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

[User] ELI5: Why can't teeth heal themselves?

[Assistant] Tissues that can heal themselves need to be made of living cell that can divide and grow more cells from a small amount of living cells. Much of teeth is mineral that was deposited by living cells but after that initial process, teeth are mostly non-living very hard mineral or hard mostly non-cellular tissue. The cells that initially made all that mineralized hard stuff died and are no longer around to do it again.


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

[User] ELI5: Why do some elevators have an up and a down button on their door, when they call the elevator to your floor regardless?

[Assistant]
It calls an elevator that is already heading in that direction.

If you are on floor 5 of a 10 story building, you hit the _down_ button, and there is an elevator _already_ heading down, then the elevator will stop on your floor; if the elevator is heading _up_, it won't stop on your floor.  If the elevator doesn't have any passengers, then it will head up/down to you.


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

[User] ELI5: What does it mean to "play devil's advocate"?

[Assistant]
It means to take a position you don't necessarily hold, for the sake of argument, that opposes the majority or more popular position.

The term comes from the Catholic Church's canonization process. When someone argued that an individual should be made a saint, someone else would play "devil's advocate," arguing that the person should not become a saint.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] Is Lily really the first person to ever sacrifice herself for her child?

According to most wizarding knowledge, Avada Kadavra has no counter. It hits you, you're dead. Harry is apparently the only person to ever survive, and the question of how this happened is a massive mystery the wizarding world has no idea about.

As it turns out, it's because his mother willingly and knowing sacrificed her life for him.

Has that really *never* happened before?

Two major wars that we know of, and self-sacrifice hasn't happened before? All of wizarding history? This is the first time a wizard knowingly died for their kid, or family, or friends, or lover, or squadmates, or beloved leader, or whoever? Even with the "there needs to be the option of surviving", that can't be *that* much rarer.

Why is this such a unique and one-of-a-kind moment? Are wizards really that selfish that Heroic Sacrifices as concept were only invented in the 1980s?

[Assistant]
Its not just standing in the way of someone elses victim, its doing so when the murderer is giving you the clear and explicit opportunity to save yourself.  Its very uncommon for someone to be psychopathic enough to murder AND give another person the clear chance to save themselves AND have that person sacrifice themselves anyway.  Voldemort offering to spare Lily was already some unusually out-of-character serious business for him, and to further diminish the odds he could have nonlethally pushed her aside had he chosen to.

The fact that its described as old magic means that it has to have happened and been documented before, but its extremely rare.  Perhaps Harrys was the first case to involve the Killing Curse.


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

[User] ELI5: The difference between an Empire, Kingdom, Duchy and Republic.

[Assistant]
A republic is not like the other three at all. They are not ruled by a monarch, but rather by elected officials.

Now that that's out of the way, the other three are very similar but of different ranks. Emperor is as high as you can get as a monarch, and usually but not always is a collection of nations ruled by one nation, which is not to be confused with one person being a king of multiple nations. An emperor might have kings under his command. A kingdom is lesser than that, with a king as the leader and generally has dukes under the king's rule. One person can be king of multiple kingdoms without being an emperor though because the kingdoms are still technically independent and only linked by their king. A duchy is less than a kingdom, and usually not an independent state. Most duchies are parts of larger kingdoms with dukes listening to kings.

That being said, there is an absolute ton of overlap, it's complicated, and the differences are mostly in the name.


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

[User]
[MCU] Who/what decided Red Skull's penance? And why? And why only him?

The only clue we have is that the Space Stone cast him out. Okay, makes sense that one stone would connect to another one. But why? Is it because he abused them for power? Lots of MCU villains have done that and been fine. It's not because he directly touched it, because he didn't. There was a cube of something surrounding it. Besides, Jane Foster *did* directly touch the Reality Stone and all it did was try to kill her. It's not because he wasn't strong enough, either - see Jane Foster. Is it because he tried using it for raw power when its purpose is to move through space? Did it maybe just send him through space because that's what it does, and the Soul Stone did the work? Did anybody else in all of history get judged like this? And how did Red Skull know any of this, anyway?

[Assistant]
The Space Stone itself is said to possess some form of sentience, unique among the Stones. People who study it closely will refer to it as "she" and keep imaging the Stone purposefully trying to show people stuff.  When the power was turned off on the device uses to harness its energy. the Space Stone turned it back on by itself.

So, the Space Stone decided Red Skull was abusing it, and took matters into its own hands to punish him.


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

[User]
CMV: Prenups should be mandatory.

While obviously *almost* no one ever get married planning to be divorced, its a fact of life that almost 50% of people in the United States will end up getting a divorce. So I think it would make sense to require all couples to sign a prenup.

Here are reasons it would be good.

1. It takes away any chance that either party is only in the relationship to gain money or property. This means that you know both are actually in love and they proved it by signing a document stating money is not a priority.

2. It would end ridiculous custody battles. If neither parent is abusive, both parents get 50/50 custody unless one parent abdicates or they come up with a different arrangement.

3. No more awful court battles over money/property- If people can just divorce without needing to go through a court battle there would be less bitter ex's which is a good thing when kids are involved, and just better for peoples health.

Over all I don't see a downside to making people set their terms before they get married. After all insurance is a thing which is all about planning incase of unfortunate events.

Edit- I'm arguing for a universal basic standard of 50% shared assests, and 50% custody unless there is abuse or abdication. No more bullshit court cases.

[Assistant]
Everyone has a prenup - state law.  You should only bother to create a _different one_ if you want something different than state law.

A prenup does nothing to prevent any of the things you put forward.  In fact, you can create a prenup specifically to gain money or property, you often bring prenups into court and have battles and so on.  Only when there is a reason to believe state law doesn't apply do you go to court, just like only when you believe the prenup doesn't apply do you go to court.


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

[User] If objects in space are far away, does light get scattered enough that it would look low resolution by the time it reaches us?

[Assistant] There's a lot of nothing in space, so not much scattering happens until the light reaches the Earth's atmosphere. The images we get from such telescopes as JWST are "diffraction limited", which means that the resolution is a function of the size of the telescope's mirror, in the case of JWST it's the mirror segments that cause the starburst pattern. A huge single-mirror telescope in space could make much higher resolution images.


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

[User] [Highlander] If the prize for "the one" is standard everyday mortality, why was this group of near-immortals made to be near-immortal in the first place?

[Assistant] The Prize wasn't merely mortality, it was the ability to somehow dominate humanity.  They don't really explain what it is, but they do say that if the Kurgan won that mankind would suffer.  When Connor MacLeod won he said he was "one with all living things".


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

[User]
[Mass Effect]What most likely happened to the Asari in the aftermath of the Reaper War?

Once it became common knowledge that the Asari hoarded Prothean technology for themselves and possibly knew about the Reaper threat long before Sovereign turned Saren, how would the rest of the Galaxy have reacted to it?

[Assistant]
Did it become common knowledge? Shepard found out, but it's not like she had the time or motivation to blab about it to the galaxy as the war neared its end. Plus, she really wasn't in any shape to continue talking about it afterward.

Besides, in the immediate aftermath of the war, who really cared? It was over once and for all, and everyone got a chance to rebuild. If anything, the Asari used their surviving technical superiority to aid all the other races in recovering. They would naturally prioritize their home world and colonies, but it was likely the Asari who spearheaded the repairing of the relays and  the rebuilding of general galactic travel and commerce.

Now, PERHAPS, if the galaxy found out around the time that reconstruction was over and the galaxy returned to normal, that shit might have gone down. But in the new era of cooperation and peace, (mostly because most galactic militaries would still be in tatters) the Asari would probably just pay economic fees, or be "forced" to share some of their secrets.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] During the events of The Goblet of Fire, did Sirius possess a wand?

Just a quick question, it seems to me he didn't, there's no mention of it. Presumably if he had he could've made his hideout better fortified, more comfortable etc and traveled to acquire food, drink, clothing etc.

Does anyone know for sure if he did or not?

Bonus question: Would it be practical or advisable for Harry or the others to get a second-hand but functional wand, something basic, for Sirius to use if he didn't have his own available?

[Assistant]
He did not have a wand, else he wouldn't have lived in abject poverty. He lived eating almost anything he could get his hands on except for the food Harry and co. brought to him.

Another wand wouldn't work quite right unless Sirius won it in a duel or otherwise overpowered the owner. The Ministry almost certainly (99.99%) snapped his personal wand and disposed of it.

Then again, to be fair, he has a wand in the Battle at the Ministry and we don't know where it came from. It is possible that he had some wands in his family's house from a prior duel, that belonged to former family, or that he had won or something similar. The origin is never explained.


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

[User] ELI5: Why is grief so physically exhausting?

[Assistant] Well emotions arent just feelings, theyre biochemical reactions. Grief includes a lot of stress chemicals (cortisol, etc) and you dont get enough of the happy chemicals and endorphins. Your body doesnt function well in this state.


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

[User]
[WarHammer 40K] Are the Imperium of Man/Emperor actually supposed to be the good guys?

Warning: Lots of Heresy. Don't kill me please.

So I just started reading the Warhammer books and I'm trying to figure out the universe it's set in.

