Question: Exactly how difficult was it for the Canadian special forces sniper to make the record 2 mile shot?

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 Exactly how difficult was it for the Canadian special forces sniper to make the record 2 mile shot?

to explain just how ridiculous the kill was, you should also understand the firearms term "minute of arc" or "MOA" and how it applies to firearms. The best example I can offer is how I "sight in" my AR-15: first, you position and brace your rifle on soft matter so that it is isolated from any harmonic or whatever interference that could throw off aim or add in human error i.e. you basically put the gun in a vice and just pull the trigger so no shoulder jerking, poor trigger pull, bad form, a sniffle of the nose, etc. will throw off the rifle's precision. You generally fire four or five rounds - spaced out and at a slow pace (2-3 seconds between rounds) - at a target that is 100 yards away. You can do 25 or 50 yards and use basic multiplication/exponent math to calculate it to how it should work at 100 yards. You then look at all five shots; they should generally be in a circular or generally radial pattern. You measure the diameter of the shot group (from outside edge to outside edge of the bullet holes), subtract the diameter of a single bullet hole, and now you have your group size. You then take your group size and divide it by 1.047 (a single MOA is 1.047 inches). My AR-15 can shoot a grouping at 100 yards that measures between 1.8 and 2.1 inches for the group size, meaning, it is roughly a "2 MOA gun" (basically, the inch number is your MOA of a gun. half-an-inch is 1/2 MOA, and so on...). This means that at 100 yards, so long as I can see it, I can shoot something about the size of your eye socket reliably. However, as you increase the range, that MOA scales upwards. At 400 yards (the max. effective range of an AR-15 style rifle), that means I can reliably hit an 8in. target consistently assuming no outside variables down-range that may effect the bullet's trajectory i.e. at 400 yards and a decent scope I can hit you in the head most of the time. But, the sniper used a much larger gun, with a much larger bullet, at a much longer range to where it is scientifically impossible that the conditions and variables at where he took the shot from would match the conditions around the person he hit - who was nearly 3,900 yards away. He used a Macmilian TAC-50 (Mk-15 rifle if he were an American) that has an effective range of about 1,800 meters and comes with a 5-25x magnification scope. The rifle is guaranteed to have a 1/2 MOA accuracy out of he box, and can probably be pushed to 1/4 MOA with a modified stock and specialized ammo. That means, at best, this gun appears to be "laser-accurate" at regular distances, because you wouldn't even see any real space between the shots in the group. That means that, at 1,000 yards, assuming no affecting variables, the gun can shoot between 2.5-5in. MOA. Multiply that to nearly 4,000 yards, and that pushes it to between 10-20 MOA. In other words, the sniper, with perfect aim, should be able to hit the broad side of a person's chest/back/abdomen at least a couple times per five shots at that range, with that weapon, assuming no variables. Now, bring into play the other bullshit he had to calculate: firing downward at the target; taking into consideration wind speed and direction; the Coriolis effect; the general stress of a gunfight; dirt and debris everywhere; and a target that is not likely to be standing directly still for the 8.4 seconds it will take for the bullet to hit him. Also bear in mind that a rifle's MOA accuracy degrades in the short-term the more the barrel is heated or fouled up by repeated shooting (no way in hell he shot just one bullet and hit someone in a one-shot-one-kill scenario). Take all of that, and it equates to luck, really. He was likely just using the rifle to offer covering/support fire, aiming to - but not 100% expecting to - hit someone. The .50BMG hits concrete and such with explosive force, which can scare the shit out of someone and make them take cover; the power of that causes shrapnel to spew everywhere, which can also injure people or kick up debris that disorients them (though this is an unintended effect, it happens). That is what the sniper was doing in terms of support fire. .50BMG is basically an artillery bullet, minus being filled with explosives. So the guy was basically lobbing artillery lead that hits with the force of something that can penetrate up to two feet of reinforced concrete like it was an artillery cannon and not a sniper rifle. And somehow, largely due to skill, but even moreso due to luck, he cracked someone, despite the numerous science-y things that would make the shot largely improbable regardless of skill. tl;dr - no way in hell it was pure luck, but no way in hell he meant to actually hit someone dead-on. It's scientifically improbable in a 'one-shot-one-kill' scenario. sources: wikipedia, google, youtube videos of rednecks testing this kinda stuff out, and my own firearms experience and basic math


Question: What exactly will an Exascale supercomputer be used for, and how will it benefit humanity?

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 What exactly will an Exascale supercomputer be used for, and how will it benefit humanity?

