Nature
Exploring "Why" questions about Nature
487 articles
Why are rain clouds darker than normal clouds?
It's actually the same color. It's just that if a cloud is bigger, the lower part of the cloud is shadowed by the upper part of the cloud. And bigger and/or more dense clouds are more likely to rain.
Why are there no heated snow shovels? I feel like this product is a no brainer.
My experience with shoveling has taught me that wet snow sticks to the shovel, making it harder to move or throw the snow. A heated shovel would take normally cold, "dry" snow and turn it into heavy w
Why does soda from a bottle or can into a glass of ice create a mountain of foam, but soda fountain soda does not?
It has to do with the temperature differential. The CO2 cools the water, which in turn cools the mixed drink. If the bottle or can is refrigerated, there will be less foam.
Why do small flies congregate in small swarms in the same place night after night during spring/summer?
They are banging. That is pretty much it. Flies swarm in order to mate, so you are basically running through a night club where everyone is DTF.
Why is it easier not to fall on a moving bike?
The way my father explained it to me was through conservation of momentum. This sounds like a difficult concept, but all it really means is that a fast object (or a heavy object, but that isn't as cru
Why is it that whenever snow is stepped on it makes that muffled crunching sound?
The snow is made up of small ice crystals that are lightly stacked on top of each other. These crystals compress down under your weight, and as they pass each other, they scrape together, making that
Why aren’t ocean-faring boats covered to keep out the water? (pseudo-submarine)
Like, container ships? Because they're loaded and unloaded from the top. In the port, a huge gantry rolls along over them, picks the containers up one by one, and deposits them on a shore vehicle.
Why does water swirl down drains/toilets instead of just going straight down?
Drop a marble down the edge of a round bowl. Unless your bowl is perfectly straight and your marble is perfectly round, it's gonna wobble and spin into the center. If a stream of water is flowing towa
why my car windows do this and how I can prevent it? Mostly happens in rain.
It's condensation because of the temperature/humidity difference between the cabin of your vehicle and outside. They make antifogging coatings that you can use (rainx makes one, for instance) but for
Why do we use AC current to get power to our homes, but most of our appliances use DC current?
All of the answers saying that AC performs better over long distances than DC are wrong. DC is actually slightly better for power transmission, as it doesn't suffer from the [skin effect](_URL_0_), wh