[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How can Robin Williams' will prevents Disney from using his name, taped performances or voice performances or voice recordings for 25 years after his death? Doesn't Disney own the rights to them?

I saw in TIL subreddit today that Robin Williams will prevents Disney for using his name or any of his work for 25 years after his death. But how can he do that when Disney owns the rights ?

[Assistant]
In the contract with Disney for his work on Aladdin, Robin Williams obtained to include a clause giving him power to veto the use of his voice work in other production. It seems his goal then was to avoid being associated with lower quality spin-offs that might have come after the first film.

In his will, Robin Williams stated that his work shall not be used for 25 years after his death. The purpose of this is to decrease the value of his estate in terms of projected income after his death in order to ease the estate tax burden on his family.

Disney is still bound by the original Aladdin contract, needing approval from the Williams' estate before using his work. Disney is not directly bound by the will, but Williams' estate is, thus transferring the conditions of the will onto Disney.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How is it I can buy a 15 year old CD album on Amazon? Have they stocked it in a warehouse for that long? Are new copies of old albums always being made?

[Assistant] If people are still buying them in commercially feasible quantities they will continue to be produced. If the copy that arrived in an amazon box at your particular door was manufactured 15 years ago its more likely that a distributor has had it in a warehouse for the last 14 years and 11 months and Amazon keeps a certain quantity in stock and will re-order from the distributor when their stock falls below a certain threshold.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Is it purely coincidence that the human sleep cycle roughly matches the day and night cycle of Earth or is it the time of day that determined our sleep habits?

For example, if days lasted 48 hours on Earth instead of 24 hours, would humans have adapted to stay awake for all the daylight hours and sleep for twice as long or do humans biologically need around 8 hours of sleep to function regardless of the amount of sunlight?

[Assistant]
Nearly all life on earth (including fruit flies, plants, single-cell organisms, and even individual cells in the human body) has a circadian rhythm roughly 24 hours long, suggesting that this is a trait that evolved due to environmental influence. It's impossible to know how circadian rhythms would evolve on a planet with a different light-dark cycle, but there's no reason to expect life would do anything other than develop rest/activity cycles in line with the local light/dark cycle.

I can't think of any studies that experimentally manipulated the amount of sunlight to see whether sleep need varies, but observational studies have shown that people will sleep more during the winter and less during the summer. There are a lot of other possible explanations for that though.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why don't humans have mating seasons?

[Assistant]
Mating seasons are generally seen in animals that live in higher latitudes. Harsh winters as you get closer to the poles mean that many species of animals can't survive a winter as a baby, so evolution favored only mating during certain times of the year. Of course, some species simply evolved tougher babies, so it's hardly even a good rule of thumb.

Humans, on the other hand, did most of their evolution in low latitudes nearer to the equator. By the time humans moved into higher latitudes, fire had already been discovered, so heat wasn't as big an issue anymore .


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why do soda companies shelf their own product in stores?

All other products(ice cream, motor oil, chips, etc) afaik have the store employees place the product on the shelf, but soda companies have their own employee that goes around to stores. Why is that?

EDIT:This post refers to American stores.

[Assistant] Beer distributors do this, too. Its mainly to get displays up properly and make sure stock is set out. They don't come back every day, though, so maintaining stock or a display neatly is largely the shop's responsibility.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Half Life] How did barnacles move around, and more specifically, how did they get to where they were so soon after the Resonance Cascade at Black Mesa?

[Assistant] They have a mobile phase where they launch their tongue and drag themselves.  After they arrived, they quickly spread out and set themselves up as ambush predators in their preferred environments - ceilings in isolated areas.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Mando] Does the Mandalorian change baby Yodas diapers? What does he feed him? Does he bathe Baby Yoda? Does Mando bathe? What is Baby Yodas actual name?

[Assistant] Baby Yoda is named the child. So far nothing else is given about a more proper name. We've seen him eating frogs shrimp like creatures and drinking broth. Pretty safe to assume he doesn't have a diaper and is potty trained. Mandalorian culture is a big blank spot in regards to the show since no other media has portrayed a clan like the titular mandos clan. But bathing is definitely required for survival just given how small the fresher is on the Razor Crest it's either a misting kinda bathing or sponge baths.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What exactly makes something a vitamin and how did they get their names (C, B6, B12, E, etc)?

[Assistant]
Vitamins are small organic molecules that we need in tiny amounts in our diet. So for example amino acids are not vitamins because we need large amounts of them. Sodium is not a vitamin because it is inorganic.

As for the name, basically they were lettered in order we realised their existence. However knowledge was incomplete (and may still be incomplete) so it turns out that what we thought was one single vitamin (B) was in fact a complex of several closely related substances, so those got numbered. Some of them were originally vitamins G-J, hence the sudden jump to vitamin K. Others were found to be non-essential and dropped.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Eli5 How come If u wait too long to eat your appetite goes away?

[Assistant] Hunger is caused by the hormone ghrelin. When the hormone wears off (or we eat) we stop being hungry. We develop a natural ghrelin cycle, based on our usual times in which we eat. You're not hungry in the morning because you haven't eaten, you're hungry in the morning because you usually eat in the morning, your body expects it, and releases ghrelin at that time to reinforce the cycle. People who routinely skip breakfast (or any meal) usually stop getting hungry around that time, as their body's ghrelin cycle adapts to when it usually eats. No ghrelin, no hunger, to an extent. Carbs release insulin into your body, insulin triggers the release of ghrelin, which is why the old saying of being hungry an hour after eating Chinese food exists. Fighting through the feelings of hunger means ignoring your ghrelin cycle. Once it passes, you're not hungry any more until the next phase in the cycle comes.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Do shaken soda bottles reabsorb the bubbles...and how long does it take?

Topic.

[Assistant]
Yes.

When you shake the soda bottle, CO2 that is dissolved in the soda is released into the headspace, the empty space between the cap and soda. The pressure in the headspace will rise. Particularly if the soda is cold, this pressure difference between the headspace and soda will over time cause the CO2 to redissolve until the pressure is equalized. Warmer soda means less CO2 can be dissolved.

I can't answer the "how long does it take," part. But if you wait long enough (a couple days?) it will redissolve and the soda won't be flat.

If you were to open the soda at any point, that CO2 in the headspace would escape. If you close it back up, there is again a pressure difference, this time the headspace pressure is lower and even more CO2 comes out of solution. Next time you open the soda, it's that much more flat.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
eli5: In english the s is sometimes contracted (she's/she is or she has) but what does the s stand for when it's possessive? Like the king's crown? What word is that s?

Truth be told, 90% of my english comes from Skyrim and Doctor Who, I remeber very few rules from my school days and it's been bugging me for days and my research skills are bringing me no fruit. Help?

[Assistant]
Its not a word, but a suffix, a morpheme.

But then what are those? Lets start with a morpheme. Its the smallest unit that carries/changes meaning.

Consider the word blackberry. It can be split into black and berry, and black means something and berry means something and you cant split those into more pieces. So blackberry is two morphemes, black is one morpheme, berry is one morpheme.

Now consider the word slowly. It can be split into slow and -ly, so its two morphemes, but unlike berry, the -ly part cannot stand on its own.

The -ly is a morpheme stuck to the end of something else, and we call those kind of morphemes suffixes. (If they stick to the front you call them prefixes. If they stick in the middle you call them infixes. These are all affixes.)

The <s> is just a way to spell the possessive suffix that comes there. Its not a word on its own, but its added to change things into possessives. edit 2: and sometimes you just spell it <> if the word ends with an <s> already. edit 3: it can get attached to whole phrases, like the shop around the corners owner (they own the shop, not the corner) so you could even argue its not a suffix, but a clitic.

edit: this is a synchronic view of how things stand today. On the other hand, as of this writing, the other reply has a diachronic view of how things led to this.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
It's impossible to determine a particle's position and momentum at the same time. Do atoms exhibit the same behavior? What about mollecules?

Asked in a more plain way, how big must a particle or group of particles be to "dodge" Heisenberg's uncertainty principle? Is there a limit, actually?

EDIT: *[Blablabla]* Thanks for reaching the frontpage guys! *[Non-original stuff about getting to the frontpage]*

[Assistant] There is no point at which the uncertainty principle stops applying, but the product of the uncertainties has a fixed minimum, x p  /2, which quickly becomes very small compared to the actual values of x and p for macroscopic objects.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why do divers fall backwards off boats?

[Assistant]
That technique is called a "backward roll entry." It's basically just the easiest way to get off a small boat without tipping the boat over. You can't really stand on the edge of a small dinghy or RHIB without making the whole thing dangerously tippy. So instead you sit on the edge, hold onto your mask and mouthpiece, and just let gravity do the work. You go backwards because otherwise the water would slam the mask into your face and that hurts.

The other common method for leaving a boat is called the "giant stride" entry. It's used on larger boats that have a diving platform. You just walk to the edge, hold onto your mask, and take one big step into the water.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How do spiders initially connect the first couple of threads to surrounding objects?

