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

[User]
I believe that prices in stores should included the tax already. CMV.

It makes complete sense to me that listed prices should be the price you actually pay. I know that companies love to have prices that end in 99 cents, but they could just calculate that in when pricing. This isn't a huge deal, but this is how they do it in Australia and some other places, and I liked it better because you knew how much stuff would actually cost. Is pricing done like this just to make this seem cheaper, because it seems like the less intuitive way to do things. It seems unlikely that the way pricing is done would change, because companies are would not like it and change is tough, but I would make it so that it was mandatory to include tax and any other extra fee such as handling in the price instead of separate.

[Assistant]
This is easy to do in other countries that have a uniform sales tax or VAT etc. In the USA sales tax isn't set by the federal government. Different states have different tax rates, and this can vary based on county, city or even locality. Requiring pricing items after tax would make it a nightmare for companies that advertise and operate in several cities or states.

In fact, in some states advertising a price after tax is downright illegal. This is because sales tax isn't supposed to be paid by the company/store that is selling the product, but rather you, the consumer. The companies aren't actually passing on the tax to you by increasing the product price. You're the one supposed to be paying for it in the first place. The government has simply authorized the store to collect the tax for them on your behalf. So you have the right to know exactly how much you are paying the store for the product and how much the government.

Think of it like your employer telling you that you make $X while they only give you $X - taxes on your paycheck.


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

[User] ELI5: If a person has a lazy eye does the eye look at whatever its pointed at?

[Assistant] Yes, but most of the time the brain will learn to ignore the input from that eye. Without this suppression, the person would always be experiencing double vision since the two eyes are looking at different images, which is obviously very visually disturbing and why it is often suppressed. If this happens at a young enough age while vision is still maturing, that eye often will not develop vision properly and will not be able to see as well as the normal eye, however.


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

[User]
[Detective Pikachu] Why did the guy need the thing to do the stuff?

Why did Mewtwo tell Detective Pikachu to find his son?

Mewtwo has the ability to meld humans into nearby Pokemon. Sure, why not. But he doesn't need anyone else's family members to fix the city in the end, so why did he want Tim?

[Assistant] I think Mewtwos little speech was about how he could preserve the dad's consciousness in Pikachu because his body was dying from the accident.  He needed the sons DNA or something to heal the dad and restore him.  The only reason they could communicate was because of the family bond.


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

[User]
[Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis] Gregor was able to comfortably support himself and his three family members. After his transformation, why does his family struggle to support him?

Apparently, nobody else in the house worked and yet Gregor was able to support all of them, even planning to send his sister to music school eventually. I understand that Gregors father had some debt to pay and this is why Gregor had to keep working at his job even though he disliked it.
Yet when Gregor is unable to work, his family has to endure hell to support him? They all have to get jobs and even rent out their home, with the stress pushing them so far that they stop seeing Gregor as family. They abuse him and eventually leave him to die.

Why is Gregor such a burden? Horror and psychology aside, once they get used to having him in the house, he should be much less of a burden than an actual human. He only eats garbage, does not bathe or need cleaning, he doesnt need clothing, and he never goes outside.
Why is his family so enraged they need to work instead of leeching off him? What if he just broke his leg and was unable to work for a few months?

[Assistant]
Gregor was a travelling salesman, selling fabrics. From his own words we know that he travelled far and wide, taking the train to meet clients. We can therefore assume that his job covered at least a county, if not nationwide. He was clearly an accomplished man. He also notes that he does not sell singular items, but sells contracts for said items. Commercial customers often spend large amounts of money at once. If he works on commission, he could be earning a large amount of money. Given that he was a former lieutenant in the army, he probably also had an army pension (which could no longer be claimed as he could not provide any ID).

Given that his (and his parent's) debt is tied to Gregor's boss, it is quite possible that he owns the house they live in and has decided to take the cost of rent directly from Gregor's paycheck (as a tax dodge). Without Gregor working, he cannot do that, which means a quick hike in rent to cover the tax that he would have otherwise had to front himself. Alternatively, he may have allowed them to remain rent-free but added it to the debt, which was called in upon Gregor being unable to work. Furthermore, it is revealed that his employer had recently given a large sum of money which had not been repaid by the time of the incident. It is not told to us whether that money could be reclaimed, which may have added to the debt.

Such a financial burden leads to resentment, and ultimately the fate that we are shown.


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

[User]
CMV: All laws should have a sunset provision.

Too often are good-sounding laws passed that end up being bad in practice. But then they become hard to repeal, because the existence of these laws benefit those in power.

Some laws are written with a sunset provision, which says "This law will cease to have effect unless the congress approves it again in 10 years."

All laws should have a sunset provision. There are some old laws on the books that say crazy things like women can't swear in public - these laws would expire.

You might think "But wouldn't it get cumbersome every 10 years to have to re-vote all the crimes into being crimes?" The answer is YES, and that is a very good thing. Imagine if politicians had to affirmatively vote "Yes, weed should remain illegal," "Yes, victimless crime XYZ should remain illegal," every decade.

The public would hound politicians to no end if they voted Aye on many of these laws. And thousands upon thousands of worthless and ridiculous laws would expire off the books, to the benefit of all citizens. They say the average American unknowingly commits 1 to 2 felonies per day, and you only are only relying on the grace of prosecutors not to come after you. People shouldn't have to live like that.

[Assistant]
American politics as is experience gridlock and inaction. These laws you're talking about don't even get enforced. So why waste time deliberating on them when you could focus on policies and legislation that would actually improve people's lives.

Also do you know how long the US federal code is. Not to mention all the separate codes for different states. What you're suggesting isn't just cumbersome, it's downright impractical.


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

[User] Can the NeverWet superhydrophobic spray be applied to wood to seal in moisture and make it fire proof as a result of the Leidenfrost effect?

[Assistant] Nope, superhydrophobic doesn't mean air-tight, which means that water vapor can escape and will have its limits as an insulating layer. However, NeverWet is silicon-based and might confer some fire-resistance (though not much with something so thin).


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

[User]
What philosophers will be remembered in the future as we do now with Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, etc ?

It seems there isn't that much in the way of influential thinkers( that's my opinion), or is it and I'm just looking at the wrong places?

[Assistant] I expect for currently living philosophers: John Searle, Daniel Denett, Noam Chompsky, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, David Chalmers, Judith Thompson, Peter Singer, Thomas Nagel and Saul Kripke. These people all have potential to be remembered(and some already have really famous arguments, see: John Searles The Chinese Room).


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

[User] ELI5: Why the Black Lives Matter protesters are targeting Bernie Sanders?

[Assistant]
Bernie Sanders participated in one of the earliest sit-in protests against segregation, and helped to desegregate schools. He attended the 1963 March on Washington and saw the "I have a dream" speech in person. He endorsed Jesse Jackson for president, twice.

BUT, a few weeks ago he was at an event with Martin O'Malley (the other guy in the democratic race) that was interrupted by BlackLivesMatter protesters. O'Malley, in response to the protesters and shouting, and probably in a clumsy attempt to agree, said Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter, which many took to be a very condescending and mistaken understanding of the whole point of that phrase.

Sanders was ... also there? He tried to say something about economic inequality but none of it seemed satisfying to the protesters and he left the stage. So, a lot of uninformed people started to see him as an "old white guy who doesn't get it", despite him having a better record on this than literally anyone in the race.

EDIT: Also, Bill Clinton has an excellent record regarding minority issues and was admirably called "the first black president". Of course that was long before Obama, at a time when most people thought we wouldn't get a real black president in our lifetimes. Still, the Clintons are very popular in that regard, and so Hillary has a lot of support from black people.


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

[User] Are new vs old tires (treadwear difference) enough to affect speedometer calibrarion?

[Assistant]
Yes, a quick calculation shows the calibration could change by about 1.5 mph (~2.5 kph) at highway speeds.

Tire tread depth generally starts around 11/32", while old tires can have about 3/32" of tread so we lose about 8/32"=1/4" of radius over the life of the tire. Tires are generally about 10" in radius (20" across) so we are changing the radius (and also the circumference) by 0.25"/10"=2.5%. The speedometer counts the number rotations the tire makes over a given time and then multiples that by an assumed circumference to get speed. If that assumed circumference is 2.5% off at 60 mph you could have a 1.5 mph error.


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

[User]
What is happening, physiologically, when we get those uncomfortable butterflies in our stomach that are frequently associated with public speaking, getting in trouble, or seeing an ex in a new relationship?

Lately, whenever I get particularly nervous or stressed about a romantic situation, I get a churning acidic feeling in my stomach that prevents me from eating and being productive. I've both experienced and heard this experienced frequently as well with examples from the title, and I'm just wondering what's going on.

Is there an actual change to our body chemistry when we're stressed or emotionally hurting that causes this? Would there be any way (without removing the emotional stress) to counter this?

[Assistant]
Being in a stressful or even a nervous situation cause your digestive system to become inhibited; relaxing your stomach muscle and changing it chemical composition.

It does this because for most of human history stress typically involved a fight-or-flight situation that required our muscles.  Temporary shutting down the digestive system frees more blood for the muscles, and causes the release of glucose (sugar) to your muscles.  It may not be a life-or-death situation but remember your body was adapted for the plains of Africa, not the hall of high school.

