Question: How does national debt work? And if the debt is astronomically high, is it commonplace for a strategy to be followed to pay it off or is the expectation that it'll never actually be paid back?

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 How does national debt work? And if the debt is astronomically high, is it commonplace for a strategy to be followed to pay it off or is the expectation that it'll never actually be paid back?

The national debt is generally composed of bonds, agreements to pay back a certain amount of money at a certain time in the future. Note the limitations here: A bond holder cannot choose to "call in the debt" sooner than the date the bond matures, so fear mongering about foreign countries demanding payment all at once are baseless. The government is expected to pay off bonds as they become due, and for the US there is no trouble in doing this. Paying off all outstanding bonds immediately or in short order is impossible for several reasons; the money isn't available but also the agreements don't allow it. But that is all ignoring the fact that the government *doesn’t want to do that.* Borrowing money in a comfortable, sustainable way is desirable. Have you ever heard the phrase "You have to spend money to make money"? Controlling wealth is beneficial in that it allows you to produce more wealth from it. A business for example might borrow money to open a new store and do business, making enough profit to cover the loan and its interest with extra left over. In a similar way the government can use its control over greater amounts of wealth to generate more income in the future, benefitting from offering bonds to whoever wishes to purchase them. For the US those government bonds are seen as essentially zero risk and the interest rates required to sell them are extremely low. That means the cost of debt for the government is extremely low and the reasonable debt burden is quite high. While a private citizen might desire to become debt free in their personal finances that goal simply is not shared by most businesses or the government.


Question: How does squinting make us see things better?

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 How does squinting make us see things better?

If you make your pupil smaller (by squinting), you do two things - you make the image sharper (because most errors occur near the edges), and you also let less light in. So you can squint to make an image sharper, but this won't help if you can't get enough light in.


Question: Does ‘facing your fears’ work? If so, how?

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 Does ‘facing your fears’ work? If so, how?

It’s called “exposure therapy” and they use it a lot for anxiety disorders. Basically if you do the thing you’re scared of you start to get desensitized to it. By being exposed over and over and not having anything horrible happen, your body realizes that a “fight or flight”/panic response actually isn’t necessary and it will generally stop doing it (or at least do it less intensely).


Question: How do insurances profit and avoid misusage?

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 How do insurances profit and avoid misusage?

> Always wondered how do car / house / personal liability insurances avoid "cheaters" or misusage? If you make a lot of claims, your insurance rates go up. Also, the insurance companies know that a certain amount of fraud is inevitable and they build that into the premiums that they charge.


Question: how can a stock price change if the volume stays at 0?

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 how can a stock price change if the volume stays at 0?

Depending how the price index is calculated, it can vary as people try unsuccessfully to buy or sell. The London Stock Exchange quoted price differs depending on trading activity in that share. > Price > ..... This is the last automatic trade, the last uncrossing price **or the mid-price of the best bid and offer prices available** for the security. This is not necessarily the definitive price at which you can buy or sell securities...... So say I offer to sell XYZ shares at 2.00 and you offer to buy at 1.00, no trade is going to happen and the record price is going to be 1.50. Now maybe I need the money more desperately the next day so I drop my asking price to 1.50 but you don't bite, still no trade but the quote now shows 1.25. And so on, maybe my estimation of XYZ's future profits goes up but you don't think the same, the average of bid and offer prices doesn't converge to an actual trade for a long time.


Question: Why is everyone ordering way too many things online, causing everything to go out of stock & prices to rise 2 times more, if the economy is supposedly rock bottom & overall people are earning less money than they had before lockdowns?

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 Why is everyone ordering way too many things online, causing everything to go out of stock & prices to rise 2 times more, if the economy is supposedly rock bottom & overall people are earning less money than they had before lockdowns?

They're buying different things. For example, in my area, nobody is buying new cars so there's a giant glut of new car sales. But our school districts just announced that they will start virtual in the fall so Ikea is completely out of desks and chairs as parents everywhere rush to build new "home school" setups. Lots of people don't want to go out due to COVID-19 restrictions so they're buying stuff online that they normally would have bought at the store. They're not buying more, they're buying the same stuff from a different place. Total expenditure is way down, that's what they mean when they say "The economy shrank by x%", but where people are spending the money they have left moved around a ton and it's taking months for all the supply chains to catch up. For example, I still can't reliably find normal-sized flour at the grocery store because everyone is baking at home and buying all the flour in sight, and the nice people at King Arthur are spinning up their flour mills as fast as they can, but I can buy JetBlue snack packs online for cheap because nobody's flying.


