explainlikeimfive

explainlikeimfive 440 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
explainlikeimfive 38 Comments
ELI5: If you bend a metal stick a little bit, it springs back, but if you bend it more, it stays bent. Why?
explainlikeimfive 137 Comments
ELI5: Why do F1 cars look so different from normal cars, yet MotoGP bikes look very similar to normal bikes?
explainlikeimfive 33 Comments
ELI5 How the first people to measure the circumference of earth do it?
explainlikeimfive 23 Comments
ELI5: What is "wet bulb temperature" and why does it matter?
explainlikeimfive 78 Comments
Eli5 Why does gallium have a high boiling point even though it melts easily in the palm of your hand?
explainlikeimfive 115 Comments
ELI5. Could black holes consume the entire universe?
explainlikeimfive 231 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?
explainlikeimfive 1 Comments
ELI5: How does music invoke different emotions even without cultural/emotional association?
Initially I thought it could just be cultural/emotional association, and that the emotions invoked are just learned and reinforced by experiences and culture. H
explainlikeimfive 84 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?
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
explainlikeimfive 234 Comments
ELI5: Who decides who gets each IP Address? How does for example Cloudflare own 1.1.1.1?
explainlikeimfive 720 Comments
ELI5: What does it mean when a large language model (such as ChatGPT) is "hallucinating," and what causes it?
I've heard people say that when these AI programs go off script and give emotional-type answers, they are considered to be hallucinating. I'm not sure what this
explainlikeimfive 62 Comments
ELI5 How does surgery to remove cancerous growths or tumours not result in cancer cells seeping into the blood stream causing wider spread of cancer?
For example a risk from melanoma is that it could grow to reach blood vessels, providing a highway to spread to other parts of the body - how then during the pr
explainlikeimfive 39 Comments
ELI5: what are fractals? And why are they important?
Q in the title - thanks for your help
explainlikeimfive 12 Comments
ELI5: Why/When/How do we take the natural log of data sets?
I am currently looking at water quality data over time for a well. We use a cumulative sum (CUSUM) model to determine when/if a significant shift in the average
explainlikeimfive 22 Comments
ELI5 What is a Roth IRA and what do I do with it
I have a rollover IRA just existing from a previous employer and my brother says I should get it converted to a Roth IRA ASAP. I have no clue what that even mea
explainlikeimfive 19 Comments
ELI5: Why is stress called the silent killer?
How exactly does it kill the body/brain?
explainlikeimfive 84 Comments
ELI5 Time is relative but would aging be relative?
Being more specific, if you're traveling at a speed at which 1 year for you is 10 years on Earth, would your body age 10 years? Why or why not?
explainlikeimfive 6 Comments
ELI5: how does camera obscura work
i just really want to know how camera obscura works
explainlikeimfive 414 Comments
ELI5: What makes a Montessori school different from other ones?
Not sure if this is strictly American thing. But I saw a bumper sticker on someone’s car recently that said (neighborhood name) Montessori School on it. I looke
explainlikeimfive 3 Comments
ELI5: Wind Impact on Sails (Outdoor Umbrella)
How much do "slits" in fabric and "bases" make a difference in a sail-like cloth? I'm trying to shop for an outdoor umbrella. One thing that keeps coming up ag
explainlikeimfive 5 Comments
ELI5 why breathing through damp cloth is next to impossible?
explainlikeimfive 19 Comments
ELI5: What does a CDN actually do, and why are they critical for modern websites?
I keep hearing terms like Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly - but what do they really do behind the scenes, and why do companies rely on them so heavily?
explainlikeimfive 13 Comments
ELI5: Why does the pronunciation of the word "produce" change depending on its meaning?
When "produce" is a verb meaning "to create or manufacture", it's pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, as "pruh-DUSS". But when it's a noun mea
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