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

[User]
[Monsters University] How is Mike unable to scare children? He's still a monster

The entire movie's plot revolves around him not being scary. But he's still a green cyclops with horns and sharp teeth that's roughly 4-5 feet, which is kinda big to a child.

Plus he knows all the scare tactics. How is he not able to use them?

The very presence of a monster at all would scare most kids.

[Assistant]
>The very presence of a monster at all would scare most kids.

Most kids in *our* universe, sure. But this is a world where children are exposed to monsters from a young age. They've become desensitised. It's a plot point in Monsters Inc that children are getting harder and harder to scare.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] What exactly did the Republic think they were going to do with the clones after they won the war?

Seriously, how many were active by the end of the Clone Wars? A million or more?  What were they gonna do with that many clones *that were bred for war and nothing else*? Yeah, a million isn't a lot compared to the population of the galaxy (you could probably drop them all off on Coruscant and be done with it). However, what if they all had a crisis of identity? After all if they were soldiers and nothing else then that would mean they wouldn't know what to do with themselves, not to mention PTSD and the like. Did the Republic even have a veteran's program? It's the same problem in the Warhammer universe: what do you do with a million or more super-soldiers after a war, super-soldiers who know essentially nothing else, but war and violence (Good thing war never ends there) ? Basically, would they have liquidized them or done something else?

[Assistant]
Honestly speaking, they likely had the "we'll cross that bridge when it comes to it" mentality, after all the Clones were seen as a necessity during the war, so much so that despite the obviously suspicious nature of a former Jedi turned Sith ordering their creation in the first place they still used and trusted them.

It's also important to remember that the clones aged exceptionally fast, for obvious reasons, but if we use Captain Rex as an example, he's 5 years younger than Ahsoka yet by the Star Wars Rebels series he's already old enough to look like her father.

I believe some of the older troops towards the end of the wars were relegated to emergency services and other jobs of need and the end game plan would likely have been using a small number of them as a standing army and the rest would become farmers/workers to aid Republic supported planets.

In the grand scheme of things, it's a short term problem and most soldiers would have made the transition into emergency, labour and security services quite comfortably.

TL;DR - No plan, likely spread throughout planets until they die at an accelerated rate.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can't taxi drivers just become Uber drivers?

[Assistant]
I work in banking in New York City, and the answer for here is that there are high barriers to exit for cab drivers. In order to operate a taxi in NYC, you need a taxi medallion, which costs around a million dollars. Obviously these drivers take out loans for the medallion, but they're still locked into this debt payment until they either (A) pay it off, or (B) sell their medallion.  The problem with 'B' is that the value of these medallions are declining as a result of uber (they'd need cash to pay off their balance to be free of the loan, and by extension, their link to the taxi cab).  You can even short (finance term) the medallions on exchanges; it trades under TAXI.

Analogous to why to home owners locked into a home with negative equity during the housing crisis, except they were willing to take the foreclosure loss.

Edited for words.


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

[User]
[avatar] if sozin had known that aang had fled before the attack?

 if when it was only a day (or a few hours) before the comet arrived, sozin learns through the Fire Sages that the avatar had fled, would he still have followed through with the plan? or what would he have done with the comet?

[Assistant]
Does he know that the Avatar fled, or that the Avatar is functionally dead as far as the world is concerned?

If its the former, Sozin would probably switch the order from blow them all to hell to blow most of them to hell, but grab the elders to find out WTF is going on and take hostages to coerce them. When nobody can tell him where Aang is, he kills them as well and things proceed as in canon.

If its the latter, then Sozin would use the Comet to attack actual military targets such as Ba Sing Se or the NWT, but also hit on the Air Nomads with much less of a significant force. Hed claim that he killed the Avatar once again, and focus on completely annihilating all the opposition while everyone waits in vain for the next reincarnation. This would probably turn the tide of the war to an almost guaranteed victory by the time hes on his deathbed, leading to Azulon most likely being crowned as the Fire Lord, ruler of the world.


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

[User]
What's a short (10-20min) activity I can run with a group of 24 teenagers to teach them about behavioural economics?

Everything I've found online is basically "have them read a chapter and then they answer questions about it"

I'd love to do something interactive, maybe requiring negotiation, incentives and conflicting motivations. Something I that can serve as an allegory for a specific part of how the economy works.

Has anyone hear been exposed to or run something like this? Maybe as a early college experience?

 Or maybe you just have an idea that could theoretically work?

Would love to hear your ideas!

[Assistant]
Buy two big packs of individually-wrapped candies (get two different types). Pass out the candy to the class, choosing at random which student gets which type. Each student therefore has a 50% chance of getting the type of candy they prefer (half the class, in expectation). Next, give them a chance to trade candies with each other so that they can get their preferred choice.

You'd expect half the class to try to trade their candy with someone else. In practice, you'll see many fewer try to trade. Voila, the endowment effect.


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

[User] ELI5: Ive always understood that computers work in binary. But programming languages use letters, numbers, symbols, and punctuation. How does the program get translated in binary that the computer understands?

[Assistant] Most of the answers here are correct, but it's also important to note that all the letters, numbers and symbols you enter with your keyboard are also in binary. Each character is represented by a number, for example the uppercase letters A-Z are represented as the numbers 65-90. These in turn are represented in binary.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the purpose of a Swiss Bank Account? Why are they so special?

Never understood why Swiss bank accounts held such a prestige in my head. Explain!

[Assistant]
There are two main reasons why rich people like to put their money in Swiss bank accounts. The first is that Switzerland is a very stable country. It is rich, it doesn't get involved in wars, and its currency is very stable. For this reason, people don't have to worry about losing their money to failing banks or inflation or anything like that.

The other main reason is secrecy. Swiss banks are famous for not sharing information about their clients with anybody, including the government. Even though they are not OK with people using their banks to commit crimes, Swiss banks are still useful for people to avoid paying taxes or for putting money that they got illegally.


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

[User] [English History] Why did Henry VIII break off from Catholicism?

[Assistant]
Because the Pope at the time, Saint Francis-Pauljohn XV, discovered that the Royal Bloodline was carrying a notable disease, apart from hemophilia and weakchinedness.

The Pope was visiting his faithful Archbishop in London for the annual wrestling match that determined who would be the Pastors of the more desiralbe parishes in the UK, when he happened to visit on the palace on the night of a full moon. There, he witnessed the members of the Royal House turn into Werewolves, and he was only able to escape with the assistance of the noted monster hunter Van Hellsing.

Once the nobles had come to their senses the Pope confronted Henry VIII, engaging him in an epic duel that ended with the Great Fire of London, the Pope dead and Henry VIII having to start a new church to ensure he would have someone to witness the vows as he married new wives (his old wives coming down with a sudden and unfortunate case of headlessness after failing to produce for him an heir.)


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

[User] ELI5: Why are conifers usually triangular while deciduous trees are usually 'circular' in profile?

[Assistant]
Conifers tend to be triangular because they don't drop their needles and often live in snowy places. The triangle shape holds up best to the added weight. Plus it's efficient in terms of how much energy has be spent on growing a trunk, and again, they live in colder places with less competition.

Deciduous trees are rounder because they want to grow up and out to shade out their competition, and they drop leaves so added winter weight is not a problem.


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

[User]
Are children getting nearsighted because of technology?

Took my kid to the eye doctor today.  She said something that had me scratching my head.  She said that they (the eye doctors) are seeing more children come in needing a prescription for near sightedness because of the handheld game consoles, sitting in front of a computer, etc.
It seems anecdotal to me, at best.  Is there any truth behind what she told us?

[Assistant]
It's not closeup work per se.  But an indoors lifestyle does promote nearsightedness.

-- light at night (electric lighting) promotes eyeball growth which promotes nearsightedness

-- closer horizons (never focusing to infinity, as you would outside) promote nearsightedness

Both of those are proven in rats.

So yes, our lifestyle promotes nearsightedness, but it's not computers specifically.  Rather it's just being indoors and an artificially lengthened day.


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

[User]
CMV: In reality, I don't think there is "white privilege", but "POC underprivilege" because being treated like the norm isn't a "privilege"

Whenever I read a topic related to racism, it is very common to find someone using this expression: "white privilege". Usually, the people who use this expression mean that white people (in western society) do not face the same negative experiences that black people (or other non-white people) face in their daily lives. For example, white people don't fear being shot by the police as much as black people; they grew up being massively represented in the media; they aren't called "ghetto", "ratchet" or "trashy" because of their hairstyles; etc...

However, can we really call that a "privilege" when that should be the norm? The way white people are treated by social and legal institutions is the way any person should be treated based on their race. In my opinion, there is not a particular advantage or special treatment. It is just how any person should be treated. It's the norm. What should be the average.

On the contrary, POC tend to be underpriviliged because they have a disadvantage that is the result of decades (correction: centuries) of institucional racism. They have been treated in an unfavourable way by society for many years. And that is why I think "POC underprivilege" should be the correct term and not "white privilege".

