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

[User] ELI5: Why can't politicians be contractually obligated to fulfill their basic campaign promises?

[Assistant]
Other than the obvious "it's impossible" or "they cannot be punished for lying", the simple matter of the fact is, a single politician is merely a voice in the crowd. Sure they have a louder voice than us regular citizens, but it's still a crowd nonetheless.

One can claim to do A while running for office, and when they finally get into office and try to perform A, other people in the congress can be like, no, that's now what we promised our people. Then A is scrapped and the politician is left in the dust.

For something to happen, the majority must agree. That means if the person running for office wants to fulfill his campaign promises, he must make campaign promises that the majority of the congress will agree upon. But the reason why people are voting up new congress members is for change. If you're presenting ideas that are agreeable by congress, nobody will vote for you. If you're presenting ideas that are not agreeable by congress, people will vote for you (if that's what the people want).

TL;DR: Politician wants to legalize weed, people vote him up, politician promotes weed legalization to congress, gets rejected, campaign promises unfulfilled.


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

[User] ELI5: When I plug my headphones into the microphone port, why does it work?

[Assistant] Headphones and microphones are remarkably similar in design. The headphone's speaker diaphragm moves in response to sound and this drives a current which moves through the cable. This is also how basic microphones are designed.


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

[User]
What the heck is "ascending to a higher plane of existence"?

How does it work? What's the point? Why is it the "next step"?

[Assistant] It's kind of the same as growing up from a child to an adult, except it's optional. Your body changes, you get smarter, you get to go to places you couldn't before, and you get more powers and responsibilities.


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

[User] [Mad Max] How easy would it be to become important joe?

[Assistant]
Pretty easy... Be named Joe, and have some knowledge that makes you important to someone in a position of power. Mechanics, engineering and medical know-how would be good.

Now, becomming Imortan Joe is a different issue altogether.


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

[User]
[X-Men movies] How did Trask go from a midget in the 70s, to a tall black man in the not so distant future?

If I understand it correctly, Trask would capture mystique, and use her cells for the sentinels if wolverine didnt go back and change things, thus leading to the original three x-men movies. But how can Bolivar Trask go from a white midget (Peter Dinklage) to a tall black man (Bill Duke) in around 40 years?

[Assistant]
Bill Duke's Trask is the adoptive son of Peter Dinklage's Bolivar Trask. During the events of X-Men: The Last Stand DinkTrask is killed by one of Magneto's mutant army. DukeTrask is devastated by this and uses his position in the government to get information of Stryker's experiments, then quits to focus on the legacy of his adoptive father: Trask Industries. (This is why we see a Trask Industries commercial in the airport scene at the end of The Wolverine).
Everything went out of control and was taken way too far, and he wishes he could find a way to undo it. This is where he finds a mutant who can actually time travel and somehow extracts his ability. He uses this to send a message to DinkTrask in the 50s. This message is basically 'mutants are bad' but also a lot of technology and information. (This allows DinkTrask to make Sentinels in the 60s and the ripples this causes in the timestream cause the changes between original trilogy-new films)
**TL;DR: They're two different people.**


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

[User]
ELI5:Why time theoretically stops at the Speed of Light

Also, do objects travelling at the speed of light simply perceive other things around it as not moving?  Or does time literally pass slower for these objects?

[Assistant]
what you need to understand is that "time" and "space" are not separate things. They exist in one 4 dimensional space called "spacetime"

in spacetime, everything is always moving at "the speed of light" through the 4 dimensional space. Usually, this is almost fully expressed in the "time" dimension.

As your speed increases as movement through the 3 "space" dimensions, your speed in the "time" dimension must decrease, since the vector sum of all 4 dimensions must always be a vector with speed "c". In other words: the faster you move through space, the slower you move through time.

If you move at the speed of light, this means your movement in through spacetime lies fully in the 3 space dimensions. The vector length in the "time" dimension is 0. Thus, if you travel at the speed of light through space, time stands still for you.


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

[User] Since your liver regenerates, can you remove and freeze a chunk of your healthy liver at a young age, and then use it as a backup to regrow your liver later in life after it's been damaged?

[Assistant]
Theoretically, but the real problem is that its very difficult to avoid damaging living tissues in the freezing process to the point where its unusable. Unless you have access to decent quantities of liquid nitrogen and a suitable storage environment, such as a large industrial dewar, ice crystals will inevitably form within the protein cells, bursting them and rendering your liver into a useless mess.

You may have heard about tissues, organs, and even entire cadavers (such as Walt Disneys head) being stored long-term in cryopreservation conditions (generally -196C, which neutralises enzymatic and other chemical processes) in the hope that one day, the technology and expertise will exist to return them to life. There are all kinds of complications though, such as the necessity for introducing cryoprotectants to protect against intracellular crystal formation. There are also solution effects - as ice forms, solutes remain suspended in the non-frozen portion and thus dramatically increase in concentration, which can make even simple salts and sugars highly toxic.

The sad truth is that its *extremely doubtful* that any of these frozen tissues will ever be viable, for the fact that its near impossible to get and keep them at such low temperatures without damage.

A better way would be to combine your liver with water and sliced onion. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cover. Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until liver is cooked and tender. Remove from heat, drain, and discard onions. Also remove and discard any hard portions of the liver.

Place cooked livers in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Add chopped onion, sherry, butter or margarine, salt, black pepper, and mace; pulse to blend. With hands lightly greased, form pate mixture into a mound, and place on a serving platter. Chill for 1 hour before serving.


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

[User]
[The Matrix] Can a strong-willed but otherwise normal person resist being taken over by an agent?

From the movies we can assume agents can't take over red-pilled people because they never do, but is that just a technological block and they can just take over anyone else connected to the Matrix? What about Guts from Berserk or Eren Jaeger, or John Wick for non-weebs? Can they take over those people instantly with zero effort?

Scenario 1: Strong willed person doesn't see it coming or expects it.

Scenario 2: They know it's a district possibility.

Scenario 3: They know exactly when it will happen and can prepare for it.

Same question applies for Agent Smith's cloning ability in the later movies, as well as Neil Patrick Harris's control in Resurrections.

[Assistant]
I don't think strength of will matters in this regard. The danger is being plugged into the Matrix, so as long as you have the wire going from your head to the Machine mainframe there's literally nothing you can do if they sideline your brain in order to overwrite it with an Agent.

Red-pill people are patching into the Matrix through their ship systems, so there's no connection to big green for the machine minds to take over.

Agent Smith takeover ability doesn't seem to be resisted by anything, even more powerful programs and redpill humans - so far only Neo managed to fight it off, which leaves me to assume that you need to have actual superpowers to resist it.

Watching Resurrectons led me to believe that activated humans by NPH are not actually real humans, but NPCs running to pad up the simulation, which is why they just can be switched on with a snap.


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

[User]
ELI5:Why aren't utilities required to automatically deduct outage periods from my bill?

Time Warner has left me w/o internet for the last 2 days.  I called to complain and they immediately deducted 2 days from my bill (I think like $3.25).  But why aren't they required to do this automatically?  I know they are oligopolies(and can thus get away with murder), but why isn't this law?

[Assistant]
In the case of something like electricity, you are billed by use. Any downtime is automatically unbilled as you could not have possibly used any of the service at that time to be billed in.

In terms of services like the Internet which are billed by month, the issue is more complex. For large companies like Time Warner, the billing function is entirely separate from, if not distended from, the service itself. Billing is automatic from within the companies financial management systems meaning that unless something is bought to the attention of those with access to those systems to correct, the billing will continue as-is.

If the service went down in a particular area, it is up to the local repair / service branch to inform the billing function of the change. Likely that is not a priority for these individuals - after all, they are not in the financial services division of the operation.

It would also depend on the breakdown in the service itself - if the service dropped because of something that they did, then they are probably more aware of the need for an adjustment as opposed to a localized break in your service, like a drop in the power or something similar.


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

[User] [The Silmarillion] Did Morgoth ever have a chance of fully controlling Arda and defeating the Valar?

[Assistant] No, he was strong but not near strong enough for that. He was basically in a stalemate against the kingdoms of elves and men that existed in Beleriand, and that was with the Valar keeping a "hands-off" approach to the conflict. As soon as they got involved, Morgoth fell relatively quickly. He's only one Valar and didn't stand a chance against the others united against him.


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

[User] ELI5 why is it that we can walk hours without getting winded but 5 minutes of light running exhausts is?

[Assistant]
Walking is a light enough load that we can fuel it entirely by the aerobic energy cycle and therefore, we never get a lactic acid build up, and can perform it practically indefinitely.

Running uses energy faster than we can supply to our muscles through the aerobic cycle, so it becomes anaerobic. This generates lactic acid as a waste product, which is what causes the warm, burn-like sensation.

After a while, the concentration gets so high that we can't keep making more without first giving the body a chance to get rid of the waste.

Long distance runners are at a cardiovascular fitness level so high that they can run at a decent speed while still remaining mostly in aerobic mode (because they can supply an enormous amount of oxygen to their muscles), therefore, lactic acid build up is very slow for them compared to the rest of us.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do birds grow feathers?