Question: How do sport events for disabled athletes make sure that everyone has equal disadvantages?

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 How do sport events for disabled athletes make sure that everyone has equal disadvantages?

That's not really the concern, or you'd have things like "the Paraplegic 100 meter swim" and the "Basketball for people missing their left leg below the knee". As you point out, everyone is different and so is every disability. Equality is not the goal, but rather equity. That is, we're not trying to make everyone the same, but rather to give everyone the opportunity to be the best that they can be in whichever event they participate in.


Question: Why are pain meds like vicodin so much different from OTC drugs like ibuprofen?

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 Why are pain meds like vicodin so much different from OTC drugs like ibuprofen?

They affect different chemical receptors. Vicodin, codiene, morphine and other opiods/opiates have an effect on dopamine production/receptors in the body which are also responsible for "good" feelings and can suppress the feelings of pain. Ibuprofen and other usually just effect dilation of blood vessels allowing for swelling to be reduced and the body to help start the healing process. Vicodin and other pain meds usually have ibuprofen in them, but not the other way around.


Question: Why, despite all the stuff hurling round space, has Earth not been hit by a devastating asteroid in the last few hundred years?

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 Why, despite all the stuff hurling round space, has Earth not been hit by a devastating asteroid in the last few hundred years?

Space is big. I mean really big. You might think it's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll, but that's peanuts compared to space. All the planets in the solar system ? You can line 'em up between the Earth and the moon. They'll fit. And the moon is next door. That's how big space is compared to the stuff floating around in it.


Question: Why do warmer alcoholic beverages get absorbed into the system quicker?

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 Why do warmer alcoholic beverages get absorbed into the system quicker?

I can't find any literature linking the temperature of a drink to it's absorption rate. And as far as I'm aware, the temperature of alcohol doesn't affect the rate of absorption. Things like how full your stomache is, weight, gender, do. And because how "buzzed" you feel is a "feeling" vs. an objective measure like blood alcohol content, the placebo effect is significant. If you believe the temperature of a drink affects absorption, it'll definitely feel like it. If you have a home breathalyzer you can experimentally check. One day get drunk on cold beer and measure your BAC periodically. The next day get drunk on warm beer. Be sure to eat the same amount of food before hand and consume at the same rate. Please get drunk for us in the name of science and report back your results. Edit: abortion doesn't have anything to do with absorption


Question: Why does one get a weird and somewhat unusual feeling when coming back to their home after a long trip ?

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 Why does one get a weird and somewhat unusual feeling when coming back to their home after a long trip ?

I don't know for sure, yet it seems rather obvious to me. Normally, when you are not on vacation, you wake up in the same bed, in the same house, and that is the place that you spend most of your time in. When you've been on vacation for a while, your brains have adjusted to living in a different environment, and they have sort of "forgotten" about your home. When you return home and see it again, the memories of your home flood back. It smells and look different from the place that you have been having a vacation at for the past days. That's why it feels kind of outplaced, different.


Question: Why are there prescription strength drugs when we can just take more of the regular drug?

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 Why are there prescription strength drugs when we can just take more of the regular drug?

I can think of one example.. a non prescription pain killer I use is 15mg of codeine and 500mg paracetamol.. there is a prescription version that is 30mg codeine and 500mg paracetamol.. both versions have a daily maximum of 8 tablets (I think).. from what I understand, the paracetamol is damaging to your liver at high doses, codeine is not so damaging


Question: Why do babies laugh at the same thing/action again and again?

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 Why do babies laugh at the same thing/action again and again?

On the most fundamental level, our brain exists to figure out what we want to change in the world, and then how to cause that change. For babies, we're talking really basic stuff. Like "I'm on my back but want to be on my stomach how do I roll over" basic. And one of the most important areas is getting other humans to do what you want them to do. Babies learn to strategies pretty quickly. First is "I don't like something so I'm going to cry till you fix it." Second is "I do like something so I'll laugh so you do it more". But the same way you throw a ball back and forth a million times to play catch, they're practicing and experimenting and getting good good brain chemicals for figuring it out. (If you've ever had a baby throw their toy on the ground every time you hand it back to them, usually laughing, it's the same idea. "Yes, human, do my bidding, fetch!") Eventually we develop language for the same reason, and can get much more precise and complicated in our requests so just playing peekaboo for an hour loses it's novelty.


