Recent comments in /f/explainlikeimfive

Frogman400 t1_iyd29ja wrote

Reply to ELI5: How does electricity shock us in water? by thebiggestbirddd

Underwater welder here; actually fresh water does not conduct electricity very well but salt water does because the dissolved salts (sodium, magnesium and potassium salts) are electrolytes, meaning they have the ability to conduct electricity. Our bodies need electrolytes for our nervous system to function so we are slightly salty; think of our blood, sweat and tears. When immersed in fresh water (like a bath tub), any electrical current "sees" our body as a better conductor than the fresh water so the current would prefer to travel through our body than the surrounding water. Put bath salts in your tub and now our body is less of a conductor (but stray electricity can still give you some tingles).

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Phage0070 t1_iyd2684 wrote

Reply to ELI5: How is that space is “flat” yet we are able to look around the universe (up, down, left, right, etc.,) as if it were not flat? by nhabz

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Lithuim t1_iyd1rvp wrote

Reply to ELI5 If money can come out of nowhere, can't it pop into somewhere? by TheKrillers

The government can print money indefinitely, and so has the ability to basically spend whatever it wants.

The problem is that money is ultimately just numbers on pieces of paper, and if you make lots of money without making any actual stuff to buy then all you’re doing is making the existing money worth less - a process called “inflation.”

As expected, churning out $2T without any actual economic growth did cause inflation, and now all your money is worth 10odd percent less than it was is 2020.

They can also cook up $2T more to cancel debts, but you’d expect the same inflationary results.

That debt isn’t just imaginary, real people at real banks sent real money to real schools to spend on real things. It can’t just be zeroed without economic consequences.

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SoulWager t1_iyd1nvi wrote

Reply to comment by avdolian in ELI5: How is that space is “flat” yet we are able to look around the universe (up, down, left, right, etc.,) as if it were not flat? by nhabz

>You can draw parallel lines on a sphere and they stay parallel.

From the perspective of two people walking on those lines, at least one of them will need to constantly be turning left or right. If you're both walking parallel and straight, your paths will intersect 1/4 the way around the sphere.

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DovahBay t1_iyd1kl8 wrote

Reply to ELI5: Why are pills those specific shapes and sizes? I've noticed ibuprofen is always smaller and tastes sweeter than paracetamol. Codeine is tiny and amoxiclav pills are huge. Is this to make it harder to confuse them, or is it because of the way the active ingredient is released in the stomach? by mwclarkson

From what I remember, it is a way for telling them apart since there's so many different types of pills, different manufacturers, off-brand vs on brand medications, etc. If you look at a pill bottle (at least my pill bottles have them) there's a descriptor box that describes the size, shape, and color of the meds inside so it's harder to mix them up with other things. Not to mention the amount of dosage for each medication differs, the engineered coatings for different types of meds change things too, the surface area required for the most effective release rate; each type of pill is as unique as possible for their own reasons

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Wendals87 t1_iyd1hsc wrote

Reply to comment by tdscanuck in ELI5 How is the Tether price I pay determined? by LGZee

do you have any source for the lawsuits and people aren't able to redeem USDT?

Their asset backings are calculated monthly and available on their website

https://tether.to/en/transparency/#reports

I can see a lawsuit against them and a court order for them to produce a full report, but I can't see anywhere that they have failed to produce it

This year they did 16 billion dollars in redemptions without a big impact to the peg

https://www.reuters.com/technology/stablecoin-tethers-reserves-fall-by-16-billion-second-quarter-2022-08-19/

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Flair_Helper t1_iyd1cvr wrote

Reply to ELI5 how the illegal trade of human organs works? by C20_H26_N2O

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Y34rZer0 t1_iyd1bbx wrote

Reply to comment by ikentt in ELI5 how the illegal trade of human organs works? by C20_H26_N2O

Yeah but I guess they approach it like a used car dealership. If The model out front isn’t suitable for you then we’ve probably got something else that is.
I also imagine that this kind of thing would go through Chinese doctors etc.
I mean it sounds awful but if it saves some kids life when the prisoner is going to be executed anyway?
Although that’s the type of argument the Nazi doctors at Auschwitz used so I’m Lost in a moral quagmire at the moment

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214b t1_iyd0z3m wrote

Reply to comment by Chiknlitesnchrome in ELI5 how the illegal trade of human organs works? by C20_H26_N2O

This. Everything else posted here is nonsense. An organ donation, by its nature, has to be done between two willing participants (although one or both may have been deceived about the long-term effects of the donation or the payment).

You cannot just knock someone out, steal their organs, then put the organs in a cooler and walk around to hospitals trying to sell them. Things don't work that way (except in movies).

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fudgyvmp t1_iyd0y57 wrote

Reply to ELI5: How is that space is “flat” yet we are able to look around the universe (up, down, left, right, etc.,) as if it were not flat? by nhabz

General Relativity says that mass bends space. It provides a parameter called the density parameter to determine how space is bent.

If the density parameter is measured to be greater than 1, then there is enough mass that space curves positively and forms into a closed sphere.

If the density is less than 1 then space is curving negatively and the universe is shaped like a saddle.

If the density is 1 then the universe is flat.

In a spherical universe straight lines are always going to curve along the sphere and you will end up back where you start. If we could look up at the sky we could potentially see the same galaxies from two different sections of the sky because we would be looking at them from the front and back (if the radius of the universe was small enough).

Current measurements to my knowledge suggest the density parameter is 1 and the universe is flat.

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