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[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Where do creationists say the flood water drained to?"
] | It's in the atmosphere now. Prior to the flood it had never rained. Edit: I inferred this from the Bible. It is my interpretation. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can investigators find incriminating e-mails?"
] | E-mails are sent through servers that can retain copies of e-mails. Also when you delete any file, they're not gone they're just overwritten by new data and can be recovered unless you took measures to really erase them (low level format of your HD or using a special app). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do planes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle?"
] | The area actually has no special power to make planes disappear. However, it is prone to storms, and there are wide stretches with no place to land, so from time to time a small plane is lost with no witnesses. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What would happen if you filled up a tire with a liquid, say water, instead of air but to the same psi?"
] | It would be much bumpier ride as water doesn't compress like air does. It might also cause the tire to explode if you hit a bump for the same reason. Edit: It would also make your car quite a bit heavier. So you would have slower acceleration and longer stopping distance. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What do babies dream about?"
] | I have a 12-month-old baby who can say about 10 identifiable words now - meaning they might not sound like the word to someone else, but she says them consistently so I know what she means when she says them. Anyway, I turned on the TV and there was a picture of the ocean, which she had never seen before. It had rolling white waves crashing on a beach. She lit up and said, "Milk!" So yeah. I think she dreams of oceans of milk. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how do water and sun benefit flowers after they've already been cut from where they grew?"
] | Cut plants don't die immediately -- they're not like animals that need circulating blood to transfer oxygen around constantly. One main purpose of roots is to carry water from the earth up to the leaves -- there's no heart pumping, the water moves through capillary action, which can happen at any point along the plant's veins -- so if you cut off a stem and put it in water, it will still draw water up to the leaves and petals as if it were roots at the bottom end. As long as the leaves are still getting water through the stem and can [respire](_URL_0_) they can still perform photosynthesis, so sitting in the sun still helps the plant live. Being cut off, though, means that not all plant biology keeps acting normally, which is why cut flowers eventually die off. Some plants, like a pothos, can grow new root systems from a cut stem, which is a way the plant reproduces. Growing from cuttings is pretty common; it's because it's part of the plant's survival mechanism that they can grow that way. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How can sulfur hexafluoride stay in someone’s lungs, but co2 doesn’t even though they are both more dense than air?"
] | I hope another commenter corrects if I'm mistaken, but I would think that Sulfur hexafluoride CAN stay in your lungs, but doesn't automatically stay there like it's stuck. It takes more effort to get it out because it's very heavy, but I've seen videos of people inhaling it so clearly they're able to get it out too, maybe with some extra effort. It's also way heavier than CO2. Sulphur hexafluoride is gonna be Sulphur and six Flourines. I'm too lazy to look up the weight of that but it is a hell of a lot heavier than a carbon and two oxygens. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we sometimes blank out and stare off into space?"
] | Because you are focusing your mental resources on whatever you are thinking about and not actively processing your surroundings. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What exactly is a watershed and how does it work? For instance, we live in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed area. I have attempted to read on the subject, and consider myself a smart gal, but this just confuses me all day."
] | Pick a spot on the ground. Imagine that a raindrop falls on that spot. Imagine that it doesn't soak in, but it runs downhill. Which way will it go? Trace its path. Eventually, it will flow into a stream. That stream will flow into a bigger stream, which will flow into a river, which may flow into a bigger river, and so on, which will eventually reach the sea. The last river will have a name; let's say it's the Mississippi. That means your original spot was part of the Mississippi watershed. Sometimes large watersheds are divided into smaller watersheds named after the various rivers that flow into it; for example, the Mississippi watershed may be divided into the Ohio watershed, the Missouri watershed, and so on. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does the order in which you mix things together matter?"
] | as a person who cooks for living, in your case you just hasnt mixed things enough in first case. Adding dry to wet makes mixing easier and faster as opposed way creates dry clumps, that require extra mixing. thats why dry to wet is preferred cause it makes things easier and faster. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do shows like DragonBall Z Abridged and Yugioh Abridged stay on Youtube without being copyright claimed?"
] | They're works of parody. As such, if the creators were sued and fought back, they'd probably win under 'fair use,' which allows limited use of copyrighted material for things like commentary, criticism, reviewing, and parody. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what kind of applications won't benefit from increased multi-thread performance?"
] | One reason is if the application is primarily I/O bound. Adding more threads won't make your hard drive any faster. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is going on with Apple and the price fixing trial with the DoJ?"
] | Here you go, this guy did a great job explaining it: _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does a Medical Examiner determine the Cause of Death?"
] | Mostly by autopsy. Cutting the body open, looking for anything that looks wrong. Looking at the heart for signs of a clot, lungs for blockage etc. Blood tests are also taken to test for anything unusual like heart attack signs ( enzyme) or drink/ drugs. Everybody dies for the same reason, the heart stops, medical examiners job is to find out why it stops. Some trauma is easy to see, (loss of leg caused blood loss enough to stop heart) all to the tiny details as tiny bit of water in lungs or small damage to heart. If a person has a existing medical condition this will be explored and either ruled out or ruled in as the cause. (Hope that was 5 enough) Edit, missing word |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why Do we tend to panic more when running from a scary situation than walking from it?"
