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[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does it seem as though as I grow older, time and life speeds up?"
] | Dude I am 30 and still raving like mad! Bring your self together! |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are PC digital downloads cheaper than console digital downloads?"
] | Console downloads are a closed market. You have exactly one source for your downloads. PC digital downloads have competition, so there are more market forces at play. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can you stream from Netflix/Hulu/HBOGo with no problem, but your laptop heats up and the video lags if you try to watch from the AMC/CBS/NBC website?"
] | Netflix' player is based on HTML5, I can't say anything about the others. But I'm assuming that AMC, etc. have Flash-based players... and Flash has terrible performance when it comes to video decoding. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do big game developers and publishers not listen to their community and continue making mistakes?"
] | Because they still make money regardless of how many mistakes they make. Despite all the disappointment with those games, they still sold millions of copies. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is cyber-bullying such a problem? Can't people just step away from their computers?"
] | I imagine that for lots of people, social networking has become an integral part of their life. In fact, it is part of their social circle. I hang out with dudes over Teamspeak that I play games with. Sometimes we meet IRL and hang out, it is also great when you can drive to another country and have a place to sleep etc. So basically, someone is bullying you in your social circle, and it is not easy to step away from all that and the connections you have through it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Where do cranes come from?"
] | [A big crane is assembled using ground level, flexible length cranes that are mobile but can't carry as big a load as the main crane](_URL_0_) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Pornography censorship in Japan."
] | It comes from an old Japanese law that came from the Meiji Era (1868-1912) where content "injurious to public morals" was forbidden. This law was influenced by Western Victorian morals. Over time the law was relaxed in other cultures but Japan was more conservative and kept the law around. The law was eventually reinterpreted to allow you to show breasts and pixelated genitals, but fully uncensored genitals is still illegal under the old law. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does a computer keep track of the date/time while unplugged from power and the internet?"
] | Theres a flat battery on motherboards. You gotta change em like every 6 or 7 years. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do neon signs have a buzzing noise to them?"
] | I think the most likely culprit is the transformer for the neon sign. The transformer takes the 120V or 240V 60Hz from the outlet and steps it up to several kV. The way it works is by running current through a coil of wire to create a magnetic field, and then converting that field back to a current in a secondary coil of wire with a different number of turns. The oscillating magnetic field can cause vibrations of any magnetic material in the vicinity (casing, core, etc). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is a \"trigger\" on Reddit, and is it a term used outside of Reddit?"
] | When some people undergo severe psychological trauma, like rape victims or soldiers, they're left with something called PTSD. Sometimes, things that remind them of the traumatic event can give them a panic attack or other unpleasant things. In some online communities, it's considered polite to warn people if you might be talking about sexual abuse/violence. On Reddit, it's almost always used in a way that's meant to be condescending or insulting to those communities. The implication is that the communities are too sensitive to offending people and label everything as a "trigger". They say it's a "joke". It really falls flat on that point - it's a no effort, content free bit of circlejerkery. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do non profit companies make money?"
] | This was explained a few days ago on reddit, so let me see if i can reguritate it. Non profit means the company isn't making profit. That still means they need qualified persons to fill their jobs. These people are paid, sometimes very competitively, to keep this organization afloat. What Non-Profit means is that the extra money that's not spent at the end of the fiscal year is invested into their cause, and not divided among the shareholders. So a profit organization would give dividends, but a non-profit would, for example, use the money to build another theatre/stage if the organization was helping the mute and deaf perform on stage. Just because they're non-profit doesn't mean they're a charity. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens when you call into a talk radio station?"
] | You call the station and someone answers, they ask you what you're planning to say. If they decide your story is acceptable they will usually put you through to a point where you say your thing and it's recorded. The recording will then be played on-air and the hosts will talk about it. If it's a conversation type show you'll instead talk to the hosts and then the recording of that conversation will be played. I've only ever had a 'live' conversation happen once, and I was asked to turn my radio off because the slight delay between speaking and the broadcast would have made an echo. I assume they delay it a bit so they can bleep you if you swear. Either way it's not that bad. Go for it next time. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do most dish sets come with mugs instead of drinking glasses?"
] | Dishes are sold as a set so that the patterns all match. But they're mostly opaque while glasses are transparent or translucent. The glasses won't be able to match, so why bother selling them as a set? When you say mug, do you really mean cup? I haven't looked at dish sets recently, but I'd expect cups, not mugs. And cups are proper for serving coffee or tea at the dinner table. You generally wouldn't serve a hot beverage in a glass. So is the reason you don't see them being used because you're not used to ending dinner with a hot drink? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's happening, physically, when a computer starts overheating and becomes laggy?"
] | Usually the CPU underclocking itself. In rare cases functions might fail or bits could change because the material wasnt designed to operate at those temperatures. When the CPU cant reduce the heat enough it will simply shut itself down. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what exactly is a \"resource based economy\" and how would/could it work?"
