Question: How do forensic investigators ensure that recovered computer files are accurate representations of the damaged or deleted file?

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 How do forensic investigators ensure that recovered computer files are accurate representations of the damaged or deleted file?

In short: They can't. Either a file is on a hard drive (or other storage device) or it's not. When an investigator "recovers" a file, usually it just means that they found a file that's not indexed. On modern operating systems every file in the system is listed in an index called a *master file table* that tells the operating system where to physically look on the storage device for the file it wants. The operating system then creates a file structure hierarchy which is what you typically see on your system where everything is broken down into subfolders. When you delete a file in Windows and it goes in the recycling bin, then empty the recycling bin you haven't actually deleted that file. The operating system just marks that file as being *safe to overwrite* but if you have the right program and are quick enough you can recover or "undelete" these files before they are overwritten. You may recover a file that is partially overwritten in which case it will most likely appear as corrupted or damaged. Depending on the type of file you may still be able to open it or at least view the underlying code to determine the nature of it. When a file is overwritten partially it won't become cross contaminated with the new data being written as that data is protected by the master file table so the old file will only be losing data. In essence a forensic investigator can only present evidence for data they sufficiently have uncovered, and there's no real way to create something out of nothing when it comes to file recovery, the closest they could do is find a matching duplicate online for what they believe the undamaged file looks like but that will probably only work if the original file isn't very damaged to begin with.


Question: Why do animals (including people) gorge themselves despite their stomach being full?

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 Why do animals (including people) gorge themselves despite their stomach being full?

Cats will by default eat whatever’s there. It’s a survival mechanism because food is not regularly available in the wild, particularly the animals they normally eat. It also ensures the meat doesn’t have a chance to spoil. You can’t save a mouse corpse two days and then finish it off. And finally, it ensures you get as much as you can before other scavengers arrive to take it. This is a pattern we see in many animals and I think some humans do it as well. I think in the case of humans it has more to do with parents saying “finish your plate” not realizing they’re leading a child on a path to obesity. Moderate your pet’s food carefully, and let your kids leave food uneaten. Side note: similar to the survival rationale for food, you may wonder why cats prefer to drink moving water, and our best guess is that still water in nature tends to get stale and contaminated. So running water is naturally safer. We prefer it too, which is why commercials for drinks show flowing creeks and running beads of ice and such.


Question: Will automation cause an inflation or deflation on the price of goods and services in the future?

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 Will automation cause an inflation or deflation on the price of goods and services in the future?

Automation, ignoring other factors, by itself will lead to deflation. Technology and automation reduces the cost a firm must pay to produce something, and this cost reduction will be passed on to the consumer, lowering the price. If automation or technology hypothetically occurs across the whole economy prices everywhere will drop. However, the central bank will see prices dropping and increase the money supply, which increases the inflation rate. So in practice there will not be deflation because the central bank will adjust for it. There was a huge problem with deflation by exactly this mechanism I describe in the late 19th century in the United States. Because of the gold standard, the supply of money was fixed, so there was no monetary policy or central bank which could adjust in response to technology and automation. So just as I described, the overall price level in the economy dropped [causing serious problems.]( URL_0 )


Question: How can a bank lend out more money than it possesses?

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 How can a bank lend out more money than it possesses?

I am the bank. Alice comes to me and deposits $1,000. I loan out $900 to Bob. Bob buys supplies from Charlie for his business for $900 and Charlie deposits that money with me. I then loan out $810 to Dave. Dave buys supplies for his business from Eric for $810 and Eric deposits the money with me. I still only have $1000 in cash, but I've used it to loan out $1,710. My customers have $2,710 on deposit with me, but thanks to fractional reserve banking I'm not required to actually have all of that money in cash available to everyone.


Question: What are pyramid schemes and how do they make people lose so much money?

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 What are pyramid schemes and how do they make people lose so much money?

The symplest pyramid scheme is as follows: > If you pay me $10 membership fee you can be part of my organisation. Then for every person you get to join, you can keep $5 of their membership fee. After two people you earned back your membership fee, and you start making big money! Now of course: the people high up in the scheme receive a ton of money from new members. But at the bottom, people run out of new members to recruit, and they'll never see their $10 back. The business is entirely built around recruiting new members, and there is no actual product to sell. This is unsustainable. Since pyramid schemes are illegal, they were replaced by "multi-level marketing." Now they have a product (essential oils, nutrition supplements, etc.) that they sell to members. The product is very expensive, but (example:) if you buy a lot of it you become a Gold member and you receive a 10% discount. If you buy even more, you can become a Platinum member for 30% discount! This incentivises new members to buy a big stock at the beginning, to get to the highes tier as fast as possible. Then they can sell their stock at the high price and recover their investment. Of course ... unless there is nobody to sell it to. Then they are stuck with a pile of useless crap, which cost them all their savings.


