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

[User] Is there a limit to how small a star can be? If so, what is the theoretically smallest star possible and why?

[Assistant] About 80 times the mass of Jupiter. Below that, they don't have enough mass to get the intense heat and pressure in the core required to fuse hydrogen. These objects are called "brown dwarfs", and generally look more like ~~a enormous~~ Jupiter than a star. The line between a small brown dwarf and a large gas giant is actually a bit fuzzy.


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

[User]
[ELI5] Why can't we concentrate nonstop? Why do we need breaks?

EDIT: I mean productive work such as learning.

[Assistant] You'd be amazed how long people can concentrate when the environment is designed to be stimulating. People can play video games, stare at a phone, watch TV, or look at slot machines for periods of time that are basically just constrained by sleep, assuming they are extremely stimulated by them. The problem is that extremely stimulating tasks are generally not very productive, they're usually entertainment.


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

[User] If I threw something straight down from the ISS, would it re-enter the atmosphere or stay in orbit?

[Assistant]
In all likelihood, no.
The object would have a lower orbit closer to where you threw it, but it would have a higher orbit on the opposite side of the planet.
You would have to throw it REALLY REALLY hard to get it into the atmosphere.
Your best bet is to throw it backwards, but that would still be very fast.
The ISS orbits at 7.66 km/s, you would need to get that thing going at about 1 km/s relative to the station to get it to de-orbit.
A Soyuz spacecraft has to turn its rockets on for  4 minutes and 21 seconds to get back to earth, so you can see that's alot of speed.
That being said, even at 400km up the ISS is still getting drag from earth's atmosphere.
It's not a lot, but the ISS descends about 50-100 m every day due to this. The ISS has to be reboosted every so often, your object won't be reboosted. As it get's lower and lower in orbit, the drag increases. Eventually it will fall to earth.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do glass and plates dry up in the dishwasher but plastics don't?

You know how plastic tupperware cups always have drops on them when you take them out of the dishwasher? The plates and glass have long since airdried. What is the properties of plastic that does that?

[Assistant] Glass and ceramic have a much higher heat capacity, so they retain more heat when put in the dishwasher. The heat transfers to the water on them which helps it evaporate quickly. Meanwhile the plastic cools quickly and doesn't heat up the water as much.


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

[User]
Struggles with reading research papers

I am a new grad student in Engineering. As obvious, I am supposed to read research papers quite often now which was not the case earlier. And I think I am not very good at it, especially when I see that some peers around me are able to read the same research paper in 20 minutes with better comprehension that I take about 2 hours to read.

Is this normal feeling for new grad students in engineering and one gets used to it with time or am I missing something. What suggestions you would give to a new grad student to overcome this hurdle? And how do you read those math-heavy research papers containing a lot of abstract concepts hard to visualize.

[Assistant] Its normal. In the beginning it took me almost a whole day to read a paper thoroughly. With time it gets much easier as you get used to the format, pick up standard phrases, learn to differentiate between important and less important details (as it relates to your research). As you get more knowledgeable in your field youll be able to quickly skim through introductions because youll already know most of it.


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

[User]
[Stargate] why don't they use the time travel ship to return to the time of the Ancients?

I haven't finished the series, however you would think the first mission they would use it for would be to return to the Ancients time and acquire knowledge and technology. The entire purpose of an SG team is to acquire advanced technology and nobody is more advanced than them.

[Assistant]
Well, firstly, you don't fuck with time travel. They have fucked up the present several times, and only use time travel if they really really need to. Secondly, the time machines themselfs are often unreliable, considering they are 10 000 years old.
Thirdly, the ancients wouldn't react kindly to it. We have seen the times ancients have returned, they didn't care much about the tauri. If you go to the past they might not let you leave.


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

[User]
CMV: Hamas kills innocent civilians more than Israel

As I'm writing this I'm sitting is a shelter, in the middle of the night because of rockets being fired by Hamas, rockets that target densely populated cities to cause harm to civilians. As of writing this post 5 Israelis died, many injured and it's all civilians.

On the other hand, Israel tries it's best to only hurt combatans/terrorists. You may have heard about the 13 story building that was destroyed, Hamas used it for their operations, and all the building's occupants were warned and asked to evacuate before destroying it. Israel warned them about where it's going to strike to minimize civilian casualties, and this was one of many times this tactic was used.
You may also have heard about the dead children that were killed by Israeli airstrikes. well, according to israeli intelligence the childen were killed not by israeli forces but by failed rocket luanching attempts, many of which cause the rockets to fall in Gaza itself. And,if that wasn't enough, Hamas is known for using it's own people as "meat shields" as sickening as it sounds, increasing casualties on their own side.

I'm by no means say Israel is perfect. Many times in the past when assassinating Terrorist leaders, civillians were hurt. But, unlike Hamas Israel does try to avoid it. one might claim they don't try hard enough, but at least they are trying.
(P.S - By the time I finished the post it became morning, didn't get any sleep after 3 am tho)

[Assistant]
> Hamas, rockets that target densely populated cities to cause harm to civilians. As of writing this post 5 Israelis died, many injured and it's all civilians.

The Gaza Strip is also densely populated and full of civilians. Israeli casualties are generally kept low due to the Iron Dome, which is a protection civilians in Gaza do not have. Yes, Hamas uses civilians as shields for their rocket instillations. While that means that Hamas is also morally responsible for their deaths, it doesn't not absolve the Israeli of moral responsibility.

>one might claim they don't try hard enough, but at least they are trying.

if Israel did zero air strikes, then there would be zero civilian casualties.


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

[User] When the surface of a body of water freezes, what is preventing the water beneath the ice from freezing too?

[Assistant]
Heat transfer through water can proceed through two mechanisms. One is diffusion, where the kinetic energy from one molecule transfers to its neighbors through random collisions. While the molecules collide enough that diffusion from one molecule to the next is pretty fast, this transfer becomes slower and slower as you work on larger and larger scales.

The other mechanism is convection. Since water is a fluid, you can have large currents of water moving molecules up or down in the lake or pond even when the net flow is zero. Convection currents are hard to model but are driven by density fluctuations (because of temperature), gravity, and inertia. Convection is much more efficient than diffusion on almost any length scale you would worry about.

Once the water freezes at the top of the lake, the ice will stay in place since it floats. In a solid there are no convective flows, so heat transfer is only going to take place by diffusion. The diffusion in ice is a little faster than diffusion in water, but it is still slower than convection in water. So when the air gets very cold, ice will form on the surface relatively quickly. But the thicker the ice gets, the more slowly heat will be able to leave the water underneath. The ice is essentially insulating the water more and more as it gets thicker. Since the rate of ice growth is proportional to the rate of heat transfer, it takes about four times as long to form an ice layer twice as thick.


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

[User] ELI5:. How are we able to learn behavioral traits of species never documented while alive? How are we so certain about dinosaur knowledge when it's based solely on fossils?

[Assistant]
That question is similar to, "how is a forensic team investigating a crime able to know what happened if they never saw it?" They find evidence that was left behind that they can peice together to form a complete picture of what happened.

Paleontologists do the same thing but with extinct animals. They use fossile records which can't be understated in usefulness. Some fossils are actually completely preserved in such a way that you can take it apart layer by layer and "disect" an ancient animal. You can see the remnants of the food they ate, the size and shape of internal organs, etc etc and in doing so use logical reasoning to figure out how those adaptations would have been used.

Enviormental evidence helps too. A creature that builds a whole lot of nest in the same general area is most likely to be a group/pack/herd animal, for example. You also have the standard rules of evolution to help give you ideas as well. An animal that sticks out like a sore thumb or has an extreme adaptation is a clue that they specialize in some skill or trait because specializations are an evolutionary risk. (You *better* excel at it if you specialize or you've got nothing to fall back on.)

Now, are they wrong sometimes? Definitely. Sometimes a hypothesis can look probable until someone finds evidence that conflicts with the idea. We saw dinosaurs as more reptilian for a long time, until people started find fossils that included examples of those dinos having feathers and other features that put them more inline with modern birds. Its a game of trial and error. The more evidence you can find, the more clear the picture can become.


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

[User] Sometimes websites deny a password change because the new password is "similar" to the old one, How do they know that, if all they got is a hash that should be completely different if even 1 character was changed?

[Assistant] It depends on how the new password is entered. If the form asks for the existing password then that's how they know. If not, then that's a big red flag to passwords stored with reversible encryption, or perish the thought, in plain text!!!


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

[User]
[Star Wars] R2D2 has a module that allows him to make beeps, whistles, and other noises. Why couldn't this module be swapped for one that actually talks?

He is obviously capable of expressing complex thoughts and ideas. He also has a lot of space inside, including spare space for storing things, such as Luke's lightsaber. Why not use some of this space for a voice modulator?

[Assistant] R2 communicates using language via his readout screen, which will transmit its messages to a similar screen in the x-wing cockpit... his main purpose is riding in his slot in the x-wing, and thus it is felt that voice communication would be distracting to the pilot... his beeps and whistles do carry meaning, and an experienced pilot will know what is on the readout screen by the sounds the droid is making...


