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

[User]
Where does the energy come from to facilitate gravity?

I hope this isn't a silly question with an obvious answer, but it's something that I thought of recently which I can't figure out. If one object lies within another's gravitational field, they will move towards eachother, right? But of course, for any object to move, it requires energy. And that energy has to come from somewhere. But where does it come from in this case?

To use the real-life example that made me wonder this. There's a clock in my lounge room which is one of those old-fashioned style one that uses weights. As the weight is pulled down to the earth by gravity, it moves the gears in the clock to make the clockwork operate. Every now and then you have to reset the weight when it gets to the bottom of the chain. But aside from that, it just seems like you're pulling energy to power the clock out of nowhere.

This feels like something that should have an easy enough answer that I ought to know, but I can't figure it out. Can someone explain this to me?

Edit: Oh wow, I didn't expect so many responses, haha. So much reading.. But I understand a lot more about gravity, and even energy now guys. This is interesting stuff. Thanks!

[Assistant]
You basically gave the answer yourself. Every once in a while you have to reset the weight. What you are doing then is increasing the distance between the weight and the earth and by that you are increasing its energy. We call that energy potential energy.

When the weight slowly falls down again as it powers the clock, its potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy.


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

[User]
ELI5 : Why lawnmower mufflers suck

Car/Truck mufflers do amazing work muffling noise. A car is nearly silent when running with a muffler, compared to what it would sound like with open manifolds. When I fire up my Honda push mower, the whole neighborhood knows about it, and it's actually kinda quiet as mowers go. So eli5 :  Why can't lawnmower mufflers work like automotive mufflers?

[Assistant] Well a car muffler is about 100x larger. That's why. The sound bounces around way longer before exiting the muffler. If you attached a larger muffler on a mower it would be quieter, but it would also be more expensive and  much heavier to push around.


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

[User] ELI5: What happens in the body after eating a grease smothered meal, and how does the body adjust to constantly eating greasy foods?

[Assistant]
Grease is liquefied fat. You need the molecules and compounds in the fats to make nerves, connective tissue, and hormones.

The liver produces bile and the gallbladder stores bile. When you eat greasy foods your gall bladder releases vile into your stomach to break fats down into their base compounds.

If you eat too much fat the liver will turn it into glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis and you can either burn it or convert it into human fat for later use.


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

[User]
ELI5: what causes the spins? Or, rather the feeling of spinning while intoxicated; especially on THC and alcohol at the same time?

I, and others that I know, have experienced the spins, spinning feeling, from consuming alcohol and THC together in varying degrees. Why does one experience this, and why do these substances cause it?

[Assistant]
Your body has three ways of measuring position and movement.

Your inner ear is coated in little hairs that sense the movement of fluid. Your eyes can see what's going on. And your body can feel through touch.

With three systems, your brain is normally pretty happy as long as two of them agree. If you close your eyes, the other two systems still know what's going on so everything is still good.

As others have said alcohol messes with your inner ear system. While your eyes are open your eyes and touch both still know what's going on so you don't feel too bad.

When you're lying in bed and close your eyes, you now only have one working system, touch. Your eyes are telling your brain nothing, so it ignores them. Touch is telling your brain that you're lying on your back. Your inner ear is telling your brain you're on a rollercoaster, so that gets fed into the calculation and you feel like you're spinning.

That's also the reason why you feel mostly fine when your eyes are open, and horrible when you close them.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are steering wheels on buses positioned more horizontally than vertically?

Why are steering wheels on buses positioned more horizontally than vertically?

A friend casually raised this issue the other day over lunch and it stuck with me. I assume it has something to with better handling but I don't know for sure.

[Assistant] Its for leverage. If power steering fails, youll be able to turn easily if the steering wheel is in the horizontal plane. Notice how they are bigger for this reason. The simplicity in design other comments suggest its just a bonus, one extra joint its not big deal nowadays.


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

[User]
Why exactly do economists dislike corporate taxes?

...and what would they propose to replace in order to raise revenues for the government? Would this amount be significantly more than purely corporate taxes? Why are they not simply taxed on gross income? How is it considered 'inefficient'?

I have heard of a consumption tax, would this be something like Value Added Tax?

[Assistant]
The reason economists don't like corporation tax is that it distorts investment in the economy. The very simple example is that if you imagine a firm has a profitable venture () with probability (p) of being successful and cost c to attempt, then the firm will invest if:

E(p)>c

Adding a tax distorts the left hand side of the equation and reduces the potential gains of the project being successful, and therefore stops firms from investing in otherwise profitable ventures. The reason this is bad is that all investment (savings) is for future consumption, and thus distorting investment (savings) function reduces consumption in the long run. It's also why a progressive consumption tax is popular among economists, because it causes the least distortion in behavior. Other popular taxes are pigovian taxes (ones that fix an externality) such as carbon taxes. Finally, another popular tax is a Land Value Tax.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are combat boots better than hiking or running shoes in a warfare?

I am reading a lot about the RU logistical nightmare during the current war in UA. With all those additional hundreds of thousands of troops being mobilized, it seems they cant even afford to properly equip the ones already on the warfare. I have even seen soldiers that are wearing sneakers instead of combat boots.

My question is, why does it matter? Especially in a warmer months. Why cannot all soldiers just wear the trail running shoes or basic hiking shoes. How can it be that worse then proper military boots? Cannot it be even better, since it is usually lighter and more comfortable?

[Assistant]
A couple of reasons.

Combat boots are better at keeping your ankle from twisting.  Sneakers are great on a flat road, but not when you're running through uneven terrain.

Combat boots are much better at keeping water, rain, snow, etc., out.  Sometimes, a soldier has to keep his shoes on for days at a time, and trench foot is really nasty and can permanently cripple a soldier.

A sharp piece of metal (common in battlefield conditions) can pierce the bottom of a running show or slice through an unprotected ankle, so combat boots help protect from such hazards.

Boots also help against other hazards, such as snakebites, insect bites, walking through thorns or poison ivy, walking through disease-ridden swamps (or even pools of blood), etc.


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

[User]
[The Simpsons] How does everyone tell the difference between animation (like Itchy and Scratchy), and live action (like McBane)?

I would think that if animation mirrors their reality almost 100%, as to make it nearly indistinguishable from live action, then the Itchy and Scratchy cartoons would traumatize children much in the way that watching a real live cat getting tortured in our world would traumatize us. So there must be a visual difference between the two that we do not perceive. What does it look like to them?

[Assistant] animals in the Simpsons universe aren't anthropomorphic so there's that to start with, Itchy and Scratchy also follow traditional 'cartoon' physics (ie over the top violence, pull giant weapons from their pockets, burst their eyeballs out of their head when scared/surprised etc)


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

[User] eli5: Why can't you use licensed music on YouTube or Twitch but can when posting a video on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok?

[Assistant]
Tiktok pays money for some songs to be licensed on their platform. You won't be able to find every song there, but there are quite a few.

Other platforms generally do not pay for licenses and instead usually allow royalty free music where the artist has agreed that they don't need money for the music to be available.


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

[User] Can someone give me a quick and dirty explanation of what neutrinos are and how they operate in the universe?

[Assistant]
Neutrinos are little bits of practically-nothing that the universe uses to balance its books. Whenever an interaction occurs in which angular momentum would not normally be conserved, the universe tosses a neutrino onto the table as a way of making change.

Look, you *said* you wanted quick and dirty!


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

[User]
Is a hot sauce only going to be as hot as the spiciest ingredient?

I understand the heat of a pepper is determined by the capsaicin concentration, but some companies promote their hot sauce by explaining it's a blend of multiple peppers. Wouldn't the sauce only be as hot as the hottest ingredient?

[Assistant] Yes. The spiciness will only be determined by capsaicin concentration. But people also like the consistency and taste of their hot sauce. Different peppers have different tastes. So blending certain peppers together will taste better than just a jar of pure capsaicin.


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

[User]
What would Baudrillard have to say about all the live action Disney remakes?

Copies of copies of copies?

[Assistant]
He would consider them incredibly meaningless. Especially the new Lion King remake since it is just a rehash on an old and succesful idea.

He goes more into his theory that would support this argument in *Simulacra and Simulation* (1981) in case you didn't know. Wisecrack also has a video explaining his theory with *The Big Bang Theory.*


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

[User] [lotr] Are the members of the fellowship aware that Gandalf is a 1000 year old spirit or something?

[Assistant]
Legolas almost certainly is, as the Elves in general are much more aware of his true nature as one of the Maiar. At the absolute bare minimum they know he isn't human.

Gimli is harder to say, though likewise he's probably aware that there's more to Gandalf than seems. Seeing as Gandalf adventured with Gimli's dad to reclaim Erebor and all.

Aragorn probably knows what's up too, as he's a Ranger and also has deep connections with the Elves. And he has some previous connections with Gandalf.

Boromir is a bit more iffy. He might just think Gandalf is a wizard and nothing special.

The Hobbits are probably pretty oblivious.


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

[User]
[Tolkien] What is Sauron's end goal, anyway?