You may also notice that in uncomfortable situations your breathing and heart rates increase.  There is a nervous system that connects your brains to most of your organs called the sympathetic nervous system.  The sympathetic nervous system regulates your body in a "fight-or-flight" situation.  There is a second nervous system, called the parasympathetic nervous system, that keeps your body in a "rest-and-digest" state.  Thus everytime you see your ex with her new boyfriend your parasympathetic nervous system is turning off and your sympathetic nervous system is ramping up.


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

[User]
I oppose anarcho-capitalism because of the instability it would induce into society. CMV

My main issue lies with a privatized police force. There is no difference between the mafias of the Prohibition and a privatized police force.

A common counterargument to this is that citizens would have many police forces to choose from, but citizens supposedly also had a choice in the Prohibition, except that they were beaten to obedience whenever they tried to switch.

Another counterargument I can think of is that the government already acts like this to a certain extent with regards to taxes; if you don't pay a mandatory payment, you go to jail. I won't deny this. The government and a mafia are very similar. What discerns them, however, is that the government obeys a distinct set of laws. There's more to this, I'll finish later.

[Assistant]
> What discerns them, however, is that the government obeys a distinct set of laws.

Why do they do this? Because the government is made up of nicer people than mafias are? Do people automatically become nicer when you put them into a _monopolistic_ enforcement agency as opposed to a non-monopolistic one?


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

[User]
ELI5: If mold spores are in the air everywhere and generally only require as little as 24 hours of a relative humidity at or above 60% to start colonizing, why are structures in humid places not absolutely rampant with it? (Or are they?)

I'm in the North-East US and had some mold in our basement which is now taken care of. But after reading all about mold in general, I don't understand how buildings in places like Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and other extremely humid places around the globe aren't consumed with mold everywhere.

[Assistant]
Right, so.
1) mold *is* somewhat more prevalent in these areas.

2) these areas tend to receive a lot of direct sunlight. Light of any kind can act as a deterrent to mold growth by drying out surfaces and evaporating standing water

3) interior spaces tend to benefit from climate control, typically resulting in lower humidity.

4) exterior spaces devoid of climate control tend to see a prevalence of micro and macro organisms competing for the same resources that mold does.

There's a reason that mold tends to be found in dark places that do not see much traffic.


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

[User]
CMV: Anyone who identifies with the Joker or Harley Quinn in any of their incarnations is admitting (consciously or otherwise) that they're an asshole.

The Joker is a bad person.  He has never not been a bad person.  Everyone who wrote him wrote him as a bad person.  Everyone who played him played him as a bad person.  He has always been a personification of obscene, perverted, absurd, but recognizable evil.  In his most sympathetic incarnation (Joaquin Phoenix), his portrayal only makes society culpable in his evil without ever excusing his - he's still a bad man doing bad things for bad reasons, but we have some unwarranted sympathy because he's pathetic and because we might've stopped him.

Harley Quinn is also a bad person.  She is, minor details aside, a female sexed-up Robin for Joker who is as evil as Robin is good.  There's no redeeming value in her character beyond some occasional humor and sex appeal; apart from that, she's as much an irredeemable villain as the Joker.

Their relationship is one of abuse and mutual reinforcement of evil behavior.  It is not a love story between two nonconformists rebelling against the world, it's two abusive psychopaths killing for fun.

My view is that if you look at these characters or their relationship, see some aspect of yourself and feel anything but a horrified chill up your spine, you must be an asshole.

You're a Joker looking for his Harley Quinn?  Asshole.

You're a Harley Quinn looking for her Joker?  Asshole.

You and your SO are soooo like the Joker & Harley?  You're both assholes.

You're on social media talking about how you really *get* the Joker and/or how you're alike?  You're King Asshole.

Change My View.

[Assistant] Does this include the versions of Harley that have left the Joker and are trying to recover from domestic abuse? Because a lot of the more current comics have been about her trying to rebuild her life after getting away from the Joker.


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

[User] [Batman]. Why doesn't Mr. Freeze go by Doctor?

[Assistant]
"Mister Freeze" was a name given to him by newspaper reporters and internet journalists who didn't know his true identity. They just saw cold-based crimes, a dude with a cold gun, and used a dumb but appropriate name to get the point across in headlines. In most universes, it's not even revealed to the public that Victor Fries is his real name until long after Batman locks him up for the first time. But by that point, more people are familiar with "Mister Freeze" than any other label, so future news stories keep running with it. Also a few might be vindictive, especially if Fries hit something they care about, and prefer to not use his real name just out of spite.

Victor Fries refers to himself as a doctor all the time, even if no one else does. Although after spending years as an outlaw, he tends to stop caring about the formalities of society, and disconnects himself from everything except his obsessive mission. So he stops caring what people call him because they literally do not matter to him.


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

[User]
Is it legal/valid to assign variables to infinite sums?

My dad who studied math involving infinity in college claims that you can't go assigning infinite sums to variables willy nilly, for example saying g = the sum to infinity of 1-1+1-1+1-1... is illegal, as the sum doesn't converge.

Have maths changed since the time of his studies (~30 years ago)? Has his mind ripened, so he's plain wrong? Where is the line drawn to where you can assign sums to variables?

[Assistant]
You can be as formal as you need to on a whiteboard, provided you know what is necessary to make your argument formal. If you introduce a variable equal to a sum whose convergence you don't want to address now, the convergence becomes a hidden assumption which, if false, tanks your whole argument. Your dad saw this and decided not to even listen to whatever you were going to say about "g."

Give him a fist bump for me.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Did Voldemort's jinxing of the Defense Against the Dark Arts position contribute to the woeful inadequacy of magical ability among Harry's generation of wizards?

It seems compared to his parent's generation, Harry's one just plain sucks at fighting. Did the lack of a stable DADA position contribute to that?

[Assistant]
Tom Riddle asked Dumbledore for the position, and then jinxed it, in the late 60s to early 70s. Molly Weasley would have graduated around 1968, and so would have been mostly unaffected by the Jinx. However Harry's parents and their cohort didn't graduate until 1978 - so they would have been just as impacted by the Jinx as Harry's generation.

Also, what evidence is there that Harry's generation sucks at fighting, compared to their parents at the same age? Harry's group seemed to handle themselves rather well going up against older wizards who had decades of experience and a wizarding war under their belt.


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

[User]
[Star trek] how does the federation deal with other societies that use money

If the federation doesn't use money but regularly trades and does business with other groups that do (like the Ferengi) how does that work?

[Assistant]
Barter.

The Federation still has mining and production facilities, not to mention some of the best scientific minds in the galaxy.

You actually get to see it a lot in Voyager, they traded materials and occasionally technology to make their way through the delta quadrant.


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

[User]
[Lord of the Rings] Across all of time and all of Middle-Earth and across all officially licensed LotR media, who has the highest personal death toll?

EDIT: Some people seem to be misunderstanding what I mean by "personal death toll". By that I mean how many people has that individual personally ended the life of. Like, with their own two hands. So most leaders/commanders probably won't qualify unless they were out on the battlefield killing scores of soldiers.

Commands don't count. It needs to be the person that does the killing.

[Assistant]
Eru. Hard to beat sinking an island the almost twice the size of the UK.

If we aren't counting literally god then it's hard to say.   Any elf warrior has probably slaughtered huge numbers of orcs, you can do a lot of killing when you're immortal.


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

[User] [Game of Thrones] What is sharper/better? The Sword of Morning or Valyrian Steel?

[Assistant]
The Sword of (the) Morning is a title for the person worthy of carrying the sword Dawn. Dawn shares the properties of Valyrian blades.

> Those who have had the honor of examining it say it looks like no Valyrian steel they know, being pale as milkglass but in all other respects it seems to share the properties of Valyrian blades, being incredibly strong and sharp.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What if Anakin had been left to rot as a child slave on Tatooine?

I see a lot of questions about what might have happened if Mace Windu were Anakins mentor instead of Qui-Gon, or if Dooku had warned Anakin about the Chancellor being a Sith lord, etc. But what would happen if the Jedi didn't give a shit about a precocious slave boy and left him to rot? Would Palps find him somehow? Would he become a powerful non-denominational Force user? Would he die in the pod races, victim to the gritty reality of an unregulated full-contact motorsport on a backwater desert planet dominated by organized crime?

[Assistant] *Something* would happen eventually; powerful Force users simply don't remain obscure. There is really no such thing as a powerful untrained force user, at most he'd manipulate dice. It's a toss-up whether he'd *eventually* get caught in the Jedi Order's information net, killed, or found by Palpatine - because Palpatine wasn't really looking.


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

[User]
ELI5: The runt of the litter

Why, when dogs have puppies, is there always--or, at least, I think always-- a runt of the litter? What happens to cause this, and why do mother dogs always seem to ignore the runt?

Edit: Also, does this happen outside the realm of domesticated animals?

[Assistant]
In a sense, you will always have a runt, which is generally defined as the smallest and weakest of the litter. So in any given litter, you'll have the most relatively weak one.

From there, survival of the fittest plays out. From the runt's view, they are at a disadvantage for when it comes to getting resources, such as milk from the mother. During feeding, they'll be pushed out by their stronger siblings, and in many other cases they will be beaten out (or even beaten down) in other fights. This cause a bit of a loop, too weak to get feed, not fed enough to become strong.

