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[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can't I start my own nation?"
] | It becomes recognized whenever other countries recognize it. That's not a satisfying answer, but it's the truth. Just ask Palestine. There are only two things stopping you from finding an island and starting the People's Democratic Free Opensource Republic of Doge: (1) finding an unclaimed island or (2) convincing a country to relinquish its claim on an island/convincing other countries to recognize your claim as superior to the existing country's claim. If you can get over either of those two things, please let me know and I will be your first Vice Dictator. You may want to check out seasteading if this interests you. The idea there is to build an island-ship you can float out to international waters and then declare it as your own country. Defense against other countries and bandits is an issue, but people have put a lot of thought into it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is such an emphasis placed on only a couple states during the U.S. presidential elections?"
] | The "swing states". Most states are typically majority conservative or liberal. It's a waste of resources to go campaigning there. The majority party wins all of the electoral votes. But certain states are very close to 50/50 splits. These ones are worth a focus because a few points swing in voting makes a huge difference. (It's time to discard the electoral college and restore a popular vote, that's a discussion for another time) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is chloride in a hydration IV and why do you need it to be hydrated instead of just water, sodium, potassium, etc?"
] | Simple answer is to maintain your blood's PH and isotonic balances. IV fluids are usually sodium chloride solution, .9 & #37;, which is the level that you would find in human blood. WIthout the right balance, water would be an irritant and change the electrolyte levels in your body, causing potential problems with electrical transmissions in the brain and CNS. Similar for sodium, potassium, etc., all of which are toxic metals on their own. It's not until they bond with other atoms to form compounds (such as salt) that they lose most of their toxic effects on humans. You can easily see the difference on the human body between a proper saline level and plain water. Get a neti pot, fill one with warm saline, and run it through your sinuses. No problem, right? Now, repeat it with plain, warm water. Once your nose has stopped burning, you'll realize the difference a proper isotonic balance has on the human body. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is it that we can consume substantially more liquid by weight than we can food?"
] | Liquid is absorbed faster. Water fastest of all as it needs 0 digestion. Solid foods start chemical reactions and your body notices it and has to work before it can be advanced to the intestines. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How did US voters figure out which presidential candidate was the best in the early days of America?"
] | Mostly, they didn't, that's why the electoral college is a thing. In Theory, you'd vote for the most intelligent/well informed guy from your county, and then he would go vote for the candidate he thought was best. In practice, you voted for the delegate from your political party, and he would vote for whomever the party told him to. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens when you \"keep forgetting that guy's name\" ?"
] | You keep forgetting his name. That's it that's what happens. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"if the cabin of a commercial airplane is pressurized why do I have to \"pop\" my ears while ascending and descending"
] | Because the cabin is not pressurised to the equivalent of surface level. It is pressurised (in most cases) to the equivalent of around 8000' - significantly different pressure to the surface, but not so low as to be dangerous. As you climb or descend, the pressure inside the cabin gradually changes between surface pressure and 8000'. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Is face blindness restricted to humans or is this something that's been observed in other species? Is it understood what causes it?"
] | Not many animals rely primarily on sight to recognize others, and fewer still rely primarily on facial features. I would imagine if it happens in animals, it is pretty uncommon and restricted to our closest animal relatives. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The process of dry cleaning."
] | Check out the (wikipedia article) [_URL_0_] if you want to know more specifics but here is a TL;DR for the lazy. The process is basically the same, the only difference is dry cleaning doesn’t use soap and water as the medium for dissolving dirt. It instead uses another liquid that is equally as adept as dissolving oil and dirt. Usually a non-polar carbon based liquid. This is because some fabrics tend to break down in the presence of water so using that is a bad idea. Other than that the process is the same as the washing machine in your house or local Laundromat. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If salt water is left alone does it separate into Na+ and Cl- ions?"
] | Yes they do. Most salts, including NaCl, naturally dissociate into cations and anions in water. Looks like this: _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's so hard about taking CO2 out of the air and putting it in the ground?"
] | You know how you get energy when you burn carbon? Well, if you want to split CO2 into carbon and oxygen, you have to put that energy back. Plants get this energy from the Sun. [Methods for replicating this process artificially](_URL_0_) are still an active area of research, not economical for widespread use yet. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do some vegetarians eat fish?"
] | They're not vegetarians, but because the term "pescatarian" isn't familiar to most people, they find it easier to describe themselves as vegetarians who eat fish. The obvious followup question is why do they eat fish if they're against eating animals. Part of the answer is that some vegetarians aren't against eating animals, but are vegetarians because they think it's healthier, and they think that fish can be included in their diet and still be a healthy diet, according to their priorities and beliefs about healthy eating. Others do it as a way to transition from a fully omnivorous diet to vegetarianism. Finally, there are those who simply don't believe that the standards they have for ethical treatment of livestock and poultry simply don't apply to fish. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"When burning a CD, does a 4x vs a 1x write speed change the quality of the end product? Is there anything different about a 4x vs any other speed other than, speed?"