] | A resource based economy is one that gets most of its wealth from natural resources, like oil, lumber, or mining. Let's say a small island nation with 100 people discovers a massive copper deposit. Up until that point, they had a few tourists per year, but generally had to sustain themselves. Suddenly, 90 people are working on mining the copper, which they sell to other countries, and can afford to buy food instead of farming. Every economy needs to have some money flowing in, because there is always money flowing out for things like medical supplies, clothing, taxes, and resources that can't be produced locally. Having natural resources to sell brings in the money the society needs, much like tourism or manufacturing. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What are the beads in hand sanitizers, and why do they float?"
] | They're [microbeads:](_URL_0_) > Microbeads are plastic microspheres that are widely used in cosmetics as exfoliating agents and personal care products such as toothpaste, as well as biomedical and health science research, microscopy techniques, fluid visualization and fluid flow analysis, and process troubleshooting.[1] They are most frequently made of polyethylene but can be of other petrochemical plastics such as polypropylene and polystyrene.[2][3] They float because they are less dense than the liquid in which they are situated. They have been banned in the US under the Obama administration since 2015 because they fuck with the environment. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does it feel so good to scratch an itch?"
] | Insects cause itch. Insects are sometimes bad for you. Scratching removes said insects. It's an evolutionary thing, scratching removes irritants. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does the body need carbon dioxide?"
] | CO2 plays a vital role in maintaining the acid-base balance of your blood. The more CO2 in your blood, the more acidic it is. When you hyperventilate, you expel much of the CO2 in your blood, making it more alkaline. This is known as [respiratory alkalosis](_URL_0_). Respiratory alkalosis leads to light-headedness, tingling and loss of sensation in your extremities, muscle spasms and stiffness, and loss of consciousness. Once you lose consciousness, you should stop hyperventilating and your CO2 levels will return to normal. If there's some reason *other* than hyperventilation that you're losing blood CO2, though (example: you're at high altitude and have to breathe more to get more O2), it can eventually lead to death. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why did the people of Toronto vote for Rob Ford?"
] | His base is primarily in the suburban areas which felt under-represented by past candidates. He has a man-of-the-people image that he has worked hard to cultivate, in truth he is from the wealthy elite. Ford would personally return his constituents calls, small town style. His buffoonery is genuine. Despite the media circus that he generates, very little is said of his actual work. Ford's civic record is decent. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"easing yourself into hot/cold water to acclimate your body"
] | Brains are cool and are able to adapt to any constant/repetitive stimulus such that you no longer realize you percieve it. (clocks ticking, your own footsteps). This might be why you stop feeling it, since your vrain is like "okay i get it, its hot. lets move on" |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Where is all accepted scientific knowledge kept?"
] | There is no single gatekeeper, who decides what is and is not "accepted scientific knowledge". Nor is science like mathematics, where a proof can be self-evidently correct. It depends on evidence, which may be inaccurately or unreliably collected or interpreted. As such, scientific knowledge is provisional, based on evidence as it accumulates and is confirmed by repetition. One might draw up a vague scale of theories, from "totally inconsistent with available evidence" near the bottom to "conjectural, without any evidence as yet" in the middle, up to to "well-confirmed, makes predictions that are borne out by repeated experiments under reliable circumstances" near the top. But any given theory will have its adherents and detractors, who doubt or trust specific points of data as they relate to the theory. It's not a satisfying answer, but it's the truth. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"SSH clients ? What are they used for ? And how can I get started ?"
] | So you could just being up a terminal on a box you're sitting right next to, or you can ssh into that box from elsewhere and use a terminal as if you were sitting at that box. It's like remote desktop for a terminal. Also, you can do things like set up x-sessions through ssh. I guess it's like a secure remote desktop session. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does a turning a faucet change the temperature of water"
] | There are two tubes running into your faucet. One straight from the mains, and the other from your water heater. When you open the faucet, the tap itself opens to allow water to flow out. When you turn the faucet, you are changing the amount of water coming through each of the pipes. All the way to the hot side opens only the hot water pipe and not the cold one. Same for the cold water side. In the middle should ideally be half and half, but since the water heater heats the water to uncomfortable temperatures, the middle generally allows more cold water so you don't burn yourself. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"if certain viruses need a living host to survive, why haven't they adapted to a point where they don't ultimately kill their host?"
] | Most viruses probably are benign or even beneficial to the host, but two things can happen: 1) A virus can jump species and have new effects on the new species it didn't on the prior one 2) As long as it stay alive long enough to spread again it won't die off. It's at an evolutionary disadvantage compared to an infection but benign virus, but that doesn't mean it'll get removed from the world immediately, it just means it might stay a smaller population or die off over many generations. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how muscles get stronger."
] | Imagine a village that has a very valuable treasure in it and the villagers build a big wall around it to protect the treasure! Well lets say someone comes along and tears down the wall to get to the treasure. The villagers are really upset by this and after the wall is torn down they decide to build it back up even bigger than before to keep people out and away from their treasure! After all, the wall didn't do a good enough job the first time so they need a bigger, better wall to hopefully make it work the next time! Of course, the villagers need really great materials to make a really great wall but as long as they have those great materials they'll keep building the wall back a little bit bigger and better each time it gets torn down. After all, they have to protect that treasure! Now think of muscle growth that way except that the wall is your muscle, the tearing down is your weight training, the materials for the wall are your diet, and the villagers are your body. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why did the Allies attack the most fortified place in Europe at Normandy rather than landing the bulk of their armies on a less dangerous coastline?"
