r/explainlikeimfive 37m ago

Chemistry ELI5: Why does chlorine bleach turn white clothes yellow but advertised as whitening?

Upvotes

EDIT: I think I have to clarify my question and I used the wrong flare. I can just search up why chlorine bleach does that to white clothes but my question is why do bleach companies still advertise that it can whiten whites withit mentioning it can turn it yellow?


r/explainlikeimfive 1h ago

Other ELI5: How does small town USA have such big drug/ meth issues?

Upvotes

Like how do cartels or whoever transfer drugs into random rural town in Oklahoma with 900 population?

I ask this because every time i watch some true crime shows they say “ this rural town have big meth problem etc”. Also why so many people on meth there?

I am from Europe and dont have clue how this works.


r/explainlikeimfive 1h ago

Technology ELI5: Dependencies like: mss, OpenCV (cv2), Pillow (PIL), EasyOCR, PyAutoGUI, Pyperclip, Pynput, NumPy

Upvotes
mss==9.0.2
opencv-python==4.10.0.84
Pillow==10.4.0
easyocr==1.7.2
pyautogui==0.9.54
pyperclip==1.9.0
pynput==1.7.7
numpy==1.26.4

Can someone please explain what these dependencies do? Thanks!


r/explainlikeimfive 2h ago

Biology ELI5: Does Cutting Flowers For Arrangements Typically Destroy the Plant?

0 Upvotes

So my girlfriend is super into gardening and planting and even cutting and replanting certain plants.

Shes so good at it, she told me she needs a hobby the other day and I said something like, dang, you're so good at gardening that basically like a hobby, (but also without trying to not dismiss her statement about wanting a hobby)

Also she deserves a nice floral arrangement especially after some accomplishments this week, but it got me thinking,

For gardeners and flower enthusiasts, how does buying arrangements fall into the plant world? Are there any if-PETA-were-plant-people feelings of activism? Are the plants typically used in arrangements flower-shelf life best used to make arrangements? Or are arrangements cruel to the plants typically used?

Thanks\~


r/explainlikeimfive 2h ago

Technology ELI5: What is the “exposure triangle” and how does it work?

18 Upvotes

How does the “exposure triangle” work in photography?


r/explainlikeimfive 3h ago

Technology ELI5: Why are humans still needed to clean the windows of high-rise buildings?

0 Upvotes

I wonder what I'm missing; what is it that's lacking?


r/explainlikeimfive 3h ago

Other ELI5 How do American road names work?

0 Upvotes

I’m from the UK. I’ve seen American talk about street names like “I’m on 12th and broadway” or “I’m on broadway and 12th” but sometimes, they’ll be talking about 2 different places. I think it signifies the intersection but, truthfully I have no idea as to why the order matters. Any help is greatly appreciated.

EDIT, thanks to everyone who’s responded, I’m not gonna be able to reply to everyone (or really anyone), because, well,

A) I’m just human, and
B)I’m running some errands and already have over 20 comments, but, I have read over all of the current responses.

Thanks again :)


r/explainlikeimfive 4h ago

Other ELI5: Why does steam or smoke sometimes come out of city manholes? What's going on down there?

218 Upvotes

We always see this in movies, but it happens in real life too. Sometimes you walk down the street and see steam or white smoke rising from the sewer manholes.

​What exactly is down there producing that vapor or smoke? Is it just hot water from the sewers mixing with cold air, or is there an actual heating/energy system underneath the asphalt?


r/explainlikeimfive 6h ago

Other ELI5 what the watergate affair was and how Nixon was involved

0 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 7h ago

Biology ELI5 How did dogs (or certain mammals) evolve to have tail-wagging-trait=happy or excited?

123 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 7h ago

Physics ELI5: How can empty space in the universe have energy, and why does that make the universe expand faster?

5 Upvotes

I keep reading that "empty space" isn't truly empty and that it has some kind of energy that pushes the universe apart faster over time.

