Question: Why does hot water make pasta softer? What makes hot water better than cold water?

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 Why does hot water make pasta softer? What makes hot water better than cold water?

Pasta is a porous material, hot water makes the pores dilate so that they allow the water in making the pasta larger and softer. Larger because the final volume of the pasta will be pasta+absorbed water. Cold water wouldn't dialte the pores so probably it could make the pasta softer but it would take a really long time like several days.


Question: How come in some photos of the sun/moon they look enormous, when in most photos they show up as tiny dots in the sky?

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 How come in some photos of the sun/moon they look enormous, when in most photos they show up as tiny dots in the sky?

Please don't bother about the answers with Photoshop and horizon effect. Enormous moon and normal sized trees is down to a trickery of lens on telephoto lens. I quote from stackexchange: "Those are done using the compression of a telephoto lens. Longer lenses will magnify the subject, so will make the moon look bigger. It will also make buildings and other objects bigger, but by moving yourself further away from those earthbound objects you can reduce them back to a smaller size. But you can't really get further away from the moon, so it will remain the same size no matter where you move locally. The shot might look like it was taken from a short distance away with a 50mm lens, but in fact it may have been taken much further away with a 500mm lens. Result is the foreground looks about the same as if you'd taken it closer with a 50mm lens, but the moon on the other hand is magnified quite a bit." Here's a stunning display of this effect with sun. URL_0 And the best display and explanation of this phenomenon is in the following Wikipedia article. URL_1 Look at the caption under the pictures of blue and pink bottles. It says, "How focal length affects photograph composition. Three images depict the same two objects, kept in the same positions. By changing focal length and adjusting the camera's distance from the pink bottle, it remains the same size in the image, while the blue bottle's size appears to dramatically change. Also note that at small focal lengths, more of the scene is included." In this example, the blue bottle is the moon and the pink bottle is trees and buildings.


Question: Why do antidepressants take so long to work?

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 Why do antidepressants take so long to work?

Many antidepressants are SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor), which is to say they are medications that block the destruction of serotonin which is naturally produced in the brain. This acts to increase the amount of serotonin in the brain but even though the SSRI may act basically immediately it takes time for the body to produce more serotonin to reach therapeutic levels.


Question: What is the mathematical constant e, and why is it so important?

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 What is the mathematical constant e, and why is it so important?

Basically its all due to calculus. So its kind of hard to ELI5. But basically e is an answer to a few different questions. First, and most relevant to compound interest, e = lim(x- > infinity) (1 + 1/x)^x , the compound interest formula is generally given by P( 1 + r/n)^nt where the P is the principle invested, r is the rate, n is the number of times its compounded in a year and t is the number of years. So the reason it comes up in compound interest is because when you try to solve the case where that n blows up to infinity so that you're constantly compounding it, you get P\*e^(rt). The other reasons its neat are because if you have a function e^x, and you take its derivative you get e^x. That means that if you drew a line tangent to the curve for any given point you get by graphing e^x, the slope of that line is always the same as the value at that point. From that you can get to the fact that its connected to the trig functions sine and cosine. Because if you take the derivative of sine twice, you get -sine, and if you take the derivative of cosine twice you get -cosine. Well that indicates that those functions are equivalent in some way to e^ix where i is the square root of negative one. In fact e^ix = cos(x) + i sin(x) . Which is an incredibly useful thing, and consequently because of the properties of those trigonometric functions e^iπ = -1 . This isn't even all the reasons its special, due to the fact that e is the sum of the reciprocals of all the factorials of the all the integers from 0 up to infinity it has a pretty big significance in statistics where the factorials matter because they tell you how many ways you can arrange things. So if you don't understand calculus none of that helped you probably, but all of its value is in calculus essentially.


Question: How did medical care become standardized?

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 How did medical care become standardized?

Many, many smart inventions. I'm not a history geek, so I'm unsure about the specifics, but the conventional microscope was only created in the last hundred - two hundred years. From this, people discovered bacteria, viruses, amoebas, cells, and how each related. This spawned vaccinations to stop smallpox and rubella, as well as people finding out microorganisms survive on skin, and can be contagious. Drugs, sanitisation, supplements; all of these things exist because of the microscope. While it'd be stupid to attribute every breakthrough in modern medicine to the microscope, it truly was the straw that broke the camel's back - or cured it, in this case.


Question: How does the body know when to stop growing?

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 How does the body know when to stop growing?