Question: What about the chemical composition of apple juice makes it safe to store in the cupboard, as a opposed to the composition of OJ, which needs to be refrigerated?

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 What about the chemical composition of apple juice makes it safe to store in the cupboard, as a opposed to the composition of OJ, which needs to be refrigerated?

It's not chemical composition, it's pasteurization (sterilization by heat). In the US apple juice often comes preserved like this but you can buy it fresh as well, for a price. It actually doesn't keep as well as fresh orange juice because it's less acidic. You can buy pasteurized orange juice too in cartons, if you look. It will keep for 6mo-1yr unrefrigerated.


Question: Why do electric cars have a lower range when it's cold?

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 Why do electric cars have a lower range when it's cold?

That's for two reasons: Firstly, in colder weather, it is more difficult for electrons to move through the battery, so many electric cars will have a climate control system exclusively for the battery for optimal battery performance at the cost of range. Secondly, unlike gas engines, electrical engines produce much less heat energy (thus why they are more efficient), which would normally be used to keep the inside of the car warm. In electric cars, because the engine doesn't make a lot of heat, the climate control will be used a lot, and that power comes from the same better that drives the car, thus reducing the range. If the climate control isn't used, then there's hardly a difference.


Question: What happens to an eyeball after it's removed from a body and loses its moisture?

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 What happens to an eyeball after it's removed from a body and loses its moisture?

Well, it would definitely depend upon the environment around the eyeball, but since you're particularly curious about it being dried out; in an arid environment (say under a heat lamp or something) yeah, it would turn into basically an eyeball raisin. But under most conditions, it'd basically just eventually rot, turning into a dark goo as it decomposes, like the rest (mostly) of the organs.


Question: Why is not charging a laptop to it's full capacity if you run it on power often better for it's battery than charging to 100%?

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 Why is not charging a laptop to it's full capacity if you run it on power often better for it's battery than charging to 100%?

Lithium batteries don't like to be charged to 100%. What's happening is the positive and negative sides of the battery are separated by a thin insulator to keep it from short-circuiting. But the higher the voltage, the more electrons want to jump across the insulator -- there is leakage. The higher the voltage, the worse the leakage is, and this damages the battery over time. Anecdotal evidence: I got a Samsung Galaxy S9 and it was my first phone to support wireless charging. So, I got some charging stands and left it on them all day at work and all night when I was sleeping. Result: My S9 has *terrible* battery life now, because it's spent so much of its life at 100%. :( BTW, lithium batteries also don't like to be over-discharged, it causes the chemicals to degrade. So if you run your device down below 20% frequently, you're destroying the lifetime of the battery. It varies by chemistry (Li-ion, LiPo, LiFePO, etc) but generally they're happiest at 20 to 80%.


Question: How can every card deck shuffle be unique?

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 How can every card deck shuffle be unique?

Every *proper* shuffle is unique. that is the key here. If you shuffle two decks identically on purpose then that's not very random, now is it? If you properly shuffle a deck, and aren't trying to pull gimmicks, then the odds of you shuffling a combination of cards never before seen is almost guaranteed. If you shuffle a deck badly or in some non-random way then you of course are more likely to get a duplicate. It's not assumed every shuffled deck is unique, it is just very very very unlikely that they are not.


Question: in videogames, why is the animation of simple things so damn difficult( kissing, drinking water, playing an instrument, etc?

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 in videogames, why is the animation of simple things so damn difficult( kissing, drinking water, playing an instrument, etc?

One of the difficulties with some of those things is that human bodies are soft and squishy. Models in games are made up of lots of triangles. To make part of the model deform means moving and stretching those triangles. You need a lot of triangles to make it look convincing. This is why there tends to be a lot more triangles in a character's face than the rest of their body. Faces deform in lots of complicated ways when someone is speaking, so you need a lot of detail to recreate that. In real life when someone presses something against a part of their body, such as another persons lips, it squishes a bit. Recreating those "squishes" means you need even more triangles. And more triangles means more processing power is needed. Also you'd probably need some kind of soft body physics simulation to work out exactly how those triangles need to move when something presses on them. However that doesn't necessarily need to be done by the game itself for things like cutscenes. This is far too expensive for most games, both in terms of processing power and amount of work/money needed to do it. So most games don't, and just settle for an awkward "wooden" look when characters interact with things.


Question: Why do ears ring when your sitting around doing nothing and ring louder when concentrating on the ringing?

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 Why do ears ring when your sitting around doing nothing and ring louder when concentrating on the ringing?

Most people would say tinnitus. But I believe that this can also occur without tinnitus as well. Same principle as when you close your eyes and see lights and shapes. When presented with a lack of stimuli to one of your sensory organs, your brain will make it by itself. So when presented with near perfect silence, your brain will create imaginary sound in response to a lack of sound.