] | It wasn't the most fortified place in France at the time. That would be the Pas de Calais, the most obvious place to invade (you can see England from there). The point of allied deception operations was to convince the OKW that the landings in Normandy were actually a feint, and that the real push would come with General Patton landing a (completely fictitious) First US Army Group near Calais. A lot of effort went into this. Historians are sort of divided on how much the Germans actually bought it, but in any event the precious German armoured divisions stayed out of the fight long enough to allow a real beachhead to be established, and the rest is, as they say, history. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What would the repercussions be IRL for someone who did what Jack Black did in \"School of Rock\"?"
] | Trespassing at school. And most likely a couple dozen counts of kid napping for taking them off campus. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is a pocket veto? Why is it legal?"
] | It's a legal maneuver. If congress passes a bill, the president has 10 days to decide to sign or veto. If he does nothing, then the bill automatically passes. However, if, during that 10 day period, congress adjourns, then if the president takes no action, the bill is automatically vetoed. This is the pocket veto. It's legal because the constitution says it's legal. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do banks offer interest? What’s in it for them?"
] | They get your money. Would you give money to a bank if you didn't get anything in return? The interest is a payment to you so you'll give them your money. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how does garbage always smell the same when it is composed of innumerable different smelly objects?"
] | Because it mostly only smells when there's rotting food waste in it and it is the same types of bacteria breaking it down and emitting the same types of by products that smell. You don't get that smell if it's just wood or paper or plastic or metal etc. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does combination of smoking cigarette and drinking alcohol gives an overwhelming feeling of drunk-ness?"
] | Because the nicotine gives you a headrush while the alcohol also similarily gives you that light headed euphoric feeling also then you now have nicotine and alcohol in your blood. Nicotine causes nausea and so does alcohol so you probably have a combined worsening nausea. But.. aww thats cute you still notice the feelings when you smoke. Those were the good days |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens with the surplus energy of my bike dynamo?"
] | It is dissipated as heat. When an electric device fails to "use" more energy, generally it's because resistance is increasing -- often by design. Pumping more electricity through resistors causes them to turn it into heat, which then goes out into the atmosphere. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do children like to draw so much?"
] | I think everyone likes to draw. We have a natural-born desire to create and to express ourselves through visual art. Unfortunately many of us lose that desire due to laziness, lack of time, distractions, and/or discouragement from adults. Kids haven't experienced those pressures to the same degree yet. Personally, I think bringing drawing back into the curriculum would be one of the best things we could do to shape a positive society. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do children's stomachs look bloated when they are malnourished?"
] | It's called kwashiorkor, and is caused by a protein deficiency. In normal conditions, we have proteins floating around in the blood, which causes fluid to be retained due to osmotic forces. However, this protein needs to be replenished. When it isn't, fluids will pool in the soft tissues of the body, and will cause the bloating effect in malnourished children. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Where does skin allergy come from?"
] | Allergy is a very complex proces even for specialist, but if explain it in general allergy is a defect of immune system when immune cells thinks that some safe substances are dangerous (like some food, pollen or animal fur) Immune cells are located almost everywhere in organism, also there a lot of them in skin, so if even allergen came thorough stomach or nose it still affect all the organism and make cells produce inflammatory markers which couse high temperature, swollen, redness and itching. Since skin is visible to us we can see consequences of allergy there. Also there are some autoimmune diseases that aren't connected to special allergen, just immune system goes crazy and start local inflammation with no reason (dermatosis, eczema and others) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do pilots know ahead of time when turbulance is going to occur?"
] | Meteorological information can be used to predict turbulence with reasonable precision. Also, aircraft will report when encountering turbulence and air traffic control will relay that to other aircraft in the area. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why medical establishments can charge outrageously high prices for their services, when the identical procedure can be done somewhere else for a fraction of the price? On the same note, how is it even legal for them to hide the price until they give you the bill?"
] | > Can someone please explain to me what in the hell is going on here? What is going on is that the American healthcare system is a sad joke. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do Lithium Ion batteries lose their ability to maintain charge after many cycles of charging?"
] | It is due to several things. The most important is physical. During charging/discharging lithium atoms move from one electrode to the other. The lithium goes into tiny pores in a sponge like electrode, but when this happens the sponge swells up. Repeated swelling and shrinking eventually causes cracking and fractures in the electrode, degrading it. The other main effect is chemical reaction in the electrolyte. During charging, tiny amounts of electrolyte material undergo unwanted chemical reactions with the electrode chemicals. Eventually the electrolyte gets polluted with all the byproducts of these reactions degrading it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is the burden of proof on the defendant instead of the accuser in the case of patent trolls?"
] | You're a little mistaken on the burden of proof. Because it's a civil case the burden of proof is more balanced than in a criminal case but that doesn't mean the defendant is "guilty until proven innocent" it just means they have to present a case that is more likely to be true than the accuser. If you think of it in % terms, in a civil case you have to prove that there is a 51% chance that you're right, whether you're the accuser or the defendant. The difference is, in criminal cases you only need to prove that there is a 1% chance you're right as the defendant (obviously I'm oversimplifying). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do unplugging things and plugging them back in cause them to start working again?"
