Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
How do shipping services like UPS work and why do they sometimes seriously divert packages rather than a more straight route	[ "Say they've got 1 daily flight from Ontario to Portland that's 115% full today. And the other city flights are 80% full. At that point it's actually easier to just send the overflow packages the long way than schedule an extra flight. Adding an extra flight costs tens of thousands of dollars, adding extra package...	[ "A big part of it is where the sensors are. I'm in DC, but my understanding is that all of the weather reports are based on measurements being picked up at Dulles which is an airport a few miles into Virginia, away from the city." ]
Why do dogs play with the toys we buy them? A squeaky ball, a squeaky, plushy thing, etc?	[ "Do you ever repetitively click a pen? Or jingle the change in your pocket? Or chew your nails? Or throw a baseball with a friend or your kid? Or play with a stress ball? Or... Or... or... or... Why do people do those things? I think you're right that you're probably over thinking it and it's just a toy." ]	[ "Think of your vocal cords as if they were rubber bands. Brand new rubber bands (like when you are young) are tight and bounce right back after being stretched. Now think of an older rubber band (like when you are old), having being stretched over and over. It doesn't have the same elasticity it once had." ]
The Differing Economies in England, Spain, and the Netherlands in the 17th Century?	[ "You'll want to talk about the differences in how England and Netherlands treated trade and their colonies. You may want to consider the role the Jewish banking families had on all three, as well as the more general motivation for expansion between the two. Really though, at 1.5 pages you'll want to find a focused ...	[ "The person you link to has borrowed (~~or plagiarised - there's no citation~~ Edit: /u/Iguana_on_a_stick points out they do reference Eckstein on page 3, I only Ctrl-F'd the first page. My bad.) their main argument almost entirely from Arthur Eckstein's Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome...
Why can singers and entertainers admit and claim to commit crimes (drug use mostly) and not be arrested?	[ "[“One would not presume that Bob Marley, who wrote the well-known song ‘I Shot the Sheriff,’ actually shot a sheriff, or that Edgar Allan Poe buried a man beneath his floorboards, as depicted in his short story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart,’ simply because of their respective artistic endeavors on those subjects,” the cou...	[ "to build publicity. reporters aren't following them all the time. in order to get reporters to show up, the person has to announce that they're going to make a major announcement that'll make news." ]
During construction, how does HIV ensure that it encapsulates exactly 2 molecules of RNA?	[ "As far as I am aware, the mechanisms of RNA packaging in HIV are unclear. However, the two strands of RNA are actually associated together in an RNA dimer bound at the dimerisation initiation site (DIS) - a palindromic stretch of RNA which is 7 nucleotides long iirc. This can be separated into monomers by raising ...	[ "Many missions do use multiple slingshot encounters (aka \"Gravity Assist Maneuvers\"). If I recall correctly, the Rosetta mission performed two Earth GAMs and a Mars GAM. Cassini performed two GAMs past Venus, one past Earth, and another at Jupiter. However, this takes time. In order to pull off the double-earth s...
If Air Force One, or another typically long-distance jet, were to remain perpetually in flight, being refueled when needed, etc, how long could it remain in flight and in continuous use?	[ "You may find [this](_URL_0_) of interest: in 1958, a single-engine prop plane stayed up for _64 days_. They refueled and resupplied by matching speed with a fuel truck driving down the runway and hoisting stuff up, about twice a day. They modified the engine so they could change the oil in flight. They only gave u...	[ "I live near a long string of parks. Over decades I have watcher the behavior of Canadian geese in particular. Groups will do to the golf course or another pond on a regular schedule. They fly a direct route between these locations. They definitely know where they are going. I remember one terribly windy winter day...
What actually happened when memory became corrupt?	[ "[Data corruption](_URL_0_) happens when something goes wrong and the machine accidentally writes the wrong data, or overwrites the wrong part of the data, or deletes something that shouldn't have been deleted. This could be as simple as putting a 1 where a 0 should be, or it could be much more complex. Sometimes t...	[ "Software can often store information in temporary places. When you go through a shutdown/quit/exit process, it's not just stopping that program, it should also be reverting any of those file/directory locks and bringing the 'temporary' information back to a 'permanent' state. When you just pull the cord out of th...
Why did vaping/e-cigarettes go from an acceptable alternative to smoking, to blacklisted, soon after they were introduced?	[ "Hospital security here. From an enforcement standpoint, it can be hard to tell if someone is smoking or vaping. You tell somebody they can't smoke here and they point to someone vaping and say \"But you're letting them smoke!\" Also, there was some concern as to what chemicals were present in vapor (it is not \"...	[ "Several reasons, one, they are very expensive to build, two, the power transmission infrastructure is also very expensive to build, three, you'd still need power supply to make up for night, and times when the wind is too low/high. Four, someone will always be against any major project, and tie you up in court for...
How do squirrels calculate their jumps?	[ "This is a really fun question. I just want to say that. The answer is that they don't calculate their jumps any more or less than you calculate your steps down a set of stairs. Which is to say, it depends on how unusual the staircase is, and how many times you've walked it. Squirrels are just physically and mental...	[ "If you are really interested in this, [watch this.](_URL_0_) It's a one hour lecture by Dr. Hans Mark, who was at NASA during the 70's and lead some of the deep space missions. The short answer is that they rely on gravitational boosts from other planets (usually Jupiter) and the sun. The orbital trajectories are ...
Does Norton's Dome prove indeterminism in Newtonian mechanics?	[ "Norton's dome does not show that Newtonian mechanics does not adhere to determinism. Newtonian mechanics is formulated precisely in such a way that the theory is deterministic. Norton's dome gives the opposite impression because it supposedly is an example of a particle that spontaneously acquires some non-zero sp...	[ "I remember reading about a virus back in the day (I think it required a floppy disk to be put into the drive, with the virus, not unlike stuxnet, although it was broader in who it impacted). It worked by abusing a flaw in the hardware which caused the diskdrive to spin too quickly, essentially destroying it. Again...
Why does liquid give fabric a darker shade of color where it landed?	[ "Quick and easy explanation: refraction. A still quick and pretty easy to understand and MUCH better explanation: [Why do things look darker when they're wet? ](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "Imagine a seat cushion outside in the rain. If it rains a bit on the cushion, it will be fine if you grab it quickly and bring it out of the rain. But when it sits there getting wet for an extended period of time, it will get completely soaked through. Same if it falls in the pool ... if you grab it quickly, it'l...