In the sense of height, most of our bones (especially the long bones in the arms and legs) have growth plates. These are near the ends of the bones (picture them being right before where the bones bulge out into your joints). As the name implies, the bones grow from these areas. The growth plates get smaller over time, and once they're gone, the bones no longer grow longer. How long this takes to happen, and how fast the bones grow before it does, is due to genetics and things like nutrition


Question: why do propane tanks get really cold when they’ve been used for a long time?

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 why do propane tanks get really cold when they’ve been used for a long time?

When gases expand, they cool down. So when you pull gas from the propane, the gas is expanding to occupy more space, meaning it cools down. To understand this, think about what temperature means. It’s proportional to the average speed of particles. So when a clump of gas expands, the particles that move away first are going to be the faster moving ones, allowing them to move away. So what’s left behind are slow moving particles that didn’t have enough relative speed to move out of the clump (this is how evaporating sweat cools your skin - the only molecules of water that can evaporate are the fast moving ones, leaving slow moving ones behind). This is simplified, but it’s pretty near the truth! I hope this helps!


Question: Why are oil prices volatile?

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 Why are oil prices volatile?

Because the supply and demand of oil are both variable. Supply goes down and/or demand goes up, the price of oil goes up. When supply is high but demand is low, the price of oil goes down. There's a lot more complexity to it than that, but that's the general gist of it.


Question: what is the humidity scale in reference to? Does 100% humidity mean the air has turned to water? Or is it 100% humidity when it is raining?

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 what is the humidity scale in reference to? Does 100% humidity mean the air has turned to water? Or is it 100% humidity when it is raining?

100% humidity is when the air cannot absorb any more water at that temperature and there is the possibility of rain. How much water is actually in the air depends on the temperature tho, which is why if it's humid in the evening there will be dew in the morning. If a warm, humid from meets a cold front, there will be rain, and the warm front will become less humid. It's less like salt in water, and more like sugar in water, because the sugar doesn't actually get bonded to the water, it's just carried by the water


Question: If our natural body temperature is 96°, why do we feel most comfortable in 70° temperatures?

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 If our natural body temperature is 96°, why do we feel most comfortable in 70° temperatures?

Our bodies produce a good amount of excess heat and need to get rid of it. We get rid of heat faster in cooler temperatures. It varies from person to person but a 'comfortable temperature' is generally right around where your body is able to get rid of that excess heat at the same rate that your body is producing it. This is one of the reasons when exercising cooler temperatures feel more comfortable and when doing nothing and your body is idle, warmer temperatures feel more comfortable.


Question: Why are Arabs not black? Since arabia is the most sun-intensive area of earth it would make sense to have dark skin for protection.

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 Why are Arabs not black? Since arabia is the most sun-intensive area of earth it would make sense to have dark skin for protection.

You need to understand how the [human skin color]( URL_0 ) evolved. Second You need to understand where did [Arabs]( URL_1 ) come from. But here's the short answer you can deduce from both articles: An estimated time of about 10,000 to 20,000 years is enough for human populations to achieve optimal skin pigmentation in a particular geographic area. Modern Arabs descended from some civilization that lived in the Levant about 3000 years ago (and these originated from a whiteish background), and as a result of being white, they chose to use better clothing instead of waiting for evolution. Also there was "Ancient Arabs", they were tribes that had vanished or been destroyed, such as ʿĀad and Thamud, and we can't know if these are white or black. I hope my answer is correct as i simplified it to the max, if you read the articles and the "further information" links in them, you'll eventually get to your answer


Question: How can America spend $600 billion a year on their military, 54% of their federal spending, while other large countries spend a 10th of that?

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 How can America spend $600 billion a year on their military, 54% of their federal spending, while other large countries spend a 10th of that?

"How?" Because the US priorities military spending. Why can other spend less, this becomes a somewhat circular question. And it's because the US spends so much. The US vastly subsidizes its allies militaries. Basically the US military is super bad ass, so others don't need to spend as much and can do other things with their money instead. On the US's enemies, it's similarly true-- the US military is so powerful, you can't ever hope to compete, so why bother? Spend that money elsewhere. In the end, essentially the US having an insane military is subsidizing keeping everyone else peaceful and sane and not building giant expensive militaries, that's great for everyone. It's a system that works. Perfect? Oh probably not, but the world is quite damn peaceful for a long time.


Question: Does a person with Dementia or Alzheimer’s knows they have the disease?

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 Does a person with Dementia or Alzheimer’s knows they have the disease?

