What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Randall Munroe

Sep 2014 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

What If? has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Ratings and reviews

A little bit slow and boring at first, but it gets interesting in the middle, and then gets boring again. The book is full of information mostly the public doesn't know about (In essence, a lot of technical words). As a result, it gets overwhelming and not fun to read. The graphics sometimes helps, yet it sometimes mess you up.

I found myself getting a little worn out towards the end of the book. But there are some really fun questions answered. In the end you become afraid of gravity, plasma, radiation, and things humans think about. It was a good conversation starter book though. It was fun bringing up these concepts with friends just to chat about. All in all, it did a good job keeping me company on my commute to and from work.

The book answers some interesting (and a few that I find boring) and absurd scenarios. I've been following the what if Web page and some of the articles were already published there with a few of those (cmiiw) updated with new details. For those who haven't been to the website, then this is definitely a fun read on a weekend.

About the author

Randall Munroe is the author of the webcomic xkcd and the New York Times bestsellers What If?, What If? 2, Thing Explainer, and How To. A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the internet full time. The International Astronomical Union has named an asteroid after him; that asteroid, 4942 Munroe, is large enough that it could cause a mass extinction if it were to hit Earth. He lives in Massachusetts.