Specifically, I've seen spiders with threads connected to a street sign > to a tree > to another tree, etc.

 Does the spider crawl along the ground? Wouldn't the original strand become tangled?

[Assistant]
Usually they will attach the line at one end, drop down, then walk across and up, extending silk all the time. Then they'll attach a new line at the other side, and eat the first line up while using it to get back across the gap, extending the new silk at the same time. In this way they create a line with the correct tension.

They will then usually travel back along the line and drop a vertical one down to the ground from the halfway point to make a Y shape. The rest of the web can then be built around this.

Some spiders make a sticky 'kite' of silk at the end of a line and float it across a gap until it sticks at the other side, then proceed as above.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[MCU] How does Coulsons robotic arm grant him super strength without hurting him?

Weve seen that it grants him super strength, but how does it work? His arm might be metal, but his shoulders, chest, back, core, and everything else are pure squishy human. How does he use this super strength without hospitalizing himself every time?

[Assistant]
Judging by the bulletproof energy shield he can project from his hand, SHIELD has some pretty advanced force projection technology.  Pure speculation here: its probably based off the repulsor tech used in the Iron Man suit.

Beyond that, prosthetic engineers seem to have solved the reinforcement issue years ago.  Between Bucky's metal arm, project Deathlok, and the burgeoning private transhumanism industry, engineers have figured out a way to do it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] Why did most react so positively to Palpatine declaring himself Emperor for life?

That seems like something that would cause a lot of people to be upset, if any president did that today they'd be thrown out of office. You'd think a lot of people would think this is highly contrary to the principles of a republic.

I know the Chancellor was popular, but I don't think any amount of popularity would allow them to pretty much declare themselves a dictator and just establish a completely new government.

[Assistant] You have to remember that at the time we were in the middle of a very long and bloody engagement across the galaxy. We were tired of war, just been betrayed by the jedi and needed a strong leader to unify us once again. Palpatine had served well in his role as Chancellor and furthermore even survived an assassination attempt. He was popular, he was resilient, he was the emperor we needed to unite the galaxy in a grand empire.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] Why is there such a huge difference in designs between imperial and rebel spacecraft?

Since the rebels rebelled from the Empire, shouldn't they use similar looking fighters and capital ships? Has the rebellion been going on so long that the shipyards have diverged this drastically? I would say that the rebels might be using obsolete imperial designs except the ships are matched up rather evenly and the rebel ships are not inferior...

[Assistant]
The Rebels aren't using Imperial spacecraft. They're either using leftovers from the Republic fleets (like Y-Wings), ships developed with the intention of being used by the Empire but never acquired (X-Wings), or ships developed independently by people who don't wish the Empire to use them (the B-Wing).

Same goes for their capital ships. The Rebellion may have members who were former Imperial military, but unless they manage to steal Imperial ships, they don't take them with them when they leave.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Are there ways or examples of life existing without reproduction?

[Assistant] There are sterile species that can't reproduce naturally, like mules, that require cross- breeding to exist. But otherwise, you only see plants and animals that reproduce, since if they didn't, they would be long dead.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Eli5: What happens when you "throw your back out"? Why does it seem to happen easier as you get older?

You know, you reach down to close the cupboard, and Whamo. Shooting pain, inability to stand straight up without holding on to something. What is happening?

[Assistant] Pressure from a weakening disc is causing a bulge which is pushing on the nerve root.  As we age, natural disc desiccation occurs.  These are commonly referred to as slipped discs, although they have not actually slipped.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Harry Potter] How did Salazar Slytherin mark the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets with a form of indoor plumbing that wouldn't exist for 800 years?

Hogwarts was founded in the 10th century but sinks weren't invented until the 18th.

[Assistant]
The entrance wasn't originally a sink. However, Hogwarts already had many forgotten underground tunnels and secret passages even 200 years ago. When they worked on modernizing the castle to use plumbing, they used some of these tunnels as a framework for the piping.

Now, how did the sink get *marked*: The entrance, most likely, is magically marked. And when the tunnels that led there were changed and (unintentionally) diverted to a sink, the magical marking transferred itself to the sink too, since it was the closest thing to an entrance there was.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Sleep is good for humans, but why do especially newborns, babies and children then have a hard time falling asleep with lots of crying and obvious resistance?

[Assistant] Children are constantly growing and learning new things. Those new things excite them and stimulate brain activity. So even though they need to sleep, their brains are hyped up with all this new info so they fight falling asleep. A lot of babies need help relaxing enough to go to sleep, and young children need a routine that signals to their brain it's time to calm down. As adults, we can feel when we are tired usually. But sometimes we feel wide awake when we need sleep, so we take a warm bath, drink hot tea, do whatever we can to get our brains to relax. So it's the same thing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: If the universe is expanding, does that mean we have an increasingly less likely chance of being hit by an asteroid?

[Assistant]
Not really, the universe is expanding but even nearby galaxies have a strong enough gravitational pull that they continue to move towards us or remain where they are.

We only really have a risk of being hit by objects in the solar system or near our solar system, the growth of the universe definitely does not effect object which are that close or even in our galaxy really.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What can we use bronze for today and why?

I was wondering what we use bronze for today and the reason for it. I cant seem to find a reason for using bronze in industrial and non-industrial purposes.

[Assistant] Bronze type alloys are often used in places where you want low friction with steel parts. The most common example are oil infused bronze bushings for rotating parts. They are cheaper and take less space than roller bearings.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Superman] Camelot Falls showed that Superman's body can adapt to use energy sources other than sunlight. Has this been revisited or developed on?

In Camelot Falls, a possible future showed the villain Khyber throwing Superman with enough force to trap him beneath the continental plates of the earth. Injured and without sunlight, Superman was trapped there for years.

But, his body adapted over time to draw energy from the pressure and heat of the Earth's core. Has this been developed on? Can Superman potentially draw power from a range of sources, not just yellow sunlight?

And has this been revisited since that storyline? Because it's a very interesting development.

And as an aside, have Khyber or Sirocco appeared at all since then? A quick search seems to say no. Khyber seems to be doing worse than Lady Styx.

[Assistant] In The Dark Knight Returns, Superman gets separated from the sun and gravely injured by a soviet nuclear missile. Because he can't reach the sun, he draws from the stored solar energy in the plants around him. Kinda a different energy source.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What causes you to hear a high pitched noise when a device, which has been fully charged, is still in the charger?

[Assistant]
Small chargers today are switch mode power supplies.

They work, simply said, by first rectifying the alternating mains current to direct current, then chopping it up again to pulses at a much higher frequency, transforming it down and rectifying it again.

That sounds overcomplicated, but transformers for high frequencies are WAY smaller, cheaper and more efficient, which is worth the hassle.

The transformer tends to make a sound, just like the "normal" ones make that familiar hum. It's depending on quality, cheap ones tend to have loose parts which vibrate and make them louder .. but normally the used frequency is way beyond our hearing range, so it seems dead quiet.

If the device is charging and needs less and less power to do that as the battery fills up, the power supply has to reduce the power it delivers to held the output voltage at the same level. This is done by making the pulses of the primary voltage shorter and shorter.

If the device is fully charged and in standby, it needs almost no power, but there is a lower limit how short the pulses can be, so the only choice the charger has is to drop (e.g., very simplfied) every 5th pulse completely or the output voltage would climb too high.

But THAT introduces an additional frequency component at (in that case 1/5th) the normal switching frequency, which you can hear. Since the amout of dropped pulses is varying much with load, the sound tends to be quite irregulary and if you pick it your device to use it, while still connected to the charger, you can often even "hear" the fluctuating current consumption by listening to the changing sound.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Can somebody explain Cloud technology to me?

How does it work? How do I use it? What are the risks? Is there any privacy?

[Assistant]
'Cloud 'is a marketing buzzword that doesn't mean much other than client-server communications (your computer communicating with another computer that sends you data). It's used to sell services that allow you to store files on servers (but that's been around since the 90s) instead of keeping them on your computer.

However, 'Cloud' can also be used to refer to cloud hosting providers that store websites on servers across the world to provide a lower latency for users downloading them.

As you can see, there's nothing to get excited about really. It's nothing new, just a vague word slapped on to different services to make them sellable to the uninformed.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Game of Thrones] How on earth did Jaime Lannister keep up with Brienne in a sword fight?

He's been a prisoner for over a year, his hands  are shackled, he probably hasn't had a good meal or sleep in months, and he spent the majority of that time sitting in a cage with no exercise. And somehow he can keep up and give a good fight with someone almost twice his size.

[Assistant]
1. Jaime was one of the most skillful and knowledgeable sword fighters in Westeros.  He was knowledgeable enough to point out in their fight that Brienne has a tell when she attacks (she tends to grimace), which is why he can defend against her attacks.