] | Basically software can have small errors in it. Or hardware can occasionally error. One common problem is memory leaks. But basically the longer something runs the more likely it will have minor errors. The longer it runs the more those errors accumulate. So turning it off, and turning it back on resets the system and will usually clear out any accumulated errors. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do some people say, 'on accident,' and others say, 'by accident'?"
] | Someone said "on accident" by accident, never owned up to the mistake and it caught on |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Static vs dynamic IP address, and how an IP address differs from a Mac address"
] | Mac address is an identifying number hard coded onto the hardware by the manufacturer. Dynamic addresses are IP addresses automatically assigned and re-assigned by a DHCP server. Static addresses are IP addresses assigned by the person installing the system in the IP configuration options and do not change unless some one changes them. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"if diseases like hiv are blood/vector borne, why don't humans and animals in western society contract it, via mosquitoes from one person to the next?"
] | Mosquitos (and other insects) have two tubes they pierce you with - one for injecting saliva, and another for withdrawing blood. It's basically a one-way system - fluid goes out of the insect through the saliva tube, and in through the blood tube. This means that any viruses sucked up through the blood tube won't directly get injected into another person, because nothing comes out of that tube and goes into another person. The way mosquitos pass on diseases such as malaria is because malaria reproduces inside the mosquito - thus it also gets into the saliva tube. HIV doesn't do this. Because HIV doesn't get into the saliva tube, you would only receive a tiny, tiny amount if bitten after an HIV-carrier. HIV needs quite a high dose to infect someone, which is another reason why you won't get infect by mosquitos. If you did happen to get bitten just after an HIV-carrier, you'd receive about one ten-millionth of the dose needed to actually infect you. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Can someone explain why Jesus is often one in the same as God, and why do people pray to both?"
] | Christian doctrine describes [The Trinity](_URL_0_): - The Father - The Son - The Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost) They are separate but one. While Jesus was distinct Jesus was, in their theology, literally God on Earth. So, praying to Jesus is the same as praying to God. They are the same entity. If this leads you to wonder about some other questions I am not surprised. Thinking the ramifications of that through leads to some...interesting...conclusions but I guess that is another topic. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does your stomach 'drop' when your in an elevator?"
] | Because that's literally what happens. Your stomach has inertia, it wants to stay where it is. Your body suddenly starts moving up, it has to exert a force on your insides to get them to also move up. Same thing coming back down. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is ETH Ethereum cryptocurrency, why it has value and what are \"smart contracts\"?"
] | [This is a great explanation video](_URL_0_) from a programming point of view - explained in layman's' terms. It helped me to distinguish the difference between BTC and ETH. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"A couple days ago, a 300 year old Stradivarius violin was stolen (and later found.) What would be the point of stealing something so famous that anyone who can afford the million-dollar price tag would recognize as a stolen item?"
] | Theft by contract. A millionaire decides that he wants something his money can't buy in a conventional way, so he pays someone to steal it for him. He doesn't care if people know that he has it or not; the satisfaction of possession alone is worth the price he pays to have it stolen. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Is drinking only carbonated water (no added sodium or anything in it) just as good as drinking regular water?"
] | it's marginally worse. your body has to spend other resources like calcium to fight he acidity. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If home electronics in USA is working at 110V, why do we use 220V electric current in Europe. Isn't 110V more energy efficient?"
] | Higher voltages are generally more efficient because they reduce the current needed to deliver a required number of watts, and lower current means less power lost to heat in the wires. That's why pylons carry thousands of volts rather than 110V or 220V. On the other hand, lower voltages are safer because a smaller current will pass through your body if you get a shock. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why do people say that we are violating the constitutional rights of illegal immigrants? Don't the constitutional rights only apply to U.S. citizens??"
] | Often described as a "living document," the Constitution has repeatedly been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appeals courts and Congress in order to address the ever-changing needs and demands of the people. While many argue that "We the People of the United States," refers only to legal citizens, the Supreme Court has consistently disagreed. Edit: far back as 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that: * “The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is not confined to the protection of citizens. It says: ’Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.’ These provisions are universal in their application to all persons within the territorial jurisdiction, without regard to any differences of race, of color, or nationality; and the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws.”* |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Can someone explain the physical pain I experience when I accompany my wife on a long shopping day? It's different from normal headaches but I wonder why. And IT'S REAL! (Does anyone get this?)"
] | I wonder of its exposure to certain fluorescent lights. I get that, too. Not every florescent light does it. I'm not really willing to do the trial and error to figure it out. :) I would have never realized it was the lights if I hadn't known others with the same problem. Anecdotal story time: I was taking an evening class for funsies, a few weeks in they changed the lighting in the room, the first class with new lights, the gentleman teaching got a crazy headache, the sweats, went pale, and passed out. He thought he was getting sick, let us out early, no big deal. It kept happening to him in that room. Finally he asked them to use some floor lamps instead of the new fluorescent lights in the ceiling, and he was fine. I had no idea it was a thing before that. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Nasa want to send a wind-powered robot to Jupiter. How does this work when there's no wind in space?"