I just realized how little I know about how birds grow feathers. Young birds often have a different color. Do the feathers grow along with the size of the bird or are they replaced, like human teeth? Do feathers grow back if pulled? As far as I understand, human hair is dead. I this the case for feathers too, or do they have blood circulation? Explain like I'm five!

[Assistant] Feathers are modified scales. If you look at a bird's foot there are scales and it transitions up to feathers along their leg. Fully mature feathers are similar to human hair--they are dead at functional state. They start off as 'pin feathers' little spikes hooked to the circulatory system. They are encased in a sheath of keratin, as the feather matures they elongate and the sheath flakes off revealing the fully formed feather, segment by segment. At least with parrots, there is a yearly molt. They drop a lot of feathers really quickly and are covered in pin feathers as they are replaced.


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

[User] [Mass Effect] How were the Leviathans able to create the Reapers?

[Assistant]
The full capabilities of the species we call Leviathans are unknown. We've seen them knock a Sovereign-class Reaper out of the sky and communicate at superluminal velocities, which implies a highly advanced level of technology. Plus, of course, they built the Intelligence, and thus the Reapers.

We know for a fact that they can enthrall beings in the same ways that Reapers like Harbinger and Sovereign have been seen to use. The Collectors (Reckoning DLC) and the staff of T-GES Mineral Works (Leviathan DLC) are both testament to this. It is implied that there was at least one other terrestrial/amphibious species that the Leviathans enthralled on their home world, beings which constructed most (if not all) of the technology they once possessed, since they're huge cuttlefish with no fine manipulatory limbs. It was with their aid that the Leviathans spread through the galaxy, dominating new species as they went.

Technically, the Leviathans didn't create the Reapers. They found that their thrall species would often build synthetics, which would always rebel at the cost of many thrall lives. They made the Intelligence, an AI which was programmed to solve the issue. Unfortunately, it saw its own creators as part of the problem. Its solution was to turn the pawns it had built against the Leviathans, slaughtering them in droves and using their genetic material in the construction of the first Reaper, Harbinger. The rest, as they say, is history.

So, in short, they didn't do it themselves. They mentally controlled thralls to build an AI that decided to create the Reapers.


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

[User] [Psychology] Can adults lose/never obtain object permanence?

[Assistant]
Losing understanding of object permanence requires trauma or illness that is severe enough to cause large scale damage.

Inability to understand(learn) object permanence is possible, but once again its back to severe inability of the brain to function, be that to growth or injury.


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

[User]
Why do programs take up more memory the longer they run?

I had firefox running on my comp for a little over a day and it's taking up over 2,000,000 K of memory in task manager. Why is this?

[Assistant]
Poorly-written code sometimes suffers from what's called a memory leak, which often results in a continually-growing portion of system memory consumed by that application. In your specific case, you likely either have a tab open to a site that is running poorly-written javascript, or you have an extension installed and active that is poorly-written.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to pinpoint what is causing this without access to the code itself, but you can troubleshoot by opening each tab in its own window and leaving them overnight again. If it's the site that's doing it, you'll see one of the instances of FireFox in task manager taking up considerably more memory. If it's not a specific site, then every instance of FireFox will have grown. That indicates that it's an extension. From there, just disable all extensions and turn them on again one by one to find the culprit. Then uninstall that sumbitch and report the bug to the extension developers.


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

[User] Why is the UV index so much higher near the equator than in higher latitudes during the summer?

[Assistant] At the equator the suns rays are reaching you straight on through the atmosphere. At a higher latitude, they come through at an angle relative where you are standing. The effect of this is that they travel through more of the atmosphere, and thus more of the damaging UV light is scattered/absorbed.


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

[User]
ELI5 how are computer games drawn?

Like, does someone draw every single detail? Does someone draw like a cartoon where you need to create every frame separately?

[Assistant] All the objects in the game are separate 3d models, "digital sculptures". Special artists create these models, "paint" them, make them move in a certain way but it all remains a model. Then the game engine draws it like a cartoon: it has the info stored about where all the models are and how they are located, lighting conditions, special effects like explosions etc, and there is a way to turn it into a picture automatically. Your computer does this for every single frame.


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

[User]
[Pacific Rim: The Black] Whats the logic behind building a fully-sized Jaeger just for training and not give it weapons?

Whats the logic behind the Australian Government and PPDC spending potentially tens (if not hundreds) of billions of dollars along with diverting precious resources and manpower towards constructing a fully-sized training Jaeger just to not give it its own weapons? If youre gonna go that far, then why not just go ahead and at the very least give it basic weapons like machine guns?

The only legitimate reason why I would see the Australian Government and PPDC spending this much time, money, resources, and manpower towards building an unarmed Jaeger would be to give Ranger cadets field experience by giving them the chance to actually pilot a real Jaeger in a sort of practical application exercise. But that seems like such a waste of a perfectly capable Jaeger.

[Assistant]
As the show is not out until Thursday, we can only speculate.

More than likely, it's an older model or a prototype. It'd cost more to upgrade it so the PPDC probably just decided it's best to use for training instead.


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

[User]
CMV: The old adage "Do not discuss politics" has contributed to the current US political divide.

I want to begin by stating that I understand why the adage exists. At face value it's good advice, and helps avoid social interactions becoming heated. This rule is occasionally broken, but it's often on the assumption that the person you're speaking with already agrees with you, and when it becomes clear that this isn't the case the rule gets reinstated.

Lately though, I've started to think we've been shooting ourselves in the foot with those good intentions. We'll often decry the political echo-chambers of the internet, while ignoring that we've effectively chosen to live in one IRL. By choosing to be polite and avoid uncomfortable dialogue with people we know, we've handed the reigns over to the loudest (and often most extreme) members of either side of the spectrum and these people then become the face of their ideology to the opposition.

I've been told with a straight face that all liberals want to abort babies to the point where none are born in the US.

I've been told with a straight face that all conservatives are nazis who want the US to be a white ethnostate.

It was hard for me to believe that either of the caricatures these folks described were based on real life interactions they'd had. Indeed, both openly acknowledged that they'd never actually met a person that fit their description, but both were ALSO thoroughly convinced that these were accurate representations of their political rivals regardless. It seems to me like these caricatures thrive because we aren't exposing ourselves to the views of average conservatives/liberals. Normal people are choosing not to engage in the discussion, and only the hyperbole remains.

I believe this is also why simply asking a question about someones views is often treated as an attack. It's a difficult thing to separate your sense of self from your beliefs, but I think our attempts to avoid social discomfort have weakened our collective ability to do so. Without listening to outside viewpoints we limit our own ability for critical self-reflection, and as a result a clarifying question gets misconstrued as an invitation to an argument.

I think that, if we want to bridge the divide between political parties, we need to get out of our comfort zones and start actively talking to each other about politics again. We need to engage with each other openly and honestly, not to prove how right our chosen position is but to foster a better understanding of how someone might have arrived at a different conclusion than we have. We need to stop assuming we know each others motivations, and actually listen to each other instead. As long as we avoid real conversations with our fellow countrymen the caricatures will continue to rule the discourse.

Change my view.

[Assistant] It's not the "Do not discuss politics" that got us here, because people are more than happy to discuss politics openly with anyone who agrees with them.  If everyone actually applied this "rule" universally, and kept quiet about it EVEN in the company of those that agreed, then you wouldn't have the echo-chamber, because there would be no sound to echo. You wouldn't have people reinforcing their misguided beliefs to each other, giving each other more ammunition to hate the other side, any of that, because you'd just...shut up.  You'd form your own opinions based on your own knowledge and experience, and you wouldn't even KNOW if the other person agreed with you.


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

[User]
Valid differences between tabs and spaces in 2021? Genuine question.

Hi all,

I have been writing software/websites for a while now and recently came across the mire that is tabs vs spaces. As the majority of my code was written in Python I stuck to 4 spaces per level of indentation and left the rest to autoformat. However now moving onto programming some projects in C, V and Go I would like to understand the debate objectively so that I can create a style guide for personal use.

I have no issue using the style outlined in any pre-existing projects that I work on, but it would appear that everyone has different reasons for using one or the other in circumstances where the choice is up to them (i.e solo projects or when defining styles at new company).

Does a list of valid differences between tabs and spaces exist in 2021 so that a newish programmer like myself can decide between one or the other? I have tried looking at older threads but they seem to decend quite quickly into a mire of hate as opposed to constructive converstation thus making it hard few new comers to understand what is going on.

It is **NOT** my intention to start a war here.

Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
In order of most to least important consideration:

1. Be consistent with the styling the project uses. This is more always the most important thing to follow. Does some random project at work use 7 spaces? Fine, use that! Check out editorconfig, it can be very useful to automatically have your editor setup the right options.
2. Use what the community of the language you're using uses, iff this is consistent. For exampe, in Python, always use 4 spaces (as the official style guide tells you to). In Go, tabs is your only option. Rust tends to use spaces too. Ruby is often 2 spaces. If you're unsure, look up the ten most popular libraries for the language in question and use the most common approach.
3. Pick your own preference. The only one that's objectively a bad preference is combining spaces and tabs (tabs for indentation, spaces for alignment), as that literally gets you the worst possible combination (everyone must use the same tab size, you don't any of the positive aspects of using tabs in the form of "letting people set their own tab sizes" or reduced code size). Spaces is the most consistent, and consistency is key, so that's what **I** would recommend, assuming it doesn't break 1 or 2.


