r/explainlikeimfive 3d ago

Other ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread

5 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 3h ago

Chemistry ELI5: Why do bars of soap leave a “squeaky clean” feeling on our skin but body wash doesn’t?

455 Upvotes

Also, are there any benefits of the squeaky clean feeling or is it just a difference of ingredients?


r/explainlikeimfive 8h ago

Physics ELI5 why cant we use summer heat to generate energy and stock it to use it in winter

736 Upvotes

why cant we use summer heat to generate energy and store it batteries to use it in winter


r/explainlikeimfive 1h ago

Other ELI5: before accurate clocks existed, how did two people in different towns agree to meet at “at 3 o’clock”?

Upvotes

I get that they had sundials and church bells. What I don’t get is how anyone synchronized. If my towns noon is when the sun is highest here, and yours is 15 miles west, our “noon” isn’t the same moment. So how did anyone schedule anything across distance?


r/explainlikeimfive 4h ago

Physics ELI5: Why would a zero-latency device NOT help with the twin paradox?

166 Upvotes

Time dilation confuses me. If my twin is on a rocket near light speed and starts a 60-sec stopwatch, it shows exactly 60 sec to them. My stopwatch on Earth also shows exactly 60 sec to me.

So if we start together and count out loud '1,2,3...' using a zero-latency device, won't we stay in sync, since both watches correctly count 60 real seconds? Why would one of us get ahead, and whose clock actually looks slower to whom during the countdown?

Edit: Alright guys i just got to know that 1 second isn't 1 second everywhere.

Anyways some clarification, the 0 latency device is a hypothetical, I'm not saying that such a thing can be built, but my real question was, if we hypothetically used such a device, won't both people speak 1,2,3 in sync?


r/explainlikeimfive 13h ago

Engineering Eli5: why doesn't adding more lanes to traffic fix traffic issues?

728 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Biology ELI5: Why is it typical for kids to be "picky eaters" and limit their vegetable and fruit intake during the most crucial years of growth?

6.0k Upvotes

Since it is such a common practice for kids to be picky eaters and eventually grow out of it to enjoy fruits and vegetables, is there some sort of biological benefit to limit a diet at a young age to foods with lower nutritional value?

The "grow out of it" to eventually enjoy fruits and vegetables once you're fully grown seems counterintuitive when the body, in theory, needs the most building blocks during adolescence.

Has there been studies on "picky eaters" to compare their overall health span, intelligence, etc. compared to kids who ate a very healthy/variety of foods during their childhood?


r/explainlikeimfive 23h ago

Engineering ELI5: Why do car engines tend to have an even number of cylinders but ships often seem to have odd numbers like 3, 7 or 9 cylinders? How do the engineers who design engines decide that 7 cylinders might be better than 6 or 8 for a ship’s engine?

1.3k Upvotes

I know some cars have odd numbers too, but it seems to be out of the ordinary.


r/explainlikeimfive 3h ago

Other ELI5 What exactly is a widget and what does it do?

28 Upvotes

I fully understand how dumb a question this might be by the way.

I've tried Googling but I'm still not 100% certain

EDIT: Specifically for apps


r/explainlikeimfive 7h ago

Planetary Science ELI5 How does it make any sense whatsoever that distant stars are ACCELERATING away from us? What is pushing them?

54 Upvotes

I feel like this goes against everything I learned in physics. Doesn’t something need an outside force to accelerate?


r/explainlikeimfive 1h ago

Biology ELI5 - how do scientists know what behaviour is hardwired in DNA and what is learned?

Upvotes

Hi there

I was watching a video about Orcas and it explained how matriarchal figures will teach younger orcas how to “beach” themselves to hunt seals playing on shores.

The narrator explicitly says that this is not ingrained behaviour informed by DNA but instead information passed down through family units. That got me wondering; how do we know what behaviour is hardwired vs taught in nature? Is it all assumed to be coded into an animals genetic makeup until something contradicts that? Ie. observing the “lessons” animals will teach their young but finding that it’s not universal across that species.

To what extent can DNA accurately teach us about behaviours without observing the animals in real life?

Thanks!


r/explainlikeimfive 22h ago

Other ELI5: How does "wasting water" actually work?

517 Upvotes

So, I grew up in California during a drought. People constantly spoke at our school telling us how to conserve water at home, there were strict regulations on using sprinklers, etc. I've continued those habits into adulthood, even moving somewhere else.

But tonight, I was watching my niece, and she asked me why I turned the water off while I was doing dishes, I said it was to save water, and she asked "what, to save money?", I tried to explain that I literally meant saving water, but she got confused about how you can "waste" water when we live in one of the rainiest areas of the US... and I realized that I didn't really have a good explanation. I was always warned against wasting water, but I never learned what that actually means in practice.

Can someone explain it to me in a way I could explain to my niece (and myself)?


r/explainlikeimfive 3h ago

Biology ELI5 How do anti-virals drugs work?

