What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Randall Munroe

Sept 2014 · Hachette UK

About this eBook

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

From the creator of the wildly popular xkcd.com, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask.

Millions visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. Fans ask him a lot of strange questions: How fast can you hit a speed bump, driving, and live? When (if ever) did the sun go down on the British Empire? When will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than living? How many humans would a T Rex rampaging through New York need to eat a day?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations and consults nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by comics. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.

Ratings and reviews

This book is great. I think it's fair to say we have all asked at least one of these questions in our lifetime. The author tries his best to answer these silly questions in the most realistic and scientific way possible whilst maintaining a high level of humour the whole time. The end result is a book that will not only turn you into an amateur scientist, but give a few chuckles along the way.

with that price, i would look over for a hard cover book instead of ebook like this... love this book and don't mind to destroy some trees just to pass down this book for generations

The only problem is the first question. There have not been 100 billion people on earth. In fact the population is rising so fast most of the humans that have lived are still alive!

About the author

Randall Munroe is the creator of the webcomic xkcd and bestselling author of What If?, Thing Explainer and xkcd: Volume 0. Randall was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, and grew up outside Richmond, Virginia. After studying physics at Christopher Newport University, he got a job building robots at NASA Langley Research Center. In 2006 he left NASA to draw comics on the internet full time, and has since been nominated for a Hugo Award three times. The International Astronomical Union recently named an asteroid after him: asteroid 4942 Munroe is big enough to cause mass extinction if it ever hits a planet like Earth.