What if?

Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

303 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

ISBN:
978-0-544-27299-6
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
872620028
Goodreads:
21413662

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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 …

23 editions

Ridiculous Situations Taken Seriously

What If? employs Munroe's signature humour and rigor, famous in his XKCD comics, and delivers them in prose. It's a fun, quick read that I've enjoyed revisiting.

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Subjects

  • Mathematics
  • Statistics
  • Miscellanea
  • Science
  • Questions and answers
  • Physics