From the mother's view, it's still survival of the fittest. Or rather, the death of those at the bottom of the list. The runt has the weakest chance to begin with and it's only going to get weaker (assuming no other force kills off the competition or intervenes to strengthen the runt), so why waste your time and energy raising it?


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

[User] CMV: Individuals have no reason to deny Climate Change, Large Industries do.

[Assistant]
Well lets start with the little stuff...  Snide comments about driving or flying somewhere.  PSA's about turning off the lights or using less water.

Then the smaller things: cities installing bike lanes instead of an extra lane for traffic.  Cities making deliberate efforts to stop people driving by making it more challenging to drive around downtown.  "Sin" taxes associated with car ownership like increases in the annual plate fees, etc.

Then bigger things you might not notice: government spending billions of dollars a year on "green" projects that could be spent on other services.  The electricity grid using expensive solar power and driving up the cost of your electric bill every month.

And that is before they start with the full on gas taxes, carbon taxes, and legislation making sure you won't be able to buy an SUV or an RV.

It is very much important to you as an individual whether or not climate change is a real thing because you are going to pay out the nose for it.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did James Holmes get 12 life sentences plus 3,318 years if he only has one life to serve?

[Assistant] Because what if all but one of his convictions got overturned? In his specific case, this wouldn't happen, but it does happen, so judges make it so it is almost impossible for them to become a free person again.


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

[User] [28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later] what does the Rage Virus do to the brain of the infected?

[Assistant]
It's likely a mutated version of rabbies. So it's inflaming several key areas of the brain and spinal cord causing increased aggression and loss of motor function. It causes disorientation, hallucinations, confusion, anxiety, and increased aggression and irritation. Hydrophobia isn't obsevered in those suffering from the rage so it may have been bred out of the virus or exists in a lesser state.

If you cut open an infecteds brain it would likely be swollen to nearly bursting from the skull and highly inflamed around the blood vessels. As the pressure builds certain parts of the brain will become squashed and damaged against the skull. Severe brain damage from this will result in the aforementioned symptoms. Aneurysms and brain bleeds will be common further increasing the pressure in the skull and likely causing many infected to die prematurely from massive blood loss or total destruction of the brain's key areas.


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

[User]
How Nietzsche reconcile his denial of Free Will with the Overman?

Nietzsche reject the concept of Free Will completely.But how can all people create new values transvaluing all existing ones if there is no Free Will.I think that the result of those 2 beliefs is Nietzsche's affinity for hierarchy.Some possess a strong will to power capable for the project of Overman some are not(the slave mentality).

[Assistant] Nietzsche's statements about the will are not all compatible with each other as he explored different views at different times. In *The Gay Science,* Nietzsche is more open to a kind of free will in which people can shape their own character and choose how they respond to the themselves and the world even though they are limited in certain ways by who they are. A theme in *The Gay Science* is that individuals can and should re-evaluate values. Nietzsche wrote *Zarathustra* directly after *The Gay Science* (in fact, the last passage of *The Gay Science* was the first passage of *Zarathustra* until book V was added to *The Gay Science* a few years later). The concept of the Overman is not featured in Nietzsche's writing after *Zarathustra*, so the timing of when Nietzsche wrote *Zarathustra* is part of the answer.  Another often overlooked detail is that Nietzsche's concept of the Overman seems to be presented as an ideal in the way that other unreal characters like Achilles and Athena are ideals for how to live and what to value.  This first mention of overmen is in *The Gay Science #143.* In that passage, Nietzsche includes the idea of overmen among gods, heroes, and other *unreal characters* mankind has created as a way to explore and advocate for different ways of being: how to live, what to value, and so forth. This indicates that Nietzsche's own concept of The Overman is a way to explore and advocate for an alternative way of being while not suggesting that such a figure is actually possible. In *Zarathustra*, Nietzsche appropriates the quasi-historical figure of Zarathustra, who he considers the original preacher of good and evil, to now be a prophet for his Overman. So, it seems Nietzsche was writing a fantastical story that appropriates earlier stories to provide a new example of an ideal figure, just as the Greeks put forward the figures of Achilles, Athena, Aphrodite and others, and the Jews put forward Abraham, Moses, Jesus and others.


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

[User] Do a baby's nails grow while it is in the womb? Or is that somehow inhibited?

[Assistant] Yes! and the rate of growth is much faster than adults;  the nail beds first appear at 12 weeks gestation and by 20 weeks they can be seen as translucent layer-similar to fetus skin-, the formation of nails is pre-genetically determined and ends 34w for fingernails and 38w for toenails at that time they become hard and slightly sharp, after birth the nails can be trimmed and they grow again as normal.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are viruses not considered living organisms and why do they exist?

[Assistant]
There's disagreement on whether viruses are considered living organisms, but neither side has come out victorious yet. So people use the phrase "organisms on the edge of life" to describe it. The reason for the debate is viruses have some of the attributes of life, but not others.

It can reproduce, but it needs another organism to do so. They can evolve, they move on their own. They do not have a cell structure, which is normally considred necessary for life.

As for why they exist? We honestly don't know. All we know is they have existed as long as cells have, and maybe longer. Because viruses don't leave fossils, trying to get a clear picture on where they came from and why is incredibly difficult, and needs a lot of speculation.


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

[User] Why do coal power plants emit more radiation than nuclear power plants?

[Assistant] Coal contains a small amount of radioactive particulate which is released into the atmosphere when the coal is burned. Nuclear reactors create more radioactive waste but it is essentially all contained; stored for safe disposal.


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

[User] ELI5: What are they talking about when they say a room or building has 'great acoustics'? How do you determine if a room has great acoustics?

[Assistant]
When someone makes noise, a sound wave travels from them to your ear, and that's how you hear it.

Maybe you're picturing a laser-beam type wave, shooting from the sound source to your ear. If you could see it though, it would actually look more like a ripple on a lake, traveling outward in every direction from the source.

Did you ever wonder how come you can hear a noise even if you can't see what made it? Sound can travel around corners and such, can't it? That's because sound waves can bounce almost every surface - especially hard ones - and go in new directions.

So now imagine you're in a room with another person and they make noise. This will all happen very fast - too fast maybe to consciously hear - but first you will hear that part of the ripple that happened to be in line with your ear. Then you'll hear the reflections of the parts of the ripple that hit the wall behind you or to your sides and are coming back your direction now. (And if you're closer to, say, the back wall, that reflection will reach your ear \*just\* before the side wall reflections). Then you'll hear further and fainter reflections, maybe a few that bounced off three or four surfaces before reaching your ear.

This all happens super-fast. But the overall effect is called "reverberation" and it can vary a lot.

Let's imagine you're in a tiny tiled room, like a bathroom. If someone makes a loud noise there'll be a LOT of reflections coming at your ear very quickly after the source sound happenes. The reverberation you'll get will be ringy and harsh.

Or let's imagine you're in a big cathedral. The source noise will be far away and by the time it reaches you will be blended with its own reflections, but also some other reflections will only reach you after a long bouncing journey. The reverberation will be blurry and booming.

'Great acoustics' is when the sensation you get is clarity and pleasantness. There's minimal interference and the reverberation has a unique and warm effect on the raw source sound. Room shape, material surfaces, and the position of the source sound (and the listener's ear - that's why some seats cost more in fancy concert halls) all make a big difference to the sound.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is fire hot?

[Assistant]
This is a good question because it actually shows an example where we look at things "the wrong way":

It is not hot because there is fire. There is "fire" because it is hot.

What do we call "fire": If you make things hot, anything really, it starts to glow from a deep red over a brighter red to a bright orange to a bright blue.

If you look at your cooking plate and you make it hot, that is what you see. There is no light because you have a built-in lamp, but because the plate gets hot like a piece of iron in a fire. If you have a welding torch it gets so hot you start to see the blue colour.

Now if you have a chemical reaction, for example the carbon in wood bonding with the oxygen from the air, it might get so hot that the gasses around and the ash-particles start to be so hot that they begin to glow red and orange. That effect is what we call fire.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40K] How are there chapters of unknown origin, given the practice of sending geneseed tithes to the Adeptus Mechanicus; also, what happens if a loyal chapter is found to be descended from a traitor legion?

There are many Space Marine chapters whose origin is officially "unknown," even discounting the Blood Ravens and the Storm Wardens, which were left up in the air to make things more intriguing for players of the respective games.  However, this is logically inconsistent with the lore.  In the fluff, all chapters are required to send geneseed samples ("tithes") to the Adeptus Mechanicus to screen for mutations, ensure purity, and keep as a reserve stock for founding future chapters.

Geneseed is a highly controlled, deeply-analyzed substance, arguably one of the Imperium's most valuable strategic resources...do the Adeptus Mechanicus simply lack the ability to compare geneseed from chapter X to known primarch geneseed lines?  It seems to me that the origin of all chapters would be confirmed with every single geneseed tithe.

If this is the case, what would happen to a chapter that is discovered to be descended from a traitor primarch?  Are they declared excommunicatus traitoris/hereticus and purged by the Inquisition?

I did a quick search, and didn't see this question anywhere...my apologies if I missed something obvious.