Ever wonder why a video game has to simulate unit stats instead of working out the physics of swords hitting shields? Simulating each particle requires a TON of computing power. Engineering software is the same way. We can model parts of systems with particular materials and simulate how they interact with one another. This allows us to stretch the limits of materials and design, which is HUGE for high-end projects like space travel, industrial plant design, and micro-processors. However, we can only model PARTS of each system, and have to spoof in external factors. Even then those models refer to generalizations from industry codebooks, not actual particle science formulas. To do the whole system would require massive computing power, and programming particle physics into miles of pipeline can be done, but no reasonable computer could run it. Also, every day more computer algorithms are being developed on paper that enhance security or process MASSIVE amounts of fuzzy data to put together patterns. DNA and genetics research is largely statistics based. Why did you inherit your grandmother's parkinson's, but it skipped your mom? We can throw everyone's genetic data into this computer and have it sort out what makes you so special. Using the same logic, we could sort out how the universe moves within each other by throwing daily star coordinates into the data pile. The computer can look at every star in the sky, compare it to every other star in the sky, and try to spot patterns in their movements. This can give us a greater understanding of our place in the galaxy and maybe even spot a Death Star headed our way. There's a ton of things that various industries are trying to do, but are limited by computer power. Most of science and engineering is driven by industry codes that use generalizations that are't accurate but "close enough". If we are to truly understand the world, we have to keep sharpening our pencils, and the Exascale is a really big one.


Question: How does the map of Pangea even slightly esemble the current shapes of all the continents?

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 How does the map of Pangea even slightly esemble the current shapes of all the continents?

> I mean It's not like a piece of land broke off and floated away? Dude.. that IS what happened. I usually give descriptive answers to stuff I know about, but for you I'd recommend reading up more on Pangaea\* and tectonic plates. Also, tectonic plates are not liquid (or else we'd be floating instead of standing/sitting) and since solids don't change shapes that erratically, you'd expect the shapes of most landmasses being similar atleast near the places where 2 plates didn't crash head on. Where there WAS head on crashing, you can see changed shapes and mountain ranges - like the Himalayas


Question: How does a TV show make money?

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 How does a TV show make money?

Well Game of Thrones is different than most shows because it's on HBO. HBO makes money by charging individual households a monthly fee just to get HBO, so its pretty direct link from the show to the money. If you want to see an HBO show, you pay HBO for it. Most shows make their networks money by attracting a large audience, and then the network sells advertising time to companies at the time of that show. Bigger audiences = more money to buy advertising time during that show. (The age range of the audience, gender, income level, etc also all effect advertising prices... If you've ever heard of Nielsen ratings they measure all those things as well as the audience size)


Question: Why does every building get dusty inside?

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 Why does every building get dusty inside?

Because the people inside lose a lot of hair and old skin, dirt from outside gets blown in by the wind and animals (flies mostly, but also bigger ones) bring dirt inside. Dust is a mixture of all the stuff flying around and settting somewhere and is, at least i our homes, mostly made up of dead skin and hair.


Question: Why does everything turn to black when it burns? Does color burn?

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 Why does everything turn to black when it burns? Does color burn?

With the exception of metal, everything you mention is mostly Carbon. Combustion reactions are what we think of as burning and they are characterized by a Hydrocarbon and Oxygen molecularly combining/rearranging to form carbon dioxide and water like this.. CH4(g) + 2O2(g) -- > CO2(g) + 2H2O(g) Most of the time when something is burned there is more than enough carbon to go around, so all the O and H are burned away, leaving residual carbon only. As you might know, pure Carbon is black(graphite, charcoal) so that's the black that you see.


Question: how did/does a radio station know how many listeners they have that day? I'm really curious to this question posed in the 80s or 90s when tech was far less than now.

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 how did/does a radio station know how many listeners they have that day? I'm really curious to this question posed in the 80s or 90s when tech was far less than now.

Surveys. Radio stations hire (usually) independent survey companies to run surveys in their area to get a rough estimate of what percentage of people are tuning in. This could take the for of in person asking if questions, phone calls going to houses, mail, or even online ones. Once they find the rough percentage of people that regularly listen, they can use that to estimate the actual number of people. Note that this is on average, they have no way of knowing how many people are listening at any one moment


Question: Why do countries, such as Saudia Arabia, rely on being sold weapons, instead of making them themselves?

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 Why do countries, such as Saudia Arabia, rely on being sold weapons, instead of making them themselves?

