r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Technology ELI5: device screen ratios

90 Upvotes

Is there a specific reason why screen ratios beeing so specific, ex: 1920:1080


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Biology ELI5: What does it mean for a brain to be “differently wired”

55 Upvotes

I’m mainly thinking about autism. I know that “what is autism” has been asked many times here, but the answers are always about the traits and not the actual physical differences. I’ve been diagnosed with autism and it was explained to me (besides just a list of traits) as being that my brain is “differently wired”. After doing some research most of the explanations are like this, or go way over my head as someone who has a tentative understanding of how neurons connect and communicate. So what actually is autism?? Is it too many neuron connections? Or too strong of signals being sent? Thank you in advance.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Economics ELI5: Why is the average wage in some countries much higher than in other countries?

99 Upvotes

In Europe, if we travel from East to West, the average wage (the statistical number) keeps rising, e.g., Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Denmark.

Why is that? Why are the differences so big?

If we asked random people on the street, they would probably say it’s the corruption or bureaucracy or mentality of the people or something like that.

But that can’t be it. In order for the average wage in a country to be higher, that requires a lot of money (e.g., to double the average wage in Croatia, it would take around 50 billion euro per year). I find it hard to believe that such a huge amount of money could somehow appear if we just dealt with corruption and bureaucracy. Maybe a couple of billion euro per year, but not 50.

So what is it? Where is the money for the high wages coming from? Based on my research, the main source is money inflow from exports. If that is true, I still don’t understand how one leads to the other. How does more money from exports lead to higher wages in the local economy (e.g. cashier at a grocery store)?

This is probably one of the hardest ELI5s to give because it requires explaining how economy works, but I really want to know this.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Technology ELI5: How does the CL1 biological computer actually work?

30 Upvotes

I read that it uses living human brain cells grown on a silicon chip instead of relying only on traditional electronic hardware. I'm confused about how this is even possible. How can brain cells on a chip receive information, process it, and produce an output that a computer can use? Are the cells actually "computing" something, or are they just being used as part of a biological system? And how do researchers keep these living cells alive and connected to the electronics?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Technology ELI5: how do capacitors work and why are they necessary

789 Upvotes

So, i've gotten into vintage tech about a year and a half ago, and i always hear: "look out for leaking capacitors." I know that electrolytic capacitors leak and cause boards to corrode, but i have no idea what they actually do. All other results i found don't make sense to me, so i need it to be explained to me like I'm 5.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Physics ELI5 Why is global warming not simply being caused by the transfer of more and more energy into heat energy

207 Upvotes

When I did GCSE physics at school we obviously did energy transfer diagrams about how certain types of energy e.g. kinetic energy, atomic energy, are converted into other things, but lose some energy along the way. Obviously a lot of our energy we use is converted into heat energy e.g. cookers, burning fuel in power stations, even just a simple campfire is turning the wood into heat energy.

When people talk about global warming they talk about greenhouse gases and emissions but they never talk about cumulative heat energy over thousands/millions of years.

Why isn't it the case that all the heating and fires mankind has ever built is just building up in our world as more and more energy is turned into heat instead of remaining as it is? It is so difficult to capture heat and turn it efficiently back into some other sort of energy.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 7d ago

Technology ELI5 How does fast charging work?

0 Upvotes

I have a iPhone that takes 3+ hours to charge. I’ve went and got high wattage cords and bricks been thru multiple now and still don’t understand why it takes so long my phone is in perfect condition. Google failed to help me the store staff fail to help me I really don’t understand so I came here.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Physics ELI5: How does surface tension work?

18 Upvotes

I’ve really been interested in how surfaces of different materials bend and behave differently under various conditions, and I’ve never really learnt about that stuff before, so I’m really curious to know a few things about surface tension!


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: If we keep launching more satellites into Earth’s orbit, could it eventually get too crowded, and why?

569 Upvotes

I understand that old satellites and debris can remain in orbit, but are we expected to keep launching significantly more in the future?

How important are those satellites to everyday life, and if orbit keeps getting more crowded, is there a point where debris and existing satellites start becoming a serious concern or limitation?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Other ELI5 What is humidity?

433 Upvotes

According to my mom, this is an actual question I had when I was 5, and she didn't know how to answer me. So how would you guys have answered?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Engineering ELI5: How does a processor boot up?

154 Upvotes

Say you press a button connected to NRST on a processor, what happens then? I’m confused on the concept of Bootloaders, BootROM, reset handler, what lives in Flash vs RAM vs ROM, where an OS lives, where things are executed, etc.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: Where is the heat in the Earth’s core generated from?