Why manufactures for Flush-able wipes say that they are disposable while plumbers stated that they aren't.	[ "They say they are flushable, because that sells wipes. But the problem is, many are made of a non-woven spun fiber material, similar to that used in disposable diapers. They tend to get caught on the rusty protuberances of cast-iron drain pipes. Worse yet, I've heard from folks at sewage treatment plants that the...	[ "Building is often done in bulk, dozens of houses at a time, which means you get economies of scale, not just in the materials etc, but in the laying on of services. Building a row of houses needs a trench dug for the sewer connections, for example, but you can do the whole row at one time - likewise the foundation...
What causes eggs to turn hard when boiled, when generally most other things (broccoli, carrots, a piece of plastic, etc) turn soft when boiled?	[ "In a word: denaturation. Heat breaks down protein molecules causing the hydrophilic (water loving) parts of all the different molecules to clump together and the hydrophobic (water hating) to also clump together. When the amino acids in the proteins reform their bonds the now hydrophilic free parts harden over." ...	[ "Your finger is poking your eyeball on one side, putting pressure on your retinal nerves. Your retinal nerves get confused and pass signals to the brain that are interpreted as light. Light passing through the lens of the eye is mirrored so that an incoming image appears upside down and backward on the retina. The ...
What is the earliest recorded war that we know of?	[ "The first war in recorded history was [between Sumer and Elam in 2700 BCE.] (_URL_1_) However there is evidence of warfare all the way back to the Mesolithic era (sometime between 14,300 and 13,200 years ago) at a site near the border of Egypt and Sudan called [Cemetery 117.] (_URL_0_) Edit for links." ]	[ "I believe someone forgot to pay the rent on a system and when another group came in to claim it, the original group that forgot to pay the rent started fighting them. And...yeah. It's become what it is now." ]
How did the Catholic Church and secular law, deal with the kidnap and force marriages of women particularly heiress's in history.	[ "As far as canon law is concerned the answer is very clear. No consent = no marriage. Consent must be freely given before man and God or the marriage does not exist. For instance, Canon 1098 \"A person contracts invalidly who enters into a marriage deceived by malice,\" or Canon 1103 \"A marriage is invalid if ente...	[ "Ever try to schedule time off with a boss who views his employees as disposable indentured servants? It's an excellent way to hear that your vacation pay will be your severance package. One would think that ought to be illegal, but it turns out that the courts really don't care." ]
Why do our bodies "carry" stress? How does that occur?	[ "Stress is hormonal and was used as a fight or flight helper when we were but primitive humans. I'm not really sure why it stays long periods of time, but I suspect it's because you needed to be alert for long periods of time if you were in a dangerous area. What I do know is that the amount of stress hormone in yo...	[ "Usually when we type, we are using our working memory to hold the info we want to type. Our working memory only has so much space in it that if something new pops up it pushes back the old info and takes front seat; attention also affects this. Think of it like a bus. What you're trying to type is in the drivers ...
How do parasites evolve complex life cycles?	[ "It didn't. It evolved them at different times. They are not useless in isolation. For example, the ability to latch onto human skin gives you a reproductive advantage because of dispersal (just like plant seeds that can travel with wind, like dandelion). The ability to penetrate skin gives you better access to nu...	[ "Probably some fish are a good example to explain why. Pangasius is a fish that's cultivated in Vietnam. It can get oxygen out of the air, so for the farmer (sorry, don't know the proper word in english) it doesn't matter too much if the water is clean or not. They can grow a lot of fish in a really small amount ...
Is surface tension in water caused by the surface being exposed to the atmosphere and thus being cooler than the interior?	[ "Surface tension is a result of the fluid being more 'attracted' to itself rather than the other surface. So If you look at the case of a glass of water, the polar water molecules are attracted to themselves (via hydrogen bonds) more than the water-glass interaction. As a result, you see a small meniscus forming in...	[ "Hydrogen bonding! In a solid state, the average kinetic energy of water molecules is low enough that hydrogen bonding can happen. This creates a highly ordered crystalline structure with lots of space between molecules. In liquid water, however, the kinetic energies of the molecules overcome the hydrogen bonding e...
Can anyone explain in simple terms how the CRISPR technology works in gene editing?	[ "CRISPR uses a protein (cas9) to make double stranded cuts in DNA. The natural double stranded DNA repair mechanisms in the cell, chew the DNA back from the break to generate the single stranded DNA ends needed to complete the repair. The result of this is that he DNA at the site of the damage is lost. Cas9 require...	[ "Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): You can find the basic answer with a google / wiki search. Please start there and come back with a more specific question. If you disagree with this decision, please send a [message to the moderators.](_URL...
Why do we scream and "jump" when we get scared?	[ "Your evolutionary ancestor is calling for help, frightening the enemy, and moving you a bit away from the danger while your brain can catch up and decide what to do next." ]	[ "There are a few different answers because there are a few different psychological approaches. TheCanadianDoctor's answer is the biological approach. Using the behavioral/learning approach, I would say it was because when you learned that word, you learned it by forming a connection between the (echoic) sound and t...
Why does Downs Syndrome affect the body the way it does?	[ "If you have three things producing a product (the job of a chromosome is ultimately to produce proteins) instead of two, you might expect somewhere around 50% more of the product than you would otherwise have. This is the case for some of the genes implicated in Down's on chromosome 21. With this excess protein fl...	[ "Every time you make a copy of a cell, there is a chance for errors. For example when you photocopy a first print, it is pretty crisp and close to the original, but there are a few minor discrepencies. Now if you photocopy the copy, it gets more distorted, and so on until some letters get hard to read, it gets diff...
How did Twitter use marketing when they first started? I'm interested in knowing how Twitter got so big so fast, and what the company did to spread word about it?	[ "The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000. The Twitter team cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages. ...	[ "When you suck on a straw, it isn't the suction pulling the milk shake up. It's the weight of the column of air above the milkshake, extending into space pushing down on top of the milk shake as air pressure. All you did by sucking was remove the weight of air on top of the milkshake straw that was holding it down....
Why do we move around so awkwardly when giving a presentation/oral in front of a crowd/group?	[ "It's due to anxiety and stress. Good public speakers learn to overcome the anxiety and train their mannerisms to get over the anxiety/stress responses. But, most people have some stress when they present to large groups of people. The more practice you have with it and the more confidence you have the easier it is...	[ "Simply put - Because of our stupid stupid brains. Humans have big brains. Big brains take time to grow. In reality it takes 20-25 years for our brains to fully develop. But, as any woman who has given birth will tell you, 9 months of growth is already cutting it reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyy close to being able to punch t...
Why can President Obama make tweak provisions of the Affordable Care Act (e.g. deadlines) once it has already passed through Congress?	[ "I guess I'll prepare for the downvotes. It is true that the executive branch can have certain discretion in some things. However, regarding the deadlines, these are written into the ACA as \"HHS shall do such and such by such and such a date.\" This leaves no legal room for discretion. When the president decides...	[ "The courts basically said that brexit cannot go forward under the stewardship of Theresa May, Prime Minister of Britain, without the consent of Parliament. In other words, the UK government made a non-binding referendum for the people to vote in, that said \"do you want to stay in the EU or leave?\" the leave cam...
