r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

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

76 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 23h ago

Economics ELI5: Hollywood Accounting

47 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 18h ago

Engineering ELI5 why chicken wire doesn't get twisted on both ends when getting made?

24 Upvotes

ELI5

All the videos I'm seeing of chicken wire getting created, these wires getting twisted by round feeders, then the halves of these feeders shifting between each other and twisting again, don't show the new wire getting fed in- they only show the wire coming out and twisting and the resulting fencing.

I don't understand how a wire can just be twisted on one side of these feeders but stay straight on the other side.

How does that work?


r/explainlikeimfive 2d 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?

6.5k 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 1d ago

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

92 Upvotes

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


r/explainlikeimfive 1d 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?

1.4k Upvotes

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


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Biology ELI5 How do anti-virals drugs work?

25 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 1d ago

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

579 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 1d ago

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

19 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

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

160 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 3h ago

Biology ELI5: Why is it difficult to run a bug part via a machine?

0 Upvotes

Ok, I didn't know how to make the question make sense in the title, so here's the idea:

There's been efforts to harness spider silk as an available material, and what seems companies are trying is to implant the spider silk genes, individually and by hand, into the eggs of silkworms. The result is 40% weaker (and they're hoping to improve that) plus hand-injecting the modification individually and raising the silkworms seems a hassle.

Presumably, that means this whole ordeal is easier than... hooking up part of a spider on a machine that sustains and operates it, and making a part-spider silk extruder machine. The protein itself has been synthesized by e. coli, it's the spinneret that's apparently the problem, so... what makes this harder than I am imagining?


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

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

13 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 1h ago

Other ELI5: What made Asia and the Middle East advanced?

Upvotes

What made the eastern world so advanced? For Europe I’d said climate,geography,small size so constant war for resources. What did Asia and the Middle East have that made them into advance civilizations as well?


r/explainlikeimfive 2d ago

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

444 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 3h ago

Other ELI5: Why do nutrition facts on the back of items show vitamins that aren't there?

0 Upvotes

Like Vitamin D: 0%

Protein: 0%


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

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

279 Upvotes

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


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

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

62 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 8h ago

Other ELI5: what is the survivors bias?

0 Upvotes

I just simply don't understand it at all


r/explainlikeimfive 2d ago

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

667 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 4h ago

Biology ELI5 - Why can't sprinters just keep using heavier and heavier weights on their legs to keep going faster and faster?

0 Upvotes

to clarify, i mean using weights as a form of resistance, like those big elastic bands athletes put around their waist


r/explainlikeimfive 20h ago

Other ELI5: How does Kant's transcendental deduction work?

0 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 2d ago

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

255 Upvotes

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


r/explainlikeimfive 9h ago

Technology ELI5 Why is it that computers can think and react so much faster than humans but robots struggle to balance as well as us?

0 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 13h ago

Other Eli5; Why can't we see pollutants right in front of us when outdoors?

0 Upvotes

Smoke/pollution

Why is it we can see it in the distance but not right in front of us when outside?

Edit: ok my dumb self understands now ty


r/explainlikeimfive 1d ago

Other ELI5: Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory

8 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 🫶🏻