I've heard a lot that he's obsessed with order and control. Say he gets the ring back and completes himself once more and uses that power to find the rest of the ring bearers, bring them, and in the darkness bind them, and then his army spreads out and conquers all the lands of Middle Earth. What does he do then? Is there some Great Work he seeks to accomplish?

[Assistant]
>...it had been [Sauron's] virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. ...though the only real good in, or rational motive for, all this ordering and planning and organization was the good of all inhabitants of Arda (even admitting Sauron's right to be their supreme lord), his 'plans', the idea coming from his own isolated mind, became the sole object of his will, and an end, the End, in itself.*
>
>\* [footnote to the text] But his capability of corrupting other minds, and even engaging their service, was a residue from the fact that his original desire for 'order' had really envisaged the good estate (especially physical well-being) of his Subjects'.

So no. No great work. No real "master plan" to speak of. Sauron became so fixated on the planning and organization that the plan itself became the goal, rather than merely the means to achieve some larger end goal.


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

[User]
[1408] Why not have a fake room prepared?

The manager of the Dolphin goes through a whole verbal argument, bribery, risks  legal consequences, all possible ways of warning people not to go into 1408. Why not just set up a fake 1408?

Just change the numbering scheme of the rooms for the floor, shift them all by a couple of numbers (he mentions 1404 has the same layout) and don't rent out the real 1408. Set up a show of "no we possibly couldn't" when someone shows up to check out 1408 and then give them the keys to the fake room.

People only ask for this room specifically bcs it's infamous. No one will notice that a random room in a giant hotel isn't being rented.

[Assistant]
I don't know if the answer is different in the movie, but in the short story the room is haunted just because it's a room located on the 13th floor, and the numbers in its room number add together to 13. So if you make a fake 1408 and call the fake room 1408, it's going to be haunted as well. You're either going to end up with two haunted rooms instead of a safe, fake room that you can put people in, or the hauntings are going to move to the fake room.

It's unclear if the imagination of people give the hauntings life or if the evil entities are just attracted to those numbers, but as long as people or spirits believe the fake 1408 is the real 1408, the fake 1408 is going to continue to be haunted.


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

[User]
How does radiation affect the nucleus of an atom?

In chemistry/physics, you always hear about radiation exciting electrons to higher energy levels whenever they absorb a photon.

How does this work when looking at the protons in the nucleus of an atom? I've never heard about protons absorbing photons, or having discrete energy levels. But because they are a charged particle, surely they are affected by electromagnetic radiation, right?

Any insight would be appreciated :)

[Assistant] Yes, nuclei have discrete energy levels too, but the excitation energies are typically on the order of hundreds of keV to a few MeV in low- and mid-mass nuclei. So in order to excite a nucleus, a photon usually needs to be a gamma ray or at least a hard x-ray.


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

[User] [Star Wars] During the time of the Republic, was it illegal to just be a Sith?

[Assistant]
Yes, and then no.

More specifically, in Legends there was an Anti-Sith Law, but it was repealed a little while before the start of the Clone Wars. In both canons, Mace Windu's attempted arrest of the Supreme Chancellor was basically deemed unconstitutional. Of course, Windu was actually arresting Palpatine on conspiracy, not on the basis of his religion.


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

[User]
ELI5: Skin colour relating to sunburn susceptability.

If darker colours absorb heat/light and lighter reflects, why is it harder for darker skinned people to get sunburn?
Wouldn't absorbing the energy from the sun make you burn more?
Has it got something to do with uv being outside of visible light spectrum?

[Assistant]
The darkness of your skin comes from a pigment called melanin. The darker your skin, the more melanin in it.

Melanin absorbs UV radiation, it's the thing the damages cells which leads to sunburn or in worst cases to cancers/tumors.

Think of the dark pigmentation in your skin as an umbrella against rain. The umbrella gets wet, but it protects you underneath it. Melanin gets hit by radiation, so that the vulnerable stuff beneath it doesn't.

Do note, even people with a lot of melanin will burn in the sun eventually. It's resistance, but not absolute protection. An umbrella won't save you from a typhoon.


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

[User]
I think parents should be held more accountable for the behavior of their offspring, CMV

Parenting has a dramatic effect on a child's outcome in life.  I think we should have a system in place that reflects that.  If your child is good, you reap benefits.  If the child harms society, you don't.

Let's give parents a tax break (or EITC) that varies accordingly to their child's earnings, or something.  If the child is convicted of a criminal offense, the money decreases.

[Assistant] How do you account for many parents being in a better position to raise children than others? What about children with disabilities (physical and mental)? How about the simple fact that children aren't robots? While parents can influence them, they're ultimately their own conscious beings who make their own decisions.


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

[User] If we turned off every electrical light in the whole world, would light pollution go away instantly, or take time?

[Assistant]
Light would dissipate at the speed of light - so it would appear instantaneous to humans to the extent that photons would stop bouncing off of the air and traveling back to eyeballs in a fraction of a fraction of a second.

You probably wouldn't immediately see a wonderful dark sky, though, because human night vision takes time to acclimate to dark. The rods in your eye contain a protein which is destroyed by energetic light (not by low energy red light, importantly). When that protein in your rods is destroyed by a photon, it sends a signal to your brain, allowing you to construct a gray-scale image (night-vision is color blind!). Rods are much more efficient in detecting photons than are the color-sensitive cells in your eye, the cones. In bright light, all of the light-sensitive proteins are destroyed and they take about half an hour to build back up completely. So in half an hour or so, the effects of light pollution on your sight of the night sky would be gone.


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

[User]
If looking further into space means looking back into time, can you theoretically see the formation of our galaxy, or even earth?

I mean, if we can see the big bang as background radiation, isn't it basically seeing ourselves in the past in a way?
I don't know, sorry if it's a stupid question.

[Assistant]
The stuff that we're seeing in the distant past is also really far away.  To see something, say, a billion years ago, it has to be far enough away that its light traveled toward us for a billion years.  So we're not seeing our own past, we're seeing the past of other stuff.

We can't see our own past this way because the light from our past is moving away from us, so we'll never see it.


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

[User] ELI5 - How does a rice cooker know when the rice is done?

[Assistant]
It depends on 3 things.

1. As a rule of thumb rice is done when all the water is boiled off.
2. When water is boiling it keeps the thing at 100C, any more energy just makes more water turn from liquid to gas.
3. When a magnet gets too hot it gets less sticky.

So they have a magnet that's holding a electric connection to the heater that cooks the rice.
When you press the cook tab, you hear a clunk, that's the magnet sticking.
The water in the cooking part with the rice starts boiling, when it's gone the temperature starts going above 100C.
That temperature makes the magnet less sticky and it falls off, breaking the connection with the cooking parts.

That or it's a boring temperature sensor and a microchip.


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

[User]
When adding salt to a mixture of water and ice, why does the temperature drop?

So far I've understood that at 0 degrees celsius, there is an equilibrium between the ice and water that remains largely the same in ideal conditions. Salt binds up some of the liquid water molecules, making it harder for the ice to freeze the solution seeing as there are fewer free water molecules to freeze. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) This causes a freezing point depression.

* Why does adding salt cause an almost instant temperature drop?
* Salt is used to melt ice, so wouldn't the temperature drop freeze the water, or is the temperature drop still above the new freezing point?

I'm asking because of a small-scale experiment where I mixed snow, water and lastly ice; the temperature dropped very fast.

[Assistant]
The temperature drops because the system is in equilbrium between the solid and liquid states of water, and in the presence of salt the liquid can exist at lower temperatures.  That is one of several properties called "colligative properties" of liquid solutions.  The mechanism is that the dissociated ions in the dissolved salt solution pull at the polar ends of the water molecules on the boundary between solution and solid, breaking the hexagonal crystalline structures that make the ice solid. (Edit: Note that the ions don't remain affixed to the water molecules, they only change the dynamics that are going on at the solid/liquid boundary.  Thanks, arble, for pointing that out.)

The reason the solution drops in temperature is that it takes energy to remove a water molecule from an ice crystal.  That energy comes from the kinetic energy of the surrounding liquid water molecules: when a water molecule is lifted from the ice crystal structure, it leaves with less speed than the impacting water and salt molecules that knocked it out.  Eventually, the average kinetic energy of the liquid water is less than it used to be (i.e. "the water is colder").

The temperature drop is rapid because (A) the heat of fusion of water is large (i.e. it takes a *lot* of energy to pull the water molecules out) and (B) the system is tightly coupled thermally, since it is after all an ice-water bath.

Contrariwise, if you flush the liquid salty water out and replace it with distilled water, the distilled water will freeze against the extra-cold ice, and warm up the system to 0 degrees C by releasing kinetic energy as the water molecules snap into place in the ice crystals.

Using salt to melt ice on a sidewalk depends on the fact that the sidewalk is in a large approximately-equal-temperature environment.  The sidewalk cools well below 0C right away, and begins absorbing heat from its (presumably near-freezing) environment.  That is different from an ice-cream maker or similar system, because in an ice-cream maker you isolate the ice cream and icy brine from the environment, to prevent it absorbing energy from outside.


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

[User]
How come earth is magnetic even though earth's core is above the Curie point (Temperature where nothing is magnetic) ?

Does it have something to do with the pressure or something ?