You can buy a cabinet at Ikea for $30, or you can take up carpentry, buy the raw materials, and spend several days building a cabinet that ends up looking worse than the Ikea cabinet. To expand on the metaphor, complex industrial development is more difficult than you might imagine, and high end military equipment is some of the most complex manufacturing there is. Other countries have already specialized in making those things, it is much, much cheaper to buy from the countries that are already making it than to try and build your own industry from the ground up. Saudi Arabia can sell oil and buy weapons and get, say 250 f-16s. If it tried to sell oil and develop its own fighter jet, it would take a long time to do so, they would end up with a less capable plane that was less reliable, and would have 30 Saudi knock-off F-16s for the same costs as buying 250.


Question: What happens to a charger that's plugged into a power outlet but doesn't have a device attached?

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 What happens to a charger that's plugged into a power outlet but doesn't have a device attached?

Wall adapters and chargers are almost always AC to DC adapters. What they do is take the electricity in the wall and change it from whatever periodically-changing voltage is standard in your country (AC) into a constant voltage (DC) of a certain amount. A simple way to do this is to change the voltage with a transformer and then force it to always move in the same direction. A more complicated (but more efficient) way to do this is to store it as a magnetic field for a very small fraction of a second and then bring it back as the correct voltage. In either case, the final voltage is regulated by capacitors which store energy and try to keep the voltage steady. Well, that's the ELI5 version of it. Anyway, theoretically an AC to DV converter circuit shouldn't draw any energy out of the capacitors which keep the voltage steady when there's nothing plugged into it, but in reality it's not so simple. The components that make up the circuit are imperfect which means it will always use a little bit of energy when plugged in. In addition, many power bricks have a LED on them which shows that it's plugged in, meaning that you always have some tangible amount of power being used. TL;DR: It will always use a small amount of power when plugged in, but you won't harm the adapter by doing so.


Question: How is poker considered a skill game rather than a chance game?

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 How is poker considered a skill game rather than a chance game?

To quote Bond "In poker you never play your hand. You play the man across from you." Poker is not a game of random chance, it's a game of understanding human behaviour. Goading people into a sense of false security so they'll bet too much, figuring out when people are bluffing etc. Yes it ultimately comes down to what you have in your hand, but the best hands are the ones where you make money and never have to show your cards.


Question: Why do so many books have two to three blank pages at the start?

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 Why do so many books have two to three blank pages at the start?

Imagine I took a standard piece of paper. I could fold it into 4 pieces, then cut the top and bottom a bit, staple it, and have a small book. This is called a signature. They can be as small as 4 pages, or much larger. A book is typically made up of several signatures. The result is, I can take two 4 page signatures and make an 8 page book, but I have no way to make a 9 page book. If I add one page, I have no way to attach it. You can imagine if I stick the page in and just glue the end, it will easily fall out. I might be forced to make it fit in a 7 page book, or maybe print a 12 page book with some blank pages (some print methods can use 2 page signatures). The short answer is that when making books its usually easiest to make them a certain way, and blank pages may be the result. A children's book might be 30 pages, but the publisher finds that one 32 page signature is the cheapest method of production. So they might add something to the pages, or maybe they leave them blank.


Question: How do nuclear powered ships work compared to a nuclear powerplant?

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 How do nuclear powered ships work compared to a nuclear powerplant?

Both land based and ship based reactors are variable to a degree. Both have _control_ rods which are graphite rods that when inserted into the core of the reactor in amongst all the uranium undergoing fusion, slows down all the neutrons flying around - it slows the reaction down. When the rods are fully inserted like when they have to go to low/shut-down power, or in the case of an emergency (you may have heard the term "scram the reactor!"), the rods are pushed in fully. But the nuclear reaction is still going on, just very very slowly and doesn't generate anywhere as near as much heat as when the control rods are partially removed. Anyways, there's always need for _some_ steam from a ship-based nuclear reactor (i.e. to run the power turbines to keep the lights and pumps and stuff running) so even in low power mode they're still using _some_ of the power. A shipborne nuclear reactor never really "shuts down" unless you are either refuelling it (see nuclear aircraft carrier mid-life refurb) or you're retiring it for good. But it does have lower power modes where it produces just enough steam to run on-board power needs and/or any excess heat can be dumped overboard into the water. This is why you don't see nuclear powered commercial vessels despite it being a very economical way to power large ships - you need a full time crew of highly trained sailors 24/7 to man the thing and make sure everything is tip-top. More sailors (and security!) = high crew costs. Not so important to the military, but $everything to commercial shipping. Even tho, the change from low/standby power mode to "running" has to be controlled and gradual. This rapid uncontrolled change - combined with an inherint design flaw of the RBMK reactor - is what happened at Chernobyl. And even in low power mode, water still needs to be circulated, cooled etc. otherwise bad things happen.