Question: How did people create different maths like trigonometry?

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 How did people create different maths like trigonometry?

Math is just a language used for describing the world around us (natural phenomena) For example, math can describe the way that the area of circles is related to their diameter. Or it can describe the way that the angles of triangles are related to each other - this is trigonometry. Different branches of mathematics are founded when people describe different kinds of phenomena that haven't really been described before, or haven't been described in a similar way.


Question: How do we know the chemical structure of compounds? How do we know from which particular atoms a molecule of a compound is made of?

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 How do we know the chemical structure of compounds? How do we know from which particular atoms a molecule of a compound is made of?

Today, we benefit from the hundreds and thousands of years of trial and error mankind has been doing with various chemicals and materials. Basically chemists and other natural scientists have been mixing and combining various materials and observing and recording how they react for a long, long time. From all of these observations we've noticed patterns and developed rules and theories that result in things like the periodic table. Today, taking some unknown compound and trying to figure out what it is made of usually involves combining with with various *known* compounds and seeing how it reacts. For examine, if you put it in, say, Hydrochloric acid, how it reacts can tell us something about what the unknown compound might be made of, based on how other things have reacted with Hydrochloric acid in the past.


Question: why do some liquids evaporate faster than other liquids (like alcohols versus hydrocarbons)?

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 why do some liquids evaporate faster than other liquids (like alcohols versus hydrocarbons)?

Most liquids are bound together by *Van Der Waals* forces. This is a very weak form of electrical interaction. Take hydrocarbons. The simplest group of hydrocarbons are the [alkanes]( URL_1 ). These are simply carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen atoms. They are electrically neutral. Ie, they have the same number of protons as electrons. The electrons are constantly "moving" in their orbits. This results in occasional moments when the electrons are distributed more towards one area of the molecule than other areas. These moments are very brief, but the constant motion means that they happen a lot, and they are essentially random. Consider two alkane molecules in proximity to one another. As their electrons shift about, they go through periods of attraction and repulsion to one another, being pulled together in some areas, and potentially pushed away in others. This is known as Van der Waals interaction, also called Temporary-dipole to temporary-dipole interaction. Only a small amount of energy is needed to break these temporary bonds, which is what causes a molecule to evapourate. Many liquids have different behaviour in this matter based on where their electrons are distributed, the mass of the molecules and the shape of the molecules, ie, how tangled the molecules can become. (For example, elastic bands are very long chain hydrocarbons held together almost entirely by Van der Waals forces, and stretching the band straightens out these coiled, tangled messes. [Here's a great video of legendary science communicator Richard Feynman describing them]( URL_0 )) Water is very different, however. Water molecules are comprised as most people know, of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Oxygen is an exceptionally *electronegative* atom. This means it is very good at pulling electrons closer to itself. Hydrogen is not very electronegative. It pulls very weakly on electrons by comparison with oxygen. So when a hydrogen and an oxygen decide (or are induced) to share an electron, that electron (rather than sitting evenly between the two atoms) is pulled almost completely over towards the oxygen atom. This results in water being a very *polarised* molecule. One side (the oxygen side) has two more electrons than it has protons. The other side (the hydrogen side) is essentially two lonely protons floating in space. Exposed protons are very positively charged. Large groups of electrons (as we see on the oxygen side of the atom) are very strongly negatively charged. So in a large collection of water molecules, those exposed protons will be drawn near to the electron clouds of nearby water molecules, and vise-versa. This attraction between the two (known as *Hydrogen Bonding*) is very strong. And takes much more energy to break, than simple *Van der Waals* interactions seen in other liquids. Edit: This is an interesting topic, which can explain loads of the properties of materials we're used to taking for granted. If I've been a bit brief, or explained or defined some of my terms poorly or incorrectly, then let me know and I'll either expand or correct anything in this post. Alternatively, googling any of the terms I've written in *italics* will find you some great further-reading/watching on the fascinating subject of intermolecular attraction, interatomic attraction and the macroscopic properties of materials.


Question: Why do sometimes soft blankets feel warm and sheets feel cold in the same condition?

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 Why do sometimes soft blankets feel warm and sheets feel cold in the same condition?

Think of it this way, a blanket doesn't make you warm. It stops the heat from leaving. Your body warms the air around you. A fuzzy or fluffy blanket is harder for the air to escape than a sheet, so there's more time for your body to heat it up, and it takes longer for it to float away, so you have warmer air around your body. This is the opposite of what a fan does. A fan doesn't make the air cooler, it just blows away the warm air that's around you.


Question: How did Walmart become so successful?

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 How did Walmart become so successful?