Generally these conditions get worse over time and people recognise that they are forgetting things that they should be able to remember easily. These days most elderly people know that dementia or Alzheimer's are likely to be the cause when this happens too frequently, eventually however there may come a time when they even forget about the condition.


Question: Why are we smart, i mean smarter then other animals or living creatures?

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 Why are we smart, i mean smarter then other animals or living creatures?

Humans have a large brain compared to their body size. Having a large brain has two major downsides: 1. It requires a lot of energy and 2. It takes a long time to develop. For #1, humans have the unique ability to cook our foods. Cooking helps break down foods, making the food easier to digest. Humans don't need to devote as much of our bodies to digestion. This higher energy diet helps support our brain. For #2, human babies are born quite premature because if a baby's head is too big, they wouldn't be able to exit mom's pelvis. It takes quite a long time for a baby to develop into an adult. Our intelligence helps make up for this downside. Farming allows us more food per size of land. Language allows us to pass down knowledge from our ancestors. Tools give us more power than we have with our bodies. All of this allows us to raise our babies and continue reproducing.


Question: why does your body lose muscle mass so fast when you stop working out?

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 why does your body lose muscle mass so fast when you stop working out?

To put it in very very simplistic terms.. it's a safety mechanism your body has developed over the course of humanity. People often don't realize being 250 lbs and very very muscular is just as unhealthy as being obese. Your body, particularly your heart has to work very hard to keep everything working. Think of it as maintaining a house. If you have a 6 bedroom home and you only need 2, you waste a lot of time and effort up keeping unneeded space. Your body is the same... muscle mass that is unneeded robs your body of its resources.


Question: why can’t saltwater fishes survive in fresh water?

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 why can’t saltwater fishes survive in fresh water?

Their blood and all their cells is naturally much saltier then fresh water fishes. Salt works kind of like a one way valve when letting water through membranes. So when there is lots of salt in the blood then the water will get through the gills into the blood but not back. So the fish is unable to get rid of the water in any way and it will just fill up with water and die. There are some fish that can adapt to both fresh and salt water if they go slowly enough. For example trout and salmon will swim between the sea and fresh water streams and lakes. This is because they are able to regulate their salt content much better then other fish.


Question: What actually happens when we fall asleep and why can’t we do it on demand?

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 What actually happens when we fall asleep and why can’t we do it on demand?

The human brain sleeps in cycles, it's called your circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm controls when you need to sleep and then controls the cycles of your sleep. Some people call it your internal clock. The circadian rhythm is influenced by a lot of factors, many related to evolution and the habits of human civilization. For instance, darkness can trigger the need for sleep (because humans have typically used daylight for hunting and working). The reason you can't do it on demand is likely explained by what happens. When you sleep, your brain doesn't just shut off. You actually go through two cycles where your brain is still acting, but slowly relaxing. When you hit stage 3 is when you are in "deep sleep". Your brain is using minimal activity. And then, you enter REM sleep which doctors think is like your brain's maintenance time. With all this activity cycles, sleeping and waking on demand would be difficult to maintain. This is why if you wake up during a dream (which usually occur during REM) you tend to feel groggy. TL;DR. Your circadian rhythm controls when you sleep. You don't control your circadian rhythm.


Question: Why is bondage the go-to strange sexual preference in pop culture?

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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why is bondage the go-to strange sexual preference in pop culture?

I'd imagine it's because it looks strange without looking *gross* (some of the crazier kinks out there might make people switch away) and you can have someone not actually nude but clearly in bondage gear, so it can be shown on TV. Plus it's always been a really popular kink, so even people into it are like "I get why that'd be fun"


Question: why did the tectonic plates shift causing pangea to split up?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 why did the tectonic plates shift causing pangea to split up?

The mantle is always moving, up in some places, down in others -- and sideways in between at the top. That flow drags the crust above it, which is divided into relatively-hard "tectonic plates". Some of the plates have large amounts of continental rock on them. About 300 million years ago, a downdraft in the mantle caused a couple of large plates to crash together, creating the Appalachian Mountains and the supercontinent of Pangea. About 200 million years ago, an upwelling in the mantle created a rift zone under Pangea. The land split apart, creating the Atlantic Ocean.


Question: Why do pharmaceutical drugs have a sell-by/use-by date? Are they less effective after their approximate shelf-life?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why do pharmaceutical drugs have a sell-by/use-by date? Are they less effective after their approximate shelf-life?

Some drugs might get a bit less effective after their use-by date, but in the vast majority of cases the decrease in potency is insignificant. A few drugs might also develop harmful side effects and bacterial growth on them if you keep them for a long time past their use-by date.