How is Adolf Hitler viewed in Japanese culture?	[ "As an aside, Italy has been seen as the 'white flag waving surrender monkey' for a lot longer than the French. The Italians made terrible soldiers, and this stereotype was even played out in Soviet Union/Communist films (for example \"How I Unleashed the Second World War\", a 60s Polish film)." ]	[ "This is a pretty common question here; here's some links from the FAQ: _URL_2_ _URL_4_ and a few others that have been posted over the years: _URL_3_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ Most posts agree that it is largely a post-war pop phenomenon with fairly little evidence to support it." ]
Why is there a 110v plug in all airline bathrooms?	[ "So guys can plug in their electric razors. This is potentially valuable on long flights or overnight flights." ]	[ "In most places, there are few laws regulating what prices a retail store can charge. They charge what the market will bear, and with a captive market it will bear a lot more than normal. Keep in mind that most such shops have a high overhead, since they have to pay special fees to the airport operator to sell in t...
Why does everything you mix together turn brown?	[ "Pigments absorb some colors and reflect others. Mix a bunch of different ones together and it ends up absorbing most of the color and then reflecting some of the light so you get a dark mass of brown" ]	[ "Make yourself a glass of chocolate milk using one teaspoon of chocolate. Now using that same teaspoon, remove the chocolate from the milk." ]
What is the difference between the Fourier series and the Fourier transform?	[ "A very succinct response would be that Fourier series are discrete sums and thus can only produce waveforms that are ultimately periodic. Fourier transforms are continuous integrals and thus don't require the shape to have some periodicity." ]	[ "Say you have a banana and an apple. How many ways can you arrange those on a table? You can put the banana on the table. You can put the apple on the table. You can put both on the table, or you can put none of them on the table. There are four ways total that you can arrange these fruits. This represents 2 to the...
How much influence does the president have over the FBI?	[ "To some degree, the FBI is independent of the Office, the director of the FBI is appointed to a 10 year term, to reduce the power the president has over the FBI. Long term appointments like given to Hoover will never happen again. Then there's the reality that the FBI still needs the president and congress's suppo...	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
when oil prices are down and there is a surplus of fuel; based on supply and demand why are prices at the pumps highest. Should the price of gasoline not be relative to crude?	[ "While they are tied, there is a lag between the time the crude is purchased, transported, refined, stored, distributed and eventually hits your local gas pump. Of course stations seem to raise prices immediately upon increase of crude prices while only lowering prices once lower cost crude has worked its way throu...	[ "Federal student aid is a cash cow for colleges. For many colleges, this is their main source of income. The amount an individual can get in federal student aid and other subsidies is actually very high, so colleges often set their tuition costs to be around the maximum a student can get in federal student aid. Thi...
Why does pediatric feeding therapy often involve force feeding?	[ "This is a severely autistic child. A child with this level (presumably) of autism might not eat _at all_ without a physical intervention. At severe levels the neurologic development that you'd hope would suppress resistance to interaction in favor of consumption of getting to eat just isn't happening. So...\"no m...	[ "The dental plaque on Neadnerthal teeth shows evidence of plant grains that have been cooked: > Here we report direct evidence for Neanderthal consumption of a variety of plant foods, in the form of phytoliths and starch grains recovered from dental calculus of Neanderthal skeletons from Shanidar Cave, Iraq, and S...
Do Electromagnetic waves create standing waves?	[ "In a cavity, yes. This happens in your microwave oven." ]	[ "Your microwave oven is pushing several hundred watts into a pretty small enclosed space. It's not transmitting heat -- it's exciting water molecules in your frozen burrito. Your Wi-Fi access point is pushing less than a watt and scattering it in all directions, which is why it will do nothing to your burrito." ]
When you eat animal fat, how does your body turn it into human fat?	[ "It's not initially human fat. Everything we eat is broken down by enzymes into smaller bits. Proteins become amino acids, and fats become glycerol and fatty acids (sugars just become another kind of sugar). Any of those can be used by cells to make energy. The thing about fatty acids is that if they're not used by...	[ "Because the paths between your nose/mouth and stomach/lungs all intersect at one point and there's a flap that moves based on whether you want stuff to go to your stomach or lungs. You can't do both because of the nature of the flap. It's either the esophagus or the trachea." ]
When we cook protein, it gets denatured, how does our body use this denatured protein?	[ "All proteins have to be denatured in order to be used. Your body cannot absorb whole proteins, instead it absorbs the component parts of proteins called amino acids and then build its own proteins from them." ]	[ "It has to do with training a type of muscle fiber, called intrafusal muscle fibers, that monitor the length of your muscles. These fibers are specialized types of muscle cells that send signals back to your spinal cord and brain. Their primary purpose is to prevent tearing of the muscles from overextension. By str...
Is it possible to detect if a body (comet, asteroid, etc) was captured from another star's circumstellar disk?	[ "Yes, and in fact, there are candidates for this! [Macholtz 1](_URL_0_) is a comet with a highly eccentric orbit that is believed to be from another solar system. The way you can tell is its chemical composition from spectroscopy is really weird for a comet- way less carbon, and way more of some other unusual ele...	[ "I can't speak for all items, but guns and uniforms were common war trophies. Soldiers were permitted to bring back captured small arms and uniforms and other similar items. A token form had to be filled out, but this was not always enforced. Generally, this was just a permission to possess the captured arm. Here i...
If dark energy is a repulsive gravitational force, could it be the repulsive portion of the gravitational equation?	[ "Gravity is NOT described by the simple equation that Newton came up with and that you included in your post; that equation is an approximation that works reasonably well when dealing with situations like the Earth orbiting the Sun. The description from general relativity can be summed up as 16 equations which desc...	[ "The Schwarzchild solution describes the vacuum outside of a spherically symmetric mass distribution. So if you drew a big sphere around a large enough part of the universe and removed all of the mass outside it, that would be sphere with radius smaller than the Schwarchild radius. But since there is mass outside a...
Using fans on a hot day - is it more efficient to blow hot air OUT or cool air IN?	[ "I'm a biochemist, not a physicist or engineer, but there is quite a bit of complexity here. If your goal is to lower the absolute temperature, a push/pull setup would be preferred, as a fan (or fans) drawing air in from outside on one side of the room and a fan (or fans) blowing out on the other. In fact, you coul...	[ "Layman here, but I think I can explain this. Take a look at this [illustration of how air flows around a cube in a wind tunnel](_URL_0_). Now, mentally replace that cube with the roof of a building. It's the same effect. Imagine instead of a building on the ground that's on fire, you have a building with no floor ...
