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why can't you cut all the wires in a bomb to prevent it from detonating? | I can very easily rig up a dummy bomb for you that would go \*pop\* if you cut the wrong wire.
Sometimes, it is the presence of electricity that prevents a circuit from triggering rather than a lack of it. |
the difference between coke zero and diet coke, surely you only need the one product? | It's actually a really interesting story! In my opinion, anyway, though it might be more interesting or relevant to people who remember the failed experiment with "New Coke" in the mid 80s.
In the early 80s, diet sodas pretty much sucked. They tried to replicate the formula of the non-diet version just without sugar,... |
why does adrenaline in certain circumstances give people super human strength? (being able to lift extremely heavy things off of people, etc.) | Adrenaline tends to come with the dulling of pain for obvious reasons; you don't want to worry about wounds when fighting for your life.
The application of your strength is also limited by pain so you don't hurt yourself in your exertions. Someone who is fit is able to tear their muscles apart or even break ligaments ... |
France has detonated over 210 nuclear devices to Britain's 45. Why did France pursue a much more aggressive nuclear testing regime than Britain? | A number of reasons really. They didn't sign on to the [Partial Test Ban Treaty](_URL_0_) in 1963, so they weren't under any international treaty regulation. France has 75% nuclear energy, so they had fissile material in abundance. Being so heavily invested in nuclear energy is (or was) a huge source of pride for Franc... |
why does it take babies such a long time to learn basic motor skills compared to animals that are able to do it close within a month or even as soon as they're born? | The human brain is amazingly complicated, more so than that of pretty much any other land critter. In order for that to work, we need big heads. The problem with this is that the human pelvis is too narrow to squeeze out a baby if the baby's head were much bigger than it is, so the brain is less developed at birth for ... |
why are mating rituals, such as octopuses ripping off a tentacle or a praying mantis eating the males head, passed down? do they just learn it by instinct? | First, your examples are not mating *rituals*. They are mating behaviours.
Octopus rips off ~~tentacle~~ arm, because that arm (called *hectocotylus*) is actually an autonomous female-seeking semen carrier (yes, octopuses are *that* freaking weird/awesome). Praying mantis female simply would eat anyone, and male have... |
maps. specifically, why is there a debate over which map is the most accurate? | Peel an orange. Now, lay it flat on a table without tearing, smushing, or otherwise mangling the skin. It's not possible. There are many different "projections" of the earth that are used to make maps, but they will always either make nice shapes (rectangles) with very distorted images of the land forms or have weird c... |
Why is there things like depression that make people constantly sad but no disorders that cause constant euphoria? | Most forms of depression we know of are associated with the basal expression levels of signal receptors in your brain. Thus, it is a rather consistent over- or under-expression of your capacity to feel "joy." Euphoria, on the other hand, relies on stimulus threshold to unleash a flow of chemical signals that stops unti... |
If you were a human floating towards the sun, at what distance from the sun would you feel an Earth-like temperature? | The unsatisfying answer is "it depends." Here on Earth, the temperature you experience is largely determined by the ambient temperature of the matter (air) around you. But in space, you would be in near vacuum. The random particles around you might have some temperature, but there simply won't be enough of them to tran... |
why is it preferable to have illegally obtained evidence thrown out of court as opposed to keeping it and prosecuting the one who obtained it? | The Supreme Court discusses this rationale in every exclusionary case.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the Constitution does not require an exclusionary rule. But for the 4th Amendment to have any value it must have some remedy or mechanism of enforcement.
Suing the officials for an illegal search is always... |
Did the Chinese Communists introduce simplified Chinese characters as a way to eradicate traditional Chinese culture and make it impossible to read older literature? | For most of China's history in the 20th century, its literacy rate was ridiculously low, [and hovered around 20% in 1950.](_URL_6_) In addition, many Chinese intellectuals at the time blamed the complexity of traditional Chinese for holding the country's progress back. As a result, numerous proposals were were written ... |
when you turn down or up the volume on devices with either a wheel or button, what actually happens that allows it to sound quieter or louder? | A volume knob or wheel is an example of a device called a *potentiometer*, which is a device that adjusts the voltage going down a wire by increasing or decreasing the electrical resistance.
If the resistance increases (if you turn the volume knob down), then less voltage makes it to the speaker, the cone vibrates les... |
1917-18, the Germans had 'won' in the East and transferred millions of men west, and they hadn't lost any (or only a little) actual German territory. Considering this, why did they agree to such harsh peace terms? How desperate was the situation for Germany prior to Versailles? | ***This is my first time commenting on this subreddit, sorry if it doesn't meet all the requirements***
Very desperate indeed. The men from the Eastern front had been used in the Michael Offensive in early 1918. This offensive had been very successful tactically, but failed to capture any strategic objectives and cost... |
Was there any form of public transport in the Roman Empire similar to what we find today in that it had standardised routes and fees? | I have removed all of the comments below, including a lot of discussion about the History Channel. Please remember the Rules for Ask Historians before posting.