Question: Why aren't there more sinkholes on the beach? I feel like the mix of sand and water should cause more, but maybe I don't understand the concept so an explanation of them would be nice too.

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
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Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why aren't there more sinkholes on the beach? I feel like the mix of sand and water should cause more, but maybe I don't understand the concept so an explanation of them would be nice too.

Sand will immediately collapse into a void, filling in any kind of hole that's created so they don't have time to grow. The surface of a sinkhole prior to its collapse is being supported by the water that is in the now-void area after the underlying strata has been dissolved. The sinkhole collapses when either that void has become too large for the water to support the surface or the water itself goes away because the water table has dropped due to drought or excessive draws on the ground water.


Question: I just got checked by a nurse practitioner and I looked up their schooling. Most of their programs are only 2 years online degree, how are they allowed to practice independently with so little schooling?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
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[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 I just got checked by a nurse practitioner and I looked up their schooling. Most of their programs are only 2 years online degree, how are they allowed to practice independently with so little schooling?

You must be looking up the wrong info. A nurse practitioner must first earn their registered nursing (RN) license and have a 4-year bachelor's degree in Nursing. Then they must earn a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). Then they have to pass their certification exam. It's possible that there are accelerated 2-year programs to earn your master's degree though.


Question: Cavities, how does it works and how toothpaste prevents it?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Cavities, how does it works and how toothpaste prevents it?

My understanding is that the sugars you eat accumulate and for a thick paste we call plaque. That plaque builds up and is acidic enough to eat through the enamel on your teeth. As it gradually dissolved the enamel, it forms little pits, pockets, or holes that we call cavities. First it’s not deep enough to cause much problems, but eventually these can expose your tooth’s nerve which causes great pain or even kill the tooth, allowing it to fall out. Brushing (and flossing) your teeth regularly is more important than using toothpaste, but brushing with toothpaste is best of all. Toothpaste acts as an abrasive to really help break up the sugary goo on your teeth. You don’t have to eat sugar...there is sugar naturally in many foods, and not only sugar can cause plaque. So imagine that eating food is like digging your hands in caustic dirt. When you’re done, you need to wash your hands (brush your teeth) to get the acid off, or it’ll wear through your skin (teeth). But I’m not a dentist, just a dad.


Question: How people made ice before refrigerators existed?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How people made ice before refrigerators existed?

There was an entire industry of harvesting and importing ice blocks. Crews would cut up river + arctic ice, pack it in straw and other insulators, and ship it to towns for sale. The delivery men were called appropriately 'icemen'. With adequate insulation the Ice would keep for a surprisingly long time. You could buy ice well into the summer so long as the supply lasted. The term ice-box is often using as a synonym for a fridge today, but originally the term described a wooden cabinet that was literally a box you'd put ice in that would keep your food refrigerated. Once commercial fridges become ubiquitous the icemen became obsolete.


Question: How do people make money/benefit from claiming bankruptcy?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do people make money/benefit from claiming bankruptcy?

Wealthy people usually don't claim personal bankruptcy, their businesses claim bankruptcy. The whole purpose of a corporation is to protect your personal assets if the business fails. If you run a successful business for years, pay yourself a big salary and sell stock, if your business runs up big debts, you get to keep all that money, and the money held in the business is lost. Then through bankruptcy, you can shake off that debt, may reinvest some of your personal assets, and get the business going again.


Question: Why do we not become dehydrated when we sleep?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
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[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why do we not become dehydrated when we sleep?

I think we can, i wake up dehydrated sometimes because my wife turns the heater up when im asleep. Dehydration takes longer than 8 hrs. The easiest way to guage js to look at your pee colour. So long as your not taking vitamins, the more yellow your pee the less hydrated you are.


Question: How do retail credit cards (including those you can use in any store) work and how do they benefit the issuers and retailers?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
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Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do retail credit cards (including those you can use in any store) work and how do they benefit the issuers and retailers?