[Assistant]
The Curie point refers to permanent magnetism, where half filled outer electron shells allow an atom to be magnetic. When the atoms in a substance are aligned such that their individual magnetic fields are in the same direction, the substance is magnetic (see ferromagnetism for more details). Above the Curie point, this breaks down, because the atoms won't stay aligned.

The earth's magnetic field, on the other hand, is created by dynamo action--that is, the flow of electrically conductive fluid (the outer core). This is driven largely by rotation and convection, which creates circulating electric currents, and thus, a magnetic field. The sun's magnetic field is created in a similar way, only with plasma instead of magma.


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

[User]
[WH40k] I was a member of one of the traitor legions when the heresy kicked off. After seeing what chaos does to people, I realised I may have been on the wrong side of that one. What are my options?

I didn't really want to turn against the Emperor, but my brothers were all pretty keen on it and I didn't really want to go against them. I think I'm free from taint and haven't received any "gifts", so if I want to get out of this business what do I do? Do I hand myself in to the Inquisition? Do I try to join the Deathwatch and hope nobody asks where I came from? I hear those Tau guys can be pretty welcoming.

[Assistant]
Find other like minded individuals in your chapter. Make sure you purge all records your existence from the traitor legion. Find some backwater imperial world, and pretend you are a new founding chapter. Come up with a name that sounds really loyalist, anything involving Blood and Raven should be fine.

And since you are technically not an officially sanctioned chapter, you will often find yourself short on supplies. So you might need to "acquire" war-gears through more creative means.


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

[User]
Why do dogs play with the toys we buy them? A squeaky ball, a squeaky, plushy thing, etc?

I understand dog need stimulation and are playful and a lot of their behavior goes back to their genetics, to their ancestors, things they would or use to do in the wild before domestication.

My question is, why do they find amusement in a rubber ball that squeaks? My dog for example loves this squeaky rubber ball, she fetches it like most dogs, but what gets me is that she can spend hours on end walking around the house squeaking it non stop. She will lay down with it and bite down on it every few seconds so it squeaks, walk around the house from room to room with the ball in her mouth squeaking.

It doesn't annoy me, I am just curious as to why they do this. Is it because it possibly resembles an animal, a prey she thinks she caught so she walks around with it proudly. But why squeak it, I mean she obviously understand the concept that if she bites down, it will squeak, so she repeats it over and over.

This sounds like a dumb question, but I am genuinely curious. Or am I just over thinking this, and the dogs just see it as a toy to play with, nothing else?

[Assistant]
Do you ever repetitively click a pen?  Or jingle the change in your pocket?  Or chew your nails?  Or throw a baseball with a friend or your kid?  Or play with a stress ball?  Or... Or... or... or... Why do people do those things?

I think you're right that you're probably over thinking it and it's just a toy.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What are some good nsfw spells and potions that every adult wizard and witch should know?

I just graduated from Hogwarts and going steady with my boo from Beauxbatons.. What are some good potions and incantations that I should put in my repertoire?

[Assistant]
Well, engorgio can be used for more than just the obvious. For that matter, so can reducio.

Polyjuice potion *might* be illegal, but it will absolutely spice things up. If you're creative enough, any transfiguration, up to and including ducklifors can be used in the bedroom.


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

[User]
How is Bataille viewed nowadays?

I know this is a pretty open question but I don't really have a more specific one, about a particular concept of any sort. I've read "Story of the Eye" and parts of "Literature and Evil" and "Erotism" and while that isn't much, especially on the philosophical part of his work, I know that there is a philosophical part and would like to know how it is viewed. Thanks.

[Assistant] Pretty much any big name in 20th century French (continental) philosophy was influenced by Georges Bataille; but if we look at two trends sometimes called 'affirmative' (think Nietzsche) vs. 'negative' (you might put Adorno here) philosophy, it's fair to say anyone in the negative group has some debt to Bataille even if they don't know it. Some thinkers who have been pretty explicit about this influence are Nick Land and Alain Badiou. He definitely has a lot of respect in the continental tradition although he's a little bit of a 'background character'--his influence is sweeping and undeniable but he's rarely named explicitly.


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

[User]
Explain the whole voter ID controversy in the US.

Saw one of my more conservative relatives railing about how you're considered a racist now for supporting voter ID. I have something of an idea of what it's about, but haven't done much research.

[Assistant]
Basically, IDs take time to get. The most common one is a drivers licence, but not everyone needs to drive. Some don't have cars, some are too old to drive, some are still in college and don't need to drive (or are from another state originally and have not converted their licence).

These demographics, the very old, the very poor and students are disproportionately democratic. The very poor also has the added effect of being disproportionately less white than the population at large (which is part of what makes the group much more Democratic than Republican).

So voter ID laws will have the effect of decreasing turnout by making it more difficult to vote. And those that will be less likely to vote are disproportionately Democratic and disproportionately not white. Some say the point is influenced by the latter, that it is racially motivated. But it is more likely to the former.

Now to be fair, supporters claim that this crackdown is in response to voter fraud. But such fraud just doesn't happen in any major degrees. In Ohio there were only 9 cases of the 3.8 million votes cast in 2010. Florida doesn't have a single reported case for that election. So while preventing fraud is the stated goal, its effect will swing states a small percentage towards Republicans that in part reduces the amount of minorities who vote. Weather that makes it racist or political is an argument to be had.


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

[User] ELI5: What exactly do game studios have to do to port a game made for console to PC?

[Assistant]
Games are computer programs. And computer programs are written as a series of commands that humans can understand, like 'jump character ' in so called 'high level languages'. These are then converted by a program called a 'compiler' to a series of 1 and 0 called 'machine code', which is what computers can process.

Depending on the the specific capabilities and design of the computer you wish to run the program on, there are different compilers.

For example, on one computer, the command for 'jump character' may translate to a machine code '01001', while on a different computer it may be '10011'. On still another computer, there may be no 'jump character' instruction at all. Rather there is instead a command 'move character up' and 'move character down'. A jump would rerequire moving the character up and down really fast.

These changes have to be made by the creators of games to ensure that their game runs on a different computer. The process is called 'porting'. Porting can be very hard or very easy depending on the specific design and high level langiage platform that the games are written in. It also depends on how similar or different the two computers which are being targeted are in terms of capabilities.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some spicy foods felt in the mouth (i.e. hot sauce) and some felt in the sinuses (i.e. wasabi?

[Assistant]
There are two different chemicals at work, capsaicin in many hot sauces/peppers, and allyl isothiocyanate in mustards (what we call wasabi is usually actually horseradish, as an aside).

The latter is more volatile, it evaporates more readily in the mouth and travels up into the nose with air. The former tends to stay a liquid and so is less inclined to do so. However, if you've ever sneezed after taking a big hit of hot sauce, you will discover that it definitely *can* be felt in the nose if you get it there.


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

[User] [Devil May Cry] Surely being a demon hunter must be a highly-sought after service. But how come Dante is always broke?

[Assistant]
I can't remember a single instance of Dante getting paid for his work in the series as typically his benefactor is planning on double crossing him, sacrificing him, using him as a bargaining chip, waste his time and energy and so forth.

Let's look at 3, he isn't technically hired by anyone and his only ally Lady was his enemy at one point, same with Virigil.

I mean his shop is usually trashed in the games and he must spend inordinate amounts of money on it being

A. In the city

B. Full of pizza

C. Full of music equipment

D. Full of arms and artifacts

We can also see in DMC (the bad one) that he lives in a trailer park, which is just as trashed as his shop was.


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

[User]
ELI5:How can a single wire in Coaxial cable carry so much information? Hundreds of channels, internet, and voip service in my case.

The single wire hooks into the cable box and it sees like a thousand different channels; it hooks into the modem and handles all the internet traffic from as many devices as I can attach to my network.

[Assistant]
Superposition.

Basically, waves at different frequencies don't interfere with each other.  You can have one signal at 100khz, another at 110 kHz, on and on down the spectrum until you hit the maximum and minimum frequencies the wire is capable of carrying.


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

[User]
CMV: Video games should not have a standard price.

Before I explain my opinion I want to make it clear that I have little to no knowledge about: video games financing, video games development, pricing systems and exactly to which kinds of games this applies to. So please, do blast me with facts and maybe I will change my view accordingly.

Basically here is what I'm saying:

Almost all the games I buy (specifically AAA games) cost the same. I don't really have a problem with the price, I think that taking to account how much I enjoy video games and how much time they last the prices are relatively fair. What I don't get, and maybe because of my lack of knowledge of the field don't agree with, is that very different games from very different studios and publishers have the same price.                                                                                Is it really possible that a game like the new "GOD OF WAR" and a game like "FIFA 19" took the same amount of resources to make, and is it possible that they are worth the same price? (1.not trying to shit on FIFA just what popped to my head 2. maybe FIFA is a bad example because they pay copyright or something, feel free to yell at me as long as you get the point).                                                                                In my opinion video game prices should vary like other products according to what it cost to make them and how much people will be willing to pay for them.

* When I say "will be willing to pay for them" I mean like how people are willing to pay a lot of money for Beats headphones or Iphones even though they sometimes know they don't cost a lot to make.
*  I know my view stumbles when considering movie ticket prices buy I do think it's different, if need be I will try and explain why in the comments.
*  I know that worldwide the prices between the games I'm talking about are not exactly identical, but they are very close so to me it's negligible.

