What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

by Randall Munroe

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 a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by signature xkcd comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with updated and expanded versions of the most popular answers from the xkcd website.

• ISBN10: 0544272994
• ISBN13: 9780544272996
• Publish Date: 2 September 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dey Street Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[funbreaker4opal]

Fun scenarios are given the Reality Ensues treatment and the often terrifying results turn hilarious due to the writing and little illustrations in a well-done stick figure format.

[leahrosereads]

People ask some fucked up questions. Luckily for us, Randall Munroe is willing to answer them.

5/5 for some top notch science and math. I mean, it looked like top notch science and math. But, since I was a C average student in both areas in high school, it could actually be a crock of shit. But it seemed really smart, so, if it seems smart it must = accurate.

5/5 for humor. Seriously, most of the articles had me giggling, chuckling, or hysterically laughing at least once. I even dropped the book from cackling so hard. And, I appreciated that. This could have been dry and dull, but Munroe wouldn't allow that. He kept it entertaining and enlightening.

5/5 for the questions picked. There are some really interesting questions in here. I wish I thought to ask some of them, but luckily, there are plenty of individuals in this world willing to ask the tough questions, like:

"What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?"

Or

"If every human somehow simply disappeared from the face of the Earth, how long would it be before the last artificial light source go out?"

Or

"What would happen if you made a periodic table out of cube-shaped bricks, where each brick was made of the corresponding element?"

Of course, there were some questions too weird and worrisome which Munroe refused to answer, luckily he added them in for our enjoyment.

And finally 5/5 for the art/comics Munroe added to coincide with the articles. They helped really bring each answer to laugh, while adding in an additional element to the humor.


I cannot recommend this book fast enough if you haven't read it! It was the perfect way to start my 2018 reading!!

[jamiereadthis]

A bunch of questions answered that you’d never think to ask. So much fun. (And why xkcd has long been a favorite of mine.)

[adamfortuna]

XKCD in book form! Hilarious all the way through. Monroe takes questions that anyone could have asked and goes into them in extreme detail. If getting to the answer to a question doesn't prove to have a funny conclusion, Monroe continues upping the ante until things get interesting. I'd say it's a combination of Mythbusters and a comic -- which is basically XKCD anyways. So what kind of questions? What would happen if the moon went away? If we hooked turbines to people exercising in gyms, how much power could we produce?

[remo]

Obra maestra de la divulgación. A Randall Munroe, que en sus propias palabras de dedica a hacer "muñequitos de palotes en internet", le hacen preguntas que oscilan entre lo hipotético y lo absurdo. Él responde usando toda la potencia científica que tiene al alcance de la mano, que es mucha, y da respuestas científicamente plausibles a preguntas como "¿Qué pasaría si hubiera un terremoto de 15 en la escala de Richter?", "¿Qué pasaría si todo el mundo se juntara y diera un salto a la vez?", "¿Qué pasaría si en un partido de béisbol el pitcher lanzara la bola a la velocidad de la luz?" y un montón mas, a cada cual más divertida, tocando también la genética, la geología y unas cuantas ramas más del saber. Es un libro fantástico. Tanto las cuentas como los dibujos y los textos son geniales, todo el libro es una gran obra. Absolutamente recomendable para cualquiera con interés en la ciencia y su divulgación.