Also, I think making "white privilege" such a common expression does more harm than good. A white person who struggled in life because of financial, health or any other type of reasons may not understand what "privilege" do they have because "privilege" is associated with a special advantage that you have in life and those people do not feel like they have been given any type of advantage.

"POC underprivilege" is more factual and puts the focus where it should be: the fact that POC have disadvantages and aren't being treated like the norm because of their race.

Jmo, of course.

[Assistant]
I think you are getting a bit into semantics.

If POC are underprivileged then white people are privileged. Maybe it's what should be the norm but if you're the only one getting treated that way than you are privileged in comparison. You have an advantage over all the people not being treated how they should.

I get what you are saying with regards to the phrasing maybe turning people off to the idea but to me those people would find issue with it no matter how you phrased it.  If you said POC were underprivileged they'd still say you were telling them they had it better  and you'd be in the same spot as with just calling white people privileged.


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

[User]
ELI5: Whenever crying extremely hard, why does it instantly calm you down when you drink something?

The other day I was crying like I hadnt in years because of a terrible panic attack, I couldnt stop, my mother gave me a glass of water and forced my to drink it. While I was drinking I stopped feeling tense, I calmed down pretty fast from the emotions and my breathing immediately stabilised. I was done crying. She said she used to do that when I was a child, and that it would work too.

Why does such a simple thing stop such a heavy emotional response?

[Assistant]
Crying involves a lot of wheezing and deep breathes.

This can become involuntary and uncontrollable.

BUT

Youre brain is hardwired to Absolutely Never Ever Not since Not Ever breath while youre drinking something, to prevent it from going in your lungs and harming you.

So, that hard override in your brain helps interrupt that gasping and wheezing and deep breathing.


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

[User]
[DC Comics] Do we know why Gotham City became a cesspool of crime to begin with?

To me, someone who does not read comic books, it seems really strange how this ONE city in America became a hotspot for such a stunning amount of "exceptional" criminals. We have The Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Bane and many others who all began their criminal careers in Gotham. Is there a reason for this? What makes Gotham unique in that sense?

Also, how is crime in the rest of America? Do we know how the ridiculous amount of crime in Gotham affects your average citizen, both in Gotham and among the general American population?

[Assistant]
Post-COIE the canon has been that the city is literally and figuratively cursed.

"Dark Knight, Dark City" explained that a 18th century group of demon worshippers (including Thomas Jefferson for some reason) summoned a Bat-demon named Barbatos and locked it in the center of Gotham for a few centuries (which Morrison would later sort of reference in his Batman run).

"Arkham Asylum: Hell on Earth" had some other dude using the inmates of Arkham Asylum as blood sacrifices during the turn of the 20th century, which opened up a portal to hell under the building that called on people in Gotham to become psychotic and draw them closer to the Asylum.

In Dennis O'Neil's short story "Cityscape", he goes back even further and says Gotham was built around a makeshift asylum co-founded by a serial killer who wanted a home in the New World for himself and equally insane brothers and sisters (the story also invoked the real life legend of the "Wise Men of Gotham" for the reason the city in the comics got it's name), and would give them a steady supply of people to prey on for generations.

Going off sort of tangentially, there was a literal 'there's something in the water' explanation offered in a Legends of the Dark Knight story called "The Wise Men of Gotham", the novel "Wayne of Gotham", and in the Arkham videogame series.

In the comic and novel examples, both stories suggested that Bruce's dad, Thomas, was indirectly responsible for releasing some faint psychoactive drugs into Gotham's water supply many years ago, which could be blamed for creating both Batman and his villains. In the "The Wise Men of Gotham", Bruce debunks it, but in "Wayne of Gotham" it's confirmed to be the case.

In the Arkham videogames, namely Arkham City, it's established that there's a Lazarus Pit deep in the heart of Gotham and it's been leaking traces of it's psychoactive liquids into the soil and water for longer than the city has been standing.


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

[User] ELI5: How exactly does a computer randomize a number? What exactly pick the output number?

[Assistant]
A computer never produces a truly random number, it produces something that's called a pseudorandom number. A good pseudorandom number looks random, but is actually a very very long repeating pattern (trillions and trillions long).

A simple example is:

1. Pick a three digit number (the seed)
2. Square it
3. Take three middle digets - that's your "random" number
4. Plug that number back into 1 to generate your next random number.

Where the randomness actually matters (e.g encryption), your computer tracks user inputs to generate entropy, this is a measure of disorder. It then uses this entropy as the seed for a pseudorandom generator.


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

[User] ELI5: If plants create oxygen with energy they get from the sun, how do they make oxygen or get energy when the sun is not out?

[Assistant]
In short, they dont.

During the day plants combine carbon dioxide and water to make carbohydrates (oxygen is a byproduct of this), some of which are burned then for energy and some of which are stored (in sap etc.) or used for growth.

During the night, most plants dont do much growing, and use the stored carbs to keep themselves ticking over. During this time they use more oxygen than they are producing.


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

[User] ELI5: If Bitcoin was such a huge breakthrough because of digital scarcity then why are cryptocurrencies like dogecoin, darkcoin, litecoin, etc., constantly being introduced?

[Assistant]
the stuff we use for money all over the world and throughout history doesn't usually have much value itself.  just paper or metal or wood or glass or shells.  it's only valuable WHEN we all agree with each other that it does have value, and that we will all use it.  the more people that use it, the more valuable it is.

of all the coins you mentioned, so far, bitcoin has the largest number of people who agreed with each other (by paying for it, or offering to trade for it) that it has value.

the others have value too, but it's less.  the only reason it's less it that less people have it and use it (less people agreeing its valuable).  who knows, if more people started using feathercoin than bitcoin all over the world, then eventually the total value of all feathercoins put together could buy more than the total value of all bitcoins put together.  doge is a great example- dogers are using it all over he place, splashing it around, buying pizza, tipping each other for fun, etc.  just by going nuts with it they made it pretty valuable in a super short time.

they are all scarce to various degrees (actually doge is least scarce because i think they agreed that there will never be a set limit of dogecoins).  but it's not the scarcity itself that makes it valuable.  it's the scarcity + the agreement among everyone.


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

[User]
Could spacecrafts have totally arbitrary shapes and still be as maneuverable as "pointy" or tapered crafts as there is no air in space and hence no aerodynamics?

When I say "no aerodynamics" I of course mean the concept of it, seeing as there is no air for dynamics to be affected by.

[Assistant] No, because rotational inertia becomes the issue.  What you'd want is mostly spherical craft for maximum maneuverability.  The Starship Enterprise with just the saucer section is about right.  Also a Borg cube.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If a Jedi takes interest in politics, can they become a Senator?

Like, lets say Im a Jedi from Alderaan and Im really into researching what I can about politics and the Republic. Im so publicly outspoken that the Alderaanian government offers me a position as the Senator for Alderaan after the last ones unfortunate speeder accident. Would the Jedi Council kick me out of the Order if I said yes?

[Assistant] Extreme exceptions can be made. But in general no. Jedi can't hold a political office to avoid conflicts of interest. If your government used royal bloodlines and such for their senate seats and you happened to be the last living member of that bloodline they may formally expell or reduce your position from the jedi order to take the senate seat but it's extremely rare for that to happen.


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

[User] [Dexter] Does Dex need to kill humans to feel any sense of satisfaction, or would he be perfectly happy being the slaughterhouse guy that shoots cows in the head with the Chigurh gun?

[Assistant]
He needs to kill humans.

He started off killing animals as a kid and it wasn't enough. His father also recognized that he would eventually become a serial killer and that killing animals wasn't enough for him. That's why he created the code that Dexter lives by. In order to temporarily satisfy his "dark passenger" Dexter needs to kill human beings.


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

[User] ELI5: How are devices like smattphones given unique IDs (IMEI numbers, MAC addresses) during the manufacturing process?

[Assistant]
You're familiar with read-only chips and probably familiar with read-write chips (like those used for flash memory).

What they don't talk about is write-once memory. You can write data to it a single time and that's it.

How (in theory):

Imagine you have 8 fuses. We'll label them 0 through 7. You want to store a binary representation of the letter A, which is 01000001. So you blow fuses 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, leaving only fuses 1 and 7 intact.

The thing is, there are two lines for each fuse: A read line and a write line. To read a fuse, you use the read line. To write to a fuse, you have to use both the read and the write line to burn the fuse.

On the write line, there another, higher amp fuse. After you're done burning your fuses, you overload the write line without the read line and blow the fuse on the write line. No more writing. Only reading. (Also, you'd put a fuse on the read line to prevent someone from trying to dump a bunch of current there to change one of the bits.)

How (in practice):

When Foxconn or other manufacturers build devices, one of the steps with the partially assembled device connects a computer to specific connection points on the PCB which were placed there for this purpose specifically. These connection points are connected to the chip where the IMEI, Serial, MAC number, or other hardware ID is stored.

In older designs, you could later change the write-once content so long as you changed a 0 to a 1 only. While you couldn't set it to any value you wanted, you could change the value to something other than what it was previously.

In more modern designs, the data is written and then current is passed through another connection point which disconnects the data lines for writing internal to the chip.