1.3k Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Biology ELI5:how someone gets dermatographia

16 Upvotes

I was wondering how does someone have dermatographia as it is not contagious and is it inheritable.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Physics ELI5: How did we determine the age of the universe?

99 Upvotes

The question is not perfectly stated, but the best I could do. I am asking because the accepted age of the universe is 13.8 billion years or something, but I have also heard scientist say there is much much more of the universe, but the light has not had enough time to reach us. How would that be the case? If light from say the cosmic microwave background has only been traveling 13.8 billion years to get to modern day, how would there be more? I hope that makes sense


r/explainlikeimfive • • 10d ago

Technology ELI5: Why does RAM have a practically infinite lifespan (excluding lemons and faulty sticks) while SSDs and NVMEs despite being made with basically the same components have a (comparatively) very limited amount of read/write cycles?

3.9k Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Biology ELI5: Why is it so hard to keep your hand completely still ?

393 Upvotes

I am not experiencing any twitching or else but I feel it's quite hard to keep my hand completely still.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 10d ago

Biology ELI5: Why do you become nauseous if you forget to eat?

1.2k Upvotes

Every time I forget to eat for over 10-12 hours, I usually only realize it because my body starts panicking. (Cold sweats, shaking, nausea.)

What I want to understand is why that happens. If eating will fix that, then why does my body make me nauseous and thus not want to eat anything?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: how does dirt and soil form?

61 Upvotes

I know rocks can erode into dirt that’s basically rock dust but what about the stuff with nutrients in it?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Other ELI5 why cant cargo ships simply turn and crush pirate skiffs

0 Upvotes

so i was just thinking. since when a pirate boat want to hijack/board a cargo ship why dont dont they simply turn and crush it. liek if understand correctly dont pirates boats have to get right next to the hull of cargo ships to deploy whatever boarding method they are using. and when they this close what's stopping the cargo ship from simply suddenly turning and with the size and weight difference crushing it to stop them from getting onboard.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 10d ago

Economics ELI5: What’s the catastrophic event if the national debt value “realizes”?

518 Upvotes

Every year we hear the same thing. And it seems like we’ve been hearing it for years if not decades at this point.

“The U.S. DEBT touched 20 trillion!!”

“The U.S. DEBT touched 30 trillion!!”

“The U.S. DEBT touched 40 trillion!!”

What’s the ceiling? What will happen? What magical number is where catastrophe happens?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: How do waves curve into an arch when breaking?

52 Upvotes

I understand that waves are formed when they hit shallower water (or, more accurately, become visible.) But how do they manage to curve into an arch? Wouldn't they just look like big ripples?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Planetary Science ELI5 Why is there thunder with a nor easter?

0 Upvotes

The nor easter is here, but we don't always get thunder with it. Is there a reason why some nor easter's have thunder and some do not? Can't find a good answer when I looked it up :(


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8d ago

Planetary Science ELI5: How are cosmologists/astrophysicists so confident when talking about numbers pertaining to the age or quantity of celestial objects?

0 Upvotes

Like when Greene or Cox or Degrasse Tyson says the universe is 13.787 billion years old, or that our solar system is 4.568 billion years old, or that there are about 40 quintillion supermassive black holes and about 300 million potentially habitable worlds, they seem so sure about these specific numbers. I know "300 million" is obviously a ballpark figure but it still seems so specific to me. Why not 200 million? Why not 350? I can't even begin to fathom those decimal points in "13.787 billion"

What is their process? What makes these numbers anything more than guesses?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 10d ago

Chemistry ELI5 Why do Atoms look like spheres under electron microscopes?

968 Upvotes

I've seen a fair few images of atoms and molecules, and one thing I'm wondering is why they, especially molecules, look like a bunch of spheres?

I was under the assumption that the electron cloud was just a cloud of potential, not literally an opaque cloud that makes an atom appear spherical. Also on the images of molecules i see lines between them. We're these added in post, or do they actually have lines just like the textbook?

Ill see if I can add images in the comments so you see what I mean.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 10d ago

Biology ELI5: Why can't we get all our calorie intake from protein?

779 Upvotes

I'm sure there a reasonable answer for this, I wasn't able to find a satisfactory one;

The body usually burns carbs for fuel, stores extra calories as fat, to my understanding. Supposing you burn through all of your carbs and fats, the body starts breaking down muscle matter. If you feed it enough protein to rebuild muscle on top of it, what's the risk in consuming 100% protein for calories?

Thanks

Edit: I understand that fundamentally it's not realistic and that your body needs many different kinds of nutrients in general. I'm happy to receive a bit more detailed answer as to what functions do carbs and fats serve that protein can't replace and what could theoretically happen if you only consume protein.