] | I always thought this harkened back to the old days of CD burning, where buffer underruns occurred frequently. A buffer was created for the data being burned, and if the buffer emptied before the burning process is complete, it would fail. Burning at a slower speed (1x) meant you didn't empty the buffer and cause problems. However if your PC could handle it, you could attempt to burn at faster speeds (4x). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Is there a reason we ejaculate in spurts rather than a continuous stream like peeing?"
] | So imagine you have a turkey baster. You have a certain amount of fluid in there that you want to get out. If you squeeze it gently, you'll get a dribbling stream. It doesn't go very far and a bunch is still left inside. Now take that same turkey baster, and squeeze it hard. The fluid shoots out and goes further, right? But now you still have liquid left inside, so squeeze again. Keep on doing this till all the liquid is out. In the end, most of the liquid ends up further away from the tip. If you really want to make sure everything is out, squeeze it a bunch more times. Those are the dry contractions at the end of orgasm. The volume of urine is a lot bigger than the volume of ejaculate. So the urinary bladder contracts to squeeze out the urine, like squeezing a water balloon before you tie it closed. That's why urine comes out in a stream, unless you're an unlucky sod who has prostate problems.. You have a lot less ejaculate than you do urine. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"When does a date become a girl/boyfriend?"
] | Probably when the individuals involved start calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend. I don't think there's a solid definition beyond that. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do people have different kinds of laughter?"
] | Lots of factors. Some of them are physical - people have different pitched voices, different body sizes and differently-shaped insides, and that changes the way anything that comes out of their mouths sounds. And some of it is psychological. Some people, perhaps through shyness or social convention or just a habit of keeping their mouth tightly shut, actually stifle the laugh so it comes out as a snort or a pffffft sound. Someone else might be a big brash extrovert and let out big belly laughs. A lot of people will also have a fake laugh when they feel they ought to laugh at something out of politeness, and that probably just sounds like whatever their idea of a normal laugh is. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"In extremely obese (~1,000lbs) individuals, why does fat tend to collect in uneven pockets, particularly favoring one area or another, instead of being more evenly distributed throughout the body?"
] | It may be because there hasn't really been any natural selection or sexual selection among humans regarding fat distribution. Being able to become obese at all has historically been rare enough that humans haven't evolved to favour fat being distributed symmetrically or evenly, so fat distribution is still very varied from person to person. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How Does an Oven Cook Food Enough to Eat if It's Off for 2 Hours?"
] | Beef is a relatively "clean" meat. Because it's so dense, all the nasties tend to live in the outer layer, which of course cooks first. And an oven heated to 350 will maintain a good temp for quite some time so... It's a combination. I certainly wouldn't do the same thing with chicken or pork because they both need to be cooked thoroughly all the way through to be safe. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what Flat Earth Theory is, and why believers are called crazy"
] | It's pretty self explanatory. Flat-Earthers believe that the earth is flat, that if you start walking in any direction, you will eventually fall off the edge. It's crazy because the evidence to the contrary is so convincing that no scientist has seriously considered it for over 2500 years. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why poison frogs don't poison themselves"
] | Time for a little cellular biology. So quick rule of thumb, a lot of what makes up biology is the shape of molecules. The reason why certain things act a certain way in biology is usually because a particular molecule is shaped in a useful way. So toxins have their own shape. Likewise, the proteins they affect have their own shape. The only way a toxin can affect a protein is if the shape of the toxin is the right one to not only connect with it but also change the shape of the protein in the right way to mess with it. Think of it like puzzle pieces, except that once the puzzle piece connects, one of them suddenly changes shape. The changed shape now messes with the other puzzle pieces that originally could fit. For a frog to be immune to its own toxins then, all it needs to do is to both store the toxins somewhere where it cannot affect the proteins it affects, or else it can have unique proteins the toxins cannot affect. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how do sports commentators know all the players and their backgrounds so readily? I realize they are fed the info beforehand but they seem to spit out the info at appropriate times and so easily."
] | They typically have notes on hand during the broadcast, additionally they have a producer in the truck feeding them information. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how do you determine the 'pack years' of a smoker?"
] | 1 pack = 20 cigs So 10 cigs per day x 20 years = 1/2 pack x 20 yrs = 10 pack years |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can a 500mg pill be the same size as a 10mg pill?"
] | The pills aren't 500mg, the dose of the drug is. Some drugs need to be buffered differently so they will be absorbed by your body properly without causing a reaction. That could very well make a 10mg dose require a bigger pill than a 500 mg dose of a different drug. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"I have allergies. Why do I get sneezing fits every time I get out of the shower?"
] | I'm no doctor, but it may be because the humidity in your shower loosens the particulates in your nose which causes a reaction. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The current European economic mess."