] | I think you may have your causality backward. You run because when you can't control your panic, and you walk when you can. If the walking increase your panic, you would already be running. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are bugs so good at getting in the house, but so bad at getting out?"
] | If there are a lot of bugs outside only one has to find its way inside for you to notice. If there is one bug inside that bug specifically has to find its way outside for you to notice. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If I fell through a cloud would I come out soaked or 'misted'?"
] | Neither, when a cloud is on the ground it's fog. When you walk in the fog you don't get that wet. If you fall into a rain cloud you get wet, or a snow cloud you get snow on you, but a non-precipitating cloud won't get you that wet. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"California is getting very significant rain for the next days. Where I live(southern California), most of it goes to canals and straight into the pacific ocean, With that amount of water basically being wasted; why hasn't there been a system put in place to catch all of this run off??"
] | There is. Scattered throughout the hills are a series of dams that turn the rivers -- nature's own water gathering system -- into man-made lakes. Nearer the shore, the water is so spread out -- and the terrain so lacking in natural basins -- that it's just not cost-effective to build artificial lakes to gather and store it. (If water were worth as much as gold, that calculation would change.) |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what is it about the structure of vegetables that makes them so nutritious yet contain relatively few calories?"
] | We cannot digest cellulose. That is the physical structural component of plants. Because we cannot digest it we cannot get nutritional value from it. We call it dietary fiber and it passes through our bodies mostly intact. We are able to digest other components of plants and so get many vitamins and such from them, but the sugars that make up their cellulose are locked away from us. This is perhaps the greatest proof that we are omnivores and not herbivores. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If there is lead in solder are solder joints dangerous to touch?"
] | No, it is not toxic to touch solid lead. Lead poisoning results from **ingestion**, **inhalation** or **dermal contact** (e.g. if you were working with organic lead compounds that were easily absorbed through the skin). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do cops detain and handcuff somebody with one arm?"
] | They either: * cuff their hand to their belt * get a belly chain * if they appear to be of little threat, let them go uncuffed |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"With all the breakthroughts we've seen in cell phone and car batteries why hasn't the household batteries like AA, AAA, D's life been extended as well?"
] | They use different chemistries. Your standard batteries are alkaline cells. They aren't that dangerous in the sense that they don't explode but because of that they are less energy dense. Most modern phones and electric cars use lithium ion cells. These are way more energy dense but have the tendency to become very hot or even explode when over discharged, punctured or short circuited. This isn't a problem because the devices they are used in have circuitry that closely monitors the battery and shuts off the device when something goes wrong. Lithium ion batteries are also more expensive than standard lithium batteries. Standard gas cars use a lead acid battery to start the motor and keep the lights on. While lead acid batteries are powerful they are also very heavy and big. TL:DR different batteries have different trade offs |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are people Shy or not shy?"
] | It's just a difference if how you approach situations. I've often been called shy when I'm first introduced to someone, but the thing most people fail to realize is that the reason I'm not more..."out there" is because I don't really speak unless I have something to say. Unless I'm continuing a conversation previous to the introduction, I will wait until more convenient time to join in the new conversation. I'm not shy; I just don't want to be in your face. It annoys me when people do it to me, so why would I do it to you? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does the \"neutral\" wire work in cars?"
] | In the car, you're dealing with DC, in the house it's AC. The wavy voltage you get in AC is the difference between the "live" and "neutral" lines, but importantly, neutral is not ground. It's usually relatively close, though. The earth line is the emergency exit for power when it's all gone wrong, and is very handy when you're dealing with quite a lot of power - the sort that gives shocks and causes damage to people if it's all going wrong. The power in your house can do that, and the power in your car doesn't. There's 2 exceptions - the starter motor and HID headlights, but for accessories - the radio and the radar detector, you're safe. It's only 12 volts and not a lot of current. So, the power comes in from the red wire, the one you put the fuse on, and it goes out via the black wire, to the body of the car. The car body is connected to the negative terminal on the battery, so any bare metal on a car will work for the negative wire to make your circuit. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Since energy can never be created nor destroyed, but only be transfered - then where did it come from in the first place?"
] | Answer: Absolutely, Positively no one knows, or even has the foggiest idea, if you did you would win every science prize till the end of time. we are pretty confidant the big bang created OUR universe, but that's a very small piece of the _URL_0_ would be like if you fed a goldfish and the gold fish wondered where the food came from. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what's the difference in the technology between a pair of beats ear buds and a pair from gas station?"
] | BeatsByDre spends millions on advertisement, that is about it. Beats is much more about image and a fashion statement than sound quality. I'm not saying Beats are terrible, just that you will get much better sound for your money with other brands. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What is the deal with reddit and Wonderwall?"
] | Today is going to be the day that someone'll spell it out for you Right now you probably realize that I'm not gonna be that dude |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What happens to an unborn baby that is going to have a nut allergy (or any other type of allergy) when the mother consumes nuts?"