There is no need to "fill the void", if you don't really know the answer and are not ready to back it up. Someone knowledgeable will come along in a little whi... |
why does the visible light spectrum appear cyclic to the human eye if the spectrum is based on specific linear wavelengths of light? | It doesn't appear cyclic to the human eye. It appears cyclic to the human *brain*.
Our eyes can detect 3 "regions" of color: red, green, and blue. If we detect some combinations of those, we typically perceive that as an "in-between" color. For example, orange light stimulates both the red and green sensing cells... |
How Historically accurate is "Hellstorm-Death of Nazi Germany, 1944-1947" by Thomas Goodrich. It backs up all its claims with large amounts of detailed proofs, citations, sources on each and every page. However a lot of people call it Neo Nazi propoganda to gain sympathy for Nazi. What is the truth | [This review](_URL_1_) should answer your question? Some of his sources are more than suspect, and it seems that where his facts are fine, his conclusions from them are not. [Ugh, it seems that he uses the IHR](_URL_0_) (Institute of Historical Review) and other hate groups for many of his sources. That alone should te... |
why is the president immune from the ethics laws, when the ethics in government act of 1978 expressly states otherwise? | Standard disclaimer: political, keeping bias to a minimum.
The current President is immune to ethics laws because the majority party at the moment (the Republicans) aren't holding him to those ethics laws.
Simply put: right now, they're a police officer who's blatantly looking the other way as someone's getting mugge... |
why, with all our advancements in telecommunications and phone technology, has phone call audio quality stayed virtually the same as ten or twenty years ago? | If you talk about landlines or anything that is talking to landlines: That is a dead technology, don't expect anything there.
If you talk about VoIP: That is much better than years ago, with a better sampling rate and wider spectrum they capture.
However, that is part of the problem, the biggest problem is the transf... |
How does a charged particle not lose all of its energy even though it constantly generates an electromagnetic field? | The electrostatic field of a charge *has* or *carries* a certain amount of energy and information. It does not need a *constant input* of energy or information from the charge. It does not "emanate" or "flow" outwards from the charge.
It's like a dress, not a waterfall. You don't need to constantly produce fabric to h... |
In medieval warfare, did all soldiers have shields with their lord's coat of arms or is that just a Game of Thrones thing? | Okay, so you're kind of mixing two concepts up a bit here: heraldry and livery. Soldiers have basically always decorated their equipment, but after heraldry became fully established in the 13th century, to bear a coat of arms, whether on shield or surcoat or whatever, was to claim nobility. The specific arrangement of ... |
Did Catholic Kings and Emperors go to confession? Do we know what they might have confessed, or if they ever had to do 'Hail Marys' as punishment, and so on? | Medieval kings and emperors were very much obliged to go to confession and perform penance as needed. They were baptized and thus members of the Christian community bound to receive all the sacraments the laity received. They would confess to ordinary priests or bishops as they desired, though, just as other laity, if ... |
I just read that, when they tested the atomic bomb, there was a belief it might light the atmosphere on fire. If they believed this, why did they still test it? | There wasn't much of a belief that this could happen, because it had been considered and refuted by the scientists involved in the development of the first nuclear weapons. [In a 1991 interview with renowned physicist Hans Bethe](_URL_1_) about this very question, he credits Edward Teller as the physicist who first bro... |
when a bug gets stuck in your car and travels a few miles with you before it gets back outside, does it ever find its previous home/nest/colony again? does it care? | That depends on the bug. Some bees have been shown to be able to re-locate their hive after being separated by a reasonable distance. Over time they learn the area while foraging and can find their way back if they're not moved too far.
Ants trace their location carefully with scent and would be lost if moved.
Most... |
if our bodies are naturally 36c, why does 36c weather feel very uncomfortable? | Because our body is basically a walking heater. Our cells constantly produce heat, and our body is tuned to produce so much heat that we can maintain an internal temperature of 36°C. The amount of heat we produce can change to react to the environment, but when the environment is too hot we can't tone down our own heat... |
why do we die instantly when our heart stops? why don't we asphyxiate from lack of oxygen from blood no longer circulating? | You don't die instantly; people with a totally stopped heart often die, but it is possible if the heart resumes in a timely manner you'll survive.