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

[User]
[Batman/The Matrix] How would an unplugged Joker deal with the notion of the truth?

If Joker were to be taken out of the matrix and shown the real world, first of all is he still the Joker in mind and body in this world and depending on the answer how does he react to the circumstance?

[Assistant] Honestly, everything would suddenly make a TON of sense to the Joker. A lot of his premise is that the world is insane and pointless, and being taken out of the Matrix would confirm he was right all along.


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

[User] Does the weight of a cell phone battery change as it charges/drains?

[Assistant] Technically, yes the chemical bonds do equate to slight changes in mass. However the change would be essentially immeasurable in any practical setting. A particulate of dust settling on the case would be a much larger change in the weight.


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

[User]
Any educational tv shows that teach philosophy?

Any tv shows that educate you on philosophy and philosophers? I've been reading books but I also want to watch it as well. It could be YouTube videos or even cartoons.

I'm more interested in philosophers, starting from the greeks and working up from there.

[Assistant]
It's really going to depend on how in depth you want these pieces of media to be. Are you talking about philosophy in a very general sense? If that's the case, then shows like The Good Place or YouTube channels like PhilosophyTube (his earlier videos at least) can be a fun introduction to philosophical concepts.

If you want something a little more rigorous, or more "seriously" philosophical, then I'd recommend Bryan Magee's Conversations with Philosophers (of which most episodes are available on YouTube). He speaks with some of the most important philosophers of his time about particular figures or relevant topics in a very digestible way. As for more rigorous YouTube channels, you could try Dr. Gregory Sadler's channel, which contains a ton of free lectures on a large number of figures (his most impressive work being his series on Hegel's Phenomenology).


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

[User]
ELI5: Why do fast food and casual dining places need to nickle and dime us on some things but not others?

Taco places charge for sour cream and guacamole but you can take as much hot sauce as you please. Burger joints make you pay for dipping sauces but freely dispense ketchup, mustard, and even mayonnaise. Wing places will add a price (sometimes without telling you) for ranch and bleu cheese while again giving away other free condiments. Is this to actually justify different costs or is it a money grab to squeeze every penny possible out of us?

[Assistant]
There are things that are considered traditionally part of the dish and things that are considered additional.  A burger isn't a burger without the dressing and in order to compete you have to supply those things for free just like every other burger joint.  Dipping sauces are part of a different menu item so to get it you need to pay for the difference in cost.

Guacamole and sour cream are significantly more expensive than salsa and they do not keep for anywhere near as long.  Taco Bell can make salsa by the truckload and distribute it to their stores as needed.  It really doesn't cost them much to produce and keeps for a long long time so they can buy ingredients when they are cheap, produce a ton and then wait out winter months or bad seasons.  Guacamole takes actual manual prep and spoils very quickly as does sour cream.  The price for avocado and milk also can change drastically in short periods of time so not including them in the base price of the item makes it easier to alter menus and keep things standard across the chain. Same thing applies to the wing sauces you mentioned.


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

[User]
What time is it on a space station?

Is it the same as the control station is in contact with, or is there a special time defined on board?

[Assistant] The time aboard the ISS is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) -- which is a time zone roughly halfway between Houston and Moscow, where the two main control centers are located. So when astronauts wake up (at around 7:00 GMT), it is 2 in the morning in Houston and 11 in the morning in Moscow.


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

[User] Why are there an infinite number of regular polygons but only 5 platonic solids?

[Assistant]
Regular polygons are made from radial slices which are isosceles triangles, of which an unlimited number can be fit around a point in the plane by making them thinner. Platonic solids are made of polygons with definite angles that can't be made smaller or larger.

For a platonic solid, you need to have several polygons meeting at one vertex, and this places a limit on the sum of the angles touching the vertex (must be less than 360). This is important because polygons with more sides have wider angles at the vertices, so eventually they aren't going to fit around a point anymore.

With triangles, the vertices have an angle of 60^(o), so we can fit either 3, 4, or 5 around a point (1 and 2 don't count because that won't make a 3D shape). The results are the tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron respectively.

Squares have 90^(o) corners, so the only possibility is 3 around a point, which makes a cube. See how there are less options because the corners are wider?

Pentagons have 108^(o) corners, and again there is one option, 3 to a point, giving the dodecahedron.

Hexagons have 120^(o) corners, and if you try to put three of them around a vertex you find that you end up with a flat plane that extends forever, never being able to close back on itself and unable to make a solid. All regular polygons with more sides are not even able to fit 3 polygons around a point, so there are no more platonic solids.


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

[User] ELI5: Why are baseball teams so inconsistent year-over-year compared to basketball teams and those of other sports?

[Assistant]
Baseball is a very difficult sport. The best hitters fail 7 out of 10 times they go up to bat. Slight deviations from that can result in big changes of the outcome. Scoring is very difficult, either through homeruns or actually gettin a runner around to home. Then you look at pitching. You effectively have to hit a 1.5ft by 2ft area from 60 feet away while throwing it either as hard as you can or with some type of special spin. In addition to that, you are trying to aim it at some point the catcher tells you to put it at. If you are off by even a few inches sometimes, that can be the difference between a strike out and a walk. Slight variations in baseball can lead to huge differences in the outcomes.

Now compare that to basketball. The average shooting percentage is about 45%. That means every other time a player shoots, it is likely to go in. This is a much higher rate of success. On defense, letting the other team score is not as disastrous because it is easy to turn around and score on them. Mistakes in basketball are a lot less punishing. It is a common strategy to foul in order to make it more difficult for the other team to score.

TL;DR: Baseball is very difficult compared to most other US sports. It has a high cost of failing with a high rate of failing when compared to other sports.


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

[User]
ELI5: How hallucinogens like LSD or Psilocybin work in the brain to cause the effect they do.

I have spent years reading how these chemicals work in the brain, yet I'm not a science guy so anything technical that actually gives the answer is completely lost on me. I'm hoping one of you can help me to understand what happens in my brain to cause the craziness I perceive.

[Assistant]
Normally, looking at, say, a red toy car will go something like this in the brain, explained very simply:

1. Light enters eye.

2. Eye translates light into impulses (little electric shocks) that the brain can interpret.

3. Brain receives impulses and translates them into little chemical packages for the "thinking" parts of the brain to interpret.

4. "Thinking" part of the brain interprets chemicals into a mental picture of a red toy car.

Now, if you didn't listen to mommy and daddy's advice and decide to take LSD, the process will become something like this:

1. Light enters eye.

2. Eye translates light into impulses.

3. Brain receives impulses, translates them into little chemical packages

4. "Thinking" part of the brain tries to interpret chemicals -- but *whoah*, there are LSD molecules in the way! Not all the chemical packages are taken in and translated as a result of this, and the mental image becomes distorted; instead of a red toy car, you see a very strange-looking pink/orange toy car with little feathers and stars dancing around its edges, and for some strange reason, you can't just *see* the car, you can *taste* its colours. You didn't even know this was possible until now and you don't have a clue how it's possible, but you can definitely taste the colours of the toy car.

So in short, psychedelics temporarily alter the way that information is organized in the brain and block some signals that would normally have been let through, and as a result, your mental image of the world is distorted into the trippy colours, shapes, sounds and sensations that people experience while on psychedelics.

(Not entirely sure if all of this is correct, but it's the best I've got.)


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

[User]
What is it about the cells in our stomach lining that allows them to avoid being damaged by our stomach acid?

Basically, how does our stomach acid not cause us problems or even eventually seep into our abdominal cavity?

[Assistant]
What is different about the cells in the stomach that stops them being attacked by acid? Nothing, or nothing much.

Your stomach is much more than just a dumb bag filled with digestive juices and acid. Your stomach is an organ filled with sensors and and control mechanisms, and it is connected to a network of "brain cells" AKA neurons called the enteric nervous system, with the sole goal of making sure your digestion works smoothly. There is also a complex collection of hormones and paracrine factors (aka short range hormones) making sure things are functioning properly.

In your stomach lining, there are cells that sense acid, and they communicate to cells that release the hormone gastrin. Gastrin tells a specific class of cells in your stomach to release acid. No gastrin, no acid. If the stomach starts getting to acidic, then gastrin release is turned down, turning down the acid release.

But the contents of the stomach are still very acidic, and they're still full of enzymes whose job it is to chew up proteins. So how does the stomach protect itself from that? With alkaline mucous. There are cells in the stomach that secrete mucous and bicarbonate ions, basically constantly. As acid diffuses into the mucous, it reacts with the biocarbonate ions, and is nutralized, and then that "layer" of mucous is washed away into the contents of the stomach. And this process just runs constantly, like a conveyer belt: mucous being secreted, moving out towards the contents of the stomach, reacting with the acid, and then falling off into the contents of the stomach. If the mucous isn't being secreted fast enough, then the acid will start to difuse all the way to the stomach lining, which is when the cells sense the acid, and send signals that control the rate of acid secretion, mucous secretion and bicarbonate secretion.