2. Brienne was taking it easy on Jaime because she's meant to be bringing him to Sansa alive.  As Jaime noted, this meant she would hesitate to use lethal force against him.

3. He kinda didn't keep up with Brienne.  Their early exchanges were fairly even, yes, but soon enough he was starting to take hits from Brienne, and their fight was concluded when Jaime exhausted himself and he sorta just collapsed at her feet.  Fortunately by then she was distracted by the arrival of the Bolton men, which is why she didn't follow up with a hit on Jaime's exposed back.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: Why does some food (e.g. raw eggs) turn bad super-fast when left at room temperature but not in our stomachs?

[Assistant]
"Turning bad" is basically digestion.

When microbes do it outside, we define it as "turning bad" as we can no longer eat it without falling ill.

When when we eat the egg ( before it gets spoilt), our bodies digest it and the nutrients are now available to us.

Some things like dough is allowed "to go bad" i.e. be digested first by very specific microbes before it can be cooked to make bread.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why can't we reverse-engineer "secret formulas" like Coca Cola?

I would think that a piece-by-piece analysis of coca cola could yield all the ingredients therein, and allow us to deduce the supposedly secret formula used to create it.  Pull out each piece individually with appropriate solvents, list all present molecules and cross out known base ingredients.  Analyze the remainder to deduce the source.  And yet, there is only speculation out there.

[Assistant]
You can, and people have.

The book "Big Secrets" by William Poundstone lists a couple of possible formulations.

But the formula isn't really all that big a deal.  If you had it, and made your own coke, you couldn't sell it as Coca-Cola.  You'd have to call it something else.  And it's the name brand recognition that gets people to buy it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] Why do the Jedi hold high-ranking positions in the military? How are they qualified for it?

Jedi have high military ranks in the old republic (Obi-Wan is a general for example), which seem odd on a few levels. First of all, although Jedi are trained in combat, are they trained to lead troops and hold high command positions? In the Clone Wars, surely there'd be clone officers or regular army personnel to run the war. How would the Jedi have enough training and knowledge of large-scale unit conflicts to successfully run the war?
Secondly, wouldn't this cause friction with their role as peacekeepers and mediators?
While there's some indication that the high ranks are symbolic so that the Jedi can insert themselves into battles or give orders with ease, but in some scenes there are examples of Jedi giving large-scale orders. So is their rank an honorary title, does knowledge of the force make them better commanders, or do they learn to command as younglings?

[Assistant]
There ARE some personnel with military training, but most of them are from planetary defense forces - there's been no standing military for the Republic for a thousand years.

The Jedi on the other hand, are skilled combatants and are taught a well-rounded set of skills, including leadership and tactics.

But yes, that's one of many behind the scenes points of the Clone Wars - to turn the Jedi from the keepers of the peace they're supposed to be, into soldiers.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How do crest whitening strips work to whiten teeth on a molecular level?

Iirc its hydrogen peroxide in a gel form, but is its absorbed into the teeth or does it dissolve a layer, or something?

[Assistant] Teeth are already white but get coated with chromophore molecules from tea and coffee and such. Everything reflects light at a certain wavelength due to the molecule shape, but chromophore molocules are the ones that happen to fall in human vision wavelengths. You can either remove them with abrasives and ultrasonic vibrations, or shift to a color outside of human vision, in other words they're see-thru. One way to disrupt molocule shape is simple oxidization - Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes things, so it steals an electron from these chromophore molecules. This changes the angle the atoms are stable at, or even adds an oxygen atom. This shifts the wavelength reflected to outside human vision.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Starcraft]How come you need to research armour and weapons upgrade again on every new mission?

Do the barracks and factories and the like just forget how to make the upgraded armour and weapons? Or do they have to leave the blueprints when they leave. And for the zerg, do the units just lose the upgraded part of the genetic code when the brood leaves the planet?

[Assistant]
When 'researching' better armour and weapons, you aren't actually conducting any kind of research.

Rather, Terrans are upgrading facilities to allow for production of higher quality equipment. Since they typically do not transplant entire bases, those facilities need to be re-constructed for each deployment.

For Zerg, their genetic code is extremely complicated, and by 'researching' you are manifesting certain higher-biomass adaptations which are typically kept dormant for efficiency reasons. Not even the Zerg can undergo genetic modification instantly, so the manifestation of dormant genes takes time, and is 'turned off' between swarms in order to save biomass.

The Protoss, similar to the Terrans, need to properly upgrade facilities to warp in more complicated technologies. The Psi-resonance of many of their more potent arms and armour interferes with small-scale warp gates, and so the systems need to be modified to properly allow warriors with such equipment to transit from Shakkuras without being scattered to the cosmic winds.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [A:LA] What other kinds of sub bending could be possible?

[Assistant]
Soundbending for Airbenders seems very plausible, seeing as Aang performed a primitive version of enhancing his own sound once. As well, we have seen "Breathbending" performed by Zaheer.

I know Glassbending and Bonebending have been proposed for Earthbenders in the past, though whose to say if either would be remotely possible.

I know there has been suggestion in the past that Firebender could control the temperature of an area or even a person's body through concentration.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] What makes a stealth plane 'stealth'? What is the technology involved and why can these planes be invisible to radars etc?

[Assistant] Two different ways.  One being radar absorbing material.  The other is the use of flat surfaces and sharp edges, it reflects the radar so that the full signal doesn't go back to the receiving station.  They won't actually be invisible, but can reduce the signature of the F117a down to that of a small bird.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Best way to make a quick, simple GUI app?

Just went to make a simple utility desktop app an decided I want a GUI for it. But I've never really done this before (mostly done web and mobile), so what are your favorite tools to make a simple desktop GUI quickly?

**What I need to be able to do:**

Show Text, Buttons, Inputs, Images, other basic things and easily position and align them

Easily update the screen with new information

I'm on Windows 11 rn

Don't really care which language, I'm flexible.

Thanks!

[Assistant] C#. Visual Studio Community is free and gives you everything you need. WinForms has been around forever, so there's a vast amount of resources available to help you out. There are lots of other options for building a UI (WPF, WinUI, MAUI, etc), but WinForms may be more approachable (lower learning curve to get up and running). If cross platform matters at all, Xamarin or Uno are options, still with C#.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Pokemon]Why most starters can't be found in the wild?

[Assistant]
They're very rare.

Sinnoh is the best example because we have the most information about its past thanks to PLA. Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar are all native to the region, but have very limited ranges.

Piplup can be found near one lake in the Cobalt Coastlands that matches up to being around Route 214 in the modern day. In the modern day, that lake is probably non-existent thanks to developments made around the nearby Veilstone City. No more lake, no more wild Piplups.

Turtwig can be found in a little grove in the Crimson Mirelands which matches up to being around Route 213. That grove no longer exists, it would be somewhere between Pastoria City and the resorts.

Chimchar can be found on Ramanas Island which is now a research facility.

Luckily all three species were preserved because the Galaxy Team identified them as well-behaved, easy to train, and powerful when fully evolved so they were selected as good starters for new trainers and bred in captivity.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How come during WWII it was America & China (Chiang Kai-shek) vs. Japan, but today's geopolitcal/financial rivals are set up much more along the lines of America & Japan vs. China

What did China do different after WWII and what did Japan do different after WWII to cause this shift in allegiances?

[Assistant]
Japan was made into a more Western-style government and culture after WWII (Meiji was more on the industrial and economical side), and China got turned into a "evil capitalism" type Communist government, which still goes up to this day.

Chiang Kaishek's government is now Taiwan (they had to flee after they were defeated), and we're still pretty good with them (our claim that they are PRC is mostly for economical relations).

tl;dr Japan was obliterated and replaced with a (somewhat) new culture, China turned into Taiwan, China Mainland is called PRC and we're still really iffy about communism.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: How can something (ie. light) have volume and energy, but no mass?

I've watched multiple YouTube videos and read a couple things online and now I have a headache. It still doesn't make sense to me.
If photons have volume, then there can only be a finite number of photons in a given space, right? And once that limit is reached, why can't I squeeze in one more photon? What is stopping me, the "walls" or "shell" of the photons? What are the walls/shells made of?

Every source I've looked at agrees that light is BOTH a wave AND a particle. I can understand why waves don't have mass, but then what the hell is a "particle"? Every other elementary particle like quarks have mass, right?

[Assistant]
>If photons have volume, then there can only be a finite number of photons in a given space, right?

That's wrong, actually. Photons are a type of particle called a boson, and two (or more) bosons can occupy the same space.

The counterpart to a boson is a fermion. Fermions obey the Pauli exclusion principle, meaning they cannot occupy the same space or energy state.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELi5: why do carnivorous dinosaurs have eyes on the side of their head?

[Assistant] They didn't. Their eyes were more to the sides than most predatory mammals, but they still had front-facing eyes. This gave them more peripheral vision, while still having good binocular vision as well.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why is it legal for me to share a textbook with a friend but illegal for me to simply pirate a copy?