There's a distinction between alive and conscious, though. A total stop in blood flow will make you pass out really quickly; in fact a sudden decrease in blood flow to the ... |
Was there ever a time in the U.S. when an escaped slave could have taken refuge with a Native American tribe ? | Slaves often took refuge in the swamps of the American southeast during the early decades of the nineteenth century (I would presume further back into the eighteenth century as well, though I know less about that history). It was not easy for slaveowners/catchers to track runaway slaves into Florida's swamplands, and g... |
why does the sound of poured water gets higher and higher as you keep pouring? | Because the sound you're hearing is sound coming out of a round chamber. When the glass fills with water, the size of the chamber changes, so the pitch changes. Large chamber, low pitch. Small chamber, high pitch. It's why digieridoos are deep and rumbly while ocarinas are high pitched and whiny. |
Why did the French Government regress back to bolt action rifles at the end of the first world war? | The answer is one of doctrine
through most of the second world war, the primary combat weapon for an infantry soldier in almost all armies was a bolt action rifle, in most cases supplemented by a squad/platoon level machine gun section (this varied drastically from formation to formation of course)
the idea was to ha... |
If I lived in western Africa during the height of the Atlantic slave trade, how likely is it that someone I know was captured and shipped to the Americas? Was there a drastic change in culture as a result of the massive loss in population? What societal impact was there? | **The Atlantic slave trade had a catastrophic and permanent effect on western and central Africa.** One of the common misconceptions (and one repeated in a now-deleted comment) is that a slave trade already existed in Africa, so the trans-Atlantic trade couldn't have had significant negative effects. That's entirely wr... |
why is mercury poisonous? what exactly is it doing to the body, and why can it not be resisted? | TLDR: It prevents your cells from repairing themselves from everyday damage, and it's very hard to flush out of your system.
Mercury like many other toxic heavy metals accumulates in your body over time. Your body has a difficult time flushing it out so even if the source of Mercury poisoning is small, if it persists ... |
If Mars at some point had oceans that were filled with life similar to our own, would there still be oil there despite the harsh Marian conditions and what we know about the planet? | It is very unlikely. Oil forms when organic matter of the right composition (with as high a H:C ratio as possible so with as little cellulose as possible) is buried rapidly at a depth where the geothermal gradient will allow the chemical transformation to oil & gas.
There are thus 2 problems with Mars: 1 - While t... |
In the sense that the blood in your brain will naturally favor the pull of gravity, what are the potential effects of falling asleep on your side? Is there anything out there showing a difference in how the left or right hemispheres may respond to this? | Circle of Willis prevents this from happening.
Edit: it is both the structure (split hemisphere blood flow), pressure, and flow that prevents this. As an aphasiologist, if I could make blood flow one way, I definitely would! Sorry for the brevity. |
how a person who commits horrendous acts against humanity, such as albert speer get 20 year sentence while illegally downloading documents, such as done by aaron swartz, holds a potential for 35 years ? | In most jurisdictions, the maximum penalty that can be issued by a court is much more severe than the typical penalty. The maximum penalty is usually reserved for only the most heinous of crimes or repeat offenders of serious crimes.
Also, sometimes the maximum penalty is exaggerated because it reflects the maximum p... |
The ocean is full of plastics: What are the primary sources of these plastics? | The "Pacific Garbage Patch" gets a lot of press, and [its single largest component, at 46% by weight, is fishing ~~gear~~ nets](_URL_1_), but it makes up only a small fraction of the oceanic plastics.
[This report](_URL_0_) indicates coastal detritus makes up about 74% of the total, and that most of that total (94%) e... |
why aren't republicans pro choice and democrats pro life? (u.s.) | In the 70s, 80s and 90s, the republicans found that Christians shared many conservative values. The party made a conscious effort to embrace the conservative Christian Right and made opposition to abortion part of the party platform to gain the large religious base.