Question: Why is there genetic variation among siblings beyond gender?

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 Why is there genetic variation among siblings beyond gender?

> My impression is that genetic information in eggs and sperm are consistent per individual. This is the part that's wrong. Each egg and each sperm has half of the parent's DNA, but which half is actually present in a given cell is random. Whether the sperm carries an X or Y chromosome is only one of many factors that randomly varies between sex cells.


Question: Why divide by (n-1) for standard deviation?

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 Why divide by (n-1) for standard deviation?

It's to correct for an underlying bias in the sample standard deviation that causes it to systematically underestimate the true population variance. If you calculate the expectation of the population variance (sigma squared) minus the formula for standard deviation with an n rather than an n-1 in the denominator (the biased estimator), you'll end up with the variance of the sample mean (sigma squared over n). This implies (because of the linearity of the expectation operator) that the expectation of the biased estimator is sigma minus sigma squared over n. Basically, since the expectation of sigma squared is sigma squared (it's a population parameter, just a number) and the expectation of sigma squared minus the biased estimator equals sigma squared over n, then the expectation of the biased estimator must just be sigma squared minus sigma squared over n. Sigma squared minus sigma squared over n is just (n-1)/n times sigma squared. So all we have to do is multiply our biased estimator n/(n-1) to correct it. The n in the numerator cancels out the n in the denominator from the biased estimator and leaves the squared deviations from the mean over n-1. I know this is kind of awful without symbols and formulas (I don't really know how to do that on reddit but didn't want to just link to the wiki). What I described is just method three of the proof on the [wiki]( URL_0 ). If you have specific questions about what they did there I should be able to answer them.


Question: What is a "field" in linear algebra?

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 What is a "field" in linear algebra?

A field is an algebraic structure in which you can multiply, divide, add, and subtract. For example, the set of real numbers is a field. So is the set of complex numbers. So is the the set {0, 1}, where addition and multiplication are defined modulo 2. The integers are not a field, because you can't divide one integer by another and still have an integer.


Question: How does “zoning out” really work?

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 How does “zoning out” really work?

Not an expert in any sense, but from what I understand, it depends on what you're focusing on. Much like concentrating so hard on a certain stimulus or activity, as in when you're talking to someone while someone else asks you something without getting your attention you lose track of what was asked or what you were discussing. Equally, your mind is creating scenarios that you focus on, to the exclusion of external stimulus. Can't find the source, but read something regarding attention as either a limited resource that your brain dishes out as it deems important or as a lens that gets fuzzier the further from centre things fall. So whatever is nearest centre gets focused on more while outlying areas are paid less attention to. There's also a YouTube video somewhere explaining the same.


Question: Why do our voices become lower as we run out of breath?

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 Why do our voices become lower as we run out of breath?

You are sending a much greater volume of air through when you are breathing hard and fast. This makes it difficult to control or excite the higher frequencies in your larynx. High frequencies are not as efficient when there is too much air mass being moved. Lower frequencies however have no problem with and even require huge volumes of air in the first place.


Question: How does Gabriel's Horn have infinite surface area, but finite volume?

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 How does Gabriel's Horn have infinite surface area, but finite volume?

It may help to think of a sequence like "1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 ...." That series is infinite in length, yet it has a finite limit - no matter how far you go, you'll never reach a total of 1. You'll get infinitely close to 1 as you keep adding terms, but you'll never quite hit 1. Gabriel's horn is a similar sort of series. On the outside, you're continually lengthening the horn, which is similar to adding more terms to the series - which is infinite. But inside the horn, you're left with a constantly shrinking volume which will have a finite limit, just like our sequence above. No matter how long the outside (series) gets, the volume (sum) will never equal X, whatever its limit is.


Question: Why does campfire smoke smell good to start, but the next morning smells awful?

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 Why does campfire smoke smell good to start, but the next morning smells awful?

When wood is burned it releases a whole bunch of stuff into the air that make up smoke. All together it smells pretty distinctive and 'good'. Some of the stuff is heavy, some of it is light, some of it is oily, some of it isn't. The heavy, oily stuff gets absorbed into your clothes and hair. The next day a lot of those oily bits have dried up and the smell is gone, but the longer-lasting oily compounds are all alone now and their combined smell isn't quite the bouquet that you got when everything was swirling around fresh. Sulfur is a big one, ~~methane is also released~~. So next day smoke smell has more in common with farts than trees as far as your nose is concerned. *Edited because methane doesn't have an odor as u/lordofkonrad pointed out with his passive aggressive ...


