Nature
Exploring "Why" questions about Nature
487 articles
Why the UK never made their overseas islands integral part of their country?
In this case France is the odd man out. Most countries with oversea territories have different level of citizenship, different set of laws and different tax rules. There is some sort of superiority an
Why do areas not flood after a blizzard?
Oh, its quite common for the spring melt to cause flooding. It depends on how big the upstream watershed area is and how fast it melts. Before my hometown dug some flood control ditches, the low lying
Why are some games windows only, Mac only, etc? Why aren’t all games cross-platform?
Each system has unique hardware and drivers to talk to that hardware. Even on the same hardware, the OS may need different drivers to properly interact with the hardware. So while programming language
Why is snow white if it’s essentially just frozen water?
Because it refracts light. Same reason clouds are white. Water isn't truly 100% transparent, just close to it.
Why do they have to shut the subway down when there’s a snowstorm, shouldn’t the underground portions still be able to keep going?
For one, you need people to drive the trains. You can't keep the subways running if you tell the drivers they can have the day off. For two, if you shut down the mass transit, you tend to keep people
Why was September 22 the equinox, yet it wasn’t until today (September 25) that there were exactly 12 hours of daylight (sunrise 7:07 a.m. EDT, sunset 7:07 p.m. EDT)?
Your daylight hours depend on your latitude, so different locations experience different daylight hours at all times.
Why aren’t clouds rainbow-colored?
Sometimes they are! And it was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw...[circumhorizontal arc clouds](_URL_0_)
Why are the world’s deserts where they are/not at the equator?
Deserts are less about sheer temperature as they are about aridity. Rainfall patterns are influenced mostly by air currents. The way air circulates around the planet causes particularly dry air in ban
Why are drivers outside the US so bonkers?
Crazy dashcam footage is often from russian drivers, partially because dashcams are *extremely* common there as they use them to save a lot on insurance. The ubiquity of dashcams means there's almost
Why is it considered useless to duct tape windows during a hurricane. Seems very counter intuitive to me.
Hurricanes can toss a 2x4 through 6" of concrete. Even plywood isn't considered good enough to protect windows from having debris thrown through them. Unless you have metal hurricane shutters attached