What do you think?
Rate this book
What If? #2
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Nonfiction (2022)The #1 New York Times bestselling author of What If? and How To answers more of the weirdest questions you never thought to ask
The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone's freezer door at the same time? Maybe it's time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist.
Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to a T. rex, or fill every church with bananas, be sure to consult this practical guide for impractical ideas. Unfazed by absurdity, Munroe consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airliner catapult-design to answer his readers' questions, clearly and concisely, with illuminating and occasionally terrifying illustrations. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.
The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone's freezer door at the same time? Maybe it's time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist.
Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to a T. rex, or fill every church with bananas, be sure to consult this practical guide for impractical ideas. Unfazed by absurdity, Munroe consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airliner catapult-design to answer his readers' questions, clearly and concisely, with illuminating and occasionally terrifying illustrations. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.
366 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 13, 2022
2801 people are currently reading
39670 people want to read
About the author
Randall Munroe
21 books5,685 followersRandall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, is the creator of the webcomic xkcd and the author of xkcd: volume 0. The International Astronomical Union recently named an asteroid after him; asteroid 4942 Munroe is big enough to cause a mass extinction if it ever hits a planet like Earth. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,615 reviews
November 26, 2022
“Disclaimer: Do not try any of this at home. The author of this book is an internet cartoonist, not a health or safety expert. He likes it when things catch fire or explode, which means he does not have your best interests in mind. The publisher and the author disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects resulting, directly or indirectly, from information contained in this book.”
Randall Munroe (of https://xkcd.com/) is a former physicist and NASA robotics employee turned brilliant comics artist, and the author of What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions — a book that instantly turns me into a squealing fangirl (not a pretty sight, trust me). No way was I ever going to miss his second “What If” offering, creatively titled “What If? 2”. Commence fangirling, you’ve been warned.
If you liked the first book, you’ll love this one, too, since it’s more of the same — and no need to fix what ain’t broken. Randall Munroe does his signature nerdy humor illustrated with his xkcd.com stick figures and with sciencey calculations taking on the most ridiculous questions (What would happen if Japan left the planet? What if Earth was a massive eyeball?). And those questions are hilarious, and sometimes a bit disturbing (“How many bones can you remove from the human body while allowing the human to continue living? Asking for a friend.” — “I don’t think this person is really your friend.”)
————
What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?
“Filling the Solar System would take about 2 × 1039 liters of soup. If the soup is tomato, that works out to about 1042 calories worth, more energy than the Sun has put out over its entire lifetime. The soup would be so heavy that nothing would be able to escape its enormous gravitational pull; it would be a black hole.”
How many pigeons would it require in order to lift the average person and a launch chair to the height of Australia’s Q1 skyscraper?
“This exponential growth means that a 9-stage vehicle, able to lift you 45 meters, would need almost 300 million pigeons, roughly equal to the entire global population. Reaching the halfway point would require 1.6 × 1025 pigeons, which would weigh about 8 × 1024 kilograms—more than the Earth itself. At that point, the pigeons wouldn’t be pulled down by the Earth’s gravity—the Earth would be pulled up by the pigeons’ gravity. The full 65-stage craft to reach the top of the Q1 would weigh 3.5 × 1046 kilograms. That’s not just more pigeons than there are on Earth, it’s more mass than there is in the galaxy.”
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?
“If you live in New York and you see a T. rex, don’t worry. You don’t have to choose a friend to sacrifice; just order 80 burgers instead. And then if the T. rex goes for your friend, anyway, hey, you have 80 burgers. Maybe the friend was more of an acquaintance, anyway.”
It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s logically imaginative. For a nerd like me, it’s pure delight.
5 stars. If Randall Munroe writes it, I’m surely going to read it.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
Randall Munroe (of https://xkcd.com/) is a former physicist and NASA robotics employee turned brilliant comics artist, and the author of What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions — a book that instantly turns me into a squealing fangirl (not a pretty sight, trust me). No way was I ever going to miss his second “What If” offering, creatively titled “What If? 2”. Commence fangirling, you’ve been warned.
If you liked the first book, you’ll love this one, too, since it’s more of the same — and no need to fix what ain’t broken. Randall Munroe does his signature nerdy humor illustrated with his xkcd.com stick figures and with sciencey calculations taking on the most ridiculous questions (What would happen if Japan left the planet? What if Earth was a massive eyeball?). And those questions are hilarious, and sometimes a bit disturbing (“How many bones can you remove from the human body while allowing the human to continue living? Asking for a friend.” — “I don’t think this person is really your friend.”)
I was wondering whether there’s a way to use my welder as a defibrillator? (The specific model I own is an Impax IM-ARC140 arc welder.)
— You should definitely not use your arc welder as a defibrillator, and after reading your question, I honestly don’t think you should be allowed to use it as an arc welder, either.
————
What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?
“Filling the Solar System would take about 2 × 1039 liters of soup. If the soup is tomato, that works out to about 1042 calories worth, more energy than the Sun has put out over its entire lifetime. The soup would be so heavy that nothing would be able to escape its enormous gravitational pull; it would be a black hole.”
—————
How many pigeons would it require in order to lift the average person and a launch chair to the height of Australia’s Q1 skyscraper?
“This exponential growth means that a 9-stage vehicle, able to lift you 45 meters, would need almost 300 million pigeons, roughly equal to the entire global population. Reaching the halfway point would require 1.6 × 1025 pigeons, which would weigh about 8 × 1024 kilograms—more than the Earth itself. At that point, the pigeons wouldn’t be pulled down by the Earth’s gravity—the Earth would be pulled up by the pigeons’ gravity. The full 65-stage craft to reach the top of the Q1 would weigh 3.5 × 1046 kilograms. That’s not just more pigeons than there are on Earth, it’s more mass than there is in the galaxy.”
————
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?
“If you live in New York and you see a T. rex, don’t worry. You don’t have to choose a friend to sacrifice; just order 80 burgers instead. And then if the T. rex goes for your friend, anyway, hey, you have 80 burgers. Maybe the friend was more of an acquaintance, anyway.”