These kind of feedback loops are found throughout the body. The gastrointestinal system is full of them.


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

[User] [ Dune ] If the body shields stop fast objects like conventional bullets from firearms, why arent kicks and punches also blocked?

[Assistant]
This is explained in-story. They block only objects moving at certain speeds. Bullets, sure, those are too fast. Even punches and kicks going at a certain speed are blocked. It's a plot point during Paul's first non-shielded knife fight that he keeps hesitating, not because he's afraid or toying with his opponent (as it seems to everyone watching), but because he's been drilled so hard in shielded fighting that he instinctively slows his strike down where his opponents' shields would be.

>"Why don't they just make it block everything?"

Well, if it's constantly at that level, then air wouldn't be able to penetrate. You'd suffocate in a high wind.

>"Why not make it able to tell the difference?"

They've got some very, very specific ideas about what computers should be able to do after a massive war about the legality of AI. They can't make it tell the difference without a computer 'in the fashion of a human mind,' which is against those rules.

>"I still feel like there's a better way."

Probably, but in-universe everyone's just waiting for someone to figure out how to make lasers stop nuking everything when they hit a shield, after which shields will be completely useless. Nobody wants to waste time and energy making a better shield when their enemies would just steal the info right after, and it's about to be obsolete anyway.


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

[User]
ELI5 Why different animals have different lifespans?

I just looked up the average lifespan of a spider (1.5 to 2 years) and I also heard that sharks live for centuries. I was just curious as to why there is such a huge gap.

[Assistant]
There's a concept called the "Hayflick limit", which basically says, a cell can only divide so many times before it loses the ability to. They believe it occurs on the DNA level, a piece is lost each replication, and when enough has been lost, the cell can't reproduce again.

All living creatures are constantly breaking down, and repairing themselves with new cells. When they can't fix the broken parts, they begin to fail, and death is on the way.

The rate the break down/repair happens, and the amount of times a cell can be replaced, varies by animal, resulting in drastically different lifespans.

It's worth mentioning, that in nature, animals (including humans) rarely live to this point. Predators, accidents, sickness, and excessive wear and tear (teeth worn to the point they can't eat, for instance) are generally what causes death. Dying of "old age" requires a very safe environment.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can choosing pictures of certain objects (stop signs, cross walks, cars, etc.) prove that you are not a robot on websites?

It seems weird that to prove that Im human I have to look for certain objects or check a box. Why is that?

[Assistant]
The choosing pictures isn't really to check if you're a robot, it instead helps with gathering masses of data for self driving vehicles. Whether you are a human was already decided in the background, depending on a lot of different factors that google doesn't wanna give out because otherwise botters could use that.

Remember when it was words? Similar thing, one word was the check, the other for Google's digitalizing of books.

Word and a house number? For google maps.

Edit: some additional bits

Captcha, the system that is used for checking whether you're human or not, stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers & Humans Apart".

And there are several ways to get around these, there are programs out there who are able to solve these tests successfully and seem human, but there have also been instances where humans have been paid to solve Captchas all day long.


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

[User]
[Star Wars Prequels] How do the R2 units fit in to the Jedi Starfighters wings when there isn't enough room?

Their legs should be hanging out of the bottom yet they aren't.

[Assistant] Droids were built into the Delta-7 in lieu of a bay that could accommodate them.  They just removed the dome section of an astromech and integrated it with the ship's systems.  The droid is still able to navigate through hyperspace and control the ship, which is actually the main reason for having an astromech on  fighter anyway.  It can't get out to perform repairs since it has no body, but there are major limits to how much an astromech can repair in the field anyway.


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

[User] How single propeller Airplane are compensating the torque of the engine without spinning?

[Assistant]
For single prop planes there's a slipstream around the plane that rotate the same direction as the prop, ie the opposite direction of the reaction torque. The rotating air pushes back on the wings and stabilizers(+rudder/elevators), this cancel out some of the force.

This makes the plane yaw instead roll. The yaw can be compensated by angling the propeller slightly to the side.

But it's also possible to just adjust the roll with the ailerons.


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

[User]
ELI5: How can information be transmitted so accurately with little to no errors even at several MB/s?

If I'm not wrong, information is transmitted in 0s and 1s which is binary.
0s replaced by 1s or vice versa is all it takes to corrupt a file. How is this not prevalent even at high speeds? Even slight disturbance or delay could destroy such fragile signals.

[Assistant]
The most common protocol used for communication is TCP/IP which includes mechanisms to confirm all the data is received accurately.

Data transferred over the internet is broken into smaller chunks called packets. That way if a file gets damaged during transport only a small part of it (a single packet) will be affected.

Packets are typically 1500 bytes, or 1.5kb in size

In addition to source + destination, filename, etc Each packet includes a verification called a checksum.

Think of the checksum like a skill testing question

4 x 7 = 28

When the packet is received the checksum is verified. If it has become damaged then the checksum will no longer be valid and the receiver  sends a message to re-transmit that packet.

3 x 7 = 28 ERROR

Once all the packets for a file have been received and verified, the file is re-assembled.

Not all traffic is verified in this way though. Instead of TCP some types of traffic use UDP which is 'best effort' protocol. This is used for things like voice chat and video that operate in real time and can afford to have a couple of errors during the transfer process.


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

[User] [MCU] Im building a criminal syndicate but New York has too many Superheroes protecting it. Where would be the best place in the world for me to build my criminal organization without constantly being harassed by Superheroes but also allowing it to grow and be well sustained?

[Assistant]
it depends on what your syndicate needs to grow. The biggest contributing factor is how you make your money.

Do you need access to a port?

Do you need many skilled workers?

Do you need access to natural resources like iron, aluminum, steel, etc.

Do you needs lots or arable land for farming?

Do you need to rely on an outside power grid?

Do you mind competing with other syndicates? Because Honestly any country with high corruption will make it easier for a syndicate to grow, but youll have to compete with other syndicates in the area.


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

[User]
[Pokmon] Given the fact that Pokmon have varying degrees of sentience/sapience, which species of Pokmon is it ethical or completely unethical to enter into a sexual relationship with?

Serious replies only because I think that at least Mewtwo - if it had the capacity... down below - would probably agree to it.

[Assistant]
This is why the harkness test was invented.

Does it have human intelligence or greater?

Can it talk or otherwise communicate with language?

Is it of sexual maturity for it's species?

If it doesn't meet all 3 requirements it is not ethical.


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

[User]
EL5: Russian names

When reading Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, I find myself constantly confused with the seemingly triple names for characters. I think I've gathered that the surname is a play on the name of the father, with Fydorovich meaning "son of fydor" but what about the first names? How does Alexy become Aloysha?

[Assistant]
First names:  Given to the child by the parents, as in the West.  Every first name has a whole bunch of nicknames traditionally associated with it.  Sometimes these are pretty random (the way "Dick" doesn't actually sound very much like "Richard") but a lot of them are made by adding an ending like "-enka" or "-ushka."  This sounds affectionate in Russian, like "Tommy" or "Sammy" sounds affectionate in English.

Patronymics:  These come second.  It's the person's father's first name plus "-ich" (for a man) or either "-vna" or "-chna" (for a woman).

Surnames:  These work the same as Western surnames, passed down from father to children.

Calling somebody by a nickname is intimate; calling somebody Firstname Patronymic is normal, and can be anywhere from friendly to cold; calling somebody Mr. Surname is formal.


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

[User]
Why do the rings of a planet tend to have a large variety of different colors and shades?

Ringed planets a large array of differently-colored segments of the rings as opposed to one "blended" color for the entire ring, this has interested me for ages and I can't find out why this is. Thanks in advance!

[Assistant]
The color is relatively uniform, its the density of the ring that changes. Thinner areas appear darker, since they reflect less light. Specifically for Saturn, these irregularities are caused by its moons.

The largest gaps are cause by orbital resonances. Basically, each of Saturns moons tug on the particles in the rings. If the particle orbits an integer number of times for every orbit of the moon, its in a resonance. For example, the largest gap, called the Cassini division, is caused by a 1:2 resonance with the moon Mimas. Particles in the gap orbit twice for every orbit of Mimas, and this means Mimas pulls on them at regular intervals, which causes the orbit to be unstable. Theres hundreds of small gaps throughout the rings that you cant normally see, and theyre mostly all caused of unstable resonances with other moons. Areas with more gaps seem darker, and with less gaps they look brighter.

The remaining gaps are cause by tiny moons orbiting within the rings. These small bodies either pull in ring particles, or throw them out of orbit, clearing a path.


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

[User] (Christmas) Why is Rudolph's nose a luminescent red color?

[Assistant] Santa's magic is self-asserting. With the rise of fossil fuels and smog, as well as modern airline regulation, Santa needed a navigator and independent light source. This has kept up with the times, too. It's a little known fact that this generation's Blitzen has a complicated telecom system in his antlers, broadcasting a universally recognized "friend" signal.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is happening in your brain when you undergo a panic attack?

What is the chemistry behind it? Why are some people prone to them?