] | The European Union is a collection of states that are integrated at a level never before seen in human history. Part of that integration is a shared currency and many other economic ties. Several of the European Union States are experiencing an aging population, which combined with very generous social benefits (like healthcare, aged care, pensions, low retirement ages etc.) have combined to create a level of debt that is unsustainable. Because the European Union is so integrated economically, these faltering countries (Greece, Spain, Italy etc.) essentially become a danger to the economic well being of the entire European Community. Further, the shared currency "Euro" means that these countries cannot simply devalue their currency unilaterally, to attract more tourism, make their exports more competitive etc. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can't you prevent injury in a falling elevator by jumping at the last second?"
] | Let's say that you and the elevator are moving downward at a velocity of about 100 meters/second just before impact. You jump upwards at about 10 m/s. This means that your final velocity at impact is 90 m/s downwards. If that won't hurt you, and the falling pieces of the elevator coming down on your head at 100 m/s don't hurt you, then you're golden. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Mariners of Reddit: What are the rules you have to follow to aid ships in distress/search and rescue operations?"
] | Many countries formally organize their civilian merchant fleet, so that in the case of big problems, they can be used productively and made a part of national (not just corporate) efforts. In the US, we do this using the US Merchant Marines. During the next World War, merchant marine vessels will be used to move military equipment overseas, and will complement the Navy fleet. The authority to task comes from the government -- the same government that gives the merchant the right to operate. Merchant obligation to help is significant -- they agreed to it when they became a recognized merchant vessel under whatever government. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is it that when it's a really cold night outside, the sky is so much clearer & crisper to see the stars more clearly? [Serious]"
] | The sky isn't clear because it's cold, it's cold because the sky is clear. Clouds act like a blanket that keep the warmth radiating from the earth's surface escaping into the upper atmosphere so easily. Without the clouds, the heat escapes. This is why deserts are usually freezing cold at night - no moisture for clouds. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does our voice sound different in a recording than what we hear ?"
] | When you talk, you hear your voice both through vibrations in the air (which is the only thing that everyone else hears), as well as through vibrations in the bones of your skull (which only you can hear). A recording accurately recreates the part that everyone else hears (vibrations in the air). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What does an investment banker do?"
] | If you want to sell your house, you may decide to hire a mortgage broker to help you figure out how much your house is worth on the market and then show your house to potential buyers. If you want to buy a house, you may decide to hire a mortgage broker to show you different houses based on what you want and can afford. Instead of houses, an investment banker helps *companies* buy or get a acquired by other companies. Most investment bankers spend 80-120 hours a week staring at Excel to model out what the financials of the combined company would look like (that's seriously the industry standard hours; most people quit within a year or two). At the highest levels, however, it's basically a sales job. The managing director knows a lot of people in his specific industry, what companies are worth in that industry based on financial metrics he's memorized over the years, and basically helps arrange buyers and sellers. If the deal goes through, the banker gets a small cut of the transaction. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Who do bruises turn blue?"
] | > _Who_ do bruises turn blue? White people. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is the difference between using < tables > or < div > in webpage layout?"
] | Web development has moved towards more semantic markup. In a super small nutshell its kind of like the idea of using the right tool for the job. A table is *supposed* to be for tabular data, not layout -- this is why it is generally not used for layout anymore. It doesn't make semantic sense to. In other words, if you need to put a nail in a board, you could use a wrench, and it would work, but a hammer is better suited for that. Aside from tables, all the other elements generally behave in basically one of three well-defined ways: block, inline-block, inline. I won't really get into those (you should read about it if you want to learn more), but the thing is that the way those elements behave is pretty well defined. If you know how they behave, and can expect that behavior, you don't need something like tables to help with layout. [Here is a great place to start](_URL_0_) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The difference between a coma and being unconscious."
] | > In medicine, a coma (from the Greek κῶμα koma, meaning deep sleep) **is a state of unconsciousness:** > 1) lasting more than six hours in which > 2) a person cannot be awakened, > 3) fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, sound, > 4) lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and > 5) does not initiate voluntary actions. *Source:* Wikipedia - Coma. Formatting changed and emphasis added for clarity. It looks like a coma is just a certain kind of unconsciousness with a few other choice characteristics. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why aren't there any fruit-bearing plants that grow underwater?"
] | Fruit is there for the plant to spread its seeds through fruit eaters' feces. In water, the seeds would float away once pooped out, so cut out the middle man and go straight to floating away. Submarine fruits aren't evolutionary beneficial. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does the Japanese language use so many English words, even in cases when you know they must have an equivalent word in their language?"
] | While Japan does have inherently Japanese words, what they're translating is a franchise name, not a word. Trying to be faithful to the original name does have its advantages: firstly it shows some respect for the country's culture and secondly it increases cultural diffusion, and thus, globalisation. Japan, as you might know, has been under the influence of the West for a very long time, and in their culture respect is very important. Of course, another good reason is simply that it reduces the language barrier, especially when it comes to an imported franchise, so that people know it's the same thing even when it's not written in their native tongue. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"if there's a garbage island the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean, why can't I find it on google maps?"