When people say they can't afford to go to college, are they just unwilling to take out loans, or are loans hard to get?	[ "I live in the U.S. so I can only speak from that perspective, but my experience as an undergraduate and graduate student here has been that the government has been able to provide me with loans. These have been enough cover my tuition costs and living expenses. That being said, unless loans taken out are subsidize...	[ "Forget galaxies, we can't even get to the nearest star in our lifetimes. But that doesn't prevent us from seeing it. I think the confusion might be because you can't see far away destininations on earth. The reason you can't see far away destinations on earth is because the curve of the earth is in the way. Let's ...
Why are red blood cells considered eukaryotic if they don't have a nucleus?	[ "They are part of a eukaryotic organism. Red blood cells begin life with the full complement of organelles, including a nucleus and mitochondria, but our red blood cells shed their organelles during maturation." ]	[ "Because (partially) the Constitution outlaws any sort of nobility: > Article I, Section 9, Clause 8: > > No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit > or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, > ...
How does banning revenge porn not contradict copyright laws?	[ "For starters, pornography has special restrictions about records that have to be maintained to prove age and consent to appear. Also, depending on the scenario, the subject would have the expectation of privacy and control over commercial use of their likeness. That's why you generally have to sign a release when ...	[ "What you are suggesting is roughly in line with the hypothesis that viruses trace [their origins](_URL_1_) to escaped [transposons](_URL_0_). Transposons are selfish genetic elements that either \"copy and paste\" or \"cut and paste\" themselves into new places in the genome. They are similar to viruses in a numbe...
What would have happened if the US government had not bailed out the banks in the 2008 crisis?	[ "There would have been a run on the banks, people would have lost even more than they did. There would be a severe lack of fluid cash. A few more banks would collapse taking with them pensions, retirement funds, and basic accounts. The government would have been on the hook to pay out the citizens anyways from the ...	[ "Farmers can be their own worst enemy. They want to grow as many crops as they possible can. The problem is when they all have a good year, there is an oversupply, prices plummet, and they all lose out. The gov't tries to fix this with subsidies. They either pay farmer not to grow when it looks like there will be a...
The Coca-Cola Company have created Fanta to circumvent embargo and IBM provided counting machines to concentration camps. How do American companies manage their German and occupied countries subsidiaries during the WW2?	[ "Follow up, if this warrant a new post please tell me: How did politicians and the general public react when they found out these companies were aiding Nazi forces in WW2?" ]	[ "Sometimes it's a marketing reason, and sometimes it's copyright or trademark law. For example, back in the 1960s, Ford wanted to export the Mustang to Germany. However, a German company, Krupp, was already using the name \"Mustang\" on a line of delivery trucks. Because Krupp already had the rights to use the name...
Are dolphins afraid of death? Or, are other species aware of their own mortality?	[ "I'd like to extend this with a question as well. If they aren't, why do they feel fear when something attacks them?" ]	[ "For an interesting academic read on the subject, see Painter and Lotz's book Phenomenology and the Non-Human Animal, which is the most oft cited resource on the subject of animal interiors. [You can read the fulltext here and download as a PDF.](_URL_2_) People who study this, Phenomenologists (in the realm of p...
How do spiders not get stuck to their own web?	[ "Not all parts of the web are sticky. If I remember right (since I'm too lazy to google it right now) the radial stands (the straight ones from the middle out) are not sticky. The circular strands are. The spider just walks on the radial strands" ]	[ "This is like asking \"why does a fire burn itself out - what's the point of using up all the fuel if it can't sustain itself?\"." ]
Does Supersymmetry include antimatter?	[ "Sure. Everything has its antiparticle unless it is its own antiparticle (like the Z boson), and every known particle has a superpartner, that includes antiparticles. The Higgs sector gets more complicated. You get at least one pair of Higgs bosons and three that are their own antiparticle - and their superpartners...	[ "you'll be looking for larger scale-structure than just galaxies, or even clusters--but some researchers are trying to tie the development of some very large scale structures (\"filaments\") to the anisotropies in the CMB. _URL_0_" ]
If all elements are made in stars, and stars don't destabilize until they're making the heaviest natural elements, then where did this range of elements we know come from?	[ "So there are a few mechanisms at work. Stars will make a lot of elements up to Iron by fusion. However, the heavier elements only get made in the center of the star, so you end up with this layered effect where the center of the star might have lots of iron in it, but the outer parts 'stop' at lower weight element...	[ "Imagine the atoms in a magnet as little arrows. When manufacturing magnets, all of the arrows are arranged In one direction. This is done because it makes the arrows useful. ⬅️⬅️ ⬅️⬅️ These arrows don't like to all go in the same, linear direction. This is because they don't like their tips touching, or even gett...
Who is Planned Parenthood selling baby parts to and why?	[ "Planned parenthood is not selling baby parts to anyone. Planned parenthood donates the remains of abortions, with consent of the women who underwent these procedures, to various medical facilities who use these tissues for medical testing and research. They are not sold, as that is not legal, but the facilities th...	[ "Craigslist charges for businesses to post 'For Sale' ads in many large markets. Also, always remember that on the internet, if you are not the customer, you are the product. CL collects and sells metric a**loads of data from everybody who visits the site. Place an ad? Browse ads? Respond? All activity gives a lot ...
Meta Question. What systems do historians use to organize their notes and materials?	[ "Just found this on Robert Caro: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) & #x200B;" ]	[ "Are you talking about the Lloyd deMause style of psychohistory? If so, you are surely aware that it is highly controversial? I realise this isn't really an answer, I just wanted to make sure first that we are talking about the same thing." ]
If domestic dogs evolved from wild ones like wolves, could they potentially survive harsh winter temperatures on their own? Wouldn't leaving your dog outside in the winter be animal abuse?	[ "Possibly, but its going to be dependant upon a variety of factors. Some breeds, like Huskies, love the cold weather, and are fine staying outside if they're comfortable with it. Other breeds, with shorter coats or from warmer climates would be totally unprepared for the cold, and probably wouldn't survive the nigh...	[ "Seasons are the result of the tilt of the Earth. Earth spins on a slight angle compared to the circle of its orbit around the Sun. This means that at different times of year, the poles are pointed towards or away from the Sun. This affects how much daylight the poles get, with the impact decreasing as you get towa...
