r/explainlikeimfive • u/Adorable-Island7033 • 7m ago
r/explainlikeimfive • u/AresEli • 21m ago
Biology ELI5: Why don't fingers crinkle up 24/7 instead of just when they're in water
So from my understanding our fingers crinkle up when we're in water for a long time for improved grip while in water and while that's cool from an evolutionary standpoint, I don't see why it wouldn't make more sense for us to always have crinkled fingers.
I can see how improved grip would be better for the day to day not just in water and I can't think of a reason why our soft fingertips are better for us outside of water vs crinkled.
Is it possible that as we as a species continues to evolve that is something that might happen?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Ronrego • 46m ago
Physics eli5: Why does so much lint come off clothes in dryer
Please explain. Why does so much lint come off clothes after 40 minutes in the dryer as opposed to when just wearing an article of clothing? Thanks. I think the might qualify as a physics flair, but am not sure. Thank you in advance.
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Longjumping-Boot-526 • 1h ago
Physics ELI5 what would happen if a gram of Antimatter is allowed to annhilate in the atmosphere near ground
Years ago I read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons where the plot involved a group trying to blow up the vatican using an anti-matter bomb of sorts. At the time, I didn't think too much on it, because yeah, antimatter is the perfect fuel that turns 100% of the mass into pure energy, so of course it would cause an explosion.
But now that I've given it a bit more thought, I have questions. Chemical explosions are devastating because they release gasses in a massive shockwave that destroys everything around them. Nuclear explosions result in fission byproducts shooting out and the massive thermal radiation immediately turning the surronding atmosphere into a fireball, subsequently causing shockwaves.
Hypothetically (since getting that much antimatter is nigh impossible) what would it look like if you allow a gram of antimatter to annhilate in the atmosphere (maybe 50-100m above ground)? Would there be an explosion, and how exactly would that energy be released?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Artistic-Ice-9651 • 1h ago
Biology ElI5 Double Drive Though Windows.
Why do fast food establishments keep building new restaurants with double drive through windows when they never get used?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/crabtreerabbit_97 • 5h ago
Physics ELI5: Why are shadows sometimes smaller than the objects?
I've always been interested in shadow effects and shadows fascinated me as a child. I often noticed when I still lived at my mom's house how passing vehicles would create a shadow of the chandelier near the top of the living room against the back wall and how if a car passed at certain speeds the shadow would be smaller and less sharp. I measured the chandelier, it's 13.5 inches across, but the shadows produced by cars and other vehicles are smaller, about 12.5 inches or less, the fainter shadows are always even smaller.
Is this because the light source is larger than the object? It's been so long since I did Science at school I don't remember. When cars come to the top of the street opposite with their headlights, the chandelier shadow is the same size as the chandelier itself.
r/explainlikeimfive • u/EggSpecial5748 • 9h ago
Chemistry ELI5: how do “they” (whoever “they are) figure out how many calories are in a specific food?
Tagging this with chemistry but don’t know if that’s correct :)
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Thomas_Bradshaw • 10h ago
Chemistry ELI5: Why does water become less dense when it freezes, unlike most other liquids, which become denser?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Icy_Skin_7590 • 11h ago
Biology ELI5: Why cant we conciously control all of our body?
I know that we have three types of nervous systems:
-The one we can activly control (like our limbs)
-The one we can semi-control (like our breathing)
-And the rest that works completly on its own (like our heart and stomach)
My question is, why isnt stuff like our stomach in the semi control category? If I eat something bad, why dont you let me spit it back up before Im feeling miserable? If something is disrupting my digestion, why dont you tell me what it is so I know to avoid it for next time? Why can I control my breathing and lungs, but not my digestion and stomach?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/CSachen • 11h ago
Economics ELI5 how is re-insurance a safe business?
The insurance business is all about balancing a small number of high risk clients with large number of low risk clients. And hope that clients are not strongly correlated. When an unexpected number of high risk cases happen all at once, insurance uses re-insurance, which is an insurance company for insurance companies.
But how can re-insurance possibly be profitable? For one, insurance companies must be paying a lower premium than they are receiving from clients. Secondly, all the insurance companies are highly correlated. If one is collapsing, they are all collapsing.