] | It's not an island in the typical sense of a chunk of land you can walk on. It's a region of the ocean with a larger than expected concentration of microscopic plastic particles. The existence of this "island" is a problem because of it's size and it's risk to ocean life, but you could only realize you were even floating in it if you sampled the water around you and examined it closely. Edit: It appears it isn't **always** microscopic pieces, according to some of the videos shown below. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are male nipples fine to show, but females are taboo?"
] | It depends on the culture. You're assuming a Western (mainly U.S) focus. It's much less taboo in Europe, and even less so in other parts of the world. There's no real good answer beyond that. Culture doesn't really have to "make sense". A lot of it goes back to when showing any type of skin (even ankles! back in the day in china. Or necks, in parts of Africa) was considered immodest. Gradually that standard has evolved, especially in the last 100 years or so. As skirts have gotten shorter, as well as necklines/arms, all that's really left are the pieces covered by a bikini. Breasts in particular are a bit special because they're tied to raising a child/picking a mate, and sensitive. tdr: Because in our culture, it is. edit: I'd also add that it's kind of self reinforcing. Covering breasts means they tend to get fetishized/sexualized (associated with sex more), which tends to reinforce that taboo notion |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is the divorce rate so high in the US?"
] | Who says it's high? It's high*er than it used to be* because nowadays we advocate divorce when relationships are abusive, dysfunctional, or unhappy. In the past, you were expected to stay married even they beat you, if they were a junkie, if they molested your kids, if you just weren't in love anymore and wanted to move on. We've only had a few years of even considering marital rape to be a real thing, you can't compare divorce rates to the past. The US divorce rate is *low* compared to many first-world nations (though that's not a *good* thing). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Who invented the internet and how is it owned by nobody?"
] | The inventors of the internet are Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf. Internet is not a single thing. It is a set of thousands of other things. No one owns it. A nice analogy would be agriculture. No one owns agriculture, agriculture is a set of techniques. The parts of the internet are owned by various people and companies though, like Facebook, Google, etc, but I think you know that. Edit : replaced a word. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do companies wait till the Super Bowl to make good commercials?"
] | I suppose the best time to invest a lot of money into the production of an ad is when it is guaranteed to be seen by many, and be talked about later on. And in order to have the ad stand out in front of the others, so that the investment in the spot was worthwhile, it has to be very good. It's an ad competition. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"When we crave certain foods, is it because our body knows we need it?"
] | My brother is a pediatrician and says the same thing. Some caveats though: sugar and fat (and possibly salt) is so scarce in nature that we are hardwired to want it when it is available - which is not good in today's society. My brother does also refer to a theory that one of the reasons we have so many nutritional issues today is because as a society we suppress these innate skills in children, and over time they lose it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What would happen if u aimed the barrels of two guns directly against each other and pulled the triggers at exactly the same time?"
] | How far apart are they? if they are a modest distance a part, the bullets would collide (assuming everything is identical between the guns and the ammo used) in the middle either causing them to fall where they impact or more likely ricochet in some unknown direction due to minor flaws in each. If the barrels are touching each other? is the connection air tight? If so the weapons would likely explode from the force of the pressure caused by the explosion in the chamber being unable to escape through normal means (the barrel). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims"
] | * Sunni believe that the first four successors(caliphs) rightfully took his place as the leaders of Muslim. They recognize the heirs of the four caliphs as legitimate religious leaders. * The Shiite believe that only the heirs of the fourth caliph as the legitimate successor of Mohammed. Basically, they are POLITICAL difference, which now carry spiritual differences to this day. They do have differences, but most do not distinguish themselves to any group, but simply "Muslims" A big difference is for Sunni, if a consensus of the Muslim community agree to something, it is authority, besides the Quran. Shiite on the other hand, beside the Quran, the only other authority is Imams, or the person who leads prayers, who they believe to be infallible. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are kids forced to take a plethora of subjects in highschool regardless of their future college or job prospects?"
] | Because going to school is about more than getting a job. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Can exposure to extremely high levels of radiation cause immediate death? How?"
] | "Yes, high enough acute doses can prevent neurons from firing correctly and lead to instant death. If you were to pull out a fuel assembly from a nuclear power plant and place it on the wall and run at it from 50 feet away. You will die before touching it." _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are we asked to turn our phones and electronics off when taking off and landing a plane."
] | Well everyone here appears to be a moron. The reason your phone needs to be off is because the flight crew doesn't want you to be distracted in case of emergency when they may need to tell you important information to, you know, not die. They just (used to) tell you the interference thing because airlines don't like making light of the fact that a crash is something that might happen, as improbable as it is. source: my mom is a flight attendant. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do diabetics who have hypos act aggressively?"