Question: Why do content creators need 100% calibrated displays? Aren't consumers going to buy non-calibrated, over-saturated displays anyway?

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 Why do content creators need 100% calibrated displays? Aren't consumers going to buy non-calibrated, over-saturated displays anyway?

You are right that most consumer displays have poor color accuracy, though more devices are starting to come with calibrated displays. Professional content creators don't use calibrated displays so that you and I see things correctly, but rather to ensure that when working as a team every member sees the same thing. If they were to all use consumer displays then, for instance, you might have someone who's display has more of a green tint and might adjust colors to compensate, but then it would look wrong to the rest of the team and it would be a constant back-and-forth.


Question: Before phones were popularized, how were the police informed of a crime taking place?

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 Before phones were popularized, how were the police informed of a crime taking place?

Walking to the sherrif's office/police station and letting them know. Some areas also had police call boxes (Yes, like the Doctor Who thing) in high traffic areas like parks that would connect you with emergency services, in America at least you can still occasionally see call boxes around although I've seen more fire call boxes than police. For the most part though, fast police response wasn't a thing.


Question: Why is zinc sunscreen suddenly so popular?

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 Why is zinc sunscreen suddenly so popular?

Zinc is sort of the iconic sunscreen option that you picture for the nose of a 1950s lifeguard, but it fell out of fashion because it doesn't blend in well and just stays as big white spots on your skin. Its resurgence is thanks to advances in technology that allow for smaller particles that let it blend in much better than before. It's generally considered healthier for skin and the environment, but it looked bad. Now it benefits from a rising interest in healthier options and it can finally blend in like people want.


Question: How does a tree know it's tall enough to start sprouting branches? What causes trees to grow tall before sprouting branches and leaves?

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 How does a tree know it's tall enough to start sprouting branches? What causes trees to grow tall before sprouting branches and leaves?

A tree will start sprouting branches right after the germination process is done. So first branches should be expected to be a few millimeters above the ground. However it is common for lower branches in a tree to fall off due to lack of sunlight in the shadow of the upper branches or due to damage from animals. So only its upper branches will remain.


Question: How does UV light make colors other than ultra violet glow?

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 How does UV light make colors other than ultra violet glow?

The inks or paints that glow are fluorescent. They absorb UV light and re-emit it at visible wavelengths. This can make them brighter than an ink which simply reflects visible light, hence the use of fluorescent dyes in high-vis clothing. Blacklight is primarily UV so makes everything else dim while fluorescent objects 'pop'.


Question: If hail is ice, what causes rain to become hail instead of snow?

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 If hail is ice, what causes rain to become hail instead of snow?

Hail is a summer event. In the summer, you can have giant thunderstorm clouds which have huge temperature differences within the cloud (ice cold up high), very warm down low. There are often large updrafts in the clouds. Drops of water will get blown up into the colder part of the cloud where it will freeze into ice. The ice will fall for a bit but then get caught in another draft of upward flowing air and go back up into the colder part again where it gets another layer of ice. The cycle continues until the ball of hail gets too heavy and falls out of the cloud... reaching the ground before it can melt in the summer air. The size of the ball of hail tells you how strong the storm is because it tells you how many times the ball was blown back up into the highest part of the cloud before it finally fell. Snow is a winter event. Tiny ice crystals form in a cold cloud and fall to the earth. No updrafts of win. Freezing rain is another wintry event. Rain falls from a warmer cloud but freezes in colder air before it reaches the ground.


Question: What is the DOW and why should I be concerned?

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 What is the DOW and why should I be concerned?

