General Knowledge
Exploring "Why" questions about General Knowledge
481 articles
Why are there so many new medical breakthroughs in the news, but practically none of them ever become legitimate cures.
Because a breakthrough towards a cure is just one brick in the road, but it's what gets highly touted by the media because it's easy to point out. A team of scientists working in lab conditions come u
Why is “bury” pronounced as if theres an “a” in in it? Like “berry”.
Regional dialects. In my region the U is pronounced and we say "Burr-ee" I've also heard "Be-urr-ee"
Why did the US colonies form separately instead of just one big colony?
Why do you think Russia and China formed as a big single entity? China has a long history of being a bunch of different countries several times and there were several "Russias" until one of them conqu
Why was 911 selected as the number to dial in case of emergency?
They wanted a short, easy to remember number, but also one that was not as likely to be accidentally dialed. It also needed to be fast to dial during the era of rotary phones when the system was first
Why are some instruments (presumably) harder to synthesize than others? Why do, say, MIDI pianos usually sound better than MIDI horns?
Pianos make noise one way- by hitting a string with a hammer. You can control how hard or soft you press the key, but you can't change anything besides that. Brass instruments derive their sound from
Why do balloons stop floating after a while, even though they still have helium?
Yes, the remaining helium still provides buoyancy, but there comes a tipping point where that buoyancy isn't enough any more to carry the weight of the balloon's casing.
Why Australia is protesting right now and what are they protesting over?
There are a number of issues that people were protesting, but overall it was to show that they feel that the current government is malicious and incompetent due to their policies, comments, and broken
Why can’t we just gargle an antiseptic to get rid of a sore throat?
Because the source of your sore throat is not lying around on the surface of your throat, but within the soft tissue surrounding it. Its like saying that washing your chest with a bar of soap should a
Why does Israel spy on the US?
Everyone spies on everyone as much as they are able if they are smart. Making decisions requires information. If you don't have correct information then you are less capable of making the right decisi
Why did Longswords give way to rapiers and sabres during the Renaissance?
I like most of the answers below, especially m4nu, but there's one big thing no one's mentioning: Armor. As technology progressed, muskets made armor utterly useless. Then, when hand to hand combat di