] | If you are healthy you might be sitting around at like a blood sugar reading of 80. Normal is after you haven't eaten for a while that might start to go to like 70, and you start to get hungry as it keeps dropping a little more maybe you get that sort of cranky, irritable "hey, I am not dealing with any of this till I get something to eat" focus that would make a lot of sense if we were still animals that starved to death a lot. If you have diabetes you can go way outside of the regular range. You can get numbers that are never supposed to happen. They end up tripping every sensor in your body that was supposed to just trip a little gradually when you got hungry. And take the normal irritability that comes with hunger and make it some crazy rage. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why haven’t we built passengers airplanes with no windows but screen walls on the inside?"
] | The ability for passengers to use natural light from the windows to evacuate in case of an emergency, and for emergency crews to be able to see inside the aircraft, would be lost with screens. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"So I've just begun Final Fantasy 13. I have never played any final fantasy games before. What on earth is going on?"
] | One important thing to know (if you don't already) is that all of the major versions (e.g. Final Fantasy 1-10, 12, 13) have independent stories that are completely different from each other. There are some common features like music, recurring characters (Cid, a bit different in each game), and things like rideable birds called chocobos. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"In footage of nuclear explosions, what are the white vertical stripes?"
] | Those are rocket trails. Just before launch small rockets are launched which leave those plumes of white smoke as they go up. Scientists can watch how the plumes behave in the vicinity of the blast and get a nice visualization of how the air around the fireball is behaving. It is possible that the specks of white light at the time of the blast were from the interaction of high energy gamma radiation with the retina of the viewers. Radiation interacting with photoreceptors often appears as a small white speck or flash. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how do contact lenses stick to your eyes?"
] | The surface tension of the liquid (mostly water) on your eye keeps them in place, but it doesn't really stop them from rotating. For most people - those without astigmatism - it doesn't really matter if it does rotate. Your eye is pretty much symmetric thought the center (from your pupil to the back). Astigmatism is when your eye isn't symmetric like that. If you have astigmatism, it can be really annoying to wear contacts, because you actually notice when your contacts rotate - it messes your vision up. They stay centered because your eye isn't an exact sphere. Your pupil (cornea, actually) pokes out a bit and the contact has an indented place for it to fit in. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does United states and Japan have a good relationship now even after Hiroshima?"
] | Hiroshima was part of World War 2. After the war ended, Japan surrendered unconditionally, and the US basically came in and completely remade the Japanese state. This laid a new foundation for Japan's extraordinary growth through most of the rest of the 20th Century, and basically reset ties between the two countries. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If food is sanatized in an oven or any heating device at a certain temperature, why do we take so many precautions beforehand with germs and bacteria?"
] | Bacteria poop. Even if you kill all the bacteria & viruses (which you can't be sure of) the bacteria might release chemicals that aren't healthy. A great example is botulism - it's not the bacteria that make you sick, it's the toxins they release while they're reproducing that kill you. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How did us mammals evolve into having emotions and specifically love?"
] | Emotions evolved from communication. For example wolf who was able to bark when danger occured saved its pack members thus increasing it own chance of survival. Wolfs who didn't react / understand to react to danger more likely perished. I think love is more primitive thing. It is just feeling that one should mate with another one. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is the difference between a router and a modem?"
] | The modem is the device that converts input signals such as cable or land line phone signals from your ISP into digital data useable by a computer or similar device. A router is a device that manages the flow of data to multiple connected devices. So in your standard home, the outfacing connection (such as a cable line) is connected to a modem. That modem is then connected to a router which all of your computers, phones, or other devices connect to. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can games on the same console have gradually better graphics all the time if it's the same hardware? Why don't they just make the graphics that good when the console first comes out? Is there a max to how good graphics can get on a console?"
] | Experience. Developers learn the ins and outs of the system. Each subsequent project builds on that knowledge. There are some amazing new Atari 2600 games being written now, for example, that would have blown minds in 1984. Each new console is usually so different from any other console or pc that it takes a while to build a nice library of techniques, tricks, and hardware exploits. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"\"cannabis is killing my apetite, I only eat after smoking, other than that I could go days without eating at all. which ends up with me feeling very tired/sleepy\""
] | This isn't really an eli5 question. It probably isn't the weed "killing" your appetite when you don't smoke. It's just that marijuana stimulates your appetite when you *are* using it. I know a guy who has the exact same thing happen. Just doesn't eat really regularly if he doesn't take his medicine. Lack of appetite can be a symptom of issues like depression- which is a common and very real problem for a lot of people. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is coming in under budget in the business world generally a bad thing?"
] | Because forecasts are done under a certain logic with many objectives dictating. The idea is that a budget is there for a reason, and if all budgets are used correctly, then your overall business goals as a company will be met. If you aren't using your entire budget, the idea is that you're not 'planting enough seeds' if you will. Source: senior level operations manager at fortune 50 company. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does entering *67 before your phone number block caller ID? What is the practical purpose of this?"
] | The practical purpose is to provide privacy for the calling party by blocking the display of their number on the recipients phone. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Who invented the ringing sound that is heard waiting for a person to pick up?"