So re-insurance receives lower premiums while also taking on all the tail risk, collecting pennies in front of a steam roller. How is that possibly profitable?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/1nonlyRx1zel • 12h ago
Technology ELI5: deep down a CPU is only on off switches(transistors) interconnected, so how does it computes almost everything? like addition, multiplication, division is kinda easy to wrap your head around but then graphics rendering?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Trambampoline_ • 13h ago
Physics [ELI5] - Why do some metals "sing" when you flick them with your thumb?
An American quarter is a great example. When i flick it with my thumb in the air it has a very satisfying "ping" to it that seems to resonate for a long time. Whereas European currency is much more blunt and doesnt "sing". My wedding ring does the same thing
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Ponko_ASAP15 • 14h ago
Chemistry ELI5 Ph, poh, pka?
I Kind understand ph and poh but pka??
r/explainlikeimfive • u/kkchibr • 14h ago
Physics ELI5: Why does steam only become visible coming from a pot after I turn off the heat?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/td_0000 • 16h ago
Planetary Science Eli5 why do the gas planets in our solar system have different colors despite being created from the same cloud?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Ponko_ASAP15 • 16h ago
Biology ELI5 The Bohr effect of the hemoglobin
I'm having a hard time catching the concept of the Bohr effect, can someone explain it to me like I'm 5? Thank you so much
r/explainlikeimfive • u/valoror • 17h ago
Mathematics ELI5 How do math problems remain unsolved? Why don't they just use calculators?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Blanckness • 18h ago
Biology Eli5: Does it matter which liquid you use to swallow a pill?
I've heard people say "I washed it down with beer" and people act horrified. I just had a pill with coffee to swallow it and I got some reactions. Does it matter if you use water or not? Or does it just need any edible liquid to physically carry it down?
Edit: I was having a morning coffee and complained about back pain, so my boyfriend gave me diclofenac sodium 50mg. I washed it down with the coffee I had in my hands because I couldn't be bothered getting up to get a glass of water. It wasn't still boiling, it was tepid.
r/explainlikeimfive • u/SmolHumanBean8 • 18h ago
Planetary Science ELI5: How does the vacuum of space freeze things if it's a vacuum?
I heard somewhere that if for some reason, an astronaut peed directly into the vacuum of space, it would immediately turn to ice.
How does that work? How can the heat possibly dissipate if there's very little matter around to dissipate the heat into? Is it a pressure thing that means you can have ice at body temperature?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/illicit_nz • 19h ago
Technology ELI5 how does a CPU process logic?
How does a CPU - which is apparently just a heap of transistors (aka: on/off or 1/0 switches) process logic?
Where is the "logic" part in the process?
Is this what's known as the BIOS (Basic Input Output System)?
Is that BIOS code (instructions) stored in a ROM (read only memory) on the motherboard?
If so, how does the BIOS know to how to use the CPU to complete computations with the transistors...? Are the transistors laid out with particular paths for "if/then/or" logic ?
or something else?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/RayRaymondmond • 20h ago
Physics ELI5: Why does tsunami wave need longer wavelength to be strong, but EM wave (a single photon) need shorter to be strong?
As far as I know, tsunamis are destructive because of so-called “long wavelength“ that have powerful energy. But in opposite, a photon with shorter wavelength has more energy.
So my question is, while they are waves, why they need to be strong at opposite directions? How to explain the mechanisms that make them need to “grow” at opposite directions to be strong in terms of wavelength?
(Or how to explain that why don‘t all waves need to be strong by increasing wavelength and hence extended the occupy area/volume?)
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Willknowit_XD1101 • 21h ago
Engineering ELI5: What mechanism was used to print the modern sound wave shape in optical film?
afaik, the first way sound was printed on film was through a light that modulates with sound and the burn changes its intensity varying on the volume. With the well-known type of optical sound track however, I have no exact idea how it was achieved.
r/explainlikeimfive • u/xplan303ex • 22h ago
Economics ELI5: Basic math when buying a house (in the US)
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Let's say I buy a house and the mortgage interest is 7%. Am I wrong thinking that unless the house is appreciating more than 7% a year, I am better off keeping my money in the bank?
r/explainlikeimfive • u/Playful-Figure • 22h ago
Biology ELI5: What is an ovulation cycle?
I'm posting this on a throwaway because I am so embarrassed to ask.
My friend was talking about it and I just had to nod along because I'm an out of my 20s year old woman and I should probably know this. Granted I don't want kids so I don't really know anything about that kind of stuff.