————
It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s logically imaginative. For a nerd like me, it’s pure delight.
5 stars. If Randall Munroe writes it, I’m surely going to read it.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
Want to read
March 30, 2022ALL RIGHT, RANDALL. There better be a hypothetical answer in here about a t-rex on top of a plane because I'm still burned from there being NO SARLACC in the first book, despite the promise on the cover of the book. That is all.
April 4, 2023
No, this isn’t a sequel. If you haven’t read What If? (The Original) you can read this one first with no regrets. If you have read The Original, you may conclude that Randall Monroe will never see the bottom of his bucket of absurd questions.
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.
What if the Solar System were full of soup out to Jupiter ?
"If the Solar System were full of soup out to Jupiter, things might be okay for some people for a few minutes. Then, for the next half hour, things would definitely not be okay for anyone. After that, time would end. Filling the Solar System would take about 2 × 10^39 liters of soup. If the soup is tomato, that works out to about 10^42 calories worth, more energy than the Sun has put out over its entire lifetime. The soup would be so heavy that nothing would be able to escape its enormous gravitational pull; it would be a black hole. The event horizon of the black hole, the region where the pull is too strong for light to escape, would extend to the orbit of Uranus. Pluto would be outside the event horizon at first, but that doesn’t mean it would escape. It would just have a chance to broadcast out a radio message before being vacuumed up."
"…If you were floating between the planets, away from Earth’s gravity, you’d actually be okay for a little while, which is kind of weird. Even if the soup didn’t kill you, you’d still be inside a black hole. Shouldn’t you die instantly from . . . something? Strangely enough, no! Normally, when you get close to a black hole, tidal forces tear you apart. But tidal forces are weaker for larger black holes, and the Jupiter Soup black hole would be about 1/500th the mass of the Milky Way."
"…From the point of view of an unlucky observer inside our black hole, it would take about half an hour for the soup and everything in it to fall to the center. After that, our definition of time—and our understanding of physics in general—breaks down."
No, this “answer” doesn’t end at this point. There are further considerations. Do you want to proceed? Then enjoy this book (my local library has several copies!).
There are long answers and short ones. If this is a money machine for Munroe, then it is in good working order because he is getting plenty of help from his readers. Here is a “short” question and part of Munroe’s “short” response:
Q: "What would happen if the Earth’s rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? —Dylan
A: “That would be apocalyptic, but there would be a brief period every two weeks when it would be even more apocalyptic. The Earth rotates, [citation needed] which means its midsection is being flung outward by centrifugal force. This centrifugal force isn’t strong enough to overcome gravity and tear the Earth apart, but it’s enough to flatten the Earth slightly and make it so you weigh almost a pound less at the equator than you do at the poles. [*] If the Earth (and everything on it) were suddenly sped up so that a day only lasted one second, the Earth wouldn’t even last a single day. [*] The equator would be moving at over 10 percent of the speed of light. Centrifugal force would become much stronger than gravity, and the material that makes up the Earth would be flung outward. You wouldn’t die instantly—you might survive for a few milliseconds or even seconds. That might not seem like much, but compared to the speed at which you’d die in other What If scenarios involving relativistic speeds, it’s pretty long. The Earth’s crust and mantle would break apart into building-size chunks. By the time a second [*] had passed, the atmosphere would have spread out too thin to breathe—although even at the relatively stationary poles, you probably wouldn’t survive long enough to asphyxiate. In the first few seconds, the expansion would shatter the crust into spinning fragments and kill just about everyone on the planet, but that’s relatively peaceful compared to what would happen next."
"…Everything would be moving at relativistic speeds, but each piece of the crust would be moving at close to the same speed as its neighbors, so there wouldn’t be any immediate relativistic collisions. This means things would be relatively calm . . . until the disk hit something. The first obstacle would be the belt of satellites around the Earth. After 40 milliseconds, the International Space Station (ISS) would be struck by the edge of the expanding atmosphere and instantly vaporized. More satellites would follow. After a second and a half, the disk would reach the belt of geostationary satellites orbiting above the equator. Each one would release a violent burst of gamma rays as the Earth consumed it. The debris from the Earth would slice outward like an expanding buzz saw. The disk would take about 10 seconds to pass the Moon, another hour to spread past the Sun, and would span the Solar System within a day or two. Each time the disk engulfed an asteroid, it would spray a flood of energy in all directions, eventually sterilizing every surface in the Solar System."
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.
What if the Solar System were full of soup out to Jupiter ?
"If the Solar System were full of soup out to Jupiter, things might be okay for some people for a few minutes. Then, for the next half hour, things would definitely not be okay for anyone. After that, time would end. Filling the Solar System would take about 2 × 10^39 liters of soup. If the soup is tomato, that works out to about 10^42 calories worth, more energy than the Sun has put out over its entire lifetime. The soup would be so heavy that nothing would be able to escape its enormous gravitational pull; it would be a black hole. The event horizon of the black hole, the region where the pull is too strong for light to escape, would extend to the orbit of Uranus. Pluto would be outside the event horizon at first, but that doesn’t mean it would escape. It would just have a chance to broadcast out a radio message before being vacuumed up."
"…If you were floating between the planets, away from Earth’s gravity, you’d actually be okay for a little while, which is kind of weird. Even if the soup didn’t kill you, you’d still be inside a black hole. Shouldn’t you die instantly from . . . something? Strangely enough, no! Normally, when you get close to a black hole, tidal forces tear you apart. But tidal forces are weaker for larger black holes, and the Jupiter Soup black hole would be about 1/500th the mass of the Milky Way."
"…From the point of view of an unlucky observer inside our black hole, it would take about half an hour for the soup and everything in it to fall to the center. After that, our definition of time—and our understanding of physics in general—breaks down."
No, this “answer” doesn’t end at this point. There are further considerations. Do you want to proceed? Then enjoy this book (my local library has several copies!).
