/u/pannenkoek2012's posts in /r/askscience

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The killdeer bird uses a "broken wing act" to distract predators from its nest. When it does this, does it understand WHY this works? Or is this simply an instinctive behavior?

2037 upvotes

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Why do some equations (like universal gravity and Gauss's law) require a proportionality constant, while others (like F=ma and V=IR) do not?

115 upvotes

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If I chose a random bit of my computer's hard drive and flipped it from a 0 to a 1 (or vice versa), what would happen?

21 upvotes

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People knew of metals before atomic theory. So after atomic theory standardized the definition of a metal, did some elements that hadn't been considered metals become metals?

8 upvotes

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Why can we not iterate through the real numbers?

5 upvotes

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When factoring a polynomial expression, what does it mean for a root to have multiplicity greater than one? Does it make the expression "more 0" than if it had had only multiplicity one?

3 upvotes

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Why does yellow appear brighter than the other colors of the rainbow?

2 upvotes

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To calculate variance, we sum up the squares of the differences between each value and the mean. This results the variance's units being the square of the units of the values. So wouldn't it be easier to not square each difference, but instead to take its absolute value?

2 upvotes

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Why is it that with things like video games, the user can't see the source code, but with html pages, the user can?

2 upvotes

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Why is 3-sides necessary for a polygon? Is there a fundamental rule that prohibits smaller polygons?

1 upvotes

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Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
The killdeer bird uses a "broken wing act" to distract predators from its nest. When it does this, does it understand WHY this works? Or is this simply an instinctive behavior?	2037
Why do some equations (like universal gravity and Gauss's law) require a proportionality constant, while others (like F=ma and V=IR) do not?	115
If I chose a random bit of my computer's hard drive and flipped it from a 0 to a 1 (or vice versa), what would happen?	21
People knew of metals before atomic theory. So after atomic theory standardized the definition of a metal, did some elements that hadn't been considered metals become metals?	8
Why can we not iterate through the real numbers?	5
When factoring a polynomial expression, what does it mean for a root to have multiplicity greater than one? Does it make the expression "more 0" than if it had had only multiplicity one?	3
Why does yellow appear brighter than the other colors of the rainbow?	2
To calculate variance, we sum up the squares of the differences between each value and the mean. This results the variance's units being the square of the units of the values. So wouldn't it be easier to not square each difference, but instead to take its absolute value?	2
Why is it that with things like video games, the user can't see the source code, but with html pages, the user can?	2
Why is 3-sides necessary for a polygon? Is there a fundamental rule that prohibits smaller polygons?	1