> What is the DOW? You've got lots of answers, but it is an index of 30 of the largest companies in America. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a computed value based on the prices of shares of those 30 companies. > Why should I be concerned? Maybe you shouldn't be. The short version is that over the past couple of months, the values of these large companies has fallen significantly. In particular, it has now declined 20% from the recent all-time high, which is what the wall street folks call a "bear market". These prices are set by market participants, so this price movement could mean anything or nothing. But the overall sentiment of stock investors is negative, suggesting that they expect future earnings to decline (or, at least, to be significantly less than they expected before) > What does this mean for your average person? Immediately: nothing. It means that people expect that America's largest companies won't make as much money as expected. If the market is right, then probably unemployment will eventually increase, as falling earnings lead to layoffs. If the market is wrong, then stock prices will go back up. > Is this all time low a sign of a poor economy? This isn't anything like an all-time low. In fact, just 18 months ago, hte market was at this level, and it was an all-time high. > A few have mentioned a potential Great Recession, is this true? It is always possible that we are headed for something like that. Or not. Nobody really knows. However, in 2008, there were some serious problems entirely apart from the market move. There were all sorts of problems in the mortgage market, with millions of mortgages that would never be repaid, and all sorts of financial institutions that had their finances toed up in them. So far, this time, the underlying economy is very healthy, with strong earnings, and low unemployment. Maybe that will change, and we will have a disaster. Maybe not > How did this happen? People's level of optimism about the near future of America's economy changed, so they've decreased their willingness to pay high prices to own the shares of American companies. > How can the DOW bounce back? If earnings and unemployment stay as good as they have been, it'll happen naturally. The market runs more-or-less entirely upon expectations.


Question: How do Sex Addicts Anonymous Meetings work to avoid people from having sex with eachother?

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 How do Sex Addicts Anonymous Meetings work to avoid people from having sex with eachother?

These meetings are there to empower you because you want to change. Nothing is stopping an alcoholic from having a drink before a meeting, although they may be asked to leave if they’re influencing other members who wouldn’t do so otherwise. They’re not there to force change on you. Addiction of any kind can only change if the person has reached a point they have the conviction to make that change. They offer support and advice, not rules and punishment.


Question: With web extensions, like the heavily-advertised "Honey" service, "automatically find[ing] and appl[ying] coupon codes at checkout with a single click," wouldn't this drive up prices at these websites?

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 With web extensions, like the heavily-advertised "Honey" service, "automatically find[ing] and appl[ying] coupon codes at checkout with a single click," wouldn't this drive up prices at these websites?

What lost income? If anything, they may see increased income. Having easy to access coupons can encourage buyers to buy more, or buy stuff they weren't planning to originally buy. It also attracts buyers who weren't going to buy anything. New sales can make up for the discount provided by the coupon. Not to mention most of these coupon savings are minimal (like 10% off or free shipping) and if a product is sold at a high enough profit margin, the company is still making money.


Question: Why are semi-auto marksman rifles not as accurate as bolt-actions?

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 Why are semi-auto marksman rifles not as accurate as bolt-actions?

There are a lot less variables with a bolt action. They are simple and strong, and that makes for less ‘play’ in the action. Semi autos use a gas system, rechamber based on recoil and basically have more moving parts, which is more that can throw off the ballistics of a given shot. They are also often constructed to be more portable, and light. Which results in shorter barrel length, which means reduced accuracy. (I seem to have been informed this is more to do with velocity than ballistics, fair enough) Most modern sniper rifles also use more powerful rounds than ‘traditional’ rifle cartridges, such as 338 lapua magnum. These rounds offer superior ballistics, but are impractical for use in a marksman rifle, on the move with an infantry section. That said, it’s not always true. A modern marksman rifle is produced to a higher standard of accuracy than a bolt action sniper rifle from 100 years ago.


Question: How does EU Parliament work?

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 How does EU Parliament work?

Under the Lisbon Treaty, states are allocated a number of MEPs based on their population. Croatia has 11 and France has 74. MEPs are elected by national elections in each country. This usually forms part of the normal voting process with local government elections. Yes the parties are cross country. They tend to involve groups of like minded people politically. For the sake of this discussion for example all conservative (small c) political groups band together, thus increasing the chances of their ideology being put forward. EDIT: Second question in comments.


Question: Why is suicide attempt considered as a crime?

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 Why is suicide attempt considered as a crime?

[Suicide isn't really considered a crime much in the West]( URL_0 ). That said, to the extent it is treated as a crime for anything like secular reasons, it is usually because of ancillary effects. It allows the police to intervene, for example, potentially justifies forcible commitment, voids certain contracts (since contracts to perform an illegal act are illegal), and other side effects of being a crime.


Question: why cant we store electricity indefinitely in batteries?

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 why cant we store electricity indefinitely in batteries?