There are long answers and short ones. If this is a money machine for Munroe, then it is in good working order because he is getting plenty of help from his readers. Here is a “short” question and part of Munroe’s “short” response:
Q: "What would happen if the Earth’s rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? —Dylan
A: “That would be apocalyptic, but there would be a brief period every two weeks when it would be even more apocalyptic. The Earth rotates, [citation needed] which means its midsection is being flung outward by centrifugal force. This centrifugal force isn’t strong enough to overcome gravity and tear the Earth apart, but it’s enough to flatten the Earth slightly and make it so you weigh almost a pound less at the equator than you do at the poles. [*] If the Earth (and everything on it) were suddenly sped up so that a day only lasted one second, the Earth wouldn’t even last a single day. [*] The equator would be moving at over 10 percent of the speed of light. Centrifugal force would become much stronger than gravity, and the material that makes up the Earth would be flung outward. You wouldn’t die instantly—you might survive for a few milliseconds or even seconds. That might not seem like much, but compared to the speed at which you’d die in other What If scenarios involving relativistic speeds, it’s pretty long. The Earth’s crust and mantle would break apart into building-size chunks. By the time a second [*] had passed, the atmosphere would have spread out too thin to breathe—although even at the relatively stationary poles, you probably wouldn’t survive long enough to asphyxiate. In the first few seconds, the expansion would shatter the crust into spinning fragments and kill just about everyone on the planet, but that’s relatively peaceful compared to what would happen next."
"…Everything would be moving at relativistic speeds, but each piece of the crust would be moving at close to the same speed as its neighbors, so there wouldn’t be any immediate relativistic collisions. This means things would be relatively calm . . . until the disk hit something. The first obstacle would be the belt of satellites around the Earth. After 40 milliseconds, the International Space Station (ISS) would be struck by the edge of the expanding atmosphere and instantly vaporized. More satellites would follow. After a second and a half, the disk would reach the belt of geostationary satellites orbiting above the equator. Each one would release a violent burst of gamma rays as the Earth consumed it. The debris from the Earth would slice outward like an expanding buzz saw. The disk would take about 10 seconds to pass the Moon, another hour to spread past the Sun, and would span the Solar System within a day or two. Each time the disk engulfed an asteroid, it would spray a flood of energy in all directions, eventually sterilizing every surface in the Solar System."
November 13, 2022
it honestly ended right when it was getting reallyy good 😭.
books that come with random science facts (or facts in general) have to be my fav non-fic genre. and this book delivers exactly that!
though i was hoping this would be an easy 5 star like What If 1 but no such luck :((
books that come with random science facts (or facts in general) have to be my fav non-fic genre. and this book delivers exactly that!
though i was hoping this would be an easy 5 star like What If 1 but no such luck :((
October 12, 2022
I’m a fan. I’m SUCH a fan. Munroe’s books are the science books you wished you were taught from, and Munroe is the science teacher you wish you had. The man’s qualified too, he’s a former NASA physicist who decided to cartoon his way to pop science instead. And good for us, readers, because his books are not only very educational but are wildly entertaining to boot.
Picking up where the first What If left off, this book presents more real science answers to unreal and implausible scenarios.
Responded in all seriousness…well, maybe not ALL seriousness, Munroe’s actually hilarious so it’s comedy all around, but the answers are all based on real science no matter how cute the author’s stick figures and footnotes may be.
All in all, for my money/for my brain, the best way to learn science. Yeah, make it pop – make it popular, make it fun. Make it applicable to impossible scenarios. Make it fascinating. Science is already awesome. It just needs someone like Munroe to do its publicity.
Great read. Recommended.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
Picking up where the first What If left off, this book presents more real science answers to unreal and implausible scenarios.
Responded in all seriousness…well, maybe not ALL seriousness, Munroe’s actually hilarious so it’s comedy all around, but the answers are all based on real science no matter how cute the author’s stick figures and footnotes may be.
All in all, for my money/for my brain, the best way to learn science. Yeah, make it pop – make it popular, make it fun. Make it applicable to impossible scenarios. Make it fascinating. Science is already awesome. It just needs someone like Munroe to do its publicity.
Great read. Recommended.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
August 22, 2022
Randall Munroe is one of my favorite humans of all time, so hearing he was writing a sequel to What If made my year. What If 2 has the same quality as the original; some truly ridiculous questions and even crazier answers. However, one difference was that there were a lot more questions answered and because of that the answers were shorter. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just slightly different in feel than the first one.
Some of my favorites were T Rex Calories, Reading Every Book (a question I’ve always had), and Build Rome in a Day. But the vast majority of them were fantastic. Easy five stars from me.
Some of my favorites were T Rex Calories, Reading Every Book (a question I’ve always had), and Build Rome in a Day. But the vast majority of them were fantastic. Easy five stars from me.
August 27, 2023
I own What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, and so obviously I'll need to buy this one as well. For consistency.
But I actually listened to this when I saw the library had it available via audio. (My eyeballs are purely decorative at this point, OKAY?) The audio is read by Wil Wheaton, and... I had feelings about this initially. He's not my favorite audiobook reader. I really like him as a person and actor (based on the intentionally VERY, VERY little I know about him - DO NOT RUIN THIS FOR ME, INTERNET), but he's read a few audiobooks I've listened to, and they aren't BAD... he's just not my favorite. So I was initially like "OK, he's not Simon Vance, true, but it's a short, quirky, funny book, so it'll probably be fine."
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..."
Sometimes he would just "read" the comic as text, sometimes sort of "act it out"... but regardless it felt so seamless that I almost didn't feel like I was missing anything by not dusting off my decorative eyeballs and putting them to work for this one.
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.
The content in this book is just as delightful as the previous book, and the questions just keep getting crazier. I did find myself feeling a little bad for people whose questions were included in the "Short Answers" section who really didn't get an answer. Like... I know that sometimes a nonanswer IS an answer, but I kinda found myself wanting a little bit more.
Anyway, I love these, and I hope he keeps doing them. They are so much fun.
But I actually listened to this when I saw the library had it available via audio. (My eyeballs are purely decorative at this point, OKAY?) The audio is read by Wil Wheaton, and... I had feelings about this initially. He's not my favorite audiobook reader. I really like him as a person and actor (based on the intentionally VERY, VERY little I know about him - DO NOT RUIN THIS FOR ME, INTERNET), but he's read a few audiobooks I've listened to, and they aren't BAD... he's just not my favorite. So I was initially like "OK, he's not Simon Vance, true, but it's a short, quirky, funny book, so it'll probably be fine."