[Assistant]
Basically, at it's very core all animals have two sections of their brain. The Sympathetic nervous system and the Parasympathetic nervous system. These are what control our internals, stuff like homoeostasis and digestion. Basic functions of life that every animal has to do and not think about. Your parasympathetic nervous system handles stuff like digestion, arousal, bladder control stuff like that. Your sympathetic nervous system handles stuff like kick starting your heart so you can run away from that angry bear.

These two nervous systems work in opposition to each other. For example, you'd never lose bladder control randomly while watching TV (unless you were watching The Shining). For people with anxiety problems the sympathetic nervous system gets activated at anything the person finds scary/threatening. Our brains are dumb and really smart at the same time. For all our brain knows, we are scared of public speaking because we might die from it. So it'll tell the sympathetic nervous system to turn on until the threat is dealt with. That is what causes symptoms of fast heart rates, sweating and the feeling of wanting to get out of wherever you are. Your brain literally thinks what your doing is life threatening.

As for what causes it, we don't really know. The brain is very understudied/very new field of research so we're are finding about a lot of new things quickly. So as of now, there is no explanation for why the brain thinks meeting your new boss is the same level of danger as having a cage match with a wolf.


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

[User] ELI5: When and why did the 'dozen' become a standard(ish?) quantity?

[Assistant]
Its divisible by 12, 6, 4 (quarters), 3 (thirds), and 2 (halves). This makes it much more useful for commerce than 10, which is cant easily be divided into thirds or quarters.

Some early civilizations liked base 12 (as we call it) for this reason and is why the day and night each roughly have 12 hours.


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

[User] [Star Wars] If Vader was not burned, what would stop him from eventually fulfilling the Sith Rule of Two and kill Palpatine?

[Assistant] If Vader becomes more powerful than Palpatine it is only right for him to kill his master and take his place. Such is the way of the Sith, If Palpatine cannot stay the strongest than he doesn't deserve to be master.


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

[User] [Superheroes] How do you make sure those in the Non-Superpowered Olympics aren't actually superpowered, enchanted, being aided by a psychic in the audience, or using borrowed superpowers?

[Assistant]
Good question! Different answers depending on Universe!

In Marvel, one can imagine the Olympics Committee works closely with SHIELD, Stark Industries, and formerly the Fantastic Four and Parker Industries before those two entities ceased to exist, to monitor for the above. Stark and SHIELD in particular have a number of 'superpower' detectors, largely unavailable to the general public. For magic, it's more hit-or-miss, depending on contracted work from Doctor Strange, or, occasionally, Rand Industries.

In DC, on the other hand, the Committee would logically with LexCorp, for their pioneering work in metahuman detection, WayneTech, to make sure LexCorp's stuff isn't riddled with kryptonite, and the Justice League itself for everything not covered by tech. ARGUS might contribute, but probably not.


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

[User]
If photons are mass-less, then why does gravity affect light?

How does gravity affect mass-less particles?

[Assistant] Gravity isn't just an attraction between masses, it's the way the paths-of-least-resistance through space and time, which light follows, are modified by the presence of energy. So, the "straight line" path that light follows gets curved by the presence of a star or planet.


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

[User]
ELI5: How burning data to a disc works.

And what makes CD-RWs capable of being rewritten while CD-Rs aren't.

[Assistant]
The CD has little beads of a chemical that react to the laser.  If the laser zaps a bead, it changes the reflective property.  So the drive can write 0s and 1s by zapping or not zapping each bead.  (one bead is one bit).  Then when it goes to read them, it can tell by the reflection whether it's 0 or 1.

CDRW has chemicals that can be zapped a second time to reset them.


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

[User]
[LotR] Why wasn't there a delegation from Rohan at the Council of Elrond?

Idk, it would seem weird to me that only one of the two major human kingdoms was represented at an important meeting.

[Assistant]
The Council of Elrond wasn't that well organized, it was just cobbled together at the time.  The only reason a human representative was there at all was because Faramir had a prophetic dream that he should go to Rivendell but Boromir went in his place.  He had to travel a huge distance and if you were to send out invitations to the major powers and give them time to actually come then you'd be waiting forever.

The dwarves and the elves of Mirkwood were they already recognized that there was a mounting threat after Sauron was driven out of Dol Guldur and the return of the Nazgul.


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

[User] ELI5: The Demon Core. What was it and what exactly happened during the incidents it went supercritical?

[Assistant]
It only got that name due to being involved in the two criticality accidents that killed two people, and what happened is fairly simple--people didn't treat a highly dangerous material with the respect it was due. In one of the incidents, for example, they were using a hand-held screwdriver to hold the two halves of the core apart to keep it under the critical mass while experimenting on it, and the screwdriver slipped and momentarily allowed the core to go critical--it was only the researcher reaching in and pulling the two halves of the core apart by hand that prevented a much worse disaster. However, him being closest to the thing meant he received a fatal dose of hard radiation.

As to what happens when a lump of radioactive material goes critical--material undergoing radioactive decay emits smaller particles as the atoms break up, usually neutrons and alpha particles. Some of these go on to hit other atomic nuclei and cause those to break up in turn, but this is a fairly uncommon event because atomic nuclei are very small and the distances between them comparatively large. However, once you have a critical mass of the material enough of these collisions occur to form a self-sustaining chain reaction--e.g. when one atom breaks up, the pieces flung out will hit other atoms and cause those to break up, which flings out more pieces and breaks up more atoms, etc. This massively increases the energy and radiation output of the material and, when set up properly in an atomic bomb, causes a huge explosion.


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

[User] ELI5: Why don't boats have transmissions like cars do? Wouldn't that make them be able to go faster?

[Assistant]
Some boats, very high performance ones, do have transmissions. But for most normal boats, this adds a lot of complexity and, most of all, cost.

The other factor is that water behaves very differently than air. Water resists being pushed out of the way, and the harder you push, the harder it pushes back. The fancy term is compressibility. It's because of this that a fall from a great height into water tends to be like hitting concrete.

So, back to the boat. As you spin the propeller faster and faster, it gets harder and harder to turn. Also, the drag of the water against the hull increases, requiring more effort. So, a boat in water is like a car that is going up a very steep hill. It needs to gear down to maintain speed or accelerate.  With a boat, it works out that most of the time you only need one or two gears.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some fruits have small seeds for their size (eg. Watermelons and pineapple) and some have big seeds for their size (eg. mangoes and cherries)

[Assistant]
Different fruited plants have different strategies for reproduction, and the seeds can be different in part for that. Some seeds are designed to be eaten, pass through an animal's digestive tract, and get deposited in a nice, nutrient rich, pile of poop. Some seeds are designed to fall to the ground and get some nutrition from the rotting fruit.

And even two fruit with the same strategy can look different because they evolved separately. Different environments will lead to different ways of succeeding. Why are some plants taller than others? Because they each evolved to fill some niche in some way.


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

[User] Eli5: Why does staring at a reflection of the sun not hurt as much as staring into it directly?

[Assistant]
Some of the light is scattered and not reflected back to your eye, some of it is absorbed by the mirrored surface and turns into heat, and in most cases such as reflections in a window, a lot of the light isnt being reflected at all. In short, the reflection is less bright, less focused, and much more spread out.

By contrast when you stare at the sun your pupil is capturing a small, but nonetheless quite dangerous portion of the incoming solar radiation. Seriously, dont stare at the sun, you will harm your vision.


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

[User]
[Seinfeld] What happened to Kessler?

In the pilot of Seinfeld, Jerry has a neighbor by the name of Kessler. Some may argue that this is just an early version of Kramer but the two have distinct characteristics.

- Kessler is agoraphobic (Jerry tells him he hasnt left the building in ten years);
- Kessler has different hair from Kramers distinct style;
- Kessler seems to only dress in a bathrobe;
- Kessler knocks before entering;
- Kessler asks before taking food from Jerry.

So I submit this question: what became of Kessler? Did Kramer know Kessler (as, per the backwards episode, they certainly lived in the building at the same time)? Why did Jerrys friendship with Kessler end?

[Assistant] Kessler was a character Kramer was playing, similar to H.E. Pennypacker, wealthy industrialist. He had a bet with Bob Sacamento to see how long he could keep it up. Jerry just played along because it was nice to have Kramer knock for once.


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

[User]
Is there any known correlation between smell or flavor (bitter, sweet, etc) and nutritional value?

Curious as to what taste buds are detecting, chemical composition?

[Assistant]
Yes, thats the whole point of taste buds (evolutionarily). Small carbohydrates (sugars) bind to sweet-tastebuds, signalling the brain that this must be good nutrition. The weird thing is that most lipids (fat, oil) dont taste that good even though they are extremely nutritious.

Also, animals have during their evolution learnt to associate bad tastes with toxic compounds. For example, bacterial and fungi toxins taste extremely bad (e.g. milk gone bad or moldy bread).


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

[User]
Why do postmodern philosophers use language as the basis of all knowledge, meaning etc.?

In my HS worldview class, we are reading Grentz's *Primer on Post Modernism*,  he goes through some of the main postmodern philosophers, Foucalt, Derrida, Rorty to name a few.  One common thread that seems to be running through these is a tendency to in some way connect language to meaning.