Retail credit cards are backed by a particular bank, just like a regular credit card. They benefit retailers because they allow people to spend money they don’t actually have, exclusively at their stores. Many retailers will even provide additional incentives just for using their credit card, like point systems/rewards or additional discounts. For example: using your Victoria Secret credit card on purchases earns you points. When you reach a certain number of points, you’re issued a $10 reward. With the Target Red Card, your purchases at Target are automatically 5% off. Many stores will also provide an additional discount on your purchase just for applying. While sometimes the benefits of a store credit card might seem worth it, if you’re not careful, they can really bleed you dry. They generally carry absurdly high interest rates, think 25% and higher. Anyone not paying their balance off every month is paying a lot for the privilege. They typically have high late payment fees as well. And while many regular cards will not increase your credit limit unless requested, you might be surprised to find your store credit card limit increased multiple times a year. Anything they can do get you to do borrow more money and pay it back very slowly. And for a lot of people, a store credit card will be their very first credit card because they are not as discriminating against those with little to no credit. It’s definitely an easy way to build credit, but again, if you’re not careful, its an easy way to build debt too. Credit cards that bear a company’s name but function like a regular visa/MasterCard, etc. are a little better. They can usually offer a better APR (depending on current starting rates and your credit history), and better benefits, like cash back options. The Chase Amazon Card offers 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases, 2% on gas and 1% on everything else. Not bad if you’re someone who shops on Amazon a lot, and you can still use (and earn cash back) the card anywhere that accepts Visa too. Hopefully this answers some of your questions!


Question: How is 720p content displayed on Full HD monitor?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How is 720p content displayed on Full HD monitor?

The playback device employs a technique called interpolation. This normally happens even when a 50x50 movie is displayed on a 100x100 monitor as well. In the simplest form, when a new pixel needs to be made, the computer(or whatever you use) looks at the surrounding pixels, and generates a pixel that has the average color of the ones around it. This however would look a bit ugly if it just inserted an uneven amount of pixels here and there. It's however no problem to create an algorithm that deals with several pixels. If a computer wants to interpolate a 1x2 "image" consisting of a red and a blue pixel up to a 1x3 image, it knows that the first pixel will be 100% red, the second pixel will be 50% red and 50% blue, and the last pixel will be 100% blue. If you have a situation with 3 pixels being interpolated to 4. Let's say red green and blue, the computer calculates that the first will be 100% red, the second pixel will be 50% red and 50% green, the 3rd will be 50% green and 50% blue, the last pixel will be 100% blue. As you can see, the "pure green" pixel no longer gets represented as pure green. With this strong color changes and so few pixels, you get a significant degradation in image quality, but this effect is lessened the more pixels an image has, as the computer gets more data points to generate color from. Doing this to a 70x70 going to 100x100 is the same, except instead of going from 3 to 4, you go from 7 to 10, and in two dimensions instead of one. You'll get some percentages that don't add up, but the computer just rounds them off. The inaccuracies from rounding them off won't be noticable to human eyes anyway. This happens even if you have a 2x2 image going to 4x4. You don't just get 4 points of color that now take up 4 pixels. The additional pixels are also interpolated, so you get gradient colors in between the 4 original pixels. It doesn't really matter that you're doing it with an uneven number of pixels, as the computer can handle hundreds of varying intensities of color, and will usually be able to find an appropriate color to fill the nexw pixels with. If one of the original pixels land on the "border" of two new pixels, you kinda lose the "pure" color of that pixel, and instead get two new pixels that each have part of the original's pixel's color. This is why images that are slightly off-resolution become much fuzzier, especially if they have clean lines with lots of contrast. There are many types of interpolation. Each interpolation algorithm (a fancy word for a complex mathematical function used to calculate things) calculates the values for additional pictures differently, leading to different results. Some methods are better at guessing new pixel colors than others, but may consume more processing power (a big deal if a low-power device needs to perform this operation 24 times (or more) a second). Some algorithms make better results when shrinking images, others may make better results when magnifying them.


Question: How do scientists discover asteroids that could make contact with Earth so far in the future (eg. 10 years from now)? What is the procedure once they’re discovered?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do scientists discover asteroids that could make contact with Earth so far in the future (eg. 10 years from now)? What is the procedure once they’re discovered?

We can track these asteroids accurately using a variety of techniques, mostly due to observing them with telescopes. Obviously, light travels faster than the asteroids, so we can see them as we do any other object, and track their movement. In space, there's nothing to stop things like asteroids from moving on their current path. On Earth, things obviously get slowed and moved by a great deal of things - friction, air resistance, that kind of stuff. Without these things, things remain in motion, never slowing down, only being pulled towards things due to gravity. So, if we know the initial direction of the asteroid, and we know, with high accuracy, the properties of the gravitational bodies it will encounter, we can wind forward the clock and see it's theoretical path perfectly, because we know nothing is going to slow it down out in space, so it won't deviate from that predicted path. We really don't have any procedures for dealing with massive asteroids due to how unlikely it is - NASA themselves have people working on it but have gone on record saying that we're 'woefully unprepared' for such an eventuality.