How come at work I'm ridiculously tired but when I get home I suddenly have so much energy?	[ "Mostly it's because you have a different mentality for \"work\" activities versus \"not work\" activities, the fundamental difference in the way you think about these activities are work activities are being forced upon you to do while not work activities are activities you choose to do (presumably). It is very ve...	[ "Because the animal inside you activates and you engage in \"Predator\" mode, doing everything in order to secure food and guarantee the survival of your species." ]
How are we able to hear multiple frequencies at once?	[ "[This figure should help explain it.](_URL_0_) A shows 4 waves each with different frequencies and C shows what you get when you combine those waves together. (Ignore B and D). A combination of different sound waves creates a single wave with a unique pattern. So instead of a speaker moving in and out by same amou...	[ "Basically, the human eye has something similar to the refresh rate of a computer monitor or the shutter speed of a camera. The eye's refresh rate is something like 10-15 Hertz, meaning that on timescales shorter than ~0.1 seconds, things blur together. So if you're driving past a fence, there might be several of t...
Why are rainbows circular ?	[ "Rainbows are the result of refraction of light through droplets of water in the air. This only happens at specific angles for certain wavelengths of light, making the separate regions of colors in the rainbow. As the light source is the sun, the possible angles at which the rainbow can form are offset from the sun...	[ "Depends on the antenna, some antennas try to send the signal in all directions, some try to put it in a very small beam, most try for omnidirectional or close to it. The way the antenna transmits the signal is called it's [beam/radiation pattern](_URL_0_). Google that term for lots of pretty pictures of what real ...
Why is the U.S.A called the "Land of the Free"	[ "The government of the US was formed around the time of the enlightenment, a philosophical movement that among other things, taught that people had natural, inherent rights. It was the first major modern government formed on these principles, and a lot of other developed countries followed suit." ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
If food is used to produce energy in our body, what does sleep actually do?	[ "Sleep is one of the things we still don’t understand very well. We know what not sleeping does to us, but the best we can tell about why we ‘need’ sleep is to ‘recharge’ and ‘rejuvenate’ and maybe clears toxins. It also speeds up some processes that occur while awake like healing and forming memories. But the prim...	[ "you're not building muscle when you lift. You're actually causing microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. When you rest your body repairs these tears and makes your muscles a bit stronger to protect from them tearing again." ]
Why do women tend to outlive men?	[ "A recent study I can't find right now actually showed that, absent environmental effects, men and women should live equally long. The difference is that men tend to engage in more risks, which can lead to early death, and until recently tended to smoke way more. Since smoking has started to drop in the US, the dif...	[ "You mean like giant tortoises, which live to be over 150? Or deep sea perch that can live to be over 140? Or Glass Sponges that live to be over 10,000 years old?" ]
Why am I taller than BOTH of my parents?	[ "You're adopted. Or it could be that you aren't just made of of half what each parent looks like, you have tall genes in your family somewhere and they just happened to surface for you." ]	[ "Evolution. People who didn't get that weird feeling when dangling their limbs from the trees they were sleeping on were killed by cheetahs." ]
Does Reagan deserve his reputation?	[ "The Gipper was good at delivering speeches, and looking good on camera. However, his actual understanding of political issues was often superficial. The reason he was so well liked is that he was very successful at projecting a mythology of America as strong and righteous, that was very appealing to the public aft...	[ "If Jesus is never explicitly stated as a carpenter, how did this myth come about?" ]
To a traveler going near light speed (~0.9c), would it appear as though the destination was approaching faster than the speed of light?	[ "The velocity addition formula isn't relevant. What reconciles this is that time dilation of the traveler in the Earth's reference frame manifests as [length contraction](_URL_0_) in the traveler's frame. So in that frame, the traveler won't see themselves covering 0.86 light year in 6 months. Rather, they see them...	[ "They just do. All massless objects travel at c in vacuum. It's the default. They don't get \"a boost\". In QFT no detail is put into how they are created, they are just emitted or absorbed in an instant. When they are emitted they propagate at c. This turns out to be an accurate model of reality. Any set of obs...
Why is it that America primarily drives automatic cars but Europe is still using manual cars? Europe still has automatic cars available but people rarely go for them.	[ "How about, \"America is lazier?\" Up until the mid 2000s, manual transmissions were cheaper and got better gas mileage. It was a \"luxury\" option, much like cruise control and or power windows. That's also why Manuals are often called \"standard\" (in comparison to the \"optional\" automatic). In the mid 2000s, t...	[ "It is a modern, literary and cinemagraphic convention. Northern Europe had traditions involving both werewolves and the walking dead. Vampires are a specific variety (drawing on a Balkan tradition), which thrive in literature more than the generic, trouble-making walking dead of Northern Europe. Little actually d...
Why is my right arm stronger than my left, even though I work both out equally?	[ "A lot of strength gains you make while lifting weights is due to central nervous system adaptions. Your brain learns how to use your muscles more efficiently. It's pretty common that these adaptions are made more quickly in the dominant arm." ]	[ "Its Known as a meander, there are some great examples on the wiki page so im not gonna type them up, but [this picture](_URL_1_) shows how gradually the outside of the bend of the river erodes faster than the inside... water obviously erodes the outside of the bend faster then the inside since the water travels sl...
What happens to someone when he or she consumes too much antibiotics and grows a resistance against it?	[ "It's more accurate to say that the bacteria you're trying to treat will grow resistant to the antibiotic, not that the person becomes resistant to the drug. If bacteria grows resistant to antibiotics, it will develop into a strain that can't be treated with medication any more - which means that any symptoms that ...	[ "Excellent, I was rewriting my population genetics notes last night. Since I'm typing on a phone, the short of it is that there are limits to artificial selection. After enough selection, you'll reach the limits of variation for the trait you originally selected for, and while they ARE smarter than before, you'll f...
Without access to modern pumping technology, how were ancient civilizations able to build fountains with such high flow rates like the Trevi Fountain in Rome?	[ "Gravity. The Romans had a massive system of aqueducts that channeled water from the hills into the city. Fountains were necessary lest pressure from a little extra rain rupture pipes and overflow culverts. Most fountains were little more than holes that spurted into a basin, but others became great works of art." ...	[ "Your question is like: > Why do people keep telling me to take a pill my doctor prescribes when in ye olden days people didn't have access to the same pills? Clean water is way easier to get now than it was then. Since you have access to clean water you should use it. In the same way, getting a doctor to prescri...
How do rivers and streams keep flowing?	[ "It is incorrect to think that all rivers are fed by surface runoff from rain. Most rivers are primarily fed by groundwater (which is formed from the infiltration of rainwater, not necessarily near the stream, but possibly hundreds of miles away). These are calling \"gaining streams\" and are continually fed by th...	[ "Richard Muller's recent book \"Now: The Physics of Time\" is a great read that may provide you with fodder to appease your kid. Basically, his hypothesis is that the reason time flows from past to future is because of its necessary connection to space in the form of space-time. Because new space is being constant...