How (the bad way):

Write-once chips are pretty specialized which translates as "expensive in small quantities". So, on cheaper devices or low-margin devices, the OEM just uses flash memory to store whatever and the software on the controller on the device simply won't provide a way for the value to be changed. This doesn't prevent someone with proper knowledge and equipment to change the content of flash chips.

This is how counterfeit SD flash cards and counterfeit usb flash drives are made. Someone buys a bunch of cheap 512mb cards and changes the content of the flash memory used by the controller so that the chip intentionally misidentifies itself to the computer as being 2tb. And so long as you don't try to use more than 512mb of space and don't format the card without using the Quick Format feature, you won't notice. (Doing a 'long format' should catch this type of counterfeiting.)


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

[User]
I am an user level person, about to have meeting with my family buissnes Web devs. They charge about 2k$/month for running the homepage and my programmer friend told me it is a word press template. What is more there are still Easter wishes on it. And navigating it is a pain.

So my father runs a business (education) and I have just start working there.
I don't want to post URL of the Web page for obvious reasons but it looks ugly, it takes more than five clicks to get to the vital info ( which is not updated) and it is a WordPress template.

The company running it charges about 2k$ per month for " Internet marketing and positioning".

It is not a big buissnes ( the Web page gets around 25k hits/month but I have no idea if those numbers are true) that we run, and it feels like those guys are taking advantage of my elderly father and his colleagues who just don't understand Internet.

Also I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, I am just so pissed off, sorry for that.
Are they scamming us?
Is my gut telling me the truth?

I am going to invite my tech savvy friend to the meeting just in case.

[Assistant]
it really depends what the site actually does for how complicated/expensive it is to maintain, but i would go out on a limb and say if its a wordpress site that is unintuitive, contains months-outdated information, and youre paying $2k a month for it, you could find a better option.

edit: also depends if they are also handling marketing for you as part of that cost, which sounds like they might be?


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

[User]
Fighting over first authorship, need advice!

I came into this lab two years ago and I started compiling and cleaning up a bunch of datasets that everyone thought were useless. It was a ton of work and involved a lot of trial and error. It turns out I found something very interesting using some ML algorithms and I have compiled the results into a pretty decent paper (according to my PI). The problem is, I did not generate the data, and the grad student who did now wants to claim first authorship, even though he literally contributed nothing to any other part of the paper (he didn't even read it!). I should add that this student freely gave me his data and told me I could do whatever I wanted with it, so it's not like I took it without his permission. I know that had I not gone through and done the analysis (which this other grad student doesn't even know how to do), there would be no paper and this data would have been lost. Of course this guy deserves a huge chunk of the credit for the paper, but to me that would mean second author.

Our PI says the other grad student should be first author, but his only reasoning is that he is further along in his PhD and doesn't have publications so he really needs it, while I have time to publish more. We have also considered dual contributing first authors but the other grad student isn't crazy about this, and either way he still wants his name to come before mine.

Maybe I am making this a bigger deal than it needs to be, but I know publications are the currency and academia. I worry that this will be my future if I go into computational sciences and I worry my own work at the computer will not be recognized unless I also do the bench work.

Any advice on how to try to negotiate with my PI and this other graduate student would be appreciated!

[Assistant] Offer joint first author, and graciously offer to let the other guy's name go first. It's not a hill worth dying on, and you're only going to end up pissing off your advisor if you keep fighting about it, which is a really bad long-term strategy.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't bees get stuck to honey?

You see fruit flies stuck in honey, and it's about as sticky as molasses, so why don't bees get stuck?

[Assistant] they do, I've seen it. i wouldn't be surprised if they had some special coating, but it's worth noting that bees are fairly massive compared to other flying insects. they might just be big enough to muscle out of it.


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

[User]
If water conservation is so vital to mammals, why do we pee? Why not transfer toxins into stool and recycle the water? Are there any animals that have evolved to do this?

Bizarre thought I had upon waking up that is now bothering me a great deal.

[Assistant]
Safely excreting waste tends to be a balancing act between water and energy.  Land animals in non-desert climates tend to urinate in the sense you are familiar with.  However, animals in climates in which water is very precious or those which can't carry a lot of water due to weight (birds) use a different method of getting rid of waste.

A large part of what we're getting rid of in urine is nitrogen waste so that we don't build up ammonia.  We get rid of nitrogen by making a compound called urea in a cycle called the urea cycle.  It uses some energy to make, and takes a lot of water to get rid of.  In contrast, birds, reptiles, and some desert mammals get rid of nitrogen by making a different compound called uric acid.  This takes more energy, but can be excreted as a paste with only a little water in it (this is the white part of bird poop).  It's a balancing act as to whether the water or the energy is generally more important, and so different species have gone different ways.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why did it take two years to construct the old World Trade Center and 13 years to construct the new one?

The original WTC1 was built between 1968 and 1970.  Even if we're generous, the new main tower started construction in earnest in 2006 and will "open" in late 2014.  I'd think things would go faster with improved technology. What gives?

[Assistant]
The two years of construction you cite for the original towers don't include planning and design work, which can take many years for such a large structure.

The new building also had to wait until the entire demolished substructure of the old buildings was removed and replaced.


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

[User]
ELI5:What does auto-tune actually do?

What is it physically doing to someones voice? How much power does it take? Is T-Paine's app an accurate representation of auto-tune?

[Assistant]
Auto-tune uses digital processing to shift the pitch of a voice to the closest note.  That way even if someone sings a bit off-key the audience won't notice[1].  It's something that runs in a digital signal processor, so it doesn't really use any more power than a tiny computer does.

I have no idea what T-Paine's app is.

[1] Well, they might notice the exact characteristics of an auto-tuner, but they won't notice someone being off-key.


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

[User]
For the Apollo missions, how did the lunar modules protect the astronauts from radiation from the Van Allen belt and space debris?

With the strong radiation from the van Allen belts, wouldn't there be some impact on the astronauts health? The lunar module doesn't have that much protection from radiation but the astronauts seemed to be unharmed after their trips. Also, the shielding for the modules wasn't that thick or substantial whatsoever, how could they have come out of it unscathed?

[Assistant]
They only provided a modest amount of protection. The radiation minimization plan for Apollo had two components. One was to pick trajectories that traveled at their fastest speeds through the worst parts of the Van Allen belts, minimizing the amount of time spent in the highest radiation environments and minimizing overall radiation exposure. They also avoided some of the worst parts of the inner Van Allen belt.

The CM and LM spacecraft were also designed to shield against radiation as much as possible. While neither the CM nor LM had thick skins, thick skins aren't at all necessary to dramatically reduce radiation exposure. The use of thin layers of aluminum metal with polymer sandwiched between is about the best you can do, with 1960s technology, for radiation shielding and also serves as thermal insulation. A lot of the radiation in the Van Allen belts comes from charged particles (electrons, protons, nuclei, etc.) which don't penetrate fairly deeply and can be easily block with even something as thin as a sheet or two of aluminum foil. The materials used in the spacecraft skins specifically avoided heavier elements like Lead. Heavier elements might help blocking x-rays they would also create more x-rays from bremsstrahlung radiation when hit by high energy electrons, so on balance they wouldn't help.

The astronauts generally crammed the bulk of their radiation exposure into two short sections before and after lunar orbit (and landing), usually separated by several days, which would minimize the physiological impact. In regards to solar radiation, Apollo astronauts mostly got lucky. Solar flare events that could have subjected astronauts outside the Earth's magnetosphere with huge doses of radiation are somewhat rare, and none happened during the Apollo landings.

There's some research indicating that the radiation the Apollo astronauts experienced may have caused a higher rate of cardiovascular disease but because of the small sample size the results are still in question.


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

[User]
[Spongebob] Why don't more people drive rocks?

Since rocks work as well as cars, why don't more people drive them?

[Assistant] They used to. Rocks were the primariy travel means for decades. However car manufacturers started buying up rock depots and closing them to force people to buy cars. Fast forward a few decades and here we are.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] Would R2-D2 have been able to kill Anakin in the period between the massacre of the Younglings and the duel on Mustafar?

In canon it seems that Artoo was unaware of the massacre before the trip to Mustafar. In this scenario let's assume that by accident, he was there to witness it without Anakin knowing he was there.

1. Given Artoo's known erratic behavior and lack of memory wipes, would he be able to hyperspace jump their starfighter into a star or planet and take out his insane master?

2. How quickly would Anakin figure out what was happening and would he be able to reverse it in time?

3. With Grievous dead, who dispatches the Confederate leaders on Mustafar? Do they just scramble away once they hear about the emperor and Order 66?

[Assistant]
Yes.

R2-D2 can just remove the safety systems in place to prevent Hyperspace collisions (that which pulls a ship out of Hyperspace when it detects mass ahead of it). Remove that, a degree off center and then they can hit something in the way that basically ends them instantly ala what happens with the First Order fleet.

There is a reason why Hyperspace Lanes exist, space has stuff inside of everywhere and the lanes are basically mapped routes that are clear of debris like asteroids and the like.

