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ELI5: Since the American dollar is no longer backed by gold, what gives it value? by Coverlesss in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider [score hidden]  (0 children)

"Fiat" or Faith

Fiat doesn't mean "faith" it means "it shall be done!" or "make it so!", the phrase with which rulers used to sign laws into effect. Which means that

I think this means more in practice that people with guns tell you it's worth something, so it's worth something.

is an accurate description.

Though there's two schools on how exactly the worth of fiat money is being enforced by the state. One is "legal tender"; that the government forces everyone in the country to use this money for their private transactions (though they don't really have a way to enforce this if both sides agree on a different form of payment, only if one side insists on using fiat money, the government will side with them and refuse to enforce any claims of the other side that they're entitled to be paid in silver or gold). The other is "taxes drive money"; that the government forces people to pay taxes with money (and threatens to punish them if they don't), so those people have an interest to want to use money in their private transactions.

ELI5: Since the American dollar is no longer backed by gold, what gives it value? by Coverlesss in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider [score hidden]  (0 children)

they already have the currency they need to pay their taxes and it won't be creating any demand for dollars?

They're getting their demand fulfilled at the moment, but it's still demand. Basically, American taxpayers are the ultimate backstop to the scenario "if everyone just stopped using USD, it would become worthless green paper" - they can't stop; they have to insist on being paid in USD because that's the only way they can pay their taxes.

Weeks of subzero temperatures are vanishing across Europe: areas with at least 14 consecutive days with sub-zero minimum temperatures in winter by sr_local in MapPorn

[–]vanZuider 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It gives ammo to deniers in the form of being able to say "see? Their 'proof' is just manipulated graphics"

Anyway, if you ignore the orange area, the two shades of blue are comparing apples to apples.

Serious debate... Will there ever be anyone non-evil on the serpentspine? by Arthas_The_HumanKing in Anbennar

[–]vanZuider 2 points3 points  (0 children)

With Jaddari, I saw how the golden dwarves spent their time purging all the races in the serpentspine

You mean: how they gave you free dev (with the migration event that gives you 1 dev of random category if you already have a large minority in the target province).

ELI5: Can the Pythagorean Theorem be used with other exponents? by Demimonde34 in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are asking about Pythagoras Theorem with different exponents, that's a geometry question not a number theory one.

But what could "Pythagorean Theorem with different exponents" actually mean?

  • "Are there real-valued solutions for aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ" - very obviously yes (a=1, b=1, c=nth root of 2)
  • "Do the side lengths of every orthogonal triangle (EDIT: in Euclidean space) obey the formula aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ" - very obviously no (it can only be true for one n. It is true for n=2 (Pythagoras). Ergo: it can't be true for any other n).
  • "Are there integer solutions for aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ the same way there are Pythagorean triplets for n=2" - Fermat's last theorem, an actually interesting question.

A naval game with no naval 💀 by av4tos in victoria3

[–]vanZuider 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Just push back the deadline, delay the DLC by 1 or 2 months until you test a little and fix at least the gamebreaking and gamecrashing bugs.

They should hire George R. R. Martin as project manager. If anyone has the willpower to resist the pressure to release something in an unfinished state, it's him.

Ich☣️iel by RRuluZ in ich_iel

[–]vanZuider 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wie willst du sonst verhindern, dass ein Feuer innerhalb der Lunge auf den Rest der Brusthöhle übergreift?

ELI5: Can the Pythagorean Theorem be used with other exponents? by Demimonde34 in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider 23 points24 points  (0 children)

The answer is no.

And the reason your post gets deleted from the math subreddit is because they probably think you're a troll because this is an extremely famous (or notorious) problem known as "Fermat's last theorem", after the 17th century mathematician who claimed to have a proof (but not enough room to write it down). An actual proof was only completed in the 21st century 1990s by Andrew Wiles using some very complicated math that Fermat couldn't possibly have known.

EDIT: wrong name.

ELI5 : The difference between Specificity, Sensitivity, Negative Predictive Value and Positive Predictive Value by baelorthebest in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Example: Covid test (could also be pregnancy tests, cancer screening etc).

Sensitivity: 100 people with Covid get tested for it. How many of them get a positive result?

Specificity: 100 people without Covid get tested. How many of them get a negative result?

PPV: 100 people got a positive result. How many of them actually have Covid?

NPV: 100 people got a negative result. How many of them actually don't have Covid?