[Assistant]
Chapters who know they will have trouble with the Mechanicus and the Inquisition either:

1) Buy the favour of the Mechanicus (Hi there Magos we would love to go on an expedition to help recover some lost technology/kill some tech heretics with you)

2) Position themselves far, far away from any watchful eyes (Can't send any gene seed tithes, we are two years away by Battle Barge)

3) Make themselves so important that anyone important enough to know about genetithes also knows that it would be troublesome to despatch enough Astartes to kill them without hurting any current war effort that they are involved in

4) Become besties with a Chapter who have clean and plentiful Geneseed and get them to give you some to send to the Mechanicus. Risky tactic though as that Chapter can out you anytime they want at little risk to themselves by just accusing you of stealing the seed from them

5) Kill anyone who calls them a Heretic. The Astartes go around dispatching the Emporers Justice from one end of reality to the other. This Mech goon only ever stands around calling people Heretics, who is more important?


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

[User]
How can a microSD card be so compact?

I have a 32GB microSD card in my phone right now and that fact just amazes me. I did some calculations, and assuming there is 3 bits stored per transistor like in the TLC NAND that is used in the Samsung 840 SSD, that means there is 32 billion x 8/3 = 86 billion transistors in this tiny little piece of silicon.

My question is, how the hell is that possible? An Intel Core processor has upwards of 1 billion FETs and a GPU has like 4 billion, but those take 200+ watts to run. Am I missing something here, or do microSD cards really have 86 billion transistors in them?

[Assistant]
Very interesting question with a complicated answer:

* In a CPU/GPU, there are a lot of transistors that are designed to do calculations, you need different types (PMOSFETs,NMOSFETs), different logic gate structures (NAND, etc), as well as non-transistor parts (capacitors, metal lines, etc), which means that the density (amount of transistors per unit area) is actually very low compared to a memory chip that you can find in microSD cards.Let's back that up with some data: most advanced node in transistor manufacturing for CPUs is 22nm (3D-trigate Ivy Bridge from Intel), the size of the die (where the active silicon is, the rest is just packaging) is 160mm^2, and about 1.5 billion transistors. That's an average of 0.1 um^2 per transistor.

* in a memory chip like in memory cards, we're talking about NAND Flash.They are damn small, as in 64 Gb in 120 mm^2-small. They are actually smaller than Intel's, because to make NAND Flash you don't need fancy logic gates, just an array of cells that are all the same. Plus, as you said, there is multiple bits per cell, that helps so that's about 30 to 10 billion cells (depending if it's 2- or 3- or more bits per cell) for 64Gb. In a 32GB memory card, there would be 4 64Gb chips, so the 80 billion transistor figure doesn't look far off. Each cell in a NAND Flash is not really a transistor identical to the ones used by Intel, but let's forget that, that puts the estimation to about 0.01 um^2 per cell.

So, in terms of density, flash memory in your compact micro SD card is actually 10 times more dense than the best CPUs around, and there really are 20 times more transistors in a memory card than in a CPU.

Another side of your question is the power consumption. Power consumption in CPUs come from computation: In order to switch on and off the transistors, you need power, lots of it. In memory, you don't switch on and off the memory cells all the time. The card can stay unpowered and still keep the memory inside, that's what's interesting in Flash memory. The only power consumed is when writing or reading. And that power is small: you don't change all the memory at once (you're limited by the bandwith of the writing/reading as well as the interface to the computer). So, overall, the power consumption of chips is not a fixed amount "per-transistor", you assumed that a CPU consuming 100W with 1 billion makes a 80 billion chip consuming 8kW, when in fact the flash chip consumes far less, the "per-transistor" power is much smaller than in CPUs.


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

[User]
How does the "AI" work in old RTS games?

Unsure if it is the right sub, let me know if there is a better sub for this question.

I am currently playing an old RTS game from 2004, there are three factions, all with different advantages and disadvantages.

There are many different ways to play the game, defensive, offensive, with flight units or ground units, ranged or melee units, or all combined.

In the highest difficulty level it doesn't matter what you do, the AI always finds the best strategic answer and is almost impossible to defeat. I also checked in the replay if the AI cheats, i.e. gets more resources or has shorter construction times, this is not the case.

While chess is a game that can be calculated to a certain depth, RTS games are much, much more dynamic and especially in real time, so the algorithm must work very differently, I think as a layman.

So it must be scripted somehow, but you can't have a script for every scenario in an RTS game, much more, often a strategic deviation from the previous plan is required, which the AI also masters perfectly.

So how the hell does that work?

[Assistant]
most ais do cheat, but not in the way you are thinking.

for one, most rts ais don't respect "fog of war". they know exactly where you are and what you're doing. it's similar to how most fighting game ais actually determine what they are going to do based on your inputs.

they may not have shorter build times or get free resources, but most of them operate at superhuman levels of speed. it might take you half a second to hit a couple hotkeys to queue the production of a unit, or place a building. ais typically do this orders of magnitude more quickly. this advantage just snowballs over the course of a game.

with those two advantages, it's not that hard to develop an ai that's really difficult and seems like it's more advanced than it really is. hard-code a few decisions - if they make x, i make y; favor attacking when they are away from defenses; only attack when i know i have more units - and combine that with more efficient resource management and knowing exactly where you are at all times, and you have something that's hard to beat.

combine that with the sense that most rts game design is slightly advanced rock-paper-scissors, too. there's a lot of surface level complexity with tons of units and such, but most of the time game designers are going "i need to design a unit that tempers the strength of this other unit" and so they immediately know strengths and weaknesses to inform ai decisions.


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

[User]
[Marvel Comics] Why is Spider-Man so cosmically significant across the multiverse?

There's so many different iterations of Spider-Man, many of whom jump through realities and deal with other Spider-persons, Spider totems, and web of destiny, spider island and spider spider spider spider-

It's so grand that it's practically on par with the Speed Force in DC.

I know the real life answer is merchandising, and the popularity of Spider-Man as a character. But is there a canon explanation for all this?

[Assistant]
You actually kinda answered your own question. There is an infinite number of Spideys. There is an infinite number of Wolverines, Captain Americas, Silver Surfers... all of them.

For every Spidey that's visited annually by another half-dozen multiversal Spideys, there's an infinite number of Spideys who probably never leave NYC, they are literally the *only* enhanced human *ever* on their Earth, and they deal exclusively with "normal human" criminals, from purse snatchers to terrorists. There's an infinite number of Spideys who patrol Cleveland.

We just know (mostly) of the more cosmic-active Spideys.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why do sharks and other marine life leap out of the water and isn't it a waste of energy to leap out that high?

I have seen many videos where a shark will leap more then two meters (about 7 feet?) out of the water then then just fall right back in. Recently I saw a video of an orca leap out about 4 meters out of the water.

Why do they do this? Doesn't it waste energy to have to speed up so much in ordee to leap out that high?

[Assistant]
Sometimes whales do it just for fun. They also seem to do it as part of their mating displays.

Leaping out of the water like crazy is a good demonstration of fitness. If the male whale can jump really high, it proves he's strong and fast, therefore his offspring will be strong and fast.

Fish jump out of the water to avoid predators. Even hopping up for a few seconds, away from whatever's chasing you, might be enough to save your ass. Flying fish, of course, are the craziest version of this.


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

[User]
[Stranger Things] Extradimensional Physics Question

Is there any good scientific explanation for why Demogorgon can only poke holes in reality through solid surfaces?

[Assistant]
Well given that the upside down appears to be a twisted reflection of our world it is likely that more permanent structures (walls, trees, etc) create a more solid connection; everything else moves too much.

EDIT: This is supported by the fact that the pool Barbara finds herself in is empty while the one in our world is full.


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

[User]
[General] If Earth was part of a larger, interplanetary community, what would we be known for?

Most planets in the Star Wars or Star Trek universes seem to be defined by a single characteristic or property, eg Hoth is an Ice Planet, Risa is a pleasure planet etc

What would Earth's defining characteristic be?

[Assistant]
The size of our moon relative to the planet.

Monthly full moons would be tourist attractions.

The crashing waves and high/low tide events would make our beaches unparalleled.

Blood moons, harvest moons and lunar eclipses would be pure money.

Depending on how a planet's satellite affects evolution, certain nocturnal animals and nocturnal flowers could become major (black market?) exports or souvenirs. Bats, queen of the night cactus, lunar moths...


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

[User]
[Skyrim] Why do I even have to learn Shouts?

So, if the Greybeards can instantly teach me any new Word of Powet *and* teach me how to use it without a dragon soul, why aren't they just teaching me every Shout they know? Then I wouldn't have to traipse all over Skyrim learning new words. I mean, I'm a busy woman, I'm out saving the world with a wife and two daughters at home to worry about, I don't have time to waste finding Word Walls to fight Alduin with.

[Assistant] Because they don't know that many. The Greybeards have lost the knowledge necessary to use the majority of the shouts of old. Whirlwind Sprint, Clear Weather, Unrelenting Force... That's about the whole list. Paarthunax doesn't impart that kind of knowledge redly, particularly since the Thu'um is so easily abused.


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

[User] If I push something and it doesn't move where does the energy go?

[Assistant] Heat is work and work is heat. If you didn't increase the object's potential energy then all the energy you put into it was converted to heat, whether it moved or not. You may deform the object a bit, but most of the energy went into heating up your muscles.


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

[User] [Batman] How long after Batman start doing his thing, did supervillains start appearing?