The Democratic Party responded as the party of huma... |
Why were women considered bad luck to be on a ship? When and how did the superstition start? | It's been years since I've actively studied anything related to the Age of Sail but once a fangirl, always a fangirl, I suppose. So, to answer your question, women were considered bad luck on ships because they were believed to be too physically inferior to be of any use in actually sailing the vessel while also distra... |
I'm an able bodied man from East Germany during the cold war, if I really wanted to, how hard would it be for me to get to west Germany and how likely would I be to succeed? | Acording to [this table](_URL_0_) your chances of succes would have been like 20-25%. The 2nd collumn is all succesful attempts of that year and the 5th collum are all unsuccesful attempts. How hard it would have been is dependent on a lot of factors, it could be easy for instance: you are allowed to travel to the west... |
During WWII, what was Stalin's plans for if the Germany army captured Moscow? | In October 1941 the Soviets began seriously discussing the possibility of Moscow falling. Stalin decided that he was going to stay in the capital. It was feared that seeing Josef Stalin and the government flee would cause a massive panic among the cities massive population. There was also an idea of burning Moscow simi... |
Why did the Great War produce so many soldier-poets? Was it simply the number of public school educated young men faced with enforced trench-based stasis? Or are there other factors? | **Poetry and the War**
It should be noted, first, that the war produced an absurd number of poets at every level -- not just in the trenches. Catherine Reilly's groundbreaking *English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography* (1978), for example, lists some 2,225 English poets publishing work about the war whil... |
Why would someone be listed as a "Slave" in a 1910 US census? | Here is my thought: the constitution bans slavery except as punishment. It is possible that he was on some form of work-release from the prison. If he was not being paid as part of this, it would be slavery as punishment.
That, or your great grandparents were real hard-asses, and the guy was being a smart Alec. |
If the world's population became completely vegetarian would the amount of farmland decrease or increase? | It would decrease. Most farmland is dedicated to growing livestock feed. However, if you want to use the least possible amount of land, the way to go would be a "farm-animal free" diet which would include fish, so it wouldn't be vegetarian.
EDIT: [Here I actually found a source.](_URL_0_) "More than two-thirds of all ... |
There is a bird inside a large cargo plane. Does the plane weigh less if the bird flies inside the plane? | The original answer to this question is of course correct.
You are wrong to assume that the "downward pressure" (or better said downward momentum of air) *dissipates* before reaching the floor. In fact it *disperses*. That means the momentum transferred by the wings onto few air molecules is then spread by molecular c... |
how is it that for two months california has had a methane leak and it won't be fixed until spring? | In order to fix the leak, workers have to drill 8500 feet down into the earth, find the underground well, and pump it full of concrete. This process will take months, and can't realistically be sped up.
EDIT: For a more detailed answer, see u/WalterLSU below.
EDIT 2: More info with pictures:
_URL_0_ |
When and why did English orthography stop using Þ (thorn) and ð (eth)? | As far as thorn goes, early English printing presses used imported type that didn't include thorn. Printers would either use "th" or use a y as a thorn, which wasn't too much of a stretch (a handwritten thorn looked like a y). Sort of like how typewriters would use the same character for lowercase "L" and "1".
That's... |
Why does beta plus (β+) decay happen in proton-proton chain reactions; why don't the two protons just form helium instead of deuterium? | Helium-2 is unbound, so it decays on extremely short timescales. The only way to combine two protons into a bound system is to rely on the weak force to change one of the protons into a neutron, producing a deuteron.
This is not a beta decay, it's a nuclear reaction which involves the weak force. That's why the probab... |
[meta] what if i told you that you could get the most out of [eli5] if you brought an already correct answer to a question that interests you, but you just need someone to *explain* it to you. | Another suggestion, stop down voting correct answers that are hard for you to understand, even hard for anyone to understand. Save your down votes for "bad explanations" of correct answers or "incorrect answers".
This subreddit should be about up voting great explanations of correct answers, and downvoting correct an... |
Is it true that baths and personal hygiene were considered dangerous for your health during the 16th/17th century in Europe? | In the mid-1480s, Nuremberg printer Hans Folz published a guide to the various public hot springs and baths he had encountered in his travels, stretching from Germany to the border of Spain. In rhyming verse, so people would remember. In 1638, on the other hand, Francis Bacon advised that it was better for one's health... |
how come my dog can sleep in crazy positions and not hurt her neck but if i sleep just slightly off my pillow or at an odd position my neck hurts all day. | Partially because we evolved to walk upright, that changed the way our spine works in relation to quadrupeds, and means we have a lot less flexibility in our neck than they do. The movement of our head is severely restricted, for this reason our neck muscles are a lot less powerful and developed than those of dogs. The... |
What was the long-term aim of the alliance between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan? Was it simply an alliance of convenience against Great Britain or was there some longer-term vision behind it? | The intent of the Alliance between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan was to squeeze *Russia*, not Great Britain. Or rather "to squeeze the USSR".
But let's back up. First we should *very quickly* talk about how unlikely the alliance is, on the face of it. Relations between the two powers historically had been strained. ... |
No offence or racism intended, but is it possible that some African Americans are better at physical activities because they were selectively bred during slavery? | While there is probably a better way to frame this question, and to not have it specific to African Americans, there is a theory that holds some weight.