I started with the Horus Heresy and I've read the first 3.5 books. So my question is are these people supposed to be the good guys? Because the whole quest of the imperium is to eradicate religion and what not but they're all worshiping this god emperor instead of other deities. Is this supposed to show the hypocrisy of the Astartes/human order?

Though once in a while the characters will look at the mass murder with regret and be disgusted by the brutality, most of the time even the 'good' characters like Garviel Loken and Nathaniel Garro seem to have constant blood lust and blind fanaticism for the Emperor or their Primach.

Is this series more in the vein of Heinlein's Starship troopers, where the human protagonists are actually the fascists but the whole thing is wrapped in so much facetious propaganda that Poe's law kicks in and people can't even tell that they're falling for the same propaganda.

So what are your views on this?

[Assistant] There are no good guys in 40k. There are just not-horrible guys. The Eldar, the Tau and the Imperium are the 'Goodish Guys'. That's part of the overall vibe of the setting. You don't have a good option just a slightly less bad one.


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

[User] ELI5:Reptiles are air breathing animals. However, when they're in an egg, they have no source of air like mammals do in the womb. How do they survive without air while developing?

[Assistant]
When the egg is laid, it is very warm, as it cools, a thin membrane shrinks away from the interior, creating a pocket of air. The developing animal uses this air, and exhales CO2, which is pushed through millions of pores on the shell, allowing fresh air to come in.

This is similar for both lizards and birds.


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

[User]
[Pulp Fiction] Was Jimmy a hitman?

Jules considered him a partner, but did he mean a partner in profession, or a trusted friend?

[Assistant]
Marcellus' organisation doesn't seem to employ dedicated hitmen, but mostly people with various criminal talents he uses in different contexts. Neither Jules nor Vincent are simply hitmen, even though that is their main function in the beginning of the movie. Winston's main function is to be a "problem solver", even though that problem might have been people needing to disappear every now and then. Marcellus can apparently get hold of a number of pipe-hitting gentleman who know their way around some pliers and blowtorches within the hour, although they're neither dedicated killers nor torturers.

Jimmy is most certainly a criminal partner of Jules, but not primarily in directly violent endeavours, given how freaked out he is about the presence of a corpse at his house, how freaked out he is at the thought of his criminal life impacting his marriage or how downright submissive he becomes when meeting a known figure like Wolf.

I'd assume Jimmy is mostly a bookey, smuggler, fence or something else that is definitely criminal, but not very physical.


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

[User] Eli5: Why does Vincent Price shake up the champagne in House on Haunted Hill so it won't explode? Doesn't shaking champagne MAKE it explode?

[Assistant]
Champagne bottles are pressurized from a secondary reaction that occurs after bottling. Yeast in the champagne continues to produce CO2, which is trapped in the liquid at far higher pressures than it would be if it had room to expand.

Normally when you open a champagne bottle, all that CO2 gets to start making its way out, which is what causes all the bubbling. However, in order to actually form a bubble, you need enough CO2 to gather together to push against the liquid together. This happens at nucleation sites in the bottle, which are basically any little imperfections in the bottle that trap bits of CO2 together.

When you shake the bottle, you force a bunch of CO2 to be caught at the nucleation sites all at once, which causes a lot of bubbles in the champagne. Eventually, all those bubbles float to the small pocket of air in the bottle and pop. When this happens, you upset a delicate balance of how much CO2 is dissolved in the champagne versus how much is in the pressurized gas. The system will tend to over-correct for a short while, resulting in a bit more of the gas dissolving back into the champagne, lowering the pressure of the air pocket.

Of course, under any circumstances, once you remove the cage from a bottle of champagne, so long as it isn't flat, it will eventually remove its own cork. The pressure is just that high in a champagne bottle.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why humans,compared to most mammals, are so slow in running speed?

Pretty much most mammals,relative to size,can run faster than humans. Why is that?

[Assistant] Humans are slower in terms of burst speed yes, but we evolved a different traveling method that was overall more advantageous. Humans are the best long distance runners for our size by FAR. Early hunters could use our more advanced communication and intelligence to keep track of prey as it kept sprinting, exhausting itself. We, on the other hand, can go at a slower speed, but at a very steady rate for HOURS, something most other species are almost incapable of.


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

[User]
[Iron Man 3] How was the Mark 42 gauntlet able to fire without being connected to the arc reactor?

From my understanding, Tony's repulsors and rocket boots work by shunting plasma off from the arc reactor and accelerating it down his arms/legs.

In the first Iron Man film, when Tony is on the couch with the Mark III gauntlet, we see wires connecting it to his arc. We see energy pulsing down these wires from the arc to his gauntlet as he fires.

However, in Iron Man 3 when Tony is captured by Killian, he frees himself when his flying gauntlet arrives, and it fires apparently on its own accord. How is this possible?

[Assistant]
The Mark XLII armor, the Autonomic Prehensile Propulsion prototype has 14 separate components. Each component has its own set of microrepulsors that allow for independent flight, maneuvering and limited functionality for individual parts. The armor has a distributed system of energy storage that allows for each part to have a "battery backup" of sorts that allow for the use of the gauntlets' repulsors without a direct hookup to the high voltage arc reactor in his chest.

The gauntlets have only a few full power shots worth of power available and this also may be drained by extended flight. However, even a repulsor blast at 10% can knock a person through a wall.


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

[User] ELI5: Why hasn't the U.S. government issued a formal declaration of war in any conflict since WWII?

[Assistant] Congress has to make a vote on it, making it harder to achieve. Also the laws of wars, as established after World War II, are very strict and would leave the US government open to litigation (for war for any reason except self-defense). Now the US has something called Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) instead that congress votes on, but the president can do a lot besides that.


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

[User]
Why are explosive overpressures so low?

I was reading about damage caused by various sizes of bombs and explosions, and it gave the damage estimate based the explosive overpressure. At only 10psi overpressure (25psia, I assume), it says reinforced concrete buildings will be severely damaged, but concrete typically has a strength of 3000-5000 psi. Why the disparity?

[Assistant]
I can answer this from the blast wave side of things, but don't know much about concrete properties.  Blast waves feature a large instantaneous step in pressure at its front, plus a rapid non-instantaneous drop following that.  As a result, the pressure gradient (dp/dx) will be of very high magnitude.

I suspect those concrete strengths are calculated for static loads, which have much lower pressure gradients and are less damaging.


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

[User] If some stars are dead already, even with their light still reaching us, how are we able to tell which ones are still in existence?

[Assistant] If we look at the light from a star and see that it is at the end of its life cycle (say, we can say with confidence it will die in 100 to 1000 years), and if the star is 10,000 light years away, we can say with confidence it has already died.


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

[User]
I believe that personal firearms can do nothing to "prevent tyranny" in the modern age. CMV

During discussions of gun control in the U.S., I often hear folks use rhetoric about defending ourselves from the government. This argument seems disingenuous or just not well thought out. The armed components of the government (the military, the police, the FBI, etc.) have weapons and information technology/infrastructure that so far surpass that of ordinary citizens that personal firearms seem almost inconsequential. While I don't believe the government **should** have a monopoly on physical coercion, it seems to me that individual citizens are just plain outmatched. If the government wants to kill/imprison/deprive you of liberties, it can pretty much do so with impunity, and no amount of personally owned firepower is going to be able to stop it.

[Assistant]
The idea isn't that citizens maintain superior arms to the government. Standing toe to toe with an armored division, a collection of citizens with shotguns would be torn apart in minutes.

The idea is that citizens have something to work with, should the need for popular overthrow of the government present itself. Guerrilla and insurgent tactics would be the name of the game, not open warfare, but it's hard to do *anything* without a weapon of some sort to begin with.


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

[User]
[Super Mario/Smash Bros.] Why is Bowser more animal-like in Smash?

I mean, he seems perfectly intelligent in the Mario-verse, what with the plans he pulls off and the ability to speak. So why does he only communicate with roars and grunts in Smash?

Additionally, how come Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings are perfectly normal?

[Assistant]
Based on what we see it appears that the whole Smash Bros Universe is inside the imagination of a child.  That explains why heroes and villains from wildly different universes all fight one another.  And this explains why relatively weak characters like the Animal Crossing Villager or Little Mac can compete against literal gods like Palutena.  The more bestial form of Bowser is what the child believes Bowser is like.  While, perhaps since they are closer in age to the child, he/she perceives Bowser Jr. more accurately.

There is also a theory as to why Bowser appears so different in different games, and also why he is allowed play games and race go-karts with his arch-enemy and frequent kid-nap victim.  In the Super Mario Bros 3 there is a clear theatrical motif.  The background appears to be that of a theater back-drop.  This has lead to speculation that the entire Mario Bros universe is a show designed to entertain.  Every version and form of Mario and Bowser are just different incarnations of the same entertainment franchise.  When they go-kart or play tennis it is just the actors having fun and playing with each other as friends.


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

[User] [Marvel] I am highly trained, well armed, intelligent vigilante operating in the same city as The Punisher. I am possibly even better than he is. Would he be ok with me? Would he be open to working with me?

[Assistant]
He likes to keep to himself and wouldn't go out of his way to work with you, unless you let him call all the shots. Literally.