] | It doesn't hurt the child because the mother is processing the food for the child. You mostly want to avoid things that get into the blood or can be passed through the placenta to the baby and have a harmful impact (such as alcohol). Studies have actually shown that mothers who eat nuts during pregnancy have children who are less likely to be allergic to nuts. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What would it take to bring back the automobile industry in the United States? As in, the ending of outsourcing jobs overseas for vehicles."
] | US workers would have to be cost competitive with machines and foreign workers. That's really the long and short of it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does a computer ACTUALLY work? Like, how does it transfer, read, and display data and things."
] | Ok, you're five. So, the light switch on the wall is kind of a very simple computer with extremely limited capabilities. You have one input device, the switch, with two options of off or on (0 or 1). A lamp controlled by the switch would be your display. Depending on the input provided you get a dark lamp (off = 0) or it lights up (on = 1). Now through this simple set up you could actually start to convey a message. If the light is off I'm not home, for example. Now add several billion switches and light bulbs together, shrink it all way down, and you can make a real computer kid. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do doctors and dentists seem want to get patients out of the recovery room and home so quickly after a surgery?"
] | Hospitals are not a place where you want to stay but need to stay. You're surrounded by sick people and the bacteria there are much more dangerous and immune than outside of hospitals. You want to get out of there as soon as possible. Sure it sucks to puke at home, but doing so at a hospital is of no advantage to you, since it's nothing a doctor can or needs to help you with. An unnecessarily long stay also causes extra financial and time costs and takes up space that people in actual need could use. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"what are the meanings behind the \" & co.\", \"unlimited\", \"limited\" \"incorporated\" etc. additions to different company names?"
] | Further to this, (In the UK) A PLC is a Public Limited Company, these have different requirements for setup. A Private company can be set up without major restrictions to the number of shares,shareholders or start up capital required. However, a Public Company requires more than 2 shareholders, a registered company secretary and at least £50,000 in start-up capital. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are Late Night Talk Shows so popular in America?"
] | It's actually quite diminished and low in its popularity compared to the past. Big time down. In an effort to get more viewers though their marketing teams heavily utilize stuff like YouTube and the digital space to blast out content and stuff to attempt to get people to tune in. If your online a lot you see this, so it seems far more "popular" than it really is. The good, people are watching this digital best of content. The bad, they seriously still aren't tuneing in... because why watch live when you can just see the best of it the next morning easier? Tl;dr. Ratings are way down, their marketing teams fool you into thinking otherwise. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Can't remember what it's called"
] | This is [the bandwagon fallacy](_URL_0_) in which someone holds an idea to be true/valid because a majority(sometimes perceived majority)of people feel the same way. Also, the idea that global warming *causes* tornadoes and other natural disasters is [the false cause fallacy](_URL_1_) in which one claims there is a *causal link* between variable A -- > B. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does the law never go after rappers who constantly talk about the illegal drugs they do in their songs?"
] | > I am the Walrus -John Lennon. Not proof that John Lennon is actually a Walrus. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do the fastest runners tend to be black?"
] | A couple of speculative answers, in addition to /u/MrAloha808's point. "Black" and "White" aren't really groups, as there's as much variation between as there is within. Nonetheless people with black skin outnumber people with white skin, so their best runners are recruited from a larger population. Also, if you're using international athletics as a measure of running prowess, it's worth mentioning that many black athletes are from countries with higher extremes of poverty, meaning less access to other sports, such as sailing, polo and counter strike. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Hostels. How they work and how they differ from hotels. Also why they are so popular in Europe?"
] | They are very cheap hotels, usually with multiple beds in the same room. The are popular in Europe, because combined with Europe's well developed mass transit system, it makes for a cheap and flexible way to travel. Hostels typically exist in city centers where regular rooms are very expensive. In the US, without the same sort of mass transit, this sort of travel requires a car. With a car, you can sleep in it, stay at a campground, or simply drive to a cheaper hotel outside of the city, making hostels less useful. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why do snakes slither instead of inching like a worm?"
] | Because their physiology (body make-up) is completely different. Worms are invertebrates, meaning they don't possess a single bone in their body. Snakes are reptiles (belonging to the vertebrates). That means there are numerous evolutionary steps between them. IIRC, snakes do stretch their bodies a little but because of their spine, they have limitations on how much they can expand or shrink. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"For the theologians, how is the good and mercy of God visible in major disasters like the typhoon that kills thousands?"
] | Preface, here are my prejudices: I live in Oklahoma City (site to some of the worst tornadoes in history) and I am a senior Religion/Philosophy major who will be going on to get a masters and phd in theology. I don't see God in disasters in and of themselves. Instead, I see God's mercy in the response of people, all people. I subscribe to a type of theology labeled process theology. Process theology states that God "doesn't bend bullets" (God doesn't directly intervene in world happenings). The good and mercy of God is visible in the way people respond and answer to God's individual call on their individual lives. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do male testicles sometimes retract up into the abdomen?"
