What If? (International Edition)

A reader comes away from Randall Munroe's book, which is subtitled "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions," with the sense that Munroe likes to blow things up and burn them to the ground, and that may well be the case. Many of his answers are accompanied by the standard disclaimer—do not try this at home—except when says, "If you do do this at home, please send me the video." Munroe is a former robotics expert with NASA who "dropped out" to draw web comics. His most famous creation is xkcd, where three times a week he publishes a new comic, many of them presenting a fascinating—or ludicrous—take on math, physics, technology or life. His drawing style is at once simplistic and instantly recognizable. His people are stick figures, but that doesn't diminish their cleverness. This book is illustrated with similar drawings, often to provide the punch lines to jokes delivered in the text or to demonstrate a point. Since he's obviously very clever and resourceful, and seems willing to tackle enormous questions, his readers and fans often ask him questions. Some of these are, quite frankly, disturbing. These he relegates to interludes between batches of chapters with the appropriate heading "Weird (and Worrying) Questions from the What If? Inbox." Usually he answers these questions with a simple NO! or a scream, or a comic of the author reporting the questioner to the police, the FBI or Homeland Security. The other questions are of the sort that college kids might come up with late at night in dorm rooms or geeks would get into heated arguments over at ComicCon. No one asks Munroe who would win in a fight between this superhero and that one, but maybe he's keeping those for the follow-up. Many questions are about a matter of scale. How many of these objects would you need to do that? What would happen if something this big suddenly showed up or plummeted to the earth? A disturbingly large number of them ask what would happen to a person if something cataclysmic happened, like the sudden disappearance of all of their DNA (his answer unexpectedly segues into the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer). Some questions have straightforward, simple answers. "What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly turned off?" Everyone would freeze to death. However, Munroe is rarely content to stop there. He expands on these answers, taking them to a logical (or, some might say, illogical) extreme. He ups the ante, going far beyond what the person submitting the question had in mind—far beyond what is even remotely possible, so the answers become thought experiments. Many of his answers end with the extinguishing of life on earth or the destruction of the planet. But there's a method to his madness. He isn't just speculating. Okay, he does occasionally speculate, but he usually relies on hard science, with a few assumptions. While the book is entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny, it is also educational. There are very few formulas (the book does have an extensive bibliography where there are, no doubt, more than enough equations to satisfy those who demand more rigorous proofs), and Munroe takes some numerical shortcuts, but one is left with the impression that he has given these questions a great deal of thought and conducted considerable research. This would be a terrific book to give to someone with a burgeoning curiosity about the nature of things, as it demonstrates how entertaining science can be. Many of the answers are astonishing and counterintuitive, until Munroe lays out the reasoning behind them. What would happen to a glass of water if the lower half of the liquid were suddenly replaced by a vacuum. Not at all what a person might anticipate. If humanity were to die off (there he goes again), what would be the last remaining manmade source of light? Again, he digs deep, pursuing some unexpected avenues. Plus, for people who appreciate Munroe's unique, twisted sense of humor, the book is drop dead funny. But, as humorist Dave Barry often says, don't try to duplicate his experiments at home. By his own admission, he is not an expert on these subjects. Because he is willing to consult true experts, he just sounds like one.

Absolutely great book, so fun & funny while accurate and informative. Get's ya thinking and chuckling at the same time. So appreciate his humor and diligence in working out the math for us all. Seems the bad reviews are about the condition of the physical book they received. That's not a reflection on the author or content, but on the sellers. So get the book for yourself and gifts, it's great!

Randall Munroe is the creator of the popular webcomic xkcd. Awhile ago he started a new section on his site called “What If”. This book is a compilation of the What If posts from his site. They are funny, and sometimes absurd, scientific answers to strange questions people post to him. I listened to this as an audiobook. It is narrated by Wil Wheaton and Wil does a great job narrating it. For me it is easier to listen to non-fiction books on audiobook (it just holds my attention better). However, I also own the book in hardcover and being that Munroe is a cartoonist there are a lot of cool pictures in the hardcover book that are funny and help to explain things. So while the audiobook was very well done and engaging, keep in mind you aren’t getting to see the funny drawings. This is the type of book that makes a good coffee table book and is fun to read one scenario at a time. When I listened to a whole bunch of scenarios in a row it all started to blur together a bit. It provides answers to questions like “How long would you live if your cells stopped dividing?” and “What would happen if the moon went away?” The book reminds a bit of the Mythbusters TV show because Munroe always had to take the scenario to the point of ultimate destruction or explosion (which is hilarious and highly entertaining). The book is written in a very humorous and snarky tone (which Wheaton reads perfectly in the audiobook). There are sections throughout called “Weird and Worrying Questions from the What If Inbox” that are also hilarious. These sections feature bizarre and disturbing questions that Munroe provides brief and sarcastic answers to. For example “How many cats yowling would it take to bring down a fighter jet?” Overall this is a humorous scientific read that provides scientific answers to bizarre questions. It reminds at times of the Mythbusters TV series in that nearly every scenario is taken to the point of giant explosions or mass destruction. I would definitely recommend to fans of the Mythbusters TV series, fans of xkcd, and fans of snarky science humor.