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

[User]
ELI5:Why are the United States and European countries considered "the west" while Russia and Asia are considered "the east?" Why is the map drawn the way it is?

This question has two parts.

1. Why are the US, Canada, South America, and Europe, the west, and why are Russia, China, and Japan the east?  If I learnt correctly, the earth is a globe.  Aren't certain countries considered west/east because that is where they were drawn?  Suppose you are in China; you would think you are in the east, right?  If you continued to go further east, you reach the United States, then if you kept going even further east you would reach Europe.  So wouldn't you think Europe is further east than China?  Well if you kept going east you're suddenly back in China, so maybe it really is further-east, but if you still continued to go east, you're in the US, which would make the US seem like the eastern-most country, and on and on and on it goes.  You can always continue going east and and claim you are further east than someone else.  Why are China and Japan considered where the east ends, and if you go further you are not more eastern, you have "restarted in the west?"

It works the other way too.  If you are in the United States, and you travel west, you would eventually be in China, since the earth is spherical.  So why was the side of the world with the US and Canada called the west, and why was the side with China and Russia called the east?

2. Who decided the map should have those two countries at their respective ends?  Why is the map not drawn with the US, Canada, and South America to the east, and with Russia and China to the west, or any other way for that matter?

[Assistant]
It has to do with medieval Europe. Everything East of them was the East (also called Orient). The terms came into use before travel was possible across the large oceans by Europeans.

The reason that the Americas are the West is that we are descended from Europeans. Europe colonized the Americas and left their cultures.

Russia is also kind of a mixed place. They are physically on the Asian Continent and for most of their history were well removed from the cultures of Europe, but they also took great efforts in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries to adopt European culture, and spent most of the 20th isolating their culture from the world.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do burns take so much longer to heal than cuts?

[Assistant]
Not a doctor, so maybe someone more qualified can chime in later.

When you get a cut, even if it's deep or long, you have nearby tissue that's relatively unharmed and capable of assisting in healing the wound.

Likewise, when you get a scrape, the dermis and subcutaneous tissue are largely still intact and can help repair the damage.

When you get a bad enough burn, such that the dermis and subcutaneous tissue is damaged, but body is forced to repair the wound from the outside in, rather from all over.


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

[User]
[Portal] What was Wheatley's overall goal?

Like, why did he wake up Chell again? Did he always want himself installed into the Labortory? Why did he betray Chell? Why was he so cruel to Glados?

[Assistant]
You...are attributing a lot more forethought and planning to Wheatley than is reasonable.

He woke up Chell on accident while he was trying not to destroy all the humans in cryosleep, which he was unable to do because he's an idiot.

He betrayed Chell because he couldn't control himself, which he was unable to do because he's an idiot.

He was cruel to GLaDOS because she told him that he was an idiot, which he was, because he was specifically designed to be an idiot.


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

[User]
[ATLA] Do female airbenders generally have slower reflexes than male airbenders?

In Legend of Korra, Tenzin mentioned shaving one's head makes them hypersensitive to air currents and improves their reaction time. However female airbenders still keep their hair while males are shaven. Does this cultural practice put women at a disadvantage in airbending?

[Assistant] Female airbenders do shave their heads when they become masters.  Sometimes they grow it back, but some males do as well.  That said, it's a matter of training.  Tenzin shaved his head and kept it as such and said it made him more sensitive, which it probably did.  Jinora, who was used to having long hair, did not get that hypersensitivity from shaving her head.  She grew it back and was able to feel the air moving her hair.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do some TV shows (like Game of Thrones or True Blood) allow the showing of female genitalia, but not male?

It would be interesting to know if there are legal reasons or something of the like, sometimes the gratuitous breasts and such and lack of male parts becomes unnerving.

Edit: Apparently GoTs is a bad example, I must have missed the mentioned episode.

[Assistant] I see it differently.  Breasts are not genitalia and neither are butts.  Pubic hair isn't either.  Genitalia are the sex organs - penis and vagina.  I've seen penises on GoT (Theon and Hodor come to mind) but we don't see exposed vaginas.  They might show pubic hair but that's just hair.


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

[User] Would playing a black & white video use less battery power on my phone than an identical color one of equal resolution?

[Assistant] It would not really make a difference, since the amount of light displayed would average to the same, and that's the biggest battery drainer in a modern cellphone. It would be little lighter on the hardware (SoC and storage) though, but not by very much.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] I've lost track of the various warring factions over the time-line. Would someone sum them up?

I know the Republic became the Empire, and I'm pretty sure the Rebel Alliance fought against the Empire (but not the Republic?). I'm not sure where the Separatists fit in, and I'm thinking there are some more that I've overlooked, like what did the Empire become?

I'd love to see a playbill of the various warring factions. Key members/leaders are optional but appreciated.

[Assistant]
THE FINAL YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC

* **Galactic Republic**: Not quite the Federation. We're even crappier.
   * **Jedi Knights**: magical space knights who are sworn to uphold the ideals of the Republic.
* **Confederacy of Independent Systems** ("Separatists"): after the disastrous response to the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo, many systems lost interest in being part of the Republic, and opted to secede. This move was backed by power-hungry monied interests who saw an opportunity for profit.
* Various others:
   * **Organized Crime**: very influential in the less-settled Fringe; see the Hutts, the Pykes, Black Sun, etc. After being cast aside by his master, Darth Maul builds a power base for himself by strongarming various gangs. He calls his outfit the Shadow Collective/>!Crimson Dawn.!<
   * **Corporate Sector**: a neutral region mostly ruled by large business interests.
   * **Nightsisters**: a shadowy matriarchal cult that mostly keeps to Dathomir, but they did wind up playing some role in the Clone Wars.
   * **Mandalorians**: a warrior culture from Mandalore. Was heavily divided during the Clone Wars; on the one hand they didn't really benefit from the war, but on the other hand they have a long and unhappy history with the Republic.
   * **Zygerrians**: a culture built entirely on slavery. Another mostly-neutral power that got mixed up in the Clone Wars.

AFTER THE END OF THE CLONE WARS

* **Galactic Empire**: the reformed Republic, a largely humanocentric, authoritarian dictatorship. Governed in secret by the Sith Order, a shadowy cult that is the ancient archenemy of the Jedi Order. Or, like, two Sith. Which is technically 100% of them.
* **Rebel Alliance** (Alliance to Restore the Republic): not content with living in an authoritarian hellhole, the Rebels met in secret to discuss bringing back the old days of the Republic by force. Not... *the* Force, just, you know, declaring war. The core of the Alliance (at least in the old canon) came from Alderaan, Chandrila, and Correlia, but naturally a lot of people weren't happy with the Empire, so there were other rebel factions:
   * **Anoat Uprising**: a rougher, more brutal Rebel faction from the Anoat sector, which was utterly devastated by the Imperial war effort.
   * **Onedron Partisans**: an even rougher and more brutal faction on Onedron, led by Saw Gerrera. Kind of evokes the mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with the implication that them winning against the Empire wouldn't be entirely a good outcome either.

AFTER THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE

* The **New Republic**: kind of what it says on the tin.
   * **The Resistance**: a private army created by Leia Organa to get around the bureaucratic obstacles that prevented a military response to the First Order's activities. In theory they have the New Republic's backing but it's implied their mission is not currently a priority for the New Republic (like McBain trying to go after Mendoza, sort of)
* The **First Order**: fanatical remnants of the Empire, mostly descendants of its exiled military elite (plus brainwashed child soldiers to pad out their ranks). Later partner with the **Sith Eternal**, yet another shadowy evil cult.


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

[User]
[Terminator/Superman] What do the characters hope to gain by fighting each other in the way they do?

This pertains specifically to these series, but the question can be applied more broadly. If you look at the way Superman fights Zod in the movies, or the way Terminators dish it out, why do they waste their time hitting each other with iron bars and throwing their opponents through concrete walls when they know that those things can't hurt them? The movies make it seem like this strategy would work (in Superman 2, we're expected not to have a problem with Superman being apparently injured by a thrown manhole cover, or being unable to stop a thrown bus that can't be moving at more than 20 miles an hour. Likewise, in Terminator 2, the T-1000 hazards upon a large gear to trap the T-800). But if I'm trying to kill somebody and I'm in a pillow factory, I'm sure people would be confused if they saw me slamming people into cushions or throwing styrofoam at them. So what gives?

[Assistant]
Thrown pillows can still hurt a little and they are disorienting.  Imagine walking through a pillow factory while you have pillows constantly being thrown at you.

I believe these stratagems are usually ways to buy time while you find better ways to attack.  Otherwise, they can also be used to throw your opponent off guard.


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

[User] If America got rid of the minimum wage, what's the lowest hourly wage corporations could get away with?

[Assistant] Only around 2% of American workers earn the federal minimum wage. Even among workers who are 16-19 years old, only 8% earn minimum wage. And a significant portion of minimum wage earners work for small businesses, not big corporations. So even if the minimum wage went away, corporations couldn't get away with paying much less. Even with the minimum wage in place, corporations have to offer higher wages to attract workers.


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

[User] ELI5: What is a box spring for?

[Assistant]
For bed frames that do not have supports across the middle.

