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3.75k reviews for:
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
4.14 AVERAGE
3.75k reviews for:
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
4.14 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
informative
lighthearted
A lovely deep dive into the questions we ask ourselves but are too dumb to answer without having a background in NASA.
I skimmed through this book and picked out the entries that intrigued me (I'm not a big STEM guy in general so the nitty gritty of math doesn't tend to interest me) and it was honestly delightful.
I can't imagine a better coffee table book!
I skimmed through this book and picked out the entries that intrigued me (I'm not a big STEM guy in general so the nitty gritty of math doesn't tend to interest me) and it was honestly delightful.
I can't imagine a better coffee table book!
Kind of a fun book about bizarre hypothetical questions and attempts to answer them in a scientific way. Premise was usually interesting, and it was well researched. Unfortunately, it got annoyingly repetitive. Here's generally how it went:
"Interesting question"
"Reasonable answer"
"But wait, what if we increased the scope by a million bajillion? If this happens, the hypothetical subject will have so much energy that it will turn into a plasma and destroy the western hemisphere of the earth."
Every, single, answer would devolve into this, and eventually it all just seemed so meaningless.
Regardless, there really were some interesting tidbits, and I did enjoy it, but a lot of it was repetitive and over the top.
"Interesting question"
"Reasonable answer"
"But wait, what if we increased the scope by a million bajillion? If this happens, the hypothetical subject will have so much energy that it will turn into a plasma and destroy the western hemisphere of the earth."
Every, single, answer would devolve into this, and eventually it all just seemed so meaningless.
Regardless, there really were some interesting tidbits, and I did enjoy it, but a lot of it was repetitive and over the top.
Fun and silly as you'd expect and uh, yeah, that quarantine to eradicate the common cold chapter was really something to read in 2025!
"The exact characteristics of the shock front...depend on how an uncooked 8 ounce filet tumbles at hypersonic speeds. I searched the literature, but was unable to find any research on this."
Just a brief example of the excellence to be found in this book. I had never heard of Randall Munroe before so I did not have any expectations when I began reading this, but it lived up to the strong reviews on here. Humor and science mixed at splendid ratios.
Just a brief example of the excellence to be found in this book. I had never heard of Randall Munroe before so I did not have any expectations when I began reading this, but it lived up to the strong reviews on here. Humor and science mixed at splendid ratios.
Not a continuous story but rather a Q&A list of absurd questions is a sheer stroke of genius. The questions posit the impossible, but the answers ignore that and we get scientific explanations of what would happen. Oh and there are little stick figure drawings, too!
At times the physics behind the answers left me in the dust. However, Mr. Munroe (a literal rocket scientist) writes is such an entertaining style that even if I don't understand the answer, I enjoy reading about it. Not all questions are created equal and some of them I just don't find interesting, but that's where the short chapters come in handy. Before I can get annoyed with the question, the answer is done.
Very good read, even if you don't have a scientific mind.
At times the physics behind the answers left me in the dust. However, Mr. Munroe (a literal rocket scientist) writes is such an entertaining style that even if I don't understand the answer, I enjoy reading about it. Not all questions are created equal and some of them I just don't find interesting, but that's where the short chapters come in handy. Before I can get annoyed with the question, the answer is done.
Very good read, even if you don't have a scientific mind.
funny
Very funny! More math than I expected- I was anticipating just the cartoons, not the detailed attention to silly questions that is the premise of the book.
A surprisingly interesting book on seemingly ridiculous topics. At first I thought it will be just a silly pseudo-scientific babble, but at the end I think the author managed to smuggle something precious: scientific method approach into everyday thinking. And it's a really easy read.