Everyday Life
Exploring "Why" questions about Everyday Life
479 articles
Why can my boyfriend eat much spicier food than me?
Tolerance for spicy food is acquired through practice. The reason he can tolerate hot stuff more than you is that he regularly eats spicy stuff. The brain gradually learns that spicy stuff isn't actua
Why are Saturday morning cartoons idealized? What’s so different about them as opposed to other days’ cartoons?
Way back when there weren't multiple channels whose only purpose was cartoons. There was a MARKET for cartoons, but not a huge market. What day and time are kids most likely to be available year-round
Why does nearly every frozen food require the oven to be preheated at 400 Fahrenheit? What is it about 400 degrees that’s such a sweet spot?
The hotter the oven, the faster it transfers heat into the food. Water requires a large amount of energy to melt, and a huge amount of energy to change its temperature regardless of what state it's in
Why is it that most domestic cats are afraid of water but big cats aren’t?
It depends on the species of cat. For example tigers love to swim but lions are more or less afraid of the water. I remember this because of an interesting discussion on Ligers(half-lion half-tiger) b
Why is it that when you drink water your pee become clear and thats a sign that you’re hydrated, but when you drink beer you become dehydrated but your pee is still clear?
Clear urine simply means that you have a lot of water in your urine and the urine is dilute. When you're well hydrated, you pee out excess water and the urine is clear. When you drink alcohol, the alc
Why did brown sugar get so popular instead of recipes calling for sugar and molasses separately?
It's because brown sugar is actually an intermediate step in the refining of sugar, it's not just literally white sugar + molasses. (Or at least it used to be - today it probably is white sugar and mo
Why does food turn black when it burns?
Burning could also be called carbonising. I'm sure there's someone who can explain better than me, but burning food is the exact same as burning a lump of wood. Burning is a chemical reaction called c
Why do cuts burn when you put hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol on them?
The chemicals in rubbing alcohol when applied to an open wound activate the same nerve receptors in your skin that let you know that a flame is hot, giving you a burning or stinging sensation. 🔥
Why are alcohol bottles not required to have nutritional labels? (like calories, carbohydrates, sodium, etc…)
Alcohol doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the FDA, for whatever reason I do not know I am sure someone else could fill you in. The FDA is the one who requires all those things to be printed on la
Why does salt and too much sugar make us thirsty?
Both are soluble in water and get absorbed more or less completely by our digestive system. This results in an increase in solutes in our blood and extracellular fluid, which is bad news for our cells