When I was much younger–perhaps 12 or so–my grandpa got me a book called “Do Penguins Have Knees?”. It was an odd little book that asked a bunch of weird questions and tried to answer them. It was moderately interesting. I think I sold it to the used bookstore a while back. What If?, by Randall Munroe, is what that book was trying to be. I don’t usually read non-fiction, unless it’s a textbook. There have been relatively few non-fiction books that I have actually enjoyed, everything else has been, while perhaps interesting and informative, often dry and boring. This book is not dry. This book is not boring. THIS BOOK IS AWESOME. The book is written as a series of utterly ridiculous questions, such as “What would happen if you pitched a baseball at nearly the speed of light?” and the answers are scientifically researched and thoroughly thought out. But the way they are presented is pure awesome. Munroe’s managed to create a blend of his signature stick-figure faceless comics (If you do not read xckd, you’re missing out on life.) and utterly hilarious comparisons that nevertheless make sense. None of the explanations are incredibly high-brow either, and Munroe includes very few formulas and calculations in the text. You do not need to be afraid of being lost in the “science”. Everything is perfectly accessible to most of the people with the capability to read, even children. (And I would recommend this book to them as well.) One or two of the questions are not quite as funny. There’s one question in particular, the one concerning soulmates, that made me sit back and think hard about my life, about humanity. I didn’t see this as bad, though, as he still answered the question thoroughly and in a very interesting manner. Besides, what’s a good book worth if it doesn’t make you re-examine your life? The book itself is a work of art, on a scale I’ve rarely seen outside of special editions of books–and the Stormlight Archive. There are full inside cover illustrations, as well as an illustration on the physical cover of the book, *and* the dust jacket. Seriously. Take the dust jacket off and look at it. I honestly don’t have too much more to say about this book, which is slightly unusual. I guess I’ll just flail around here a bit more about how incredibly funny it was and how you should GO READ IT NOW. Even if you don’t read non-fiction, ever. (Also, I used caps in this review. I never use caps.) In conclusion: Since the invention of the book, there have only been five books that were rated the most brilliant, the most hilarious (Alcatraz 1-4, Hyperbole and a Half.). This one left them all behind. 5 out of 5 stars. GO READ IT.

(copied from Goodreads) If you're unaware of the webcomic xkcd I feel bad for you son. I got 99 questions, but Goku ain't one. Randall Munroe used to work for NASA but he quit to draw several math & science cartoons every week (or so I imagine). He also started a blog, offering "serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions" and this book is a collection of some of the best online What If questions & answers, along with a bunch of new ones. I've been a fan of xkcd for years, but it wasn't until a year or two ago that I found a twitter feed that alerted me to new comics. (You see, I'm really bad at visiting a site two times a week to get new content without a tweet giving me a link when said content is available). I've read a few of Randall's What If blogs (at least I think I must have because a few chapters felt very familiar), but I'm no regular so the book was almost all new to me. Munroe is a brilliant writer. His drawings are simple, yet detailed, and highly accurate. His scientific background (and extensive research) leads him to give great (and sometimes ridiculous) answers to silly questions such as "Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?" or "What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop?" The book is definitely more entertaining than it is educational (I can't think of any specific fact that I learned that would ever come in handy in life), but there is definitely some great math and science within these pages. I already preordered his next book, Thing Explainer—a collection of line drawings describing interesting things, by using only the 1000 (or rather, "ten hundred") most common English words. For an example of what I mean, check out this webcomic describing the Saturn V (Up Goer Five) rocket: http://xkcd.com/1133/

I loved it. It’s full of science, humor, and ridiculous questions.

It was a hit with my 17 year old nephew. He thought the scenarios in the book were funny

I hate to do it, but this book was juuuuust shy of a 5 star rating. If I could, I'd give it 4.5 stars, but in the interest of being honest, I have to round it down to 4 stars. Don't get me wrong; this book was great! It was actually quite entertaining, both in it's quippy nerd-centric humor and occassionaly ridiculous (in a good way) comic drawings, all centered around some truly interesting "What If" hypothetical questions submitted by various fans of Randall Munroe's web comic series. There are footnotes throughout each chapter in this book, and one would expect these footnotes to be normal, clarifying statements or references, and in some cases they are ... but in most cases, they're actually parenthetical jokes, most of which are actually pretty funny. There's a chapter about building a Lego bridge where this gets especially funny. It's a fairly simple, easy to read light trivia book with some memorable bits of information ... that said, however, there are some areas where this book could have been improved. For one thing, the cover artwork on this book is misleading; there is no chapter exploring "How long would it take the Saarlac from Star Wars to digest a T-Rex"? For another, several of the submitted questions in this book, I feel like, could have been resolved with a simple Google search or about 10 to 15 minutes of research. Some of the questions Munroe answered seemed trite and a waste of time (beyond even what the word "trivia" entails). In one case, Munroe answered a question regarding what would happen if the sun went out, and he prefaced it with "This question has been answered by everyone before me, and is easily resolved by Google searching these terms, but I'll answer it anyway." He goes on to, appropriately, answer the question in a rather grim and satirical manner, but one can't help feel afterwards that it was ultimately a rather empty chapter. In other cases, he answers some truly cool "what if" scenarios, but doesn't answer some pretty big questions that came up in my mind. And not all of the questions in this book were phrased in the sense of a "what if" type of scenario. Perhaps the most aggravatingly misplaced chapter in this book was one about what would be the last human-made light source. Not only was this not really a "what if" type of scenario, but this type of thing could have been answered through about 10 minutes of Google searching, maybe less. I dropped a lot of criticisms compared to praises, yes, but ultimately I liked the book, and I liked the concept. I hope Randall Munroe does another book, but maybe works on refining a few elements. Some of his answers were a bit scattered and too "criticizing" sounding, others were a bit incomplete, and others were kind of a waste of time. But his writing style was generally entertaining, easy to read, and quite funny. I think I probably laughed 2 or more times for all but one or two chapters in this book.