What If?2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

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Well, not really. The story is apocryphal in all probability, like George Washington and the cherry tree. But it does illustrate an important fact. Through all of this, I carried my precious ARC around, waiting for the time when I'd be able to spare the brainpower to read it. I even took it on tour with me. (Honestly, this book has more frequent flier miles than any three of you put together.) What if my phone was based on vacuum tubes? How big would it be?" [so big it would take a long time for an electrical signal to get from one side of it to the other, but that's probably irrelevant because it would be putting out about 100,000,000,000 Watts of heat] It was DELIGHTFUL. This is the PERFECT book for Wil Wheaton to read. Now I feel like perhaps I have misjudged him in his audiobookery skills. One of my favorite aspects of listening to this was when he would find a question or answer amusing and let his giggles come through. It was so cute and fun and personable and I loved it. Second favorite was when he would break the 4th wall and describe a comic to the reader as "Randall has included a comic here depicting..." Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer doors at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics.

I say almost, because I DID actually also borrow the ebook from the library so I could scope out the comics myself, and there were far more than included in the audio (which is to be expected, truthfully). Regardless, it was super fun. Ars sat down with Munroe to learn more. Bonus: today's xkcd is a fun flow chart guide for those who acquire a copy of What If? 2. Will you, like me, be thrilled and delighted by his approach? Take this easy method of finding out: Read below; decide on that basis. Here is the opening hypothetical question. As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur?" [not much, probably a lot less than there is in you, for example]

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Yes it is a nice book but I do not recommend that you wolf down this book as I did in 2 days, because it’s like TOO MUCH and it can get annoying. You keep thinking of your own absurd questions – If a T. rex were released in New York City, how many humans/day would it need to consume to get its needed calorie intake?

How tall can a swing set be while still being powered by a human pumping their legs? Is it possible to build a swing set tall enough to launch the rider into space if they jump at the right time? (Assuming the human has enough energy, which my 5-year-old seems to have.)" The #1 New York Times bestselling author of What If? and How To answers more of the weirdest questions you never thought to ask a b Gilsdorf, Ethan (2014-09-08). " 'What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions' by Randall Munroe". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2016-04-06. Den einzigen Punktabzug gibt es leider im Bereich der Verständlichkeit. Gerade zu Beginn wirkte der Stil leider etwas holprig und sprunghaft. Manche der Fragen las ich zum Beispiel und war dann verwirrt von der Antwort, da ich etwas total anderes unter der Frage verstanden hätte als Munroe (oder der Übersetzer bzw. die Übersetzerin) wohl darunter verstanden hat. Das wurde gegen Ende des Buches aber besser. What if... one man decided to answer all the unanswerable questions, using science. The Sunday Times-bestselling author and xkcd creator, Randall Munroe is here to provide the best answers yet to the important questions you probably never thought to ask.

If you call a random phone number and say “God bless you,” what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed? It's clever, but if you know anything about Randall Munroe, that won't come as a surprise to you. And it's funny, and witty (which are two different things, by the way.) But again to readers of XKCD this won't come as any sort of surprise.