In either case, I'm using a textbook I haven't paid for and my friend has still paid for it. Is it convenience that's making it illegal? If so, what if my friend was my roommate? That would take the convenience factor out of the equation since I would have easy daily access to the textbook.

A related (possibly same) question. Why is it legal to share a textbook with a couple of friends and/or strangers in person and illegal for me to share a textbook with friends and/or strangers over the internet? Aren't they essentially the same thing other than convenience? Depending on the situation, either case could be more convenient than the other.

[Assistant]
Because the First Sale Doctrine says that the publisher of a book loses physical control of the book after he sells it, after that, the purchaser is completely free to dispose of the book as he wishes (including loaning it out or destroying it).

But the law explicitly forbids copying the book without permission.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
If the arteries have pressure and veins do not, then why is the [jugular] seen as the deadly vein?

okay, so i may seem kind of ignorant here... but for some reason it isn't making sense in my brain.
If the arteries have high pressure and the veins just have the check valves in them, wouldn't that mean it'd be "more deadly" to cut the left or right subclavian or brachiocephalic instead of the jugular vein?
I feel like you hear about people whenever they have their neck cut (eg. hockey player took a skate to the jugular vein) it's always the jugular..
sorry this question doesn't make much sense.

[Assistant]
Cutting arteries is generally more dangerous than cutting a vein, your thoughts on the subject are correct. Out of the veins to *not* cut, though, the jugular(s) are pretty high on the list, since they involve the trafficking of blood back to the heart from the head (your brain using a considerable amount of blood).

The jugular veins might be relatively easier to access than some other veins (and pretty much all arteries), which might be why you hear about them more often.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [W40K] Is the God Emperor the same type of god as the chaos gods, or is he a different one?

[Assistant]
Very different. The Emperor is more akin to the Eldar gods, a deliberately created warp-presence constructed out of the fused souls of Earths Shamen. Where he differs from the Eldar, though, is that the Emperor was then bound in the body of a mortal (though he was made ageless by his immense psychic might) whereas the Eldar Gods (originally created as psychic weapons) remained totally in the Warp.

The Chaos Gods, however, were created by the gradual accumulation of strong emotions rather than any specific creation-event, and without any specific goals in the creation. There are some sects of Chaos, such as the Magi, however, who think that they can create a 'Chaos Emperor' by manifesting one of the 4 Gods in a mortal body.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Ghostbusters] "I ain't afraid of no ghost" seems a reasonable reaction to 99+% of ghosts. Other than having to wash ectoplasm out of your cloths, what if any reasons are their to be afraid of ghosts that aren't corporeal?

Outside of the movies' big-bads and their direct corporeal minions ghosts seem harmless or at worse an inconvenience.

[Assistant] They can pick up and manipulate objects. Reason enough to want to be rid of them. What want to spend all day picking up after ghosts? Also, what happens if it gets pissed? You might become a ghost yourself.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [GoT] How did Janos Slynt weasel his way to the High Table of Castle Black, What Office/Rank did Thorne give him?

[Assistant] Cant speak to his official rank/position, but Slynt was the commander of the Gold Cloaks in Kings Landing, making him a perfect choice for a seat at the high table after the Watch sustained heavy casualties at the Fist of the First Men. Hes got quite a resume, and Thorne either hates Ned Stark enough not to care about his betrayal or simply has no knowledge of it. As far as Thornes probably concerned, the Watch just got a competent and seasoned commander as a recruit. Throw him in black and sit him down at the high table.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Star Wars] How does Artoo project a fully 3-dimensional image of Leia if he only recorded her from the front?

Leia stands in front of Artoo, records her message, and leaves. But then Artoo projects a fully 3D hologram of her likeness, including a view from the sides, back, and top. We see Luke and Obi-Wan watching from various angles, and the image seems complete.

How is this possible? Is he reconstructing things out of view by light scattering off other surfaces or something?

[Assistant]
I believe that this ability to record something in three dimensions from a single recording point is why Star Wars holograms are so colourless and staticy. The technology they use seems to be similar to a camera, but it doesn't capture the floor, walls, or any colour. So, holographic recordings must be recording something other than reflected light.
Perhaps they are sonic in nature, capturing any moving object within a set field, as well as recording any sounds being made. These sound recordings are then transmitted as three-dimensional light holograms.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: Congress is responsible for billionaires not paying taxes in the USA, not billionaires.

I see a lot if complaints on Reddit about really wealthy people not paying taxes or paying a disproportionately small amount. I then see politicians in the Federal government making a big fuss about how wrong this is. Yet, it is Congress that sets the tax laws for the IRS. Instead of making laws to enforce taxation they continuously pass laws creating loop-holes and deductions that are available only to those wealthy enough to hire a team of lawyers and tax planners.

Of course, the billionaires influence Congress to create these "incentives", but in the end Congress allows it and accepts the various means of bribery used to sway their vote. Most of these very rich people are within the law and I don't think it's fair to blame them for following the tax law that allows them all these means of hiding profits. I'd guess we all do the same on our personal taxes, just on a smaller scale.

Change my view by convincing me that Congress doesn't have the ability to shun rich outside influences and create a more fair tax code.

[Assistant]
Billionaires bought off the politicians to avoid paying taxes and you blame the politicians bought off and ignore the billionaires who did the bribing? It takes two to tango.

That's why getting money out of politics in the US is so important.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: There is no shortage of a tech workforce. It's just HR/Recruiting has no idea on "how" to look for workers.

Computer Science and all of its sub disciplines (including Security) is pretty saturated, if not oversaturated. There are plenty of coders, engineers, hackers, security experts, and analysts everywhere. It's just that Computer Science is extremely different in contrast to traditional industries. HR/Recruiting treating Computer Science as a traditional industry and not having any technical knowledge ends up rejecting most of the applications (which may include extremely skilled individuals) because their resumes sound like they're listing Pokemon names.

Also, most people who have a passion for Tech really couldn't care less about "resume building" and are only concerned with the contents of their skills whereas the opposite is a massive priority for the hiring team.

Note: I know not all hiring teams are like this, but a majority of them are affected by this.

Edit: I am in no way putting the blame on the hiring individuals. They're doing their best. I just want to open dialogue to work towards the best way to approach Computer Science candidates.

Edit 2: There are some really good counter arguments in the comments. I agree that there is a shortage of truly qualified individuals and a general saturation of people who claim to be truly qualified individuals with nothing to back their claims. My view is pretty changed from all the comments. I apologise for not replying to all, but I read them all. Thank you for taking your time to responding to this post.

[Assistant]
The problem is that while there are lots of people looking for jobs who call themselves "coders, engineers, hackers" etc, most of those people are incompetent. You've got "coders" who can't fizzbuzz. "Data scientists" who don't know what it means for random variables to be independent. "Computer scientists" who can't use big-O notation to analyze even a simple algorithm like quicksort. "ML experts" who don't know what a kernel is. "Security experts" who don't know what salting is.

I could go on, but the fact is that a substantial fraction of these people don't understand thing one about the fields they are supposedly experts in. And we can't afford to give all these people technical interviews, so some filtering at the HR/Recruiting level is necessary. Even the most cursory filtering would suffice to eliminate a lot of unqualified candidates.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] If all cancer has basically the same mechanics (cells multiplying uncontrollably) why do some treatments only work on certain types of cancer?

[Assistant]
> If all cancer has basically the same mechanics (cells multiplying uncontrollably)

No, it doesn't. The underlying mechanisms are different from one cancer to another. Only the superficial effect (uncontrolled multiplication) is the same. That's the whole problem, in a nutshell.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What are neutral mesons made of?

I was reading about the different types of mesons on Wikipedia and learned that, while most of them seem intuitive - a bound state of a quark and an antiquark, there are some (such as the neutral pi, rho and omega mesons) whose composition is "(Down*antidown - up*antiup) / square root of two". What does this mean? Are they oscillating between flavors? What's the difference between the neutral pi and rho mesons if they both have this same weird composition?

It gets even weirder when I see there is no "normal" bound state of up/antiup and down/antidown yet there exist mesons made up of charm/anticharm, strange/antistrange and bottom/antibottom.

[Assistant]
Its a superposition state. If you were to perform a measurement of the quark flavors, youd get a down-antidown pair half of the time, and an up-antiup pair half of the time.

The difference between mesons of the same quark compositions are some other quantum number. For example, pions have spin 0 and rho mesons have spin 1. Because of the spin dependence of the strong force, this also means that the rho has a much higher mass than the pion.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Star Wars] Would running a lightsaber through sand produce glass?

[Assistant] It is in theory hot enough, although it would probably depend on the type of sand. Tatooine for example might not have sand made of mostly quartz like most sand on Earth is, so it might not melt into glass, and instead turn into some other mineral. You'd also want to be careful because if there's moisture in there at all touching it with your lightsaber could cause if to evaporate pretty explosively.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: In cities with grid layouts, why aren't traffic lights synchronized so that all lights on parallel roads turn green and red at the same times.

