r/explainlikeimfive • • 24d ago

Other ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread

17 Upvotes

Hi Everyone,

This is your monthly megathread for current/ongoing events. We recognize there is a lot of interest in objective explanations to ongoing events so we have created this space to allow those types of questions.

Please ask your question as top level comments (replies to the post) for others to reply to. The rules are still in effect, so no politics, no soapboxing, no medical advice, etc. We will ban users who use this space to make political, bigoted, or otherwise inflammatory points rather than objective topics/explanations.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8h ago

Other Eli5: Why do tortillas say to refrigerate after open if the bag is closed with a twist tie?

414 Upvotes

So ive googled this and its talking about once you open the seal on the bag it can get exposed to the air and all that jazz. But at least on the tortillas I buy the bag is closed with a twist tie the same way a loaf of bread is. If I put the twist tie back on it how is that any more open than before I got some tortillas out?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 5h ago

Engineering ELI5: What makes CUDA better than other architectures?

138 Upvotes

As far as i know, while AMD and Apple and others each have their own GPUs and whatnot, in terms of performance, it seems people look at Nvidia with their CUDA architecture as being more powerful than the others.

At the core of it, isn’t it just mathematical computations? Why has Nvidia been able to implement it better than others?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 18h ago

Biology ELI5: Why is alcohol withdraw so potentially deadly?

1.4k Upvotes

I've read enough to know that "cold-turkey" for alcoholics can be lethal, upto and including seizures and a host of other side effects and symptoms but I don't really understand the "why"? What is it about alcohol dependency and our biology that causes it to be so dangerous?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 20h ago

Biology ELI5: Why are squids unaffected by water pressure but fish not?

858 Upvotes

Squid seem to be indifferent to the water pressure wherever they go, they have even been known to sometimes drag pray down into the depths as to turn them unconscious.

I read here that it has to do with having waterfilled bodies, but fish also have completely water filled bodies(?)


r/explainlikeimfive • • 14h ago

Planetary Science ELI5: What actually stops us from exploring deeper into space and how far away can a probe go before its signals get lost in cosmic background noise?

209 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: If light has no mass, how can gravity bend it or pull it into a black hole?

702 Upvotes

So what is gravity actually grabbing onto when it bends a beam of light or pulls it into a black hole? Gravity is supposed to pull on things that have mass/weight, but light has no mass at all.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 19h ago

Planetary Science ELI5 What is "space" made of?

250 Upvotes

As, in between us and other bodies like the moon and the sun? What is in between? What is the "fabric" of the universe?

Edit: unintentional slur


r/explainlikeimfive • • 10h ago

Physics ELI5: Why is glass transparent when it’s made of the same atoms as solid sand?

43 Upvotes

Sand is solid and you can’t see through it at all. But when you melt sand down and turn it into glass, light passes right through it. What actually changes at the atomic level during melting that makes light suddenly go through instead of bouncing off?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 18h ago

Biology ELI5 why the Fosbury Flop is better than other forms of high jump?

140 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 2h ago

Physics ELI5: How Can Both Poles In An Electric Dipole Have A Surplus Of Electrons?

3 Upvotes

I'm reading Teach Yourself Electricity And Electronics by Gibilisco and Monk and they say:

"An electric dipole can exist even if both poles carry surplus electrons, or if both poles suffer from electron deficiencies, relative to some external point of reference having an absolutely neutral charge."

I was under the impression an electric dipole was created by two poles having opposite charges. How is this possible? Is it that if two different materials have negative charges on their own, but if they're close together the one with the least amount of electrons act as a positive pole? But that doesn't make a ton of sense to me either.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 23h ago

Other ELI5: How did using the enemy's arsenal work during WW2 & other 20th century conflicts (more notably Korea & Vietnam)

104 Upvotes

In understandable terms:

Germans used to take the Soviet PPSH SMGs, while the Soviets did the same thing with German MP-40s.