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..."
Sometimes he would just "read" the comic as text, sometimes sort of "act it out"... but regardless it felt so seamless that I almost didn't feel like I was missing anything by not dusting off my decorative eyeballs and putting them to work for this one.
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.
The content in this book is just as delightful as the previous book, and the questions just keep getting crazier. I did find myself feeling a little bad for people whose questions were included in the "Short Answers" section who really didn't get an answer. Like... I know that sometimes a nonanswer IS an answer, but I kinda found myself wanting a little bit more.
Anyway, I love these, and I hope he keeps doing them. They are so much fun.
April 20, 2023
I only wanted to read this book because it was on NPR's Books We Love 2022: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels list, and I have a goal of reading all the books on that list. When I checked the book out of the library I was disappointed to find that it does not fit my definition of a graphic novel, being predominately told in text with some minimalist, stick-man, doodled cartoons acting as little humorous accents or providing useful graphs, maps, or other information like the illustrations you can find in most PowerPoint presentations. They do not convey the majority of the narrative, but they do help to break up the big blocks of text.
I thought about returning it unread, but flipped through and glanced at a few chapters and found myself quickly intrigued and amused. And, hey, my beef is with NPR not Randall Munroe, so I went ahead and read it anyway.
Basically, it's a science trivia book with a gimmick. As the Maps for Curious Minds series I read recently puts its trivia in the form of colorful maps to keep the reader engaged, this one adds a little bit of sugar to its science medicine by employing it to answer ridiculous questions.
Many of the questions just involve calculating areas and quantities (Have we manufactured enough paint to cover the entire surface of Earth?) or time (How long would it take to read all the laws that govern your life?), but a depressing amount involve the complete destruction of Earth or at least all life thereon.
Even when things get heavy, the chapters are short and punchy, making this a good candidate to be read in small chunks over the course of several weeks (perhaps in a small room with a porcelain throne). The author writes in an easygoing and humorous style and the cartoons, as I pointed out above, do break up those blocks of text.
Still, it is just trivia and silliness, so I have no real desire to go back and read the first one in the series, and I'd only read a hypothetical next one if NPR were to classify it as a graphic novel on some future list.
I thought about returning it unread, but flipped through and glanced at a few chapters and found myself quickly intrigued and amused. And, hey, my beef is with NPR not Randall Munroe, so I went ahead and read it anyway.
Basically, it's a science trivia book with a gimmick. As the Maps for Curious Minds series I read recently puts its trivia in the form of colorful maps to keep the reader engaged, this one adds a little bit of sugar to its science medicine by employing it to answer ridiculous questions.
Many of the questions just involve calculating areas and quantities (Have we manufactured enough paint to cover the entire surface of Earth?) or time (How long would it take to read all the laws that govern your life?), but a depressing amount involve the complete destruction of Earth or at least all life thereon.
Even when things get heavy, the chapters are short and punchy, making this a good candidate to be read in small chunks over the course of several weeks (perhaps in a small room with a porcelain throne). The author writes in an easygoing and humorous style and the cartoons, as I pointed out above, do break up those blocks of text.
Still, it is just trivia and silliness, so I have no real desire to go back and read the first one in the series, and I'd only read a hypothetical next one if NPR were to classify it as a graphic novel on some future list.
October 26, 2022
Lang, lang ists her, dass der erste Teil von "What if?" erschienen ist. 2014 habe ich den ersten Band zu Weihnachten geschenkt bekommen und dann gleich mehrfach gelesen, aber nie rezensiert - deswegen gibt es hier auch keinen entsprechenden Link. Sorry, Leute, Klein-Mira hatte anscheinend Besseres zu tun. Ich bin auch ehrlich gesagt überrascht, dass das schon so lange her ist. Klar, es muss noch während meiner Schulzeit erschienen sein, denn ich kann mich erinnern, während einer meiner morgendlichen Busfahrten Artikel auf Munroes Website zu lesen. Aber ich dachte, dass das kurz vor meinem Abschluss war. Nicht als ich 15 war. Naja, eines weiß ich aber ganz sicher: Mit dem Stickerbogen hätte Klein-Mira ihre Freude gehabt. Auch für mich als Erwachsene ist das ein tolles Goodie. Damit werde ich mein aktuelles Bullet-Journal verzieren.
Das Konzept dieses Sachbuchs ist eigentlich ganz einfach: Randall Munroe beantwortet hier absurde Fragen aus wissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Einige dieser Fragen haben wir uns sicher alle als Kinder gestellt (Kann man mit einer Feuerwehrstange von Mond zu Erde rutschen? Kann man Wolken essen?). An andere hätte ich vor der Lektüre nie gedacht: Was wäre, wenn man beschließen würde, zu Fuß von Austin (Texas) nach New York City zu gehen, aber wenn einen jeder Schritt 30 Tage tiefer in die Vergangenheit zurückbrächte? Was wäre, wenn man das Sonnensystem bis zum Jupiter mit Suppe füllen würde?
Durch die Antworten auf diese Fragen habe ich jetzt neue Funfacts, mit denen ich Leute verstören kann. Was, wie wir alle wissen, eines meiner liebsten Hobbys ist. Wusstet ihr zum Beispiel, dass man Blut nicht trinken kann, da man das Blut nach dem Trinken wieder erbricht? Deswegen ist es auch nicht möglich, betrunken zu werden, indem man das Blut eines Betrunkenen trinkt.
Ergänzt werden diese Antworten durch Comics im typischen Stil von Munroe. In diesen Comics wird auch Munroes Humor sichtbar, der mir persönlich sehr zusagt.
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.
Mein Fazit? Munroe beantwortet auch hier absurde Fragen mit viel Humor. Mir hat das Buch über weite Teile sehr gut gefallen.