Question: Why do we need validation from our parents? Why are we depressed when 100 friends love us but our mother does not?

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 Why do we need validation from our parents? Why are we depressed when 100 friends love us but our mother does not?

1. The most important period for the development of your personality are the first years of your life. That's when you need care and your family's attention. You are supposed to develop your first bonds (with your parents, siblings), which will influence all your future relationships and friendships. You also learn basic behaviours, how to cope with stress, how to treat others... Those things are fundamental, they are the base, and everything you learn later is being built upon it. 2. Family love should be unconditional and we instinctively know this. That's normal if many people you met don't like you, but if the people who should love you the most in the world don't do this - your self-esteem will suffer.


Question: how does an ectopic pregnancy happen?

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 how does an ectopic pregnancy happen?

Basically, the zygote gets stuck on the way down the fallopian tube to the uterus. So instead of the fetus developing in the uterus which can expand to accommodate the growing baby, it starts to develop in the tube. Unfortunately, if left unchecked, this will be fatal to the fetus and life-threatening to the mother as the tube will eventually rupture.


Question: What's the relationship between humans and bacteria?

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 What's the relationship between humans and bacteria?

There's three broad categories of human-bacteria relationships: 1. mutualistic. Humans cannot make a lot of what we need. Some amino acids, for example. We can eat some of it from our diet, but we also have bacteria in our gut that can synthesize certain things for us. Bacteria in our gut can synthesize all 20 of the standard amino acids, and even those that we can make ourselves can be supplemented in this way. We provide the resources (from what we eat) and the bacteria provide the processing/catabolic sophistication we lack. This is called resource mutualism. The resident bacteria also fight off pathogenic bacteria. Our gut, mouth, skin is very unfriendly to many other bacteria because the resident bacteria outcompete invading bacteria. This is called competitive mutualism. Our resident bacteria are highly evolved to replicate very fast and to be very responsive to our body telling it where to stay. The bacteria in our gut, for example, basically don't "try" to get into our blood. They know their place and like it there, even though there's > 90 trillion bacteria in your gut. 2. Commensalistic. Some bacteria just hang out and use us but we don't really derive any benefit or suffer any harm from it. A lot of skin bacteria are commensal. They know not to invade our body, but other than that they don't do much to us. 3. Pathogenic. Some bacteria are our enemy. Our immune system is highly evolved to recognizing these bacteria using molecular patterns, and also to adapting to specific infections. Large parts of our body are designed to inhibit bacterial infections. Our eyes release bacteria-destroying protein, our skin is salty to inhibit bacteria and has toxic fats that we ooze, our blood is sealed off behind a complete cell barrier, our stomach is one of the most acidic among non-carrion-eating mammals, etc. A lot of this is evolved to fight pathogenic bacteria.


Question: Why doesn’t your body wake you up immediately during nightmares?

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 Why doesn’t your body wake you up immediately during nightmares?

Sadly, we do not know much for certain when it comes to sleep. What I can explain however is that when you are dreaming (or having a nightmare) you are in a phase of sleep called REM Sleep (Random Eye Movement) which is the deepest phase of sleep, there being 4 different phases. During REM Sleep you body reaches a state of muscle paralysis (your body cannot move). Also, your consciousness cannot differentiate between being awake and dreaming, so there is no "HOLY ShIt YoUr DrEaMiNG HoMBRE!!! WaKE UPP!!" message coming from your brain until the full sleep cycle is over.


Question: How does flailing your arms help you maintain your balance when you are about to fall?

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 How does flailing your arms help you maintain your balance when you are about to fall?

if you push something one way, then you’ll be pushed the other way. Similarly, everything that rotates is subject to the conservation of angular momentum: if you rotate something one way, then you’ll be rotated the other way. If you start to fall in some direction, then you want your body to rotate in the opposite direction. Rotating your arms in the direction of the fall causes the rest of you to rotate back to upright.


Question: How does sleeping with your phone affect you and your body?

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 How does sleeping with your phone affect you and your body?

It doesn't. I suppose the little bit of light from the screen might potentially disturb your sleep, but most people can deal with light leaking through their windows without significant effect. The battery is going to run down which if your alarm is on your phone might make you late to wake. Also it would be generating a tiny amount of heat which, if already in a hot environment, might lead to minor discomfort. I guess if you rolled over onto the phone it might poke you in the ribs or something...


Question: If left alone, will the debris in space around earth coalesce into a ring, if so how long 'til it happens?

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 If left alone, will the debris in space around earth coalesce into a ring, if so how long 'til it happens?