Question: How do the Ring Doorbell servers not get overloaded on Halloween from all the Trick-O-Treat-ers?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do the Ring Doorbell servers not get overloaded on Halloween from all the Trick-O-Treat-ers?

A lot of the data is local. Somebody rings the doorbell, it sends video over your wifi network. There is a subscription service, and that does use servers with ring, but that isn't really an issue, since they are owned by Amazon, and Amazon has a lot of cloud servers. The servers are designed to be able to scale. When they are nearing capacity, they call in another server. Amazon can assign the server to them, then when usage goes down, they take it back, and send them a bill. Amazon is massive enough that on an overall system usage, they won't even notice a change (perhaps system wide, amazon would see lower usage, as most people are out, or passing out candy).


Question: How do cam girls/girls getting money off snapchat report their earnings? Or rather, how are they able to transfer all that money to the bank?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do cam girls/girls getting money off snapchat report their earnings? Or rather, how are they able to transfer all that money to the bank?

They are typically self-employed, and if they work through another company, they do so as independent contractors. In the US, the self-employed still have to pay taxes, they just don't have that money withheld from their paycheck, it is up to them to report their income and pay the appropriate tax. It is not uncommon for the people in that situation to underreport or fail to report their income and evade taxes, and it is pretty unlikely they will get caught.


Question: How do laptop companies install the Operating System into their laptops?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do laptop companies install the Operating System into their laptops?

TLDR: Imaging/hard drive cloning on an industrial scale We use similar techniques in Industry to prepare laptops and desktops for businesses. You install the Operating System on an example machine, install the drivers and any software that you want to package with the device. Once the machine is in a state that's ready for deployment you prepare it for imaging. You run a tool call 'SYSPREP' which puts into what Microsoft calls OOBE (Out of Box Experience) which means that on the very next boot the machine randomizes certain variables to make it a unique instance of Windows (think serial number) and goes through all the various menus to do an initial setup of the machine. This is how you get a machine into the state of First Boot asking for setup, passwords etc, while still having pre-packaged programs like a demo of MS Office, and antivirus pre-installed. (aka OEM software or crapware) This machine is then imaged. Software is used to clone this prepared computers hard drive to a file. This imaging software (Norton Ghost for example) can then be used to deploy this image to any number of machines with identical hardware. So a company like HP or Dell for example makes thousands of machines and images them all using this technique. An imaging rig could be easily built to handle uploading this image to hundreds of computers simultaneously taking about 10-20 minutes per machine. In industry we typically use a Windows PE disk to run the imaging software (booting off USB of PXE ie network) but at big manufacturers they probably plug the hard drives into an imaging rig directly and then install them into computers on the factory floor and ship them out.


Question: If a battery sits without being used for a long time, it loses charge. Where is this energy going?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 If a battery sits without being used for a long time, it loses charge. Where is this energy going?

90 percent of the time, if you aren’t sure where your missing energy is going, it’s being used to create heat. In the case of batteries, this is slow enough that you wouldn’t notice the increased temperature without using one of the most precise thermometers available and heavily insulating the battery.


Question: Why does pouring a beer into a glass on its side help it have less of a head?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
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Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why does pouring a beer into a glass on its side help it have less of a head?

The beer has dissolved CO2 in it. A mild shock (like hitting the bottom of a glass) can trigger the CO2 to form bubbles. So to avoid bubbles (head), you pour it so that it meets the glass gently (gradually on a gentle incline) rather than abruptly hitting the bottom of the glass.


Question: Derivatives of Curves. How do they work? How is the second derivative of a quadratic equation a constant? Is the second derivative the slope of the slope?

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 Derivatives of Curves. How do they work? How is the second derivative of a quadratic equation a constant? Is the second derivative the slope of the slope?

> Is the second derivative the slope of the slope? That's exactly right. > How is the second derivative of a quadratic equation a constant? It just is. That's more or less how a quadratic is defined, its a shape whose second derivative is constant, a shape whose slope increases proportionally to the x or whatever input you are using. The derivative definition of the limit as h approaches x of (f(x) - f(h))/(x - h) is pretty self explanatory imo. This is just the slope formula, rise over run, but taken to an infinitesimally small rise over an infinitesimally small run.


Question: If water is 1 part oxygen, and Fire needs oxygen to burn, why does water put out a fire?

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 If water is 1 part oxygen, and Fire needs oxygen to burn, why does water put out a fire?

