Every December, Slate.com posts a list of unanswered Explainer questions from the year and asks readers to vote on one. There’s a lot of interesting questions there, I thought it’d be interesting to see how many people here could answer. Obviously, some are just pointless to try due to it not being a proper GQ-type question, like #31, and I think most people already know #10 is illegal to do. Some are simply biased, I think, like #4
A couple of them piqued my interest though. I really want to know #11, why IS a soup can’s inside ridged? And #23, why not have windows in airplane bathrooms? It makes no sense!!
BTW, I voted for the soup can question, but I’ll revote if someone here an answer it!
#23, I would assume, has roughly the same answer as #11: every window in the fuselage of a plane decreases (even if slightly) its structural integrity. I assume it also increases its weight. The airlines would be perfectly happy, and air travel would be marginally safer, if the airline cabins had no windows at all, but the passengers wouldn’t stand for it.
I voted for “do drunk people really not get hurt in accidents because they don’t tense up”, but I also want to know if all languages are equally lip-readable. (I would assume that tonal languages are more difficult, but what do I know?)
The answer to the soup can question, according to the Campbell Soup company, that’s just their can design, and they’ve always made them that way. Campbell is very big on consistency, so if there was once a better reason, it probably no longer applies.
Well I was originally going to change to the airplane window question, but I’m satisfied with Zsofia’s response. I was going to change to #20, the entymology of the word Orange, but I found a satisfying answer to that on Wiki.
I’ve always wondered about #21, why athletes don’t seem to sneeze, as I’ve noticed that too. I’m voting twice on that. I’ll vote 3 times on #3 as my next question on the list, though I can probably guess that answer (it’s “no”) but would love to hear a more thorough explanation. I really can’t believe that the highest number of votes are going to the question about boys and sticks. That seems like asking why boys like trucks and girls like dolls
Number 6 - assuming the question is wondering how Pfizer can ever send emails internally about their product, Viagra, the answer is probably a combination of choosing to allow the word through filters and employees using either the in-house development name/number (ABC123) or the active ingredient name rather than the marketing name. When I worked in pharmaceuticals, most products tended to go by a project name rather than the brand name, but then again I worked in contract and generics companies.
Windows are locations of structural weakness in an aircraft and cause interesting issues for running cables and wiring through the airframe, and it’s true that a manufacturer would probably rather not have to include them if they could get away with it. Passengers like having them so much, though, that increasing the size of windows is a major selling point in some aircraft (moving the windows up and increasing their size slightly was part of the marketing pitch for the CRJ-700/900s over the CRJ-100/200s). The other thing is that lavatories are modular - they aren’t part of the aircraft itself in terms of Type Certification and approval, but are rather components that are selected and installed on Supplemental Type Certificates when the interiors are installed and it would be difficult to line up the windows to the airframe. Different seating configurations for a given aircraft will result in the lavs being placed elsewhere (or a different model used) as well. Also, when the aircraft is on the ground, no one wants to see what’s going on in there!
Bored while waiting for a phone call, so here are the simple answers to most of the questions, which required little knowledge and only some common sense and observation. None of these would seem to be the question of the year.
People aren’t passive-aggressive as an absolutely determinable trait, they are simply categorized as passive-aggressive, so the best anyone can do is determine if someone (including themself) is categorized as passive-aggressive.
Don’t know. Someone could approximate it. The government may already have done so.
I don’t know.
Large extensive tattoos are not always Asian-Themed. If a lot them are, I assume it is tradition. And possibly a better style of art for a non-rigid canvas.
That’s been answered already in this thread. Who wonders that?
Also answered, sort of. Common sense says yes.
Bathtubs come in many different sizes. There is only one size of bathtub for which there is not a bigger size, and that one would be pretty big. You only have to make a bigger one to change which one it is.
Ho is a way of pronouncing whore. It probably goes back to the time when the word whore was coined.
It is if the leaves are not otherwise causing a problem, and then its not.
No, if the booby trap would harm someone.
Previously answered. All I had to do was call the Campbell Soup Co.
No, unless the thugs are morons who wait to attack one at a time.
The simplest answer is that you can screw in a slotted screw using anything that will fit in the slot, and flat head screw drivers are more commonly found as well. There are more variations for screw heads than those two.