The manmade satelites that aren't in a graveyard orbit will eventually reenter the atmosphere and burn up. Eventually the ones in the graveyard orbit will too but that will be quite a while. There isn't enough matter currently orbiting the earth to form rings comparable to our solar neighbours, save for the moon. #notascientist


Question: Why is heat more difficult to retain than cold? ex. most insulated cups and containers say something along the lines of “cold for 20 hours, hot for 4 hours”.

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 Why is heat more difficult to retain than cold? ex. most insulated cups and containers say something along the lines of “cold for 20 hours, hot for 4 hours”.

The difference between normal temperature, room or outside, and something we want kept hot is larger than the difference we want to maintain a cold thing at. Say it's 20°C and you want a cold drink at refrigerator temperature of 5°C you only need to maintain a 15 degree diference . But for hot coffee at 50°C or more, that's 30+ degrees difference. Heat flow is proportional to the difference so the same insulation will do better for the lower gap.


Question: Mark Hamill has stated that he can't do Richard Epcars joker voice if he tried and vice versa.Most voice actors who played the same characters say the same thing(Matthew Lillard/Casey Kasem) . Most people though think the voices sound the same so what are the actors hearing that we are not?

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 Mark Hamill has stated that he can't do Richard Epcars joker voice if he tried and vice versa.Most voice actors who played the same characters say the same thing(Matthew Lillard/Casey Kasem) . Most people though think the voices sound the same so what are the actors hearing that we are not?

Hey, I'm an actor, and was an acting teacher for 12 years. Mark is basically saying that the psychological approach he uses to become his joker doesn't lend itself to copying another character. His joker is honed based on how it would behave in given circumstances. The Richard Epcars joker would behave differently in the same circumstances. So Mark can't just 'do' Richard's joker, even if he could get the intonation, resonance, pitch, and cadence to be spot on. It's basically the same thing as all the people doing impressions of Heath Ledger's joker after the Dark Knight came out. While they could get the face right, and they could get the sound right, they had no idea how to get the psychology right. So no matter how good their impressions sounded, they were always bad. Character psychology is what we spend ages in acting school trying to get right. We all have different processes for figuring that out, and you can't just assume it into your body on the fly.


Question: What effect does possessing non-Homo sapiens genetic material have on modern humans?

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 What effect does possessing non-Homo sapiens genetic material have on modern humans?

Most of the Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in our genomes is probably just neutral and doesn't have any noticeable effects. However, it's generally thought that Neanderthal DNA has a higher chance of containing mildly deleterious regions, either because they just don't match perfectly with the *Homo sapiens* background they find themselves in, or because they already had minor negative fitness consequences in Neanderthals too, but were too weak to be removed by selection. So it's likely that the percentage of Neanderthal DNA in our genomes has actually been slowly decreasing over time, and though this isn't totally proven, there is support for this idea from both [mathematical modelling]( URL_3 ) and actual [study of historical DNA]( URL_2 ). However, there are some regions we've inherited from these interbreeding events that are beneficial too. For example, it's been shown that some populations living at high altitude in Asia have a [gene that comes from Denisovans]( URL_0 ) and helps increase the amount of hemoglobin in their blood to deal with lower oxygen levels. So basically, this gene helped the *Homo sapiens* who were spreading across Asia to live in habitats that Denisovans were already adapted to. In the case of Neanderthals, there is some evidence that they gave us [genes that increased resistance to certain diseases]( URL_1 ), which again would have been beneficial as our ancestors spread into Europe and Asia. This phenomenon is called "adaptive introgression", and basically results in humans keeping a few useful genes from the species we hybridized with, but getting rid of most of the rest, which are often weakly detrimental. So, as far as I'm aware, there are no direct examples of diseases caused by Neanderthal genes specifically, but they could potentially have lots of very small effects which may influence your overall health. Edit: Thanks for the gold/silver!


Question: Why is it difficult for people to pronounce words correctly even after being told/shown correct pronunciation?

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 Why is it difficult for people to pronounce words correctly even after being told/shown correct pronunciation?

Because speaking is a physical skill that requires proper use of the tongue, lips, and larynx to make the right sounds. If there are sounds you have never said before, you may have to practice a bit to get them right. It's kind of like asking why it's difficult for people to play guitar even when they've been shown how to do it properly. (Not exactly the same, though, since we're already great at speaking our own language. It's more like asking why rock guitarists have difficulty playing the blues even when they've been shown how.)


Question: What is the difference between Mood Stabilizers and Antipsychotics?

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 What is the difference between Mood Stabilizers and Antipsychotics?