Das Konzept dieses Sachbuchs ist eigentlich ganz einfach: Randall Munroe beantwortet hier absurde Fragen aus wissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Einige dieser Fragen haben wir uns sicher alle als Kinder gestellt (Kann man mit einer Feuerwehrstange von Mond zu Erde rutschen? Kann man Wolken essen?). An andere hätte ich vor der Lektüre nie gedacht: Was wäre, wenn man beschließen würde, zu Fuß von Austin (Texas) nach New York City zu gehen, aber wenn einen jeder Schritt 30 Tage tiefer in die Vergangenheit zurückbrächte? Was wäre, wenn man das Sonnensystem bis zum Jupiter mit Suppe füllen würde?
Durch die Antworten auf diese Fragen habe ich jetzt neue Funfacts, mit denen ich Leute verstören kann. Was, wie wir alle wissen, eines meiner liebsten Hobbys ist. Wusstet ihr zum Beispiel, dass man Blut nicht trinken kann, da man das Blut nach dem Trinken wieder erbricht? Deswegen ist es auch nicht möglich, betrunken zu werden, indem man das Blut eines Betrunkenen trinkt.
Ergänzt werden diese Antworten durch Comics im typischen Stil von Munroe. In diesen Comics wird auch Munroes Humor sichtbar, der mir persönlich sehr zusagt.
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.
Mein Fazit? Munroe beantwortet auch hier absurde Fragen mit viel Humor. Mir hat das Buch über weite Teile sehr gut gefallen.
January 18, 2023
"How many pigeons would it require in order to lift the average person and a launch chair to the height of Australia's Q1 skyscraper?" [tens of thousands, if they were all very well trained and equipped and positioned properly to do a sort of aerial bucket brigade with you as the bucket]
"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]
"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]
"Can you use a magnifying glass and the moonlight to light a fire?" [no, for reasons that involve the second law of thermodynamics, conservation of étendue, and a bit of astronomy]
These do not look like the kinds of questions you had to work on to learn about physics, chemistry, engineering, and the like when you were in school having to do that. Which is unfortunate, really, because it would have been a lot more interesting. But, because it is more important to our society that school be safe [read: boring] than that it be educational, you did not get to read about how to use science to answer these kinds of questions. Or, other questions like:
"What if you decided to walk from Austin, Texas, to New York City, but every step you take takes you back 30 days?"
"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.)"
"What if Au Bon Pain lost their 2014 lawsuit and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion?"
If this kind of thing is your thing, then let's be honest, you don't need to hear anything more from me about this book, you're already on your way to buy it. If not, well, I have no idea what to say to you.
"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]
"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]
"Can you use a magnifying glass and the moonlight to light a fire?" [no, for reasons that involve the second law of thermodynamics, conservation of étendue, and a bit of astronomy]
These do not look like the kinds of questions you had to work on to learn about physics, chemistry, engineering, and the like when you were in school having to do that. Which is unfortunate, really, because it would have been a lot more interesting. But, because it is more important to our society that school be safe [read: boring] than that it be educational, you did not get to read about how to use science to answer these kinds of questions. Or, other questions like:
"What if you decided to walk from Austin, Texas, to New York City, but every step you take takes you back 30 days?"
"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.)"
"What if Au Bon Pain lost their 2014 lawsuit and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion?"
If this kind of thing is your thing, then let's be honest, you don't need to hear anything more from me about this book, you're already on your way to buy it. If not, well, I have no idea what to say to you.
June 12, 2022
Randall Monroe is the author of the webcomic xkcd. In this book he takes ridiculous, extreme questions (like "What if Japan suddenly left the Earth?") and reasons about the results using (primarily order-of-magnitude) scientific estimates. If this sounds familiar, that's because the book is just like What If #1, except with different questions. I enjoyed it more, though, because I read many of the questions in the previous book online as they came out, and this book was all new to me.
The book is easy to understand and studded with comics, which keeps things light, even though the subject matter frequently leads to the Earth being rapidly destroyed, most impressively in "what if the Earth was made completely of protons and the Moon was made completely of electrons?" but also in "what if Niagara Falls were sent through a straw?" and several others.
A few facts I found interesting:
1. I experience two more seconds of daylight a day than most people, because I am 6'5.
2. I am descended from about 10% of all the people who have ever lived.
3. Vladivostok has a beach covered in weathered, colored glass.
4. You can't use any optical system to make a spot hotter than the surface of the light source.
I was lucky to receive an advanced reader copy. The book will be published in September. But if you come to my house you can read it.
The book is easy to understand and studded with comics, which keeps things light, even though the subject matter frequently leads to the Earth being rapidly destroyed, most impressively in "what if the Earth was made completely of protons and the Moon was made completely of electrons?" but also in "what if Niagara Falls were sent through a straw?" and several others.
A few facts I found interesting:
1. I experience two more seconds of daylight a day than most people, because I am 6'5.
2. I am descended from about 10% of all the people who have ever lived.
3. Vladivostok has a beach covered in weathered, colored glass.
4. You can't use any optical system to make a spot hotter than the surface of the light source.
I was lucky to receive an advanced reader copy. The book will be published in September. But if you come to my house you can read it.
September 12, 2022
Both the questions and the answers seemed a little less exciting than in the first volume, still highly entertaining book.
January 7, 2024
LOVE LOVE LOVE these books!
5 Stars
5 Stars
July 25, 2025
The best kind of childishness!
Randall Munroe is the author of the free web comic XKCD. XKCD comics are instantly recognizable by Munroe's surprisingly individual and expressive faceless stick-figure characters. They are less instantly recognizable by their focus on science and mathematics, and by Munroe's ability to write startlingly accurate jokes on these subjects which are actually funny, but also sometimes informative or touching,
For a few years now he has also had a blog called "What If?" in which he answers questions from users. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions and What If? 2 are collections of those questions and answers. I started with What If? 2 because I mistakenly ordered it before What If? 1. I do, however, follow Munroe's What If? blog, so it is likely I've seen most of What If? 1.