] | There's no wind in space, but there's wind in Jupiter's atmosphere, just like there's wind here on Earth. The probe will reach Jupiter the same way that other probes have been sent to planets before. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The feeling in my throat when im holding back tears"
] | When you're about to cry, your brain detects that your body is under stress. It automatically sends signals out into your nervous system, including one to **increase air intake**. The opening in your throat that leads down to your lungs gets wider, to accommodate deeper breathing and so on. The shaking feeling is possibly down to your swallowing muscles spasming against the opening muscles. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how can animated shows, like the simpsons, be cranked out episode after episode so fast?"
] | They're all being worked on simultaneously. This way, every episode is in the same stage of production at the same time which greatly cuts down the amount of chaos and time spent in total. How do you think shows that are Netflix originals can release all the episodes at once? It's kind of the same thing but on TV, they spread the episodes out weekly. I understand why they use to do it but now I feel like a week is too long to wait inbetween episodes. I guess that's why traditional TV is failing.... |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is there such a huge gender gap among Wikipedia editors?"
] | I had no idea this was true. It suggests a problematic bias in Wikipedia. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The proper technique for caring for your teeth."
] | > However, it seems like whenever I go to the dentist there's problem x with my gums. What is the proper technique for caring for your teeth so that I can ace every dentist visit? Next time you go for a cleaning, the last thing they usually do is floss you. At this time ask the technician which areas of your teeth are the most troublesome spots and pay attention to how *they* floss those areas. Everyone has a spot or two more prone to plaque buildup, and knowing where those spots are means you can pay special attention to them. Often something as simple as the angle of the floss can make all the difference. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The legality of marijuana in US states."
] | The federal constitution clearly states that states cannot override federal law. States can be more restrictive, but cannot allow something the federal government says is illegal. The decriminalization of marijuana by the states is illegal. The federal government has marched their forces in to arrest and shut down operations, but so far on a very small scale. Public opinion is clearly in favor of decriminalization and limiting resources spent on the "war on drugs". States are slowly telling the federal government to fuck off, illegally decriminalizing, and not wasting resources on john doe pot smoker. It's a protest. The federal government lacks the resources to enforce the law no one but the lobbyists want. Yep. Our federal government is so fucked that nearly equally fucked state governments are protesting. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"when someone has a higher alcohol tolerance than someone else, what’s the difference on a molecular level?"
] | There's these tiny little molecules in your body that break alcohol down into not-alcohol (alcohol dehydrogenase). some people have more of these little worker buddies than others. A lot of it is genetic. Old people have less. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How is it possible for Cam Newton to pay a 198.8% tax rate, as claimed by Forbes?"
] | He's not paying all of those taxes on his Super Bowl winnings. He's paying taxes on his normal salary too. And his normal salary is about $20 million a year, so even a small fraction of that is more than what winning the Super Bowl pays. The article's point is that, if he *weren't* playing in the Super Bowl in California, he wouldn't have to pay California state taxes. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The difference between the processor and memory of a computer?"
] | **Like you're 5**: Processor - does the sums. Memory - is the paper on which the sums are written. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Climate change, how is the earth warming, and making some parts colder at the same time?"
] | Climate change can, among other things, alter prevailing trends in global wind currents. For instance, some studies in Europe have suggested that the loss of sea ice could contribute to a phenomenon where artic air currents predominate more steadfastly over Northern Europe than they do now. So even though the Earth as a whole is getting warmer, the immediate consequence for Britain, for instance, is that they'd be getting 'slightly warmer arctic air' which is still a heck of a lot colder than the 'slightly warmer temperate air' they currently get. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How come the British colonization of Ireland was able to spread the English language but not religion?"
] | It did spread religion. England was originally Catholic, and they spread that Catholicism to Ireland. Then, during the rule of Henry the 8th, England split from the Catholic church, so that Henry could get divorced and remarried. That's how you get the Church of England. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why does a coke machine sometimes give me 2 cans instead of one?"
] | It's just a basic cost-risk trade-off. A more accurate machine costs more money than a less accurate machine. Soda is cheap, so giving one out for free every once in a while is less costly than buying the expensive machine. That being said, If you are regularly getting 20 cokes from the machine it is likely in a state of disrepair. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do UV lamps dry nail polish?"
] | There are groups of materials that react in a specific way to certain circumstances. Sometimes it's water, sometimes it's air, sometimes its light etc. It's mostly related to the way the material is built, internal structure, how particles are arranged and connected. In this case, there is a substance called photoinitiator added to the gel. Photoinitiators react when exposed to certain wavelengths of UV lights. This means that when just a right type of light come in, it fiddles with particles inside the materials and forces them to throw out a part of them called electrons(or putting it more simply just emiting a certain type of energy). When those electrons are thrown out, they start to react with actual gel, causing what is called a polymerization rection. Thanks to that additional energy, the molecules(the very small parts in the material) start to form chains. So instead of just floating around, molecules start to connect together in large groups, which makes the material solid instead of liquid. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why if our body temperature is 98.6* do we sweat and feel hot if it is 90* outside?"