] | That's the [ringback tone](_URL_0_) to indicate that a connection has been established and the phone you're calling is ringing. You can see the first people to patent it there, but that does not mean they were the first people to actually impement it. I tried to find when it was first used, but no luck. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The phenomenon of when you are trying to think of the name of an actor/actress or song lyric and can't in the moment, but after you stop thinking of the answer, it comes automatically at some random point."
] | I think that there is a lot going on in your brain besides your conscious thinking process. It's as if your brain was two people. The conscious mind really wants to know the answer to a question and keeps asking and asking, and the other guy keeps saying "I don't know." When the asker finally shuts up, then the other guy opens his phone and looks it up. But he couldn't do that while the conscious mind kept asking. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why aren't Democratic candidates proposing defense spending cuts?"
] | Politicians are terrified still (post 9/11 thing, but also kinda always) of being seen as soft on "defense." Any proposed cuts to our military budget wil be portrayed as such, mostly by those pols who get lots of $$$ from military contractors, and the ever-compliant "liberal" media. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Does CISPA violate the 4th amendment?"
] | That's currently up for debate, and I'm sure those who are more politically aware than I am could explain it better. Personally, I believe it is. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is Obamacare/Affordable Care Act so harshly criticized?"
] | Some people are against the philosophy of it, i.e. having the government involved in their health. Others have practical issues with introducing a new bureaucracy to our ever-growing government/deficit. Others still have both philosophical and practical problems with many aspects of the act. And then some people just don't like Obama. This is a very politically motivated issue, though, so this is just like asking why any other policy is not popular: because not everyone is a member of the Democratic Party. (or Republican, if we were asking about the Patriot Act in the early 2000's. Although now Obama has been renewing it so...) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If a venomous snake is injected with its own venom into its bloodstream, what will happen?"
] | Depends on the snake. Many of them build up immunity in order to protect themselves in the case of an accidental bite. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is this \"International law\" that Obama and the US say Russia is breaking by annexing Crimea?"
] | Well if you want something specific, there's the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that the Ukraine and the nuclear powers of the world signed. One of the tenets was that the other nations, in exchange for Ukraine giving up their nuclear weapons, was to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine's territories and refrain from using the threat of force against them. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does gigabit even matter?"
] | A home network is used for things other than downloading from the internet. If you copy files between two computers over the network or stream video, you'll be working at gigabit speeds. More importantly, if you're trying to copy files **and** stream video, you're sharing that gigabit between both jobs. It makes a lot more sense if you think about an office with a central file server. Why do you get it at home? Because it doesn't really cost more to make gigabit hardware, so they just make it standard on everything. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How did people deal with Asthama before we invented inhalers?"
] | Generally they died pretty young. If you have a bad enough attack with no way to treat it, you do what you can, but for the most part, there's not a whole lot they could do. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are old recipes so vague?"
] | Recipes were vague for 3 reasons. 1. No standard measurements existed. 2. Ingredients were of widely variable quality and availability. 3. The people making them were expected to know how to cook. Modern recipes are mostly aimed at people who don't really know cooking that well, and are made simple enough that if you can read and follow directions you won't fuck it up. This is made possible by having a widespread standard of measurements and ingredients of near identical quality being available anywhere. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what's the difference between Subjective Vs. Objective?"
] | Subjective = opinion, not factual. Objective = factual and thus cannot be argued with. **Edit:** words |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"ELI5: If someone is born Deaf and Blind, would they have dreams when sleeping? If so what would the dreams consist of: taste, smell, feeling something? Would be interesting to know."
] | They dream, but only dream in their known senses. So like you said, a collage of smell, touch, feelings, ideas, etc. _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Is drinking an orange juice the same as eating an orange from a nutritional point of view?"
] | No, orange juice lacks the nutritional fiber that whole fruit has. Fiber helps slow down sucrose absorption into your bloodstream. Because of this, drinking fruit juice increases blood sugar levels comparable to soda. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The difference between horsepower and torque."
] | Torque is the maximum work an engine can do. Horsepower is the maximum rate of work performed. Perhaps a way of illustrating the difference is by examples: * a very strong man who can bench press 300 lbs in 1 second (high torque low horsepower) * 100 much weaker people who can each only bench press 100 lbs but collectively do 100 lifts (10,000 lbs in total) each second because there are 100 people (high horsepower low torque) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we have over 18,000 unaffiliated police departments in the United States? Why isn't there a single government agency that unites them?"
] | There is a national police force, the FBI. But they only prosecute serious federal crimes. There are other agencies that have police powers such as the DEA, US Marshal, ATF, etc. but these are more specialized for specific federal laws. In most states depending on the size of a region, there is a local city police, a county police, and a state police. Some even have more specialized police forces like transit police or park police. Every state, county, and city has their own laws and regulations which can differ greatly from county to county or state to state. For example see this list of counties in the US that ban the sale of alcohol - _URL_0_ So to answer, there is a national police force that enforces Federal Law. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How are the stars always in the same spot in the sky?"