Some bed frames are just the outer rectangle connected at the head, foot and maybe once across the middle. Set a mattress on that by itself and when you sit on it it'll push through the frame. Putting a sturdy box spring on it first prevents that.

If you have a platform bed frame or bed frame with sufficient support in the middle then a box spring is not necessary.


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

[User]
[Hook] How did Captain hook steal Peter Pans kids?

This is always something that's bothered me about this movie. As far as I know the only way to and from Neverland is by flying. The only way to fly is pixie dust from a fairy. Not to mention you have to think of a happy thought which most pirates probably can't do. In the movie you see Captain Hooks mark all across the walls in the London house meaning he had to have been there. Even one of his pirates doubted him during the interrogation scene meaning even they didn't think he could do it. So how did he get there, abduct them, and then return with them?
TL;DR How did Hook kidnap Peters kids with no way to get there and back?

[Assistant]
Flying and happy thoughts gives you a way to wonderland, but desires of revenge and of death gives you a way to be back in the real world. You have to invade nightmares and fears of both adults and children to get there. It is no easy endeavor. It takes some guts, it takes a genuine evil spirit, you have to be the stuff nightmares are made of, and you can only stay as long as people are screaming out of the fear you inspire.

Hook did just need a single minute to take the children away and plant the dagger in the door. As soon as one person tried to gather enough bravery to even just desire to confront Hook, like every nightmare, he was gone.

It was Tootle who was the first to get his acts together when he saw Hook approach the children. Alas, a second too late, Hook was chased away to Neverland, bringing along his preys.

I could see how his crew could doubt that the refined and powdered Captain Hook could somehow invade nightmares convincingly or even enter the stronghold of his nemesis without encountering a single fearless warrior, but they simply did not know how the real world was and how much Peter had forgotten about his past.


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

[User] ELI5: How does music invoke such an emotional reaction from us? (e.g. making us want to dance, cry or sing)

[Assistant] I heard a story that Charles Darwin always believed that humans invented music (probably rhythm and humming)  10,000's of years before a spoken language developed to explain why music moves us more than the spoken word. He had no evidence to back his theory so he never published it.


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

[User] ELI5: How did the United States go from having one of the most advanced and intricate railroad systems in the world to becoming virtually non-existent in the railroad world compared to other places such as Europe and Japan?

[Assistant]
The US still has one of the most advanced and efficient railroad systems in the world...for moving cargo.

Ubiquitous car ownership, well developed highway system, and unfavorable demographics and geography made trains unattractive for passenger use.


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

[User]
[Star Trek] What was Kirks job before he became Captain?

I watched the 2009 remake recently and wondered what Kirk was doing at Starfleet before joining the Enterprise. Presumably everyone has to specialise in something and that becomes your job when you join a ship, you cant just graduate in Captaincy. So what was he doing?

I cant find any answers to this online (shockingly when you Google Captain Kirk job you dont get much help) so I wondered if there was canon that I dont know.

[Assistant]
He didn't have a "job"; he was a student at Starfleet Academy. Because of the attack on Vulcan, all the cadets were mobilized and assigned as crew to Starships.

It's not clear what his precise "assigned" task was, but it was probably just "duties as assigned" which we can see exactly what he does.

He's "promoted" to First Officer, but that's not a rank, it's a position. He basically tricks Spock into stepping down which makes Kirk Captain, but - again - he's Captain as a position, not a rank (whoever is in commander of the ship is traditionally called "Captain").

After all of the shenanigans are done he's officially promoted to Captain.

Given all of the stuff he did the best description of his "job" between cadet and Captain would be "criminal."


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

[User]
[DC/Marvel] What heroes have appeared in pornography? In-universe, not in parody adult movies.

What characters have appeared in pornography? In-universe, not in real world parody adult movies, like XXX Avengers by Vivid.

In the Ultimate Universe, a video tape of Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff was leaked to the press.

In Fantastic Four #200, a paparazzi took pictures of She-Hulk sunbathing nude and published them, but the publisher thought they were shoot with a green filter so photoshopped her flesh toned, so no one recognized her.

In Action Comics #593, Superman and Big Barda were mind controlled by a New God to make a film. I am not sure if they actually filmed anything or not.

Starfire of the Titans once was replaced by a shapeshifter who once posed for a men's magazine.

Mary Jane once posed for some pictures by Peter Parker, but they were for his "private collection" in Amazing Spider-Man #299.

[Assistant]
I seem to recall that Mr. Fantastic was approached about doing porn but turned them down, leaving Sue to comment that she was the only one who would know the real reason he got his codename.

**^(Fry:)** ^(WOOOOOOOO)


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

[User]
What would be the species of plant with which we humans would share the most percentage of DNA?

I guess I'm trying to ask what would be the plant world's equivalent of a chimpanzee.

[Assistant]
I think all plants share the same most recent common ancestor with animals (about 1.6 billion years ago), so no plant is any more closely related to us than any other in that sense.

Fungi are more closely related to animals (split more recently) than plants, however.


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

[User]
ATP Works for Animals, Why Not Batteries?

About the only thing I ever picked up on in Biology class is that humans use ATP (adenosine triphosphate, I believe) for energy. ATP exists in every cell and the high-energy phosphate bonds are the energy source (correct me if I'm wrong).

I've been wondering for a long time: can batteries be made to work using ATP? It certainly allows us humans to run efficiently.

[Assistant]
Well, we don't really use ATP as an energy storage medium in our bodies, as the battery you're thinking of would.  ATP is more of a convenient energy transport medium.  We store energy in the forms of fat, glycogen, and glucose (in order of increasing availability), and those gets transformed into ATP when we need to power our cellular machinery.

You have around 50 grams of ATP in your body, which is nowhere near equivalent to how much energy you use even in one day, which would require around 2.5 kg of ATP to store all at once.


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

[User]
How do we know if sound cames from behind or from front?

We have two ears, so sound going from left or right is slightly delayed in one ear. I believe this is how we can recognize if sound comes from right or left side. But how can one say if sound comes from front or behind?

[Assistant] The ear is shaped in a very funny, but very specific way.  The shape of the ear makes sound very slightly different, depending on front or back, or even above and below (specifically not left and right, funny enough, but that's why 2 ears are nice).  The way you tell is more trained than an actual knowledge.  The sounds you hear from behind are always very slightly muffled, but your brain recognizes them as sounds it's heard before and makes them sound normal, but "from behind".  This also helps explain why sounds you don't normally hear can be hard to pinpoint the location of.  Your brain's spacial mapping plays a big role in how you hear sounds.


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

[User]
[Warhammer 40K] How long does it take to "orkify" a planet?

Say a rok full of boyz crashed on a planet that could sustain life and might already have an ecosystem. How long would it take for the ork ecosystem to overtake the planet. Also how long does it take fer mor boyz ta pop outta da ground? Deres humiez on da next planet ova an wez gotta krump em good!!!

[Assistant]
Ork ecosystems don't overtake planets, they typically acclimate depending on the biodiversity already there. Large volumes of native wildlife will typically cause Orkoid systems to produce fewer Squigs, at least so long as the food supply lasts. Similarly, planets with surpluses of munitions develop fewer Meks. The Orkoid biosphere is designed to react of external stimulus in such a way as to maximise its efficiency as a sustainable fighting force.

Typically, if a Rok lands, Orkoid intrenchment is complete within a month. At that point, it's almost imposible to totally eradicate the Orks without total destruction of the biosphere. Conflict also accelerates the development process, and can lead to Boyz developing very quickly, especially if Odd-Boyz are present from the initial Rokz population.

Typically, without external influence, an Ork population will reach the Feral stage within a year, and become stellar within a decade.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the internet work?

Whenever Ive asked this to someone they just give me some nonchalant sentence that goes like its a bunch of servers connected to each other. Im 30 and still dont understand how the internet works exactly.

[Assistant]
if you think of it this way.  the internet is like people relaying messages to each other.

the computers (or people) want to talk to each other.  but they have no direct way of talking to each other.

what they do instead is go through intermediaries aka other computers/networking equipment that relay messages to each other.

if you're in school, and you want to pass a note to your best friend across the room, what to you do?  you write the note, fold it, put a label on it with the name, and pass it to someone next to you, which sees the name, then they pass it to someone else in the direction of your friend, until it reaches your friend.  your friend sees the note, see's the message, sees that it's from you.  and does the reverse to send a message back to you.

now that is a very rudimentary example of "the internet".  the "internet" there is basically the classroom full of students.  each student is a node in the internet and also a host/client that can send/receive notes as well as pass notes across.

that's how the internet works.  just a bunch of computers or students that are connected to each other (ie they have some method to transmit data between them, whether it be hand passing notes, talking, sending signals on a wire, etc).


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

[User]
ELI5:Why do our ears "ring"

It can be from being at a loud concert too shooting a gun or just sitting in a quiet room what makes us hear the ringing sound in our head?