Fire is oxygen forming bonds with other things. In water, the oxygen is already bonded, and quite tightly at that. Only a few fuels are oxygen-hungry enough to actually generate heat while stripping oxygen off of water. Magnesium is one such fuel. Look up a video of somebody adding water to a magnesium fire and you'll see what I mean.


Question: Is sea level the same on both coasts?

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 Is sea level the same on both coasts?

If you were to measure from the center of the Earth to "sea level" of each coast you would find them to be different. I do not know how much difference there would be. Maybe a mm, maybe several meters. The Earth is not perfectly spherical or uniform, there are variations in the density and therefore the strength of gravity all over the Earth. You might search for the term "Geoid" for more information.


Question: How do credit cards work when they use the phone lines vs. someone using the embossing machine? When are things submitted?

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 How do credit cards work when they use the phone lines vs. someone using the embossing machine? When are things submitted?

The credit card systems is using the same procedures as before but we have just automated it. So instead of humans doing the work we now have automated machines who do the same thing. A credit card terminal does the same thing as when people call the bank to verify a transaction. When you swipe the card the terminal will read the numbers of the magnetic stripe. It then calls the bank and sends over the card information and the details of the transaction. The bank may then challenge for a pin code that have to be entered by the cardholder. When the bank is confident that the transaction is legit it will confirm this with the terminal and they both log the transaction as completed. The money is then transfered after having completed lots of other verifications offline, some of which require that the banks wait for more information so it can take up to two months for the money to finally arrive. If you are using a chip and pin the process is slightly different. The chip in the card is actually a small computer and it does not hand over the card information as easily. Instead the terminal will send the transaction to the card who might then ask for the pin. It then creates a digital signature of the transaction and the terminal will go on to send the signature and the transaction to the bank for verification and logging like in the example before.


Question: Why do scabs on cuts form in "blocks"?

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 Why do scabs on cuts form in "blocks"?

In my experience scabs first form as a complete sheet that is semi flexible. It then starts to dry out and hardens. As it dries it also contracts a little making the skin around it contract. That's what''s giving you that "lumpy" look. If the scap is on a knee, elbow or other location that sees a lot of movement the scab may also crack giving it even more of that "blocky" look you mentioned.


Question: What stops anyone (terrorists) from cutting the internet wires in the ocean and what would be the consequences?

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 What stops anyone (terrorists) from cutting the internet wires in the ocean and what would be the consequences?

Nothing really. You could just cut the lines that lie on the ocean floor between continents. One obstacle is that they are hard to get to. Another is that it would take more than just a knife or cable cutter to sever them. As for what would happen, quite possibly nothing. The construction of physical plant is not like a string A-B-C, etc. but like an actual web. If the traffic is cut from one source, it just goes around the loop the other direction and you may not even notice. IN the early days, when someone would cut a fiber it could take a whole city down. Today you barely hear a click unless you are in some secluded place. So this doesn't happen because it would cost a fortune and come at significant risk and if you accomplished your mission it is possible that no one would notice.


Question: - Whats the difference between Pink Himalayan - Table, cooking and rock salt?

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 - Whats the difference between Pink Himalayan - Table, cooking and rock salt?

So there are 2 things here. Colour and shape. Salts with different colours have impurities that make them that way. From rock salt to Himalayan pink, trace elements will colour the salt crystals. But you may have noticed that some salts seem to taste different. And that has next to nothing to do with impurities. Instead, its the shape of the salt crystals. Table salt, and all its forms, are Sodium Chloride. An ionic crystalline solid formed from chlorine and sodium atoms. And all the types of salt trigger your salt receptors in the same way. BUT, there is a caveat. Different salt crystals hit those receptors in different ways, touching more or less of them per grain of salt. This combination of activated receptors changes from one type of salt to the next, making them all taste subtly different. Now, if you are dissolving the salt in water, its better to stick with table salt. Dissolving the salt destroys the complex structures, breaking it down into a soup of ions. If you are salting your vegetables before boiling them, using different salts wont make a difference.


Question: Why do we sometimes hear sounds coming from our stomach? Not just from hunger, but also random noises. And why do we hear those sounds but not other bodily functions?

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 Why do we sometimes hear sounds coming from our stomach? Not just from hunger, but also random noises. And why do we hear those sounds but not other bodily functions?