Why I think varied video game prices are a good thing:

*  People would have more freedom to choose games that cost less and so whoever sets the price for a video game will have an interest in making it cheaper.
*  If gamers would know the prices can change according to expenses or "game value" they will be able to protest certain prices and lead to change.
* I think it just makes sense and to the best of my knowledge that's how most products are priced.

So without wasting more of your time, please enlighten me and change my view, convince me that there is a logical and fair reason why most "big" video games cost the same.  As I said I'm kind of ignorant about a lot of fields concerning this matter so if you have to tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about, do so with an explanation. Thanks.

[Assistant]
The price of a product isnt determined in relation to the production costs. The price you see is the result of the companys estimates of where exactly it is going to be able to maximize the profit function.

Therefore, it is irrelevant that God of War and FIFA didnt cost the same to make. Both companies determined that the common price of 60$ (?) was on the upper margin of what most people are willing to pay for a AAA game.

This seems to be common for AAA games. Few companies manage to put out products and build enough hype to be able to set higher prices.


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

[User]
What happens to our pupils when we sleep?

Do they dilate bigger or smaller?

[Assistant]
(Almost) doctor here.
The pupils, as well as our whole body respond to sympatic ("active mode" or fight/flight response) and parasympatic ("rest & digest mode", i.e. low stress situations) innervation.
When we are awake, and in the fight/flight mode, your heart rate and your blood pressure increase to take on the demands of what your body is about to have to do. Your hands and feet will sweat in to increase your grip. Yourpupils dilate in order to take in as much visual detail as possible so you won't miss anything.

When we sleep, our parasympatic system kicks in. Our blood pressure and heart rate decline, and our pupils become smaller (miosis) because they will not need to see anything because they will be closed for a long period of time.

Fun fact: adrenaline is a sympatic activator (or sympathicomimetic, as is MDMA, cocaine or amphetamine, thats why people who use them have major pupils (mydriasis). Opiates are more parasympatic, and so heroin users will have small pupils (so called pinpoint pupils). We look for these things when someone is brought in and is intoxicated and is not able to express himself.

Disclaimer: really late here and possibly not 100% complete answer but this is a grossly simplified answer.


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

[User]
CMV: Psyduck should be a dual Water/Psychic type Pokemon

First of all, the name psyduck is a combination of the words "psychic" and "duck."  It's own name says that it's psychic.  That seems like a pretty good reason to be a psychic type pokemon.

Secondly, it learns as many psychic type moves as water type moves.  In its original form in generation I, it learns as many psychic type moves (confusion) as water type moves (hydro pump.)  Not only that, but it learns the psychic type move at level 36, a full 16 levels before it learns a water type move.

Third, its original pokedex entry reads "While lulling its enemies with its vacant look, this wily Pokmon will use psychokinetic powers. "  This clearly makes more references to its psychicness than its waterness.  In fact, none of its pokedex entries in any generation make reference to water or water moves.

[Assistant]
In Gen 1, a bunch of things got messed up.

Just check out Butterfree / Venomoth and compare them to Metapod / Venonat.

Its pretty obvious that the art for Butterfree ended up on Venomoth and vice versa - based on what they evolved from.

Similarly, the names of Psyduck/Golduck are obviously flipped. Psyduck is Golden while Golduck is Blue? Also, Canonicially, Psyduck doesn't yet realize it has psychic powers until it evolves to Golduck. While Psyduck can use psychic powers, it cannot do so purposefully or intentionally until it evolves (this is much more evident in the anime or manga, than in the games) - hence the typing.

Finally, from a game balance perspective - slowbro and starmie are both already water/psychic - and having 3 different water/psychics in only 151 original gen 1 pokemon - may have seemed like too many.


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

[User] [My Life as a Teenage Robot] Jenny is stated to have the strength of a million and seventy men. How powerful is that really?

[Assistant]
As a unit, one manpower has been stated to be about 75 watts, or a tenth of a horsepower.

It's just math from there, so 75,005,250 watts, or 100,007 horsepower.  That's roughly the power of a GE90 jet engine, like on the Boeing 777.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are animal sounds different in different languages? How did their spellings originate?

[Assistant]
Different languages use different sets of sounds, and different ways of stringing sounds together, to make words. For example, the way an American would say the 'r' in "red" doesn't exist that way in Japanese. Another example, the way a Francophone would say the 'r' in "rouge" doesn't exist in English.

The sounds that things make, such as animals, are described differently based on the sounds of the language being used. We think cats say "meow" because that makes sense by the standards of English. Japanese people think cats say "nyan" because that makes more sense when you're working from Japanese sounds. Nyan doesn't make as much sense in English, and meow doesn't make as much sense in Japanese.


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

[User]
- and -- in console programs

Why some paraneters are prefixed with - and why others prefixed with --  when you use a console program?

[Assistant]
It doesn't intrinsically mean anything - it's up to the program author what arguments they accept and how they want to parse them.

However it's a fairly standard convention (in Unix/Linux at least) that `-` is used for short single letter options and `--` for longer options, and there is often a short and long version of the same option, e.g. you often have `-h` and `--help`.

You will still sometimes find programs which don't conform to this though, and might have an option like `-help` - only way to be sure what options are available is to read the programs help however that's available (via `man`, `--help`, a readme etc)


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

[User] [DC] Do people in the Suicide Squad ever get released or is it just a con? If they do are the bombs and tracker removed?

[Assistant]
Waller has no incentive to lie to these folks.

1. The Suicide Squad, by all rights, should not be seeing the light of day ever again.  Their crimes all merit multiple life sentences in maximum security facilities.  Dangling the carrot of a wildly reduced sentence or even a pardon ensures that these folks have hope; if you have questions about how big a deal hope can be, ask Bane.
2. The Suicide Squad is comprised of people who could have easily been Justice League members in another universe (and, knowing the multiverse, likely are).  They're more than just hardened criminals, they're hardened super-criminals.  The kind of people you *need* the Justice League to take down under ordinary circumstances.  And the way they're deployed, they're essentially a black-ops Justice League all their own.

So what you have are a bunch of super-people, who believe they have a chance at getting out of an otherwise hopeless situation, and who could also give the most powerful people on the planet a run for their money.  How do you think these people would react upon finding out it was all a lie?


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

[User] [LOTR] What if the events of "The Hobbit" never happen and Gollum still has the One Ring. What would happen with Sauron and the rest of the events of the Lord of the Rings?

[Assistant]
The Ring would abandon Gollum when Sauron began his rise to power- which it did in The Hobbit- but it would be found by an orc or a goblin instead of Bilbo.  The Orc/Goblin would put it on and easily be dominated by Sauron delivering the Ring right to him.  Saruman bows completely to the supremely powerful Sauron.
Gandalf tries to rally the Elves and the men of Gondor to stand against Sauron.   There are no Hobbits so the Ents never attack Isengard, Saruman's power is not broken.  Theoden is never delivered from Saruman's grasp because Gandalf never becomes Gandalf the White.
Sauron doesn't rush his assault on Gondor and when it does come it is much more devastating.  Minas Tirith is destroyed.  Aragorn, who went directly to Minas Tirith instead of taking the long route through Rohan, is killed.
Sauron becomes the Dark Lord of Middle Earth.


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

[User]
CMV: Unrealized capital gains should not be taxed

Ive been seeing the argument going around that the government should tax assets, instead of realized capital gains, in order to fairly extract taxes from billionaires, and thus, all investors. How can this actually to be implemented though? The value of an asset is speculative and volatile. If I was to be taxed on my stock portfolio, which fluctuates in value every second, would the tax man just tax it at an arbitrary point in time? This just doesnt seem to make any sense. I could be taxed at my portfolios highest valuation and it could drop significantly the next momentthen Id be screwed, and punished for investing in the economy, which is the opposite goal of any governments monetary policy, as the government wants to ENCOURAGE investment.

Anyway, my stance on this is that it doesnt make sense, but maybe Im missing something? Change my view!

Edit: Thank you to everyone who responded. What a lively and informative discussion! Im not sure if Ive completely changed my mind about the subject, but I am definitely not against it anymore. It seems like it COULD work.

[Assistant]
Firstly, asset based taxes are normal.  Property tax.

Secondly, while we don't know for sure since it's not current law and likely won't be, the wyden plan uses both capital losses and capital gains.  You could also be taxed at your portfolios lowest value, and losses can carry forward and so on. For every time you were screwed you also be unscrewed.


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

[User]
[asoiaf] How, in the domesticated Seven Kingdoms, is it possible for the Hill Tribes to exist in the Vale, plundering without being hunted down by the Knights of the Vale or by other official authorities?

They're almost like the Wildlings but south of the Wall.

[Assistant]
The Hill Tribes are broken, fractured, impoverished, using barely any armor or weapons of quality but what they can -- rarely -- steal. They're uneducated, lack tactics, organization, leadership, and are compared to the northern Wildlings yet unsophisticated, untrained, and frankly rather stupid. Tyrion and Bronn and Tywin played them like children. The Vale knights and cavalry are amongst the most powerful and dangerous and martially skilled forces in all of the world.