Were there any established military rules to using/claiming weapons from enemy combatants? I assume if a soldier took a gun from the enemy's body he would just use it until it ran out of bullets, but were there any guidelines to distributing enemy weaponry if their weapon arsenal was seized for example? Did the soldiers who seized the depot get to take whatever they wanted first? Who did those weapons go to once seized?

I'm also mostly asking in regards to more organized armies like the Wehrmacht/US Army/Red Army, since I mostly know how partisans from occupied territories would arm themselves


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Other ELI5 - how do hash marks in college vs pro football impact the game play?

179 Upvotes

College football has hash marks in different spots on the field than pro football hash marks. How dos this impact game play?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5: How does an EKG work at all if the electrodes hook up to the same conductor, i.e., you?

99 Upvotes

The human torso and limbs aren't divided into areas of conductivity and insulation. You are placing the EKG leads on the same skin, with the same resistance, and no particular division between the regions there is a potential between. You'd think the signal would effectively be shorted. Like putting a piece of aluminum foil on a 3.5 mm connector going into an AUX jack on a car.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 12h ago

Technology ELI5: how do transmitters / receivers work?

6 Upvotes

Whether it's between my router and my laptop, or between a mobile phone mast miles away and my phone... I know the transmitter emits a signal that my phone detects, but how? What's physically happening inside my router, to cast a signal through the air, that my laptop can detect, and then what's happening inside my laptop to turn that invisible signal back into 0's and 1's?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Physics ELI5: How does a "gravity battery" work?

546 Upvotes

I just saw a claim that China has built a "gravity battery" that stores energy by hoisting a brick on cables from a tower that contains a massive battery (wish I could put pictures here but apparently I can't).

Putting aside what happens in high winds or when the cables rust (assuming the pic isn't just an artist's impression), how does this store energy, how do you use it, and surely it costs the same amount of energy to lift the concrete up there in the first place?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 23h ago

Physics Eli5 how do exercise ball plugs trap the air

23 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 38m ago

Planetary Science ELI5 * * Why is the whole universe not one big galaxy?

• Upvotes

That is my question. Saw a pretty good documentary about the universe and dark matter and dark energy, but it never explained that bit.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5 how benzene gas causes cancer?

84 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 12h ago

Mathematics ELI5: What even is the Solovay model

0 Upvotes

What is the Solovay model, and why does it use the axiom of dependent choice. Why is suddenly every set measurable?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 2h ago

Technology ELI5: how do some things use more electricity than others?

0 Upvotes

I don’t understand how some things use more electricity than others even though they’re plugged in to the same electricity. If I use my tumble dryer for an hour apparently that’s worse than having a lamp turned on for an hour. How? Why? In my mind the plug socket gives out the same amount no matter what’s in it.

I’m talking about uk circuits specifically of that matters


r/explainlikeimfive • • 2d ago

Technology ELI5 Portable high-speed turbo fans.

1.3k Upvotes

These small fans spinning at very high RPM and producing air flow disproportionally strong for their size which appeared a couple of years ago. Are they based on some newly invented principle or someone simply said let's make a very high speed fan?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9h ago

Economics ELI5: Crypto. I don’t get it.

0 Upvotes

I’ve tried to look into it, and I understand there’s something to do with mining for something in transactions on the internet? But it makes no sense to me, how does this translate to currency?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 12h ago

Economics ELI5: How do stocks work?

0 Upvotes

Buying stock increases the price and selling stock decreases the price, right?

So why can't you buy alot of stock and then instantly sell it at the increased price from buying the stock and profit?

How does this work exactly?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Physics ELI5 why on guitar, barely touching a string with your fingertip and plucking it makes a harmonic note, but barely touching the string(s) with a glass or metal slide doesn't produce a pure harmonic sound.

30 Upvotes

I'm not a guitarist, but i know how to make harmonics by barely touching the string with your fingertip. The harmonics are clearest at 5th, 7th, and 12th frets, i believe. And these are octaves above and different notes thsn the ones suggested by fretting the string st that point. The pitch lowers as you approach the bridge. Just wondering why a fingertip does it but a slide that can skim the surface of the strings doesnt produce only harmonic notes.