The sounds in your stomach are the stomach pushing down the food into your small intestine. The stomach makes a sound when it is empty because it doesn't have any food to muffle it. Notice how when you are full, you don't hear that sound. I don't know what random noises you mention in your question, but one sound I heard from my stomach is water sloshing around. Obviously, this happens when you don't have much in your stomach except water. We hear sounds only coming from our stomach because we also have air in our stomach which allows the sounds in our stomach to bounce and echo throughout our stomach. Since our stomach is somewhat close to our skin, this sound is then sent out the skin and then you (and the people around you) can hear it. Hope this helped!


Question: Why does it appear that, during a newscast, there is a delay at the studio end, but not at the reporters end?

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 Why does it appear that, during a newscast, there is a delay at the studio end, but not at the reporters end?

We are seeing the conversation from the studio's point of view. Regardless of how long it's taking for the signal from the reporter to get there, we're seeing it arrive. When the anchor asks a question, we have to wait for that signal to get to the reporter and for the reporter's response to come all the way back. From the reporter's point of view, the opposite is true. They *could* rig it up so that we were watching from behind the reporter, and he was watching a feed from the studio. In that case, the studio feed would come in and the reporter could instantly respond, and then the delay would be in the studio acknowledging the response. Fun fact: the moon landings had to deal with this problem, as the moon is about 1.5 light-seconds away. Most of the footage we're familiar with has been edited to remove the delays, but if you can find raw footage (CBS streamed its real-time feed on the anniversary this year), it's been recorded from NASA's perspective and there's a delay between when Houston says something and when the astronauts respond. If we were able to hear the same recordings from the spaceship's point of view, the delay would be in the opposite direction.


Question: What is the difference between earnings per share and earnings per diluted share?

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 What is the difference between earnings per share and earnings per diluted share?

Diluted shares are promises to give someone new shares that are likely to be used. Companies have several ways they can trade shares for things they want, like employees working there or a lower interest rate on their bonds. It allows other investors to have a handy way of predicting how many shares there could be in the future and how that will affect the current owners share of the profits. It mostly includes options the company has made allowing others to buy shares (like employee stock options, or convertible bonds), and only includes them if the option price is "in the money" or below the current market price (in other words the person with the option could make money by exercising the option).


Question: When you board a plane to a different country, which country are you technically in for law/regulation purposes? For example if I board a plane from Canada to USA, is the drinking age on the plane 18 or 21?

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 When you board a plane to a different country, which country are you technically in for law/regulation purposes? For example if I board a plane from Canada to USA, is the drinking age on the plane 18 or 21?

Generally planes, like ships, will follow the laws of whatever country the plane is registered in. & #x200B; On the ground the local laws still apply but once in the air it's a lot like international waters and international law applies. & #x200B; With alcohol service though it's pretty much up to the airlines to set their own rules (although if they started serving alcohol to children something would probably be said about it). Some airlines are more flexible than others but often the policy they use is to follow the laws of the destination country - so if you're flying to Canada they'll use 18 as the drinking age, but if you're flying to the US they'll up it to 21. If you're flying to the middle east they'll often not even serve alcohol on the flight.


Question: When weather reports 100% chance of rain, how can they still be wrong? Technically it leaves no chance of any other occurrence

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 When weather reports 100% chance of rain, how can they still be wrong? Technically it leaves no chance of any other occurrence

The simplest explanation is that if you say there is 100% probability of something occurring, and it doesn't occur, then you were incorrect in establishing the probability. It doesn't matter that you excluded other occurrences, because you're simply wrong and those occurrences don't have to listen to you. That being said, the probabilities given by forecasters are often confusing. Per the national weather service, the calculation is as follows: > The "Probability of Precipitation" (PoP) describes the chance of precipitation occurring at any point you select in the area. > How do forecasters arrive at this value? > Mathematically, PoP is defined as follows: > PoP = C x A where "C" = the confidence that precipitation will occur somewhere in the forecast area, and where "A" = the percent of the area that will receive measurable precipitation, if it occurs at all. > So... in the case of the forecast above, if the forecaster knows precipitation is sure to occur (confidence is 100%), he/she is expressing how much of the area will receive measurable rain. (PoP = "C" x "A" or "1" times ".4" which equals .4 or 40%) > But, most of the time, the forecaster is expressing a combination of degree of confidence and areal coverage. If the forecaster is only 50% sure that precipitation will occur, and expects that, if it does occur, it will produce measurable rain over about 80 percent of the area, the PoP (chance of rain) is 40%. ( PoP = .5 x .8 which equals .4 or 40%. ) And even then note that it has that caveat "most of the time" in there. It's possible the forecaster is using the above to arrive at some *different* metric or expressing information in a specific way that isn't directly derived from the above.