[Assistant] You can hear because sound waves travel down the ear canal and vibrate the tympanic membrane (ear drum), which in turn transfers this vibration to the cochlea, which moves a fluid called perilymph. When perilymph moves around, it moves very sensitive hair cells that then send the signal to the brain. When you are exposed to loud sounds for a long time, like when you are at a concert, the perilymph is in constant motion, which basically flattens the hair cells. The brain then interprets this is a ringing sound. When the hair cells revert back to their original state, then the ringing disappears, and your hearing returns.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why does my severely blocked and streaming nose clear up on its own simply by standing up?

I currently have the cold and notice my nose feels completely blocked when lying or sitting down but it seems to clear as soon as I stand up, what's going on?

[Assistant] Most of the blocked up feeling isn't due to mucus, it's down to your sinuses being inflamed and swollen with blood. When sitting or lying down, the relative blood pressure in your face is higher and they swell more, making you feel more bunged up. When you stand up your heart has to pump blood higher (and expend more power pumping more blood back to itself from your feet) so the blood pressure in your face drops and your sinus meats become less swollen widening your airways and making your nose feel clearer even though you're still dealing with the same amount of snot.


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

[User]
[Game of Thrones]Why did Jaime love Tyrion?

Their father and the twin sister he was fucking both hated him for killing their mother (I.E making her die in child birth) and just generally being a dwarf, why didnt Jaime feel the same way?

[Assistant]
Jaime simply isn't as cruel as them, and recognized that he had a lot in common with Tyrion. He realised that "killing their mother" is absolute nonsense, and respected Tyrion's intellect, respected his way of carrying himself despite obvious physical problems, and just generally enjoyed his sense of humor.

Really, Jaime just has a lot more in common with Tyrion than he has with Tywin or Cersei.


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

[User] [Star Wars] How long were Vader and Boba Fett in the Bespin dining room waiting for Han and Leia? What did they do to pass the time?

[Assistant]
I guess that Vader was desperatly trying to get Boba to talk as much as possible because his voice reminds him of that of his fellow soldiers from the clone wars.

"So...would you do me a favor?"

"Yes just go ahead"

"I know it sounds weird, but could you please say 'WATCH THOSE WRIST ROCKETS!' for me?"


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

[User]
CMV: Heritage is bullshit.

So is pride in achievements that are not your own. National pride/nationalism as well. In the same vein, shame for the actions of people in your nation (past or present) is stupid.

None of these things were things you did. Nationality should have no more impact on your identity as the model of car you drive, or the type of side you prefer. The concept of heritage as a thing that all people of a cultural/ethnic group share is toxic in our society. It leads to tribalism and unnecessary conflict and racial/ethnic/cultural tension.

If youre proud to be an American, for example, you are equating your own identity with the America to an unhealthy level.

EDIT: RIP inbox. Ill respond to as many as I can.

EDIT2: A bit of background about my worldview that negates a number of arguments people have been making:

I view the nationstate as a fundamentally flawed obstruction to the betterment and preservation of humanity. If a lack of national heritage led to a postnational global society, that would be wonderful.

[Assistant]
The stories we create about ourselves, as well as the things we achieve on our own merit are important. Humans are storytellers and we expect characters in stories to have origins and histories. Having a heritage doesnt do anything more for you than creating a background for your story. It provides a context and starting point to explain the things you will achieve. History is flexible enough that heritage can be bent to suit the whims of those who wish to take pride in it. Theres no necessary ill in this, pride in one history need not connote shame in another.

Theres another way of considering heritage though. While meaningless it is an essentialist characteristic that defines humans like objects. Would you be comfortable wearing the sweater that Hitler died in? (Assuming hed died wearing a sweater, and it was preserved and dry cleaned.) It would probably make many people less comfortable in the object than a new sweater. Similarly people pay vast sums to own historical artifactsthey have no real value but they carry an essential characteristic that humans put value in. Heritage is human essentialism. It is how we imbue ourselves and others with historicity and importance. While false to the individual, it can still give a real personal value, just as an objects presence in history lends it value, despite it still being just an object.


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

[User]
Are there any peer reviewed studies for Trickle-Down Economics?

Are there any LEGIT peer reviewed studies that show Trickle-Down has ANY merit to it whatsoever?

[Assistant]
"Trickle down" is a political term, and generally a pejorative.

Are you asking if tax cuts are expansionary? Are you asking if cutting taxes increases work, investment, etc, etc? Or are you just looking for reg GDP trickle_down?


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is the order of operations in the order that it is?

I understand parentheses but why, for instance, do we multiple before we add?

[Assistant]
I actually know this one!  Mathematician here who has spent a lot of time reading about this:

It's because of polynomials.  Polynomials want to be written (5 * (x^3 )) + (3 * (x^2 )) + (4 * x) + 1.

Notice that this has a lot, a lot, of parentheses.  Around the time that this notation was getting formalized, polynomials and their properties were considered the most important use of algebra.  Over time people got lazy, and stopped writing the parentheses at all, but everyone knew what was meant.  This eventually became formalized as an "order of operations."

Allowing us to write 5x^3 + 3x^2 + 4x + 1, the very compact and modern notation, and everyone knows that the exponent applies to the x (and not the coefficient) and that you multiply each term before you add them together.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is it "Ladies and Gentlemen" and "Boys and Girls"? Is there a reason for the order and the difference in order when addressing different ages?

[Assistant]
They're called frozen binomials; like how we say "pots and pans" not "pans and pots".

It has to do with syllables (smallest to largest), complexity of the word, and what just rolls off the tongue easiest.

Some argue a gender bias, but for every "man and woman" binomial there is an "aunt and uncle"; for every "boys and girls" there is a "mum and dad".


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

[User]
ELI5: What happens in the body that causes seizures during alcohol withdrawal/detox?

My dad had a seizure while going through withdrawals when I was younger and it was horrifying. When he came to, he looked like he was drunk again despite not drinking at all that day. Can someone explain this to me, please?

[Assistant]
There's a receptor in the brain called GABA-A. It's inhibitory, meaning it reduces the electrical signals in the brain. Alcohol and benzos activate the GABA-A receptor. These drugs have an inhibitory effect on the brain (they are "downers").

However, when you use these drugs for long periods of time, the brain will produce less GABA-A receptors. This is called desensitization. If you stop using the drugs suddenly, your brain now has a GABA deficit. It has a shortage of inhibitory signals, which leads to *dis*inhibition. The number of electrical signals increase, and you have a seizure.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it so difficult to make reflections in video games?

Why is it so difficult to make reflections in video games? Is it impossible to do without a very large consumption of resources?

[Assistant]
Doing a reflection essentially means drawing the scene twice, once from the camera's point of view and once from "within" the mirror.

Drawing the scene takes a lot of processing power. If the game runs at say 60 fps normally, having to draw the scene twice will make that framerate drop significantly.

That said it should be possible if the developers are clever about where they place mirrors. For example if a lot of the game has wide open spaces with lots of stuff in it, but mirrors are only ever in enclosed spaces with not much in them then it could work ok.

But it's still a lot of work to implement mirrors, and generally do players care about them that much? The time is usually better spent on other features.


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

[User]
Does government assistance (welfare) really provide more dependent society or is it just GOP party's scary tactic?

Lately, lots of Republicans have self-entitlement and they don't realize how much the government helped them (financial aid, water, road, FDA, etc.) and they don't like to help the poor, because they fear that this might make people lazy.

Lots of Republicans "friends" argue that what Obama is doing right now is creating a government dependent society (which we are, I depend on government for water, highway, security, etc.). Also, they argue that there will be more people taking advantage of the system (i.e. they won't work hard, because they know the government will take care of them)

I wanted to refute them, but I didn't have any paper to disprove them otherwise.
Is there a study that relates government spending (excluding military and foreign aid) and number of people taking advantage of the system (if it's possible to find the number of people taking advantage of the system).

Alternatively, is there a paper that relates government spending on welfare and growth of private sector (that doesn't depend on government contract)?

[Assistant]
You're asking for studies, but you need a rhetoric lesson. Knowledge does not come only from paper, and the type of paper you're suggesting would be hard to write for the reason you say  here: how do you quantify, much less measure, "people taking advantage of the system"?

And that is your tack to take. When your Republican friends are saying to you whatever the most recent GOP opinion machine talking points are, ask yourself how one might measure the things they're talking about. Hell, ask them too! You'll get evasions and huffy defensiveness because they haven't thought about it, and don't really know how to, but don't want to say so.

Work with them to *define their terms*, and then *define a way their claims can be tested*. They will either do this in good faith with you, and you can then 1) look up those studies which have actually been done and 2) point out that these talking points are very selective in whom they target, or they will huff and leave, in which case you've shut them up for awhile. When they come back the next day repeating the next thing Hannity and Limbaugh said, repeat the process: demand consistent use of terms and testing statements. Eventually they will either become libertarians or stop talking to you about their politics, either way you win.


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

[User] ELI5: Why did Superman's parents send him alone? why didn't they send a female with him to procreate? how did they know he could mate with a human?

[Assistant]
So, depending on which version of the origin, your answers are: they only had the one rocket prepared at the last minute and could only hold him, none of the other Kryptonians believed Jor-El when he said the planet was going to blow up and thus wouldn't trust their kids to some mad scientist to be rocketed off to space, and even if he couldn't mate with a human, he'd be alive on Earth, rather than dead on Krypton. (There are versions where Jor-El did pick Earth because we're similar enough to Kryptonians so that Kal-El wouldn't stand out, so presumably inter-breeding was a possibility?)