The hill tribes are the rednecks of the Vale and kept in firm check. Why the Arryns haven't simply wiped them out is probably down to simply not wanting to slaughter families whole. If this was the Westerlands, yeah, the Lannisters would've erased them by now. The tribes probably aren't enough of a problem to rise to that level.


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

[User] ELI5: When I pee, am I peeing out the water I drank recently, or the water I drank yesterday to make room for the new water?

[Assistant] When you drink water, it eventually becomes part of your blood. Your kidney regulates your blood pressure by drawing out water from the blood, which gets excreted as urine. So it's not really possible to differentiate water you drank now from water you drank earlier or even water your body produced.


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

[User] Can new photons be created by things like phone screens and flashlights or do they somehow take photons from the rest of the universe. Or, as I suspect, do I have a very flawed understanding of how light, photons, and phone screens work?

[Assistant] The total number of photons in the universe is not fixed.  New photons can be created, and existing photons can be absorbed. A flashlight or phone screen makes photons; it does not take them from elsewhere.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can dogs pick up objects from the ground so much without getting sick?

How is it possible that dogs are able to put just about everything in their mouths and eat food from the ground without getting sick?

[Assistant]
Dogs just have a more powerful/tolerant immune system regarding that kind of stuff since...well, they are still used to eat things off the ground as opposed to most humans.

If you'd were raised from birth eating stuff off the ground everywhere, you'd probably have a much higher tolerance to it too.

(Note: Please do not start eating things off the ground to train your body)


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

[User]
[Marvel] Why do most versions of Peter Parker wear their webshooters inside the costume?

Wouldn't it be more convenient if he wore them outside? Refilling on webfluid takes out the extra step of removing his gloves. Plus there's a possibility that is costume won't get 'loose' and have the fabric cover up the nozzle of the webshooter.

Spiderman not having organic webs isn't entirely a secret since he has mentioned modifying webfluid to his foes when his standard formula doesn't cut it.

[Assistant]
Having inorganic webs isn't as wide spread as you think. Most people still have no idea what his powers are. He has successfully disarmed opponents by suggesting he can command spiders with his mind. When MJ beat the shit out of Chameleon (the second, more public time) someone at the Daily suggested she might secretly be Spider-Man. It was pointed out how they had all seen Spider-Man before and there's no way someone with her curves could be, another reporter suggested it was another of Spider'Man's powers; and broke JJJ.

Point being, nobody really knows what Spider-Man can or can't do. To be frank, not even Peter knows.


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

[User] Could a bullet made of frozen blood really be more effective than a bullet made of water?

[Assistant] First of all, blood is ~80% water, so the same general problems with ice bullets still apply.  In addition to that, blood has a whole bunch of stuff dissolved in it that disrupts the formation of ice crystals and mechanically weakens the frozen phase.  So, a bullet made from frozen blood would actually be worse than an ice bullet!


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

[User]
How the sky had been at time when cosmic background radiation was mostly in visible spectrum?

I read about Redshift and the whole scale factor thing, how the wavelength of light wave coming toward us would grow up to have lesser energy and more wavelength.
I hope that's the case with Cosmic background radiation, the light has been redshifted since then and now its mostly in Microwave spectrum. It must had been amazing to see the whole sky glowing when most of it was in visible spectrum. There wasn't intelligent life to see that(duh) but pretty cool an event that would have lasted for *many* years.

[Assistant]
It was just barely visible even at the moment of emission. The cosmic microwave background, when it was emitted, was blackbody radiation corresponding to a temperature of about 3000 degrees Kelvin. At that temperature, the vast majority of the light emitted lies in the infrared spectrum. What could be seen would have been a dull orange glow, growing dimmer over time as space expanded and redshifted the light.

If you type "3000 K" into Wolfram Alpha, it helpfully gives you a little square that approximates the color of the light emitted by a black body of that temperature.


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

[User]
[MCU] Why were the government after the Pym family?

So, in Ant-Man and the Wasp, when the government soldiers came into Scott's home for unwittingly violating his house arrest, they said that they were after Hank and Hope since Scott used their tech. But why? From what I remember, Scott used the Ant-Man suit in the airport fight in Germany without their knowledge or consent(which is why Scott and Hope were on the outs), so how could the Pyms be really held accountable for anything Scott did with it?

[Assistant]
>so how could the Pyms be really held accountable for anything Scott did with it?

That's something you determine in a court of law, *after* they've been apprehended by the police.

All the government knows is that Pym tech was used in violation of the Sokovia Accords and Pym is *the* person when it comes to Pym tech. The fact that they are actively avoiding the police doesn't help their case.


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

[User]
How does a 2.1% increase in interest rates equate to a 25% increase in monthly mortgage payments?

Shopping around for new mortgage rates at the moment. Our current rate is 2.7%. The best new rate we can find is 4.8%, but the increase in our monthly payments is about 25% of what were currently paying.

Weve also added value to the property since we bought it through renovations (new boiler, floors, kitchen etc) so our loan to value is lower.

I know life is crazy expensive at the moment but HOW does this work and make sense?

[Assistant]
Lets assume you borrowed 100,000. Your interest per year is 2,700. If you are paying your mortgage back over 25 years, then you will pay (this maths isnt perfect as obviously there is a reducing balance whilst monthly payments are fixed but purely for illustrative purpose) 4,000 a year off your initial 100,000 capital. Total 6,700 per year

If interest rates were 4.8% then you would need to pay 4,800 interest and 4,000 a year off the balance which is 8,800. Or 31% more per year.


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

[User] ELI5:Rather than have two separate sexes, why are not all species hermaphroditic?

[Assistant]
Organisms that exchange genes change more per generation than organisms that don't.

As such, sexual organisms tend to evolve a lot faster relative to generation length than asexual ones.

Not only does this allow them to more rapidly exploit ecological niches and adapt to change (thus standing a better chance of avoiding extinction), but it allows them to be *more different* than their peers - which means that a lot of the biological diversity out there *is the result of* sex-driven evolution.

As with most evolutionary concepts, you kind of need to look at these things in hindsight. Species that haven't changed much over the eons... are the weird primitive things you find under rocks in ponds, because that's where they started, and they just haven't moved on.

Any species that turns hermaphroditic (there are even some lizards that have) is retiring from the rat-race, because it lives in an environment so stable that mutations allowing self-fertilization provide less disadvantage than the cost of maintaining males. This doesn't tend to happen very often - and even when it does, it doesn't tend to spread, because a stable species doesn't split into new species.


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

[User] ELI5: Is it true that if someone you love very much dies, you can also die of a "broken heart" and if so explain it.

[Assistant] Your body has a lot of hormones. When you experience a lot of stress that feeling you get is due to sudden creation of many hormones. When you are old and your heart is weak this jolt of hormones can damage your heart. And if you are fragile enough you can die. It is common to lose elderly married couples in pairs for this reason.


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

[User] Are irrational numbers irrational in all bases and number systems?

[Assistant]
Irrationality is a property of the number, not it's representation in any given base. How you choose to represent the number won't have any effect on whether it's irrational. To be clear, an irrational number is one that cannot be expressed as a ratio between two integers.

That said, in any *rational* base, all irrational numbers will have expansions that are not eventually repeating. However, one can consider *ir*rational bases, in which case there will be irrational numbers with terminating representations. For example, in base pi one can express pi as 10.


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

[User] [LOTR] If Morgoth was weakened by his great magical deeds, then were the other Valar also weakened too e.g. Creating the trees, the dwarves?

[Assistant] I would say no, the Valar created according to the song of Iluvatar.  Harmonic waves are able to travel easily, gaining strength from the underlying order, whereas Morgoth's dissonance goes counter to the holy song, like a wave crashing into another wave, requiring more energy to be created.


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

[User]
What is the difference between contempt and disgust?

I recently came across the 7 universal emotions in a lecture. Amost all of them are familiar to me with the exception of "contempt". Searched it up on google and got this definition: the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn. To me, this also sounds like disgust which is another one of the 7. So what's the difference between the two?

[Assistant] Approach vs avoidance, as well as social vs. physical. We avoid disgusting things to keep us safe and healthy. Touching a dead body is gross because it can make us sick. Contempt involves approach because it is associated with feelings of aggression. Contempt is a inherently social, as it requires another party to exist.


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

[User] ELI5: Why were fortresses often built pentagonal?

[Assistant]
Its the fewest number of sides where the defense weapons of the time (cannon) could have overlapping fields of fire.  Cannons on both walls can target the same attackers.

A 4-sided fort means each side is facing a completely different direction so they cant do that.


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

[User] ELI5: Is it possible to forcibly deflate currency by removing it from circulation or is it going to inflate infinitely?

[Assistant]
It's certainly possible, but it's something most countries really want to avoid.

Deflation incentivizes hoarding money, and widespread hording can crater an economy even faster than rampant inflation.


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

[User]
CMV: Credit limits serve no purpose to college students

EDIT:

I wasn't clear initially, so I will explain. What I meant by "necessary classes" included classes that aren't directly in your field of study (such as communications or technical writing, for example). These courses have value for obvious reasons. I was instead referring to the situation where even after all of the necessary classes are attained, you still must take random classes around the university to reach the 120 credit limit.

