What If? 2
Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
2022 • 369 pages
Ratings35
Average rating4.4
15
Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Ratings35
Average rating4.4
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! "The questions throughout What If? 2 are equal parts brilliant, gross, and wonderfully absurd and the answers are thorough, deeply researched, and great fun. . . . Science isn’t easy, but in Munroe’s capable hands, it surely can be fun." —TIME The #1 New York Times bestselling author of What If? and How To answers more of the weirdest questions you never thought to ask The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the Moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist. Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to a T. rex, or fill every church with bananas, be sure to consult this practical guide for impractical ideas. Unfazed by absurdity, Munroe consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airliner catapult–design to answer his readers’ questions, clearly and concisely, with illuminating and occasionally terrifying illustrations. As he consistently demonstrates, you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.
Featured Series
3 primary booksWhat If? is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Randall Munroe and Shari Low.
Reviews with the most likes.
Easily as good as the first. Oh, how I needed this right now! This is the kind of book that reminds me there is hope for the world.
Readers familiar with xkcd, Randall Munroe, What If, How-To or anyone with a passing interest in physics will be well-served by this book. The TL;DR version of this book would be questions of the sort of ‘what if..' put forward on a site, where a former NASA robotics engineer with a penchant for dry humor answers these questions with more than a tinge of sarcasm.
Questions range from the genuinely curious (can we burn a piece of paper using moonlight?), to the slightly macabre (how much sunscreen would you need for landing on the surface of the Sun?). In case you're wondering, the answers are no, and not that much.
On a tangential note, many researchers and engineers I talk to on a daily basis are disenchanted by the field, either by the difference between their expectations and reality, or because they're disillusioned by the assumption that science and maths are tough, and it's not possible to understand them in detail, unless you put in disproportionate amounts of effort.
Randall is one of the only people I've encountered (who's not a researcher) that still displays an infectious, childlike wonder for STEM, and distills advanced concepts to their essence. This book is a great read for that alone, along with the fact that it's also a good source for collecting bucketloads of trivia.
Probably a 3.5. Fun and entertaining just as the first book. Definitely a good audiobook to pass the time.