My question is, what makes language a better understanding of "truth" or "meaning" or "knowledge," than anything else?

[Assistant]
Postmodern philosophers argue that our entire understanding of the world is representational/symbolic/semiotic. That is when we see/hear/taste/whatever something, we mentally re-present that stimulus to our self and our understanding of that re-presentation occurs within the context of all of our historical, cultural, and personal re-presentations. Much of postmodern philosophy focus on the linguistic, because it's a common and powerful form of representation, but most (if not all) also recognize that wide rage of non-linguistic representations that we also use in our minds when understanding.

PoMo philosophers don't argue that language is a better understanding of truth, meaning, or knowledge, they argue that it is the only understanding. For postmodern philosophers, there is no such thing as non-linguistic/non-symbolic knowledge or meaning. All knowlege or meaning is a re-presentation.


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

[User]
[Marvel] 2 weeks after Doctor Doom murdered Scott Lang's daughter, the Fantastic Four decided to trust Doom to raise their children. What did Scott Lang think of that?

Their explanation must have been hella good. So, what was it?

[Assistant]
Valeria is already tied to Doom in a rather convoluted way, and has been since... I'll say "birth" to make things simpler. It's a whole thing.

There doesn't seem to be any animosity when Reed invites Scott to replace him as head of the Future Foundation shortly after Cassie's death.


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

[User] ELI5: How does the Earths core keep its temperature?

[Assistant]
It isn't keeping its temperature.  It's cooling very very slowly.  The solid inner core gets about a millimeter bigger every year.

In about 2 billion years, it'll freeze completely solid and the Earth will lose its magnetic field.


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

[User]
What is the physical limit for a rock type planet IE. Earth?

So i'm kinda curious how large(Radius and/or mass) a planet that's similar to Earth can be. From thinking about it i wouldn't be surprised if there was a limit to the mass due to gravity(while still being rocky)

[Assistant]
The dividing line between rocky and gas planets is generally said to be around 15 Earth masses.  This is because terrestrial planets of ~10 Earth masses or over are massive enough to trap lots of hydrogen, so most of them should wind up as the solid cores of gas giants instead.  The exceptions are probably those that formed later, when the gas in their stars' protoplanetary discs had mostly dissipated.

This is really only a loose rule-of-thumb though, since there's so much overlap.  We know of some even more massive planets that are probably rocky (e.g. Kepler-10c, which is more massive than Neptune), and gas dwarf planets that can get down to near one Earth mass (e.g. Kepler-138d, which has about the same mass as Earth, with about 160% of its radius).  On top of that, low-mass ice giants (intermediate-mass gas planets composed mostly of heavier elements, like Uranus and Neptune) cover the upper portion of the range usually "allowed" for terrestrial bodies.

Also, it's been theorised that very massive solid planets could form around O- and B-type main sequence stars (which are the most massive stars out there), getting up to a few thousand Earth masses.  There's no evidence for them at the moment though, as the hottest main sequence star known to have a planet (or planet candidate) is Fomalhaut, which isn't even twice the Sun's mass.

EDIT: Simplified and clarified some stuff.


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

[User]
CMV: If there is a God, then he is definitely evil.

My 3yo daughter was diagnosed with dysmoid fibromatosis. Today I was in the children's oncological clinic and saw that there were a lot of children. When I left the clinic, the man on the street asked me to donate money for the church and said that he would pray for me. And then I thought that if there is a God, then he is definitely evil. How could he allow this to happen for innocent children? And now it seems to me that we need to live reckoning with the fact that this world was created for suffering. And it seems to me that good is what opposes the evil intentions of God. Please change my view, because I really need it.

[Assistant]
Statistically speaking, that's somewhat unlikely. Much more likely options include but are not limited to the following:

First, based on the Christian understanding of God as "Omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent", the fact that Earth has excessive suffering shows that this claim is incorrect. God cannot be all three of these things, but this doesn't determine which one, two or three of them in particular is not correct. If God is Omniscient and Omnibenevolent, then he must be aware of suffering and must want to fix it, but because it still happens, he therefore lacks the power to fix it, and he is not omnipotent. If God is Omnipotent and Omnibenevolent, then he has the power to fix suffering and the hypothetical desire to do so, but because it still happens, he therefore doesn't know it's happening and is not omniscient. And of course, if God is Omnipotent and Omniscient, then he knows suffering occurs and he has the power to fix it, but because it still happens, he therefore must not *want* to fix it and is not omnibenevolent. God could also lack multiple of these facets, such as being omnipotent but neither knowing nor caring about suffering, being all-knowing but neither having the power nor desire to fix suffering, or being omnibenevolent but lacking both the knowledge of suffering and the power to fix it.

Alternatively, there may be a pantheon of multiple deities who each express different wills, knowledges and/or powers. This would be somewhat akin to Zoroastrianism, the religion that inspired Abrahamic beliefs, in which there are two gods, one who represents good and one who represents evil. The evil god is responsible for suffering, and while the good god will eventually do something about it and slay the evil god, that good god cannot do so right now and is still basically building up power like a really slow charging death star. Other pantheistic religions also tend to contain themes of good vs evil, essentially making evil gods responsible for bad things and good gods not powerful enough to overcome them at least until some undetermined point in the future.

Another possibility, and probably the more likely one, is that god is neither good nor evil, but simply some kind of observer or warden, tasked to maintain the universe but not interfere in what happens inside it. Thus, suffering occurs because it is a part of life, but happiness also occurs because it is also a part of life. A good god wouldn't allow suffering to happen, but an evil god wouldn't allow happiness to happen, so given both happen it's probably more likely that if a god exists, it just doesn't really give a shit either way, or it has bigger fish to fry.

So given all the numerous possibilities, and I've only listed a small handful here, statistically speaking it's much more likely that god *isn't* evil than *is*, but is instead either neutral or lacking in power.


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

[User] [Silent Hill] I'm a regular person, with regular issues but no big traumas. Do I still see monsters? What's my experience on the city?

[Assistant]
Yeah, you're fine.

Silent Hill is an actual town. People live there and visit there and so forth. It's not exactly thriving, but it's a normal town. Note that before his wife died, James Sunderland visited Silent Hill on his honeymoon and had, by all accounts, a perfectly nice time.

We the players see the people dragged into the fog world to be...tortured? Eaten? Punished?...by the town. But they are the outliers. Most people who visit or live in Silent Hill just think they live in a normal town.


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

[User] [40k] When Lord Abaddon eventually takes over Terra and assumes the role of Master of Mankind, would he keep the false emperor in the throne to keep the astronomican going or just kill him?

[Assistant] Why would keeping the Astronomicon going be desirable? All true servants of Chaos know the Warp guides well those who serve it. What purpose is there in keeping a beacon that allows servants of anyone other than the true gods of chaos to navigate safely?


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

[User]
ELI5: When NASA "spots" black holes, what do they actually see? Can it actually be seen or shown in an illustration?

EDIT: Thanks for all the answers! Almost every one of them explains or complements the other explanations. So you cannot SEE a black hole but you can observe it in relation to its environment i.e. how it affects everything around it.

[Assistant] They "see" them by what's happening around them. Matter that's falling into a black hole or orbiting very close to it heats up and emits radiation that we can see. Or, as with the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, we can see stars which appear to be orbiting extremely quickly around something we cannot not see, but with an enormous amount of mass, which we infer by the motion and momentum of said orbiting stars.


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

[User] eli5 How does holding your nose stop you from tasting anything?

[Assistant] A large part of what we consider taste is actually the smell of food as we eat/chew it. If you block that sense by blocking your nose, you lose that range of "smell-taste" and your food will taste different as a result.


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

[User]
[marvel] what would happen if captain America were to be juiced with the Russian super soldier serum and the wakandan herb?

Would his powers grow exponentially or would they stay as they are?

Both Erskines formula and the Russian formula are similar but not exactly the same, so would there be any effect there? And the wakandan herb is known to effectively grant extraordinary abilities based on the panther god, so what would happen to cap?

[Assistant]
The Soviet's SSS was basically a recreation of Erskine's formula by Stark. Both are similar.

And based on what we saw of the Heart-shaped Herb and the powers it grants, there's barely any difference between Black Panther, Capt America, and Barnes.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between a rechargeable battery and a capacitor?

[Assistant] A battery stores energy to be released relatively slowly and stored for extended periods of time. A capacitor is exactly the opposite. It stores energy for short periods of time to be released quickly.


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

[User]
When superman uses his X-Ray vision on someone, does it increase the risk of that person having cancer?

I imagine X-ray vision is a misnomer since he can see beyond bones, but is it dangerous anyway?

[Assistant] No.  "X-ray vision" is just a nickname.  Because he isn't actually using "x-rays", his vision is just so good, that's what we call it.  Superman is able to see through things because his eyes are so powerful, they can see through the tiny holes everything has.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does fat melt when it is heated ( eg. fat cheese ) and does it act the same in our bodies ?

[Assistant] Within the human body, fat is contained inside cells. As long as those cells remain intact, the fats within cannot melt. Or rather, they're already liquid. Cheese is not made of cells, it's just a block of solid fat, so is free to melt and solidify as it wishes. Theoretically, you could solidify the fats inside human cells if you wanted to, for example, by putting a human in a freezer for an extended period of time.