Batteries work by storing electrons between an electrolyte layer. That layer prevents the cathode from making contact with the anode, which would result in a short circuit. When a load is introduced to the battery, it pulls electrons from one side to the other, creating an electric current through the attached device. What causes batteries to lose charge overtime is that the electrolyte is not perfect. Electrons will still slip past it and move to the anode layer, which means the batteries capacity is lowered. When batteries are connected to electronics, they could also be powering part of the device, even if it's turned off. IE: In phones, the battery will keep the real-time clock powered on, and possibly other components, while it's turned off.


Question: what is the difference between narcissism and extreme vanity?

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 what is the difference between narcissism and extreme vanity?

One is a psychiatric diagnosis. The other is not. That may sound like I’m being glib, but it cuts to the heart of the matter: both of them are personality problems, but once a personality problem becomes so bad that it interferes with your ability to interact with society in a healthy way, then it becomes something a psychoanalyst will give a diagnosis for. If your egocentrism annoys loved ones, it’s a flaw. If your egocentrism prevents you from holding down a job, maintaining a healthy relationship or appropriately caring for a child in your responsibility, then it’s something that a doctor needs to diagnose.


Question: how exactly does pepto-bismol cure my nausea, heart burn, indigestion,upset stomach, diarrhea?

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 how exactly does pepto-bismol cure my nausea, heart burn, indigestion,upset stomach, diarrhea?

I am not a doctor or pharmacist, but someone who has taken lots of Pepto and has researched this out of curiosity. Basically, most of those symptoms are caused by an inflammation in the digestive tract. Bismuth Subsalicylate, the active ingredient, helps reduce that inflammation. I say most because as I understand it, we don't really know why it works as an anti-diarrheal. Usually diarrhea is caused by your system flooding your intestines with extra water to attempt to cleanse itself. So it could be the case that Pepto helps your intestinal wall reabsorb that extra fluid. [Source]( URL_0 )


Question: How live and living entities developed from "dead" matter?

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 How live and living entities developed from "dead" matter?

Our best current hypothesis goes like this: * The building blocks for RNA can be found in nature. Given enough time, those building blocks assembled into strands of RNA by pure chemical means by chance. * RNA is unusual in that it can both be replicated (that is, it works as a genetic material) and can cause certain chemical reactions to happen faster (that is, it can play the same role as proteins do in modern biology). This led to some RNA strands catalyzing reactions that made those RNA strands reproduce or be more stable in their environment. These RNA strands became self-reproducing and exercised control over their environment in a way that depended on their structure, meaning that they were arguably the first living things. Examples of these isolated RNA "organisms" exist today in the form of plant diseases called [viroids]( URL_0 ). * Structures similar to cell membranes can form without the intervention of life, by purely chemical means. Some of those membranes eventually wrapped around a strand of RNA from the previous step. This allowed the RNA to work within a controlled environment. * These membranes-around-RNA-strands (what you could loosely call the first cells) figured out how to duplicate their RNA and to split the membrane, in such a way that they maintained control over their internal environment. At this stage, cells (and not RNA strands by themselves) became the fundamental building blocks of life. * A specific kind of RNA, what we'd now call tRNA, developed that could use RNA as a template to build proteins. This was better than the RNA doing things itself, because a single authoritative copy of the RNA could be kept and used as a template for thousands of proteins. At this point, proteins became the main (though not the only) functional molecules within a cell, with RNA taking a back seat in the role of pure genetic material. * DNA's building blocks can also be found in nature. DNA is a bit harder to assemble, and more importantly can't directly "do things" like RNA can. Because RNA can cause the formation of other RNA or proteins, it could create a new type of RNA that "copies" information off of DNA (what we would now call mRNA). Because DNA is much harder to damage than RNA and can be more easily repaired because errors can be detected from mismatch between its strands, DNA became the main way to store information in cells. RNA was now neither the main genetic material nor the main functional molecule, and instead took on a role as an intermediate between DNA (genetic material) and proteins (functional molecules). It's around this point that the last universal common ancestor - the single cell that would ultimately produce all cellular life on Earth today - lived. All cells known today: * use DNA as their genetic material, * use DNA to produce RNA according to a specific mechanism, * use that RNA to produce proteins through a code that is almost universal among living things (a very few organisms later evolved slight modifications), * and use those proteins to carry on the functions of life, * within a cell membrane of phospholipids that separates the cell from its environment. Other kinds of life probably existed at this time, but none of their descendants have survived to the present day. Note that modern cells actually do carry remnants of this very early world, with [RNA acting as a catalyst]( URL_1 ) in specific parts of even modern cells. The theory I've summarized above is the "RNA world" hypothesis. It's generally the best-accepted theory today, but there are a number of competing theories that are also possible; it's possible we'll never truly know the answer to this question. Our best guess is that this process happened over a few hundred million years, beginning somewhere between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago (shortly after the formation of the Earth), probably at volcanic vents in the ocean.


