explainlikeimfive
explainlikeimfive
310 Comments
ELI5 why do flies constantly land on you, when they are constantly swatted away?
My assumptions are that 1) they sense our bodies, meaning interesting biological smells (potential food) and they are aggravatingly, ceaselessly resource driven
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explainlikeimfive
91 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
146 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
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explainlikeimfive
78 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
141 Comments
ELI5 what is fhe purpose of statue limitation?
I was watching a cold case show ( it happened in Washington, Seattle) where a woman helped her brother after he killed someone—like hiding evidence and lying to
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explainlikeimfive
107 Comments
ELI5 How the first people to measure the circumference of earth do it?
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explainlikeimfive
473 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
32 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
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
182 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
59 Comments
ELI5: What is "wet bulb temperature" and why does it matter?
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explainlikeimfive
8 Comments
ELI5. How can the speed that the universe is expanding be measured?
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explainlikeimfive
3 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
14 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
2 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
80 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
7 Comments
ELI5: Why doesn't engine RPM in constant speed propeller aircraft affect superchargers' boost in piston aircraft?
Far I understand, the supercharger is driven by the engine's crankshaft. The crankshaft is governed by the governor's set RPM. However, the same throttle posi
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explainlikeimfive
9 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
240 Comments
ELI5 Why does everyone use AWS, and what actually happens when it goes down?
Every time there's an AWS outage, half the internet seems to go offline. Why is there such a heavy dependence on it, and can anything be done to reduce that?
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explainlikeimfive
98 Comments
ELI5 The old UK pre decimalisation currency system?
How did it work, how could you workout what change to give if somebody bought something from you?
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explainlikeimfive
51 Comments
ELI5: Isn't the more powerful lifter still technically using more force and power via their muscles when lifting a weight to the same height more quickly?
The classic introductory physics example for differentiating power from energy is two powerlifters lifting the same barbell to the same height, except one doe
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explainlikeimfive
8 Comments
ELI5 how does independent insurance brokers makes money?
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explainlikeimfive
4 Comments
ELI5: What’s the connection between DMT, the pineal gland, and monoamine oxidase?
I’m learning about chemical compounds in organic chemistry and this is a topic I was curious about recently. More specifically, what is the role of DMT, the pin
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explainlikeimfive
242 Comments
ELI5: Who decides who gets each IP Address? How does for example Cloudflare own 1.1.1.1?
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