Hyperspace lane mappers are super rich since they can sell these routes for massive amounts of cash, each one is a shortcut through a road with metaphorical roadblocks every 10 meters (or mines if you have no safeties) that never existed before that point.

Which means that deviating slightly from it, a single degree over light years of space? That's going to be dangerous given the distances they are travelling at.

Anakin wouldnt have any idea at all while it was happening. Unless R2D2 turns the ship by himself and aims directly at a planet or something.

As for the Confederate leaders... well they would be able to run the hell away. No Anakin to cut them down like wheat before the scythe, no clone ships, nothing that was able to get in there since they were waiting to meet Sidious' representative. They see clones or mercenaries and they are running the hell away and the war continues, assuming that Sidious is betraying them.

Anakin heads in on his own, they see a little ship, they think that things are kind of nice and great and that's fine since what could one man do right? A larger ship with a presumably larger contingent of clones or mercenaries? That tips off all their alarms.

Basically with Anakin dead the war continues on and Palpatine... well he's got a lot of egg on his face and if they release the information on what he did it might cripple his political ambitions.

Then again he does own the clones so things might just work out for him anyway.


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

[User]
Why is the Winter Solstice the beginning of Winter, and not the middle?

If the Solstice is the shortest day of the year and when the pole is pointed furthest away from the sun, it seems like it should be in the middle of winter, with an equal number of "cold days" before and after it.  But it doesn't work that way.  We recognize it as the beginning of Winter, and there's still two to three more months of cold weather.

[Assistant]
Put gallon of water into a fridge for an hour, then take it away and keep it in room temperature for an hour. Then repeat. Why is the water colder after it has been in the room temperature for 5 minutes compared to the time it has been in the fridge for 5 minutes?

Temperature change lags the middle of the winter for the same reason.


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

[User]
When developing a new measuring device more accurate than anything that existed before, how is it calibrated?

Basically as the title- for example if I was to develop a device that measures distance to a higher degree of accuracy than anything that exists, how can I be sure it isn't wrong at a level of accuracy greater than the second most accurate device?

[Assistant]
Determining accuracy is tricky, and essentially depends on testing your results via some well-established physical theory.

Precision is what people usually talk about when they're developing new measuring devices, though, and that can be determined through statistical tests.  Even a relatively imprecise instrument will give an average measurement close to the correct value (accuracy issues / systematic error notwithstanding), given a large enough data set, and the precision of the instrument can be evaluated by the variance of the data.


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

[User]
[DOCTOR WHO] The Doctor was said to have stolen a Type 40 TARDIS when he left Gallifrey, so is there any way to know what number they're up to currently (ignoring the Timeless Child)?

How advanced are the current models of the TARDIS, and is it that much greater than the Doctor's? Do we have any idea what they can do?

[Assistant]
The Doctor's TARDIS is basically a museum piece at this point, and for a species that can live tens of thousands of years, imagine how old their museum artifacts are. Suppose you see a Model T Ford on display and asking what model number Ford they make now. Other than a few clues, we aren't even sure that they use the same numbering systems.

The only indication we get from the main material is that type 57s exist, but we don't know how old or new they are either. In the extended materials (some of which is of... 'dubious' reliability) the Time Lords have easily surpassed the type 100 TARDISes. We do however have hints on what advanced TARDISes can do; going into the Time War, TARDISes are repurposed into war machines and we know that the Time Lords experiment a few times in putting a 12th dimensional TARDIS personality matrix into organic bodies. There are also a few indications that primitive personal travel capsules have largely been superceded apart from special cases.


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

[User] Do balloons filled with helium fly up inside of the iss?

[Assistant]
On earth, helium balloons go up not because of anything specific about helium, but rather just because the balloon is less dense than the air around it, and so that air falls down, the balloon is pushed up. This concept is the same reason why some things will float in water and others will sink. If something is less dense than water, it'll rise up in water, if it's more dense it'll sink.

The important thing, though, is all of this requires gravity. Without gravity, there's nothing to cause things heavier than air to fall down through it, and nothing to cause things lighter than air to rise up through it. In fact, there's not even a terribly good way to define what up or down is. So just as the astronauts will float in the air without falling 'down', a helium balloon will float in the air without rising 'up'.


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

[User]
What is enthalpy?

And can we measure it directly ?

[Assistant]
Enthalpy is a thermodynamic state function similar to the internal energy, except the internal energy depends naturally on entropy, **volume**, and the number of particles, whereas enthalpy depends naturally on entropy, **pressure**, and the number of particles.

So its just another energy function, but it has the volume dependence exchanged for pressure dependence. This is convenient because pressures are easy to control in lab settings, and theyre often held approximately constant.

Thats why enthalpy is useful for chemistry and fluid dynamics, because the pressure can often be treated as constant. When the pressure and number of particles are constant, the change in enthalpy of some system during some process is just equal to the heat absorbed by the system during that process.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do a sick person's eyes look "glassy"?

What causes the change in appearance?

[Assistant]
Here are three reasons - tears, fatigue, and low blood sugar.

Extra tearing caused by a ramped up immune system makes the eyes look more "shiny".

Fatigue from fighting the sickness make people less likely to focus or be as alert, which make the eyes look "dull".

Finally, hypoglycemia can give the eyes a glassy look too; being feverish contributes to having lower blood sugar.

If someone's eyes look glassy, it's a good indication they're unwell because it means they're fatigued and their immune system is running high, making the eyes more watery.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] On the Clone Wars animated series in general

I have never understood how the Clone Wars animated movie and TV series can be canon, because one of the major parts of the story is the fact that Anakin has a padawan, Ashoka, but we see in Revenge of the Sith that that can't have been the case, because the council has Anakin join them (as Palpatine's representative), but they don't grant him the rank of master, so he gets all pissy and hormonal about it. I don't understand how the Clone Wars movie/series is supposed to fit into all of this, because the existence of Ashoka's character seems to undermine a few big events in Revenge of the Sith.

[Assistant]
Not only do you not have to be a Master in order to take on a Padawan, training a Padawan up to passing their Trials of Knighthood is one of the ways that a Jedi Knight attains the rank of Master.

Anakin was made a Knight sometime in the first couple months of the war, and given Ahsoka to train. She left the Jedi Order after betrayal and half-hearted apologies from the Council, so Anakin never was recognized for his accomplishments with training her even though they said she essentially passed her Trials.


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

[User]
[One Punch Man] What will Saitama be like a few decades along the line?

I'm not sure if Saitama has beat aging or anything like that, but at the very least, what will he be like when he gets old, assuming he still is at roughly the same power level and doesn't meet anyone who can beat him? Will he at some point rise to the top of the Hero Association? Give up heroism altogether?

[Assistant]
Well, look at the closest character we've seen so far (at least in the anime) when it comes to someone who matches Saitama's power? That would be Lord Boros himself. At the point we saw him, he was a pirate who was wandering the galaxy looking for someone who could match his power, recruiting the strongest allies he could find, and likely destroying planets, killing millions along the way.

Boros barely seemed to show any genuine emotion throughout the entire arc despite knowing that his closest allies and many underlings were being casually torn apart like wet paper towels and his ship was gradually being destroyed. He didn't care, all he really cared about was fighting Saitama, someone who could match his strength. Boros' struggle is very similar to Saitama's.

Saitama freely admits that he's becoming increasingly apathetic in his daily life. It's not hard to imagine this will only get worse as he goes on. Eventually, the Hero Association will be forced to recognize his strength, he'll likely end up on the top of the S class, casually fighting even more powerful threats to Earth's various cities. However, it will never be enough for him, and he may one day decide to start wandering the Cosmos, looking for a good fight, going to whatever lengths are necessary to do that.


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

[User]
ELI5: What does BBC Radio 4's broadcasting status have to do with checks performed by a Trident CO before opening a letter of last resort?

Quote from Wikipedia: "According to Peter Hennessy's book The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War, 1945 to 1970, the process by which a Vanguard-class submarine commander would determine if the British government continues to function includes, amongst other checks, establishing whether BBC Radio 4 continues broadcasting."

[Assistant]
Radio 4's long-wave broadcast is receivable over the entire planet, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Its not, obviously, receivable under the sea, but a submarine should be able to surface anywhere and pick up the signal.

Therefore if a British submarine surfaces and is unable to receive a Radio 4 broadcast, it's a reasonable assumption to make that something serious has happened to the UK (or at the very least the central London studios and broadcasting complex of the BBC).

If the situation continues for several days, the submarine commander would be entitled to assume that there has been a catastrophic attack on critical UK infrastructure. He is then instructed to open the Letters of Last Resort which presumably authorise the commander to determine what's happened to Britain, and to take any revenge actions he deems necessary.

That's how the entire British nuclear-armed submarine deterrent is designed to work. The idea is that even if an enemy launched a surprise nuclear strike that wiped out the UK (which is after all a small island with most of the population centred in just a few very large cities), they know that somewhere out there under the ocean are submarines carrying multiple high-yield nuclear weapons. Sooner or later those submarines will surface near the coastline of whoever attacked Britain and launch their nuclear weapons in revenge.


