What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (PDF)

Description

In the New York Times best-selling book from the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, Randall Munroe gives hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. 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? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?In pursuit of answers, Munroe ran computer simulations, pored over stacks of declassified military research memos, solved differential equations, and consulted 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.)Far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐My grandson has a thirst for knowledge that is almost unbelievable. This was right up his alley and he loved it. The good thing is, somehow, he retains almost everything he learns. I’ve ordered the second edition for him as a Christmas present. Like the author of these two books, he wants to be A NASA engineer.

⭐Great gift for my 15yr old son, he will love it. He is very inquisitive, likes to read, and this (along with the 2nd book) are under the tree. I can’t wait to read them myself.

⭐great book, a little upset that it the british edition, it didn’t mention that anywhere in the description. not a big deal just means it was in meters instead of miles. very funny and intelligent read

⭐Science writing is hard. Too literal is boring. Too simple is inaccurate. The optimal solution is to use weird analogies

⭐People have such amazing imaginations…and a lot of free time! I liked the scientific/mathematical explanations. Of couse, he could make them up and i would never know.

⭐Should you choose to read this book you’ll find it easy to read, humorous and informative. An uncommon combination that’s worth your time.

⭐Answers a lot of random “What if?” questions and leads to good conversations.

⭐Randall Munroe, xkcd author, shares his wonderful curiosity for our world and how it works. “what if” has questions that are as good as the answers, This volume should be perused along with his sequel (“what if 2”) and his “how to” guide.

⭐I love this book! It is both hilariously funny, and thought provoking, and educational all at the same time as well as giving you all sorts of “did you know” stories to bore your friends and family for months!Its a total dip-in book. The short chapters (3-6 pages) are pretty much random, and cover all areas of science. I’ve learnt stuf about genetics that I never realised, as well as radioactivity, the periodical table and much more besides, as well as chuckling away and giggling and geneally annoying people right through Christmas Day.Age range? I’d say mid-secondary school (13ish) up to any age as I think you need a moderate grounding in science to get the jokes at times, but I can see it would be a great way for an upper secondary school pupil to really annoy their science teacher. – as well as for science teachers to really engage their pupils.

⭐Subtitled ‘Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions’, this book is as entertaining as it is informative. The author is at pains to inform readers that, although he has a degree in physics, he works as the owner/creator of a webcomic, XKCD, he also warns that he is less interested in health and safety than in exploring how things react when blown up, etc.I love the way he applies science, with an open mind, to the many questions he’s been asked, some of them so odd they’ll make your hair curl. One or two of the questions posed are commonly asked of scientists, and others, but Randall Munroe puts an intriguing spin on his answers to these.I’ll list just a small sample of the questions posed: ‘What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity’, ‘What would happen if you made a periodic table out of cube-shaped bricks, where each brick was made of the corresponding element?’, ‘Let’s assume there’s life on the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see?’, and ‘How many unique English tweets are possible? How long would it take for the population of the world to read them out loud?’Eclectic: possibly the best description of the content. Amusing, well thought out, undoubtedly contentious in certain circles, informative and entertaining. The author raises other questions in answering those he is set by correspondents, considering the issues as if the questions were serious (most of the time; he does add brief sarcastic comments for some of the more peculiar questions, especially those that might lead the reader to suspect some twisted motivation on behalf of the questioner!)This is one of those delightful books readers can dip into in odd spare moments and glean some fascinating information along with the mind-bending possibilities discussed.Thoroughly enjoyable, educational and funny.

⭐I bought this book for my husband as a birthday present and he absolutely loved it!He has always had an interest in the sciences and studied maths at degree level, so I was a little nervous that this book might be childish or too simplistic. However, this has not been the case at all. It has covered enough complex bits to keep him interested and uses plenty of brilliant witty humour to make it a highly entertaining read. I think I’ll be reading it next!

⭐My just-turned-11 son asks the most imaginative crazy and ridiculous (in equal measure) questions about things I couldn’t possibly answer without years of research! Whilst this doesn’t answer those specific queries, it asks similar out there questions and answers them scientifically in an age friendly way. He got addicted to reading it straight away. Highly recommended for your inquisitive one.

⭐Genius Book. Randall Munroe is witty and very intellectual when it comes to giving his answers. You don’t require a degree of any sort to read this book, all the concepts are explained in a very understandable way usually through the use of analogies or metaphor. He also demonstrates his answers through his cartoons; a very clever visual. And yes, they are genuinely scientific. It’s no “ifs” and “perhaps” and “guesses”, using real data and real scientific facts, what is probably most likely to happen in these ridiculous, unlikely (but not impossible) scenarios. And you don’t just learn a bit science, you also learn some other cool facts alongside it, making it wholly entertaining.I really recommend this as a book for anybody that likes to think and ponder. I wish there was more.

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