Otherwise he'd probably wouldn't pay any attention to you unless you guys end up crossing paths on the job or something. Like going after the same target, and accidentally set up overlapping massacres.

In which case The Punisher would probably tell you to back off and let him take care of things, then you be like 'no the Tunnel Snakes are mine!', and then you two end up having a little rooftop scuffle demonstrating that you're evenly matched before ~~making out~~ your mutual target forces you to work together to kill them.

Then when they're dead, you and the Punisher still go your separate ways, but you give each other manly nods of approvals and maybe some half-threat about better not be seeing each other again/ half-bro flirt.


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

[User]
[Starship Troopers] How did earth come to be ruled by a global fascistic government?

Is it just an alternate universe where their human nature naturally produced that form of government? Or are they like us and did democracy fall out as the leading ideology?

[Assistant]
It's not fascist in the book. It's only *implied* to be fascist in the movie, and then only by the costume design.

In the book, it's explained, though not in great detail, that there had been a great and devastating war, and that afterwards the heads of either the remaining *governments* or the remaining *government* (it's not specified) had been veterans. It was decided that in the future only veterans of military or civilian service would be granted full citizenship and the right to vote, because people who'd served would know better than to ever lead the world into such a devastating war again.

So it's still a democratic system; in fact, it may even be a *more* democratic system than ours. The book never distinguishes between a direct democracy and a representative democracy. It's just a democracy in which sovereign franchise is earned through service, rather than granted by virtue of birth.


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

[User]
Why don't our animals get sick as often as we seem to?

I've had a lot of pets, and never had them get a cold or flu.  And yet here I am, ever year, suffering through the season's cold.  So what gives with humans and getting sick?

[Assistant] It comes down to exposure. On daily basis pets don't come into contact with as many carriers of pathogens as we do. They also don't deposit and pick up as many pathogens off of surfaces (such as door knobs).


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

[User]
ELI5: When a person dies of "old age", what is the actual cause of death?

Does the person's heart just stop? Basically, can someone explain what happens/what it means to die of old age?

edit: thanks everyone for your responses!!

[Assistant]
It's typically a number of compounding issues.  As you get older, lots of things start to happen.  Organs lose functional capacity, vessels lose permeability, bones lose integrity, immunologic and endocrine systems lower greatly in function, etc etc etc

Death by 'old age' typically cannot be credited to one specific cause.  One elderly person may die of the common cold on account of the body's inability to fight off viruses sufficiently, while the next may experience spontaneous organ failure.

There really is no clear-cut answer.  Just like the parts in your car, the body's systems only last so long before they just wear out.


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

[User] ELI5: If the human body is run on electrical impulses, what is the mechanism by which these impulses are generated and maintained?

[Assistant]
It's the repolarization and depolarization of your axons in the nervous system.

The ions sodium (Na) and potassium (K) create an electrochemical gradient between the inside and outside of your axons. There is more positive ions (note they are both positive ions) in the outside of the axon and less in the axon, creating the electron chemical gradient. This different in electrochemical gradient is -60mV, which its the resting membrane potential.

When axons fire, they send a cascade of opening and closing of ion channels, the first step is depolarization, Na channels open up and they rush into the axon making the inside more positive (up to +40mV)

Then the K channels up open when the electrochemical gradient reaches +40 mV and K flows out of the axon making the axon more negative. This is repolarization.

Then you have hyper polarization, which is essentially the Na-K pump returning everything back to -60mV

_____

The actual ELI5: chemicals create an **electro**chemical gradient. That is the electrical impulse that we can detect. Mechanism: chemicals move back and forth across the axon membrane which conduct the impulse forward. Sodium ion channels, potassium ion channels and Sodium-potassium pump maintain this mechanism.


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

[User] [Doctor Who] Could I kill a weeping angel by breaking it when it is "frozen"?

[Assistant]
When an Angel is being viewed, it is "quantum locked". They're essentially wrapped in a stasis field, meaning they do not experience the flow of time, and are therefore removed from this universe's cause and effect loop. They're essentially invulnerable in this condition.

The Angels aren't "stone" when they're frozen, that's just the closest description the human mind has for what a quantum-locked object seems to be. The Angels are no more prone to shattering than a photon of light trapped in the gravity well of a black hole.


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

[User]
[The Simpsons] To what extent are the simpsons aware of the passage of time?

For example, does Marge recall the events of the 90s? Does she remember it as a decade in which she grew up, in which she met homer, or in which she was briefly a police officer? Is she aware that she doesn't age? Does maggie's birth seem recent to her?

[Assistant] The Simpsons sense of time is skewed by their constantly changing history. They live in a state of flux not only because their birthdates advance, but whole seasons of their lives are retroactively updated in various flashbacks. Marge, and even Bart remember the 90s and Maggies birth with the same clarity even though they( currently)  hadnt been born yet.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does it feel like I'm being choked even when something is just barely touching my neck?

[Assistant]
I would venture a guess at natural defense mechanism. The throat/neck is one of, if not the most vulnerable parts of the human body and one of only a few which can cause death when applied only mild to moderate pressure to.

It would make perfect sense that our bodies know this and don't like it when it feels this weakness is being exploited.

And addressing the clothes comments here. The brain has the power to ignore constants. If you leave your clothes on for long enough you forget about them, even though you are very aware of them initially. The same would apply to the neck like the rest of the body.


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

[User] ELI5:How did the dollar gain so much value?

[Assistant]
Currencies are like any other good, commodity, or service: the value is set by supply and demand. If there are many more dollars than there are people who want dollars, the people who have dollars and want to trade them for something else need to offer more dollars to get what they want.  If there are many fewer dollars than there are people who want dollars, it's the opposite. This is the same as how you determine the value of anything else in a modern economy: cars, books, lettuce, burritos. All supply and demand.

The supply and demand for money comes from several places.  If you think you're going to want to buy things in the future, you want money so that you'll be able to make those purchases: that's demand. But you also are willing to spend money proportionate to how much you have and how much you expect to make, which is supply.  The government requires a certain % of the national income be paid to it in taxes (demand), and pays money back out through numerous programs (supply).  The central bank is always gathering in old ratty money, which it destroys (demand) and printing fresh new money (supply). Money can also be created or destroyed without physical currency: when a bank or a credit card company says you can borrow $5,000 from them, any time you feel like it, you suddenly have $5,000 available to spend (supply); but if they decide you're a bad credit risk and take that away from you, and demand that you repay what you owe them as soon as possible, suddenly you can spend less (demand).

If you are asking about why the dollar has been gaining ground against the Euro, which was in the news yesterday, that is a side effect of the success of European monetary policy.  When countries are in a recession, that basically just means that people are hoarding money because they're afraid if they spend it, they won't have enough money if there is an emergency later.  But in a market economy, people can only earn money when other people spend money, so the more people hoard because they're worried about how much they earn, the less economic activity there is, and the less they earn.  Money-hoarding is basically just a problem with the supply of money, though: it means that if you multiple how much money each family thinks they need to hoard by the number of families, there isn't enough money left over, not hoarded, to fuel the buying and selling in a normal economy.  So the solution is for a central bank in a depressed country to print tons of money.  Supplying more money changes the relationship between supply and demand (everyone can have enough for their money-hoarding and for their buying and selling), lowers the value of money, causes people to want less money and more goods/services, and the economy revives and everyone has a job to do again.

The Eurozone isn't really a "country" of course, and different Eurozone countries can be in a recession or not at different times, so the whole thing is a mess, but ignore that for the moment! The point is that most recently, the Eurozone central bank decided that Europe needs more money, and succeeded in changing the ratio of supply and demand of euros.  That made the euro less valuable, which was the point.  But the relative value of currencies is determined by how much you can buy in the same currency: for example, if one television costs 1,000 euros or 1,000 dollars, and that television were the only thing that was traded between Europe and the USA, the exchange rate would be 1:1.  But if the value of the euro falls and the television costs 2,000 euros now, the exchange rate will change to 2:1, and we will say the dollar "gained value" or "strengthened" against the Euro, or that the euro "lost value" or "weakened" against the dollar. But as you can see, if Europe is in a recession they *want* the euro to be "weak", because then Americans will buy European televisions (which gives Europeans work to do and revives the European economy) and Europeans won't buy American televisions (which doesn't help the European economy unless the Americans they bought them from spin around and immediately buy something from Europe).

How is that? Is that too hard for ELI5 or too simplified?


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

[User] ELI5: Why does contrast increase/decrease when looking at a monitor from an angle?

[Assistant]
LCD work by shining a bright white light (actually a combination of every color, ever see a prism?) from behind the display, then controlling how much of each color can pass through each pixel.

This is achieved through multiple stacked layers which have these light and color filters embedded for each pixel. When a pixel is white, it allows most of the light to pass through. When it's black, most of that light is being absorbed or reflected back into the monitor.

If that light moves sideways, it bleeds to neighboring pixels and lowers contrast by mixing different colors and blurring edges. This is ultimately stopped by putting "prism" walls around each pixel. When viewed head-on, the walls look the same as the pixels. From the side, you see the different mix of color the walls are redirecting at that angle. As you lower your view angle, you also see more of the walls and less of the pixels. This is why active parts of the display change color when viewed from the side, and why black sections mostly look the same.

