What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

by Munroe, Randall
ISBN: 9780544272996
4.5 (2)
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Overview

From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask

Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have an enormous, dedicated following, as do his deeply researched answers to his fans' strangest questions.

The queries he receives range from merely odd to downright diabolical:

- What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool?

- Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?

- What if a Richter 15 earthquake hit New York City?

- Are fire tornadoes possible?

His responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements.

The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? is an informative feast for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Author: Munroe, Randall
  • ISBN: 9780544272996
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 9.00 x 1.40
  • Number Of Pages: 320
  • Publication Year: 2014

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  • Quirky science

    Nik W. - 3 years 1 month ago

    What If is subtitled Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions; it provides just that. Randall Munroe is the author of the webcomic XKCD and he brings to this book the same unusual viewpoint, sense of humor, and logic that makes that strip so popular. Among the questions answered here are: --fastballs pitched at near light-speed What if everyone on earth pointed a laser pointer at the moon? Which flyover state is actually flown over the most? What would happen if the sun switched off? How airplanes would fly on every planet and major moon Needless to say, the Absurd part is very strong; fortunately, the scientific part is very strong as well, and the whole thing is done with a great sense of humor. Highly recommended.

    HPB Staff Review

  • A culmination of Munroe's incomprehensible amounts of knowledge and endless wit.

    Carly P. - 7 years 8 months ago

    Randall Munroe is a genius. That's not stating the obvious, as much as it seems so, even if you are vaguely familiar with his work. Coming from the creator of the webcomic xkcd' and former NASA roboticist, it is very clear that this is a smart and incredibly scientific mind at work. His comics reflect that, often about complicated topics simplified into stick figures and pop culture references. His genius, though, goes beyond the scientific, into something some might say is even harder. Comedy. Hilariously funny, Munroe writes with all the seriousness of a scholar, and the irreverence of a child at play. His book, What If?, is a culmination of his incomprehensible amounts of knowledge, his endless wit, and his ability to draw stick figures in hats. He had fans of his webcomic submit ridiculous, science and math based questions and he endeavored to answer them as factually and scientifically as possible, which resulted in some of the most laugh out loud funny reading I've had in ages. It is an easy book to pick up and look through, despite the seemingly complicated questions, but I recommend sitting down with it and reading it cover to cover.

    HPB Staff Review