They buy in bulk, make incredibly good deals with manufacturers, move into growing areas that are ripe for their business model, when economically feasible instead of buying from a supplier they buy the supplier, own the land their businesses sit on(mostly) and own their own shipping company. By keeping everything in house they dominate. Having unending capital can do that for you.


Question: If everyone actually recycled their plastic, would using plastic be ok for the environment? Is not recycling the real issue?

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 If everyone actually recycled their plastic, would using plastic be ok for the environment? Is not recycling the real issue?

The issue with plastics is that, contrary to other materials like paper, glass or metal, recycling plastics is very difficult. Specifically, when you recycle plastic, the 'quality' of that plastic is reduced (a process known as 'downcycling'). If you recycle a clear plastic bottle, for instance, that plastic will never form a clear plastic bottle again because the process used to recycle it lowers the quality of the plastic, and will instead be used in stiffer, opaque products like pipes and vehicle parts. Similarly, when those products are in turn recycled, they generally end up as even 'lower grade' plastics, e.g. in insulation. So plastic can only actually be recycled a few times, and each time it's recycled, its quality reduces. Whilst recycling plastic is obviously a lot better than just throwing it away into the environment, it is still not sustainable. There's no such thing as 'free' recycling - all recycling requires some amount of energy and processing. However, whether other materials (such as glass) can genuinely be sustainably recycled, this is not the case for plastic. So recycling is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately it doesn't change the fact that single-use plastics are fundamentally unsustainable. Obviously, companies involved in the production of single-use plastics are not particularly happy about this representation of their products which is why they give the impression that recycling plastics is the solution, but it isn't. The only genuinely sustainable solution is to simply stop using single-use plastics in the first place. There have been attempts to make biodegradable plastics that cause less environmental damage but so far, most of the attempts have been demonstrated to biodegrade poorly in natural conditions so again, whilst certain companies like to give the impression that their product is the solution, it's not as simple as that.


Question: Why are companies removing the head phone jack?

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 Why are companies removing the head phone jack?

Well, luckily it actually isn't very widespread yet but here's the gist. Prior to computer created sound files or digital sound. Sound was recorded via analog. That means engineers used electronic or mechanical means to capture and transfer sound. These are called analog technology. For example, a tape player is *analog*. It plays back sound through mechanical means. Meanwhile, your computer plays *digital* sound. This is encoded data that the computer reads and translates into sound. Well, almost all the consumer wired headphones are *analog* technology. However, our phones and the music we play is obviously *digital*. That means phones need DACs installed in the phone. These are digital to analog converters. Compared to other cell phone parts, they are typically much larger and I presume there's a physical limitation to how small they can make them. Also DACs can have a significant effect on sound quality. It's like having someone interpret spanish to you that isn't very good vs a native speaker. Some things may get lost in translation sound wise with a bad DAC. Well the way to get significant space to make the phone smaller, and possibly conserve battery life would be to eliminate the DAC and headphone jack altogether. In addition, more phones are competing for Water resistant certifications. And the headphone jack presents a challenge because it needs to be able to conduct electricity yet, resist water damage. Lastly, less analog parts and less ports means less maintenance issues. One more port and the DAC means one more chance for something to put the phone out of commission. The downside though, is that digital headphones aren't prevelant and not nearly as cheap. Obviously, having sound go through same port as charging is not ideal. There isn't a standard that all manufacturers can agree on for digital headphones. This leaves Apple to charge a premium price for proprietary technology. Apple has a rich tradition of not clinging to tradition. If they see something that represents holding back future change, they don't mind dropping it. They also aren't nearly as afraid to require customers to buy proprietary technology because they have a business model that supports this dynamic with their customer. Plus their market segment does not include customers looking for the best bargain. That gives Apple alot of flexibility.


Question: When a central bank lends money must it first borrow the money that it lends?

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 When a central bank lends money must it first borrow the money that it lends?

It does not need to borrow the money it lends. If it did need to borrow the money, that would effectively increase the national debt. Central banks aren't bound to normal banking rules because they are supposed to lend at the optimal level where (priority 1) inflation is moderate and (priority 2) unemployment is as low as possible. (Sometimes you can't attain both at the same time, but you might try to fix unemployment in the short run if you think you can fix it quickly enough that inflation won't happen). The reason governments have debt is because if they were to spend money they didn't have, they would be printing money, and it's not their job to do that. Most central banks are supposed to be independent of the government since if governments could print money directly, politics would mean a suboptimal level of money would be printed. (Incumbents might print money to boost the economy in the short run to make themselves look good, but end up causing inflation). Governments have to issue bonds when they spend money they don't have in order to take away money from the private sector (investors buy government bonds instead of business ones). Inflation can still happen here, but less so than if the government printed their own money. If that wasn't clear, I can try to answer questions.