] | Testicles need to be kept at *exactly* the right temperature to make healthy sperm. Unfortunately, that temperature is colder than your body's natural temperature and is too specific to regulate normally. Thus, the balls moved out of your body to keep away from your heat, but they can be moved closer or further away depending on their needs. As for the "Men were once women" thing, in the womb, boys develop ovaries first before they are converted into testacles and moved down. There's actually a genetic mutation which delays that transformation until *puberty,* meaning for about the first 12 years of your life, you look like a prepubescent girl in every way. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"I see flies and moths in my house all the time. Why don't I see a whole lot of dead insect bodies everywhere?"
] | Spiders. The house spiders that you share your space with are eating them, and the left over bits are broken down reasonably quickly by bacteria or chemical reactions and they turn to dust. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why intervention is Libya considered a failure despite successfully saving human lives and toppling a brutal dictatorship?"
] | Critics point to the emergence of a largely lawless Libya which is in the control of various militias. This had led to the state becoming a prime breeding ground for radical groups to base themselves out of as well as create a hub for the international trafficking of weapons. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do I get motion sickness when I read in a car?"
] | Your body tells your brain that you're moving. (Because of bumps, turns an such) But your brain tells you're still and reading a book. That makes you feel bad. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If shadows are the absence of light, why do you get different coloured shadows with different light sources?"
] | A shadow is generally not the total absence of light. It is simply an area where there is less light because a light source has been blocked by something opaque. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Being sued for money when you have none"
] | If you can't pay, but you own property, the judgment creditor will often put a lien on your house. If you sell the asset, the lien must be paid from the proceeds. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how can small cellphone carriers (metropcs, criket, etc...) charge less for the \"same\" service?"
] | It's because they rent the towers they use from the majors and do not have contractual subsidies for phone contracts that drive up costs. They also are not accountable for maintenance of the hardware and towers which keeps the costs lower. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's happening when I make that thunder noise inside my head?"
] | What you hear is the sound of thee [tensor tympani muscle](_URL_0_) vibrating in response to being voluntarily tensed. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does a U.S. Destroyer, a vessel equiped with advanced technological systems, that is supposed to engage in tactical naval warfare, collide with a cargo ship?"
] | Massive and systemic watch-keeping failure on the part of the Naval Vessel's crew. Heads are going to roll here. Court-martials, possibly criminal-negligence charges. There is no excuse for this. None. Navy Ships have multiple people in the pilot house, lookouts all over the ship, people in CIC monitoring surface contacts. State of the art computer processors crunching enough data to take down 10's of targets at mach speeds. Able to scan the environment with different radar systems. The Cargo ship had the right of way : > *Collision Regulations Rule 15: When two power-driven vessels are crossing, the vessel which has the other on the starboard side must give way and avoid crossing ahead of her.* Navy ships also are required to have other vessels standoff outside their respective exclusion zones, to avoid [shit like this](_URL_0_) happening. It's a complete breakdown of every single navigational procedure. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why sometimes when I sleep, in my dreams I try to get out of bed but my body refuse move, and gets harder to breathe but felt so real?"
] | All correct. People also tend to hallucinate that there is something terrible/ominous in the room with them as well and it can be quite terrifying, but instances such as yours happen a lot too where you are aware you have come out of sleep, but you can't move and can't yet consciously control your breathing. These feelings aren't usually dreams but can feel like it as you've just woken up. You are in fact paralyzed because your brain has cut itself off due to reasons explained above. Interestingly some people have a sleep pathology where they do not inhibit movement during REM sleep (REM behavior disorder) which causes them to physically act out their dreams. The patient isn't the one complaining, it's usually the SO getting punched in the face while their partner acts out beating Usain Bolt in the 100m dash. Source: MD who deals with this kind of shiz |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we clap our hands as an act of cheering?"
] | There's no real reason really. We could have chosen any gesture to represent cheering such as snapping fingers or stomping feet. However, clapping makes a lot of noise, doesn't require another surface nearby, and takes barely any technique to be effective. Some people just started doing it, and it caught on because there wasn't a need for something different. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why does the human body need O2 in oder to get rid of Carbon? Why cant it just release the carbon as a gas or something?"
] | The body doesn't just take an O2 and stick a carbon onto it. The body has a very complicated set of chemical reactions, called the [Krebs cycle](_URL_0_), that it uses for energy. The Krebs cycle is how your cells turn your food into usable energy to do stuff and stay alive. It takes your food nutrients, like carbs and protein, and breaks them down to recharge a chemical called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is a little messenger molecule that carries energy from place to place inside your cells. When it runs out of energy it has to be recharged by another run through the Krebs cycle. One of the steps in the Krebs cycle requires oxygen. This is why you need to breathe in oxygen to live. And in addition to ATP, there are two byproducts of the cycle: carbon dioxide, and water. You get rid of the CO2 by exhaling it. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do different foods of the same mass have different amounts of calories?"
] | Your body isn't converting all the mass of a burger into energy lol. Only some of the energy bound up in food is utilized by your body, and **none** of it comes from converting mass into energy. Your body takes chemical potential energy from bonds between atoms in your food and (after generally storing that energy in different chemical bonds) utilizes it to drive all the processes that keep you alive. Much of the actual mass of the food is used as raw material to make structures your body needs like new cells etc. Some of that material is used wholesale because your body can't produce it on its own (like vitamins). Any mass your body can't use generally leaves the body with other waste. Some food has more, and more energetic, bonds that your body is capable of converting into energy than others. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How did the word 'radio' get mixed up in so maybe nuclear-related terms, \"radioisotope\", \"radioactive\", \"radiologist\". Does this imply some direct connection between electromagnetic waves and alpha/beta/gamma rays?"