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

[User] ELI5: How do we know anything about the new Healthcare Bill since has been kept a secret and written in private? For example, how do we know that millions will lose their coverage, and that the Bill will be disastrous for most working class, disabled, and elderly people?

[Assistant] The assumption is that the senate bill will be similar to the house bill and similar to the bill that failed to pass the first time.  Both of those were scored by the CBO and those were some of the findings as well as the reading of those initial bills.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Why were the machines limited to solar or bioelectricity?

Humanity darkened the skies to cut off solar power. Why did the AI respond by turning people into batteries when there are much better energy sources?

If the real world of the Matrix is at some point after the year 2069 and AI has been developed, why can't the machines take over the extant power plants after destroying humanity?

What about wind power, nuclear, or plain old coal plants? All of these could be run with routine maintenance and provide much more power.

[Assistant] [In the Animatrix it is explained that] the machines don't like killing humans, but after the humans blotted out the sky it became clear that the humans wouldn't let the machines live, so they decided that to keep humans alive, and solve their energy and violence crises at the same time, capturing humans and plugging them into the simulation was the best solution.


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

[User] ELI5: I always hear that China (and sometimes even more broadly, Asia) is the worst offender when it comes to destroying the environment/animals. Is there any truth to this?

[Assistant]
China's record on environmental protection has been poor, but its practices are in line with other developing nations like India, Indonesia, Iran etc.

It comes down to the scale of industrialization in a country like China compared to other nations.  Providing over 1.5 billion people with jobs, food and basic needs strains the environment on a grand scale.  If everyone in China ate and lived like an American, then the costs will be even greater.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do tax havens (like the Cayman Islands) benefit from allowing corporations to register there?

As far as I can tell, countries/territories (like the Cayman Islands) levy absolutely no taxes on corporations thereby gaining nothing from the corporations being registered there. Meanwhile corporations save billions not paying taxes in the countries they actually do business in. Seems like a bit of a one-way relationship. So what do the tax havens gain from allowing these companies to register there?

[Assistant]
It's work for lawyers and bankers in the country.

And it's money in their banks.

And many "tax havens" actually charge a very small tax.  5% of billions is still a lot of money. It's better for the country than a high percentage of a tiny amount of money.  And it's better for the company than paying a "normal" 20%+ tax.


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

[User] ELI5: what happens when I get a song stuck in my head?

[Assistant] You see or heard something that reminded you of the song. However, your brain is not satisfied just remembering the song. Your brain can't find closure and throws it on a loop. That's why listening to it usually helps; the brain has heard it all again and can end the song in a natural manner. Think about it, you never have an entire song from start to finish stuck in your head. So if you want to get rid of a song in your head, play the damn thing start to finish and you should be fine.


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

[User]
ELI5: The concept of 'We are all made of star dust'.

I realise that the Sun's gravity is enough to create helium from hydrogen, causing heat and light to be released. How are the other elements created and how are we all made up of them?

[Assistant] As stars die they start producing heavier and heavier elements. Then when they go supernova these elements are flung into space as dust and gas (star dust). This then coalesces to form planets, just as Earth did. You are made from matter from the earth, hence you are made of stardust.


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

[User]
ELI5 Where does alcohol go when it evaporates?

 After sanitising my hands for the 1000th this month it just dawned on me, where does this alcohol actually goes when it evaporates? recently there must be hundreds of tons of this all going into the atmosphere, but where does it end up?

[Assistant] Some of it will condense into slightly alcoholic rain and drop to the ground where it's metabolized by one organism or the other, the rest gets chemically degraded by high energy UV light (or radicals resulting from photochemical activation). The sun is extremely effective at shooting nearly every complex molecule in the air to pieces, eventually turning them into CO2, water, or other small stable molecules.


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

[User]
CMV: Debt collectors should not be able to offset or intercept tax returns

I will say upfront that I do believe that the government should have this ability. If you owe the government money they should be able to intercept payments from the government in order to repay that debt. My view is on debt collectors who have bought debt from the government.

I am a married father of 4 (6 person household) and I "supported" my family last year on a household income of a little over $14,000 (gross income from tax return). I say supported in quotes because I'm sure many of you can imagine what kind of support 14k is capable of providing 6 people. Due solely based on the EITC I was due a tax refund of $821.

Now as I understand it, the EITC exists in an effort to provide people at, near, or below the poverty level a much needed financial boost.

I found out a few days ago that my tax return had been intercepted and I got the letter today saying why.

A debt collection agency intercepted my tax return to apply it to student loan debt they bought from the government. I'll admit that the debt is valid, but look at my finances, it's not like I have the ability to pay them and I'm just choosing not to...

Now if you owe me money and then we get into a situation where I'm giving you money for something else, I am certainly going to hold back the amount you owe me  when I make that payment, I get that. That's not what happened though. A third party bought that debt from the government (as I understand it) so the government's interest in that debt has been removed. A debt collector should have to get a court order to intercept that money regardless of the origin of that debt. Am I wrong?

[Assistant] Do you know for certain they bought the debt? Many collection agencies collect debt on behalf of the original debt holder without purchasing it. If that is the case, it is still government debt which you say is fine for tax lien without court order.


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

[User]
[Marvel] What kind of relationship does Captain America have with the Hulk/Bruce Banner?

Do these two have any sort of meaningful relationship? I've seen that one issue of AvX where Cap ask Hulk to fight with him due to their "history together", but it's my understanding that Hulk left the Avengers when Cap joined and the two haven't interacted much over the years.

[Assistant] Generally speaking, they never had much of a notable friendship considering how long they've known each other, but both Bruce and The Hulk respects Cap as someone who treats them fairly and is worth their trust and attention.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why don't they use metal detectors before an MRI scan?

I've seen in TV shows that any ferrous metal in your body can be extremely dangerous during an MRI. I had an MRI recently, they made me sign that I don't have any of that, but that was it. Why don't they have, say, the same equipment TSA uses in airports? Is it too expensive or not sensitive enough?

[Assistant] I think it may just be an unnecessary expenditure since you are assumed to know if you have metal in your body, or it would at least be present in any medical records or be in there for some plausible known reason.


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

[User] [Neon Genesis Evangelion] The Angels wanted to start Third Impact, Gendo wanted to start third impact, SEELE wanted to start third impact...why are they all fighting to stop each other when they all knowingly fight to accomplish the same thing?

[Assistant]
Because the Third Impact could be controlled to an extent, each resulting in a different version.

The Angels wanted Instrumentality to be rid of the humans, since they were supposed to inherit the earth instead of humanity. This is what the humans were trying to stop, since the Angels would use the resulting mass of what was once humanity and assimilate it to bring back Adam. It would be an Adam/Lilith hybrid, but Adam dominant. It would have most likely destroyed its Lilith half if that happened. Only angels would remain.

Seele intended for Instrumentality to only be for their own council members, so they could all unite into a single super being. Rather than forming a sea of LCL, Seele wished to be merged inside an Evangelion unit with its own S Engine, after destroying the Spear of Longinus. By placing their own souls within the body of a godlike being, and destroying the only weapon that can harm the body, they would effectively create an immortal God with a human soul which would represent the pinnacle of human existence, and live through all of eternity. Basically they wanted to somehow be in control of the world and all of humanity, even though instrumentality is supposed to remove any semblance of individuality when it happens. It would be an Adam/Lilith hybrid, but Lilith dominant. Only the super being would remain, probably indifferent to the presence of Angels since it overpowers them.

Gendo wanted Instrumentality to be with his deceased wife Yui again. This is what actually ends up happening briefly in the ending when all the human souls are collected into the black moon by Lilith. But when Shinji rejects it all the souls are redispersed since instrumentality has to contain all of the souls. It ended up being an Adam/Lilith hybrid, but Lilith dominant and then Adam was destroyed upon Shinji's rejection, leaving only Lilith. All the angels die as a result. Only humanity remains. End of Evangelion.


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

[User] [DCAU] So, I went to Gotham City to visit a family friend, why does the entire city have a film noire aesthetic?

[Assistant]
Basically, it goes back to the 1850s, when a prominent citizen named Solomon Wayne hired an architect named Cyrus Pinkney to design many of the city's public buildings. He basically invented the Gotham Style of architecture, and many of those who followed aped his approach, resulting in the city's current aesthetic.

It's not universal, of course; there's plenty of modern architecture across the city, and the suburbs basically look like suburbs anywhere else. But Old Gotham still follows Pinkney's vision.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does sleep restore the body's energy?

If energy can't be created, then why does sleep boost us back to 100% every morning? If I don't plug in a laptop and I put it in sleep mode, it just drains battery less quickly. If it's from food, why does our body wait until sleep to convert it to energy?

[Assistant]
It's from food, and the body doesn't wait until sleep to restore energy.  This is why a workout or athletic activity feels so much easier a few hours after a meal rather than on a starving stomach.

What sleep restores is not your energy, but your brain function.  Your brain is floating in a nutrient soup called *cerebrospinal fluid* or CSF.  Throughout the day, your brain cells drink in nutrients from the CSF, and spit out waste.  This builds up, and by the end of the day there's so much waste floating around in the CSF that it starts negatively affecting brain function.