Question: Does Google have to pay to advertise the Pixel 3 on YouTube?

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 Does Google have to pay to advertise the Pixel 3 on YouTube?

I have no specific knowledge about this specific example, but usually large companies that have divisions like that (like a company that makes products but also owns a magazine, etc) will not have to pay “per se” but have to track accounting and maybe move internal budgets around. Say Acme makes toys and also owns a children TV channel. One division has a budget for making toys and advertising and gets revenues from sale. The other has a budget for making TV shows and sells ads for revenue. So the toy division could use some of its advertising budget on the other divisions TV channel, because it’s using up ad time that external companies could be using and paying for otherwise. It’ll be internal transfers usually but fully accounted for. Another option is revenue sharing. But it’s never “free”


Question: Why does blue light make it hard to sleep?

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 Why does blue light make it hard to sleep?

It is related to how our bodies determine when it is time to sleep and when it is time to be awake. There is basically no naturally occurring source of blue light aside from the sun. Our bodies adapted to start producing melatonin (a hormone that helps us sleep) only when we do not sense blue light. This is a good thing, because it kept us awake during the day (when we got blue light from the sun) but allowed us to sleep at night, even when we were getting light from the fire (which is primarily red and green light). These days, we have all sorts of non-natural sources of blue light - sources we can get at night - but our evolutionary "advantages" still remain.


Question: What does it mean when someone says "Treasury bonds are extremely liquid"?

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 What does it mean when someone says "Treasury bonds are extremely liquid"?

An asset is referred as liquid when it is easy to turn back into cash; it “flows” easily. Treasury bonds are very liquid because there is a large, active market for them which makes them very easy to turn into cash; it’s easy to find a buyer when you want to sell. An asset like a house is illiquid because it is hard to turn back into cash; you have to find a buyer and sell it which takes a long time.


Question: How do we know that a very old painting such as the Mona Lisa is genuine?

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 How do we know that a very old painting such as the Mona Lisa is genuine?

Well with famous paintings usually a continuous chain of custody is known about. Multiple people write about who originally bought or commissioned or displayd a painting, and the history can be tracked. The whole history of a painting and how it can be verified is called it's provenance, and museums keep catalogs of these documents.. It's a bit more involved with paintings that disappear for a while and then reappear in some attic or similar. And for lesser known works by famous artists. In cases like this lots of different forensic analysis is used to match the painting with other works by the same artist that do have a known chain of custody. This includes things like artistic style, age, materials used, etc. In at least one case one of DaVinci's works was identified by his fingerprint. There's a very famous pair of forgers John Drewe and John Myatt. One would forge the paintings, and the other snuck into and edited various museums catalogs to fake the provenance.


Question: Where do certain insects get their energy from if they don't eat and their sole purpose is just to reproduce and die?

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 Where do certain insects get their energy from if they don't eat and their sole purpose is just to reproduce and die?

1. I do not believe there are any insects that do not eat. As you noted, this violates basic laws. Everything requires an energy source and no insects can live without food or HAVING eaten in the past. (There are some insects that do not eat in late stages because they ate and stored enough energy in their young forms and this is also why they have a short life span as adults) 2. What is the point of anything's existence? Simply because it does. Humans have no real reason to exist either. This question is not answerable. 3. They are part of an ecosystem, but they are not actively contributing to the environment. Greta Thunbeetle does not exist. They just live to reproduce and that's it. The rest of ecology moulds itself around life, not the other way around.


Question: Does humans being allergic to pollen have any benefit for trees, or is it just an unfortunate accident?

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 Does humans being allergic to pollen have any benefit for trees, or is it just an unfortunate accident?

It's an accident. The leading theory is that allergies are the normal immune system responses to actual illness. Since we live in a much cleaner society than our ancestors, your immune system notices it is not getting used enough and assumes that the issue is that it's failing to detect diseases, rather than that the diseases aren't there. So it turns its sensitivity up to 11 and starts attacking random stuff like pollen and food.


Question: How do people build computer components such as transistors that are nanometers in size and make billions of them in tiny chips to hold and read data?

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 How do people build computer components such as transistors that are nanometers in size and make billions of them in tiny chips to hold and read data?

Photolithography. (Literally: writing with light on stone). You print out the patterns you want on some glass then you shine light through the glass and through some lenses until you have a teeny tiny image projected like a projector onto some silicon with some special chemicals on it. Then you develop it all like a photograph where you use some acid that will eat away anywhere the light didn't touch and keep anywhere the light did touch. In the modern day it gets more complicated because everything is so small and you end up exploding single drops of tin in a vacuum to make pure enough light and having to put the lenses in ultrapure water so you can use weird optical effects of liquid to duplicate patterns that are too small to project directly but the general idea is just shine a tiny image on some light sensitive film then remove all the material that light didn't hit.