] | It is the other way around. Radiation or radio comes from the energy going radially out from the source. We use "radio" as a shorthand for electromagnetic radiation under 300GHz but there are lots of different radiation in addition to electromagnetic radiation. Gamma radiation is by the way also electromagnetic but in the 100EHz range. So there is a direct connection between radios and gamma rays and other forms of radiation. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is your throat so much more sore in the morning than any other time when you have a cold?"
] | Because you've been lying down and not swallowing, the extra thick mucus your nose is producing during your cold has been dripping down your throat all night and irritating the crap out of it. During the day you swallow, drink, and eat which helps clear the mucus out. You're probably also blowing your nose instead of just letting it drip down your throat. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does alcohol by volume work?"
] | Depends on the volume. Two 5.2% abv beers at 12 fl oz a piece. Would equal one 10.4% ABV 12 fl oz beer. The volume is very important. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do companies discover that they've been hacked?"
] | If a good hacker didn't leave a footprint then the company wouldn't know about the leak, and you would never hear about the company having a leak. The Sony hack wasn't noticed by Sony. It was the hacker group that publicly exposed the hack. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How come not everybody sees the same colours when looking at Benhams Disk? [Repost]"
] | You can't look at Benham's disk on a monitor and know what color you "would" see on the real thing, ironically enough for almost the exact same reason we see color there in the first place. With a real-world disk, we see colors because some of our eye's receptors fire faster or linger longer than others - So a rapid white/black transition favors whatever receptors send the strongest signal back to the brain. Think of it like a poll - "Hey red, what do you see?" "Umm, something, I guess..." "Blue? What about you?" "Yeah, something bluish" "Green?" "YES, oh wow, yes, dude, you have to see this, so greenly awesome, hey can we stop at Taco Bell later?". Going back to monitors, you can't (necessarily) see the right color because it will depend less on your eye and more on which color of subpixels in your monitor has the longest retain time - Frequently red, for LCDs. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What exactly does the UK mean by \"killing encryption\"?"
] | All information transmitted over the Internet could be decrypted at government request. Things like private Facebook groups, stored email, online transactions, that C4 you bought from a Tor store, you know, stuff terrorists might do. It's government trying to harm everyone, not just the very unfortunate very few that happen to be injured in terrorist attacks. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"how does quartz work in watches/clocks?"
] | The quartz itself is sliced into a very thin tuning fork shape, and is then connected to an oscillator circuit, which takes power from the battery, and starts (and keeps) the quartz vibrating. The miniature quartz tuning fork vibrates at exactly 32,768 times per second (32,768 Hertz). Because of the nature of quartz, these vibration emit their own weak, but just as exact, electric pulses. These electric pulses are then used as the basis of the timing of the watch. 32,768 may seem like a strange number to work with. However, computers (often used in these watches) work more easily with powers of 2, and [2^(15) is 32,768](_URL_0_)! |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do metals at room temperature feel colder to the touch than other materials?"
] | Your body isn't feeling temperature it is feeling the amount of heat leaving your body. There is a subtle distinction here. You have 3 variables, the amount of heat the metal can pull away from your body (heat capacity). The amount of heat the metal can store (heat capacity * density, keep in mind metals are heavy). The speed at which the metal can pull away this heat. (thermal conductivity). A material which does not conduct heat well will feel warm, because your hand heats up the surface and the heat stays at the surface. This is why plastics feel warmer then metal. Metal has a lot of density, a lot of capacity to store heat, and a very good conductivity meaning it can pull the heat out of your body and into the metal very well and it can store a lot of heat. This is also why different metals feel different temperatures at room temperature. Not explaining the science: Metal pulls heat out of your body faster then plastic. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do non-English speaking countries have so much English on their packaging and marketing?"
] | English-speaking countries are so economically powerful, mainly through influence of the United States, that most countries include English on their products so that tourists or international customers can read them. Interestingly the dominance of English in international business is so great that if someone is going to learn a second language in order to do business overseas it will almost certainly be English. The result is that English is an expected common skill which only reinforces its dominance. For example someone from Germany doing business with someone from France will likely result in them speaking to each other in English, as the German probably doesn't know French and the Frenchman probably doesn't know German, but both likely understand English to some extent. So when a company is considering what to put on their package to make it accessible to non-native speakers it will almost always be English. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If it's harder to hear as altitude increases (Example: On a plane), does playing music through headphones louder than you normally would so you can hear it better damage your ears as much as playing music that loud when you can hear fine?"