When you sleep, channels open up and flush the day's supply of CSF away.  New, clean CSF is pumped in for tomorrow, and so you wake up with a clean brain.


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

[User]
Is it possible to physically cleave a chemical bond?

I'm wondering if it's possible to cleave covalent or ionic bonds using an extremely sharp knife made out of a material such as metallic hydrogen so that the electrons are much closer to the atoms of the knife and doesn't create any electrostatic repulsion which would repel the molecule away.

I'm also wondering if it's possible to rip molecules apart by having a strongly negatively charged pole and a strongly positively charged pole and a polar molecule in between those two poles so that the negative and positive poles of the molecule moves to the opposite charge, breaking their bonds.

[Assistant]
Yes, it is possible and you don't even have to fancy things such as metallic hydrogen knives.

Shear stress is a well-known problem when working with large molecules. For example, suction of a pipette can cause DNA to be cleaved on the edge of the pipette tip.


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

[User]
When the Sun expands, will it cause changes to the outer planets in the solar system, possibly making them inhabitable?

Will the increased size, temp etc of the sun in a red giant state cause changes to the outer planets, possibly causing reactions that could lead to a sort of terraforming? I'm thinking mainly of Mars, but I imagine it may be too close to the sun at that point.

[Assistant]
The gas giants most likely not, since they're made out of, well, gas, but what could become habitable are their moons, Titan for instance looks much like a primitive earth, and if it were exposed to more radiation it could become habitable.
On a sidenote though, the sun would stay in its red giant phase for no more than a billion years, which is not even slightly enough time for complex life to arise.


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

[User] ELI5: How come the NSA bugging the UN HQ and hacking UN computers hasn't started a massive "shit storm"?

[Assistant] Diplomats in the UN have conducted business under the assumption that the location they are at have been bugged for decades. While it certainly angers them when it comes out directly who is doing what it isn't that large of a surprise.


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

[User]
Eli5: How are humans 70% water?

Like I've heard it before, but can someone explain how that can be if we're mainly blood, skin, organs and bones? As in, not watery things?

[Assistant]
The same way a water balloon is mostly water, despite feeling substantial. Most of our body's cells are like water balloons; they have a membrane along the outside and water on the inside. Now of course, that water inside the cell has proteins, mitochondria, and other life substances. However, all of the in between spaces are water.

Blood is an even better example. ~90% of your blood is water believe it or not.


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

[User]
[Star Wars] If you're force sensitive but don't become a Jedi, can you still use your powers effectively?

If you were a force-sensitive but somehow didn't end up in the Jedi order or as a Sith, could you train yourself in the ways of the Force? Like, could you just become a freelance force-user who goes with the flow without picking a side and use your powers to make your average life better?

[Assistant]
To an extent, yes, depending on how strong your potential is.

Would you be able to pull off what Jedi and Sith could do? Very unlikely, however it could still help in life.

Most commonly, your reflexes would be much faster. You'll instinctively know what will happen in some way, similar to Spidey Sense. You may also be able to sense others around you and what they are feeling, so you might be able to tell if someone is sad, angry, even hateful.

Those abilities are often instinctive among Force sensitive. It tends to just happen. But active ability, actually using the Force, that's possible to. It is unlikely to ever be on par with a trained Jedi, but you might discover if you concentrate you can make small objects float or move. You might find that you have an easier time persuading people and talking people down. Not necessarily a full on Mind Trick, you likely won't be able to get them to do whatever you want, but more subtle influence. With practice these can become better, but again won't be on par with Jedi.

Some of these you may be able to live of off. Being a pilot is certainly a popular one. With your faster reflexes you can become a known pilot. You might also become an entertainer. Most people have never seen a Force user, so making boxes float would bring a crowd. If you've become persuasive you might be a businessman, or, if you have low morals, a con man.

Of course this is assuming that you aren't in a location where using the Force might get you labeled as a Jedi and call the Empire on you.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does the water from a plastic bottle taste fine after being on the store shelf for months, yet the day after I put my own tap water in there it tastes of plastic?

[Assistant]
Here are a few possible reasons:

bottled water may have additives in it to enhance flavor(no, really, pure water tastes funny, most water we drink has some levels of minerals dissolved in it that alter the flavor)
your tap water's chemical composition might be better at leaching chemicals from the plastic (more corrosive or the dissolved minerals interact with the bottle material)
If your tap water drunk from the bottle is warmer than it is from the tap, it could already taste like that, but the coldness masks the flavor when it's straight from the tap.


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

[User] [Dark Souls universe] Does the total amount of souls in the world remain constant throughout the cycles, or is it entropically going down with each rekindling of the first flame?

[Assistant] It's unclear, but implied that either there is some loss of souls each cycle, or that the threshold to link gets larger. We see in the final cycles of the world that the flame summoned several of the past champions who linked, and the unkindled must kill all of them to again link it.


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

[User]
I think inheritance is immoral and should be scrapped or severely restricted. CMV

To me, the notion that a family should gain control of a loved one's possessions after they die is unethical. The idea that people have some inherit right to land and/or money because they just happened to be born in the right family is wrong. I think a person's wealth in an ideal world should be proportional to how hard they work and how talented they are and the idea of an inheritance goes against both these things. It is an example of someone gaining something for nothing just because of their class and leads to a culture of a wealthy elite of old money families which have a disproportionate amount of wealth and power due to the nature of their birth. I think that the state should gain control of assets (at least above a certain threshold of wealth) after death in order for the money and land to be utilised in a manner beneficial to society by democratically elected officials.

[Assistant] There's no way to enforce this; people could just set their wealth in an offshore account, gift it all before death, invest it in physical goods that can be later sold and then gift that... definitely too much room for abuse by the rich and then the poor don't get to give their children any leg up from where they were during life (considering that, surprise, even the job market isn't a strict meritocracy, otherwise the concept of "paying your dues" would be ridiculous)


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

[User] ELI5: My daughter just asked me If outer space is black, how is the sky blue? Help me explain it please.

[Assistant]
For a more ELI5 explanation for your daughter: when the sunlight passes through our air at higher altitude (Non-ELI5: upper atmosphere), it becomes bent at different angles (Non-ELI5: elastic scattering via Rayleigh scattering). The sky is blue during the day because the part of sunlight that bends the most is blue. At night, because there is no sunlight, the sky becomes colourless, and we see the black outer space.

A quick experiment you can do with your daughter is the glass-prism light refraction experiment to split the sunlight into a rainbow of colours. It is not completely correct (because refraction and Rayleigh scattering are different mechanisms), but it will help your daughter understand how sunlight can bend to produce colours.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do arm/leg hairs stop growing once they reach a certain length, yet other hairs continue to grow?

[Assistant] They don't stop once they reach a certain length.  They stop when they've been growing for a certain amount of time.  Hair follicles have a cycle where they'll grow for x number of days, rest for y number of days, then start again.  The length they grow to is just the length they can reach in that time.  After that, they stop and eventually fall out.  Then, new hairs grow and take their place.  The same happen on most of the body.  Really, it's only the hairs on the top of the head (and maybe the chin) that are different.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can speed be relative but still have a maximum? (the speed of light)

I've been told two things:

a) All speed is relative, meaning there is no universal "Resting speed". You can only measure the speed of an object relative to another object.

b) Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light

These seem like incompatible statements because this speed limit imposed by the speed of light would have to be a relative speed to something else. As there are many "something else"s in the universe, would I not be able to travel the speed of light relative to any of them?

Can somebody channel Carl Sagan for a moment and simplify this for me?

[Assistant]
To understand this, you have to mostly ignore your intuitions about how motion works.

Relative to you, nothing can be moving faster than the speed of light. Wherever you are, and however fast you think you're moving, nothing you can ever observe will be going faster than the speed of light compared to you.

It works out that way because time passes differently for objects moving relative to each other. Also distances get smaller the faster you are moving relative to something else.

For example if you whizzed past Earth at very high speeds (relative to Earth), it would look squashed to you. Everything happening in the earth would also be in slow motion from your point of view.


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

[User] ELI5- What happens in the brain during a migraine and why does it hurt so much?

[Assistant] We do not understand the mechanism of pain in migraines. Migraines feature waves of decreased activity in the brain. The waves are different for everyone, and so are the symptoms. A classical migraine starts at the back of the brain. The back of the brain controls the eyes, so people get eye symptoms. The waves then spread forward across the brain over minutes. The face control area is the next affected, people get a tingly face. The waves spread further forward, and as more of the brain is involved, the parts of the body that that section of the brain is sends and receives signals from get symptoms, with a tingling feeling passing down the arm and leg over minutes as more of the brain is involved. If the muscle part of the brain is involved, the limb controlled by that part of the brain can become temporarily paralised. Finally, the front of the brain can be can get depressed, and people can lose the ability to talk, or they may become confused. We do not know exactly why the depression of brain activity occurs, or why pain follows. The depressed parts of the brain have restricted blood flow, but the brain activity depression precedes the decrease in blood flow. This means that it is not squeezing in the blood vessels *italics*causing*italics* decreased activity in the brain, rather decreased activity causing less blood to flow there. Medicines that relax the muscles in the walls of veins and arteries have some effect in making migraines better, so it could be something do with pain sensors in those blood vessels activating (the brain itself has no pain sense nerves).