For example, all streets that run east/west would be timed the same and opposite from those that run north/south. Seems like this would help reduce gridlock.

[Assistant] Stop lights are timed according to complex studies by transit authority to provide the best traffic flow that causes the least amount of accidents. Science has shown that for the most part that means a "ripple" type cascade of the lights turning in a given direction works better than all lights in that direction going green at once.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[King of the Hill] Is Peggy Hill a good substitute teacher?

She seems to always make crazy mistakes, how did she ever make substitute teacher of the year?

[Assistant] I don't know how much correct info she manages to impart, but she's enthusiastic and the kids tend to like her. And for a sub, that's about the best you can ask for. She would be a poor teacher, but she seems to be a good sub (aside from, you know, accidental kidnappings and so on).


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why are shoe sizes separated into men and women's categories instead of one neutral scale?

I was at the mall today and went to a Footlocker just browsing shoes and then left without getting anything. However, in another section of the mall there was a Women's Footlocker selling the exact same shoes as the other Footlocker. I've bought women's shoes of the same design for myself in colors not available in men's shoes before (I'm a guy) and they fit the same exact way that the mens shoes do (gotta buy 2 sizes up in women's shoes though because I'm in the US and not sure if it's the same in other countries). So why hasn't the US shifted to one scale if both men's and women's sizes overlap with eachother?

[Assistant] Men's shoes are not only longer than women's (higher size number) but also wider than the length would strictly indicate.  In the sizes you'd ordinarily buy women's shoes, you probably wouldn't notice - but a man with size 12 feet would probably feel very pinched if he tried to wear a size 14 woman's shoe.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[MCU] who handles Hydras merchandising?

Watching Agents of Shield recently and there is one scene where Hydra commandos storm a place. All wearing Hydra insignias. It was after Winter Solider.

I was just curious is it ever explained who handles all the logistics for marketing/branding and merchandising? Even in the comic books, who makes all the suits?

Someone in the supply chain would have to know the Hydra logo is a terrorist organization at that point.

[Assistant] There are probably multiple Hydra franchises, *heads* if you will. Coordination is likely not completely centralized as that would increase vulnerability, as SHIELD discovered. Also, there would be lag in the supply chain; it may take years to switch everything over to the new stuff, everywhere.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Overwhelmed by philosophy- I feel agnostic about all of my values, and it is sickening and preventing me from doing much.

Every since I was introduced to philosophy there is this constant awful agnosticism of my personal values. I feel like love is real, but then I go out to dinner, and the people I am with all agree that polygamy is "the way of the future", and everyone there agrees, and there is this twisted feeling in my stomach bc I cannot explain love to them bc I am not in love now so I can't see forms right now, and then I start to doubt if Plato's forms even exist, or if it is just chemicals. I look online to clarify my views about philosophy of love or philosophy of sex (and these are just two example)- and there are hundreds of competing theories.

I don't know what my values are regarding love, relationships, sexuality, anymore.

I really do not know if god exists. Over the past two years- I began agnostic, went to atheist, and now I am pretty sure that there is some sort of god- whatever that word means.

I don't know how I should live. I will return to college next year, but I just hate feeling agnostic and overwhelmed by all of this.

I am seriously confused about the entire topic of metaphysics and epistemology. My philosopher professor was a materialist and a pessimistic one too- I do not know if he is right.

I have not even touched political philosophy, philosophy of science, aesthetics and value theory- and I fear it.

[Assistant]
If you want to feel better just follow Hume's advice: arguments may sound convincing, calling your pet theories into question, but at the end of the day just do what you think is right. Or, from the other end, if you are suffering from Koakowski's law of infinite cornucopia (there are always arguments for competing positions), do the same thing: do what you think is right. If a lot of people around you start saying, 'what you're doing is wrong because X' then take a minute to reevaluate what you're doing in light of X.

In the end, it doesn't matter *that* much if Plato's forms exist, reductive materialism is true or false, or whether you agree that polygamy is A-OK (don't worry: you don't have to marry two or more people if you don't want to. Love will also still exist even if it's between more than two people).

And don't worry about your doubts over the existence of a god. Doubt is a good thing. So you haven't made up your mind yet. Many people never make up their minds--they're open to change.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What created matter?

I would like to know what theories there are regarding how matter was created.

[Assistant]
There are many layers to the question, and many open questions as well.

The matter we know was created after a period which we call reheating. During the first instants of the universe, it went into a very fast expansion called "inflationary period". Once this expansion ended, the energy that drove this expansion was converted into kinetic energy and mass of particles.

These very energetic particles were in some sort of very homogeneous plasma, and as the universe was cooling down progressively, this plasma started forming bound states - neutrons, protons.. and during at time which we call recombination, the electrons combined with neutrons and protons to form atoms.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: I've been on the National Do Not Call Registry for awhile now.  I still get multiple telemarketer calls every week.  How do they get away with this?

Today I got a call from a telemarketer company offering discounts on cruise vacations to the Caribbean.  After she was done reading from her text, I promptly called  her a bitch, then hung up. (probably not the right thing to do, but it's satisfying)

The thing is, this wasn't a "survey", it was a direct sale.  When I picked up the phone and said hello, she specifically started out with selling a product.

I'm pretty sure this is illegal somewhere.

[Assistant]
Former telemarketer here,

1.      When you register on the DNC List it is only active for a certain amount of time.  After about a year you need to renew yourself on whatever website you used to register.
1.   Tell the telemarketer that you are on the DNC List.  They may be working with older information, and will have to manually take you off of their list.
1.  Never hang up on them because YOU WILL GET CALLED BACK at a later point in time.  The meaner and more ridiculous you are the more likely you are to get called back just for the LOLs.
1.    It takes up to three months for your name and number to be considered "actively DNC."  Once every quarter is usually when the big telemarketers update their information.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Marvel] Does Human torch voice gets a higher pitch when he is on flames?

When Mr. Storm turns his powers on and gets super hot the air in his lungs also gets super heated. As heated air is less dense, it makes only sense to expect Mr. Storm's voice to get a higher pitch, just like when one of us normals inhale helium.
He hasn't given us a "flame on" interview, yet. But when he does should we expect a ballerina voice?

[Assistant] The Human Torch, when using his powers at full tilt, undergoes a full-body transformation into something that works on a completely different set of physics. This is why he can only fly when fully engulfed in flame- it's necessary to extend the reality warping effect of the cosmic rays to his entire body. This means that any assumptions about what he "should" sound like in that state are completely out the window.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Star Wars] How far would one have to go back in order to single-handedly put an end to the Palpatine's plot?

[Assistant] It wasn't Palpatine's plot. Darth Plagueis needed a human as his apprentice because he saw that a human would be the ideal race as head of the republic while he ruled from the shadows. Plagueis laid the groundwork for the plan decades before Palpatine played a part. There is no stopping the plans at the early stages as they can be adjusted. At best there are numerous points where, if investigated in some form, he could be revealed and stopped.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Do animals have meal times?

Obviously wild animals are restricted by when they come up on food (and when the food is doing their easily huntable thing) and most domesticated animals are fed at interval by humans. I'm wondering if given an abundance of food do animals have a tendency to graze or do they seem to eat at the same time each day? I'd guess it would change by species but if others have more definitive answers, greater trends, or even answers about specific species I'd love to be informed about them.

[Assistant] I study monkeys, and yes there are diurnal patterns to foraging.  Depending on the species there can be 2-3 feeding peaks per day - typically midmorning, before or after the midday rest, and then right before sleeping.  It has to do with energy needed (fruit is eaten for quick sugar boosts, leaves for more protein) at various points in the day.  Can expand if you're interested!


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: why did commanders throughout history fight in the front lines?

Wouldn't that make it easier for the enemy to kill them? I know boosting morale is important but how could you ever risk your leader?

[Assistant]
Because they were often the the most effective fighting force in the field of battle.  Your typical commander was a noble, which meant:

* they had ample food and medical care as a child, making them bigger and stronger than most men
* they were trained in sword and horse almost from birth
* they had the best equipment money could buy
* they were surrounded by similarly well equipped and well trained bodyguards

So the commander didn't just lead the battle, they often served as shock troops who could turn the tide of the battle.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Im new and need help with understanding servers

So me and a friend want to make a real time strategy game with casual, practice, and ranked modes. However I would need servers to do this and dont really understand how that works and what I would need for it. If someone could explain how I could get servers for my game that would be very much appreciated.

[Assistant]
Server is generally just a fancy word for another computer. They generally have a different OS than your home pc, like using windows Server Edition instead of Windows 10, or a Linux variant.

To create and run your game, you really only need your computer running the client, and the server software at the same time. If your friend is on the same network as you, you could both actually play with the server software running on your pc.