What is an IP and is it assigned to device or network?	[ "An IP is like a phone number. It is assigned to your router much like a phone number is assigned to a phone. A Mac address is like a serial number for each device, ie your printer,photocopier etc. A static IP never changes. A dynamic IP is automatically assigned by the network. So say you connect a laptop to the n...	[ "Whomever they left them to in their will. Intellectual Property rights are just that, property. You can buy, sell, and trade them. When you die, they are part of your estate, just like your car, and somebody gets them. Often, they are sold and somebody gets the money." ]
The Birthday Paradox and what are the odds that someone was born the same month and day (not year) as me?	[ "Because it's not a chance of YOU having a birthday the same as 1 single person sample size (1/365). It's the chance of ANY 2 people in the room (of 23 in the most common example) having the same birthday." ]	[ "pick one door. then before anything is opened, do you want the one you picked or the other two? That is essentially the question. Monty knows which door has the big prize and never reveals that one. Try this. there are 100 doors. you pick one. ( say it's #29.) Monty knows what door it is. He the opens 1,2,3, . . ...
Why can't humans run at top speed for a longer duration?	[ "Humans are excellent endurance runners. Way back in the stone age humans routinely killed prey animals by chasing them to death, picking up their dead bodies, and carrying them back to camp. Lots of animals, and cars, can go much faster when optimized for burst speed. But humans can run faster, longer, than the a...	[ "Look at it like a phone and charger. If you put a load of energy into the phone (more than it's rated for), it'll do serious damage almost immediately. If you use an underrated charger, it'll put only a little energy in, but the phone will use more than it's getting and eventually die. Heat is just a form of ener...
How come the water source of a waterfall doesn't run out?	[ "It is rain. Take Niagara Falls. It drains the upper portion of the [St. Lawrence Watershed](_URL_0_). Most every drop of rain that falls in Michigan or southern Ontario is going to find its way to Niagara Falls. So if it rains one inch, that one inch across maybe a quarter of a million square miles, all of that fu...	[ "Most of our blood sits in our veins. Our veins (from the heart down) have one way valves in them that prevent back flow and help blood get back to our heart without pooling at our feet. However, these valves are not present above the heart because we have gravity to pull the blood back. This means when you hang up...
How does the body know how much blood to produce after a significant blood loss?	[ "The process is called [hematopoesis](_URL_0_). There are two main steps: first, hematopoetic stem cells (HSC) proliferate, and second, the HSC differentiate into red blood cells, white blood cells, and many other components of blood. The red blood cell production rate is the rate at which HSC are turned into RBCs....	[ "The population of the US, and almost every country is growing, so more people need more money. They also destroy damaged money every year, and have to replace it. The federal reserve will keep a supply of extra bills, and send them to banks when needed. If they are running low on cash, they order more from the min...
How do monarchs issue new titles when there are no more titles?	[ "There are titles which are traditionally associated with the royal family but titles are not in finite supply. The monarch can easily issue letters patent for any new title they wish at any time as the monarch acts as the fount of honour. There has been an informal policy of so called economy in place whereby the ...	[ "Sometimes it's a marketing reason, and sometimes it's copyright or trademark law. For example, back in the 1960s, Ford wanted to export the Mustang to Germany. However, a German company, Krupp, was already using the name \"Mustang\" on a line of delivery trucks. Because Krupp already had the rights to use the name...
Do we have any accounts of people in ancient Roman times collecting coins the way we do today?	[ "Yes! There certainly were ancient coin collectors. One of the best known was Augustus who kept coins as curios for himself and gave them out as gifts (what better gift than money right?). Coin collecting is known as the hobby of kings because so many had royal coin cabinets which displayed coins. One way that we a...	[ "I saw a segment in a Louis Theroux documentary about a guy who makes a living 'mining' gold on/in the sidewalks of NYC. He'd dig in the cracks of the sidewalk and find little bits of gold, diamonds and other precious metals/stones that had been dropped over the years and ground into the dirt. Apparently he made a ...
Could space-time be flat but uniformly inclined?	[ "The curvature of spacetime is not really akin to a curved line/plane in any sense. The curved line/plane you are imagining is still embedded in some nominally flat space (your living room, or a sheet of paper). Curvature of spacetime (and more generally curvature of (pseudo-)Riemannian spaces) has a more technica...	[ "You should read up about the [Ehrenfest paradox](_URL_0_). It is indeed true that if you spin solid objects fast enough they do indeed have to deform, eventually falling apart." ]
Is collapsed matter (e.g. neutronium) unstable in weak gravitational fields, and if so, what would its decay look like? (half life, decay products, etc.)	[ "In the early universe, there were neutrons that existed outside of atomic nuclei and not in strong gravitational fields like neutron stars. With no stabilising force, they decayed into protons. Neutrons are composed of two down quarks and an up quark, while protons are composed of two up quarks and a down quark. D...	[ "> because each flavor has a different mass The flavors don’t have well-defined masses. There are three mass eigenstates and three flavor eigenstates. But a neutrino or a given mass is a superposition of all three flavors, and a neutrino of a given flavor is a superposition of all three masses. If the flavors had ...
How can a crystal (which should have uniform molecular composition) appear to have multiple colors, like this?	[ "Whenever you see that rainbow surface, there is usually some interference going on. Which means that you have a thin film of something and light rays of different wave lengths are reflected in such a way that some wave lengths are canceled out depending on the angle you look at it. Another example would be oil on ...	[ "Ken Jordan's group at Pitt does a ton with different ice forms. Here's a link to his group page: _URL_0_ The publications there go into a lot of detail, but here's a bit of a TL;DR: The ice that you and I typically find every day has the oxygens arranged in a hexagonal lattice, but many of the hydrogens are diso...
A question about tonsure in Christian monasticism.	[ "The Wikipedia article on [Tonsure](_URL_0_) is full of interesting information, but the history of it is somewhat brief. Seems like there were originally three types of tonsure. One was done in imitation of Peter who was said to have the top of his head shaved in mockery and the tonsure was to honor him. Another ...	[ "On this sub giving much information on school assignments is frowned upon a bit. Okay, more than a bit. But here is a resource for you. This subject is covered in detail in Mark Noll's [The Civil War as a Theological Crisis](_URL_0_). I hope this is at least a bit of help. There were some pretty compelling argum...
