Everyday Life
Exploring "Why" questions about Everyday Life
479 articles
Why do some British singers like Amy Winehouse sound American when they sing but others like Lily Allen still sound British?
I think it has to do with their singing style. Many singers seem to lose their accent because a lot of what we hear as an accent is dependent on intonation and the way vowels are pronounced. When you
Why is beer not sold in plastic bottles?
Glass has been used for centuries to contain alcoholic beverages because the glass does not react with whatever it contains - wine and whiskey do not age once bottled and sealed, for example. They've
Why are oranges sweet and lemons aren’t?
Just as all dogs are descendants of the wolf and (almost?) all the Brassica (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) species descended from three ancestors, all the citrus fruits are descendants of hybr
Why are clothes with reflector stripes really bright in the dark when in contact with weak light sources, while they just appear grey in daylight?
The reflector stripes contain many small [Retroreflectors](_URL_0_), which reflect light back in the direction of the light source. At night it reflects the light from the car headlight back to the ca
Why can’t we use Micro SD cards (or the technology it uses) to create ultra small – high capacity hard drives?
We essentially already do. They're called solid state disks. They can be a number of form factors but 2.5" is the standard because that's what size laptop hard drives are.
Why does alcohol kill them germs when you put it on your skin, but not when you drink it?
Alcohol kills cells through direct contact. If you have an infection and you drink alcohol, its never going physically come in contact with the infectious germs. Its just going to enter your blood str
Why is being a lawyer drastically different from other professions?
It's not really unique -- doctors of all sorts have to go through a similar process. Basically what it comes down to is that they are jobs that require a great amount of trust from the customers -- do
Why is water not compressible?
When you are doing things in science and engineering, often calculations can be easier when you make simplifying assumptions. For water, if you increase the pressure to 100 times "normal" pressure (at
Why are some house flies loud and some silent?
This is a simple case of their genetics. Different sized flies, having different weights, require different amounts of lift to remain airborne. Depending on wingspan, and their strength, an insect wil
why does alcohol burn small cuts
Normally your skin protects you from corrosive substances like alcohol, but when you have a cut, obviously that defense is gone. Alcohol kills cells, your body doesn't like that, so it sends a type of