Edit: Just wanted to add that with older and large format displays, discoloration was instead mostly a result of polarization angle. However, modern high density formats required a shift to extremely thin layers or a curved format to prevent this from occuring at either side of a display you were looking at head-on. Thinner layers introduced problems related to irregularities in thickness, which are generally solved by optical separation.


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

[User]
Why do radio signals of the same frequency not mix, but rather, one overpowers the other?

For clarity: I live in between the ranges of two radio broadcasts of the same frequency, often when I am listening to one, the other takes over; why wouldn't the signals always combine to form an amalgamation of both broadcasts?

[Assistant]
This is called the capture effect, and only works with FM radios. An AM radio would actually work as you imagine.

The FM capture effect isn't really a natural physical phenomenon, it's an engineered design feature. It can vary depending on how the signal chain is made. When a lower level signal and a higher level signal hit the limiter in an FM receiver, the weaker signal ends up not contributing much to the instantaneous frequency at the detector so has no impact on the output audio. In effect, the limiter is blocking the weaker signal and letting the stronger through.


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

[User]
[MCU] Do the Nine Realms exist within the same plane of existence?

I've always been under the impression that the Nine Realms exist within different dimensions/planes (or at least not within the same physical space) and are only accessible to each other via the Bifrost or Asgardian magic/science.

However:

* Thor and the Asgardian refugees flee Asgard after Surtur destroys it
* Thanos finds their ship and destroys it
* The Guardians rescue Thor
* Thor, Rocket and Groot fly to Nidavellir
* They then use the Bifrost to get to Midgard

This suggests that at least Nidavellir and Asgard exist within the same space. Do we see anyone else going from one Realm to another via more conventional means, like regular space travel or the hexagonal jumpgates?

Is the Bifrost just a super-powerful teleporter, or does it bridge different dimensions/planes of existence?

Assuming an immortal was flying it, could the Milano fly to each of the Nine Realms without using magic?

EDIT: Just realized that, as far as we know, Peter Quill was born on Earth and has never travelled via Bifrost or other Asgardian magic, meaning Earth also exists within the same physical space as Asgard and Nidavellir as well.

[Assistant]
In the MCU, yes, they all exist in our universe

The bifrost easily connects them,letting thee Asgadians rule 9 planets as easily as ruling 9 countries. With 9 planets of resources and a fraction of thee expenditure needed to rulee them, that's how they become such a powerful force.


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

[User] ELI5: How/why is space between the sun and the earth so cold, when we can feel heat coming from the sun?

[Assistant] You need to distinguish between heat and temperature to understand this.  The sun radiates energy, but it doesn't contribute to an increase in temperature until it hits something and warms that something up.  Because there is nothing in between the sun and the earth, it is "cold".  But if you were floating there, with the sun full on you, it would heat you up.  They need to put reflective foil on spacecraft for this reason.  In the shade of something, your body would radiate heat, which would make you very cold.


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

[User]
[DC] Why is Harley Quinn a good fighter?

Judging from her tenure on the Suicide Squad, she's clearly a very proficient fighter.  How did this come to be?

She was originally a psychologist, she had no training.  Was she trained by the Joker?  Is the Joker a good fighter?  I've never really been clear on this.

[Assistant]
Harley was an excellent gymnast and in some continuities may even have gone to university on an athletic scholarship. Poison Ivy later gave her a serum that enhanced her strength, agility, and healing ability.

Also, she's crazy. Probably helps her put 100% into the fight, with little thought to self-preservation.


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

[User]
[Mass effect] Heat Sinks.

Hi guys,
 My question is based on Thermal Clips.

Simply, the weapon overheats and they are ejected,
When you put a new one in, wouldn't the weapon still be hot? Wouldn't this essentially 'cook-off' the clip?
  Has anyone got a RL and a In-game reason for it?

[Assistant] The great thing about heat sinks are that the weapon doesnt get hot! All built up heat is transferred into the sink, which is ejected and replaced. Whatever minimal residual heat that is left is bled off as steam or through exposing cooling panels in the gun (some more of the more, ahem, "primitive" Krogan and Vorcha models are even water cooled.). By the time the new sink is inserted, the weapon is cool enough that the sink goes in fresh.


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

[User] ELI5: What is the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?

[Assistant]
Those are no longer formal terms used in contemporary psychiatry and psychology. The appropriate term, according to the DSM IV (i.e version 4 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is _antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)_.

What might have been called psychopathy and sociopathy in the past fall under the ASPD diagnosis. Medical professionals typically don't provide diagnoses of sociopathy or psychopathy; they would instead diagnosis ASPD. However the terms still get used quite frequently in the criminal justice system and in popular culture.

In the past these terms were frequently used interchangeably, although sometimes a distinction was made based on the origin of the disorder Sociopathy was considered an acquired behavioral trait (potentially due to childhood trauma or abuse), while psychopathy was considered a biological trait. Under these conceptions, someone could be "made" into a sociopath by their environment but psychopaths were born that way.


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

[User] ELI5: Why does Google Maps blur out license plates when you can go outside and look at license plates all day?

[Assistant] People can go outside and look at some random license plates all day (or the license plates of their semi-random neighbors).  With Google Maps, someone could run an algorithm to find a **specific** license plate over vast areas.


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

[User] [HP] Could the killing curse be used to destroy a Horcrux?

[Assistant]
If it could, then Hermione would have read about that and told Harry to unleash an AK on the locket.

To destroy a horcrux the physical object must be destroyed beyond the possibility of magical repair. On a human the AK leaves no damage.


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

[User]
ELI5 How does the body decide which areas of the body to burn fat for fuel?

I understand that you can't choose specific zones on your body to burn fat with targeted exercises. So when fat does get burned and you begin to lose weight, which areas get burned up first/last?

Is it like LIFO (Last In First Out) or does the body evenly reduce fat from all areas at once?

[Assistant] Our bodies burn fat like a stack (Last In First Out) so where the fat was most recently placed, it will burn first. This is why it's often difficult for men to burn belly fat because it is one of the first places to store fat. Likewise, women first store fat in their buttocks and thighs.


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

[User]
[MCU] Does Hulk have more control over Banner's body than Banner does?

It seems that when Banner is in control, Hulk seems to be alive and conscious in his mind and can choose to come out at will, >!or even refuse to come out like during most of infinity war!< (Spoilers I guess). But Banner doesn't seem to get to have this same freedom.

[Assistant]
This seems to be changing. At first, when Banner came back on top after a Hulk episode, he didn't remember anything and looked very hungover. The last time Banner came back, on (or rather, in) the stairway of Strange's townhouse, he was immediately fine, and most importantly, he remembered things that Hulk saw, but he didn't. He knew Thanos was coming, even though the last time Banner was fronting before that was on the Rainbow Bridge, right before Hulk fought Fenris.

If Banner was unable to remember what happens to Hulk, he'd have said "Hela is coming", not "Thanos is coming".


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

[User]
What is the average day in the life of Curiosity made up of ?

What does he do all day and who controls him ?

[Assistant]
Rover operator here.

A typical sol on Mars often starts with what we call a "slip assessment," which is just a series of photos taken by the hazcams that are compared to those from the previous sol to assess whether wind or settling caused a change in attitude or orientation.  At about 10AM local time on Mars, we get a "Direct-to-Earth" or DTE communication from the Rover's high gain antenna, which serves as an indication that the rover is awake and healthy and ready to start its planned activities.  This usually starts with a few minutes worth of housekeeping of the rover's file systems -- things like deleting old data products, etc, but then we get into actual science!

The bulk of the day-to-day activities vary depending on what we're doing on a given day, but usually there is a detailed plan of operations involving mobility (when we actually drive from one place to another), imaging (a typical day involves dozens of photographs, especially when you consider that we like to take before and after photos of things like drill locations or laser targets), or even just sitting still while the rover uses some of its daily power allocation on running experiments (analyzing soil samples, processing data, etc).

The excitement is typically broken up about 4 times per sol, when the rover takes time out from science (or time out from sleeping, in the case of early morning passes) to relay its on-board data products back to Earth via the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.  We prefer this method of communication because it's more power-efficient and allows for much higher bandwidth than trying to beam everything back to Earth with the rover's own transmitters.

Sometime in the evening, the rover goes to sleep and we do it all again the next sol.


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

[User]
CMV: Fawning over Royalty is outdated.

I may have mis-titled this post, but what Im trying to understand is why a large amount of people (my girlfriend included) are interested in the Royal Wedding and are putting stock into it.

My girlfriend is currently watching the live stream of it and all they are broadcasting is a panel of people discussing celebrities and describing the wedding as if theyve never seen or heard of two people getting married before.

Its my understanding that those in the royal family are they are just average people, like anyone else. They simply have power and are such perceived to be better somehow by the public.

Is that why they have this spotlight on them?

How is it that in 2018 we are focusing on such trivial events with such a magnifying glass?

I cant be the only person thats thinking this, please help me understand.

Update:

I now understand that there were many different reasons to tune in to the wedding, and there were also a variety of reasons it was televised.