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

[User]
[Joker] How would Arthur react to being on the Eric Andre Show?

So, I was watching Eric Andre, and I got to thinking.

What if instead of being invited to the Murray Franklin show, Arthur were on the Eric Andre Show? Would he see the humor in it? Would he snap even faster?

[Assistant]
He would shoot Eric and probably kill Hannibal too. Eric Andre has an offbeat sense of humor, but he is genuinely funny. Arthur Fleck is very specifically NOT funny.

Eric also purposely pushes his guests buttons. Some of them can laugh along and try to enjoy it like Jack Black, others cant. Arthur Fleck couldnt handle the razzing from a Jimmy Kimmel type barely offensive comedian.


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

[User]
Why are most moons tidally locked?

With the exception of Pluto's smaller moons, all the moons in the Solar System are, to my knowledge, tidally locked with their respective planets. Why is this?

Wikipedia says,

> Most major moons in the Solar System, the gravitationally rounded satellites, are tidally locked with their primaries, because they orbit very closely and tidal force increases rapidly (as a cubic function) with decreasing distance.

But I don't honestly have any idea what any of this means.

[Assistant]
Tides are a small bulge induced by gravity differences when two astronomical bodies interact. You can see that with the sea, but it also works on rocks. It is less noticeable, but has been detected on earth (most notably with the large hadron collider).

When the smaller body is not tidally locked with the larger one, the bulge is not always in the same place (as are our sea tides). The rotation of those moons induce a small shift on where the bulge is compared to where it would be if the moon was tidally locked (as much as sea takes time to go up and down, so do the rocks). Gravity pulls on the misaligned bulge, acting as a break on the small body's rotation until it is in step with its rotation around the bigger one.

The closer you are to the bigger body, the stronger its influence on the smaller one.


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

[User] Why do substances like salt or alcohol hurt when applied to a wound, whereas water, milk or oil don't?

[Assistant]
The sensory neurons responsible for pain maintain an ion concentration gradient across their cell membrane. Salt disrupts that process, making the extracellular environment super ionic. Alcohol disrupts the cell membrane, dissolving parts of it. Both have the effect of sucking up water from inside the cells by osmosis, putting them in distress.

A combination of those effects and the general damage that results causes the sensory neurons to fire, then you feel pain. At the same time, they do make the wound area inhospitable for microbes, so there can be some therapeutic meaning in taking the pain...

Water and especially milk wouldn't cause such sweeping changes in the cell's environment, since they're pretty close to our fluids anyway. Oil just doesn't even mix with the fluids very much.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do my testicles tingle when I am nervous?

[Assistant]
Being nervous invokes the same fight-or-flight response your body goes through for any danger, for example meeting a tiger in the wild.  Now imagine you are up against a tiger.  Do you want your testicles right around out there where they could get snagged by a tiger claw in a fight?  Or if you were running from the tiger,  having them bounce from thigh the thigh while you ran also carries some risk of damage (or at the very least distracting discomfort).
So one of the things your body does during the fight-or-flight response is to draw your testicles up close to your body to protect them.  One set of muscles on the spermatic cord contracts, pulling your testicles up close, while smooth muscle in the scrotal sack contracts tightening it up.  The tingling you feel is likely feeling this scrotal tightening.  A similar rising/tightening happens during sexual arousal, leading to the tingling one of the other commenters mentioned.


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

[User]
[Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends] Why wasn't Madame Foster in charge of her own foster home and we all know she hates Harriman's rules so why doesn't she change them?

She outranks Harriman, it's her house, her business and he's her imaginary friend.

[Assistant] Because running a business isn't all fun and games. There have been episodes where Harriman leaves / becomes impotent and things basically fall to chaos. Madame Foster does step in from time when Harriman steps out of line but generally she knows you can't keep a few hundred monsters in order with all her wacky fun.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some clouds appear dark gray? What prorties define cloud color?

[Assistant] If they're darker, they're holding more water. Clouds with less water in absorb less light coming from above it so they appear white, as more water accumulates they absorb more light and so they appear darker.


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

[User]
[WH40K] Junior officer life in the Imperial Navy?

Lots of questions about the life of an Imperial Navy Officer. What's life like for the junior officers in the navy? Do they receive good pay and benefits? What are the chances of getting promoted? Are there preferred billets like larger or smaller warship/installations? Are there any kind of education benefits? Do benefits get passed on to spouses or children?

[Assistant]
I suspect many officers are literally born to the role - or at least, born into the officer class. Their parents would both be Imperial Navy officers and they'd spend their early life on board the ship, before being sent to a Schola Progenium for proper education as soon as they are old enough.

The Schola Progenia probably aren't very kind to failures, misfits, troublemakers and washouts. Obviously not every officer's child has what it takes to serve in the Navy, but those who make it through their schooling will then go on to actual training in a Naval station of some sort.

A lot of training probably takes place actually on board warships - think Hornblower, but in space. There will also be Naval stations - orbital facilities, remote habitats, even a few planetside structures. Training will be harsh and brutal, because that's how the Imperium works, but it will also be effective; by the time a junior officer is given any real responsibility, he'll be ready for it.

The pay is probably hard to define. On one planet they could effectively be millionaires; on the next, they can barely afford to drink in a spaceport bar. But since the Navy provides food, shelter, education, clothes, etc. their pay is all theirs to spend.

Preferred stations - the bigger the warship, the bigger the prestige. Nobody wants to be stuck on a crappy little transport or orbital when they could be winning their spurs on a battlecruiser; on the other hand, if you make it far enough, your first command will probably be a small packet ship or raider. Most officers never make it that far, of course; only the very best and luckiest are given command.

Promotion - obviously there's a lot of dead men's shoes, but with the galaxy in a constant state of war you'll never lack for opportunities. There's also a lot of competition.

High-ranking officers of both the Imperial Guard and the Imperial Navy tend to rub shoulders with the wealthiest of Imperial nobility, but that may be because a lot of them are recruited from that same nobility. Even so, all signs suggest that you can get rich in the Navy, provided you survive long enough.


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

[User]
How and why does China manipulate its currency?

I know that this is a major issue that China is holding down the value of its currency. But why would they do this and what effect does it have on China and other countries?

[Assistant]
China has been interested in keeping the Yuan (Chinese Currency) undervalued relative to the US Dollar, and the easiest way (if you can afford it) to keep the Dollar price high, and the Yuan low is to buy dollars from the open market.

A country like China, which runs a huge Trade Surplus can afford to buy dollars in the open market to keep the demand for dollars high, and push the dollar price upwards relative to the Yuan. This keeps the Yuan undervalued.


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

[User] When economists study black markets, how do they get their data if the trade is supposedly illegal? Is there any component of black market analysis which is especially reliable and if so, why?

[Assistant]
Data on illegal activities can come from a number of different sources. Satellite imagery has been used to estimate the extent of illegal fishing, for example. Other estimates include data on arrests or search and seizure, which can then be extrapolated to population levels. This happens for illegal wildlife trade. In short, there is a lot of administrative data that can be used to infer rates, and increasingly satellite imagery can be used to more accurately estimate illegal activities where they are recognizable from space.

There are probably other ways as well, but those are the studies that I've come across.


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

[User]
ELI5: why we are focusing on getting to Mars instead of building a permanent structure on the moon.

Given the technology and effort of building the ISS, and given the long trip time of going to Mars, why haven't we attempted to build a self-sustaining structure on the moon?

[Assistant]
Because until recently it wasn't known that the Moon has water which meant that it was believed that things like oxygen would have to be shipped constantly to a Moon colony to keep it running.

Plus it'd be expensive.

Plus Mars is a much better destination.  It has the same amount of land as the Earth (no oceans you see) and could possibly be terraformed given enough time.


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

[User]
Why is it so looked down upon to complete all of your degrees at the same institution?

And if said university is high calibre, is it advantageous to change to a lower tier university for the sake of diversity?

[Assistant]
It's minor, but a few reasons.
1. It shows an unwillingness to adapt to new circumstances.
2. It demonstrates geographic inflexibility.
3. Chance you got in because you were liked, not because you tested well.
4. Exposed to a smaller range of ideas.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is Final Fantasy VII so highly regarded?

[Assistant]
Couple of reasons.

Today people will tell you it's thanks to the the plot, which is admittedly one of the most coherent and emotionally engaging final fantasy stories. The villain was memorable, the characters likeable, and the overall story grand and fun. Also there's genuine heartbreak at the death of a major character.

Another reason is that, for its time, the game was *gorgeous*. This was the Final Fantasy series' first 3D game, and they really took advantage of the medium with complex battle animations, beautiful environments, and fully rendered cutscenes. Playing it now it looks fairly cheesy, but back in the day it was nothing short of mind-blowing.