Blacks, in the Americas, have higher blood pressure on average than anyone else (in the Americas). Key genes for hypertension — supposedly — helped in the survival r... |
Is there a limit to how many times you can gravity assist a space craft with one planet before it stops increasing its velocity? | There's an upper limit to the amount of times you can use gravity assists to accelerate without having to burn a lot of fuel to get another one. If you hit the escape velocity out of the solar system, you'd have to slow down at some point to loop back and get another encounter with anything in that solar system. The am... |
Were there differences in the quality of metalworking between the Roman Empire and medieval Europe? | The quality of iron objects improved immensely after the collapse of the Roman iron industry.
Archaeometallurgists (people who study the metallurgy of archaeological artifacts) use a method called metallography to evaluate the quality and composition of metal artifacts. You cut a cross-section from an artifact, polish... |
How reliable was pilot kill counts during WW2? What kept pilots from inflating their scores for personal gain, or countries from doing the same for propaganda purposes? | In WWII, fighter pilot kill claims were generally exaggerated ~~by about a factor or 5 to 10~~(Edit: to a degree ranging from very substantial to very extreme), when compared against enemy loss numbers in records available after the war. This is true for all countries participating in the war. Even with gun camera fo... |
how/why does a show like futurama with such an avid and wide fan base get [repeatedly] canceled? what is the logic behind it from a network standpoint? | There's two categories of shows, to be broad.
You either have shows with broad appeal and a wide audience, or a show with niche appeal, and a *guaranteed* audience. Unless you run a small cable channel or a youtube channel, you're usually aiming for broad appeal even if it typically stems from shows that are dilute t... |
how does a galaxy s4 cellphone cost $450 when a decent laptop costs $300? | It's for the same reason a decent laptop costs $300 and a desktop with those same specs costs $200. Miniaturization is *expensive*. You not only have to figure out how to cram all of those same components in a smaller space, but you now also have to deal with heat dissipation. And in the case of a phone, you can't real... |
why do deli meats like turkey and roast beef taste so much different when thickly sliced vs. thinly sliced? | Because they *are* different!
In essence, texture is a major part of taste (along with flavor, aroma, etc). Since the thinly-sliced turkey shifts differently when exposed to the forces of your tongue, you can sense a different texture. That makes your brain interpret them differently, so you get a different taste sens... |
Given the recent uptick in Jihad versus Crusade comparisons, i've seen this image a lot, what does it ACTUALLY show? | There are many problems with this comparison. Just from the top of my head, the picture is flawed for these reasons:
* The pictured compared two very different time-frames, the "Muslim" Conquest extended from 632 to the Ottoman conquests of the 17th Century, whilst the Crusades picture only covered the famous crusades... |
why can we "develop a taste" for things we originally dislike, such as beer or certain foods? | My first reddit contribution, here goes nothin!
The human brain changes the way it perceives certain flavors as a survival mechanism. For instance, we develop a tolerance for the spiciness of peppers after the brain becomes aware of the good nutrients they contain.
Another example is a dude lost on a raft at sea for... |
the newly discovered state of matter, "time crystals." what are it's properties, and what does it mean for scientific advancements? | I'm far from an expert on this, but this is what I understood when I read about them.
A regular crystal is a physical structure that does not change through time. A time crystal is a structure that does change through time, but does so predictably, on a cycle. If you have one that is on a 3 second loop, then at ever... |
Which charges would Eva Braun have faced (in the Nuremberg) trials if she had not commited suicide? | What exactly is a moral charge? I don't meant to sound rude, but the idea of a 'moral charge' in a legal trial is somewhat superfluous - either one is charged under a law or not.
Braun essentially had nothing to do with politics despite being part of the inner social circle around Hitler, and allowing her to have a ro... |
If there is no absolute position or speed, and both can be measured only in relation to something else, how can there be a maximum speed (light speed) and in relation to what is that measured? | Round two, fight! I apologize for how long this got, I wasn't really keeping track and I ended up writing an essay on special relativity. **If you just want the answer to your question, scroll down to the bold.**
**Short answer:** Light doesn't actually have a reference frame, which makes it special. Everyone sees the... |
Do skin grafts include nerves, and if so do they retain the sensitivity of thier original location? | No. The nerve terminals within the grafted tissue are dead.
