Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives

Computing	Science	Mathematics	Humanities
Language	Entertainment	Miscellaneous	Archives

Archives

Welcome to the Wikipedia Reference Desk Archives
This is an archive where you can browse all of the old questions and answers from the reference desk. Not all questions have been archived (nonsense and questions not meant for the reference desk have not been saved). Some of these pages are very large and may crash even high-end computers. We recommend you don't open many windows at the same time. If your question has been archived but you feel that it hasn't been adequately answered, copy and paste the archived discussion as a new question.
Searching the archives
The best way to search the archives is probably to use a search engine, such as Google by using this search string for the post-October 2006 archives, and this search string for the pre-October 2006 archives. You can also browse manually by clicking on the links below. To see which of the archives are active, check the following pages with recent changes to the archives: Recent changes to the Computing archives Recent changes to the Science archives Recent changes to the Mathematics archives Recent changes to the Humanities archives Recent changes to the Language archives Recent changes to the Entertainment archives Recent changes to the Miscellaneous archives
For archivers
This archive is designed to be updated by a bot. If you notice any problems, please leave a note on the reference desk talk page.

Answered questions, January 2009 – present This is an archive of recent questions archived in the `/Archives` subpages.
Computing	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009
Science	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009
Mathematics	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009
Humanities	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009
Language	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009
Entertainment	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009
Miscellaneous	Jan 2009 Feb 2009 Mar 2009 Apr 2009 May 2009 Jun 2009

Answered questions, January 2008 – December 2008 This is an archive of questions from 2008 archived in the `/Archives` subpages.
Computing	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008
Science	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008
Mathematics	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008
Humanities	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008
Language	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008
Entertainment	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008
Miscellaneous	Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 Jun 2008 Jul 2008 Aug 2008 Sep 2008 Oct 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008

Answered questions, October 2006 – December 2007 This is an archive of older questions archived in the `/Archives` subpages.
Computing	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007
Science	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007
Mathematics	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007
Humanities	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007
Language	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007
Entertainment	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007
Miscellaneous	Oct 2006 Nov 2006 Dec 2006 Jan 2007 Feb 2007 Mar 2007 Apr 2007 May 2007 Jun 2007 Jul 2007 Aug 2007 Sep 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007

Answered questions, August 2005 – October 2006 Answered questions from the newly split reference desk, archived in the `Wikipedia:Reference desk archive` project page.
Computing	Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2005 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar 2006 Apr 2006 May 2006 Jun Early Jul 2006 Aug 2006 September 2006 October 2006
Science	Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2005 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar 2006 Apr 2006 May 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 2006 Aug 2006 September 2006 October 2006
Mathematics	Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2005 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar 2006 Apr 2006 May 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 2006 Aug 2006 September 2006 October 2006
Humanities	Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2005 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar 2006 Apr 2006 May 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 2006 Aug 2006 September 2006 October 2006
Language	Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2005 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar 2006 Apr 2006 May 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 2006 Aug 2006 September 2006 October 2006
Miscellaneous	Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2005 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar 2006 Apr 2006 May 2006 Jun 2006 Jul 2006 Aug 2006 September 2006 October 2006

Old answered questions, Start - August 2005

^{These are the archives of answered questions before the reference desk had been split into categories.}

Unanswered questions (deprecated) ^{These are archives of older questions that never received any answers.}
Current 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002