What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions in Crazy Challenge Connection

Sep 02, 2019 fleurette rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Somehow I’ve expected it to be better. I liked many things but I'm still a bit disappointed.

The main problem is probably that most of the questions (or more like the answers to them) concerned astrophysics and generally advanced physics. These are definitely areas of knowledge that interest me least. Problems in probability or biology were much more interesting to me.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of questions about astrophysics and they all seemed quite similar to me. Therefore, the whole boo Somehow I’ve expected it to be better. I liked many things but I'm still a bit disappointed.

The main problem is probably that most of the questions (or more like the answers to them) concerned astrophysics and generally advanced physics. These are definitely areas of knowledge that interest me least. Problems in probability or biology were much more interesting to me.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of questions about astrophysics and they all seemed quite similar to me. Therefore, the whole book seems a bit monotonous to me. It could use a greater variety of questions - from biology, chemistry, advanced mathematics, maybe even history (questions like what would happen if it happened otherwise). Maybe some questions closer to the humanities or social sciences. But the author sticks to everything that can be measured and counted quite precisely.

I'm also a bit disappointed with the questions themselves. I expected them to be really crazy. Just look at the cover - a dinosaur thrown into what looks like a black hole in the desert from which some tentacles stick out. It promises to be great! And the subtitle "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions". Well, these questions are not that weird or absurd. At least for a layman. Or maybe I just don't think about shooting a neutron bomb to Earth on a daily basis. I expected exactly what in the title, bizarre questions that will be of interest to me and to which I will get a professional answer. And that's why I'm a little disappointed.

After some time, all the questions and answers merged into one and became a little boring. I even started skipping paragraphs in after the next astrophysics question.

Also, I have the impression that the questions in the joke sections did not differ much from those to which the author was looking for answers. Maybe except that they were more interesting, sometimes macabre but usually more interesting. It is a pity that the author did not try to answer even briefly on them.

This is not a bad book but more intended for people who are interested in physics. It also seems to me that sometimes I simply lacked a lot of knowledge to fully understand the answer to a question. I have already read similar books and some of them were more interesting. I'm afraid I didn't get as much knowledge from this as I did from them. The questions were too uninteresting and the answers too complicated.
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Jan 16, 2018 Jen • Just One More Page rated it it was amazing

Shelves: humor, favorites, read-to-buy, non-fiction, adult, series-to-finish

This review is also posted on my blog.

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Jun 30, 2017 Sam rated it liked it

Shelves: borrowed-books, books-of-2017

This book was probably the most fun I've ever had while reading about science. The situations are all delightfully ridiculous, and the author's answers, while informative, are equally as ridiculous. I'm not an avid reader of XKCD, but I usually find the comics entertaining when I happen across them, so the comics in this book were a nice touch.

I don't know that I'll retain much of the science I read about here (not that its applications seemed all that practical in everyday life, that was kind ...more

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