r/explainlikeimfive • • 26d ago

Other ELI5: Monthly Current Events Megathread

20 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 • • 4h ago

Biology ELI5: Why does our brain crave cold water over room temperature water when we feel extremely thirsty?

293 Upvotes

Even though water hydrates you the exact same way regardless of temperature, drinking ice-cold water feels instantly more satisfying when you are overheated or parched. What physical or sensory process causes that immediate sense of relief before the water even enters the stomach?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 13h ago

Biology ELI5: If muscle is so essential to human health and longevity, why is it so difficult to gain and maintain?

1.5k Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 10h ago

Other ELI5: What is the difference between a Sherrif department and a Police department.

551 Upvotes

So basically the title, I live in Belgium and its a foreign concept to me, but I keep getting confronted with these terms when I consume American media. As a kid when I thought of Sherrif I thought about Cowboys. As Im older I know that not how that works.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 7h ago

Other ELI5: What is a freemason and how is it different from a fraternity?

181 Upvotes

Someone told me their partner is a freemason and belong to a lodge. Looking it up, it sounds very similar to a fraternity but got confused after reading about strange rituals, terminology and titles, and got an overall very secretive and elitist vibe. What is a freemason and why would someone want to be one?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 16h ago

Biology ELI5: How do some insects reproduce incestually for multiple generations without complete genetic degradation?

577 Upvotes

As an example, a cockroach might lay an egg somewhere that hatches hundreds of cockroaches which are all siblings, but then dozens of those siblings will mate with each other, and then their children will mate with each other, and some with their aunts/uncles potentially, and this will just go on and on with seemingly no issues. How is this possible?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1h ago

Biology ELI5: Why with all our great advances in technology, material science etc. are breasts implants still so obviously not of the same feeling, weight, movement as natural breasts?

• Upvotes

It baffles me how we can create so many synthetic replacements that are indistinguishable from the real thing e.g synthetic oil, synthetic leather yet we can't do the same with breast implants.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 18h ago

Technology ELI5: If a fiber optic cable or something of the sort gets damaged underground, how do people know where along the line its broken and how do they fix it?

510 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 11h ago

Other ELI5 airline finances.

117 Upvotes

Why does it feel like airlines have a really difficult time being consistently profitable. With JetBlues financial issues and it feels like almost every other major airline has either filed chapter 11 or merged etc at some point. With all of the analytics, constant ticket prices changes I feel like they should be better at making a profit.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 5h ago

Biology ELI5: phantom kicks after pregnancy

22 Upvotes

What are phantom kicks after pregnancy caused by? For me, it’s been years since I was pregnant and I still get phantom kicks. I can sometimes see them and feel them from the outside too?? It’s been happening consistently since delivery so I’m really curious.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 15h ago

Technology ELI5: Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH)

98 Upvotes

Hopefully this is properly flaired. People have been talking about ETH and AI lately and I don't understand what ETH really is.

Bonus for ELI5: How did AI supposedly disprove ETH—But I'm mostly interested in knowing what ETH is on its own.


r/explainlikeimfive • • 12h ago

Other ELI5: What does it mean to play advantage in rugby union?

34 Upvotes

I’m relatively new to playing rugby and learning a lot. One thing I have not wrapped my head around yet at all is playing advantage. Whether it’s called in one of my club matches or watching the pros play, I am not grasping the concept yet. What does it mean? When is it granted? When is it deemed over?

TIA!


r/explainlikeimfive • • 16h ago

Biology ELI5: Why do humans have birthmarks?

68 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Engineering ELI5: If we can broadcast information wirelessly through an entire house, like WIFI, Bluetooth, why can't we broadcast enough energy to charge every phone in it, without cables, charging pads, or even putting the phone in a particular spot?

895 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5 Why do some musical chords sound sad and some sound happy? Is it learned or do our brains come this way from the factory?

1.2k Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 14h ago

Economics ELI5: Why do stock prices sometimes drop when a company announces record profits?

21 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Other Eli5 Why do barbers rub their razors against a leather strap. What does a leather strop do to the razor?

4.3k Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 23h ago

Biology ELI5: Are digestive enzymes produced all the time or only when we eat? What happens to them if we skip a meal like breakfast?

57 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Technology ELI5: Why can X-rays easily pass right through our skin and muscles but get completely stopped by our bones?

146 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 8h ago

Planetary Science Eli5 how a celestial's body's moon can provide a measurement of both objects’ total mass?

5 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Biology ELI5: If millions of cattle are consumed yearly why arent there more human cases of prion disease?

544 Upvotes

For example the Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Engineering ELI5: aside from aerodynamics, what determines how fast a car goes? why can some cars have the similar engines in power but differ completely in their performance?

91 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Other ELI5, why did NFL footage from the 1920s and 30s look so sped up or slowed down?

229 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Mathematics ELI5: If a surgery has a 1% risk of death, does that mean 1 out of every 100 people who get the surgery will die?

1.0k Upvotes

If doctors say a surgery has a 1% chance of causing death, does that literally mean that if 100 people undergo the same surgery, 1 person would be expected to die and the other 99 would survive?

Does that percentage apply to every specific person, if that's the case wouldn't that mean, theoretically, every healthy person should survive out of the 100 people since every person has a 99% chance of not dying?


r/explainlikeimfive • • 1d ago

Other ELI5: What do people mean when they refer to certain places as "liminal spaces"?

574 Upvotes

I've been seeing people talk about these things called "liminal spaces" lately mostly on posts with weird looking pictures of empty places. I don't really know much about them but I'm kinda curious. What exactly makes a place liminal?