Original Post:

What I'm talking about here are limits like "you need 120 credit hours to graduate". Obviously you need to complete the necessary classes to get your degree, but this 120 limit often extends past what is needed to complete degree requirements.

Students pay exorbitant amounts of money in tuition, and that amount has only been increasing. So, college for most students is an investment. Why should we have to spend extra time just getting to that arbitrary number when we already know what we need to get our degree?

In my opinion, this is a scam to keep students on campus longer, and to waste more of their money.

[Assistant]
>but this 120 limit often extends past what is needed to complete degree requirements.

If the 120 credit limit is required for you to graduate, then it is _part_ of the degree requirements. It doesn't "extend past" them.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Corrupted marine renouncing chaos?

Have there ever been a case of a corrupted Space Marine returning from chaos? Not that they'd get accepted back by the loyalist Space Marines, but I'm curious if the corruption in some way is reversibel.

[Assistant]
Their souls are sworn to the chaos gods upon death, Chaos space marine's bodies are also warped and fused to their armor to better serve their patron god.
Even if they manage to break away they are fundamentally altered from their original forms. The Emperor of mankind could definitely undo the changes wrought by chaos and potentially hold onto their souls, but they broke their oaths to him and attacked mankind so it's doubtful the Emperor would be so forgiving.
What's more the Ordos Herecticus and Ordos Malleus would happily, with several Astartes on hand, kill such a traitor on sight.

Ordo Scriptorum thanks you for your inquiry and an Inquisitor has been dispatched to determine the extent of your heresy.
Praise the Emperor.


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

[User]
[Starship Troopers] What is the point of the armor they wear? It doesn't do anything

It seems that the armor that we wear doesn't do anything. It's uncomfortable, hot, and bulky.

It's understandable that it could be easily penetrated by the bugs as they have extremely sharp things, but the fact that our own bullets go right through it tells me that it doesn't do much, if anything.

I am starting to think the Terran Federation is purposely trying to kill us; they give us piss poor weapons that barely damage the bugs, shit armor, and then send us all in to get slaughtered...

[Assistant]
Doesn't do anything?

Try dropping without gear, soldier! Its armoured plating stops you from burning up once you break athmo, its boosters stop you from cratering on the planets surface, its navigation HUD tells you were to go after landing and marks were your squad mates are so you don't hit one of them WITH THE GOD-DAMN BUILD-IN NUKE LAUNCHER (Didn't get one? Apply for Lance Corporal promotion immediately).

Now, on the bounce, Soldier! (which reminds me, how could you be "on the bounce" without your combat suit? Jumping 100ft buildings was impossible for Soldiers before the suit...)


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

[User]
[DC] Does The Flash run on autopilot?

He processes things in less than nanoseconds and frequently runs across the world. Even running a mile would seem like thousands of years for him. This would surely make any normal person go insane. Is he incredibly patient or can he subconsciously lower his reaction speeds or something else entirely?

[Assistant] He can perceive things faster than we do, but his sense of time is still the same.  For example, he can stretch a minute into an hour, but his sense of time still tells him that only a minute has passed.  Or maybe he is just extremely patient.


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

[User]
Explain like I'm 5: the difference(s) between socialism and communism.

I have read conflicting descriptions of the difference between socialism and communism, many of them confusing; but I'm looking for a more definitive explanation.

[Assistant]
Socialism, at it's root is the idea that we all live in a society, and depend on eachother, and therefore should decide stuff together. Typically, this goes beyond merely the political. For example, employees should have some say in how the company they work for should be run, parents should have a say in how the school their children attend is run, etc. Wikipedia assures me that in English this is called co-determination. The next step, is that if you already depend on eachother, and decide stuff together, you have some responsibility to take care of eachother.

There's dozens of variation on these basic ideas. In Western Europe there's a lot of Social Democracy, which seperates the idea of decisionmaking and ownership, so that for example employees might have certain rights to make decisions for the company they work for, but does not entitle them to a share of the profit, or to make decisions that do not directly affect their work.

Another type of socialism is communism. This is based on the writing of Marx, and the basic idea is that the right to decide and ownership are inextricably linked, and belong to all people together. The way communism is supposed to organize this, is by people working together, sharing together and deciding together in councils (hence the name "communism"). These councils (or "soviet" in Russian), or their representatives, would come together in an overarching council that would make decisions for the entire country, and own everything on behalf of these councils. Or at least, that's the theory. For a lot of countries, if not all, that tried to implement communism, the result was that a leader would end up being in control of the overarching council and being able to lead the local councils, rather than the other way around, which opens up lots of possibilities for abuse and general dictatorship.


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

[User]
ELI5: What exactly is insider trading and why is it illegal?

From what I understand it's being tipped off on the stocks. Why is it bad to get rid of stocks if you know a company is not doing well? I feel like I would want to know if it was my money.

[Assistant]
Well, first off, insider trading isn't just getting rid of stocks you don't have faith in. There's nothing wrong with dropping Samsung shares in the face of this whole Note 7 exploding thing going on. The difference is whether or not the information you use to make that decision is public knowledge.

Insider trading is basically 'cheating'. Think of it like a game of poker where your buddy is working with you by giving signals about his cards. He tells you through eye twitches or coughing whether he has a good hand or not, and with that information you can know when to fold or when to make a large bid. You have information that the other players don't have, which makes it an unfair situation for them.

Insider trading is the same way. If you happened to be the sole person in the world outside of Apple Inc. that knew that Apple was about to announce a new type of phone capable of transforming into a jetpack and doing all your chores for you, you'd know that the announcement would cause their stock value to skyrocket. So you spend your life savings on tons of Apple shares at their current price, the announcement is made, the shares' value skyrockets and you sell them back for a fortune. You're now rich as heck because you had an advantage over everyone else in the 'game'. THAT'S insider trading.


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

[User] ELI5: If it's better and less painful to stand up straight, then why do some people slouch all the time?

[Assistant] Who says it's less painful? Posture issues aren't just due to not feeling like standing up straight. Your muscles work together and against each other to hold your body in certain positions. Poor posture habits tend to cause a muscle at one end of a joint to be overly tight, while a muscle on the other end to be overly relaxed. In trying to correct that imbalance by simply standing up straight, you're forcing the muscle that's so used to being relaxed to try to counteract the muscle that has been straining, which leads to pain and discomfort, so the person will go back to whatever poor posture position they were in that isn't uncomfortable. Over time, it starts becoming unbearable to just stand up straight, and requires a significant concentrated effort and constantly reminding oneself to manually fix their posture, because their muscles will force them into the poor posture position.


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

[User]
ELI5: What actually are shin splints?

I have suffered shin splints or Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome for the past 5 years. I've tried everything I possible can to get rid of them, but nothing gets rid of them for good. I've had a bone scan and everything and my GP says rest is the only cure. I've got orthotics because it's my flat feet that are causing them, but I still suffer.

I've heard multiple answers to what shin splints actually from physios, GPs, Google search. I still never remember. I've heard answers like: it's the muscle tearing away from the bone and its lack of fluid which causes bubbles on the shins.

Can someone please explain like I'm five so that I can remember once and for all!

[Assistant]
When you see a diagram of the muscles and bones in the body, it is drawn to show that the muscles connect to the bones only at the ends of the muscles.  In reality, though, the muscles are adhered directly to the bone where they lie up against it.

If you've ever cut up a raw chicken, you know that the meat (which is mostly muscle) doesn't just fall off of the bone once the skin is removed.  You have to cut it away, often scraping the meat off of the bone.  Your muscles are stuck to your bones in the same way.

Now imagine your muscles are moving and the stresses from that motion are pulling the muscle either away from the bone or along the bone.  The parts of your muscles that are stuck to the bone get torn as the muscle moves around.  This is what shin splints are.


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

[User]
ELIF: What happened to Gandalf?

LOTR SPOILER ALERT

I never read the books, just saw the movies. But what happened to Gandalf that brought him back as the white wizard?

[Assistant]
Gandalf, like all Wizards, was an Ainu - an incarnated "lesser God" or angel, if you will. His spirit fled Middle-Earth to Valinor (home of the Gods) when he was killed by the Balrog. He was sent back by the Valar (the Gods) to finish his job: opposing Sauron, but given greater powers to replace Saruman as chief Wizard.

The Wizards were sent to Middle-Earth  by the Valar to oppose Sauron without the use of 'magical'  force. All is revealed in the Silmarillion (including why they didn't want to use force).


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

[User]
ELI5 Christmas. How did it originate and how did it come to be what it is today?

I have heard that it originated from a Pagan holiday, but don't know much about the topic. Can somebody please help me understand how it shaped into what it now is?

[Assistant]
Many cultures have 'winter solstice' festivals in and around the 25th of December. This was because days were short and dark, as little as 5 hours between sun rise and sun set in some northern Scandinavian capitals (Oslo etc)

So the cheer themselves up around the time of the shortest say they would get together, have a party, exchange gifts, etc.