] | if your thinking specifically on a plane, it is pressurised to 1800 - 2400 metres which although Alpine sort of levels I would think it wouldn't be enough to change noticeably. I know what you mean though about playing loud, I have always attributed it to the constant plane noise which you get used to but is surprisingly loud along with all the other distractions. For example this weekend I had a hard time following a movie on a plane, which is perhaps due to the small screen size, poorer quality and background stimuli? I think it would be reasonable to assume that playing your iPod very loud in your ears will be enough to damage them the same as on the ground as the same dBs go through your ears although i doubt in flight entertainment systems go that high because of this? On the top of Everest though I wouldn't even guess |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do most porn sites not use HTTPS?"
] | If you were to submit your credit card information on the internet, the information needs to go from your computer to the server. What hackers can do is to "sniff" the traffic, and decode the information that is sent, consequently getting your credit card information. What HTTPS does is encrypt the information on the computer, send it, and then decrypt it on the server. So even if hackers get a hold of the traffic, they have no way of decrypting it. This is awesome, but requires a little bit of extra cost (development and encryption certificate). Note that this does nothing in protecting your identity. Your IP address is still sent as is. Most porn sites are simply view-only, so users are not actually submitting any private information, therefore, no need to implement HTTPS (SSL). However, most paid sites where you have to pay for membership, I would imagine do have HTTPS protocol installed. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"If various species naturally went extinct even without human influence in the past, why is it still important that species are going extinct? Is it not just nature taking its course?"
] | Regions in which humans have developed habitats saw a massive increase in the rate at which megafauna (i.e. large animals) started going extinct. This is WAY higher than what ecologists refer to as the background rate of extinction (the rate at which species went extinct before human influence, with a few special exceptions). Mass extinctions that don't open up very many new niches (fancy word for "somewhere new species can evolve"), such as the ones that we are causing, only hurt biodiversity, and imbalance ecosystems. And whether you realize it or not, we rely very heavily on the things mother nature does for us in order to get by. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do some seniors have a hard time learning basic computer skills even though it seems very intuitive to most people?"
] | Take a field you're inexperienced in. Let's say baseball. A professional baseball player says, "Swing the bat like this." And he shows you how. So you do the same. But then you mess up on the next swing. You forgot all his talking points/mechanical error/missed something he said. So in the end you couldn't swing the bat very well. Then you ask, "Why swing the bat in the first place? I don't even like baseball." So you put the bat down. This is what it is like for seniors. It doesn't matter as much to them, and they didn't grow up into computers and iPhones and such. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is there a little wall in the gas container of a lighter?"
] | A longer, thinner cylinder is stronger than a shorter, fatter one. Alas, the short, fat shape is more desirable in a lighter. The result is that a long, thin cylinder is folded in half to get the desired strength in the desired shape. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How inheritances work and why people covet them so much?"
] | How they work: Relatives leave you money in their will and when they die you inherit that money Why they're coveted: Free money |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do guitars have 6 strings? Wouldn't it be better if they had 5 because we have 5 fingers?"
] | It has nothing to do with number of Fingers, you can use different methods of strumming and picking that are way more efficient than assigning one string to each finger. Its more a matter of Sound, the more strings you have, the higher the amount of notes when you play a chord. Or since you thought about picking it seemed: the more strings on a Guitar the broader the range of notes you can use in a Melody |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do collision prevention systems on cars work?"
] | Usually, there is an IR range finder, which attempts to find how far from the nearest forward object you are. The car takes this distance, runs a calculation based on the current velocity (and maybe more variables, like road wetness, if you can be bothered) to determine the minimum stopping distance. The system will do this kind of math quite frequently (probably several dozen times a second), in order to determine if the object in front of you is actually getting closer (eg: not the bumper of the car in front of you, who is safely ahead of you and travelling at a matched pace, or relatively close velocity). Should it be determined that the distance between you and the object is falling fast enough (eg: it is a stationary wall, or someone slamming their brakes), if the minimum stopping distance at your current conditions is within X% of the distance of the object, then your car will attempt to stop automatically. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is American Express widely not accepted at many retail stores?"
] | Merchants have to pay more to accept American Express. While they may only pay 2%-3% for that Visa purchase you made, it would be closer to 5% for Amex. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is breathing in faster than breathing out?"
] | I'd like to point out how awesome it is that complete strangers can come together and develop the best explanations for such a complex topic, and in a way that most anyone can understand. Lots of good posts in here. Collaboration makes us better at problem solving and decision making. Kudos. EDIT I'd like to remind the peanut gallery that Rule#1 is be nice. Also unsticked, that was an accident. Imperfect mod is imperfect. Cheers |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What's up with sloths?"
] | They just chill up in trees away from most predators that would otherwise be able to hunt them. By being super lazy, they don't use as much energy, so they don't have to process as much food. They only need to leave their tree every week or so to poop. As long as they have a readily available food source that they don't have to chase after, being lazily slow isn't really a disadvantage given their mode of avoiding predators. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why are batteries (Such as AA, AAA, D, ect.) so expensive?"
] | Because people need them and will pay the prices charged. The price has stabilized at the highest point people will accept. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How come people are not experiencing discomfort during highspeed train rides?"