This is not going to be a great answer, and I really hope somebody can elaborate but: The short answer is that we don’t know. The illnesses these treat are poorly understood on a chemical level, and it’s hard to use animal models to understand. In general: these kinds of drugs affect neurotransmitters like ACh, dopamine, and serotonin. They can also work to help with seizures or migraines, implying a general change in brain activity. We don’t understand the full effects of these. Antipsychotics often help regulate dopamine levels in particular. Mood stabilizers are even harder, but probably help keep levels of neurotransmitters consistent and the brain in a more “relaxed” state. It’s hard to say what drugs are good for what; the best we can do is what tends to work with our current knowledge. Essentially it comes down to the unique relationship between individual brain chemistry and how the drug is utilized by the body. This is why people with more complex disorders often have to try many medicines— nobody knows what will work, there are only educated guesses.


Question: how do laser pointed thermometer guns find a reading of the temperature?

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</answer>
 how do laser pointed thermometer guns find a reading of the temperature?

The laser is just there so you know where the reading is being taken from. Everything emits infrared radiation as long as it's above absolute zero and if it gets hot enough it starts emitting visible light. The radiation things normally emit based on their temperature is a form of light below what the human eye can see unless it gets intensely hot. The laser thermometer is able to sense this radiation and determine temperature based on how strong and what "color" the light is.


Question: What is the god particle and why is it so important?

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 What is the god particle and why is it so important?

The Higgs boson is what we call the god particle. It's a type of particle, not a single one. They exist literally everywhere that there's matter. When they say they "found it" what they really mean is that they proved it existed by finding one. Before that happened it was just a theoretical particle. Anyway, as for why it's important, it is responsible for the existence of mass. Without it mass does not exist, and without mass matter does not exist, and without matter, we do not exist.


Question: How can glass be cut using a laser?

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 How can glass be cut using a laser?

Glass absorbs some of the energy from the light that passes through it. Look through a piece edgewise and it will look green or blue as a result. With a laser you can put a huge amount of energy into the beam. Even if the glass only absorbs 1%, a good CO2 laser can add enough energy to melt the glass under the beam.


Question: Why is peanut butter considered an invention and not a recipe?

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 Why is peanut butter considered an invention and not a recipe?

The invention is how to make butter from peanuts. A similar invention was how to make butter out of animal and plant fat. Granted peanut butter is not as good of an approximation to butter as margarine is but the process is still an invention. The result of the invention was the recipe. So what was invented was strictly not peanut butter but the peanut butter recipe.


Question: Why do we not come across dinosaur fossils/bones more often?

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 Why do we not come across dinosaur fossils/bones more often?

Fossils require fairly specific conditions to be created. Not every dead animal will leave fossils. And bones deteriorate back to nature if the conditions the become fossils aren't met and if animals don't get to them. It's why highly populated ecosystems like the rainforest aren't littered with the bones of thousands of animals.


Question: If the USA is so far into debt, how is it even a stable place to live?

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 If the USA is so far into debt, how is it even a stable place to live?

Debt isn't inherently bad. Not being able to pay debt is. The US is the largest and most consistent economy in the world. Because of this they can negotiate loans at extremely low interest rates. They can then invest that money into things that pay off *more* than the interest rate. The US has never missed a payment. They are one of the most reliable borrowers on Earth.


Question: What does a CPU basically do?

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 What does a CPU basically do?

A CPU is basically a calculator with a bit of memory. It adds numbers, multiplies numbers, etc then stores the result. Unlike a calculator, it reads in a series of instructions from memory rather than the user having to physically press buttons to tell it what to do. Also unlike a calculator it can make "decisions". It can compare numbers and execute one set of instructions if the comparison is true, and another if it's false. Equivalent to something like "If a = b then do this, else do that". That's essentially all a CPU does. It doesn't sound like much but because they can do billions of those per second you can make them do very complicated things with just those instructions.


Question: Why does every continent have its own land mass except asia and Europe?

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 Why does every continent have its own land mass except asia and Europe?

The division between Europe, Asia, and Africa was made all the way back in classical times. That is, by people living around the Mediterranean sea. Their whole worldview is summarized in the name "Mediterranean," meaning "middle of the world." To them, Europe was the land north of the sea, Africa was the land to the South, and Asia was to the east. They didn't really know that you could walk from Europe to Asia if you ventured above the Black Sea, and they probably didn't care. It was more about the borders of the Mediterranean and less about which landmasses were completely separated by water. For what it's worth, you can also walk from Africa to Asia and from North America to South America, though both those passages have been recently split by canals. Continents are a cultural construct, and they don't follow any consistent geographic definition.