Later Christianity became the dominant religion and pagan festivals could no longer be tolerated, so a story was created about the birth of Christ. (even though there is major dispute over this date)

However many of the trappings of the pagan festivals can still be seen. Evergreen tree to remember even in deep winter plants can survive. Mistletoe and holly to ward of spirits. And so on.

Each of the main countries that had these festivals (Gemany, Denmark, the UK, Norway, etc.) had a 'character' to go along with them, Saint Nicholas, sinterklaas, Father Christmas, and so on.

When immigrants went to the US there needed to be someway of amalgamating these disparate elements. So gradually over time, the elements of 'German Christmas' 'British Christmas' and so on all blended together into the modern day incarnation, and Santa Claus was born to play the character in this new version. Shoes filled with candy were replaced with stockings over the fire place, candles mounted on ever green trees were replaced with the far more sensible electric lights.

You can actually still see elements of the old characters in Santa Claus, both because of the name (Santa Claus is very close to Sinterklauss) and also because if you call him 'St. Nick' or 'Father Christmas' people know who you are talking about despite these figures being different and pre-dating him.

Eventually the US became the dominant cultural force and exported its version of Christmas back to Europe.


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

[User] [Command and Conquer] so some nerd just waltzed into my barracks and apparently we work for his boss now, what gives?

[Assistant]
Hey look buddy. He's an engineer, that means he solves problems. Not problems like "what is Kane," because that would fall under the purview of weird plotline bullshit. He solves practical problems. For instance, how is he going to make these big mean mother-hubbards fight for the right side without having to tear them a structurally superfluous new be-hind? The answer: Use a gun. On the first guy he comes across. And when that don't work, use more gun. Until the rest of those sacks-o-craps fall in line.

NOW GIT!


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

[User]
[Rise of the Guardians] Why couldn't the Guardians just show themselves to the children?

So during the 2nd act of this magnificent film the heroes are trying to make Easter happen in order to make the kids believe, however Pitch Black foils this attempt and kids stop believing in the easter bunny (instantly) so Bunny in a final attempt at it, comes out of the bushes and offers them free eggs but by this point it's too late and the kids don't see him.

Why not do that earlier? If you see that this is a do or die situation, why not just come out? There doesn't seem to be a 'Guardian Rulebook' that tells you not to do that. In fact the literal last light and hope of the guardians was a child who believed because he physically watched them.

So what stops them?

[Assistant]
Because the problem is not, strictly speaking, that the children don't believe in the *guardians-* after all, most children don't believe in the Easter Bunny anyway. The problem is they don't believe in the things the guardians *represent*\- hope, wonder, joy, etc. Pitch isn't just making people stop believing in Santa Claus early, he's making people not believe the world can be a good place.

That's what they need to deal with, and even if they went on national tv and held press conferences, it wouldn't change that problem. Hell, it might make it worse, putting the icons of childhood wonder as just another clout-seeking celebrity.

Simply, it doesn't matter how many people believe in Santa Claus. It matters how many people believe in Christmas, and that takes more then a talk show appearence.


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

[User]
[Marvel]How come Wakanda hasn't run out of Vibranium?

They've had it for 10,000 years? How did they conserve so much of it?

[Assistant] They are sitting on a huge amount of it, and most applications don't require that much of it.  Also, most things don't need to be remade.  That vibranium spear is gonna last pretty much forever for example.


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

[User] [The Venture Bros.] If Red Mantle is Buddy Holly and Dragoon is the Big Bopper, what happened to Richie Valens? Did he also fake his death and join the Guild?

[Assistant] Richie Valens was a necessary sacrifice to sell the lie that the other two died. He wasn't a part of the underworld, just a really good musician who chose to share the wrong plane with some*bad* people.


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

[User]
[Dungeons and Dragons] Can I use Polymorph to reproduce with Non-Humanoids?

Hey there everyone! My name is Firnagallad the Level 7 Wizard, and let's just say I'm *really* looking forward to level 8.

But there is one question that the Academy refused to answer me (repeatedly). Under the effect of the Polymorph spell, can a human produce offspring with a normally nonviable non-human? Will those offspring be viable? Will they be 'half-human', or have any interesting morphological traits?

For the inevitable follow up question, don't worry. 1 minute/Level is *more* than enough.

[Assistant]
Thanks to the Book of Erotic Fantasy, this *does* have an answer. There are some weird wizards out there on the coast.

If your current form has a penis, yes, you produce sperm and can impregnate someone normally. If your current form has a uterus, you need to remain polymorphed for the whole 9 months (the baby is lost if your transform back), but if you can manage that it works.

Either way, the baby is a hybrid between your true form (i'm assuming human?) and the partners true form, regardless of what form you were in during intercourse . This can produce some weird new creatures, depending on what you fucked, and is at least theorised to be behind some of the strange hybrids out there

So it seems your dream can come true! Shine on you crazy diamond.


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

[User]
ELI5: War of Currents; Did Edison screwed up Tesla?

I just watched "The Prestige" today, and so I was wondering why Edison is up on Tesla's ass? (It's just a little thing in the movie I was curious about).

What happen if we use Tesla's AC methos now days? Would it be more efficient?

[Assistant]
Like you're 5? Edison was making money providing power on a proven idea (DC). Tesla came along with a new, better idea (AC) and Edison knew it was better. Since he couldn't beat it, he decided to be really mean to Tesla. Edison went around to big crowds and said things like, "AC IS REALLY DANGEROUS WATCH THIS"* and then would electrocute large animals.

*Paraphrased.

Tesla responded by running AC through his body to power light bulbs so people could see it was safer. Pretty cool. Basically Edison was threatened by Tesla's cool ideas which were better than Edison's. Edison was a mean guy. Tesla died broke and alone. :<


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

[User]
What is the extent of Kevin Flynns powers on the grid?

What can he do? Create? Destroy?

[Assistant]
He's a user. In theory he could unmake or remake the world, changing *anything* or *everything*. To explain it in the context of the Grid's togas-and-mysticism theme, users are demigods with the potential to perform godlike acts.

When he first entered the Grid, he had to try really hard to temporarily redirect a light beam and it left him utterly exhausted. When he built his own Grid and spent years practicing, he was able to build a city from nothing, populated it with programs, created an avatar in his own image, and inadvertently created artificial life in the form of the ISOs.


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

[User]
What existed before the Big Bang?

A little research has taught me that before the Big Bang, all the mass in the universe existed in a tiny singularity. Since time slows around large mass, and this had all the mass in the universe, time didn't exist before this. Technically this means there is no "before" the Big Bang, but I was wondering if there are any theories as to how that singularity came into existence out of nothingness?

[Assistant] based on what we know now of physics, "before" the big bang did not exist. It created matter, and without matter (e.g. at least whirring electrons) we don't have time because there is nothing to measure.


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

[User]
[The Flash TV] *new episode spoiler* Why did Barry get help from...

Why did they need help from Snart to move the meta humans?

[Assistant]
For whatever reason, possibly the high stress of the situation and the antagonism of Wells, it slipped the mind of every main character that Flash could have run all the imprisoned meta humans to the airstrip without the need of the truck, and in a short enough time that the knockout gas wouldn't have worn off.

Instead, they decided to move them with a truck, and Barry, fearing the Metas could escape and outnumber him, decided to enlist Snart to help contain them in that eventuality.


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

[User]
What is the difference between Agency and Will?

Newbie here at psychology. To my limited understanding, agency seems to be just another word for will, but this can hardly be the case. Could you please define for me what the difference between Agency and Will is?

[Assistant] So how I've always viewed it is that the will is more psychological or mental. We have the will to chose our own future. Our will is *free* in that we can chose whatever actions or make whatever decisions we wish. Agency however is more of our ability to act on our free will. For example, while humans everywhere have free will, there are certain places in the world where their individual agency to act on this free will is limited.


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

[User]
[40k] Is the Emperor's origin canon?

Is the Emperor's origin as the result of the reincarnation of the shamans of old still canon? Or is GW planning on retconning it like the rest of the aspects of the Emperor?

[Assistant]
Maybe? Maybe not?

Shit, even if it is canon it might not be true, 40k is real bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) about having unreliable narrators.

What is canon is that the Emperor showed one of his custodians a vision of the emperor as a child in ancient Anatolia, and even then he had psychic powers.


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

[User]
[MCU] What difference between universes, timelines, and realities?

Venom and Loki spoilers will be basis for the background of my question.

Loki and the TVA suggest that different timelines exist that branch off the sacred timeline. Which would be basically the MCU. MCU between Dr. Strange, Infinity War, End Game and Loki suggests that timelines are different realities in which choices affected outcomes of great importance. However in all these timelines every character that we know from the MCU exists. The characters dont always become what they are meant to be but they still exists.

They use the words universe and timeline interchangeably and it doesnt really make sense to me. To me a different universe would be one where most if any of the MCU characters dont even exist. A different timeline would be if Tony Stark was just a regular mechanic.

Loki supports my belief I feel because theres never any evidence that any of the other universes existed ie X-men or Amazing Spider-Man. Theres variants of TVA, of Loki, or Kang but never any of Wolverine or evidence that Adamantium exists.

All this to say I just watched the new Venom and the post credit scene while enjoyable makes no sense.