Question: why do Floridians feel like 65 degrees is colder than someone in New England would?

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 why do Floridians feel like 65 degrees is colder than someone in New England would?

Acclimatization is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions. Acclimatization occurs in a short period of time (hours to weeks), and within the organism's lifetime (compared to adaptation, which is a development that takes place over many generations). This may be a discrete occurrence (for example, when mountaineers acclimate to high altitude over hours or days) or may instead represent part of a periodic cycle, such as a mammal shedding heavy winter fur in favor of a lighter summer coat. Organisms can adjust their morphological, behavioral, physical, and/or biochemical traits in response to changes in their environment. While the capacity to acclimate to novel environments has been well documented in thousands of species, researchers still know very little about how and why organisms acclimate the way that they do.


Question: Is it true that modern human existence on earth is equivalent to an 80 year old man having had a cold for only one day?

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 Is it true that modern human existence on earth is equivalent to an 80 year old man having had a cold for only one day?

If you are equating the earth to an 80 year old man: The earth is 4.54 billion years old (give or take 50 million years, assuming you're not sourcing your data from [the state of Kansas]( URL_0 )). The definition of modern humans may be sketchy. It's sometimes referred to as Anatomically Modern Humans, which are about 200,000 years ago. This means modern humans have been around for 0.004% of the earth's existence. To an 80 year old man, 0.004% of his lifetime is about 28 hours.


Question: Why is Iron the boundary between nuclear fusion and fission. What makes it so unique?

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 Why is Iron the boundary between nuclear fusion and fission. What makes it so unique?

That has got to do with the binding energy of the core. Now what is binding energy? It's essentially the energy that you need to break a core apart. Now why is that important, well one could assume that the weight of a core is the same as the sum of weights of it's consituent parts, but it isn't. The core is usually lighter than the sum of it's parts, which is call mass defect. Now according to Einstein and his famous formula E=mc², mass (m) and energy (E) are directly related through a constant (c=speed of light), so you essentially a difference in energy between the core and what you'd get if you break it apart. Which is aptly called the "binding energy". So it's essentially the energy that you get by having a core over having parts. Meaning the creation of the core released energy and to break apart the core you'd need to resupply it with energy. So if you look at the graph displaying the binding energy of cores per nucleon (parts of the core), you'll find this: URL_0 So if you take 2 hydrogen atoms (consisting of a proton and a neutron) with a binding energy of ~1MeV per nucleon and fuse them to make helium (consisting of 2 protons and 2 neutrons or the the stuff in 2 hydrogens) then you realize that you went from 1MeV/nucleon for ²H to 7MeV per nucleon for ⁴He. So you start from 4 nucleons at 1MeV = 4MeV to 4 nucleons at 7MeV = 28MeV now removing the 4MeV to break up the hydrogens you get 24MeV of energy from that reaction. Consersely if you break idk U235 into Ba142 and Kr91 the difference is much smaller let's say U235 are very roughly around ~7.5MeV and the other two are very roughly ~8.5MeV than you'd get a ~1MeV per nucleon which sounds like way less but you'd get that 235 times. So as long as the result of either fusion or fission ends up having a higher binding energy than the stuff you fused or broke apart you would gain the difference in binding energy. However if you look closely iron is the core with the highest binding energy so both fusion and fission would require not provide you with energy.


Question: How have wolves impacted Yellowstone?

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 How have wolves impacted Yellowstone?

This is just one example. More grazing animals means less vegetation for other animals to use as a home or shelter from prey. They also took vegetation away from the river banks causing more erosion. (The roots held the soil in place) The reintroduction of wolves stopped that and kept the grazing animal population in check, allowing the vegetation to grow back.


Question: What is rust and why does it form?

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</answer>
 What is rust and why does it form?

Alright, I'm seeing lots of comments on how rust is just iron oxide, but I'm hoping to add my two cens here by talking about rust in a little more macroscopic sense. All metals form crystals when solid. These crystals are usually so small they're invisible, involving less than 20 atoms in a simple geometric configuration (usually cubes & rectangular prisms, for iron). Still, these simple geometric shapes stack on top of each other to form solid metal, and the effect of this crystalline nature changes the mechanical, chemical and thermal properties of the metal. When iron rusts, its crystals change in structure. The neat stacks of whatever crystalline structure it used to have get replaced by crystals of iron oxide. These iron oxide crystals are much larger physically than the usual iron ones, meaning the exposed surface wants to expand drastically. The surface then cracks and curls away from the material as it is oxidized, since it doesn't have enough room to expand and stay within the rest of the structure. This exposes fresh iron to more oxygen, meaning the entire piece can eventually crumble away into rust. But it doesn't have to be this way! Stainless steel and aluminum have oxides that are a very similar shape and size to their normal crystalline structure, meaning the oxides dont upset the surface and just form a solid layer of inert material, protecting the rest of the material from oxygen. This is why stainless steel and aluminum "dont corrode", in reality they do, it's just that it creates a surface sheen of oxides that stops oxygen from reaching the rest of the material. A lot more about metals can be explained with their crystalline nature: alloys, fatigue, work hardening, temper, annealing, self-lubrication, etc. But this comment isn't a university course.