Nerve fibers project to the skin from their cell bodies next to the spine. The underlying nerve fibers underneath the graft will slowly grow into the grafted skin, and sensation/function will return. |
In the early Middle Ages the belief in Witchcraft was condemned as "unChristian" by high-ranking churchmen, as well as by Charlemagne. At the same time, both secular and canon law decreed that Witchcraft existed, had power, and deserved punishment. How were these contrary positions resolved? | There isn't a lot to reconcile here, but rather a reframing. At no point did any decree of Catholic Church or medieval Christian king accept the existence of witchcraft (*maleficium*). Most of these decrees state flat out that belief in *maleficium* was itself the work of the devil, a contamination of the brain, of dre... |
Have any other fashion choices/hairstyles/et cetera been ruined in the same manner as the "Hitler mustache," either before or after? | It wasn't as enduring, but another example from WWII was the umbrella becoming a symbol of appeasing one's enemies. Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister of Great Britain is perhaps most remembered for brokering the Munich Agreement, which basically said that Germany could have portions of Czechoslovakia if they prom... |
Which one is the oldest european coat of arms showing lions (or other exotic animals living far away)? | Lions weren't always as exotic as you think. As seen [here](_URL_0_), lions had a much greater range in the past than they do today. To quote wikipedia;
> Herodotus reported that lions had been common in Greece around 480 BC. By 100 AD they were extirpated. A population of Asiatic lions survived until the tenth centu... |
the scientific consensus says gmo's are safe, and we seem to value our scientific consensuses here in the usa on other issues...so whats all the fuss about? | It's the same as the fuss about any other topic with scientific consensus--there is a substantial portion of the population that inherently trusts anecdotes and conspiracy theories over scientific experiments. It is often a problem with confirmation bias and a lack of critical thinking.
To be fair, the subject of gene... |
if light slows down in water, how does it speed back up again when it comes out? | There's a way to think about this problem that was--IIRC--in Stephen Hawking's *A Brief History of Time*.
Imagine a big famous actor walking through a room. They travel at a constant speed that we'll call A. The actor always moves at speed A, no matter what. When the room is empty, they're able to walk into the room ... |
Was there a scientific reason behind the decision to take a picture of this particular black hole instead of another one ? | Because it's really big. It's so big, that it looks bigger on the sky than closer black holes.
We can talk about the "angular diameter" or "apparent diameter" of an object. This is how big it looks on the sky, rather than how big it really is. For instance, the Moon and the Sun have about the same angular diameter - h... |
how hushing came to be the sound we use when we want people to be quiet. | I always wondered about the same thing and quite recently I discovered that the hushing sound is the most common sound you can make with your mouth to calm down a newborn baby: they naturally calm down when they hear vibrations and white noises.
I wouldn't be surprised it just came out from this: a lot of pèarents who... |
how can a musician be sure that what he wrote is not similar to something that already exists? | As I understand it, it's the plaintiff's job to prove that it's very similar (one standard was that more than six consecutive notes have to be identical) and that the person who is supposed to have copied has heard the original.
A good case example would be when the Chiffons sued George Harrison. I believe Queen and V... |
I think I figured out how to send information faster than the speed of light using the Quantum Eraser experiment, can someone please debunk me? | If you take a look at the [interference patterns you would get](_URL_0_) (about halfway down the pate) after running the experiment, you can see that you have to separate the "went left" and "went right" events after the fact before you can see their respective interference patterns. Otherwise, it your data just looks... |
how does the ocean go through two tide cycles in a day, where the moon only passes 'overhead' once every 24 hours? | To grossly oversimplify, one tide is caused by the gravity of the Moon, the other is caused by the centrifugal force of Earth orbiting the shared centre of gravity of the Earth-Moon system.
Both are delayed from when you'd expect them to happen by the friction with the bottom of the ocean. |
why does adding white vinegar to the laundry take care of bad smells and why don't laundry detergents already contain these properties? | Vinegar helps break down protein and minerals, like salt and calcium.
So vinegar will help remove smell from dirt, sweat, etc.
Because vinegar also breaks down calcium, it softens your clothes and helps clean your washing machine in good shape by preventing scale.
Commercial laundry detergents are designed to make ... |
When one person fails to open a pickle jar, the next person to try often succeeds. Has the first person's attempt at opening the jar 'loosened' it up? | This strikes me as highly unlikely, since we don't experience a sudden failing of musculature that would lead the first person to be unable to open the "loosened" jar. (Unless you have cataplexy.)
Instead, it seems much more likely that the second person is already anticipating a greater effort than the first person e... |
Was there any equivalent to a homicide detective in ancient Greek and Roman times? Are there any surviving "detective stories" from those times? | **Greece:**
To answer the first question, It would be a yes, and a no. Yes, because the city of Athens developed a court for homicide called the [Areopagus](_URL_7_) (also called Areios Pagos, Areiopagus, and Rock of Ares), which dealt with anything from small claims issues, to homicide. However, this would be broken ... |
Why do some people have good sense of direction while other don't? Do we know how the brain differs in such people? | This article explains it pretty well. It's like language, we are born with the ability and the amount of time we spend on tasks that use sense of direction directly influences how developed or underdeveloped our directional awareness becomes. There's a lot of cool ethnographic research about sense of direction. We us... |
Do you get any of the benefits of sleep from just lying still in bed with your eyes closed (as happens with insomnia)? | There's some discussion of this in [this thread](_URL_1_) about a year ago. That thread prompted [an article on the subject in The Atlantic](_URL_0_). The conclusion from that article is:
> "Lying down isn't completely useless -- it does help your muscles and other organs relax. But you'd get the same results just... |
Light bends around massive objects. Could there be something so massive that light orbited around it? | **Short answer:** Yes. If you're near a black hole.