] | Your body is constantly producing heat, but it needs to stay at around 98.6* (or whatever your default temperature is! Mine's 97.9*!) to maintain homeostasis. That means that everything is most likely to function as intended at that temperature. The hotter your environment, the harder it is for your body to shed that excess heat. Cold air pulls it away from you like it pulls the heat from your hot cocoa. However, as the heat difference between your body and the environment decreases, your heat leaves you in a manner that's less... urgent. Think of that mug of cocoa sitting out in the summer sun. So, your body starts working to cool itself before it totally overheats. This might help: _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The difference between 4WD HI and 4WD LO."
] | 4 Low is a lower gear set, for when you need more power. You're using a gear set that moves more pulling power to the tires, in exchange for extremely limited speed. 4 high is a higher gear set, for when you want power to all 4 tires, but don't want to be as limited in your speed. It's the 4WD equivalent of first and second gear vs drive or higher gears. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If there isn't such thing as a sugar high, then what causes you to act hyper after eating candy or drinking a can of coke?"
] | [Peer pressure and placebo, mostly.](_URL_0_) Similar experiment involving non-alcoholic beer produced "tipsy" people even though the drinks contained absolutely no alcohol. Look at people who drink vitamin water/fruit juices which contain almost as much sugar yet don't act hyper since they believe they aren't drinking sugar. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do computers, as they get older, slow down even if there are no viruses/spyware on them?"
] | As time goes on, software is written to take advantage of the fact that newer computers have more processing power. That is, computers get faster, so software adds more features because they're now feasible with the additional processing power. But if your computer continues to be the same speed, the perceived speed of the updated software is slower, since it's trying to do more. (This is not to imply that the other answers are wrong. It's just an element of why computers seem to get slower.) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do movie studios disclose everything about their movies' budgets and revenue but game studios don't do the same for their games?"
] | Movie studios generally don't disclose everything about their budgets. The stuff you see is just a publicly releasable number regarding an approximation of the production cost of the movie. Thats just one aspect of the overall process, and its a fundamental part of the movie processes, so its often a pretty well known number, its not secret. Now, the rest of the money involved in making the movie, marketing it, distributing it, paying people out, all of that... well, you *never* see that publicly, ever. Game studios are unrelated. Movies are unique beasts. Asking why a game studio doesn't do this is like why asking the grocery store how much it costs to sell you milk. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does Hand Sanitizer work, and how effective is it?"
] | The active ingredient in most hand sanitizers is is isopropyl alcohol, which works by disrupting the lipid structure in cell membranes. It's also quite effective against common viruses since they are usually enveloped in a phospholipid shell as well. It's [quite effective](_URL_0_) with some caveats. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do phones need SIM cards? Do they actually allow connection or are they just data storages?"
] | Well 'need' is a strong word. Technically they don't need one, and they can make a 911/999/112 call just fine without one if they're in range of a tower. Your carrier requires it because it's a means of authentication. It's reasonably secure for use as an identification. The SIM is how the network knows your phone from the others, and how it knows to bill your account for the usage. They could move to other means of doing the same thing, but I don't really see the point. It's really convenient for some people that you can just take one SIM out and put in another at-will. People that are regularly in different countries could just keep an account open with two carriers and swap their SIM to use the account for their current country for example. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why planets rotate on a flat plain?"
] | The solar system was developed from a cloud of gas. That cloud of gas condensed and started to spin for whatever reason (gravimetrics are very interesting.) The condensing and spinning flattened out the cloud. The center became the sun, and the remainder of the cloud that wasn't taken into the sun became the 8 major planets of the solar system, all in the same plane that the original gas cloud condensed and spun into. Now, interestingly enough, Uranus, the 7th planet, is tilted almost 90 degrees to the plane of it's orbit. It sort of 'rolls' around the solar system, instead of spinning like a top. This is due to some event in it's history. It is suspected some sort of collision, but we really don't actually know. We can only theorize. It still orbits similar to the other 7 planets. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is Indonesia's lung cancer rate so low (58th) despite the incredibly high smoking rate there (80.2% of males)"
] | The average life expectancy in Indonesia is about 70 to 71 years, according to Google. Also, according to google, the average age of diagnosing Cancer is about 70. Also, 2 out of 3 People that are diagnosed with lung cancer are above 65 years old, according to google. People in Indonesia just die earlier, before they get lung cancer. Edit: As many people said, they don't die before they get lung cancer, they die before they are diagnosed with lung cancer, a bad wording on my part. Of course there are many factors that come into play, like the actual rate of diagnosing lung cancer. But much of it simply comes down to the age of death. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are electric cars and hybrids, which have more powerful motors, quieter than power drills and blenders?"
] | The power tools and such might be using brushed motors which are notoriously louder than the brushless design I would imagine a serious car would use. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"For this year's U.S. election, why are some states considered \"battleground\" states?"