Then when you want to make the game accessible outside your network (from your friends house for example) you would usually get a dedicated piece of hardware, or use a cloud service like AWS or Azure to host your server software and then you and your friends clients will connect to that instead.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] eli5 Why is it so easy to fall asleep when your trying to stay awake when your so tired and watching a movie but so hard when you actually want to go to bed ?

[Assistant]
All the stimulus created while you're awake makes your brain want to shut down and sleep.  When you're lying in bed trying to sleep all the stimulus is gone and your brain will be processing the day and keep you awake.

Not the scientific explanation,  but close enough.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Why isn't Chemistry the main Discipline that studies Quantum Mechanics?

[Assistant]
Many chemists do fundamental work in quantum mechanics, especially computational chemists. Platypuskeeper is a resident computational chemistry expert that could shed some light on the details of such calculations.

The issue is that the systems they deal with are very complicated, so you don't come across them until late in your degree after you've learned the mathematically fundamentals in a physics course.

That said, you do a lot more quantum mechanics in a first year chemistry class than you do a first year physics class. First year chemistry class spends it's time looking at the qualitative aspects of the Schoedinger equation and the particle in a box, which is necessary to understand orbitals and quantized energy levels for bonding. Unfortunately in first year you lack the math to go much further.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Have AA batteries actually increased a significant amount in terms of energy storage since their creation?

Since their size has never changed has the energy storage increased? Is there a maximum amount of energy that can be stored inside a AA battery?

[Assistant] Yes they have. The first dry cells were zinc carbon, and in AA form that stored about 400-900 mAh depending on use. The standard alkaline AA holds 1800-3000 mAh. Lithium batteries (not the rechargeable lithium-ion) can hold even more.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What would happen to a bank if everyone who had an account there decided to withdraw their money all at the same day ?

[Assistant] Its called a run on the bank and depending on where the bank is different things can happen. In america all deposits are insured by the FDIC so they wouldn't have your money that day but you would within a few days. This is due to the fact that the bank does not carry that much cash on any given day.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why does CO2 from carbonated drinks have that distinctive "feel" and taste, but the CO2 from my lungs doesn't?

By "CO2" from my lungs, I mean the air that I normally exhale when breathing.

[Assistant]
CO2 in Water becomes H2CO3, also known as carbonic acid. This acid form can most likely interact with some your taste receptors, hence the taste. The different feel might just be due to the many small bubbles being created in carbonated drinks.

If you were to collect and concentrate the CO2 you exhale and then incubate it under pressure with water, you would get back to the same effect.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
I feel bad for not knowing this as an engineering junior and I've kinda been blindly doing it for like 2 years now so I never thought to ask about this simple trig concept...still doesnt make sense.

Let's say I have a right triangle and where we have the adjacent and opposite sides to an angle theta which we don't know. I'll make up some numbers for how long they are.

So we have

Adjacent = 1

Opposite = 2

Theta = ????

So im like cool

tan(theta) = 2/1

then to get what theta I take the inverse tangent of 2. I know that there are other ways to solve something like this using law of sins or law of cosines...but if simply wanted to use tangent.

tan\^-1(2) = Theta and throw it in a calculator and boom im done. But can somebody explain steps why that works.  Because I thought that a trig value of some variable leads to a ratio and that within a trig expression that there has to be some sort of variable like cos(x), sin(theta).... Are you just dividing by the tangent on both sides and then you have something like Theta = 2/ tan. I just dont get why that works.

[Assistant] It seems you confuse multiplicative inverse with inverse function. The multiplicative inverse x=a^(1) is the number that solves xa=1, while the inverse function is used to solve f(x)=a: when you write x=f^(1)(a), then x is by definition of f^(1) the solution of f(x)=a. In your case, it is f=tan, a=2, x=.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Earwax

why do our bodies make it? What happens if a person never cleans his or her ears? Does eating something make a person have more or less earwax? i want to know everything about earwax. thanks.

[Assistant]
There's a lot of sensitive skin in your ear canal, and earwax protects it from bacteria and from drying out.  It's also a good way to get foreign crap out of the ear canal (sort of like how mucus in your nose gets stuff out of your nose) -- imagine a very slow moving river of earwax.

Your ear is designed so that earwax gradually dries up and flakes out, so most of the time, no cleaning is really necessary.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Any good programming side hustles?

I have a fine job but Im always looking to get into new areas and learn. Its not so much about the money I would make on the side but I feel a sense of accomplishment that I could produce software that someone buys.

Web development is an obvious but Im curios what this community does on the side.

[Assistant] my friend makes roblox games on the side. It's a kids game platform that generates more monthly users than minecraft (100m). He made over 100k usd from it within a year. The platform uses LUA as their programming language.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] Eli5: Why are horses who break their legs so often euthanized?

[Assistant]
Horses are skittish, dumb, 1200 pound balls of anxiety supported by toothpick legs.

They do not handle anesthesia very well and tend to get very panicky when they wake up. This makes them very likely to re-break their leg, break a different leg, or otherwise hurt themselves.

Allowing a broken bone to heal takes a lot of time *not* using that leg. Taking the weight off of one leg puts more weight on the others, increasing the likelihood of another break or another injury. They aren't used to long periods of not standing, walking, and running, so trying to force bed rest leads to bedsores and a panicky horse that will, again, be more likely to hurt themselves.

Because they are so panicky, if the horse gets spooked its first instinct is going to be to try to run...which it can't do, because it still has a broken leg. Either it will try to put the full force of a galloping horse onto that leg and break it again, or get tripped up by some kind of cast, fall, and break something else.

And even if everything goes *perfectly*, once the leg has been broken it probably will never be able to support the same force that it did before. The horse is likely to break that leg again, leading to another round of pain and suffering.

From an economic standpoint, it is very rarely worth the hassle. People have tried to mend legs on super valuable race horses - not to get them to race again, but just to let them breed - and it never works out well. From the standpoint of the quality of life of the animal, it's more humane to euthanize them. It will be months of anxiety and trauma and pain trying to mend the leg with a very high chance of getting injured again, leading to even more trauma and pain and a longer recovery with more chances to get injured *again*, for a slim chance at successful recovery that still won't give the horse a good quality of life and a high chance of getting hurt again.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How can a cell phone receive a 4G, 3G, 2G, 1G, and no signal in a short time (10-15 minutes) without physically moving location or orientation?

[Assistant]
A huge Pokemon-Go raid appears near your location

But seriously, there are a lot of factors that can play into signal reception.  It could be the weather, a network issue, something about objects/obstacles between you and whatever tower your phone is trying to connect to, the number of other users nearby and their data usage, internal phone operations and power consumption, and network-specific issues occurring within the tower network backbone.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How come no matter how realistic a computer generated face is, we know it's not real?

Even if I see a "hyper realistic" reconstruction of a famous persons face, or a similar situation, my mind knows it's a reconstruction, not an actual photo.

[Assistant] You do realize you don't know about the times you did see a CG human and didn't realize it wasn't real.  This happens in movies far more often than you realize.  They map a CG face over a stunt man all the time.  So this thread is telling you why the ones you caught failed.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: why reflective things (like aluminum or 3Musketeers candy wrapper) explode in the microwave.

I stupidly tried to thaw a 3 Musketeers bar when I was little... Thought about it today and wondered why.

[Assistant] It isn't because it's reflective, but rather because it's metal. Metal things conduct electricity. One effect of the microwave is to make electricity flow in anything conductive inside of it. That electricity creates sparks and plasma (a lot like lightning, but on a smaller scale), making things heat up, catch fire, or explode.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [DC] To become a supervillain, I must defeat one superhero. As an average human, who do I have the best odds against?

[Assistant] Somebody like the Crimson Avenger or the Green Hornet, for sure. They're just rich people in silly outfits. They have no powers. Pick them off with a sniper rifle. (Note: While Batman is *also* just a rich guy in a silly outfit, **do not** try to take him down. You will fail. His power is plot armor.)


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between Ashkenazi Jewish and other Jewish people?

[Assistant] There are two branches of Jewish origin following the diaspora from Israel - Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. Ashkenazi Jews are the ones who ended up in Northern and Eastern Europe... places like Germany, Poland, and Russia, and comprise about 80% of Jews today. Sephardic Jews are the ones who remained in the Mediterranean, such as Spain/Portugal, North Africa, and across the Middle East (there were even Jewish communities in Yemen and Iraq until a few decades ago). There are some differences is practice that developed over the centuries, but those have greatly diminished over the past century as Jews of both branches have ended up intermingling in the U.S. and Israel.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Aliens] why are the marines so technologically unadvanced?

Id like to see some answers besides its a 1980s movie.

We have better face cams today than they have in the movie. Several marines carry around huge machine guns, and while I understand carrying mgs in the marines, the mgs are way to big in the movie to be convenient. Why so big?

For cqc, youd think more Marines would be carrying smgs and shotguns instead of machine guns and assault rifles. Why dont they?

Why arent there robots helping the Marines in combat? Surely by then theyd have humanoid drones in the front lines of combat, or at least some for assistance.