Can Yogis really control their heart rate ?	[ "Nothing special about \"yogis\" doing this, if they are doing it. Nothing mystical about it. Nothing about chakras, meridians, rooting, or any of that other BS. [Here's an article you can read online](_URL_0_) Learn biofeedback. There are tons of research articles on the voluntary control of brain waves, heart rat...	[ "Because I believe the mind has an instinctual reaction to tempo and patterns. You know when you hear someone shut off a car alarm or a phone alarm and for a few seconds after you hear it ringing in your head?" ]
What happens to the potential energy of an object once it leaves orbit?	[ "Perhaps this will help put it into context: You still have the potential energy to plummet towards everything in the universe that has gravity. the change in that potential is only very slight at great distances. So the potential energy in an object that has left the earth is still there." ]	[ "A) Endeavor is being moved to Los Angeles to be put on display in a museum. B) The space shuttles are pretty much flying bricks. They're meant to fall out of the sky allowing some degree of control. Their wings cannot provide the needed lift, and the engines aren't designed for forward movement through the atmosph...
Why do we eat some animals, and keep others as pets?	[ "It's a completely arbitrary cultural rule. In most western cultures, cats and dogs are pets, cows and pigs are food. In the middle east, pigs are a big no-no, but dogs are considered dirty animals too, and nobody keeps them. In India, cows wander the streets of cities and people take care of them in special shelte...	[ "With things like cosmetics & hygeine products, we've already done an absolute shitload of testing & know which ingredients are safe. There's just not a lot of reason to test a slightly blend of ingredients X, Y & Z when you've already been selling XYZ for 20 years. Not only does it sound good, it saves you a bunch...
The psychology behind ruining public restrooms. (potentially NSFW).	[ "It's an example of what is known as 'the tragedy of the commons'. In Anglo society it pretty much describes the end state of anything that is collectively owned. Nobody gives a shit about it because it's not theirs. Or to be more accurate, not enough people care and those that do not, have an overwhelming effect."...	[ "The best way to understand it is through the account of a teacher who performed an experiment at his school, called 'The Third Wave'. It is a long read but it is worth it and gives you a much better insight than a few succinct paragraphs on ELI5 would. _URL_0_" ]
What modern technologies and materials would you use to make the world's most bad ass sword?	[ "[This question](_URL_8_) was asked a few months ago. I've always really liked how Sad_Scientist answered it." ]	[ "hi all. All comments so far have been removed, which have been links to rebuttals of the now-well-worn archery video. Please note that the OP is not asking about the video, or even archery: the question is regarding other weapons. Thanks!" ]
In ancient times when armies of 20,000+ would march/sail into battle how could they possibly afford to feed that many men for that long.	[ "Typically they would pillage food from the areas around them. Local farmers didn't appreciate it!" ]	[ "If you're new to the thread, please don't post the Mythbusters episode again. Mythbusters is entertaining but it's not history (or more specifically, it's not historical proof of anything.) The short answer is no, not that we know of. /u/davidaop, our pirate expert, and I have both answered [questions about th...
If I take the filter off of a filtered cigarette and smoke it, how much more damage is done?	[ "For one thing, the filter helps reduce the amount of [carbon monoxide (CO) that you inhale](_URL_1_). They also reduce the amount of [noxious compounds contained in the gas phase of cigarette smoke](_URL_2_) (e.g. nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), carbon monoxide (CO), aldehydes, ...	[ "Uk Language? Pills will get you proper munted. Like out yer bonce. It'll make you think chubbers are buff and pull shapes all night. Draw makes you want to cotch. Then you get bare munch and need to smash a mint Aero and Potnoodle, maybe a maccie d's. Chang will make you Brap." ]
Why does sugar make things less spicy?	[ "Sugars, breads, and a protein found in milks, actually kick capsaicin off of your taste buds and take its place. Since capsaicin is the tricky little bastard that makes your tongue feel like its on fire, they effectively put the fire out." ]	[ "Neural adaption. Basically, your brain only cares about a change in stimuli rather than every stimulus that comes along. Your brain knows how to ignore a stimulus if it isn't changing. So, if you are tasting/feeling the same thing all the time, your brain is going to ignore it." ]
How do we know that the universe is infinite?	[ "We don't actually know for certain, but we have reason to believe it is likely infinite. This comes from our observations of the universe on the large scale that it is homogeneous, isotropic, and has zero spatial curvature. That is to say it is the same everywhere, has no preferred direction, and the geometry of s...	[ "This video from Sagan will help. I couldn't explain it in a better way. _URL_0_" ]
Slugs. Where are they?	[ "They are probably outside dispersed under rocks and things. Check places that are damp. And there's always a bunch in the hosta :( Butterflies shelter from rain under leaves and in other little nooks and crannies I believe." ]	[ "YouTube videos end up fitting into two categories: a small number of videos that get watched A LOT, and a large number of videos that only get watched sometimes. Videos in the second category are stored on YouTube's big ol' server setup, but videos in the first (the popular ones) are cached on boxes at ISPs around...
Why does the electrical charge from a detonator seem to slowly travel towards the explosive?	[ "Sometimes they use fuses to \"connect\" explosives, it's possible that you saw the light of the fuse burning (there are fuses that can burn pretty quickly) and not the glow from an electrical cable." ]	[ "Elektricity is lazy and always takes thé shortest route back. Meaning from pin 1 of the taser to pin 2 of the taser" ]
how could a piece of paper folded a bunch of times reach the moon?	[ "It's not actually happening, but it's rather a hypothetical situation where you could find it infinitely. Say the paper is 0.1mm thick. When you fold it once, it's now 0.2mm, then 0.4mm, doubling every time. If you keep on doubling that thickness enough times it will go as far as you want. So at some point it woul...	[ "It's not been 'proven' to be a hoax because the guy hasn't let anyone see the thing in detail. His larger demonstration suffered from the same basic measurement-methodology flaws as his smaller-scale one, so they didn't add anything." ]
How did people deal with impacted wisdom teeth before modern dentistry?	[ "Prior to the ability to have them removed people just lived with the pain. Keep in mind that not everyone has wisdom teeth, about 1 in 3 people don't have any. Otherwise though, it was just one of a family of dental problems that our ancestors tried to suffer through as best they could. There's an example of a [15...	[ "If you're new to the thread, please don't post the Mythbusters episode again. Mythbusters is entertaining but it's not history (or more specifically, it's not historical proof of anything.) The short answer is no, not that we know of. /u/davidaop, our pirate expert, and I have both answered [questions about th...
How does dying from exhaustion work, wouldn't you just pass out before you die?	[ "You don't die from just running out of energy - you're not a car running out of petrol. It's a combination of things like dehydration, overheating( of hypothermia if it's super cold), heart attack etc. it's is likely you would pass out before dying, but you can only rest so much without eating or drinking and if y...	[ "First off: there isn't all that much known about NDE's apart from anecdotal experience. Chemically, it is often said that during an NDE, there is a release of certain neurotransmitters in your brain, including the powerful psychedelic compound DMT. This is often used as the explanation of the NDE, and the effects ...