Im now more interested in why humanity has such a focus on escapism. Is it something we will pass onto our youth or will we curtail it and learn to live on the moment with our friends and families?

[Assistant]
I can't understand why people watch rugby, listen to metal or like reality TV, people are interested in different things.

>Is that why they have this spotlight on them?

Royal weddings are the superbowl or oscars or glastonbury for people who like celebrity weddings. Celebrity draws crowds, sells glossy magazines and gets people watching TV. Weddings also draw crowds, sell glossy magazines and get people watching TV. In a few months most of the people currently glues to their screens over this event will probably be complaining about how the "whole" country is crazy about the World Cup and "are they the only one who doesn't care". Those people who today don't care will be watching all the games and discussing if England were always that bad or if this is a new level.

Both groups are happily escaping their lives for a short period of time in their own wierd way, and people who care about who turned up to a royal wedding are probably just as wierd as the people discussing if that really was a goal or not.


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

[User] ELI5:Why are TV shows/movie typically displayed in 24/48 fps, while video games are typically displayed in 30/60 fps?

[Assistant]
Film movies play at 24fps because that was the number that was picked more or less arbitrarily when they needed movies to play at a set speed so they could add sound to them.

TV was historically at 30fps in the US because the TV signal was synced to the frequency of the power going into the TV set.  The US electrical system runs at 60 cycles per second and broadcast TV transmitted half a screen worth of data every cycle so you got 30fps from that. In other countries 50hz power was the standard so their analog TV standard was 25fps.

HDTVs can run at a higher framerate, but a lot of the stuff that's being transmitted over HD was recorded at 30(or 25)fps.  Movies can (and do) run at higher speeds, but a lot of people don't like it because they associate the way films looked in the past with quality and the way that 30 or 60fps looks like a TV news show or something.

Video games aren't burdened by these legacy issues and are sold on the basis of their technical features to a much greater extent, so it's reasonable that they'd be where you see 60fps first.


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

[User] eli5 How do dragsters spin their wheels so easily pre race but then manage to accelerate so quickly with no /little wheelspin when they want to?

[Assistant]
Before the race, their tires are cold and can't grip as well. They intentionally "peel out" to warm up those tires.

But they're also doing it on purpose. That means intentionally jamming the accelerator as hard as they can in a way that makes the tires lose grip.

When they're legitimately racing, the tires have been warmed up to grip better *and* the driver is more careful with the accelerator to try and maintain optimal grip.

Most normal cars are the same way. If you're at a full stop and floor the accelerator you're likely to make the wheels spin. But if you want to gain speed in a more controlled manner you'll make more complicated adjustments to the accelerator.


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

[User]
ELI5: Do barnacles bother whales? Do whales have a way to get rid of them?

And why do some whales have a lot of them while other whales have seemingly none?

[Assistant] It does indeed bother the whales. We do see them clean barnacles by rubbing their skin against rocks. The whales do also shed skin just like people so the barnacles will fall off on their own. But we do see some whales suffer a lot from barnacle infections. Especially if they are weak or otherwise ill. The barnacles themselves makes the illness worse by slowing down the whale and restricting their movement. So a survivable illness could be made deadly by the barnacles.


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

[User]
Why is philosophy divided into east and west?

BONUS: What do you think of Toshihiko Izutsu. I'm reading The Concept of Reality and Existence, and it's the first philosophy book(it is one right?) I've read. So  I can't really judge by myself.

[Assistant] Because philosophy doesn't happen in a vacuum. Things reference other things. And so form long chains. And eastern and western philosophy started separate and evolved mostly separately until fairly recently. To understand something modern fully you'd need to understand the past. But for eastern things what you'd need to understand is earlier eastern things. Though again, at this point there's a little more bleeding over.


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

[User]
[avatar] could Earth Kingdom cause a war?

 if instead of the fire nation, it was Earth Kingdom attacking other nations: could they cause Air Nomad Genocide? could they win the war? would the war have lasted 100 years? or would they have been defeated long before?

[Assistant]
> Could they cause Air Nomad Genocide?

Hard to say. They have larger numbers but the Fire Nation also had Soizins Comet helping them out.

> could they win the war?

Chin the Conqueror certainly tried. He may have even succeeded if Kyoshi wasn't around.

> would the war have lasted 100 years? or would they have been defeated long before?

Honestly, that's purely speculation at this point. The Fire Nation had a few lucky breaks and their fire bending gave them an edge in certain areas but their superior strategy and industrialization is what helped them get as far as they did. The Earth Kingdom may not have created an industrial age like the Fire Nation but they managed in other ways. Short answer: War is tricky and hard to predict.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why cant we develop pills or other medication that can replace sleep?

What about sleep is difficult to replicate? What functions does sleeping have that we aren't able to recreate?

[Assistant] The most obvious problem with this is that there's still a ton we don't know about sleep. How it works and why it's needed. There has been and will continue to be a lot of studies on sleep, but we're still a long way from fully understanding it.


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

[User]
[The Simpsons] So are Krustyburger's good or bad?

Whenever Krusty eats one he spits them out and even on one occasion said how they'll leave a bad taste in his mouth. However other characters eat them without any reaction like Homer, Cheif Wiggum, Superintendent Chalmers, and Skinner.

[Assistant]
Krusty is used to the uh....finer things in life, and a crummy fast food burger would probably taste bad to him but not to 'regular joes'

On the other hand though he did drink that pitcher of pureed $100's and seemed amazed the bartender would serve such an awful drink.


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

[User] What would happen if four of Google's driverless cars pull up to a four way intersection at the exact same time?

[Assistant]
I saw a video about how the car navigates 4-way stops in general.  It waits its turn, and then goes if the intersection is clear.  If other cars keep bypassing its turn, it will start inching out into the intersection until other cars have to stop and let it go.

I figure that combined with a psuedo-random timer could easily allow them to drive through the intersection in your example just fine.


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

[User] ELI5: How does calling 911 work in terms of connecting you to your closest 911 center?

[Assistant] The emergency 911 call is routed to the local call center based on the origin location of the calling party. If it was from a landline then there is obviously a registered address where that phone is calling from, but if it is a cell phone then it is determined by the location of the cell tower. Since such towers generally have a range of about 5 miles (conceptually longer but on average they are within 5) this is a reasonably accurate estimate of the caller's location. If it happens the address of the emergency is just over the line to a different 911 center's territory they can quickly and easily transfer the call to that other center.


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

[User]
CMV: The "Oscars so white" hashtag/movement removed any semblance of legitimacy from the Oscars.

The problem with having a hashtag like #oscarssowhite is that whenever a white person or a movie lacking a nonwhite cast wins an award, this hashtag will "trigger" in peoples' minds. For the minor categories, nobody really gives a shit. But for the major categories, any time from now on when a movie lacking nonwhite people wins a major category, this hashtag will once again trigger in peoples' minds. Producers of the show and big players in Hollywood know this, and they take precautions in order to prevent this kind of backlash because they're really only concerned with ratings.

Personally I feel like the Oscars were already pretty meaningless, hollow celebrity worship, but this hashtag destroyed any remaining semblance of legitimacy the Oscars had. Much like something like the Miss America Pageant (in which black women consistently won several shows, despite this being overwhelmingly statistically unlikely), the Oscars have become merely a showcase for political and social virtue signaling by major media corporations.

Am I wrong? Change my view.

[Assistant]
The problem isn't if a white based movie wins. It is if the only people nominated to win are all white based films.

There is a difference between those two ideas.

Since there are talented people from all races we should see a diverse list of nominees. That wasn't happening.


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

[User] ELI5 how rigor mortis works. Why does the human body get locked up in 6+ hours and then get flaccid again?

[Assistant]
Youre muscles use a molecule called ATP to function, specifically it binds to muscle fibres and allow the connections in them to be broken, which allows the muscle to relax and the tension be released.

When the body dies the muscles can no longer produce this ATP and so it runs out, leading to the muscles being unable to relax and thus rigor mortis.

The muscles later become flaccid when the muscle fibres themselves begins decomposing and the connections are severed mechanically.


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

[User]
Does the temperature of food increase linearly in a microwave?

Does adding 5 or 10 more seconds actually do much?

[Assistant]
Not in general. As an example: Ice doesn't absorb microwaves well. If you heat a block of ice, it gets warmer, but not that fast - meanwhile you heat up the rest of the microwave. Once you reach 0 degrees it starts melting, the water absorbs more power, but now all the heat is used to melt more ice - the temperature stays constant until all ice is molten. Afterwards you have water, which absorbs microwaves very well, and gets warm quickly.

If you have frozen food that is not a soup, water and ice cannot mix easily, and you get a problem: Some parts will absorb more power, melt earlier, and then absorb even more power. You end up with some hot regions and some regions that are still frozen. For that reason frozen things should be heated up slower (giving the heat time to distribute in the food), or stirred in between.


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

[User]
[harry potter] What happens if the current owner of the Elder wand kills themselves with it?

The Elder wand's ownership passes to the one who kills the current owner. If the current owner kills themselves with the wand, does it now have no owner?

