is by quickly cooking the outside, you kill the bugs that might be on the meats surface. There are also other ways of making meat "clean" that don't involve cooking. Pickling, salting, smoking, all could still be "raw" food, depending on how you define it.

473b04ce-e141-4b63-bccb-8796f1671fcb

2082hl

Why is it when oil prices go up gas prices immediately go up but when oil prices come down the price of gas never comes down as fast as when the price of oil increases?

On TV, when the price of gas goes up, they say they have no choice but to sell it higher in gas stations too. But when the price goes down, they say that they had already bought a lot of gas when it was higher so they cannot lower the prices immediately or they'd lose money on it. There is probably a good explanation for it but my guess is that it's another of these "Heads I win, Tails, you lose" situation ;)

229e5fdf-02eb-46c4-95a6-346b8a7fd171

1k9an4

How does a linear induction motor work?

Alright, the only word in there you gotta worry about is 'induction'. 'Motor' just means it moves stuff, and 'linear' just means it moves stuff in a straight line (or close to it). As for 'induction': When you've got electricity moving, it can create a magnetic field (i.e. what magnets make). That magnetic field can move stuff like you could with a magnet if you work the electric current just right. How do you work it just right? Well you basically line up a row of electromagnets (i.e. magnets you can turn off and on, or those pink things in figure 23 in that pdf) ~~and turn them on/off as they move along the iron stator (basically a chunk of iron that's attracted to magnets) so that the magnets are always getting pulled forward.~~ This kind of motor has two main advantages. One is that since nothing needs to be touching, you reduce friction, so things can go faster. The other is that the motor doesn't need much in the way of moving parts since it's all electricity, so things don't wear out as fast. Does that help? EDIT: See later post. Read a few things wrong in my first read of the pdf.

31544858-f861-44c1-afc8-bdbe72b91709

78sng6

Does time ever end, or is the future infinite?

That's a really good question, as if deals with the metaphysical in a physical context; basically, the universe will end before time ends, so we have no real way of knowing. However, one could argue that time will end when physical existence ends; in that case, the end of time will come with the end of the Universe.

3cc40bc0-27d7-48f7-ac45-f509394c0edc