] | First, stars are really, really far away. So from our perspective it looks like they're in the same place every night... But that's not true. Over thousands of years, stars *do* change position even from our perspective. They have in the past and will in the future. It's just that these time scales are *vastly* longer than our lifespans. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What bodily/survival function does crying fulfill?"
] | It may not have a hunter/gatherer purpose, but I'm quite confident it has a purpose. At the very least, as children, it's a way to signal to our parents that something is wrong. I don't know about you, but when I see someone cry, I feel bad for them and I want to help. Crying is a signal of emotional or physical distress, and we also have empathy. Combining a way to signal a problem with a desire to help others' problems would help foster communities. And imagine two sets of early humans: one where they feel drawn to work together in groups, another where they tend to live independently. Which do you think would thrive? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's the difference between kcal and kJ?"
] | About 4 1 Kcal = 4.1868 KJ or 1 cal = 4.1868 J Both Joule and calorie are different units measuring the same thing. like yards and meters. Joule is the SI (metric) measurement of energy while calories is an older unit also related to the SI-units but not part of it. The amount of energy in food is usually given in Kcal (kilocalories), which are confusingly often called calories. (This is as stupid as calling kilometer meter for short, but commonly done.) A calorie is defined as the energy needed to increase the temperature of a gram of water by one kelvin or to put it differently one Food calorie (kilocalorie) is enough to heat a liter of water by one degree Celsius. A Joule is 1 newton times a Meter or 1 Watt for 1 Second Food energy is sometimes given in kJ and sometimes in Kcal. You can estimate that a food calorie is about 4.2 times a kilojoule |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does all the research suggest that cats are indifferent to humans when my cat is clearly very affectionate beyond his basic feline needs?"
] | Same here. When I'm upset, my cat comes sauntering up to me purring like a motorboat to comfort me. If I'm crying, he curls up next to me and wipes away my tears with his cheek. The purring is very soothing. If he didn't care about me, he wouldn't bother to do any of this. I think it just depends on the temperament of the cat? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do some men gain weight all over while others gain it only on their belly?"
] | It's genetic. Your genes determine where your body places fat. There's other factors that get involved, mainly age and hormone levels, but beyond that, some folks just get fat all over, others just get fat in specific areas. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can't a computer program, program itself?"
] | Here's one reason (among many). Human languages are very imprecise. If you tell a computer program what sort of program you want just by speaking to it in your natural language, it could only have a very vague idea of what you want. It's hard enough to tell a human what program you want. You'd need a very advanced AI to do this. It would have to know a lot about the world to be able to "fill in the blanks" and figure out what you really want. Just like a human has to do. There are experimental programs that do this kind of thing, but only in a really basic way. To make a computer program which could make any other computer program based on someone just speaking to it naturally would require an AI approaching the intelligence of a real human. And if you do that, what's to stop it taking over the world and destroying humanity? Ok, that last sentence was a joke. Or was it? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why when a crazy event the isps slowdown but when millions watch the superbowl the cable stream isn't effected?"
] | Cable broadcasts are one-way communication which just means copying a single data stream and sending it down a bunch of wires. Internet communication is two-way communication with each exchange being unique to the user. An analogy would be using a megaphone to give a message to 10,000 people, vs. holding an individual conversation with 10,000 people simultaneously. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does the clock on my computer keep track of time and know the correct time even after it has been shut down?"
] | It has a [real-time clock](_URL_0_) chip which is powered by a battery (and, generally, the computer can check what time it is when it has a network connection to adjust that clock). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what 'alternative rock' is."
] | The easiest way of thinking of alternative rock is the "none of the above option". What genre is your rock band? [] Punk rock [] Funk rock [] Jazz rock ... etc. etc. [X] None of the above (alternative) Really this means that there really isn't any common style to alternative rock - although many bands have some similarities with each other (hello electric guitar fuzz!), to the best of my knowledge there's no common thing linking them together. In my opinion, whether something is alternative rock or not depends a lot on the context of the song than the actual song itself. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why isn't Horse meat popular/eaten in America?"
] | European here (Dutch). Even though horsemeat is legal it is not as common here as pork, chicken or beef. Big supermarkets usually have thin smoked slices of it for sale, for on bread, but not steak. For that you'd have to go to a butcher. I personally know some people who don't like the idea of eating horse because they seem them more as pets than cattle. Perhaps that's the case in the US? But it's actually illegal there I think, which is taking it a step further than personal dislike. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can dreams that seem lengthy, actually be only a few minutes?"
] | There is also the factor that the chemical released by your brain, dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, in more mild quantities when you dream is known for it's temporal dilation perceptual effect. The substance can be used recreationally, in concentrated form, where users have reported the sensation of being gone for years in a dream like euphoric state and coming back to realize only 15 minutes has passed. The chemical is released by the pineal gland at three different points in life: a flood dose at birth, when you dream, and a flood dose of all remaining left at death. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do weekly awards like the ones I see for $5000 a week for life work?"