[Assistant] About one year after. You have to remember that continuity always changes but Year One is literally his first year and he only fights the mob. The Man Who Laughs is supposed to happen almost immediately after that. So by year two of Batman's appearance is when the Joker arrived.


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

[User] Aside from water, is there another pure substance that is less dense in its solid state than its liquid state?

[Assistant]
There are four other substances that are confirmed to be less dense.
gallium - 5.91 (solid) vs 6.095 (liquid)
bismuth - 9.78 (solid) vs 10.05 (liquid)
germanium - 5.323 (solid) vs 5.60 (liquid)
silicon -2.3290 (solid) vs 2.57 (liquid)


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

[User]
ELI5: What can a "good lawyer" do that a normal lawyer can't?

You hear of big businesses getting their way in court when they otherwise wouldn't because they have "good lawyers". Same with convicted criminals; a convicted man can receive a lesser sentence because he has a "good lawyer". I don't understand what being a "good lawyer" entails. All I can think of is that a good lawyer has a better way of words, can persuade people easier, pull up random obscure laws pertaining to something or whatever, but it's still confusing to me.

[Assistant]
All those things you touched on - knowledge of case law, experience, grasp of logic etc.

Many criminal cases rely on a combination of physical and circumstantial evidence in order to convince a judge/jury 'beyond reasonable doubt'. A good criminal defence lawyer understands (and predicts) the argument being put forth by the prosecution, and the key aspects that the argument relies on (eg. A witness seeing the defendant at particular time/place), and will dismantle these aspects and throw on as much doubt as possible (eg. Asking a witness How did you know it was Person A? How close were you? Do you wear glasses? Had you been drinking? Had you seen his face before on to reports?).

Going through all the details of a case is time consuming for a lawyer, which makes them expensive. Quite often (and particularly with public defenders) it's not that a particular lawyer is bad, they simply didn't have enough time to mount a good defence.

As for corporate law, big companies maintain a lot of documentation in their contract and legal negotiations. They hire big firms because they have the resources to trawl through the many thousands of documents relevant to a case. Against this, a sole practitioner or smaller firm would just get swamped, and would probably seek an alternative (deal, agreement etc.) to going to court. They might have been in the right, but just don't have the resources to win. Sometimes plaintiffs with similar grievances with a big company will pool their resources behind the one firm in order to make a 'class action'.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What is the point of chasers in quidditch?

If the game is only ended when the Golden Snitch is caught by the seeker, why have a point system with quaffles and keepers and chasers?

[Assistant]
Bear in mind the games we see at Hogwarts are unusually short, rarely lasting more than an hour or so. Professional Quidditch matches can last for days at a time, because they generally have a snitch with a more powerful enchantment on it.

In a multi-day game of Quidditch, you can end up with hundreds of points on either side, so 150 is really not so big of a deal.


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

[User] Eli5: why we need to plant seeds, but in nature they just grow where they fall?

[Assistant] In nature, the huge majority of seeds don't germinate. That's why plants create so many seeds, to swing the numbers in their favor. But by planting and caring for a seed, you can nearly guarantee that it will germinate and grow successfully.


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

[User] So what's the deal with Technetium? That random artificial radioactive metal in the middle of the late 30s of the elements.

[Assistant] Technetium is pretty cool. It provides a huge piece of evidence for nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than Fe by supernovas. We don't see technetium in absorption spectra coming from the Sun or from other far away stars. However, when we look at spectra from supernovas, we see absorption in the Tc bands - meaning that we can see recently-generated technetium that has not yet decayed, which was formed during the supernova by neutron capture!


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

[User] ELI5: Before our Sun was a star, before the Solar System was a spinning disk of stuff, where did that stuff come from, and in the empty vastness of space how did those bits of stuff find each other?

[Assistant]
For whatever reason, our universe as we know it began with a very dense collection of energy. So dense and high-energy that matter as we know it could not exist.

It quickly expanded and cooled, and the first matter formed, though exactly what happened at this stage is not totally clear.

Given time, once the expansion had slowed enough, this matter was able to combine and form atoms. Hydrogen, really.

More time, less expansion, and this hydrogen begins clumping together due to gravity. As more and more hydrogen amasses, stars begin to form, where the hydrogen balls are so huge that their own gravity forces the hydrogen atoms at the center to fuse. This process forms heavier and heavier elements as more fusion takes place. Elements up to iron are produced. These are generation one stars.

Eventually, these stars die out. They run out of fuel and, oddly enough, explode, resulting in the creation of heavier matter. Everything above iron.

Then, this exploded material scattered across space comes together to form new stars and planets. Our solar system was formed in this way.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can I usually hear when a person is black, without seeing them (phone calls or radio etc). And I don't mean accents.

Maybe it is an accent, and I'm just not aware I'm detecting it.

**Edit: Apparently talking about differences in the "races" is racist.**

[Assistant]
There can be a very slight innate difference from race to race, but it's more to do with culture and accent than physiology - although physiology can sometimes play a part. However most likely if you heard a black guy who was, say, dutch or portuguese, you wouldn't be able to tell his race.

To make another example, Phil Lamarr is a black guy who's a prolific voice actor, if you didn't know who he was you'd never be able to tell the color of his skin. However I've noticed it's very difficult for white guys to do convincing voices of black characters.

Edit: Come to think of it, Phil Lamarr's normal voice doesn't sound like any particular race. Watch some interviews of him and see for yourself.


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

[User] Does the temperature of water affect its ability to put out a fire?

[Assistant] To an extent yes. In a practical sense no. Fire is a self sustaining reaction meaning that it creates enough energy to keep itself on fire. The idea behind using water to put it out (in something like a house fire when it isnt practical to smother it) is that the energy that is sustaining the reaction is instead utilized to heat and then vaporize the water. That means energy goes into creating steam rather than creating more fire. So in this instance it would take more energy to turn cold water into steam than hot water but phase change to steam (also known as the latent heat of vaporization) is actually the most energy intensive step in the process.


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

[User]
[Disney] Is Mickey Mouse a narcissist?

Donald, Daisy, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto are always singing songs about Mickey and making a big deal about him. They are at his theme park which has his image plastered all over the place.

Donald has shown a few times that he thinks this is unfair and he wants some love too. Why does Mickey hog the  spotlight? Why does everybody agree to praise Mickey so much to begin with? Is Mickey a narcissist? How would he react if he woke up one day and all the love and attention was focused on Goofy?

[Assistant]
> Why does Mickey hog the spotlight? Why does everybody agree to praise Mickey so much to begin with? Is Mickey a narcissist? How would he react if he woke up one day and all the love and attention was focused on Goofy?

To be true the Mickey Cult is an American thing. In Europe and Latin American usually Donald Duck (and often Scrooge McDuck) are way more popular characters. Goofy is funny. Mickey on the other hand is considered a boring nuisance with a non-personality.

I don't know how things are in Asia, Africa and Australia.


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

[User]
[Marvel]What does Odin do on any given day, a normal day as a king?

What are his duties? Does he roam around Asgard? Does he bless newborns? What's a normal day for him?

[Assistant]
Odin's days aren't always the same.  Some days he's incredibly hands off and reclusive, seemingly willing to rely on others, like Thor, to do the work of saving Asgard on their own.  Other days, he works by proxy and has figures like Cul Borson carry out his will.  And then sometimes he's hands-on and directly involved in Asgard.

He can waver around in his duties like this because he's king.  He gets to decide what he's supposed to do.  He can be a totalitarian tyrant one year and a laissez faire monarch the next according to his whims.


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

[User] [Warhammer 40k] Whatever happened to the squats?

[Assistant]
In universe:

Most, if not all, Squat homeworlds were eradicated by the Tyranids. What was left of them died out due to the xenophobic nature of the Imperium (refusal to treat them as regular humans and executions for refusal to follow the Imperial Creed). You might be able to find a few still serving in Imperial regiments.

Out of universe:

They were essentially written out. Jervis Johnson, one of 40k's major designers, says he regrets importing them in from WH: Fantasy. He felt that the space dwarves theme did not fit in the 40k universe.


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

[User] Drowning survivors report a sense of calm and peace before losing consciousness, do other forms of death have similar experiences?

[Assistant] When you asphyxiate your brain loses its higher functioning due to lack of oxygen. Fighter pilots need to wear oxygen masks because hypoxia results in a euphoric optimism and invincibility. The common sport of masturbating while strangling yourself results in so many accidental deaths because without oxygen you lose all sense of fear.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What is the opinion on firearms in the wizarding world?

I remember in one of the books there was a description of a gun and it was almost as if they were describing a caveman savage weapon. Why do they not use them? Do they not realize they couldve ended their war basically overnight with them?

[Assistant]
The gun is a muggle object. It is unrefined, and crude, compared to the elegance of magic.

It also might not work after the first few times. Once you start using it regularly, someone is going to whip up a Responsive Protection Charm bound to their clothing, that would snatch bullets out of the air, or some form of magic that fuses the bullet with the cartridge/barrel, rendering the device useless.


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

[User]
Why aren't the units of time based on tens?

Why are there 60 seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour instead of 10 or 100? Is it just how the units were derived? Does it have anything to do with fitting them into a calendar?

[Assistant]
They were first used by the Babylonians, who used a base 60 number system.