It's also a parable for Baby Moses being sent down the river to escape death, so that's also a thing.


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

[User]
[Independence Day] Why was the President allowed to fly into battle against aliens?

I get many of the Secret Service -died- but there were a lot of military folks left. Surely someone would have put him in a bear-hug, ignored his orders and dragged him to the bunker like protocol demanded.

[Assistant] It's easier to appoint a new president than it is to train someone to fly a fighter jet in 10 minutes. The president knew how to fly, they needed him more in that cockpit than on the ground..plus who could have told him no after that kickass speech?


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

[User]
[Mass Effect] How long would it take for the Asari to be the only species in the milky way?

So while the asari can breed with themselves, but due to genetic problems prefer to use other sapient species, of which the result is always an asari. All species find them attractive (in general, doesn't override sexuality) and they can live at least a thousand years and can have children from their late maiden years through Matriarch.

Now, the ability to choose to be pregnant (if I remember correctly) does cut into the time, but eventually the asari would have a lot less species to use this way. Assuming the reapers will never show up... how long would it take for the asari to be the only race in the galaxy?

I know it's gonna take a while. And I am 90% sure that the asari can think of population control methods and aren't out to do this.

[Assistant]
Never.  The Asari having kids is not stopping the other species from doing so.  The Asari are also all female so theoretically their growth rate does not change weather they reproduce with themselves or other species.  Even assuming only monogamous relationships, Asari reproducing with other species is only going to cut down on other species growth rate slightly.  It won't make them go away.

That's not even factoring in the Krogran who alone if cured would have no trouble whatsoever even if the vast majority of them mated with Asari.


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

[User] ELI5: Bears and bulls in financial markets.

[Assistant]
These are just terms about how the market is doing. A bull market is going up and a bear market is going down. A person who believes that the market is on the rise is considered a "bullish" analyst and someone predicting the market is going to go down is called "bearish".

If a particular company is rising greatly, then it is a bullish stock. For instance, if the NASDAQ is mostly flat, but for some reason Apple, INC is so far up that the NASDAQ appears to be rising, then Apple would be the bull stock of the index.


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

[User]
Why are narrower tires better in the snow?

Why would narrow tires that provide less contact with the ground be better than wider tires? Wouldnt wider tires provide more contact with the ground?

[Assistant]
Narrower tires means that cars weight is distributed to a smaller area of tire contacting the ground. So with weight staying the same and area decreasing, you are increasing the amount of pressure exerted on the ground in a given area.

Also instead of just plowing through snow/ice with your tires, a thinner wheeler cuts through it instead of just pushing it.


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

[User] What advances would be required for us to see galaxies farther beyond the 700 million year mark?

[Assistant]
Larger telescopes, especially in the infrared, longer observation time. The oldest galaxies are very dim, and their light is shifted towards infrared.

JWST will be the largest space telescope ever launched in 2018, and it is specialized on the infrared range. Guess what is a key part of the observation plan.


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

[User] [LOTR] Why did Sauron put so much of his power into the One Ring?

[Assistant]
It was necessary for creating such a powerful artifact. In Middle-earth, creation always requires something from the creator - some of the energy of the soul/spirit must pass into the object being created. Most of the time, the expenditure of power isn't noticeable. Only creating something especially powerful (or "magical", as humans or hobbits might say) costs enough power for its loss to be noticeable to the creator.

Creating a Ring of Power able to master all the other Rings, and with the ability to dominate the minds and wills of others, required almost all of the spiritual power Sauron had left. A lesser being would never have been able to make something like that at all. Even for Sauron, it was significant enough that if the Ring were destroyed, or mastered by someone else, the loss of power would reduce Sauron to a powerless and bodiless spirit.


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

[User]
What's the difference between encrypting a file with AES vs archiving it with a password?

I read that it takes billions and billions of years to crack a file encrypted with AES. I downloaded this program called AES Crypt, which encrypts a file with a password added to it. So what's the difference between that and an archive program like winrar or winzip, which you can also add a password.If a password is required to access the AES encrypted data file and a zip/rar file, shouldn't they both be of the same strength? If you brute-force attack both types of files, shouldn't you crack them at the same amount of time? Thanks.

[Assistant]
It's true that zip files use a weaker encryption than AES; it's something called ZipCrypto. However, in many cases the weakest component is indeed the password, which is used to create the encryption key.

Either way, an attacker has both the "crack the encryption" option and the "guess the password" option. With AES, you know the encryption won't fail you -- make your password strong enough and no one else will be able to get in. With ZipCrypto, that may not be a guarantee. (I don't know the exact strength of ZipCrypto but it's definitely flimsy.)

For reference, AES-128 has 2^128 possible keys, which is about a tough to guess as a random 20-character password (for a standard US keyboard). AES-192 and AES-256 are roughly equivalent to 30-character and 40-character passwords.


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

[User]
CMV: The advice "don't change who you are" can be harmful and counterproductive.

I'm aware that I probably think about this advice in a more literal sense but imo to tell someone that they shouldn't change implies that they're good enough and don't need to continue growing. I firmly believe that it should be a basic human goal to constantly learn, grow, and be a better version of yourself then yesterday, which in my mind involves constant and/or progressive change.

I see this advice most often when people are struggling with things like depression or anxiety. The way I see it, aside from the clinical levels of these condition, the best solution to overcome depression or anxieties is to change yourself and grow. I believe that these symptoms are your brains way of screaming at you to be different because its not happy with its current state and if you're being honest with yourself in moments of hardship, you'll know exactly what you want to change about yourself.

For example, if you're struggling with social anxiety, you can often narrow down the causes to a few things like lack of self esteem/confidence, fear of not knowing what to say or not having anything "good enough" to say, as well as a few others but I'm gonna stick with these for my example. If social anxiety is becoming an issue for you and you want to move past it, my belief is that the best way to overcome it is to be completely honest with yourself during your moments of anxiety. These anxious thoughts might lead you to think have nothing to say. Rather then telling the person with social anxiety that they're fine or "its all in their head", I think it'd be much more effective if this person made the effort to change their usual habits and take the time to learn about the things others are interested in. For guys, sports are usually a decent topic of conversation that you can pull out of your ass but if you have it in your head that "you're fine the way you are and you shouldn't change for the sake of others" then you aren't helping anyone, especially yourself. Yeah sports may not be your thing, but putting in the effort to learn about sports could be a tangible first step to overcoming social anxieties.

To add on to the advice of "don't change", people often follow it up with something like "you'll find people who love you just the way you are". Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but from my experience, the chances are incredibly low. A more proactive solution would be to adapt yourself to the people around you and this way, your problems are in *your* hands, not in the hands of some random fated encounter. Now I'd like to stress that I don't mean to suggest that you should fundamentally change who you are, that would probably cause other issues, but I really think you should have a willingness to change yourself.

One of the main reasons I believe in this is just by observing how damaging an unchanging mindset can be. What do you think anti vaxxers are doing? They're believing in who they are and refusing to change while disregarding scientific evidence. Politicians in the USA are incredibly old and stuck in their boomer ways. They refuse to adapt with modern times so we need to do something as ridiculous as organizing large scale protests to tell these stubborn donkeys that discriminating based on skin color is wrong. Most of all, I see too many people in my communities (mostly gaming and anime and reddit) talking about their emotional issues while effectively doing nothing about it but whine to other people. I hear people say "you're fine just the way you are" way too often when it's blatantly not true. There are so many things that people are struggling with that requires some level of change within themselves but saying "you don't need to change who you are" might enable them to continue the lifestyle that led them to their issues in the first place.

I understand the value of staying true to yourself but it's just as important to listen to the harshest voices in your head and see them not as something that will bring you down but rather your instincts telling you what you want to change about yourself in order to be happy with yourself.

TLDR: people should strive to constantly grow, change, adapt, and be a better version of themselves then yesterday. Suggesting that an individual "shouldn't change" can very often lead people to continue the same cycles that brought them down in the first place. You can get through struggles like depression or anxiety, but having a willingness to change and actively doing things will help you *overcome* these struggles and make you a stronger person. Rather then telling someone who's feeling depressed that "they should be happy with who they are", dig deeper into the thoughts that go into their depression and tell them to actively do things to make themselves *believe* that their own negative words aren't true based on the effort they put in to make it untrue. To claim that you dont need to change who you are is peak arrogance imo.

Edit: first of all thank you guys for your responses. Tbh more then cmv I just kinda wanted to talk about this but of course I'll still throw out deserved deltas. there's a lot of comments about how people just take the advice in the wrong way. I 100% agree that misinterpretation is most likely the reason people take it in the literal and negative way that I suggested. But imo, having been a victim of misinterpreting this for myself, I still think the message is better off changed because, at least in my world, I see the misinterpretation a bit too much. Speaking from personal experience, it's really easy to say "I'm fine just the way I am" only to eventually realize that this is just an excuse to allow myself to stagnate.