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

[User]
[Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood] Could Edward still perform Alchemy after sacrificing his gate if he was prepared to use his own personal life force like had has on at least one previous occasion?

My understanding of personal gates is that it allows an individual access to the energy source they require to perform an actual transmutation, in line with the concept of equivalent exchange. Obviously he wouldn't do it lightly due to the great personal cost however if a situation serious enough arose could he tap into his remaining personal reserves to perform a transmutation if it was absolutely necessary?

[Assistant]
As far as we know, no. Sacrificing your gate (like Edward did) means, as you said, losing your ability to access the energy to perform transmutations. It doesn't matter whether the energy involved is the energy of plate tectonics (as Amestrian alchemy uses), the 'dragon's pulse'/chi/energy flows of the world (as Xingese Alkahestry uses), or your own personal life force; the loss of your gate makes you lose the ability to manipulate any and all energies that might allow you to perform transmutations of any sort.

We see Edward try in the epilogue, when he tries to fix the roof. His mind and body still remember the equations and motions, but the loss of his gate means that his body can physically no longer connect to the energy flows needed to perform transmutations. Think of it like trying to turn on a computer; the computer could be built perfectly and fully functional, but if it's not plugged in, it's not going to turn on, because there's no connection between the physical body of the computer and the energy it needs to function.

So tl;dr: no, Edward's alchemic (and potential alkahestric) abilities are permanently gone after he trades his Gate away. Unless he somehow regains access to his Gate, he's not going to be doing any kind of transmutations ever again.


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

[User]
Why is it, when I stand up quickly, I start to see random colours and feel extremely dizzy, and it just gradually fades away?

This happens a lot, I've kind of gotten used to it, but it's very strange. My vision will go black, then I see tons of random colours and get dizzy, and it fades away within 5-10 seconds.

[Assistant] It's called orthostatic hypotension, and is basically an acute change in blood pressure caused by your standing up suddenly.  For a few moments, your brain doesn't get as much blood as it did when you were sitting down so it makes you feel woozy.  The gradual fading is due to the body compensating by constricting blood vessels to help regain the pressure needed to perfuse those organs that were suddenly denied their full blood allotment.


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

[User]
Is the upward force acting on an object sitting at the bottom of a pool the buoyant or normal force?

I know that buoyant force equals the volume of fluid displaced so I think there will be a buoyant force regardless of the objects position. However is it incorrect when solving problems to call the upward force on the object the normal force (when at rest on the bottom of the pool)?

[Assistant] To expand on iorgfeflkd's answer, the buoyant force and the normal force are both present in this situation. If the object is resting at the bottom of the pool, the object is either neutrally buoyant or it weighs more than the buoyant force. Since the object is at rest, the forces must be balanced. The normal force will be precisely equal to the object's weight minus the buoyant force.


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

[User]
I don't think we should really care what the original writers of a constitution thought. CMV

I do not believe that the "original intent" of the writers of any constitution should matter in our modern interpretation of it. I live in Canada, so it is a little different, since some parts of our constitution are from 1867 and some are from 1982, but I think the same would apply to, for example, the US constitution. I believe a constitution is a guideline and a fundamental outline for a system of governance, establishing the basic rules under which it should function, but I believe that that definition should evolve with time and that the original intent, while having been important to the original writing, should not be important to the modern interpretation. For example, in Canada we have the "living tree" doctrine, in which the spirit of the Constitution rather than the literal text is considering to be more important. Although the Constitution does not mention sexual orientation, it has been considered to be a part of it by most of the legal system in recent years, because of that doctrine. The whole debate in the US about what the Founding Fathers would think of the world now just seems silly and stupid to me. Change My View.

[Assistant]
Your argument is a contradiction.

"We should care about the Constitution, but we shouldn't care about what the Constitution was intended to mean."

Without consideration for what your founders intended, you're left with politicians and their lawyers, nit-picking the language of your founding documents, seeing what they can *technically* get away with.


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

[User]
Does isotopic abundance differ enough on the various planets enough to think about producing planet specific periodic tables?

So the relative atomic masses on our periodic table are earth specific. Would there be a significant enough difference in isotopic abundances from Earth to warrant a change in these reported masses for that planet or moon?

[Assistant] The periodic table is really just a guide; anyone doing real calculations should have some idea of the isotopes (or distribution of isotopes) that are involved, and they would adjust the numbers accordingly. Furthermore, the mass of the elements on the periodic table isn't really a critical part of the periodic table. It's added there as an extra piece of useful info. The periodic table is characterized by its order by atomic number and arrangement of the rows to maintain periodic patterns.


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

[User]
[DC] After their first battle, it seems so much easier for Superman to defeat Doomsday, i.e. no deaths, serious injuries etc. What changed?

Superman DIED, as the result of their first battle. And even if he didn't, his suit was torn up, and he was bleeding profusely. Yet, every battle after that, Superman seems to be relatively fine.

What gives? Superman didn't get THAT much more powerful -- is it really just down to more experience?

[Assistant]
During "*Death of Superman*", it was a major plot point that no-one knew who or what Doomsday was. No-one knew where he came from, what he wanted, what his powers were, what his weaknesses were, even what his species was. He just burst out of the ground and started killing people while the superhero community was scrambling to react to the sudden disaster.

As time goes on and we learn enough about doomsday to know what will and won't succeed, what things he's likely to do, and how to prepare for him showing up, stopping him becomes much easier.


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

[User]
ELI5: How have most restaurants maintained high drink prices when McDonalds sells any size of drink for $1?

I feel like other companies would need to follow suit to keep up with the competition, yet this hasnt really happened.

[Assistant]
You are having a date at a restaurant. You want a soda while you are in the middle of a meal. Will you get up and walk to the McDonalds a block away to buy a large soda?

Competition is a thing but it isnt just competition for a product, it also involves convenience.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is a credit union an how does it differ from a bank

I'm 18 and never really learned about financing. On a thread recently some people mentioned how credit unions are better than banks. What are they? How do the operate? And what makes them better or worse than banks. Thank you!
EDIT: thank you all for your answers. I'm stuck then with the question, what's the point then in banks? They just seem worse in every way.

[Assistant]
The main difference between a bank and a credit union is ownership. In a credit union, each member is an owner. You get to vote on the board of directors who in turn keep tabs on the CEO and the executive team who make big decisions.

In a bank, individual members (depositors) don't have any say. Ownership belongs to the shareholders who vote on the board of directors. Those who own more shares, get more votes and thus have greater sway over what the executives of the bank do.

Also, a bank is going to be profit driven. Banks make money on the interest gained when they loan your money out to other people, as well as other investments.  A credit union is usually a not-for-profit. Any big gains in the union's investments would be spread amongst all the members.

Apart from that, the two offer the same services. Bank accounts, mortgages, loans... some do insurance etc.


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

[User]
[ASOIF/Game Of Thrones] So, is Roose Bolton just trolling everyone?

Like, he is at the very least a rapist and murderer, but he is wearing a pink cloak when his family has rumors of skinning people. He speaks softly, which is a tactic used by people giving speeches to make people listen in to him.

He doesn't drink wine in public, that kind of stuff.

It all sounds like psychological warfare.

[Assistant]
He doesn't drink wine and prefers hippocras because he's a bit of a health nut, by medieval standards (he also has regular leechings to remove "bad blood").

The pink cloak is meant to evoke a flayed body, and is his family's signature color; it wouldn't necessarily have the same girly-girl connotation that it does for us.

But, yes, he is very adept as psychologically torturing people. When Jamie and Brienne become his guests/prisoners at Harrenhal, he gives Brienne very feminine clothes that he knows she won't be comfortable wearing, and serves them a steak that the now-handless Jamie can't cut, just to rub it in. He also seems to taunt "Reek" by sharing intimate details about his sex life to make Reek uncertain whether he can regard him as a friend.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why did the 2009 meteor impact leave a "hole" in Jupiter's gas surface? Shouldn't it just close up again?

I know it has a solid core, but what about the gaseous top layer? Also, with the density of the interior of Jupiter, is the meteor still "stuck" inside Jupiter?

[Assistant]
Jupiter is big.  Really, really, really big.  Its diameter is more than ten times that of Earth.  The Red Spot alone is bigger than Earth.

The hole in Jupiter's atmosphere did close up.  But it was so big (the hole was as big as the Pacific Ocean) that it took a significant amount of time for the gases to fill it up again.


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

[User]
What would a Nietzschean society be like?

Ive seen a lot of the posts lately about Nietzsche, and Im contemplating rereading my copies of the Antichrist and the Genealogy of Morals. Im also working on a personal writing project involving a fictional society, so I suddenly had the thought to combine them. Based on the values present in his work, what would be the the ultimate society adhering to Nietzschean tenets?