They also were the first to use degrees to do circular geometry, which is why we have 60 arcseconds in an arcminute, 60 arcminutes in a degree, and 360 (6*60) degrees in a circle.


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

[User]
How come we often squint our eyes in order to see more clearly? It seems to have the desired effect but why?

I've noticed myself doing this more often, especially in order to see things further away. It seems to make objects appear clearer... but how?

[Assistant] Reducing the aperture of the pupil (which reduces the area where light can come from), increases the focal depth since there is less ambiguity in where each photon can have come from. It is exactly the same principle as in camera lenses.


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

[User]
Why is ethanol drinkable but methanol, 2-propanol, etc. poisonous?

From an organic chemistry perspectice, what significant difference does one extra carbon make? I'm an organic chemistry student and I've yet found the answer.

[Assistant]
From the point of view of organic chemistry, one extra carbon could make little difference (usually it does not, anyway), but from the point of view of biochemistry, even one chiral center makes a huge difference, let alone one extra carbon.

Acute methanol poisoning is extremely dangerous because it is converted *in vivo* to formaldehyde and formic acid, both of which are extremely toxic for the retina, and boom there goes your sight, forever. The toxicity of ethanol is exceedingly lower, because human metabolism can take care of its byproducts (though the intermediate oxidation product, acetaldehyde, is probably a carcinogen). Isopropyl alcohol, while not being something you should drink, is not really bad like methanol: it is converted *in vivo* to acetone, whose toicity is also relatively low.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What are wizards and wizarding cultures like in places other than Europe?

Was/is magic any different for Native Americans, Africans, Aboriginals, Aztecs, or Chinese to name a few? Past and present cultures.

[Assistant]
During Colonisation in the New World and the Pacific, European Wizards engaged in the *complete and utter cultural genocide of native magical peoples*.

Previously, native wizards and witches had been integrated into their communities with non-magical peoples, or Muggles as they are called by Wizard Supremacists. Due to their mingling, these magical peoples were seen to be impure, however there was a very high birth rate per capita of Magically born children in the general population.

**European Wizards took it upon themselves to save and restore the Magical Bloodlines in these countries, by kidnapping and abducting Magical children.**

Over the course of several generations, young Magical Natives where forcibly removed from their communities as soon as their power manifested and placed in schools resembling those in Europe. Existing Magical peoples where actively suppressed and where denied any chance to pass on their knowledge to apprentices, as the Wizarding community was brutally effective at finding and abducting magical children.

The only exception is in New Zealand, where Maori Magical folk successfully resisted British Wizard incursions, although the community went underground following mass European migration - eventually an accord was reached.


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

[User] [Alien] Why is the human host incubation stage needed between the egg face-hugger and baby xenomorph? Why doesn't the baby chest buster xenomorph come straight out of the egg?

[Assistant]
You could ask the same question of any real world parasites or parasitoids. Some even require hosts from multiple species to complete their life cycle.

The in-universe answer is probably that the host provides the DNA to imprint on the xenomorph to make it a more efficient predator of that species as well as giving it the raw nourishment for its initial growth.

It also allows for long periods of dormancy when the local prey is depleted. The facehugger will then adapt to whatever new prey shows up years later.


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

[User]
Where should I start with Heidegger?

Simple question, I've read snippets of Heidegger's work and become interested but I don't know where to start.

[Assistant]
*Being and Time*. This work is difficult and dense enough to keep you busy for a while. Also, Heidegger himself said you cannot understand his later work except through *Being and Time*.

If your Kant is good, another starting place could be *Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics.* The lecture courses *Basic Problems of Phenomenology* and *History of the Concept of Time* are other helpful resources.


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

[User]
What type of economics is taught in China?

Im assuming Marxian because of the ruling Communist party? Do they allow economists from other schools to teach/exist?

[Assistant]
I taught the same (mainstream) principles curriculum at a top tier Chinese universitys summer school as you see in nearly all US universities. The textbooks were preselected for me by the program. We might have used Mankiws principles textbook iirc.

The university economics curriculum is fairly uniform around the world and across types of universities. At various points, Ive been affiliated with the following universities:

a US liberal arts college

2 different US private research universities

a US public research university

a UK public research university

a Chinese public research university

Even when there were heterodox components of the curriculum, they were taught in addition to bog-standard mainstream economics, starting from neoclassical and Keynesian models.


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

[User] [Harry Potter] What are some things we Muggles are able to do more effectively than wizards? Is there going to be a time when we become far more advanced?

[Assistant]
We are already way better at killing for one.  Guns are faster and more powerful than a lot of spells and even our explosives can rival/exceed a fiendfyre.  How powerful and advanced military tech is would make wizards seem like they're still fighting with bow and arrows and rocks on sticks.

Our ability to communicate quickly is also much better, wizards don't use anytime of email or instant messaging or even have something akin to it.

If you want to learn about wizarding stuff you also have to go to the library or somewhere that has info on magical knowledge. You can access so much muggles knowledge instantly from one of our smart phones or computers.

If you want money from your account you don't need to go to a single bank for it. In fact you don't even need cash at all.

In terms of simulated entertainment we have gaming and stuff.. Another thing they don't have.  We actually beat them out in quite a few regards and the list could easily go on.  If you even think about how much your smart phone can actually do it's already more impressive than a lot of the things wizards do with magic.


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

[User]
[Doctor Who] Is it possible for the Doctor to travel back in time before the birth of the universe, or the Big Bang? What would happen?

I haven't watched Doctor Who in years, sorry if this is a stupid question. Just popped into my mind after watching a RealLifeLore video.

[Assistant]
The Tenth Doctor once fought a being on a world inhabiting a black hole, who claimed to have been imprisoned there by an advanced civilization before the birth of the current universe.  The Doctor didn't believe it was true, and the demon could plausibly have been an unreliable narrator trying to make itself sound scary.

(Source: the episode, "The Satan Pit")


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

[User]
[Prototype] What CANT Alex Mercer consume.

 When he eats a person, we see he replicates everything, even the inorganic parts like buttons and zippers. And putting aside that he may posibly camelions some bits into looking like metal, we also see that his weapons can cut metal and his sheild can withstand rocket fire. So what are his limits for eating inorganic material and/or replicating a substance that ous stronger than regulat metal?

[Assistant] Seems he can't actually consume firearms - when he consumes a soldier from stealth, he picks up their gun and doesn't absorb it into himself as he absorbs the soldier. So perhaps he can't consume gunpowder and/or large amounts of certain types of metal.


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

[User]
Does philosophy arise due to the limitations in our language?

It occurs to me that most philosophical enquiries revolve around the question what is XXX?. For example, in Republic, Plato discusses what Justice is; in Being and Time, Heidegger explores what being is. The branch Aesthetics ask questions about what beauty is.Hence i would like to ask to what extent is philosophy about defining words that we use in an everyday sense that we are not conscious of the real meaning most of the time? And this leads to the second question, does philosophy arise due to a limitation in our own language?

[Assistant]
Wittgenstein would say its not limitations in our language, but its a temptation growing out of language itself. In *Philosophical Investigations*, he says this:

>Philosophy is a struggle against the bewitchment of our understanding by the resources of our language [paragraph 109].

For him, a lot of philosophy is driven by our tendency to suspend our everyday use of words and to try find some pure, abstract meaning of them that would lurk behind all their uses. Wittgenstein urges against doing philosophy in this way. He sees the job of philosophy not as the search for new fundamental explanations about the world, but rather as describing what we in some sense already know but distort in our effort to get past the ordinary:

>Philosophy just puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything. [paragraph 126]

But again, he denies any notion that we are constrained or limited by our language, as though there could be some beyond language we could access that would somehow satisfy a craving for the abstract.


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

[User]
Why is the caloric content of food measured by combusting the food in a bomb calorimeter if our bodies do not combust the food in our stomachs?

It is my understanding that the energy we collect from food comes from the difference between the energy released in the formation of bonds and the energy consumed by the destruction of bonds in the food, but the chemical processes of digestion are fundamentally different from those of combustion, in which O2 is introduced and CO2 and H2O produced. Why do we measure with combustion?

For example, if you were to combust gasoline in a bomb calorimeter, it would produce quite a lot of heat and would therefore have a lot of calories (according to your calorie measuring calorimeter). However, I don't think these are the kind of calories that we can consume if we drink gasoline, so the measurement would be false would it not?

TL;DR Does digesting food extract the same amount of chemical potential energy from the food as combusting it does?

[Assistant]
Burning gives an upper limit to the amount of energy you can get out of combustion.

If the end products are water and CO2 then it doesn't matter how you get to it, the total energy produced will be the same if the products are the same. Your body simply does the oxidation slowly through a long chain of chemical reactions in order to process it in a way that is beneficial to your body.  If your body exploded compounds it would actually be pretty inefficient.

Your body however will differ in how it handles that energy along with how much of the reactant actually is used.

Your body may also lack the tools needed to process some compounds like gasoline as you stated.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do I feel happier when anticipating something than actually experiencing it?

I've been noticing lately that I always feel the need to have something to look forward to, but I usually don't enjoy it like I think I will. I find it hard to be "present" and tend to think of the next thing to look forward to.

Is this this a common phenomenon that can be easily explained?

[Assistant] When you anticipate something you're imagining it under your rules and your mind is free to create any scenario you want. When you experience it it's usually a let down because it didn't live up to what you imagined it would be.