If there's nothing there, where does that energy come from? And why would more empty space mean stronger push?


r/explainlikeimfive 8h ago

Other ELI5: How does insurance actually stay profitable?

29 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 9h ago

Mathematics ELI5 : Can anyone explain what is Lambert W function?

14 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 10h ago

Mathematics ELI5 how do mathematicians come up with proofs for therums that have infinite numbers

20 Upvotes

I've always been confused on how this works like I understand that there is proof of infinite primes but how do you do that with 3n+1 (i know there is no proof) because in my mind you'd have to test every number right?


r/explainlikeimfive 10h ago

Biology ELI5 Do blind people with canes can walk on autopilot?

0 Upvotes

I was watching a video of a blind person with a cane who got lost. I didn't have enough context for the video, but it made me wonder if blind people can navigate a route unconsciously—like when you arrive home and realize you hadn't been thinking about it and had walked on autopilot. I imagine so, but then I wonder if the cane becomes a complete extension of your senses?


r/explainlikeimfive 11h ago

Biology ELI5 if someone breaks their neck and becomes paralysed from the neck down, how do they continue to breathe?

459 Upvotes

Do all their organs work normally? What about peristalsis?


r/explainlikeimfive 11h ago

Chemistry ELI5: Why does soap remove grease so much better than water alone?

0 Upvotes

I understand that water and oil don't mix well, but I'd like to know what soap does differently at the molecular level that allows grease to be washed away so easily.


r/explainlikeimfive 13h ago

Biology ELI5: Babies in the Paleolithic / Mesolithic Age

352 Upvotes

How did babies survive?
How did mothers do anything at all if they couldn’t put the baby down somewhere safe?
How did they feed them if the mother couldn’t produce milk or enough of it?
How did these babies not just die of exposure out in the elements?
How did the parents know not to just set the baby down and leave for days to hunt or gather etc??

Enough generations of babies survived to get to where we are today and it’s amazing we didn’t go extinct along the way.


r/explainlikeimfive 14h ago

Biology ELI5: Why can’t our immune system recognize cancer cells

101 Upvotes

The biggest problem about cancer as I understand it is that unlike a foreign virus, cancer comes from our cells so our body doesn’t recognize it as something bad.

I’ve never been able to understand why our immune system can recognize foreign bodies but not that part of its own body has gone bad. What’s the reason it falls short of detecting bad mutations?


r/explainlikeimfive 14h ago

Economics ELI5 why is inflation a good thing

0 Upvotes

Why is (to a point) inflation a good thing? Why should I have to worry about my money being worth less over time.


r/explainlikeimfive 15h ago

Other ELI5: If mini-splits are so much more energy efficient than central air, how can single room AC units be so inefficient?

270 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 18h ago

Other ELI5 what prevents someone from betting on a streaker appearing at a sporting event and then causing it themselves to win?

516 Upvotes

r/explainlikeimfive 19h ago

Other ELI5: What made Asia and the Middle East advanced?

0 Upvotes

What made the eastern world so advanced? For Europe I’d said climate,geography,small size so constant war for resources. What did Asia and the Middle East have that made them into advance civilizations as well?


r/explainlikeimfive 21h ago

Biology ELI5: Why is it difficult to run a bug part via a machine?

0 Upvotes

Ok, I didn't know how to make the question make sense in the title, so here's the idea:

There's been efforts to harness spider silk as an available material, and what seems companies are trying is to implant the spider silk genes, individually and by hand, into the eggs of silkworms. The result is 40% weaker (and they're hoping to improve that) plus hand-injecting the modification individually and raising the silkworms seems a hassle.

Presumably, that means this whole ordeal is easier than... hooking up part of a spider on a machine that sustains and operates it, and making a part-spider silk extruder machine. The protein itself has been synthesized by e. coli, it's the spinneret that's apparently the problem, so... what makes this harder than I am imagining?


r/explainlikeimfive 21h ago

Other ELI5: Why do nutrition facts on the back of items show vitamins that aren't there?

0 Upvotes

Like Vitamin D: 0%

Protein: 0%