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

[User]
recommendations for philosophy of mythology?

hi all, ive been reading Schelling and Joseph Campbell (not sure if hes necessarily considered a philosopher but i love his writing) and am looking for other texts on the nature of myth and its importance to human nature. any recs are welcome, thank you :)

[Assistant] Mircea Eliade is like a better Campbell. Claude Levi-Strauss if you want to get more rigorous. James Frazer for historical interest, though he has a well-deserved bad reputation. Jane Ellen Harrison and W. K. C. Guthrie for the Greeks.


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

[User] ELI5: How do car parks know how many spaces are available?

[Assistant]
Is there a barrier on the entrance and exit?  Barrier on the entrance goes up, -1 parking space.  Barrier goes up at the exit, +1 parking spaces.  Start with a known quantity, cos we can count the number of bays, deduct 1% to allow for dicks parking in two or more bays, and away you go.

When the number reaches Zero, the car park is full.  Illuminate the neon sign that says Car Park Full.


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

[User] [BTTF] If Doc wanted Marty to destroy the time machine, why did he build the time train and come back to the future?

[Assistant]
He changed his mind after realizing that the survival rate for children and women giving birth in the 19th century wasn't all that fantastic.

Seeing Marty wasn't their first top; I'd wager getting his pregnant wife to the hospital, and then his children to a doctor for vaccines was higher up on the todo list than waving hello to his pal Marty.


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

[User]
[Avatar]What stops an avatar from abusing his abilities?

Why hasn't their been an "evil" avatar that was a tyrant? Avatars are still human after all and and humans by nature are corruptible.

[Assistant]
Nothing.

The "rightness" of his or her actions is determined by the observer and is open to interpretation.  The Avatar is meant to preserve balance, but how they goes about that is up to them.

The best example is Aang's past lives advising him that he had basically no choice but to kill Ozai.  Aang considered that morally abhorrent because of the way he was raised.

Kyoshi is another example. She stopped what she considered a tyrant, but the tyrant's supporters and their descendants viewed what she did as an evil act.

Roku is another example, as was that water-bending Avatar got advice from toward the end.  Their inaction allowed evil to flourish and triumph.

And we also have Korra.  She was reckless and headstrong upon arrival in Republic City and caused quite a bit of damage and trouble.

We don't know the full history of the Avatars.  It could very well be some abused their power.  It may that reason is why a special society/religion was created in order to guide the Avatar through their training, to make sure they were set on the right path and didn't abuse their power.


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

[User] [Ready Player One]Why doesn't the Oasis have competitors?

[Assistant]
Presumably, a lot of Halliday's tech was proprietary; he would have needed to solve a lot of issues just to build the underlying infrastructure for the Oasis, to say nothing of the core software itself. By the time the fundamental patents for the Oasis finally expired, the Oasis had achieved a stranglehold. Everyone who might have the resources to build a counter-Oasis could make money faster and easier by working within the system instead of trying to re-invent the wheel.

>! That said, with the recent changes to the Oasis' operating schedule, one could emerge. People are going to want something to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and going outside isn't going to be a very popular option, considering what outside looks like. In essence, Wade & Co. have just hand-built a market niche for the system that may unseat the virtual dominance of the Oasis.


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

[User] Why can you eat meats like beef and seafood raw/undercooked but not chicken?

[Assistant] Essentially different meats are subjected to different bacteria throughout their life, as well as during their slaughter and processing. Because of this, different legislation and regulatory levels are applied differently to meats. Chicken is of particular concern due to salmonella being present throughout the meat itself instead of just a surface contaminant which it is in beef. Therefore cooking beef, even just searing the outside ensures the bacteria will be killed, chicken however must be cooked entirely through. In the EU if salmonella is present on beef steak for example it is still fit for human consumption because it is assumed proper cooking will be performed to eliminate the surface contamination. If the beef is minced however and a positive result for salmonella is found, the meat will be reject because the salmonella will be present throughout the minced meat, not just the surface. Seafood contains different bacteria but are often very dangerous as well because they tend to concentrate bacteria present within dirty water. Therefore they are often placed in fresh clean water to filter themselves before being sent for human production. Fish are a concern because they tend to eat other fish resulting in bioaccumulation of bacteria and chemicals dangerous to humans. No meat is 100% safe for consumption, it's all about risk reduction and trying to ensure proper management from the farm level, the hygienic slaughter, cold chain refrigeration from slaughter to customer to ensure conditions which do not favour bacterial growth.


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

[User] Why most of the female names end with "-a" (in many cultures?"

[Assistant] In some languages (not English) nouns are gendered.  In Latin (and thus, to an extent, in the Romance languages) most female nouns (including names for women) end with an -a, and most male nouns end with a -us.  Many of those names are still with us in one form or another.


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

[User]
What is the best way to prepare myself for getting into grad school and eventually doing a PH.d?

I am going back to school this fall for Computer Science. I am roughly halfway through my degree although it will be around 2-3 years or so before I can actually graduate.  A part of me has always been interested in going on to grad school and maybe getting a doctorate in the field, or a related field.

What should I do to put myself in such a position after i get my bachelors, to move on to grad school and doctorate?

[Assistant] You should put yourself in such a position during your bachelors by doing publishable research with a professor, building relationships with faculty, and getting good grades in advanced classes. Once you're out of school, the scope of things you can do to improve your chances is severely limited.


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

[User] ELI5: Do moths/butterflies remember their caterpillar life after liquidation and transformation? If yes, how is that achieved?

[Assistant]
We aren't even sure if a butterfly remembers the morning at noon.

They have very simple brains compared to us. Insects are much more reacting to stimuli and following their prewritten instinct "program" rather than learning new things you'd need a longterm memory for.


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

[User] Whats a good "thank you" gift you can give a professor for giving you a recommendation?

[Assistant] An email or handwritten thank you note with your full name. Include if you got the position. When we go up for review/reappointment sometimes notes like that get included in the binders. It is evidence of effective teaching and service.


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

[User]
ELI5: How Mathematicians know that they've correctly solved a complex math equation when other equally skilled mathematicians cannot?

So I was reading the Wiki on Ted Kaczynski, the unabomber, but also a math genius in his own right. I read that he was so good at math that he was able to solve a problem even of the top professors could not. But how do they know what the correct answer is? Because it makes Math sense?

Also note, and probably obvious, I am terrible at math and its never clicked with me but how can someone have crazy crazy math equation that no one can solve but someone comes along and is like "HA, 2+2=4, not 2+2=5!". If you understand where I'm coming from...

[Assistant]
Here's an analogy. Let's say you're trying to find the solution to a very difficult maze. Everyone might be stuck trying to find their way out, but you're the first to find the solution. How do we know your solution is correct? You showed us the path - it's easy to verify that the path is correct, even though *finding it* is hard.

It's the same in math - finding a solution is hard, verifying it's correct is easy.

Another example is Sudoku - it's hard to solve, but checking whether a solution is correct is easy.

It's true that more difficult math problems might be more difficult to validate, but it's still easier to validate the correctness of a solution (typically a proof) than to find it in the first place.


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

[User]
ELI5: How does the gas pump automatically stop when its full?

Its been doing this for so long that no one even questions how. HOW?!

[Assistant] The pumping handle has a small sensor attached to the auto-clip that detects the air pressure inside the gas tank. When the tank hits about 90% full, the sensor disengages the auto-clip, and the pump turns off.


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

[User]
[Wolverine] Why didn't his body reject the adamantium?

I'm not sure if this has been answered here before or not, but iirc his healing factor allows his body to spit out any foreign objects from his body. so why didn't it try to remove the adamantium from his body. if it did and the adamantium is too indestructible to be separated from the bone, did his healing factor just give up and treat the adamantium poisoning instead? Or did his healing factor still try to remove the adamantium from his body till this day?

[Assistant]
The adamantium is somehow bonded to his bones in such a way to allow for the intercahnge of blood, marrow, etc. This, along with the properties of adamantium must prevent his body from shedding the metal.

In maby stories the presence of the adamantium slows his healing factor and in *Logan* we see that it's killing him like a poison. It's unclear if this from micro amounts of adamantium being leeched out of his bones, or if the presence of the metal is causing some other asverse affect. If the former it would mean that his body is removing the metal, just too slowly and with bad health effects.


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

[User] [MARVEL] Would Bullseye have really good aim when it comes to video games?

[Assistant]
It would probably take him a minute or two, but he would completely dominate videogames.

Think about it: he has all kinds of reflexes and muscle memory that allow him to throw or fire any projectile with perfect accuracy. Video games just require you to click on a thing; once whatever mutant power gives him his incredible reflexes and precision catch on to what he's doing, he'd be the #1 cs:go player in no time.


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

[User]
ELI5: If water is wet, how does hot water dry out your skin?

While the explanation would involve skin oils, does this apply to cold water too?

[Assistant] Your skin is protected by a layer of oil that you produce.  When you wash the skin, especially with hot soapy water you remove this protective layer or oil.  This then allows your skin to dry out more easily than if the protective layer was there.