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

[User]
Is the expansion of the universe constant in all directions?

So, I know that the universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate, like an exponential function. But is the rate as which it's accelerating constant? Or does it change? And is it uniform in all directions?

And is the rate of acceleration changing at all? Is it increasing? It's a lot of questions, I'm just curious.

[Assistant]
The expansion is, as far as we can tell, uniform in all directions. The Copernican principle - the idea that there's no special place or special direction in the Universe - agrees very well with observations.

The acceleration is approaching a constant rate, but it is currently increasing. You can tell this because the expansion of the Universe was initially decelerating, but is now accelerating, so the acceleration must be going up.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are some books (mostly reference and educational books) printed with two columns of text, as opposed to novels with one column?

[Assistant]
Reference and educational books tend to have smaller type than novels. Smaller type means more words per line and it is harder to make sure you don't skip a line while you are reading.

Also, information in textbooks and references tends to be much more dense than in novels. If you miss a word in a novel, you can usually figure it out based on context. If you miss a word in a reference text, it can be a much bigger problem.


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

[User]
ELI5: How quickly do microorganisms move around?

Lets say I have this 10x10 rectangle in my living room floor. I use bleach and hypothetical chemicals that will completely kill any microorganism in this rectangle, BUT the rest of the living room is a regular microbe infested floor.

Lets also say, that while it would be pretty impossible to do, that there is no dust or anything in the air that would eventually land on this absolutely clean floor. How long would it take for all the microorganisms to eventually move into the space? Do they even move any significant amount at all? Do they have reason to move at all? Are microrganisms "moving" just them multiplying and spreading?

[Assistant] Bacteria can reach speeds from 2 microns per second (Beggiatoa, a gliding bacteria) to 200 microns per second (Vibrio comma, polar bacteria). Speed varies with type of bacteria, but flagellates are undoubtedly faster than gliders.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] How is it that the Yuuzhan Vong exist outside the force?

I'm sure they probably try to explain this in the EU, but I'm not sure which book. I'm also not sure what the reason is behind the Vong not being able to be sensed by jedi.

[Assistant]
They originated on a planet and lived in a symbiosis with their planet. When they were threatened and attacked by two species using machines etc. their planet sort of gave them biologically produced "living" weapons and technology with which they could defend themselves and ultimately defeat the enemies.

Afterwards they started using their weapons, which their planet gave them, to start a conquest in their galaxy against other races to clean the galaxy of all machines. This lead to great destruction throughout the whole galaxy and eventually their connection to the force was severed.

To clarify this has nothing to do with the force only existing in our galaxy. But in extreme cases it is possible for individuals to have their connection to the force destroyed (also a powerful force technique).

In this case it was caused through the destruction of their home-world during the war.

**EDIT:**

Trying to make it more clear.

The reason Jedi cannot sense them is that they leave no signature or trace or presence in the force. As it is described the Force flows through you is inside and around everyone and connects all living beings (accept those who lost their connection). Because of this nobody can sense someone if they have no connection as they leave no "footprint" in the Force.


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

[User]
ELI5: Race is a social construct.

Hello,

After doing a comparative osteology unit and seeing the skeletal differences between different races, I am failing to understand how people believe race is purely a social construct. Can someone explain it to me?

P.S. I do not believe any race is superior to another, I'm genuinely curious about this question.

[Assistant] Race really came from that time in history we were really wanted everything to fit into nice taxonomic groups. But the groups we choose are pretty damn arbitrary, even to this day. What does it mean to be white? European? How close are Italians to Finnish to Romanians to Spanish? What about Asian? Asian including everyone from China and India and Indonesia and the Phillipines. What about people from the Middle east? Are Syrians and Egyptians and Jordanians middle eastern or black? Hell, even go south of the US and what it means to be white and black vary by a  crazy amount. Which is why you see stuff like Non Hispanic, white on forms.


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

[User]
ELI5 why x^0=1.

I know the math and can explain it easily with limits but my friends and I couldn't figure out how to explain it to a child easily.  Any ideas?

[Assistant]
To get x^2 from x^3, divide x^3 by x.

To get x^1 from x^2, divide x^2 by x. By this logic, you can see that x^1=x.

To get x^0 from x^1, divide x^1 by x. Since x^1 =x, this is equal to x/x, which equals 1.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do passenger side mirrors in cars make objects seem farther away? Whats the need for it in the first place?

[Assistant] The mirrors are convex shaped, i.e. the middle part bows out. This gives you a larger angle that is reflected so you can see more in the mirror but distorts the size of things, making them smaller in the middle and stretched on the edges. This is similar to a fisheye lens on a camera but to a lesser degree.


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

[User] Is daytime darker on Mars since it is further than the sun? How does atmosphere affect the brightness of a planet?

[Assistant]
Mars is about 60% further from the Sun than Earth, so by the inverse square law it gets about (1.6)^-2 = 39% as much solar radiation per square metre.

That's appreciably darker, even considering the atmospheric effects on Earth.

Atmosphere reflects some of the incoming light from the Sun, and sometimes (clouds) blocks it. This is not as big a factor as Mars's distance.


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

[User]
I don't believe that motorcycles should be allowed to lane split or "white line". They should act like any other motor vehicle on the road. CMV

I think it is dangerous and irresponsible. Lately they have even taken to riding in the emergency and bicycle lanes.

Edit 1: Thanks for the responses.  I now have a better understanding  of the practice and how it can be safer for the motorcyclist to use. Ride safe out there.

[Assistant] California permits lane splitting because many (most?) motorcycle engines are air cooled. Therefore, the engine can only keep cool if it is moving. So sitting in stopped traffic on a bike could lead it to overheat. Lane splitting permits riders to keep their bikes from overheating.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did some ancient cultures accept homosexuality (examples, Greek, Roman) while others (example, Jewish) did not?

Thanks for the replies.

I guess the importance of maintaining/increasing the population is the closest answer to the type of "why" I was looking for. The fact that the existence of homosexual acts does not in any way have to preclude reproductive sex . . . maybe that's too modern of a realization for ancient peoples? Maybe it was too important to maintain total control the population's behavior, so no exceptions allowed?

[Assistant]
I can say that the Levitican prohibition against lying with a man as one would with a woman is due to a concern with ritual cleanliness when entering the Temple to perform rituals and make sacrifices; that extended into the culture of many Hebrew tribes.

The Spartans accepted it because it increased battle unit cohesion and prevented warriors from being split in their feelings. Some of the Romans accepted it, some didn't. Some Greeks accepted it, some didn't. For some it was part of their religion, for some it was not. There were many deities and many cults, and religious observations for the classical Greeks and Romans were significantly different from Judeo-Muslim-Christian religious observations.


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

[User] [Star Wars] "This is getting out of hand! Now, there are two of them!" At what point did Nute Gunray start to think he got himself into some deep poodoo?

[Assistant] Gunray is not a very good military or tactical leader. He was only ever a patsy, and he never even figured that much out. He didn't realize he was in trouble until Padme pulled a gun out of her throne.


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

[User] ELI5: How do headphones create a sense of something being behind/in front of you, when they only play sound to the left and right of your head?

[Assistant]
I want to elaborate on the other answers to explain how it actually works. Your ears aren't just two holes in your ear- they have flesh that is shaped differently in each direction. As sounds come to your ear through different directions, the shape of your outer ear alters the sound (making certain frequencies change in volume by the time they hit your inner ear).

Your can (sort of) reproduce this in the studio by accentuating different frequencies and affects like reverb. But placing audio in front and behind is actually a lot harder to replicate than left and  right. "Far vs near" and "left vs right" can be done easily - "forward vs backwards" and "up vs down" are a lot more ambiguous.


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

[User] ELI5 Why the skin on our face is different than the skin on our body (thinner, oilier, sometimes more prone to acne)?

[Assistant]
Human skin is tailored to the needs of where it is.

Your skin is thickest on your back over your spinal cord.  You don't need much flexibility of skin or sensitivity there and thicker skin protects your spine.

Your  fingers have thin skin so they can bend easily.

Your head has a skull and uses a lot of blood.  So your skin is thin because it does not need to protect your skull and it lets heat escape more easily.

Oil protects your skin from drying out and cracking.  The thin skin on your face needs extra oil to protect it because it is thin and exposed.   Your nose in particular.   Whereas the top of your head and much of your body had hair or clothes to protect it.


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

[User] [Marvel] Would Daredevil be a better or worse fighter if he somehow got his vision back?

[Assistant]
It depends on who gave him his sight back. The Beyonder did it, and he was fine and functioned well. When he has had more mundane restorations of his sight he's lost his radar ability or other super powers.

So, it depends on who does it. His powers are tied to his lack of vision, but a powerful enough being can just ignore that and give him his sight and everything else.


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

[User]
[The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas] Why don't some of the witnesses to the punished child riot in the streets?

It seems the only two reactions were accept it or leave the city.

[Assistant]
Why aren't people rioting in the streets right now over the fact that the price of their comfortable lives is third world child poverty? Because most of us are too comfortable to care.

Anyway, it's entirely possible that there have been riots; we aren't told otherwise. But they would have been ineffectual. The only way to save the child would be to tear the system down and start again, and this would cause massive suffering to all the other inhabitants of Omelas.


