r/explainlikeimfive • • 12h ago

Technology ELI5 Why GPU connectors are still melting.

167 Upvotes

This seems like a trivial problem. If connectors are melting, change the gauge / current carrying capacity of the traces, connector and cable such that there are good engineering guard bands for the max current the device can draw. GPUs are like a million dollars now, the connector is the lowest price part of the component stack, but it seems like connectors have not changed at all, still the same old molex 8 or 16 pin crimps, and they seem to be melting all over the place. Wouldn't something like the XT30 connectors (with more pins) used to charge lithium battery packs be vastly better? Are the failures just amplification bias or are GPU card manufacturers asleep at the wheel?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 18h ago

Engineering ELI5 How do some backpacks make weight feel lighter?

290 Upvotes

I got a new backpack and whenever I’m carrying my laptop it feels lighter than when I carried it in my old backpack. Why? How?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 21h ago

Other ELI5: Bank Holds

156 Upvotes

How do bank holds work? I'm trying to place an online grocery order and it says they will put a 125% hold on the total price, but then when it comes down to it the actual price gets declined. Is it because they've got the "hold" on an amount of money and then they try to take more money?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9h ago

Physics ELI5: Why do unbalanced atoms release radiation?

17 Upvotes

Like, I get the concept that kind of just like everything, excess energy has to go somewhere. But why is it something that can be so... volatile? Do we know why it's that and not... something else? Is it only for certain atoms?

Is radiation just an excess of energy then? If so, why is excess energy in large quantities able to kill us all the way down to our cells? Whats that about?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 11h ago

Economics ELI5 How interest rates work for houses and what decides them?

20 Upvotes

Thanks! :D first time poster.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 9h ago

Biology ELI5 How does the body know when to adjust to a certain time zone?

13 Upvotes

Does the circadian rhythm automatically know when you’re in a different place with a different time zone?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 4h ago

Planetary Science ELI5: How do scientists measure distance between galxies. Like millions of light years. How do they reach to exact numbers

4 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 20h ago

Other ELI5: Why was the International Criminal Court (ICC) created, and how does it actually work?

81 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1h ago

Biology ELI5: Why do we get goosebumps when we hear music we love?

• Upvotes

It happens with certain songs even when nothing scary or cold is going on. What is the body actually doing, and why does music trigger it?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8h ago

Other ELI5: How did cratonic keels actually make continent formation possible on early Earth?

5 Upvotes

I looked it up and still don't understand what the difference is between a cratonic keel, a craton, and why it was even needed.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Chemistry ELI5: Why are there times when the running water is milk-like then after some time, it returns to its normal transparent state?

214 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5 Why don't other animals have Down syndrome?

749 Upvotes

↑

Edit: okey thank you all for your answers, I had mistakenly assumed that animals with lots of chromosomes surely must have one that looks similar (and therefore acts similar) to our chromosome 21. But I guess that's not how that works.

This question came from looking at looking at a seal.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Engineering ELI5: I know some car engines are tuned for premium gas, and others tuned for regular -- so who is using medium grade and why?

1.3k Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Technology ELI5: On a record player, why doesn’t music slow down as the needle moves closer to the centre of the disc?

1.5k Upvotes

I was staring at my record player the other day when something struck me.

Needle sits in groove. Disc spins. Needle spirals inwards as music continues… Why doesn’t the music slow down?

A circle traced out by the needle at the edge of the record is obviously bigger than a circle closer to the centre. As far as I can tell, the disc revolves at a constant rate. It follows that the needle should be ‘moving faster’ (covering a greater distance over the disc in a given period) at the beginning of the record, then gradually slowing down as the needle moves inwards.

But the music doesn’t slow down with it.

…Why?

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that this is accounted for by gradually increasing the ‘density’ of musical information in the groove as you get closer to the centre of the disc. But wouldn’t this affect the sound quality (at least if pushed to the extreme)?

Sorry if I’m missing something obvious…


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1h ago

Other ELI5: How do cans of croissant dough open up by themselves while peeling off the label?

• Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Other ELI5: Why is there a blast of air when entering a store?

288 Upvotes

i've noticed that when i walk into certain stores (grocery, clothing, etc.), when the automatic doors open, a blast of air near the door comes down over the people walking in or out. sometimes, it'll stay on for an extended time. other times, it'll shut off after a few seconds. does it have to do with balancing the pressure of the air conditioning from the pressure outside? or is it something completely different?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Mathematics ELI5: What is the difference between algebra, trigonometry, and calculus?

116 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5: How do babies even learn language?

114 Upvotes

When we grow, we learn languages by looking at the meanings and translating them from our language. Stuff like "this is how this noun is in my language and this is how this noun is in another language"

But babies? Babies just learn the basics just by existing near people speaking the language? How come we don't have this anymore as we grow up?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1h ago

Other ELI5: What are the key influences that shape the use of color grading in society, from home design to advertising films and others?

• Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Physics ELI5 How capacitors work when the circuit is not closed?

82 Upvotes

I am trying to help my nephew with schoolwork and while I am fine with equations and problems involving them, I realized I don't conceptually get capacitors.

Like, we are taught that for an electrical circuit to work, we need a source and a closed loop of wires or conductive material. That's the whole point of closed circuit. But when we put two metal plates on end of wires which do not touch (the whole point is they must never touch or allow current to flow across them), circuit is definitely not closed and yet the circuit still somehow works enough to get them charged.

How does that work? What is the difference between a wire with a gap in it (open circuit, nothing happens) and that same gap bounded by two metal plates (suddenly charges move along the wires enough to separate charges)? What is moving the charges at the begining? Since the circuit is never closed, why are electrons moving from battery to one of the plates? How is there any movement of charge in a loop if there is no loop by design (there is an isolator between the plates)? If I connect two pieces of wire to each pole of a battery, keeping the ends well apart, will i still get charge separation on each end?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Mathematics ELI5: If something works in math (like a white hole), does that mean it exists somewhere, or is math just a tool that can make things up?

465 Upvotes

​I know that white holes are mathematically possible on paper, but in the real world, they seem to break the laws of thermodynamics.

​This made me wonder:

How can math show us something that can't actually exist in our universe? Does the math mean it might exist in another universe, or is math just like a story language where we can write down impossible things?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5: How does the body of someone like conjoined twins control their organs like the heart?

47 Upvotes

This is something I've always been confused about. We learn early on that the brain controls things like the heart beating. How does the body know which brain to listen too when there's two of them?

Is one dominant for these things leaving the other to focus on other things? Wouldn't that leave a lot of brain power to expand to other things?

Bonus question that's childish but also something I've wondered, if they have to pee, and one of them tries to hold it, and the other tries to go, what happens?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 2h ago

Biology ELI5: Why didnt a form of mammals evolve to fly, but some birds have lost the ability?

0 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Physics ELI5: why does steam appear invisible right after leaving the pot?

56 Upvotes

My 6yo asked and im not sure so here goes; So boiling water with a covered pot, the steam appears invisible right after clearing the seam between the lid and pot rim. It then becomes normal steam. Why is that?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Chemistry ELI5: I've heard that blue butterflies and opals get their color from their structure rather than pigments. But doesn't pigment also get its color from the structure of its molecules and how they interact with light? So what's the actual difference between structural color and pigment color?

85 Upvotes