explainlikeimfive
explainlikeimfive
130 Comments
ELI5: Why can't most life on earth ingest, digest, and extract energy from things that aren't fats, carbs, or proteins? Why aren't there organisms that eat stuff like copper, diamond, rock, clay, etc.?
I did not get an exact answer when I looked this up myself. The best answer that was given was "because we're carbon-based lifeforms", which doesn't really help
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explainlikeimfive
134 Comments
ELI5: Why are decimeters so uncommonly used?
I’m an American so I generally use imperial units, but whenever I see SI units being used, you’ll see many measurements in meters, centimeters, and milimeters,
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explainlikeimfive
171 Comments
ELI5: Why don't daily drive cars get their speed capped to 150km/h, for example, since you cannot drive that fast in most places anyway?
In my country it's almost impossible to drive past 120km/h since there's traffic jams everywhere, bad roads condition, and the regulations. The only place whe
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explainlikeimfive
92 Comments
ELI5: How much internet traffic *actually* passes through submarine cables?
I've been reading a lot about submarine cables (inspired by the novel Twist) and some say 99% of internet traffic is passed through 'em but, for example, if I'm
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explainlikeimfive
159 Comments
ELI5:Why don't car tires use innter tubes?
I'm sure there's a simple and reasonable explanation but it seems weird to me! Edit: Argh typo in the title, I'm a big dumb Edit again: Thankyou everyone for
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explainlikeimfive
25 Comments
ELI5: how do vinegar eels get into vinegar?
Never heard of them before a whatisit post which lead me down a rabbit hole. I get they are mostly harmless and people in the US probably have never seen/heard
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explainlikeimfive
17 Comments
ELI5 How do we feel the "wet" sensation?
It's summer, I've been in water quite a bit lately so Im curious, what is the process that the skin go through to tell whether its in contact with something wet
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explainlikeimfive
135 Comments
ELI5 How the first people to measure the circumference of earth do it?
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explainlikeimfive
36 Comments
ELI5: If grip depends only on the perpendicular force and the coefficient of friction and not on the contact patch area, why are sport cars using slick and wide tyres? Doesn't larger contact area reduce the load on the tyre, reducing grip?
I've always heard that slick tyres are for more contact patch area, but why is that something desidered?
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explainlikeimfive
480 Comments
ELI5: Why do so many websites care that you're using a VPN?
Plenty of websites won't let browse them, if you're on a VPN. Why do they care? Many of them give generic login errors, if they're a site where you have an acco
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explainlikeimfive
21 Comments
ELI5 How does it benefit Google or OpenAI if people choose to use their respective LLM models?
I understand the pay to use model but so many companies are creating their own models and allowing limited free usage now. Is it just bragging rights and other
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explainlikeimfive
65 Comments
ELI5: If you bend a metal stick a little bit, it springs back, but if you bend it more, it stays bent. Why?
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explainlikeimfive
14 Comments
ELI5. How can the speed that the universe is expanding be measured?
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explainlikeimfive
186 Comments
ELI5: Why do F1 cars look so different from normal cars, yet MotoGP bikes look very similar to normal bikes?
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explainlikeimfive
6 Comments
ELI5 In radio transmissions how are data/telemetry transmissions converted into sound?
Note I’m not talking about literal voice transmissions as those are apparently by a speaker capturing the sound and basically transmitting the instructions of h
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explainlikeimfive
12 Comments
ELI5 How does the temperature of a bullet affect the wound it causes?
Supposedly a flying bullet is very hot (supposedly it can be 100–300°C or 212–572°F on arrival) How does it affect the wound? Does it burn the skin it first
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explainlikeimfive
70 Comments
ELI5: What is "wet bulb temperature" and why does it matter?
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explainlikeimfive
8 Comments
ELI5 The difference between Existentialism and Absurdism
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explainlikeimfive
82 Comments
Eli5 Why does gallium have a high boiling point even though it melts easily in the palm of your hand?
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explainlikeimfive
18 Comments
ELI5 Logic gates and drawing circuits
I need to draw a circuit for XOR using only AND and OR gates (no NOT gate). Can someone help me understand the logic or a circuit diagram?
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explainlikeimfive
12 Comments
ELI5: ok, he’s actually 6. How would you explain ‘winning instinct’ to a six-year-old?
My son is obsessed with running. On the way to school this morning he threw me off big time when he asked about the differences between people who finish 1st an
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explainlikeimfive
14 Comments
ELI5: could a dvd hold a small amount of HD video?
I know what regular dvd can hold 4.3 GB so can you put and hd video That's less than 4.3 GB. and if you can't, then why.
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explainlikeimfive
29 Comments
ELI5: Why has there been so much torrential downpours leading to catastrophic flooding across the country?
Does anyone have a scientific reason for the insane flooding this past week? I feel like it’s unusual for some of these states/areas to experience flooding to t
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