] | Once you're at full speed, there's no acceleration. And you can accelerate to full speed as slowly as you like. The speed of the train says nothing about its acceleration. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How to detox from alcohol"
] | Long term alcoholics can suffer delirium tremens (known as the 'DTs' or the 'shakes') if they withdraw suddenly from alcohol and this can be serious enough to lead to death if not treated properly. However, roughly half of alcoholics who stop alcohol intake will not have any negative physical effects and only a tiny proportion will suffer severe delirium tremens. So the best way to detox is to stop completely, then seek medical attention if you start having severe withdrawal symptoms. Otherwise, follow a schema similar to the detox from drugs like Paxil, where people drop their dose by 10% of their original intake, every month (so if you drink ten beers a day, drop to 9 beers a day for the next month, then 8 beers a day the month after that, etc). |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does my head hurt when I get a headache?"
] | It depends on what is causing your headache. Stress headaches, for example, can be caused by excessive tension in the muscles around the head. Many headaches are generally thought to be the result of the blood vessels surrounding your brain either opening up (dilating) or clamping down (constricting). These actions can cause pain receptors above your brain to be triggered. Newer theories suggest that chemicals in your brain (neurotransmitters) are a more significant part of the pain of a headache. Basically, there is no real "pain" being caused in your brain, it's just the result of areas in your brain being triggered that normally acknowledge pain occurring -- kinda like a sensor that is malfunctioning. In reality, it's probably some combination of the two. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do blisters form? And what is the purpose of the liquid inside of the blister?"
] | If you were 5, I'd explain: "Blisters are nature's band aid." They form to protect the underlying layers of skin from an irritant. The reason people will tell you to never pop a blister is because the fluid within it is sterile. Not only that, but our outer layer of skin is our "first line of defense" against pathogens. When you pop the blister, you break that line of defense and release the protective sterile fluid - leaving the underlying layers susceptible to infection. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does the US have so many mattress stores?"
] | That's like asking why there are so many brands of toilet paper. Given the sheer number of people who use them, multiplied by how often you replace them, there is definitely room for profit. Also mattresses have a very high profit margin. They are essentially cloth, padding, and a small amount of metal and wood, sold for hundreds if not thousands of dollars. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How 'deep' are tattoos?"
] | Well, Lets say it like this. I have a full sleeve, with full color, and very little "exposed" skin. I had someone slice my arm up with a garden rake, to the point I needed 3 stitches, and you can't even tell I had gotten hit. Granted, it depends on how heavy handed the artist is, and how good he is at his craft, but you should be able to get a pretty decent scrape, and not have the tattoo be screwed up. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do computers need to restart after updating?"
] | Some times updates need to modify system files that are currently in use by the OS. In those cases, the system will reboot, thus "unlocking" those files, and apply the changes during the boot sequence, before they get used again. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do I feel like I haven't really slept if I have vivid dreams during the night?"
] | It's not that the vivid dreams make you tired, it's the fact that you are waking up during a dream - waking out of REM sleep tends to leave you a bit groggy. Most of the dreams during the night you don't remember, which explains why this happens only when you remember the dream. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Explain the argument that the color pink doesn't really exist."
] | A color is a certain wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. The "color" pink does not appear on the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead, it is how we perceive a certain combination of wavelengths, and therefore itself not a cookie. Of course, this is all just arguing semantics. As far as anyone in the real world is concerned, pink is a color |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The right to abolish government"
] | You're right, it isn't. The Declaration holds no rights for Americans; those are found in the Constitution. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is it that when people in very prestigious positions lose their jobs, they have to tender a resignation, but in everyday jobs, you just get fired?"
] | Most jobs in the USA are at-will; this means that either side can terminate the relationship at any time. You can quit whenever, and you can be fired whenever, for nearly any reason or no reason. Most upper management positions, however, are on contract. This means that the employee and the company sign an agreement that the person can only be fired for certain reasons. If there's disagreement over those reasons, a firing might lead to a lawsuit. So instead, the organization and the employee negotiate an end to the contract. If they agree, the employee resigns and agrees not to sue for termination of the contract. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How do computer companies such as HP and Dell load all that bloatware onto their new computers as a large scale operation?"
] | They make OEM versions of operating systems, meaning they're baked right into the install media |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can't you put a cast on a horse's leg instead of killing it if it breaks it's leg?"
] | Horse limbs are quite complicated anatomically. They also do not tolerate casts in the manner a person can. Broken legs in horses would also require a body sling to reduce the weight on the injured limb. This requires very intense care as well as cost. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"why is alcohol accepted in many places where Cannabis is not?"
] | Man... I want to know this one too! As far as I understand, it’s all about marketing. There’s a great episode of Stuff You Should Know that touches on this topic... I think it’s called ‘How marijuana works’. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How does having sickle cell protect against malaria?"
] | We don't know exactly, but it has something do do with the fact that the Malaria parasite lives in the red blood cells for part of their development. There are different theories, but they basically come down to one of two things: * Either the red blood cells of people with sickle-cell disease are just more difficult for the parasites to live in. * Or the red blood cells are more sensitive so that the parasites damage them and the body recognizes them as defective and recycles them before the parasites can complete their development. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why didn't countries simply adopt Nazi Germany's weapons after the war"
] | Weapons technology is constantly advancing. To adopt even an existing weapon for yourself requires redesigning your factories, storage, distribution, etc. so it's not something to be undertaken lightly. Accordingly, it made much more for sense for the Allies to study German weapons and introduce advanced weapons, rather than take a modestly decreased amount of effort to introduce weapons that would soon be out of date. Keep in mind that the part of German factories not destroyed in the war were deliberately dismantled or sabotaged by the Allies soon after. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"How is Morgan Freeman's voice so 'compelling' and 'powerful'? And what can one do to learn to have an authoritative voice?"
