The Beatles

ELI5 - What's so great about the Beatles?

The Beatles (1960-1970) were an English rock band, today considered the most influential band of all time. The Beatles' classic lineup consisted of John Lennon on rhythm guitar, Paul McCartney on bass, George Harrison on lead guitar, and Ringo Starr on the drums.

At a time when most pop songs were made by companies with hired writers, the Beatles pushed the envelope, filling their albums with original, exciting music. This soon became the norm, with recordings coming straight from the hearts of the musicians.

The Beatles were also enormously creative in using different techniques, instruments, and sounds. Lennon's bold lyrics often got them banned on the radio. The Beatles were always a step or two ahead of other rock bands in terms of music styles, instruments, and new ideas. Almost all artists today draw influence in some way from the Beatles.

Most importantly, the Beatles wrote beautiful, catchy music. The Beatles' Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership produced songs from "A Day in the Life" to "You Never Give Me Your Money" and, individually, songs like "Yesterday", "Julia", and "Something." The Beatles are the best-selling musical act of all time, with the most number one singles (20) of any artist as of 2024.

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago

Bitcoin

ELI5 - What is Bitcoin and how does it work?

Bitcoin is the first decentralized cryptocurrency, created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. At its heart, Bitcoin is a list of transactions, showing who's sent and received the currency. Bitcoin can be moved between users' addresses, or public keys, by signing transactions with their corresponding private keys (like a password).

Rather than a central authority (like a bank) updating the list, Bitcoin introduced a new technology called blockchain, a cryptographic list distributed over a large network. Blockchain solved the main issue preventing the success of earlier digital currencies, namely allowing bad actors to spend their money more than once.

To do this, Bitcoin relies on users, known as miners, who loan computer CPU power to the network. Miners' computers make trillions of guesses to solve the trial-and-error math problem of organizing the latest transactions into a "block." Once a solution is found, however, the other computers in the network can easily verify it as correct. When this "consensus" is reached, the miner who solved the block receives a Bitcoin award, and their solution is permanently added to the blockchain.

By drollparadox7655 10 months ago

Piano

ELI5 - How does a piano work?

Though it might seem odd, pianos are actually considered percussion instruments, like drums. This is because, underneath a piano's lid, in addition to a tuned string for every piano key (230 in total), there're tiny wooden hammers covered in felt for each. When a key is pressed, the appropriate hammer strikes the corresponding string, causing it to vibrate and therefore sound as a musical note. A key's hammer stays suspended as long as the key is held down, so the string continues ringing out. When the key is released, the hammer returns to resting on the string, and the felt dampens, or stops, the sound.

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago

Blockchain

ELI5 - What is blockchain and is it safe? How?

Imagine you're playing a game with friends where you keep track of who owes what instead of using cash. You all write down debts and credits after each round. Once everyone agrees the list is correct, you move on. At the end of the game, you add up the list to see who owes or is owed money.

Blockchain is like this game's record-keeping leger, but digital and more secure. Instead of friend's names, it uses long digital addresses and private keys (like secret passwords). Introduced with Bitcoin, blockchain records every movement of a cryptocurrency to account for its current ownership.

Each new record on the leger, called a "block," needs everyone's agreement before joining the chain. While this was done by verbal agreement in our game, consensus is reached by something called "proof of work" in Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin's transactions require significant CPU (computer) power to organize, reorganizing the list is nearly impossible to fake. Bitcoin users called "miners" loan CPU power to the network to help organize the blockchain, keeping it secure, and receive Bitcoin compensation in return.

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago

Blockchain

ELI5 - What is blockchain and is it safe? How?

Blockchain, first introduced with Bitcoin, is a digital ledger shared across a network of computers. Each entry, called a block, records transactions, like sending or receiving digital money, with a unique, secure code. When a new transaction happens, it's added to a new block linked with a code to the previous one, forming a chain. This linking makes it nearly impossible to change past transactions without altering the entire chain, ensuring security.

Imagine it as a game where solving complex puzzles (mining) earns you points (cryptocurrency). When you spend or transfer points, that transaction gets recorded in the notebook. Everyone has a copy of this notebook, so cheating is hard because you'd need to fool everyone at once, which is practically impossible due to the puzzles' complexity.

This system allows for transparent, secure exchanges without needing a middleman, like a bank, making blockchain a revolutionary way to manage and verify transactions in a trustless environment.

By Alex 7 months ago

The Beatles

ELI5 - What's so great about the Beatles?

In addition to their pioneering of countless recording techniques and innovations, it is simply the Beatles' exceptional songwriting ability that will forever cement their legacy. The melodies written by the Beatles, often in partnership, are not only memorable but intricately crafted, blending simplicity with sophistication. This is evident in songs like "Yesterday," often cited as the most covered song in history, or "Strawberry Fields Forever," often appearing atop lists of greatest songs ever written.

Their harmonies, showcased in tracks like "Because," are complex and innovative, yet accessible. It's this unique blend of musicality and creativity in their songwriting that makes their work timeless and continuously influential, unlike much of today's more formulaic pop music.

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago

Olive Oil (Grade)

ELI5 - What makes a bottle of olive oil "virgin"?

The first pressing of olive oil cannot use heat or solvents to get the oil out of the olives - mechanical pressing only. The oil from that pressing is graded:

Extra virgin - Fruity, has no defects, and has a free acidity that is less than or equal to 0.8.

Virgin - Has minimal defects and is found to have a free acidy between 0.8 and 2.0.

After that, heat and/or solvents can be used to extract the remaining oil from the olives. That oil is just "olive oil" without the virgin designation.

By drollparadox7655 11 months ago

Urban Dictionary

ELI5 - What's so great about Urban Dictionary anyway?

Urban Dictionary is a website founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham. Its original purpose was to create a crowd-sourced dictionary of slang words not found in traditional dictionaries; however it has grown to include definitions of words of all different subject matter, with over 7 million in total.

Its simple voting system uses upvotes and downvotes to rank words, presenting the most relevant definitions first, and removing bad definitions all together.

Urban Dictionary remains a valuable reference tool for informal words, but is also used for entertainment. Many of the definitions on the site include memes or a sarcastic humor, such as the definition of a programmer as a, "Machine that converts caffeine to code."

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago

CPU

ELI5 - What is a CPU, what does it do, and how does it work?

A CPU (central processing unit), often called the brain of a computer, is a complex circuit made of billions of on-off switches called transistors. By using a kind of logic called Boolean, these transistors are organized into small circuits that act like tiny programs. These programs, known as logic gates (like AND, IF, OR), allow the CPU to do calculations. These calculations help in processing everything from 3D graphics to sound.

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago

Timbre

ELI5 - A piano and a violin can play the same note but their sound differs; you can tell them apart. How do notes differ with each instrument, but retain the characteristics of its assigned pitch?

Sounds are mainly characterized by pitch, loudness, and quality. Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is, based on the frequency of sound waves. Loudness is simply the volume of the sound. Timbre, or the quality of sound, is what makes different instruments like a piano and a violin sound distinct, even if they play the same note at the same pitch and loudness. It includes elements like harmonic content, attack, decay, and vibrato, which affect the sound's texture without altering its pitch or loudness.

Key factors in timbre are attack—the way a sound begins and reaches full volume—and overtones, which are additional frequencies present along with the main pitch. While you mainly hear the fundamental frequency or pitch of a note, overtones add depth and richness, creating the unique character of each instrument. So, when a piano and a violin play the same note, what makes them sound different are these subtle variations in how the sound starts, its overtones, and the changes in loudness throughout the note.

By drollparadox7655 9 months ago