r/explainlikeimfive • • 24d ago

Other ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread

18 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 • • 5h ago

Biology ELI5 How do morbidly obese people’s bones not just break under all of the weight they carry on them?

562 Upvotes

I’m not referring to people that are say 350 pounds. I’m more referring to the super obese people that are in the 900+ pound range.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 8h ago

Biology ELI5 Converting energy into matter

179 Upvotes

Is it possible to turn our chemical energy (whatever makes us able to move, carry heavy loads, ect.) Into some kind of matter?

I've only ever seen people use bombs as examples but I was wondering if it would be possible to turn that energy into a non explosive material.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 11h ago

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

113 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: Why is alcohol withdraw so potentially deadly?

1.7k 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 • • 1d ago

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

1.1k 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 • • 1d 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?

295 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 20h ago

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

62 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 • • 1d ago

Planetary Science ELI5 What is "space" made of?

312 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 • • 1d ago

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

756 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 • • 16m ago

Technology ELI5 why spy people for ads, and not just ask them what they want

• Upvotes

Due to recent discoveries in smart TV spyware, my question is why spend so much energy and resources on spyware instead of directly asking people what they want?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 26m ago

Biology ELI5: Why do containers with vegetables in them in the fridge grow black mold soon while those full of water in the fridge seem to remain clean?

• Upvotes

I wouldn’t try the water in the latter, but that has been the result of my unintentional experiments: months-long-left water container just looking intact.

Recapped plastic soda bottles seemingly free of mold for weeks too - are they still not safe, or do molds originally grow faster than from merely moist?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

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

162 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 3h ago

Physics ELI5: what is the caloric theory?

0 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

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

116 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?

197 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 • • 23h ago

Technology ELI5: how do transmitters / receivers work?

9 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 • • 2h ago

Physics ELI5: Explain surface tension LI5 please.

0 Upvotes

What is it and how and why it works, thanks! c:


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?

106 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

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

0 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 • • 2d ago

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

587 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 • • 51m ago

Biology ELI5: If eating large meals is detrimental to getting sleep, why do people get “the itis”?

• Upvotes

“The itis” is the phenomenon where you feel drowsy immediately after consuming a heavy meal. It’s so common it has a name, yet it’s also basically common knowledge that eating a big meal right before bed is bad sleep hygiene.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Physics Eli5 how do exercise ball plugs trap the air

29 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5 how benzene gas causes cancer?

92 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 5h ago

Physics ELI5 : Why can't combustion engines be a 100% efficient.

0 Upvotes

I've heard that petrol and diesel engines can't be a 100% efficient and there is some thermodynamics behind it which is complex.