Question: how does a file get corrupted? What is it that happens?

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 how does a file get corrupted? What is it that happens?

Let's take this analogy: you're making a puzzle. You got the box to show you the image you have to make. You're puzzling and puzzling, everything is going fine. Halfway through someone kicks your puzzle and some of the pieces (this could be any error happening with your pc). Later you want to see the image on the puzzle, only to realize it's not finished. On top of that, you're missing pieces. You could say your puzzle (the file) is corrupted. Now what actually happens is that your pc tries to write a file to your hard drive. If that is being interrupted, it can't write the file in its entirety to the disk, which causes the file to be incomplete and unreadable (thus corrupted). This can also happen while you're updating windows for instance. While it's installing the updates, it asks you not to turn off your pc (because that will disrupt the puzzling process). If your pc does shut down unexpectedly, the updates may not be installed properly, causing your OS (windows) to be corrupted.


Question: How do the chances of having twins run genetically throughout a family?

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 How do the chances of having twins run genetically throughout a family?

It depends on the kind of twins. Twins can happen due to one of those things: one egg cell is fertilised by one sperm cell but splits early into the growth process and develops into two seperate babies (identical twin) or the female body produces two egg cells during ovulation which are then fertilised by two different sperm cells (fraternal). Fraternal twins have a genetic component. releasing two egg cells at once is a trait that can be passed on genetically. Only in women can this trait actually lead to a higher chance of having twins though (because obviously men aren't ovulating), but men might pass this trait onto future daughters of theirs. As for identical twins, IIRC, the fertilised egg cell splitting is really due to chance and not really genetically influenced so that sort of trait cannot be passed down.


Question: How do our brains differentiate the signals for thirst and hunger?

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 How do our brains differentiate the signals for thirst and hunger?

They're controlled by different hormones. When you start to get dehydrated, the sodium/salt level starts to rise in your bloodstream, and your body starts releasing anti diuretic hormone (ADH) to tell both your kidney to conserve water better and signals thirst to your brain. Hunger is controlled by a much more complex web of hormones the principal two called leptin (which makes you feel full) and ghrelin (which makes you feel hungry) when your body has enough or not enough food.


Question: Why is it bad for a company to earn the same this year as it did last year?

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 Why is it bad for a company to earn the same this year as it did last year?

There’s a lot of reasons. One reason is inflation. A dollar earned this year is not worth the same as a dollar earned last year. So even though you make the “same amount”, in reality it really isn’t. Also growth is a sign of how healthy a company is. If a company isn’t growing, that means it could quickly turn into losing money.


Question: how do circuits vary voltage with no moving parts?

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 how do circuits vary voltage with no moving parts?

There are a lot of ways so it depends on the device. Sometimes you use a moving parts like a button that the user pressed. If there is some kind of analog signal, such as an audio signal, the voltage and current will be constantly changing, since that is what a signal is. Almost any sort of input will have fluctuations in voltage. The antenna on a phone or radio converts radio waves to a changing voltage. Devices that use AC current have built in voltage changes. You'll also see a lot of DC devices that use some type of clock or pulse generator (the 555 timer is a very common one) to create a regular repeating signal.


Question: Why is it acceptable for politicians to litter signs and pamphlets everywhere?

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</answer>
 Why is it acceptable for politicians to litter signs and pamphlets everywhere?

You can't stop people from mailing you stuff or leaving it at your house but most towns have regulations around those signs that they leave on people's lawns. My town has these regulations: \- Need to get an owner's consent to put a sign on their lawn. \- Person needs to track where they put them. Candidates are responsible for them all. \- After an election the Candidate is responsible for removing all the signs they put around town, within a certain amount of time Otherwise they are subject to fines. Check your local regs. Maybe they exist but no one's enforcing them.