] | Others have talked about how many states are either strongly republican or strongly democratic, making the few that could go either way more important. But what's alluded to but understated is the significance of the "winner take all" approach that applies to all but two states. If a state is likely to be 60% democratic and 40% republican, and there's little or no chance to change that to 50/50, then that means the 60% democrats will result in 100% of the electoral votes going to the democratic candidate. There's simply no value in the republicans investing time or money there if it's clear that the best they'll be able to do might be 45% of the vote. And likewise for a state that's 60% republican. Thus they put the most effort into the state's that are close to 50/50. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do classic arcade machines have players look at the screen through a mirror rather than looking directly at the monitor?"
] | Those monitors were HUGE. If they had put them facing you, the back of the machine would have poked out really far, so they put them in the bottom, reversed the image (so everything wouldn't be backwards), aimed them up and have you look at the reflection. Basically, they did it to save space. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How come prisoners in supermax prisons where they're not allowed to talk to anybody don't all go crazy?"
] | They do. It's a real issue, solitary confinement causes massive mental trauma on those inflicted by it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is adrenaline and why does it do what it does?"
] | I'll defer to Wikipedia for a good explanation of all the hormonal goodness of epinephrine/adrenaline: _URL_0_ But in terms of the average human not being able to flip cars for fun, think of your body just like any other machine, a car for instance. You can get great performance out of your car by driving it unsafely and pushing it past its design specifications. After a while, you'll see the engine start to break down after being revved too much. The fact that your body MAY be able to lift a car indicates the exact 100% physical capacity of that machine (just like trying to drag race in your Toyota Corolla). There are many mechanisms in your body that prevent your muscles from developing this maximum force in order to prevent your body from tearing itself apart. In true "fight or flight" situations, your body releases more of this reserve since the options are between ripping apart your joints (which gives you a chance at survival) or certain death. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does putting salt on a slug kill it?"
] | > I'm comfortable with the idea of diffusion (by which I understand that, due to the continued random movement of particles, a given substance will spread out in a fluid until there is no concentration gradient in the container). This is the key to understanding osmosis, along with the idea that **water is no exception to this rule**. The salt ions will try to move from one side of the slug's skin to the other until they're evenly distributed ... but they can't, because the slug's skin doesn't allow salt to cross. But the skin doesn't block the movement of water molecules, and they behave just like the salt: they move from one side of the slug's skin to the other until they're equal in concentration. The salty slime on the skin has a *lower concentration* of water than the inside of the slug, so water moves outward to make the concentrations equal. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do stars twinkle if the light we're seeing is from thousands of years ago and most things aren't big enough to block its light?"
] | Stars twinkle due to atmospheric interference. If you've ever seen "heat waves" shimmering above a road, you're seeing a similar principle at work. Gasses can cause interference with light passing through them. In the case of a twinkling star, you're seeing the atmosphere scattering the light as it passes through. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If person A saves person B's life through CPR but person B's rib gets broken during chest compressions, why is person B able to sue person A? Why doesn't the judge through the case out of court?"
] | Person B can sue, but the judge will always throw the case out. Except in rare circumstances where evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there was gross negligence or malicious intent. Which, let's be honest, if someone wanted someone dead all they'd have to do is NOT perform cpr. Source:EMT |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How are professional rugby players able to tolerate such physical punishment seemingly with little injury where as soccer, basketball and protected American football players seem to have devastating injuries quite frequently?"
] | As a rugby player I'll give my thoughts but they aren't science backed or anything. When you play rugby you learn how to take an impact without getting injured. You learn how to fall correctly and brace before you get hit. If you watch some "big hit compilations" on YouTube you will see that there is plenty of injuries, mostly stemming from the recipient of the tackle not being prepared to be tackled. football is similar but i think the injuries occur because the pads allow you to lose some of the fear of being hit, or hitting someone, at high speed. So the collisions are at a higher speed. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do companies trap the back button? How can making it very difficult to get off a page be good for their site?"
] | without running such a site, I assume that these overtly obtrusive sites are only in it to make a dime once. They dont expect you to return (atleast not intentionally) but they will get as many page loads as they can while you are there. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why did Russia invade Ukraine?"
] | Ukraine had a pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych who sparked massive protests when he turned down a deal that would have brought Ukraine closer to the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia. After he fled the country, a new, more pro-Western government was elected that promptly signed that deal. Putin's regime, seeing Ukraine as a necessary buffer and viewing Ukraine not entering NATO and the EU as a vital national interest, launched a covert war of aggression in the East of the country (where there are lot's of Russian speakers and pro-Russian sentiment is higher) and engineering the annexation of Crimea. The goal was essentially to throw Ukraine into chaos and prevent it from being able to get its shit together and be able to join NATO or the EU. Putin has done this kind of thing in other places like Georgia and Moldova as well. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Our cell phones update our pictures and contacts to the cloud, why can't a planes black box do the same?"