Question: Why does water taste different at different temperatures? Ice cold vs like warm vs hot water taste differently.

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 Why does water taste different at different temperatures? Ice cold vs like warm vs hot water taste differently.

Same reason food tastes different at various temperatures. The molecules are bouncing around differently. And your pallet is sensitive enough to tell your brain - this is water - but there is a variable - and your brain interprets it as 'tasting' different - because it is! If you run your hand along something flat - vs - something with holes - vs something with bumps. It's all the same thing - but a little different. Liquid is like that too.


Question: Why isn't all income taxed the same?

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 Why isn't all income taxed the same?

> Like if you make $50,000 in wages and your neighbor makes $50,000 in capital gains, then shouldn't both pay exactly the same amount in taxes? Why discriminate on the basis of income? Short-term capital gains *are* taxed at the same rate. Long-term capital gains are taxed at a lower rate because they represent something you've owned, something you've invested in for more than one year, thereby incentivizing people to make longer-horizon purchases.


Question: Why do some people grind their teeth at night?

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 Why do some people grind their teeth at night?

I grind my teeth when I'm stressed, during my GCSEs at high school my mum and dad split up as he was having an affair and it got so bad my jaw would lock and I couldn't eat, ended up going to the ENT specialist with an emergency referral from my doctor, turns out I have over developed jaw muscles from it. I've done it since I was about 5, living in a 3 bedroom house with 4 siblings, one who was sexually abusive was difficult for little me, and I didn't sleep much because my sisters would complain about me grinding my teeth.


Question: Why do you experience more pain when you are expecting it vs. When you aren't?

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 Why do you experience more pain when you are expecting it vs. When you aren't?

There's 2 main parts to this: 1. If you are anticipating pain, you will automatically "brace" (usually means tensing muscles and shifting posture) your body for the impact. There is a giant difference in the damage done from a stomach punch depending on whether or not you see/ anticipate/ know it is coming. - This doesn't always apply though (you can't really brace your earlobe for impact). A trained boxer could kill (cause fatal damage) a regular person with a gut punch they don't see coming. But the same boxer on the same person might just give them a nasty bruise if they were able to brace themselves. 2. The actual stimulation of your brain and your active consciousness is heavily influenced by a lot of other things - and this isn't going to fall under any known/ tested and well established science. It's the same reason why you might feel more initially happy at a surprise birthday party because of the included shock. It's also the reason why experiencing something new almost always produces a stronger initial reaction than a repeat. In the case of pain, the fact that the brain is aware of what is about to happen will make the impact of those changes lower. Exactly how the brain does this is not properly understood - brains are complicated. But the important thing to note is that your perception of reality and events is influenced by other things in your life that may seem somewhat meaningless (for example, the amount of sleep you have could easily influence how painful you find something. Likewise the time since you last ate might matter. Whether or not you've recently exercised might influence it too).


Question: How does Hollywood accounting work?

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 How does Hollywood accounting work?

Most of it involves transfer payments between companies. When a film is being created, the financiers create a brand new company to produce the film (that way if it's a bomb, any creditors can't take the studio's money from other films). As part of the financing agreement, the brand new company agrees to purchase services from the studio. It's through these purchases that profits are transferred to the studio not through the bottom line (which is how companies most often pass money to their parent firms). Let's pretend that you own a lemonade company, a lemon farm, and you want to rip someone off who is investing in a new stand (so they'll be entitled to a share of the profits of the lemonade stand). This might be a typical day's sales and income for your companies: Item|Lemonade Stand #10|Lemon Farm Co|Lemon Marketing|Notes :-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-- Lemonade Sales|$50|$0|$0|You own a half interest in the stand and all of the Farm and Marketing Company. Lemons|($15)|$15|$0|The parenthesis indicate a cost, so $15 of the $50 goes to your Lemon Farm Sugar|($5)|$0|$0|You don't own the sugar mill so don't get any of this revenue Gross Profit|$30|$15|$0|None. Marketing|($10)|$0|$10|Your marketing firm works for all your lemonade stands and gets a fee from each one Labor|($20)|($5)|($5)|You have to pay for labor at all your companies. Profit|$0|$10|$5|The lemonade stand earned nothing, while your other two companies earned $15. So the investor get's half of $0 while you get $15. That's essentially how Hollywood Accounting works. Profits are shifted to the marketing companies, prop and stage owning companies and other services, so anyone promised a share of the film's net profits gets nothing, no matter how much revenue the film makes. The schemes are usually a good bit more complex than my easy to follow shifts, but the result is similar.