Question: Do all objects bounce? Specifically heavy objects

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 Do all objects bounce? Specifically heavy objects

Whether an object bounces depends on its rigidity, and the rigidity of the object it hits. A bowling ball that hits a hard wood floor will bounce. A bowling ball* that hits water will not. All objects *can* bounce, given the right circumstances. Some objects will readily deform, and in certain circumstances the deforming will take up all the energy that would normally go into bouncing. If you dropped the radiator out of the window onto hard ground, it probably bounced. If you dropped it onto soft ground, it may not have. If it dented the ground but didn't leave a pretty good radiator-shaped impression in the ground, it almost certainly bounced at least a little. EDIT: A bowling ball dropped out of a two story building that is. As /u/hoohoohoos points out, a very fast bowling ball can bounce off of water. It all depends on the conditions of the impact.


Question: Why are beer bottle caps made in such a way that you either need a special tool (bottle opener) to open? Why aren’t beer bottle made with screw on caps?

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 Why are beer bottle caps made in such a way that you either need a special tool (bottle opener) to open? Why aren’t beer bottle made with screw on caps?

The first reason is the most important: perception of quality. Pop top bottles (pry off) are considered by the general public to represent a higher quality beverage than screw top ones. You can probably see why then a brewery may want their beers perceived as a high quality item. Second, from a practical standpoint, for many brewers, particularly smaller craft brewers, pop top bottles are way way easier to get, fill, and cap, and maintain quality over screw tops, which suck balls to use in the filling process. But you know what’s even better, easier, and cheaper most of the time? Cans. And many brewers, even craft brewers are really embracing the can now.


Question: Why does spicy food burn the mouth and tongue but not the throat?

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 Why does spicy food burn the mouth and tongue but not the throat?

Technically it does, we just have more receptors for pain in our mouths. Because the chemical capsaicin, which is responsible for that, doesn’t actually burn, it just uses receptors in your mouth to fool it into believing it is being burned, and they happen to only affect certain receptors. We also know it does cause that reaction the whole way down due to the fact that too much gives you an upset stomach, which will result in the body trying to eject it either by ridding your body of it the usual route by very quickly passing it through your intestines, or vomiting.


Question: Why does checking your credit score hurt it?

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 Why does checking your credit score hurt it?

There's two types of credit checks - soft & hard. A soft check is what they do when you personally want to see your score, somebody does a background check on you or a company wants to give you a pre-approved credit card. These don't alter your score. A hard check is when you're applying for credit & trying to borrow money. It's not a major hit to your score and goes away fairly quickly. The idea behind this is that if somebody's applying for a lot of credit in a short period of time it could be a sign that they're having financial troubles and would be a high risk to lend money to. Let's say you've got a friend Larry. He's a pretty good guy & everyone knows he'll pay you back if he borrows money. One day, he starts asking everyone he knows if he can borrow $50. If word gets around that he's doing this, people are going to start being suspicious about it and become less likely to lend him money. I hope Larry gets some help for his coke habit before it takes over his life.


Question: Why does a high-resolution image have to load, but a high-resolution video can play thousands of frames without having to load each one?

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 Why does a high-resolution image have to load, but a high-resolution video can play thousands of frames without having to load each one?

[This video explains quite well how it works online, specifically Youtube]( URL_0 ) TL;DW: Youtube only sends information about changes between frames of a video. Since there is usually very little difference between 2 frames the server can just say "ehhh take what you had last time, shift this part a tiny bit that way, job done". For example, if you are watching a black screen, it doesnt have to send any new information, simply instructions to repeat the frame over and over. With images, there is no way to predict the future content in advance so every single pixel is sent.


Question: (literally asked by my 5yo) What is coal?

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 (literally asked by my 5yo) What is coal?

...... coal used to be leaves and sticks (and animal bones if she thinks that kind of thing is cool, if it would freak her out, you can leave it out) from a long time ago. they fell on the ground in a forest or in a puddle just like stuff falls down today and makes a layer. but usually when stuff falls down, it can turn into soil (dirt) or can get burned, have you ever burned a stick in a fire? so like that. but this stuff from long ago got buried up or covered with water so fast, it couldn't burn or turn into dirt. it just kept getting buried under more and more stuff, and squashed down more and more, until it stopped being fluffy and got harder and harder. just like how you can squash down cotton candy. and eventually it turned into a rock. but you can still burn that rock, and sometimes people do dig it up and burn it. but when they do all the stuff that happens from digging and burning can happen.