[Assistant]
Are you sure that there are very many people, let alone a significant number, who interpret the largely cliche of a phrase "don't ever change" in the manner that you do?

It seems far more likely to me that many, if not most people. fully understand the phrase exactly how it's intended: they aren't being advised to never grow, mature, or evolve as people. They are being told they have valuable qualities that they should treasure and hold onto while the inevitable process of growth and changing that life puts all of us through keeps happening.


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

[User]
Do automobiles provide any evolutionary pressure to squirrels or other small animals?

Its unfortunate but you see them in the streets quite often, especially in well traveled but still somewhat rural areas.  Is this the kind of thing that would cause evolutionary pressure on the development of squirrels?

[Assistant]
Adaptive pressure, yes. Animals that have been hand reared for adult release into the wild often have far higher rates of deaths by car than those born in the wild.

Additionally, carrion crows use cars to crack their nuts. In fact, not only do they use cars, but they wait by traffic lights until they turn red, place their nut in the path of a vehicle tyre, fly back to their perch and watch as the lights turn green and their nut is cracked, before finally the light turns red again and they retrieve their nut.


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

[User]
Is it possible to slow down a particle until its momentum is 0 if the universe has a finite size?

I was just wondering about Heisenberg's x * p  h/4. If you can make p (and therefore p) arbitrarily low, then its x gets infinitely big.
But if the universe is finite, then so is x, meaning p can't be 0.

Does that make any sense, or it it stupid?

[Assistant]
If the Universe is finite (i.e. it is a 3-sphere) there exist a zero-momentum state where the wavefunction is simply a constant. Since the volume of the Universe is finite, this is a normalizable wavefunction. This is called a zero mode.

The spectrum of momentum in this Universe is discrete, because it's given by the hyperspherical harmonics*. The first excited value of momentum is relative to the wavefunction with wavelength equal to the total circumference. This is more what you meant and what you could guess heuristically with the HUP, as you did. This momentum is of order hbar/radius which is of course ridiculously small.

A precise formulation of the HUP is not really possible here btw because, just to mention one thing, x doesn't make a lot of sense if x is not a vector.

\* in general, solving the free Schroedinger equation, which is just the Helmholtz equation, on a compact space will yield a discrete spectrum.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What is the process of invading a planet?

In some episodes of the Star Wars The Clone Wars TV show, the plot is of the Republic invading and capturing a separatist planet. How do you invade an entire planet? Usually what happens is a Jedi and an army of clones fight to take control of the capital but how does capturing a couple capitals grant you the whole planet? Surely there are many other separatists on other sides of the planet and not enough Jedi/clones to go get them.

[Assistant]
How do you conquer a country, or a city, or even a building?

It's about holding key structures. Factories, command centres, defence outposts. Positions that have a serious centralisation of power.

If you take most of the important factories, command centres and defence outposts from a droid army, they're forced to withdraw as it would be far too costly to remain and there is little chance of reinforcement.


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

[User]
[Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D]Why doesn't Agent Phil Coulson drive or fly his hovercapable Chevrolet Corvette, Lola, more often?

Why doesn't Agent Phil Coulson of SHEILD drive or fly his hovercapable Chevrolet Corvette, Lola, more often? It probably would have been helpful to find the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Providence.
Instead they walked 7 miles on foot through the Canadian wilderness.

[Assistant]
Budgetary concerns.

I mean, the requisition forms for the special fuel Lola needs to fly is 10 pages by itself -- mostly because she's Coulson's private transport.

The bus is different, that's strictly used for SHIELD business and takes regular jet fuel.


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

[User] During heart transplanting, how does the body survive before the heart is replaced?

[Assistant] The surgeons and anesthesiologist place the patient on a heart-lung bypass device prior to removing the heart. This machine does the work to oxygenate and pump blood through the body during the transplant procedure.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is a seized engine?

I was watching a video on Dunkirk and was told that soldiers would run truck engines dry to cause them seize and rendering them useless to the Germans. What is an engine seize? Can those engines be salvaged? Or would the Germans in this scenario know it's hopeless and scrap the engine completely?

[Assistant]
When an engine runs without oil, the friction causes it to get extremely hot to the point that internal parts break or, in more extreme instances, the metal pieces weld themselves together.

The end result, though, is a 100% dead engine that cant be fixed in any practical sense of the word. (Sure, it could stripped down piece by piece and completely rebuilt and have any damaged components sorted out... but thats not practical in the middle of a war. And its usually costs more than its worth.)


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

[User]
Sickness and philosophy

It seems that quite a few big names in philosophy suffered from physical health problems, particularly as a child.

- Descartes is said to have had delicate health when he was younger and spent a lot of time in bed

- Locke suffered from something like chronic asthma

- Rorty underwent a six year psychiatric analysis for obsessional neurosis as a teenager

- Deleuze had severe respiratory problems from a young age. Developed tuberculosis and underwent a lung removal

There might be something to say about sickness aiding the philosophers development for much time is spent in bed allowing for lengths of reading and introspection. We may find such a bout of sickness to be more impactful if the sufferer was young in age.

**Any other examples come to mind, of great philosophers who suffered from some illness, particularly in their younger years?**

I understand there are a few threads about the philosopher and mental illness, I would like this one to keep to physical health, unless the mental illness occurred at a young age or was so incapacitating as to be bed-binding.

[Assistant]
A few that Im aware of:

Beginning in his late teens and lasting until the end of his life, Charles Sanders Peirce suffered from trigeminal neuralgia, a nerve disorder which causes sudden and severe pain in ones face. According to his biographer, he took ether, opium and morphine, alcohol, and later cocaine to control it. He was addicted by thirty, if not before, and came to depend on these drugs to get his work done. This may have contributed to his social isolation.

Jean-Paul Sartre developed exotropia and blindness in one eye at an early age, for which he was bullied by his classmates.

Kurt Gdel contracted rheumatic fever (among other illnesses) as a child, which likely contributed to his lifelong hypochondria.

John Rawls contracted both diphtheria and pneumonia when he was a child. The former spread from him to his brother Bobby and the latter spread from him to his brother Tommy, both of whom died from their illnesses. One biographer claimed that these tragedies were the most important events in John's childhood.

Jrgen Habermas was born with a cleft palate, and he has stated that the experience of undergoing corrective surgery and his difficulties in communicating at a young age likely had an influence on his later philosophical preoccupations with communication.


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

[User] [Star Wars (Canon/Legends)] Is Force Lightning an inherently Sith/dark ability?

[Assistant]
In canon, it does appear to be. We never see a light sider use it.

In Legends, it is also a dark side power, but there is also a light side variant called emerald judgment, which is all the sparks and none of the killing and torturing.


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

[User] Can a dead person left in the sun get a tan?

[Assistant]
No. UVA radiation is what makes people tan. UVA rays penetrate to the lower layers of the epidermis, where they trigger cells called melanocytes (pronounced: mel-an-oh-sites) to produce melanin. Melanin is the brown pigment that causes tanning. Melanin is the body's way of protecting skin from burning.

Your cells bee to be active in order to create a tan.


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

[User]
CMV: Women demanding toilet seat to be kept down are unreasonable.

While I do not mind keeping the seat down and have been doing so whenever I share a bathroom with  women, be it with familly, roomates, or at work, I always considered it a courtesy, like holding a door open. What I take issue with is women demanding or thinking that it should just be like that.

In my mind, there is no difference between me putting the seat up when I want to use the toiled compared to womem putting it down. Recently, I forgot to put the seat down at work and was immediately told off by my female coworker. Not in a mean way, but still in a way that made it sound like I did something wrong.

Is there any legitimate reason why should the seat remain down by default? The only argument I was told for this is "Eww I don't want to touch the toilet seat when going to the bathroom" and well, nor do I! Even more so, I am not the one sitting on it most of the time anyway. So please, wise people or reddit, CMV!

PS: I would like to get ahead of one comment that I am sure would pop up and that is the "correct" way of not only putting down the seat but also the lid. While I agree that it's probably the superior and more hygienic way of doing it, nowhere where I shared a toiled was this a thing. If it was, I would consider this a reasonable request as its based on logic and science. That is however not thecase nor the topic of this CMV.

Edit:
TLDR of replies that made me partially rething my view:
>!1. Women are more prone to UTI's and therefor its better if men are the ones touching the seat!<

>!2. There is a risk for anyone sitting down to fall into the toilet if the seat is up!<

I tried to reply to all coments, and will try to do it further as some of you are bringing up interesting arguments, but will do so less frequently from now one as my free time is running out. Thank you all for posting and offering your perspectives.

[Assistant] because both the seat AND THE LID should be put down when youre finished, before you flush. flushing with the lid open is extremely unhygienic and can cause a bunch of issues. when the lid is left open, flushing releases a plume of bacteria, including e-coli, which remain in the air for up to 6 hours, and can land on toothbrushes, make-up products, and anything else in the bathroom.


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

[User] Why does putting a little ball into a whistle make it really really loud?

[Assistant] I think the main reason is to create a vibrating effect on the tone which calls more to attention than a normal whistle. If it does indeed make the noise louder it could be because the little ball is taking up space in the chamber, this reduces the overall volume of the cavity and makes for a higher pressure of air exiting it.