] | Because it lost contact. The point of the black box is to store information *after* the plane loses contact. All of the pertinent information prior to losing contact is already transmitted. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Public vs. Private Citizenship in America"
] | If you're talking about the sovereign citizen types, who claim that you aren't bound by tax or other laws, there **isn't** a way to do it, and trying it will get you fined or sent to jail when you break one of those laws they supposedly aren't bound by. It's a scam, pure and simple. Up here in Canada, they call themselves 'freemen on the land', but the claims are pretty much the same as in the US, and they tie the courts up with ridiculous litigation and paperwork here too. A judge in Alberta actually used a decision a couple of years ago [to write a hugely detailed explanation](_URL_0_) of how they work, what their arguments are, etc, in an effort to educate other judges in Canada and the US in how to deal with these...er...odd people (I'm trying to be charitable here). Anyway, the takeaway is that they are scammers, and should be ignored. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do humans think other sentient beings would use radio signals to communicate with other intelligent life?"
] | Most of scientists who are looking for other species, accept that other species might use other methods of communication but since WE don't have access to those methods, radio is our best option. The scientists looking for radio waves aren't expecting all other life to use radio waves but they are hoping that if we stumbled upon radio as one of the best ways to transmit long distances, then it's logical to assume that someone else might have stumbled upon it as well. Additionally radio is a relatively low tech solutions so they are also hoping that, even if this imaginary race moved beyond radio waves to something else, they might recognize that others haven't advanced that far and still use radio to send a message. There's no denying that it could all be a waste of time though but until we are able to detect other signals that are capable of traveling hundreds of light years it's the best option we have to find other life. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are so many people dying building in Qatar?"
] | Largely because it is really really hot and while local regulations state that workers shouldn't work during the hottest hours of the day that has been forgotten regarding the workers from abroad. That combined with long hours and general hard labour is leading to lots of people dying of exhaustion. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens to our social media accounts when we die?"
] | I can't speak for the others, but Facebook actually has a feature where you can have your account 'memorialized' or permanently deactivated in the event of death. With a memorialized account you can link another account, friend, relative, whatever, and they're given some control of your account; they can't read your messages or delete anything you've already posted, but they can change your profile picture, respond to friend requests, and change your profile/cover photo. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why doesn't taxidermied animals rot like other dead animals?"
] | A) Because the gut is removed, which contains the bacteria that cause the body to rot in the first place and B) because the skin is embalmed to prevent it from rotting. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do phones like the Nokia Lumia charge wirelessly?"
] | Not an expert, but I believe it's called induction charging. It's not new technology, electric toothbrushes (for example) have been using this for years. Rather than having to make a solid electrical contact (plugging it in), the charging base creates an electromagnetic field and you just have to place the battery into that field. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why aren't more electronics waterproof?"
] | It is significant extra expense and engineering challenge for something most users don't need. Most of your life is in a dry environment, why spend a lot of work so you can dunk your laptop in the tub? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why is it more instinctual to hold our breaths while lifting something heavy, than it is to breath properly?"
] | when lifting an heavy object, your body needs to become rigid enough to lift such object. So you start tensing your muscles to create a strong enough structure capable to lift. Breathing involve the diaphragm to expand and retract the rib cage. in order to do so, the upper chest needs to be "soft" enough to allow the contraction and expansion. This goes against the "rigid" stance that is needed to lift the heavy object and this is why we stop breathing while lifting. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can animals tell the difference between play and attacking?"
] | I think they learn each other's body language, like we did with dogs and like dogs did with us. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does it seem like all of Africa is politically unstable?"
] | Many African countries are quite stable, but there are a lot of African countries so the number of unstable ones in Africa can seem high. Much of Africa was also under colonial rule at some point until this century; as a result their borders got drawn somewhat arbitrarily, artificially dividing and grouping cultures and religions, and they had to create new governments after the colonial rulers pulled out. All that combined means that, in some sense, Africa today is politically in the spot where Europe was a few hundred years ago. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens--physiologically-speaking--when someone returning to riding a bicycle builds up immunity(?) to being saddle-sore?"
] | A few things. Just like you form calluses on your toes, heals, hands, etc. Your tissue also toughens in response to the added stress targeted in that area. Your sensory also becomes a bit dulled as use goes on just like you get used to wearing glasses for example. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Facebook application request limit reached"
] | Welp, i was just directed here after a search, glad to know, this is more of a widespread issue. Hoping it'll get fixed |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does a broken mirror show many tiny images instead of one image with lots of cracks?"
] | The glass is all pointing in slightly different directions, and so the light reflected off of each little surface is coming from a different place before being reflected to your eye. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do those gel heatpack work?"
] | They use a compound called sodium acetate - also sometimes known as 'hot ice'. It is a material that can easily be supercooled - taken well below it's melting point without solidifying again. When you click the disc on the handwarmer, this starts the gel crystallising/solidifying. At temperatures colder than 50-somethingºC it wants to be solid. As the bonds break and form to move from liquid to solid, they give off an excess of energy as heat (an exothermic process). When you boil the gel pack in water, the heat takes it back past its melting point to turn it from crystal back to liquid and the heat from the boiling is what provides that energy (endothermic process). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How solar panels work"
] | 2 layers of silicon crystals are laid on top of each other. One layer likes having extra electrons, the other layer likes giving up electrons. The sun's energy bounces electrons all over but in general they move towards the top layer causing a negative charge to build up and since it took those from the bottom, the bottom is positively charged. At that point its like a weak battery and just needs some metal leads to go to a motor our light or DC to AC inverter. |
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