[Assistant] I was under the impression that the Elder Wand would refuse to kill its own owner, which is why Harry Potter was able to kill Voldemort in the first place, because when Voldemort cast the killing curse on Harry, the wand refused and the spell backfired.


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

[User]
CMV: A Biden Presidency won't be better than a Trump Presidency.

I don't particularly like either candidate, but at this point I don't really see why Biden would be better than Trump. Can Biden really do more for the economy? I doubt it. Will he be able to pass universal healthcare? No way!

Neither one of them seem to really care about the people. Our medical system is a shit-show, social services are a burning dumpster fire, our education system only serves the wealthy. Biden claims to want to work on these issues, but will he be able to get anything passed? Realistically, what can he even do? I feel like at least with Trump we can get consistency and be confident in the stock market. With Biden, probably the same? So what's the point?

Who would be a good president? I don't know. Maybe Bernie Sanders, but could he have accomplished anything that he wanted to? I doubt it. At this point I don't even think it matters. Congress is a huge problem, an uneducated voting public, the "news" that I'm shocked can even be called news any more....I feel like we're just kinda stuck with what we have...I don't think Biden is gonna be any different than Trump. So why cause an upheaval and make more of a mess?

Edit: Also, and I'm being serious, Biden's mental health seems really really bad.

Edit: I've changed my view. The supreme court appointments is a good reason to vote for Biden. Thanks for all the responses!

[Assistant]
How has nobody mentioned the most important issue at stake here?

**The Supreme Court**

This is more important than anything else.

There will likely be at least 2 more SCOTUS vacancies in the next 4 years.

Sure, Biden isnt as progressive as Sanders, but if Trump is given two more SCOTUS appointments, in addition to all the other judicial appointments, you can guarantee that they will be extreme right-wingers.

Biden (or his DNC handlers) wont nominate extreme right wingers.

So youre right, Biden wont get Medicare for All or other progressive legislation passed.

But 4 more years of Trump stacking the courts will mean progressive legislation will be all but impossible to pass for at least the next 40 years.

If Trump gets 4 more years to stack the courts with right wingers, you could elect Karl Marxs reanimated corpse in 2024 or 2028 with progressive Dems controlling both chambers of Congress, and it wouldnt matter, because every single piece of progressive legislation will be interpreted as unconstitutional by the extreme right wing judiciary and immediately struck down.

Wouldnt it be a shame if Im the 2040s POTUS AOC cant get anything done because in 2020 progressives saw no difference between Biden and Trump and let Trump stack the deck for 4 more years?


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

[User] ELI5: How is it possibly thought of as okay for medical residents to work 48 hour shifts?

[Assistant]
it isn't, and the articles i've read in the past would indicate that lawsuits are going to eventually put an end to this practice.

once hospitals realize that patients are more and more willing to sue over care provided by sleep-deprived practitioners, they will decide that it is more cost-effective to staff those practitioners in more reasonable shifts.

lastly, in the past, this was seen as a sort of 'hazing,' to toughen up the younger, recent medical school graduates.  there was a sort of 'i went through this, and so i think that the next generation should also go through this' mentality.

in reality, this is a specious argument, resembling a state-of-war argument.  if our society was in a constant state of war, then this might be justifiable.  since we are *not* in a state of war; we are not living in a MASH unit.

finally, i realize there are some who would disagree about whether our society is in a state of war.


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

[User]
CMV: Drunk people CAN consent to sex

It seems common now to say that drunk/intoxicated people cannot give consent. This seems like an absurd claim to me for a couple of reasons.

1. We hold drunk people accountable for their actions in all kinds of scenarios. If a drunk person chooses to get behind a wheel and drive they are legally responsible for the fallout. If they get pulled over, or God forbid kill someone before their able to be pulled over, they go to jail. The fact that their judgment was impaired due to alcohol does not exonerate their responsibility for their choices.

Yet, if a person drinks the same amount of alcohol chooses to engage in sexual activity then they cannot give true consent and they're not responsible for the actions they choose to engage in? That seems widely inconsistent to me. If a drunk person is responsible in their choice to drive under the influence then a drunk person is responsible in their choice to engage in sexual activity under the influence. The regret of either choice after the fact doesn't negate their responsibility for the choice in the moment.

2. Imagine the insanity if this were true. A happily married couple pops open a bottle of wine gets tipsy and heads to the bedroom. Now, under this belief system they are both rapists (cause they had sex with a drunk person) and rape victims (cause someone had sex with them while they were drunk).

Thats not to say this is a scenario where they are likely to be arrested or prosecuted (due to the improbability of them reporting each other), but if you believe that a) drunk people cant consent to sex and b)sex without consent is rape, then logically you must believe the married couple are both rape victims and rapists.

Ultimately, if an intoxicated legal adult, who is awake and conscious, is enthusiastically engaging in and consenting to sexual activity that should be considered consensual sex.

____
Edit:
So, my view has shifted slightly here is my slightly edited take if someones still wishes to try to CMV

Ultimately, if an intoxicated adult, who is awake and conscious, is enthusiastically engaging in and consent to sexual activity, **and would do so also if sober** that should be considered consenual sex.

[Assistant]
This obviously depends on "how drunk?"

Clearly you can still consent after a glass of wine.

Clearly you cannot consent if you are slurring speech/passing out.

In the intermediate cases, in the absence of a clear answers, it's better to play it safe.


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

[User]
[Superheroes] Is there science fiction in...fictional universes?

Like, when Superman exists...you'd expect people to not consider supes fiction anymore, just another impressive job, and we don't do comics about extreme athletes nor do we write fiction about them.

So do folks over at DC and Marvel, and the other superhero universes, have fiction and comics? How do they look like? How do they suspend their disbelief?

[Assistant]
> Like, when Superman exists...you'd expect people to not consider supes fiction anymore, just another impressive job, and we don't do comics about extreme athletes nor do we write fiction about them.

What about Rocky? Or all of WWE? Or there's the fact that black ops is real, but we still have fictional spies like James Bond. Detectives are real, but we have Dick Tracy.

Also, people would tend to think of superheroes as relatively mundane and still want their own science fiction. After all, there's all sorts of crazy awesome stuff we do in real life and we have science fiction.


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

[User] [Terminator] Kyle Reese survives the end of the first movie. How does this change Sarah, John, and the events of T2: Judgement Day?

[Assistant]
They still would have gone on the run (Kyle is connected with a number of weapon charges and acts of violence, and no one is buying "future homicide robot" as a defense), but having Kyle around would mean that Sarah had both A) an entry-level tutor for a broad range of skills relevant to the future war and B) a friend and comrade who knows and understands what she's gone through. The former would eliminate her need to shack up with random guys to learn skills, and the latter would probably have a *massive* impact on the quality of her mental health.

The family would likely spend most of it's time down in Central and South America, doing their best to stay off the grid and to prepare for the future as best they can. They would likely run in similar circles to main continuity Sarah (since Kyle's skill set and the skills Sarah wants to cultivate for both herself and John lend themselves well to paramilitary/illegal activity), and cultivate a reputation for skill and professionalism. They still might try to blow up Cyberdyne, and being a two-person op instead of a solo run would greatly increase the chances of the mission going off right, instead of Sarah winding up in Pescadero and John in the juvenile system.

John, in turn, would have grown up with a healthier and more stable home life. The presences of Kyle, both to serve as father and tutor, means his life is much more consistent; instead of bopping around between a bunch of different guys to learn skills and act as ersatz father figures, he has *a father* who can teach him not only general skills, but stuff that will be really, *really* handy in the future.

If T2 still happens, Sarah is likely not stuck in an asylum and the family is likely all together. There's a high chance they're not even in the U.S., meaning that if the T1000 still starts in LA they're going to have a much harder row to hoe trying to find them. "Uncle Bob", meanwhile, would have inside-track info from John himself on where to find them, so would definitely beat the T1000 to the mark. From there (and assuming Sarah doesn't blow it's head off with an anti-tank rifle before it can say anything), the fight between human and machine is 4 on 1, likely with greater resources and a running start since no one needs popped from the loony bin.


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

[User]
ELI5: What is the difference between a religion and a cult?

Related: When does a religion become a myth? (Ex. Greek mythology)

[Assistant]
From a sociological point of view, a "cult" is simply a group of people with a particular form of worship.  If you go back to Ancient Rome, the people who worshiped at the temple of a specific god would be a cult.

In modern popular usage, the term specifically refers to fringe religions that are highly manipulative or destructive in nature, generally centered around a single charismatic leader.  The label is chosen not so much because of their size as how they're organized & how they act.


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

[User] ELI5: Why can we HEAR our joints crack? How does sound escape the inside of our body?

[Assistant]
The sound we hear is actually vibrating air that pushes against our eardrums, making them vibrate as well. But lots of things can vibrate (not just air), and when those things are in contact with air, they cause the air to vibrate as well. This is how materials can transmit or produce sound. For example, the sound of a violin is produced by the vibrations of its ~~snares~~ strings against the air. And the ~~snares~~ strings will also cause vibrations in the wood of the violin, which has a larger contact surface with the air, and thus amplifies the sound.