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

[User]
[DC] Does Batman have anyone he considers a friend that are not crime fighters/work related?

Outside of crime fighting relationships (e.g. Gordon), vigilantes/superheroes and Bruce Wayne related work relationships (e.g. Lucius Fox), does he have anyone he would consider a friend (excluding Alfred)? Does he ever hang out with anybody not related to crime fighting or work?

[Assistant]
He did have Harvey Dent. But then he became a supervillian

He also had Thomas Elliot. But then he became a supervillian

Basically if his friends aren't crime-fighting related? They quickly *become* crime-fighting related.


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

[User]
People are unafraid of death because they have divorced themselves from the concept of it. CMV.

Sorry if the wording of the title is unclear, I had difficulty coming up with a concise way of explaining this belief I've come to hold. What I mean essentially is that people don't really think about death on a deep level often enough to fear it. I've come to see people - walking around, going about their lives - as having expiration dates on them. It bothers me on a regular basis that I eventually will die. Being an agnostic, being dead to me will be the same as it was prior to having been born.

When I think about the idea of just "not existing" I get panic attacks. When I ask others about why it doesn't bother them that they'll die, I'm told that the only way to go about it is to enjoy your life and live. I'm convinced that people can be so non-nonchalant about their impending doom only because they either A. Have some religious belief where they're convinced that there's an afterlife or B. Simply don't stop to consider the idea that they won't exist in another 40, 50, or 60 years.

There's also these hero stories, soldiers jumping on grenades to save their squad, people dying for a cause, etc. I've come to fear death so much that the idea of being "okay" with dying earlier than needed is completely inexplicable to me. I'm starting to believe that the reason these people are willing to sacrifice themselves is because they haven't truly spent the time thinking about what it would be like to not exist. To never breathe air, eat food, hear sounds, see things, think, ever again. Please CMV by showing me another reason for not having this constant fear of death so I can see this differently and not have it be on my mind all the time.

[Assistant]
To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death wheather it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to man; but people dread it as though they were certain it is the greatest evil."

Plato, in *The Last Days of Socrates*


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

[User]
[Fallout] What will the world look like in 500-1000 years?

Assuming the NCR never falls and manages to stabilize itself, the Legion collapses, The Brotherhood of West leaves Nevada, Brotherhood of East manages to secure D.C, and the Minutemen manage to kill the Institute and the SS sets up a government. Would the world be like the mid-1900s America again or even get up to 2000-2005s level of technology?

[Assistant] Im pretty much certain things would have recovered and even advanced technologically in 500 years. One of the main themes of Fallout is that civilization rebuilds itself. In 1000 years they most likely would have solved the energy crisis and possibly even begun to form colonies across the solar system, which could bring humanity into conflict with the Zetans.


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

[User]
[The Purge] Why would anyone with money/fame live in the USA?

They are just painting a big target on themselves for Purge day.

Why spend millions in security when you can just move to Canada or Europe?

I'm sure those countries would fight each other to get all those rich americans and for example move Hollywood to Vancouver.

Edit 1: Pitch for a purge movie:

A group of women join forces and organize to save themselves from rapists. It's a classic tale of heroism when they become under siege and have to survive the night. The problem is that they have more than one purger hidden among them.

[Assistant]
The rich people that still live in the US are the same people who are benefiting from the Purge.

Remember, the Purge is a system of control and exploitation of the regular folk for the benefit of the rich and powerful.  The sort of upper-middle class might be in a situation where the money on security isn't worth it, and they're in some kind of real danger, but the truly rich folks are completely protected on Purge night, and benefit way more from the system than they pay in security and protection, that's if they pay at all.


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

[User] If a 9 hours sleeper sleeps 7 hours a night, are the effect the same as when a 8 hour sleeper gets 6 hours?

[Assistant]
When it comes to sleep, "we don't really know" is usually the best answer.

It was only recently that it was discovered that our bodies clean the fluid around our brain during sleep. This may or may not be the primary reason for sleep.

In terms of time, we don't really know. Because we don't know what drives sleep we can't control the variables. Without controlling those variables an experiment of two identical 9 hour sleepers, having them sleep 7 hours, the result between the two would likely be different.


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

[User]
The sun's core is 13.6 million kelvins.  How do we know this / how was this measured.

Given anything that gets within a certain distance of the sun would be fried instantly, how can we know the core temperature of the sun?

[Assistant] Stellar models. We know the basic physics of nuclear reactions and how plasma flows, and we know the surface temperature & density etc of the sun. From this we can run large numbers of models of the insides of the sun and see which ones match the outsides that we can observe. This is actually probably the single most developed field in astrophysics - the models have become very precise and very sophisticated.


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

[User] ELI5: After wearing a hat all day, why does it "feel" like I'm wearing a hat even when it has been off of my head?

[Assistant]
Much of the feeling of wearing a hat doesn't come from the contact of the hat with your skin, but from the weight of the hat pushing down or sideways on your hair.

That hair is connected to your scalp and rooted in a follicle. There are sensory receptors on your skin all the way down to where your hair actually connects.

When a hat is on your head, the weight pushes the top part of the hair or bends it, and that weight is felt by the sensory receptors in your skin.

When you remove your hat, assuming your hair has some body, is "bent" temporarily into a specific position due to the pressure/weight of the hat. Hair folds/bends in interesting ways, like paper.

That "bend/shape" of your hair as it is after having a hat on for so long, causes the same kind of sensory response as if the bend/shape was being caused by the weight of your hat. So - you feel like you are wearing your hat - because according to the sensory receptors on your skin, your hair is being pushed in a direction that mimics the weight of that hat - they can't really tell the difference.

If you were to go into the shower after taking it off, and wash your hair with shampoo to wash away the oils in your hair and thereby getting rid any such bends, you'd see the feeling going away.


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

[User]
ELI5: How is it that some words over time shift to meaning essentially the opposite of their original intent

Not, for example, "bad" from the 80s which didn't lose its original meaning and was mostly self aware, but instead words like "terrific" which is ~never used in relation to terror.  Do most languages have these?

[Assistant]
Kind of how "literally" is becoming to mean "figuratively". It has been (mis)used for emphasis so much the original meaning is starting to be lost.

Terrific meant something that evokes terror, the mechanism for its transition is likely the same. People used it for emphasis ("The food was so good it was scary") and the meaning gradually changed.


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

[User] [Marvel] If X-23 or another mutant with Wolverines power became pregnant, would the fetus heal after being damaged?

[Assistant] Mutant powers don't usually manifest until puberty.  However, in the fetal stage, it shares core systems with the parent.  The shared bloodstream would probably be sufficient to heal the fetus if injured.  The healing factor might disappear at birth, then redevelop at puberty.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why is it more acceptable to reject someone because of their height than it is to reject because of weight?

I see this happen a lot. Friends of both genders may meet someone lovely and bond well, but they decline a relationship because the other person is too tall/small for them. And the general response is "Oh, better luck next time. You'll find someone else."

Yet if they meet someone and decline a relationship because the person was too fat/thin, they get told "Wow, that's really rude. He/she has a great personality you shallow bigot."

Why is it that rejecting something that actually can be changed about a person, ie their weight, is considered a worse thing to do than rejecting someone over something they have no control of?

[Assistant] Because one is just the way you were born. The other would imply a lack of responsibility.  In today's society, we hate being held accountable for our actions,  and insted feel that you should just accept our bad decisions insted of making us feel bad for our poor choices.


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

[User]
CMV: A cup is the superior vessel for eating cereal and milk

Here are 11 reasons why I believe this:

1. A cup of cereal and milk is more spill-proof than a bowl of cereal. You must be much more careful transporting a bowl of cereal than a cup of cereal.
2. You can bring your cereal into a car using the cup holder.
3. You can eat cereal in bed much easier in a cup.
4. More ergonomic, especially for those suffering from arthritis or a handicap
5. A cup prevents cereal from getting soggy, since more cereal sits on top of the layer of milk. The smaller circumference of a cup reduces the surface area for the milk to make contact with the cereal. This does not prevent you from getting a spoonful of both milk and cereal.
6. A cup is a more natural way of drinking the residual milk after you've finished your cereal.
7. Disposable cups are more accessible and readily available than disposable bowls, meaning you can easily eat cereal at your workplace, a park, or other recreational areas. This is significant since most people exclusively eat cereal in a home setting.
8. The vertical nature of a cup makes it easier to know exactly how much cereal you have left. Bowls can obfuscate the volume of cereal, especially if there's milk.
9. A cup reduces the distance of scooping the cereal to your mouth, reducing the chance of spillage.
10. A cup takes up less surface space, allowing you to eat at your computer/desk without reconfiguring your work space
11. A cup makes it easier to spoon up the last few pieces of cereal in one spoonful. Using a bowl requires you to pick up one piece of cereal at a time near the end, since the large surface area makes it difficult to get multiple pieces of cereal in one area.

[Assistant]
With a cup, its much harder to get a spoonful of both cereal and milk in the same spoonful, since there is less horizontal area and more cereal stacked on top of each other.