Finally, the marines protection. This far into the future and they dont have full body combat suits to protect them?

[Assistant]
Technology developed differently in the Aliens universe.  Computers didn't take off like they did for us, instead transportation and space travel saw significant advances.
And lets not sell the Marines short here.  Those 'too big' machine guns you talk about are auto-targeting, self-stabilized smartguns that pack more punch than any man-portable weapon system ever seen.  The assault rifles are light, durable, powerful, and so intuitive that even untrained personnel can be hugely effective with them.
They did have an android along for the trip, but they don't use him in combat because that's not what he's designed for.  Marines are better at the job than androids are.
And finally, on the armor, full body combat suits are largely unnecessary in most combat situations.  They typically reduce vision and mobility, and don't end up providing that much more protection than standard infantry armor.  Certainly wouldn't have helped much against the xenomorphs.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How do people money launder through bitcoins? Don't you have to put cash in your bank to buy bitcoins? And even if that works, then when you withdrawal money from bitcoins to buy stuff isn't doesn't that raise red flags?

[Assistant]
I don't have a ton of experience with Bitcoin, but AFAIK, you can download a wallet app, meet with someone and exchange cash for Bitcoin (you pay cash, then simply transfer the bitcoin to your wallet by snapping an image of their QR code), and walk away. You completely bypass any bank, that's the entire point of Bitcoin.

Paying for things with Bitcoin is the same way.. just like paying with cash, basically. There is no central bank to monitor what you're doing.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: When youre over heating, why does it feel best to have the A/C directed on your face even though your whole body is too hot?

[Assistant]
A few reasons. Mostly:

-The brain uses about 30% of the energy stored in the human body, and the head produces about an equivalent amount of heat despite being of comparatively low mass/volume (typically the head is only 12.5% of the mass of a body)

-The head, neck, and face have a very high density of blood vessels close to the surface. Cuts to the head and face tend to bleed a LOT even when they're just superficial

-The face has such a high surface area with the nose and ears and lips, these allow for heat to dissipate faster

-Blowing cold air at the face ensures that cold air can be taken in by the lungs to cool the core

These four things combine to make the face a beautiful heat sink, just like the one in your PC.

Additionally: applying cool fluids (typically water but air could work too) to the face will engage your body into preparing to go under water, reducing your heart rate and allowing you to take slower, deeper breathing. Dipping your face and whole head if possible into cool (not cold) water is one of the fastest ways to mitigate the onset/symptoms of heat stroke.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Star Wars] How do we know what Wookiee names are when they can't even form consonant sounds? Chewbacca never said anything even resembling his own name, let alone Lumpawaroo, Mallatobuck, etc.

[Assistant]
Transliteration and mispronunciation.

Take a look at Chinese pinyin (transliteration from Chinese characters to Latin alphabet), for example. Yixing is a city in China known for its clay. Except it's name isn't Yixing, but .  The accepted pinyin spells it Yixing even though there is neither a 'Y' nor an 'X' sound. It should be pronounced -shing, except not quite. The 'sh' has a slight 'j' sound to it. It isn't uncommon to hear less knowledgeable people refer to the famous Yixing teapots as 'yix-ing.'

The 'ch' in Chewbacca could be the transliteration of a specific growl in Shyrriwook that many other species cannot easily pronounce. They picked something close and the other species ran with it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
How do I know what to read first?

Before you read Hegel you should read Kant. Before you read Kant you should read Hume. Before anyone, Aristotle.

Or should you? What I want to do is read Hegel, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Hobbes, Hume, Wittgenstein: I want to understand modern social political and philosophical ideas. But how do you know when you have to read someone before you read someone? I ended up going all the way back to Aristotle and giving myself a year's worth of reading before I even got to what I wanted! Help!

EDIT: thanks for the responses, I should just note that I'm about to start a masters in social anthropology. I'm not a 'beginner' in philosophical reading in the sense I've been doing it solo for some years, but I am a beginner in the sense I've never had training in the area, and never had a foundation of knowledge laid, I just picked up books and read them, almost at random, hence why I'm looking for an essential foundation now, or if it is necessary at all.

[Assistant] You could start wherever you'd like, and if you find yourself confused, go one step earlier, and repeat the process. If you end up confused at Aristotle, you could try Plato, at which point social and political philosophy in the West more or less bottoms out, so hopefully you aren't confused by Plato.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[DC/Marvel] Who wins the fight: Doomsday vs. Hulk ?

I am curious. I know the Hulk is stupid strong but Doomsday beat up Superman quite handily and always returns even stronger. Can The Hulk beat him up, and if so, how many times until he is ultimately defeated ( if ever)?

[Assistant]
There are two scenarios in this fight, the initial fight and the long con.

In the first fight, Hulk wins. He will just keep getting stronger and will eventually surpass Doomsday.

Now, when Doomsday wakes back up, he will be even stronger, but again the Hulk will soon surpass him, this will repeat Ad Infinium. They will fight forever, and the hulk will win every time.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
ELI5: Why can beds feel so uncomfortable while trying to go to sleep, but feel absolutely amazing when you wake up?

A lot of times, my pillows feel hard and punishing when I'm trying to doze off, but then I have mornings like this morning where I just want to lay there in their comfort all day. What causes the difference? Is it entirely mental?

[Assistant]
When you go to sleep the brain shuts down, or rather turns down your sensory perception, so you don't wake up from the feeling of your covers shifting or a fly on your arm.

When you are failing to fall asleep this sensory dulling isn't working yet. When you wake up, your senses haven't turned back up yet.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Red Dead Redemption] Was Ditch always a fool and a madman?

In the "tutorial" area of the snowy mountains, Dutch will suggest that he and Arthur have already begun to drift, saying things like "I know you haven't liked my ideas as of late." When told about the botched robbery and the murder of a girl before the start of the game, Arthur says "That just don't sound like Dutch". Dutch also says to Hosea and Arthur somewhat jokingly, "I know you two like to talk about the good ol days and what's gone wrong with Dutch."

My question is: was Dutch always a madman and Arthur has only recently been able to question Dutch, or has Dutch recently been pushed to the brink with the recent spread of modernity and desperation to hold on to the power he once had?

[Assistant]
The second. It's easy to keep people together when you're always succeeding and keeping your promises. In the wild frontier their casualties were low, their successes many, and hell even people were maybe liked them because they didn't often kill people in their daring robberies of rich people they didn't like.

That started to stop working and the entire game of Red-Dead 2 was the spiral you got to watch.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: How does soap actually kill bacteria?

[Assistant]
All soaps work by having two different properties on a single molecule (a property called amphoteric). One end of a soap molecule like to bind to water and the other end likes to bind to organic molecules like dirt and oil. Looking at the cellular side, all cells have some sort of membrane that surrounds them. This membrane is similar to how your skin surrounds and protects you. These membranes are similar to soap in that they have water and organic binding ends to their molecules. In fact, the bubbles seen in soap are very similar to the membranes around your cells.

Soap is very good at getting into and disrupting these membranes, effectively punching holes in cells. Because of this, unlike the claims of earlier posters, BOTH antibacterial and "normal" soap are capable of killing cells, although much of regular soap's mode of action is to help wash away the cells rather than outright killing them. In the case of the antibacterial soap, it often contains an additional antibiotic (triclosan), which further disrupts the cell membrane. This gives it a more potent effect than normal soap, but both are still very capable of killing a cell.

It should also be noted that recent scientific studies have claimed that there is very little, if any benefit that anti-bacterial soaps have over normal soaps. Both are just about equally effective at getting rid of bacteria.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELi5: What is White Privilege?

[Assistant]
White privilege is how things are generally better for you because you're white compared to those who aren't white in the same situation.

While you not many people these days actively think and act upon you being white just that fact you are white gives you an upper hand.

It's not so much a benefit but a lack of detriment. A good stereotype would be a black man walking towards you at night in a bad area, if he was white you wouldn't feel so threatened.

It's similar to how you have very few women in certain fields just because they're women, there are lots of fields where it's full of white people.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
CMV: Cyrpto Currency wont take over the U.S. Dollar

Its true that we the people make things as valuable as we want to. The reason gold is as valuable as it is, is because we of how much people are fascinated by it, and the things we use it for like jewelry. Things like this add value to gold. While its true that we can add value to something,  this doesnt translate so smoothly to crypto currency. Take Bitcoin for instance. What is the actual value of Bitcoin? What is its purpose? What about Bitcoin makes it so much better than the U.S. Dollar? My generation has for sure started a wave within the crypto space, but Im here to say that Crypto currency will not take over the current currency that is used in the U.S. Now can crypto currency still be used/traded? Of course. With coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, etc, you can for sure make money. This post is mainly in regard to the long term perspective. From my view, I dont see Crypto currency overtaking as the number #1 currency in the U.S. ever.

[Assistant]
>Take Bitcoin for instance. What is the actual value of Bitcoin? What is its purpose?