Sound 'escapes' the body because it makes the tissues in the body vibrate, and then those vibrations reach the air. It's the same reason why inside a sealed (airtight) room you can still hear sounds produced outside: the sound is transmitted through the walls and (especially) the windows.


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

[User]
What's the reason behind starting naming of electron shells from K, why not from any other letter?

Is it pure randomness or was there an actual reason? Similarly, why name the sub shells s,p,d,f?

[Assistant]
>Similarly, why name the sub shells s,p,d,f?

s, p, d, and f stand for "sharp", "principal", "diffuse", and "fundamental". The words come from old-fashioned spectroscopy. After f, it just continues alphabetically.


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

[User]
ELI5:What exactly happens over time to alcoholic beverages that get better with age?

Bonus: Why haven't we figured out how to accelerate the process?

[Assistant]
Most of the time the aging is done in certain kinds of wood (notably oak) which adds new flavor compounds, absorbs some undesirable flavor compounds.  Wines tend to age in the bottle are those high in tannins which are bitter compounds (unripe persimmons are a great example) that combine to create new and interesting flavors over time.

Speeding up oak aging only requires more surface area to liquid which can be done but is more expensive (small barrels) or not traditional (tanks with oak chips).  Aging in the bottle can be speed with increases in temperature but that increases undesirable changes at a higher rate than desirable ones.


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

[User]
If a healthy young person wants to die, would it be morally good or bad to "help" this person?

In the real world, this would be a terrible thing to do, but I would like to view this topic in terms of moral philosophy.

Note: this question has nothing to do with any real situation. It was just a weird thought.

[Assistant] Let us isolate the logical aspect of your question a healthy young person. A lot of the philosophy surrounding suicide places emphasis on quality of life and the fecundity of total freedoms. If an old person is diagnosed with bone cancer, perhaps it would be beneficial to assist them in suicide, as their total time left will be completely miserable and will not relent until death. By contrast, a healthy young person has a high probability of finding happiness in future that will outweigh their current misery, or even their current morbid mood, so perhaps we should try to help them. This is the logical aspect of suicide, Im sure others in this thread will address the moral aspect.


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

[User]
[LOTR] What do the different magic rings do?

I know there was a big war fought over that One Ring. But I heard Gandalf, that big grey-haired vet of the war, had a ring himself! What gives? What does his ring do? How many of these things are they; what do they do; where can I find one here on Middle-Earth?

[Assistant]
At the time the story is set there are only three rings left that Sauron does not have in his possession. They belong to Elrond, Galadriel and Gandalf. These three rings are used for preservation. Rivendell and Lorien are kept from waning and deterioration by their effects.

Celebrimbor was the elf who made them centuries before. There were 20 in total, and 16 of them were corrupted by Sauron in his attempts to control the different people of middle earth, and he had a direct hand in their creation. The three rings that the Elves (and Gandalf) still have were not corrupted as Sauron had no part in their creation, but were still susceptible to the control of the one ring.

Sauron gave 9 rings to the kings of men and 7 to the dwarf lords. When he created the One Ring these 16 ring wearers fell under his control. The kings of men, over time, turned into the Nazgul. When Sauron did this the Elves immediately realised what was happening and took their rings off.

The reason why they wear them during the time the books are set is because Sauron did not have the ruling ring, so they were safe to use.


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

[User]
ELI5: Why can schools get rid of your constitutional rights? Such as freedom of speech or expression and how is this lawful?

I searched it and it was answer many times but I feel they weren't answers I was looking for.

[Assistant]
Courts have specifically decided that there are times that your rights can be infringed on for the greater benefit.  Schools restricting certain rights to benefit the education of the public is one of those times.

There are lots of examples of these, and frankly, none of them are particularly interesting, as for the most part they are common sense stuff and "don't be a moron, moron" type activities, or "don't ruin this for everyone else, asshole" stuff.


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

[User]
[W40K] I bought my wife this ring and now...Emperor help me!

Hey everyone, I need help! I don't know what to do!

I'm a businessman living on Rigel Prime and about six months ago I was attending a trade conference in Bhaal 6. While checking out a local flea market and I spotted this really unusual looking ring. The seller said he had no idea where it came from, some guy pawned it months back. But I thought I would be a nice gift for the wife so I purchased it.

Well, the wife loved it immediately and started wearing it all the time... and that was the start of the weirdness. I mean, she wore it ALL the time. She literally never took it off. She would take off her wedding ring to bath and such, but not *this* ring.

Then I noticed she started to look different... better. It's like her skin smoother and had a nice shine to it. And she claimed she had been feeling more energetic lately. Sex started getting noticeably better, she was more adventurous and willing to try stuff she used to dismiss in the past...

But I started to really get weirded out about four months ago when I noticed she started to legitimately look...*younger*. Like 15 years younger. I mean she looked friggin amazing yeah, but seriously it was unnerving.

But the real shit started a few weeks ago... were we were getting naughty one night and she friggin *bites* me... I mean, she literally tried tear a chunk of skin off. I was like "woah fuck, what the hell" and I kid you not, she looks at me with this crazy slasher smile and says to me "but honey, you taste so good..." I frigging got the hell out of our bedroom. She yelled at me, calling me a bastard and claiming that I was cheating on her and all kinds of shit that wasn't true. I locked myself in another room and sleep there for the night.

The next morning I got a call from my boss about some crisis at distand business office in another sector, so I had to pack and immediately take off to deal with it. I figured the timing was good because the events of the previous night we're still in my mind. I tried to tell my wife I had to be gone the next few weeks but she wouldn't open the bedroom door. I figured she was pissed so i just left.

...which leads me to where I'm at now. I just got back from the business trip and when I got into my house, I entered kitchen calling out to my wife...

And there she was in the kitchen...sitting next to another man I don't recognize. Except I realized he's motionless with this glazed look in his eyes... and she's *eating his fucking neck like it's a Emperor-damned chicken drumstick*. And she she spots me, then looks up at me with her whole lower face covered in blood and chunky red bits, and and says "oh honey you're back... Come give me a kiss..."

I ran the fuck out of my house as fast as I could. Right now I'm in a hotel room, sweating bolter rounds. What the fuck is happening to my wife, I mean she was *eating a man* for Emporer sakes! It *had* to be that ring, it all started when I gave her that damned thing. But what do I do? Call the Arbites? But they might kill her! I need help!

[Assistant]
Calm down citizen, we're here to help.  *The Emperor Protects.*

You're highly placed, travel between the stars, that means you can get to an Astropath and send a message off planet.  You need to *immediately* get to the nearest one.  Don't let anyone stop you; invoke the name of the Emperor and all of his true servants will come to your aid.  Use a bolter on any who try to stop you, this may have infected more people without your knowledge.  Friends, co-workers, other loved ones, all are vulnerable.

When you reach an Astropath, contact the Inquisition.  Tell them what you have seen, they will know it as the darkest heresy.  Once you've done this, your duty is finished.  If you are lucky, the Emperor's cleansing fire will arrive before the heretics find you, and find what you've done.   Fight them off as long as you can, ensure your soul remains pure.

*The Emperor Protects.*


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

[User]
ELI5:Why does water have an expiration date?

Why does *bottled* water have an expiration date?

[Assistant] The plastic bottle it is contained in does "expire," and will eventually start leaching chemicals into the water. This won't necessarily render the water toxic, but it might make it taste somewhat less than "mountain spring fresh." If consumers contact drink companies to complain that water they bought several years earlier tastes bad, the bottlers can point out that it's their own fault for not drinking it by the expiration date.


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

[User]
[Wonder Woman] Is Wonder Woman capable of getting pregnant?

I mean she's made out of clay and... magic, right? Is she actually alive or is she kinda like a golem? I know these questions must sound ridiculous but I'm a total noob when it comes to her lore.

[Assistant] As of late she's not even made of clay but even when she was she was technically only made from it, not made out of it. Same way god took some sand or whatever and made human, then took a rib and made man, we are not dirt or rib, we're now people.


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

[User]
Is there a reason why different cultures prefer hot or cold water over the other?

When I visited a few Asian countries, I noticed that many of them drank warm or hot water instead of cold water like we do in the States. Is there a reason for this change?

EDIT: I tagged this as answered, but there aren't many sources, and I'm sure there can be more than just a few answers, so feel free to comment with sources or more answers!

[Assistant]
The preference seems to break down according to level of development and danger of contaminated water.  Boiling water is a strategy for killing water borne parasites,  and serving hot water serves to reassure the drinker that the water has been sterilized recently.

Add to that a familiarity effect: someone who grew up drinking recently boiled water will prefer that simply because it is more familiar and will give the same to their children.  That explains why the preference survives even after clean drinking water becomes available.

Also,  refrigeration is a much more costly technology and chilling water provides no practical benefit.  Chilled water is an expensive luxury while heating water is a cheap and practical matter.