Just to give you a taste, the first question of What If? 2 is this:
This is a fairly typical type of What If? question. Not all the inquirers are as young as Amelia, but many of them are. The answer in this case begins, "Please make sure everyone is safely out of the Solar System before you fill it with soup.". It continues, "If the Solar System were full of soup out to Jupiter, things might be okay for some people for a few minutes. Then, for the next half hour, things would definitely not be okay for anyone. After that, time would end." Munroe goes on to explain in more detail, with pictures, how this all would come about. The full answer is five pages.
The subtitle is "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", and that is indeed the bulk of the book. It contains full answers to 64 such questions -- a typical answer is 3-5 pages. There are also some questions that get less serious answers, five "Short answers" chapters, and three "Weird and Worrying" chapters. Here's a "Weird and Worrying" example,
Munroe doesn't answer.
Here's an example of a question and short answer:
Most of the fully answered questions fall into two categories, either "What would happen if...?" (obviously the sort of questions envisaged by the title "What If?"), and questions that ask for a number, "How much...?", "How many...", "How long...?" The "What If?" type questions are the most fun, because they allow Munroe to tell stories. However, the number questions are surprisingly fun, too -- they demonstrate a lot of ingenuity, which one has to admire.
Aside from the "Short Answers" and "Weird and Worrying" questions, what marks What If? 2 is Munroe's commitment to giving real answers -- answers that follow the scenario through to its logical consequences, with careful and well-explained reasoning.
And, here's the most important part: It's fun! Even though the subtitle uses the word "serious", and the book contains serious answers (for certain values of "serious"), this is NOT a serious book! It is funny and delightful. (Informative, too, but don't let that deter you.)
Blog review.
Randall Munroe is the author of the free web comic XKCD. XKCD comics are instantly recognizable by Munroe's surprisingly individual and expressive faceless stick-figure characters. They are less instantly recognizable by their focus on science and mathematics, and by Munroe's ability to write startlingly accurate jokes on these subjects which are actually funny, but also sometimes informative or touching,
For a few years now he has also had a blog called "What If?" in which he answers questions from users. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions and What If? 2 are collections of those questions and answers. I started with What If? 2 because I mistakenly ordered it before What If? 1. I do, however, follow Munroe's What If? blog, so it is likely I've seen most of What If? 1.
Just to give you a taste, the first question of What If? 2 is this:
What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?
--Amelia, age 5
This is a fairly typical type of What If? question. Not all the inquirers are as young as Amelia, but many of them are. The answer in this case begins, "Please make sure everyone is safely out of the Solar System before you fill it with soup.". It continues, "If the Solar System were full of soup out to Jupiter, things might be okay for some people for a few minutes. Then, for the next half hour, things would definitely not be okay for anyone. After that, time would end." Munroe goes on to explain in more detail, with pictures, how this all would come about. The full answer is five pages.
The subtitle is "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions", and that is indeed the bulk of the book. It contains full answers to 64 such questions -- a typical answer is 3-5 pages. There are also some questions that get less serious answers, five "Short answers" chapters, and three "Weird and Worrying" chapters. Here's a "Weird and Worrying" example,
Can bees or other animals got to Hell? Or can they murder other bees without consequences?
Munroe doesn't answer.
Here's an example of a question and short answer:
I was wondering whether there's a way to use my welder as a defibrillator?
--Lukasz Grabowski
You should definitely not use your welder as a defibrillator, and after reading your question, I honestly don't think you should be allowed to use it as an arc welder, either.
Most of the fully answered questions fall into two categories, either "What would happen if...?" (obviously the sort of questions envisaged by the title "What If?"), and questions that ask for a number, "How much...?", "How many...", "How long...?" The "What If?" type questions are the most fun, because they allow Munroe to tell stories. However, the number questions are surprisingly fun, too -- they demonstrate a lot of ingenuity, which one has to admire.
Aside from the "Short Answers" and "Weird and Worrying" questions, what marks What If? 2 is Munroe's commitment to giving real answers -- answers that follow the scenario through to its logical consequences, with careful and well-explained reasoning.
And, here's the most important part: It's fun! Even though the subtitle uses the word "serious", and the book contains serious answers (for certain values of "serious"), this is NOT a serious book! It is funny and delightful. (Informative, too, but don't let that deter you.)
Blog review.
October 30, 2022
This is the sequel to What If? It is just as goofy and as full of obscure facts as the first one. The author answers questions posed by readers like “How much sunscreen would you need at the surface of the sun?”, “How large a population of Tyrannosaurus Rexes would New York city support if they survived by eating humans?”, “What would happen if it rained gumdrops and lemon drops?”, and “What does a star smell like?”. The author calculates reasonable answers, using physics, to unreasonable questions. The answers are enlivened by funny drawings illustrating the calculations. Possibly this only is hilarious to someone who is scientifically literate, but I loved it.
March 4, 2023
Ich mochte "What If?" bereits sehr, darum habe ich mir sogleich den zweiten Band dieser Frage-Antwort-Serie geholt. Erneut behandelt Randall Munroe hypothetische Fragen mit wissenschaftlicher Tiefe, mit Humor und Forschergeist. Egal wie oft bei den beschriebenen Szenarien die Welt untergeht, Freude und Faszination bleiben auf jeder Seite.
Und nicht nur das: Viele Antworten lehrten mich sogar was - wie etwa die Höhe der Oberflächentemperatur der Sonne, der Dinosaueriergehalt in Plastikprodukten oder die maximale Grösse von Schneebällen.
Wissenschaft, Theorie und Experimentierfreude - all das beinhaltet "What If? 2" nebst den grossartigen, reduzierten Skizzen des Autors.
Und nicht nur das: Viele Antworten lehrten mich sogar was - wie etwa die Höhe der Oberflächentemperatur der Sonne, der Dinosaueriergehalt in Plastikprodukten oder die maximale Grösse von Schneebällen.
Wissenschaft, Theorie und Experimentierfreude - all das beinhaltet "What If? 2" nebst den grossartigen, reduzierten Skizzen des Autors.
January 26, 2025
This book made me feel super smart. I can’t actually remember any of the science or maths but I totally feel like I could if I really wanted to.
Creative, wacky, science-based. A recipe for a questionable outfit, but a wonderful book.
Creative, wacky, science-based. A recipe for a questionable outfit, but a wonderful book.