I don’t watch, so I don’t know if the question is even valid.
Because most people aren’t good story tellers, and you usually have no investment in the dream. Some peoples dreams are engrossing, and some people relate their dreams well. This is just the personal opinion of the questioner.
Yes. Also they often are terretorial, or avoiding other terretorial fish. They may just like the view.
No, they are too big, and cats are too uncooperative. Maybe 3D glasses could be made for cats, and then I don’t know if they would work.
Probably not if you can still answer the question.
There’s an SDMB thread that addresses this topic in regard to asteroids. There are also several frequent SDMB posters that could provide detailed answer as to what would happen if we could.
SDMB answers this also. The color orange was named after the fruit, and is also named after other orange things, or called yellow-red.
I don’t think people sneeze because they are intensely focused.
That’s a mildly interesting question that I don’t know the answer to. Another Mythbuster’s episode idea, but the answer is probably available somewhere.
Answered already in this thread.
It is not established that kids are better spellers than adults, but if they are, the answer is found in the question.
I do not know what it means for a movie to be inaccurate, or accurate. If it’s about historical accuracy, none are accurate, except for documentaries consisting of actual footage of events.
I don’t know the legal answer, but what kind of <redacted> would complain about a blind person’s guide dog?
There are, but not on a large scale because very few people are interested in them.
That answer can be found, likely on the SMDB. I don’t recall the answer or how it was established.
Old people are not always coughing. Old people may cough more, probably because as you get older nose, throat and lungs are not as effective at keeping clear of mucous and swallowed saliva, among other things.
Don’t know, interesting. Most cat allergies are actually allergy to dead cat skin cells. I don’t if lions have substantially different skin, but if you want to know how to skin a cat, or how many ways there are to skin a cat, there is an SDMB thread on that subject.
When I used to take take my toddler daughter to the park she would collect sticks and leave them by me in a pile on the bench. Did she think I needed more penises?
Children like to pick things up and play with them in general. Picking up and playing with sticks is not much discouraged (as opposed to picking up some of the other things kids might find outdoors).
Also, possibly, the propensity of children to pick up and play with sticks is connected with the nature of human beings as tool-making and fire-using animals. It seems conceivable that a propensity to collect sticks might have become innate through the Baldwin effect.
That is just speculation, but I would venture to say that it has a lot more of a basis in science than the notion that boys like sticks because they are “phallic symbols.”
#6: I don't know. Why do you ask? Do they have special spam filters at Hormel?
The slotted screw thing is more interesting than that, really - I’ve read that essentially Phillips head screws are meant for power tools, not for hand assembly. You can’t strip a flathead screw (well, I’m sure you can, but it’s got to be seriously difficult). Phillips are very easy to strip using hand tools.
Here’s a pretty good Instructables entry covering the many different type of screw heads. It’s pretty comprehensive. I’m still looking for a article that had even more information and historical details. Phillips are preferred for manual assembly over slotted, but there are a lot of other options.
I have stripped many a slotted, flathead screw. I’m sure I have stripped many Phillips ones too (yeah, I’m a klutz), but if anything I would think that they are less easy to strip.
Anyway, flat versus rounded heads is not the issue here (not the one in the article, anyway); the issue is a slot versus a cross (Phillips).
What I’m wondering is, if it’s so easy to strip screws, and I’ve done that too, why don’t they make the holes a little deeper? Hell, wouldn’t that take up less metal and is cheaper?
Less metal means the metal would be weaker unless a larger head is used. The main advantage of a Philips head is that it’s self centering, but the points of contact are weaker, so stripping the head is easier than with slots. Cross slot and other variations provide better strength, but are more difficult to engage. The great variety of screw heads is due to the great variety of applications and conditions, and the attempt to find the ideal type of screw head for each of these.
Sorry, I meant slotted, not flathead - flathead is the screwdriver. (Well, I don’t know - is that standard usage? That’s what my dad calls them. And he’s an engineer… but a Southern one.)
ETA - my mom calls them plusses and minuses. She is not an engineer. Or a Southerner.
Flathead or flatblade is common terminology for a screwdriver even though flathead distinquishes from roundheads in the screw. They are also called slotted screwdrivers even though the slot is in the screw.
The real confusion comes when you introduce left handed screwdrivers