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

[User]
I think we should not encourage so many people to go to college. CMV

I'm 17. I'm not sure if this happened with previous generations (I'm assuming it didn't, or not as strongly), but we (EVERYONE around my age) have been told from grade school that we should go to college. I have nothing against getting an education, and I think everyone should get a good one. However, I think the notion of total encouragement for everyone to go to college is ridiculous. It is way too costly nowadays for everyone to get a degree, especially when so many people will end up with a job they didn't need to spend ~$15,000/yr on. Not only that, but the idea is that if we go to college we can get a good paying job and not have to do the hard manual labor that we see some of our parents doing. I think that we should keep a very good amount of people as manual laborers in America. If we all/most of us become people who don't do the manual labor, that hard work simply won't disappear. No, it will go into areas of the world where a simple community college seems as fantastical a place as Hogwarts does to us. Should they, who didn't have the opportunity to go "better" themselves, be subjected to do the work we were simply too lazy to do, or we saw ourselves as "better than"?

[Assistant]
Well, who are the people who we're going to stop encouraging to go to college? Would you be happy if we decided *you* would be better suited to manual labor and never told you about college?

The obvious solution to this isn't to stop encouraging people to go to college. It's to stop treating college as something you pay for in return for (maybe) getting a better job.


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

[User]
If E=mc^2, my total energy is constant as my mass is constant. If I gain potential energy because I went up an elevator, my energy level changes but my mass is constant. What gives?

It seems like there's a discrepancy. Does E=mc^2 not represent your total energy?

[Assistant]
E = mc^(2) does not represent your total energy. It's the total energy of a free particle (or system of particles) in a reference frame where the total momentum of the system is zero.

If you're at rest in a Newtonian gravitational potential well V, your total energy is E = mc^(2) + V.

Changing V does not change *your* mass at all. However V is not a property of *you*, it's a property of the entire Earth-you system. And changing your location relative to the source of the potential changes the potential energy of the system as a whole.

If you were to write down the mass of the entire system, that's simply equivalent to the total energy in a reference frame where the total momentum is zero. So the total mass of the system is given by

M*_tot_*^(2) = (M*_planet_* + m*_you_* + V)^(2), (c = 1).

The potential energy of interaction between you and the planet contributes to the mass of the **system as a whole**. Although if you just consider the system to be you, and the planet to be external, then V is treated like an external potential, and it doesn't affect your mass, but you're not a free particle in this system.


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

[User] [Doctor Who/Torchwood] Why didn't Jack Harkness appear to suffer from the same loss of memory over time that Ashildr/Me experienced?

[Assistant] It's noteworthy that Jack and Ashildr were rendered 'immortal' through different means.  Ashildr was constantly being repaired by alien technology, whereas Jack was a fixed point in time.  It's plausible that the 'repairing' process contributed to Ashildr's memory issues.


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

[User]
Ed. D or PhD?

Those of you in the educational realm: Would you recommend a PhD in Ed. or an Ed.D. ? What are some things I should keep in mind completing either? Ive done some research on my own, but wanted some personal experiences.

I am a public school teacher in the US who has experience with grant writing, research, and academic presentations. I have completed research projects during my bachelors and masters. I continue to do research today through a fellowship program with the hope of publication by its end.  Im dedicated, passionate, and have thought of pursuing academia in the past. My dream career would be teaching at the university level or operating as an educational program director for an NGO.

Thank you for any thoughts you are willing to share.

[Assistant]
What's your end goal? If you want to teach at the university level, the you'd need a PhD. Faculty positions still don't really go to EdD.

If you want to work in university administration, or other education administration, then an EdD would be fine.

I'd also note there is some...skepticism, if that's the best word, from academics towards EdDs. Not everyone, and not everywhere, but if you want to be in academia you may encounter that attitude if you go the EdD route.


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

[User]
ELI5: What do food companies change in their ready meal products so the cooking time is reduced while still keeping the product the same?

I recently noticed that Bachelors pasta ready meals now cook in 5 mins instead of 8 mins. You still add the same amount of milk, water and butter and the meal itself seems exactly the same but the cooking time is reduced, how do they achieve this?

[Assistant] Cook it further in the factory. Let's say pasta needs to be boiled/heated for 12 min. in total to be done. Before maybe they par-boiled it for 4 min. Now they cook it for 7. So it's further along before packaged for you to complete.


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

[User] [The Matrix 1999] Would the machines have plugged Cypher back in to honour thier deal and how would they have done it?

[Assistant]
Sure. The Machines have no reason to hate Cypher and there would be no point in killing him.

If the plan worked, Cypher logs out early and kills the entire crew, the Machines pick up the Nebuchadnezzar and take Cypher to an empty pod. The Machines would delete his memory as they appear to have reached a point where wetware and software are the same thing, so memory modification should be simple. They've done it to people within the Matrix who come close to the truth.

They hook up all of his ports with the nutrition drips and the like, and jack him back in after setting up a new identity for him, presumably a wealth upper-class life with little stress.


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

[User]
[Harry Potter] What exactly was the resurrection stone?

The resurrection stone is of all the hallows the most extraordinary, going beyond mere amplification of magic or permanence of an effect, but instead could truly recall souls long after their death. Yet this spell is not of course true resurrection, and as Dumbledore himself says after posessing the stone, no spell can awaken the dead. Was the stone using something similar to the echoes of Priori Incantatem?

[Assistant]
It was an artifact crafted by the Peverells that manipulates the Veil between the realms of the living and the dead. It allows the dead to impinge their form on the Veil, so that they can be seen and heard by the living, but they remain separated by it. It's like the Veil is a blanket and the person is covered by it.

There is another similar artifact, the Veil Arch in the Department of Mysteries. That one materializes the Veil in a concrete form, allowing the living to cross it physically. Nothing can cross it in the opposite direction, but communication is possible.

These artifacts are essentially "deep magic." They violate the First Law of Magic (tamper with the nature of life, death and soul only if you're prepared for unpredictable consequences) which means they aren't bound by the limits of normal magic, but are also infinitely more dangerous.


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

[User] ELI5: what exactly is the determinant of a matrix calculating, and why does it end up being so significant/useful in other matrix calculations?

[Assistant]
I'll focus on 3 x 3 matrices.

Take any 3D shape. Something that's asymetrical, like a sculpture of Vincent Van Gogh's head. Or anything else, it doesn't matter, but it should have a finite volume V. (and not zero volume, like a flat plane). Think of your 3D shape as sitting in an x,y,z coordinate system. There are infinitely many points in your shape and each of those points P is described by a vector that goes from (0,0,0) to P. So you have infinitely many vectors that describe your shape.

Now suppose we have a matrix M. We can think of M as transforming vectors. Take a vector v and M\*v is some other vector (or maybe the same vector!).

We're going to take every vector that's describing your shape and transform each of them with M. The end result will be another shape. How different it is will depend a lot on M, but it can be any combination of the following: your original shape rotated about some axis; your original shape scaled up or down in size; a mirror image of your original shape; your original shape skewed, as if it were made out of clay and your smushed/stretched it uniformly along some combination of directions.

The volume of your transformed shape is likely different than it was originally. The factor by which the volume changed is the determinant of M. That is,

New Volume = |det A| \* Old Volume.

I used absolute value on the determinant there because volume ought to be positive and the determinant can be negative. A negative determinant has a straightforward interpretation: it means the transformation of your shape involved taking a mirror image. Like Vincent van Gogh's missing ear switching sides.

With this volume-based interpretation of determinants we can quickly make some inferences about determinants that are pretty hard to perceive just from the definition of determinants. For one, a zero determinant must mean the transformation squished your shape to something with zero volume -- a flat plane, or a line, or a point. So any matrix that "projects" down to a plane or a line or a point must have zero determinant. Also we can infer if the transformation by M only rotated your shape without altering it otherwise, then the determinant of M should be 1, since the volume is the same. Likewise, a purely mirror-image transformation, or a mirror-image combined with a rotation, ought to have determinant -1. Also we can infer the important rule for determinants, that if K and M are both matrices, then det(K\*M) = det(K)\*det(M). I'll leave that for you to reason through.


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

[User]
In America, a child becomes a citizen at the time of birth (acquisition) under certain conditions. But until the time of birth, the fetus is not technically a U.S. Citizen. Does it then still have the constitutional right to life, liberty and happiness?

Constitutional right to life, liberty, and property*

[Assistant]
You don't have a Constitutional right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". That famous language was contained in the Declaration of Independence, not the U.S. Constitution.

The Constitution is the highest law in the U.S., but the Declaration is not law at all. Courts will sometimes use the Declaration to guide their opinions, and the holding of their opinion is law, but the Declaration is not.

Although life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not law itself, you may find some of these words effectuated in the Constitution. For example, your right to liberty is embodied in various amendments, including the fourth amendment's limitations on search and seizure and the fifth's protections against self incrimination and guarantee of due process.


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

[User]
[Superman] What happens to Superman if he is exposed to other types of suns?

Yellow sun makes him superman, Red sun makes him basically human.  What about Blue, White, Orange?

[Assistant] Well since he has no power in red and is insanely strong in yellow, orange is probably somewhere in between. blue and white would probably take him up to legit god levels of power where he could destroy a planet by punching it and be unaffected by black holes.


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

[User] ELI5: How do civil engineers calculate how much weight a bridge can hold?

[Assistant] There's a class in college called "statics" and "dynamics".  Where you learn about how much weight various materials can support and what happens if the weight is applied at an angle and how you can add support with cables and such.