November 27, 2022
26 November 2022
Explaining physics, chemistry, engineering, and other suchlike stuff is hard. Explaining the results of random hypotheticals is harder. Being funny while effectively explaining stuff is harder still. Munroe is brilliant at that last, especially. The reader doesn't need to have a comprehensive science or math education: he lays things out so clearly that literal children can understand.
Just because you've never asked "what if I made a lava lamp out of real lava?" doesn't mean you don't want to know the answer.
If you're casting about for a holiday gift for someone you don't know well, this is a fun idea. Many a pre-reading child would love to have this read to them, and most adults will find at least one question that intrigues them. Of course, anyone familiar with XKCD or the distinctive stick people cartoons is probably half way to Fandom.
Library copy
Explaining physics, chemistry, engineering, and other suchlike stuff is hard. Explaining the results of random hypotheticals is harder. Being funny while effectively explaining stuff is harder still. Munroe is brilliant at that last, especially. The reader doesn't need to have a comprehensive science or math education: he lays things out so clearly that literal children can understand.
Just because you've never asked "what if I made a lava lamp out of real lava?" doesn't mean you don't want to know the answer.
If you're casting about for a holiday gift for someone you don't know well, this is a fun idea. Many a pre-reading child would love to have this read to them, and most adults will find at least one question that intrigues them. Of course, anyone familiar with XKCD or the distinctive stick people cartoons is probably half way to Fandom.
Library copy
December 1, 2022
Great continuation of What if?! I laughed a lot and learned something here and there, what more do you want? ^^
May 8, 2023
• BOOKSTAGRAM •
Let me start by saying — this is not usually a genre I read about however I love absurd hypothetical questions & science. This author (though not his fault) breaks down the questions into parts that I have no idea what he is talking about, because my knowledge level is so subpar compared to his. I’m sure if you are a bioengineer or in chemistry or biology this would be considered you “light reading way to relax and unwind” type of book. To me it was just confusing, I wish the answers were made in similar terms. I’m a nurse so I understand when patients ask me to “dumb it down” for them when I’m using medical jargon. I did enjoy the first book too.
Let me start by saying — this is not usually a genre I read about however I love absurd hypothetical questions & science. This author (though not his fault) breaks down the questions into parts that I have no idea what he is talking about, because my knowledge level is so subpar compared to his. I’m sure if you are a bioengineer or in chemistry or biology this would be considered you “light reading way to relax and unwind” type of book. To me it was just confusing, I wish the answers were made in similar terms. I’m a nurse so I understand when patients ask me to “dumb it down” for them when I’m using medical jargon. I did enjoy the first book too.
March 10, 2025
Inteligente y divertido a partes iguales.
He aprendido un porrón de datos curiosos que no me serán jamás de utilidad, como que el punto más alejado de la Tierra respecto a su centro no es el Everest, que cantidad de humanos debería sacrificar al día para alimentar un T-Rex o un grupito de ellos, que el gasto de energía de una nevera abierta es comparable al de Sísifo al empujar cuesta arriba la roca que le pesa como maldición, o que la cantidad de energía que tendría una sopa de tomate que inundara el Sistema Solar desde su centro hasta Saturno superaría a la que generará el Sol a lo largo de su ciclo vital.
También he descubierto que algunos datos estúpidos que daba por correctos no lo eran, destacando que el plástico no está hecho de dinosaurios muertos ni el polvo de una casa es mayoritariamente piel humana.
Libro fresco y muy recomendable, amable de leer, compuesto de preguntas absurdas y repleto de respuestas geniales.
Solo decir que quien lo lea y le guste, el anterior, personalmente, me pareció mejor (sin demérito alguno de este).
He aprendido un porrón de datos curiosos que no me serán jamás de utilidad, como que el punto más alejado de la Tierra respecto a su centro no es el Everest, que cantidad de humanos debería sacrificar al día para alimentar un T-Rex o un grupito de ellos, que el gasto de energía de una nevera abierta es comparable al de Sísifo al empujar cuesta arriba la roca que le pesa como maldición, o que la cantidad de energía que tendría una sopa de tomate que inundara el Sistema Solar desde su centro hasta Saturno superaría a la que generará el Sol a lo largo de su ciclo vital.
También he descubierto que algunos datos estúpidos que daba por correctos no lo eran, destacando que el plástico no está hecho de dinosaurios muertos ni el polvo de una casa es mayoritariamente piel humana.
Libro fresco y muy recomendable, amable de leer, compuesto de preguntas absurdas y repleto de respuestas geniales.
Solo decir que quien lo lea y le guste, el anterior, personalmente, me pareció mejor (sin demérito alguno de este).
February 5, 2023
I‘m not big on physics or mathematics or whatever else you want to call these sciences.
To explain how far that goes; Truth be told my opinion on gravity can be summed up as „As long as it works, why should I bother with understanding it?“
So those few parts of the book that got a bit more science-y my brain just went „Nah“ and hit the off-switch.
So believe me when I say this: Even if you don‘t like science, maybe especially then, it‘s just a greatly entertaining read.
Because here we don‘t explain what gravity is, how it works or how to quantify it. Instead, we have an expert answer such question as: „Yes, indeed, what WOULD happen if you fill the bigger part of our solar system with soup?“
Answer: Well, it certainly wouldn‘t be good!
This book is pretty good though. Not a hard-hitting and mildly soul-crunching work of literature as i like my 5 star books to be of course, so it will have to content with 4 stars from me.
To explain how far that goes; Truth be told my opinion on gravity can be summed up as „As long as it works, why should I bother with understanding it?“
So those few parts of the book that got a bit more science-y my brain just went „Nah“ and hit the off-switch.
So believe me when I say this: Even if you don‘t like science, maybe especially then, it‘s just a greatly entertaining read.
Because here we don‘t explain what gravity is, how it works or how to quantify it. Instead, we have an expert answer such question as: „Yes, indeed, what WOULD happen if you fill the bigger part of our solar system with soup?“
Answer: Well, it certainly wouldn‘t be good!