Why is it that so many humans are born with bad eyesight; shouldn't humans have evolved mostly uniform keen eyesight before the invention of glasses?	[ "This isn't ELI5, but near-sightedness has been on the rise since [at least the 70s](_URL_1_). In some Asian cities, myopia among youth is as high as [90%](_URL_0_). While genetics is a factor, how much sunlight you get as a child seems to be an important determinant in whether you develop eyesight problems or not....	[ "Specializing helps with optimization. Cows can't eat meat, but their teeth and multiple stomachs are ideal for eating grass. Humans have to have sharp teeth for meat and grinding teeth for plants and our digestive system is inefficient at processing plant matter. Versatility is obviously useful, but there are trad...
How much sodium can a drink contain before it no longer hydrates the body?	[ "It all depends on how dehydrated you are. As you lose water, your body automatically implements water saving measures, such as concentrating your urine. Even soda or drinks with a low percentage of alcohol become hydrating once you're already dehydrated. So, yes, ultimately the seltzer will keep you (mostly) hydra...	[ "Another good reason (not the only by any means) notice all those things tend to be salty and dry. Restaurants tend to make a lot of their margins on drinks, keep people drinking, keep the tab high. Why do you think free bar snacks are always things like chips, salted nuts etc?" ]
Why exactly do humans, and presumably other animals, perceive different wavelengths of light as different distinct colours?	[ "One prominent theory for color perception is to recognize good food sources, for instance, young (greener) shoots and leaves, flowers. Better color discrimination improves the ability to recognize them. _URL_0_" ]	[ "Rod cells are much more sensitive than cone cells, and the periphery of your eye is much more rich in rod cells (vs. the cone cell rich center). Thus, the peripheral parts of your vision are much more sensitive to light than the center." ]
How is snake venom used to make anti-venom?	[ "You take some snake venom, and inject it into an animal, usually a sheep IIRC. The animal produces antibodies to counteract the venom. Then you draw some of its blood and extract the antibodies. Then you can inject that stuff into someone who's been envenomed and now they have the antibodies to fight it off. You c...	[ "Xenotransfusion has been attempted in the 1600s, with mixed results, with sheep blood. Ape and chimp blood might work, as would pig blood as they all have similar Rh factors. Source: _URL_0_ Also, dog to cat transfusions can be done, bit only once as the cat will make antibodies to the blood. Also, apes, dogs, ca...
What does the steam rising from Fukushima's Reactor Building #3 mean (if anything) for the west coast of North America?	[ "The steam is not radioactive. Per TEPCO and many other experts, the steam is the same steam we've been seeing for over a year now. It is rainwater and moisture that leaks past the drywell shield plugs and makes contact with the drywell head, which is still somewhat hot (40-50Celsius). In cold conditions like winte...	[ "The Spanish did have a land trade route over the Isthumus of Panama. It was successful and saw most of the gold and silver mined in Peru and Bolivia cross it on the way to Spain. In the 1850's, Cornellius Vanderbilt carried people by steamship to Panama, had them cross the Isthumus, and take another steamboat to C...
Assuming no blockages, clots or other problems occur, can high blood pressure cause damage to organs or systems by itself?	[ "Yes, the high blood pressure itself will cause damage to the blood vessels due to the increased shear stress. This occurs over years of untreated hypertension, and results in vascular disease that can affect all organs, but commonly heart, kidneys, brain, eyes. This vascular disease is irreversible (more or less)....	[ "In general, you can't sue a foreign country. However, US law effectively says that if the claim relates to state-sponsored terrorism then the foreign country has already thrown out the rule book and you can sue in a US court. Iran is of course still free to refuse to recognise the court and to ignore any decision ...
I heard in some Documentary from a regional TV-Channel, that the USA had plans to use the Atomic Bomb on Ludwigshafen or Mannheim in special cases, is this true?	[ "I have gone over all documents I have found regarding targeting decisions and philosophy for the atomic bombs (there are fewer than one might think), and I have never seen those cities mentioned. [This post goes into detail on what little there is regarding Allied plans to use the bomb on Germany](_URL_0_) — basic...	[ "Although Arendelle was not and has never been a major political player in Continental European politics, Arendelle was a major source of naval stores, (especially wood and tar) in this period. Both France and Spain were trying to keep up with English naval dominence, but lacked (due to centuries of deforestation) ...
Why is lower temperature required to produce sperm in what seems like most mammals?	[ "Heat denatures proteins. A spermatozoa is essentially comprised of very few of the \"normal\" organelles with minimal cytoplasm. Due to its low moisture content, it is more sensitive structure to temperature changes. Despite being outside and vulnerable, the testicle itself has taken steps to prevent any physical...	[ "Bacteria and viruses don't survive as long on cold surfaces. Making it a bit chilly saves lives from infection." ]
if I keep cutting a magnet in half will the half's continue to be magnetic? Till how small? Why?	[ "Ferromagnetic materials are magnetic down to the atomic level. So even a single iron atom is magnetic." ]	[ "This question is pretty tough to imagine. Here's something that might help: Imagine you live on a [Möbius strip](_URL_0_). You're facing straight down at all times. You leave a ghost image of yourself as you go around the strip. Travel fully around and you get back to where you started, still looking the same way....
Napoleon was greatly known for his use of artillery. What did he do with artillery that was so amazing?	[ "Interesting discussion. While the battlefield stuff is super interesting, isn't there a part before Napoleon goes off to Egypt where he defends the consulate with artillery in the streets using grapeshot? Was he the first to use this and what exactly is grapeshot? Is it just as the name implies?" ]	[ "Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_2_): Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come t...
Why do some juices like apple juice don't need to be refrigerated but juices like lemonade do?	[ "Refrigerating food is meant to stop / slow down bacteria growth. I'm not sure about the specifics of the drinks you mention but I imagine the apple juice has been pasteurised to kill off any bacteria and stored in properly sealed container so it's bacteria-free until opened and potentially contaminated. The lemona...	[ "Pure hardware specs are not what sells phones. You might say that \"performance\" (speed) is a selling point, but no one really cares how much RAM is being used to get to that point. iPhones are produced in a vertically integrated fashion, meaning the software and hardware are developed to be used specifically wit...
why does slouching and bad posture feel so much better than good posture?	[ "Not always but it's usually because your muscles are not strong enough to hold your body in the proper position. So basically your muscles are getting tired holding yourself up and when they relax it feels good. In the long term however, your bones and joints will deteriorate and cause a lot of pain." ]	[ "I suspect there's an aesthetic for organic lines and natural geometry coded somewhere deep in our dna. From a survival perspective it makes sense to be drawn to rolling geography - where one might remain more easily obscured from predators - rather than to geography with straight lines, which is basically an open ...

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