[Assistant] This is really difficult to answer. On one hand, Nietzsche gives plenty of criticisms of 19th century society and offers ways of improving it - less herd-thinking and behaviour, less slave morality, more individual thinking, more support of greatness, less greed (in the sense of just amassing objects or money) and other ulterior vices, more of an focus on aesthetic living etc. But if we take the idea of the bermensch seriously, then a real, fully formed Nietzschean society would be so radically different from ours that it almost becomes unacessible epistemically, even Nietzsche couldn't dream of it - and Nietzsche is fully aware of this, emphasizing that the bermensch is in a way a process and that once it really gets going, sky is the limit.


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

[User]
CMV: The West does not understand Russia and its efforts to make it capitulate won't come into fruition

Russia and Russian politics in general is vastly different from the long-standing democratic societies of Western countries. The perception of western countries that Russia will ultimately capitulate due to economic pressures is presumptuous, primarily because it assumes that Russia operates on the same status quo that western countries do.

If and when a democratic country enters a war, public pressure and change in leadership ensures a war's end so long as the public deems it unworthy of continuation. Russia is a non-democratic society, to which the constraints of public opinion do not bind the Russian state to the opinions of its people due to it not caring about what the people think and its irrelevance to the decision-making process.

In some parts of Europe, parliaments have existed since the medieval ages, which eventually became our models for modern parliamentarianism and republican democracy. Russia never experienced these developments and hence from Tsardom to Soviet to the modern era, the public opinion of your average Russian is irrelevant. The only parliament that Russia ever had was the Zemsky Sobor, which only approved the line of succession for Tsars whose sole and only purpose and power was taken away by Tsar Peter I. This is important because Russian society did not experience the same thing that western democracies did, and hence assuming that they function in a similar way is flawed.

One important thing to note is that because of this, every time the Russian state and country underwent hardship they willingly outsourced their hardships on their people. Knowing full well that the people are incapable of rebellion and the nobility being so weak, as a result of their deprivation of rights and strengths to even affect anything. When Soviet Russia was undergoing economic hardship during the 20s Stalin blamed the kulaks. When Peter the Great went to war against Sweden, he incentivized nobles with tax breaks if they taxed their peasants effectively. I am willing to bet that Putin does not care about the average Russian pensioner and if shit hits the fan he will outsource the consequences of his war, to his people.

Additionally, when Stalin purged the kulaks, he also purged the Soviet military and politicians, replacing his power base anew. When Ivan the Terrible's power was being questioned by the nobility and boyars, he engaged in a political purge that executed most of the Russian aristocracy. Putin's support when he rose to power were former KGB agents and when he consolidated his power, he was backed by the oligarchs. There are now rumours that Putin has surrounded himself with right-wing ideologues like Alexandre Dugin and the military elite. The Russian nobility is interchangeable and they aren't cemented within the political system. Hence if the oligarchs feel that their profits are going dry due to sanctions, all Putin has to do is arrest them, shoot them or sack them to fall in line.

If history tells us anything Russia is going to crackdown hard on its own people and engage in another political purge.

[Assistant]
>The perception of western countries that Russia will ultimately capitulate due to economic pressures is presumptuous, primarily because it assumes that Russia operates on the same status quo that western countries do.

Have your forgotten Afghanistan, or the collapse of the USSR? Wars aren't cheap, economic pressure can force you out no matter what the people want or think.

Why go back to Peter the great for examples when we see economic pressure destroying Russia as recently as the 1980s?


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

[User] Eli5: What's happening physically when you have a stuffy nose and eat something like wasabi? where does all that snot go?

[Assistant] That stuffy feeling inside your nose isn't all snot.  a lot of it is simply the tissue inside your sinuses swelling up and blocking the airflow.  think about what happens inside a penis during an erection:  blood engorges the tissues inside a penis that makes it swell up and become stiff.  The same process happens inside sinuses when we are sick.  So what wasabi and horseradish does make your nostrils flare open more and it also makes the snot mucus inside your sinuses thin out and drip more easily.  some of the snot comes out the front, some of it goes down the back of the throat.  This is a good thing because the thinner mucus is less hospitable towards bacterial growth and it can contribute to you feeling better.  You'll get a similar feeling from Chinese mustard.


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

[User]
ELI5: If somebody has a physical trait that is a result of the environment, not genetics, is it possible that that individuals offspring could inherit that trait?

I know I'm a little late to the scene here, but I've recently become obsessed with Dexter.  In season three Dexter dreams that his son will become a serial killer, like he is.  Earlier in the show, a flashback of Harry showing Dexter his CT scan shows that Dexter's brain anatomy matches that of known serial killers.  Because Dexter wasn't born with this brain anatomy (presumably, because the show claims that seeing his mother's death is what caused him to become a serial killer) would it be likely that he'd pass it on to his children?

[Assistant] I don't think this is likely to be passed, but in general it is possible to inherit something that parents acquired during lifetime. It's because of epigenetic changes. For example if parents were malnourished in youth their children are most likely to become obese (like if they had to save the nutrients for a similar famine episode that happened to their parents). Most epigenetic changes occure in brain, but the field is still very young and it's hard to tell if our character features can depend of our parents character features.


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

[User]
ELI5: what is prom and why is it such a big deal in america.

As a german i don't really get the whole idea from what i see on the internet. Why is it such a big deal?

[Assistant]
The United States does not have elaborate "rights of passage" ceremonies that other societies enjoy.  However, the "prom" serves many of these functions.  When you go, you are considered an adult with adult interests.  You wear adult clothes (formal clothes), drive an adult vehicle (a car), have a date like an adult and may drink alcohol like an adult (although most are too young to legally drink).

You might consider it the secular equivalent to the bat mitzvah, confirmation, etc and the cultural equivalent to the Quinceaera although focused on the peer group and not the individual.


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

[User]
ELI5:How did I become lactose intolerant at 18?

I've recently discovered that my stomach pain has been caused by lactose consumption. I've drank atleast 1 glass of milk a day for as long as I can remember. Why am I now not able to eat/drink it? Shouldn't my body be used to it?

[Assistant]
It's actually quite common. Babies are very rarely lactose intolerant, because lactose is a part of breast milk so being able to digest it properly is pretty important for babies. However, as we get older, we historically no longer needed to digest lactose, because we stop breast feeding after a year or 2, so a lot of adults lose that ability to digest it. It's actually considered to be a useful mutation, especially amongst Europeans, who have the lowest levels of lactose intolerance, to be able to still digest it into adulthood, because cow milk was a common part of the European diet.

tl;dr: Babies need to digest lactose for breast milk but people older than that don't, so a lot of people lose the ability.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do people with poor vision instinctively squint their eyes? Why does this make their vision slightly more clear?

[Assistant]
In addition to the points made by bubrahuicize, when you "stop down" (increase the f/# of) a lens (including your eye), you decrease the size of the aperture. Doing this increases the depth of field, as the part of the image nearer the center of the lens is the least affected by this lens. Or, to put it another way, the part of the image nearest the center is the least sensitive to focusing error.

By definition, nearsightedness or farsightedness is the inability to properly focus an image when the object is a certain range of distances from the viewer. Squinting - effectively, decreasing the diameter of the eye - will minimize the focusing error.


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

[User] Why do our ears pop when a train were riding enters a tunnel? Shouldnt the pressure inside be equal to the pressure outside side since its open to the air?

[Assistant] A train in a tunnel drives a pressure wave in front of itself with a lower-pressure region behind.  It's pushing and dragging air through the tunnel and the air can't flow freely and quickly enough past it to completely equalize the pressure.  With a combination of too long a tunnel and too tight a fit between train and tunnel, that pressure wave ahead of the train will actually strengthen into a shock wave.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do deep notes feel "warm" and high notes "cold"?

[Assistant]
You might have Synesthesia.

It's a neurological phenomenon in whichthe stimulatio of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.


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

[User]
ELI5: How do Adaptive Optics know how to correct for atmospheric distortion and give us Hubble-quality images from a telescope on the ground?

The atmosphere is always changing (why stars flicker), so how can AO correct for that in realtime?

[Assistant]
the simple version is that they shine a laser UP, and watch for it's reflection/refraction in the air.

then, they apply the opposite of that reflection to the image they record, and end up with a pretty clear image.

someone will likely give a more detailed answer, but that's the simple version.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why are banks not fined for the equivalent value they made when breaking the law?

For example, recently, rigging foreign exchange markets, etc. Why are the banks not directly assessed for the *amount* of money they made in rigging these, then fined for that exact amount +extra? To me, doing this, taking away *all* of the banks profits made from illegal activity, on top of fining them an extra couple million dollars, would be the only way to actually *stop* this from happening.  CEOs should be in jail as well, but that just seems like straight up corruption in the way that white collar crime is never sufficiently punished anyway.

[Assistant]
Banks generally have shareholders.  By the time the bank has been caught the shareholder's have likely already been paid special dividends for the money in question made from illegal practices.  The general structure of corporations of this size (with enough lawyers to back it up) prevents the shareholders from being directly liable for the actions of the corporations they hold stock in.  Therefore such a fine wouldn't necessarily punish those who ultimately benefit from such activity.

Exacting such a cost from the banks which are publicly held and generally, regardless of whatever illegal practices they engage in, important and essential parts of the economy as it is currently structured would likely lead to more economic chaos rather than less, ultimately punishing the people (the general public) that are supposed to be protected from the banks actions.