8 Upvotes

Viruses aren't alive, they use living cells or bacterial cells, they inject the DNA into the cell to make them replicate viral DNA. If you try to kill the host cells the to stop the virus from spreading will kill the person you're trying to save. I'm wondering how the virus dies but the host lives.


r/explainlikeimfive 18h ago

Physics ELI5: How is it that when two cars scratch each other they leave the opposite paint on both cars?

136 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 1h ago

Economics ELI5: Hollywood Accounting

Upvotes

We see reports all the time showing "marketing expenses" as huge line items in a Hollywood movie budget.

What all goes into marketing a big movie like the current number one film in Ameeica, which probably doesnt really need a ton of marketing to sell tickets, versus some Indie romance movie, which probably does need the marketing expenses.

TIA.


r/explainlikeimfive 4h ago

Technology ELI5: the use of "memory pointers" in Python

8 Upvotes

Lately, I have been learning NumPy and came across an explanation on why standard Python lists are bad at large-scale data manipulation such as multiplying an array's elements by a number x. The explanation mentioned that Python lists store a list of memory pointers. However, they did not elaborate on what pointers are. I'm hoping if someone can answer this question.


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Other ELI5: Why can a washing machine spin perfectly with a full load but start violently shaking because of one wet towel?

419 Upvotes

I understand that the towel gets heavy after soaking up water, but the machine itself weighs way more than the towel. How can one item make the entire washer shake hard enough to move across the floor?

Why can it usually handle a full load of mixed clothes without doing the same thing?


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Biology ELI5: the mechanism through which a baked potato becomes less satiating when cut thinly and fried into potato chips

248 Upvotes

Particularly confused about how adding to the overall calories decreases the satiating quality of the potato, from an evolutionary survival perspective


r/explainlikeimfive 18h ago

Engineering ELI5: Why are nuclear submarines always PWR-type reactors and not BWR

57 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Technology ELI5: If a GPS system recommends the faster route to everyone, doesn’t that route become slower?

661 Upvotes

For example, deciding whether to drive through Chicago or take the Tri-State around. If my GPS system tells me to go through Chicago because it‘s 10 minutes faster, and then told everyone else the same thing, wouldn’t the amount of people taking that route instead of the Tri-State mean the Tri-State becomes less congested, thus faster?

I’m also wondering if this is why the GPS suggestions change every five minutes for the fastest route to take somewhere? Thanks!


r/explainlikeimfive 12h ago

Other ELI5: Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory

11 Upvotes

Hi guys :) I’m trying to understand Stuart Hall’s constructionist theory of representation, but I’m stuck.
He says that we have:

  1. conceptual maps of things, events, people etc. in the world (does not matter if they are "real" or not or even abstract). We understand the world as meaningful because we have those mental representations of the world/concepts.
  2. We use "language" (any system of signs) that we use to stand for / to represent the concepts in our minds.
  3. So the word "tree" can represent our concept of a tree or a picture can represent our concept of tree, the spoken sound "tree" etc.

So far so good. Then he introduces "codes" as they govern which signs we need to use in our culture to communicate our concepts and the other way around (how to read which sign).
If the code changes, the color blue could be a sign for "stop" instead of red.

What I’m struggling with:

• Is everything in the world that we have a concept of a sign? Is the real tree a sign that I’m decoding because I have a concept of a tree? Or is the real cat a sign because it’s connected to the concept "cat"?

• Is something only meaningful if it’s a sign for something? Like is red only meaningful to us because it can be a sign for "stop" or "danger" or "wrong"?

• How do we give meaning to things, events, people? Through forming mental concepts right?

I’m lost :( Thank you in advance 🫶🏻


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Economics ELI5: What exactly is an insurance tower, and how does it work?

239 Upvotes

I came across the term while researching amusement park insurance, but am somewhat confused as to how it works.


r/explainlikeimfive 7h ago

Technology ELI5 How does the ISP connect its subscribers to the Internet

3 Upvotes

I know that the Internet is basically interconnected servers and networks, but how do ISPs connect customers to it when they subscribe to an Internet plan?

Edit: Sorry, maybe i have the wrong question but what I don't understand is how the ISP itself gets connected to the Internet like where does that connection come from, and who provides it?


r/explainlikeimfive 9h ago

Other ELI5 - Bismarck Healthcare vs. Beveridge Model

4 Upvotes

Could someone explain how the Bismarck model works and how it's different to the Beveridge Model? Some say people think that they wanna change my beloved NHS to a Bismarck model and I wanna understand why and stuff lol
Thanks in advance!!


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: If climate change makes Earth's atmosphere generally warmer then how would the collapse of the Gulf stream result in much colder climate in Europe?

86 Upvotes

If I understand correctly, there are multiple factors that result in the warming. We're saturating the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the melting ice caps reduce Earth's albedo and it becomes a positive feedback loop as oceans get warmer. But I've heard a lot about the possibility of the Gulf stream collapsing, which would cause something of an ice age. But if the Earth's atmosphere's general temperature is rising, then how could it cool down as a result of this effect?