] | It's an annuity, which is kind of like a reverse loan. The contest has enough money to purchase an annuity, and when they have a winner, that's what they do. They will purchase it from a financial institution like a bank or insurance company. They pay them the money, and the institution uses the interest (and some of the principal) to pay that amount. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Where has all of the rubber missing from the tread of our billions of worn tires gone to over the years?"
] | Non-snarky answer - it ends up in the soil, the groundwater, the rivers, lakes and seas and from there up the food chain. Bon appetit! |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do shroom clouds form after a nuke hits the ground?"
] | It happens with any large enough explosion, not necessarily nuclear. The explosion pushes a lot of air out of the way, leaving a large, low-pressure zone filled with smoke. As air rushes back in from the sides, and hot air rises off the heated ground, the smoke cloud collapses into the "cap" of the mushroom. The air circulates something like this: _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is sugar bad for me and what does it actually DO to our health?"
] | [This](_URL_2_) is the Long version. It's about 90 minutes [This](_URL_1_) and [this](_URL_0_) if TL:DL on the first. It's about 20 minutes. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are Netflix Original sitcoms not exactly 30 mintues?"
] | Netflix doesn't have their own studios. They finance and greenlight these new series, and as a result, they get the exclusive rights for a period of time to them -- pretty much the exact same way a traditional television network works. But after that time, the studio can sell the show to others, and most of their customers will want commercial time. So, this is almost certainly a concession that Netflix made with the studios so that they would be able to remarket the shows after they've appeared on Netflix. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do ISPs charge for different levels of bandwidth while cell phone companies charge for different levels of data usage?"
] | because they can. back in the day, AOL network access was also charged by the kb of usage as well as online time. if cable/dsl providers could charge for the usage and still be competitive, they would gladly do it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do genes want to reproduce?"
] | They don't "care" about anything at all. But if you have a gene that just tended to reproduce, an done that didn't, the one that didn't would die off and all you would have are genes that reproduce. This same principle goes all the way back to the stuff that floated around in oceans before "genes" even existed. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do houses and estates get named?"
] | You decide to name it and then insist that everyone refer to it by that name. You can do the same if you want to. Whether others will go along with it is another matter of course. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If, say, a moon came too close to a planet, why does it get broken apart instead of colliding with the surface?"
] | Gravity. When you are dealing with planets and moons, gravity is huge. Gravity is stronger the closer the two bodies, the moon and the planet, get. When they get very close, then the forces on the parts of the moon nearest the planet are much greater than the parts further away. This tears the moon apart. If the moon's motion or orbit brings it into contact with the surface, then it will collide with the surface, natch. If it comes close-ish to the surface, then it will be broken up instead. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does it seem like bees are attracted to plastic children playgrounds?"
] | Probably because bees are attracted to bright coloured flowers, therefore also attracted the bright colours of the plastic. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is that families in the 1950's seemed to be more financially stable with only one parent working, while today many two income households are struggling to get by?"
] | People seem to be attacking just income here. So here's something to think about that relates directly to the first expense that you mentioned: a home. 1950: average sized home 983 sq ft 1970: average sized home 1700 sq ft 1990: average sized home 2080 sq ft 2004: average sized home 2349 sq ft |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What exactly happens in your body when you lose your voice?"
] | Your voice is created by two flaps of tissue in your throat called vocal folds. Their primary functions are keeping food out of your lungs, phonation (making noise), and increasing thoracic pressure for lifting/shitting. These flaps are very small; only as big as your pinky nail. When they become swollen through infection and overuse the muscles in them can't bring the folds together to vibrate. Thus you cannot talk. Sometimes when the vocal folds cannot be brought together fully, small regions of the folds can come together to make incomplete vibrations and you get scratchy sounds. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why is a building like the Sagrada Familia taking so long to finish despite the availability of modern engineering techniques?"
] | Gaudi died, and then a fire and anarchists destroyed the plans and some models Gaudi had built. There's also that it's a really bizarre piece of architecture. Most of the problem is figuring out what it's supposed to look like. It's also currently in use, which probably places a limit on how fast work can be done. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why hotdogs called “hotdogs”?"
] | These immigrants brought not only sausages to America, but dachshund dogs. The name most likely began as a joke about the Germans' small, long, thin dogs. In fact, even Germans called the frankfurter a "little-dog" or "dachshund" sausage, thus linking the word "dog" to their popular concoction. Hot Dog History | NHDSC |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is paper white when trees are brown?"
] | The color of paper has to do with how it is processed at the plant and for what purpose. When wood arrives at a paper plant, it is first shredded up ahead of pulping. Pulping is a process by which wood is dissolved into goop and cooked until only wood pulp remains. For ordinary printer paper, this stage also includes bleaching, which removes any coloring in the raw wood. Some paper, like that used for cardboard, may skip this step, and others may involve the addition of dyes after bleaching. The pulp is rolled into sheets and dried into paper during the last stages. This stage allows the paper to retain its color or lack thereof. TL;DR: The way that paper is made involves bleaching the wood it starts out from. |
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