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

[User]
Why can I breathe the same air longer in and out (e.g. with balloon) than by just holding it?

If I take a balloon and blow some air into it, then let it go back into my lungs, repeatedly, I can do it longer than it takes to get bored, but when just holding my breath, a minute is already very hard.

One could think, it should not matter, as it is the same amount of air/oxygen in both cases.

So I am curious, what does happen in the lungs that makes the difference? I guess it has to have to do with CO2 somehow being less concentrated in my lungs when circulating the air? If yes, why is it so?

[Assistant]
I don't know the precise values, but some portion of the air you inhale never makes it to the aveoli; it's called dead-air space. this is why dogs can pant so much and not hyperventilate- the fresh air is only moving in the mouth and some way into the trachea.

so when you take one breath and hold it, some portion arrives at the aveoli to exchange gasses, but the remainder is just sitting in the trachea, bronchi, and broncheoli without exchanging gasses. the air in the aveoli gains more and more carbon dioxide (CO2 levels, not oxygen, is the primary drive to breathe), and eventually the CO2 levels in the blood start to rise.

By breathing into the balloon, the aveoli are cleared of this stale air. You now distribute your CO2 into the whole volume of air, instead of it building up right next to your bloodstream, (in the aveoli).


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

[User]
Calculating the time dilation for an object inside a black hole returns imaginary values, does this have a deeper meaning?

Or is it just a quirk of the math? Probably doesn't mean anything because no outside observer can see any objects crossing over the event horizon anyways, but it's still interesting. Using the t0 = t1 * sqrt(1 - GM/rc) formula for non-rotating spherical masses.

[Assistant] The Schwarzschild coordinate chart does not cover the region beyond the event horizon. To the faraway observer, the inside region doesn't even exist. It doesn't make any sense to talk about the time dilation factor between a faraway observer and an observer beyond the horizon.


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

[User] Why are the coldest months of the year (typically Jan/feb) not also the month with the shortest days (dec)?

[Assistant]
Roughly speaking, when the days are short, the region is on average cooling down, losing more heat at night than it gains during the day.  The length of the days has more to do with the rate of change of temperature than with the actual temperature.

For example, suppose you turn on a toaster.  The bread isn't warmest at the middle of the time that the heating coils are on.  Rather it's warmest at the end of that time.


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

[User]
Is there a reason we do not put our Depleted uranium/fuel rods on the moon, or in space?

Was watching aftermath and was talking about some of the bi-product of nuclear energy and it's storage lastings hundreds and thousands of years, so I was wondering why don't we put them in space where it is constantly cold or into the sun?

[Assistant] It's extremely expensive to launch things into space, especially given the number of launches it would take to remove all the waste accumulated over the past 60 years. Also, if a rocket exploded during launch, radioactive waste would be strewn over a wide area. Aside from that, it would be an effective long-term solution.


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

[User] [Frasier] Even in the 90s, Frasiers apartment would have cost a fortune and was furnished extravagantly. How did a non-syndicated, regional radio personality afford it?

[Assistant]
Frasier's wealth largely stemmed from investments made while he was a practicing psychiatrist in Boston. He and Lilith both made very good money and in a dual-income, no-child household they were able to put up a LOT of money into investments. Through some strategy and a little luck, their investments boomed huge amidst the Reaganomic era, which was great for high earners especially.

>!One of the show's writers, Joe Kennan, directly stated that his wealth was based in investments made during his time in Boston, at least.!<


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

[User] ELI5: I've heard so many so called "right" and "wrong" ways we are supposed to use the word "irony". How is it actually supposed to be used and what are common ways it is used improperly?

[Assistant]
Irony is when a situation occurs that is the opposite of what is expected. There are some other uses--like dramatic irony, which is when the audience of a movie/book/etc. know something the characters don't--but this is by far the most common use.

However, lately people have been using irony to refer to any situation they find to be mildly amusing.

An example: If you meet a prostitute who comes from a place called "Sextown", this is not ironic. It's amusing, in a certain way, but it doesn't go against your expectation based on the name.

If, on the other hand, you meet a prostitute from a place called "Chastity", this is ironic, because it goes against the expectation.


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

[User]
Does the imaginary part of the voltage in an RLC circuit really exist, or is it just an artifact of the math we use to derive it that can be discarded? Is there any way to measure it?

So in my physics class that I took last semester we learned about RLC circuits and my teacher sort of handwaved away the imaginary part of the voltage, saying "we only care about the real part." Is this totally true or is there just a deeper rabbit hole he didn't want to get into for the purposes of our class?

If we have a capacitor, resistor, and inductor in series and in a closed loop with no external voltage source (for the purposes of this explanation, anyways.) We can use kirchoff's law to derive the fact that the voltage drop over any closed loop is zero, so we get:

-L(dI/dt)-IR-(R/C)=0

=-L(d^2 Q/dt^2 )-R(dQ/dt)-(Q/C)=0

=(d^2 Q/dt^2 )+(R/L)(dQ/dt)+(1/LC)Q=0

So now we have a differential equation, whose solution we can guess is something like : Q=Ae^it

Therefore:

-^2 A^eit +i(R/L)A^eit -(1/LC)A^eit =0

=-^2 +i(R/L)-(1/LC)=0

Where (1/LC) is some resonant frequency *_0_* squared, so we can solve the quadratic:

-^2 +i(R/L)-*_0_*^2 =0

to find , which will be:

=i(R/L)sqrt(*_0_*^2 -(R^2 /4L^2 ))

[edit: i skipped some parts here, i'm just going off what i have in my notebook]

so finally Q=Ae^((-R/2L)^)t ^+it

which is e to a complex power, which can be re-written using euler's formula, which gives a real and an imaginary part:

Q=Ae^((-R/2L)^)t cos(t)+Ae^((-R/2L)^)t isin(t)

so now for Q we have a real and imaginary part. So what does the imaginary part mean in reality? If we tried to see it on an oscilliscope, per se, could we? Could we have some sort of device that would measure charge or voltage in the complex plane? Or does none of this matter because the imaginary part is just an artifact of the mathematics that doesn't have any real meaning?

thanks for your time, anyone who reads and is able to respond to this.

[Assistant] The imaginary part helps to determine the phase of the oscillatory part. It has a real meaning in the sense that different initial configurations of the capacitor and current will result in different values for the real and imaginary parts.


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

[User]
[General] Would bringing back an asteroid worth trillions of dollars be a wise way for a superhero to get rich?

Would bringing back an asteroid worth trillions of dollars be a wise way for a superhero to get rich?

[Assistant]
Probably not, it would severely devalue whatever mineral the asteroid had in it which could have profound impacts on the global economy depending on what it is.

That of course is assuming the technology to mine an asteroid (or the hero's power equivalent) exist.

Now as a hypothetical method of producing supplies for the hero or hero group a la Justice League Watchtower and keep it as confidential as possible, maybe.


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

[User]
What is the .01% of germs that can't be killed by most cleaning products?

It seems every soap or cleaning products boast that they kill 99.99% of germs. What are the ones that get away?

[Assistant] I read somewhere that these kind of products actually kill ALL germs, but manufacturers say that they only kill 99.99% to cover themselves should something bad happen like a bacterial infection to someone who washed his hands with such a product. That person can't go and sue the company then because the company could then say that it was the .01% that it does not kill.


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

[User]
ELI5:If a pilot crashes a plane due to a mechanical failure and crash lands into some number of people, killing them, who is at fault?

Let's assume he chose the group of people because he felt that it would cause the least amount of deaths.

Edit: I'm curious cuz the pilot has (some) control over the plane until it inevitably crashes. Who would be blamed for those deaths?

[Assistant]
Well, 'mechanical failure' excludes the pilot entirely.

Now, it's up to the National Transportation Safety Board. (NTSB) or equivalent agencies to investigate and determine whether it's the maintenance (airlines, military branch, or private operator) at fault, or the manufacturer (who built the plane(Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus, Cessna), etc.).

They do this by collecting every piece of the plane after it crashes, and look for anything out of order for any reason not caused by the crash itself.

For example: if they find a segment of hydraulic line with a leak in it, enclosed in an unaffected segment of wing, then good chance is that's at fault.

They then look at the maintenance logs, and see if it was checked and replaced as frequently as it needed to be. If not, maintenance at fault. If it is, they look to see if it's happened more than once, indicating a substandard grade element used in the manufacture, or if only once- more likely a defect made by the manufacturer or subcontractor.

If it's a defect, covered by relevant insurance, if substandard element- planes retrofitted with better alternative, victim payout comes out of general liability insurance.


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

[User] [Halo] What's daily life like for a SPARTAN IV?

[Assistant] Same as just about any other enlisted soldier. Wake up, do PT, eat, training, Eat, free time, bed. They perform duties as needed like maintenance or kitchen patrol and aren't kept seperate from other troops or minor busy work duties like the 2s and 3s were.


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

[User] ELI5: There are times when a one-way airplane ticket will cost 3 or 4 times as much than a return airplane ticket. What stops people from simply purchasing a return ticket and not returning?

[Assistant]
Nothing.  You can take advantage of this loophole.

In addition, if you happen to know that a multi-stop flight that stops at your desired city costs less, then you can book it and simply not board the follow on plane.

Both of these take a little homework, but I've done it before.