How is it possible that Venom can now exists in the MCU? Surely if it was a branch of the sacred timeline at least some elements of the MCU would have appeared before now.

[Assistant]
A universe or reality is a single dimension that normally contains an alternate Earth. The MCU/Earth-19999/Reality-19999 (Avengers films) and Earth-616/Reality-19999 (comics universe) are examples of universes. The "real world" universe (our own) has been called Reality-1218. They are also called parallel universes, in that they co-exist with other universes with no direct interaction, such as the MCU and Earth-616 are similar but no derived from the same source. Picture two rivers flowing parallel but neve overlapping.

A timeline is often used as another term to describe other universes or realities, but more specifically it is used when referring to that universe when time travel is involved. Whenever one time travels, they normally cannot enter their own timeline (ie they cannot interact with their direct past) but rather a divergent timeline branches off from the main timeline, effectively identical other than the chances made by the time travelers. Divergent timelines can also occur on their own without time travel. Picture on river that branches into a second stream, the first stream remains unchanged but their is a second one flowing from the same source.

The term alternate universe is a blanket term to describe all variations of universes or realities.

The Multiverse is the collection of ll the realities and timelines of the Marvel continuity (all the comics, films, TV series, etc). In a broader context, there are also other Multiverses, each one containing their own franchise. There is the DC Multiverse, the Star Trek Multiverse, the Doctor Who Multiverse, etc. In general, characters from one multiverse do not interact with characters from another unless there is some intercompany crossover (like the comic Justice League/Avengers).

There is also the Omniverse, a term effectively describing all the universes and multiverses as a whole.


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

[User]
Is the International Space Station's orbit altered by the weight of new supply deliveries?

I read that the ISS receives several tons of supplies at each delivery.  Does this change the momentum or overall energy, or otherwise do anything to the object's orbit, and does its path need to be adjusted or boosted somehow to compensate for the additional mass?

[Assistant]
Yes and no!

When the new supplies arrive, the rocket that delivered them has already boosted them up to the correct orbital velocity/energy to be in the same orbit as the ISS. So although the supplies add mass to the ISS when they come aboard, they also bring all the kinetic energy they've been given, which exactly balances the increased mass - because if they didn't have the same velocity as the ISS they'd be crashing into it or missing it rather than being carried along the docking tunnel!

Likewise, when stuff leaves the ISS, it has the same velocity (right until the capsule starts gently maneuvering away), so it carries away just enough momentum/kinetic energy to balance the mass it takes away. The re-entry craft then fires engines to change that into a trajectory going down to Earth, and all that energy it's taken from the ISS is turned into heat when aerobraking, in parachutes, etc.


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

[User]
[Star Trek: holosuite] We know that they make more space inside them once turned on than what their actual dimensions are when they are off. My question is what happens if I make it prject a football field fill it with boxes and then turn it off?

Did I just blow up the ship as trillions of particles suddenly occupy the same space?

Make it project****

[Assistant]
That is how they appear to work but don't really. It uses illusion to create a bigger seeming space. For example a few times someone throws something and it hits a shimmering force field to demonstrate the limitations.

It's not explicitly stated, but it also probably creates something like a grid system when people are split up, separating them with force fields upon which images are projected. And the floor moves people as they walk so they don't bump into walls / force fields.

However it works it definitely doesn't create extra space inside.


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

[User]
[predator] why do the yautja use visible lasers instead of infrared lasers?

Wouldnt it give the predators an advantage if their prey would not be able to know if they are being targeted?

[Assistant] It's part of their honor code to give their prey an opportunity to avoid being shot. Extra layer of challenge for themselves if they don't make the first shot and their prey figures out the lights mean death.


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

[User]
If livers regenerate, would it be possible for me to donate half my liver, grow it back, then donate it again? If so, how many times can one repeat this process?

EDIT: Thanks for all the responses guys! I enjoy learning about this stuff.

[Assistant] No, you can only donate your liver once, mostly limited by the fact that not just any part of the liver can be sliced off and be able to fully regrow. There are two (main) lobes in the liver and each has a full set of connections needed to connect to the rest of the body (an artery, vein and bile duct). They take one of the lobes, and the remaining one just gets bigger to compensate, the taken one does not grow back.


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

[User]
ELI5 how does growing work?

Just wondered how does a person get taller and how does the body know when to stop? I know your bones arent the same at birth compared to an adult but how?

[Assistant]
The simple answer is that the bones in your body have special regions near the joints called "growth plates". These are areas of cartilage that the bones can elongate off of, causing you to get taller until the plate fully turns into bone itself. This occurs around the later teens, generally around 13-15 for girls and 15-17 for boys. These are ballpark numbers though, some people stop earlier and some stop later.

You can actually fracture across a growth plate and cause that bone to stop growing altogether.


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

[User] ELI5: How do ad blockers work?

[Assistant]
Ads mostly come from known sources, known websites. They aren't generally served by the same site as you're visiting. So ad-blockers know a lot of these servers, and will block traffic from those servers.

They also know a lot of the HTML and JavaScript ads typically use, and will remove them from incoming HTTP responses before they get rendered.


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

[User]
Could an object orbit within the event horizon of a supermassive black hole?

Since we theorise that tidal forces exerted by gravity just inside the event horizon of a supermassive black hole would have a negligible effect on matter, could a space station orbit for 500 years with people living their everyday lives without noticing the effects of the black hole. If such an orbit were possible, would it last indefinitely?

[Assistant]
No, it's not possible.  Inside the event horizon of a black hole all particles are forced to move inward radially in an analogous way to how all particles must move forward in time outside the event horizon.  So no orbits are possible.  There are actually well-defined limits to where orbits are possible or not.  The most famous of these is called the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO).  For a non-spinning black hole, the ISCO is 3 times larger than the Schwarzschild radius (the distance.  So it's actually not possible to orbit the black hole in some places outside the event horizon!  For a spinning black hole, the ISCO actually matches the event horizon at the equatorial plane if you're orbiting in the same direction that the black hole is spinning.

There are a few other important distances, one example of which is the photon sphere, where photons can travel in a ~~stable~~ circular orbit.  That turns out to be 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius for a non-spinning black hole.

EDIT: As sto-ifics42 pointed out, orbits at the photon sphere are not stable.  The photon sphere is the point closest to the black hole for which a circular orbit is possible.  Another interesting distance is the so-called marginally bound orbit at twice the Schwarzschild radius.  Circular orbits here are unstable because they are below the ISCO.  This means that any small perturbation gets amplified exponentially.  For particles at or below the marginally bound orbit, they have enough energy for these perturbations to cause them to escape to infinity!


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

[User] ELI5: why is math (statistics, calculus, etc) so important for a strong programmer?

[Assistant]
There are lots of areas of programming that require only basic math. If you're doing development for a moderate-sized web site or app, it's quite possible you'll almost never use any math, and never anything beyond things taught in high-school algebra.

More generally, some programmers use a lot of math all the time, some hardly use math at all.

There are many more specialized areas of programming that require a lot of math. Computer graphics uses a lot of trigonometry and calculus, so pretty much any game that requires physics or 3-d rendering uses a lot of math. Video and audio compression uses Fourier analysis. Cryptography uses number theory. Those are just a few examples - there are lots of specialties. Good programmers often need to have at least some familiarity with those areas, even if that isn't their area of expertise.

Quite often large-scale software engineering requires more math - for example web sites that need to scale to millions of users. It's hard to properly optimize sites to handle a lot of traffic without a good foundation in probability and statistics.

A degree in Computer Science typically covers many of those things, which is why there's a math requirement. In addition, Computer Science involves a lot of mathematical analysis of programs, including determining what's possible to compute, determining asymptotic runtime and memory usage, and mathematical proofs of bounds and of correctness.


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

[User] ELI5: How can plants survive hydroponically, but die from over watering in different environments?

[Assistant]
Over watering plants can kill them in several ways. It can "drown" roots and deprive them of oxygen. It can interfere with uptake of certain nutrients, or it can promote fungal growth which can infect plants.

Hydroponic setups aerate the water to keep it oxygenated, and typically have some portion of the roots exposed to air. The water has specific nutrient levels in a form the plant can use. Fungi tends to do poorly in these systems because, unlike dirt, there isn't a lot of organic material to consume. That said, not all plants can be grown hydroponically. It's best suited for annual plants that have a short life cycle and doesn't work well for plants with specific soil needs.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How difficult is it to fly a ship and how many people know how?

Is flying a ship comparable to driving a car? Or is it more like flying a plane? Somewhere in between? Throughout the movies we see characters having to actively seek a pilot to fly for them, though the Star Wars protagonists are not the average joe. How common is it for the average person to have at least somewhat competent ship-flying ability?

[Assistant]
If you're flying a legal ship along legal hyperspace routes, it wouldn't be too difficult. It would be a matter of entering in the right coordinates, getting the right clearance and pressing go. There's a reason why standardized hyperspace routes are so vital for trade and travel.

That being said hyperspace travel does take a decent amount of time and spaceships are stupid expensive so it's highly unlikely that everyone owns a spaceship. Likely a civilian would ride group spaceships to travel to other worlds. So it's probably like flying a plane.