**Longer answer:** So you already hit on the fact that light can't escape black holes, and it turns out that if you are at just the right distance from the event horizon (which is sort of the point of no return- where the black hole begins and the normal universe en... |
How close was Japan to cracking Navajo code talkers? Was Japan aware Americans were using a Native American language as code? | I did a research project with Navajo sources on this. It sadly never was finished and published, but I was able to use local archives, talk to members of the Navajo community about their verbal histories and study the US military documents regarding the code. I was also studying Navajo Language at time as I am not Nava... |
if cancer is basically a clump of cells that dont want to die, why/how do things like cigarettes, asbestos, and the literal sun trigger it? | Cancer cells result from mutations that disable the things that keep cell growth in check. Those mutations come from incorrect repairs to cell DNA, and those errors happen more frequently the more repairs take place.
Therefore things that cause damage that requires repairs increase the chances of developing cancer, st... |
Given recent developments in our understanding of water/ice bodies on Mars, is it possible that we could one day be surprised by Martian fossils? Or do we have reason to believe that Martian life would be limited to microorganisms? | It's not _impossible_ (because that's a pretty high bar to clear) but I'd say it's very, very unlikely.
The reason is time. Multicellular life didn't become common on Earth until 500-600 million years ago (EDIT: _Life_ showed up on Earth very early. But it consisted of microorganisms). There are a very few possible ... |
How and why did the Republic of China (Taiwan) keep China's seat in the UN for so long? How did the Nationalist government go from being recognized as the sole representative for China to being denied membership even as Taiwan? | At the time of the defeat of the Republic of China forces by the PRC, and the former's subsequent retreat to Taiwan, there was no disagreement as to whether or not there was one or more "China". Chiang and the Guomingdang were under the conviction that the Republic of China was the sole authority over the Chinese mainl... |
Are there any modern recreational drugs that could have been synthesized in Europe between 1000-1500CE, with the knowledge we have today? | Ha! You're not totally out of luck. If you were to somehow time travel back to 1300, you might be able to make some pharmaceuticals which would not actually be discovered until much later. And yes--you could even realistically make Meth, more than 500 years before it would actually be discovered.
First, the relatively... |
how does helium in a sealed balloon "wear out" after a few days, and what do blimps do to counteract this effect? | Helium is the smallest stable molecule there is. It is so small that it can fit between the molecules of most solid materials. So keeping helium in a rubber balloon is like keeping water in a cloth bag. It will slowly leak out over time. Blimps use denser and thicker materials for their balloons but still have to refil... |
Do we really know what Ancient Greece looked like? I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and was wondering if it is really an accurate depiction of what Greece looked like at that time. | There's two pretty distinct parts to your question so I'll discuss them separately.
& nbsp;
**How do we know what Ancient Greece looked like?**
The most famous remains of Classical Greece are literary texts, painted vases, ruined buildings, and statues (the latter usually Roman marble copies of bronze Greek origina... |
they had rc planes and helicopters way before and no one cared so what's the big issue with people and drones? | I would say part of it would be the recording video aspect. Since you could theoretically fly a drone and peek into your neighbors house. South Park did an episode that is quite entertaining on the drone issues
EDIT: Here is a link to the [south park](_URL_0_) episode |
why must i enter a captcha to pay a bill? are they afraid a robot is going to enter a credit card on my behalf? | Yes, captchas are generally used to prevent automation by using (ro)bots. However, there are a couple of side effects. One would be that you can not "accidentally" pay the bill because you would have to enter the captcha first. A bot would also not just enter "a credit card" but instead do pretty much anything on there... |
Why is the Ozone Layer Hole in the South Pole? Why isn't it in the North Pole? | The Antarctic one is the “famous” one but there was also an article in Nature in 2005 about an Arctic ozone hole and occasionally a hole will form over Tibet (albeit not as intense). The Antarctic one was primarily exacerbated by the polar vortex in the Antarctic that fed into a seasonal increase in reactive chlorine t... |
How realistic would it have been for someone with a low IQ like Forest Gump to fight in Vietnam for the US? | u/Lich-Su answered a very similar question to this [here](_URL_3_) some time ago.