Replace bitcoin with "the US dollar". It's not backed by gold, making it entirely - imaginary. Just like crypto currencies.

Furthermore, cryptocurrencies are more interesting for international transactions, not intranational.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Superman] Is Lois Lane a good reporter?

I know she won a Pulitzer but no one says why.

[Assistant]
Yeah she's good. She's one of the best.

She gets all the great scoops, and you wanna know why? It's because she's not afraid to dig deep, she's not afraid to speak out, hell she's not even afraid of straight up tracking down super villains and talking to them...

Plus she's the only reporter to ever get an interview with the man of steel.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Marvel] Of all the Presidents to name your child after, why James Buchanan?

Mr. and Mrs. Barnes...what were you thinking?

[Assistant]
Sometimes people just like the way a name sounds, without any thought to the history of the person who held it.

Its probably just a case of hearing the name and thinking "you know, James Buchanan Barns has a nice ring to it, let's name him that."


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5 Why are most of the oldest companies in the world from Japan?

[Assistant]
The answers about no civil upheaval are rubbish. There were at least three rebellions/civil wars around the turn of the 20th century. Also there was this scuffle known as World War II that devastated the Japanese Home Islands.

The real reasons why Japan has so many old companies are because they heavily emphasise tradition and continuity and the widespread practice of adult adoptions. The owners of the companies would marry their daughters to a suitable heir and adopt that person into the family. With this continuity in place, you're seeing the small handful of survivors that have managed to make all the way to this age. You're not seeing the tons of failed businesses.

If you look at the list, most of them are hotels offering a traditional experience, some make traditional confectionary and the rest produce goods related to temples and religion (the two construction companies specialised in building temples, good business in a place subjected to frequent disasters). All heavily emphasise tradition and the age is a plus. You can see this too in Germany where 9 of the 11 oldest are related to alcohol where tradition is prized.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
What is python for?

So, I have a rough understanding of computer programming. I was into it like 15 years ago, but got distracted by life. But for the life of me, I can't understand what python is for or why it's so valuable.

What do you do with it? I'm familiar with like machine code, or robotics programming with like C# or something like that, or M-Code...

Java (I think) is for making gui's, html is for making the functional linking of pages and elements... But what is python for?

I'd love a reason to learn it, but I won't buy a tool I don't know how to use.

[Assistant] So, Python (just like Java or C#) can be used for a lot of things including Ml/Data Science, Webapps (Django, Flask) or even GUIs. It is a dynamically typed language and is actually much slower than C but has some other advantages over it. It is easier to learn and you don't really have to buy it.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Infinity War/Endgame] did Thanoss armor ever actually protect him? How is it that hes quicker in his armor than when hes not wearing it?

[Assistant]
thanos had infinity stones when not using his armor, and because of that, he changed up his fighting style.

with infinity stones, thanos can fight up-close, mid-range, as well as long-distance. he had a more patient temperament than he did in 2014, and he wasnt even attempting to kill many of his foes, only defeat them.

without any stones, he has to get up close. with a lack of ranged attacks and versatility in combat, he has to move faster, react faster to everything around him to be effective.

thanos has always been that fast, and the armor does protect from a lot of damage. its just that with infinity stones and a protective gauntlet to hold them, armor and speed are no longer necessary.

TL;DR: thanos is always that powerful/fast, he just didnt feel like giving it his all when he had the most powerful artifacts in the universe.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Warhammer 40,000] How fast do Tyranid fleets travel when moving from star system to star system?

[Assistant] Within a star system they have to travel at normal sub-light speeds, so pretty slowly. Between star systems they have a specialized ship that can fold space ahead of the fleet to greatly reduce the distance needed to be traveled, but this does not work near strong gravitational fields.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
[Rick and Morty] what happens if Mr.Meeseeks fails his one job?

Example, I ask MM to deliver my favorite mug from A to B without letting it be destroyed, half way through it breaks somehow, now what?

[Assistant] There is no more mug to move so he disappears. You have to give him something abstract to do if you want him to fail and go crazy. Like, give him a shovel and tell him to fill in the Grand Canyon or fix California's water table.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Australia's dollar is worth more than USA's yet we are still paying nearly double for almost everything, can someone explain this to me like i still wet the bed.

I understand that shipping and freight costs some money but i do not believe it justifies a 50% markup. I'll use an example in the form of the very popular and soon to be released game, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. Today MW3 was announced for pre-order to Aussies for the ripe price of $99.99AUD. America has had the right to pre-order for a few weeks now and their price is only $59.99US. Just to be clear, the prices are from Steam, a digital delivery system that allows gamers to get their games through the internet. As you can see, the prices reflect a 40% difference for no real reason, especially since the Aussie dollar is worth more than the American dollar. Now that is just one example but there are thousands of others.

[Assistant]
Prices are largely set by how much you'll pay. You used to pay $100 for games, and so the people who sell them to you have no reason to reduce the price unless people stop buying it.

Also, unless your (average) cost of living has increased or your (average) wage has decreased, then the price of the USD (which is variable) doesn't really affect you.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5:How does a sweet scent (such as in soaps or perfumes) smell, but not taste sweet?

[Assistant]
Naturally occurring sweet items such as fruits and berries, have a semi sweet smell to them to help lure animals towards them, consume them, and then proceed to spread their seeds and make new plants. Part of what makes them enjoyable is the taste. This association of sweet smell = sweet taste from an evolutionary standpoint helps to ensure the survival of the species.

In things such as soaps and perfumes, that may or may not contain the same chemicals/plant based ingredients, there are other chemicals that have tastes that far outweigh that of the 'sweet scent' on your tongue. Usually these are chemicals meant to make the smells and product last a long time.

In products that don't contain the plant/sweet item derivative, they chemically reproduce something that is close to the original to pass it off as the same or similar smell. These chemical reproductions of scents generally won't taste good unless taste is also a factor considered in the development process.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Marvel] Why is Black Panther considered the world's richest person at a net worth of 90.7 trillion dollars when vibranium isn't at all a liquid asset, and turning his vibranium completely into cash would be economically impossible and render it worthless?

[Assistant]
None of the world's richest people keep their assets liquid. If you make that a requirement, it will completely change the list.

 It's possible that the 90.7 trillion was calculated by finding the present value of if he keeps selling it at the optimal rate and estimating how much that changes its value. Or it might have been calculated by multiplying the current value by the amount significantly overestimating its true value, but taking all that into account he's still likely the richest.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User]
Why do such small amounts of matter have such huge amounts of energy contained in them?

For example, the 'little boy' boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima converted under a gram of matter into a city leveling blast. Are all materials equal in energy output or do some release more energy than others?

[Assistant]
It's actually even less mass doing the work than you think.

This is part of E=mc^2  which defines mass and energy as equivalent. Basically, in the large nuclei that fissile material in bombs have, there is a certain amount of mass that is converted to Energy to bind the nucleus together. Different atoms have different binding energies, so when the nuclear reaction takes place and the atom is split into two smaller atoms the excess mass is converted to energy.

If all of the mass of the material were converted, the blast would be considerably bigger.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: If pills dissolve in liquid then how do pills with liquid on the inside not dissolve on it self?

[Assistant] Pills with liquid on the inside are made with a coat thats nonpolar, whereas the liquid inside is polar (think of water and oil and how they dont mix). That means that the liquid is incapable of dissolving the coating.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Addams Family] Are the Addams actually a family of serial killers or are they just really into morbid aesthetic?

[Assistant] Addam's family values someone refers to Fester as a Lady Killer and Gomez quickly says Acquitted. They also bake a stripper in a cake and everyone laughs about it. They have uncle Nick Nack's body in the attic too. They watched and laughed as Debbie fried alive too. So probably yes to actual murders. If you read the original comics they were a little less death oriented but it's still implied.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] [Game of Thrones] Can you kill a White Walker by grinding up dragon glass into powder, and then throwing it on their face like pocket sand?

[Assistant]
Probably not. They need to be injured or penetrated by the dragon glass. It needs to stab them or pierce skin.

While inhaling the powder might do the trick, there is no real evidence these guys even breathe since they never speak. ~~I dont even remember if they make any kind of growling or roar.~~

edit: apparently they have screeched and roared before but i will still posit that they dont need to breathe.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] ELI5: On the road, why do we have speed bumps instead of speed grooves?

[Assistant]
Several reasons:

* Its easier to add a bump on top of an existing road surface than it is to dig a groove into one.
* Bumps do not retain water, and so do not suffer damage associated with it (e.g. freezing).
* Bumps are more visible at a distance than grooves.


[System] Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:

[User] eli5 If we sweat to cool our bodies down, then why do we have cold sweats?

[Assistant] They are generally part of your fight or flight mechanism, when you have a shock your body prepares for a burst of activity, knowing that if you do have that burst of activity you will need to cool down it gets ahead of the game by sweating before the activity takes place.