This book is pretty good though. Not a hard-hitting and mildly soul-crunching work of literature as i like my 5 star books to be of course, so it will have to content with 4 stars from me.
April 5, 2023
Randall Munroes Bücher enttäuschen nie. Die What if Reihe ist sehr amüsant und interessant. Er antwortet auf sehr absurde Fragen mit sehr wissenschaftlichen Antworten. Die Zeichnungen und sein Humor ist die Kirsche auf der Torte. Wer die Antworten auf hypothetische Fragen wissen will, der sollte dieses Buch lesen.
May 28, 2024
As fun and absurd as the first book, will surely make you laugh out loud.
Randall Munroe does it again! Fresh new set of questions from people, answered with same kind of humor with a few callbacks to previous book (not a prerequisite for this one though) and his another book "How-To" (in my tbr). As much as I wanted to take it slow and savor it while it lasts, I could not put this down and finished in 2-3 sittings.
Favorite drawings:
Favorite Questions:
• What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?
• I want to lose 20 pounds. How much of the Earth’s mass would I have to “relocate” to space in order to achieve my goal?
• What would happen if the Earth’s rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second?
• My daughter—age 4½—maintains she wants a billion-story building. It turns out not only is it hard to help her appreciate this size, I am not at all able to explain all of the other difficulties you’d have to overcome.
• What if Au Bon Pain lost their 2014 lawsuit and had to pay the plaintiff $2 undecillion?
• If the Earth were a massive eye, how far would it see?
• What would be the most expensive way to fill a size-11 shoebox (e.g., with 64 GB Micro SD cards all full of legally purchased music)?
• What would happen if you put the end of a vacuum hose up to your eye and turned on the vacuum?
• Let’s say that two people of different heights (159 cm and 206 cm) stand beside each other while looking at the sunset. How much longer will the taller person be able to see the Sun than the shorter one?
• Could you get drunk from drinking a drunk person’s blood?
• How long would it take for a single person to fill up an entire swimming pool with their own saliva?
• Assuming 1 out of every 4 people has a 5-year-old dog, and the dog reproduces once every year, with 5 puppies, and the puppies start reproducing at 5 and stop at 15 and die at 20, how long would it take for the Earth to be flooded with puppies, assuming we have all the food, water, and oxygen to sustain them?
• After the Sun runs out of fuel, it will become a white dwarf and slowly cool. When will it be cool enough to touch?
September 24, 2022
THIS WAS LITERALLY SO GOOD, DID NOT DISAPPOINT!
I read What if? five years ago and have revisited it so many times throughout the years. I found out about this new book coming out last year, and I waited in anticipation for months. And then it finally came out and I bought it because it's that good, and it was for sure worth it.
This book is about the same length as the first volume, but there are more questions with slightly shorter answers, so the answers sometimes don't go as in depth, but I'm not complaining about that becausesometimes usually don't understand the super deep parts/calculations anyways.
The slightly shorter answers let us read about more topics, and I was pretty surprised by the variety this time! There were a lot of interesting questions, and it makes me wish my brain was that interesting and imaginative too. The humor absolutely did not disappoint, and there were so many more footnotes in this book, which I absolutely loved. The footnotes are one of the best parts of the book for sure :)
The topics in this book were not just limited to strictly "science," which I thought was super interesting since it was still approached scientifically. This was super funny, educational, interesting, everything I needed!
Yeah, this review has been all over the place since I'm just spilling out all my thoughts, but the main takeaway is that this was amazing. Definitely read it if you're interested in science and hypothetical questions!
>> 4.5 stars
I read What if? five years ago and have revisited it so many times throughout the years. I found out about this new book coming out last year, and I waited in anticipation for months. And then it finally came out and I bought it because it's that good, and it was for sure worth it.
This book is about the same length as the first volume, but there are more questions with slightly shorter answers, so the answers sometimes don't go as in depth, but I'm not complaining about that because
The slightly shorter answers let us read about more topics, and I was pretty surprised by the variety this time! There were a lot of interesting questions, and it makes me wish my brain was that interesting and imaginative too. The humor absolutely did not disappoint, and there were so many more footnotes in this book, which I absolutely loved. The footnotes are one of the best parts of the book for sure :)
The topics in this book were not just limited to strictly "science," which I thought was super interesting since it was still approached scientifically. This was super funny, educational, interesting, everything I needed!
Yeah, this review has been all over the place since I'm just spilling out all my thoughts, but the main takeaway is that this was amazing. Definitely read it if you're interested in science and hypothetical questions!
>> 4.5 stars
November 30, 2023
think of the most absurd question you have ever heard asked, like along the lines of, What would happen if we trained pigeons to carry rocks and bomb people with them, how high could they get? This author will give you a wonderful scientific answer in regard to that question. It will include the weight of the rock, the altitude the Pigeon can reach, and the result you can expect from the dropping of the projectile in question. This book is a fun read, even for those who don't know much science. Like me. There is supposed to be a website to go along with these books, I am really going to have to look it up sometime.
October 1, 2022
Fascinating and funny like the first. Some surprising answers here.
October 11, 2022
Just as delightful as book 1!
January 4, 2023
Randall Munroe är fysiker och tidigare NASA-forskare. I boken "Tänk om..." svarade han på absurda frågor från sina fans och frågorna har inte blivit mindre absurda sedan dess. Eller vad sägs om frågor som "Hur många duvor skulle behövas för att lyfta en människa som satt fastspänd i en stol till toppen av Q1-skyskrapan i Australien?", "Hur mycket vatten skulle du behöva dricka för att bestå av vatten till 99 procent?" och "Skulle en människa kunna äta ett helt moln?"? Om man är intresserad av svaren på dessa frågor så kan det här vara en bra bok att läsa! Jag skulle nog också säga att ett visst intresse för fysik underlättar om du också vill FÖRSTÅ svaren. Monroe har visserligen en humoristisk ton i sina svar, men för mig blir ändå en del förklaringar i princip obegripliga. Mest uppskattar jag författarens skämtteckningar!
March 17, 2025
guys please tell me there will be a third book... PLEASE!!!🥺🥺🥺
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,615 reviews