In the United States, about 1.8 million men reached draft age each year in the 1960s, and roughly a third (600,000) were disqualified as unsuitable for military service, half of these for physical reasons and the other half for mental or... |
Why are there more fluent Welsh speakers in Wales than Irish or Gaelic speakers in Ireland & Scotland, when the latter were conquered by the English hundreds of years later? | There are a multitude of factors which will impact whether a language thrives or dies out. Welsh, [according to Alan R. Thomas](_URL_0_), hits on a number of these: geography, regional linguistic homogeneity, and perhaps most critically, prestige status. Although there was a sociolinguistic split in Welsh society dur... |
when movies make hundreds of millions, whats an accurate picture of where this money comes from and where it ends up? | Typically, a writer/producer develop the idea for a film. They take this idea and 'sell' it to a studio for, let's say, 10 $.
The studio will now hire actors, writers (maybe even the same one), producer/directors, sets etc etc etc and spend 50 $ on this all to make a final/finished movie. Since they've spent (50+10) 6... |
In Western Europe in the 16th/17th centuries, how achievable would it have been to 'pretend' to a higher status? Are there examples of people doing so? | Perkin Warbeck as Richard of York:
Not only did young Perkin Warbeck masquerade as a prince, he nearly succeeded in overthrowing King Henry VII of England. In 1491, Warbeck appeared in Ireland claiming he was Richard of York, the youngest son of the former King Edward IV. The real Richard was most likely murdered in th... |
How come North and West are common English surnames, but not East and South? | Hello everyone. Just want to give a quick heads up as to why there are a bunch of removed comments, because people keep asking. Here are some of the removed comments, in their entirety:
> Damn it. I need an answer.
> WHY IS EVERYTHING REMOVED? Every time I’m genuinely curious :(
> Geez, what happened here?
Most ... |
If elephants had gone extinct before humans came about, and we had never found mammoth remains with soft tissue intact, would we have known that they had trunks through their skeletons alone? | Trunks do leave visible attachment marks for muscles, ligaments, & such on the skull. However, from osteological correlates alone, it would be impossible to infer exactly what the trunk looks like. In what is perhaps a "reverse-application" of this line of reasoning, [trunks can be rejected for sauropod dinosaurs](_U... |
Why haven't the great muslim empires been able to regain their former glory? | Not to pick on you specifically, but there have been a lot of this sort of a question recently.
This is not a well-phrased question.
If you want really good answers from good historians, you need to frame your question positively, ie. "Why did X happen?" Asking why something didn't happen can only generate vague ans... |
how are professional rugby players able to tolerate such physical punishment seemingly with little injury where as soccer, basketball and protected american football players seem to have devastating injuries quite frequently? | As a rugby player I'll give my thoughts but they aren't science backed or anything. When you play rugby you learn how to take an impact without getting injured. You learn how to fall correctly and brace before you get hit. If you watch some "big hit compilations" on YouTube you will see that there is plenty of injuries... |
Why is the American West of the 1800s portrayed as a desert? | The vast majority of the American West cannot support agriculture without irrigation - often involving water from wells. It is a dry place, and this reality sets it apart from the other North American regions. It is depicted as a dry place because that is what it is. There are obvious exceptions to this, notably the Pa... |
When you look up at the night sky at you see a single star, how many photons are entering your eye so that you can see that one star? | The Sun has [apparent magnitude](_URL_2_) -26.74, and the dimmest star we can see with the naked eye is magnitude +6. That's a magnitude difference of 32.74, meaning the Sun is about 12 trillion times brighter (as viewed from Earth). Since the Sun is radiating [1361 Watts per square meter](_URL_0_) on Earth, that dimme... |
Are there more protons, neutrons, or electrons in the universe? How do the three rank by abundance? | I think [this thread](_URL_0_) may be of interest to you! u/fishify says that there are about 7 times as many protons as neutrons in the universe. If we assume that most protons are in atoms and not ions, then it would make sense that there is about one electron for every proton.
This agrees with what u/nivlark said. |
Whenever I buy a lottery ticket I remind myself that 01-02-03-04-05-06 is just as likely to win as any other combination. But I can't bring myself to pick such a set of numbers as my mind just won't accept the fact that results will ever be so ordered. What is the science behind this misconception? | I'm not sure if there is a name for this heuristic, but is has to do with our ideas about randomness and what we think a "typical" set of random numbers or events looks like.
Another example of this occurs when you ask people to simulate flipping a coin 100 times. In the sequence of heads and tails that they write dow... |
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