] | He has a deep (low) voice, which is relatively difficult to develop. Far easier to develop is his manner of speaking, which is slow and distinct. He pronounces each word in sequence rather than slurring them together and pauses for emphasis where needed. The impression such speech gives is that your words are considered - that your thoughts are complete before the sentence begins rather than running along apace with it. In a sense, it's *silence* that gives the sense of authority. The boss isn't the one who does the talking - they're the one who talks *last*. Once they've talked, there's nothing left to say. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why does the House \"always win\" in gambling?"
] | The odds of winning any gambling are set out so the house always has an advantage. This is usually just a few points of a percentage (0.verylittle) but over tens of millions of dollars pouring through a casino, this leads to millions in profit. You basically have like a 49% chance of winning, so over thousands of plays, the casino ALWAYS ends up ahead. Even professional gamblers, who earn their living my playing poker or blackjack, games they can manipulate, only manage to get to 51% or 52% win rate, however they make their money by betting high when they know they a higher than average chance of winning |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why is glass so inert to acids?"
] | Dat silicon dioxide. Acids react by having a weakly held hydrogen that the other part of the molecule doesn't care for much, and would really rather have a metal in its place, as metals are much more likely to give off outer electrons to a non-metal than hydrogen is. Silicon dioxide, however, is already in a really good place with its electrons, so the acid doesn't have the necessary pull to substitute either the Silicon or oxygen for its hydrogen. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why can we use computers to simulate humans visually, but not auditorily? I don't get why we can create amazing animated characters, but still need meatbags to do the voices, even though video is more complex than audio."
] | Well, that's more or less what Vocaloid is. I don't know japanese so I can't speak to how real it sounds, but given that vocaloid is huge in japan and there are actually concerts that thousands of people will go to that just have a holographic avatar on stage I'd imagine it sounds real enough: _URL_1_ and _URL_0_ |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do you get veinier when you work out?"
] | When ya run around or workout, your cells need more energy to keep going at the heightened rate. That means your heart has to start pumping faster, and 'cos your body's doing more work, you get hot. When you get hot, your body has a few ways of cooling you down, like sweating, or hairs standing up. One of these ways is to raise the veins slightly in your skin so they're closer to the air, and can get rid of the heat easier. As the nice man below said, "vasodilation" or widening of the veins, also occurs, to help let the blood flow faster and easier, which helps add to the illusion of them being about to burst out. Correct any mistakes, I'm basing this on GCSE biology, and it's not recent either. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"What are the benefits of having private internet access (for personal use) and why are people obsessed over it?"
] | Specifically, PrivateInternetAccess, if you are referring to that brand/company, is a provider of an anonymous VPN. Their VPN allows one to mask where their traffic is originating from by sending it through a third party. In addition, they accept forms of payment which reduce the paper trail behind their identity. In addition, VPNs may be useful for avoiding blocked/censored websites/services, and they encrypt all traffic between the computer and VPN. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Can someone please explain to me what is so bad about Tesla's intended direct-to-customer sales models and not going through dealers?"
] | "Eliminating the middle-man? Never as easy as it sounds. About 50% of the human race is middle-men, and they don't take kindly to being eliminated." --Malcolm Reynolds, *Firefly* |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"The economics of a chinese buffet. (how do they make enough money?)"
] | I could think of some reasons why but they may not be the whole truth: * You don't need as much staff because you aren't serving people at their tables * You have a set menu so you can make things in bulk and have less chefs required for cooking * You can order food in bulk since you will have a pretty good idea of your most popular items * Because the cost to eat is less expensive, you can get a lot of people to come in. The $ add up |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Once a President is in office and installs his government, how does the federal government (continue to)investigate him?"
] | The Congress does the investigations, just like they did with Bill Clinton for over six years. This is the check on Executive power. |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we say \"I'm getting on the bus/train/plane?\" Yet say \"I'm getting in the car?\""
] | Why do you park in the driveway and drive on the parkway? |
[
"Provided a user question, retrieve the highest voted answers on Reddit ELI5 forum",
"Why do we see \"child geniuses\" who get into colleges at very young ages and know complex math or science from a young age, but don't ever actually see their achievements in these fields when they enter adulthood?"
] | uh, Mozart? Most of the top chess players? (Go players too apparently). [Most of them live pretty good lives as professionals. ](_URL_0_) You know, other than Ted Kaczynski... But a lot of this is just perception. Who would you say are the top 5 mathematical genius's today? Can you name even one? Society doesn't really celebrate these guys. They celebrate sportsball, business, and politics. Which, well, you don't have to be a genius for. It helps, sometimes, but it's not a prerequisite. |
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