Never mind smaller portions that you have to refill more often.


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

[User] If we went out into space and created a closed glass sphere, would it be a more perfect vacuum than anything we could create on Earth?

[Assistant] At extremely high vacuums, what really ends up limiting the vacuum is outgasing from the walls. The best ultra-high vacuum chambers we can make now are ones where the walls are cooled to liquid-helium temperatures so that there is almost nothing coming off the walls and anything that hits the walls will stick to it. If you managed to do what you are suggesting with space (which has about 10^5 times better vacuum than our best) and a cryogenic chamber, then for a short time you would probably have an ultra high vacuum, but very quickly the pressure would rise from the few molecules that can escape from the walls.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do restaurants serve bottomless breadsticks/bread/chips before a meal? I feel as if its counter productive for someone who comes into the restaurant hungry and before ordering they can load up on free carbs, decreasing the desire to order maybe a appetizer/extra food.

[Assistant] Another good reason (not the only by any means) notice all those things tend to be salty and dry. Restaurants tend to make a lot of their margins on drinks, keep people drinking, keep the tab high. Why do you think free bar snacks are always things like chips, salted nuts etc?


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

[User]
ELI5: when countries first started exploring other countries/trading with each other. How did the people understand each other?

For example: when the Arabs and the Europeans and others came to places like India and china and others. How did they understand each other? How did they learn the language when both sides didn't know each other's languages?

[Assistant]
For starters, most trade wasn't over long distances. Most trade was with neighbours which speak a similar enough dialect to make it feasible. Or had a significant group which speak both languages.

So A trades with B, B with C, C with D, etc... and finally it ends up at the other side of the world. Trade was mostly in non-perishable items, so time wasn't a factor.

The modern concept of shipping is quite new and somewhat forced people to agree on a common language for trade (for now, English).


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

[User] ELI5: Why Fast Food outlets like McDonalds and Subway have to display nutritional information but my local burger/sandwhich place doesn't.

[Assistant] The law requiring calorie counts to be posted states that it only applies to restaurants with at least 20 locations.  Other laws related to nutrition have their own conditions that apply specifically to chain restaurants.  As a result, any restaurant that just operates in a single location is not affected by some of these regulations.


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

[User]
[Animorphs] How difficult is it to resist the yeerks?

So when you become infested with a Yeerk, how difficult is it to regain control of your body? To clarify, the ability to simply utter words, move a limb, lift a limb, move your eyes voluntarily etc. And by that same logic, how difficult is it for Yeerks to hold onto control of their host?

[Assistant]
It depends on both the yeerk and the being being controlled, but for the most part real control seems beyond human willpower.

Getting control in small moments happens throughout the series, and seems to take a large but not insurmountable amount of will power and seems substantially easier if the yeerk is newer. Jake's brother watched Jake nearly get captured several times, and he could only make small frowns or other subtle body language gestures.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Taxons almost all take control again through sheer desire when they see food to eat.


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

[User]
how do certain animals know to look us in the eye?

I have always noticed that when speaking to a pet, whether it is a dog or a cat, they somehow know to make eye contact with me as I am doing so... I always thought this was a social human interaction. How do they know to do this? Or is it common with other animals.

[Assistant]
The eyes are extremely commonly used in body language across most land vertebrates.

Focusing on the eyes tells you what an animal is paying attention to and gives you some insight in to its emotional/arousal state, because the biochemical changes inherent in arousal lead to different changes in the eyes.

From there, animals that use body language to communicate will tend to build upon pre-existing foundations, which is why facial expressions/movements are common in mammals and, to a lesser extent, birds.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is fire composed of?

As a fire is still burning, what is the visible part of the fire made out of?

[Assistant] Hot gas. Fire happens when something reacts chemically with oxygen. This reaction releases heat; this heat raises the temperature of the reaction products. Some of the reaction products are gases like carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide. When these gases get hot, they glow, just like a hunk of steel glows when it gets hot. So the visible flame you see when something burns is gas released by the chemical reaction and heated to the point where it emits light.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is "The Monster" in Group Theory?

I've seen a few videos online describing how mysterious "The Monster" is, and how it was even described as "The voice as god" by its discoverers.

I don't have any experience with Group Theory or e8 lattices or whatever, this topic sounds cool and I just want to understand it further.

[Assistant]
Group theory in some sense studies types of symmetry. For example, an equilateral triangle has a three fold symmetry whereas a square has a four fold symmetry. These symmetries are objectively different.

Mathematicians were interested in knowing all the types of symmetries. So they categorized tons of them. Thing of symmetries as chemical compounds. It turns out that some symmetries are really composites of two simpler symmetries. Like 6 fold symmetry may really be a composite of 2 fold symmetry and 3 fold symmetry.

It turns out that all all finite symmetries are really just compounds of a set list of simple symmetries. Simple symmetries are symmetries that cannot be broken down. So simple symmetries are like chemical elements of symmetry. The monster is a huge simple symmetry. Normally simple symmetries are much smaller. It is very unusual that such a large symmetry has no constituent components.

It would be like there was a random element of astronomical size compared to the other elements like Oxygen and Carbon.


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

[User] ELI5: What is Euler's Number supposed to mean/represent in math?

[Assistant]
Imagine you go to a bank that has 100% interest on your savings account. They double your money deposited every year. That's great! You start with $1, and at the end of the year have $2.

But then another bank has a better deal. They give you the same 100% interest, but they give it to you in two chunks. So at the 6 month mark, they give you 50% interest ($1.50 total), and then at the one year mark, they give you 50% interest on your new total, so you end up with $2.25.

Not to be outdone, the first bank now divides their interest monthly. Each month you get (100/12)% interest. At the end of the year, you end up with $2.61.

Now another bank comes back and offers interest daily. Each day you get 1/365th of your interest, so you end the year with $2.71.

Now let's take it to the extreme and compound it every minute. 525,600 minutes in a year (Thanks Rent). We find that at the end of the year this way, we end up with... $2.71. There's some changes in the decimal value after the fact, but we've pretty much reached our peak.

The equation we would use for calculating our interest was (1 + 1/N)^(N), where N is the compounding period. As we make N bigger, the exponential value gets larger, but the fraction gets smaller. If we make N infinite, that's when we get Euler's Number (e) out of this equation.


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

[User]
[40k] In general, what kind of training does an Imperial Guardsman get?

I know it varies by regiment, but for the sake of argument let's go with one of the 'better' and more organised regiments of The Emperor's Hammer.

[Assistant]
Shockingly it's pretty good.

Each world has a governor or commander - who is allowed to rule as he sees fit. (Provided he pays taxes and praises the Emperor).

Without deliving into all the tiny boring details he has two really important jobs.

1) Raise an army for his world's defense in the form of the PDF (Planetary Defense Force).

2) Part of his tithe to the Imperium is 1/10th of his Military might. It is punishable by death to submit untrained, ill trained or ill equipped soliders. So the guardsmen leaving their world come with a fairly decent background and are usually in the top half of the PDF. They know their lasguns, how to point and shoot, that xenos are bad, and how to tie their shoes at least.

Some worlds even go to war to win the honor of being chosen - of course this is wasteful and quickly quelled. the Imperium also may call upon additional soldiers as needed from worlds. It's not exactly an option to refuse either.

These regiments raised during the tithing have officers and commnd structures in place - and specialties unique to their world. (Night combat, ice/jungle warfare, Cadia which is always at war with Chaos, etc.).

Now conscription - or 'whiteshields' are emergency poorly trained groups with no regimental structure. They typical carry out supply lines roles and less glamorous duties while training extensively for combat. When pressed into real combat many whiteshields are eager to prove their worth and mettle.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Keep in mind the guard runs from strength in numbers. While 100 Astartes can deploy in tactical positions and wreck an army before leaving as quickly as they came.

The IG drops a few thousand soldiers in a firing line - covering the landscape with lasgun fire and backing it up with artillery. It is truly an awesome sight to behold and truly only the most brazen and vile xenos can stand up to such firepower.

+++++ Praise be to the Emperor+++++


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

[User]
[Fullmetal Alchemist]When Edward creates his weapons, what exactly is he exchanging?

From my understanding, you have to give something to get something. An Alchemist cannot create something out of nothing. So what exactly is Edward exchanging when his spear materialises from the ground.

[Assistant]
Arm sword: Plating on his arm.

Anything from the ground: Iron and such is drawn from surrounding areas and concentrated to where the weapon is created. He could also be exchanging the ground itself, 4.5 carbon (or silicon what ever suits him) for 1 iron. The ratio was calculated on atomic mass. The ratio in "reality" could be different but the principal is the same.


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

[User]
[General] Do Vampire Woman get periods? Do Vampires drink Period Blood?

I-I don't know why.. but I've been wondering that for the last two days.. *gags slightly but still wants an answer*

[Assistant]
Since Vampires don't reproduce in the same fashion as the living, there is no need for a menstrual cycle.

Most Vampires will not consume menstrual blood for two reasons. First, it is not live blood cells and does not contain the life essence a Vampire needs to survive. Second, it is not pure blood, as it contains other bodily fluids and waste matter that can get caught in one's fangs.