Question: If alcohol is a carcinogen, will we expect to see increased cancer rates given how much hand sanitiser people are having to put on?

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 If alcohol is a carcinogen, will we expect to see increased cancer rates given how much hand sanitiser people are having to put on?

The studies that have linked alcohol to increased risk of cancer have been focused on the consumption of alcohol, not skin exposure. When it is consumed alcohol is able to stress a lot of different cells directly which can cause increased cancer in addition to a lot of other conditions. However when you use hand sanetizer the alcohol will only come in contact with the outer layer of skin which consists of dead skin cells. It is unlikely that this have any increased risk of cancer at all.


Question: why is the high up sky cold?

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 why is the high up sky cold?

Warm air rises because it has lower density. It needs more space to expand basically. But the higher you get the lower the pressure. So gasses do have space to expand higher up, and when they do expand it lowers their temperature again (temperature being basically energy density) So gasses only rise until they cooled down enough. And new heat energy is only introduced at ground level where the sun hits surfaces that can absorb it and then heat the air around them. This heat driven upwards movement is the cause of wind, because for air to move up in one place it has to move down somewhere else.


Question: how does capillary action work?

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 how does capillary action work?

Water is attracted to itself--"hydrophilic". This means the individual water droplets will join each other easily. You can see water droplets join other water droplets on a rainy windshield, for example. Now try dipping the corner of a paper towel in a glass of water. Watch how the water travels up the paper towel. This is capillary action. The water on the bottom is attracted to the water droplets above it, and come to join them. This repeats and repeats. This is also how trees and plants draw water from the ground, up the stem or trunk, and into the leaves!


Question: Why won't human body repair it's own teeth?

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 Why won't human body repair it's own teeth?

Teeth actually do work to heal themselves. In the center of the tooth there are cells that try to protect the pulp, live tissue, from the material that cause cavities. The teeth are fromed in two directions at the same time. From the middle to the outside, which is the enamel, and from the middle to the inside, which is the dentin. Once the outside is formed the tooth begins to erupt. Once it erupts there are no longer any cells to form the crystaline structure of enamel. The saliva does have healing properties, and can help with minor repairs, or remineralization. Cavities occur because our mouths are hosts to millions of bacteria. Since bacteria are alive, and everything that lives eats, they have to eat something. But what? The bacteria eat whatever we eat; the remnants of food left on the teeth. And since everything that eats poops, the bacteria eliminate their waste, poop, on our teeth. The bacterial waste is an acid. Since acids desolve things, the acids desolve the enamel and dentin of the teeth. The chemical nature of the enamel's crystaline structure makes it susseptible to the acids. Interestingly enough, the fluoride in tooth paste, and drinking water replaces a chemical group of the enamel and make the teeth more resistant to the bacterial acids. And that is why, once a tooth has erupted, it cannot fix itself, and how a cavity is made.


Question: How did sending messages on birds work?

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 How did sending messages on birds work?

The birds only fly home. They can navigate to their home from thousands of miles away. So you raise them in one particular place, and take them with you in a little cage when you go off to invade some other country, and when you needed to send a message you tied it to the bird and let it go, and it flew *home*, where someone was waiting to see if any birds with messages flew back. It wasn't 100% reliable, but you could send multiple birds and the distances they could fly and still get home are pretty amazing.


Question: How can vinyl store the different range of sounds in music within itself?

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 How can vinyl store the different range of sounds in music within itself?

> I can understand it with single tones and such, but in music there is often many different instruments on top of each other playing simultaneously. It is only one complex wave. Consider sound in air, it is a pressure wave right? And can air be different pressures at the same place and time? Of course not! This means multiple sounds, multiple pressure waves, must combine into a single complex wave when they interact. This is called "interference" and it happens both constructively and destructively. So the texture of the groove on the record records the vibration of the air which is the sound, including all the overlapping instruments.


Question: I know what the idiom "hand to mouth" means but what does it LITERALLY mean? How did it originate?

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 I know what the idiom "hand to mouth" means but what does it LITERALLY mean? How did it originate?

This idiom is quite old and dates all the way back to the 1500s. To understand this expression, it can be helpful to imagine the following scene. There is a very poor man who doesn’t have any money, or even any food, saved at all. He has only enough food for his immediate hunger. Every time that he needs to eat, he must go find food. This man is living a hand-to-mouth existence. Some sources say that this idiom comes from a period of famine in Britain. At that time, there was so little food that whenever people found some form of sustenance, it went straight from their hands to their mouths. They didn’t dare save it for later.