ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5
Do you demand a simple and concise explanation of complicated and complex topics?
Fret not, dear voater, for ELI5 is here! Ask a complex question, and get a simple answer!
General guidelines:
Your explanation should be friendly and straightforward, but not condescending.
- 1.1. Above all, you're here to answer questions concisely. Don't get needlessly hostile or complicated in your response.
- 1.2. We aren't literally 5 year olds. Well, most of us aren't. We can handle big words and long sentences. There's no need to dumb down an explanation unless specifically asked to do so by the asker.
- 1.3. If specified by the asker, responses to particular levels of expertise are encouraged.
/v/ELI5 is a place to get simple explanations of complex topics.
- 2.1. Yes/no answer questions, and questions pursuing an answer without an explanation of that answer, are not allowed.
- 2.2: If it doesn't have an explanation, it isn't an explain like I'm five question.
- 2.3. Refrain from posing hypothetical or personal questions. Ideally, every question should have a factually based, reasonable explanation.
Feel free to send prohibited questions to /v/nostupidquestions, they'll help you out instead!
This isn't a debating subverse:
- 3.1. Don't ask for personal opinions (and don't ask potentially loaded questions)
- 3.2. Don't present a biased response
Top-level comments should be on-topic.
- 4.1. Self-explanatory, really.
- 4.2. Jokes are allowed and appreciated if they're on topic and not a whole top-level comment.
Someone came here for an answer, don't send them somewhere else.
- 5.1. Your response should not consist wholly of a redirection link within a sentence.
- 5.2. It is acceptable to link to outside sources for singular words or concepts. This can be done to save you explaining concepts that are non-central (yet still important) to your response.
- 5.3. Don't copy+paste from outside sources without paraphrasing. Outside sources don't always explain concepts in layman's terms.
Don't know? Don't teach.
- 6.1. If you don't know what you're talking about, don't try to teach someone else about it.
You are allowed to post a question that's been posted before, but to save your own time, search for it before posting anyway.
Tag your post as "Explained" once you're satisfied with an answer
All moderation decisions are made at the moderation team's discretion. You won't be protected by loopholes if you're using them to a detrimental effect.
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The Questions Network
Own a questions subverse? Doesn't match any of the ones above? Send a mod a message, and we'll gladly add a link to it!
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[–] an_instance 0 points 7 points 7 points (+7|-0) ago
They do and they have. Humans didn't evolve from modern apes. We all evolved from a common ancestor.
[–] His_Dudeliness 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Most of the other comments have actually answered this pretty much perfectly, I'll just try to expand and explain a little bit more. Firstly, apes didn't evolve to humans. Apes are actually our cousins, we evolved from the same ancestor. Now to actually answer your question, they do. Not only are apes evolving but every living thing on the planet is evolving. It's just a really really really slow process, so we it's hard to observe.
[–] horrorvee 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
it takes millions of years. don't think we're gonna see an ape in mid evolution. that'd be weird.
[–] Brickman ago
Aside from the fact more evolution will take another set of a few million years, conditions for evolution could be different for the apes. Things such as natural selection, reproductive isolation, and preferred traits in mating can all affect how they evolve and change to best fit these categories.
[–] Genghis_Khan ago
Not a biologist, but something tells me the "apes" humans evolved from are not the apes we see today. Consider that today's apes also evolved from their (our?) ancestor.
[–] yodude1 ago
Yes, we share a common ancestor but we evolved differently due to our different needs/abilities.
[–] tacowhisperer ago
All living species are evolving because of random genetic differences and mutations that occur when two parents have children. The thing is that the process is extremely slow to see occur naturally in a wide range of animals, including apes.