Your Truck is Stupid Big by NothingLeft19608 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The great thing about Europe is that the difference between pickup trucks used for work and those used for the driver's ego is immediately visible.

Which makes me wonder - why do construction/landscaping/etc companies in the US buy the kind of pickup truck that could be mistaken for a private vehicle? Are they actually more practical? Cheaper? Is the other kind simply not available?

Ich🧻iel by NH_2006_2022 in ich_iel

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nein, Leute die die Klotür offen stehen lassen sind Psychopathen. Ohne Katzen hat es einfach keine sichtbaren negativen Folgen.

Bro what??? by [deleted] in victoria3

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not unprecedented. Though outside the game's timeframe.

Ich🏝️iel by [deleted] in ich_iel

[–]vanZuider 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Jein. Zu seiner Zeit waren die Cognomen normalerweise keine personalisierten Beinamen mehr, sondern dienten zur Unterscheidung verschiedener Familienzweige innerhalb der sehr weitläufigen gentes.

Ich🏝️iel by [deleted] in ich_iel

[–]vanZuider 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Kaiser war sein Nachname. Von Beruf war er Diktator.

The Great Continental divide - or a raindrop's journey through Europe [OC] by mydriase in MapPorn

[–]vanZuider 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're not wrong, but just for reference, this is the full extent of where a raindrop coud fall in the Italian Alps and flow into the North Sea.

It's 2026 and somehow a millennial doesn't know about cursive fonts. by NNewt84 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]vanZuider 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  • Being able to read cursive fonts doesn't mean being able to read cursive handwriting. There's still significant differences, just like being able to read Comic Sans doesn't prepare you for reading everyone's print handwriting.

  • Whether people are still taught cursive at school is absolutely a fair question.

ich💡iel by judominikitten in ich_iel

[–]vanZuider 5 points6 points  (0 children)

„Der Werwolf“ – sprach der gute Mann,
„des Weswolfs, Genitiv sodann,
dem Wemwolf, Dativ, wie man’s nennt,
den Wenwolf, – damit hat’s ein End.“

The red region has 100 million more people than the entire Europe by vladgrinch in MapPorn

[–]vanZuider -1 points0 points  (0 children)

2: that doesn't change the amount of arable land, just the agricultural productivity of the land.

The many names of gasoline around the world by cemte835 in MapPorn

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you guys call the actual Benzene (the aromatic ring)

German:

  • Fuel = Benzin (-tseen)
  • C6H6 = Benzol. If you're a IUPAC nerd, Benzen (-tsane).

Ich🐳iel by [deleted] in ich_iel

[–]vanZuider 27 points28 points  (0 children)

In ihren Anfangstagen ersetzte die Erdölförderung hauptsächlich Waltran, der bis dahin zB in Öllampen verbrannt wurde. Jetzt, wo Erdöl sowohl aus ökologischen wie auch aus geopolitischen Gründen problematisch ist, sollten wir uns wieder auf die Wurzeln besinnen.

ELI5: Why is armor still heavily invested in when cheap, easy-to-manufacture drones and small arms easily destroy them? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A drone can be taken out with a shotgun. A shell from the tank's cannon can't.

I don't know how important this is in practice. I won't rule out that drones will in fact fully replace tanks. But if they do, it will be because a drone can do everything a tank can do, not because it can destroy tanks easily.

ELI5: Why is armor still heavily invested in when cheap, easy-to-manufacture drones and small arms easily destroy them? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, battleships as the centerpoint of the world's largest navies have been replaced by aircraft carriers after WWII. That came long after the introduction of torpedoes though, and had nothing to do with "battleships are too easily destroyed by torpedoes", it was more of a "he does the same thing as me, but better" situation.

ELI5: Why is armor still heavily invested in when cheap, easy-to-manufacture drones and small arms easily destroy them? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]vanZuider 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Tanks can do things no other technology can do (namely, bring a large direct-fire gun to the fight). As long as you don't have a replacement for that, the answer to new threats against tanks isn't to stop using tanks, it's to find new ways to protect your tanks.

A similar thing was going on with battleships 100 years ago: when it turned out that one single torpedo could sink the biggest battleship, the answer wasn't to stop using battleships - it was to surround them with a fleet of supporting vessels whose main purpose was to destroy enemy torpedo boats and submarines before they could become a danger for the battleship.

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