Question: Do All the Planets in our Solar System Spin and/or Orbit in the Same Direction? Why?

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 Do All the Planets in our Solar System Spin and/or Orbit in the Same Direction? Why?

All planets in our solar system orbit in the same direction (counter clockwise if you look at it from the earth's northpole). This is becuase the planets (and sun) formed from one big disk of dust and debris that was spinning counter clockwise. Once the matter in the cloud clumped up to form planets and moons, the planets all kept going in the same direction. It is also the direction that the sun spins in. Not all planets spin in the same direction. Venus and Uranus spin in a clockwise fashion, whereas the other 6 planets spin counter clockwise. Venus and Uranus probably do this because they were hit at very specific angles by big asteroids that spun them around. Another special thing about Uranus is that the tilt of the planet is 98 degrees (earth's tilt is about 23 degrees. This means that Uranus is actually laying on it's side compared to all the other planets.


Question: Why are environmentalist's against building more dams to store water to protect against droughts?

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 Why are environmentalist's against building more dams to store water to protect against droughts?

Dams have to destroy large areas to create a reservoir. Fish species are impacted. Lots of damage happens to the local ecology. Plus building a dam can't be done just anywhere, and in order to build up water you have to not be using it or divert other water sources into your new reservoir, causing further damage.


Question: Why does heat distort images ?

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 Why does heat distort images ?

Hot air is less dense than cold air. This affects the speed at which light can shine through it. This causes light to bend when it crosses a boundary between cool and hot air. So when you look out over something hot such as asphalt or metal on a hot day, the air just above it will be hotter, and light shining through cooler air then through the warmer air will bend and distort.


Question: How does the Fast Fourier Transform work?

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 How does the Fast Fourier Transform work?

To start at the beginning. A Fourier series is a sum of sine and cosines with different frequencies that approximates a function. The more frequencies you include, the better the approximation. The exact weightings of the sine and cosine terms depends which function you are trying to approximate. The weightings are called the amplitudes or Fourier elements (FE's). The Fourier transform (FT) can be thought of as a way of working out the amplitudes needed to fit a Fourier series to a function, and then arranging those amplitudes in order of frequency. The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is an algorithm that computes the FT for discrete data. Naively, you can just replace all the integrals with sums (as integrals are just the continuous version of sums). To compute the DFT you need to solve [this]( URL_0 ) equation for each data point. This is slow because if you have N data points, you need N^2 operations (N for the sum in the equation*N data points). The FFT refers to any algorithm that can compute the discrete fourier transform (DFT) in O(n log n) time. One algorithm relies on the fact that each DFT of N data points can be found by combining the DFTs of half the data (i.e. N/2 data points). Finding the DFT of two shorter lists is a factor of four more efficient that finding the DFT of one large list, (N/2)^2 vs N^2 operations. Repeating this process until you only have one number in each list gives you an O(n log n) complexity. This 'divide and conquer' method is used in other algorithms such as quicksort. Technically with the above algorithm you can only compute FFTs when N is a power of two, but there are other algorithms without this limitation and you can always pad your data to the nearest power of two. I hope that quick overview is helpful.


Question: Why do large objects appear to move extremely slowly, while tiny objects appear very fast?

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 Why do large objects appear to move extremely slowly, while tiny objects appear very fast?

Because a given distance is a smaller fraction of a bigger object's length. To put it another way, take an object that, for example is a foot long, say. If it's travelling at 20 feet per second, it's travelling 20 times its own length in a second. If however it's 40 feet long, then it'll take two seconds to move the distance of its own length. But, and this is the important point *they're both travelling the same speed*. Just because the small one is moving many times its own body length a second, whereas the biggest one is only moving a fraction of its own length in the time. It gives the impression of moving a lot more slow.


Question: Why has every washing machine I've used taken 10+ minutes longer than the timer said it would take?

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 Why has every washing machine I've used taken 10+ minutes longer than the timer said it would take?

Modern washing machines have sensors that judge the weight and sometimes the amount of dirt in the water. They don't judge these until it starts operating, and they may or may not update the time after the initial prediction. In addition, they may be judging the temperature of the washwater and spending time heating it. This won't get factored into the time. Finally, front loaders have programming to deal with balancing the load for the spin cycle. It may start spinning, get up to half the desired speed, detect an imbalance, stop, agitate a bit to stir up the fabrics, and then try again. This can add a fair bit of time to the wash that couldn't have been predicted in advance.