Question: Why does the left brain control the right side of the body (and vice versa)? Why isn't it more efficient to have the left control the left?

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 Why does the left brain control the right side of the body (and vice versa)? Why isn't it more efficient to have the left control the left?

No-one is entirely sure, but the best explanation for it I've read is that vertebrates (which evolved later) are kind of backwards compared to invertebrates--in an insect, for example, the major nerve that takes signals from the brain down to the rest of the body runs down the front of its body, whereas in vertebrates the spinal cord is always at the back. It's suggested that, during the evolutionary process that caused this switch, the nerves serving each side of the body got switched and have been that way ever since.


Question: How are our bodies able to differentiate between cuts, burns, punctures, bruises, scratches etc through pain and how do they heal differently?

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 How are our bodies able to differentiate between cuts, burns, punctures, bruises, scratches etc through pain and how do they heal differently?

This is ELI5 so I won’t get into a ton of details. Essentially, on a cellular level the damage from all of those things is similar and ends up having similar effects. Remember the powerhouse of the cell? If those injuries are severe enough it shuts down the mitochondria and then the cell dies. There are then a specific set of steps that happen after that cell death called inflammation that cause those dead cells to be cleaned up and the area repaired. Depending on the amount of initial damage the repair can be easy or hard, and scars may form.


Question: Why are there towns in the Arctic Circle but there are no permanent settlements in Antarctica?

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 Why are there towns in the Arctic Circle but there are no permanent settlements in Antarctica?

I think what it comes down to is that the land in the Arctic Circle is actually clustered around the southern edge of it--there's no land in the middle, where it's coldest. Antarctica is entirely the opposite, almost all the land that you could reasonably live on is around the pole and is thus very cold indeed.


Question: Why is it much easier to sleep in a horizontal position than any other?

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 Why is it much easier to sleep in a horizontal position than any other?

Sleep relaxes muscles so that the body can repair and rejuvenate itself. If you were to sleep standing, you would get off balance and fall - potentially injuring yourself. We sleep laying down because it’s the safest position to do so - it minimizes the risk of injury Sleep is also a point in time where we can take pressure off parts that have had pressure on them all day, like your feet. This is best done horizontally where your body weight is spread over as much surface area as possible.


Question: Why does one full rotation equal 360°?

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 Why does one full rotation equal 360°?

360 is a relic of ancient base 12 mathematics from the middle east. The Mesopotamians were big fans of 12 and its multiples because of how simple the mathematics are. 360 is evenly divisible by: 180, 120, 90, 60, 45, 40, 30, 24, 20, 18, 15, 12, 10, 9, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. It has a *huge* number of clean divisions. 100 is way less functional. 50, 25, 20, 10, 5, 4, 2.


Question: How is the USA in so much debt but the government is still spending so much money?

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 How is the USA in so much debt but the government is still spending so much money?

People really like owning US government debt. It's considered an extremely stable way to store money. They are in fact so prized for their stability that right now, the return on them is negative. People are taking a loss to lend money to the United States. When you put your money into the bank, it doesn't just sit in a room somewhere. That's actually quite expensive to maintain - you'd need a ton of guards, and a warehousing system for the money, and it doesn't keep up with inflation. The bank itself will lend out the bulk of accounts. But it needs to make sure that it can reap assets back to make any withdrawals that happen, so it needs a mix of very safe investments it can quickly liquefy, and some riskier ones to turn a profit. US Government Bonds are that ultra-safe, highly liquid debt. You can readily find other banks around the world trading in it, as well as retirement funds, and, if all else fails, the federal reserve trades in them frequently. Whenever the economy is in trouble, and we talk about 'quantitative easing', they mean buying back those bonds, and making them liquid - more or less, owning US Government Bonds puts you at ground zero of any federal reserve monetary policy. It is, as a result the safest and most stable asset there is, and the one people flock to in a crisis. It's value in that regard is so high that the United States can freely find buyers for just about any amount of it, at relatively affordable rates. It's the proverbial gold standard of assets, who's existence plays an important role in the global economy. It is worth noting though that all of this debt isn't cheap. In better years, issuing debt costs more, as it has to compete with better investment opportunities. This is meant to work in a Keynesian sort of way, where a government will have incentives to raise taxes in boom years and run deficits in leaner years, because it's easier for them to borrow money in a crisis. Unfortunately, it isn't often done.