Google is what society is closest to a wise man, but not everyone is good at combing the mountains of information that the world’s upcoming search engine could unearth. And not everyone also wants to do some research and look for a source that fits your needs and gives you understandable answers.
If your question is complicated and you’re im tl; dr format Your heart desires, turn to this special subreddit for mile-high concepts distilled at layman’s level. Reddits r / explainlikeimfive tries to do what the name suggests: explain things like in kindergarten. And sometimes Google or Wikipedia won’t do that for you very well (though Simple English Wikipedia often does a good job), which is why it’s nice to seek a human touch to add a bit of personable color to the otherwise impersonal experience of finding answers online.
What is Reddits ELI5?
It’s a subreddit that explains things instead of giving you straight yes-or-no answers. As the Subreddits rules page suggests, “Anything that has a simple, straightforward, and factual answer is not appropriate.” So no question about which two colors combine to make purple, or why it is winter in Toronto and summer in New Zealand.
The nice thing is that you can basically ask anything you want. It is different from Ask Reddit in that there is no advisory component; This is not a sounding board for your personal problems. Rather, it’s a place to learn about history, science, sports, or basically anything else that comes to mind and sits there with no answer. Here are some examples to sum it up for you:
What happened during “The Troubles” in Ireland?
That question came from Stabilizer ieatalot2004; who noted that they would like to live in Ireland for a while after graduating from college. Since then, a flood of substantial responses has arrived, including this one from Fuyoc, which described the legalized discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland by Protestant trade unionists loyal to the British Crown.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Why do cement carts spin?
This came over to the fore Blue Cranberry2, and while it doesn’t require that much explanation, it’s a question many have probably never asked because cement trucks and their spinning cylinders are so commonplace and easy to miss.
One of the many good answers came from Seraph062, Who wrote:
The setting / curing time of the concrete depends on how wet and how hot the concrete is. By constantly mixing the concrete it helps ensure that these two things are relatively even throughout the mix. Mixing doesn’t prevent setting, however, it just makes it predictable so the concrete truck can be sure that the load will be delivered before it becomes a problem.
How do plastic bottles without an O-ring seal perfectly?
When is an O-ring necessary? Another common mystery deconstructed by the Reddit crowds, as this thread has collected 109 comments.
These great answer was posted under the noise:
Plastics are solid materials, but quite soft compared to others like metals. To create a tight seal that you’ll want to fill in any space, something that can be squeezed into those spaces is fine – like softer o-rings around your metal faucet. If you are using something that is already a little mushy (plastic) with another slightly mushy (other plastic) no o-ring is required.
As you can see, it really is an open season as far as the breadth of questions you are welcome to submit and you will most likely find an explanation that will give you exactly what you need.
